Economizer

Since everyone is thinking anyway that I only complain about everything and get all the things for free, here is some more fuel to the fire.

Saw a commercial in Facebook about different lipsticks that were supposed to make the lips so glittering and soft that I already imagined how just the lipstick is enough to make me the star of the best parties in town. And the golden lipstick smoothly sparkling in the new years party. So, the lipstick arrived, I tried it on and the glittering pieces made a sticking sandpaperlike layer on my lips. I informed the seller that this is no way to visit any party and I would like to return the lipstick for full refund. Because like the homepage said, the customer satisfaction was what matters. And on this side of the keyboard there was a very unsatisfied customer. Despite my thorough clarification in the email about the problem, they replied with an email asking order number, product name, reason for return and photo of the product. So, I sent all the information once again and remained waiting. For a reply that didn't arrive. So I contacted them in the Facebook, because without returning code it wasn't possible to send it back. Few days later they replied with the same information I had already gotten per email. That they need the description of the problem and a photo of me standing on my head the useless lipstick decorating my lips. I informed them that they customer service sucks and opened a dispute in Paypal. Since the seller didn't respond in two weeks, Paypal refunded me the money. And I could just throw the lame lipstick away.

I ordered 32oz of maple syrup from Amazon for 15USD. What arrived was a damaged box and a loose bottle in it with cork into pieces. Since it was sealed, the syrup remained inside. I asked for replacement, within second there was the confirmation that a new bottle will be on the way and I can also keep the corkless one. So we have half a gallon of maple syrup now for 15USD.

We went to Cafe Truffe in Tartu few days ago. I ordered a lobster soup with shellfish and prawns. What arrived, was a thick orange coconut soup with 3 shellfish, 3 prawns and few pieces of salmon. The waitress was gone with the wind and within next 45 minutes didn't show up even once, which made it impossible for me to ask, if she even brought me the right dish. Anyway, I was able to finish half of the heavy food and once she finally showed up, I asked her about the lobster and told that there was no hint of lobster in my soup. According to her there is no lobster in the soup, it's just the name. I was so speechless that didn't even ask, why would one name a coconut soup a lobster soup. I did ask her later though if she would give me a discount for the lobsterless lobster soup. Turned out she wasn't able to do that and told me that I should have asked it before ordering. In case some of the readers plan to ever visit Cafe Truffe, make sure to ask about every dish, what are the ingredients and what not. To not find a baked salmon being placed in front of you, when you actually ordered grilled prawns, just because they decided to name the dish like that.

Go blue. Home gourmet

Few weeks ago I posted an overview of the places, we usually go out to eat. Since I'm convinced that all the readers are keen to learn about what we eat at home, here is also an overview of the home gourmet. Some of the things will at a later time be also published as recipes. But can't tell when, because last few years, posting the recipes hasn't been very active.

The frugal eastern european couldn't understand, why would anyone order a pizza in this country: first you pay at least 25usd + taxes for the pizza, then for the delivery and then there's the tip for the already mentioned delivery. Total cost of the delivered pizza was around 35usd. So, starting last winter we always keep few packages of Trader Joe's pizza dough in our freezer and home made tomato sauce and garlic oil in the fridge. I like to make (and Scott likes to eat) the thin crust pizza, where I spread some garlic oil on the edges so it comes out really nice and crunchy.

Usually the night before I fly out we have been eating seafood, mostly scallops, once also lobster tails. This time quickly pan fried scallops with grilled asparagus.

Scott's special No 1: walnut and chocolate chip cookies. And this is the size of cookie I get when I only ask for one :) 

Scott's special No 2: mac'n'cheese, with so much cheese and that nice crust.

The mangoes are so sweet here. And ripe. And cheap in compare to Estonia.

The frugal eastern-european vol. 2: Hello Fresh. I found a code for Hello Fresh, which gave a discount of 35 USD. I chose two dinners for two people, with total amount of 35.96, used the code and few days later, a box full of food was delivered for just 96 cents. I have mentioned before that the services, where you get recipes and all the groceries needed to prepare the food delivered, are pretty popular in US. This time one of the foods was mushroom ravioli in creamy mushroom sauce with crunchy topping. Took me 25 minutes to prepare it.

