Each Little World

Dinner with the New York Times

The New York Times still follows the traditional newspaper schedule of publishing their food/dining/wine section on Wednesdays, and I rarely miss looking through it. Though I save a lot of the recipes they publish, the amount of dishes I actually make from the paper is much smaller. I do, however, have enough favorites that I've amassed over the years to keep me checking the paper each Wednesday.

Last week I was smitten with their Valentine's Day menu and decided that I would make it for Mark and I for our holiday celebration. He did all the shopping in the morning and I set a festive table and did the cooking — except for the steak. We did a strip steak instead of the suggested rib steak but followed the rest of the meal to the letter. It was delicious and easy. But, as always, I would make a couple of changes in the future.

DUCK FAT ROASTED POTATOES: We actually roasted our potatoes in duck fat as the recipe suggested. They noted you could substitute olive oil which is what I would do next time. Finding duck fat meant trips to two stores and I could not really notice any special flavor it added to the dish — especially since the prep also included fresh rosemary. And I would cut the amount of fat in half, no matter what you're using. We actually cooked more potates than the reciped called for and they still were a bit too greasy for our taste. 

ARUGULA AND AVOCADO SALAD WITH BAGNA CAUDA DRESSING: We love the Times' recipe for Midnight Pasta with garlic and anchovies, but found that same kind of Bagna Cauda sauce overpowering as a salad dressing. We lick up every bit of this poweful taste combination on pasta but actually strained it to make a slightly less strong dressing. Lesson learned.

BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE MOUSE WITH FLEUR de SEL: The real winner was the dessert. I don't know when I've made a simpler, faster, or easier dessert. This recipe is going into my 3-ring binder for the future. We just used Ghirardelli 60% bittersweet chocolate, not too expensive and readily available. I also divided the mousse into six servings rather than four. Visually it did not look skimpy in my grandmother's antique coupe bowls, and tastewise was more than enough since this is a rich dish.

It took the whole five minutes for my chocolate/water to melt and mix and also the full five minutes of whisking for the mixture to thicken into mousse. I managed to vigorously whisk it for three minutes, then Mark — hearing my huffing and puffing and moaning — came out and finished whisking. Five minutes is a long time unless you're in as good condition as Michelle Obama. My arms rebelled!

A taste of Milwaukee

Whenever we go to Milwaukee, we never seem to get beyond the Milwaukee Art Museum, our usual destination. So we decided to spend a few days in the city with no schedule to follow. Though we drove from Madison, we parked the car and walked everywhere. Milwaukee has wonderful architecture everywhere you look, with lots of open space making for an attractive urban experience. Since we were on foot, we also noticed that Milwaukee drivers — unlike most Madison motorists — respected pedestrians and always stopped for us in crosswalks.

I had to make a stop at the historic Geoge Watts & Son whose building (below) is one of the most gorgeous retail stores imaginable. Though reduced in size, the store still carries a dazzling array of china, glassware and linens and their Tea Room is still serving Sunshine Cake — a Milwaukee sweet treat for more than 100 years. Today the building is also home to the De Lind Gallery and a bridal shop. The gallery was showing posters by many of the artists whose work is on display in the big MAM exhibit, "Posters of Paris: Toulouse-Lautrec and his Contemporaries" (which ends on 9/9).

Eero Saarinen's Milwaukee Country War Memorial

Unknown grande dames

We came across this refreshing little oasis and walked through it to take a break from the heat and sun. Since only a couple of people were enjoying this park-like space, it may not have been intended for the public but just the people who work in the adjacent buildings. 

Since we hadn't taken an official vacation in a couple of years, we decided to splurge and stay at The Pfister Hotel. This is a stunning 1893 masterpiece with a noted collection of Victorian paintings on display. There are big meeting rooms named after presidents of the era when the hotel was built (like Taft and McKinley) and a room whose walls are covered with photographs of all of Wisconsin Governors. The hotel underwent restoration in 2008 and just sparkles.

