Why I Oughta...

Up in Michigan, at the local Hardings grocery store, they sell 2 kinds of sugar.  First comes the Spartan Brand of generic sugar.  And....then they sell something called  Pioneer Sugar . Turns out, it is locally grown in Michigan for over 100 years from Sugar beets. I'm certain that there are some characteristics of cane sugar that outweigh anything you can squeeze out of a beet, but eating something local - that helps the Michigan economy - is a nice counter to any shortcomings recipe-wise.   The sugar beet industry in Michigan has the loggers to thank.  According to the history books , as the logging companies began to clear pine forests, they left behind land that was unusable for farming because of the stumps.  Some crazy farmer decided to experiment with beets and the rest - as they say - is history.  As best as I can tell, growing local sugar in the upper Midwest is unique to this part of Michigan.  We might have had some sugar beets back in the day in parts of Illinois ,

A few months ago, we went to our friend Balone's birthday party out at his folks house in my hometown of Frankfort.  It was the first time we had caught up with our good friends Adam and Jill and their new baby boy - which was really nice.  It is always nice to see childhood friends, but when they come packing a new baby boy, it makes it even more special. Someone brought Balone a Coors Home Keg for his birthdayday and we celebrated appropriately - with a posed picture of us with our "babies". Here's the Babe and I, Balone and his shiny new baby, and Adam and his boy!  How adorable.

I only planted one cucumber plant earlier this summer and that may end up being a move I regret.  If not regret, it is something that I'll need to rectify next spring by planting more - and building a trellis over the winter to support them. Over the past week or two, the plant has started to really begin to produce some fruit.  They were all small and un-pickable just yet, but for the first cuke below: It is a good size - about 8 inches - and plenty girth-y.  The book my sister Vic gave me recommends one plant per person eating from the garden, so that means that we'll need 3-4 plants next year (two for us, two to give away to our families).  That's the book below which also recommends the trellising of the plants. Besides slicing them up and adorning a salad, what else is there to do with cucumbers?

Earlier this year, we were given this gorgeous Ginko Tree.  The Ginko is known as a  living fossil  and was thought to be extinct at some point.    We were going back and forth between a Ginko and a Bald Cyprus, but Nat settled on the Ginko.  This beaut is one heck of a graduation present! I dug the big hole (2X the size of the pot!) and stuck it in the ground in late June and I've been pretty diligent in keeping it watered.  We picked up a few of those new tree sprinklers (pictured above) and I set them up on a timer.  The tree came from The Growing Place in Napervill e, so it has a bit of a pedigree, unlike the rest of our trees that are from Home Depot, Menard's and Wal-Mart of all places.  And by pedigree, I mean a book of care instructions.  A book!  This book tells me that the first year, the tree will get shocked and you have to do your best to keep it alive.  They're pretty hardy - being both somewhat weather and disease resistant.  It sounds like we'll get a

Now that you've properly been introduced to our dog, it is time to tell a little story about her personality/smarts. Last week, we came home to find our air conditioner had stopped working.  (No...it wasn't the storm that flooded the Palmer Underpass, it was a different one.)  Well....actually, it was the furnace fan that failed (again) that caused the problem.  We were getting cold, conditioned air, but it wasn't going anywhere because the fan couldn't push it anywhere. Our house is set up like a traditional bungalow - 2 bedrooms upstairs and 2 bedrooms downstairs.  Normally, we sleep upstairs along with the Babe and Maisy sleeps in her bed in my office (one of the bedrooms downstairs).  The A/C had failed earlier in the summer, so we had borrowed a window unit from my folks.  Fortunately, that happened to still be in our basement.  After a bit of consultation with my dad, we settled on putting the window unit in our dining room - which would (hopefully) cool the w

With no classes at Kellogg to keep me busy, I began to look around at some craft projects that I'd wanted to give a try and began to organize my thoughts around them.  Some of them are pretty seasonal - gardening, jamming, pickling , but I also wanted to try to take on some non-seasonal projects like cheese making and woodworking.  With a fiesta planned, cheesemaking came first.   It started - like a lot of my hobbies do - with a trip to the Elmhurst Public Library where I checked out a few cheesemaking books.  After a few thumb-throughs, I settled on making Queso Blanco.  This appeared to be the easiest cheese to make (maybe Ricotta is up there, too) and one that I could cut my cheesemaking teeth on.   We choose to go organic this time with both organic whole milk and organic apple cider vinegar.  Add salt and you have the three ingredients needed to make Queso Blanco.   I started by heating the milk to 185 degrees.  (Pardon the electric stove, we were in Michigan at the lake w

DiMaggio's Pizza ( site ) 6410 Michigan 63, Coloma, MI 49038-9319,  (269) 849-1521 Pizza Snob Says:  DiMaggio's imports a twist on Chicago-style tavern pizza to Southwest Michigan.  With the new non-smoking law enacted, this family-run bar is all the more desirable.  Order extra, because the pies are just as good the next day.  If it makes it that long.  If you're a little uneasy about hunting, sit in the dining room, not the bar.  Rating:   Five "Ats-a-Nice" DiMaggio's of Coloma has been making pizzas since 1957 when Tony & Madeline DiMaggio purchased Serpe’s Inn from Mayme Serpe (Madeline’s sister). From their years of experience in owning a bar and restaurant at Belmont and Western in Chicago, they brought with them Tony’s family’s original Italian recipes and a love of cooking and bringing happiness to the table. From their site they say:  "Tony and Madeline continued to bake delicious Chicago style pizzas, homemade lasagna, meatballs, spaghett