Grandma's Kitchen Table

30 Days

        Lovely sunshine in the flower garden this morning.  Very pretty.

      Just a quick pop-in here as I have a busy day today and then MNO this evening with the girlfriends, which I am really looking forward to as we have all been going different directions these past couple of weeks and need a chance to just sit and get caught up with all the newsy bits going on with all of us. 

 

       Wow...June is ending already, 30 days passed in a flash. (Flash floods for some, unfortunately.)  I can see the summer melting away very quickly, how does this always happen when winter drags on and on?  I think I need to be living in a warmer climate...like say California.  Just the sound of it is mesmerizing.  I can't remember a June where it rained quite so much...more days than not...and it sure plays havoc with our backyard swimming and heading to the golf course on a regular daily basis. 

      Didn't go to Iowa to help this weekend...for one thing, it is very difficult to get in and out of CR at this point, some areas need special clearance, no hotels, sometimes no water, buildings being assessed, marked for demolition, and everything pretty much clogged up enough without someone wanting to go and check up on her sister.  1400 blocks of the city have been affected by the flood.  It's sort of like entering a war zone, you need special clearances and all for certain areas and the rest is pretty much "on hold" also. 

      Karen's house had to be gutted down to the studs and is going to be rebuilt after it "dries out a bit" she says, so it will be months before she can get back into her home.  Everything in the basement and first floor was a total loss.  She is trying to be optimistic, but it is heartbreaking losing everything like that after all her hard work on the house, etc.  She is fortunate to have friends with whom she is living in the meantime, but she is eager to just get it all behind her.  As far as going out there, I guess it will need to wait a bit. 

      So, what did go on around here this weekend?  Well, laundry, always laundry, and some cleaning, some organizing, some yard/garden work, some pool maintenance, some grilling, some cooking, some baking, some knitting, some scrapbook organizing, some reading, some swimming, and the Steve Miller Band concert.  I will leave it to you to guess who did what when.  Everyone was home at one time or another, but not always at the same time, so it was just a big mishmash of activities around here.  How about there, what's going on where you are? 

      I'm on my way out of here...hope you have a great day...see you in July!

 

5 Swimmers Posing as 5 Skaters

      There have been some recent complaints observances by the younger set that I have been featuring "too much cooking and crafting" and not enough of "us" on the photo sections of this blog.  So, here's a post today featuring last night's street fun in front of our house. 

      Daniel, Matt, JJ, Michael, and Nick (back to front in photo) decided to take up skateboarding and learn "some cool tricks."  (If any of the parents and/or coaches are reading this, I went totally unheeded in my pleas for them to consider they had sectionals, state, and junior nationals all coming up and that a sprained ankle, wrist, arm, or broken anything, etc., was not going to be adding any advantages to the quest for swimming superiority.  I tried.  They ignored.  I tried again.  Deafness amongst them all.  They are all taller than me, so I pretty much just had to call it a day.)   

        Daniel making a run, Matt managing to stay on and stay forward, JJ figuring out the best way to get injured (indeed, the only injury of the evening, requiring admistration of Bandaids over bloody parts), Michael for the most part, at least at this juncture, just cruising nicely with not a lot of super fancy work, and Nick showing off some fancy moves zigzag fashion up and down the street doing way too many fancy bits for me to get anything close to a good photo.  Nick, I have to say, hands down, clearly the winner of any sort of award for daring, drive, and determination resulting in dazzling us all with his new moves out of the water. I say "out of the water" as he has been dazzling us with moves in the water for years...as have the rest of these guys.

      And, because he is a favorite among many of the young ladies who check-in here at The Table, a nice photo of Daniel cruising with a good deal of grace and ease. (For those of you who don't know Daniel, you might remember Daniel's blog photo from December when he and Matt went with Daniel's parents and sister to the Christmas Spectacular all dressed up in suit coats, etc.)  Daniel, also known as, "the blonde god of swimming," by many of these said young ladies, is quite a nice gentleman as well.  As are the rest of these young men.  Always proud to know them.

      No real serious injuries from the night, so let's hope they have that out of their systems and all stay healthy and injury-free for all their stellar swims in July.  You hear that, boys?  No?  Well, I tried.

     

26 Fancy Swimmers and 1 First Place Trophy for Team Indiana

         Okay, here are some fun photos (by request) taken at the Arizona Elite camp and meet last week. The first photo is Team Indiana, 12 boys, 14 girls, and the 4 coaches standing in the back.  Matt is first on the right side in the first row.  Lauren is second from the left side in the second row.  Mike is the first one on the left side in the third row.  (Those are our Carmel Swim Club swimmers that swam for Team Indiana.)  

      The second photo is of the pool at the Brophy in Phoenix.  They loved swimming here with the mountains in the background, really fun for them to see that each day. The temperatures were record breaking for the days they were there, between 110-118 degrees.  Matt said it was HOT.  He said the pool stayed cool, however, as it has some sort of system of sprayers that constantly keeps the water moving so the surface does not heat up from the sun.  The pool water was nice and cool the entire time they were there.  He didn't seem to think the rippling interfered with the swimming as it was "not like a wave pool or anything like that," and they shut the sprayers off during swim competitions.   He was very interested in this whole set up.

       

      While Team Indiana, boys and girls, brought home the trophy, I have not been able to locate a photo of the girls with the trophy, and so far, only this one of the boys with it...but please note that the girls had just as much to do with bringing that first place high points trophy home as did the boys.  I played around a little with this trophy photo so that there was not quite as much skin showing...it was originally body length, so I will post it as this, which basically shows a bunch of shirtless swimmers and a good portion of the trophy.  I know...you all wanted the full version, but my diligence says this shows the trophy and the boys enough to get the gist of it, Kevin wearing a drag suit over his Speedo brief, so that seemed okay.  12, you say...but there are only 11 in the photo...the 12th is Sam, who is taking the photo.  Reading from First Row, left to right, are Addison, Alex, Ben, Tyler, Mike, and Raymond; Second Row, left to right, Blake, Cameron, Joe, and Matt.  (Cameron was Matt's roommate.  Mike had Tyler for a roommate.)  In the Back Row, center is Kevin, yes, THE KEVIN himself, Matt's state swimming nemesis since they were very little, and the one who can swim circles around anyone else in the pool...you just stand back and watch with gaping mouth when he is in the water.  (He and Matt are on friendly terms, so we say this with the utmost respect.) They all had a fantastic time and will be seeing each other again at upcoming meets, so that will be fun for them.     

      The coaches were great...the kids learned a lot and they also had a lot of fun.  Here is one the bits of fun...each swimmer got a can of this to open on the day of his fastest swim.  What is in this lovely little can?  Fruit.  The boys, of course, just thought this was the funniest thing going.  Again...who can figure out guys and what makes them tick?  Obviously the coaches figured it out as the boys really got a kick out of toting their can to the meet the day of their fastest swims and opening and eating it before they swam.  Apparently there was just enough silliness to keep everyone happy without losing focus on the reason they were there...a good combination.

      All in all, Matt had a wonderful time and brought home five new best swim times.  Lauren and Mike were equally successful and the trophy just made it all that much sweeter.  Now, onto the sectionals in July and another try at that elusive 100 Back Jr. Nat. time.  Keep your fingers crossed!

 

Thursday's Favorites Fare

     Lovely bushes down by our pool with such fantastic color for this time of year. 

READING:  Le Cordon Bleu at Home cookbook...trying to work through some/most/all of the recipes and techniques that Shari has already started doing at Whisk Wednesdays by August...sort of a catching up to where she is so we are on the same track from that point onward.

POOLSIDE READING:  T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton...love to read mysteries around the pool waiting for Matt to finish swim practices.

LISTENING TO:  Steppenwolf, Born to Be Wild -- always makes me think of the National Lampoon's Vacation movie with Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold loading up the Winnebago and sliding this in his 8-track with his family in tow for their yearly summer vacation...usually worth a giggle.  Second giggle in that movie is the Marty Moose song.  Actually, you pretty much just giggle your way all through that movie.  May have to dust the cobwebs off that one and have a "goofy movie" night soon.  Let's see, better have Drop Dead, Fred also...my boys are way, way under-appreciative of DDF, however...they just don't see the humor in that one at all.  It's probably an acquired taste...don't have any idea where I acquired it.

COOKING THROUGH:  Le Cordon Bleu at Home (Le Cordon Bleu School of Cooking); Baking:  From My Home to Yours (Dorie Greenspan)

FAV NEW FIND:  Artichokes...who knew?

