the firepit

we dug this firepit, surrounded it with stones, then lit some wood on fire & scorched marshmallows. it was a thing of beauty.

ahoy, chattanooga. we'll see you tomorrow!

happy 4th, people!

ben took this little sailboat out today as it was the perfect mix of sun & breeze. there were quite a few other people zooming around on boats pulling water skis, inner tubes, pretty much whatever works to be pulled behind a boat that zips along at 4o mph. there was one kid in particular being pulled around who was whooping up a storm, obviously enjoying himself. i thought he was dying at first, he was so loud. i sat around and "sunbathed" (which consisted of coating myself thickly with spf 50 and sitting in the shade), enjoying our last couple of days up here. in a minute, we'll be building a little campfire on the edge of the lawn next to the water to listen to the sounds of early fireworks which have already started. you can see them just over the ridge where they're being fired into lake michigan. we'll head over to see the real show tomorrow.

i think i'm hearing the same kid from earlier making the same "delightful" sounds from earlier. reminds me of my brother. love you, brother!

michigan 2009

we are in michigan again for a week and a half. oh, blimey heaven! i've been reading this book, 'desert queen,' while we've been here. it's about gertrude bell, this woman who dashed around what was called "arabia" back in the early 1900's all alone. she had all the sheiks and warlords wrapped around her little fingers, and is pretty much singlehandedly responsible for the founding of modern iraq after world war 1. she was the first (and only at the time) female political officer in the british forces, and was friends & cohorts with t.e. lawrence, better known as "lawrence of arabia." interesting lady & wicked smart. anna thomas recommended the book to me, and i've been enjoying it immensely. speaking of anna, i just remembered her for some reason hounding lang back in florida (over the wedding weekend two weeks ago) to "meow" for her. (random hilarious memory of the moment which just made me chuckle out loud.)
back to vacation update, this is our 2nd dinner out on the deck. we did grilled tri-tip (thanks trader joes!) with a homemade dry-rub concocted out of pretty much everything we had on hand. coffee, cinnamon, orange peel, lemon zest, dried thyme, salt, pepper, sugar, and probably a few other things i'm forgetting. a fresh arugula & avocado salad with shaved raclette to go with it, and voila! delicious! we then topped it off with two bottles of wine. yeah, vacation!

from the deck: had to include the cheesy sunset picture over the water.
cheese with local strawberries & blueberries after a swim. bread we bought at a local farmers market straight from the baker, this sweet lady wearing a handkerchief in her hair & carrying a baby while her husband was playing the guitar next to her. oh, and benny looking cute.
i like this bowl. we found it at a local potter/ceramic artists studio named benjamin maier. if anyone wants to buy us the 9 1/2 inch version of this, please don't hesitate!
middle eastern / mediterranean dinner last night. lamb kebabs rolled in cumin, coriander, smoked paprika, salt & pepper, with grilled potatoes, red pepper & red onion. couscous salad with dried cherries, toasted almonds, lemon vinaigrette & fresh basil. yogurt sauce with honey, lemon, chili flake, and tons of chopped basil. and homemade whole wheat naan! it was my first time making it, and it turned out pretty well. the blades of grass looking things are actually garlic chives. yum!
it's been super relaxing being up here, like always. it'll be sad to say goodbye to the cabin for good next year. ben grew up coming here every summer, so he very much has a strong attachment & tons of amazing memories of this place. and this being my third time sharing it with him, it'll be sad for me as well. c'est la vie! we'll build new memories together! and probably dine our way through those as well..

14 weddings down, 269 left to go

we spent last weekend in florida for the wedding of our friends, isaac wardell & megan roderick. it was an awesome weekend. but can i just say that florida is HOT! and bright. the sun was piercing my eyeballs all the way into the back of my brain. i devoted most of my time to the application and reapplication of sunscreen, and then the rest of my time scampering from one piece of shade to the next.

putting all my whining aside, we had a GREAT time with all our friends. it was a beautiful wedding and everything came together so well. i took a few pictures with my iPhone, but none of them came out very well. if your a facebook user/junkie i posted a couple of shots, all very hazy.

and there's another wedding this weekend. my boss' youngest brother is getting married, and my brother-in-law, Gabe, is one of the groomsmen. and after that, we have a little hiadus on the wedding circuit until the BIG (cue wedding march music) wedding in october, when ben's baby brother, my only brother-in-law, will be marrying the love of his life, libby warren. that's going to be a good one. i'm already predicting, it'll be in top-five weddings of all time.

date night: a walk, dinner, a movie, and, yes, some crying

no, ben didn't make me cry. the movie did. we moseyed around town last night on foot, ending up at the Bijou theatre to see the 9:55 showing of Pixar's new movie, "Up." [my parents: does this clip remind you of anyone you know?]

so i shed some tears during the animated feature film. i feel a little less foolish crying over the heartfelt sequence featuring the hero and the love of his life meeting, falling in love, getting married, growing old, etc, than the crying i did over Wall-E. (yes, i cried over a couple of robots and a cockroach. what can i say? i'm a sensitive gal.)

but first we hit the pavement and headed to Coolidge Park for some sushi at Sushi Nabe (best sushi in Chattanooga), only to discover they were closed for no apparent reason. so we walked another 10 steps and ended up at the Mud Pie for some "monkey-hips-and-rice" and a glass of wine. well, that's what i had anyway. ben had the much more manly "chicken kiev" and a beer. i had forgotten how much i love the monkey-hips. it's essentially a plate of deliciously seasoned rice & black beans, covered with smoked kielbasa sausage, melted jack cheese, salsa, green onions, sour cream and some addictive chemical that forced me eat the whole plate. the key to this dish: the kilebasa & cheese. those two things together make mama's palate happy. the smokiness of the sausage really is a delight.

we love this place. it's a funky, cool restaurant, the interior walls covered with these strange painted portraits. it has everything from booth seating to tall communal tables (built to give one the ability to overhear your neighbors conversation). wednesday is apparently "cuban day," so designated when the new cuban owners bought the restaurant a couple of years ago. (they offer a cuban special on wednesdays to make it legit.) there's also karaoke fridays, and open mic night on saturdays. the food is fun and quirky, and always delicious. example: thai pizza with chicken, pineapple, red bell pepper & peanut sauce. we almost ordered this since we're thai food fiends, but that smoked kielbasa i just couldn't pass up. they do have a regular section of the menu devoted to cuban food as well.

it also reminded ben & i that thursdays are 1/2 price wine , which we had completely forgotten about. it used to be a favorite of ours & our friends (all 1.2 of them). i think we might head back over there tonight for some vino.

oh, and i forgot to mention: Up was awesome! go see it!

a-driaaaannn!!

i was giving ben a hard time for his lack of enthusiasm when it came time to pose with the rocky statue in downtown philadelphia. of course, i was probably a little OVER enthusiastic about the whole thing, so who can blame him? i had the theme song running through my head as we trekked our way through the city this last weekend. i think i did a little shadow-boxing as well, because, well, i am that big of a nerd (i blame my parents).

the reason we were in philly: a surprise birthday party for my college friend, bethy, the whole thing orchestrated by her very sweet husband, gideon (that's them in the picture below with the philadelphia skyline in the background). it was an awesome weekend. ben & i are both huge fans of the city of brotherly love now. i saw like 14 ben franklins roaming around the city. apparently the balding mullet is back in style!

a favorite find of ours this weekend: a restaurant called Tria down in Rittenhouse Square. i am still craving the truffled egg toast with fontina cheese and arugula. aMAZing! i'll include a picture for your salivary glands to drool over. mine keep reminiscing over the moment i cut into that egg yolk and it spilled down the sides of the thick slice of brioche toast. it was a beautiful thing.

we also happened to be there on the weekend of the annual art star craft bazaar down on penn's landing. it was awesome. tons of local and regional artists brought their wares to hock to the masses, all of them beautiful hand-made goodies. it was etsy.com on parade. i stole a few ideas for crafty things that you might receive as a present from me sometime in the future.

it was a great weekend. old friends, good company, good conversation & our new favorite city.

kohl-ra-bi: it's a word jumble

ben & i signed up for our first CSA membership this year, and boy is it fun. i really mean that. every week, we (and by "we" i mean "i") pick up our box of delicious, locally grown veggies from our farmer and then head home, immediately contemplating the delicious that can be procured from these gems.

tonight, i played with the kohlrabi from our box this week. it's not actually a word jumble, but it is a vegetable. it sort of looks like some sort of alien lifeform, this pale green orb with strange, tentacle-like leaves growing from it's top. i have been contemplating what to do with it since monday, and have had various ideas bouncing around in my food obsessed brain. since it is the first of the season, i decided to head in a raw foods direction to savor kohlrabi as it is. no butter, no heat, just the kohlrabi. and to pair with it would be those beautiful baby lettuces we also got in our box. oh, the baby red leaf, green leaf & romaine lettuces with a little lemon would be perfect!

so i peeled my alien babies, julienned them on my handy-dandy mandolin (minding my finger tips, which typically i don't think twice about and end up with perfectly symmetrical cuts). my greens i cleaned & left whole. they were so beautiful i didn't have the heart to cut them up. the cilantro was lightly chopped, the peanuts were dry-toasted with a little red chili which i barely crushed with the mortar and pestle. the garlic was sliced thin and crisped up in a little oil. a little salt, a little pepper, a little olive oil, then all tossed together and voila! a delicious salad.

ben loves him some protein, so we fired up the grill and threw some chicken breasts on it, simply seasoned with a little s/p and some extra virgin olive oil. oh, and i did end up incorporating the alien tentacle leaves from the kohlrabi. they were sauteed for about 5 minutes in a pan with a little duck stock which i made last week, some rice wine vinegar & salt. i definitely will blanche them in the future before sauteing to make them more tender.

the highlights from dinner:
1. definitely the kohlrabi! it's crunchy, fresh, and has a little hint of radish-like flavor. plus it's cool to say: "coal-robbie"
2. the greens: how beautiful and fresh! i instantly felt healthier.
3. the peanuts: man, the chili flake was fantastic!
4. the cilantro: pulled the whole shindig together.

and now i'm going to go scarf down some of those amazing strawberries that also came in the box this week, maybe with some vanilla ice cream. mmmmm...