Sunday started off with me hacking apart some pheasants a friend of mine shot. Did you know that even if they’re “clean” they’re not CLEAN? I spent some time cleaning off feathers and hunting for bbs. I wish I had watched Kevin-from-Top-Chef’s little tutorial about cutting up a chicken right before as it took me one pheasant to really get the hang of the butchering process. I also had a moment of panic when I came across a breast that was bloody-ish and oddly textured due to it being shot right through. A vague memory of a Little House on the Prairie episode where Pa said something about NOT eating the part with blood through it so I carefully cut around it. I went with my gut. My gut said no bloody meat.
Sunday afternoon we went to the VanTils and hung with the fam. I was Neal’s favorite for some reason. There’s a picture of Erin and Neal inside a very teeny tent. We also colored. And giggled. And read books. And caught “Neal’s guys” as they were rolling down a “ramp.”
Sunday night I learned that six people total are all I can have around my table for a sit down meal. In fact, I was seated in the rocking chair as I only have five chairs. Yeah. I need another chair. But the food was fabulous if I do say so myself: Roasted butternut squash and acorn soup with maple syrup, cinnamon and cayenne, asian pear and toasted walnut salad with homemade honey mustard dressing topped with seriously sharp cabot cheddar, brussles sprouts 2 ways-roasted in bacon fat with balsamic and braised in cream-, mashed potatoes and pheasant stew. Dessert was brought to us by Dan and Chip: apple bread pudding with homemade salted caramel sauce.
Sunday suppers are my favorite thing. Next time I’m more apt to do a late afternoon kind of deal, but I’m hoping it will become sort of a thing around these parts. Sharing a big delicious meal with friends is the way to go. And I know there are at least a couple of more people who would be more than happy to share a meal like this (Steve: I’m talking about you. And Taylor. Though Oxtail soup might be next in which case you’re not invited. Just Taylor.) Plus brunch was mentioned and I do love me some Sunday brunch especially if I get to drink out of bearded mugs.
The rest of the week was rough. I usually find my job fairly effortless, but for some reason this week kicked me in the teeth. The one bright spot was Tuesday night where I had a lovely time sitting at Butch’s with Peter drinking a Café Fiesta (tequila and coffee liqueur-the thought of which made my stomach turn, but it was delicious!) and chatting with Lance the bartender.
This weekend is insane. Carl is in town from NYC and crashing on our futon. We’re going to GR tonight to spend the night at the VanTils and go to Meijer Gardens tomorrow for the last day of the Chihuly exhibit. And make applesauce. Saturday night Kevin and Xtina are in town from Chicago and I’m hoping to catch a meal with them. Sunday Carl leaves, Peter works, and Erin will spend the afternoon not talking to anyone, working on Hand made Christmas waiting for Nature to come on at 8pm. Corvids are the topic. And I’ve got some opinions about them evil, evil birds.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
this is what we call a perfect sunday
An ambling ride up Chicago Drive to the Corner Record shop which resulted in a copy of The White Stripes’ De Stijl and a Richard DeVos record for $1 entitled Selling America. I haven’t heard the DeVos yet, but the cover is special. There might need to be a special listening party for Holland’s Cultural Elite. Oxtail stew will be on the menu.
Lunch at The Green Well. No fewer than 9,672 people have suggested this place to me. I finally went. It was amazing. The mussels were the best I’ve had since NYC. Peter’s tomato soup was a particular highlight though my braised pork with creamy polenta were also delicious. I’d go back in a heartbeat.
Not going to ArtPrize, but instead finding parking on the dodgy end of Division right in front of Vertigo. Highlights included seeing Raleigh for the first time in 2 years, Coltrane’s Lush Life, MGMT, The Letting Go by BPB, and 2 free movie tickets.
Schuller’s. We wanted to go to Literary Life, but alas, they’re closed on Sundays. Schuller was the next best thing.
Seeing Legends of the Guardian. Yeah, that’s right, I’m talking about the owl movie. Peter’s choice, but a good one. We wanted to see a movie. We didn’t want to see anything…well…good. It actually was good. It had a decent Joseph Campbellesque myth story and the owl fights were great. Seriously. Do yourself a favor and skip The Social Network on the big screen (honestly, you can see that on DVD) and go see some badass owl battles.
Finishing Top Chef NYC while eating Papa John’s pizza. Because nothing says foodie like garlic butter dipping sauce from the papa.
I was hoping such awesomeness yesterday would result in a stellar start to my work week. Foolish, Erin. Work is a separate little hell all its own. Between the computers being up then down then up then down then up again, having to input a bunch of checkouts and the whole time being interrupted with questions half of which did not specifically pertain to my job, I started to wonder if maybe there was a full moon. Nope. Just Erin being too competent again. I know my impatience is a direct result of a bad night of sleeping. When one takes 2 Benedrylls at 11:30pm one expects to be knocked out for 7 ½ hours. Instead I was awake until at least 1:30ish only to wake up again at 3am. I seriously considered getting up. I guess I’m glad I didn’t.
Lunch at The Green Well. No fewer than 9,672 people have suggested this place to me. I finally went. It was amazing. The mussels were the best I’ve had since NYC. Peter’s tomato soup was a particular highlight though my braised pork with creamy polenta were also delicious. I’d go back in a heartbeat.
Not going to ArtPrize, but instead finding parking on the dodgy end of Division right in front of Vertigo. Highlights included seeing Raleigh for the first time in 2 years, Coltrane’s Lush Life, MGMT, The Letting Go by BPB, and 2 free movie tickets.
Schuller’s. We wanted to go to Literary Life, but alas, they’re closed on Sundays. Schuller was the next best thing.