 

 

Since most of our weekends were filled with some kind of trips, we had planned to have a long nice brunch on a Saturday we actually did stay home. Last year in Charlevoix we noticed french toast soaked overnight in prosecco and made a mental note to try it at home. Since the french toast is the best with heavy and dense bread, we made our way to Zingerman, in the hope to get the right bread. In Zingerman, we figured that the regular white bread is for pussies and we left with a huge loaf of chocolate-cherry bread. We also decided that soaking the bred in prosecco is for pussies and so I put half of the loaf, cut nicely in pieces into a glass form and poured egg-milk-liqueur-vanilla-mix over it. The other half I prepared in a bit more traditional way, meaning soaking the slices in egg-milk-mix and pan fried them. Since in this country the pancakes and french toast are paired with bacon and maple syrup, Scott had his with bacon and I mine with maple syrup, blueberries and mangoes. Complimented all that with mimosas.

Frequent dinner is also grilled salmon with veggies.

And those ever so good lemon squares that I don't make as squares anymore but round, which makes the crust especially crunchy and edges caramelized. Also a lot more lemon than previously. 

One of our favourites: creamy salmon pasta with white wine. At least once a month. I haven't been able to find leek in US, will add that next time in Estonia too.

Some time last winter we thought it would be a good idea to get 3 lb of frozen pineapple, but the idea of eating it as well didn't strike as good apparently. So, there it was in the freezer, for months and months until I finally used it in pineapple salsa.

The mentioned pineapple salsa was also used in the chicken tacos.

I also made some homemade "Snickers". Only Scott didn't really appreciate it anymore after eating a third of it one evening. Go figure...

And my discovery of the year, spaghetti squash. Where have I been so far? I baked the squash, shredded into spaghetti, mixed with pesto and pan fried chicken and even Scott asked for another serving. 

Frugal eastern-european vol. 3: Second dinner of Hello Fresh. Pearl couscous with mediterranian veggies and sliced almonds. So good!

Scott's special vol. 3: brownies. Made the night before my flight, so I could take few with me :)

Experience Washington. Back home.

Mike and Diane prepared us some scrambled eggs and coffee and around 9am Mike gave us a ride to the metro station. Our flight departed from Reagan, which we arrived pretty fast after changing once. They have to work with signage in this country. I can't tell that I'm a beginner when it comes to traveling, but in that airport it was fairly unclear, where we needed to go. And a fun fact - in Detroit I went through the security just showing my Estonian ID card, in Washington I needed to show my passport. After the security it turned out that this part of the terminal only had a Starbucks, a bistro and a souvenir shop. Got my magnet and key chain and went to our gate. Well, found one more souvenir stand there with much better choice of magnets and key chains. Bought a new key chain for Saskia and returned the previous one. The cashier was slightly surprised as apparently it was the second similar key chain returned that day :)

Started to watch a movie about some castaways on board, but the flight was short, so made it about half way.

Experience Washington. Doghnut worry, be happy!

Mike and Diane wanted to make us eggs in the morning, but well-prepared tourists had done their homework and chosen the best brunch place in town. After arriving there, it turned out that not only every citizen of Washington D.C. but also most of the inhabitants of the two neighbouring states had chosen that restaurant for their Saturday brunch and the optimistic waiting time for a table was approximately 2 hours. So, we turned on Plan B a.k.a. with help of Yelp and map found Wicked Waffle around the corner, where they offered around 30 different waffles. Scott chose his with salmon and I mine with mango and brie.

Our main plan today was the Arlington National Cemetery. It's a United States military cemetery in whose 624 acres the dead of the nation's conflicts have been buried, beginning with the Civil War, as well as re-interred dead from earlier wars. With more than 400,000 interments, the cemetery has the second-largest number of burials of any national cemetery in the United States. Most of the tourists go there however to see the eternal flame memorial to U.S. President John F. Kennedy and the change of the guards by the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Also Scott's dad, previous marine, had the right (and wish) to be buried there, but that's not how it went 7 years ago. So, now, once we had the plan to go to D.C., Scott decided to take his dad's ashes and spread it in Arlington. We watched the guard change by the tomb of the unknown soldier and walked down the hill until we found a nice green area under a big tree over it and that's where Scott spread the ashes. We hoped to have made a good choice for the final rest place for his dad.

