Manly

Today I raked and bagged leaves and hung the last living room mini-blinds (which required installing a hand-cut shim--and wrestling with my cordless drill). It left me feeling quite accomplished--although I'm pretty sure I'll be sore tomorrow.

Pobbes kept a careful eye on us.

This morning as I was hauling the trash out to the curb (another manly task!), I noticed several crops of mushrooms in the yard. Becca came over later and helped me identify them: a bunch of (edible) fat jacks,* and some other generic lawn shrooms that she did identify, but whose name I can't recall. We have a giant oak and a giant Doug Fir in our front yard, so the lawn is a veritable fungus farm. Very exciting, of course.

*Which she took home; I'm still working on cultivating a taste for mushrooms, let alone cooking them myself.

Shroomin'

We spent last Sunday in the woods, hunting mushrooms. In the rain. It doesn't get much more Pacific Northwestern than that!

My prize chanterelle

Scientists, identifying

Fall foliage

Tree slide

Golden

August 31st was my golden birthday, so I threw myself a party. I'd been wanting to have a party on the lawn of this house pretty much since we moved in; I may actually have been scheming about it even before the snow melted.

When August finally rolled around, I sent out invitations on sparkly gold paper left over from our moving announcements. I discovered cake pops and was inspired to make other foods on sticks: caprese salad skewers with garden cherry tomatoes, garden basil, and fresh mozzarella pearls; Greek salad skewers with garden cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives, and feta; and fruit skewers with pineapple, grapes, and strawberries. In the non-stick category, we had Martha's carrot-ginger mini-cupcakes with orange cream cheese frosting; hummus with pita and crudités; and sparkling cocktails.

I set everything up on cream and gold tablecloths I'd found at the thrift store, with little gold napkins. We had golden balloons, candles in ornamented jars and lots of hanging lights--strands of regular mini white lights, some tiny Japanese paper lanterns, and even a random strand of spiky Ikea lights.

But! They don't call my Kitchen a Disaster for nothing. I spent all morning and afternoon cooking, baking, and running last minute errands, and David and our downstairs neighbor did yeomen's duty getting lights strung, and still things were crazy until right up to party time. Our other neighbor came up to lend me a hand with frosting cupcakes, and then they both did skewer duty. At one point, all four of us were in the kitchen when we heard a crash; investigation revealed that Brrrrrruno had managed to knock over a tray of cupcakes and consume at least one, liner and all, before we were able to separate them!**

At 15 minutes before the time listed on the invitations, I left my tireless helpers in the kitchen to throw on some make up and my party dress. I was still making little labels for the food and drinks tables when the first guests showed up! So. I don't have many pictures at all, which makes me very sad, because it was such a beautiful party.

It really was. The little lights made everything feel remarkably festive. It was a lovely evening, and the rather brisk breeze was countered by a roaring fire in the fire pit. There were girls in party dresses*** and tasty treats and lovely music, thanks to an iPod Hi-Fi boombox we found at the thrift store for $19 (2006 retail price $349. Oh yeah!).

Anyway, here are the pictures I do have. Try to imagine everything golden and sparkly, the way it is in my memory!































*Which I had to make twice, because the first batch tasted and looked pretty bad
**For weeks afterward when he would come up to our apartment, he would lick the floor and rug at the site of the crash.
***I wore my dress from a few Halloweens ago; how many chances does a girl have to wear a dress like that, anyway?

The Royal We

Primping before going out.

This year for Halloween, David and I went as a royal couple: we were Prince and Princess Leia.

I had wanted to be Prince since last November or so, when we watched Purple Rain for the first time and I was seized with inspiration.

Getting into character. (See my eye pencil side burns?)

My hair was even more Prince-ly then, and he wears pretty amazing eyeliner, so I thought it would be perfect. David came up with the Princess Leia counterpart.

I was able to find almost all the ingredients for my costume at our local St. Vinny's: studded pleather pants, a giant purple men's blazer, and gauzy ruffled curtains.

Raw materials: pleather pants, curtains, and a purple suit coat.

I bought silver pyramid studs at StudsandSpikes.com (no joke!) and "shooties" (this is a thing?) at Target.

I ended up putting in a pretty ridiculous amount of work on the costume. The pants were the easiest part: two quick seams up the legs to make them skinny. The shirt was more involved; I attached the ruffle to the collar of a short-sleeved white button down, built up a tall neck, made sleeves with more ruffles at the wrists, and even sewed on pearly buttons.

The giant blazer in its original state.

The jacket, though, was definitely the hardest. I thought I could get away with quick seams up the sides and down the sleeves, but that looked funny, so I ended up taking off the sleeves, shortening the shoulders, and reattaching them.

Mid-destruction

I even tacked part of the lining (which I'd had to take out first thing to access the structural seams) back in. It was good sewing practice but not something I'd readily take on again anytime soon.

I started out by actually studding these, then ended up borrowing my neighbor's hot glue gun and attaching them that way.

The results, though? Totally worth it.

David and his cinnamon buns.

David suggested that maybe instead of Princess Leia, he should just go as a ghost.

Oh! I also sewed David's costume, from this amazingly helpful tutorial. I did the hood and everything. Also crazy. The buns he found online.

Exhausted but still fierce after the party.

Summer Eating (& Entertaining Vegans II)

Me in a surprisingly non-disastrous-looking kitchen

Last night we had the Wonders (the entertaining vegans!) over for dinner again. Bradley, who is better at blogging than I am, has already posted about it here. I was quite pleased with how dinner turned out: lemony hummus with crudités (dragon carrots, cherry tomatoes, and cucumbers from our garden!--and some celery) and Holy Land olives to start, and then herby sweet corn arepas Minnow-style* with a few tiny chioggia beets from our garden. The Wonders brought over an amazing raw cobbler (recipe linked at Bradley's blog) and some nice wine to round it all out. Sadly, the only photographic documentation of the event is a picture David snapped  as I was still cooking!