Seeing Legends of the Guardian. Yeah, that’s right, I’m talking about the owl movie. Peter’s choice, but a good one. We wanted to see a movie. We didn’t want to see anything…well…good. It actually was good. It had a decent Joseph Campbellesque myth story and the owl fights were great. Seriously. Do yourself a favor and skip The Social Network on the big screen (honestly, you can see that on DVD) and go see some badass owl battles.
Finishing Top Chef NYC while eating Papa John’s pizza. Because nothing says foodie like garlic butter dipping sauce from the papa.
I was hoping such awesomeness yesterday would result in a stellar start to my work week. Foolish, Erin. Work is a separate little hell all its own. Between the computers being up then down then up then down then up again, having to input a bunch of checkouts and the whole time being interrupted with questions half of which did not specifically pertain to my job, I started to wonder if maybe there was a full moon. Nope. Just Erin being too competent again. I know my impatience is a direct result of a bad night of sleeping. When one takes 2 Benedrylls at 11:30pm one expects to be knocked out for 7 ½ hours. Instead I was awake until at least 1:30ish only to wake up again at 3am. I seriously considered getting up. I guess I’m glad I didn’t.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
i am not in charge here people
Meh. That’s how I feel today. Just. meh.
Ladies and gentlemen: I have a Homemade Christmas spreadsheet. Now I need to fill in the blank spots and start making. There are materials to buy. There are things to design and execute. It’s an impressive list, imho, and if I manage to pull it off I will officially feel like a rock star.
In other rock star news, my kitchen has been producing some outfreakingstanding stuff. Sunday night I roasted brussels sprouts in bacon fat and balsamic. I made pan fried chicken with PAN SAUCE. The next night I roasted a butternut squash (Did you know if you roast some garlic cloves in the little hole along with the squash not only will your squash taste of delicious sweet roasted garlic goodness, but you can then put the roasted garlic goodness into your soup? Deborah Madison done taught me that little trick.) and made soup with my leftover veggie stock, some VT maple syrup, cayenne, and cinnamon. That ruled. I also had leftover PAN SAUCE so I made some orecchiette and tossed that all together. That ruled. Last night I roasted cauliflower and leeks and made beef stew with leftover pot roast from the freezer and homemade beef stock and topped it with steamed broccoli. That ruled the most.
The market is dwindling. The farm I get my lettuce from informed me this was the last day for lettuce as everything else froze which is a huge bummer. I suspect I bought the last round of green beans for the season today as well. I’m happy to have the cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and squash, but Dec 2 is looming. I always get in a funk at the end of market season. I’m hoping my new obsession with stock will get me through. And Crane Dance. I want to marry Crane Dance Farms and have their delicious meat babies.
I’m 20ish pages from the end of Angle of Repose by Stegner. Yeesh. Clunky book. I cannot believe this book won the Pulitzer. The characters are flat. The structure is contrived. The story is okay, but it just ain’t enough. Next up is A Wrinkle in Time (Peter’s choice) and I just ordered the new Lydia Davis translation of Madame Bovary. Which I should read before winter hits else I fear I’ll be back where I was with Anna Karenina. Those were some dark days.
So, we have the interwebs in our home now. I gotta tell you I’m underwhelmed. I forget that it’s there a lot of the time. I’ll be happier when I buy my own laptop I think, but I fear we’ll end up “watching a movie” together only to have us both buried in facebook or something. I have enjoyed having it available for cooking purposes and I know I’ll enjoy it for writing, but the interwebs?
Meh.
Ladies and gentlemen: I have a Homemade Christmas spreadsheet. Now I need to fill in the blank spots and start making. There are materials to buy. There are things to design and execute. It’s an impressive list, imho, and if I manage to pull it off I will officially feel like a rock star.
In other rock star news, my kitchen has been producing some outfreakingstanding stuff. Sunday night I roasted brussels sprouts in bacon fat and balsamic. I made pan fried chicken with PAN SAUCE. The next night I roasted a butternut squash (Did you know if you roast some garlic cloves in the little hole along with the squash not only will your squash taste of delicious sweet roasted garlic goodness, but you can then put the roasted garlic goodness into your soup? Deborah Madison done taught me that little trick.) and made soup with my leftover veggie stock, some VT maple syrup, cayenne, and cinnamon. That ruled. I also had leftover PAN SAUCE so I made some orecchiette and tossed that all together. That ruled. Last night I roasted cauliflower and leeks and made beef stew with leftover pot roast from the freezer and homemade beef stock and topped it with steamed broccoli. That ruled the most.
The market is dwindling. The farm I get my lettuce from informed me this was the last day for lettuce as everything else froze which is a huge bummer. I suspect I bought the last round of green beans for the season today as well. I’m happy to have the cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and squash, but Dec 2 is looming. I always get in a funk at the end of market season. I’m hoping my new obsession with stock will get me through. And Crane Dance. I want to marry Crane Dance Farms and have their delicious meat babies.
I’m 20ish pages from the end of Angle of Repose by Stegner. Yeesh. Clunky book. I cannot believe this book won the Pulitzer. The characters are flat. The structure is contrived. The story is okay, but it just ain’t enough. Next up is A Wrinkle in Time (Peter’s choice) and I just ordered the new Lydia Davis translation of Madame Bovary. Which I should read before winter hits else I fear I’ll be back where I was with Anna Karenina. Those were some dark days.
So, we have the interwebs in our home now. I gotta tell you I’m underwhelmed. I forget that it’s there a lot of the time. I’ll be happier when I buy my own laptop I think, but I fear we’ll end up “watching a movie” together only to have us both buried in facebook or something. I have enjoyed having it available for cooking purposes and I know I’ll enjoy it for writing, but the interwebs?
Meh.
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