Fancy Plain

I've discovered something about myself in the last few days of photo shoots and baking projects.

I am a City Country Girl. After we roasted the pumpkin seeds and started the muffins to bake I decided to take to the picnic table for some good light and lots of photos. When I set this up and then took the shot it hit me.

This is who I am.
Something from nothing (seeds)
Fancy (depression repro bowl)
Rustic (table)
Eclectic (leaf plate)
Modern (leaf plate)
Old Fashioned (bowl)

This is me. I am comfortable just about anywhere. I can be fancy and plain and sometimes both at the same time. I don't know what it was about this picture. But I think if I had to have something to use as a calling card it would be this picture. I just don't know what words go with this. It's just....

me.

Greetings from Snowy Northern Michigan

Have you all been feeling neglected lately?

It's been a busy few months as I have said. And now we are sliding right from feast to famine. I am barely caught up and even with my bills. And so far behind in posts, here and in the other blogs. It is amazing to me how much I can fill my time when I am out of a relationship. I was thinking about that the other day.

I have been so bored and at loose ends in the last few years around mid winter. Alone time is great for the creativity but it is hard on the nerves after a few years. The more bored I become the more I want to start a blog. That is the reason for the 5 of them. That and there has to be a place for the me who writes to do her thing. I also have only been working for about 14-20 hours a week these last few winters so there is a lot of time to fill. Now I am used to having the Winter to create and hang out with people. This Winter will be very different from the last few.

With my new position in the department I am probably going to work 4 days solid,5 days if I am really lucky, and then there is the Winter driving to have to deal with. Time gets eaten up quickly just by the driving alone. I'm not sure how to balance Boyfriend and the things that I like to do because they have been a part of me since I was a kid.

It's all very awkward now. I feel like I don't get to see my boyfriend enough. And I feel like I don't get enough creative work done.

To be honest... it is also the time to hibernate. This year as much as any other year the Fall settled in and all I wanted to do was sleep. I still want to sleep a lot. But the snow is on the ground and around midnight there is as much light as one needs to feel awake and creative. My sleep schedule is all screwed up now.

Midnight is the time that I want to write. It has been for years. At midnight no one is awake to interfere with the writing. There is quiet and the characters voices are stronger. I did all my best writing in the dead of the night in middle and high school. And now I have another story. The characters want to wake me up at midnight to talk to me about what is going on.

Fiction is not like writing the short form essays that are essentially blog posts. There are no characters to talk to; no plots to keep straight. Blogging can be done any time of day. It is the fiction that keeps me up at night. It is the fiction that makes minced meat out of all of my relationships because there is definitely someone else involved in them.... many someones. And usually there is a choice, an ultimatum really... create or be alone.

In most relationships that I have had, especially the romantic ones, it has always come down to this. Either I spend everything that I have on the relationship or I am forced to focus only on the art/writing. Most men can not share the stage with the creative part of me. To be fair, the Creative Aspect doesn't really like to share either. I can get lost for days. In writing fiction I am lost for weeks and months. I can not begin to explain to a man that the gestational period is the worst. I withdraw and get distant. The characters are coming, the hints of a story are being followed. There are months where I don't write a word, I am learning about them, the setting, the backstories. And then I will write.

Of course since I am unpublished and the vast majority of my fiction gets tossed every time I move there is no physical evidence to the fact that anything creative has happened. So that presents an even bigger problem for the men. Why do it if it won't get published? Why do it if it is going to get pitched because I can't stay stable? Because it is who I am. I am an artist and a communicator. It is what I have done since I was 5. I do not know any other way to be. But it almost always leaves a guy feeling left out.

Add to that the injunction against talking about our adventures, even though he is still anonymous.... well that leaves me with very few options. And with very few words for the blogs. While we are navigating the complex world of interpersonal communications and relationship building I think things will be very slow here indeed. The holiday season is upon us and I am also trying to coax out some solstice appreciation from the housemates. So it will be doubly slow in the blogosphere the next few weeks.

I can only pray for snow days at this point.

Today's project

I borrowed the advice of some food bloggers about taking pics and how to edit them. And then I played around with the recipe card idea because I forget to tell my facebook friends how I made some thing that they might like to make too.

And I am sitting here trying to come up with way to make my brain happy and not stress out about going back to work tomorrow. I really don't know if my body is up to it. But there are not many options for changing tack at this point.

This is an unedited photo from today's kitchen adventure. We'll see how long  I feel like sitting up. I might edit this one too.

Foodie Fun & Better Photography

I think that I am getting pretty good at taking good foodie photos. A few bits of advice from another food blogger and some inspiration another fan of French Macarons and I'm starting feel a lot more confident about my skills.

It helps that I have a food geek for a BF. I've been surrounded by people who complain that my food is too fancy. I am a food geek. I have been ever since the early 80s when dad and I found Jeff Smith. The town that I live in has a growing reputation for being a foodie destination with that and wine being the chief topics of conversation. And maybe chocolate. That might be the next big micro thing after craft beers. At any rate, in general the people of my town are quite enthusiastic. It's in my private life that I find resistance to new foods, improved flavors and "complicated" cooking. It's like I am surrounded by so many ex-boyfriends.

You know I am no stranger to opposition. So I press on. Ever on... and the result is an eventual tribe of people with whom I belong. The people who oppose you don't matter. It is the people who look forward to the work that matter. Those are the people who you are working for, the people that I am working for. The critics don't matter.
So if you are a food geek and like to share your creations with your friends or you want to start a blog there is a simple thing for you to know to start. The key to taking good food pictures is that macro setting on your camera.


Add caption

The next thing is natural light. Even if it isn't bright sunlight, which might actually work against you by making hot spots. Natural light and a somewhat dark exposure can be corrected in a photo editor. Get in close to your subject and snap a few angles. This gives you what the pros call a shallow depth of range. It puts the focus on the food.

Don't be afraid to crop and refocus the frame if there is too much background competing with your subject.

A full plate of food doesn't need a backdrop. But what if you have just one item or a stack of the same item that needs a little boost? I found this blog, www.dessertsforbreakfast.com/ and fell in love with Stephanie's photos. She is not a pro photographer in the sense that she was trained and is well paid for the work. It's something that came out of the need to illustrate what she was writing.


All of the photos on her site are hers. And they are fabulous. Take a look at her bio and all the places that she has been featured.... quite impressive for someone who has another day job. This is one of her photos.  Her backdrop is the whole or raw product used to create her end product. The focus is still on the macaron. But the background is filled in a bit instead of left stark white. It isn't too busy. And the rose hips and basil don't compete for attention with the macarons.

If you want to learn how to do something, the study the work of those who you admire. You will of course have to make it your own eventually. Studying the works of others gives inspiration but also instruction. See what works and what doesn't work. But above all have fun.

And don't give your detractors and critics the power to take away the joy you find in the things that you love.




Kitchen Adventures: Catatouille

Kipferl are traditional German Christmas cookies. Little Man is a non-traditional kitchen helper.

I am not normally fond of animals in the kitchen. I had a cat named Spock once that was very good about keeping her feet off of cooking surfaces and every other cat I have known just plowed through life, indiscriminately depositing germs wherever they went. This little guy is very good about keeping his paws away from important surfaces. And the other two in the house don't care about people food enough to be in the kitchen.

But him? Everywhere. All the Time! He is a huge feline of the Norwegian Forest variety. He can already reach the counter, as you can clearly see, and he's only half sized right now. When he is big enough to assert himself I might not be able to keep him from helping. Admittedly, being a sucker for the cute face, I've let him get away with more than he should. And thus.... while I struggled through this simple recipe he became the baker's assistant in a crazy game of "Catatouille".

The cookies actually came out well. It was only a struggle because I am a bit out of practice.

A Food Geek Is Born

So there was a discussion about PBS shows we watched as kids at work. Then there was the weird random follow up conversations in random places which then lead me to thinking about the sources of my interests. Cooking came from my Grandparents to start with. I was taught beginning when I was 4. My first dish was scrambled eggs and I made a mess because Grampa made me nervous. And I got recipes and cookbooks for gifts periodically as I grew up. But then there was PBS.

At the same time I discovered Dr. Who, I found this man, Jeff Smith.



My first cooking teacher. Dad and I watched him every Saturday. I'd made a mention of him on Wordpress and it was recommended that I keep in mind links. So I found links. Which lead me to what amounts to an half season's worth of episodes which take me right back to being in high school.

If ever there is a time to recapture a little of the glory of those days, it is when you approach your period of mid life crisising so that you can maybe do things a little different than you did the first time. For instance, I hid who I was in high school. Lots of years an lots of advice later I am not hiding. And I am telling you guys to come out and be yourselves. Hiding is bad.

Let me tell you a story.

I hid my interest in food for a long time. Classmates were comfortable with me being an artist but not too comfortable with me being interested in as many "grown up" things as I was. So I didn't talk about the Frug (pronounced; froog). I'd been watching him since about 7th grade. And to show you how dedicated I was to hiding from my classmates, I declined invitations to go out, blaming a babysitting gig, so that I could stay home with my dad to cook. Dad decided that I should put this education to use. We would watch the Frug and then shop for the ingredients to make some of the meals I'd taken notes on. It took about 6-8 episodes to come up with the recipe that we figured we could afford to try.

In 12th grade my best friend started to threaten me with an education on cooking. I'd been cooking for the family for about 3 years at that point. About a year after high school she earnestly began to teach me to cook. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I already knew. So for the last 25 years she has taken credit for the work that this man did and for the patience that my father had in letting me have control of the kitchen on the weekends that I didn't work.

If you want to learn how to cook he is a good place to start. Information, humor, grace (there is no yelling) and context for everything that he talks about. Rachel Ray and Martha Stewart will break down the recipe and get the food on the table. But the Frug will get the food into your soul.

As the Frug ended his show, I shall end this post: I bid you peace.

 

 

The Recipe

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to my German Kitchen. Actually... welcome to my Grandfather's German Kitchen. I'm not sure where this recipe came from, not exactly, and I am not sure when it came from either. All I know is that my Grampa Armin had a bakerei in Hamburg and this was served there. His brother Emil migrated to Dearborn Michigan and began a bakery there. This was one of their offerings.

 

After the Gerbstadt Bakery was sold to the Kresges all I know of the recipe is that Grampa Alfred made it every year in the fall, let it mellow in the freezer and served it for the Winter Holidays. We had it every year along with the gingerbread men that he made from his own cookie cutter form and his plum cake. The last time Grampa made the recipe I was 14. He was too sick to make it when I was 15. While we had talked about him teaching me to bake these old family recipes, he was too tired from his illness to find the patience to teach a prancing horse to bake. When I was 16 he was gone and his recipes were gone.

 

It took a few years to settle things. I'd moved out on my own & started my own business. I did daycare and I wanted to do for them what my grandparents had done for me. When it got time to define our holiday traditions it was the recipe that I was drawn too again and again.

 

The recipe. THE recipe. On the Walton's it was for moonshine. For us, it was this. Holiday Loaf. Yeast cake. Whatever it is called for real no one knows. No one here anyway. The Baldwin sisters kept the recipe with the kind of guarded reverence that Catholics keep the Eucharist in the Tabernacle. As much as we all loved this, we took it and grampa for granted. We did not keep the recipe in reverence. It was buried in leaves of torn pages from magazines, from his cooking journal and other notes written in his own hand and... in German.

 

First step was to apply my high school German to translating. And then to struggle with the metric conversions. I still remember the day mom called me to tell me that she found a box of grampa's papers. I rushed out to get it. And then spent several days nose-to-table working it out. Then the shopping trip. Then the first trial.

 

The recipe is simple. The assembly is mostly simple. The feelings associated with it are complex.

 

My first attempts ballooned with yeast that rose too quickly, burst the thin pastry dough and oozed the sugary egg white onto the pans where it burned blacker than coal. The first was edible if somewhat over browned. It had the taste but not the look of Grampa's recipe. It took many tries. After a few attempts over the course of 3 or 4 years I set it aside. There was something that I did not understand about the mechanics of yeast, sugar, egg and flour in conjunction with humidity and room temperature. It would have to wait as life intervened.

 

When I lived in Marquette in a little apartment, over a store, around the corner from Angeli's Bakery I tried again. I practically lived next to a bakery. How could I not try again with the inspiration begat by the scent of an early Winter morning perfumed with warm yeast and cinnamon? This time it had the shape, the color, the texture that I remembered but it was too sweet. One of the steps consists of blending the nuts and sultanas in a mixture of cinnamon sugar. Too much sugar for the way that golden raisins are processed compared to the early parts of the 20th Century I guess. So I amended the next attempt. And it came out perfectly.

 

Coming back to Traverse City when my mom was ill brought me right back to the loss I felt when Gramma & Grampa were gone. I couldn't bake. Not for a long time anyway. Everything reminded me of them. They were my security when I was growing up a misplaced geek in a sea of athletes. And the recipe was my connection to those very special times of the year when we were all together. It is the time that Life has now decided will be my season of loss. Between the time that mom and dad died I might have made the recipe one more time. After dad died  I made it again.

 

Our Northern cousins invited us to Christmas, our first Christmas without dad. I made this to take because I knew that all of us, having lost our parents and the same special set of grandparents, treasured this rare treat as a connection to them. And I got it right. It was perfect. I still remember how Brian's face lit up when he saw the recipe sitting on the counter. "Is that Grampa's holiday cake?" Best compliment ever. Until someone else said it tastes just like Grampa made it.

 

Since dad has died, today was the first time that I have attempted the recipe. It was the first thing that I promised myself I would make once I had a real kitchen again. Obviously, if you read this post for any length of time you know I broke my own promise. It would seem when you are not yourself, you can not do what you love. So as it is with art it is with baking. It must be that way with anything that you love to do. You just can't do it when you aren't you.

 

Aldi got a shipment of sultanas in a few weeks ago at a price I have not seen in a long time. I snatched two boxes. They have been sitting here for a while reminding me with a cat's dead eye stare that something has to change. In the last few days I have found the energy to do normal "Me" things. Bed lamps unpacked for a good read, the pile of debris at the end of my bed finally is tamed and I sorted through some boxes in the basement. As you saw in the last post, holiday lights are up. So today, knowing that my housemate and I were having people over to play games, I made the recipe.

 

I think I am starting to get my groove back. I can even tell with the way that I am writing that things in my head and my heart are healing. It's only taken 5.5 years to get here.

 

 

If you want the recipe to make yourself it is here at my genealogy blog which I haven't done anything with in ages.

 

Erfreuen Sie!

 

 



I need to do a German themed blog

 

 

 

This was tonight's dinner. It took 3 days to make. And I am pretty darn excited about how well it turned out even though the marinade was too strong and the rabbit was mostly cooked before it went in the oven to braise. The sauce made it totally edible and was sooooo good!!! I know... tooting my own horn. But the thing is that this was the scariest thing I've made in a few months.

 

 

The spätzle was out of a bag. I bought it at ALDI not too long ago and it turned out pretty good. The onion flavor was intense and there were huge pieces of onion in it. Impressive! The carrots were just nuked, buttered and browned a bit with a bit of the gravy before I made the sauce.

 

The rabbit was the best though. Herbs de Provence, Blueberry Lavender Preserves from Food for Thought, and rabbit stock. Yep. I made stock from the leftover trimmings and added that to the braising liquid. And that is just what went into the pan tonight. The marinade was a killer.

 

yeah.... I am way excited about German stuff and I am going to need to have a dedicated blog for that.

 

 

Opening a New Blog? Maybe

Seriously I have to give this a lot of thought. I am a geek about a lot of things. And now that I am letting the Geek of the leash to wander through more topics I keep coming back to the question of range. Can I talk about ALLLLLL of the things that I geek out over in one blog or should I mix it up a bit? If I keep it all here do I do a separate page for different topics, specifically the Foodie items?

I ask myself these questions because I can not under state the range of my interests. And while that is a hallmark of being a geek, to have many and varied interests with a little overlap in the Venn Diagram of Life, would some really kick ass topics get lost in the broader scope of an all encompassing blog?

We are a passionate lot. Some might say wickedly zealous. And there are a good many topics which might well be better served with their own page, others even better suited to a wholenuther blog and some that just should not be handled because I only have a cursory involvement on the fringe of liking something. This blog, should everything that I am interested in be allowed a review, could quickly turn into black hole of information. No one would be able to find anything. My followers would not know what to expect. That is fine over at the Bloggess. But I am not the Queen of Randomosity™ that she is and the kind of mind chatter that makes her entertaining sounds glib or pushy when it comes out of me. And fake. Don't forget fake. I can't pull it off. I'm a bit more encyclopedic in that I like to be able to easily file, find and develop a topic with some semblance of order. Chaos is great as a means of civil protest but not so much in the sharing of interests.

I am very much on a foodie kick now that I am back in a house with a real kitchen and most all of my goodies are out of storage. I have no idea where the attachments for my stand mixer are. And I am missing a box of cake decorating supplies. But everything else is here and I am using it. And I am loving setting table again. I've got my head and stomach on a German food kick. Thank you Christine for sending me Lecker (October 2013) and the Lebkuchenherz. (among other things ;)) The idea of systemically going through the magazine like Julia and Julia is appealing. Then so is just doing a German blog. Each topic alone is worth its own blog. But do I have enough interest and material on hand, let alone the passion, to keep another blog going?

These are things that I will have to consider. And I will invite you all to join on at that blog if I get that up and going. In the mean time, I will add those articles in here as they are something that I will in fact Geek out about.

Now if you will excuse me, I have some early Reim to indulge in and a plate of Kräuter Mett Wurst to devour. Reim fans, if it has been a while since you've heard "von Fernen Sternen" I suggest you dig up a copy and give it a listen. Totally 80s. Totally awesome. Totally.

This is What They Mean When They Say to Be Yourself/Love What You Love & The Universe Will Manifest It

I think I should probably do a separate page for the food geek in me. It could take up quite a lot of space as I am about ready to squee senseless from the joy of receiving two cooking magazines in my goodie box from Germany.

Unendlich live CD, Midnight Mallorca Mix CD, a life changing book by
Hape Kerkeling, Mozart Kugeln and assorted lebkuchen, and two magazines
of German style cooking and baking

I have a wonderful pen pal. I've said it before. And I shall say it again. She is a thoughtful person and eager to share the things that she loves with other like minded people. One of those things that we love is the music of Matthias Reim. That fan frenzy is how we met. Online during the week of his release concert this year. We have a lot of other things in common, but Matthias is the main thing. There is not a feeling I can feel in which his music does not provide comfort or encouragement. It is all there. And really that is the best kind of music. When music, or any art, comes from a life lived fully and with the joys and sorrows that happen you have the best kind of music ever. And that is perhaps why modern American music annoys me: it really is about nothing. And not in a good Seinfeld way.

Between Sting and Matthias Reim, I should be all set with the emotional support to get through the rest of my life. Maybe. I'm one of those introverts that has a hard time with people and goes into seclusion. Then when I get bored of having to be my own company I come out of the cave guns a blazing and ready to tackle the world only to find myself tripping over the gun belt that has slipped off the hip because I do not really know what I am doing. And when I fall on my face I need someone to help me that can offer the help without judgment. Enter music. And German music is particularly helpful to me since no one around me will no what ails my heart. I can not be made fun of. I can not have my heart turned against me. It is perfect.

At work the guys always say that my radio is broken. I think I will just have to tell them that they need to upgrade their universal translators. But I don't want them to know that my heart is still heavy from the events involving Sir Knight. Nor do  I want them to know that their own brand of ugliness has gotten to me. Matthias can sing abut his heart being squished into a bloody pulp with a great dance beat behind it to disguise some of the anguish. And no one in that laundry room is the wiser for it. No one needs to know that I feel the way they want me to feel. No one need know that I am the Schwanenkönig and how keenly I feel the loss of their friendships.

And as always, Unverwundbar is my shield, Matthias my guardian angel and Über sieben Brücken is the courage to continue when I do not want to, there is light after the dark night, there is life after the ashes of despair. I know, two of those songs are not his. But his voice is the one that lends the conviction to them that allows me to take the message seriously. Lest you all thing it is all despair in my little corner of the world it is not. Matthias makes a great dance tune.

His is a soul that feels every feeling with passion. It is easy to ride the waves with him. It certainly feels safer than trying to navigate feelings without a guide. And now, thanks to my pen pal the collection is complete.

As I was getting ready to write this so that I could talk about German food and especially the baking, she wrote me to tell me a few things about the package. Which is funny because she prevents me then from asking her if she was sure she wanted to give me her copies. None of them were shrink wrapped so I assumed it was from her personal stash. She had two copies of the signed CD so one is mine now. The story of the Mallorca edition though has put me out of sorts. And I don't think that I will write about food now.

 

 



I've been trying to collect all the CDs. I have all but two of Sting's, all of the Monkees albums were re-released for their 40th anniversary. It is only fitting that I should strive for all of the albums from Matthias. Considering finances, I always put this one at the bottom of the list. And as luck would have it, the used dealer on Amazon ran out and could not get more. Amazon was out for a long time, so long that it seemed that maybe it was out of print. 7Leben caused a huge run on his work. And Unendlich depleted the rest of the supplies fairly well. As a matter of fact, Unverwundbar for a long time could not be had for less  than 100 Euro. Yikes! I love him but I still have to live.*

So I told my pen pal that I had everything but that CD. She said it was a minor CD and not really a must have. I told her that I had guessed as much. But the version of Hallelujah that I like the most is in the Midnight Show because it has the screaming violins and sounds like the kind of church music that makes dead popes roll in their graves. [This is obviously not what Matthias intended. It is how my particular brand of schadenfreude manifests itself. And a commentary on my opinion that better church music would keep more butts in the seats instead of driving people away. My opinion. And it could be wrong.] Obviously this is something that she remembered from many months ago.

She had the opportunity to help the family help Matthias' father downsize. As they were going through his personal belongings they came across 5 copies of this particular CD. He asked if she knew anyone who could use them.

And she did.

Complete.








*quick fact checking at amazon tells me that their supply of Matthias Reim anything is slim. They are down to hard copies of singles and only a few compilation albums... which I already have. No Mallorca.

Spread the Love

Hey folks,
It would seem that there are enough of you real people reading this to keep the spam stats lower than average. Yay you! Could you do me a favor and spread the love on the blog around a little? Google is sending people my way from the Eurozone and Google+ is helping a bit more than I thought. But I still have vampires, zombies and fake adsense topping the stats charts.

I know. I know. I know..... upgrade the security software. I have to make an appointment for that and for the next two weeks work has me running all over the place. I have to write a lot today and schedule posts to keep things fresh and fun.

Well fresh.

No. Fun too.

My pen pal sent me a package of goodies from Germany. I guess the cats had fun sitting on it while waiting for me to get home from work to open it. They played King of the Mountain. And it was not an easy mountain for two hefty cats to claim. Kudos to them for even trying. Funny thing is, once it was open and they saw there was nothing in it for them they left it alone. Didn't even dig around in the cookies. Of course if they were dogs that would have been a holenutther episode.

Anyway... pics to come. I am excited as I now have a complete Matthias Reim music collection and a DVD. Swooning commences in a few minutes. Lots of time translating ahead as there are two cooking magazines with the most delicious looking dishes in them. Oh..... wow. I hate that I will be so busy at work. I want to listen to new music, cook, bake and work on my German!!!! But I still have to pay the bills.

In the meantime keep coming back, share some posts, +1 some posts... your clicks are like garlic to spammy vampires. Um.... Spampires? Did I just make a new word? Yep. I did. Add that to your lexicons!!

Foodie Geeks Celebrate!

west arm of Grand Traverse Bay from the Open Space event venue in Traverse
City MI, 2013

The first Taste of Traverse food festival was a couple of weekends ago. I've never done one and we thought that it would be a good idea to try it out. I think our little town might have festival fatigue. We have so many through out the year that I guess people are just tired of going. We didn't get a huge turn out for the event. Then again, it was the first one so what can you expect? These things need time to grow.

Area restaurants and merchants as well as area vintners and brewers were invited to set up shop for a day and serve the best of the best. Between samples attendees could listen to live music, take in a lecture or just stare at the beautiful bay with sailboats blazing trails across the horizon.

Like I said, it was a small event. A small event that had some big surprises. There was a rumor floating around work that Robert Irvine might be there. I never saw him if he was. There were local celebrities for foodie geeks to froth over. A pulled pork battle between Blue Tractor and American Spoon Foods. [My vote goes to American Spoon Foods despite the pretzel bun from Blue Tractor.] All the Gewürztraminers were white.  And one internationally recognized celebrity chef to whet the appetite for next year.

Chef Darren McCraddy, currently of Dallas, formerly Princess Diana's personal chef, presented a few recipes and several stories of life with the royals while promoting his book. Only a few scant days before the festival Royal Watchers marked the 15th anniversary of Diana's death. It was an emotional thing for him to talk about still. He is as much a stand up comic as a lecturer being so personal and interactive with the audience. Between the stories and recipe demonstrations I came away with a few interesting bits of information:

• Without meaning to, he gave me the clue to figuring out the chocolate sauce Vian served with rabbit in Chocolat.
• The house in Downton Abbey operates on the same hierarchy as Buckingham Palace but on a smaller scale. I seem to remember now reading in "one of those horrid novels" that the Ton modeled their whole life on the Royal House. Interesting confirmation in his stories.
• The Royal Kitchens prepare meals like a restaurant: some times making 9 different meals for family members if they are all eating independently of one another.
• Harrod's supplies the kitchens on emergency basis which was handy when someone gave them a 45 minute notice requiring something that was not in stock. In the States, no such grocer service.

and as for the other bits:

• Michigan Gewürztraminers are white, as are most varieties around the world. I found that interesting because the first Gewurtzmariner I had was red. According to Wikipedia most German varieties will be red and rather dry.
• We tried a cherry from Bel Lago that Cristin called her "desert island wine". You know, if you were stranded on a desert island and could only have one wine what would it be kind of thing.
• Micro-brewing is the growth leader in the alcoholic beverage industry and we have tons of them in town.
• There are a lot of accessories available for drinkers: cork jewelry, wine glass rings, a vast array of ways to chill and store wine and all the t-shirts and posters to advertise your flavor you can imagine.

All in all I would say that we had a blast. It was the kind of size that I can handle with my social anxiety and still feel like I was out and did something. There were not as many vendors as I had hoped there would be. The vendors that were there didn't do the same things that everyone else has been doing. There were a good many surprises in the few booths that were there. Chocolate Chicken with a Cilantro Jalapeño sauce from one place and an Apple Cider slaw from another. The raspberry wine from Dizzy Daisy in Bad Axe (no where close to Traverse City but hey.... ya gotta bust into the market somehow) and lots of ideas on how to use these products beyond the manner intended.

I also found a coffee cherry almond caramel corn from Slab Town. Slab Town is a neighborhood in Traverse that is seeing a huge growth spurt. It was the definition of ram-shackle. Temporary housing near the water for the lumber workers eventually became permanent housing for the poorer workers and families. It's the new hot spot in town. Lots of places honoring the Slab Town roots have sprung up. The coffee caramel corn is delicious. It's my Doc Martin watching snack.

Saturday Morning Off, a Working Girl's Treat

Saturday morning arrives with a crisp autumnal breeze, wan lemony yellow sunrise, hyper cats and me still warm in my bed after sleeping very hard with a comfortable room temperature. Saturday morning did not find me folding laundry in the hotel. We are still at the busy season, will be for another couple of months if last year is any indication. And it is rare for me to be able to have Saturday morning off. But my flat mate got us tickets to a special event today and since it only cost 10 dollars I could hardly say no. It is a foodie event so I wasn't going to say no anyway.

This is a relatively new event in town. We used to have the Epicurean Classic but something happened with the sponsorship and Mario Batali's involvement and such. Now everything is all straightened out and the event is back on course. Chef Batali has a house around here so we get a lot of his friends around. I only found out yesterday that Chef Robert Irvine might be at the event. Foodfangirl swooning right here. I love that guy. He is sometimes hard to watch because his passion is a bit unsettling in its degree of display. But he is always right. So have camera will travel. Will also be making sure to find him while we are at the Open Space.

It will be my first time attending so I don't know what to expect. My flat mate expects me to learn to make more fabulous food that I already do. Which should be interesting because I'm constantly told that I am getting too fancy. There's a familiar refrain if ever I've heard one. She is only used to college life and about 20 years younger than me so I expect there to be some adjustment to the way we each do things in the kitchen. When I hear that from a boyfriend with a very rigid idea of life I wonder why he thinks he shouldn't have nice things, do nice things for himself and then I wonder why I should believe I don't deserve a nice meal instead of a reheat or heat and serve. So part of today's goal is to be surrounded by people who think as I do about food and it's meaning.

Everything has meaning. I don't know if it is a geek thing or a basically human thing to seek meaning in all things but I do know that it is a spiritual thing. And my spirit needs a bit of a refresh. Today's event will also help me to teach my flat mate to think about food and food prep less as a chore and more as a gift.  Not a lot of people are able to have choices about their food these days.

I am looking forward to finding new recipes, learning new tricks and most importantly finding local resources for some of the foods that I like.

Foodie Fun

Researching German foods lately. This means that there is little time for meto blog. But I will tell you that the concept of being able to have a full kitchen to use this Summer is turning my tummy 7 kinds of excited. Here is what I anticipate making over the next few weeks:

Pretzel Bread and Rolls
Red Cabbage with Fennel and Apple
Red Cabbage Slaw
Rustic Plum Tart
Wurst and Kase Rouladen: which is Cold cuts, cheese and spices rolled in pastry dough, sliced and baked on a cookie sheet. Yum! Yum!
Pork Sausage with Leek Relish as sliders: imagine that on a pretzel roll. THAT'S! what I'm talking about.
Sultana Struedel
Lebkuchen
and sauerbraten


I can not wait. I am most excited to try out the science of the salt bath prior to baking a pretzel and to see if I can get a tenderly crisp slaw that is vinegary, a little peppery and leaves some sweetness in your mouth. Oh... and the making of my own pork sausage mix after seeing somethings that Chef Robert Irvine has done on Restraunt Impossible.

There is also a product called Quark. I know. My first thought was that someone finally chopped up that little Ferengi bastard. But... no. Quark is a soft, creamy sweet cheese that can be used for desserts or herbed dipping sauces. To me it looks like the same consistency as a homemade whipped cream. Before I can try it I will have to find it. Apparently we don't have real German deli's or grocers in Michigan any more. Somehow that does not surprise me. Sad yes. Surprised no.

I promise pictures.
And many foodie entries.