Potluck Dinner and Movie

Just a quiet night for the Bandidas...Potluck Dinner and a "Girly Movie". Wednesday night, Kathryn and Molly (minus Carol...who is currently soaking up the rays in Sunny Florida) got together for a casual evening of food, fun and girly movie heaven. Kathryn brought the appetizer, movie and dessert and I made the entree...which like usual could have fed the entire block. (I really need to learn how to cut recipes in half). Anyway, at 7:30 sharp Kathryn arrived and our evening began. Delicious homemade hummus with Pita Bread followed by chicken in a white wine mushroom sauce. It's funny, we had no idea what the other was making but it went together perfectly....the Bandidas are always on the same page!

We finished our dinner, cleaned up, popped in the movie, grabbed the yummy homemade cookies and kicked back for an evening of relaxation.

The cookies were fantastic but the movie a bit less impressive. I think the idea behind the movie was good...a single father trying to explain a complicated relationship to his young daughter. He and his wife had split and their daughter didn't understand. He told her that she couldn't fully understand unless she knew the whole story. It was a fun storyline consisting of him telling the story of his past relationships and how they brought him to where is today. There were 3 main characters whos names were changed to create a little mystery for us and a game for his daughter. The task for the daughter was to figure out which one was her mother. Pretty cute right?

Ok, let's face it...we all know that we were really trying to figure out who he would end up with. Unfortunately, that little secret was given away in the first 30 minutes. Hello...the name of the movie was "Definitely Maybe" and one of the characters said it right off the bat!!! Not tremendously deep but good enough for a straight forward "Girly Movie". I will say that both of us were wrong when trying to guess who the mother was so I'll give them props for that. (o:

All in all a fun filled relaxing evening topped off with great food and conversation.

Stay tuned for the next event with the Bicycle Bandidas....

Sex and the City with the Bandidas

After several attempts to see it on the "BIG" screen and one Bandida being impatient and seeing it alone....the Bicycle Bandidas (sans bicycles) all gathered together for an evening of Sex, Champagne and yes, oh yes....cocktail wieners!!!

Kathryn volunteered to host the gathering where she graciously opened a bottle of red wine and offered cocktail wieners in honor of "The Sex"....how appropriate!!! I personally brought enough black bean and corn dip to feed all of Canton and Carol (always thinking) provided a perfectly chilled bottle of champagne and dessert!!!!

We mixed and mingled in the kitchen for a bit catching up on our weeks and then headed into the living room, popped in the movie and kicked back for a relaxing night with Sex and the Bandidas!

The movie was fantastic, the food overwhelming and the cocktails flowing (as usual). Several Laughs, a few tears and 3 hours later the "Sex" was done and the Bandidas were comfortable and relaxed. Satisfied with the ending...we polished of the remainder of the wine, cleaned up the kitchen, had one last cocktail wiener and headed back home. All in all a perfect evening..relaxing...entertaining...and like usual FUN, FUN, FUN!!! I'm already looking forward to the next, "Movie Night with the Bandidas".

Until next time.....

Vodka Tasting

The Bandidas were asked to do a Vodka tasting to test out Sobieski Vodka, a Polish vodka made from rye. We first did a blind tasting of four different vodkas and then made some cocktails. Here was the outcome:

3 out of the 4 testers liked Sobieski the best or second best compared to the other three brands that were tested. Across the board everyone liked that Sobieski had a slight sweetness and lacked the "mediciny vodka smell." Afterwards, we tried one of their special drink recipes, "Don't Talk...Just Kiss" but the grand marnier they called for made the drink taste like cough medicine. After we took out the grand marnier, the drink was delicious!

You can get more information on Sobieski Vodka at http://www.vodkasobieski.com/index.php.
Na zdrowie!

Staying local

The weather was against the bandidas on Wed night so we decided to stay close to Canton. Hudson Street Bar & Grill has just re-opened (again) so we started there. I don't remember much about the old Hudson Street, but it looks great inside now. Everything is modern and spacious. They have a bunch of different beers and a great deal on a beer tasting. 5 mini drafts for $5, which you can't beat considering there's a beer on the list (Aventinus) that's $6 for a pint by itself. We thought we'd be really sneaky and order two of the $6 beers in our tasting, but they are too clever for us... You can't double up. But otherwise, a great deal and we were sufficiently buzzed when we left. The kitchen wasn't open yet so we'll have to go back. And only one bathroom, but you could have eaten off the floor it was so clean!

