Missed the opportunity to post a couple.

On our way to the Midwest Crossfit Sectional, we did do a little cultural and hit the Lincoln Museum in Springfield, IL. No pictures allowed! But this one counted. For real when we walked in at a distance I thought these people could have been those "live mannequins" you sometimes see. They were fake, actually. Try not to notice, but I'm wearing my sweatpants jeans... Don't judge!? I was in the car for over 5 hours and wanted to be comf.

For fun here's the classic from our arrival at the designated Crossfit Hotel.

The Peonies.

One glares right, one left. One's on the angle. You get the idea even though it's not an entirely accurate representation.

I sweated this one. I love when I'm sick to my stomach with nerves and then everything works out way better than I could have imagined. Linette was an incredibly gracious "client", who seemed to enjoy the painting when she saw it. I have to give props and thanks to all my friends who encouraged me with this one – that I was NEEDY along the way is an understatement! But I feel a confidence boost from positive results, and I'm looking forward to another couple of small projects and the pending i55 series I plan to bring out to Steamboat this summer.

What can I say, I'm in the mood... Finally!

To view how this one began, click here, and here. What a difference some inspiration makes!

Art Institute, Part Three: Just the space.

We had to wait a while to be seated to lunch so we walked out onto the patio on the third floor by the restaurant and imagined how wonderful it would be to sit out there listening to a concert at the pavilion below in the summertime, having cocktails and/or dinner and just generally enjoying a leisurely evening.


The new Modern Wing is so linear and white, with a backdrop of scenery that is both modern and classic, traditional. We split our entrees, Michelle's a whitefish encrusted in almonds with grilled fennel and some kind of potato puree, mine a small piece of steak cut into six bites, topped with a poached egg and greens, swimming in some kind of sauce. Michelle had a beer and I had a pomegranate lemonade, and we ended the meal with coffee... And then ordered a frozen chocolate and nugget mousse with chopped salted peanuts throughout on a plate of caramel, described by the waiter as a frozen Snickers bar. Hello?

Two more pieces I enjoy:

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

Art Institute, Part Two: Hanne Darboven.

So I think my favorite in the Modern Wing is Seven Panels and Index by Hanne Darboven, 1973. Difficult to photograph – it's under glass. The first time I saw it, I went home and googled her. I don't know, then I really loved her completely.

An excerpt from one article:

"Anyone who visited her at her family's estate just south of Hamburg has a story to tell--about, for example, her cohabitation with Piephans, the canary, and the various Mickeys, several generations of identically named miniature goats. Each morning at 4:00, Hanne would bring them the same type of cookie. She worked until 11:00 A.M., then granted one hour when she could be visited or reached over the phone. Regularity, discipline, austerity, asceticism and obsessiveness were among her idiosyncrasies--both in her work and her life--since she regarded 'being and doing [as] one.' "

Via DB Art Mag.

I mean, she kept miniature goats? Named them ALL Mickey? How awesome is that? And she smoked, made no apologies for it, and apparently continued to do so until it ultimately killed her last year. One thing I read was that if she was awake, she was smoking. What a unique person. Making thousands of annotative deliberate hand written collections, her work apparently fills barns and buildings on her family's estate.


The majority of the piece at the AI looks like sheets of ledger paper with a cursively written "u". Filling whole pages, all with distinct yet seemingly random meaning.

With the google search I came up with a pic of the artist:

Via When the Helicopter Comes.

All the links provided offer more information, but for still more, click here.

Art Institute Day.

I took the day off to recuperate since we'd been gone all weekend, but instead of doing laundry, grocery shopping and cleaning the house, I met Michelle for lunch and some art at the Art Institute. It's FREE all month and you're crazy if you don't take advantage of that. I might just go one or two more times! It's sweet cause you just walk right in, like you're going to the library. Also, it felt like it's too bad it isn't just free all the time.

Of course then we spent 2/3 of our time there having lunch at Terzo Piano. It was like we were breaking the rules or something, treating ourselves to such a nice afternoon. It was really fun.

Then I got to go back and take pics of some of my favorites in the Modern Wing. This Cy Twombly is one. Here's a little blurb about it. I love when I hear people hate on his stuff, like they did today, because it has the complete opposite effect on me.

Click to enlarge all images.

Windmills.

