relief

I've been tracking the weather back home in BC. Poor sister of mine, sweltering in that condo without air conditioning. Who knew that after an abysmal winter on the coast they'd turn around and have record setting temperatures. Vancouver hit an all-time high of 34.4 degrees Celsius today. My hometown, Terrace (just below the Alaskan panhandle, FYI) hit 37.1 yesterday. That's about 98-99 Fahrenheit degrees, warm by anyone's standards, I should think.

Meanwhile we pluck along in Chicago without a 90+ temperature all July. It's warmer in the building I work in than outside.

Still, I am not insensitive. I feel for my friends and family. And so, in sympathy, Conrad and drank to their very good health with lovely chilled martinis tonight. North Shore Distillery #11 gin and a good whack of vermouth - none of this "bone dry" business for us.



So there, BC folk, know that we are with you in [ahem] spirits...

happy birthday to ME!

I love it when a restaurant surprises me.

Tonight we celebrated my birthday at Sola, and what a lovely, relaxed meal it was. Better still, there were dishes that exceeded expectations. Best of all, we had service that was ever so friendly and winning.

Let's back up. In case you don't know already, today, the 27th, is my 39th birthday. It's really not a big deal. I've loved getting a ton of FB messages, but despite my joking, I'm NOT anxious about my age. I'm 39. I can live with it.

Conrad has a ticket to Hawaii for me for my gift, so it was somehow appropriate that we opted for 1000 points (and the use of a gift certificate) at Sola, owned.operated by a chef who has a deep connection with that tropical state. We haven't dined there in ages, and even then it was brunch. Time to head back west over to it.

We'd barely ordered cocktails when a summer shower blew through. That drove us inside, but eventually we made it back outside, practically the only people sitting out on a pleasantly warm evening. Conrad had a martini (with Hendryck's - thanks Dale!) and I had Champagne. I HAD to celebrate!

We opted for sharing six appetizers to get a good selection of foods, then dessert, then cheese. We also enjoyed a half bottle of an Oregon Pinot Gris and a half bottle of a California Pinot Noir before a glass each of Pedro Ximenez with the cheese course.

The food started fine with an amuse then a dish of raw kampachi, but it blew us away when the tempura squash blossoms arrived, filled with shellfish and served with a housemade kimchi. Really? Awesome! We were tempted to reorder this very seasonal dish.

The artichoke fritters were fine, as was the tuna poke. It was when the cod with fava bean risotto came out (and the potstickers) that we were jolted again. All of the food was good, but these were the exceptional dishes that made us shake our heads in happy wonder.

Family called throughout dinner. I hadn't talked with Bella since we were up for Dad's funeral, so that was nice.


I ordered Conrad the chocolate dessert, and it was fine, but mine was the third stunner of the evening: a tart of beets and a miso creme fraiche filling. Beets. Miso. Dessert. Good gosh, was that a show-stopper. Not the first time that night we sent compliments back with the wait staff.

The wait staff, I must add, were fun. Truffles with a candle came out, but no singing (THANK YOU!). We got to discuss the food and the wine a bunch, and we really appreciate that. A vital part of an exceptional dinner.

Cheeses were last, the best being the Louisiana cheese (who would've guessed that?) in the middle of the plate.

And now? We're home. Decompressing before bed. But gosh - and big thanks to Conrad - a wonderful meal that prompts us already to find time to go back, preferably with friends.

In short: happy birthday to me! :-)

summer wine tasting

We've barely eaten today. Last night was a good night of much cheese - oh so delicious, but oh so rich. That pretty much killed our appetite today. Happily, much hydration through the night and before bed means we're not feeling the after effects of our wine tasting last night.

Fun fun wine tasting. It's a treat to have friends over and do something like this. I thought it was a good time, and so did Conrad, and while I wasn't blown away by any of the wines in the end, I certainly made sure to enjoy trying them!

Photos follow, of course, but here's the write up I did for everyone to refer to last night....

Weeks of angst and deliberation went into deciding how to do this. Red or white (we've gone with both)? Geographically diverse or all from the same region (we've dispersed it some)? One grape, one varietal (nope, two grapes in this case)? What to do….