Then onto dinner at Jack's Bistro (www.jacksbistro.net). Wed is wine specials night and we got a bottle of Rabbit Ridge for $18. We shared the mediterranean nachos and the suckling pig and egg thingy. We shared the special entree, stuffed pork tenderloin, potato pancakes and grilled salad. The bandidas are divided on the quality of the food. But as one bandida explained, we didn't necessarily have the best things on the menu, so... The service was excellent however and the bathroom was clean. And very RED. You'll know what I'm talking about when you go. We had after dinner drink at the bar at Jack's in the form of Charles Well's Banana Bread Beer. We meant to share one bottle (about 22oz) but we each ended up getting our own, natch.

As you can imagine, we discussed many important topics... Like our friend Kevin. So we thought it would be a good idea for the bandidas to go to his house, which we call the black hole. We needed more alcohol like we needed holes in our heads, but we went to his house anyway. We only overstayed our welcome by an hour, which was about as long as we were there.

It was getting late, so one of the bandidas went home to watch "Wuthering Heights." No joke... The remaining bandidas went to my house and ended up having to stay the night, you do the math. Nothing like doing the walk of shame past St. Casimir's on the first day of school!

August 15, 2008

Its Friday night and the boys are at poker! Its been a while so we got a little serious about our ride this time. So much so that I even received an email from one of the Bandidas with an agenda for the night's ride! We started at Bay Cafe (www.baycafeusa.com) for a friend's going away party. It was jam packed with 20-something singles, per usual. We had a lot of ground to cover so we didn't stay long. Yeah that's why... A side note for anyone wanting to actually EAT at the Bay Cafe... They have the best shrimp salad - hands down. But they have the worst bathrooms - hands down. Can't even begin to describe how disgusting they are...

After two coronas at Bay Cafe we headed over to Fells Point. As we were locking up the bikes in front of the Broadway City Pier, we noticed a guy actually hugging a tree. Always a good sign... We settled on Riptide by the Bay, a new "crab house" tucked between the old familiar bars on Thames. We ordered wine and the crab dip. I wanted to get the mini potato skins but they were out of them, a tell-tale sign that they're from Sysco and not made on the premises. Hmmm... The crab dip was creamy and crabby, but a little heavy on the mustard powder. The staff more than made up for it. The bartender gave us a drink on the house and JD the DJ (no joke) kept the volume of the speaker behind us lower than 1 million decibels (http://www.myspace.com/therealdjjd. Our server told us the building used to be an abandoned warehouse and, of course, that it was haunted. Me thinks a marketing ploy to get themselves booked on the Fells Point Ghost Walk circuit. Bathroom inspection revealed that they had only one stall on the first floor, but clean and like "going to your grandma's house." Just before we left we watched Michael Phelps win his 7th Gold Medal. The bar erupted in celebration and did a round of tuaca shots, natch.

After Riptide we headed to Meli (www.kalismeli.com), another new restaurant on Thames owned by the people who run Kali's Court and Mezze. Now I've had mixed experiences at Kali's and Mezze. I once went to Kali's with my husband and the waitress wouldn't bring us any more bread because she didn't want us to "spoil our meal." But on the other hand, the Bandidas went to Mezze once and when we asked them to call us a cab at the end of the night, they sent us home in a limo! So I was particularly interested in how this was going to pan out. Unfortunatly the waiter at Meli was a total snob and treated us like Americans in Paris. But on the other hand, the bathrooms* were phenomenal, the food was excellent (beef carpaccio and lobster mac n cheese - yum!) and the atmosphere was fantastic - like an old 1920s lounge, which had a little stage in the corner where I envisioned a sultry singer in a sequin dress atop a baby grand. One of the Bandidas envisioned it being like a cabaret in France where she once saw a woman in a glass tank swimming naked with snakes: "I'd do that, but I'd wear a swimsuit..." Huh?! That Meli-tini must have gone straight to her head?!

So why did we think it was a good idea to go to the Horse You Came In On Saloon (www.thehorselive.com)? We're the Bandidas...

