Deb's Lunch ... and dinner and breakfast too » travel

Back home but not quite back to normal -

DebS — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:03:08 +0000

Whatever that is – My brother’s writing about the string of snow days in Seattle that disrupted his schedule, and I’m in Madison still feeling conference-time-shifted. For me, rather than snow storms, I think it’s the perfect storm of a long weekend in Dallas, including one twilight zone day, (capped off by Mark’s bout with food poisoning) plus the start of a new semester, plus we have a new exchange student (also at loose ends, patiently waiting for second semester to start at high school – Jan. 30th), plus the off winter weather we’ve been having. We finally got some real snow, but we’ve also had ice and rain and temperatures in the mid-30s in the daytime.

My main complaint is the utter inability to know what day it is – I missed Wednesday somehow.

Got back late Monday night to kitty-trampled kitchen counters, and stacks of mail. Today was trash and recycle day, so the kitchen’s looking more normal – I even dumped the compost twice – one advantage of the warmer winter – the compost bin doesn’t freeze closed – but I could do without there still being alive, flying bugs in there in NOVEMBER.

Tonight there’s noodle casseroles for dinner at the supper club – turkey and broccoli-mushroom – spinach salad and fruit salad and cookies. Both recipes made vats – I had to do overflow small pans, beyond the 13 x 9 x 2 I had planned for each. Maybe I’ll get a few pix, but given my usual habits, would that be a sign of normalcy, or ab-?

Half bagel on messy desk atop teetering pile of grad school applications I need to read

PS, as per usual, I guess – even though it was an exceptionally nice dinner group, pleasant conversation, several new members – only one picture from the dinner, and it’s of leftovers the next day:

Ginger cookies & chocolate chip - there were some rugelach too, but we ate 'em before they could get leftover

What could happen next

DebS — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 14:57:43 +0000

Mark seems to have gotten a case of food poisoning. We went to a place called Villa-O, kind of organic Italian. It was a little noisy, but we liked it. We ate different entrees – I had scallops with a fennel crust served on top of basil vinaigrette with arugula & tomatoes & a few fried potatoes, Mark had the Waygu beef Bolognaise on top of their homemade penne. We shared pizza bread and I had a few bites of Mark’s wedge salad with bacon and creamy Gorgonzola dressing, and we both ate focaccia with herbed oil from a bottle on the table. I tasted Mark’s pasta and he ate a little of my scallops. We cabbed back to the hotel – our driver, who was listening to coverage of the South Carolina Republican primary on NPR, thought Newt Gingrich is going to be the next president – he saw it in a dream. We watched TV for a bit, the remote crapped out, and Mark starting throwing up at about 9:00 p.m. That’s actually how I knew he was sick – Mark’s not, as are virtually all males – not likely to be stumped by a remote. One minute he was standing there with the remote in his hand looking baffled, the next, lunging for the bathroom, and stomach-emptying sounds ensued. I’m not sick. I suspect the oil, or the meat sauce. Or the salad – but not the Gorgonzola cheese, despite the fact that Mayo Clinic told Mark it was the culprit.

Pizza bread at Villa O

Scallops at Villa O

ooops…..

DebS — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 03:09:16 +0000

So far, this is the conference day when nothing’s turned out as expected. First, the meeting in a private suite in my hotel with recruiters from a big library consortium, to talk about placing library school students from my school in fellowships & internships, turned out to be from 9:00 – 11:00 instead of 10:00 – 11:00 like I thought. Then I trekked up to one of the most far away hotels, for another meeting and once I located the empty locked meeting room, realized it’s tomorrow. I was already 20 minutes late for any of the other things I could have gone to in that time slot, plus I was a 20-minute walk away. So I found another of Dallas’s subterranean Starbucks with really well-hidden bathrooms – I assume to protect them from street people. You had to go up a closed escalator and ask the security cop – who directed you to the bathrooms behind an unmarked door.

