Archive for September, 2008

A Little R&R

September 29, 2008 · Filed under Musings

It was a long week and I was really looking forward to this weekend. Then Friday afternoon I started to feel really tired. My whole body was aching. And then my throat got scratchy. Sick in September? Not fair. But while my weekend is now going to be focused on a lot of rest, hot tea and chicken noodle soup (on the stove for lunch) I’m determined not to waste it. Though I felt awful, I had to go to the Evanston farmer’s market this morning. I’ve missed the last few weekends due to work and household projects, and the season is waning. So I used every ounce of energy I could muster to go. It was wonderful. The sun was a bright autumn gold, leaves were crunching underfoot and in the rare moments my sense of smell was functioning, it smelled like fall. The air was warm but not hot. A perfect morning. The market was jam-packed. We came home with about five pounds of Kennebec potatoes, two bunches of leeks, a pound or so of Brussels sprouts, a quart of baby Portobella mushrooms, 5 sweet peppers, steak and stew meat. I also got a five pound jug of honey to squirrel away for winter. There were so many other wonderful things – kale, winter squashes, pumpkins, gourds, tomatoes, onions, carrots, eggplant, the last of the sweet corn, cherry tomatoes (still!), apples, pears, garlic, shallots, raspberries, grapes, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, sweet potatoes, flowers, wheat sprays for bouquets, dried Indian corn, cider… just everything. Now that’s officially fall I can revel in it.

 

Despite not feeling well, this is going to be a food-packed weekend. Tonight we are doing tabletop grill (best $10 I ever spent at a thrift store) with some of the stew meat, sweet peppers, mushrooms and shrimp we have in the freezer. Tomorrow night I’ll make beef stew for dinner to use up the rest of the stew meat and some beef stock that’s open in the refrigerator that we need to use. Tomorrow I’d like to do a couple of pints of mushrooms in oil, and we have some apples left over from husband’s trip to the market last weekend that need to be used – he’s requested apple crisp, and that sounds good to me too. And I’d like to make some muffins for breakfasts during the week – maybe applesauce spice cake muffins this week. And I can’t wait to use the Brussels sprouts – I was so excited to find them. I had a feeling they’d be in at the market this weekend. I bought them from Nichols who had them individually and off the stalk, so I could choose how many I wanted. But another vendor was selling them on the stalk. They look so striking that way, but I decided to buy them by the pound instead because there are a lot of sprouts on a whole stalk! I’m not sure how I’m going to make them yet – definitely roasted because I think that’s the best way (so many people hate them because they grew up eating mushy, smelly over-boiled ones), but I’m not sure which flavoring I’ll use. I’ll have to look through my recipes. I’ll likely serve them with the steak we got. Maybe that will be Wednesday night dinner – something good and hearty for a midweek meal.

 

Other than my cooking ambitions, I’m just going to try to rest. I have a few good books I’m into, so curling up with a cup of tea sounds great. Maybe a few low-key projects while I’m sitting around though… I have a corkboard in the office area, and my sister tells me (and I agree) that I need to finish it – she suggested the fabric and ribbon covering, but everyone does that now. I want something a little different, so I’m going to cover mine with a paper map – I love the map wrapping papers, so I picked one up the other day for $3.50 at the art store. It’s of Rome. It’s almost a perfect fit, so I just need to trim a little bit off from around the edges. And so that I’m not constantly marring it by sticking pins through it, I’m going to criss-cross kitchen twine across it, so that I can tuck items into the twine. Similar to the fabric/ribbon boards, yet different. And if I can muster up enough energy, I need to tidy up the bookshelves. Keeping them organized is a constant battle – I admit I have a book addiction! And when I get tired of reading, I’m going to start on some crocheted potholders for myself – red with a cream border, to match my newly painted kitchen.

 

Oh yeah – that’s what I did last Sunday, by the way. No more ugly gray cabinets – I just couldn’t take it anymore. So now the cabinets are a dark cream/tan, with the walls a lighter shade for contrast. I love it – it’s warm, homey and perfect. Well worth the effort. We also finally moved the Paris watercolors from the bedroom into the living room – husband hung them in a row above the wine rack and the sewing table and it really finishes the room. Amazing how moving things around and reusing things really makes a difference!

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Halloween Craft: Spooky Vignettes

September 29, 2008 · Filed under Musings

When I was a kid, my favorite grade school activity was to make dioramas. Dinosaur dioramas, ocean dioramas, First Thanksgiving dioramas – didn’t matter; I loved them all and was excited about each and every one.

 

I still love dioramas, although in the sophisticated grown up world, we tend to refer to them now as shadow boxes or vignettes. They are easy and fun to make, and can be as simple or as sophisticated as you wish.

