Indianapolis – Yogokiss

After shopping the Friday night a week before Christmas my daughter and I stopped at Yogokiss for a little treat.  She’d spotted the store on our way to the keystone Mall (from the sneaky back way on 96th St.) and mentioned she wanted to try it.

Having worked in a locally owned Frozen Yogurt store in the 80’s (what goes around comes around) The layout of Yogokiss was very familliar.  Put a couple of dual-head freezer machines along he back wall, setup your topping station, and offer a few drink alternatives.  I did not see (or smell) the traditional waffle cones but they did have a waffle (ala Eggo) maker for what looked like some kind of diet busting YogoWaffle sandwich.

Since spending time behind the counter of one of these establishments my fondness for frozen yogurt has been pretty lackluster.  I ate enough of it back then to set me for a lifetime.  Having been a while since I last had frozen yogurt I decided to give it another go.

Yogokiss had all the traditional flavors that evening; Chocolate, Vanilla, Coconut…  They also had two I had never seen; Soy Vanilla and Taro!  I’m a Soy Milk fan but the Taro flavor caught my eye.  I’ve always wanted to try Hawaiian Poi and hoped this was a close, albeit frozen, substitute.  I asked for a sample and it was love at first taste.

The thing that really impressed me about the Yogokiss product was the texture.  It was probably the smoothest and densest frozen yogurt I’ve ever had.  I’m sure that’s attributed to the ingredients and the machinery used to freeze the product.  If I had to guess the frozen yogurt machines are churning very slowly to minimize the incorporation of air into the product.  It’s difficult to quickly produce any kind of large quantity with this method but it’s worth the outcome.

Taro frozen yogurt with Mochi, Peanuts, and Chocolate Chips

Toppings ranged from the traditional nuts and candy to fresh fruit and the not-so traditional Mochi pieces.  My daughter ordered a small Coconut with coconut flakes, almonds, and chocolate chips.  I ordered a small Taro with mochi, peanuts and chocolate chips.  Both flavors were very good but the chocolate chips became quite hard after being chilled by the yogurt.  I think I’ll opt for something softer next time.

Prices at the time of our visit (all come with your choice of 3 toppings):

  • Kids $2.95
  • S $3.95
  • M $4.95
  • L $5.95
  • XL $9.95

Having been out of the frozen yogurt scene for years I’m glad to see it coming back (or did it ever leave?).  I’ve never been that big of a sweets fan and one of the things I always liked about frozen yogurt was the low sweetness factor.  Yogokiss has me wanting to eat more frozen yogurt!

Yogokiss on Urbanspoon

Being a Webmaster

If you’ve been a webmaster very long (I started in 1995) you learn quickly that links to external sites will eventually break.  Website-sites go down, domain names change, pages get stale (and eventually deleted), old pages become available via subscription only, and finally sites get abandoned

As you build your site the number of links can get pretty large.  IndyScan.com has several thousand links and up until recently it’s been a challenge to make sure every link took you somewhere.

When I moved the site to a new host last weekend I found an application that makes the process of monitoring external links a breeze.  Broken Link Checker has been a HUGE help with cleaning up dead links in posts and it does it automatically every couple of days.  I even get an email report letting me know what’s broken and why.

If you use WordPress this is an awesome FREE plugin to help you maintain the links on your site.

 

 

Chicago – Grand Lux Cafe

It’s the Christmas season and I found myself in Chicago for a one day project management seminar by the David Allen Company.  I drove up the night before and did a little sight-seeing before dinner.

I wanted to go to the Purple Pig but the waiting list was too long especially given the Chicago lake front weather (and the outside waiting area) so I resorted to a family favorite and our preferred dish right down the street.

The Grand Lux Cafe (owned by the Cheesecake Factory) is located on the south side of Michigan avenue right above the Ann Taylor store.  One thing I love about Chicago (and big cities in general) is how they make use of every available square inch of real estate (out of necessity).  You really have to look around or you’ll miss things.

The Grand Lux has several dining areas, one of which is a large round room overlooking Michigan Avenue.  It’s the prime place to sit and worth a short wait to experience it.

Since I was dining by myself it was easy to get a spot at the bar.  After ordering a 312 (one of my favorite Chicago beers) I quickly glanced at the menu.  Since I already knew what I wanted I decided to look for any new additions.

The bartender delivered a large basket of freshly baked multi-grain wheat bread and plenty of butter and I placed my order for the “Shaking Beef” entree.

