Incognito

Hey, kids. It was Halloween just a moment ago or...um...two months ago. So much for the timeliness of a blog. ;)

Coraline + garden gnome

A group of us ventured out to Mickey's and the Harmony for some incognito fun. Our group consisted of a sorceress, The Great Pumpkin, Frankenstein's monster, a garden gnome, and Coraline.

Frankenstein's monster + Coraline

There was also the eating of pizza and the watching of TV later in the evening, but that remains undocumented by photography.

Garden gnome + The Great Pumpkin

Crazy Birthday Hats

On the Friday of my birthday (in late September), Jason and I went to the Blue Marlin for dinner. He started with the Thai curried crab soup with lemongrass, which he thought had the perfect balance of rich coconut milk and spicy kick. The rockfish special was buttery and yummy.

Dinner at the Blue Marlin

I started with a salad and had the eponymous blue marlin with roasted red pepper risotto, anchovy croutons, and braised chard. The marlin was a bit too dense and somewhat lacking in flavor, but it was moist. It might be that marlin just isn't my favorite fish. I'd love to go back and try something else.They do need to improve their coffee, though; it was pretty bad.

The waitress was attentive and friendly, but not to the point where she was constantly hovering. And I like the intimate atmosphere with low lighting. It made for a special dinner.

Opening presents! The sexy red dress loses something when paired with an afghan, a shawl, and slippers. :)

On Saturday, a group of us went to Nick's for dinner and then onto the Ivory Room for some piano bar wackiness.

I love JD's eyes in this pic. He looks very surprised.

The next week, Abby, Heath, Brenna, Jim, Mike, and I had pizza and salad, followed by a decadent apricot cake with hazelnut buttercream frosting from La Brioche. That cake was so massive that it was shared multiple times with several different people. We had slivers before the Richard Thompson concert at the Stoughton Opera House, and I took it to work, too.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies + Lentil Soup

I found a divine lentil soup recipe to use up the remainder of the massive quantities of kale that Crystal and Jason generously gave me from their garden.

Onions and kale

Broth and lentils

As most of you know, I'm not much of a baker. For some odd reason, I had a hankering for cookies recently, so I made these oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I think they turned out well, although J. mocked me because I didn't eat any of them for several weeks. In fact, a large plastic bag of them is still living in my freezer. I guess I just wanted to make them.

batter

Canning Tomatoes

Several weeks ago, Jason and Crystal kindly invite me to their house to can tomatoes. I am now the proud owner of seven quarts of tomatoes. Unfortunately, we ran out of time to make dill pickles, but Jason generously shared six pints that he made later. (They were also sweet enough to bestow kale, potatoes, pears, and peppers on me; for awhile, I was absolutely swimming in produce.) We ended the evening with a marvelous eggplant Parmesan for dinner. Thanks to the Daleys for re-introducing me to canning--I hadn't done it since childhood--and recommending Ball's Blue Book Guide to Preserving. (Jason L. got me a copy for my birthday, so now I'm ready to preserve at the least provocation. ;))

Heating the tomatoes to loosen the skins

 

The tomatoes are plunged into an ice bath after being heated to faciliate removing the skins

Mr. Daley preventing air bubbles

The ebot monitoring the processing

The finished tomatoes put up in my cupboards

Coq au Vin + Concord Grape Juice

Last week, I made an easy version of coq au vin and Concord grape juice with grapes from my backyard. To simplify the coq au vin, I used rotisserie chicken that I'd frozen, but even making it with regular chicken is dead simple. Who knew such a swanky-sounding dish is actually a breeze? I served it over whole wheat cous cous with steamed haricots verts (those slender French green beans). Delish.

Here are some shots of making the grape juice:

A thoroughly blurry shot of the coq au vin. (Sorry. I think I was too hungry to hold the camera still.)

Yoga Teacher Training in Nicaragua

My yoga teacher, Lisa Lawrence, will be doing a teacher training January 5-20 at the Coco Berry Spa in Nicaragua. You can find more details on the spa's site.

Rata-tat-touille

Glossy veggies all oiled up and ready for roasting

So I'm very proud of this ratatouille. I had scads of eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, and zucchini, and this dish is a go-to in that situation. In the past, the vegetables became too mushy when I cooked them on the stovetop, so roasting them was a revelation. My dinner guests didn't dig eggplant, so I pureed it and added it as a thickener. I also added chicken and grated parmesan to spice up the leftovers.

Finished product

Fighting Bob Fest + Willy St. Fair

Bernie Sanders

In mid-September, a few of us hopped on over to Fighting Bob Fest at the Alliant Energy Center. We had great seats to hear Cornel West, Bernie Sanders, Thomas Hartmann, and Greg Palast speak.

Cornel West

Later that day, we moseyed around the Willy St. Fair eating, listening to music, and meeting some extraordinary stilt walkers from the World Music Festival.

Dragons and dragonflies at the Willy St. Fair

After hearing rave reviews, I tried the pork curry from The Corner Store's stand. My assessment: just ok. Although it was billed as pork curry, I was hoping that it would also boast some veggies. I hoped in vain. It consisted solely of large chunks of meat in a diluted curry sauce. And instead of brown or jasmine rice, plain white rice was the base. It was a little disappointing, but I might try again, just to be sure.