"Bill…..It’s your baby…"

I’m pretty excited about this latest addition to my catalog of baby clothes. As stated in an earlier post, I recently saw the “Kill Bill” movies about 2 weeks ago for the first time. I’m not sure why it took me so many years to see them, but I loved them. I started brainstorming ideas for baby clothes and it wasn’t long before I came up with this. The original plan was to find full body pajamas but I was unsuccessful. Option #2 was going to be a yellow romper. I was able to do this. I wanted it to sort of look like the yellow outfit from the movie, or at least look like that was the purpose of the color selection. I came up with this:

This is available in all our eBay, Etsy, and of course at supersweetshirts.com

September 20, 2014 0

Cool Addition to Our Daughter’s Room

As a kid I always had a wild imagination. Whether it was playing with my action figures while involving them in a continuing storyline or acting in imaginary movies, both activities I would do by myself in my room. If someone where to have filmed me, I’m sure it would have been embarrassingly hilarious. As ridiculous as it was, I feel today that it was healthy and helped me grow to be creative as an adult. We had video games growing up, I had my Nintendo/Sega. I didn’t really give a shit about any of them.

I wanted Amelia to have a room that would hopefully spark her imagination. I wanted a room that she would want to play in. Nicole and I started brainstorming this room even before she was born. This newest addition was something she had come up with that really put the final touch on her bedroom.

A freakin’ Tee Pee with a little fake animal skinned rug! We got this on amazon for $130.00, I was able to use my amazon points and got it half off. They have it in 2 sizes, we opted for the 6 ft size which was the smaller. It fit perfectly.

Her face is always priceless when I show her something new. This was no different, and for a little while she wouldn’t go in it. She just looked at it. Eventually I convinced her to go in by going in it myself with her favorite book, “Harry the Dirty Dog.” She followed me in and seemed to like it.

The quality of this thing is really nice. The reviews on Amazon from everybody had said it was nice quality, but that it had a gross fishy smell. It actually didn’t at all. Maybe they fixed the issue. I’ll have more pictures of her room once we finish the clouds that we want to paint on the wall.

September 19, 2014 0

I finally got my hands on the #1 rated beer on Beer Advocate…

Last night I was feeding my daughter at the kitchen table, thumbing through my phone as she currently is in this stage where it takes her forever to eat. Occasionally she just likes to practice holding the foods, which is adorable, but can go on for a long time. On facebook there was a post from Mike Shatzel, a guy pretty much responsible for opening the best beer bars in Buffalo. The post read:

“2 cases of heady at monk”

I had plans to go out later that night with my friend Pat, to catch a beer or two, and we happened to be going there. I was pretty excited at potentially getting to try this. People have been hyping it for some time now in forums and Facebook groups – it’s not sold here. I tried not to get my hopes up for scoring a can, and in a few hours I made my way over to The Blue Monk.

As soon as I walked in, I saw a couple dudes at the bar with some. I looked around to see if it was advertised anywhere. There was nothing. I wasn’t sure if it was some secret thing or if I had to quietly ask for it…I wasn’t sure how this worked. I finally decided to ask as I wasn’t quite sure if I’d ever have another opportunity. Good thing I did. For $9.00 a can, I now had in my hands a can of “Heady Topper,” the number one rated beer on beer advocate with an impressive 100 rating.

Now I’m not going to say anything bad about this beer because it was very good. Just not at all what I expected. I mean look at the artwork on the can. It’s awesome. There are loads of hops exploding out of this man’s head. Getting to try another one of the other best beers in the world, Pliney the Elder, when I was in San Diego – I had high hopes for this beer. I cracked open the can and took my first delicious sips. It was really good, just not at all what thought it would be. This beer was a lot sweeter then I ever expected. It had a slight hop finish, but nothing memorable. Maybe it’s the West Coast beer lover in me, where I love a citrus, piney, hoppy overload that Pliney is able to supply, even Firestone Walker’s Double Jack, but this beer was nothing like them. It was unique in flavor, and the flavor was very good, just nothing I’d seek out special.

