Tag: food

Autumn Comes Early

Still a couple of days until we’re really into Autumn, but with out recent cool & pleasant days along with the autumn festivals, it feels like we’re into my favorite season already. Yay!

Last weekend didn’t have much in the way of festivals, but the folks joined me on Sunday for BBQ chicken from the local fire house (their bi-annual fundraiser) and a Netflix stream of Tangled. We enjoyed the food and the movie.

Also last weekend was my first attempt at beer bread that wasn’t from a kit. Turns out beer bread is a pretty simple recipe. Since I had 3 cans of Guinness left from my Guinness brownies, I found a Guinness beer bread recipe and tried it. Pretty tasty, albeit a bit bitter. Really good lightly toasted with butter on.

Yesterday, after work, I joined the folks for an outing to the Lake Festival. At Lake Loramie (where my folks cottage is) they have an annual Antique Power Show and Lake Festival. There’s a group there that sells HUGE pots of mums for $5, so mum gets her mums from there. I decided to buy a pot this year too, so I’ll have some lovely white mums on my porch if I don’t kill the plant first!

We ate brats with kraut for supper there, shared a corn dog, had corn on the cob (still sweet!), and then I decided to try the deep fried Twinkie one group was offering. Wow, who knew that deep frying even makes Twinkies taste good?!

I spent the night with the folks, and this morning (late this morning) we did the Farmer’s Market runs as usual. I bought a red pepper at one (should have gotten my sweet onion from there too) and some Houtz cheese (a hard goat cheese) from the other. I put the cheese in the cooler we brought along just in case they had the cheese this time, and then we went to Taste of Troy.

Several restaurants and businesses had tents at Taste of Troy this year. Rather than being spread out throughout the square, they just had it at Proudy Plaza (where the concerts were held this summer) in order for traffic to still go through the square. I managed to spend $20 worth of tickets on lots of different food things. All pretty tasty. Even have a caramel apple and a piece of peach pie for later.

After we returned, I helped mom move her “new” chair to her bonus room above the garage. Then I headed off to my “shopping chores” before home. In an hour and a half or so, I’m off to Aunt Becky’s for a night of card playing. Don’t need supper, will likely just eat snacks at Becky’s. (I bought Munchies, cuz I’m evil.)

Tomorrow is Rest Up and Do Laundry Day. At work, I’d just like to know what it feels like to be “caught up” again. 🙂 But the weekends are great for having time to enjoy myself. Especially with our wonderful autumn weather!

Festival Time Starts Up Strong!

Ah, today was wondrously cool and breezy (blustery, even). Sure, we’ll be seeing warmer temps at the end of the week, but the promise of autumn is here.

And with the end of summer/start of autumn comes festival season. Two weekends ago was a great start to things. Friday saw Downtown Troy have their “Final Friday” with stores staying open late and lots of local musicians playing outside of shops/restaurants. Some of the local artists were out as well. No street vending of food, but the folks and I sated ourselves with pear hard cider from Leaf & Vine, sangria from the furniture store (that combo made me drunk – I am such a light weight!), and Chinese food from Tokyo Peking.

Saturday, I had agreed to be the DD for my folks and their friends for the FareFest in Versailles (pronounced as spelled). This was the 3rd year of this festival, but the first time for us. The folks and their friends split the cost of my food-only ticket, while they all got their special wine glasses and all the wine, beer, and cider they could drink. Several local restaurants and caterers were there with food as well. The food was excellent and I hear tell the wine & beer was good as well. I got everyone home safe und sound.

The folks and I also attended the downtown concert on the square that night, which was excellent. The brass (and percussion) section of the Air Force Band performed quite a few numbers. I even turned to dad once and said “this group would be great doing a Spike Jones piece” and two songs later, they did a Spike Jones piece! They did Pal-Yat-Chee, which was brilliant. One of the best shows this summer.

Then this last weekend (Labor Day weekend) was a nice end of summer weekend, with all sorts of weather available. Friday was stonking hot, so I stayed inside with my lovely air conditioning. Saturday was nearly as warm, so I went swimming with mom. Our last time in the pool for this year. *sniff* Sunday was a cookout at mom & dad’s cottage at Lake Loramie with my dad’s family. We had an excellent game of Shanghai Rum (I didn’t win, alas) and dad grilled us a fine assortment of tube steaks. Although it had rained (stormed) earlier on Sunday, it left us alone, for the most part, at the cookout.

