Ice Castles

Today we have some beautiful ice formations from the melt following last week's snowstorm:

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Images of the Season

Hanukkah-mobiles are seen all over Squirrel Hill during the holidays:


Big breakfasts keep us warm:



Egg Nog French Toast With Blueberry Syrup

Syrup:
1 cup blueberries
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup maple syrup

Simmer over med-low heat while cooking the toast.


French Toast:
4 eggs
1/3 cup egg nog
1/2 tsp each, cinnamon and nutmeg

4 slices stale bread (or toast it very lightly to dry it out)
1-2 tbsp butter

Mix the eggs, nog, and spices thoroughly, and soak the bread in the batter. Then fry the bread in butter until the bread is cooked through.

Second Snow

These are from last week's big snowstorm:

First Snow

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The Littlest Potato

More on that little potato in a moment. First I want to do a recap on happenings around here:


Thanks, New Jersey, for welcoming us for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, and for sending us home with a car-load of leftover food.

Turkey Soup:
1/2 onion chopped and sauteed in olive oil, then add
2 celery stalk, 2 carrots, 2 potatoes, diced
2 cups chicken broth + 1 cup water
1 tbsp dried parsley, 1 bay leaf, 1/2 tsp thyme
2 cups chopped cooked turkey
1 cup cooked wild rice

I cooked the sauteed onions, herbs, and veggies in the broth until the veggies were tender (about 20 minutes), then stirred in the meat and rice to heat them up.

Mr. M helped me inspect my winter gear before the cold descends. Unfortunately, it still isn't cold enough to get really bundled up.


Today I'm slow cooking the remaining tiny white turnips and carrots from the final CSA delivery of the season, and a chuck steak and bag of fingerling (literally finger-sized) potatoes from this month's Penn's Corner Farm Alliance farm stand.

This tiny little purple potato was in the bag:



In the cooker today we have:
1.5 onions, chopped
1 lb bag fingerling potatoes (yellow, red, purple)
1 lb bag baby white turnips
4 carrots, coarsely chopped
3 lbs chuck, cubed, trimmed, browned
1 tsp thyme
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp salt
lots of fresh ground pepper
1 cup broth + 1 cup water
2 tbsp dried rosemary liberally sprinkled on top

I'm letting that cook for about 6-7 hours on low, and when it's done, scoop out the meat and big veggie chunks, leaving the onions, little chunks, and juices to puree for sauce.

Go Bucks!

Fortune Cookie

Chicken and Roots

This slow cooker experiment came out pretty good:

5-ish lbs carrots, baby turnips, and red-skinned potatoes cut into bite sized pieces
1 bay leaf
1 tsp salt
ground pepper to taste
1/2 tsp dried ground thyme
1 tsp dried rosemary
1/4 tsp dried ground sage
1/4 tsp dried ground marjoram
1 cup chicken broth
1 chicken cut into pieces (with skin on)
olive oil
2 cups tomato puree

I placed the veggies on the bottom of the cooker, sprinkled them with all the herbs, salt and pepper, and poured the chicken broth over that.

Then I rubbed the chicken pieces with olive oil, and placed them on top of the veggies. The breasts I left together connected to the sternum in one large piece and put it in skin side down.

Last I poured the tomato puree over top of the chicken and cooked it on Low for 8 hours.

I removed the chicken and veggies from the liquid, and reduced it to make about 2 cups of gravy to serve with the meal. This could go well with some sauteed greens, or other green veggies.

The Best Card Ever

Peace in Pittsburgh

On the afternoon of All Hallows' Eve I went on what was billed as a spooky tour of the largest and oldest cemetery in Pittsburgh. The guide wasn't all that knowledgeable, and the stories weren't very frightening, but the cemetery is full of interesting structures and history.


Allegheny Cemetery was opened in 1845 and contains more than 100,000 memorials. The grounds cover 300 acres and contain about 15 miles of trails. The oldest graves are from the French and Indian War, and the cemetery is still growing.

Some notable residents include Lillian Russell, Don Brockett (Chef Brockett on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood), John Baptiste Ford (founder of PPG), Stephen Foster, Thomas Mellon (founder of Mellon Bank), several US Congressmen, generals, and Pittsburgh mayors.

More pics here.

Boo!

Slow Cookin'

It's the first slow cook of the season!

2 lb chuck roast
5-10 sun-dried tomatoes chopped
handful dried oregano and basil leaves
bay leaf
salt and pepper
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic, cloves sliced
3 cups tomato puree (from our own vines)

1) seared the roast in the pan, and put it in the bottom of the cooker

2) sprinkled sun-dried tomatoes, oregano, basil, bay leaf, salt and pepper over the meat in the cooker

3) fried the onions and garlic, poured that over the meat in the cooker

4) deglazed the pan with tomato puree and reduce by 1/3, pour over meat in the cooker.

5) cooked on low for 8 hours

6) OMG I'm losing my mind WFH while slow-cooking smells fill the house....when can we eat!

Fallingwater

On Saturday Paul and Hilary took us to see Fallingwater. I vaguely remember stopping there as a kid on one of our many road trips to the east coast, but had no solid memory of the place.

According to Smithsonian Magazine this is one of the 28 places you should see before you die, in the "Triumphs of Vision" category.

I did not expect the place to live up to all the hype, but it is a very interesting structure. Built right into the stone on the bank of Bear Run, just above the waterfall, the stone colored concrete terraces jut out over the rushing water as if they'd been carved there by the constant flow.

The more impressive views of the house are from inside of it, where you can see that all of the construction and furnishings are not only in harmony with each other, but perfectly coordinated with the fall foliage seen from nearly every wall in every room of the house. That October is the highest tourist traffic the place sees now makes sense to me.

The large horizontal ledges formed by the terraces are repeated indoors everywhere you look: in the levels of the floors of the home, the piled shale stone work with larger pieces jutting out from the walls, and wood shelves that grow right out of the stone. The flagstone floors remind you of the creek bed over which you are perched.

The main floor is an open plan similar to the modern houses we seem to prefer with connected dining, living, and office areas. Only the kitchen is hidden away behind a well-concealed door in the dark corner behind the massive stone fireplace.

The bedrooms are small by today's standards (the house was constructed in the late 30s), but there's a ton of storage in the smooth built-in walls of wardrobes, the integrated wooden shelves, and many times the stone walls themselves provide a niche for an objet d'art.

Frank Lloyd Wright made nearly every aspect of the house "client proof" by integrating all of the furnishings into the structure, rendering them unmovable. The tables, shelves, wardrobes, headboards, lighting, seating, are all rooted in the floors and walls in a continuous flow so that his vision couldn't be easily reinterpreted.

While I don't think my life has been changed by the experience, it is a really neat place, and I'd be happy to take any of our visitors to Fallingwater.

Fortune Cookie

Rorschach Cats

Summer's End

The skies are gray, the leaves are collecting in the gutters, and the cats are napping closer together.


The daily tomato crop is winding down, the pumpkins are bright orange, the carrots and beets have been harvested, and the compost pile is growing rapidly.


The garage is stocked with peat, compost, and hay mulch to put the gardens to bed for the winter, as soon as the plants die off.


The gardening books are out, the spreadsheet is open, and I am deciding what to plant next year, building cold frames, and designing pea/cucumber trellises.


The hot soup is comforting, and I'm daydreaming about slow-cooked meats and baked goods coming fresh out of my oven, filling the house with pleasant aromas.

The best cooking class ever

Last night was the pizza class at Enrico Biscotti company in the Strip. We started with introductions, house-made red wine, appetizers, salads, and pasta with meatballs around a big table.

Then Larry took us through his entertaining version of the chemistry (millions of yeast cells eating sugar and having sex) and history of bread-making (starting with the Egyptians, then hot Greek girls making big beautiful loaves resembling Demeter's breasts, followed by hot southern Italian girls picking weeds (herbs) to make the mouldy wheat taste better, and finally Regina Margharita is presented with the first pica margarita at the port of Naples).

Then we proceeded to the kitchen where we watched a pizza dough-making demo complete with tips on the best ingredients and techniques for getting an even thin crust with no holes. We then worked our own dough balls into beautiful thin crusts, topped them, and baked them in the blazing hot wood-fired stone oven. In the meantime lots of sweets came out of the bakery for sampling. You don't go home hungry!

Are Pumpkins Weeds?

