Striking Culinary and Choir Gold

Alison's Herron High School Choir group won gold at a competition this weekend, and the medal was a fitting description for our culinary adventures as well.

It all started with a mid-week date night at the Indy Monthly Best Restaurants event where the magazine's top picks offered up great samples of their work. It was followed up with a dinner that paired the courses with great drinks.

We got really lucky with our table mates and met a couple of the guys who own a few of some of our favorite Broad Ripple restaurants. Which led us to celebrate Alison's choir gold status on Saturday at The Vanguard.
 
Barring our vacation extravaganzas and that week when we eat out at new places when Ali is at summer camp, it was probably the best Wednesday dinner we've ever had. The venue was pretty awesome, too: a former fancy restaurant-turned-Ivy-Tech-culinary-school with a penthouse view of downtown.

We had Ali's friend Corie with us at The Vanguard -- we'd snagged her from the choir competition. The girls were in a food coma before the dessert arrived.

After, we were all in a bit of a state. We should have walked home rather than driven and next time we probably will. Especially when we have Ali along and we're in Broad Ripple for a meal, we end up at Brics for ice cream. Not this time.

The only thing that saved us from dying of culinary excellence was that the four of us shared two desserts.If we'd each had our own, we'd probably have exploded. It would have been an OK death, though.

It was even better than we'd been led to believe, plus we ran into Kip and Robin Tew so it was a bonus.  If you're coming into town to see us anytime soon, you can trust that you'll get to know the place. I had Sunday brunch at another site recommended by the restaurateurs -- Ruth's Cafe -- with one of my favorite people in the world: Vicki Burdick.

The table could barely contain the pancake I substituted for toast, but we managed. And again, the recommendation was spot-on. I can't believe we've never been there before.

In other weekend activity, we celebrated science with Ali demonstrating how to crush a soda can with atmospheric pressure.  "Hey Mom, can I do a science experiment," she asked while I was distracted out in the yard.

"What are you going to do?"

"Crush a can. With fire."

"OK."

"WHAT is she going to do?" Jeff asked.

"Crush a can," I said.

"Not unsupervised!" he said.  I went inside.

"I'm supervising," I said.

She glanced over.  "OK."

It was pretty cool. She replicated an experiment her Chemistry teacher did last week. Jeff was impressed and suggested she could do a larger can next time -- one of his big craft beer can.

Flush with confidence, she said she was pretty sure she could crush the microwave or refrigerator. I'm going to send a note to her teacher and ask that he offer up a different kind of experimental inspiration this week. Maybe a chemical reaction that results in yummy food.