 

I’m currently working on one that is a pumpkin patch. It will be composed of three craft stick scarecrows perched on a few miniature hay bales. Surrounding the hay bales will be small faux pumpkins, which I will have glittered. I won’t stick it into a shoe box, but instead mount the whole affair on a small plywood board, covered with straw and a little bit of Spanish moss.

 

There are many options for Halloween vignettes other than the pumpkin patch. Another one that is easy to fashion is the graveyard. To make tombstones, you can fashion them out of foam board, cardboard or other such materials – shaped like traditional tombstones with the rounded top, or crosses or elaborate spires. You can paint them in various shades of black and gray, making them look aged and old. Foam board dings easily, so you can get a cobbled look by poking and proding it, and it provides more of a 3D profile than cardboard, so that’s a consideration in your choice of material. For the base, simply take a rectangle of plywood and paint it black. Glue down your tombstones and surround the whole thing with a picket fence, which you can fashion out of popsicle sticks, cardboard or what have you. Glue down some Spanish moss. You can make a leafless tree out of wire and floral tape – use a small dowel as the center of the tree, surrounding the whole thing with wire to create a flared base and craggy limbs. Wrap the wire limbs and trunk in floral tape, and paint the whole thing black. Tuck the tree into a corner of the graveyard. You can add or subtract details as you like – you can suspend a handkerchief ghost from the tree, add little clay crows or vultures, or add mini hay bales or pumpkins.

 

Another interesting vignette you can make it a deserted witch’s coven – again take a painted black plywood board for the base. You’ll need four or five of the craggy floral wire trees, which you can arrange on the board however you want. In the center of the board, you’ll have a witches’ cauldron over a fire, which is easy enough to create. For the fire, take seven small twigs and arrange them in a circle, with the ends sticking out. For the fire, you want a few pieces each of red, orange and yellow cellophane. Cut it so that the edges are triangular and resemble fire. Glue it down over the sticks. Top the whole thing with a cauldron – you can find miniature ones made from plastic at the craft store, or you can fashion one out of clay and paint it black. Glue some of the cellophane flames against the side of the cauldron. To finish the scene, prop a witch’s broom against one of the trees (you can fashion it out of a bamboo skewer, dried grass or tiny twigs or whatever and a little kitchen twine). You can also add a forgotten witch’s hat – easy to make out a little cardboard covered in black fabric. And add anything else you’d like – pumpkins, a dilapidated picket fence, a little black cat (you can find them in the dollhouse section of the craft store). As ground covering, you can use Spanish moss, fallen leaves (some of the larger dried herbs would work), or little pebbles and sand.

 

The most elaborate vignette on my to do list is a haunted house. I’d like to make a two-story house, with shutters half falling off, a chimney with bats flying out of it and the whole thing surrounded by craggy trees and tombstones. It will have board and batten siding and scalloped roofing. It will take a lot of time and effort, and one of these days I’ll assemble all the materials I need for it. For the time being, I’ll work on the modest pumpkin patch and keep dreaming up new diorama ideas.

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Learning to Taste: Wine Basics

September 29, 2008 · Filed under Kitchen

I’ve been drinking wine for years, but only in the last year or so have I taken an interest in learning more about it. I prefer reds and have a few white favorites, so that has sparked a desire to learn why I like certain wines and not others. As my interest in knowing where my food comes from and how it was produced has increased, so has my interest in learning more about the wine I drink.

 

The subject is exhaustive. Books, magazines, newsletters, websites and television shows are devoted to it. The bits of info I present here will seem very rudimentary and fragmentary to wine connoisseurs, but hopefully they will prove interesting and useful to those just getting interested in wine drinking along with me.

 

- There are two main types of grapes – red and white. From them, there are four basic types of wine that can be produced – Rose, Red, White and Sweet/Dessert. Rose wines are created with either red grapes or a blend of red and white grapes. Red wine is from red grapes. White wine is from white grapes. Sweet/Dessert wines can be made from either red or white grapes (though typically white). Of course, all of these wines require different processing methods (Oz Clarke has a handy chart explaining these methods on page 28 of his book “Grapes & Wines” which has been my basic text for my wine education).

 

- Grape vines are an amazing plant – they thrive in poor soil and do poorly in rich soils. The theory behind this is that the more the vine has to struggle to survive, the more character the wine will have. Wine grapes cannot be grown everywhere. They generally grow and thrive between 32° and 51° N (latitudinally speaking), which encompasses the United States and Europe, as well as 28° and 44° S, which includes southern South American and Australia. Today, all of these regions are recognized wine-growing regions, and you can easily find wine grown there in most major grocery stores and shops. There are more factors to where wine grows, but that’s the very basic bit of it.