The pumpkin vines have gradually taken over the southwest corner of the yard, completely overrunning the ornamental garden and covering the fence. I can see three fruits taking shape.

AC Entertainment

This little feller came home with me after this weekend's visit to the Carnegie museum complex.

Jen came over from Columbus for the weekend, and it was another hot sticky one! So we did our best to entertain her in air-conditioned environs. This included:

- seeing movies Hurt Locker (gripping!) and 500 Days Of Summer (again)

- eating at restaurants (Saturday: Square Cafe lunch, Thai dinner with local friend Sylvia; Sunday: Coca Cafe lunch, Aladdin's dinner)

- going to the Carnegie museums to see art and dinosaur fossils

Does "hurt locker" mean anything?

Fortune Cookie

Curried Zucchini and Tomato Soup

Are you sensing a trend? Well I had some veggies left from the last CSA box and I got a new one yesterday so I had to deal with the veggie overflow. This turned out pretty good.

1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon curry powder (Madras blend)
1 lb zucchini, chopped
1 lb tomatoes, peeled and chopped*
3-4 cups chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Saute the onion and garlic in the oil until softened.

2. Add the curry powder and toss to blend. Saute it for a bit to marry it into the onion.

3. Toss in the zucchini and coat it with the curried onions. Saute for a few minutes.

4. Add the tomatoes, broth, and salt.

5. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

6. Puree the soup, and enjoy it topped with some chevre or yogurt.

* Peeling tomatoes is not too cumbersome. Just make some small cuts into the skin at the bottom, and cut all the way around the stem end. Toss them into boiling water for a minute until you see the skin begin to pull away. Take them out and let them cool a bit before slipping the skins off.

Curried Carrot and Fennel Soup

I hate licorice, and fennel has a mild flavor like that so I'm not a fan. However I hate to let food from the CSA box go to waste, so I came up with something palatable after a Google search for recipes.

1 onion, chopped
2 fennel bulbs, chopped
6 carrots, chopped
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 tsp curry powder (garam masala)
1 tsp ground coriander
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup milk or cream
salt and pepper

1. In a large pot saute the onion, fennel, and carrots in the olive oil

2. Add the spices and saute a little bit to marry the flavors.

3. Add the chicken broth, bring to a boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

4. Puree the soup, and add salt and pepper as needed.

5. Just before serving whisk in the milk/cream.

Pickles

I've been getting a bunch of cucumbers lately from the CSA box, and I'm not a big fan of cucs, but I love dill pickles (and they're so easy to make):

First, slice the cucumbers lengthwise into spears (I like mine pretty narrow so I make 8 spears out of each cuc).

Then stuff as many as you can into a glass jar. If you're using a jar about the size of a pasta sauce jar (about 20 ounces), add the following ingredients to the jar in these amounts:

Salt: 1 tablespoon
Garlic: 2 chopped cloves
Dill: a whole bunch chopped up (about 2 teaspoons of dried dill)
Vinegar: 1/4 cup

(make adjustments if your jar is a different size)

Last, fill up the remaining room in the jar with boiling water. Let it cool down before putting on the lid and marinating in the fridge for at least 2 days.

Busy, Busy

It's been a busy busy couple of weeks. I'm not sure where the time went but there was a lot of working and cooking going on. I'll post some recipes in follow-up posts.

Dave's Aunt Jeannie and Cousin Lynn came by from NJ for a visit Sunday afternoon. We tried to ignore the heat on Monday, and took them to see the view from Mt Washington, gave them a CMU campus tour, and then a very humid walk through Phipps Conservatory before saying Uncle and having a lovely air-conditioned dinner at Bravo followed by a screening of Julie & Julia.

I am a big fan of Julia Child. My mom and I watched her show when I was young (I think it came on after Lilias Yoga and You on PBS). Mom gave me her Mastering the Art of French Cooking when I started to appreciate finer foods (she wouldn't part with her copy). And now this movie was brilliant!

Unlike many of the reviewers I enjoyed the character of Julie, perhaps because I strongly identified with her. So many times in my life I've been uninspired by everything happening in my life, but cooking something yummy with the best, freshest ingredients I could find/afford brought me joy.