I suppose where this beer gets its praise is it’s balance. The balance of hop and malt among beer lover’s is praised in over 7,000 reviews. So from a personal point of view, I thought this beer was good, but not amazing. Putting that aside, and breaking down what this beer actually is, how it tastes, the balance, the color and carbonation, this beer is very impressive and well crafted. I had to really separate my personal preferences when tasting this. I will have to thank my daughter later for forcing me to look at Facebook by endlessly staring at her piece if spiral pasta. Love you kid 🙂

August 13, 2014 0

"Beer Camp" Weekend

Typically I just drink IPA’s, but have recently started trying other things. The local beer forums have been buzzing about “Beer Camp,” a 12 pack collaboration with 12 top notch breweries. These breweries include Ninkasi, Firestone Walker, New Glarus, Ballast Point, 3 Floyd’s, Bells, Allagash, Russian River, Asheville Brewers Alliance, and Russian River in 12 oz bottles. With breweries like this participating, I had to try it out. I had seen the price for this 12 pack differ by location, but I found it here in Buffalo for $25. A bit steep, but these are one shot brews, so I made an exception.

As I stated before, I typically only go for West Coast IPAs and Double IPAs. This 12 pack had some stuff in it that I would never normally try. I decided to go into it with a completely open mind. The first beer I had tried from the pack was the Sierra Nevada/Cigar City Brewery collaboration, “Yonder Bock Tropical Maibock.” This was actually in a can. I had tried a few beers from Cigar City earlier in the summer and was pretty impressed. A friend of my wife had brought us some from Florida. It was their year round releases: “Invasion Pale Ale” and “Florida Cracker White Ale.” Both of them were very good. I chose to pour this into a glass. Some would argue that it’s meant to be consumed out of the can, but I hate doing that. The beer poured nicely and smelled great. I have found that Cigar City’s beers have a “flavor” that sticks with each brew they make. It’s not a bad flavor, it’s actually really good. The color on this beer was as vivid as it’s taste. I surprisingly loved this beer. As I write this, I am about 5 beers into the 12 pack (not all at once), and this remains my favorite. Bravo, Cigar City. You have impressed me.

Yonder Bock Tropical Maibock

The next beer of choice was from the Sierra Nevada/Firestone Walker collaboration called “Torpedo Pilsner,” which was touted as a “Hoppy Pilsner.” I had high hopes for this one, as Firestone Walker is one of my favorite breweries. However, this was not a “hoppy pilsner.” It wasn’t a bad beer, but it was nothing I’d bring up in a conversation. When I think of a “hoppy pilsner,” I think of Victory’s “Prima Pils” which is an excellent pilsner. This beer was light and refreshing, but lackluster and forgettable.

Torpedo Pilsner

Up next, Sierra Nevada and Russian River have created a Belgian style brew called “Yvan the Great Belgian-Style Blonde.” I actually loved this beer as well. I don’t particularly like Belgian-style beers, but maybe it was the weather? Whatever the reason, I found this beer to be tasty and refreshing. It held its flavor as it warmed up, too. A surprisingly good beer.

Yvan the Great Belgian-Style Blonde

I tried to drink these strategically, so the next beer I had was a collaboration from Sierra Nevada and Allagash Brewing known as “Myron’s Walk,” a Belgian Pale Ale. This beer was just “good.” It was nothing special, yet it served as another Belgian-style beer that won me over. Not something I would seek out, but was a tasty, refreshing one-timer.

Myron’s Walk – Belgian Pale Ale

The next selection was one I was excited to try. The Sierra Nevada and Ballast Point creation a”Electric Ray,” labeled as an India Pale Lager. This tasted more like a double IPA to me, but I loved it. It was a bold beer, with a good balance of malt and hops. There were really no lager-like characteristics, so that aspect of it failed in my opinion, but the beer delivered some really good flavor that only got more intense as it warmed up.

The next beer that I tried from Beer Camp was the Sierra Nevada/Oskar Blues collaboration “CANfusion” Rye Bock. I’m not all that familiar with bocks, but this beer was solid as well. One of the higher ABV’s in this pack, at 7.2, this beer packed a nice blend of rye, caramel and hops. This is one I would like to try again.