 

- Within the distinction of “red wine” and “white wine” there are many different grape varieties used to produce each. This, as well as bottle labeling, is where it gets complicated for most people. Wine labels can be identified by any of the following – wine variety, name of the vintner/vineyard (the producer), region the wine was produced in, a made up name for the wine, or all of the above. The three most common (in my opinion) red wine grape varieties are Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot. The three most common (again, in my opinion) white wine grape varieties are Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling. And everyone seems to recognize Zinfandel, which can produce either red, white or rose wines.

 

- Cellaring wines (aging them by storing them in the bottle) is best with red wines high in tannin that are full-bodied and bold. What does this mean? Here’s a cheat for you – Cabernet Sauvignon is probably the best for aging, because it has all of these qualities. And as wine lovers for centuries have noted and taken advantage of, Cabernet Sauvignon (or blends thereof) are the best for cellaring when they come from the Bordeaux or Burgundy regions of France. Why? Because of their terroir – which is the French word for saying the way the grape was grown – the climate, the temperature, the soil, the treatment of the vine – all of the ingredients that go into a particular vine in a particular place. Superior vintages (a wine of a given year) of Bordeaux and Burgundy can be aged for decades. “Vintages of the century” (these are few and far between) can be drunk after as long and still be good. Most of us cellar wine for 1-10 years, if at all. Most wines you can purchase in a store at a reasonable price are meant to be drunk “young” (a few years or less after bottling). Of course, you can cellar wines from other regions and other grapes – it’s just a matter of learning which characteristics produce benefits from time in the bottle.

 

- As it turns out, 2005 was a superior vintage. Basically, all of the stars lined up right to create the perfect conditions for growing red wine. 2005 is lauded by Joshua Greene, the editor of Wine & Spirits magazine, as being “a range of wines with the capacity to produce exceptional drinking over the next 20 years” (Wine & Spirits, October 2008, p.1). He echoes nearly all of his peers in this sentiment. Because I was married in 2005, I’m interested in purchasing a few Bordeaux worthy of cellaring for a few key anniversaries down the road. And my favorite wine happens to be Cabernet Sauvignon from Bordeaux. The stars lined up right again on this one (for me, anyway). First growth chateaux (the oldest, most renowned wine producers in France) are selling single bottles of their 2005 for prices in the thousands. And most of those are in limited supply. They are just coming onto market over the last year (as they are aged in the barrel at the winery for several years before bottling), so now is a good time to buy in terms of selection. But you don’t necessarily have to be flush with cash to make a good investment. If you’re interested in cellaring these, I strongly urge you to get a copy of the October 2008 issue of Wines & Spirits. It’s an excellent primer on what’s what for 2005 Bordeaux, and they have a Best Buys selection – stuff we can actually afford. For my cellar (as it were) I’ve got my eyes on Chateau Lagrange 2005 St. Julien at $70.00. That’s a splurge in my budget, but it’s recommended as a wine that can age a minimum of ten years, and is likely to be even better after twenty – which would be perfect for our twentieth wedding anniversary (and hopefully by then $70.00 won’t be a splurge!). And I’d like to stock up on a few bottles of Chateau Liversan 2005 Haut-Medoc Cru Bourgeois Superieur – a steal at $20 since it’s predicted it will age ten years or more.

 

- Italian Chianti (a region, not a grape) is also a wine I favor. Most people recognize the curvy bottle with the straw bottom (whose clichéd use as a candle holder in Italian restaurants has made its way into nearly every Italian movie produced in the last twenty years). An interesting tidbit about straw bottled Chianti (as Waverly Root mentions in “The Food of Italy”) is the fact that Chiantis packaged thus should be drunk young and not cellared. Why? Because the straw would rot and disintegrate in storage. So if you want a fresh young Chianti, go ahead and buy the straw bottle. Chianti that is still good after a few years will be bottled in the traditional tall wine bottles, without the fetching straw adornment. There is also another factor when choosing Chianti – you’ve probably noticed some bottles labeled as just “Chianti” and others labeled as “Chianti Classico”. This has to do with the regional distinction – wines produced in the Chianti method within the actual region of Chianti have the privilege of labeling their wines as “Classico” – it’s the real deal. Wine produced in the Chianti method but just outside the region, in the surrounding areas, is not allowed to use the “Classico” distinction. Another hallmark of regional authenticity is the crest of the guild, which is a black rooster on a gold background with a red frame. The crest will likely be located around the neck of the bottle, while “Classico” will be printed on the label. And I agree with Root that Ruffino makes an excellent Chianti Classico, the best one being Riservato Ducale.

 

That’s it for this go around – plenty to think about and digest in one sitting for sure. The great thing about wine is that there is so much to learn, and of course, it’s a fabulous drink for dinner (and so many other occasions) as well. As I drink and learn more, I’ll share it with you.

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Rain Rain Go Away

September 29, 2008 · Filed under Musings

We didn’t let the rain bother us one bit during our Wisconsin trip, but we did end up cancelling our trip out to Indiana Dunes this weekend because of it. Since Friday morning, there has been an onslaught of torrential rains. I can’t remember the last time we’ve had days of constant rain. Even though we’re not camping, we’re still managing to salvage the weekend.

 

Saturday morning we walked over to the market at True Nature Foods, but didn’t end up buying anything because only three vendors showed up and no one had what we were looking for. So we bought a few staples at True Nature (carrots, onions, chicken stock, pasta and fire-roasted canned tomatoes). Soup fixings, should the mood strike us. Last night we dressed up and had dinner at Indie (our favorite Thai-Japanese spot) and then went out to a movie.

 

Today we had planned to go out and run errands (we need to get a antique/honey pine stain to refinish some of our bookcases) but today the wind has kicked up and it’s cold – the rain is just flying from up from all directions. So we’ve decided to stay home instead. I made pumpkin spice muffins and tea for brunch this morning. Then I tidied up the house a bit, and now we’re both relaxing. We’ll likely have leftovers for lunch and the plan is to make barbecued chicken for dinner – if the wind calms down a bit we can still grill out under the overhang downstairs in the parking lot even if it does still rain. Which it looks like it will. So maybe we’ll be making our barbecued chicken in the oven. And I’ll make potato salad to go with it as well.

 

We both have Monday off, so hopefully the weather won’t be so bad so we can run our errands and start on the bookcases. But only time will tell on that one. But I suppose the rain isn’t so bad anyway – it’s good for soups and hot tea and books by the window and board games. And we still get to spend it all together, so that makes me happy enough. 

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Classic Italian Cooking: Gramigna alla Salsiccia e Vino

September 29, 2008 · Filed under Kitchen

As I love France, I love Italy. Ardently, eternally and equally. The food of true Italy is like the food of true France – comforting, filling, artisanal and hearty. And nothing (except perhaps a simple, classic Bolognese) epitomizes these characteristics more than Gramigna (a curly pasta) with Wine Braised Sausage. I’ve been recently introduced to this dish in the marvelous cookbook “The Splendid Table” by Lynn Rosetto Kasper. And it’s so good I have to share it with you here (although I’ve condensed the instructions a bit due to the need for brevity, despite Kasper’s excellent writing style).

 

1-1 ½ pounds mild Italian sausage

1 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, minced

6 tablespoons Italian parsley, minced

3 tablespoon carrot, minced (1 small/medium carrot)

1 large clove of garlic, minced

3 large fresh sage leaves

Pinch of cloves (Kasper calls for a generous pinch)

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 cup dry white wine

1 pound fresh tomatoes or 1 14-16 oz. can with liquid

 

1.) Brown the sausage, stirring often. Remove to a bowl and set aside.

2.) If there are excess drippings, pour out all but 1 tablespoon. Then add the olive oil, onion, carrot and parsley and cook until golden brown.

3.) Add the sausage, garlic and sage and cook another 2 minutes.

4.) Add cloves, tomato paste and half the wine. Simmer until wine is evaporated, 8-10 minutes.

5.) Add remaining wine and tomatoes and simmer another 10 minutes.

 

To serve this sauce classically, serve it over gramigna pasta. But as Kasper notes, you can serve it in the style of Modena/Reggio/Parma by serving over ziti or penne rigate (which virtually every store in the world carries now).

 

A few notes:

 

1.) I made this dish successfully with half an onion – I believe that onion is a flavoring agent that can be altered to taste, so if you like it immensely use the entire onion, but if you’re neither here nor there on onion, half will suffice.

 

2.) I used dried parsley in it when I made it because I forgot (yes, forgot – it was a really long day at work) that I have a pot of fresh parsley in the windowsill. The dish didn’t suffer because of it, but fresh flavors are always better than preserved, so use the fresh when you can.

 

3.) Same thing with the sage – I used dried, but this time not because I forgot I have a plant, but it’s because I actually don’t currently grow fresh sage. I should, I know. It’s on next spring’s planting list for sure. Again, it didn’t detrimentally detract from the dish, but I bet the flavors would really pop with the real deal.

 

4.) As mentioned in the recipe, Kasper calls for a generous pinch of cloves. For us Americans who are used to using certain spices (such as cloves) primarily as baking ingredients, it’s a learning curve to understand how their flavor profiles work in savory cooked dishes. Cloves are spicy. Keep this in mind as you’re determining the actuality of “pinch” when cooking in your own kitchen.

 

5.) I used fire-roasted diced canned tomatoes when I made this, and I suppose it depends on what flavor profile you’re looking for when deciding which type of tomatoes to use. The fire-roasted were quite nice and smoky.

 

6.) My pasta of choice was rigatoni which is a larger, squatter version of penne rigati, with straight ends rather than tapered. It’s the pasta I most often have on hand in the dried version, and I find that it’s well suited to meaty, ragu-type sauces – it holds onto the sauce well, and the sauce finds its way inside of the noodle, so you get lots of flavor and body.

 

It’s a wonderful dish – its light, yet the flavors are warm and autumnal. Perfect for the in-between season of summer and fall. And to promote Kasper’s book even more (which I just love), she suggest menus, variations and wine pairings for each dish. As far as wine pairing is concerned, she recommends red wines such as young Barberas or Sangiovese from the Emiliga-Romagna region, or a young Chianti Classico from Tuscany. I was surprised to see a red wine pairing with a dish cooked with white wine, but it makes sense considering the warm, full flavors that the sauce has. I drank it with both an unrecommended Washington State cabernet sauvignon and a Washington State chardonnay, which were good pairings, but not outstanding. Truth be told, the chardonnay was a bit much (despite the fact that it’s what I cooked with). I’m anxious to try it with a Chianti or Barbera (which will be a new wine tasting for me) and see how much the flavors pop and meld.

 

As far as the book is concerned, a few other dishes have caught my eye – Ragu per li Maccheroni Appasticciati (The Cardinal’s Ragu) which is cubed skirt or chuck blade steak seasoned with cinnamon and a meat stock with no vegetables, and the Ragu degli Appennini (Game Ragu) which is a sauce made of game, a mire poix of vegetables, red wine and seasoned with cinnamon and cloves. I’d like to try it with the venison and/or wild boar. There are a multitude of other recipes I’d like to try beyond meat sauces, including Ravioli Dolci di Paola Bini (Paola Bini’s Sweet Ravioli), a dessert ravioli with a filling of apples, pears, butternut squash and raisins, and seasoned with grape syrup, citrus zests, and Strega liquor, among other things.

 

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Respect Your Baking Powder

September 29, 2008 · Filed under Kitchen

I bought a giant container of baking powder over a year ago because as bargain shoppers everywhere know, it was a better value. Cheaper for the volume than a smaller container. And I also thought it would be nice not to run out of baking powder as often – despite my better intentions there are always those moments where I run out of a crucial ingredient right as I have the most intense craving for whatever it is that I’m missing an ingredient for.

 

A few months ago I started noticing a difference in quality in my baked goods. They still tasted great, but they weren’t rising like they used to. Muffins would barely crest the top of the baking cups, pancakes started looking more like crepes. What was going on? I hadn’t altered the recipes or changed the temperature they baked at. I was using only the freshest ingredients – all except the baking powder, that is.

 

Baking powder is an active ingredient. Over time it loses its potency. I know that. But I just wasn’t thinking about it consciously. I wasn’t even thinking about it as I ran out of that giant container of baking powder and purchased a new, smaller container (because fate intervened and the store I was at rightfully didn’t sell giant containers). I noticed the difference one day while I was making pancakes. I turned around to grab a pan to put on the stove, and when I turned back, the bowl of batter had risen. Amazing! And those pancakes were light and fluffy and very much pancakes, instead of imitation crepes. I made pumpkin spice muffins just this morning and they were light and had beautiful golden-brown domes on them. A revelation of simple science right in my own kitchen.

 

So the lesson here is that baking powder is an ingredient that should be bought in small quantities, like your favorite artisan olive oil or coffee beans that you freshly grind every morning. It cannot and should not be stored in bulk like white sugar or dried bread crumbs or canned goods. Respect your baking powder!

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To Live The Good Life

September 29, 2008 · Filed under Musings

People have been living it, asking the question “what does it mean” and dreaming about since time immemorial. But what does it mean to me?

 

First and foremost, living a life with people I love – my husband, my family, and a few good friends.

 

Exploring my life’s passions – good food, sustainable living, the pursuit of knowledge and the embrace of love.

 

Realizing that even when I’m doing something out of necessity (like working an office job to pay for living expenses even though it’s not related to my life’s passions) that I’m still doing and working toward something meaningful.

 

Enjoying good food and good drink every day. To me, cooking is an expression of love. We eat to live and the food and drink we consume should be the freshest, cleanest, best quality we can obtain, because our bodies are ourselves.

 

Making time to enjoy myself and relax – I love the textile arts (crocheting, knitting, sewing, embroidery and weaving), as well as crafting, cooking and devouring good books. It’s important to me to take time every day to pursue the activities I love – it’s an existence more preferable than going into a comatose state in front of the television.

 

Knowing that even if something is difficult, it won’t last forever and I can overcome it – especially by putting into practice everything listed above.

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Halloween To Do List

September 1, 2008 · Filed under Crafting

September 1st – despite the heat and the humidity outside (yes, we actually have the air conditioning on today) the first of September always has me looking toward fall. And what epitomizes fall in the Midwest more than Halloween? Fall is my favorite season and Halloween is my favorite holiday, so I like to go all out. And going all out in my house means crafting. I’ve got five-six weeks to pull things together (since I like to decorate a few weeks early). Here’s the to-do list for this year:

 

- Carve two Funkins in classic jack-o-lantern faces.

 

- Purchase a fake owl and two crows to perch on the bookcases.

 

- Make black mice cutouts out of cardstock to run along the baseboards (a trio I think).

 

- Make a set of miniature popsicle stick scarecrows to stick into mini hay bales (which I’ll need to purchase).

 

- Make some tin can jack-o-lanterns.

 

- Make a handkerchief ghost garland (twenty ghosts strung on twine) – not sure where I’ll put it yet.

 

- Gather colored leaves to string up in the windows.

 

- Make tombstone magnets for the refrigerator.

 

- Assemble some “blood” candles (red-tinted corn syrup in a glass votive holder, with another votive holder nested inside it). I may or may not add plastic insects crawling on them.

 

- Glitter some fake mini pumpkins with orange glitter.

 

I’ve also got to get some apples for eating and pumpkins that will end up in pie, as well as apple cider to make apple cider doughnuts. Fall is the season of coffee cakes and pumpkin bread, mulled cider and wine and crockpot stews. I’m looking forward to it.

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Vacation Part 2: Adventures in Mt. Horeb

September 1, 2008 · Filed under Musings

After three days of “roughing it” we were ready for regular hot showers and a soft bed again, so it was great to pull into our favorite motel near Madison, the Village Inn Motel (www.littlebedder.com) in Mt. Horeb. It’s our favorite place to stay. We took it easy. We went into Madison Sunday afternoon to check out the shops (although I was disappointed that Community Pharmacy was closed) and we had lunch at Porta Bella (www.portabellarestaurant.biz) which has standard Italian fare and a decent wine selection as well as the best local brews on tap (New Glarus and Capital included). I had a spaghetti Bolognese that was really good (surprising since I have exacting standards with this dish) and a minestrone soup that was way over salted and husband had a spicy sausage Panini. Sunday night we had dinner at the Grumpy Troll (www.grumpytroll.com) – the food and beer were awesome as always, but we had an awful waitress. She was distracted, mean, rushing us and inattentive. She was so awful that the manager took over helping us, apologized profusely and explained that she was a sour girl (behaved that way with everyone) who’d be going off to college shortly and they would be rid of her. Wow. I know what’s it’s like to grow up in a small town and want to move on to bigger things, but seriously – no one is forcing you to waitress if you don’t want to! Anyway, like I said, the meal was good and we were very excited to learn that they are now offering some of their brews in 20 ounce bottles. We of course bought three – a Spetsnaz stout, Baltic Porter and Eric the Red ale. The Spetsnaz is a brew I hadn’t yet tried and I had it at the restaurant with steak, sautéed mushrooms and fries, and it was great.

 

Monday we woke up late and had brunch at some non-descript place that was overpriced because the Marigold Café literally turned us away (“We’re between breakfast and lunch right now, sorry”) and then we went over to the Henry Vilas Zoo (www.vilaszoo.org), which is small but nicely done, and they seem to be refurbishing a lot of the exhibits. It’s also a free zoo, which is nice for a city to have. Monday afternoon we checked out the shops in Mt. Horeb and relaxed at the motel – reading, chatting and enjoying a little red wine while sitting outside our room in brightly-colored vintage metal patio chairs. It was great to just be outside relaxing together, and the experience finally convinced husband that the next apartment has to have outdoor space for sure (victory!). Monday night we celebrated our anniversary (a day early) by having dinner at the Eno Vino Wine Bistro (www.eno-vino.com). It was good, but not marvelous. The wine list was stupefying – probably 20 pages of wine, mostly from the United States. We started with a prosecco, which I loved but husband found too dry, and then we each got a flight of wine (three sample glasses) – husband did white and I did red, so we got to try a bunch. Eno Vino is a French-influenced tapas-style restaurant so the concept was interesting, and the ambiance (dark wood, low lighting, comfy banquets) was great. And the food was good – we shared a salad and three dishes. The first was a shrimp cocktail duo (one in an avocado/lime/cilantro sauce and the other’s sauce was a twist on the classic shrimp cocktail, flavored with ginger) served with fried wontons. The second dish was lamb chops served with tiny potato fries and grilled asparagus, green beans and squash with a spicy tomato sauce flavored with just a bit of mint. The final dish was half a roasted chicken and both of us forget entirely what it was served with. It was good, but we’re not sure if we’ll go there again.

 

Tuesday morning we had a filling breakfast at Schubert’s in Mt. Horeb and then hit the road. We stopped at New Glarus at a little antique store I like there (unfortunately I didn’t find anything good this time) and of course at New Glarus Brewery. We came home with two and a half cases – one of Spotted Cow, one case of Fat Squirrel and a mixed six pack of two Organic Revolutions, one IPA, one Totally Naked, and two Uff-Das. And ten bars of beer soap. It’s not all for me! Some will be gifts at Christmas this year. After New Glarus, we took the scenic route driving home. We stopped at a couple of farm stands to pick up groceries for the week – potatoes, a green sweet pepper, a few apples, a zucchini. Driving through Walworth, we stopped at my favorite antique mall there (yes, I do have a favorite antique mall nearly everywhere I go) and found an amazing deal – a set of six milk glass spice jars with red lids in perfect condition for only $10.00. Of course I snatched them up and brought them home. Back in the city we stopped for a very late lunch at the Super Dawg drive in (www.superdawg.com) because you can only truly enjoy Super Dawg in a car – it’s one of the last bell-hop drive in restaurants around. And their hotdogs are some of the best in the city. And then we fought the city traffic and drove home – a perfect vacation perfectly ended.

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Vacation Part 1: Adventures in Wyalusing

September 1, 2008 · Filed under Musings

Ah, vacation. There’s so much to tell where do I start? We took this trip over a Thursday – Tuesday in celebration of our third wedding anniversary. The first three days we spent camping at Wyalusing State Park (www.wyalusing.org) in Wisconsin, on the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers. The second three days we spent in Mt. Horeb, WI, a small town about 20 miles west of Madison. It was the perfect balance.

 

Thursday’s drive up to Wyalusing was nice – we avoided the interstate as much as possible (as we always like to do) and really enjoyed the scenery – the rolling hills, corn and soybean fields and small towns were all beautiful after spending so much time in the city. We were a little concerned about the weather on the way up – the day was overcast and we were running into more and more rain showers the closer we got to the park. So we were worried that we were going to have quite a wet weekend. But as we checked in at the park and spoke to the ranger, the rain had died down to a drizzle and she said that was about all we’d get the rest of the weekend – and she ended up being half right (we had a torrential storm Friday night after midnight and it was a good thing we had the rain fly on the tent and the tarp for our gear). The first wildlife we encountered were half a dozen hummingbirds flitting around outside the office window.

 

Setting up camp went quickly. The campground was only at half capacity when we pulled in (likely due to the wet weather) so things were quiet and we were able to upgrade our campsite to one on a bluff 500 feet above the rivers. Even though it was hazy and overcast, the view was amazing. We set up the tent and a tarp to cover our gear (since we were still concerned with the rain) and relaxed in camp. We made dinner on our camp stove and enjoyed a nice fire. The next day, we were up early to hike the Sentinel Ridge trail. A lot of the trails were closed because they had been washed away from extremely bad storms last year, but Sentinel Ridge was one of the few still open. It was gorgeous – it winds along the bluff through the forest. There were some pretty serious hills and sticky parts where the trail was muddy and slick, but we did just fine. At the end of the trail near the Passenger Pigeon monument (where the last known passenger pigeon in the United States was shot, exterminating the race) is a series of Native American burial mounds. They were mostly linear and conical, but there were a few effigy mounds, in the shapes of bears. It was special to see.

 

We spent a little bit of time in Prairie du Chien, but honestly there’s not much to see there. It’s a pretty economically depressed town (the only industry seems to be the Cabela’s warehouse and 3M) so that was touching to me, but as a traveler it was disappointing. The entire downtown is under road construction and there weren’t really any shops or places of business that we were interested in – the few that were geared to the “tourist trade” did so in an overpriced, over the top hokey way. We did stop in at Cabela’s for a Thermarest for husband – sleeping on gravel is no fun! So it was definitely nice to camp in a park that had an outfitter nearby. Prairie du Chien does have the Villa Louis estate, a park-like area with several preserved log cabins, cottages and what amounts to a manor house. We photographed the grounds, but didn’t tour the Victorian-styled manor house as we missed the last tour time when we stopped by.

 

