When Faith is all you have left

I drive an old car that doesn't have air conditioning. This is a relatively small inconvenience for the 20 days or so that it is terribly hot outside. The rest of the time I really don't mind driving with the window open... or "polish air conditioning" as my dad likes to call it.

Tonight I pulled into the far left lane under the bridge that connects Jackson Street to Warner Road in St Paul. Standing on the corner was an older, disheveled homeless man holding a sign that read "Faith is pretty much all I have left. Will you please help?"

Typically I avoid saying or doing anything with the homeless people wandering around the streets of st. paul. It's not that I don't care it's more that often being alone I just don't feel safe.

Something about my open window and this man though made me say something. I had a granola bar and a small pop up container of fruit sitting on my passenger seat and asked him if he'd like them.

He took them with a word of thanks. I really didn't know what else to say so I said that I was profoundly glad he has kept his faith (seriously this was an extremely long light!) He said if you don't have Jesus you have nothing and that he's been working for a year to try and make things better for his situation.

I said amen and hoped that he found some water to drink to stay hydrated. And the light turned green and I went on my merry way.

I seem to be running into very visible contrasts of faith lately. From people at the brink of giving up on God's promise to people like this man who had every belief that God would eventually bring him through this low point in his life.

“Faith expects from God what is beyond all expectation.” ~ Andrew Murray

Redbox Review: God's Not Dead

My first observation of this movie: Josh Wheton constructs AMAZING powerpoint presentations and will quite possibly make an excellent lawyer. Seriously where he got the access to that much perfectly constructed multimedia while still studying for his other classes is beyond me.

The movie centers around his character who registers for a philosophy class. The first day of class the professor tells the class that they can avoid studying certain topics and arguments if they are willing to write and sign a paper claiming God is Dead.

Josh a devoted christian cannot make himself sign the paper so the professor (Kevin Sorbo) gives him an assignment to prove the God is alive over the course of three lectures.

Interspersed through the story and amazingly interconnected we also follow Sorbo's girlfriend's story with dealing with a dementia riddled mother and the girlfriend's brother (played by Dean Cain) who is a powerful, insensitive workaholic. Oh yeah, and the story of his girlfriend whose job is a blogger trying to showcase Christians the error of their ways.

Yep, if you are thinking the storyline is a little too conveniently, yet implausibly interlinked...we are on the same page.

The movie was fine, but maybe like those after school specials in the 1970's and early 80's - the lesson was a little jumbled with some fairly stereotypical I dislike God or I'm apathetic to him characterizations. There is one moment when The Newsboys encounter a character (Dean Cain's blogger girlfriend) who desperately needs hope. While for sure the Newsboys should stick to singing, I do believe that group probably has experienced moments of prayer intercession and that moment even offers a moment of gentle humor.

Oh and toss in two other people - a woman who gets beaten up by her father for turning from her own Muslim religion and believing in God and a Chinese man whose family just doesn't want to hear about what he's studying in this little unknown college in Louisiana. It did make me think about the fact that there are so many people who don't have it as easy as I do...whose family tradition or government disowns the idea that God exists and a person can be killed for it. Brings home the heartbreaking images from IRAQ in the last several months.  Or the people underground in China, studying their bible in secret for fear of retribution. What would we do if we faced that same threat...it really could happen.

 I was glad I saw the movie and if anything it did make me think about the very fine line there is between belief in God and ...NOTHING. It did lay on my heart and mind to wonder if I was faced with any of these scenarios would I be bold to give up everything to proclaim God is alive. I hope if I'm ever faced with that conundrum that I'd know resoundingly what to do.

It did make me feel sad for apathy and a blurring or greying of lines that make the choice between God and comfort easy and somewhat thoughtless.

I also wondered if I didn't already have a firm foundation that God exists and is alive and answering prayers and has a plan - would I find this movie just a little too easy? That within 1:53 hours I would have a heart stirring to seek something more about the God of the universe. Sadly in this cynical age (and maybe I'm too much of a cynic...i just don't see this somewhat stereotypical cheesy reaching the unconverted.)

I did appreciate the arguments Josh brought to class and the simplicity of sticking to scripture that the pastor gave. And creation arguments always fascinate me. Even if the preachers inability to start his car was a little cheesy - it made me smile to hear the phrase...God is good...all the time and all the time God is good.

So many people jump on the bandwagon to say this movie is awesome. I can't imagine this review will sway anyone to run over to redbox to rent it.

 I so wanted to like this movie.

But aside from the encouragement that someone is keenly standing up to defend their faith and proclaiming God is alive I really can only give it 2 1/2 stars.

It might have gotten 3 because it did entertain me for almost 2 hours, except they had to fit the guy from Duck Dynasty smack dab in the center of it and aside from making this a bit more "commercial" there really wasn't any good reason to do that.

I did have an epiphany though - what if one small choice, one conversation points someone to consider God's alive. Something they might never have considered. You don't really need some great testimony. It helps to have a few scriptures in your back pocket to point to the foundation of belief. We must be authentic in relationship with each other and I firmly believe the questions you may have might not be quite so complicated if we truly understood the simplicity in believing in God.

Can you answer the question

“When your faith is tested, can you explain what you believe?”

Restaurant Review: Not Justa Cafe (Bayport, MN)

Met Christina and Nate here for breakfast on Saturday. I had to laugh as I was driving we passed runners who were running in the Ragnar Relay which runs from Winona to Minneapolis.

This place is a tiny diner/cafe with a small counter for "single seating" and probably about as many booths as I remember mickey's Diner in St Paul. The food is your typically breakfast fare, Eggs, Sausage Gravy and Biscuits, Messes (which I'll explain in a moment and Waffle/Pancake/French Toast choices.

I had the Ham and Cheese "mess" which pretty much is diced ham and crispy hash browns with a choice of eggs and a practically not-melted slice of american cheese. (You can have your choice of cheese though so it's probably my fault that I went with american as perhaps the other cheeses would be more melty.) Don't get me wrong I still ate most of the whole entire thing and it was tasty. 

Oh and our waitress brought an extra slice of toast because they forgot to give me two slices - as if that plate wasn't full enough already...but yep I did eat almost the whole thing.  If there was any sort of downfall about the plate of food (and this is just a picky thing) but I'm not a fan of crispy brown edges on my over easy eggs....I know it's tough to do on a screaming hot griddle.

They also serve pretty decent orange juice. Not pulpy but a fresh taste of orange - I couldn't tell it was from concentrate, so that passed my muster.

My friends had a plate sized pancake and a waffle...both of which looked like something I'd order typically. I'm a waffle fan (I probably would have ordered that or the french toast looked pretty decent)

I knew I was going to cheesecake factory for a late lunch or I might have tried their special - biscuits and gravy...they looked like great biscuits and the gravy looked exactly right.

Maybe another day.

The pricing is pretty decent - $8.50 for my mess and a $2.00 for the OJ. For breakfast it wasn't bad. I'm glad it was located in a small town were people mind their own business or don't think to look inside unlocked vehicles much. For the first time every in the history of me...I left my keys in the ignition of my car with the doors unlocked - yep I was that excited to eat at this place that when my friends arrived I just jumped out of my car, leaving the keys in the ignition...perhaps just in case I needed to make a quick "dukes of hazzard" escape of some sort.

Alas, no one stole the rustmobile...which could be either good or bad.

2 1/2 of 5 stars...mostly because it was good food but they lost a star for the unmelted american cheese and a really kind of bad crispy corned beef hash that looked directly from Hormel and the seating is a little tight and the waitstaff a tad impatient. But for a Saturday morning breakfast with friends...we will overlook these small faults.

Restaurant Review: Aristo's Stillwater

(moving information from Facebook back to my blog to hopefully start blogging again)

It claims to be the best Greek Restaurant in Stillwater, a claim that might be true since I'm not entirely sure there are any other truly and primarily greek restaurants in stillwater? I'd say a closer description might be that Aristo's stands for "ain't Christo's", which might be more apt since my friends and I really wanted to go to Christo's in St Paul tonight but alas they were closed for a private party.