Conrad did a lot of research and came up with some ideas, and one recent night he and Peter finally bounced enough things about that one fell into place: start with a cheese. Goat cheese. Summery, light, creamy, tangy. Who doesn't love it? Pretend you do, in case you don't. Based on that we went with two grapes, four wines. On the white side of things, we have a couple of Sauvignon Blancs. On the red, we have Pinot Noir. Let's see how these fare alone and with the cheeses.

In truth, we wanted to grab Sancerre, but it's not as inexpensive as we might wish, and we sort of wanted this to be a way to try modest bottles that may become regular favourites in your home. Instead we picked up a white Vins de Pays Côtes de Gascogne, the Grassa Family Vineyards 2007 Sauvignon Blanc ($11.99 Available at Kafka Wine, 3325 N. Halsted). We know nothing about this region or this wine, but the little sign on the bottle at Kafka said it is perfect with goat cheese, so….

Set against this (though this isn't a competition, and it's not even a blind tasting) is a New Zealand "Savvy". Marlborough is justifiably famed for its Sauvignon Blanc, and we've enjoyed a number of wines from there. We’ve not visited this winery, though, nor tried its wines. Here’s what the winery says: "fragrant mix of pineapple and passionfruit tropical aromas with underlying ripe citrus characters adding complexity to the nose. On the palate, again a flavoursome array of pineapples and passionfruit, with a zesty citrus essence of orange and lime." Great! If you like it, it's at Binny's (3000 N. Clark St.) for $12.99 a bottle.

On to reds. Pinot Noir is the great grape of Burgundy, and the prices sometimes reflect it. From what we read, when going with modestly priced Burgundies, the bigger names are safer choices. So we settled on the Joseph Drouhin 2006 Laforêt Bourgogne Pinot Noir. It is a Bourgogne, though a regional appellation. Here's what the Drouhin Web site tells us: "A wine full of charm: bright ruby colour and a nose rich with aromas of red fruit (raspberry, red currants, wild strawberry). On the palate, the wine is pleasant, fruity and refreshing, with light tannins and great elegance." Sounds promising! Available at Binny's for $13.99 a bottle.

The fourth wine is a California red, mostly sourced from Sonoma county grapes. We have tasted this one, briefly, a sample at the gorgeous new Whole Foods. A little plastic cup can't tell us exactly how good it is, so we’re offering up bottles for your opinions. 87 points from the Wine Spectator and the Wine Enthusiast, if that means something. According to the winery, then: "This Pinot Noir is aged in French oak barrels for 12 months and has a brilliant ruby color with aromas & flavors of strawberry, raspberry and overtones of smoked tea and spice." Also from Binny's (sorry Whole Foods) for $13.99 a bottle.

So then, a show of the food: cheeses, fruit, breads, pickled things, a walnut cake.







And then all the folks enjoying the evening.























Culminating with this handsome man, doing dishes. Isn't he a dream?

salmon for dinner, and other things

It's a quiet morning chez Peter and Conrad as we feel the after effects of another good meal with wine. It shall be a week of moderation ahead, and I my resort to dinners of chicken broth just to regain some equilibrium in my digestive system. But oh, it is fun to indulge, really.

Last Christmas our friends Michael and Laura gave us a generous gift card to a wine shop. Conrad then had the brilliant idea that we would buy a few nicer bottles (not super-expensive ones) and enjoy them over dinner with Michael and Laura one night. Last night, then, was that night.

It was one of the easier dinners we've put together and set up for. Smaller group of us, for starters. Also, the two of them don't really care for dessert, so no baking. Easily a half hour before they arrived we had the table set up and the kitchen in good order.

We offered simple starters: smoked salmon, almonds, a smoked blue cheese, caper berries, toasts.
Saltier flavours to get our appetites going, and things I thought might go nicely with the first bottle, a Nicolas Feuillatte Brut Rose Champagne. I've come to a great appreciation of Champagne. I totally get the fuss now. This was a lovely way to start off.

The second bottle was a La Crema 2007 Russian River Valley Chardonnay. We all agreed it was a particularly handsome wine - Michael and Laura enjoy Chardonnay a great deal - but I confess that I did not plan a course with this wine in mind. Grocery shopping on Saturday, I had an idea of something fun to try for a salad, and I went with it. The salad and wine did not compete too badly, happily. For the salad I seared trimmed okra pods in a hot pan, then lightly seared some red onion slices. I tossed the two together with pomegranate molasses and coarse pepper, then let them sit all afternoon. For serving I set the mixture atop some frisee, added a few stems of cilantro and parsley on the side, scattered a few fava beans on the plate, and added a small bit of a French feta. I then lightly drizzled a bit more of the molasses over this. The result was quite good - sweet, tangy, herbaceous. Some crunch, some creaminess. I was pleased.