Labor day was our day at the Piqua Heritage Festival, one of my favorite festivals. I had already felt bad for the folks who camp there the whole 3-day weekend due to the really strong storms early Sunday and the horrid heat of Saturday. Monday was a whole different kettle of fish. It barely reached 60F that day. I was optimistic that it would hit high 60s, but it didn’t, so I was a bit chilly in my t-shirt. Still, the crafts were neat to see and the food was tasty. I had corn on the cob, strawberry lemon shake-up (needed more sugar), fried catfish & fried tater tots. And to top it all off, battered & deep-fried peach. Now THAT was tasty! To take home, I bought kettle corn, saltwater taffy, cinnamon roasted pecans, and a CD of local music (Celtic Bluegrass, I believe.)

Later that afternoon, when I was relaxing with the cats, working on a website, and finally thawed out, mom called to say that we were invited to a cookout with her family – right now. So I finished the website update and headed out (this time with a jacket) for dinner with the Andersons. It was lovely to see folks again, and the food was tasty. My cousin, Gregg, grilled sliders and dogs, both nicely done.

So now, summer is over but for the equinox. But thankfully, festival season has only just begun!

Fun with Grignard Reagents

Second week of Survey of Organic Chemistry and I’m still having fun and learning lots. Hotter’n Hell with more hotter to come, however. The only drawback, IMO.

This weekend, I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (or as I call it HP7.2) with the folks. We all agreed the movie was great. And it had my favorite scene from the book in it. (I have an LJ icon that spoils it, if you want to hunt for it.) The audience actually cheered when the scene occurred, myself included. Our only drawback was having to sit in the front row to see it.

On Sunday, I headed to mom & dad’s before I left for Indiana in order to catch the Women’s World Cup Final. Mom and I sat and watched and cheered (and sighed) as the game progressed and went into extra time. So I wound up heading to uni later than I’d intended. Picked up a Filet o’ Fish & large fries from Maccas on the way (bad me).

Yesterday I went to The Laughing Planet Cafe, a local restaurant that serves interesting burritos. I ordered the Pestato with basil pesto and it was yummy. And for supper, I hung around on campus for a while reading, and then went to Hartzell’s Ice Cream for a Blizzard-like item with chocolate soft serve, Reese cups, and peanut butter. Very yummy, but it didn’t last the whole 25 (hot hot hot) minute walk back to the dorm.

Today for lunch, I went to Basil Leaf Vietnamese Bistro. I ordered the Vietnamese salad, which according to the menu is “lemongrass grilled with spring roll served over soft rice vermicelli noodles, fresh bean sprouts, basil/mint, carrot, lettuce and crushed peanuts.” I had it with pan fried tofu and it was very yummy (though the mint leaves were overpowering and I took the last few out).

After lunch was lab. Once again, long jeans & closed-toed shoes made for hot walking outside, but are very important for lab safety. Our task today was to make a Grignard reagent (an organometallic compound that makes for a negative carbon and is great for making C-C bonds. We used it to make either Crystal Violet or Malachite Green (both dyes, among their other uses). Our group was going to make Crystal Violet but nearly everyone else was too, so we made Malachite Green instead.

It was pretty neat. We tried to be as anhydrous as possible since water reacts with the Grignard agent even more readily than the organic compound we were using. And our instructor told us that the reaction works better if you speak with a French accent. My partner and I opted to not do this, but wound up with the reaction working fine. However, there was a group who wound up not making a dye at all. Still, we had enough of the two dyes to do some tie-dying afterward. I tie-dyed two socks (one in each) and my fingers. And now, apparently, am dying the bathroom counter here in the dorm. Oops!

Here’s a photo of my dye-job (which doesn’t look as nice as it did earlier today):


Malachite Green and Crystal Violet socks (with multi-fiber samples beside them).

Tonight I had yogurt & granola for supper (yay for my cooler) and then went off to see HP7.2 for a second time. This audience weren’t quite as appreciative of my favorite scene, but they’re from Indiana – what do you expect? 😉

Recrystallizing can be a be-yatch

I’m sitting in my library in the comfy chair with Linus sprawled on my lap and Lucy sleeping on my headrest. I suspect the little ones missed me while I was away re-learning organic chemistry. Don’t worry, babies, only one more week of classes!

As an adjunct professor for Indiana University thanks to ACP (Advance College Project), I can take classes at IU for free. And the chemistry department offered a 2-week survey of organic chemistry with us ACP teachers in mind. So I figured, free graduate credits that would be useful and accomplished quickly? Hell yah!

Well… it would be free if I didn’t live 3 hours from the Bloomington campus. So I have decided that my big summer trip is to take this class. The dorm room rang up to over $500. There’s a $120 tech fee/lab fee that won’t be reimbursed. And 12 hours of driving for the course = gas expenses. Oh, and going out to eat daily doesn’t help.

Other than the fact that the dorms were air conditioned (woohoo) I knew nothing about them. Fridge? Microwave? Towels? Well, turned out towels were provided, but the rooms have no fridges. (There’s a microwave for the floor that I could use, however.) In anticipation of no fridges, I brought my cooler and some milk and yogurt. And it wasn’t until midweek after I purchased a bag of ice that I discovered the ice machine on the ground floor of the dorm. Heh.

The course has been great. Kate Reck is the instructor and she’s the one who trained us at the ACP training in June. There are 10 of us students but I’m the only newbie to ACP. A few of the students took Kate’s class that she offered last summer on analytical chemistry. I’m relearned a lot, and there are things I’m pretty sure that I’m learning for the first time.

I already talked about our first lab. We do labs on Tues & Thurs (and need long pants – it’s bloody hot this week and will be hotter next!) Our Thursday lab was on extraction and recrystallization. We were given a container with three unknowns – an impurity to be filtered out, an organic base, and an organic neutral substance.

We dissolved the compounds in diethylether and then filtered out the charcoal. Next, we added sodium hydroxide to make the acid soluble in water and used a separatory funnel to separate the two solutions. The neutral compound was separated from the ether by a rotovap (nifty device that evaporates volatile solvents by spinning & using a vacuum), which was our second time using it. The acidic solution was returned to an acid, whereby it precipitated out of solution.

We decided to just recrystallize the acidic compound, so my partner, Rich, determined the melting point of our neutral compound. We were just .2°C over the accepted value for naphthalene (which was the correct compound). Meanwhile, I was working on recrystallizing our carboxylic acid. The super saturated solution (I was using ethanol as the solvent) was room temp, so I put it in the ice bath, and it immediately all fell out of solution. Bugger.

No matter, reheating the flask allowed me to redissolve the solution. And this time I went even slower. I was adding cold water to a room temp water bath, when Kate stopped over. She suggested scratching the flask bottom with a scoop, and proceeded to do it. Whereby the crystals came out in a big clump once again. We both about fell over with laughter. (The things that chemists find amusing).

So no idea if we would have gotten the right melting point for our acid. We were basically out of time by then, so my partner and I cleaned up and put our goggles away for another week.

One of my intentions when taking this course was to eat at the nifty ethnic restaurants near campus. Only the weather conspired against me. It was so hot at the start of the week that I went to the student union Mon & Tues. Wednesday, four of us went to Nick’s for lunch, where I had the nicest cheese steak I’d ever had. See, at Nick’s they don’t chop the steak up, it’s just laying on your hoagie. Nice and medium rare and very yummy with the provolone and onions.

Thursday, Kate invited those of us who could to join her and her hubby for supper at their favorite Mexican place for supper. So I had yogurt for lunch and joined Kate, Bill, Marvin, and Kevin at La Torre near the Kroger on College Mall road. I had a combo meal with a carne asada, two chicken flautas, and a spicy chile relleno. Very yummy and excellent company.

And my night life on Thursday wasn’t done yet. It turns out that the Indiana Festival Theater just started their summer run of The Comedy of Errors. So Wednesday night, I purchased a balcony seat for the show. As soon as I’d driven back to the dorm, I walked to the theater and sat in the middle of the balcony to watch the show. It was excellent. The set was tiny, but very fun to look at. The cast did a great job (though both Antipholus’s stumbled on a few lines here & there) and I loved the addition of an accordion player separating the scenes. They had a queen instead of the duke, which was fine too. I laughed a lot (as did the rest of the audience) and enjoyed myself. The walk back to the dorm was also very pleasant.