My light head ache in the morning had turned into a huge migraine and neither of the flagships of the chemical industry was of any help - not the endless ounces of coke nor the migraine tablets. And to make it worse, there was only one restroom (in the entrance) for the whole huge area and the need to run back there, from middle of the cemetery didn't improve my migraine or my mood. Anyway, at some point, the head ache started to release and I was ready to conquer the next skyscraper. We paid 22 USD each and made our way up to the observation deck of the CEB tower. We had a view over the Arlington Cemetery (that we just saw on the ground too) and Ronald Reagan Airport (that we planned to see from ground level tomorrow) and few more things. The free views from Old Post Office Tower were better.

We remembered from yesterday that Barracks Row had several good looking restaurants, so we decided to have a snack there. After the Balkan restaurant basically flipped the bird to us, we chose a fish restaurant with a lovely terrace and had some baby octopus, fish and chicken and fried calamari there. We also happened to arrive there right in time for the happy hour and all that food did cost 20USD + taxes + tip.

We had planned to go to a Cuban restaurant with Mike and Diane in the evening, but once we were back, I didn't manage anything with my migraine but falling into bed. 45 minutes later, once it was time to leave, I thought optimistically that I'm feeling better and any minute now the headache is gone and dragged myself into the car. Their youngest son was our designated driver and all the 15 minutes it took us to get there, I was convinced that I'm gonna hitch a ride back home with him too. When entering the restaurant, the smells added the nauseousness to my headache and I couldn't really understand why I didn't go back. But I have to admit that getting out and moving a little did some good and the migraine did leave soon after arriving. I still didn't feel like eating anything, so I ordered just a salad. Although, my hopes and expectations are never high, because I know that the conception of a filling salad is still new in this country, I'm still very much surprised every time seeing the haystack being placed in front of me. Especially considering the money they are charging for cutting those few veggies in halves. They didn't disappoint me - my salad that did sound pretty amazing on paper was a bunch of green leafs, three pieces of asparagus, two halves of canned artichoke hearts, two halved tomatoes, some slices of palm hearts and probably few more tidbits. By that time I was feeling already significantly better and eyeing jealously Scott's shredded beef.

Experience Washington. White Squirrel. Yugoslavia.

We started the day with the most important - breakfast. Right after one of us (not Scott) had finished the working day. I had wanted to have some good arepas since Las Vegas. I consulted the Google and found out that the best arepas in the capital are made on the Union Market. That's where we went. With Uber to the metro station, from there the metro to the city and after some walking we reached the market. The market was filled with delicious food stands, but still remembering those great arepas from Vegas, I only had eyes and nose for ArepaZone. We took each one and also some fried cheese sticks and let's just say - I will continue the search for best arepas somewhere nearer than Vegas. We shared the table with two girls, who were like talking about traveling and since of of them had just like recently visited Japan the other one like seriously wanted to know, how it was there. Actually there were way more "likes", but I like seriously can't find a enough slots in my sentences to put those. Anyway, the one who had just returned from Japan, excitedly told the other one, how she met a guy from Malta and another one from Yugoslavia there... History and geography are clearly not her strongest sides.

The map reader (me...) knew exactly that the 6th street would take us with 30 minutes straight to Capitol Hill. Once we had already walked almost half an hour and still found ourselves passing waste management stations and football stadiums that clearly couldn't be seen as downtown of the US capital, it was clear that the map reader was reading the map wrong way. We called Uber, drove the walked way back and then some more until we reached the Capitol Hill. We took a look at the Capitol Hill, Supreme Court and Senat House, where they were just deciding, whether the guy, harassing women while being wasted, would be suitable for the honorable judge role or not. Turned out that harassing women and lying would not be seen as obstacles.