The last bottle to share (though I confess, the 4 of us consumed two other bottles from our house collection along with some more cheese, some chocolate, and some cherries for dessert) was a Domaine Chandon 2006 Carneros Pinot Meunier. A waiter at Yoshi's, Chris, first suggested the wine to us, and we grew to like it immensely. Pinot Meunier is best known as a blending grape and is one of three grapes used in Champagne. I've had a person or two at wineries tell me that no one drinks Pinot Meunier alone, and I politely smile and write that person's other opinions off.

Anyway, we had a bottle, and I was a little stumped. I wondered whether there might be particularly good matches for it, but I couldn't find much to go on. Here's where Twitter, of all things, came in handy. One person I follow is Natalie MacLean, a Canadian wine writer. I've enjoyed a book of hers, and she has a nifty iPhone wine pairing application we've whipped out in restaurants before. I didn't see Pinot Meunier in the application, though, so I tweeted her. That sounds inane, reading that line. And she responded, quickly. Her advice was that Pinot Meunier is like Pinot Noir, and among the pairings suggested was salmon. Sounded good to me.

I was still at a loss as to a new way to cook salmon heading to Whole Foods yesterday, but inspiration occasionally strikes. Here's what we ended up doing:



Those are bundles for steaming. Dried corn husks softened and wrapped around salmon, a large shrimp, roasted chile strips, diced yellow squash, and a butter flavoured with lime, cilantro, salt, and minced red onion. Each of us had two of them.

I wasn't sure how long to steam them, in all honesty, but I decided not to worry. If they were cooked longer than medium (and they definitely were), they would still be moist from the steaming, the use of a wrapper, and the butter used. Sure enough, we snipped them open with scissors at the table, and they were quite fine. The flavours added were not too strong for the salmon, which can withstand a lot, and served with steamed chard and some corn, the meal went nicely with the wine.

So now it's a recovery morning. Happily, we went through as much sparkling water last night as we did wine. Also good: we did up all the dishes last night. No mess this morning. Very welcome!

I think, however, I will need to get a swim in today and definitely eat much lighter!

Traunik

I've written about this place before, but I'll keep singing its praises as long as I can. Lily's of Traunik. Check it out.

Conrad and I have been there a few times now, always with his sister but this time with his mother along for a sunny Friday ride. Somehow, at a "town" or "village" that is nothing more than a crossroads in the middle of the UP, there's this historic building (on the National Register) that now houses a cool little mostly-organic store run by a friendly couple.

It's funny. In some ways it's not a well-stocked store. That is, it's not crammed to the gills with merchandise. I tend to keep circling around inside, finding treasures bit by bit. Some are easy: candied ginger slices, bagged and selling for a marvelously low price. I think we bought ten bags. Organic wines that Conrad spent much time talking with the one owner about. Cards and good coffee and baked goods and...

Fun times. It may be a very small store, but we spend a long while there each visit, and happily so. The next trip up is scheduled for August, and with luck, we can get Justin and Tonna there and again enjoy the browsing. Such an unexpected gem, though. I can't rave about it enough.

Dale, postscript

One other quick shot of Dale, our dinner guest I mentioned in a previous post. Though this post is being written Friday night, I'll post it Saturday sometime. Even as I write, though, I'm on GMail chat with Dale. Given that, I thought one last photo would be fitting.



In any case, I think he looks smashing in that colour. And I covet his hair. Oh heck, he's just all around handsome. There, I said it. Below Conrad on my list, but pretty high up.

Confessions of a teenage librarian tonight, it seems!

;-)

Fireworks

Hmmmm. So as I understand it the Fourth of July is sort of like Canada Day, but celebrating the American independence instead. Fair enough. I wonder if the Yanks cribbed the idea from us.

;-)

On a sunny, warm (not hot) July 4th, we enjoyed a relaxing day in the UP. Bands were playing to the folks in the lakefront park in Escanaba as we strolled on by late in the afternoon.