I had never dined at this restaurant and knew other friends who like it (not the ones I dined with) so I'll also say that while I found the food okay, I probably won't make a special trip to the restaurant again based on some hit or miss items that aren't really deal-breakers but for the price of the food, there are other restaurants on the "list in my head" that I would want to try first...or instead.

Among our group we had:

Saganaki (Flaming Cheese): Okay, my friends humored me as I always wanted to order this but it's not something you can really order if you are dining alone without totally calling attention to the fact that both you are eating alone with a big OPA! exclaimation point AND that is a whole lot of cheese for one person to eat. It was good...in a small amount. Too many seeds in the lemon got all over the cheese and well...it was fun but the waitress was a little timid lighting the cheese on fire and the OPA! too was just a little flat.

Calamari: a little too much breading but seasoned well and not ozvercooked. Pretty decent.

Salad with dinner: Those had to be the saddest salads I've seen - including the ones that I had on my dinner tray when I had to stay overnight in the hospital. The lettuce looks fresh but maybe a little watery. They had two small pieces of cucumber, one lone olive, a sliver of tomato and some red onion. And a little plastic cup of greek dressing.

Avgolemono (Egg Lemon Soup) - Sadly I've had better soup. Just did not have all that great of a taste - not really chicken not really lemon...I had a few spoonfuls and felt kind of bad wasting it.

 Gyros Plate: Good portion of veggies, rice and gyros. The Gyros meat had a decent flavor. Maybe was sliced a bit thinly but not really that greasy or over cooked. The pita as cut into too small of triangles to make a proper bite and the Tzatzaki sauce could have used more garlic or flavor - it was more like sour cream. It came with rice which didn't have that much flavor either.

Taste of Greece Platter - had gyros (see above), dolmades - which were cooked well and had a nice flavor of ground beef rice and herbs and some kind of tomato sauce. Spanakopita (phylo, spinach, dill, onion and feta) was good but maybe needed a bit less spinach and more feta.  There also was a large square of pastitito (greek lasagna - which was tasty but just too much food)

 I have to admit that I had a better time with my friends than partaking of the food. It all was edible but just really kind of uninspiring. Maybe I had played it up in my head a bit more. It's not terrible but I just wasn't that impressed.

I was impressed by our waitress. I appreciate when they actually have a personaility and conversation and aren't just saying "may I take your order" by some kind of rote rehearsed line. She did take a little long to give us our bills and refills of drinks but not terrible...for a small place.

 All in all I think my pleasure stemmed more from the conversation and time spent with friends than the food itself.

Two stars of five (mostly for some pretty decent service)

Restaurant Review: Phil's Tara Hideaway (Stillwater, MN)

Went for an early dinner with my friends Christina and Nate and had a meal that left me feeling "thanksgiving full" - you know, the point where you think you might not be able to move or do much else but sit on the couch and hope you can breathe soon. Yep - I over ate, but it was good food (and company)

We ordered the grilled octopus - it looked delicious but I'm not as much of a fan of that so I didn't try it. What an interesting way to serve it though so if you were every looking for something out of the ordinary it fit the bill and had an interesting stack of pickled cucumber with it.

Nate had Rabbit and Christina had Lamb and I went with the mediterranean pork chop. The pork chop was huge (I could barely eat 1/2 of it) and sprinkled with oregano and a few other spices and nicely grilled.) It was a little more pink that I typically like pork but plenty and flavorful enough that I didn't feel bad for not eating it all.  It was served with a delicious New England Clam Chowder.

The best way to describe the chowder would be like I imagine eating liquid garlic bread would be like. Just the right amount of garlic-y buttery creamy goodness with a proper thickness to the chowder. It had a nice proportion of potatoes, carrots and clams. I ate the whole thing.

For my choice of accompaniment I ordered the Orzo with artichokes. That was also very good.

At that point I was already really full, but I'm a fan of dessert so I persevered and once I saw that they had a butterscotch bundido in the menu I knew that was the choice. So rich of a butterscotch pudding with a drizzle of a maple syrup reduction, whipped cream and a small sprinkle of sea salt. Delicious.Yum. (Not as good as the bundido I had at Acqua this fall but still very good.

Everything looked and tasted delicious. It's not really a place I'd eat at alone, but I'd go again for a small dinner on a special occaision with a friend or two.

The place gets super crowded and it's super cozy/small.  It's a little expensive for some of the entries $13-$20 but that's not terrible for a decently cooked dinner…right? Looked like they poured delicious looking cocktails too.

Thanks again Christina and Nate - for expanding my foodie range further into stillwater. I give the restaurant 4 of 5 stars.

Restaurant Review: Bachelor Farmer / Marvel Bar (North Loop, Minneapolis)

pork chop - actual size

One of the "perks" of winning this year's Marketer of the Year award is that the six people from our team who won awards were invited for drinks and dinner tonight to Marvel Bar and Bachelor Farmer in Minneapolis.

We started off the night at Marvel Bar for drinks. For those unfamiliar with Marvel Bar - they are a "speakeasy-type bar" in the basement of the Bachelor Farmer. With no sign or really any identifying markers on doors you pretty much have to know that you go around the corner and walk in the only grey nondescript door and then keep walking down a kind of creepy low-lit, unmarked hallway to a purple door - which is the entrance to a super dark bar. I half expected the person at the door to ask us for some kind of password. Inside there were small booths and couches and it all was quite lovely but I cannot imagine how the place would be when it would be crowed. As such, on a tuesday night around 5:30 pm it was really quite "swell".

Marvel Bar had a huge menu of mixed drinks with liquors and ingredients none of us had ever heard of and some things that their semi-famous mixologist came up with that make you think "hmmm wonder what that's like" or "hmmm never thought I'd put that together".

My coworkers each tried their famous drink called the Oliveto - a concoction of egg whites, olive oil, lemon, vanilla, gin, some other sort of spirit and simple syrup. They said it tasted like a lemon merigune pie...which makes sense since it essentially is almost all the ingredients and gin. I'm always just a tad leery of uncooked eggs and my unstable stomach so I just went with a ginger beer (which was deliciously spicy) Also, as a rule I tend to steer clear of drinking all that much when I drive ...knowing full well how my metabolism reacts to alcohol.

We went upstairs to Bachelor Farmer and the five of us were seated right away in a long booth and began what I'll say was a delicious culinary adventure. The only way that I could have had a better meal is if the other two winners from our team (Lola and Sherry) were there.

The wonderful, personable and knowledgeable waitress set a bowl of radishes with butter and salt and some flatbread on the table and greeted us. She said we were in luck as they had been closed the night before so they were also serving some "specials" from their Monday night menu.

I never have been a fan of radishes but these had a lovely snap and we were encouraged to eat them with a little butter and salt and they were delicious.

We ordered some appetizers to share:

Duck fat beets, Parmesan, radishes, pickled shallots, toasted almonds, aged cider vinegar - the beets were thinly sliced  and were good but I think I expected them to be a little thicker cut.

Toasts with Beef Tartare (delicious combination of Beef tartare, fermented sunchokes, cashew milk, capers, and horseradish) and another spread that combined Poached chicken, fermented daikon radishes, pickled mustard seeds, aioli, dill

Both of the toast spreads were very good. I rather enjoy beef tartare and I appreciated that the combination of the extra "stuff" didn't distract from the beef. The chicken kind of tasted like chicken salad...probably because essentially that's what it is. It was okay...mostly the char on the toasts also was just okay.

We were lucky that they were closed yesterday and so their special "chop" was on tonights menu. Three of us had that. They only serve these chops on Mondays. I went with it mostly on the advice from my friend Alaina who said to order "anything Pork" on the menu and she was correct. I have never had a finer pork chop. I had a small chop and it was almost the size of a small head.  (See the photo) It's brined for a few days and while it is fattier than most standard chops - the flavor is superb. Even the fat was melting-ly good. It came with a shaved cabbage slaw that also was delicious. I had a taste of my co-worker's duck breast confit and it was good too. It came with black lentils, roasted rutabaga, celery root, and pickled beets. They ask that you don't take photos or use your phone in their restaurant so I swiped the photo above from their facebook page. But yes this was the size of the chop

The only sort of "blah" part of the meal was dessert. We split the brown butter lemon cake and a pie of some sort. I can say the lemon cake was okay. A little dry and not that lemony. It came with a delicious fruity apricot-y chopped side and parsley ice cream. The parsley ice cream was interesting...I can now say I've eaten parsley ice cream. Yep, that's about all I can say about parsley ice cream. I feel the same way about green tea ice cream...a little bit goes a long way.

All in all it was a great evening and rare treat. It's an expensive restaurant so to be able to taste these foods was a delicious gift.

Restaurant Review Hibachi Grill and Supreme Buffet (West St Paul, MN

We went to this chinese buffet tonight. We went right after work and it wasn't terribly busy and conveniently we had a coupon for $2.00 off our table.

It for sure is a Supreme Buffet with Sushi, about 8-twosided buffets for different salads and heated items and a complete Habachi Grill.

I started with the sushi. In comparison to Atlantic Buffet in Woodbury, this buffet had approximately 16 different trays of sushi including quite a few different selections and even rolls without the evil seaweed. (I just have never been able to get around the texture of seaweed.) I will say that the sushi chefs that were right behind the counter were a nice touch in that it truly made you see how they were making the sushi and while I was a little disappointed that they didn't make the sushi fast enough (particularly the kind I like) it still was delicious and I had about 8 pieces of different things.

They had a whole lot of fresh fruit (I had strawberries and pineapple that were delicious) and different salads I did not try. They had clams and mussels and peel and eat shrimp. They had a whole buffet lineup of chicken dishes (pepper, champagne, sweet and sour, spicy, uh...a lot of chicken) I had the champagne chicken which was tasty.

They had the whole gamut of appetizers including egg rolls, crab rangoon, bacon wrapped crab, soups, fried dough, cheese... I had one fried cheese stick which wasn't very good. but the crab rangoon and bacon wrapped crab were pretty tasty.

They had green beans and the most lovely asparagus sticks and three different cooked mushrooms and all sorts of rices and noodles (I skipped). They had pizza, ribs and ham and salmon and some other fish (uh...I guess for people who want regular food at a chinese buffet)

They also had a whole hibachi grill...which I didn't try but it looked fresh.

I did read the reviews and have to agree that while the food was all pretty good...I wanted the items I got from the buffet to be warmer. If we go back I'd probably stick to sushi and the hibachi and uh, a couple of the appetizers.

The desserts I think they purchased at the same chinese supply store that atlantic buffet gets their at. They also had some coffee cakes that look like the purchased them from walmart (same black plastic bundt container.

For $11.99 each (and with our $2.00 off per table coupon that was in the clipper this week) it was a pretty good deal and pretty good food that needed to be just a little warmer. (both from a taste standpoint and uh, a food safety standpoint.)

I would pick this over atlantic for the sheer choice of sushi...with the other buffet items.

3 stars of 5.

Restaurant Review: Smalley's Carribean BBQ (Stillwater, MN)

Several friends of mine have posted about this restaurant and I've seen it featured on Diner's Drive In and Dives so I was pretty sure I'd find something on the menu worthwhile. Several friends from our thursday night bible study decided to go after church today (thanks Christina for thinking of it)
I had BBQ pork shoulder, mac and cheese and potato salad. The pork shoulder was moist and had a smokey flavor. I had them put the sauce on the side so I could adjust it. It was flavorful but I forgot how much fat is included with this cut of meat so if I go back I might go with a brisket or some other cut of meat. The BBQ sauce was mild and pretty good. The mac and cheese was delicious, but I"m a big fan of mac and cheese and the potato salad had bacon and eggs in it and it all was delicious.

Always fun with good food melds with good conversation and friends...it's a fun place right along the river in Stillwater. I always forget about all the fun places to each that are all right there.

three and 1/2 of five stars -

they have the same brand as ginger beer that crave does which I really enjoyed and the BBQ was decent.  (I didn't think it was appropriate to pull out my camera to take  a photo of the food but I did find this photo that was pretty close - although it is missing the bacon.)