Cleaning out my phone pix

Here is my neighbor's tortoise in my backyard last summer.

I'm pretty sure this sushi is from Uchi in Austin.

Gus as Joooolia Child at Renee's Halloween party.

A relaxing weekend

With a lot of eating. Friday night, I made a tomato-anchovy-garlic-jalapeno sauce for pasta with swordfish on top and a salad of baby lettuce, avocado, walnuts and gorgonzola with poppy seed dressing. Had an antipasto appetizer with some mortadella and capicola and fancy olives I got a the Fresh Market. Served lemon meringue pie. Won't do that again. Not good with wine.

Saturday I had breakfast at the Grill and then Amy made pork tenderloin with applesauce-ginger glaze and more salad. And Sunday night I had chicken breasts in a sauce that had ginger, almonds, onion, garlic and apricots which was mediocre. Not worth the trouble. With baked potatoes and brussel sprouts. Had a little wine with all that.

We played some euchre out at Chip's Saturday night and otherwise I read a ton, got a new Food and Wine annual cookbook at GFT.

I picked up a huge bag of pine cones in the backyard and planted some flower seeds although I know it's a little early but they were leftovers from last year so if they come up, bonus.
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Out in the country

If you can't come to the sunset, the sunset shall come to you.

Pictures

The amuse bouche butternut squash soup at Logan

The pork dumplings at Logan

Asparagus tempura at Logan

Stuffed chicken breast, pasta with red pepper sauce, broccoli


Painting in alcove in alley in Ann Arbor

Pig roast last summer



Sedum coming up out back

Logan

Last night we had oysters and chardonnay at the Black Pearl on Main St. in Ann Arbor. Then we walked over to Logan on W. Washington for dinner. Without a reservation, we were offered seats at the bar, where we had eaten before. It's great to eat at the bar because the bar area is scenic, there's lots of action with the waiters getting drinks, there's no mirror behind the bar so, seated with our backs to the dining room, we can pretend it's our own little restaurant.



We had a bottle of a 2006 Font Sane Gigondas with appetizers: asparagus tempura and pork dumplings. The amuse bouche was a butternut squash soup. We also had a mini papaya salad with a Thai dressing and bowls of wild boar pasta and green olive tapenade gnochhi. And they give you these little chef-made biscuits, too! All this food for only $40! The wine was great, not too full but fruit forward with a hint of chocolate and retails for about $22.

THEN we saw the Band of Heathens at the Ark and were blown away! They played 2.5 hours with one 2-minute break. Their harmonies are beautiful and many songs were taken to a jam, with the three front guys playing an assortment of 14 guitars, including a National steel, lap steel, acoustic, electric.

So we don't get back to town until after midnight but feel we must appear at the Welders where the music is ear-splitting but many oldsters were hanging in and were still there when I left at 1. Rod Graf was sitting in as Buford wasn't there. Fred might have played some bass for the injured Fiely.
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Fine weekend

Made a great meal today: pork tenderloin with spinach stuffing, these potato pancake things I got at Churchill's and oven roasted asparagus. Once again, total cost about $10 with plenty of leftovers. $5 pork, $1.89 potatoes, $1.49 asparagus. Less than $2 of spinach, bread crumbs, cheese. MMMMMMMMM.

Last night, Amy and I went to Chowders n Moor in Waterville for dinner before Hines Farm. Mmmm, great onion rings. Good crowd at Hines Farm although Big James didn't start til 9:30 so we only saw the first (of two) sets. They were good though.

Today, just a ton of errands and tasks but got a lot of stuff done. Fixed a miniblind. Figured out how to unlock the doors in my car. Washed the windows in the car. Did laundry. Got a cord at Radio Shack to hook my iPod up to my stereo. Figured out how my iPod tuning works in the car. Figured out how to convert Anne's resume to Google Docs since she doesn't have Microsoft Word. Booked rooms for Madison and Nelsonville. Vacuumed. Got a new shower curtain. Need to book a flight for NYC.

Although it was warm (50 today) and sunny, the snow is still around. My backyard is very shady and it's still under several inches. But this week, with the warmth and the rain, it should be gone soon. And we're a quarter way through March.

Almost midnight and one award to go on the Oscars and then I'm hitting the sack. Jeff Bridges wins best actor, one movie I'd actually seen.

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More food

Here's a delicious meal we had a couple weeks ago. It was mussels and clams and shrimp with fettucine and some red bell pepper. Mmmmmmm. And a pipe.

Finallly March

I've been eating a lot and reading and drinking some wine and exercising erratically. But now it's March and it's been a blue sky everyday and now it's 45 degrees for several days in a row. Still plenty of snow to melt away.

I'm sure you are voting for Crystal Bowersox on American Idol. Here she is from last week on YouTube. I voted about 47 times last week.

I bought two tickets for the Lion King on Broadway April 16. I just need to book a flight and I'll be all set for that. Plus I need to book rooms for Nelsonville and probably Madison.

The lineup for Madison Ribberfest is out and I post it here because their website is intermittently unavailable.

Friday August 20th

6 pm
Greg Foresman

8 pm
Stacy Mitchhart

10 pm
Davy Knowles and Backdoor Slam

Saturday August 21st

1 pm
Hambone

2:30 pm
Sonny Moorman

4 pm
Big Al and the Heavyweights

6 pm
Teresa James and the Rhythm Tramps

8 pm
Jimmy Hall and Friends

10 pm
Delbert McClinton

It's spring ahead the night of the Welders, March 13.

California Omelet

Sprouts, avocado, cherry tomatoes, salsa, sour cream, chives. Prepared and served in my kitchen.

Mmmm....
Tasty.