We didn't join them. Instead, it was a simple, casual dinner sitting on the back stoop of Conrad's Mom's apartment block. After a lovely time chatting with neighbours, sipping wine, eating, reading, it grew dark and we went up to a balcony to watch the fireworks.













I'll say this about Americans: they kick ass on Canadians when it comes to explosions!

sorry, he's taken

One last post to close off the work week (though more on the weekend), and stretching back to the holiday weekend again for a shot of the handsomest guy I know. Sorry boys (and girls), he's taken, and I am holding tight. Feel free to think him adorable, however...

;-)

dinner with Dale

One great thing about having ALA Annual in the city where I live (and believe me, I have many complaints, gripes, brickbats related to having it here in Chicago) is that I get to have friends from out of town over for dinner. Or dine out with them, at the very least. It's a rare treat, and I took advantage last week to have Dale over.

Ah Dale. We met virtually through mutual friends/colleagues, then met in person when he was in Chicago for a different library conference last year. I have many good things to say about his charm, wit, humour, and handsomeness. He was someone I turned to early in Dad's illness, and he was a good font of information and advice. He listened. If he's reading this, he's blushing by now, surely.

Anyway, I was keen to have him over and for Conrad to meet him, and I'm delighted that it was a success all around. We had a good evening of vegetarian food, much wine, and conversation, and we were happy to sort of repeat it a few nights ago over tapas and then dessert and cocktails at a couple of Boystown restaurants.

I also have to say, I love cooking for vegetarians. They challenge me. Dale, in fact, was not too difficult - few dietary restrictions paired with a love for pulses, grains, and cheese. Easy enough.

I got the table set, some cheeses ready for us to devour when he arrived, and then mugged for Conrad's camera. I am shameless. And vain: the table was a nice sight, and the cheeses were well-softened by the time Dale showed up.

Up first was gazpacho. I may be rushing the summer season a little, but I was in a mood for a simple chilled soup. First time making it, and while I might ease off some of the olive oil in the future, I was pleased. What a shame I broke my blender jar, dropping it on the floor while doing my kitchen clean up before Dale came. Darn. Fun to go shop for a new one, but the old one really did work fine.

After that, I put out a bowl of a fava bean, leek, and feta puree to go with the remaining bread as well as some radishes and a simple salad. More wine. Easy meal.

Dessert was an old standby, and a tasty one at that: Plum cardamom upside down cake. really, I should have had more eaters there - it merits a bigger group to polish it off in one go. No matter. I loved the piece I ate and sent the rest in to Conrad's office the next day.

I hope that we'll see Dale later in the year when he may have to return to Chicago for business. We'll stock the bar a little differently and attack late autumn/winter vegetables. Should be fun!

pasties

Minds out of the gutter, folks. Pasties, with a short "a". Meat and potato pies, essentially. If I don't get one when we go up to Escanaba, it doesn't feel like a real visit. Conrad's family indulges me every time. I need to send them a thank you card for that.

There are many shops around the UP, and it seems we alternate between the two that I know of in Escanaba each time. Dobber's this time around. Check them out if you pass through the area - just don't tell them that we think we found a place in Marquette that is better!

grasses and flowers

As the mood strikes me, I'll jump around in time a little. Some photos from recent days, some a little older. Catching up on the blog in no particular order.

First up is the easiest because it doesn't require much commentary.

We spent the long weekend up in the UP, enjoying sunshine without obnoxiously hot weather. Despite it all, a midday of sitting by the lake at Karen and Terry's property was enough to pinken my forearms. Pinken? Is that a word? A light burn, one that I noticed in the shower the next morning for sure.

Anyway, back to the lake. The water level is higher this year, but there are still plenty of shore front grasses and reeds, hiding places for blackbirds, butterflies, and other things. While sitting there, I took a few shots of some stalks standing sentinel nearby. Beyond them sat a placid Green Bay. No thoughts of swimming in my head, though.



Near the property, by the highway, there are some showy ladyslippers that grow. Every summer we look for them, and when we see them in bloom, we give a sigh of relief that roadside mowing has destroyed them all, not yet. A welcome sight every time.



