Marquette Waterfront Festival + Ivory Room + Tornado

Sorry I'm so laggardly in posting this. The Marquette Waterfront Festival was one of the first festivals of the season, and I thought I'd posted about it. Alas, the other day, I found this half-complete post hunkered down in my drafts folder. Eh. It happens. My favorite band that day was The Pimps of Joytime from Brooklyn; they evoked Prince and Sly and the Family Stone.

Dating Advice

I would've thought these things were obvious, but I was sorely mistaken.

So, a little online dating advice for attempting to snare the Ricapants:

-Do not just write "Hi. How are you" unless you want "I am fine. How are you?" as a response. C'mon, you can at least glance at my profile and ask a simple, substantial question about its content. Or go with something basic like: "This weekend, I'm excited about doing X. What are your plans for the weekend?"

-A brief "Hey there" or "You are beautiful" will not elicit a response.

-Do not start contact with the following messages:

• "Submissive?"* (that's all that was in the msg.)
•  "Hey, I'm not from here, but I'm in town for an impromptu trip and was wondering if you'd like to get together."* (translation: I'd like to get laid while I'm in town.)
• "You turn me on. Let's f*** hard."*

-Don't have all of your pics be with your ex-girlfriend.

-Don't ask to be FWB and then say, "It could be fun" when I refuse.

-Sexting is not suitable courtship behavior.

-Take a little time to fill in your profile a bit and add a few photos. Without those pieces, I assume  that you are hopelessly lazy and/or are a twelve-year-old boy just messing around.

-Profiles with shirtless pics, pics with a motorcycle, pics of other body parts, and pics with dead critters will not elicit a response.

*real messages that I've received

Art and Tacos in Milwaukee

I made a sojourn to Milwaukee again recently to see the 30 Americans exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum before it closes on September 8. It was amazing to see the work of Iona Rozeal Brown, Kara Walker, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and many other African American artists in person. (The works are all from 1970 to the present and address themes of race, class, gender, sexuality, or history.)

The ubiquitous shot of the museum's wings

Lunch at BelAir Cantina consisted of tacos and beans and rice. If you order three tacos, beans and rice are included. I had the ninja pig (crispy, hoisin-glazed pork topped with cucumber and jicama slaw), the carnitas (crispy pork and pico de gallo), and the black bean and corn, despite my call for fish tacos. (Their fish/seafood offerings were a little disappointing: variations with lobster and shrimp, chipotle mahi mahi, grilled tilapia with mango, and breaded and fried tilapia. Tilapia is such a bland fish, I'm not a huge fan of breaded and fried fish or chipotle, and shrimp and mahi mahi are often overfished.)

Mallards baseball + Banzo

Fattoush

I finally made it to a Mallards game. Beckie, Will, and I stopped at Banzo for dinner beforehand. I had the fattoush special and a side of falafel. Beckie has the falafel sandwich, and Will opted for the falafel platter. The fattoush (Levantian bread salad) was light and wonderful and featured more veggies than I expected. Their falafel is good. This time, it was a bit too dark, and it hasn't made me forget the Caspian Cafe's version. Alas, the Caspian Cafe has been gone for quite some time.

Falafel platter

Laura's July Visit

Laura tore herself away from her little Penny for a few days recently. As a special treat, we indulged in Muramoto, choosing à la carte items from the Restaurant Week menu, as well as favorites from the regular menu.

Seaweed salad

Chilled oyster trio

We started with the seaweed salad and the chilled oyster trio. From the left is the Thai relish, the cucumber granita, and the red wine mignonette threads. Our favorite by a far cry was the Thai relish. The other two were bland by comparison, but the Thai relish had the just right amount of garlic and spice. I wish we could've had all three with the Thai relish topping.

Oshkosh

Kristine and I ventured to Oshkosh for a conference not that long ago, and we were pleasantly surprised to find a Filipino restaurant called Manila Resto near our hotel. You don't often come across Filipino food, so we gave it a try. They also had sushi, and while we didn't try it, we heard rave reviews from other diners. We started with a fresh spring roll, or lumpia in Indonesia and the Philippines. (Fresh seems a bit redundant because I think of spring rolls as unfried. That's not always the case, though. Here's Wikipedia's take on the fried vs. unfried debate: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_roll). The roll was nice, but the sauce could've taken down the sweet a notch and added more spice.

Fresh spring roll

Lumpia, or spring roll

Summer Dinner

Jim and Mike visited my humble abode for a lovely dinner earlier in the summer. The boys brought a Southwestern chopped salad with cilantro dressing that I'd seen on Pinterest. The Garden Grazer is responsible for the recipe. This is the first time I've encountered it, but it boasts some wonderful vegetarian recipes.

Southwestern chopped salad

Southwestern Chopped Salad with Cilantro-Lime Dressing

SALAD

Ingredients

Large head of romaine
15 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 large orange bell pepper
1 pint cherry tomatoes
2 cups corn (I used frozen, thawed)
5 green onions
Creamy Cilantro-Lime Dressing 

At the beach

Earlier in the summer, Sona and I hiked at Governor Nelson, and there were some cool windsurfers taking advantage of the windy day.

Elise's visit

Elise visited from Milwaukee last weekend. She arrived around 10:30am, and we chatted and caught up. Then we made fish tacos (with tuna steaks and grilled, not fried). 

We hit a few garage sales, and since she'd never been, we went to Olbrich Gardens.

Muppets

Chicken pho

The Daleys and I took in Muppets in Space on the Memorial Union Terrace awhile ago. Beforehand, we attempted to try the bánh mì (a French-influenced Vietnamese sandwich) at the Viet Hoa Market in Monona. Alas, they were out of the sandwiches by the time we arrived. (They said to call ahead next time, and they'd make some.) I am not deterred, though. I shall try again.

Book of Mormon, the El, + Deep-Dish 'Za

On the El train

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of visiting The Windy City to see The Book of Mormon. In the cab on the way to the show, the driver suggested that we take the El* instead of a cab, which was very kind. It saved us money and time since the ride was going to be about an hour and a hour downtown in rush-hour traffic. We made sure to give him a generous tip, so he wasn't being too slighted by offering the suggestion. Plus, it was a special treat for me because I'd never ridden the El before.

For dinner, we stopped at Trattoria No. 10. We had the baby spinach salad with crispy pancetta, radicchio, pears, goat cheese, pistachio, and goat cheese vinaigrette and black--hooray for squid ink--tagliatelle with scallops, shrimp, calamari in a tomato-fennel saffron sauce.

Indian Dinner

Saag paneer

I used the saag paneer recipe from Madhur Jaffrey's World of the East Vegetarian Cooking. Since I ran out of spinach from the garden, I substituted kale, which was surprisingly good. I might use it instead in the future. Also, I omitted the heavy cream because it didn't seem necessary.

Saag Paneer
serves: 4-6

Ingredients
1-in. cube of ginger (peeled and coarsely chopped)
3-6 garlic cloves
1/2 to 1 hot green chili, sliced roughly
paneer
salt
1/4 tsp. garam masala
1/8 tsp. cayenne
6 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1.5 lbs. spinach
3 Tbsp. heavy cream

Lunch at Chautara

Lamb palungo

I had the pleasure of lunching at Chautara recently. I'd heard they were closing in July, so I was determined to get there before they left. From the waitress, I learned that they'll be closed for 6-9 months, but then are moving into the Shakti space next door. This was a welcome discovery since I'm very fond of Chautara. Their fish dishes are especially lovely.

Piggies

Sardines with fennel + orange 

At Pig in a Fur Coat, Teresa and I had sardines with fennel and orange on whole wheat crostini, dates stuffed with chorizo and piquillo peppers and topped with a red pepper puree, and lamb carpaccio with pea shoots, egg yolk, and herbs. The dates were my favorite. I wasn't sure about the combination of dates and red pepper. I was worried it'd be too much sweet for me, but I was pleasantly surprised. The spiciness of the chorizo and peppers cut the sweetness of the dates.

Dates stuffed with chorizo and piquillo peppers

My least favorite was the lamb carpaccio. It was stringy and not terribly appetizing.

Lamb carpaccio

Umami with Mara

Summer rolls

When Mara was visiting a few weeks ago, we went to Umami for dinner. We had the summer rolls, the sesame seaweed salad with shiitake mushrooms, the mixed greens salad, and the tonkatsu ramen with a garlic bomb. The summer rolls were a tad bland, but, as always, the seaweed salad and tonkatsu ramen were marvelous.

Seaweed salad

Tonkatsu ramen

Stuffing our Faces in January

Jerky!

Way back in January, Naomi and Bill from the Cities graced us with their presence for a visit. Based on the pics, all we did was eat, but we did also hit a few thrift stores and N. + B. attended a Father John Misty concert.

Bloody Mary at the Old Fashioned

Keeling over for Kielbasa

Awhile back, I had some fresh kielbasa sausages from the Willy St. Co-op in the freezer. They were meant for someone else, but I decided to make them for myself. I used the recipe for Escarole with Italian Sausage and White Beans from Epicurious. (See my swaps and substitutions below the recipe.)

Seared sausages

3 tablespoons olive oil

12 Italian sausages (about 3 pounds), casings removed

1 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped prosciutto (about 2 ounces)

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

1 large head escarole, chopped (about 10 cups)

3/4 cup dry white wine

4 15-ounce cans Great Northern beans, rinsed, drained

1 cup chicken stock or canned low-salt chicken broth

Freshly grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Working in batches, sauté sausage until cooked through, breaking up with back of spoon, about 6 minutes per batch. Using slotted spoon, transfer sausage to bowl, leaving drippings in pot. Reduce heat to medium; add onion to pot and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add prosciutto and sauté 1 minute. Mix in garlic and crushed red pepper. Add escarole and sauté until wilted, about 2 minutes. Add wine and cook 2 minutes. Add beans, stock and sausage and simmer 10 minutes to blend flavors. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to large bowl. Top with grated Parmesan, if desired.

Éirinn go Brách

Over the holidays, J. and I visited his sister and her family in the west of Ireland.

at the Detroit airport

Guinness at a local pub

Throwing rocks with grandma 

The last remaining yew

A short walk down the lane from their house is Aughnanure Castle. This 16th-century tower house, or a fortified residence, was owned by the wealthy, land-owning O'Fflahertie (O'Flaherty) family. More than 200 such tower houses exist just in County Galway. The name Aughnanure comes from the Gaelic Achadh na nlubhar, which means the field of the yews. One representative of the yew trees still remains on the grounds.

Thanksgiving in Chitown

First, we went to the Christkindlmarket, a German open-air market, for a snack. Now, a snack at the market consisted mostly of meaty bits.

Christkindlmarket

That evening, we saw a great production of A Christmas Carol at the Goodman Theater.

Goodman Theater's stage

After the play, we went to Quartino, a lovely wine bar, for a light dinner, and then on to a local jazz club.