Left Eastwood this morning, bypassing nearby Cafe Kubal, in order to check out their new location at 601 Tully. What a fascinating mix that neighborhood is now! Building by building, things are changing for the better, and having coffee this good and a space this much fun is a great sign for the Near West Side. (more…)
Yes, this pepper does have an intriguing appearance, doesnt it? I didn't see this particular one at Chipotle.
Usually I’m too much of a snob to review chain restaurants, but this one is interesting. I had heard about their emphasis on fresh ingredients and positive reviews here and there. They are expanding so rapidly that there are two in the Syracuse area already. I tried out the one on Marshall St. on the SU hill, sporting my helpful two-fer coupon I’d received in the mail. (more…)
You'd be smiling, too, if you were to eat us!
This is the type of deadly vegetable that gardens produce! If you have seen anything like this, call 1-877-Stop-Deadly-Oak-Park-Vegetables ASAP!
Get this – a woman who put a garden in her yard has run afoul of the law! Cities often lag well behind positive practices for a variety of reasons. But Oak Park is impressively clueless, and probably qualifies for some kind of award.
As I understand it, the whole thing stemmed from a neighbor’s complaint. Of course, in many neighborhoods, the slightest show of individuality is problematic. That’s the type of suburban neighborhood where I grew up as a kid – vast stretches of boredom and silence. Oh well, at least it was basically safe. Individuality upsets people, and lawns take on near-religious status among many, so this isn’t really surprising. And of course, there’s the concept of upholding the letter of the law with no exceptions for any reason. Whatever is the case here, the Oak Park government has decided to prosecute her, and bravely, the lady growing the garden is going to court instead of knuckling under. (more…)
My doc’s got me on a paleo diet for 30 days as part of a process to figure out what foods I might be allergic to. I’d be totally depressed, not eating any dairy, any grains, any legumes, if it weren’t for the joys of the garden. How can you feel deprived when this is what greets you in the morning? (more…)
Like about 10% of Americans, I have realized that I’m healthier when not eating gluten. This is not necessarily a fun realization, especially for someone who enjoys dining out as much as I do. But like a few million others, feeling good and having lots of energy is worth the changes that I’ve made in what I eat. (Any reader who would like to discuss the health aspects of a gluten-free diet is welcome to contact me or read this excellent book.) (more…)
Nothing says “Spain” to me like the taste of the smoked paprika in a real Spanish chorizo. Went out yesterday to find some Palacio chorizo at Wegman’s, cut some up this morning and fried it oh so gently in olive oil with the scapes that I just had to cut off the garlic. If you leave the scapes on, the plant puts energy into the bulbils at the end rather than into the bulb in the ground. Gosh, the things we have to eat this time of year! Tiny radishes, micro-greens, baby this and baby that. Poor us. (more…)
Tonight’s delight: spring salad. Recipe: Look around the garden. See what’s edible. Leave seeds in the ground, do some thinning. Pull weeds away from strawberries, pick the ripe ones. Grab a lone asparagus spear, cut the almost-flowering basil back, pull off a few mint leaves. Take the largest leaves off the lettuce so the little seedlings underneath can grow better. (more…)
We were on a brief excursion out of town, and decided to treat ourselves to staying at the Hyatt. They have completely revamped the restaurant in their Rochester location. It was pretty nice before, but now they have completely overhauled it. I’m not always the biggest fan of modern architecture, which can be trendy and sterile. But they’ve done a nice job with it here. The atmosphere, colors, and lighting are pleasant, stopping just short of slickness. Tasteful music was playing, mostly consisting of what they’re calling ambient or chillout music these days. I like this style very much, and in the restaurant I think it works very well, giving a modern, urbane feel without being pushy enough to interfere with conversation; it relaxes and stimulates rather than shouts. (more…)
A friend asked the question, “What are you planting?” I’ve been so busy getting the dirt in (10 cu/yd, with lots of help!) and getting things planted, I didn’t answer her until today. So here it is. As you can see, no time for more blogging until everything’s in. I had a goal: everything done, staked, poled and whatever by Memorial Day. This year, by gum, I’m going to meet that goal! (more…)
Lonnie and I don’t write a whole lot about beer, liquor, or bars here. In fact, I think the last time I went on and on about beer was the stellar European selection at Eva’s Polish restaurant in Solvay, the place that we’ve personally introduced to more people than any place in town (although New Century is probably close). (more…)
When you marry cooking to gardening, something very exciting happens to the cooking. You get handed a very specific set of ingredients, always varying with the season, never to return until a whole year later. So your thought in the moment of standing in the garden is, “How can I get the most and the best out of whatever this garden is offering me today?” Because tomorrow is another day and anything can happen between today and tomorrow. Rabbits eat, blights come, hail falls. Talk about keeping you in the present moment! (more…)
It takes time to remove all the plastic from one’s kitchen, but we’ve pretty much succeeded. Sometimes there’s a bread bag around that we’ll use a few times, but now when we want to seal something tight we put it in a glass refrigerator dish and lay a piece of wax paper over it before putting the glass lid on. Seems to work just fine. (more…)
It’s so basic, so simple. If you mess up your land, you mess up your food. If you mess up your water, you have no good water with which to grow the food, cook the food, and drink with the food. Hydrofracking is already destroying land and water in Pennsylvania. (more…)
We’ve done some careful consideration of the options, including the “three sisters” possibility, but have decided that fussing about complete proteins is just too much work. Instead, we’ve installed a cow in our yard. Bessie makes the freshest milk in town!
My garden progress:
