Yummy things

Vacation highlights

Before we head off on another trip out of town (we’re headed to DC for the holiday weekend!), I thought I’d finish up summarizing our New England trip.  Whew!  All this traveling is tough to keep up with!

In addition to lots of great eats, this trip was great because we got to catch up with so many different people.  Among our favorite outings were:

• Visiting our college friends, Joan and Chris, and their little girls, Kira and Alana.  We were lucky to be able to drive through New Hampshire less than 2 weeks after Kira was born.  It was also our first time to meet Alana in person; she’s even cuter than all the Facebook pictures we’ve been keeping up with!
  
  Joan and Kira
  
  
  Alana puts on her pretty pink shoes
  
• Getting lucky and being in Vermont the same time our friends Philly Kristin and Adam were, so that we could all hang out at their cabin in Hinesburg.  We also had a great time hiking with them at Smuggler’s Notch.
  
  Outside the cabin with Kristin and Adam
  
  
  At the top of Pond Trail on Smuggler’s Notch
  
• Checking out the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College, where Kelsey just started graduate school.  It’s a lovely campus with stunning goldenrod buildings.
  
  Kelsey in front of the Bread Loaf Inn, where her room is
  
  
  Kelsey’s room for the next 6 weeks - she got lucky and got a single room!
  
  
  The view from Kelsey’s window - pretty scenic, huh?
  
  
  A classroom building, and the Ark, where all Bread Loaf social events are held
  
  
  I loved the light and the colors inside the Ark
  
• The view of Montreal from the Mont Royal park
  
• The Basilique Notre-Dame in Old Montreal.  The French Gothic interior was amazing, and I loved the look of the Sacre-Couer Chapel. 
  
  The altar of the main sanctuary
  
  
  All the carvings, painting and gold leafing within the sanctuary were done by hand!
  
  
  The contemporary bronze sculpture at the altar of the chapel.
  
  
  An example of the amazing craftmanship in the chapel.  It was all refinished by hand after arson destroyed the chapel in 1978.  The mix of the traditional and the contemporary was just right for the 1982 rennovation.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this vicarious trip through New Hampshire, Vermont, and Quebec! If so, you can check out more photos here.

More adventures from our weekend in our nation’s capitol after the holiday weekend.  :-)

Cucumber craziness

When I tell people about our CSA and suggest they consider it, they are normally worried that they’d get a bunch of food that we don’t want to eat.  I try to explain that getting new things is part of the fun, and that eating seasonally keeps you on your toes.  And I really believe that.  But this is the one time of year that I can’t seem to keep up with the cucumbers.  This week we got four, and I still had one leftover from before!

I’m definitely going to make some refrigerator pickles, and I’ve the following are other things I’ve tried:
Roasted red pepper sandwich spread - my favorite thing to use cucumbers in - the first thing I always when the cucumbers arrive, but now I’ve got two jars worth in the fridge

Cucumber, mango and black bean salad with jerk chicken and carrot-cucumber salad - a fun, fruity dish with a colorful, crisp side for a nice summer meal
Cucumber lemonade spritzers - very refreshing for the hot NC weather

But now, I’m looking for any and all suggestions on good cucumber dishes to try.  I’m thinking there’s got to be something Asian that’s worth playing around with.  What else should I consider?

New England adventures

As you might have surmised from the lack of posting for the last week and a half, Dan and I just returned from a week up north.  It was great to escape the HOT weather we’ve been having in North Carolina, to catch up with friends and family, and to enjoy some great food and sites along the way.  Some of the best food highlights included:

• Lunch at The Cheesecake Factory with Grandma Bea.  Yes, I know, it’s a big chain restaurant, with a crazy menu, but few things could top how pleased Bea was with the rustic lentil soup and time out with her grandson.
  
• Lunch out with Sanjukta and Mark at Emma’s Pizza.  A Cambridge institution since the 60s with good reason.  Pizzas with combos like bacon, yukon golds, cranberries and cilantro or sweet potato, spinach, carmelized onions, and goat cheese were great ways to think outside of the standard pizza box.
  
  
• A trip to the Boyston Street farmers market and the resulting vegetarian dinner at Dan’s parents house, which may deserve it’s own post soon.
  
  
• A lovely steak dinner on the picnic table at the cabin we shared with our friends Kristin and Adam outside Hinesburg, Vermont
  
• Cheap, delicious eats at Restaurant Boustan in Montreal, with my sister, Kelsey.  Yeah for Yelp leading us to some yummy Lebanese food close to our hotel.  Kelsey couldn’t even wait until we paid to dig into the garlicky potatoes!
  
• The smoked meat sandwich at Rueben’s Deli.  Well, maybe.  I’m not quite sure I’m in love with this Montreal favorite, but it was an experience.  Dan and I shared the 1 lb. sandwich, and it was pretty intense. 
  
• The Marche Jean-Talon.  Despite the craziness of driving around to find the place and dealing with the parking, it was worth it.  Lovely produce, a great atmosphere, and crepes!
  
  

More on the non-eating parts of the trip soon!

Back to our previously scheduled programming...

After a brief departure to provide a travelogue of our Western adventure, I’m back to my usual food focused narratives.  The run of summer produces is in full swing here in North Carolina, so there are many great dishes just waiting to be made.

This week’s CSA - 3 cukes, 4 squash and lovely Sungold tomatoes

Even simple weeknight dinners are full of colorful produce that please the eyes, while also ensuring we get our fill of important vitamins and minerals.

Stir-fry with broccoli and zucchini from Maple Springs Garden

Summer vegetable tart with zucchini and summer squash from Maple Springs

But the real pleasure recently was last weekend, when Dan’s cousin, Sam, and I worked together to put together some excellent dinner party fixings.

Sam in the kitchen

Sam took on the appetizer and dinner using cucumbers, jalapenos, and fresh herbs from his garden.

Sam and Meghan’s garden box in Glen Lennox

The appetizer was some lovely fried green tomatoes, encrusted in tortilla chips, and topped with a sundried tomato sauce.

Frying the tomatoes

The finished appetizer

Dinner included tzatsiki, carmelized fennel, grilled asparagus and herb rubbed salmon.  Sadly, all the local asparagus is gone, but the loads of fresh herbs made up for it.

Sam mans the grill

The carmelized fennel was an excellent counterpoint to the rich salmon and the creamy tzatsiki.  Previously, Dan has declared the fennel is one of three foods he doesn’t like (curiously, the other two are bananas and celery, the most simple foods I’ve ever heard someone not like!), but I think even he was won over with this preparation.  It probably didn’t hurt that the whole dish came together in such a lovely way. I guess that’s what they teach you in culinary school.

The finished dinner plate

For dessert, Sam said to go decadent, and I went for it.  I made a peach-cornmeal upside-down cake and a orange-lime mousse.

Our decadent dessert

Both recipes are courtesy of Miss Martha, and together, I think they’re a perfect balance of prettiness and deliciousness.  The mousse is really the taste winner, but the cake is the show stopper.

Both require several steps, but none of them are particularly hard.  In lieu of posting the recipe, given that I really just followed Martha’s directions, except for using almond extract and nutmeg and cloves in the cake, here’s a pictorial overview of the prep.

The cake starts with sliced peaches (the first of the season from Lyon Farms), arranged in a cast iron skillet with butter and sugar.

Then a cornmeal batter is poured atop, and it’s finished in the oven.

The trickiest part is just getting the thing out of the pan.  But it’s lovely once you get it right side up (or is that upside down?).

Peach-cornmeal upside-down cake

The mousse starts with a homemade citrus curd with oranges and lime, and yes, a lot of eggs and butter.

Cooling the citrus curd over an ice bath

Then fresh whipped cream is folded into the curd.  That’s it!

Adding a garnish of nutmeg, lime zest and fresh orange slices finishes the whole dish off. (That, and the lovely dish from my sister!)

Orange-lime mousse

Unfortunately, we failed to get a photo of the whole dinner party crowd, which included Sam’s dad, James, and his wife, Julie, who we finally met after living here for nearly 7 years!  It was a wonderful summer dinner with lovely company.  We’ll definitely have to find ways to repeat it as new produce shows up in Sam and Meghan’s garden and at the market.

San Fran favorites

After my first night in town, I spent most of my time in San Francisco within the Marriott hotel, where my conference was, since I’d been to all the classic tourist spots before.

San Francisco Marriott

But here are some of the other fun favorites from my week by the bay:

Yerba Buena Gardens
A great spot for a morning walk or to people watch while folks do tai chi.

Saigon Sandwich Shop
Makes a great bahn mi sandwich and cheap too!

SPQR
An excellent Italian restaurant, where Whitney and I enjoyed the most excellent ricotta fritters with orange marmalade.  Of course, we were too busy gobbling them up for me to take a picture!

MakerFaire
A crazy combination of craft fair, science fair, food fest, and people watching extravaganza, with highlights such as:

The Bizarre Bazaar

The Human-Sized Mousetrap Game!

Robot games

Beautiful blue skies and temperatures 10 degrees warmer than in the city

Seeing my sister, who made a special trip up from LA to see me!

:-)

California!

After 1,200 miles, our fourth day of driving finally took us into California.

Lake Tahoe

Once again, we couldn’t manage to get a good shot of the welcome sign.

Welcome to California - and a South Lake Tahoe construction project

Before arriving at our final destination - San Francisco - we had one final city to stop through - my hometown - Sacramento. Although I haven’t lived there since my age was measured in months, not years, it was fun to stop by my first home.

3608 Kobias Ct., Sacramento, CA

While in Sacramento, we also got a great lunch at the Tower Cafe.  You may have noticed I haven’t said much about the food we ate along this trip.  The scenery just outdid the eats for most of our travels.  But Tower Cafe was excellent, and definitely worth noting.

Tower Cafe

After filling up on curried chicken salad, a portobello burger and some excellent fries, we swung by the capitol building.  We missed seeing Schwarzenegger, but it was a nice finish to our tour of state capitols.

The California Capitol Building

And then, finally, we were off to the Bay Area.  After a total of 1700 miles, we made it from the mountains to the sea.  We met our friend, Felicia, in Berkeley before heading off to a Giants game.

Lindsey and Felicia at the Berkeley Marina

For San Francisco, the weather was actually really pleasant for an evening at the ballpark, and we even got some pretty classy game day food.

Me and Dan in front of AT&T park

The famous Cha-Cha bowl

And, the Giants even won!

Inside AT&T Park

It was a nice victory to end our trip.  That evening, Dan flew back to North Carolina, and I checked into the San Francisco Marriott. In the end, it was hard to believe the whole trip was only five days.  If you had the chance, it’d definitely be worth spending three times as long taking on this territory.  But, given the circumstances, I’d do it again in a heartbeat.  I hope you enjoyed the trip vicariously as well!

Better late than never

The problem with trying to do stuff along the way on a 1500 mile road trip on a schedule is that you’re always off it.  We were running late pretty much the entire time, because we always wanted to stay a little longer, even though we knew where we had to get by the end of the night.  Therefore, we didn’t arrive into Salt Lake City until well after dark.  It ended up seeming a little creepy to be outside Temple Square around midnight, with the security folks wizzing the block around in carts.  We stopped and took some pictures, but really I think Salt Lake City would be better served by a day trip!

Utah State Capitol Building

Of course, we didn’t really learn our lesson, and after driving north of the city, we spent several hours exploring Antelope Island - a 75 square foot island in the Great Salt Lake before heading across Nevada.

The causeway on to Antelope Island

We had planned on doing a 7 mile hike to see some of the wildlife - the island is home to the country’s largest publicly owned bison herd, but it turned out it was breeding season for biting gnats and a lot of other bugs.  So after about 1.5 miles, we turned around.

All the bugs that got smashed on our car as we drove across the causeway!

Checking out the lake was more fun.  We didn’t wear our swimsuits because we didn’t think it would be warm enough, but we could have.  But even so, it was fun to wade through the water.  It smelled just like the ocean, but was nice and calm.

Dan in the Great Salt Lake

After getting a bison burger for lunch, we headed back to I-80.  Of course, we had to make another stop before we really got going.  The Bonneville Salt Flats are right near the Utah-Nevada border, so we had to swing by.

Bonneville Salt Flats

The Bonneville Salt Flats are a natural feature - over 30,000 acres that are the remnants of ancient Lake Bonneville.  Each winter, a shallow layer of standing water floods the surface of the salt flats. During spring and summer, the water slowly evaporates while winds smooth the surface into a vast, nearly perfect flat plain.

Pools of water remain on the salt surface, which is made up of potassium, magnesium lithium and sodium chloride (common table salt).

While the salt flats are famous because they are perfectly flat, and therefore became the grounds of many attempts to set new land speed records, there’s nothing there if you don’t come when speed trials are held at the Bonneville Raceway.

Dan amidst the vast flats of salt (not snow!)

So, after a few minutes exploring, it started to rain a little, and we figured that was Mother Nature’s way of prodding us on.  Of course, not before we heard a little girl ask her dad if the rain would turn the salt flats into the ocean.  :-)  It was these sorts of little things that were always delaying us.  But given that we had to drive all the way across Nevada before we got to our next hotel stop, it was time to get another late start on our driving.