FAV THING TODAY;  Thursday morning swim practices are at an outdoor pool from 6:00-8:15 a.m., so I like to go a little early on the pick-up side of the run and watch the kids swim as usually there is a game or some sort of silly competition at the end.  Just a nice way to start the day, watching all the swimmers having a good time together at practice.  The girls always go nicely to the locker room afterward, wringing out their wet hair as they go, chatting quietly among themselves.  The boys at this age are a different story...lots of horseplay and talking in loud voices, hollering in the locker rooms, etc.  It's like chaos in there...I have no idea what they are doing, but it sounds like a big fraternity party on their side of the shower rooms.  Things come flying out the door, goggles and suits are thrown all over the place, water bottles go scuttling across the floor...I am sure you get the picture.  When they get into the car, however, I usually ask, "What was going on in there this morning?"  Answer:  "Oh, the usual."  Me:  "How was practice?"  Answer:  "Fine."  Fairly quiet most of the way home until Matt thinks about where he might want to try to talk me into going out for lunch...Thursdays being our "lunch out day" and all.  Guys...who can figure them out? 

GOING TO:   Everyone is going different directions this weekend, but I am staying home and really need to attend to my desk...let's just say I have a little pile here and there on it of things that don't seem all that important on the bright sunny days of summer, but that I really should file, tend to, and otherwise act upon.  Other than that, I hope to swim, get caught up on some of the LCBAH cooking techniques that Shari is way ahead of me on, do some scrapbooking, knitting, and quilting.  OOOHHH...I like the sounds of all of it. 

PRAYING FOR:  All the people in Iowa trying to put their lives back on track with the receding flood waters.  Please join me.  Maybe I should go out there and help instead of hanging around here...maybe I should do that.  Might, just might.

Whisk Wednesdays: Sauce Béarnaise and Coeur de Filet Henri IV

      Well, well, well, this week's Whisk Wednesdays meal, Class 12, Part 2 was • Sauce Béarnaise (Warm emulsified sauce derived from Hollandaise sauce) page 250; • Coeur de Filet Henri IV (Filet mignons with artichokes, and Béarnaise sauce) from the Le Cordon Blue at Home cookbook, pages 250-252.  I also included the Pommes Pont Neuf (French fries) on page 253 as they were shown in the photo and included in the directions. 

      This was all most excellent...even on the first go around, we are counting this a resounding success (well, except the part with Justin).  I am still amazed at how easily this all came together and how great it all worked.  A keeper.  Definitely.  (Except the part with Justin.)

      The featured part of the meal, of course, since we are learning sauces, was the Béarnaise sauce, and let me tell you, it seemed quick and easy since we made Hollandaise last week, working up to a few more ingredients in the Béarnaise, such as peppercorns, shallots, white wine and white wine vinegar, tarragon, and chervil.  I only made half the recipe as I knew that we could not be trusted to only eat half if the whole was sitting there...four tablespoons of butter between three people seemed much more diligent than eight, and if truth be known, four Ts would have worked with four people also...there was plenty to go around.  

      We bought only two of the four 7 oz. steaks the recipe called for as Matt was not here, and while Mark can put away a 7 oz steak, Alex and I can easily split one with leftovers for Pippin and Vash.  We guessed right on that.  

      I have never before shopped for, selected, peeled, or cooked artichokes, so this one was a new experience for me.  It went well...turns out artichokes are very easy to prepare with the Le Cordon Bleu instructions, and step-by-step photos on page 520.  While they look a little strange beginning to end, the taste is wonderful, and I will definitely be making artichokes more often, with or without sauce, and hopefully without Justin, more on that later.

      The potatoes were also very easy...who knew you could make French fries from scratch?  Okay...confessional gasp...I have only fried anything about twice in my life as we are not big on fried foods around here, but the guys do like French fries, so I am thinking this might be a skill I could use in the future.  (I am not a French fry person, but hey, if I cooked them, I figured I should eat one, right?  I ate three!)  I liked the idea of cooking those potatoes twice, once for 7 minutes to cook them and then again right before serving for 2 minutes to color and crisp them.  Works for me...a lot less to do at the end of prep time.  

      I made a little lemon/mustard/evoo/white wine vinegar salad dressing for the watercress. 

      Dessert you ask?  Sorry...our chief dessert eater was not home from Arizona when I made this meal on Sunday night, so we opted for Monday being a dessert day.  (On Monday I made the TWD Mixed Berry Cobbler as I could be certain that at least half of it would be gone that day with Matt home, the remaining half the next, which is a good thing with cobblers.) 

      If you would like to check out the other Whisk Wednesdays bloggers, click Shari,Shelley, Sara, and Becke...yes, we are up to 5 of us now...why don't you join us?  We'd love to have you.  We all sort of have our own little niche within the group...Shari is the researcher/writer/photographer/creative guru; I myself am just trying to follow the book nicely and learn as I go (something I have been always fairly good at in the past); Shelley is trying to hone more cooking skills which match how she enjoys eating and she is trying to do so in a budget-minded way that fits in comfortably with her family's likes as well; Sara is The Wine Maker's Wife and is helping to educate us all with pairings of wine and food; and Becke is a Foodie with a blog that would beg you to even try to disagree with that statement.  There's room for everyone at Whisk Wednesdays, so you needn't fear that you won't fit in, because you will! 

      Oh, and for those of you who want to know about cooking without Justin, I highly recommend it.  Justin is our plumber...apparently artichoke leaves, stems, and whatnot, are NOT a good match for garbage disposals...now you know, if you didn't before, like say, me.  As my husband said, "Maybe 'we' should have thought this through a bit before jamming those down there."  You think?  Yep, maybe "we" should have...so nice of him to use the "we" instead of the "you" form as I felt badly enough for not thinking that through...really, one little moment of thought would have been good here, hindsight and all.  So Justin and I recommend adding artichoke peelings to the list of "potato peels, apple peels, celery, onion skins, carrot peels, rice, noodles, etc., etc." that do not belong tossed into the garbage disposal.  I did ask Justin just why we have disposals if we can't put those things down there...his reply was something along the lines of "To keep me in business."  Hmmm...am thinking those "starch and string-related items" are probably going directly into the garbage can here from now on.  Hindsight and all. 

     Please note:  The photo shows the meal on a small salad plate, i.e. those are not the largest French fries in the world, but rather I like to use the smaller plates for myself, so if you are gauging size/portions, please keep that in mind, it is not a regular dinner plate.

      Next Week (July 2) from Le Cordon Bleu at Home 
                • Sauce Mayonnaise (Basic emulsified sauce) page 31
                • Salade Messidor (Summer Harvest Salad) page 30-31

Tuesdays with Dorie: Mixed Berry Cobbler

      This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is Mixed Berry Cobbler and can be found on pages 416-417 of Dorie Greenspan's cookbook Baking:  From My Home to Yours.  It was chosen by Beth of Our Sweet Life.    

      This was fun to make.  I followed the directions exactly, no substitutions in ingredients or measurements.  It went together easily and quickly, baked for 60 minutes, and came out looking just like the photo in the book (well except for the star in the middle and the swirly fireworks design that I put on mine...4th of July coming up and all) with the rustic looking crust and the overflow of berry juices running along the outside of the pie plate.  

      The taste was wonderful, not too sweet, lots of berry goodness, and Mark and Matt declared the crust topping "just perfect" and thought the whole thing was a nice accompaniment to one or two scoops of French vanilla ice cream.  (Alex is hypoglycemic so he rarely eats more than ice cream for dessert now and again.)  If you don't care for crust, hmmmm...wonder who that could be....this one is easy to slide off so that you are left with just the berries and a little ice cream, really good also.  It is not at all wasteful if the husband of the house loves crust and will readily add that to his plate.  (It's good to marry the right kind of guy in matters such as these.)   A keeper.  Definitely...both the cobbler and the husband! 

 

      Next week's recipe is Apple Cheddar Scones, chosen by Karina of The Floured Apron  and can be found on page 32 of Dorie's book. 

For the 500th Time Today: There Will Be No Post

      You can stop emailing me and calling me and dropping by...there isn't going to be a post today as I have been very busy...too busy for my usual "throw something together in 15 minutes and get it posted" manner of blogging.

      Oh, okay...here's a bit of catch-up and then that's it for today, but I will have TWD ready to go fairly early tomorrow so you all can check and not have to keep checking back to see if I posted or not. 