And look, one of them even had a dainty little yellow spider peeking out. Somehow adorable, and I think I found myself baby talking to it.

plotting my return

I like this shot. Typically iPhone fuzzy in low light, but it really does look as though I'm plotting something. Not that night (dinner with some friends from out of town, in town for ALA Annual, all of us at Yoshi's), but really, I am thinking blogging. Conference is over, and I'd love to get some posts up by the end of the weekend. In the meantime...



:-)

Escanaba in da sunlight

Sorry, bad play on the movie title. And I haven't even seen the infamous movie. I think the fuss over it has died down in any case.

ALA Conference weekend, and I will try to get some things posted from the conference (or, at least, the meals) in days ahead. While Conrad does the dishes from a nice balcony dinner with Martin, the conference roomie, and while Martin irons for tomorrow, I'll go ahead with a few photos from last weekend in the UP.

Conrad's hometown reminds me of my own in some ways. Small, shaky economy based on resources, budget/box stores driving local businesses into ruin. Escanaba has some presence and history, though. One day I'll have to stroll Lake Shore Drive there and photograph the handsome homes overlooking the lakefront park. For now, though, some shots from early morning on Independence Day, when much the town wasn't yet up and was taking the day off anyway.

Oh, and don't laugh about the winery - nice to see the local attempt at growing grapes and making wine, and truly, the rose was a nice accompaniment to our steak that night.

Hinterland

First off, a belated happy Canada Day - did I post and wish people such a good thing the other night? Memory fails me. No matter. Oh, and happy Independence Day as well. I hear it's kind of like the American version of Canada Day. Go figure.

Conrad and I are in Escanaba this morning, relaxing. For a change we broke up the drive up here and spent a night in Green Bay. Interesting little city. The downtown has suffered massively from the typical exodus to the suburbs that plagues so many American cities. Still, there are good things underway: the development of a river walk on the Fox River, conversion of riverfront buildings to condos, a few new businesses. And then there's a compelling supporting reason for us to break up our drive: Hinterland Brewery Restaurant.

On a previous trip up to the UP, Conrad and I stumbled upon this place and were impressed with the food and the wine list. Alas, we were driving onward that night, so we couldn't really dig into a meal with drinks. We made a mental note to come back.

Two nights ago, we did. We cashed in IC Hotels points to get a free night at a nearby Holiday Inn and not long after checking in to the hotel, we were freshened up an strolling across a bridge (making it across right before boat traffic caused it to be raised) to Hinterland. Arriving, we found the dining room mostly empty, though there seemed to be a number of people enjoying themselves in the brew pub or on the patio. It was a quiet meal together for us, though, and that was fine.

We settled on a bottle of the Don David Tannat Reserve 2006 (neither of us had heard of the grape before) and relaxed into enjoying dinner. Up first, appetizers:

Heirloom tomato sunflower sprout salad, fresh mozzarella, sherry vinegar, lemon basil.


Kumamoto oysters with yuzu mignonette.Such fresh, fine oysters in Green Bay? That's incredibly patronizing of me to say, I know, but it was a delightful surprise.

Dinner:

Miso grilled Hawaiian swordfish, stir fry vegetables, tako, komatsuna, tempura maitake, mango relish, sriracha aioli. More very fresh fish, and a good portion.

Wood-fire grilled navarino elk striploin, morel mushroom, English peas, cauliflower, caprine supreme goat cheese, mizuna, roasted pepper emulsion. Very lean meat cooked medium rare so that it was still tender. The goat cheese surprised me with how well it married to the other ingredients, and though that list of items sounds like a lot, it made for a great combination of flavours together. A real hit.

We opted not to have dessert but instead enjoyed a plate of Wisconsin artisanal cheeses. And then we retired to comfy couches in the lounge area with a glass each of Zinfandel - how American of us on a holiday weekend - before heading back to the hotel.

It was a splurge, but the hotel was "free", so it all comes out fine in the end. Hinterland has a location in Milwaukee, and we hear good things about it, too. Perhaps an overnight drive this fall would do us some good.

polka dots

Hmmm. Does this merit a poll? On a scale of one to gay, where does this shirt score? Compared to the figure skating shirt I was so proud of recently?



I dunno, but it's probably indicative of something that I buy shirts like this ONLY when I'm vacationing in New Zealand. If we do go back there in 2011 for the Rugby World Cup, I'll have to gay it up in a different colour scheme, I think.

