Harvest!

We harvested our first wave of tomatoes from the garden today. Not a bad haul for only two plants of red heirloom tomatoes and one unstaked yellow plum tomato plant. The basket holds some basil, which we've been harvesting for a while.

There is a single bull-nose bell pepper and a single Anaheim pepper on their plants looking pretty close to ready to remove. I'm optimistic the flowers on the upper part of those two will produce another round. It's probably not going to come to fruition, but I can hope.


It's been a bad year for tomatoes in this region. Many farmers and backyard gardeners are losing their plants and fruit to the Late Blight fungus. Evidently, it's the same pathogen that caused the Irish Potato Famine in the 1840's. One of my plants doesn't looks so healthy, but the fruit are looking fine so far. After pulling these today, there are only a handful of immature tomatoes on each. I'm crossing my fingers and will wait and see.

I made insalata caprese tonight with the tomatoes and basil (with mozzarella, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar) as an appetizer Bethany could eat as soon as she got home from teaching her yoga class. I also made a big bowl of pico de gallo to adorn our dinner of nachos with chicken, refried beans, red pepper, and cheese. There are still more than 10 good-sized tomatoes left to make vodka sauce for tomorrow night's dinner.

Running in the rain

Bethany met up with Becky to do yoga on the South Side. Silas and I went for a pleasant 5 mile run on the trails and streets. The city is always pretty at night. And we also stopped so Silas could watch choreographed fountain at Station Square.


Then we all went to the Library for dinner. Here was Silas sharing an inside joke with Becky. Maybe he was just hitting on her. He is pretty suave at times...

Not a chile relleno

After spending the day at Moraine State Park, we drove to Butler for dinner. The item at the left in the picture was billed as a beef chile relleno. I gave it a go because we've been confronted by the addition of beef to all chile rellenos we've had since moving to Pittsburgh. Even by local standars, this one doesn't come close. I'm pretty sure they're supposed to be breaded and fried. Bethany and I have been eating them for years, but mostly when we lived in Colorado, New Mexico, and Oregon. Our experience is that they are only filled with cheese, not beef. The mexican restaurant in Pittsburgh we frequent stuffs them with beef. They do have a cheese-filled relleno, but they call it chile poblano. In any case, it matches up with our experience out west. However, the wikipedia page for chile relleno does mention a very different meat content, but sort of says the cheese versions are traditional.

I can't say this one wasn't tasty. It was also probably healthier, but it didn't quite meet expectations. Overall, though, the food was good. Thanks to my friend/coworker, Butch, for the recommendation.

Eating is good

Silas loves to eat. He also loves to touch his food and then touch you and your camera.

Below, he's eating aloo saag (creamed spinach and potatoes) at People's Indian restaurant in Garfield.

Cream-braised fennel

I was inspired by a post on the Kitchn blog to buy and cook fennel for the first time. I've used fennel seed before, but never the bulb (is that what the bottom part is called?). It turned out really tasty. The strong nature of the plant receded with cooking, leaving a very warm and earthy flavor. The link above has the full recipe, but here's the quick visual run-through.

But first, I want point out how pretty it is in cross-section.


Trim and quarter the bulbs and brown both cut sides in butter and olive oil.


Add some water, put on the lid, and cook slowly for something like 20 minutes.


At the end, add some heavy cream and simmer until it thickens, at which point, I squeezed half a lemon into the skillet and mixed it gently.


...and enjoy!

I like this last picture. The little whisp of steam trailing off the back edge seems to have directed itself into Bethany's nose.

Chicken in milk

Yes, it sounds sort of disgusting, but I was intrigued by an article on Apartment Therapy describing their success with this dish, as laid out by Jamie Oliver. I would not have thought that slow cooking the chicken in milk, lemon zest, garlic, sage, and cinnamon would turn out so nice (sorry to the vegetarians and vegans). It cooked while Bethany was teaching a yoga class. I used a lower heat setting because she was to be gone 2 1/2 hours and the recipe called for 1 1/2 hour bake time. It worked out really well. The meat was super tender and very flavorful. As the two sites above mentioned, the milk did make a nice custardy sauce during cooking and was a good sauce for the mashed potatoes.