      My sister Karen is back in her house in Cedar Rapids...sort of.  She has access to the house, but the water was flooded up to counter top level and everything on the main floor is pretty much ruined...and muddy.  She is working on getting all the utilities, etc. back in working order and when that all gets taken care of, she can have the inspection and then she will be allowed to live in her upstairs while she gets her downstairs back in order.  Yuck...what a lot of hassle.  She is, however, "surprisingly upbeat" (to quote the movie "How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days"). 

      Team Indiana brought home the First Place Trophy for the Arizona swim meet, and while they did take a photo of the boys with their trophy, they did it while the boys were still all in their drag suits and Speedo briefs, so I am just not sure I should publish that on this site as there is a whole lotta skin showing...but, they are swimmers, and they are all in really good shape...I mean it is not like going down to the local pool and seeing guys in Speedo briefs trying to LOOK like they are in shape...these guys really ARE in shape.  Still thinking.  I know...I am still a prude...but one of those boys is my son and I know the rest of them, so this is not an easy decision.  The guys all want me to post it.

      Oh, and by the way, the photo is of my Hollyhock garden...all purples and whites and a kind of pinkish purple...very pretty and lovely looking.  I just love Hollyhocks as they are so old-fashioned and remind me of my Grandma Ohl and my Aunt Minnie...both who had Hollyhocks in their gardens while I was growing up in Iowa.  Lovely memories.

      Enough...I have a great book waiting and bedtime is definitely 10 as my alarm goes off at 5:15 a.m. whether I am well rested or not.  Goodnight...hope you enjoyed your post!

Allison is 18...How Can That Be?

      A nice photo of our friends at their daughter's graduation party this past Saturday.  Roger was the boys' first cub scout leader, Adam is the boys' good friend who appears in countless posts and many photos, Pam is a lovely friend to have and very entertaining always, and it is just plain difficult to believe that the beautiful Allison is 18 (we have known her since she was about 8) and this fall will be heading off to Purdue University (hmmmphff...I tried my best to win her over to the Cream and Crimson, but her orchestra professor at Purdue will be the one she has had at Carmel these past years, so I lost whatever voice I might have had). 

      Just kickin' around this evening doing this, that, and the other, eagerly awaiting the time we can drive to the airport and pick up Matt from his Arizona trip.  Midnight.  People are actually up and doing things at midnight...it's not all that common with me these days, but I can remember days past when midnight seemed a logical hour to be doing things like that. 

      His meet in Arizona went really well.  He swam these freestyles:  50, 100, 200, 400; these backstrokes:  100 and 200;  and the 200 IM.  Seven swims, 5 new best times...qualified for finals in all 7 swims (even the 400 Free which I thought he had not on Friday, my mistake), and finished way higher than he ever thought possible...the highest being third one and fourth in another (but had to pull from finals on Sunday as Team Indiana needed to head to the airport).  The 100 Back Jr. Nat. cut...still elusive...but all in all, a wonderful meet.  He loved the chance to swim with many of the top swimmers in our state as well as other top swimmers at the meet.  He brings back a new excitement and drive for his sport...nothing like a lot of like-minded swimmers to spur one another on.  He made many new friends with the swimmers and coaches, and he had a really wonderful time in Arizona doing the fun bits the coaches had planned for them while they were there.  With opportunities like this, you always bring back a whole lot more than just new best times.  We are very thankful he had the opportunity to have this chance to experience it all.   

      I cooked my Whisk Wednesdays meal tonight for posting on Wednesday...I won't say anything further until Wednesday, but I will say that I am thinking of changing Blue Bernice's name to Blue Bearnaise...it was THAT good. 

1717.96 Miles Away

       Well, here are our three Carmel Swim Club members who flew off on Wednesday morning for the fancy pants swim camp and meet in Phoenix as part of the Indiana All-Star Age 15-16 Swim Team.  Of the 26 Indiana swimmers invited to go, Carmel had the most of any team going, so the three of them were very excited that they were going off together for five full days of sun, swimming, and fun.  Reading from left to right, Matt, Lauren, and Mike. 

      We have heard nothing but great reports from them from their wonderful hotel rooms (each rooming assignment was determined by the coaches and Matt's roommate is a very nice boy from Michigan City who is trying for an Olympic Trial cut this weekend, he is very close to it, so we are keeping our fingers crossed for him), i.e. each room is a suite with a little dining area, full size small kitchen, living area with fireplace, bedroom with two queen beds, and bathroom.  Pretty nice accommodations for the kids.  They were all very excited about those suites!  (Each swimmer only had to pay for his/her plane ticket out there...swimming took care of the rest, how nice was that?  Very nice, we are so lucky.)

      The pool is beautiful...Matt sent some photos but so far I cannot figure out how to get them from there to here, so let me just say it is outdoors with a gorgeous view of mountains.  Wow.  The Indiana kids, of course, are just thrilled with the mountains! 

      Only one small problem so far and that was with Matt, unfortunately.  Yesterday he ate a sandwich with tomatoes on it, forgetting about the recall, and while we are not certain it was the tomatoes, of course, within a couple hours he was losing the entire contents of his stomach and flat on his back with a terrible headache and the "spinning room" feeling.  He called me...not a lot I can do 1717.96 miles away, but it made him feel better, and after he slept a few hours, he was feeling much better.  When I spoke to him this morning, he was his usual happy healthy self and eager to swim the 400 Free (he finished as first alternate for the finals) and the 50 Free (he finished 15th, so that is a finals qualifying time)...not bad for this meet that is packed with a lot of fancy swimmers with impressive times.  All in all, he was happy and the coaches were happy that he was able to swim at all after yesterday.  It was a good day and I will be in bed fast asleep when he finishes finals tonight (a three hour difference) as Carmel is hosting a home meet this weekend and whether your swimmer is there or not, you are expected to work...and my shift starts bright and early at 6:15 a.m.  

4 Funerals and 1 Wedding

      A lovely little tea rose in a flower bed by the pool today...the little water droplets on it reminded me of the Jan van Os painting at the Speed.  BTW, I have discovered that JVO painted a few paintings entitled Still Life with Fruit and Flowers, not just the one at the Speed.  All very beautiful, but the one at the Speed is exceptionally beautiful.

      I am, today, cooking my carrot souffle dish for another funeral...4 funerals and 1 wedding in the past month:  I am beginning to think it is not safe to know us, well, on the funeral part, the wedding part is okay.  This is all very emotionally draining...it would be lovely to just swim the afternoon away, part of it anyway.  Might need to ink that in for later.

      I will post some swim news tonight with maybe a photo or two from the fancy pants camp in Arizona as Matt has both his iPhone and a digital with him.  Have a great day...go out and do something special for someone for no apparent reason whatsoever...they will feel good, and so will you.  As always, miss you all...wish you were here.

Thursday's Favorites Fare

     Instead of my regular Thursday's Favorite Fare list this week, Shari  tagged me on her blog, and since Shelley and others played along, I feel I must, too, as I am somewhat compulsive (okay, a lot) about doing things people would like me to do.  That said, please know that I tried to do this type of thing once before when I was new to blogging and it was a TOTAL DISASTER, so it is with great trepidation that I do it now.  If there is a way to do something badly and wrong, surely I will stumble upon it almost immediately and make the worst of it.  (Don't ask.)  I am going to modify the tag somewhat, and it is open to anyone who wants to play along without me naming anyone specifically. 

The rules: (as forwarded by Shari)

Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

What was I doing ten years ago?
Well, I know what I wasn't doing...it was the summer before the boys began swimming with a swim team, so I wasn't driving to swim practices twice a day year round.   Who knew life would take such a surprising turn?

 

Mark, Matthew, Alex, and I had just returned from a family vacation to Williamsburg, Virginia where we had a fantastic time...the boys (5 years old, almost 6) loved every moment of it...the historical bits and the Busch Garden amusement park, etc.  It was a wonderful time for all of us.

What are five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today?

1.  Sleep in past 5:15 a.m. as there are no swim practices to drive to with Matt in Arizona.  (I slept until 8:00 a.m. and then I couldn't stand it any longer as there are things to do, people to see, life to be experienced, crimes to commit....)

2.  Volunteer work for a few hours.

3.  Work on my quilting project.

4.  Swim.

5.  Quilting class this evening.

6.  I had to add a number 6 because my Le Cordon Bleu At Home book arrived and I am planning on reading that tonight after quilting class...I already took several peeks, however...very very nice.

Five snacks I enjoy:

1. Any kind of cheese, cut into little tiny cubes, at room temperature.
2. Any kind of fruit.
3. Greek, Italian, and Spanish Olives.
4. Pickles...any kind of pickle you can think of...any kind, any time.
5. Cinnamon red hots.

Five Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
1. Truly I would use most of it to help others.  Truly, I would.  I cannot think of anything I really need or want...I am a very lucky girl and feel guilty about that most of the time.  It would be great to help others.  But in the sense of playing along, see the rest of the list.
2. Visit every museum in the world.  (Okay, as many as possible.)

3. Travel.
4.  Never own a house...just live somewhere and then move whenever I felt like it to somewhere else...nothing to tie me down to one spot.  This goes along with love of travel and wanting to stay in place just long enough to really get the feel of it, etc., and then move somewhere else and do it all over again.
5. Inspired by all the cooking I do on Wednesdays, hire someone to clean up when I cook...I am a terribly neat cook and very fussy in the kitchen about keeping it clean as I cook...clean as I go, etc., so it would be wonderful to have someone else do that for me.  (Who am I kidding...it would drive me nuts having someone in the kitchen doing that and maybe not doing it right or the way I like it done....but we are just dreaming, so I am including this anyway.)

Five Places I've lived:
1. Strawberry Point, Iowa (born there and lived all but two years of my childhood there)

2. San Diego, California (ages 4 and 5)
3. Oskaloosa, Iowa (first year of college)
4. Iowa City, Iowa (college)

5. Bloomington, Indiana (college)

6. Indianapolis, Noblesville, Carmel...all in Indiana (post-college years)

Five Jobs I Do and Love:

1. Wife (best job in the world married to the world's most perfect husband and all)

2. Mother (yes, second best job in the world, even with two teenage boys and all)

3. Friend (always important...always amazed to find there are friends out there each day waiting to be discovered)

4. Volunteer (always satisfying and wonderful)

5. Chauffeur (love going places, doing things, meeting people, participating, and driving kids to and fro makes a lot of that happen naturally)

 

And, because Thursdays are my days to ask for prayers, in your charity please join me and pray for the repose of the soul of our friend Chuck, pray for strength and guidance for his wife Jane, fortitude for their daughters Libby (17) and Tori (16).  If you would like to know more about this amazing man and the wonderful legacies he leaves behind, please click here.  Thank you.

Whisk Wednesday: Hollandaise Sauce and Moutarde Sauce

      Whisk Wednesday...what, you ask is that?  Well, something special.  Something exciting.  For me anyway...and my family who will hopefully enjoy the flavors of such whisking efforts. 

      Through the Tuesdays with Dorie bake-along-blog, I met a fellow baker whose name is Shari.  Shari has a food blog that interested me very much because she had set for herself the goal of cooking through a cookbook entitled Le Cordon Bleu at Home and was sorta kinda following their school curriculum, inviting others to join her.  I knew then and there that I would be one of those joiners as finally, here was someone who wanted to cook with the old methods, no fake ingredients, learning the basics from the beginning in the French manner of cooking, and with a sense of excitement that I knew I could definitely get on board with in a split second. 

      So, Shari and I cooked up an agenda over the past week (actually I did very little of it as Shari had already thought it all through and it sounded just great to me, but we sort of cheered each other on to get this up and running THIS WEEK.)  This week?  Really...this very week?  This very week when I was out of town for some of it, crazy busy for some of it, and just plain uncertain that I could get my act together by Wednesday, let alone cook and post.  BUT, I did not want to miss Hollandaise week, so we are off and running.  (Shelley is joining us...she always says she doesn't know how to cook, but she really does...and she has at least made homemade mayonnaise before, not so myself.)  Shari is actually on Week 12 of this curriculum, so I am going to go back to her first week and work forward throughout the summer, hoping to have done the first 11 weeks by the end of summer and then be current from then on. 

      So, Shari, Shelley, and I are going to post our Whisking bits on Wednesdays.  You can tune out if you aren't interested, or you can hop over to Shari and Shelley's blogs (and anyone else opting to join us...how about you???) and see what their efforts netted each week.  Shari has a very nice write up about the history of the Hollandaise sauce, etc. because Shari is a cooking/writing/photographing/posting genius!  So, hop on over to Shari's blog and check it out (on the left bar of this blog you can click on Shari's Whisk: A Food Blog site; and for Shelley's blog, click on the Insomnimom site). 

      Here's what went on in my kitchen (besides cooking for 5 priests and another family of 3 today, that is...whew!).  Hollandaise to me is Eggs Benedict.  A definite splurge in the calorie department...possibly another of those cholesterol poster child's nightmare dishes, but maybe sorta kinda okay if eaten only occasionally.  Like today...probably okay since the last time I had it was at Christmas time...the year before this past one.  I have never made it before...always just ordered it at a restaurant every other year or so, at a holiday time, as I figured it was much too fussy for me to "try this at home."  I had English muffins...I had some really nice Tuscan bread...I really wanted to use that Tuscan bread toasted instead of that English muffin, but I didn't want to get kicked out the first week, so I toasted the muffin and thought "next time, the Tuscan bread!"  Canadian bacon...well, the best that could be had at the market today as I was on the run and running out of time, fresh eggs...good on that one.  Poach the egg...fun...love poaching eggs and watching all those swirling bits solidify (takes very little to entertain me on a daily basis). 

       I made the Hollandaise pretty much like the recipe Shari posts at her site (for copyright respect, only Shari will post the recipe ingredients with proper credits, etc. each week and you will want to check out her blog because her photos, etc. are wonderful...don't hold me to anything like that, please).  If you want the recipe directions, they are on pages 274-275, so you will need to BUY THE BOOK, as it is copyrighted and we are trying to stay on the right side of the law here.  I didn't use clarified butter, however, as I didn't have time to mess with that and I like a creamier sauce, whereas the one with clarified butter is more oily because the milk solids are removed.  I like milk solids and it produces a creamier looking sauce.  I also did mine in a double boiler as I am just not that trustworthy when it comes to watching eggs over direct heat, unless of course you like them sunny side up or scrambled.  The double boiler had the added benefit of being able to turn the burner down very low and keep the water at a just-barely-simmering level which keeps the sauce together while say you are putting together the little muffin/c.bacon/poached egg assembly.  Delicious.  Fairly easy.  A keeper. 

      The next recipe, well, if you want to call it that, was just drizzling it over steamed asparagus, which is very decadent and can turn a perfectly healthy calorie-friendly veggie into one of pure sin.  Delicious.  Extremely easy.  A keeper.  I did notice that the sauce thickened a bit, which was good, when I was working between the recipes.  Normally I would not make all three recipes at once, but this week I did not have time to spread it out, so Mark had a very interesting meal this evening...he's usually willing to roll with the punches of whatever is going on around here.  (Note on these plate sizes:  they are small...I am big on small plates, so the food may look huge, but actually it is the plate that is small.) 

      The last recipe is making the Hollandaise into a Moutarde (mustard) sauce by adding Dijon to taste.  (And taste, and taste...)  This sauce was delicious, and we served it over a small steak.  Delicious.  Fairly easy.  A keeper. 

      Go ahead, try it...easier than you think and you can bandy about words like Hollandaise and Moutarde like you can't imagine not knowing how to make these. 

      So far, so good...week one.  Let's just wander over and visit Shari and Shelley and see how they did today....

      Next week from Le Cordon Bleu Cooks at Home is Sauce Béarnaise (Warm emulsified sauce derived from Hollandaise sauce) on page 250, Coeur de Filet Henri IV (Filet mignons with artichokes and Béarnaise sauce)...come and join us!

I'm Working on It...Give me another 30 minutes!

Whisk Wednesdays

     Hello there.  Just a quick note to say that I will be posting later today...much later today, like say after 8:00 p.m., as I have an incredibly busy day, most all of which does not involve me being near the computer!  For those of you wanting the Whisk Wednesdays post, I am hoping this will save you time and trouble checking back for it until later tonight.  Have a great day! 

Tuesdays with Dorie: Peppermint Creme Puff Ring

      This week's Tuesdays with Dorie baking blog recipe is Peppermint Creme Puff Ring on pages 290-292 and was chosen by Caroline of A Consuming Passion. 

      Well, here it is in all it's glory.  Sort of.  I am not thinking this is the most successful piece of baking I have ever attempted, but Mark and Matt ate some of it, and then we took the rest over to Lauren and Josh's house, and their family ate the rest of it...so I guess it has a success of one kind at any rate.   Everyone thought it tasted very good, so what it lacked in beauty, it made up for in taste, according to the tasting panel, i.e. Mark, Matt, Sherry, Jesse, Josh, and Lauren. 