Along the road in Nevada

Nevada was full of wide open spaces.  One thing that we were struck by was the number and size of the mirages on the road.  I guess the big skies make these much more common there than back home.

One of the many, many mirages we saw along I-80 in Nevada - there’s no water on the road - just an optical reflection of the sky above.

Unfortunately, the rest of the drive through Nevada wasn’t particularly remarkable.  The best we could do getting a “Welcome to Nevada” picture was making a pitstop at the welcome center.

We arrive in Nevada

We had planned to stop at a cool place that sold savory hand pies for our dinner, but I kind of forgot that we’d be driving through on Memorial Day.  That meant that pretty much every interesting place in Elko was closed, and we didn’t want to push our luck, given that the towns were each an hour apart.  So in the end, Nevada being Nevada, we ended up eating at a casino.

Fine dining in Elko, NV

We did get a nice sunset, and then some downloaded podcasts carried us through to Reno.

The sun setting in the West

Ultimately, when we showed up at our hotel in Carson City, we must have been the last guests to arrive with a reservation, given the way the lady at the desk greeted us saying “You must be Mr. Bock.”  Better late than never.

Whoa!

As soon as I mentioned taking this road trip to my dad, he said we had to check out Moab, and boy was he right!  After concluding our time celebrating with Todd and Jenn, we headed into Utah.

Welcome to Utah!
We had hoped to get one of these photos as we crossed each state border.  Unfortunately, only Utah really did it up for us, as you’ll see in subsequent postings.  Ah well.

There were two different ways to get down to Moab, and we picked the route that the AAA map marked as scenic.  Man, it was amazing.

I don’t know what I was expecting, but the canyons along the Colorado River were fantastic.  Highway 128 ran right along the river, and then the rock walls just go straight up into the sky from there!

Pretty much every time we rounded a bend in the road, Dan and I were saying “Whoa!”  I think these 60 miles were my favorite of the whole trip.

One of the best “side trips” was stopping alongside the road to climb up these rocks.  It was a fun little excursion, and we got some great shots from up there, with only a few scrapes.

Then once we got down to Moab, we went for a hike along the Corona Arch Trail.

It was a pretty simple hike - it’s just 1.5 miles and most of it is along pretty flat rock.  We just had to follow the cairns.

From there, you couldn’t beat the scenery.

Dan at the base of Bowtie Arch

Watch the ledge!

Dan poses by the littlest arch of the hike!

Lindsey at the bottom of Corona Arch
This gives you a sense of the enormous scale of the place!

When I called my sister to tell her we were leaving Moab, she asked “Do you want to sell all your posessions and move there?”  We do still own our house in Durham, but it’s a darn good question.  I hope we get the chance to return and do some more hiking in Arches National Park and Canyonlands and discover many more “Whoa!” vistas.

We're not at home anymore

Our original plan had been to head out of Fort Collins and drive through Rocky Mountain National Park and up Mount Evans - the highest paved road in the country - on the way to Grand Junction.  Unfortunately, winter hadn’t really moved on out yet, so both of these scenic roads were still at the tail end of being closed for the season.  Coming from the South, it was hard to believe that there’s still enough snow to shut down a road in snow country over Memorial Day weekend, but that was the case.  However, even the regular route west through Colorado was pretty impressive.

Luckily, we were able to drive up to the south end of Rocky Mountain National Park to see Lake Granby and Shadow Mountain Lake.

Based on what we saw without even entering the park, I’m sure it’s be great to spend a few days winding through the Rockies.  However, we kept on trecking westward, and we were not disappointed.

Even in the mountains, there certainly aren’t landscapes like this driving through North Carolina!

We used up every minute of the time we had to get from Fort Collins to Grand Junction, stopping to take pictures and take it all in.

Driving by rock structures like this definitely made we want to grab an intro geology textbook and remember how all of this was formed.  This is not what land looks like in the Piedmont!

John Denver was definitely right about that Rocky Mountain High!

Green goodness

Lots of green vegetables this week!

CSA - Week Seven - zucchini, onion, cucumber, broccoli

I’m looking forward to trying some zucchini-pineapple bread, in addition to a nice crunchy cucumber salad and some roasted broccoli to keep the vegetables a little healthier.  More food highlights once I make it through the vacation photos!

I’m also loving this week’s flowers, even though I can’t identify them.  Anyone know what they are?