We had better luck town-wise in McGregor and Marquette, IA. Both are really small towns right on the river, and McGregor was especially charming. They have a main street that is beautifully preserved, and have built a short “frontier” street with a saloon, hat maker, and whatnot – it’s mostly just a façade for photo-ops (at least while we were there) but there seems to be a working B&B housed in the upstairs. There were plenty of interesting antique shops and boutiques, including a great little bookstore called Paper Moon Books (www.papermoonbooks.com) where I purchased Classic French Cooking by Elisabeth Luard – it’s a beautiful little mint-green hardcover that does all the hard work of interpreting LaRousse Gastronomique (in my opinion anyway, it doesn’t profess to do so). I also picked up a few interesting little toys for my niece’s Christmas gift. We also stopped in at the River Junction Trading Company (www.riverjunction.com) which sells reproduction nineteenth century clothing and dry goods. They have two storefronts – one featuring men’s goods and the other featuring women’s. It was like walking into a frontier general store – the dresses and shawls in the ladies store were stunning, and if we’d had the extra cash on hand, husband would’ve purchased a handmade stove-pipe hat for sure (it’s not cheap but its quality stuff and a great experience). We had lunch at the Old Man River Brewery (www.oldmanriverbrewery) where I had the best pulled pork sandwich of my life – the sauce was just the right combination of tangy, spicy and sweet and the meat was in bite-sized chunks – highly preferable to the gossamer thin shreds you find elsewhere. And as their name suggests, they brew their own beer and its pretty good stuff. In Marquette, we stopped at the Schoolhouse Mall, where I purchased a “Federal-style” milk glass platter for ninety-five cents, but stupidly did not purchase the miniature milk glass hen on nest for $5.00. Live and learn. We also stopped in at the Eagles Landing Winery & Vineyard shop on the main street and had a free tasting of about eight of their wines. We purchased six – three bottles of table red – two called Frog Hollow Foch Reserve, and called one Rhode Red. We also came home with a port, a ligonberry and a raspberry as dessert wines. These are the first local wines we’ve come across that are dry enough to pair with dinners – the wines we purchased up in Door County this past February were good but very sweet. So we’re excited about enjoying these wines over the next year and stopping in again to replenish our “cellar” the next time we head up north. While we were in the area, we also stopped in at the Effigy Mounds National Monument near Harper’s Ferry, IA and took an easy two mile afternoon hike up to the Great Bear Mound and Fire Point where we hiked up a bluff (I won’t pretend it wasn’t taxing!) and saw more conical, linear and effigy bear mounds. The views of the river and the size of the Great Bear mound were phenomenal. We only hiked a small portion of that park, so we’ll definitely go back to see more.

 

Back at Wyalusing, we spent some time Friday afternoon canoeing through a slough on the Mississippi. Now I have to admit – my husband is the water guy and I am very much a land person. I love being on solid land – when I’m hiking and I stop, I’ve stopped for real. When you’re in a canoe and you stop, the current (as benign as it was) is still moving you along. I admit it – I freaked out a bit and had a hard time relaxing. We were canoeing most of the time in a relatively shallow, low-current area through a chain of slough islands off the main branch of the river, but there were many obstacles of trees and branches in the water to canoe around at high speeds (for a land-based hiker, anyway) and getting stuck on a giant sandbar was the last straw. My husband was a saint. He remained calm. He tried to talk me through my fear. Despite all this, I still found moments to enjoy. The scenery was like nothing I’ve ever seen so up close before. And we amazingly saw a blue egret standing at the water’s edge not fifteen feet away from us. Little by little I want to learn to overcome my fear of being on the water – I love the idea, but I know I’m not a strong swimmer and I evidently have a complex about currents. Baby steps with that one.

 

We were able to see a lot of other wildlife at Wyalusing beside the hummingbirds and the egret. We saw hawks everywhere, especially floating on the thermal currents above the bluff at our campsite. At one point we saw four at a time flying together. We also saw a family of raccoons wandering off into the undergrowth walking through the campground and I almost stepped on a poor little toad until it squeaked at me. We saw a cardinal and an oriole as well.

 

Saturday the sky finally cleared and husband woke up early and hiked down to Promontory Point to watch and photograph the sunrise. I’m sorry I missed it with him – apparently when he tried to wake me it just wasn’t happening – I was asleep. But the pictures are amazing. They have an observatory at the park, and the forecast was so clear that they scheduled a free astronomy program for Saturday night. After watching the sunset together over a campfire at our site on the bluff (finally we got a good sunset!) we drove up to the Passenger Pigeon monument to watch the sky turn to dusk. It was cool, quiet and beautiful. Then we headed over to the observatory for an hour-long lecture/discussion on general astronomy. Most of it was stuff we’ve learned already (how stars are born and die, how elements are formed, what our solar system is like) but it was still interesting because its stuff you don’t think about every day. Then we went outside to view the stars. They had a few telescopes set up, but we didn’t get a chance to use them since there were so many people there. But for me, seeing the sky with my own eyes was enough. Living in a major city, all we see when we look up is black, and maybe a few stars. But we never get to see the sky – or our galaxy. But we did at Wyalusing. We saw our branch of our Milky Way (the Orion arm) as well as some of the constellations – the Big Dipper, Little Dipper, and Sagittarius. We also saw the North Star and Jupiter. And so many stars. A blanket of stars. It made me well up inside, after so much time separated from the night sky, to see our context – that we live on this tiny planet called Earth, in a middle-aged solar system in the Orion arm of the Milky Way galaxy. Makes you think a little bit about the enormity of things. It was beautiful.

 

The next morning we broke down camp, packed up the car and drove east along the river bottoms and rolling hills to Mt. Horeb.

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