CANfusion – Rye Bock

The final beer for this post (I haven’t finished the 12 pack yet), is the “Chico King” Pale Ale from Sierra Nevada and 3 Floyd’s Brewing. This isn’t like many pale ales I have had before, this one was beefier. For a pale ale, I found this to be powerfully malty and equally as hoppy. Another beer from this box of gems that I would like to have another of.

Chico King – Pale Ale

I should have the rest of these up in a few days. So far Beer Camp is a fun trip and makes for an engaging, at home, beer drinking experience. Although I’d say 90% of these beers are about average, they are good enough to enjoy this way.

August 5, 2014 0

Flash Auctions!

I’ve started listing random items in our eBay store in auction format starting at 99 cents! The items are completely random as they are just things we have extra laying around. All items are brand new. Every day there will be some new ones listed so the easiest way to not miss out, is to follow our store on eBay.

July 31, 2014 0

New Shirts This Week!

Two new designs up this week now in our Etsy, eBay, and main website! The first of the two is a tribute to the great David Lynch. Growing up, I was a fan of Twin Peaks, along with my entire family. My mother and step-dad actually got married and walked the isle to the Twin Peaks theme. The shirt came out pretty awesome and ended up being one of the cooler shirts in our catalog.

The shirt is available in a 100% cotton American Apparel version and the Standard Cotton (Gildan) 100% cotton version.

June 18, 2014 0

Grilled Pizza! Goat Cheese Chorizo Pizza.

In my 35 years of existence, I have worked in a ton of pizza places. I consider myself a master. I do. It’s the one thing I make and make well. This week I decided to try making a grilled pizza. I had read about this method before, but I always put it off in fear of making a big, doughy, shitty mess. This time, I was going to go balls out.
The recipe this idea originated from was called, “Sausage and Fig Pizza.”

My wife and I love goat cheese, so I decided to give this a shot (even though I’m not nuts about figs.) I went to our local pretentious market for ingedients and immediately ran into the annoying problem of not being able to find fresh figs. I was instantly pissed. I grabbed some dried figs because I’m not the smartest when it comes to figs. My wife told me when I returned home with them, that it would be terrible and not work. That killed me. So I scrapped the figs (happily.)
I changed the recipe. We were no longer going to use figs, I was no longer using fontina cheese, and I was going to be using chorizo sausage. These were the new ingredients I picked up.

Chorizo Sausage
Italian Blend Shredded Cheese
Arugala
Goat Cheese
Red Onion
Minced Garlic
Pizza Dough

I never make my own pizza dough, there are too many places around that make decent dough to just buy and take home. I grabbed a ball of white pizza dough and headed home to make this delicious pie.
I had a few problems with the recipe, but basically, I still followed the beginning steps when starting the dough.

You want to take the dough and “pound it out” or if you aren’t skilled in the art of pizza, take your rolling pin and roll out your dough. Normally when I pound out pizza dough, I use corn meal. For this technique, you want to sprinkle flower down instead of corn meal. Don’t go crazy, use just enough so your dough doesn’t stick and so that it slides around. After your circle is made, you lather one side of the dough in olive oil. I spruced it up by taking a little dish and mixing some minced garlic in with the olive oil and then brushing the dough until one side was totally coated.
Next, you want to fire up your grill and let it get to about 300 degrees. It helps if you have a grill with 4 burners. I fired up 3 of the burners for this part of the recipe. Now, the first part of the recipe is dead on. When making pizza, you want to make sure you have enough flour on the spatula or cookie sheet so that your dough slides off easily. You want to take your dough and place it on the hot side of the grill, oil side down. Make sure the grates are oiled nicely as well. You want to leave the dough on the grill for 4 minutes. I found this to be the perfect time. You can peel up the dough slightly to check on it, to make sure it’s not burning, but it should be fine. While this side is cooking, I took my little dish of olive oil and garlic and used that to brush on the opposite side. After the 4 minutes, you then flip the dough and cook the other side. This side is to cook for only 2 minutes! This will be the side that our toppings will go on. After the 2 minutes are up, take the dough off the grill and place it on a rimless cookie sheet, or a pizza spatula if you have one. Shut off the third burner. We only want two burners cranking now and the other side of the grill we want off.