      I followed the recipe exactly, baked it exactly (which could be where the problems are to be found as everyone's ovens are different), and still, it fell a little flat.  Mark offered to get out the bicycle pump and give that a go, but I declined nicely, adding that actually this particular dessert was made to commemorate a bicycle race in Paris, hence it's round doughnut-like shape echoing the shape of a bicycle tire...which drew the comment of mine being a "flat bicycle tire...." 

      Ah, well...my little cream puffs turned out very nicely and I had in mind that those (because they are small and because one could be left without any accompanying chocolate) would be Plan B should Plan A "fall" through. 

      I will try this recipe again, I will.  Sometimes one just has to tweak a recipe until it comes out "just right."  This was my first shot at it, so all in all, given one take, not too bad. 

      And, since you are all wondering/asking:  Rum Guy liked his slice of strawberry tart last week very much.  He was surprised that I would bring him a piece...put our friendship on a whole new level, it did.  When I told him the name of this week's recipe, he offered to get the Peppermint Schnapps for me with nary a sarcastic comment, and I had to break it to him that the mint in the recipe was from mint leaves this week, not liquor.  (I told him this week was obviously designed to keep us all out of AA for the present.  He just laughed.)  He was impressed that I was going to use mint leaves from my garden that I grew myself.  And, just because everyone ate the whole dessert ring this week, doesn't mean, I won't be popping by today with a little mint cream puff for him...it seems wicked to tell him what I am making and then not share...yep, making new friends big time with TWD! 

      Next week's recipe has been chosen by Beth at Our Sweet Life and is Mixed Berry Cobbler, for which the recipe can be found on pages 416-417 of Dorie Greenspan's Baking:  From My Home to Yours cookbook.  (Amazon is running this at $12.99 this week, which is down from $40, so if you think you would like to bake along each week, get thee to Amazon and order the book for yourself.)  The TWD blog was written up in the Wall Street Journal recently...how fun is that?

1 Fancy New Stove with a Griddle in the Middle

      This is a photo my sister Karen sent of her neighbor's house (Karen's house is to the rear and the right, so you can't see it in the photo).  It was taken showing what they are now dealing with via the flood waters in Cedar Rapids. This is a post written by her as I figure she can just be the guest-writer-poster as what she is dealing with is way more important than anything I am likely to post today.  You will see, that despite everything, she is managing to look on the bright side and see the funny bits, i.e. she has probably tons of damage at her house, but her brand new stove is safe!  So, here's Karen's post:

Update from Iowa ..... 85% of Iowa is declared a Disaster Area. I am sure everyone has seen it on the news. Fortunately for the Cedar Rapids area the water is going down! I have seen pictures of my neighborhood and the water has gone down by my house. Unfortunately it is not safe to go in yet so I am trying to be patient. I lived in Davenport on the Mississippi River for 25 years and have never seen anything like this!

I thank God that I am safe and my dogs are safe. I also thank God that I work for such a wonderful company (UPS) that is helping me in any way they can. I am counting my blessings for the things I do have left and concentrating on that. And hey ... when I finally get everything cleaned up ... I have a brand new stove .... a fancy one with the griddle in the middle... I'm excited about that!

We need lots of prayers for the people in Columbus Junction .... the Iowa River and Cedar River meet there and I don't know if that little town will be able to survive it! We need lots of prayers for all the people that will have a hard time rebuilding their lives after this!

Posted by: Karen | June 16, 2008 at 09:56 AM

Not 40 Days and 40 Nights, But Still...

       Photo from Mickey's grad party this afternoon...Mickey, Carly, Johnny, and Matt chatting about life without Mickey on the swim team next year...all of them going to miss him, but he says he will be back and swim with the team in the summers, so that was great news!   Mickey will be swimming on his college team this year.

      I am doing this update today for my sister, Karen, who has been flooded out of her home in Cedar Rapids.  Many of you are asking about her, and here is what I know:  on Thursday she left for work as there was a "no threat" watch for her area, flooding being about 6 blocks away and supposedly not expected to advance those six blocks. 

      Two hours later, she frantically tried to get home as the news was that the flooding was continuing and in the short distance she had to go, she could not get home as the area was under water that quickly.  She was very upset as her two doggies were at home, but she managed to wave down a canoe that was traveling in the flooded areas to rescue pets...they were able to get her doggies out in time:  she was so happy, as were they, to be reunited.  She loves those dogs, so I think the other things kind of paled in comparison to the thought of losing them.   

      She does not know the extent of the damages as she is not allowed to go near the area.  The earliest she thinks she can get into the area is Tuesday possibly, probably by boat.  She is trying to be upbeat about it all...saying she was happy that she had not gotten all the landscaping done, not made the decision on putting in the new hardwood flooring, and the Menard's man called to say her new stove was in and that they would be happy to hold it for her in light of the circumstances. 

      She is staying with a friend, so she is fine with everything that way...just emotionally it is hard and she can't find out what happened to her neighbors and people she knows down in the historical area by the river where she lived.  Everything is pretty much a "goner."  I see the pictures and feel ill, so I can imagine how she is feeling inside.  

      It is not, however, just CR, in Iowa City the arts complex is all under various water depths, etc., Elkader is really pretty much under water, Independence, and on and on with so many smaller towns and some that may not recover at all...corn crops are gone...and on and on.  Very sad to think of it all.  I can't even imagine what a town does with that much mud and water...how does one get rid of that much mud and water? 

      The swim meet was just so/so...Matt ended up scratching at least one event a day as his shoulder was very sore.  Coach Cindy gave him an "out" opt but he decided he wanted to stay the entire meet to cheer on his team, so he rode back with the team and they all got in around 11:00 p.m.  He is now concentrating on getting it all packed up again and on the road to Arizona for the fancy pants camp/meet this week.  I am sorta kinda maybe looking forward to not being a chauffeur and social secretary this week...you did not hear that here as I know I will miss it dearly when it is gone.  A little break in the action will be nice, however. 

      And now, I have a new mystery book to read and plan on seeing this stormy night through, well at least the next couple of hours, with my book, my reading lamp, my stack of pillows, and my jammies...stormy nights are good for that sort of thing dontchathink?

3+3=6 Hours at 2 Museums Today

     A cute photo of Mickey and Taylor after swimming today.  And, the next one of Jonathan, Harrison, and Matt raiding the frig in my suite for Gatorade (I keep treats for the kids that drop by).        

      Swimming is going okay...just so/so, but we didn't really expect much else with the shoulder problems, so I think we are doing really well.  He was back for finals this evening in the backstroke (no Jr. Nat cut on that, but we still have most of the summer left, so here's hoping...).  Somehow he missed signing in for the 400 Free this morning and was not allowed to swim that...so that was a bit of a disappointment, a few choice words from Coach Brian, rightly deserved and all.  Harrison beat him in the 50 Free, which thrilled Harrison as the two of them go back and forth with that swim together...they are good buddies, so Matt would always rather lose to Harrison than anyone else in that swim. 

      Once again, I was MIA at the pool.  Really, honestly, no one even notices...Matt says he swims what he swims whether we are there or not, and the truth is that at all the other meets we are always there, and this pool is not really a pool.  It's a QUARRY.  A quarry, mind you, with very little seating, absolutely no parking because this quarry is in the middle of a very old established neighborhood which grew up around it more than a hundred years ago.  In my four attempts to actually locate it, I have managed said task once...and by the time I arrived, the nearest parking was three miles away.  This is the 80th Annual whatever... of this meet and you would think in the previous 79 years someone would have figured out a parking plan.  Today it rained, so the meet was conducted between outbursts and everyone was standing around in about an inch of mud...whereas at the museums, I was nice and dry.

       Anyway, Lakeside in Louisville means that I say, "Good luck, Matt," in the morning and "How'd it go, Buddy?" in the evening.  Today I was even back during the break between swims...he lounged in my room for a bit chatting and then off he went with his friends and off I went for my return visit to The Speed.  I spent the morning at The Frasier and I will spare you all from ramblings as you were so nice to let me get by with it yesterday.  (Besides, I am storing up as I hope to be back at The Frasier this fall with the Shakespeare group and I can bore you all senseless then.) 

      One more day...one more museum...one return trip home...and one exciting venture being unveiled that Shari and I are cooking up...you will have to wait to hear about it, but I will say that it involves moving Craft Day Wednesdays to Craft Day Fridays.  Wednesdays are going to be something new...previewing this week.  Because I don't have enough going on and all.

5 Hours -- 1 Museum Down and 2 to Go

    This post was written yesterday, so just pretend you are reading it then.  Typepad has a feature where you can write up a post and then have it post later, so I thought I would give that a whirl to test it and see if I could actually figure that out...I don't know what I did, but it didn't post at all.  It's a good thing I have other skills is all I can say. 

      This is a photo from last evening after the swim sessions as I was not at the pool to take any there...more on that in another post.  So, here you have, starting in the corner with Matt, Jonathan, Chris, John, and Harrison, all famished from a full day of swimming and eating more pasta than you can even imagine is possible...can you believe those blues on Chris?  He has the bluest eyes I have ever seen on anyone.  I had to take six shots as they were all goofing off and Harrison was trying to go for "studied" poses...this was the best of the lot, believe me.  So...here's yesterday's post:

      5 hours at The Speed Art Museum today...be still my heart!  I mentioned to Nancy and Jeri (other swim moms here) that I was going and they both looked horrified that I might insist they come along...they need not have worried as Nancy's claim to fame is that she did the Roman Art exhibit last year in 5 minutes (or less) and Jeri's similar claim is that she did the Louvre in 45 minutes...sort of like my idea of shopping.   Last year I spent the whole of one day at The Speed seeing most everything in depth (they have really nice exhibits and no one rushes you along at all...very important in my mind).  I did, however, run out of time in the last four rooms and had to rush a bit...much to my dismay as that is where the Dutch artists' works hang and The Speed has a particularly great collection of those. 

      Since watching the movie The Illusionist, I have been haunted by thoughts of getting back here to The Speed to spend more time with this Dutch collection as the Dutch portraits are so like the filming of the entire movie...it is like one Dutch painting after another in hue, contrast, lighting, silhouette, mood, etc., etc. 

      I was there when the door opened and headed straight for those last four rooms...they did not disappoint.  The portraits were as I remembered and I spent three of my five hours in those four rooms as they have not only the portraits I was so keen on seeing, but also the Dutch landscapes, and the Dutch still lifes. 

      I fell in love with a painting called Still Life with Fruit and Flowers by Jan Van Os (painting was signed, but no date, however, JVO lived between 1744-1808, so you can roughly do a quick guess as to time frame).  I can never decide if I like still life flowers better, or still life fruit better...with this painting, one does not need to choose as it has both (with a few little animals and a secret cherub thrown in for good measure).  The fruits and flowers are swizzled about in "S" shapes throughout the painting...it is amazing the way the "S" shapes do so many things and yet it all looks cohesively harmonious...I looked at it for an hour...seriously, don't even think I am kidding.  I can't wait to find a reference on it and read something about it and the painter (I don't know that much about him, so if you do, share...please share).   Life is great, isn't it?  Just full of amazingly wonderful things.  (And, yes, I know, I so don't deserve it.)

      Van Os leads your eyes down "S" shaped paths in the painting that wind in and out, up one side, down another, across and back again.  The paths follow colors of brights along one path, pastels along the other, and each color group has its own "S" curve while somehow blending with the others...reds, greens, oranges, browns, yellows, pinks, all wooing you into absolute love; and sizes of all the larger ones leading to paths of the medium ones and the smaller ones still another way; and shapes with rounded and pointed subjects leading you around the painting each on their own curved path and sometimes intertwining; darling little flies and a tiny mouse munching on the meat of an open walnut, a cat with its paw resting on the very edge of a bird nest filled with tiny perfect eggs; and the most absolutely wonderful renditions of water droplets on the petals of the flowers and skins of the fruits that you will ever see...EVER.  Gorgeous.  I am going back tomorrow. 

      There was also a special little hallway exhibit in the basement...OMW...the basement of all places, well the "lower level" which is essentially a basement, OMW again...where they had lined up drawings by these artists:  Picasso, Matisse, Constable, Degas, Whistler, Durer, Delacroix, Winslow Homer, John James Audubon.  ALL IN ONE SMALL HALLWAY...unbelievable artwork to the left of me and then to the right of me as I proceeded down the hallway...ALONE AS NO ONE ELSE WAS THERE at the time and I had all these guys all to myself...one hour and 15 minutes and that was rushing it.  Amazingly beautiful drawings...just me and them...how lucky was I on this day at that time?  (And, I did not touch a single one...can you believe it?  I am behaving extremely well under these circumstances!)

      I was running out of time as I still wanted to see the special exhibit of Werner Reiterer called Raw Loop (modern art and I so wish Vanessa had been with me as Vanessa and I do modern art so well together).  I laughed and giggled through the entire exhibit...he is a humorist, as well as an artist, so you are actually supposed to do that.  He is an Austrian and this is his first solo show in the United States.  Some of it was print (one of my favorites being a drawing entitled Jesus at Home which consisted of a coat hook hanging on the wall with a halo draped over it, a white tunic hanging on the hook, and a pair of sandals neatly residing on the floor under it all...I chuckled the moment I saw it) and some of the exhibit was interactive sculpture. 

      I loved the interactive sculpture (Oh, Vanessa, you would have loved these!).  My favorites were a bank of 8 very large loud speakers that when you approached you could hear whispering coming from them, however, the closer you got, the louder the voice became until it was VERY LOUD when you were as close as you could go, sort of the opposite of life where you hear a whisper up close and the louder stuff far away, I suppose; a mannequin man dressed and sitting on the floor leaning against the wall, very human-like, and when you neared him, he began to "breathe" and it was quite haunting actually, sort of like approaching a still figure to check to see if he/she is actually breathing and alive when it is pretty clear he/she is not, and then having it breathe deeply when you are right next to it, made you pull back and gasp in surprise; and a room where you were supposed to yell with increasing loudness so that the lights would brighten and dim according to the volume of your voice...and on and on as I know you have all probably quit reading when you realized this was me on another museum tangent...yes, I know, your eyes immediately began to glaze over and you thought, "Uh, oh...here she goes again...." 

      And, for those of you still reading, I had the best time today and it ended all too soon.  Tomorrow The Fraiser Museum...and a sneak back at The Speed to have one last look at the Van Os painting...The Speed Art Museum is, by the way, FREE, so go...really, just go...you will love it!  And, take me with you!

2 Sad 4 Words

     We all arrived safely in Louisville.  Coaches took the swimmers to Churchill Downs for a tour and a chance to watch a race or two. (They schedule some fun event or tour each year.)  Matt loved it.  Dinner was at an Italian restaurant...pasta for the swimmers, don'tchaknow.  On the way back we learned that the father of two CSC swimmers had passed away unexpectedly, so everyone is very sad and sober this evening...all of us in shock. 

      Chuck will be missed.  He was one of those very involved dads who seemed to be everywhere his girls were...as referee, swim official, board member, father, coach, cheerleader.  We have known Chuck and Jane for nine years through swimming...Libby was with Matt at Guerin this year.  We are all very sad tonight.  

      Photos are Margaret and Lacey...Lacey in the pink and pearls...can you stand it?  So fun...she is such a girl and I just love that about her.  Beautiful, beautiful girls, these two...inside and out!  The other photo is Mickey playing doctor this evening taping Matt's ice packs on his shoulders...we needed a very tall guy to do this and Mickey is always willing to help out with anything that needs to be done.  A lot of chuckling and laughing, but they got it eventually. 

     Enough posting tonight...no one is really in the mood to party or take a lot of photos, etc.  In your charity, please pray for the repose of the soul of Chuck; pray for his wife, Jane, and their daughters, Libby and Tori.  Thank you.

       

4-a-Day Will Hopefully Keep the Doctor Away

      Nope, not a football player.  Nope, not fun and games at the Gerth household. Nope, not a photo we will look back upon and cherish.  What is this then?  Shoulder problems...rotator cuff times 2.  Spent yesterday at the doctor's office, the therapist's office, and then the scheduling office.  None of it good. 

      This little set-up with the ice packs on the shoulders is scheduled for two bags twice a day until we return from Arizona at which point we develop a plan of action for "further practices in the foreseeable future."  We leave today for a four-day meet in Kentucky; next week for a six-day camp/meet in Arizona...not exactly the best timing for rotator cuff worries.  Only "kicking" practices, saving the shoulder for meets and the fancy pants camp in Arizona. 

      At least he is still smiling and being very positive about it all...even laughing at the thought of feeling a little like Frosty out in the sun melting away while I snapped this photo.  

      Blue Bernice is all shiny and spiffy and ready to roll after morning swim practice.  Clarice and Dixie have their bags packed and we are set to have four fun-filled days in Louisville (which means that I will check in with the swimming, but left to my own devices I have a heavy schedule which includes The Frasier, The Speed, The Arts & Crafts Museum, Lunch at Lily's with Linda from Louisville, and a few other things I have penciled in if I can figure out a way to fit them in here and there). 

      Mark and Alex are holding down the home front and I can hardly believe my good luck at having drawn the card for getting to go to Louisville with the swimmers.  Yahoo....me, Blue Bernice, Clarice, and Dixie on our own for four whole days...no end to the amount of crime that can be committed in that amount of time!  (Three days is about my limit for exemplary behavior...my intention, however, is to try to stretch it to four.)  May post from the road, maybe not...too soon to commit, so don't be surprised if you don't hear from me until Monday. 

      Have a great week and think fast times for that 100 Backstroke...he's a hopin' for that Junior National cut in that swim and Lakeside is usually a fast meet for him.  Keep your fingers crossed and pray a little for those shoulders.  We're outta here....

Tuesdays with Dorie: La Palette's Strawberry Tart

       This week's Tuesdays with Dorie baking blog recipe is La Palette's Strawberry Tart, found on pages 374-5 of Dorie Greenspan's Baking:  From My Home to Yours cookbook.  Strawberries...yum! 

       When this week rolled around, I eagerly opened the cookbook knowing that it was going to be a fruit dessert and not something like...hmmm...chocolate.  What I did not know, however, was that I would need to make a return trip to the liquor store. 

      I had my little piece of paper making my grocery list and came to "framboise au le vie" and three other "or" liquor choices listed.  Me: "Oh, no...."  Mark: "What?"  I shared with him the news about the need to return to the liquor store.  He chuckled and said, "Hey, you can drive your Blu-Ray up there!"  All I can think is that this man is very secure in this marriage to make such a comment, even in jest, see: 

http://grandmaskitchentable.typepad.com/grandmas_kitchen_table/2007/09/play-by-play.html

      Off I went...in search of more booze.  (Who would ever have thought this would be something I would do two weeks in a row?)  I was hoping the gentleman at the store would be someone entirely different than the rum guy last week, but no:  no such luck. 

      I walked in with my recipe card and he said, "Hi, you need more rum?"  I smiled and said, "No, I finished that..."  Rum Guy: "YOU finished that whole bottle?"  Me:  "No, no, no, no...not the bottle, the recipe I was making.  Now I need this (and I showed him the recipe card)."   Rum Guy:  "What kind of cookbook are you cooking from anyway?"  Since I was sorta beginning to wonder myself, I said, "Well, it was on the Best Seller's List and got the James Beard award and all..."  He just chucked and said, "You are sure big on the 'best seller's list' things.  Do you want my best seller in the framboise...the one for reputable people with jobs who take baths and have credit cards?" 

      I was nice.  I didn't say, "Ha, ha, ha...just give me my bottle and I will be on my way...." but instead said, "Yes, that would just great.  Thank you very much."  When I was leaving he asked, "What are we making next week?"  I told him that we find out on Mondays and he said, "Okay, then, see you Tuesday."  I wondered, surely not....  I am, however, planning on stopping by the liquor store today with a slice of the tart as a surprise for Rum Guy...making new friends at the liquor store, who knew??? (It's always important in life to make sure people know you appreciate them.) 

      This was a very easy recipe, with very good results, and very much a "keeper."  I was a little skeptical about the pepper on top, but it was surprisingly delicious in that combination and added a little something fun and tasty...very nice.

      (Note:  the photo is Mark's slice, so it is on a regular dessert plate, not the mini-plates I usually use...I know, I am driving you all crazy trying to figure it out with the photos of mini portions on little plates...sorry.) 

      Next week's recipe is found in the book on pages 290-2 and is called Peppermint Cream Puff Ring.  Wait until you see this one! 

Knit 3 Purl 3

      Knit 3 Purl 3...Stuck.  Definitely stuck.  This is where I could use a knitting buddy who knew what she was doing, i.e. someone with experience as on Sundays the knitting shop is closed and therefore, stuck I remain until tomorrow when I can float by there between swim runs.  Somehow I dropped a stitch and I can't seem to figure out where, when, or what to do next.  Do I rip out everything until I reach a row with the number of stitches I am supposed to have (110), or do I just add one, and if so, where do I do that so as to not offset the pattern...call or email if you are reading this and know the answer.  I will be forever grateful!  Definitely need to get this straightened out before I head out of town with the idea of knitting at the swim meet! 

      Would you just look at this Basil this year?  For three years I moved Basil about the yard and garden plots looking for ideal conditions, to only be very disappointed in the basil "crop" each year.  Turns out, go figure, that all he wanted all along was his very own pot at the edge of the deck.  Roasted Tomato Basil Soup in the very near future, like probably tomorrow.  The fragrance!  And, how convenient is this to have him right outside the kitchen door?

      Hope you are all having a wonderful Sunday, I am just putting the finishing touches on a picnic for 16 and hopefully in an hour or so, Mark will be grillin' and we will all be chillin' and enjoying a picnic on this fine summer day!  All my little deviled eggs are sporting a fresh herb on their tops from my herb pots...so lovely looking:  it really doesn't take much to thrill me, does it? 

      As always, I wish you were here...or I was there.  I miss you always!  Have a great evening.

2 Guitars and 2 Cool Dudes

     Used to be around here all you heard was piano and violin for years and years, and then Alex moved into the guitar-lovin' stage...this week Matt decided to embrace the guitar-playin' as well. 

     Their choice in music is vastly different, so am not sure we will be taking anything on the road anytime soon (or ever).  Alex tends to like heavy metal; the first thing Matt played when he opened the case was Beethoven (it helps to be able to read music and play by ear many years prior to just opening the case and strumming something recognizable right off, so you probably can't just try this at home, as it were).  Something new to do for the summer, I guess, as we wouldn't want Matt to have any actual down time with nothing to do, right?  Perish the thought.

      It's a very hot day here in Indiana and I am off to do what any sane person would do on a hot day with a pool in the backyard...swim.  Have a great day doing whatever you are doing to stay cool and happy, or come over and swim, your choice! 

Thursday's Favorites Fare

     This is a trellis outside the garage door which has produced nothing the past few years...this year, one little lonely vine is managing a valiant effort...am thinking the soil here needs some major reworking.  It is rather pretty with just the lone flower, don't you think?  I am sorta hoping it just stays that way for awhile...

READING:  Quilting books for a little research on where I want to go with this quilting phase I am going through. 

LISTENING TO:  Bob Seger...gotta love Bob's music, don't you?

FAV NEW FIND;  Quilting board (12" by 12" roughly) that has sandpaper on the front to hold the material steady while tracing a template...way easier than trying to hold the template, trace the pattern, hold the material down...way easier.  You can make one or buy one...we are not a "having-sandpaper-around" type family, so I figured it would save gas and mileage, hassle, multiple purchases, etc., and just buy the one at the store. Good move, love this thing...absolutely love it. 

FAV THING TODAY;  Having time between the car-to-the-pooling gigs to cut all my quilt blocks for my class tonight.  Very peaceful just working at the kitchen nook table and looking out the window into the backyard with all the greenery and blooming flowers, etc.  Just lovely.  (Photo of this in the craft post today.)

SCRAPBOOK PAGES THIS WEEK;   I worked on quilting and knitting, so nothing in the scrapbook realm until this weekend when I will have some time to do such and Matt and Alex will want to work on their 4-H scrapbooks to get those organized and on the way to completion for the fair.

GOING TO:  Plans changed and we have a free weekend to hang around town and do some things around the house...going to be very hot, so probably a lot of time in the pool and yard; get organized for Matt and I to be on the road next week with swimming in Louisville.   

PRAYING FOR:   It's Ordination week here, please join me in praying for the men currently serving as priests, for those who are embarking upon their vocational calling this weekend, and for those discerning such in the seminaries. 

1 Baby Blanket Finished; 1 Quilt Block Started

      Hello...no, it's not Craft Day Wednesday, but Clarice and the television were victims of Tuesday night's storms and neither were up and running until today...I didn't miss the television, but I sure did miss Clarice.  So, today will be a craft post, and a favs post later on.

      Enthusiastic knitting continues...I know that you are probably all sighing with boredom at my little efforts here at knitting, but I figure that Rome wasn't built in a day, as the saying goes, and therefore I am working toward something absolutely spectacular that will wow you all.  (I just don't know what that is going to be yet.) 

      I finished the little blue denim-looking baby blanket for Christine's new baby boy.  It is meant to be used in the car and just left in there...we had such when our boys were little and found them very handy as in summer the air conditioning would make their little bare legs cold and in winter it seemed like there was always a chill in the air.  Anyway, it's all completed and ready to be shipped to St. Louis.  I hope she likes it! 

      Lin, my knitting instructor, and Molli, the owner of the knitting shop I frequent, suggested that Jan and I go to www.ravelry.com and keep a notebook there of our projects, so we did that...oh, my word...this site is so amazing.  I typed in all my projects and the yarns, needle sizes, laundering instructions, dates started and completed, etc. and it keeps them all right there...only a click away.  I ran out of yarn and needed a dye lot number and YEP, YOU GUESSED IT, all the shop had to do was click onto my Ravelry notebook and the number was right there, no going back home to retrieve the little label.  How great is this?  You can also see patterns and yarns, other people's projects, and be in a group that includes everyone else who frequents the same yarn shop and attends classes there, etc.  Who knew, WHO KNEW???  (Now, I am sorta hoping no one actually looks at my projects for awhile, until I get up to speed as there are some amazing things on that site and mine pale in comparison indeed.  I am working on it...working on it...working on it.  Rome truly was not built in a day, or a week, or a year, etc.  Someday I will get there...or maybe not, but it is really nice just enjoying it all as it is now.  I never thought I would see the day!) 

       On another front, my first quilting class was last Thursday night.  We learned a lot from the introductory information, made our templates, chose our project, picked out and purchased the material for the project.  Overload for me for sure...a lot in one two hour class. 

      So this week our homework was that we needed to cut out the first block of our project with the templates we made and the material we purchased...today's assignment in the photo above.  My first block only has two colors in it, so I didn't cut into the others yet.  I wanted to just go ahead and cut them all out, but I was afraid that I might not be doing it exactly correctly (this seemed too easy in other words).  I decided to go to class tonight and see how I did with this first one.  It's a fun class with Katie and Suzanne in it also, so I am definitely looking forward to having a go at it again tonight. 

      Oh, and the project for the class was a four block wall hanging, but I thought maybe I would enjoy something else a little more, so I am making a four block table runner with my blocks instead.  I really love the idea of making useful things and when I am done, I can put it on the table and use it right away...how gratifying!  The colors are (I am certain you will all be very surprised...NOT):  Cranberry, Navy, Hunter Green, and Beige.  I know, I know...but those are the colors in my dining room, so lighten up with me being so uncreative and boring.  I love them!

Tuesdays with Dorie: French Chocolate Brownies

     Yeah, I got the crackly top that the recipe mentioned!    This week's recipe for my Tuesday's with Dorie bake-along blog is French Chocolate Brownies, found on pages 92-3 of Dorie Greenspan's Baking:  From My Home to Yours cookbook. 

       I sorta sailed through my first two weeks at TWD, but now we come to chocolate...and liquor...and I was afraid that this might not be a stellar week for me since I don't like chocolate and my entire liquor experience on a yearly basis boils down to one bottle of Limoncello Mark purchases for me for New Year's, lasting right up until the next New Year's.  Off I went in search of ingredients. 

      One of the clerks at the market helped me select the right kind of chocolate.  I was standing in front of that huge display thinking, "OMW, what am I going to do now????" and she must have sensed I was way out of my league in the chocolate aisle, so she looked at the recipe and said, "Here, get this."  Okay.  Then off to the liquor store. 

      I have never even been to a liquor store, so I decided just to admit it straight up and asked the clerk something along the lines of, "Hello.  I would like to buy some dark rum for a recipe, can you help me?"  He said, "Well, what did you want?"  Hmmm...wished I knew.  So, I just said, "Well, I guess that I would like a good quality rum and not just something rum-like for baking because it doesn't matter if I am just using it for baking, because it might just matter, so do you have anything like that?"  At this point, the man looked totally confused or entertained, it was hard to tell which, so I said, "How about if we just pick out something that is sort of your best seller?"  His reply, "Best seller?  Now that depends...." and at this point he was clearly grinning (it must have been a slow day is all I can think), so I said, "Okay, let me restate this (and for those of you who are really into being politically correct, you might want to skip this part) and ask what your best seller would be to a person who looked like they might hold down a full time job, had a bath within a week, and handed you dollars to pay for it instead of a pile of coins...."  He burst out laughing and said, "How about this?"  I was delighted because I had seen this same bottle in Ina's pantry on her TV show, so I said, "Yes!  That's it."  Whew. 

       The rest of the recipe preparation was very easy, and fairly quick.  Mark and Matt loved them, Matt even ate them for breakfast this morning.  (Alex is hypoglycemic and could not indulge yesterday, but he might have a nibble today.)  I was a little worried because they looked very gooey in the middle, even though I took them out of the oven and did the knife test and it came away clean, but it turns out that they are moist, like a brownie should be in the middle, and just really dense from the chocolate.  A big hit here.  Definitely a keeper as I hear tell.  So, while you might not trust a 15 year old's judgment on such things, my husband is a big brownie fan and declared these "most excellent." 

      (Please note:  I am not a believer in large dessert portions, so this plate contains one small brownie, one small strawberry, and two tiny scoops of vanilla ice cream for which I used a melon baller and not an ice cream scoop...in case you were wondering.) 

      Next week's recipe is found in Dorie's book on page 374 and is titled "La Palette's Strawberry Tart" and while chocolate is not something I enjoy, strawberries definitely are high on the list! 

30 Years

       It's our wedding anniversary today:  30 years...seems like yesterday.  Who knew time would pass so quickly?  Who knew we would still be married after 30 years???  (Jeff says I have to quit saying that as he swears, "We ALL knew you would be married 30 years and longer.)  Okay, so I am kidding around a little about that...but it doesn't seem like that amount of time could really have passed. 

      We had a great weekend, and I guess we are going to shoot for 31 years next year.  (Important not to take it for granted, you know.)  It's an easy life...married to the world's most perfect husband and all...I have no idea why he is still sticking around, but I know that I love him dearly for it.

      And...just where did we go on the surprise anniversary weekend?  Where would you guess?  Nothing terribly fancy, but a lot of fun for us:  our beloved Bloomington...how sweet was this idea?         We had a great time just wandering hither and yon, checking out all our old favorites from when we were at IU together and adding some new ones.  Returning to the scene of the crime as it were:  where it all began and where we fell in love, ahhhhh.... 

      No plan involved (so this probably counts for that New Year's Resolution list whereby I was to just show up somewhere sometime without any organized plan of action, right?).  

      Stayed at the Union, had a nice suite with the view of Beck Chapel and the little cemetery (I know, a little morbid, but I have always liked the historical bits of cemeteries, so I love that suite, pictured here with the window open.)

        We strolled around campus and drove about town to see what had changed (a lot, but also much is the same).  We have been, obviously, to Bloomington a lot in the last 30 years, but we really hadn't ever just driven by old places we had lived, etc., with the express intention of remembering those times, etc.

        We spent Saturday afternoon in the IU art museum. (Bet you are shocked to hear that, right?  No?  Didn't think so.)  

   We ate at The Scholar's Inn and Bakehouse (no photo); Lennie's, a brew pub that has wonderful French Onion Soup and is very close to the IU swimming pool, to be noted for certain return in July for swim meet fare;

The Limestone Grille (pictured here on the outside and with Mark sitting by the limestone wall on the inside); and Farm, which is a new restaurant, just half a block from the square, being touted this month in the The Indianapolis Monthly, so we decided to check it out for breakfast on Sunday. 

      All were very nice, and you can check them out at these sites:

http://www.scholarsinn.com/BtownBakehouse/index.html and http://www.limestonegrille.com/ and http://bbc.bloomington.com/ and http://www.farm-bloomington.com/ if you want to know more, and most of you probably do as you are always saying, "Where'd you eat, was it good, would you go back?"

       Last photo is of Meggie and Matt at Meggie's graduation party yesterday...Meggie heading off to Northwestern for college in the fall, but Maria will still be around for two more years.  

      Back into the swim of things this morning...practices are at 6:00 a.m. in the summer, so we get to SLEEP IN!  My summer suddenly looks like this...6:00 a.m. drop Matt off; 7:15 take Alex to summer school (he does P.E. in the summer as it is more fun and he can take an extra class then during the school year, etc.); pick up Matt from swim practice at 8:30; pick up Alex at 11:30 from school; fix lunch; take Matt back to CHS for afternoon practice at 2:00; pick up Matt from practice at 5:00; cook dinner; no doubt trips to various things in the "between swim sessions" and evening and/or the golf course.  Hmmm...that isn't quite what I had in mind...all this driving to and fro...however, last summer for that as they can drive next summer! 

      A lovely day here today, just as beautiful as it was the day we were married.  Yep, who knew that time would go so quickly...30 years, and I am still only 23!