There's a piano lounge tucked into one corner of the grand lobby and the long-time pianst was playing Gershwin when we arrived to check in. We had cocktails there one night before going out to dinner. 

We stayed in the original part of the Pfister on the eighth floor. I adored the hotel's classic staircase and made Mark walk down all eight flights to the lobby every time we left our room. I wanted to savor every bit of the 19th Century experience!

We did take advantage of the new tower that adjoins the old hotel. It has a spectacular martini bar — Blu — on the 23rd floor where we watched the blue moon rise over the city and light up Lake Michigan.

We stopped in the lobby each day to chat with Timothy Westbrook, the Pfister's charming artist-in-residence. Yes, the hotel actually has an artist-in-residence program. This program and the fact that Westbrook is a textile artist actually convinced us to stay at the Pfister. Westbrook is creating costumes of the Pfister era using looms and an historic sewing machine but employing recycled material like cassette tapes. 

 You can read more about him on the hotel's blog or his web site.

Men and women at work

In honor of Labor Day, a few images of workers from the Grohmann Museum at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. We began a recent visit at the rooftop sculpture garden with these larger-than-life bronze figures, where there were also some attractive plantings that were holding up well to this summer's extreme weather. 

This is a view looking down at the elaborate mosaic work in the entrance floor from an upper floor stairway. 

Most of the artworks in the museum — not surprisingly — showed men as depicted by male artists. While the men were doing a wide variety of jobs, the women pictured tended to be doing a limited number of typical female tasks: spinning, weaving, and agricultural work. That's probably why I was so taken with this painting: "The Carpenter Shop of Sophie Christensen," 1899, by Maria Christine Thymann, a Danish artist who lived from 1867-1928.

Here's a critical view of some of the work in this collection from reporters Mary Louise Schumacher and Whitney Gould of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that appeared at the time the museum opened. (We did see signage that addressed some of these concerns on our visit last week).

No cherry pie this summer

For many years my friend Doris and I spent a week of our vacation in Door County each summer. That's the area that's at the tip of Wisconsin's thumb for those of you who live elsewhere. We'd take an art class with Wendell Arneson at Peninsula Art School in the mornings, make art and visit galleries in the afternoons, read in the evenings and eat around the clock. The food is always fabulous in Door County where the specialties are whitefish and cherries. I don't think you can find an eatery up there that doesn't have dishes with cherries — from muffins to french toast to cherry pie a la mode — on its menu. Our last stop each summer, as we drove out of Fish Creek, was always Ray's Cherry Hut where we picked up fresh and frozen cherries to take home for our own pie baking exploits.

This year's unsettling weather — too hot too early, followed by frosts and dry conditions — has had a nasty effect on Wisconsin's traditional crops. I've already stocked up on maple syrup because of this year's truncated maple season and now it's bad news about the cherries. The Associated Press reports this story about what the change in the weather means for Wisconsin this year:

"Door County in northeastern Wisconsin ranks among the country's top cherry producers. But this year's crop could be the pits.

Bob Lautenbach of Lautenbach's Orchard in Fish Creek says this is the worst year he's ever experienced, and his family has grown cherries all his life.

He tells WLUK-TV the 2012 cherry crop in Door County has all but failed. He says the county would normally produce about 8 to 10 million pounds, but this year the prediction is about half a million pounds.

That's because the warm March woke up the trees early, but several nights of frost then killed off the buds.

Door County growers say they'll try to keep their crop in the county this year, for tourists and locals to enjoy. Prices will be higher."

According to the Wisconsin Cherry Growers' website, Michigan — which produces 80 percent of the total supply of tart cherries — experienced much of the same early season damage to flower buds. Reports indicate that "many commercial Michigan growers have experienced severe and devastating losses" as well.

. . .

