BELLE THE CAT
Friday, October 31, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Cleveland Revisited
DMV and I spent a long weekend with friends October 23-26. We took off early Thursday morning and, after stopping at a rest stop for a nap, rolled into town at around 4 p.m. Cruised past our old house, old places of employment, and old haunts and favorite places. I visited the Cleveland Zoo where I use to work, and that night we went to "Boo at the Zoo" to see what the old place looked like. The people I knew there are much the same, but there are many new faces. The Zoo itself is in a state of flux, but has great potential looking forward. Kinda like a lot of things right now. No elephants, no Fulton bridge but still a ton of people doing a ton of good, and having a ton of fun!
We stayed with our friends, who had a Pumpkin Carving Get-Together (wasn't a party! or a contest, as I kept slipping up and saying!) and went out with us for sushi and a scary movie (Quarrentine - had some really good scares!) We thank them greatly for their hospitality and for their cat Tokyo, who is a beefed up version of our Big Jack.
And, I got an early birthday present! Our friends are wondrous artists, and this is a creature called Pan of the species Munny:
I also recieved a Cat Ears hat, some goat horns to wear and an awesome, if somewhat macaabe spider pin (made of, you guessed it, a real spider.)
I have now traveled back to Portland Oregon for one last hurrah at my workplace as I train in the new person. I am staying in a lovely (huge!) room at the former Phoenix Inn. I'll have to take a pic tomorrow - nice etched glass with birds on it.
We stayed with our friends, who had a Pumpkin Carving Get-Together (wasn't a party! or a contest, as I kept slipping up and saying!) and went out with us for sushi and a scary movie (Quarrentine - had some really good scares!) We thank them greatly for their hospitality and for their cat Tokyo, who is a beefed up version of our Big Jack.
And, I got an early birthday present! Our friends are wondrous artists, and this is a creature called Pan of the species Munny:
I also recieved a Cat Ears hat, some goat horns to wear and an awesome, if somewhat macaabe spider pin (made of, you guessed it, a real spider.)
I have now traveled back to Portland Oregon for one last hurrah at my workplace as I train in the new person. I am staying in a lovely (huge!) room at the former Phoenix Inn. I'll have to take a pic tomorrow - nice etched glass with birds on it.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Sarah’s Iron Chef – Battle Apple!!!
Okay – first of all, I am not a chef. To take the cop out of Ms. White-trash “Yummo” Gourmand herself Rachel Ray, I am a cook and nothing more. And to add to that, I am Impatient Cook, a Cook who “makes do” when she doesn’t have everything called for in a recipe, a Low-key, Unpretentious Cook. The Modest Cook. Anyway, whatever. I’m cheap but I love to eat things that are good, are regional, organic, and healthy.
My boyfriend’s parents were visiting this weekend and we spent the day exploring a local apple orchard. My mom had told me to ask about “seconds” – apples not nice enough to package up and sell for $2 a pound. Well, this particular orchard did not have seconds for sale, but they did offer “ground apples” that we would go and pick up that had fallen off the trees for 35 cents a pound! So we came home with $9 worth of ground apples, and a need to start cooking with apples RIGHT AWAY!
Creamy Apple Cole Slaw
¼ T. white sugar
¼ T. brown sugar
½ c. Hellmann’s Lite Mayo
2 T. 1% milk
2 T. white vinegar
¼ Honey Crisp apple, grated
1 t. celery salt
¼ c. lite plain yogurt
1 t. dried onion
1 T. horseradish mustard
Pepper to taste
Mix together first 7 ingredients. Mix well. Add 1 package “Fresh Express” coleslaw cabbage. Mix. Add last 4 ingredients. Let sit room temp (assuming you will be eating it with dinner) for about 30 minutes to let the flavors mingle.
There actually was a “Battle Apple” on Iron Chef America. Mark Tarbell vs Cat Cora – but no where online can I find what was cooked except for this blog post http://www.weinr.com/09-17-2007/iron-chef-america-battle-apple/ which said the deserts by the challenger were a trio of apples - one coated in caramel/toffee, one coated in chocolate, and one coated in the classic red candy, and by the Iron Chef also presented a caramel apple. There was also a pork and apple dish by the challenger that wasn’t liked by the judges (but the rest of his dishes were enough to beat the Iron Chef.)
I did find an “amature” iron chef competition online that listed their dishes:
* Spinach and Bellflower apple salad with Farmstead Artisan Goat Cheese, candied peanuts and green heirloom tomatoes
* Pan seared duck breast with Jonalicious gastrique, pureed apple and butternut squash, and candied apples
* Naked Pie: Caramelized Spizenburg apples with Calvados and vanilla ice cream
by: http://foodwoolf.com/search?q=battle+apple
VS.
* Fennel Apple Salad with Apple Vinaigrette
* Apple Risotto with Grilled Pork Tenderloin and Apple Salsa
* Apple Fritters with Homemade Ricotta and Almond Honey
by http://www.spicysaltysweet.com/archives/127#more-127
Two other "apple battle" websites are this one - which is concerned with vegan fare:
http://veganchefbattle.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2007-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&updated-max=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=31
And this one which has some nice pictures of their final apple dishes!
http://masticatewithme.blogspot.com/2007/04/irrrrron-chef-u.html
My boyfriend’s parents were visiting this weekend and we spent the day exploring a local apple orchard. My mom had told me to ask about “seconds” – apples not nice enough to package up and sell for $2 a pound. Well, this particular orchard did not have seconds for sale, but they did offer “ground apples” that we would go and pick up that had fallen off the trees for 35 cents a pound! So we came home with $9 worth of ground apples, and a need to start cooking with apples RIGHT AWAY!
Creamy Apple Cole Slaw
¼ T. white sugar
¼ T. brown sugar
½ c. Hellmann’s Lite Mayo
2 T. 1% milk
2 T. white vinegar
¼ Honey Crisp apple, grated
1 t. celery salt
¼ c. lite plain yogurt
1 t. dried onion
1 T. horseradish mustard
Pepper to taste
Mix together first 7 ingredients. Mix well. Add 1 package “Fresh Express” coleslaw cabbage. Mix. Add last 4 ingredients. Let sit room temp (assuming you will be eating it with dinner) for about 30 minutes to let the flavors mingle.
There actually was a “Battle Apple” on Iron Chef America. Mark Tarbell vs Cat Cora – but no where online can I find what was cooked except for this blog post http://www.weinr.com/09-17-2007/iron-chef-america-battle-apple/ which said the deserts by the challenger were a trio of apples - one coated in caramel/toffee, one coated in chocolate, and one coated in the classic red candy, and by the Iron Chef also presented a caramel apple. There was also a pork and apple dish by the challenger that wasn’t liked by the judges (but the rest of his dishes were enough to beat the Iron Chef.)
I did find an “amature” iron chef competition online that listed their dishes:
* Spinach and Bellflower apple salad with Farmstead Artisan Goat Cheese, candied peanuts and green heirloom tomatoes
* Pan seared duck breast with Jonalicious gastrique, pureed apple and butternut squash, and candied apples
* Naked Pie: Caramelized Spizenburg apples with Calvados and vanilla ice cream
by: http://foodwoolf.com/search?q=battle+apple
VS.
* Fennel Apple Salad with Apple Vinaigrette
* Apple Risotto with Grilled Pork Tenderloin and Apple Salsa
* Apple Fritters with Homemade Ricotta and Almond Honey
by http://www.spicysaltysweet.com/archives/127#more-127
Two other "apple battle" websites are this one - which is concerned with vegan fare:
http://veganchefbattle.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2007-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&updated-max=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=31
And this one which has some nice pictures of their final apple dishes!
http://masticatewithme.blogspot.com/2007/04/irrrrron-chef-u.html
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Faaaaaaalllll! (Autumn)
Donnie's parent's came out and we went apple picking up at Shihata Orchard.
(click for full sized)
We then went to Pike's Peak... the first one, which is actually in Iowa. It's a bluff with a viewpoint that looks out over the mouth of the Wisconsin River where it pours into the Mississippi.
The pic below doesn't do it justice.
.
(click for full sized)
We then went to Pike's Peak... the first one, which is actually in Iowa. It's a bluff with a viewpoint that looks out over the mouth of the Wisconsin River where it pours into the Mississippi.
The pic below doesn't do it justice.
.
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