The Shaking Beef dish contains thinly sliced Beef tenderloin, Red/Green onions, Sauteed with a spicy marinade and Served with steamed rice.  The dish, curiously enough, comes with a small ramekin of citrus (lemon?) juice.  It’s not listed on the menu but it complements the beef and onions very well.

On this visit the beef was tender and very flavorful and had a nice char on the edges.  The green onions were nicely Sautéed as well.  The red onions, however, were VERY strong.  I like onions so for me to say this tells you something.  I could taste the onions 2 hours later even after brushing my teeth.

After the beer, bread and beef i was full.  I almost ordered the New Orleans Beignets (they are OUTSTANDING) but that would have pushed me over the edge and into a food coma.

For $29.36 before tip I think that was a solid meal in a city full of great places to eat.  I’m glad I had a stand-by place because with the low temperatures  and blowing wind I did not have a lot of time to wander around looking for a place to eat.

Grand Lux Cafe on Urbanspoon

Road Food – Combos

I’m always up for a road trip and my snacks of choice always start with a Diet Mt. Dew and, more times than not, a bag of Combos by Mars, Incorporated.  I don’t know what it is about those little nuggets of flavor but I probably eat more of them than I should.

I used to only eat the Pepperoni Pizza Cracker flavor but one day, when the gas station was out of that particular flavor, I branched out and tried the Zesty Salsa Tortilla.  WOW, I’ve been missing out!  While looking online for ideas for this post I discovered a yet to be released flavor, Buffalo Blue Cheese Pretzel (limited edition according to Wikipedia), I’ll be on the lookout for those for sure!

In 2011 Combos® celebrated its official 40th anniversary.  I don’t remember these snacks being around when I was a kid.  Maybe it was a regional product?

I know what some of you are thinking…  That’s a really unhealthy snack.  I won’t argue with you but they are a lot better than my runner-up favorite snack the Pork Rind!

What’s your favorite road trip snack?

Blog Maintenance = Complete!

We’re back in business with a new look and feel to the site.  After testing about 15 themes, and not finding what I wanted, I decided to take the closest one and make some changes to it to fit my vision.  I’m aiming for a clean, fast design with minimal distractions and easy navigation.

I’m going to continue to tweak things over the next couple of weeks (colors, fonts, etc.) but the overall design will remain the same (until I get the bug to change again).

Hope you like the new look & I welcome any feedback you have about it!

White County, Indiana – Wind Farm

Time to get nerdy… For those of you that don’t travel north on I-65 much there is a HUGE wind farm in White County.  It’s pretty mesmerizing during the day because the wind turbines stretch as far as the eye can see.

I was driving back from Chicago the other night and as I approached the White County farm (that has a goal of 600 turbines) I could see dozens of red lights on the horizon.  As I drove closer I realized what they were and I also realized that ALL of the Obstruction lighting was Synchronized.

As mesmerizing as the turbines are during the day the giant expanse of synchronized warning lights was almost as captivating. I found a white paper available online that explains the reasoning behind the coordinated light show.  Development of Obstruction Lighting Standards for Wind Turbine Farms:

Considering the lighting concepts currently used for illuminating radio towers and long-span bridges, which states that obstructions near to each other should be treated as if they were one large obstruction, a similar lighting concept was adopted for illuminating the wind turbine farms. The lighting concept for wind turbine farms includes the use of red, simultaneously flashing lights positioned on the outer perimeter of the wind turbine farm, each spaced no more than one-half statute mile from each other, and requires only one fixture per turbine. As long as the wind turbines are painted white in color, daytime illumination is not required.

As I was doing research for this post I also came across information that I had not heard before.  Evidently these giant wind farms are tied to a large number of bat fatalities in the area.  It’s bad enough that some wind farms are shutting down at night.  Like them or not bats provide a great service to humans.  Some species of bats, such as the Little Brown Bat, can eat 500 – 1000 mosquitoes in one hour. So if we consider the night 8 hours, that can add up to 4000 – 8000 in a night!

While I’m not opposed to this kind of energy generation I understand for the residents that live near these farms there are a lot of issues.  These issues range from reports of a low-frequency hum to distracting shadows flowing across the windows of houses.  I’m also very concerned about the environmental impact from the deaths of neighboring bats.

What do you think?  Have you seen the nighttime light show on I-65? What are your thoughts on the ever-increasing growth of wind farms in Indiana?