Yesterday in Madison, the high was 94 degrees Fahrenheit (34.44 Celsius) and today 95 is predicted. We've only had a trace of rain in a month where we typically get about three inches. Not exactly the lovely June days that were the norm for southern Wisconsin. The question we all want answered is how much of this is an aberration and how much is a taste of things to come?

Thanks to Jim Rowen for the heads up on this climate change story.

Sweet Sunday

Ducks, chicks, bunnies, a basket of carrots and lots of sweet treats. There's a mixed bag of licorice, a chocolate tulip cup that I filled with chocolate-covered orange and lemon rind and crystalized ginger — and topped with a white chocolate and hazelnut mini "corn cob." Also included are a tin of Les Anis de Flavigny (French licorice mints) and a package of Stroopwafels (caramel waffles). All of it from Chocolaterii Stam at Greenway Station. I just discovered this Madison outpost of a Dutch chocolate maker which sells a dizzying array of beautiful and tasty treats; and you can easily see I fell prey to a delicious temptation!

Something sweet for Valentine's Day

Sophie Blackall's "Missed Connections: Love, Lost & Found" is a sweet but not sugary small confection. Blackall, an artist, blogger and reader of on-line postings of "missed connections" has turned these sometimes silly, often wistful messages — very short short stories — into a book of arresting images. Each tale is told in a single image illustrated with Blackall's watercolors and calligraphy. Sometimes the words are all part of the picture; sometimes the full text is only readable on the page facing the picture.

The book — at only $14.00 — would make a much longer lasting impression than flowers or candy at a fraction of the cost. In this time of continuing economic worries, nobody wants a gift that strains someone else's budget. If you're looking for a memento of the occasion that is both quirky and tender, Blackall's book is perfect. If you want to splurge, she has an Etsy shop where she sells prints of her charming illustrations. And if the budget is terribly tight, "Missed Connections" is available through the South Central Wisconsin Library System. Or you can read and enjoy her blog posts about her father's adventures.

Illustrations by Sophie Blackall from her Etsy shop.

We're sticking with the Pulaski band!

I had not planned on returning to the blog with a You Tube video, but I just can't help it. This is the marching band from the high school in Pulaski, WI, not far from Green Bay. These fabulous kids clearly know their town — and their school — are named after a rebel who fought in the American Revolution. This band is what democracy looked like at the 2012 Rose Bowl Parade.

The band leads off with "On, Wisconsin," but breaks into Woody Guthrie's "Union Maid" when they stop in front of the grandstand. You'll recognize the chorus: "I'm sticking with the union." The announcers completely missed this stunning bit of recall politics but everyone in Wisconsin got the message.

Memebers of the Pulaski High School Marching Band, we salute you! Here's to a great new year.

 

It may be Christmas . . .

but folks in Wisconsin don't take breaks from the serious business of getting our state back to its progressive roots. At noon today, almost 1,000 people defied Gov. Walker's unconstitutional attempt to stifle dissent and converged on the Capitol Rotunda to protest peacefully and sing holiday carols. You can read the details of today's event here in the Progressive Magazine. And you can get a glimpse of the action in the video below.

 

Christmas in Wisconsin 2011

What kind of gifts do you give friends and family in this year of living strangely in Fitzwalkerstan? Top of the list for most of my friends would be to get the required number of signatures to recall Gov. Walker. But I'm thinking a bit smaller in this instance. There's the whole buy local initiative, of course. But what about gifts that capture this moment in time, that celebrate it, link it to our past and future? There are a lot of potential possibilites out there, some obvious and others less so. Here are my suggestions:

Union Town by Tom Morello / The Night Watchman: This CD features 8 union songs; the last one on the disc was recorded live in Madison last February. The disc itself carries an image of the crowds in the Capitol Rotunda and the inside of the jacket shows one of the rallies here. In addition to the music, I like this CD (versus Morello's World Wide Rebel Songs, for instance) because it's inexpensive and has just enough music to get you fired up. Under $10.