A few of you have commented that I have abandoned this blog. True. I'm trying. I got so sick of showing what other people are doing is one thing. But I am also totally, completely obsessed with the Crossfit thing, I am either running home after a workout to log how it kicked my ass or filling the "days off" with socializing, trying not to let this new routine take over. Either way, it's not leaving much time to blogging. But these windmills moved me. And they seem to fit here...

Michigan.

 

What a weekend. Snapped a few shots. Wish I'd gotten more, but I was busy... being really responsible (eh hem) and keeping everyone in line.

 

  

View from the Elk's Lodge at the Chili Cook-off.

We ate some awesome chili, soups, meatballs, appetizers... and we may have had some wine.

Dave's Cuban Sandwiches.

 

Slightly altered. I had 1/2 a frozen pork loin I decided to use instead of a shoulder. Curious to see how this much leaner piece of meat works out.* Using direction from Dave to put them together. He made these for us last time he was out visiting. I've been dying for another one ever since.

CUBAN PORK SANDWICHES

Season well with salt, pepper and spices and sear meat in olive oil in dutch oven on the stove top. Cut onion into 8 pieces and add to pot. Add about an inch of beer, water, stock, apple juice (or any combo of these) with a bay leaf or two and pepper corns. Cover and braise in the oven until meat is 160º. Maybe a half hour?

While the pork is in the oven, chop 6 cloves of garlic and add to 1/2 cup of olive oil in a small saucepan on the stove. Infuse oil with garlic. Set aside in tupperware (you can use the leftovers for anything).

When the pork is done, coat your bread (I used a french loaf) with the garlic oil. Slice the pork, put it on the bread. Add mustard, sliced dill pickle, swiss cheese and a slice or two of boiled ham. (Salt and pepper?) Stick this sucker in a panini press and melt, heat, smash it all together for a few minutes. Voila! Another great sandwich!

*Shoulder! Shoulder! Shoulder next time!

Dear Kathleen.

Been thawing out a chunk of pork and will make some Cuban sandwiches for dinner tonight. Expect a new panini post asap! Thanks for the nice email.

Mussels.

Had some old friends from high school over for drinks and dinner tonight. I'd noticed a trend on some blogs lately discussing mussels and I wanted to give it a shot. Basically for the bread and broth, but also to give the whole mussels thing a try. Luckily I had some willing participants in my experiment.
I was a little leery when the guy behind the counter at Whole Foods told me to be sure and report back if they didn't open and reminded me that they were alive. Apparently this was their first shipment, so they didn't know how they'd handle it. Spoke to Dave last night, and since he is responsible for introducing me to this culinary delight, I took his direction on how to prepare them.

Here goes:

Broth #1
-----------
Cut up and cook some bacon. Set aside.
Saute some leeks and fennel in left over bacon grease and olive oil.
Add 1/2 bottle of white wine and some water (1 cup) to the pot.
Add chopped parsley.
Steam mussels, add bacon back to pot.

Broth #2
-----------
Olive oil with about 6 cloves diced garlic.
Add two dried red chilis and 2 bay leaves.
Add the rest of the white wine and some water.
Steam mussels until they pop open.

I got 8 large green mussels (3/4 pound). These, as the guy suggested, did not open. Only one did actually. I also got about a pound of blues. This amount was the fish guy's recommendation. I think a good rule of thumb moving forward is to do about 1# per person of the little blue ones. Thankfully not everyone was that into the actual mussels so we didn't run out or anything. I just think more would be better.

Dave also suggested making a butter blend for the bread dipping and sopping up. So I mixed a clove of chopped fresh garlic and a bunch of fresh parsley in with the butter. Wow was that good. I mean, the bread coated in the butter and drenched in the broths. Yum. We sided it with acorn squash (butter, brown sugar, salt), a mandarin orange and toasted almond green salad, and some brown rice for Tony. Kinda random but I think everyone had a pretty good time. It's funny how getting together with old friends you see maybe once a year can be so fluid. Gab, gab, gab.

And I was able to "fix" myself of the mussel craving I had all week. I love cooking and entertaining. It's a great way to get the house cleaned as well!

Hillary's Crossfit.

I had been thinking for some time that I wanted to log all my workouts at Atlas Crossfit, but this definitely didn't seem like the place for it. So this weekend I started a new blog to coincide with my debut into the Level One workouts. If you have any interest whatsoever, and I realize you probably don't, you can read more about my Crossfit experience at Hillary's Crossfit.