Even the shopping for the ingredients was part of the fun. I loved the scenes in the movie of Julia shopping in the Parisian outdoor markets gasping and cooing with delight at the wondrous array of produce on offer. I was so inspired by the movie I made Julia's Chicken Fricassee recipe on Tuesday night along with some fresh corn on the cob.

SPOILER ALERT

The thing about the movie that I didn't like much was the part where Eric walks out on Julie...I mean this guy was so supportive and patient all along it just seemed totally out of character for him to not come back after a couple of hours, and not even call to let her know where he was.

Happy Birthday to Love

Our third wedding anniversary went by last week without a lot of fanfare. This time we decided to see the new Harry Potter movie which I think is very appropriate, because I fell in love with Dave while he read Harry Potter books to me.

A heartfelt and reciprocated love brings a certain power of transformation, which is pretty much unique in the world. Dave has the unique ability to inspire me to try to be my best self, and not just when he’s nearby. He encourages me in my more constructive passions and brings out my better qualities. He makes my weaknesses apparent, so that I can learn and grow, but doesn’t reflect them back at me. Our relationship is passionate in just the right places and calm in others. It’s not perfect, but it has all the right ingredients. This is what I believe true love is.

Attack of the Killer Tomato Plants

They're almost as tall as I am now.

A LOT of growing happened while we were away on vacation.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

We spent the past week roaming from Erie, PA, to Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON, Canada. We meant to get up to Toronto but the Niagara area was so nice we just couldn't leave. Pictures here.

Erie, PA was a big letdown. Our hotel was very nice (possibly the best hotel on lake Erie), but the city itself (the third largest in the state) appeared to be economically depressed, and downtown Erie was not the quaint place I was expecting. In fact I felt rather unsafe there even in broad daylight. Also, our visit coincided with the annual Roar on the Shore motorcycle rally, making downtown non-navigable. However we found Presque Isle State Park very pleasant and spent a lot of time there.

Niagara Falls impressed me more than I expected. We started on the US side, parking on Goat Island in the Niagara Falls State Park, and walking from the wet and windy Horseshoe(Canadian) Falls side of the island to the calmer American Falls.

After checking in to our hotel on the Canadian side to dry off, we walked down to the falls viewing area, only to get drenched again as we approached Horseshoe Falls. At first I was impressed by how ridiculous everyone looked in their brightly colored ankle length plastic ponchos, but after fighting the mist/rain and wind I saw the wisdom in this fashion.

The second day in Niagara Falls we took the Maid of the Mist tour boat that gets you as close to the bottom of the Horseshoe Falls as you can go without drowning, and where you are surrounded by the semicircular wall of roaring water. I wish I had some pics of the view down there, but the mist cloud was raining heavily down on us and I was afraid to get the camera wet.

We decided to spend our last couple of vacation days in Niagara-on-the-Lake, which is a quaint early 19th century town on the shores of Lake Ontario at the mouth of the Niagara River. We booked a fairly decent B&B, which while comfortable (and featuring jetted tubs), wanted to charge us an extra $20 for the second B upon our arrival. The town's main street had several ice cream parlors, and we dined well there too.

Dining on this trip was varied...

On the road:
Aunt Bee's - truck stop diner on I-79 exit 141, featuring friendly service and hunting/country clutter/bee decor. Cheap but decent, except for the lousy coleslaw.

Erie, PA:
Pufferbelly Restaurant - plain but good food, this restaurant is in an old brick firehouse that still has the fireman's pole and lot of other neat old fire station stuff around.
Perkin's - not as good as Denny's and that's not sayin' much.
Ruby Tuesday - located in the Millcreek Mall (one of Erie, PA's top 5 attractions according to the hotel visitor's guide), this is a decent bar/restaurant similar to TGI Friday's.
Joe Root's - family friendly steak and seafood. good, plain, friendly.
Bob Evan's - The best breakfast the entire trip. You just can't beat biscuits and gravy.

Niagara Falls:
Food court at the US side parking garage - A chaotic, disorganized, "multi-cultural" fast food garbage, but we found a coffee counter that served decent grilled sandwiches.
Buchanan's Chophouse - The Doubletree hotel restaurant. This was the best meal the whole week. Really impressive soup course and satisfying portion of foie gras.
Tim Horton's - these fast food/cafe places are EVERYWHERE. fast and cheap breakfast option.
Passage to India - bland, expensive buffet.
My Cousin Vinny's - friendly but too expensive for what is basically the Olive Garden. Food was rushed so that we were served our main course before we finished the salad.