Don't make fun of my lack of sophisticated presentation in the picture below. We're pretty practical in this house and don't generally go all out to serve our family dinners with any fanfare. Good, organic ingredients and lots of love in the cooking constitute the bulk of our goal. Oh yeah, and maybe a fancy plate to nibble on while we're waiting for everyone to be seated so we can start eating...

Chicken paprikash

I bought a nice Hungarian paprika recently for a recipe. Then I realized that I really didn't understand how to use paprika as a spice and what it really tastes like when it's the dominant flavor. I have tended to use it casually because it's there.

I was flitting around the cooking blogs I read looking for some sort of large, slow-cooked meal I could make and have leftovers for lunches for the week when I came across a description of chicken paprikash. I took the liberty of making my own hybrid of several recipes I found on the internet. The attempt is documented above. I used chicken thighs with bones, but I removed the skins. Aesthetically, I think I should have mixed the sour cream in prior to serving, but it tasted just fine anyway. The Wikipedia article mentions an interesting alternative for a vegetarian version using mushrooms. I'll try that or perhaps use tempeh next time. The sum total of all organic ingredients (except the Hungarian paprika, sadly), was about $12 for enough for two dinners and four lunches. Very tasty and filling for about $2 a meal!

Madison trip

We went to Madison, WI, last weekend for Canoecopia. It's a huge canoe, kayak, and outdoor extravaganza thrown yearly by Rutabaga, the paddlesport shop I used to work at when I took a hiatus from engineering for a while. I worked the show (~24 hours in 2 1/2 days in Madison), so I didn't get to do all that much in the city outside of the Alliant Energy Center.

We did go to one of our old favorite breakfast haunts, Monty's Blue Plate Diner. Bethany already had brunch plans for later that morning, so she only had the fruit plate. I'm not one for static patterns in general, except when going to restaurants I rarely get to go to. So, despite the broad selection of good food, I ordered their version of eggs benedict, which I get every time. Silas ate some of Bethany's fruit and a selection of cheerios and some food we brought for him.


No trip to Wisconsin within 6 months of Winter should be without a picture of the avid ice fishing culture! Sorry for the crappy shot. The light was gorgeous both mornings I drove by on my way to the show, but I was marginally late and didn't take the time to stop. I love the fact that these guys will still be out there when there are open sections of water 50 feet away. It makes me a little sad that I've not used my auger and ice fishing rod in four years, since moving south to Pittsburgh. I hear there are places to do it in SW PA, but if I'm going to drive out of the city to do it, I'd prefer to hike.

Recent Pittsburgh shots

Here are some random photos of recent strolls around Pittsburgh. The mural above is in Shadyside. The next one is of Cappy's Cafe, where we ate for the first time a week ago. It was good. It's always stood out to me, because my childish brain reads it as "Crappy's" every time I see it. We have almost always eaten breakfast at Pamela's when we go to Shadyside for breakfast or brunch. It was a nice change to try somewhere new. Plus, there was no line.

The picture below is of Bloomfield from the 4th floor of West Penn Hospital. I had a checkup regarding my hernia repair (still solid). I always like looking at the neighborhood from above. You can actually see our house's roof and chimneys in this picture (or at least the larger original).

This is in the Strip District.

Bad father of the year award

Yep. That's my claim to fame for the day. Bethany left to teach her yoga class. I wanted to feed Silas a little food before putting him down for a nap. So, I grabbed the sweet potatoes from the fridge and started feeding him. He winced big time at the first bite and gave me a really perplexed look. I laughed, because I thought he was shocked at how cold they were. He opened his mouth, and I fed him a second spoonful. Then, as I gave him the third, I remarked, "wow, Silas, why are you turning red?" Well, it turns out that the container happened to contain leftover Franks Red Hot sauce and butter (buffalo chicken salad for dinner last night).

The great thing was that he took it with style. His poor father freaked out, of course. I washed his mouth out with water, fed him a ton of yogurt, and let him drink about half a sippy cup of water.

I kept him up from his nap until I was sure his tongue wasn't going to swell and block his breathing and ended up sitting with him reading a book while he slept, checking to make sure he was still breathing...

Don't the sweet potatoes and buffalo sauce look similar in the picture above?!?! Who can blame a tired father?

So, long story short: he's ok. I'm kind of frazzled.

After Bethany got home and laughed at me, we had a nice dinner at an Indian restaurant, where Silas got to try new eats: a little lamb curry, naan bread, mango chutney, and mango lassi. Here's a parting shot to show he's ok.

Soon to be opened brewpub

Hofbraeuhaus Pittsburgh has been under construction for what seems like a very long time. It is supposed to finally open this week! I ran across their training course in an empty storefront elsewhere in the Southside Works. Check out the menu on their site. I'm excited to try it out.

Double fisted

I realize Bethany is putting up a picture of Silas every day, but I couldn't pass this one up from dinner. Healthy chunk of crusty bread in one hand and lightly steamed asparagus in the other. I love that he's getting to eat real food.

Yamming

He's so serious in this photo; it cracks me up. He does love sweet potatoes, though. Ok, actually it's a baked garnet yam cut with breast milk. Yes, I know that a garnet yam is not actually a yam (genus Dioscorea), but a sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas).

Camp cooking

Some camp food porn. The first image is frypan bread (Cache Lake)

Breakfast on the griddle. Yes, it weighs like 50 pounds, but damn it, you can cook a whole meal for a family on it at one time. It was sort of sloped, so the eggs ran a little.

Bacon. Nothing better when camping. When I was a vegetarian (more or less), I always thought it would be the bacon that brought me back to the dark side. Turns out it was a cute girl and a basil-bleu burger, but that story has already been told.

Breakfast is served. Guthrie got his camp-kibble. Of course it's no different than what he eats at every other meal, but isn't all food eating when camping the best you've ever had?

Strip District outing with Bethany and Silas

We were continuing on the wild goose chase for mason jars. Evidently, so few people or so many do canning here that they have a city-wide shortage. A manager at Giant Eagle yesterday told me that they marked them down a few weeks ago to sell them all off. Evidently, they don't sell enough during the non-harvest parts of the year to pay to keep them in stock. Even the co-op's cupboards were bare. I think that sucks and is not a great message. Bethany told me that Maya had the same problem last week. Who knew? Are other cities like this?

Bethany always complains I don't bring her down to the Strip. Well, I'm here all the time, as I walk down this street almost every day during lunch at work (my office is ~2 blocks away). Plus, the weekends are nuts in the Strip. People clogging the sidewalks and stores. I take the Strip for granted, of course. I understand why it's fun. I am just used to relatively short lines.

We ate at Chicken Latino, a nice little Peruvian restaurant that replaced a crappy bar/restaurant that I suffered through one meal at three years ago. I tend to get their 1/4 chicken, black beans, and fries lunch special and add a side of fried plantains. Today, I tried the pork. Good stuff. Check out Bethany's blog for another picture. You can find that here.

Makin's for pasta sauce

Bethany drove this issue, and I'm glad. It feels appropriate to use our late crop of tomatoes for a big old pot of pasta sauce. Bloomfield is the "Little Italy of Pittsburgh" after all.

Vegas Vietnamese dinner

I'm trying to catch this thing up. Dave found a nice little Vietnamese restaurant away from the Strip.

Family trip to get bagels

Bethany and Silas walked to the bagel shop with me on Saturday morning before I went and spent the better part of the rest of the day at work.

Southern sun

Here is a shot of the outside of Southern Sun in Boulder. It should have gone with the basil blue burger post...

Basil blue burger - nostalgia of young love

So, I happened to find myself in Colorado at the Southern Sun brewery on Sunday eating and drinking with Christina and her husband, Jeremy. It was nice to get to see them for a while during the short trip.

The Southern Sun and Mountain Sun brewery/pubs were instrumental to Bethany's and my sprouting relationship back when we were grad students in Boulder. Being the special masochistic idiots that we are, we were there only two people in our program to have signed up for a certain set of insane workload classes our first semester at the University of Colorado. Naturally, when two ueber-geeks find each other like that, they start hanging out. We had a 4-hour break between classes twice or three times a week. Our solution to passing this big block of time was to frequent the brewery, drink great beer and eat basil blue cheeseburgers and fries. Bethany and this burger were my vector back into eating meat, as I had been a meta-vegatarian at the time (maybe pesco-vegatarian is the correct term, as I was occasionally eating fish). From their menu:

BASIL BLUE CHEESEBURGER
blue cheese crumbles and basil blended into a dressing, then poured on the burger and garnished with a fresh basil leaf.

We did eventually leave the program at CU, but we're happy and still together, and still like to get burgers with bleu cheese and basil.