2 days before the September 2010 flooding in Northfield, Minnesota
2 days later...
Before...
More before
After
Let me begin by telling you that I, before the recent flooding, decided to capture, with my camera last week, the town we now live in before we leave and the few parts that enchanted us disappear from memory. The tendency to see the more positive aspects of an area occurs, for us, often AFTER we’re long gone. To be fair, sometimes it takes being away to realize the endearing qualities of an area.
Northfield, Minnesota Fall 2010
I’m going to share my photos that I took 2 days before the flooding hit in Northfield, Minnesota. That’s where we live at this moment and it most likely will change in the next 6 or so months. Maybe but that’s another post. Many of the photos will be on my flickr account by the end of this week. There are flood pictures there now.
I’ve also decided to give this town a chance-more of a chance that is-because I haven’t been too kind to it in the past. I’m not saying I love it but it has its charms, especially on a September morning with the sun shining and chill in the air, moseying around as I did this morning. (What place wouldn’t….in the states…in the fall?) This walk will happen again until I can’t stand the weather.
The notion to walk around the town this morning generated from the need to move our car, not some life-changing idea to feel one with the town…not in the initial reason. Ru2, our Forester, sat on the street for the weekend, instead of being parked in the back tenant space, due to the flooding and that area being blocked off behind the building. Greg didn’t take my advice to drive to work instead of carpooling so I am privileged this day to move the car around every 2 hours as is the law of the downtown land. There’s 2 hour parking through the week 8AM to 5PM.
Not one person, in our year downtown, has been given a ticket-none that we’ve seen and we pay attention since it affects us. What did I see when I woke up early this morning though? Someone, on a bike, writing the license plates of all the vehicles on the street before 8AM on his notepad. The timing was perfect, or at its utmost annoying factor, arriving the very moment that I rose from the bed, peered through the partially turned blinds and there he was, casting doubt to our thoughts that the town would be reasonable with the blocked parking area. Perfectly aggravating.
Northfield, Minnesota Fall 2010: this area is now blocked off due to flood control
This prompted some choice words because a) there’s high water and the tenant parking is blocked off and b) never seen a ticket or warning on any vehicle so what’s the point? For sure, Greg and I thought a reasonable person might think “gee, this is probably someone’s car that lives downtown and can’t park in their normal spot-there is flooding and blockage….plus, it’s before any stores are open so this must be the vehicle of someone that lives downtown” but apparently not. 2 + 2 doesn’t equal 4 to whoever is in charge of this (too often this is the case here)… and it’s that old way of my thinking that I decided to monitor. If I get a ticket though, all bets are off. The National Guard, helping with flood control (rather mostly people monitoring), in town might have to subdue me in that case-the one time we park on the street during the week. I’m still not thrilled about moving the car every 2 hours today. Greg will have it the rest of the week and my car-moving chains will be broken. Hooray!
I found this funny but the Guard blocked off the town square where the post office and a box are located so we got to hand over our Netflix dvd to a kind guard who then plopped it into the box for us and can now add ‘Netflix deliverer’ to her repertoire while in the service.
I think I lied when I said I was going to reduce my “chitchat” segment to just talking about food. Life happens. It makes me feel better to toss it out there, maybe sharing a frustration that you have experienced or perhaps reminding you of something that has happened in your life. Do share.
Northfield, Minnesota Fall 2010
Hold on, I need to go move the car again. Really, I do at this very point.
Where was I? Oh yeah, over the weekend, a little under the weather were we, and thus a simple, rustic lunch was needed. I don’t know if you’re aware of the online magazine/site, Sweet Paul, (I’ve mentioned it before) which is the epitome of my style…if I created a magazine anyway. The fall edition came out weeks ago and contains several recipes and inspiration for autumn cooking. I chose to recreate the chevre and honey open-faced sandwich with 4 ingredients. I bet you can guess which ones but I’ll still supply the recipe.