I had signed up for a lunch – so went and got food, and then proceeded to my next meeting, one where I thought I was my division’s liaison to a larger organizational committee. And there was another person already there in the role. We worked it out without blood after – this was my last meeting; he’ll start now – but I still have to write the report. Shucks.

Not sure what can happen next – here are some pix from last night and today.

The joy of travel

DebS — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 23:00:03 +0000

I’m in Dallas for the librarians’ conference. On the way, I was stuck in the Denver airport for about an extra hour – Frontier airlines seemed to have lost our pilot, so my plane that was to have taken off at 1:05 didn’t leave until more like 2:30. And why I had to go from Madison WI to Dallas TX by way of Denver is a mystery only Frontier knows the answer to – a symptom of our shrinking airline market – the airlines are all buying each other, so as a consumer, I have less choices of when and how I want to get anywhere. The plane just sat at the gate with its cute little raccoon tail & all. The advantage to the delay is that I got enough work done on my online course so I could send a welcome email to students, telling them a little about what to expect when the course opens on Monday the 23rd.

And I got to do nature photography of the birds that live on gate A30 in the Denver airport.

I rode the train into Dallas, which took about 2 hours – 2 buses from the airport to the train station, and then the train ride itself – but when I stepped off at the final station, I could see my hotel. When I got to the hotel lobby, the line to get checked in was ridiculous, so I left my bags with the bellman, and went for a drink. Even that was little difficult – had to go to the wine bar in the chop house, because the sports bar was too full. And when I opened my credit card wallet to pay for the wine, one of my cards was missing. After some minor panic, I figured out that I used that card to pay my bag fee when I checked in for my flight when I was still in PJs at home, and eventually Mark found the card in the pocket of my sweatshirt, that was hanging on the bathroom door, safe at home.

I did a little searching for pizza, but the better sounding places didn’t deliver, so I went with the bellman’s suggestion – and got a roasted corn pizza and an iceberg lettuce salad for about $15 – and 2 room service beers for another $16. And watched The Sting on TV. Pretty standard for a first-night-at-conference hotel night, except usually I’m with Mark.

This morning I had to get up 15 minutes early to shave my legs – it’s too warm in Texas for leggings or tights. And I did my Rodney Yee a.m. yoga DVD, too. I found the closet Starbucks – subterranean, in a shopping mall under a big bank building – 2 ways to get there – from the bank plaza or enter the parking ramp of another building across the street. And I took pictures of the leftover giant Christmas tree ornaments that are still decorating the lawn outside my hotel – sitting on brown sod.

Racoon on plane wing

One of the birds on A30 in DIA (Denver Int'l Airport)

Group shot of the birds in A30

Platform waiting for the train to Dallas - in the middle of nowhere

Wine bar in the Dallas Omni hotel

Giant Christmas Balls

Giant Balls from above

Not 100%

DebS — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 02:18:16 +0000

Mark’s dad died last Friday, and we got back from the funeral in North Carolina at about 10:00 p.m. last night. That’s why I was writing and obliterating my leek tart post in the Orlando airport on Sunday – we were on our way to NC. Had to get up at 3:45 a.m. on Sunday to drive to Milwaukee for a 7:00 a.m. flight – that’s not even Oh my effing God – 3:45 is just ouch. I am not recovered from the trip yet – first getting up too early, then I had a little too much wine on Sunday night. There was a big crowd at dinner and Mark’s brother Gregg, who knows a good bit about wine, got two bottles of a nice red, then there were another two bottles of an even better red back at their room. Such bad form – note to self – not supposed to get too drunk when attending father-in-law’s funeral to support your spouse. Poorly done. Not about you …. And now I’ve got a cold.

I didn’t take a single picture of North Carolina food. My last food shot was Sunday breakfast in the Orlando airport.

We had a few good meals – Sunday night was Bonefish, which I think is a limited chain. I had swordfish and pumpkin ravioli, before I drank too much red wine. Monday after the funeral, and after a lot of the family went home, we went to a place called Ironwood Cafe. Also nice – I had ribs and sweet potato fries and haricot verts – tasty but heavy. I broke my water glass while Gregg & Jean were eating dessert and I was drinking a cup of lemon tea to try to settle my stomach – splashed water all over Mark & Ethan, broke the stem off the glass. Tuesday was the lawyer, lunch at a Panera, and another 9 hours of travel. Meals – half a mozzarella panini & tomato soup at the Panera, scone from Starbucks, and ice cream from Baskin-Robbins in the BWI airpot – shoulda been good but there were too many ice chips in the ice cream.

Today back to work and a 9:00 a.m. meeting, and a 2:00 to 4:30 class. I am sooo out of it.

But maybe it’s not just me – I made pizza for dinner, and Instagram and Tumblr don’t seem to be talking to each other – here’s the pix tho -

Plain tomato pizza

Goat cheese, squash and caramelized onion pizza

Arugula & prosciutto pizza, with goat cheese, squash and caramelized onion at the back

Beignets in NOLA

DebS — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 02:39:38 +0000

Plate of beignets

Beignets & cafe au lait

Cafe au lait

Even ate (most of) the last one

Bitten beignet - this one's the money shot (ha!)

Ceiling fans

Only in New Orleans

Slippery sidewalks in the French Quarter

This was on the big loom - I love how the patterns in the fabric being woven in makes the weave look more complicated

This is my new kitchen rug - French red stripe

This is what we're gettingffor Ethan - they call it field of flowers

Close up of field of flowers

On my last morning in New Orleans, I went to one meeting and then got coffee & beignets. Then we went and bought rugs, from a place that custom weaves rag rugs, in the Quarter, Lousiana Loomworks, where we’d gotten stuff before. Mark’s got a kitchen rug from them, and I have two, although they’re older now – one of mine’s in the basement by the washing machine, and the other I use by the back door in winter. We ordered a little rug for next to Ethan’s bed in the dorm when he goes to college next month.

Luke

DebS — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 17:57:10 +0000

Cone of frites

The $16 burger on a board at Luke

Shrimp & grits - kinda blurry - gotta stop using the digital zoom

Wreakage of our dishes after we ate all we could

For our big dinner out in New Orleans, we went to Luke, one of Chef John Besh’s places.

Luke is Besh’s more casual place, in comparison to Restaurant August. It’s kind of German/French/New Orleans and heavy on the pig – in a good way.

I had shrimp & grits, the shrimp and buttery grits were great, but the picture came out blurry. Mark’s chicken had that garish food shot with flash look, so I’m not reproducing it here. Joe’s $16 burger was the most photogenic.

I fell while we were walking over and skinned my knee. Besides feeling stupid when I took the fall, I was a little beat up and sore the next morning.

In NOLA

DebS — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 21:13:05 +0000

So I’m in New Orleans for the librarians’ conference. We were last here in 2006 – the first big conference to come in after Katrina.

The opening general session started with inspirational videos, like a high school age girl singing “I need my library”. I suppose I should’ve been more inspired, but it’s hard not to be cynical when one of the kids in the vid said he needed his library because high school’s such a noisy fast place.

The real keynoter was Dan Savage. I’ve read him for years – when the ALA prez was intro-ing him and talking about all his good works, I kept thinking, “yes, great, but let him come out and talk – we want to hear him ‘cuz he’s funny”. His current project is it gets better – again really good stuff, helping gay teens, preventing suicide. Even on such heavy stuff, Savage was funny. I noticed that he’s kinda pumped up now – big biceps – but all through his book The Kid, he says that he wanted to have a kid, be in a committed relationship, so he could get fat. Let himself go, not have to workout.

I didn’t bring my real camera. Mark loaned me his little one, since maybe we’ll get one of these new little Canons. Mark says it’s got a really big CCD for a point & shoot. And I could get an SD card for it that has wifi for getting the pictures out of the camera. The theory is that this would give me a way to shoot food while traveling and blog the pix that would look a bit better than iPhone pictures.

I dunno – I tried using the little Canon last night to take pix at the Gumbo Shop, and felt like a dork.

Cigarette butts stashed in a corner of our balcony

Bread, unbroken

Bread, broken

Shrimp Creole

Macque choux corn

Dinner table at the Gumbo Shop

Ceiling fan at the Gumbo Shop

Toulouse Street

Pool at the Hotel St. Marie - in the dark

posted from my iPhone

Cleaning out the fridge

DebS — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 01:31:43 +0000

Last weekend I was in San Diego for the grocery co-op conference. I got back, and now we’re leaving again for the librarians’ conference in New Orleans. Yesterday I took in Rach’s orphan produce ‘cuz she’s traveling a lot too – we had a smoothie made from her strawberries & a banana for breakfast this morning – and I froze the rest of the bananas. Tonight I’m trying to use or preserve the rest of what’s in the fridge. Mark picked up my CSA box last Thursday, and he & Ethan ate the strawberries that came in it. But the farmers’ market was “a blizzard of strawberries” according to Mark – I’m going to freeze the strawbs he got there. I made a big stir fry the other night, that was pretty good, asparagus, sugar snaps, carrots, squash, red onion, daikon radish, dried shitakes, mustard greens – but I didn’t quite get all the grit out of the asparagus. I picked all the mushrooms and sugar snaps out and ate them cold for an after-work snack. Now I need to go figure out what to do with chard, the remaining mustard greens, several types of lettuce and 2 summer squash – I think much if it will be going into veggie stock – and the last of that stir fry can probably get stocked, too.

I ended up having a salad with the oldest lettuce, some red romaine, topped with tuna and egg and I kept adding stuff – almonds & grated Parmesan, salt & pepper. That leaves two bunches in the fridge, to keep till next week. Sometimes it seems like if the lettuce is a bunch or a whole head, it keeps best if rather than washing it, you keep it intact – the outer leaves wilt & die, but they protect those nice tender core leaves that you can eat for a salad later on. I took the veggie drawers out of the fridge to wipe out as I emptied them and I thought I wasn’t going to get them back in. I had to take out the glass shelf that sits on top of the drawers, and the glass dropped out, but thankfully it didn’t break. I think/hope I got the fridge put back together right, now. I blanched the chard & mustard greens – they’ll probably wind up in a pasta, also next week. And I made a big batch of veggie stock, with parsley and a bunch of oregano, and baby carrots, and garlic scapes, and not sure what all else – smells good. I composted the gritty stirfry. Now I want ice cream with chocolate sauce.

Strawberries to freeze

Salad with tuna & egg & fork

Salad with tuna & egg

Salad with tuna & egg & cheese added

Greens-blanching pot in the sink

Cleaned out fridge drawers - are they saggin'?

Greens

Greens stored in container

Food truck jamboree

DebS — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 17:59:18 +0000

Last night in San Diego, we went to the parking lot of a wine warehouse/bar, 57 Degrees, to sample the wares of about 15 food trucks.

On Thursday, out for a stroll on our first night in town, we walked past the Farm Truck, coming in at the end of the day to the restaurant it operates out of, and one of the guys told us about the jamboree.

The Farm Truck guy told us about their sliders, and that’s the first thing I tried. Local beef, caramelized onions (they ran out of onions after me), grainy mustard, Brie & argula, on a pretty ordinary white bun, toasted (they called it Hawaiian bread). I went inside and bought a beer, then ordered pierogis to go with. I liked them the best, even though the outsides were a little thick. At 8:30 – almost closing time; things were to shut down at 9:00, and some of the vendors were selling out – I got an order of the Farm Truck’s coconut rice pudding. Good, but not as good as mine.

More pix at Tumblr.