C’mon Jax

August 26, 2015

Is it too much to ask?  Just a quick pic to chronicle his birthday. Yep…Baby Hambone Jaxon 3000 is three years old. It might be easier if he wasn’t so black…or, if you were better able to distinguish one end from the other. Maybe if he stopped spinning like the Tasmanian Devil…or at the most basic, if he’d just look at the camera. Then it dawned on me. It was that Puli sense of humor at work, playing me like a Strad.

3yrs2adj  

3yrsadj  

3yrs7adj  

 

A Bushel or a Peck

August 23, 2015

Tomatoes, corn and summer stone fruit. Now that we’re well into August they’re ripe for the picking. Is there anything better on a hot summer day than a BLT for lunch or dinner? How about the simplicity of corn on the cob or maybe a new riff like a charred corn salad? Or, savor peaches and plums in a pie or crostata…maybe whip up something new like a plum caramel to serve over ice cream. The early gifts of summers harvest are waiting at a farm stand near you. Sounds like a little road trip to the country is in order.

tomatobshl2f

BAT2Fcrpt

frmstnd6F

charrdctnavacfood52_07-03-12-8231

italplums5Fadj

sndae3Fcrpt  

 

Top to bottom:

Bushels of heirloom tomatoes waiting to meet up with bacon and lettuce on a nice chunk of ciabatta.

Sweetcorn by the truck load. While corn on the cob is nice, this Charred Corn Salad with Lime, Chili and Tomato knocks it out of the park. Really, I can’t stop making this. Photo via Food52 http://food52.com/recipes/17913-charred-corn-and-avocado-salad-with-lime-chili-and-tomato

A handful of late Summer plums, a little sugar and a vanilla bean is all you need to whip up a batch of Plum Caramel…simple. http://food52.com/recipes/37359-creme-fraiche-plum-cake-with-plum-caramel 

All photos ( with the exception of the charred corn salad ) by gp

 

 

 

 

Road Trip!

August 2, 2015

What better way to spend a gorgeous Summer day than a road trip. A micro vacation if you will. With perfect temps, blue skies and an early start, todays destination: the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I concentrated on the Sculpture Garden… 30 acres of meandering walkways, plantings, meadows and waterways. Around each turn and down every path I experienced another of the world’s most significant works of outdoor sculpture, each expertly presented within a site and plant environment specifically chosen to compliment it alone. A unique museum experience to be sure.

meijr_bttrfld-crpt

 

meijrflls

 

meijr_oldn_crpt

 

top to bottom: 

“Cabin Creek”  Deborah Butterfield

A cooling rock falls along the way.

“Plantoir”  Claes Oldenburg

iPhone snaps: gp