Here are a few things I did manage to photograph before eating--some of the other garden- and CSA-inspired meals we've been enjoying this summer:

One of my favorite summer sandwiches: whole grain bagel topped with Neufchatel cheese, garden lettuce, cucumbers (not from our garden yet, at that point), and Vegetable Delight seasoning.

Shortcake with CSA strawberries and biscuits from scratch.**

Corn on the cob with pizza buns (toasted English muffins, homemade sauce, and pearl mozzarella, browned under the broiler and then topped with garden basil)

Roasted vegetables inspired by a kohlrabi in our CSA box: kohlrabi, onion, potatoes, dragon carrots, cherry tomatoes, and fresh corn, tossed with olive oil and garlic and topped with Maldon flaked sea salt. Served with salads of CSA greens and CSA garden peas (and a wedge of aged gouda!).

Corn on the cob with spicy kidney bean burgers and a basil/garlic/yogurt dip. I'd link to the burger recipe, but I didn't really follow it. Beans, oats, almonds, a couple of CSA eggs, seasonings... I was working with what I had in the cupboards!

Brunch this morning: a scramble with CSA eggs; Neufchatel cheese; and garden basil, cherry tomatoes, chives, and green onion.

It's been pretty hot and humid around here recently, so I haven't been doing quite as much cooking as I might like to--but it'll be cold again soon enough, so I can't complain too much. And in the meantime, the delicious produce keeps flowing! Our garden is a bit of a jungle recently, though slightly less so since we chopped down the massive, bolted cilantro and the surprise sunflower (I planted a "butterfly mix" in one of our square feet, and it grew some really tall flowers!) that had been shading the smaller plants. The tomatoes, though, are starting to riot!

*I used this arepas recipe, using soy milk, omitting the cheese, and substituting EVOO and some seasonings for the margarine. I topped them with Boca's vegan sausage crumbled, sauteed red bell peppers, and a drizzle of balsamic reduction. The Minnow includes spinach, and I'd hoped to serve ours with garden greens on the side, but they've gotten bitter with the heat (and neglect).

**The "from scratch" recipe on this page is amazing, and almost as easy as Bisquick biscuits (which are surprisingly disappointing after eating these!). I cut the recipe into thirds and bake two large biscuits, using soy milk and grating in frozen butter (my mom's trick!) instead of messing with a pastry cutter (which I don't have). I also don't bother sifting or mixing the milk and vanilla separately.

Summer Weekends

Arnold Palmers--the drink of summer!

David at Old Arizona

Me at Old Arizona

Northern Spark
Last weekend was the Northern Spark Festival, a dusk-to-dawn celebration of art held at various locations around the Cities. It was also unbelievably gorgeous, with cloudless skies and temps in the lower 80s. David and I biked to one of our favorite patios (Old Arizona) for dinner, then to another favorite patio (Black Forest) a few blocks away to meet up with a friend and plan our festival approach.

Plotting our festival course

The three of us biked downtown, arriving at the Stone Arch Bridge in time for the opening festivities. Minneapolitans love their summer and their summer festivals, and everything we visited--outdoor installations, interactive pieces, performances, galleries, and more--was extremely well-attended.

We headed for home around 1:00 a.m., after the line to a piece we'd hoped to see downtown was too long to be borne in our exhausted state, but things appeared to still be hopping. We only made it to a fraction of the venues, but what we saw was very engaging, made even better by the shared experience of seeing it against the background of the city, shared with such a large community.

On the Stone Arch Bridge

Crowds at the opening ceremony

City lights reflected in the Mississippi

Open Streets

Pedestrian bridge on the just-established River Lake Greenway

This weekend was another inaugural festival, the Open Streets "ciclovía" on 20 blocks of Lyndale Avenue. For four hours, between 10:00 and 2:00, those two miles were blocked to automobile traffic and opened to throngs of bikers, skaters, and walkers--in surprisingly large crowds, especially as today was quite cool and overcast.

My new T-shirt

Along that stretch, restaurants, boutiques, and cafes opened their doors and set up sidewalk displays and there were performances by musicians and artists. There were also booths and games by various groups, including a reverse race (who could go most slowly without putting a foot down) and homemade ice cream (churned by pedal power on the back of a bike riding the strip!) by our beloved Nice Ride.

David by the rolling bandstand

For such a simple concept, it was almost unbelievably fun. Hipsters, dirty hippies, young families, seniors on cruisers, and everything in between swarmed the streets together, mingling happily with the officers who guarded the

At the southern end of the strip

intersections. We saw a chain of six recumbent bikes, linked to each other and peddling happily along like a many-wheeled caterpillar, and two bikes pulling a platform with a band performing live music--a piano, drums, and bass! Getting to ride along such a fun part of the city, without having to dodge cars, and surrounded by so many fellow citizens and bikers, filled me with so much happiness that I may have gotten a wee bit teary.

Hydrant drinking fountain

As I told David, it was two of the things I enjoy most about running marathons--getting to see the city from the unusual and intriguing viewpoint of the street, and the sense of shared community--but without the pain of actually having to run.


























Pictures from yesterday (which was sunnier and warmer!)

Brunch at the Aster Cafe (patio!)

David and his bike at the downtown farmers' market post-brunch

Snapping the city skyline on the ride home

Heading home after an evening ride