Farmer's Market to Table

Ry has been tethered to the task of refinishing our fireplace mantel, which left me lots of time to kill this weekend. I filled it by riding a good fourteen miles on my bikecycle and gathering the fixin's for a home-cooked Sunday meal.

One of the places I rode was the West Allis Farmer's Market, which I believe is the best market in the metro area. My purchases were limited to the capacity of my bike basket, so I kept it simple. I purchased a whole organic chicken to roast with a tried and true Cook's Illustrated recipe, some taters, tomatoes and lovely flowers.

Flowers at the market are such a steal! It was quite a task making it home with them safely in tact given the cool and strong breeze flowing through the city this weekend.


Farmer's Market finds in tow.


Cook's French Chicken in a Pot recipe.


Naked, patted-dry, salted and peppered bird.

This was my first experience with preparing an entire animal for supper. I freaked out when I had to stick my hand in the cavity and pull out the gizzards. I only managed to get the heart out and had to have Ry come in and get the liver.

I think it was a good experience for me. I believe Ry's direct quote was "woman, if you can't do this you have no business being a carnivore", which is completely true. Since we've morphed back from vegan to veggie to meat eaters again, it's important for me to have this experience. It reminded me that what I intended to eat was at one time a living, sentient being. Holding the whole animal in my hands and preparing it, instead of some freakishly large frozen chicken breast out of a bag, was quite the reality check.


I seared each of the sides with just a bit of celery, onion and garlic in the dutch oven.


Lined top with foil before setting it to roast for two hours at a low temperature.


Internal temp of at least 175 degrees with the instant-read thermometer after two hours in the oven.


Our lovely table.


Chicken, peas and homemade pesto pasta for sup.


And I can't resist a pick of my mow-mow to finish out the day. He must miss his Uncle Steven 'cause he kept sleeping on the guest bed until we took the linens off.

Madtown Lakeside Stroll With Pumpkins

Things have been pretty rote lately. Going to work, going to bed early, watching season 7 of Curb Your Enthusiasm (which is awesome, by the by). Very funny, for Curb watchers, this business about Tagashi's favorite black swan may be one of my all time favorites. "Listen moron, I'll tell you what swan-killers don't do...".

I registered for some continuing education classes to work on a Substance Abuse Certificate through UW-Madison that I thought was last weekend. I learned on Friday morning that I had mixed up the dates, but we had already booked a hotel. Since we paid in advance, we decided to go to Madison for a little mini-getaway. We woke up late and made our way to Madison in mid-afternoon where we dined at a great little Laotian place called Lao Laan-Xang. Awesome veggie egg rolls with marinated tofu, nummy!

We walked through Library Mall, up Bascom Hill and over to the Lakeshore Path and all the way out to Picnic Point and back. Afterward we stopped for an ice cream treat in the Union. Babcock Chocolate Peanut Butter remains my favorite. Yes, I recognize this is not vegan food. I'm really in a low place in that regard. However, I'm still maintaining as a strong, strong vegetarian.

We stopped in the UW Bookstore where I bought a Bucky decal for my car. It only took me six years to get a hint of my UW pride back. We got visitors' passes to Memorial Library where I showed Ry my favorite study spot in the 2nd floor periodicals room (a lot smaller than I remembered). We moseyed up State Street looking in store windows and stopping in a few on the way.

Finally, we ended up on the square at Harvest, where we enjoyed a scrumptious and locally sourced meal. It's been a while since we engaged in any really fine dining and it was a lovely treat. There were two young college students right next to us on what appeared to be a very awkward and expensive first date. We walked back down Langdon street to our car passing fraternity houses and droves of students walking to parties. One enterprising young fellow offered us $5 cups and the opportunity to watch girls dance around a stripper pole. Indeed, there did appear to be young gals (fully clothed) dancing around a stripper pole in their living room with purple party lights flooding out the front window. We took a pass on that, obviously.

The next day we intended to go for a bike ride on the Glacial Drumlin Trail but it was too cold. Instead we opted for a slow drive home on Highway 18 where we visited a small pumpkin sale out of someone's front yard. We picked out three pumpkins for our front steps and two pretty little acorn squash.


Ry checking out some punkins.


Punkins in the trunk, bikes on the roof.


Silvio is now comfortable enough to go everywhere he's not allowed and to start acting naughty, which he has.


Ry's first take at sourdough English muffins.

Tentatively Accepted Offer

We must be crazy! After much deliberation we decided to go through with the short sale on "our house". We will be going ahead with the inspection and application for financing within the next two weeks, per our contract. We also have the right to terminate our contract at any point within the next 35 days, should we change our minds. After that 35 days are up, if we do not terminate we are in it for the long haul. I'll keep on with updates, but the process may be slow, unless we decide to give up on it. In the mean time we will keep looking at other properties. We visited another open house yesterday near Bayview, but were not impressed.

On Saturday I got a massage from our awesome massage therapist, PJ Rockwell, of As You Like It massage. He provides services from his home, which means they come at a much lower cost compared to other spas or studios. He is also a master with strong, skilled hands. I had a lot of trouble clearing my mind, but definitely kept trying throughout. After a while a peaceful image of this place I used to take bike rides in Flagstaff, Arizona came to mind.

I had a heavy, metallic green cruiser bicycle with a basket on the front when I lived there. Saturday and Sunday mornings were kind of lonely times for me, especially in my last year of grad school when everyone was getting partnered up and I was without a significant other. I'd usually wake up and deep clean my apartment from top to bottom. Then, in the afternoon, I'd take a bike ride for several miles on an urban trail that started on campus. There was a certain bend in the trail where I curved around a hill and in the springtime the side of it would be completly covered in yellow flowers (mix between sunflower and black eyed susie). Off above the hill would be a vast blue sky and bright sunshine. It was big blue skies and sunshine almost every day when I lived in Flag.

One time while riding with a fellow grad student, Trent, we rode off onto a single track trail that followed a creek and an old railroad bed. I should have had a mountain bike for the ride, but we kept going anyway. We rode into a solitary field of high grasses, our backs soaking up the warmth of the sun next to the creek. It felt secret and I felt free.

I was thankful for this nice memory at such a bleak time of year in Wisconsin. I had it a bit rough emotionally when I was in grad school, but now looking back I wish I could have enjoyed it more. I miss Flag a lot and long to be there often.

Me with my bike, grad school kids/friends, a random photobomber guy flashing peace signs and a view of the San Franciso Peaks in the background. Coming back to the NAU campus from the Fat Tire Bike Festival:



A view from up in the San Fran peaks on a hike with my sister and an old college friend, Tim: