avablog

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One nice thing about having a blog is that I can disseminate information to a broad audience in one fell swoop, and everyone gets the same information, so there’s never any, “Oh, you didn’t tell me that!” nonsense. Our trip to Dubuque was nice. Weather was gorgeous, the inn was very nice, the spa was […]

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Oh, Oprah. Bless your heart. She’s taken time from her busy schedule to propound on the 11 things a man should eat every day to stay healthy. They are: Fruits and vegetables Fiber Foods rich in folate (spinach, for example) Tomatoes Walnuts and almonds Aspirin (low dose) Fish (tilapia, salmon, flounder, cod and mahi-mahi) 64 […]

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“Wait staff who don’t write down my order.” Clue for said wait staff: Any admiration you might engender in me with your ability to “remember” my order at the table is totally trumped by my having to eat a cajun shrimp po’ boy instead of the Cuban pork sandwich I ordered. Save the showmanship for […]

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I almost hate to write about the evenings we spend at Simone’s Plain and Simple. It’s nearly impossible to relate even the smallest detail of our meals there without coming off like a braggart, but there’s hardly anything I can do about it; there’s always at least one dish in any of her offerings that […]

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Leah and I went to dinner with some friends last night at Cafe Dodici. As always, it was delicious. Aunt Rachel is in town for the weekend, so she offered to babysit for us. In appreciation, I wanted to make her a meal. She likes (among other things) pasta with mushrooms, so I dug up […]

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I hope I make it through the day.  Our staff is having breakfast with our president today at the Edgewater Grille, which is a restaurant located in a new hotel near our office.  Should be interesting. For lunch, we’re having our staff “holiday” gathering at the Olive Garden.  The lunch was scheduled before the breakfast, […]

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I was at Subway over lunch and noticed the branch I frequent no longer accepts travelers cheques.  Who pays for a sub with travelers cheques?  They’re also not taking any $50 or $100 bills, I expect because they’ve been hit by the recent “flood” of faux fitties and hundos in the area.  According to a […]

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For a while there it was looking like our fledgling New Year’s Eve party was going to be snubbed out this year due to Rachel’s monstrous schedule at school. Luckily for all of us (and especially for her), Rachel’s carved some leeway into the next year, which means she and Kevin are a “go” for this year’s festivities.

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Sometimes it’s just weird to be around Iowa City without anything to do. But it sure is nice. No running around to get the car packed and Ava loaded up for a trip to Madison or Decorah or Chicago. No big social events to buy food and wine for. No parties to dress up and find sitters for. It’s healing.

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I love making this dish this time of year.  Accompanied by mashed sweet potato, it’s a really, really nice meal.  No doubt those of you out there with more culinary imagination than I posses can come up with more exciting sides. Turkey Meatloaf 5 slices of firm bread 1 TB oil 1 onion chopped 2 […]

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Here’s a shot of the lasagna Kevin and I made last Saturday night: We got the recipe from a Cook’s Illustrated issue; it’s one of their “faster” recipes, so it basically required a quick bolognese-type meat sauce and no-boil lasagna noodles. It was a cinch to make, and it tasted great (even though we couldn’t […]

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Words hardly do justice to the splendid meal we had at Simone’s Plain and Simple last Friday night. It was everything I hoped it would be. And a little bit more. Here’s the menu: An assortment of Hors d’oeuvres ‘Gougère bourguignonne’ – a wreath of puff pastry with mild Swiss cheese ‘Estouffade de Bison’ – […]

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Our anniversary is coming up, and we’ve decided to have a night out.  Rather than hit one of the local restaurants for dinner, we’re going to motor down to Washington, IA, to dine at Cafe Dodici. I’ve not eaten there, but friends who have rave about it.  Looking at their menu, I see nary an […]

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It’s a pretty interesting thing to undergo a life change so profound that it causes all the memories of your “old” life to wither and fade. I guess that’s an understatement. It’s safe to say, I think, that Leah and I have embraced our new life with Ava (well, relatively new, still, after two years) […]

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It’s a good feeling to get everything done over a weekend that you’d hoped you’d get done going in. The weekend had a couple notable highlights. The first, not surprisingly, was the astounding meal we had on Saturday evening at Simone’s Plain and Simple. And “astounding” really isn’t much of an exaggeration. Between the gorgeous […]

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I have a couple basil plants that’ve been growing like crazy lately with all this hot, humid weather and rain.  Last night I got my first chance to use some when I made pasta for dinner. We had a tube of frozen turkey in the freezer, so I browned it with a little sweet onion, […]

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We had a very nice, albeit a bit cool, weekend in Madison visiting Aunt Rachel and Uncle Kevin.  As usual, we packed each day full of activity.

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I finally managed to make a meal last night that Leah enjoyed.  Ava, not so much.  But Leah did mention a couple times that she liked what I cooked, so I thought I’d record it here for future reference. We stopped at our local CoOp yesterday to ask about particular fish that might be more […]

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Last evening was only my second grilling event of the season. I know people who grill out all through the winter, but that’s not my idea of grilling. I like to be able to stand in my driveway with my flipflops on and watch the bees buzz around the iris shoots in my flower bed. […]

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