Goat Cheese and Honey Open-Faced Sandwich and Edelweiss Grapes
Chevre and Honey Open-Faced Sandwich from Sweet Paul
Serves 2 to 4
Print Recipe
Ingredients:
4 thick slices of hearty bread (of your choice)
4 slices of apple (of your choice)
2 oz. chevre (goat’s cheese)
4 tbsp honey
Place the bread on 4 plates, dividing the ingredients, top with the apple slices, cheese and honey. Simple is good.
Quick note: I haven’t mentioned that Northfield and much of the southern portion of Minnesota is flooded. September 2010 Flood I’ve coined it…ok so it’s not clever but is to the point. I took some shots outside of our apartment building (on the fire escape) of the Cannon River and put them on my flickr account. It’s very high and our car gets to rest on the street for some time until this passes. Sweet but getting around the looky-loos is difficult.
The National Guard is a presence today and the water is higher as of this Saturday morning. I can’t imagine the damage some of the shops and restaurants have now. Ouch.
Back of our apartment building-flooding. That area used to be a sidewalk along the river.
Last day of vacation collages (commence cheering) and I’m just going to lay them out here. This entire week, for any new visitors, was all about a trip home to Indiana for my husband and me.
Read about the other parts of our trip from this week here, here and here.
IU, Indiana University sits in Bloomington, Indiana (about an hour south of Indianapolis). The pretty lady with the red hair is Greg’s sister, Leslie, the youngest and only girl of the siblings. She is studying arts management.
While visiting, the 3 of us played…studied with great vigor, in the 11 story library. That’s us impressed with vast quantities of material-we’re talking floors and floors. People of Purdue, you were wrong. There’s more than one book and they aren’t colored in…at least the books I flipped through that evening.
The fountain depicts the birth of Venus and had some repairs to her…there’s no delicate way to put this and I’m not delicate to begin with, tuchus. Apparently the original bum didn’t fit the piece so a new one was added and she now has two bums. I can’t make the call if it looks better since I don’t recall what it looked like before this “fix.”
Ball State University is in Muncie, Indiana, about 1 1/2 hours south of Fort Wayne, and where Greg’s brother attends school, studying music technology (or something like that). We met his sweetheart on this visit and think they make a good pair. She’s wonderful!
While touring campus, our first stop was the building where Greg’s brother spends most of his time. We were given permission to enter the amazing studios from his professor as long as we “didn’t steal anything.” I snapped a few shots in-between drooling over the very nice equipment. Greg is quite the songbird. Read about the other pictures from yesterday’s post.
Last but not least, our alma mater, Purdue in West Lafayette/Lafayette, Indiana. Walking around campus, being lulled by the traffic’s flow, created an easygoing, welcoming feeling for us. A feeling Greg and I miss. Our drive around the dorms and new buildings was comforting too in the way that forward thinking and university change allow you a calm sense and idea that where you came from is improving and expanding, marking its important place on this earth for future advancements.
Our second day involved a visit to a familiar building, one that both Greg and I spent a good amount of time in-Forest Products. We moved about the lab where our friend is the tech and met up with an old friend and professor. He was happy to see us and while sitting in his office, we told him about our life in Minnesota and Greg’s job, something he is interested in sharing with the other students within that degree, and caught up with him on his life and toddler. His wife, another professor we knew well, was pregnant when we left but sadly, she was not in the building that day. They are kind, fun and highly involved with the students. We went to Costa Rica with his wife and they held cookouts at their home for the Forest Products Club.
Before we left town, we stopped by the Brew Co (read here about that) and caught up with an old friend that is both manager and bartender there. She now has 2 boys. When we left, she was expecting her first child. Time marches on. Our time there was pleasant and somewhat bittersweet now that we are not a part of that scene.
The last collage contains shots of what we did quite a bit of, driving. I thought I’d share some of the playlist that I created (I do that often) especially for our trip with many of our favorite songs for summer and fall.