The Horse lived up to its reputation. We were the only females in the joint and of course we found it necessary to dance in front of the two-man band, which inevitably lead to being hit on by just about every dude in the bar. I ended up talking to "Russell" most of the time we were there. He was very elusive about the type of work he did and almost implied that he was a spy. How original... I was a little suspicious that he was lying (no!) because he didn't happen to "spy" my wedding ring, which would have "clued" him in that I was a waste of his time. After one of the Bandidas was groped on the dance floor, we decided to call it a night and head back to Canton.

A very successful night for the Bandidas! Tune in next time!

*The bathrooms in Meli have an interesting concept. Ever wonder why men are so quick in the bathroom? Because they don't wash their hands! At Meli, men and women have seperate bathrooms, but the sinks are all in one area. So no more getting by the wash basin without a woman seeing you! Brilliant!

I had free tickets to the O's game last night, but of course the boys just HAD to play poker, so guess what? Bandida time! We got on our bikes around 6:30 and headed over to Camden Yards for the 7pm game against KC. We waited in line to pick up the tickets, but naturally we were in the wrong line... Never fails. What do you do when life hands you lemons? You make lemonade (preferably with Vodka) by going to Pickles (www.picklespub.com) to wait out line. The Pickle is a great place to do some pre-game drinking. Although you'll need to do some squats and leg lifts to build up your muscles so you can squat over the ladies rooms toilets to pee. The bathrooms were less than appetizing, but what do you want for a 20-something, meat market, dive bar. We got a quesadilla that had, you guessed it, pickles inside it. Two beers and five innings later, the lines died down and we got into the park to watch the last four innings of the game.

After the game we wanted to celebrate the O's victory! We went to Todd Connors (www.toddconners.com) at the corner of Broadway and Aliceanna. This place is the reason I love Baltimore so much. Its got a laid-back atmosphere and its filled with locals and a smiling bartender who all love to chat. They serve homemade chips at the bar which went well with the beers we ordered. Even more exciting was that they actually serve Stella in the Stella glass! Nice touch. And the bathroom was clean...

Before calling it quits we hit the new Gin Mill (www.ginmillcanton.com) on Boston St. They did a great job making the place comfy and a place you'll want to stay for hours upon hours. The bathrooms were spectacular and there's a little lounge area with a bunch of board games. After a couple of beers there we headed home at midnight. When Carol got home, Buddy said, "The game ended at 9:30, where the hell have you been?" And with an air of grace and dignity, Carol breezed past him and said matter-of-factly, "We're the Bandidas." and went to bed. LOL! I think that says it all.

Our first Bandida ride of the summer of 2008 was a minor bust. Oh, we received our usual hoots and shout outs, "Hey can I have a ride?" from the charming men of Baltimore (and we're called "Charm City" why?), but the fun was cut short because we didn't buy tickets in advance and Sex and the City was sold out at the Landmark (boo). THEN it started to rain (double boo). So... of course we "had to" duck into James Joyce pub (http://www.thejamesjoycepub.com/) to wait it out (yay!). I had a cosmopolitan in honor of the movie and we tried out the Shepherd's Pie. It was pretty good and can best be described as mashed potato stew. It will make sense when you have it...

A few cosmos later the rain subsided and we rode home. The only exciting thing to note is that Gov. O'Malley was there too, tucked away in a little corner with his goons. Well folks that's what we call exciting in Baltimore!

It all began when our husbands discovered world taven poker. They would head out to the bars and play in the evenings, leaving us to our own devices. On one such afternoon, we decided to jump on our bikes and go “festival hopping.” We went to St. Leos Fesitval in Little Italy, then to the Federal Hill Festival. So maybe not so much hopping, but it was enough! Because we were on our bikes, there was no limit to how much we could drink, right? So not surprising that we ended up taking the bikes through the lobby of the inner harbor Hyatt, up the escalator, and into Edgar's where one of us (and I won't say who, but we ALL know) proceeded to crash into a pool table.

For the rest of the summer we rode our bikes to different bars and restaurants trying them out, giving them our personal ratings. We plan to continue the tradition this summer, and THIS year we have new members. We're thinking about getting jackets...

Summer is upon us... Do you know what that means? Bicycle Bandidas ride again!