Today, most of the class went along with Kate to Amol India for Indian Fud. They had a nice buffet and I ate well. And then Kate footed the bill for us! Nice lady! (And a very good teacher, too.)

Class let out a little early today, which allowed me to leave campus a bit earlier and I got home before 7pm. Been hanging out with the kitties most of my time here, downloading free software which I get with my IU ID. Free Adobe CS 5.5, free ChemBioDraw, free Lynda.com (with the exercise files!) It’s all good!

Tomorrow I’m off to watch HP7.2 with the parental units. Am looking forward to this. And I think Sunday I wanna catch some World Cup (I’ve missed most of it this time around, alas). And then Sunday night, back to Indiana!

Happy 4th!

Hope folks who celebrate Independence Day today had a great day! Despite having to leave judiang and elsaf, I had a great day.

Elsa made us French toast today, which was very yummy. She even did fancy-dancy strawberry garnish & powdered sugar. (She made ’em with month-out-of-date milk, but I blame Judi for having month-out-of-date milk in her fridge in the first place! As the three of us aren’t dead, I suspect there was nothing wrong with it after all. But Judi, don’t forget to pitch the milk with the pink label!)

This morning was mostly just getting packed (and discovering stuff I forgot to pack) and reading and watching Harry Potter behind-the-scenes shorts from Judi’s On Demand service. Rather relaxing. Then Elsa and I went to the Little Branch Cafe for lunch. I had an (overpriced) toasted cheese sandwich (with tomato), which was very tasty. Judi joined us briefly, before heading back to get ready for her party.

It was quickly time to part company, however. Elsa drove back to Michigan, Judi took a cab to the train station to get to her 4th of July BBQ, and I walked to the El to get to Midway. Things were smooth getting there and getting through security and I had time to read while awaiting my flight. It left on time, arrived on time, and I wound up sitting in the first row by a window, so I was third off the plane. 44th bag out of the baggage claim, but that’s OK. I had my bag back. I even remembered, sort of, where I parked.

A short stop for Taco Bell on the drive back, and I returned home to discover someone shooting off nice fireworks at the edge of town. They were even visible from my backyard, so I spent some time watching them. They went on for at least 45 minutes (though with pauses between). Top quality fireworks – one step down from what the nearby towns use, I’d say.

The cats are glad I’m back, and I’m glad I’m back with my cats. Thanks, girls, for a great weekend! To friendship! And revenge!

A toast to friends… and revenge!

Today was yet another fun-filled day with my girls, judiang and elsaf. And, as this trip has been, it was another food-filled day. We started at the (last day of the) Taste of Chicago, moved onto Spanish Tapas, and ended with Super 8.

My takings from the Taste:

  • Vegan Samosa from Arya Bhavan

  • Pralines and Cream (ice cream) from Lagniappe-Creole Cajun Joynt

  • Slice of Gluten-Free Pizza from Connie’s Pizza

  • Italian Lemon Ice from Franco’s Ristorante

  • Bourbon Chicken (in a wrap) from Oak Street Beach Cafe

  • Peach Cobbler from BJ’s Market & Bakery

  • Crab Rangoon from the Noodle Vietnamese Cuisine

  • Churro (vanilla filled) from Churro Factory

All of the above were taste portions except the Churro. Elsa, alas, wasn’t feeling hungry, so she gave us her tickets. Judi and I ate like queens. 🙂

Once we returned to Judi’s flat, I headed off to the pool to read. It was chillier than yesterday, but the water was warm still. Once Elsa & Judi joined me, I got in and enjoyed the warm water. Alas, the pool suffered a major child infestation, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway.

For supper, Elsa drove us to Tapas Valencia. We had quite a few plates.

  • Salmon Curado – cured salmon with dill sour cream

  • Alchofas con Crema – marinated artichokes with creamy white wine vinaigrette

  • Champinones – stuffed mushroom caps

  • Empanada de Buey – puff pastry filled with beef tenderloin

  • Pato Confitado – duck confit with mushrooms and apples

  • Patatas con Alioli – robust garlic potato salad

  • Gambas al Ajillo – grilled shrimp with garlic lemon butter

  • Crepe Rellena – crepe with goat cheese, spinach, pine nuts and apples

  • Mejillones con Guindillas – fresh black mussels sauteed with guindilla peppers served with a white wine sauce

We did it in three rounds, each picking an item during the round. And then we each picked a dessert. I wound up ordering what I think I ordered the last time Judi and I came here. Crema con Chocolate, which is basically creme brulee with chocolate. All of the food that I ate today was wonderful (except the mussels, but that’s to be expected. I don’t like mussels.)