Our Playlist: you can hear all of these full length songs legally here
“Wait So Long” by Trampled by Turtles
“Beg Steal or Borrow” by Ray LaMontagne & The Pariah Dogs
“Turpentine” by Brandi Carlile
“Home” by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
“Borino Oro” by Mucca Pazza
“Bloodbuzz Ohio” by The National
“Trouble” by Ray LaMontagne
“Cave” by Mumford & Sons
“Head Full of Doubt / Road Full of Promise” by The Avett Brothers
“January Wedding” by The Avett Brothers
“Follow” by Brandi Carlile
“Baby” by Devendra Banhart
“Winter Winds” by Mumford & Sons
“Play Delicate, Desire Quiet” by Grace Cathedral Park
No explaining how delicious and rich these chocolate cherry brownies are, inspired by Heidi at 101 Cookbooks. Make and enjoy is all the “discussion” they need. Mmmm
Chocolate Cherry Brownies
Chocolate Cherry Brownies
Print Recipe
Ingredients:
2 cups dried cherries, chopped
1 cup port wine
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt
2 tsp baking powder
10.5 oz. dark chocolate chips/chunks
5 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter (plus more for dish)
2 cups sifted white sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 cup crème fraiche or sour cream (I used sour cream)
1 cup chocolate chips/ chunks
Place the cherries in a bowl and cover them with the port. Set aside for a day, stir twice during this time.
Preheat the oven to 325F. Butter a rectangular dish and line with parchment paper. This will help get them out. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder into a bowl and set aside.
Place a bowl over a pan of simmering water (making a double boiler) –don’t let the bottom of the bowl touch the water. Place the 10.5 oz of chocolate into this bowl with the butter and sugar. Stir just until the chocolate has melted and the ingredients come together. Transfer to a mixer and allow to cool (so that the eggs won’t cook when you add them). Mix on slow and add the eggs, one at a time. Scrape the sides of the bowl a few times. Add the flour mixture and stir until combined, then add the crème fraiche or sour cream, remaining chocolate chips, and the cherries with the port. Stir until just combined.
Place in the pan and bake for about an hour, or until set. Cool completely in the pan. You can cover the pan with plastic wrap at this point and they will keep for a few days or serve.
I forgot to say happy birthday to my Aunt Paula yesterday and welcome to fall!
What I did mention yesterday was that today is another vacation collage post and might be the one you are most interested in-the food portion of the trip. Read about the other parts of our trip here and here.
I was that annoying food blogger that I swore I wouldn’t be with her camera in the restaurant, screeching “don’t touch that yet, I need a picture” at most opportunities. There were times where I couldn’t wait and didn’t capture the feast…like my shared birthday meal with my mom from Moe’s Southwest Grill. Yep, the place I talk about often. (By the way, I had a lovely birthday. Greg and I went shopping in Fort Wayne’s Glenbrook Square and Jefferson Pointe malls, drooled over several things at Williams Sonoma, smelled several perfumes at Von Maur in the search for my signature clean scent and spent time with family.)
We ate with reckless abandonment for the entire trip. We both paid for it and are working towards dropping a few pounds now. You’ll see why below…
I’ll start at the top left picture and go across the row. The first 3 shots were actually on our last night home at Cebolla’s Mexican Grill with our parents and my sister. We had a great time, tasty food and most of us had that giant margarita in photo #1. Nice. That is Greg digging into his steak Mexicano and I had the Tijuana enchiladas. Both meals we would gladly get again. There are 3 locations in Ft. Wayne (Indiana) and I say try it! My youngest sister and her husband recommended this one and were right on. There’s a story, not about me, that I won’t tell involving their margaritas and tattoos.
The fourth picture on the top (not a very good one) was in Muncie (Ball State University territory) called the Fickle Peach. This was recommended to us by Greg’s brother and was a wonderful watering hole with a definite passion for good beer (26 on tap). The kind of beer you don’t find in your average bar. Check out their website back at that link and you’ll see. I can’t wait to go back. The bartender was a kind man that invited us to their 5 year celebration October 5th with a new beer release event. I wish we could be there.