We Are Wisconsin: The Wisconsin Uprising in the Words of Activists, Writers and Everyday Wisconsinites Who Made it Happen: Edited by Erica Sagrans. $18 paperback or you can download a PDF. The strenght of this book is that it contains the first writings, essays and blog posts coming out of public resistance to Governor Walker last winter. Farmers, politicians, students and citizens make their voices heard. First-person history in a convenient package.

 

Working Words: Punching the Clock and Kicking Out the Jams: This anthology of poetry and essays — edited and with an introduction by M.L. Liebler — is an amazing and inspiring collection and includes titles both familiar and unknown. The voices range from Ed Sanders of The Fugs to Jack White of the White Stripes; from Walt Whitman to John Sayles to Michael Moore; Amiri Baraka to Dan Berrigan to Li-Young Lee. Coffee House Press, Minneapolis. This is strong stuff and not intended for Tea-Partiers. 

Where We Worked: A Celebration of America's Workers and the Nation They Built: By Jack Larkin. This is the story of the 99%, our grandparents and theirs — all the citizens who built the mills and factories and dams and farms. While the book tells our history and our stories, it is the photos (from the Library of Congress) that speak most powerfully across time and generations. Most Americans today would be hard-pressed not to be able to find images that show the jobs members of their family have done. There's a whole section on coal mining, for example, with a number of pictures of breaker boys — the job my paternal grandfather had as a 10-year-old in Pennsylvania. Lyons Press, $40.00. 

Bill Moyers Journal: The Conversation Continues: By Bill Moyers. I picked up this hardcover book by Moyers at A Room of One's Own after the first day of the Democracy Convention in Madison last summer. Came home, sat down and began to devour it. Moyers, as usual, finds those people who speak most clearly and eloquently about the issues of the day: from poetry to poverty, gay marriage to plutocracy. This book will give you Progressive talking points and an endless list of books you want to read by the people Moyers interviews. 

Cut From Plain Cloth: The 2011 Wisconsin Workers Protests: By Dennis Weidemann. This hardcover book about the Wisconsin uprising has 150 photos and personal stories that exemplify the diversity and intimacy of this movement. I recognized old friends and new in its pages. Different enough from We Are Wisconsin that you could own both without too much overlap.

  

And, of course, you could make a donation to United Wisconsin (to Recall Scott Walker) in the name of a friend or family member as their gift this year! 

NOTE: All of these books and the CD are also available through the South Central Library System in Wisconsin.

Olbrich's Holiday Express 2011

The first rush of visitors is over making it the perfect time to visit Olbrich's Holiday Express. The annual winter extravaganza features model trains, evergreens and a gorgeous array of poinsettias. This year's visual treats include unusual birdhouses like the glass one pictured below and stained glass panels featuring images of birds. You can find more information about the Holiday Express as well as December concerts on Olbrich's web site. You can also get one free ticket to the show by taking an online scavenger hunt; deadline is Tuesday, Dec. 13.

PHOTO BY KATY PLANTENBERG/OLBRICH STAFF

The pale pink and white poinsettias (above) are a beautiful change from the traditional bright colors. I was quite taken with them when I was at Olbrich earlier this week. I noticed Olbrich's Growing Gifts shop was selling them along with Amaryllis and many wonderful gifts for gardeners and others on your list. Olbrich is also offering holiday cards with images of the gardens taken by Olbrich staff members or local photographers. You might also consider a gift certificate to the shop or a membership to the Olbrich Botanical Society (the friends organization). I just used an Olbrich gift certificate to buy myself a copy of the 2012 Madison Area Master Gardeners Journal/Calendar — a great gift with a local slant. 

PHOTO BY SHARON CYBART/OLBRICH STAFF

Holiday Express is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., except for Dec. 24 when it closes at 2 p.m. and it's closed all day on Christmas. Admission for the general public is $3 (ages 13 and up) and $2 for children ages 3-12.