Fallingwater

The check engine light came on during our trip home, somewhere along the PA turnpike, so we turned off the road to check things out. There was a sign that said "Fallingwater, 20 miles", and so upon determining our problem was probably not serious, we headed down the road. Byways are pretty and this was a good one. Once there, we squeezed into the last shady parking space, left Kima in the car, and headed down for a tour of the house. No photos allowed inside, unfortunately, but I was particularly taken with the beveled edge windows, which formed a clear corner, and in one part of the house, a three story corner column of windows each opened up. Joshua liked the Japanese prints, including a few by the guy who did the Big Wave print. Throughout you heard the waterfall the house was built on, and boulders jutted in near the fireplace and the walkway to the servants' house and guest house. The detour really added time to our journey that day, but it was well worth it!

 

 

 

Kima Kills

Poor little squirrelio.

 

 

Farm Dinner

Mom and Dad took us to a Whole Hog dinner at the Prairie Fruits Farm outside of Urbana last Saturday. Chicago suburban chef of Vie, Somebody Somebody, did the menu, which had pork all the way through until the cheese and dessert courses. We started with a headcheese torte, basically slow-cooked meat from the cheeks and head of the pig with some aromatics, wrapped up in a puff pastry dough that I could have eaten all night, and some mortadella (from the shoulder), and some red iced sugary tea which tasted like hibiscus/dableni/oseille from my Peace Corps days (but in fact probably was more berry-based, as they have lots of berry bushes).

 

Here's the smoker/oven they used for the porchetta and the roasted tomatoes:

 

And the barn where we ate inside, as it was threatening rain (we didn't end up getting any).

 

The farm has fruit trees and goats. Here's the goat milking operation, including Farmboy. They sell their cheeses at the local farmer's market but also to fancypants Chicago restaurants.

 

Their lovely herb garden:

 

The porchetta. I was disappointed in my fellow eaters as most of them left the pork fat on the plate. The kale, beans n ham and tomatoes were pretty good, but the pork fat was the best part. I really wanted to ask my neighbor if I could have the fat she wasn't going to eat.

 

Mom and Pop.

 

Cheese Plate - including homemade preserves (one each strawberry and gooseberry), and their newest first harvest of honey(comb).

 

And a nice sunset, too:

 

Canoeing!

On Friday we went canoeing on the Middle Fork, in Kickapoo State Park. Water level was low, but the meandering river was still full of dead tree obstacles, patches of swiftly moving current, and many bottom-scraping rocks. Not to mention the blue herons that led us downstream, who, in the quiet of the woods, seemed more like apparitions from beyond the grave, guiding us a little further along the river of time.

Tonight - piggy dinner at a local goatcheese farm, and I will post pictures of Kima's latest best trick - nabbing squirrels in the backyard. Yes, dear readers, my dog is a patient and focused killer.

 

 

More Chicago

Still getting the hang of this Picasa thing. More pics from Millenium Park, including the really super Gehry stage, where we heard Breuckner's Fourth being rehearsed, and the Lurie Gardens, and a Chinese statue.

 

 

 

In Chicago

 

 

 

 

Of course we got no pics of Eleanor and Ofer, soon to be parents. Shoot! But here's Millenium Park, and the Bean.

Fig Tree Three Weeks On

From Garden

From Garden

From Garden

And now the backyard, right after the rain:

From Garden

Teeny tomatoes:

From Garden

Clematis:

From Garden

Problems with too-short stakes - sorry, Tomato!

From Garden

Artemisinin

From Garden

And hops:

From Garden

Kima ate my lemongrass.

From Garden

Free Poster

We found this for free at a yard sale and put it up in the bathroom. Mom, can you tell us what it says? Something about books and maybe knowledge for everyone?  

Update: Mom says it's a poster for the "Leningrad State Publishing House (Lengiz). It says "Books in all branches of knowledge."" A little Google search discovers that it's designed by Alexander Rodchenko.

Thai Satay Grilled Pork Chops

 

 

 

These were amazingly delicious. The recipe is on Epicurious, from the June 2008 Gourmet. I think the key was preheating the grill for what I thought was far too long (about 20 minutes) while the rice cooked. We did the pilaf recipe that they recommend at the end of the recipe to go with it, plus beet greens. Super delicioso!

Potatoes from Fomato

Click through to the inside of the card for cute "Pear" computers too.

Recent Spate of Blogging Continues Unabated

(precursor question: what exactly is a spate?)



From Yee-Haw Industries.

Basket or no Basket?

From Bike

From Bike

From Bike

From Bike

Riz Petit Pois

Back in Gabon, in the Peace Corps, my postmate Mike and I would go from time to time to eat lunch at the 'cafette', or cafeteria. Inevitably the menu would be much reduced from the long list of chicken and fish dishes with varied starches ("accompagnements"), like manioc, spaghetti, rice, and peas. Peas are a starch in Gabon.

Mike was (still is) a vegan, which in most Peace Corps experiences is practically impossible, since you're living with a host family who wants to feed you the good stuff, even when they have only a little bit, and that means meat, or at least meat-flavored sauce. In Gabon we lived independently in our own houses, and were able to buy our own groceries (canned sardines, veggies, tinned meat, lots of beans) at the small shops in town. Thus was Mike able to maintain a vegan lifestyle, eating rice and beans, or rice and lentils, or, when we went to the cafette, rice and peas.

At the beginning this was ludicrous to Seydou, the Senegalese immigrant who ran the cafet we preferred at the carrefour (main intersection in town - where all the action happened). Peas were the same as rice. Both were an accompagnement! Who would possibly want to eat them a) together and b) without some sort of fried chicken or fried fish? But of course, like any person who becomes a regular, Mike's idiosyncrasies were soon accepted, and even anticipated.

Tonight, since climbing was canceled and my Dizzy's hamburger postponed yet again, I had riz petit pois, only this time fancy-western-Thai-Kitchen style. In an attempt to use up the leftover coconut milk, rice, and my snap peas and spring onions, I made Thai red curry (from the recipe on the paste jar), with some onion (that quickly dissolved into the background) and the nice peas. The sauce was lacking something at the end so in a flash of inspiration, I made it sort of Panang by adding a teaspoon of peanut butter. But basically, it was rice and peas. And delicious!

Composting

Pretty. Also, the two most recent dads I know built something like this prior to arrival of their daughters. Coincidence? Desire to create and produce something while their partner/wife was incubating? Hmmmm.

Looking forward to seeing what my third dad-to-be friend produces during his wife's pregnancy - since he already has a composting system!