Take #2

Wedding celebrations

The whole idea of our Western road trip evolved when we realized our friends Todd and Jenn were going to be celebrating their marriage in Grand Junction, CO, the weekend before I was due to present at the annual meeting of the American College Health Association in San Francisco, CA.

Todd and Jenn got married at Machu Picchu a year ago, so the celebration in Grand Junction was considered “the second annual wedding celebration of Todd and Jenn.”  It was a lovely celebration of the two of them, with some great Peruvian food.  One particularly memorable dish was causa, a cold potato dish, which the chef made up in spectacular fashion with some beautiful purple potatoes.  The version we had was vegetarian, with an avocado filling, but most of the recipes I’ve found online seem to have a layer of fish.  When we get some potatoes in our CSA, we’ll definitely have to give it a try.  The combo of potatoes, lime, and spice was really interesting.

The next morning, we also got the chance to enjoy brunch with the “newlyweds” before heading off to Moab.  Jenn’s boss hosited a lovely gathering, with some NY specialties, including bagels & lox and kugel.  Yum!

With any luck, we’ll get to celebrate the 3rd annual wedding celebration with Todd and Jenn again next year!  But for the time being, we were headed off for Utah, and the amazingly scenic Highway 128.

Fort Collins, CO

After being back from the West coast for a week, I’ve finally returned to Eastern body time and got my schedule back into regular order.  So after a little delay, I’m going to start sharing a little glimpse of our road trip.  I’ll share a full chronicle of photos on Flickr soon.

Our first stop was Fort Collins, Colorado, the home of Dan’s aunt, Mary.

Unfortunately, our visit there included a brief departure to the emergency department after I had some accidental contact with some peanut butter in ice cream.  Luckily the Poudre Valley Health Systems took good care of me, and I never dealt with any anaphylactic shock.

Luckily, Fort Collins also maintains an excellent system of parks and trails.  Thus, a more enjoyable part of the visit to Fort Collins was an 8-mile bike ride from Lee Martinez Park that we took with Mary on the Poudre Trail.

Also, Uncle Steve made us a wonderful meal of tomato-braised chicken.

It was a great start to our road trip.  I definitely hope we get the chance to return to Fort Collins for more exploration.  But from there, we headed on to Grand Junction, CO.

Summer and squash season arrive

With high temps hovering around 95, it doesn’t much feel like spring anymore, but I’ll take the strawberries!  At the same time, the squash plants are loving the heat.  Summer squash and zucchini arrived in full force this week.

To start, we enjoyed Squash-Rice casserole with garlic sage brats from Brinkley Farms.  An excellent introduction to summer!

This week’s flowers were pretty in pink!

Catching up on life, cooking up the laundry

After 10 days out of town, I’m back from our Western adventure and the annual meeting of the American College Health Association.  The conference was really good, and I got lots of positive comments on the presentation I did on using interactive technology and social media to communicate health information.  But the road trip really outdid San Francisco.  The scenery along the way, through Colorado, Utah, Nevada and California, was fantastic, and you are sure to see some lovely photos here soon.

Of course, after being away for so many days, the first thing I had to do, after catching up on some sleep after a red eye flight, was to get all my clothes washed.  And after being skeptical of the whole idea before, I’ve become a convert to making our own laundry detergent.  It’s really quite easy - even when you’re still a little jet lagged - and much cheaper.  So on Monday, while getting caught up on life, that’s what I was whipping up in the kitchen.  If you want to get adventurous, try it out.  It’s like a fun science fair concoction!

Homemade laundry detergent

Grate 2 bars of Ivory soap with a cheese grater.

Heat grated soap and 2 cups of water in a Dutch oven over medium-low heat.  Stir gently until soap is melted.

Add 2 gallons of hot water to a 5 gallon bucket.  Stir in 1 1/2 cups of baking soda (not washing soda).  Slowly stir in melted soap mixture.

Add 2 additional gallons of hot water.  Stir in 1 1/2 cups of borax.  Stir gently to combine.

Stir every 4-5 hours as detergent cools.  Cover after detergent is completely cool - about 24 hours.

Use 1/2 cup of detergent per load of laundry.  Use 1 cup for heavily soiled loads.

Note 1: The detergent will not gel completely; it’ll look cloudy - a little like egg drop soup. Just stir it gently before each use.

Note 2: You can often get 5 gallon buckets at local restaurants that get food in them.  Ask around, and you can probably get one free.  Othewise, youcan likely get one in the automotive section at a big box store.