The first two pictures on the second row are also in Muncie and also recommended by Greg’s brother. Good call. Thai Smile 2 has to be, although I’m not familiar with the food scene in Muncie but have heard on several accounts a cry for good restaurants in that city, one of the top places to eat. They were fast, friendly, attentive and the food was amazing. Some of the best Thai I’ve had. The green curry in coconut milk with chicken, peppers, peas, basil and bamboo shoots was my choice. I don’t recall what Greg ordered but he enjoyed my meal better, stating that his was good but not his kind of dish.
Inside part of Mad Anthonys
The next photo might be a place my devoted readers recognize due to my constant talk about it-King Gyros in Fort Wayne. This is my top pick for a gyro. As usual, I ordered the gyro platter (Greg and I shared so I ordered extra feta, sauce and pita). Going there once was not enough. After the King, across from the baseball stadium downtown, we went a few blocks to one of the Mad Anthony brewpubs for a pint or two. The beer isn’t the best we’ve had (still good) but the atmosphere is nice and the brews are decent for hours of sipping with friendly service. Another friend joined us on this excursion and we ended the night, under the moon and stars, on my parent’s patio, talking about life. We both enjoyed that time, Brant. (You’re not out either, Tom, Val and your young ladies! I wish we had more time with you.)
The third picture in the third row brings us to West Lafayette (our old Purdue University stomping grounds) to a new place, Fiesta Mexican Grill, where we caught up with an old friend obtaining his PhD in computational neuroscience. We call him Soccer Kris…he loves soccer so that explains his “creative” nickname. Good luck to him and his wife, Emily, on their search for work! He said this place was the hangout of the physics students. They are on to something…easily the best Mexican food near campus. Go there! Don’t wait!
Hours after all that amazing Fiesta food, we went over the bridge to Lafayette’s downtown scene where the Lafayette Brewing Company sits. Yes, that place I always fondly talk about from our years at the school. We were there on a Thursday-the day we used to stop by-talking about the old days when our friend came up the stairs bringing us back at least 3 years.
Lafayette Brewing Company beer
This was a pal we hadn’t talked to, due to stupid issues in the past that I can’t even recall now, in years. He strolled over to us in shock, telling us that we were next to the last 2 people he thought he’d see on the second floor. We then sat with some of his companions. One of them (forgive me, I forgot your name) actually brought up Surly beer from here in Minnesota-he wanted to get his hands on some and also mentioned the new People’s Brewing Company in Lafayette, started by a former LBC brewer. We drove by but did not get the pleasure of stopping on our way back to my parent’s house. Next time.
Before we left town, we went to a new hangout, DT Kirbys, down the street from the Brew Co.. The lovely picture of our friend, Daniel, sticking out his tongue and the stunning blonde (Diana) depict our time there. That was fun and we got to spend more time with friends in a welcoming atmosphere.
The last two pictures bring us back to Fort Wayne and one of the best pizza places,Oleys…if you’re looking for a gigantic, thick slice of yummy pizza with a large layer of mozzarella, this is it. The double deluxe often made an appearance at my home in my younger years. This pizza is on my list of “must haves” while I’m visiting.
On our way back to Minnesota, we stopped at a place called Maxwells for some hot dogs (and onion rings) in West Dundee, Illinois. The food was, as I put it that day, “pretty safe” meaning no oomph. You can tell some of it contains quality ingredients but we left with an “ehh” reaction and kept on truckin’.
The pots and pans belong to my mom-in-law. She has them hanging on her kitchen wall and I’m envious of her collection of cast iron. The farmer’s market mural is located on the building on the cobblestone road where the farmer’s market is held in Lafayette (Purdue). The farmer’s market that captured my heart and that I compare every other market to…miss that one. I have yet to find one that has its essence. We used to live down the street from it and Saturday morning, after a hectic work week, the vendors and their goods brought serenity to my life.
We went to Broad Ripple, a cultural area of Indianapolis, for a quick stop on our way to Ball State from IU. Not only was I hit on here and had to change my stylish wedge shoes for walking comfort, Greg and I sampled two beers at Broad Ripple Brewpub. Nice, light but not too memorable beyond the village lifestyle and its charm.
