avablog

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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I’m lamenting in advance for the disappearance of the fantastic tomatoes that’re all over the place right now. In addition to all the other ways there are to enjoy this fruit, new to me this year were these little chips: Dried tomato slices. And oh my, are they delicious. Imagine crossing a sun-dried tomato with […]

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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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I have tomatoes.  Onions.  Peppers.  Cukes.  Olive oil.  I can get parsley and garlic.  And I have a food processor for mixing it all up.  So I’m looking for recipes. My mother-in-law makes a good version following a modified Cook’s Illustrated recipe (modified mostly to exclude garlic, which Leah can’t eat).  It goes a little […]

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As you know, I’ve been eating delicious little cherry tomatoes out of my garden for a couple weeks now, but I’ve yet to harvest one of those nice, big, meaty fruits that really make the tomato’s name. Well, it looks like it won’t be long now. These two beauties are probably only a couple hours […]

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Pictured above are some tasty treats from my garden. In the foreground are a couple Sun Gold cherry tomatoes, and in the back is a Sunsweet F1 cucumber. The Sunsweet was a surprise; I’d never seen one before, and at first I was sure we’d been sold some mutant seed. But they’re actually very good, […]

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I had to do some maintenance on the garden recently. My snap pea vines have grown much taller than the 3 feet advertised on the seed packet. It’s only mildly problematic. I took some of the long strips of redwood left over from my trellis project and wove them vertically through the chickenwire fence where […]

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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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Leah’s taking Ava to Decorah this afternoon for a girls weekend, so I’ll be on my own until Sunday afternoon.  What to do, what to do…. Tonight I’m going to have a little screening of International Blue Velvet, which is on loan from a friend.  I’ve never seen it before, and everyone I’ve ever heard […]

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Whew! What a whirlwind. Where to begin? This alliterative moment brought to you by the letters W and H.

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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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I was running errands at noon today and had occasion to be on a stretch of local interstate. At one point a truck entered the road ahead of me, and I was verily disgusted by it. It was one of those silver tanker trucks, the kind usually meant for hauling milk or lemonade or marshmallow […]

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I like radishes.  Don’t love ’em.  But there’s something refreshing about them, particularly sliced super thin on top of a salad of mixed greens. The CSA we belong to is producing lots of radishes right now, and I’m at a bit of a loss as to what to do with them.  Salads, yes, but after […]

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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 spent a fair amount of time (and sacrificed one or two skin cells in the process) finishing up our vegetable garden this past weekend.  The official roster now stands at tomatoes, jalapenos, green and red peppers, basil, snap peas, beans, “regular” peas, carrots, cukes, and onions.  I think I’ve got four or five different […]

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I love a good hamburger as much as the next guy. Always have. Almost since I can remember, I’d watch my dad pan fry or grill burgers — depending on the season — to share with all of the friends my brother and I would have over at our house. Dill pickle slices, onion, relish, […]

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Last night our neighbor Q came over with some good news (his name isn’t really Q; it’s shorthand for his last name, which is Cusick. Get it?). He and his girlfriend Shannon are our backyard neighbors. There’s another neighbor whose yard is adjacent to both of ours, and she’s almost never, ever out in her […]

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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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