4 minutes on one side…

2 minutes on the other. Look at that crust…”shit just got real.”

So now we have our pizza crust off the grill and ready to top. This part is simple. Take your chorizo sausages and squeeze out the meat from the casing. break it down into tiny little chunks and sprinkle it all over the pizza. I used two sausages. Next, take your arugala, red onion, and goat cheese and spread it all over as well. You then take your Italian cheese blend, and put your preferred amount over the top. You really don’t need to go crazy, the goat cheese is what you want to taste here, the Italian cheese is just going to hold everything together. Then do a drizzle of olive oil over the top of everything. Bring the pizza back out to the grill and place it on the “cool” side of the grill. This is where the recipe is totally wrong. The recipe says that it should finish cooking in about 4 minutes. This is not true. You are not going to get the sausage cooked in 4 minutes. It ends up being more like 8-10 minutes. Basically the pizza sits on the cool side of the grill, while the other half is cranked up, the lid is closed and the pizza bakes in the grill at about 380-400 degrees. Check your pizza once in a while to make sure that the edge closest to the burners isn’t burning. I’d rotate the pizza every few minutes as well to ensure a nice, even cook. Once the sausage is cooked, the cheese should be melted as well, and you are finished!

Sprinkle on the final cheese and olive oil and bring it out to the grill.

Looking good…

…real good…

Slice it up and dish it out! Order up!

This pizza was delicious and one of the best I’ve made. Grilling pizza gives the pizza a taste that the pizza stones can’t cut. I’m not sure if I can even go back to cooking pizzas in the oven. Let me know how you made out!

Cheers!

June 9, 2014 0

Clearance Section!

Our new clearance section is up and running at supersweetshirts.com. Our site is going to be the place to go for all sales and blowout prices. We will still be hosting our entire catalog in our Etsy and eBay stores as well, but clearance items will only be seen at our main site. Here are just a few things in our shop right now on clearance:


Large “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” shirt, only 1 available for $11.00!

Small “Slapshot” shirt, only 1 available for $10.00!


XL “John Coltrane” Standard Cotton Gildan Grey, 1 available for $10.00

There is loads more! Check out supersweetshirts.com and get these while they are still here!

June 2, 2014 0

Let the Summer Activities Begin: Larkin Square Food Truck Tuesdays

There is so much to do in Buffalo when the good weather hits. One of the newer things to do is Food Truck Tuesday at Larkin Square. This city has a plethora of food trucks now, and they all get together on Tuesdays in what was like a mini taste of Buffalo. If you haven’t been to Larkin Square, its impressive. An area of what was once just old warehouses, is being turned into something really cool. Larkin Square now hosts events on different days of the week basically offering folks a chance to come down, have a beer, and hang out. It seems to get nicer and nicer each year.


taken from larkinsquare.com

As you can see there is a ton to choose from! When we got there, Nicole made a bee-line to the Betty Crockski truck for perogies and sausage (pretty much her favorite food). This was one of the newer trucks that we hadn’t had a chance to try.

Nicole said the food was average, not terrible, not amazing. I didn’t get a chance to try a bite of hers because when I returned from grabbing a beer, she was finished with it. Speaking of beer, there isn’t much variety, but I was able to have the Rusty Chain from Flying Bison which I’m not all that fond of, but I’ll drink it if I have to.
It was time for me to choose something to eat. I couldn’t go crazy and try a bunch of things due to my diet, but I was going to indulge in something tasty. I decided to go with, “Le Petit Poutine” from Rochester.

I wasn’t really a fan of it. I like my Poutine to have delicious melted cheese, this was served with chucks of curd which isn’t really my favorite. The portion was decent, but it was basically a $10.00 container of fries and gravy. Mine had pulled pork on it, but not much. $10.00 was high in comparison to the other trucks.
The covered area of Larkin Square is loaded with comfortable places to sit, but every spot was taken. There is a stage where performers do their thing. When we were there, there were break dancers which was sort of lame, but they get all kinds of acts there.
Overall, I highly suggest checking this out on a Thursday. Its easy to park, its easy to get around because its nice and spread out, and its a good opportunity to kick back and try some food.

May 29, 2014 0

Memorial Day Weekend!

Hopefully everyone is having a great long weekend. I’m not sure where everyone else lives that is reading this, but here in Buffalo, NY it is fantastic outside. Memorial Day always ends up being the welcoming of great weather and other awesome things. Yesterday was one of the first days where I got to really enjoy an entire day of activities with my daughter. Maybe that sounds odd…I guess what I’m trying to say, is that it was one of the first days that we were able to go hang out around the city with Amelia, where I was confident she was having a really good time. Like you can take a new baby and go out somewhere, but its not the same as when the baby gets to be that age where you can see that she is reacting to the environment around her, showing signs of “having fun”, smiling at people, seeing new things. It was really awesome.
We started off first thing in the morning with a trip to the Elmwood/Bidwell farmer’s market. It occurs every Saturday in the park starting around mid May. If you ever visit the city and are here on a Saturday, its worth going to. The market is loaded with flowers and plants, baked goods, wine, beer, cheese, salsa, free range meats and produce from local farms. All being sold in the beautiful Bidwell Park, in the heart of the Elmwood Village. For this activity we used the stroller with Amelia as it would serve us well for stroage.

My wife snatching up some rhubarb for a delicious pie.

We walked out of the Farmer’s Market with pork chops, flowers for our garden, 2 growlers of beer, and some rhubarb. The entire time, the baby was all smiles, taking in everything. We headed home with our stuff and the baby took her little nap.

Once Amelia woke up, she had her lunch, then it was back to the village for a coffee. This time we changed it up, and used the device where I basically wear the baby. During her nap I went and ran 8 miles, I didn’t take that into consideration when I strapped 20+ pounds onto my chest for another stroll around town. It was painful, but enjoyable. Of course our trip out for coffee was immediately altered by the food truck party that seemed to be happening. One awesome thing about our city, is that we have a plethora of food trucks that serve top notch food. I’m not talking about those shitty pickup trucks that drive from work site to work site selling terrible instant foods that you get at a gas station. These are straight up mobile kitchens with restaurant caliber food. Its pretty awesome. We decided to go with the mac and cheese truck, “Fally Mac.”

Check out the menu:

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Mac & Cheese:

The Plain Jane Plain mac and parmesan crumbs, classic.

Oh Gee Mac N’ Chee! Enjoy hot sauce on mac? Try this out.

Summer Roll Mac (vegan) Sweet and spicy thai flavors.

Beef & Weck Mac Like the sandwich, you’ll love the mac.

Green Apple Mac Sharp cheddar, tart apples, yummy times.

Pink Lobster Mac Made with love –oh, and of course lobster.

Not Mac & Cheese:

Thai Basil Tomato Soup: Tomato soup with a tasty twist.

Edamame Succotash: Sufferin’ succotash, this stuffs good!

Meatloaf on Ciabatta: A classic homemade favorite, now grilled.

We both went with the Beef & Weck Mac. Nicole had actually gotten it the last time we saw the truck and it was delicious. This time, it was just as delicious, but a little watery. We did however choose prime lunch time and the truck had a line of people around it. It was really busy. No complaints though, it was delicious.

Full speed ahead with this little baby!

I love this kid.

Waiting for some mac and cheese.

After the mac and cheese, we grabbed some coffee and headed home. Again, another outing where the baby had a great time out and about, no issues! We went home, did some playing, and she went down for another nap. When she woke up, we did more playing, fed her some dinner and decided to test our luck. The Dinosaur BBQ had recently opened their Buffalo location, and we had yet to pay it a visit. It’s hard when you have a little one. We decided to call up our two friends to meet us out and headed down. This was going to be a true test because we would be arriving at the Dinosaur at around 5. Amelia’s bedtime is usually around 6:30-7pm. The closer you get, the more unpleasant she becomes. When we arrived, we were sat instantly. Amelia was having the best time. She thought she was the coolest. We would be taking, and you would look over and she would be just looking at you with a huge shit eating grin on her face, leaning back, totally cool.

The day ended up being fantastic! An entire day just hanging out with me wife and kid. I enjoyed every second of it. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

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May 25, 2014 0

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