Home to the Vogue Theatre, a popular concert destination with that “underground/indie” feel (and a place my sister enjoys), might make this the spot to go for a night show. Getting to the village required Indianapolis downtown driving (easier than Minneapolis) and we went by the Lucas Oil Stadium where the Colts play and if we were interested in sports, might have more to say about the football season. I’ve got nothin’.
That brings us to the remaining pictures in the collage from Bloomington, Indiana-Indiana University territory. Greg’s sister is a freshman here and gave us a tour as best she could and we loved it. The campus is beautiful but it was way too busy most of our stay to really take it all in. We took ourselves downtown and stopped at an Italian restaurant, Grazie. It’s an award winning establishment but expensive for what is served. Delicious but pricey in our opinions.
On our way to Bloomington and right outside of the city, Greg and I stopped in for a quick visit to Oliver Winery. I don’t know if you’re familiar with it. My impression was that it was well-known only in Indiana but now know it has gained national reputation for many of its wines so believe it to be expanding. After this visit, it should be…into Minnesota would be nice.
The wines I knew in stores couldn’t compare to the Creekbend Vineyard (using Indiana grown grapes) wines that I didn’t see…most of what is sold in stores has been too sweet for my taste (except the Riesling and Gewürztraminer-two favorites of mine). This series is wonderful. I was impressed and came away with a case of mixed styles.
The landscape and facilities were very attractive with a large amount of butterflies floating around and flowers I’ve never seen. One of the butterflies, bigger than my hand, attempted to land on my head before I knew they were there and I yelped, embarrassing myself before leaving. Typical for me. Greg was impressed with the woodwork and not at all upset about buying an entire case…our intentions are to save some for Thanksgiving. Definitely worth a planned visit.
Our top choices (beyond the Riesling and Gewürztraminer) are: Catawba, gorgeous color with hints of strawberry and peach, the Beanblossom hard cider, with Indiana apples, the blackberry, somewhat sweet but well-rounded and great for fall, and the Vidal Blanc, with flavors of apple and pear. We adored more but had to stop purchasing wine at that point. You can order the wines online in some states and I suggest you do so for the upcoming fall holidays (most are priced between $10 and $20).
Now for the place that was recommended by a reader from Bloomington and the place that stuck out and impressed us beyond our imaginations-farm market & café part of farm Bloomington, a local, farm to plate operation from Chef Daniel Orr. Read more about it or check out the youtube video here. Bon Appetit and the Food Network awarded this unique organization in recent years (hopefully the idea grows-I’d love to have a place like this in the future).
The food was amazing, easily the best breakfast I’ve ever had on a vacation and probably in my life (that I can remember). Look at that fresh fruit with local honey and something that probably doesn’t look like much but I promise that, with its simplicity and quality ingredients, is superb. The roasted tomatoes, toast, apple butter, jam and butter had me swooning. Wow!
The last collage for the day consists of what we did and our last meal and night with family at Cebollas. Tear.
No need to explain this dessert-it’s simple yet elegant and ideal for this fall season. Anyone else wondering where September went?
Vanilla Roasted Pears
Vanilla Roasted Pears from Smitten Kitchen
Serves 4 to 6
Print Recipe
Ingredients:
¼ cup sugar
½ vanilla bean (a splash or two of extract could work too in a pinch)
1 ½ lbs. of any variety of pear, peeled and halved
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp butter
Preheat the oven to 375F. Place the sugar in a bowl. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise in half and scrape out the seeds. Stir the seeds with the sugar or if using extract, stir that with the sugar. Arrange the pears in a baking dish, cut side up. Drizzle the lemon juice over the top and sprinkle with the sugar. Add the bean to the dish if you desire. Pour the water into the dish and dot the pears with some butter.
Roast for 30 minutes, brushing the pears with the juices occasionally and turn, then roast another 25 to 30 minutes longer. Check to see if they are tender after 30 minutes for smaller pears. Serve warm with the drippings when tender.