After a short stop back at the flat, we headed off to see Super 8 at the Icon theater. This place is hoity-toity with VIP films with leather seats. We went to a regular flick, however, but still had reserved seats. Reserved seats! And an air hostess telling how to escape in case of fire and where the oxygen masks drop from. We ain’t got theaters like that in Ohio.

When we got back, Judi, Patty (her Pomeranian) and I took a night time walk around the Field Museum. Patty really enjoyed herself. And so did Judi and I.

Alas, tomorrow, Elsa and I need to have to leave Chicago. I have kitties awaiting my return. But I believe we’ll have a bit more yummy food before the day is over.

Murder for Two

Today was another great day hanging out with judiang and elsaf. We started off with Dim Sum at Three Happiness in Chinatown. Yum!

After we returned from brunch, we went to Judi’s pool and spent some quality time reading & wading. Very relaxing.

But after that, we zipped off to Navy Pier to see a new musical, Murder for Two. It had a cast of thousands played by two men. Well, not thousands, but several. And lots of piano playing. It was quite entertaining, very funny, and the piano playing was brilliant.

After the excellent show, we went to Riva, a hoity-toity seafood place at Navy Pier. Great service, great food, and decadent desserts. I couldn’t make up my mind on what to have, so I had a set of 4 small plates. Grilled shrimp, crab salad, pappadew peppers (blue crab & Brie in peppers & fried in a ball), and artichoke beignet (artichoke & cheese also in a fried ball). All were tasty with the artichoke winning and pepper balls in second place. Then dessert was also a combo – Chocolate Fantasia. This was chocolate gelato, chocolate flour-less cake, and chocolate mousse. All very yummy. And the chocolate ice cream had salt in it just added to the intensity of the flavor. Oh, and I also had a mojito. We won at supper.

We had pondered staying there to watch the Saturday fireworks, but then later decided that seeing them from Museum Campus would be almost as good (and less crowded). So we returned to Judi’s flat and watched another episode of Game of Thrones.

But soon it was time for walking to Museum Park. Judi wanted to make sure I was safe walking in her big city at night, so she came along as my protector. We stopped by the planetarium and waited. The fireworks, as usual, were impressive.

Once we returned home (with a slight detour) we watched another Game of Thrones (5 eps down, but we don’t think we’ll get ’em all watched before we leave Monday).

Yes! We have Whoosh!

It’s a sad state of (geek) affairs when you discover that your friend, who’s in the bedroom just over there, is up because she posts to Twitter… And thus our day began.

judiang, elsaf and I went to the Little Branch Cafe for “a not as expensive as supper” breakfast. I had a breakfast croissant which had egg, cheese, and bacon. It came with a few hashbrowns and some fruit, of which half was melon. I let Judi eat the melon.

After breakfast, I decided to head off on a half hour walk, whereupon I discovered that Judi lives closer to Lake Michigan than I do to the Stillwater River. (Well, I should have figured that since I can see the Lake from her balcony.) It was a pleasant walk (breezy & cloudy) and they’ve really made Museum Campus a lovely place to walk.

Elsa and I then headed off to Whole Paycheck, er, Whole Foods to pick up necessary items for our day in. See, it was supposed to get up to 98F with a heat index of 105F today. I bet the Chicago weathermen are embarrassed! But we didn’t know they’d be so far off the mark and planned lunch & dinner at Judi’s place.

Poor Elsa experienced sticker shock after she picked out 2 racks of baby back ribs for grilling for supper. First time I’d seen her do a double-take. As nice as it would be to have a Whole Foods near where I live, I doubt if I’d be able to afford to shop there much.

Once we returned, Elsa got the baby back ribs in the crock pot, then broiled the chicken boobies and I made the salads upon which to place said chicken boobies. Lunch was tasty. Then we had a relaxing afternoon of reading, computing, and more reading. I took a walk to the park where Judi walks her dog, Patty, and sat reading for awhile. Then, sure enough, Judi walked Patty and the three of us returned to the apartment.