2009 Cookbooks: Done. Phew.

Now I remember why I didn't do these for several years. Holy a lot of work. Thank god I took the week of Christmas off so I could spend two days of my 'vacation' back at the office. What a dope. Anyway, here's a couple shots of how they (all 16 of them!) turned out.

Can't stop thinking about: Ribs.

Kept up the NYE tradition this year and made some ribs. I was obviously too busy drinking champagne and making the rest of the dinner to take any photos! Whoops. But thankfully this ONE (pre-baking step) was on the camera New Years Day.

THE MENU

Baked Brie with Pears and Cinnamon on French Bread (thanks Eliz!)
Bacon Wrapped Dates
Mandarin Orange and Toasted Almond Green Salad
Brussel Sprouts with Bacon Bits
Roasted Potatoes with Thyme and Garlic (I used little Golden's)
Ribs
Creme Brule (thanks Jamie!)

I basically made up the recipe for the ribs, with help on the sauce from Brad.

RIBS

Take a slab and wash it off. Cut that thin membrane off the back of them. (Gross process, slice it and then just try and pull it off – I think this really helps). Then cut it into 4/5-rib pieces (I got 4). Salt and pepper and spice them up. I coated them liberally with Pike's Peak Butcher's Rub by Savory. Then I stood them up length-wise in the slow-cooker with a thin layer of butter coating the sides of the pot, on High. I added about an inch of apple juice at the bottom. Cook them for about 4 hours, switching to low at some point – when it seems like it's bubbling a lot I guess.

SAUCE*

The whole time the ribs were cooking, so was the sauce in a small pan on the stove, stirring occasionally.

1 cup cider vinegar, 1 cup ketchup, 1 cup apple juice, some sugar (I used brown), some Worcestershire sauce, salt, dry mustard, Cayenne pepper, (I also added some red pepper flakes), (I added garlic powder) and pepper. Cook this all together for a while. (I boiled it up, then low simmered). The longer you cook it, the thicker it gets. I don't really measure spices, so occasionally I tasted it and added what I thought was missing.

Ok, so then I lined a baking sheet with tin foil, put the ribs on round side up, and covered them with the sauce. I baked them at about 450º with the potatoes for about 30 minutes.

Falling off the bone, no really "questionable" or fatty (it was all in the bottom of the cooker) bites. Not to brag but, these tasted amazing. I'm going to try and hold off but I kinda want to make them again this weekend.

*Great for pulled pork sandwiches too!

The Bradford Pear.

My Mom did this drawing of the Bradford Pear Tree and added a cardinal to it. I thought it was lovely and I've never seen her create anything like it. She made it into Christmas cards. I love anything original. She's original. And wonderful, creative, and an overall great Mom. Thanks Helen!

Brad's Pug: It's Mao.

I did this as a surprise for my brother tomorrow and I literally CAN'T WAIT for him to open it. Sometimes I think it's crap and sometimes I think I nailed it.

I used a good friends' pug as my model, a pic I grabbed off Flickr. If you know Brad, we have a love/hate relationship with pugs in general, and the more we work them into conversations, photographs, etc. the better. So, him opening a little 10x10 painting of a pug portrait is priceless.

Aaron and Kate, thank you for inadvertently lending me Mao for this project. I can't say there is any resemblance, but there is a dog here, that Brad can imagine is a pug, and Mao is always around in spirit as a pug we really do enjoy.

The Nutcracker.

So I'm just going to say it. I'm kinda bummed we didn't get tickets this year. Sometimes I guess, things just don't happen. But when I'm wrapping presents, or writing this post, and listening to this music in the background, I regret I didn't pursue a family outing. It's hard to coordinate, and check schedules, and some people in my family (Dad?) I know don't like the event of it all as much as I do. So I let it slide.

In my mind, it was my Aunt Pat's tradition, and she was the one who got us there. (In fairness, it may have really been Grandma Ione). As little kids, Aunt Pat always kind of ring-led any downtown excursions, and I definitely distinctly remember going thru parking garages that are of course everywhere in the city. But as a kid from the quaint suburbs, I had not had much exposure to these immense, complex structures, except on these outings, and they were about as memorable to me as whatever it was we went to go see. Those grated air vents? That seemed like they could suck you in! Wow.