Ah well, I think it's quite cute on me. No, sorry, no poll on that one.

success/failure (sort of)

Table is all set, a balance of shamrock, ivory, turquoise, and sunflower Fiestaware. Glasses are out for some pink wine to be poured. Nuts are there for snacking. The ribs? They came out of the oven from their first bake a while ago, and now they just await a sauce I threw together from ketchup, soy sauce, sriracha, molasses, vinegar, and I think that's it. It should be a good dinner with John and Bryan.

Should be.

Dinner, in fact, was. I had everything all set so there was minimal fussing in the kitchen, and I could even join Conrad and our guests on the balcony for a while before glazing the ribs, getting them back in the oven, and getting the veggies going (corn on the cob and salad). Finger bowls, even, finger bowls!
We ate, it was good.

And then came dessert.

Ah dessert, I am so out of practice. I tackled a new recipe that evening, and didn't quite get it right. See that?

That's a mango upside down cake. Doesn't look too moist and syrupy, though, I know. In fact, it looks rather like a coffee cake topped with streusel, and truthfully, that's how the upside down part turned out. It didn't stay soft and runny, getting soaked into the cake. Well, a little. Instead, it hardened into something of a candy (not too hard a candy, mind you), and I had to work at it to get the brown sugar mixture out of the pan after I turned out the cake. Once I had smeared it back on the cake top, it hardened a little further, and essentially became the streusel. I blame it on using too fine a shred of unsweetened coconut. Darn it.

Still, it tasted pretty fine with a dollop of whipped cream (stirred with a bit of yogurt for tang and coconut extract for scent). If I'd not told anyone, they'd never know.


But I can't lie to you, the three people in the world who read this blog. Sorry. Sort of a cake failure, but one that we devoured altogether easily in the end.

Deep South culinary delights

As soon as I typed that title, I thought, "Someone - Dale, for example - will come along and lecture me on how Canadians don't know the South from the Deep South and that North Carolina isn't anywhere near the Deep South."

To which I say: accents, heat and humidity, and food like hush puppies. Deep South enough from my perspective.

Again, no work chat on this blog, but a dip into a work-related thing (and heck, why not? I blog social activities when I'm away at library conferences, after all).

These, my friends, are some of the culinary delights I experiences last week in Chapel Hill. No, that is not snark. I rather enjoyed the food I ate, simple as that.

For starters (though not a the first meal), I had lizard chips. How cool would it be if they actually were going out to the back yard, snaring some iguanas (they must roam free in those tropical climes, right?) and slice and dice them into tasty chips? Well, maybe not, and I admit the name was a little too bar-food chic/cheesy. But come on, pickles and jalapeno rings batter dipped and fried? Good stuff.

The South is known for barbecue. A lot of places are known for barbecue, of course. In this case, it was a vinegary-tasting shredded pork dish - pulled pork for the one or two of you in Canada who are reading this.
Don't look at me like that: it's not common outside of the South, truly. The Hopping John on the plate, however, was nothing more special than rice, beans,and salsa. The collard greens, not pictured, were fine. That was at a place called Crook's Corner on the Tuesday night. Good as it was, the dessert was better: banana pudding. Nicely done, topped with a fluff of meringue lightly browned. Good.

Dianne and Meredith do not look happy with the meal, and fairly so: the vegetarian option wasn't quite as good as what we had. But see? Carolyn and Jake also partook of the barbecue-laden Carolina sampler and were mighty happy.

Back to the home of lizard chips, the Top of the Hill. Oddly, I didn't photograph my steak dinner, a tender and tasty piece of meat. Instead, I caught Dianne, happier with her dinner, portabello grits cakes. Oh, and Richard,
the adorable and whipsmart roomie from this past week. I don't know what he had for dinner, however. Steak?

My last night in Chapel Hill I went with Dianne and Meredith, Jason and Hilde (shown in the photo) for some music and a drink on the lawn of the Carolina Inn. Hilde went back to the dorms after that, but the rest of us continued on to the Carolina Brewery for dinner. Cheap, and good beer. Jason's Tarheel Burger looked impressive, I admit. I had the barbecue again, and it was fine, but not as good as the Tuesday night meal. Dessert was lovely, though: gelato from a little sweets shop in the thick of the Franklin Street crowd. A cup of pistachio and pomegranate gelati brought out my best come-hither look. And that capped a week of North Carolina dining quite well, I do think.