We moved forward direction Old Post Office Tower, where they apparently had the most breathtaking views over the city. Just before reaching the tower we noticed another, moving sightseeing object - albino squirrel. Obviously also the squirrels are white near the White House. We went up the tower that was surrounded by a fancy hotel that belongs to the current president. The views were indeed amazing and the tower was also open to all the winds.

We made our way to the W Hotel, which rooftop bar offered more astonishing views (this time over the monuments of different presidents) and had some drinks. Considering the exclusivity of the terrace (among others the White House) it was rather surprising that we didn't need to give out the education budget of Burma for those two drinks.

From W we walked over to the Washington Monument, looking at some t-shirts on the way, where the top one had a picture of Obama with the word "Hope", the middle one picture of Trump and the lower one the word "FBI". From Washington Monument it was a nice walk to the Lincoln Monument and from the pool in front of it we could enjoy the reflection of the Washington one.

As especially sightseeable, but way less touristy the neighbourhood Barracks Rows was mentioned. It was slightly hipster and reminded me of Telliskivi area in Tallinn. We walked around some and returned to the Union Market to have dinner. Since one of us (not Scott) couldn't decide, what to order, there was a point when there wasn't much to order at all anymore, because those few that were even slightly interesting in the dinnertime, had started to close down. At the same time Scott was eating his expensive grilled cheese. Finally I was able to make up my mind and ordered fish and chips that was delicious.

Experience Washington. Long weekend in the capital.

To start in the beginning I have to tell that everything started with Delta breaking my luggage last year in November. Since I had all the time in the world to spend in JFK (read: 7 hours), I walked with my broken luggage from the belt straight into Delta's office, where a not the sharpest pen in the box took an hour to inspect my luggage and enter the case into computer. One of the biggest confusions was my phone number, where she tried to add +1 before +372 and Estonia that she tried to replace with Finland. Anyway, an hour later I had kind of taped my bag, gotten my case number and left to the next terminal. Few weeks later and I hadn't heard a word from Delta. Sent them an email asking how the investigation is going. Got the reply that due to the high volume or letters and other complaints they will get in touch with me at the earliest opportunity, but the opportunity might present itself in 30 business days. I just hoped that they do business on weekends too... Anyway, soon after I sent them another email. Got a similar reply. And a week later found a customer satisfaction survey from KLM, who belongs to the same group as Delta, where they wanted to find out how satisfied I was with how Delta solved my case. Since I didn't see anything remotely close to solution, I set everything to zero and expressed all the frustration created by Delta and KLM by that time. And in no time, just couple of days later, Air France (also same group as Delta and KLM) touched grounds with me to ask, what exactly went wrong.

Next few weeks there was frequent emailing with Delta (who admitted their fault and promised to refund the cost of the bag), with Air France (instead of emailing they tried to call me usually at 3am to follow it up with an email in the morning, where they expressed their great sorrow of not being able to contact me via phone) and with KLM (who asked pictures of the broken bag, at least two expert opinions that it's not worth to repair the bag and proof of purchase). Give it another few weeks and already there was the money from Delta on my account to buy a new bag and I also got an email from them that to compensate all the inconveniences they put me through they give me 400 dollar worth of travel credit. Same time KLM still asked for recovery value of the bag and expert opinions... And Air France kept calling me at night.

Coming back to this September, Scott and me took a look at the calendar and realised that we need to use those 400 dollars sooner rather than later. Since there was some credit left from another flight, we booked the long weekend in the capital. Should someone now think that it was as easy as going to their web page, choosing a flight, enter your voucher code and print the tickets... Well, not how it happened. To get those tickets, there were lots of minutes spent on the phone and even more of Scott's nerve cells, but we got those two tickets for 580 dollars, without paying more than those mentioned nerve cells and today afternoon we packed our bags and off we went to the capital.

Go blue. Pumpkin Party

Finally, dear reader, finally I can share some pumpkin party decorations with you. Those first and fanciest skeletons I captured already a week ago in Detroit, but they don't really count as that house seems to have a year-round skeleton party. They will be dressed in red hats during Christmas and I bet, around Easter they wear Playboy bunny ears.