And then we got to the title of today’s post. See, Judi hasn’t had a chance to use her grill yet this summer. So she cleaned it and tried to light it for finishing off the ribs. Only it wouldn’t light. If only we had a long match, she said. “You got any spaghetti?” I asked her. She showed me to the spaghetti, which I couldn’t keep lit long enough to light the propane, so I asked for tape and then taped a match to spaghetti.

After a few attempts (which kept getting blown out by the wind), I finally heard a whoosh! Yes, we have whoosh! But then it went out. By then, the grill’s lighter started working again, so Judi got it going again. Where the fire lasted longer… and then went out. But the fourth castle stayed up! I mean, huge tracts of land! Grrrr, I’ve been hijacked by a Monty Python movie!

Anyhoo, the grill eventually burned strongly and we got the asparagus and the baby back ribs grilled. Along with baked potatoes and pineapple upside-down cake (that Elsa had made this afternoon), we had a fabulous supper! And after supper, Elsa and I got another episode of Game of Thrones watched. (Alas, we won’t get all 10 watched before we leave on Monday.)

Tomorrow, our Saturday tradition of Dim Sum for brunch will continue. And we have tickets to a show at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. And I’m hoping we’ll get to see fireworks at Navy Pier, too!

Taste of Chicago 2011

I’m back in the Big City again! I drove to Columbus and then flew on to Chicago, whereupon I took the Orange Line to get to judiang, who walked over to meet me. We dropped my bags off at her place then went to the Little Branch Cafe for lunch. I paid over $13 for a chicken sandwich, but the ciabatta bread it was on was almost worth the cost.

We returned to await elsaf and discovered that Judi had access to HBO on Demand and the Game of Thrones series. We only started the episode and then headed out to wait for Elsa to drive in. When Elsa joined us, we watched the episode (well, Judi disappeared halfway through). We later decided to have supper at the Taste.

The Taste of Chicago has become a shadow of its former self. But there were still quite a few things to choose from. I bought 2 strips of tickets which, for me, translated to 6 “taste” items.

  • Pulled Pork Mini Sandwich from The Smoke Daddy

  • Home Run Ball (Sweet & Spicy Nugget Bites) from Loving Hut (a vegan joint)

  • Cheese Empanada from Adobo Grill

  • Jibarito from Sabor Latino (steak sammich with corn pancakes as the bread)

  • Pad Thai from Star of Siam (yeah, I get it every time)

  • Mango Kefir from StarFruit (an ice cream substitute)

Very tasty, all. And Judi got so much mustard fried catfish that she shared with me. Oh, and we got a free sample of Sierra Mist Natural, too.

We waddled back to the apartment and just missed the first rain. Since then there’s been several thunderous storms and lots of rain. Nice being inside instead of out.

Just one more thing…

A post of Short thoughts:

  • I was sad to read of the passing of Peter Falk today. (Read it first on Twitter from one of the webcomic artists I follow. But quite a few others on my Twitter feed mentioned it as well.) One of my favorite actors.

  • Well done, New York, on allowing gay marriage!

  • The folks and I watched Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince tonight, so only one more movie to go before the last movie comes out!

  • Last Friday night, the folks and I went to our first concert in Downtown Troy for the summer season. A fun Motown group called Touch.

  • Last Saturday was the Louisiana Boil at the Fishers. Gary even ordered 20lb of live crawdads for the boil. Well, they were live until I dumped ’em into the boiling water. Then they were delicious.

  • I’m registered for my summer survey course in Organic Chemistry taking place in mid-July. Should be fun!

  • Next weekend I’ll be in Chicago – woot! Here’s hoping judiang has a better trip home from the UK than her trip there was! Would be nice to visit her and her actually there to be visited. Heh.

  • Spending the night at the folks’ so I can go to the farmer’s market with ’em in the morning. I’ve eaten most of the cheese I bought last week.

So anyhoo, several thoughts there. Perhaps I’ll do a proper Tribute to Falk write-up later when I can organize my thoughts better. Maybe I’ll watch Murder by Death and The Cheap Detective in honor of the guy. Nah, I know… The In-Laws. I’ll bet dad would watch it with me. “Serpentine!”