Niagara-on-the-Lake:
Bistro Six-One - Excellent food, great atmosphere.
Churchill Lounge - Prince of Wales hotel casual dining option. We enjoyed the weather and people watching on the corner patio.
Tim Horton's - cheap, fast, EVERYWHERE
Cows - Rich creamy ice cream. The smell of baking waffle cones outside practically forces you in the door.
Epicurean - Fresh ingredients make the plain offerings satisfying. Nice large patio.
Stagecoach Restaurant - local greasy spoon. nothing special.
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory - the gorgeous chocolate candy displays draw you in, the Turkish coffee mocha chip ice cream makes you want to come back again and again.

Tiny Tomatoes

Cute little vegetables are finally showing up on my plants! We have tiny (and not so tiny) tomatoes, peppers and carrots. Still no squash or pumpkins though.



Sunday I went on a walk in Boyce-Mayview Park in Upper St. Clair. This is probably the nicest park in the surrounding area I've been to yet. It reminded me a lot of Rancho San Antonio in the Bay Area. The trip leaders from Venture Outdoors provided some yummy gazpacho and corn bread after the walk. Click here for some pics of the park.

Seldom Seen Blogger Returns

After all of the traveling about in June, we decided to make the holiday weekend a quiet one. We went to see the July 4th fireworks on the river in downtown Pgh, but didn't have any idea how many other thousands of people would be down there too. So after sitting in traffic for almost an hour, and being directed into the parking garage next to PNC Park, we decided it might be smart to just watch from the top of the garage so we could get out of there fast. Turns out a lot of people had the same idea, and some looked like they'd been tailgating there for most of the day. It turns out to be a great viewing spot, and getting out of the area was relatively painless.

Dave's been busy teaching a workshop for high school science and math teachers this weekend so I've lined up some entertainment for myself.

Friday night I was invited to join my friends down at Sushi Kim, located between downtown and the strip, where we ate Korean BBQ buffet. How that works is there's a buffet of raw sliced and seasoned meats and condiments, and you cook them at the grill on your table. It was delicious and I can't wait to take Dave there.



Afterward we went over to Klavons, a relic of the 1920s, which none of the others had seen before, and enjoyed some old fashioned sodas and ice cream sundaes.



This morning I went on a Venture Outdoors walk through a well hidden greenspace in the community of Beechview. Before the walk an area resident gave a talk about the history of the area and the efforts to preserve this wooded hillside in a fairly densely populated town. The area we were walking in was once called Seldom Seen, and it was a secluded village of German immigrants until the 1960s, when the city took over the property with plans for development.

The trails (if you can call them that) were faint and overgrown. There was so much poison ivy that I spent most of the walk watching where I stepped (why did I wear shorts!). Also, it's not maintained by the city so there are a lot of felled trees blocking the path.

We stopped along the way to hear about interesting features of the park which I've detailed with pics here. When I got home I immediately scrubbed my arms and legs down and washed my hiking clothes in case there was any poison ivy oil on them.

ComFest--Offramp Stage

(everything you need to enjoy ComFest)

(can you have too much fun?)

(Brainbow)

Garden Update

Week in Review

On Tuesday night, the day before the next CSA box, another last minute spinach dilemma was solved by making a quiche. I have yet another pound to dispose of from the current box and I'm running out of ideas. Any suggestions?


I also had a bunch of kale to dispose of so cooked it down and then used these weird ropey things (pictured above) called garlic scapes, some of the fresh oregano, and a can of tomatoes to make a pasta sauce. If more kale comes in the next box I don't know what I'm going to do with it.


Mom and Jim stopped by for a visit Friday afternoon. Jim wanted a penguins shirt so we took them down to the Strip on Saturday morning for breakfast at Enrico's and did some street shopping.


Janice and family stopped by on their way home for a quick overnight visit. Mr. Moustache was game to play with the kids, but Jackie was much more timid.


Somehow Kristina convinced Jackie that she was not too scary. We slept 4 guests in our house on Saturday night, a new record!


Classic Mr M captured by Daniel, a budding photographer.