small treasures, stumbled upon

So there we were last Friday, driving up to Marquette and some other, nearby UP towns, hunting for Russel Wright ware and other interesting collectibles. Conrad, his sister Karen, and I - packed in a car, enjoying the magnificent colours of the UP. No rush, driving along and catching up.

En route, we thought we'd pop into Trenary and find the bakery, perhaps buy some toast there. We did find Trenary. We didn't find the bakery. No worries. We drove on.

By this point, though, we kind of wanted coffee again. Marquette was a little ways off still, so we detoured a little more at the sight of a sign for an organic store and cafe. 6 miles later, we were at Lily's of Traunik.

What a great little place. Good coffee and a good chat with the owner, some fun browsing about the shelves. Some good products there, and cheaper than in Chicago in some cases. We didn't mind the delay. Contained within a heritage building, it's a special place in that part of the UP. We hope it will have a successful future. For coffee, at least, we'll try to drop in on future trips up north.

That wasn't the only delightful place we visited, though Karen was familiar with this other one. Midtown Bakery and Cafe is a cheery place in a small town that has seen better days. If only the entire downtown of Negaunee could be so vivid, colourful, vital, and inviting. I will say that we found some nice collectibles in the town, but I especially liked having a bit of lunch in this cheery place. And ah, the cakes were tempting. We resisted, I am sorry to say.

Conrad's hometown has not done well in recent years. Much history and civic pride work to its advantage, but economic trends have not. The downtown is mostly deserted, life seems to take place in the big box stores. It's a shame because Escanaba is itself a small treasure. Sunday morning I was up before everyone, so I strolled over to a newer coffee shop on Ludington (the main street in town) and took a few photos along the way. In the gentle morning light, everything looks wonderful, even the sore thumb of an apartment complex that constitutes the Escanaba skyline. Or the derelict ship parked just near the city hall and library. Speaking of libraries, Escanaba has an old Carnegie library building, now in private hands awaiting a future as a home for someone. It's great that the building survives even if the public will no longer have its use as their own. Escanaba, though, is a lovely town. It's Americana, or what I think of as Americana. I should take a series of photos of the homes on Lakeshore Drive and the areas nearby. In a different reality, I'd almost crave one and a quiet, small-town lifestyle. Oh, and the autumn colours were beginning to show about the tranquil streets in the neighbourhood. Later, before we left, we had breakfast at the Swedish Pantry (Swedish pancakes with lingonberry - mmm), and the town seemed to have woken up some as well.

Escanaba is not a foodie's paradise. I think most anyone there should admit that, and no shame in it. Conrad and want food done well, fancy is not important. So I'll amend myself. Escanaba is not a place to get fancy food. We can - and did - eat well, though. The Stonehouse is his mother's favourite place, and we've enjoyed meals there on the past couple of trips. You know what? It's pretty good. Oh, yes, I've had things plated better, and I've had more exotic ingredients. Just the same, though, the three fish on my Great Lakes platter (walleye, perch, and especially the whitefish) were prepared very correctly indeed, and I didn't even bother to squeeze on lemon, so tasty was the fresh fish in and of itself. The wine list had a nice NZ Savvy by the glass, further happiness for me. Our food shots turned out poorly, and Karen escaped being photographed, but she and I and Conrad, Conrad's brother-in-law Terry, and his nephew Dan and Dan's girlfriend Jamie all had a fine time together.

I think Conrad and I have got to a point of deeper liking and appreciation for what the UP visits offer. We think we'll next be up that way a couple of months from now, and it's kind of neat thinking of the variety of possible activities we can take part in. Three visits in three months now, and all have left us very glad to have gone.

wouldn't this look great in any kitchen?

Conrad and I got this out of Karen's truck and into her house yesterday. It's a biggie, isn't it? A mortar and pestle she found at an estate sale. That, my friends, is a marble mortar. Heavy, I promise you.



But goodness, just think of the kitchen fun you could have with something like that...

quick shots: autumn in the UP

Somehow we're managing to freeload some wireless service here at Conrad's Mom's place. I'm not questioning how, nor am I complaining. I'm just going to quickly post some photos of autumn foliage in the UP. On our drive up to Marquette and thereabouts today, with Conrad's sister Karen, we saw some brilliant autumn colours splashed in among the green. The farther north we went, the hillier and more autumnal the scenery was. What a pity that taking photos from the back seat of a moving car doesn't do it all much justice. Ah well.

For tonight: fall in the Upper Peninsula. Good night!

wildly inconsistent

I like to cook for others. I like to explore simple baking, easy dishes that taste good. Cookies recently, but also some dinners I've not bothered to blog, such as tonight's turkey thigh oven-braised with chorizo, then sliced and served on rapini with a reduction of the braising liquid. Nothing too hard, truly, but tasty just the same.

My trouble is that I'm lazy and careless and don't do things with much precision. Tonight's cookies being a case in point. I won't even photograph the peanut crisps that varied so badly from sheet to sheet. I will say that it is the tastiest cookie dough I've eaten in ages - I think I made a second dinner of it tonight. The results, though, don't please me outright, and I'm forced to pick through them to find reasonable-looking ones to take up to the UP this coming weekend.

The other cookie tonight was also a Martha recipe, done for the first time. I just about choked after I made the dough and saw that it makes only 1 dozen cookies - some big cookies, I tell you. The Ne Plus Ultra Cookie, it is called. Or, we could call it one honking big chocolate chip cookie that also includes nuts and raisins.

:-)

Even these were not consistently sized, and again I'm picking out the better ones to go up north.

[sigh]

As for the others, well, doubtless someone at work will eat them!

Custom House dinner

Conrad is away, and for the most part, I'm being reclusive. Time at home, spent quietly alone. It's not a bad thing.

Wednesday night, though, I did get out of the house for a good dinner with a friend from grad school. Deanna was in town, on a work trip that is seeing her through a few major US cities. Conrad and I had shared a meal with her in Paris a few years back, and now that she was on her first time in Chicago, she returned the favour. Over a few hours at Custom House, we caught up. An enjoyable time, most of all for the company. The food, however, did it's part, too.

I'd only been to Custom House once before, not long after it opened (I think) and for brunch. I had been curious about it for dinner, in fact, and with Deanna's hotel within walking distance of the restaurant, it was convenient to meet there.

I don't have full menu descriptions, just a rough idea of what we had.

My dinner: veal cheeks served with a marrow bruschetta. I've long liked marrow, in fact, though I seldom have it. This was deliciously nutty in flavour.

We shared side dishes: a squash puree and a potato and sheep's milk cheese gratin. Behind those two dishes you can see Deanna's dinner of rabbit.

I liked dessert more than dinner, though dinner was fine. Deanna had a gingerbread, which the waiter advised us had some real kick to it. It tasted fine, but it was not so strong as he seemed to think. My dessert was a frozen honey custard (lovely!) with caramelized onion cake. Think zucchini bread, but made with caramelized onions, and light and spongy. I could definitely taste the onion, but it melded well with the custard and sauce. Good stuff.

So add Custom House to the list of places to go back to and try more things. Meaty meals to be had there - no bad thing. In the meantime, Deanna should be winding down her trip in San Francisco before heading back to Paris. I hope she's enjoying the west coast and dining well there!

off to Hawaii again

No, not me. Conrad. He leaves tomorrow (Tuesday) morning and returns a week from Wednesday. Meanwhile, I'll hold down the fort in Chicago, spend a mostly anti-social weekend watching Angel on DVD, and maybe bake some. Fun times.

This will be him (though on Oahu, not Maui, as in these photos from last month).




This will be me (or something like this).

This is what it really should be.

I'll miss him.

AIDS Walk Chicago, 2008

Yes, there is a scantily-clad man in this blog entry. Oh come on, this is a gay man's blog, after all!

Yesterday was a glorious late summer Saturday in Chicago, a perfect morning for the 2008 AIDS Walk. I'm proud to say that my friends supported me in good number and in generous donation: over $1000. Thank you all.

I did the walk as part of the Fester and Jensen team? Why them? Dan is a friend, and in addition, he's my financial advisor. His business is built around financial services to the community, and his interest in the AIDS Walk was sincere for all that it may have been a marketing tool. The scantily clad man drew a number of people to the booth - no harm in that if the money raised is going to the people who need it (Chicago House, in our case).

I have no pictures from the walk - I was too busy chatting with the team mates - just some from before the walk started and afterwards, when a handful of us set off through Grant Park and Millennium Park to get to the parking garage. Blue skies, blue shirts, a tiny set of briefs, and lovely Chicago scenery - that's what you're getting in this entry!

PB cookies

It's really not a secret anymore that as dear as the NBF is to me, I have a horrible, unrequited crush on his BF. Jeph knows it, Conrad knows it, Brett knows it. It's a source of deserved teasing of me - by all three of them, plus a few others. Worse, they sometimes encourage the crush - darn them.

Ah well, may as well enjoy it. So long as Brett is being a sweetheart as well as a cutie, I'll maintain my silly little crush and do things like this: bake cookies for his upcoming birthday.

Jeph told me that PB cookies are Brett's favourites, but of course I can't do just a simple cookie. Oh no. Out came the new Martha Stewart cookbook and two recipes. Shown, then on the tray are an outer ring of peanut butter cookies that include salted peanuts. The inner set are peanut butter, chocolate chip, and oatmeal cookies. If Brett doesn't care for either or both, well, I suspect Jeph may pitch in a munch on one or two...

Happy birthday Brett! Enjoy!

two September dinners

Monday night (last night): cornmeal crusted pan-fried salmon with a warm relish of yellow squash, corn, capers, and chorizo. Not bad. OK. The sauce was milder flavoured than I thought it might be. Still, I'm not displeased. We had some Mark West Pinot Noir with this.

Tuesday night (tonight): Country style pork shoulder ribs braised with dried porcini mushrooms, fava bean puree, beet greens, and a reduction of the braising liquid. You know? I was kind of impressed. The puree was really lovely - sweet bean flavour against the saltier reduction. The pork was tender. I haven't had beet greens in years, but the remain a vegetable I enjoy immensely. We sat on the balcony and downed the rest of the McManis Viognier I used in making the braising liquid. Tasty!

ViJ's Rangoli

We usually try to make it to ViJ's at least once on each Vancouver visit. Far and away our favourite restaurant in the city, we both will tell you. My sister loves it, too - happy for us if ever we want to dine with her. It's like Vancouver's version of Frontera Grill, but with Indian food. Search the blog and you'll find a fraction of the number of times we've enjoyed his food.

We didn't make it to ViJ's this time, alas, but we did enjoy his food twice. Smart man - you can buy his food in boil-in-the-bag pouches. We had a lovely last night with Marie enjoying some of that for dinner, plus our last bottle of Joie Noble Blend. And where did we buy the food? It's available in some stores (including Edible BC, a place we love), but Conrad and I picked it up at ViJ's Rangoli the same place we'd enjoyed lunch a few days earlier.

Rangoli is spare, casual, full of young hipsters (but never mind - they have to eat somewhere, after all), and serving good food. Dine, and then pick up something to keep in the freezer for later in the week. Yum!

Conrad had the pulled pork. Funnily enough, the waitress got to the table and was setting down a plate for Conrad, announcing what it was, and even as the words came out of her mouth, she knew it wasn't right. It went back immediately, and Conrad was treated to some flat bread and chutney. He managed just fine, and no hard feelings. The pulled pork was delicious - I kind of wish I'd ordered it, but he expressed interest in it first.

As for me, I had the goat and jackfruit. I promise, it, too, was delicious. Utterly. The side of cabbage slaw was tinged with coconut but not really sweet. I was very happy with it, and because Conrad was driving us around, I got to indulge in a glass of Monster Riesling.

ViJ's is always worth the sometimes very lengthy wait, but I would not decline a meal at its sister restaurant next door. Another place to add to the Vancouver list...