Again as a kid, I never really 'got' alot of what we were doing, seeing and listening to. It was always a drag the night we HAD to go to The Nutcracker. I didn't get the performance of it all I guess. Or how much skill and practice it took for those snowflakes to dance across the stage to this beautiful music, performed LIVE, or how the whole show came together in the first place. I liked that kids were part of the story, and the fantasy of it all, but I didn't understand what it took for those dancers to leap across the stage, or how the music has been around for years and years. How way back when, this all was debuted, and how now it is a tradition many people experience and look forward to all year and all that. You know what I mean?

But what's funny is, I have pictures of Brad and I, as early as 5 and 3 years old, where we'd be 'dressed' in costumes (mostly pajamas) after seeing The Nutcracker.

My little brother. He was a willing participant to many of my schemes, including those where I had him dressed up as Clara – a girl no less. So many times in fact, that around the holidays, my Dad will still sometimes refer to him as 'Clara'. I can hear it now, my father calling to him, Oh Clare-ahh! when he's just hanging out as a grown adult man today.

I got the original nutcracker figure of our family's collection under the tree when I was about 5. I LOVED it, and I'm sure I carried it around like a baby doll. We used it to actually crack nuts, to probably my parents horror, since it was actually meant to be a decoration. Then suddenly after that first year, the annual nutcracker under the tree became part of one of 'Brad's' collections. My first one, with the grey rabbit fur beard and hair and eyebrows, I'm sure is standing on a beam somewhere in his home today. Thankfully one he received at my apartment a few years ago never made it into his suitcase for the return flight. He's NEVER getting it back, and it's pictured above, The Hunter, I think.

Anyway, after this very long day, in a sort of long week of never-ending days and nights, I am thinking about The Nutcracker Suite, and how much it meant and still means to me and my family, even if we don't get to see it together every year.

Happy, happy holidays to all (4 of you) who visit me here.

Reason for the Season.

I'm on Day One of 12 in a row for holiday cheer. This pic is from earlier this week, where My Bestie got our entire office involved in spreading the joy by making snowflakes. I know we had no idea when it started with that first flake it could end up so beautifully... and with 100% office involvement/contribution. 71 flakes. Amazing.

Handel's Messiah @ St. Clement's.

Talk about Holly & Jolly: Joan and I went and saw my friend Kelly and the choir and orchestra from St. Clement's Church in Lincoln Park perform Handel's Messiah by candlelight this afternoon/evening. It was a beautiful performance and the church was incredible. I'm pretty sure we accidentally sat ourselves in the "preferred seating" section, so we were right up there and had a great view. The sound was fantastic and the as the program described, "the building resounds with a near-perfect acoustic unparallelled in the Chicago area". These pictures are pretty bad, and photographing the performance was not allowed, but maybe you get the idea. The architecture is a Byzantine and Romanesque combination, with a soaring dome and amazing arches, mosaics and paintings.

What I also thought was interesting were the instruments used by the orchestra, which was comprised of a group of musicians mostly specializing in "playing music of the baroque and classical eras using period instruments, which use gut strings, resulting in a warmer, more vocal tone than their modern counterparts. The baroque oboes are also warmer and more full-bodied, and the trumpets are valveless." (!!!)

There is a definite threat of this becoming a little holiday tradition I embrace. And although I am not catholic, I can see myself visiting this church again on another occasion. I find it hard to believe that a church choir and orchestra can perform such a show. They are clearly a special assembly of people. I wonder how many of them migrated to the church to become part of this group compared to being members of the congregation first?

What a fine, festive evening spent in the company of some good old friends.

The 'Springs.

I wish I felt more, or was more inspired lately. I don't have much of a drive to seek out new things to post, or worse, regurgitate things others have already found. So here are a few shots I took of my home town, which I love. I love going to the butcher and bakery, waiting forever for my number to be called, and being met by the most amazing smiling familiar faces behind the counter. Or running into old friend's parents, also waiting for their numbers to be called. I love that when I go to the shoe store or fruit store or hardware store, people ask about my Mom and Dad, or Brad.

Tree lights on the pretty trees around the Water Tower uptown.

The best was last summer, when we'd gone to get my fire pit at the local "True Value" hardware store, when the person who helped us knew my mother, BY NAME. And I mean, after she'd been gone for 10 years. He practically asked her if she wanted it on the "house charge". I feel funny about it sometimes, but I literally grew up in Pleasantville.

Remains of a Holiday.

I can't believe it's over almost as much as I can't believe we get/have to do it all again (only bigger) in three weeks. I'm not ready to do the Christmas stuff yet. I think this stuff is so pretty. So, I'm waiting until December, maybe next weekend, to drag out those bins.

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend!