Wisconsin Roaming

Biking in SE WI

2010-05-16T19:49:00.003-05:00

wow... the last post in here was in September of 2008 --- step it up people! Surely we didn't run out of things to do/see/know about in WI ..... did we?

A couple of weeks ago, we braved a new (new for us) biking trail in southeastern WI:

Random mannekin head has a new hairdo!

2008-09-30T06:38:00.003-05:00

Hey .... so that post about Random things seen in rural WI from ~2 weeks ago? I drove past there again this weekend and they have put a blonde wig with ponytails on the mannekin head! (Sadly, I did not have a camera with me to capture this.)

Spring biking!

2008-09-15T06:22:00.001-05:00

Waaay back in June, we went biking around Lake Monona with brunch at Lazy Janes as the reward at the end...
Atmosphere - casual. I'm a sucker for places that still look & feel like the places that they were rennoavated from. In this case, a two-story house where the kitchen is on the first floor and seating on both floors.
Food - Soups, sandwiches, baked goods, coffee, tea. There are a good number of vegetarian options. I've never had anything I didn't like there. If you go on the weekend, you should know that they only serve breakfast foods.
Service - is fine, the people have always been friendly and cheery. You pay up front, they call your name when it's ready to pick up at the window, and you shoudl bus your own table when you're done. If you go on the weekend, be prepared to wait in a long line going out the front door....
Overall - Lazy Janes is a great place. I recommend it whether you walk or bike or drive there.... and I like it better on weekdays when it's less crowded.

I thought I had more pictures, but I can't find them at the moment.

Random things seen in rural WI....

2008-09-13T20:10:00.000-05:00

On my way to my aunt's house heading East on Hwy 12.... What's that dot in the middle-right-hand-side of this picture?

Check it out --- it's a mannequin!

And a very large rubber duck floating around, too:

Pesto fest!

2008-09-08T21:58:00.004-05:00

Reasons why we love Vermont Valley's CSA

11 frogs at the farm with two different kinds of basil:

Goats!

OK... technically this next one is at the tree farm, but that's because due to wonky summer conditions plus high demand, we couldn't get any of our usual tomato fix at the CSA this weekend:

(Thanks a lot Live Without Regrets for creating a couple of tree farm produce buying monsters.)

11 frogs checking out of the tree farm. That's 55 lbs of tomatoes you see there on the scale:

Wintersnowgypsy's kitchen with her share of basil:

I now have many, many cups of pesto in my freezer. 2 cups w/ pine nuts, 2 cups w/ toasted walnuts (my favorite this year, I think), and 2 cups w/ cashews. All in ice cube trays at the moment, of course.

Second annual WI River canoe trip

2008-08-18T18:35:00.016-05:00

Last year, we had our first canoe trip, and this year we decided to do it again!
We swapped Todd for Rick and got Katie instead of Witty, but it was another great time.

Starting the trip off right:

Lucia winning, again, as always.............is it even fun for her anymore? :P

W, rockin the 70's child-molester 'stache:

Eagles!

Rick, playing towel-head:

Vavra and the infamous blue kool-aid:

Me & D:

Some people spent time in water willingly.......

......some a little less willingly ;)

Tasty, tasty sangria!

The fish that D "caught" (aka it landed in our canoe):

D showing off the perfect clam shell he found, in front of the same campsite that we camped at last year!

This picture is the essence of the camping trip - relaxing in the river, drinking booze, and hanging out with friends:

Polka Cults

2008-05-19T22:22:00.002-05:00

Polka is the state dance of Wisconsin and last Friday I attended my first Polka Fest in Wisconsin - it was over in Concord, between Madison and Milwaukee.

It was what I had expected - parking in the grass, lots of cute old couples in matching outfits, $6 pictures of Miller Light.

What I didn't expect was to find that Polka and Polka Boosters may be a cult.

We were sitting at the bar when we were approached by a nice old man who attempted to sell us on joining the boosters. It started out innocently - he told us about the club, the fees, the newsletter. Then he kept talking...and talking...and talking...and talking...then he tried to impress us with name dropping of random people who worked in the state...then he told us many people had asked him to run for president...then he talked about how he knew governor so-and-so and senator whats-his-name and 10,000 other people in the state...and how the residents make the laws and not the politicians...and talking...and talking...and talking...and then he tried to get $13 out of us for a CD.

It just got awkward and uncomfortable and he just talked and talked and talked.

So, do go to a polka fest. DON'T join.

Crazylegs 2008

2008-04-27T18:24:00.024-05:00

Yesterday was the 2008 Crazylegs Classic, a Madison Tradition. Where else could you run 8K/walk 2 miles and then congregate to drink beer?

Witty, earthbane, K and I walked. All the others did the run. And they all came out with fabulous times! I think most of them did better than last year. I was happy because usually I stay behind to cook, but this year that was handled by Gypsy and Lucia (with muchas help from B&M, as always!). This year we also had enough people to form a team, and so we were The Alpha Contingent! We all sported t-shirts with this awesome design by Gypsy.

Now for the pictures of everyone after the race:

A record-setting 17,296 participants!

A close up of the backs of our group shirts:

Group picture #1:

Chowing down afterwards:

Our intrepid chefs:

Group picture #2:

The CRAZY picture:

The "look thoughtful" picture (changed by Lucia to "look thoughful or sexy"):

Fun times in all. Can't wait to do it again next year :)

the best place to spend the summer

2008-04-09T16:35:00.002-05:00

I don't have a final answer for this one, but here are my thoughts:
1) Madison - clearly, given the joy of the lakes, the Union Terrace, Olbrich Gardens, concerts on the square, etc
2) Milwaukee - I am sure they do more in Milwaukee, but I could spend the entire summer doing festivals and beer gardens. that is reason enough to spend the summer there.
3) Madeleine Island/Apostle Islands - sure, we haven't been there in the summer, but something tells me that the joy of the fall is even more so in the summer.

best place for picking up men

2008-04-08T08:14:00.002-05:00

the best place for picking up men in Wisconsin might be Osseo. Let's just say that the women have great odds and the men aren't that bad looking.

best places in Wisconsin for....

2008-04-08T08:11:00.002-05:00

new feature on this blog. We pick a theme and then try to figure out, of the places we have been, where are the best places for the theme. Comments with additions or desired deletions welcome.

best places in WI for a bachelorette party - Stoughton and Appleton.
we didn't actually have a bachelorette party in Appleton, but I can tell, it would be good.
Stoughton's downtown string of bars that vary from upscale middle aged (Stella's Speakeasy) to dirty drug addict (either the Nevermind or the one across the street from the Nevermind, I can't recall the names) to community college kid dance clubs... it has it all.

Appleton, WI

2008-04-06T21:01:00.002-05:00

While showcasing in Appleton last weekend, we ended up at Park Central on Saturday night. I feel strongly this bar was created for me and my people.

It's actually a complex, not a bar - there is a Country Western bar with line dancing, a pool hall, a retro bar with a caged dancing area, a karaoke bar, and a dance club (playing current hits).

We did a little hip hop, had a dance off, drank some beer, moved to the retro club, did some cage dancing, whipped out some ballroom, picked up the most lame guy in the state of Wisconsin, got a free pitcher of beer, watched my instructor mount the cage with a running start from across the room, meandered to karaoke where we heard the most awful rendition of "18 and Life" ever performed (possibly ever to be performed - I couldn't be this bad on purpose) and closed the place down with Madonna's Material girl.

This place might be my new Mecca.

Yet another East side Madison business I want to kiss

2008-02-29T08:53:00.002-06:00

Along with Greg's Guitar Shop, my management company, my new mechanic, and the Best Hardware Store in the Wide World (Ace on Willy Street), I have added another business to my list of Over-the-Top Ridiculously Good Customer Service Providers Within Walking Distance of My House: Burnie's Rock Shop.

A couple years ago, I purchased the perfect pair of earrings. They're silver, dangly (but not too dangly) reversible teardrops with a golden brown amber stone on one side and a green amber stone on the other. They are absolutely beautiful in the light, perfectly proportional to moi, and they also match 95.5% of my primarily green and brown wardrobe. I absolutely love them. I'll post of photo this weekend. (I'm wearing them in my profile pic on my blog if you can't possibly wait to see them.)

Anyway, I lost the green amber stone from one of the earrings last September. I was sad. I took them in to Burnie's, where I bought them, because they've repaired silver rings, earrings, and chains for me multiple times before at reasonable prices. They said they would look for a matching stone and replace it for me. So they looked. And looked. And looked. I called them every month, and, every month, they apologized profusely that they couldn't find a matching stone and told me where they were looking and when the next gem show was where they might find one.

After six months, I was pretty much ready to give up and just ask for them back so I could at least wear the earring with the brown stone out. But, they called yesterday and said: No, we didn't find your stone. However, the designer that originally made the earring you bought came back through to show us her new stuff and we bought a couple pairs of earring just like yours. We will give you a replacement pair at no charge.

So, I went in, not quite believing that a) these replacement earrings could look like my favorite perfect+ pair, or b) they would give them to me for free. But, yup, they look like my favorite pair (perfect!) and they gave them to me for free (perfect!). I still can't exactly figure out why they gave them to me for free. I was the one who lost the stone, and I was planning to pay them for the new stone and repair costs. But, I guess they felt bad about not being able to fix them or something, so they didn't charge me. When she said, "No charge," I even asked, "Are you sure? Really?"

Have I mentioned lately that I lovelovelove where I live? Have I mentioned lately that this is impeding my attempts at rational, financially based decision making about which grad school to attend? But that's another story entirely.

Anyway, go to Burnie's. They have pretty things, including all kinds of rings that I want, even though I wear two of the same three every single day. And they are nice.

Restaurant Review - FlatTop Grill

2008-02-20T10:20:00.003-06:00

I got denied on Monday trying to fly to Dayton. The connection from Milwaukee to Dayton would have been missed because of the delay from Madison to Milwaukee flight.

To console myself, R and I went shopping to buy things we have been needing, like a frying pan that isn't TERRIBLE. apparently our current ones are terrible and R was getting shrill about it. I insisted we buy quality, so we went to Macy's at Hilldale.

While we were out there we decided on dinner, and Flat Top Grill it was.
A group of us went there on New Year's Eve, so I was familiar but R had never been.

The schtick is this: you get a bowl and a salad bar style line to put things in bowl. cover with sauce and pick some meat. Then, you hand it over and they fry it all up on a big, get this, flat top grill! They then bring it back to you at your table.

Here are my opinions:
1) I can't give them any credit for my bowl being delicious... I put it all together.
2) there is a scary chance that my bowl could have been sucky... if I were the restaurant I wouldn't want to take this chance. People aren't likely to come back if their food sucked. even if it was their fault. (my issue with places like the Prime Quarter is the same - I am not qualified to properly cook an expensive steak.)
3) I think their drink selection sort of sucks. I had the Horny Monkey at New Years Eve (and sort of appalling with a banana sticking out the top) and it just wasn't very good. They only have about three other kinds of specialty drinks, no bourbon selection to speak of, and a limited bottle beer selection.
4) darn it, that bread is good. it is a fried, greasy flatbread. mmm.

Overall - the dinner is 12 bucks, and I assume this is primarily for the experience. One bowl is way more food than you probably need, but you can get unlimited for a dollar more.

I will go back, but once again, probably for the experience more than the food.

Contradancing

2008-02-08T05:39:00.000-06:00

In other news, there is a contradancing event in Madison this week. I want to try contradancing one of these days. Unfortunately, I can't this weekend as I'm roaming in Illinois instead, but just in case you are looking for something new to try this weekend, here are the details:

Contra Dance
at the Grace Episcopal Church
on Saturday night (02/09/2008)
Starting @ 8:00pm
With caller Steve Pike & music by the Last Gaspe Band

Here's a short sumamry of Contradancing, since you probably aren't familiar with it:

Contra dance (also contradance, contra-dance and other variant spellings) refers to several folk dance styles in which couples dance in two facing lines of indefinite length. Contra dances can be found around the world, though they are especially popular in the United States. Contra dance is also referred to as traditional New England folk dance.

ALthough my favorite definition is this one:

"A contra dance is like an amusement park ride we make for ourselves." --Unknown

And here's a link that can give you even more details. Also, if you go to YouTube and search for "contra dance" you'll find some videos. I thought about pre-screening some for you loyal readers, buuuut.... what's the fun of that?

A sweater and a new haircut... LR#5

2008-02-07T21:38:00.001-06:00

To make up for my previous sweater Thursday that was missing a head, now you get a sweater Thursday that's... uhhh.... mostly head.

Restaurant Reviews

2008-02-05T15:37:00.000-06:00

This blog about Madison cuisine is making me feel bad. It is more complete and comprehensive than my posts and what I simply can not forgive: wittier.
It also includes pictures.
I feel bad inside.
Perhaps I will just link to theirs.
sigh.

Fresco Review

2008-02-04T17:10:00.000-06:00

Fresco is located at the top of the Overture Center in downtown Madison. A group of us went there for Madison's Restaurant Week. (Folks that attended are also contributors to this blog, so it would be great if they contributed and heck, even contradicted me!)

Atmosphere - think modern. glass walls, interesting shapes for the bowls, clean lines, minimalist. This makes things pretty loud when the joint is hopping.

Food - most of us chose from the fixed price menu, but many were on their standard menu:

the seared sashimi grade scallop was prepared well (and pretty delicious), but I felt the dish as a total lacked something - the polenta, sauce, bacon just weren't "there" for me.
Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup with Micro Grilled Cheese - just okay. Not a soup I was going to tell anyone about and the grilled cheese was a nice crusty french bread with cheddar, but once again, not that special.
Salmon - the salmon was well prepared (moist, flakey and delicious), but it was just salmon with mashed potatoes. Once again, nothing extraordinary.
Sheep's Milk Ricotta Cheese Gnocchi - this was the standout dish of the night for me. It was small, but outstanding. The gnocchi were light and fluffy, the sauce creamy and rich.
Cinnamon Creme Brule - I don't know that there are a lot of crappy creme brules out there in the world and this was no exception to that rule.
Beignets - Unlike Creme Brule - beignets are easy to fuck up. But, these were delicious! I haven't been to New Orleans, but I have had beignets at a restaurant in Chicago that could stop my heart. These were heart stoppers too. all light fluffiness with deliciousness.

Service - fairly good, except that she dropped a knife on my friend's head. but the waitress tried to make that right and she was appropriately upset about it.

Overall - there are a lot of fancy restaurants in Madison that would get my money before Fresco.

Ice skating in M-town!

2008-01-29T22:14:00.000-06:00

Olbrich was closed due to thin ice on Monday but I can only hope that tonight's bitterly cold weather will re-open those skating rinks around town. I'm sure that there are a couple more in the Madison area that I'm forgetting... but if you are looking for a place to skate outdoors, try these places:

- Olbrich Park (east side)
- Tenney Park (near east side)
- Elver Park (west side)

Folk dancing extravaganza!

2008-01-26T07:39:00.000-06:00

Check out the schedule for Folk Ball 2008. There's a whole lot of interesting stuff going on in downtown Madison this weekend!

If I survive snowboarding, I am considering going to this tonight:

Saturday January 26
THE LEGENDARY FOLK BALL
7:00pm-1:00-am in Great Hall -- The Legendary Folk Ball Dance Party
Orkestar Bez Ime [international] -- Twin Cities
Maritza [international] -- Decorah
Sloboda [international] -- Milwaukee
Reptile Palace Orchestra [eclectic ethnic] -- Madison
brief early evening performances by:
Viata Romaneasca [Romanian / Milwaukee]
Madcity Tango [Tango / Madison ]
Oak Apple Morris Team [Morris mumming / Madison]

Restaurant Review: Sophia's Bakery and Cafe

2008-01-25T12:41:00.000-06:00

The posting on this blog has recently gone to shit. This isn't only my fault as there are like five other contributers, but still I feel a bit guilt as I am sure I am your favorite.
he he.

So, a quick review of a Madison restaurant to kick us back off with the posting.

Sophia's Bakery and Cafe- a group of us (not unlike the Sex and the City girls, but without a lot of sex...which reminds me of my very sad pledge to be harder to get in 08) went out for brunch last Sunday. Sophie's on East Johnson was our choice.
Atmosphere - if you are looking for that authentic east side thing, well, this is it. Apparently when it gets busy people just sit down at your table. And, it wouldn't have to get very busy to make this happen as the place is the size of my dining room and living room together, but with the kitchen taking up the entire living room part. However, for eclectic but not as crowded I prefer Lazy Jane's on Willy St.
Food - I got the mushroom omelette - good, little greasy, the sweet potatoes in the homestyle potatoes were a pleasant surprise. And an apple tart - pastry was salty and not as sweet as I would have liked. I ate the entire thing though...
Other got cherry crepes (just as decadent as they sound) and a black bean omelette that was surprising. It was hearty and tasty.
Overall - only open on Saturday and Sunday for brunch, quirky with interesting and good food.

A sweater and a missing head.... LR #4

2008-01-24T22:07:00.000-06:00

This is my very favorite sweater of them all. Not only is it black with a yellow latvian design around the cuffs, but it's one that my grandmother made. Originally designed for my mother, but swiped from her at my earliest convenience (as any good child would do :) There's another, tigher and more elaborate version (in white with the design in earthy colors) that also lives in my sweater drawer, but that one takes a special brand of un-self-consciousness for me to wear....

First a pose:

And now, action!

A Sweater Collage!

2008-01-03T20:12:00.000-06:00

In a moment of inspired paint use (yes folks, that's all I have on my computer at home - no fancy pants art programs here - I like to do it the old-fahioned way ;-p

I present to you a sweater Thursday collage, complete with outtakes that progress almost like one of those little flip books... watch the almost animated sweater tell a story!

Foreshadowing an upcoming WI event....

2007-12-30T19:29:00.000-06:00

Check out the NYE prep, folks:

Do you know what those are? (^_^)

A sweater and a rice krispie treat.... LR#2

2007-12-27T06:54:00.000-06:00

Sweater Thursday in Wisconsin.... LR#1

2007-12-20T23:46:00.000-06:00

My first sweater Thursday is pretty underwhelming... note to self: turn on flash next time. This is one of my favorite sweaters - a nice purple turtleneck where if you look close enough (don't try it here - it'll never work with this crappy photo. try it in person next time you see me) you also see blue and red threads woven in with the purple.

EDITED: To add the closeup, *with* flash :)

Good Times (in a black and white world)

2007-12-20T23:29:00.000-06:00

The turkey may be dead, but the gala lives on...

Tree-shopping expedition

2007-12-20T10:39:00.000-06:00

A snowy Saturday several weeks ago found Lucia, Wintersnowgypsy, and I on a Wisconsin winter adventure in the Cavalier. Mission: Two trees, soup fixins, and clay for the potter. Why in God’s name did we take the Cavalier on this particular adventure instead of the Volvo wagon with the hauling capabilities of an F-150? Well, in the constant, invisible karma calculations in my head, which are apparently very important, I figured I owed the universe a turn at driving, and I’m a little stubborn that way.

After stops at the farmers’ market, the Paoli clay warehouse, a cheese shop, an art gallery, and a conveniently placed cut-your-own tree farm in rural Paoli, we met and exceeded expectations for our mission, as per training providing by their current and my former employer. Along with two lovely pines, 100 pounds of clay, and some very respectable, seasonal, locally grown soup fixins, we came away with cheese curds, potentially a new art piece, knowledge of a new tree-transporting technique, and a well deserved early afternoon beer-and-cookie break, all before it started snowing very hard.

The tree-wrangling adventure, as chronicled by Lucia on my camera:

Cutting down a tree with its stump is buried in the snow is hard.

It struggled until the bitter end, but, ultimately, we felled our opponent.

Trees are heavy.

Laima spots her prey - a compact but wily beast.

The battle begins.

Victory!

Now, how to get the two monsters home?

Never underestimate the Cavalier. Through the woods and o'er the Beltline we went!

At home, all happy and (mostly) vertical. It leans slightly left, and that's OK.

A lil' bit of summer with your ice storm ...

2007-12-11T10:52:00.000-06:00

It's good and wintry here this winter, for the first time since I've been back in Madison. I'm sure I'll be sick of it by February, but right now, I'm love-love-loving the snow and cold outside and warm-n-cozy moments inside. Except for the giant ice blocks placed strategically behind my car multiple times. Those I could do without.

Anyway, last night I opened my first jar of pasta sauce that I canned this summer. I've had a couple different jars of my salsa, both of which were perfectly acceptable and salsa-y. I was expecting the same level of perfect acceptableness from the spaghetti sauce. This pasta sauce, though? Utterly amazing. No, really. The texture was a little on the runny side before I reheated it, but the flavor was light and spicy and fruity-freshy-tomatoey wonderful and just so on. I had it over RP's garlic linguini, and it was so good I maybe lost my breath for a minute. So I lopped up a hunk of bread just to sop up a little more. Wow.

I think I only have a few quarts left after this one. They will be pulled out and savored with great majesty next time, and I will definitely make more next summer.

Fall Fun Part 1

2007-11-02T14:45:00.001-05:00

In an effort to include more pictures, but not have to upload 35 times, I tried to make a slide show. But it is very small and hard to see the picture details. sigh.
If you know me, then you may see the pictures on my Flickr account. If you don't have access to my Flickr account then you may email me for access.

Fall Fun Part 2

2007-11-02T12:08:00.000-05:00

Fall Fabulous Fun

2007-10-29T22:01:00.001-05:00

We finally went corn maizin'! WOOT! I think we've tried for the past two years, but it never seemed to work out. This year, we weren't going to miss - all the right ingredients came together: beautiful day, fine friends, and a Yukon.

So we headed towards Monroe and went on a tour of the states.

I think Lucia got some better pictures...Lucia?

Madeline Island Review, cont.

2007-10-01T11:50:00.000-05:00

Better late than never, I guess. To echo Loud: in summary, Madeline Island is utterly sublime. We spent another vacation dreaming up ways we could stay. Variations on the bed-and-breakfast theme won, with attached sustainable farm, catering and event services, art lessons and gallery, and, um, a cottage software development shop (?), of course.

Some highlights included:

The dude who randomly stopped his car directly in front of the camera when we were taking a group picture in front of the chicken shack/diner. Props to Rick for directing us to the best of Wisconsin roadside attractions. We hit this doozy of a giant, possessed loon on the way home.

As previously featured, we are good cooks. And good eaters.
The signs at Tom's Burned Down Bar. Another favorite ...

Joanna and Whitney maintaining a sense of humor in the face of car ridiculousness.
Running along Lake Superior. So excited for the race in two weeks!
Ferry rides and other such island prettiness.

The sole lowlight:

Frankly Lucia's continuing domination of the beer-shotgunning circuit is getting a little stale. The rest of us don't even have a chance, as evidenced by her clear and nonchalant victory here. Followed by others thinking they may have, in fact one, won. Ah, well, at least the dog enjoyed it.

What's your sign?

2007-09-25T22:40:00.001-05:00

Apostle Islands, Fresh Food Strikes Back

2007-09-25T22:31:00.000-05:00

Returned to the Madeline Island againg this year, a few more people in tow. Stayed in the same cabin.

The weather was perfect - PURRRRFECT.

What did we do - we ate...

and we ate...

and we ate...

Canning failure

2007-09-25T10:19:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I failed in canning last weekend.
It wasn't the canning part, it was the tomato sauce that I was making.
So, I get 25 lbs of tomatoes.
I lay them out all nice.
I chop 4 huge onions and end up crying profusely because they were really pungent.
I blanch, peel and chop every single one of them.
I puree them and put them in a pot with the onions and a dozen other spices.
Then I turn the burner on with the intention of letting it simmer for 1-2 hours.
Well, I turned the burner on too high, then walked away, and burned the hell out of it.
I figured I could salvage what was not burned to the bottom of the pan, so I transfer it to a new pot, put it in the fridge overnight (cuz it's like 11pm at this point) and go to bed.
In the morning, I put it back on the stove to heat because it has to be hot when you can it.
I turn the burner on lower, and walk away.
And burn the hell out of it again.
Needless to say, I felt pretty lame.
So this weekend, the fiancé and I are going to get like 75 lbs of tomatoes, and make tomato sauce and can it along with just plan tomatoes.
This time, I hope to actually make it to the canning part.
I'll just try to think of last weekend as practice :)
And, here's a very appropriate comic for our current canning obsession, enjoy.
http://pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF226-Preserves.jpg#211

Visual from previous posts

2007-09-20T21:47:00.000-05:00

Willy Street Fair

Food for Thought Festival

Fabulous foodiness

2007-09-19T09:31:00.000-05:00

Last weekend was a whirlwind of fabulous foodiness (or was it foody fabulousness?) here in Madison. Friday night was the Food for Thought Forum with Dan Barber, Leah Caplan, and Scott Williams. Here's a good summary in the Capital Times. Intangibles-wise, I found it an odd mix of personalities, as Dan is definitely a sarcastic New Yorker, Leah is a dry-humored, tell-it-like-it-is kinda gal, and Scott is about a sweet and earnest as anyone I’ve ever heard. Slight oddness in the Q&A part, but a good mix.

Saturday was the Food for Thought festival. I went to set up at 6 a.m. Despite a few glitches with non-functioning electricity for the sound system and a temporarily lost tent, everything went smooth as silk. The weather was fall-tasticly cool, and there was a steady crowd all day. Most of the exhibitors were happily busy throughout. I heard Cooking with the Stars was hilarious, though I didn’t get to see any of it. All of our volunteers were supahstars,and we got some good media coverage. My info tent spiel got shorter and shorter as the day went on, but it was a fun, exhausting, productive day.

After a nice nap, B&M and I attended the Slow Food RAFT picnic, which has a goal of celebrating-to-save some of our country’s native and heirloom food varieties – from produce to animal breeds. The menu featured some of these varieties from all over the country, including American Plains Bison over polenta (my favorite of the night!), a Mulefoot pork sandwich, an amazing wild rice and apple side, marrow fat bean salad with Door County cherries (my second favorite), fabulous Pleasant Ridge cheese, panna cotta, and hickory nut caramels with sea salt. Wow. We ate so much. So, what did we do next? Go to Cocoliquot for wine and chocolates, of course. What a meal!

Sunday consisted of a trip to the Willy Street Fair, where the infamous parade-o-various-ridiculousnesses passed us by several times and we had kettle corn. We also took a leisurely bike ride around the lake. And, across town, some more canning fabulousness that I hope we'll all get to sample.

Even though temperatures are back to summerlike this week, the air has imperceptibly and firmly flipped the switch to fall. I’ve had my first Bailey’s-n-cocoa in honor of the season. Here’s to many more fall-tastic weekends before winter sets in.

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2007-09-11T20:45:00.001-05:00

This is sort of cheating, as I'm blogging about things that are upcoming, instead of reviewing wonderful Wisconsin things already done. But, these things are wonderful, and several of them are very, very important to me. So, check 'em out, and join me if you can!

REAP Food for Thought Festival, this Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 14-15. An annual celebration of, homage to, and teaching moment about all that is good and great about local, sustainable eating. Come to the forum Friday night or the festival Saturday morning. I'll be at the info tent at the top of the King Street on Saturday from 6 a.m. on - stop by and say 'hi'!
Eat Local Challenge, September 14-23. Take a challenge to eat at least 10 percent of your food from local sources for a week. Piece of cake! If you sign up and need any help meeting your goal, just send me an email, and I guarantee we can get you to 25% with very little trouble at all, no matter what your current eating habits are.
Slow Food's RAFT Picnic, September 15. Experience Wisconsin food heritage with a delicious meal of heirloom variety crops and animal products prepared by Madison's top chefs. (This is my reward meal for work on the Food for Thought Festival. B&M and I are going - let me know if you're interested in tickets. I'm sure they will sell out before the event.)
REAP's Local Night Out, September 27. Eat at a restaurant that is committed to using locally sourced food in their menus. This year's event is also a kick-off for the charter members of the Buy Fresh, Buy Local program, meaning that the restaurants are not only serving locally sourced menus on the night of the event, but have also committed to increasing their use of local goods throughout the year. I'll obviously be going to one of the restaurants that night - just let me know if you want to join me and which restaurant you'd like to visit.
MACSAC's Bike the Barns Tour de CSA, September 29. Come enjoy the crisp fall air and scenery, experience the glory that is our local CSA system, help raise money to support underprivileged families who want to eat local produce, and, of course, eat some amazing food.
ALNC's Pipers in the Prairie Event, October 6. This major fundraising event for children's environmental education programs features a prairie burn, bagpipers, scotch tastings, and appetizer goodies. As a fundraising event, tickets are $75 apiece or $150 per family. Or, you can let me know if you want to volunteer and go for free ;)

Fish fry at Avenue Bar. I went there for fish during Lent last year, and we went back last Friday for the benefit of a friendly visitor from the South. They offer boiled and fried options, with the fried cod having won multiple "best of" awards. The reputation is deserved. The atmosphere is appropriately Wisconsin supperclub kitschy, as well. There is always a crowd on weekend - make reservations or go early.
Community gardens. Saturday morning, I rode my bike 20 miles on the annual Bike Tour of Community Gardens sponsored by the Community Action Coalition. This summer's Wednesday Latino Garden program took place in the Marlborough Park garden. That's where the tour ended up this year, so it was exciting to join in. The gardens are beautiful, and there is a real sense of community there. No matter where you live in Madison, there is one near your house. Go take a stroll through sometime before harvest ends. You'll see people from many different countries, vegetables you've never heard of before, and kids who don't have a lot of access to open space running around and doing manual labor with their families or playing with their friends. Fabulous. As a bonus, I got to ride my bike next to Mayor Dave and translate for him at our Evenstart garden. He is Midwestern nice, as advertised.
Orton Park Festival. Yet another Eastside festival with the usual assortment of food, beer, good music, and fabulous people-watching. The performance by Cycropia aerial dance theater was ... interesting. There were a few numbers, particularly an athletic throwing-about on trapeze by two men that was amazing. But, there was also much birds-on-stilts 'BRAWKKING' during the ten-minute breaks between each number, much blocking of views by annoying children or their kneeling parents, and some less impressive acts. On balance, I feel that the experience would be better in a theater with proper sightlines, lighting, and equipment and without the abrupt juxtaposition of Interpretive Art to beer-and-blues-bands. There is only one more festival left this year - the Willy Street Fair September 15-16. I will have attended all of the festivals except the Atwood one this year. Next year I will get my act together and bat 1.000.
Mirror Lake State Park. Due to planning negligence on my part, backpacking adventures were cancelled this weekend. We went hiking as a sad substitute. We eschewed perennial favorite, and probably very crowded, Devil's Lake for its near neighbor Mirror Lake. Mirror Lake has some nice hiking/skiing/mountain biking trails, a tannin-filled lake, and apparently a lot of camping spaces. It lacked the physical challenge of lugging up Devil's Lake bluffs, as well as the views verging on grandeur, but it was a lovely, pleasant place to hike for an afternoon. Also, it's close by and I think we ran into maybe two people on the trails the whole time, rather than playing dodge-hiker like you do on weekends at Devil's Lake.
Jada's Soul Food. I had a meeting off of South Park Street last night, and a couple of people mentioned this place. I'd heard glowing reviews before and felt not at all like cooking, so I stopped by on my way home to get takeout. The place is not fancy - a few fold-out tables and chairs covered with plastic tablecloths ala church dinner, a pool table with "No Profanity" and "No Gambling" signs displayed by the cue rack, and some, well, soulful music on the CD player. The man who took my order was incredibly polite. It took 15 minutes to cook the chicken, but OMG was it worth it. I'm a notorious chicken-avoider, but I wasn't quite up for catfish or chitlins yet. (If I'm going to eat meat, it's got to be on par with bacon or it ain't worth it.) Enter the best chicken I've ever had. Seriously. Still blazing hot when I got home, I devoured it. Fabulous batter, juicy, juicy, juicy on the inside. The mac-and-cheese side was also excellent, though it got to be a little rich at the end. This may have been due to my general excessive fullness. The greens were OK, but bland. Throw some bacon fat in there and you'd have yourself some mean greens. The next time I have a rich food/grease craving/bad day, I'm going here. And only eating half of my meal at a sitting so I don't spend the rest of the night in a digestive stupor. Yummm!

Canning Chronicles - Pressure Canning

2007-08-27T17:33:00.000-05:00

As mentioned last week, I bought a pressure canner at Farm and Fleet. So this weekend I was going to get down to business and use it!

The problem was I only had about 10 tomatoes from my own 3 tomato plants:

My backup, Rick's garden, was hit hard by the heavy rains and resulting tomato splitting. This meant not much of a harvest there.

I found a pick your own vegetables farm: http://www.thetreefarm.org/

Rick and I went together. It was AMAZING! There is no reason to feel guilty ever again that I don't grow enough of my own vegetables. In fact, there was a lot of guilt about the amount of veggies going bad in the field.

I had a great time. Rick had a great time. Possibly too much of a good time. The receipt says we bought:

Tomatoes: 61 lbs, Cabbage 12 lbs, Cucumbers 6 lbs, Hot peppers 6lbs, 4 eggplants, 1 Bittermelon (anyone know what this is or what to do with it???) and then something I can't identify on the receipt: HOTY 11.3 lbs.

Besides being a bear to carry up the stairs into the kitchen (why can't I figure out how to make the dogs into pack animals?), ummm, what in the world was I thinking... 61lbs of tomatoes!

Rick and I spent Saturday evening doing the exact same thing over and over and over:
1) wash tomatoes
2) blanch tomatoes in boiling water
3) plunge tomatoes into ice water (note for you want to be canners: you need a lot of ice. If you run out of ice, those frozen ice packs do just fine. If those all get defrosted on you, then feel free to use the multicolored plastic ice that came with your summer cocktail mixing set.)
4) peel tomatoes and core them
5) chop tomatoes
6) cook tomatoes into a sauce

Some pictures from our processing night:

Sunday - ah, the easy part, right? canning.
Here is what I did - (after going to Farm and Fleet to get 2 more cases of jars, 5 gallons of cider vinegar, a Tide sized box of canning salt, mustard seed and dill seed)
1) start sterilizing jars in dishwasher
2) start huge vat of boiling water
3) clean cucumbers for pickles (those buggers get real dirty)
4) set all clean cans out on "canning station" table
4.5) feel good about how beautiful everything is in my kitchen
5) start heating up all the tomato sauces, salsas and stewed tomatoes from yesterday
5.5) remember that I have two cantelope that MUST be "processed" somehow today
6) get a bit overwhelmed at number of things on the counter!
7) cut cantelope, spread on baking sheet and put in freezer
8) cut up all the cucumbers, stuff into jars
8.5) get distressed about number of jars of cucumbers. There are two more jars than planned for! I fear some cucumbers aren't going to make it into the promised land of pickledom.

Once the cantelope departed into the freezer, and the sauces were boiling it was time to get started. Soon, the table of clean jars turned into this:

Notice that George and Deuce have morphed into vigilant jar herding dogs. They have rounded these all up into a tight pack. Only one was lost in the night to a poor seal.

At this point in the evening I am very proud of myself. and exhausted.

The most beautiful picture and yet the most depressing still awaits. The remaining bounty:

this is all still sitting on my table. I was too tired to do anything with them...oh, and my original tomatoes on the porch are still out there too! eek.

The final haul:
6 P and 1 Q of dill pickles
3 Q of spaghetti sauce
9 P of salsa (4 mild and 5 spicy)-all yellow
8 Q of stewed tomatoes (and 1 pint of lonely leftovers from each pot :)
3 Ziploc bags of frozen cantelope

The casualties: 1 broken glass jar, 1 quart jar of pickles had to be thrown away (lack of dill seed, never doing that again!),

Leftovers: more salt and cider vinegar than I know what to do with, all those vegetables on the table, hot peppers (Rick is going to make a sauce of some sort. I was pretty exasperated as he picked 6 lbs of tiny little hot peppers, I wasn't going to delve too far into what his plans were for them), and then of course the mysterious 11lbs of HOTY.

Final call- Fun, very fun. But could be enhanced by breaking it out over a couple more days, and including wine and some friends to entertain me.

Canning - it is the hippest old woman thing to do since knitting

2007-08-23T14:26:00.000-05:00

I couldn't have written the canning post half as good as 11Frogs. It was a masterpiece.
However, I will tell you that I spent the week telling everyone at my customer site about how I was canning this weekend and would be doing it next weekend too. They were a bit surprised I think. (I am a real ball buster at work...)

I also experienced this bizarre high all week from the knowledge that I stored food for the winter. My insides get all squishy and I get a little wild eyed thinking about what I will do with my pressure canner this weekend. I may or may not be a giant squirrel.

I even woke up in the middle of the night in my hotel room this week worried that because I put oil in my recipe my canning would be ruined (as I read another recipe that strongly warned against it). But, I looked up the recipe and it said oil so I am fine.

Domesticity is cool. If the country's infrastructure is destroyed I feel confident that I can live off the land. (with the help of a close by Farm and Fleet store).

Kind of exactly the opposite of roaming

2007-08-21T18:31:00.001-05:00

More like very tightly gripping the very essence of home and this moment of summer, grinding it all up, boiling the hell out of it, and sealing it in a jar to enjoy next winter. Or next Tuesday, as the case may be. Ni modo. The moral of the story is: We took up canning, and it's awesome.

Two weeks ago when I went home to meet the babies, I helped my aunt (the one who has a garden measuring in acres and can feed 200+ people with no problem) can salsa and pickles. I also snapped a five gallon bucket of beans - the big ones for garlic-pickled beans (yum!) and the small ones for canning. Lessons:

My aunt is goddess-like in the food realm and makes the best refrigerator pickles EVER.
The canning process itself is very easy. Basically, you just boil some jars of food.
Getting food ready to put in the jars is a whole lotta work and a ginormous pain in the ass.

I came back on a mission, and the Universe supported me. Jars at Goodwill for 15 and 25 cents apiece. A tomato U-pick scheduled at our CSA farm for this week. And the clincher: while waiting for my laundry to dry one morning last week, I gaze across the mounds of stuff in the basement and, alas, in the distance I see a ray of light shining down upon my neighbor's canning kettle ripe for the borrowing. Clearly, this was meant to be.

And so Saturday morning found Wintergypsy and I foraging tomatoes, hot peppers, a buttload of basil, tomatillos, and a stray eggplant and squash or two from our CSA farm and the quickly overgrowing garden from the program I volunteered at this summer. Lucia foraged from her and a friend's backyard and the farmers' market.

This was my starting supply o' produce. Ridiculous.

Sunday morning, we each slaved over our respective stoves. I made tomato salsa, green tomatillo salsa, and spaghetti sauce. This took me about four hours of chopping and boiling. Lucia make spaghetti sauce and cherry tomato salsa. Wintergypsy made tomato salsa, spaghetti sauce, and some pesto (for eating/freezing, not canning). Spaghetti sauce takes FOREVER to cook down.

We then gathered at my house to encase the food in jars. In typical Lucia fashion, there was none of this halfway, try-it-out, used, borrowed b.s. for her. Oh, no, she took the Farm & Fleet canning section by storm and bought a canning kettle, pressure canner, and sundry jars, lids and canning tools. The lil' magnet jobby-do for picking the lids out of the boiling water was the cutest.

We sanitized (well, mostly) jars and lids, heated our food back up, and popped several batches in the canner. 15-20 minutes for salsas, 30-35 minutes for spaghetti sauce. With our expected organizational glitches in the timing of the various heatings and fillings and sanitizing, particularly the "sanitize" cycle on my dishwasher, this took us nearly 4 hours.

After the ladies left, I proceeded to make a buttload of pesto. The limiting reagent turned out to be the cheese.
2-1/2 hours later - a full 11 hours after I started cooking - I had a bowl full of green gold. And that was without the several hours of work the ladies saved me earlier by picking all my basil off the plants for me. Yeesh.

It may not look like much, but the final results of all our efforts looked like a masterpiece to me:

And my reward meal of sweet cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and pesto, which was so summerly sublime I almost cried.

Lucia is making the leap from water bath canning into pressure canning this weekend. The adventure continues ...

Sweet Corn

2007-08-19T21:44:00.000-05:00

It was raining. It was muddy. It was 58 degrees. It was not enough to stop four girls from getting their fill of sweet corn and cheap beer.

Once again, the Sun Prairie Sweet Corn Festival proved worth the drive (especially since it's so much closer for me in my new house). Who doesn't love getting their own corn, having it hand rolled in butter my teenage girls, and salting it from a giant tree of salt shakers?

Since I didn't get any pictures (if I had, I'm not sure anyone would've felt they missed out), so in memory, here are some shots from last year:

This time, however, we did add a stop to a local Sun Prairie dive on the way out of town. Can't recall the name of the bar, but they had a rockin' jukebox and made great Old Fashions. Mmmmm, Brandy....

a blog for Kitty to check out

2007-08-13T08:16:00.000-05:00

http://empresseve.com/

I have decided that when I feel like crap I will find something on the internet that makes me laugh.

for instance this morning, when I am so sick I am taking a sick day and missing a flight to my second home, and yet staying awake (albeit moaning audibly) for two work calls. The first one at 730am, the jerks organizing the call never gave any call in info and then didn't bother calling me either. then, my 8am with a customer... it is 30 minutes later and still no call despite emails and VMs. sigh.

So, I found the blog above. It reminds me very strongly of Kitty, in fact, I think that she needs to get on the website redesign, as her current one is not at all "her".

The line that made me laugh:
So, there I was, bored with nothing to do when a guy sits next to me and busts out a portable DVD player. I couldn’t see what movie he put into the player, but I knew one thing: Someone sits next to me with a portable DVD player, then I hope they want some company, cuz I’m watching what they’re watching.

Canoe Trip, cont.

2007-08-07T19:48:00.000-05:00

More pictures from the Great Wisconsin River Canoe Trip of 2007.

The whole crew, sans moi. Funny how disposable cameras don't come with little timers.

You can't get much more relaxed than this.

Cherry pit spitting contest, featuring Honeyweiss.

MEAT!!!

We fought the sun, and the sun won.

There are also several hilarious pictures of the Divine Miss M in various states of undress mid-river, but one mustn't post photos of one's female friends in their skivvies on the Internet, however amusing they may be.

Kickapoo Country Fair

2007-07-30T19:34:00.001-05:00

A few of us trekked out to La Farge this weekend for the Kickapoo Country Fair, which was organized by Organic Valley. Full disclosure: I'm a big Organic Valley fan, partly because I eat a lot of their food, partly because my aunt and uncle are Organic Valley producers, and partly because I think they have been one of the major pushers of Wisconsin leading the way in organic agriculture in the past decade. The fair was on the grounds of their headquarters.

As always with sustainable agriculture events in this state, the fair drew a fascinating mix of ol' fashioned farmers, foodie/yuppies like ourselves, hippies, and the various dashed combos of the above (hippie-farmers, yuppie-hippies, yuppie-farmers, foodie-hippies, etc.). It would be very easy to do a rural sociology thesis on the interactions among these strange bedfellows. What do the farmers think of the yuppies with their literary events and "Child Nurturing Tent"? What do the yuppies really think of the farmers - not just the barefoot, liberal, college-educated ones, but the old school, church-going, many-children-having, high-waisted-Lee-jean-wearing, manual-laboring, fifth-generation-on-this-land ones who are mostly in organics because the milk check is bigger? And what does anyone really think about the dude with the sketchy dreadlocked beard that could have been housing several species of rodent? This odd conglomeration is either a brief blip of artificial togetherness that will fade as the food-eating public outgrows the current "green" fad, or it is the nascent networking of a new social order that will move all of us away from a culture and an agriculture of consumerism and degradation to one of respect, sustainability, and community that I believe all of these disparate groups are so diligently searching for. I'm betting my career and my future children on the latter. One can hope.

There was a breakfast, farm and headquarter tours, nature walks, kids' activities, a workshop series, and a whole lot of other things we didn't participate in. We did, however, check out the information and vendor booths (my favorite: the goat cheese fudge + history lesson on the round barns of Vernon County), gaze at antique tractors and other history displays, see the rather paltry animal barn, and eat pretty much every type of food they offered. Our submissions to the suggestions box for next year: more food and some cows to pet.

We saw keynote speaker Jean Feraca, host of NPR's Here on Earth. She addressed the importance of the family table as the center of children's education about food, family, nutrition, civility, and many other topics whose mastery would help the next generation solve problems as diverse as childhood obesity, farm worker rights, and environmental degradation. It was a good talk, if a bit repetitive. Ms. Feraca has many good points, though her speaking style is an acquired taste due to her tendency to sometimes come across as a bit like Janice on Friends.

The true highlight of the day was a reading by Michael Perry, author of Population: 485 and Truck: A Love Story. I previously expounded on his lyrical greatness, and he did not disappoint in person. I laughed and I cried and I enjoyed shutting my eyes just to listen to the rhythm. Wow. He has three main qualities that I envy and seek to emulate:

He straddles multiple worlds with grace.
He can write sentiment without sap.
He is utterly hilarious.

Yet another lovely day in the country and beautiful Wisconsin weekend.

Play at American Players Theatre

2007-07-30T19:22:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, we went to see Merchant of Venice at the American Players Theatre in Spring Green. APT is an outdoor amphitheater in the woods. It had been a few years since I saw a play there. I'm honestly not a spectacular judge of classic Shakespearean acting, as long as it's not utterly horrific a la Keanu Reeves in Much Ado About Nothing. (The mere mention sends me into convulsions. We read the play and then watched the movie in English senior year. ~Shudder~) To my amateur eyes, this production was very good, particularly the last act. As with performances of all kinds, comprehension and appreciation improved after the intermission drinks. We ordered tickets early and got them for $23 apiece. Normal ticket prices are somewhere in the $35-41+ range. When night falls, the fireflies go sparkly and other, less flashy bugs flit through the lights. If you're not into Shakespeare, APT might not trip your trigger. But, if you like seeing plays at all, this is about as good of a venue as you can get.

Wisconsin in the summer ...

2007-07-30T10:37:00.000-05:00

... is truly a fabulous place. On Friday, Witty decided that, after reading many descriptions of summer beers, she needed to try some of them. So, I lit the tiki torches, got some beer of my own and some chips and salsa, and turned on a great 80s radio station on my deck. She came over along with Lucia and Vavra and we chilled out there till 11 p.m., drinking interesting beers and enjoying the wonderful weather.

On Saturday, Loud had the great idea of having a beer tasting evening with a theme - all WI beers, all one type of beer, etc. Of course, we'd have to give them all snooty wine-like descriptions too. I think that would be fun. I may be hosting one towards the end of summer, depending on how everything shakes out.

Canoe trip down the WI River

2007-07-26T08:55:00.000-05:00

Last weekend we spent 2 days on the beautiful WI river doing mainly two things - drinking and eating.

I think there was also some paddling involved, but not much :)

And now pictures! Thanks to loud for telling me how to upload them a couple of weeks ago. Without her this post would not have been possible :)

Each day started off with our 9am morning constitutional:

Picture most likely to end up on a tourist brochure (of B&M):

The scenery:

Some of our motley crew:

Me, looking goofy after a full day of drinking:

It was a really fun time, however I was glad to get home on the second day to have the use of running water and indoor plumbing so I could wash all the sand off and to use sunburn soothing stuff since all of us are apparently incompetent when it comes to putting sunscreeen on our entire body. We more prefer the red/white spotted look. There were some pretty funky designs. Too bad they weren't intentional ;)

The Second Annual Deep Fry Extravaganza

2007-07-16T13:42:00.000-05:00

Yes, it's officially an annual thing now. Let me see if I can remember everything we had this year:

Turkey (so damn good), chicken, fish (best batter award for this stuff), squash, cheese curds, pizza, mushrooms, onions, cherries, peppermint patties, twix, cookie dough, brownie bites, apples, beef/cheese stick combo, cheese-stuffed jalapenos, cheese and rice balls (yummy!), tortillas with salsa.........did I forget anything?

My faves: turkey, squash, onions, fish, mushrooms, cheese and rice balls, and snickers.

Lessions learned (in addition to the good points already discussed by Witty and Lucia):
1) Food should spent less time in the holding area. They should go straight from staging to the deep fryer. The more the things sit around, the more batter drips off.
2) More batters are needed, and they need to be a bit crispier and stick better
3) Have less stuff. Or, at least, a smaller quantity if we still want to have the same amount of variety.
4) Being around the deep fryer to see things in action is essential.

However, the snicker's bites worked a lot better than last year. Tiki torches kept the bugs away, and a general good time was had by all. Most people cleared out by midnight or so, and I think we finally went to bed at 2am. Pretty much the only cleanup that was needed was doing about 4 loads of dishes, which makes me very happy.

However, last night I was definitely feeling a salad for dinner, and my fridge contains lots of leftover chicken and fish. I also have some leftovers that didn't get fried and various containers that I don't think are mine. Let me know if they're yours and when you want to get them :P

Sadly, I don't think I have any pictures, but Lucia painted a pretty good one with the docker's-commerical-without-the-acutal-dockers reference.........even though I never would have come up with that :)

Oh, and Ding convinced me to go browse wedding dresses at a cute store in Verona with her when she goes to pick up her dress in a few weeks. I do beleive I was already feeling the effects of beer + having eaten no food all day when I agreed to this.

It was a good weekend

2007-07-15T21:36:00.000-05:00

Friday - Mallards game. Frogs did a good job, but I need to refute a few points. There was absolutely NO "accidental" purchase of too many beers. We purposefully took advantage of an unexpected 2 for 1 offer that happened while we were sitting close to the line.

Te-te - should be pronounced Tay-tay. And it was a great nickname for Vincente. He was our favorite player on the other team.

I feel incredibly cheated by our lack of karaoke for the night. I suspect that next Friday night I will try to sweet talk someone into going to the Doghouse for some free drinks (as promised by the karaoke man) and the karaoke man all to ourselves.

One of the best quotes of the night - as we pull up to Beck's bar (gosh, bar review is a whole 'nother review I should do) - is Loud spotting pickups, motorcycles and the general trashiness of the bar, telling us "I think that my people are different than Lucia's people." Ah, my people. They were there in full force.

The Art Fair on the Square was fun! I bought two woodcut prints, one of a coffeepot and the other of a bottle of Whiskey and a rocks glass full. I have put them up on the wall in my kitchen already, and have titled the grouping - Subsistence Living.
I will have to post pictures later as I am too lazy to do it now.

My thoughts on deep fat fry night -
1) I am blown away by how great it is to be an adult with such a great group of friends. We aren't beautiful, but it seems like we live a Dockers commercial. We get together (piling 20 or so people on Kitty's deck) drink beer out of bottles, smile, laugh, eat some good food, and enjoy late afternoons that descend into cool nights.
Okay, the Dockers commercial never includes dual deep fryers. We have to make it 'sconnie somehow.
2) My mother was wrong. Fried brownies are good.
3) I was amazed at the success of the pizza. It was awesome.
4) Future parties should include more variations on the pizza theme, different batter or even breading options, and I think that we have to make one more charge at the cookie dough (perhaps just not a standard dough, maybe some differences in the composition ... like less butter).
5) I am guessing that every food stuff I see from now on will be evaluated for possible fry party fodder.

Baseball, art, fried food, fundraiser, festival, oh my

2007-07-15T16:57:00.000-05:00

What a full weekend!

Friday night was a Mallards game. There were cheesy games with cute kids, speculation on the hotness of "Te-te" (poor, poor man), accidental over-purchasing of beer, recollections of the glory days of high school softball, speculation on whether single women can apply to be host families for the players, and, oh yeah, a baseball game. The Mallards lost, but the game was fun. It's a good, low-key, cheap, kid-friendly fun night out.

I hope to go back. In a valiant search for karaoke, we followed the game with stops at two bars - one in a bowling alley and one on the side of the road between McFarland and Stoughton. The first bar had a mediocre country band instead of karaoke, and the other had shut down karaoke early because nobody showed up. Sadness ensued.

Saturday, we went to the Art Fairs On and Off the Square. There were many beautiful pieces, and Lucia and Loud came away with some great finds. (Photos, please?)

Saturday night, Kitty hosted the second annual Deep Fry Extravaganza. It was good and greeeaaaasssy! As always, the turkey was fabulous, as were the chicken and fish. Interesting newcomers this year were fried beef- an cheesestick combos (held together with a toothpick). Good, but the cheese in that batch and the subsequent tortilla chips all tasted pretty beefy. The fried summer squash was sweet and wonderful. The brownies and cherries were my favorite fried dessert items. The most refreshing deep-fried treat was the peppermint patties. What did everyone else love? We still haven't perfected the cookie dough. Among the deltas we've noted for next year are: advanced pre-fry freezing techniques for the dessert items, separate fryers for each food category or at least more well sequenced frying selections, and a greater variety of batter flavors and consistencies to better complement each item. Yes, we're that dedicated to deep-frying: we believe it's an art. Future business venture: the "You Bring It, We Fry It" food cart.

Today, I worked a shift at REAP's Pie Palooza fundraiser. We sold out tickets early. Though the wait was long, everyone came away satiated. As always, such good food!! I walked across the street to check out the Fete de Marquette festival afterward. The music had just started, so there wasn't much of a crowd yet. Folks who were there last night said the music was great, and many people were dancing. It's a new festival, so I don't think it's gotten the ooomph behind it that the other East Side festivals have yet.

Up next: A play at American Players' Theater in Spring Green and a canoe trip on the Wisconsin River.

a brief shopping tour in Madison

2007-07-15T14:15:00.000-05:00

Furniture Shopping - here are some of your options and my opinions:

Steinhafels - a great classic. I feel that this can't be beat for high quality and a classic to conservative selection. Many 8 way hand tied pieces, lots of warranties on frame, mechanics, fabric, etc. You can customize most of the furniture with different fabrics. Their sales seem a bit lame, but regular. The furniture is some of the more expensive in Madison. cookies and coffee in the showroom.

American - furniture, but also sells appliances and tvs. I find the selection to be... well, lower end looking, but their stuff seems pretty study and affordable. I bought my mattress set and entertainment center there. they are doing fine as of right now. - overall, gives me a bachelor man vibe.

Ashley- without a question, cheap. But, the quality is not bad and durability impressive for such inexpensive furniture. No options though, what you see is what you get. My leather couch is from Ashley, 700 bucks. good deal for something that I plan on moving to the basement before long anyhow. I have had it for a year or two and it isn't broken, the seats aren't sagging, and no leather damage.

Twisted Twig - umm, you know those people that get a theme idea for a room and go completely literal with it? Yeah, these people did it with the cabin thing. If you want an "Up North" room, head here. I only found one thing that I could even picture in my home:

Century House - This store focuses on Scandanavian furniture. If that style will work in your house, then you should definitely head over. Their stuff is beautiful. There is also an adorable Century House gift shop next door. Seems like a great place to head when you need a birthday present.

Don's Home Furniture - This store focuses nearly completely on wood furniture. Not a huge upholstered selection. But, their stuff all has the maker indicated and seems of very high quality. I found a couple dressers that I wanted, but it is a bit expensive, so nothing has made its way into my home yet.

If you have suggestions for stores for me to review, please comment and I will make every effort to visit and write them up here.

The most common Summer Things

2007-07-10T06:22:00.000-05:00

For those of us from Wisconsin or other points within driving distance, much of the summer is spent going to those huge family weddings that Kitty just cannot understand and family reunions. These events are pretty fantastic, even better than the festivals, camping, etc., for me. However, I do recommend experiencing them in moderation. As with good chocolate, they can become cloyingly sweet after too much.

Edit: Yet another fabulous family reunion - not in Wisconsin, but definitely full of the Wisconsin spirit with all that humidity and beer!

Getting caught in the rain

2007-07-09T21:23:00.000-05:00

Going to the beer tent at the Monona 4th of July festival is a good idea. Not wearing a rain coat or bringing an umbrella to the beer tent while its raining is a not so good idea.

Lucia, Loud, and I decided to go to the beer tent July 3rd after a couple of stressful days at work. Hooray for the holiday! By the time we were ready to head over to join in on the festivities, it was raining rather heavily. Loud and I did not think ahead and bring an umbrella or even a garbage bag to protect our luckily dark colored cotton clothes. Lucia planned ahead and was nice and dry in her lovely rain coat.

We looked like we just got out of the shower when we arrived at the beer tent. Although, we were soaked our spirits weren't dampened. We indulged in a few cheap beers, had some laughs, and waited for Lucia to bring the car close by before Loud and I left the tent. The beer tent definitely always equals a good time.

Raising Cane's!

2007-07-03T20:35:00.000-05:00

Ok, this is a little sad. It's the middle of summer (well, nearly), and this is my first blog. Actually, it's my first blog EVER, so that's very exciting. So not sad at all, I guess. Although, I did make an attempt once after hours at work...I was never able to get things working right. (Blogger technical issues FAQ -- you lie!)

The title of my this post is Raising Cane's, which I first heard about in Sioux Falls, SD on a business trip from a co-worker from Lousiana. This is a fast food franschise that basically only serves fried chicken fingers. If I remember the story right, it started off as a business school project, but didn't make the grade. The professor failed the project, but the founders went on to start up the first ever Cane's, which is now a successful franschise.

I mostly thought these were in the South...as the person who was telling me about this is from the South and speaks with a twang. (Actually, Raising Cane's was just a smaller part of a rather lengthy conversation on fried chicken. God love the Foodies!) I'm not a big on fast food...actually, i really dislike it in general (except for In and Out, which deserves a whole other post on its own)...and I absolutely DETEST most chicken (exceptions include fried chicken, and chicken cooked by my mom or fiance), so I was a little skeptical about the place.

Amazingly, one of my best friends, we'll call her HighHeels, luvs fried chicken fingers and she lives near a Cane's in MN. (She used to love the weird spongy fried "chicken" fingers from the movie theater we frequented in college...ick. Oh, and she likes the "chicken" rings from White Castle...double ick). HighHeels claimed that these are really good...but, with the recommendation from my southern friend, I was willing to give this a shot, so we went and ate.

AND THEY WERE AWESOME! THEY WERE THE BEST CHICKEN FINGERS I'VE EVER HAD! Hot, fresh, really juicy...so juicy, with a light batter, and not too salty. The special sauce was really good too! According to the website (http://www.raisingcanes.com/), the chicken is never frozen...so it's got to be somewhat local, right? I feel kinda bad posting here about an experience that I didn't even have in WI, and so out of line with the whole local foods, farmers' market, organic feel of the rest of the blog. Don't get me wrong, I'm into that stuff too! But this was just so good! God! I'm craving them already. The crinkle cut fries were awesome too! 98% of the time, crinkle cut fries are soggy...but Cane's were as crisp and delightful as I could hope for.

God, I liked these fingers so much, that I've even thought about opening up a store. Not the first time I've considered joining a franschise...the first time was when I went to my first Oberweis store...which is all about local, organic food...I highly recommend checking them out.(http://www.oberweisdairy.com/web/default.asp).

Anyways, as soon as I got back home to WI, I had to tell my fiance (the B of B&M) all about it. In a strange twist of fate, it turns out that some of his old childhood friends have a friend who opened up a Cane's in Vegas. They are definitely eating there during the next Dudes Vegas trip in Aug.

OMG!!! I just had a thought! I can probably get B to make chicken fingers for the Deep Fry party. Oh yeah!!!! Woot!!!

If you think I'm nuts because I just wrote a whole post on chicken fingers...just wait. I haven't even delved into my Madison eats yet...you can look forward to learning more about Arbat's next time!

Farmer's Markets

2007-06-29T11:17:00.000-05:00

Go to them! I now go every Wednesday morning to one almost in my backyard. It's fantastic.
And read the one hardcover that Witty bought while semi-unemployed (Animal, Vegetable, Miracle) - it totally changes your outlook and mindset about food.

And I'm only halfway through!

Farmer's Markets, no matter where you are, are wonderful and I'm thankful that I have the opportunity to go to one every week.

Monona Wife Carry

2007-06-29T10:42:00.000-05:00

I am better at posting about things that I am going to do rather than things I have done.

On July 4, we are going to the Monona Festival. Being that I now live in Monona, and it is within walking distance of my house, I am feeling very good about this. proud even.

One of the most exciting events planned: the Wife Carry.

She hangs upside down and holds on to his waist. He jumps over stuff and wades through water.

I can't wait until I get married.

If you get a chance, read the rules, they are very cute. http://www.mononafestival.com/PDF%20Files/Rules%20for%20Wife%20Carry%202007%20v1.0.pdf

In an odd coincidence, Wife Carry began in Finland.

Scenes from a Finnish Solstice

2007-06-28T16:21:00.000-05:00

The Finnish Solstice party was last weekend.
We pumped it up on this blog. Honestly, I pumped it up in my head too.
It had to be good, right? Yep, it was.

Some images/memories that make me smile:

7-8 - Men's time in the Sauna (pronounced over the loudspeaker "Sow nah") - Attention folks, it is now 7pm and Men's time in the Sow-nah - after you come out there is a private screened porch and you can use the hose to cool off. at 8pm it will be women's time in the Sow-nah.

we didn't stay for it, but 10-11 couples Sow-Nah time was highly anticipated.

My favorite folks in the group to talk about other party attendees with: D and B (that should be me in the vacant chair in the background.

At least four of those catty comments centered on the woman with the teal wide collared shirt without a bra who liked to lean over and stretch her arms backward. At the latter D had to make a choking sound to cover his... well, not sure what he was covering...

Seemingly from the picture, D's first encounter with an apple tree:

The Morris Dancers doing fertility routines. That is Fertility herself in the pink dress in the middle:

And my favorite. The woman who brought the party. Can you see it? (click on the picture for an enlargement if you can't)

yes folks, that is right, your eyes are not deceiving you. That is a 40oz can of Natural Light with her. Another 40oz can made an appearance next to a crockpot in the chow line, but I failed to get the picture.

Long Live the Finns! They really know how to throw a party.

Concerts on the Square

2007-06-27T22:24:00.000-05:00

They are my favorite summer Madison event. 'Nuf said.

Fat Far

2007-06-22T11:19:00.000-05:00

So, this is probably the most Wisconsin thing I'm going to do all summer so I suppose I should blog about it, eh?

Last weekend was Fat Far (happens every year on Father's Day, so sorry to the shafted Dads). People get together with friends and copious amounts of beer and float down a river on rented inner tubes or on various home-made contraptions (that usually sink, may I add). Floating down a river sounds relaxing, right?

It's not. But what it *is* is fun.

First off, you have to drive up there then coordinate everything, and get all the tubes and coolers and cars and friends in the right spot. Then you gotta get everything in the river and tied all up together. Then you gotta hide from people flinging water ballons and such. Of course there's the general yelling and flirting with random radio DJs (uhm.......not like I actually did that.....*ahem*). And then, as a bonus from last year, there was jumping-off-a-large-rock-outcropping which was 100% r0><0r (sorry, random l33t speak).

You start out at a bar (called Loopy's which amuses me) then take a bus up to the drop-off point and set off. It takes 2-3 hours to let the current carry you back down to the bar where you can pull out of the water and hang out on shore. Then we went back to the hotel and screwed around in the pool for a while, had the best pizza hut pizza EVAR (we had missed lunch.......maybe that's why 3 beers made me loopy on the river) and then went to bed at a fairly reasonable time in the most artic-like hotel room I've ever been in.

The fabulous part is that I particpated in the rock-jumping, got a tan (ok, a burn, but it's turning into a tan) so I'm not so "Wisconsin White" anymore, and plus I just looked fab in my new camo and gold chain bikini :)

Now this weekend it's off to the Finnish Solstice party, the weekend after that is a 4th of July celebration (read - campfire and beer), then comes the Second Annual Deep Fry Party, then it's the WI River canoe trip, then...........well, then maybe I'll have a weekend to rest.

Maybe.

Or perhaps I'll organize a lets-go-downtown-and-raise-hell outing that weekend instead :)

Finnish Solstice party

2007-06-21T09:16:00.000-05:00

ooooo. Solstice.

when the day is the longest. oooooo.

how do you celebrate?

Frogs, Kitty and Lucia are rolling Finnish this year. We are going to a Finnish potluck bonfire.

yeah, totally random, I know.

leave it to Frogs to find this sort of craziness.

We are bringing beer (I am going to need some if some hippie chick is going to dance topless around the bonfire) and I think that Frogs is going to whip something up. I might make something or I might not. who knows.

the Finnish part has me thinking - what should I wear? What is the typical Finnish costume?

Well, I thought that was a good idea. then I googled it.

I am not wearing this:

for more information (a very informative site) on traditional Finnish Folk and Cultural costumes: http://www.kaiku.com/finncostume.html

Fabulous things to do in Chicago

2007-06-13T17:17:00.000-05:00

...shop...shop...shop...and did I mention shopping?

3 bands + 2 festivals = blissful summer weekend

2007-06-11T18:16:00.000-05:00

Fabulous weekend! For absolutely free, I saw three fabulous, danceable Latin bands at two great festivals in 24 hours. All seasoned heavily with good food, good company, and good beer.

Friday night: El Clan Destino at the Memorial Union Terrace for the Isthmus Jazz Festival. The Terrace was crowded, but the band was good (a little more smooth, less salsa-y than Madisalsa). The beer and laughing and sunset over Picnic Point were even better.

Saturday afternoon: Locos por Juana at the Marquette Waterfront Festival in Yahara Place Park. Fabulous music - a whole lot of Cuba with a heavy splash of Jamaica. (Sounds like a good theme for a fruity drink, too, no?) Great Latin dance sounds with a whole lot of reggae thrown in. And what a great atmosphere - families hanging out on blankets and lawn chairs, good food, boats on Lake Monona pulling up to shore to listen, and, the highlight: a 40-something woman wearing a short Hawaiian print sarong, a bikini top with a different Hawaiian print, and a tiara, dancing for all she was worth.

Saturday night: Back to the Union for Madisalsa. They don't seem all that jazzy to me - more straight up big-band salsa y merengue, but I'm not one to argue. They're really good, and there were so many people dancing it was hard to walk.

So many festivals, so little time!

Farmers' Market Foraging Dinners

2007-06-07T11:11:00.000-05:00

This may be one of the most intensely fabulous summer things I've heard of yet. Combines several of my very favorite things: farmers' markets, seasonal food, creative cooking, and good eating. You meet at the farmers' market Saturday morning to shop and learn about buying what's in season, and then meet that night to eat dinner made almost entirely with those ingredients. I'm definitely doing this sometime this summer. Who's in?

I Heart Water

2007-06-06T22:45:00.001-05:00

Rent a canoe. Spend an afternoon on the lake. It's that simple.

Loud's birthday dinner

2007-06-06T12:08:00.000-05:00

So, I believe that at Loud's birthday dinner, Lucia and I decided to post about the dinner we had, but I promptly forget which part of the resturant I was supposed to comment on. So I'm going to comment on everything :P

We went to Sardine's, which is FAB-U-LOUS. Go there and have dinner if you haven't yet, it was so good.

The main standout was a salad with duck meat and a poached egg on top (I forget the name of it - warm duck confit salad I believe). It's amazing! Whatever dressing/vinagrette they put on it makes it completely wonderful.

We also had a goat cheese appetizer which was good, and I had my first raw oyster. Amazing that I come from the east coast and eat my first east coast oyster in WI. It's pretty good, but I think only because the liquid stuff is really salty so you taste that instead of the oyster.....and I like salt. It's not very shellfish-ish.

Then I had the grilled trout. Decent, if a little dry for my taste.

For desert I think I was the only person who liked the grapefruit sorbet. I couldn't eat a whole bunch of it, but I loved that it was way tart.

The restuarant itself was cute - very open, but yet you didn't feel like you were eavesdropping on other diners. The bar was long and one whole wall is windows that looks out onto a small veranda and then the lake. The fiancé and I decided that one day we'll have to get reservations for a spot out there. Maybe when it gets warmer, since I'm always freaking cold.
Then we went to the Ivory Room. It's a piano bar, and while the woman who sings isn't fantabulous, the guy is great and the place is just cute. I loved it.

That inspired us to then head to the Kareoke Kid, where Hillary and I sang "Hanky Panky", just like old times.

It was, all in all, one of the most fun nights I've had in a while. I'm looking forward to 11frogs' birthday dinner, then that weekend is Fat Far up in Chippeawa Falls (I know I didn't spell that right). Basically, 6 of us will spend all of Father's Day floating down a river in inner tubes and drinking beer. Seeing as how that is totally Wisconsin, you can bet I'll be posting about that afterwards.

Kalahari Dreaming

2007-06-06T11:32:00.000-05:00

The Kalahari is a massive resort/convention center in Wisconsin Dells. When I signed up for the Charter Bundle pack (basically meaning that I pay over a hundred dollars a month to a company that I don't really like and receive services that often fail) I got a free night at Kalahari. This offer was for certain nights, and those nights were up on June 7. So, I had to get this in at some point.

True to form, I called about seven days before this deal concluded, but unlike normal proceedings, they still had room. cool.

On Monday, my mother and I drive up to the Dells using my new book:

Side Review of this book:

it is chock full of fun drives through Wisconsin. This is true.
Don't go backwards on the drives. The directions are NOT designed for it. You will find yourself sitting at an intersection and reading the directions, then mentally pretending that you are actually traveling down the road that you are trying to get onto and then turning onto the one that you are currently on. Does this sound confusing enough? Right!
Neither my mother nor I are convinced that the directions would be good enough frontwards either.
I encourage you to pursue these drives on a weekday, preferably in the middle of the day. This will lessen the pressure from other motorists who don't understand why the fact that the three conflicting signs to Durfey's Glen at this intersection are confusing you.

One quarter of the recommended drive takes us two hours and includes a stop at Kristina's Restaurant in Baraboo. Recommendation, go ahead and skip Kristina's on your next trip to the Boo.

It is at Kristina's that we choose to detour directly to the Dells. We want to get cracking on all that Dells goodness. First on our list, a drive through town pointing out the ridiculous. The Trojan Horse roller coaster, the Paul Bunyan Flapjack outlet, and many giant fiberglass animals are spotted.

Second, the Upper Dells boat tour. We take the bus to the launching point with a family from Missouri that can't believe the river freezes over. ha! we drive pickups on our lakes in Wisconsin! Overall, the boat tour is good. Far better than an ill fated Colorado River boat trip my mother and I once took. I was in charge of the good camera. I took at least 200 pictures, most of which look exactly like all of the other ones. One highlight:

After the tour we had to walk up the World's Steepest over the Longest Distance Ramp. If I had been pushing my grandmother up that ramp we wouldn't have made it. That sort of defeats the purpose of the ramp, right?

To cheer ourselves up after the ramp, we had a couple beers and chips at Mexicali Rose. Word on the street is that their margaritas are good, but food not so much. I will not pass judgment here though and let someone from this site go there and do a proper review.

Fortified, we head to the hotel complex. Several U-turns later we arrive. My mother compares it to the Opryland hotel. I don't know about that comparison, but I do find it funny that she has stayed at the Opryland hotel. The lobby is pretty cool. My best comparison is a Las Vegas hotel- lite. It has a theme and they really do their best to carry that theme throughout. Like real safari guides, the check-in people wear safari style jackets, but overall seem woefully ill-equiped to defend guests from a stampeding herd of water buffalo. Speaking of the wildlife, around every bend/staircase/elevator bank is a resin elephant, zebra or giraffe. There is even a super pathetic robotic talking rhino. We got real excited and pushed his button, but it was so bad that it made me think of how they are all going to die and I had to walk away to avoid crying.

The room - uninspiring. We did have a view of the parking lot, a microwave/refrigerator, and a full size coffeepot.

The indoor waterpark - pretty cool. very big. America's Largest, if you believe what they say. We did the lazy river. I wanted to do the bowl ride, you literally drop out of the bottom into a deep pool, but I was chicken.

The restaurants - one was filled with the screaming of children and we walked out, but ate rather in the lobby bar. The food was decent. Their gin martini was delicious (two big olives).

The next morning it was more of The Backwards Navigation Challenge. This time I tried navigating the route back to Sauk City backwards from Mr Knowles' directions. This proved just as challenging as my mother had claimed yesterday, but this time I belived her.

And, just as we had on the way to the Dells, we hit the Madison rush hour traffic through the construction on the beltline. ah, home sweet home.

Brats on the brain

2007-05-29T17:10:00.000-05:00

I admit, I went to Brat Fest more than once this weekend.
I couldn't help it.
Here is a picture of those that accompanied my first trip (except B&M):

Here is why I think the goal wasn't met this weekend: inconvenience of the Alliant Energy Center for the drop-by brat-buy. It is pretty impossible to run in and buy a bunch of brats for a huge crew of people (or for your next four meals...).

My advice, set up a drive thru brat booth. Put some high schoolers in charge of it. Send the cheerleaders around with mustard bottles. Have the drama group do saurkraut and the chess club do relish. Just seems a natural fit.

other photos and thoughts:
1) I caught B sucking his finger.

2) he wouldn't do it for the camera again. But, hey! what is that in the background of this photo?

3) close up of that interesting sight:

Are you guessing that it is a little girl with a bear backpack and the dad (or man with her) holding the very long leash like tail?

yes, you are right my friend. what an odd world we live in.

Long live festivals that celebrate meat!

Free and cheap summer events

2007-05-28T23:38:00.000-05:00

As an unemployed Madison-lover, I felt compelled to compile a list of recommended cheap and free events I plan to take full advantage of this summer. The list was culled primarily from a section in the Isthmus last week.

* denotes 11frogs favorites.

Outdoor Music and Other Shows

Sundays

free Mad City Ski Team shows (Law Park, east of Monona Terrace) - 6 p.m., May 27 to September 2.

Mondays

free Warner Park Concert Series (Warner Park Shelter) - 6:15 p.m., June 11 to July 23, except not on July 2.

Tuesdays

free Olbrich Gardens Concert Series (Olbrich Gardens) - 7 p.m., June 5 to July 31.
free Lunchtime Live Concerts (Hamilton corner of Capitol Square) - noon, June 12 - July 31.

Wednesdays

*free Concerts on the Square (Capitol Square) - 7 p.m., June 27 to August 2.
free Jazz at 5 (100 block of State Street) - 5 p.m., August 8 to August 29

Thursdays

free Cork n' Bottle String Band (Memorial Union Terrace) - 6 p.m.

Fridays

cheap MMoCA Rooftop Cinema, screening of artsy short films on various themes (Overture Center rooftop garden), 9:30 p.m., June 8 - June 29.
free Dane Dances, live concerts with dance-able ethnic music (Monona Terrace Rooftop, except Aug. 17 at the Memorial Union Terrace), 5-9:30 p.m., August 3 - August 31.

Almost every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night

free Live music on the Memorial Union Terrace

June 23: free Blues Picnic (Warner Park
July 21: free Opera in the Park (Garner Park)

Festivals
June 9: Clean Lakes Festival (Warner Park)
June 7-10: Isthmus Jazz Festival (Memorial Union)
June 9-10: Marquette Waterfront Festival (Yahara Place Park)
June 16: Juneteenth Day, celebration of Afro-American heritage (Penn Park)
*June 16: 11frog's 30th Birthday Party ;)
June 30: Rhythm-n-Booms fireworks display (over Lake Mendota at Warner Park)
July 4: Fourth of July fireworks and festival (Elver Park)
July 13-15: Fete de Marquette (future Central Park site, 201 S. Ingersoll)
July 14-15: Art Fairs On and Off the Square
July 18-22: Dane County Fair
*July 21-22: Greekfest (Assumption Greek Orthodox Church, E. Wash)
July 28: Fiesta Hispana (Warner Park)
July 28: Atwood Summer Fest (uh, Atwood Ave.)
August 11: Savor the Summer Fest (Troy Gardens)
August 14-15: Hippie Christmas, a.k.a. Moving Day (Downtown)
*August 18-19: Sweet Corn Festival (Sun Prairie)

Other Summer Must-dos
A little less cheap, but fabulous enough to be well worth it.

*Show at American Players Theater (Spring Green)
Wisconsin winery tour
Self-pick berries
*Camping, both a car-camping trip and a backpacking trip
Mallards game

Brat Fest: Let's keep it simple, people

2007-05-28T22:10:00.000-05:00

Turns out the World's Largest Brat Fest wasn't quite as large this year: they missed the goal of selling 200,000 brats by quite a bit. As of the 5 o'clock news Monday evening, they hadn't quite reached 150,000, and that was about an hour before the event was closing. I think the lower numbers were due in part to the higher cost of $1.50/brat this year, compared to $1.00/brat in previous years. I really don't think the price increase is that big a deal, considering that proceeds go to charity and that this is the first price increase in 25 years.

More relevant to the apparent decline, in my opinion, is the fact that there's a whole lot more crap now. When Brat Fest was in the Hilldale parking lot (before the Hilldale parking lot became condo-, chain-restaurant-, and parking-ramp-filled), Bratfest was simple: a few too few tables, some loud local bands of questionable quality, and long lines of people anxiously awaiting their brats. Now, there are ferris wheels and much associated carny paraphernalia, a full slate of higher quality local bands, i-pod dancers (to fill the gap in the 'questionable quality entertainment' category), booths of sponsors and their attendant crap, etc., etc., etc. It's just too much and doesn't feel quite right.

Case in point: We attended Brat Fest on Friday evening and gave in to participate in selected carny crap, including a shooting-at-targets-with-water-guns game that resulted in our resident knight winning a horrific purple dog that happened to match his fiance's outfit. A lil' bit funny and a lil' bit freaky and a lil' bit much, similar to the belligerent and possibly drunk carny that bellered, "Yeah, if I were you I would ignore me, too!" as we tried to move past his game.

Despite all of the crap, the essense of the thing remains wonderful: brats and good mustard and good friends. We sat on a blanket on a cool early-summer evening to enjoy our respective sausage products, and it was lovely. Mmmmm!

Finally blogging

2007-05-25T22:49:00.001-05:00

So this is my first attempt at anything blog-like. Wish me luck.
I promise to post only fun things and even funnier pictures :)

~the blogger formerly known as Tuckawicz

What to do in Wisconsin?

2007-05-24T14:48:00.000-05:00

I have lived in Madison for about four and a half years now and I still love it. It totally rocks! So much so that I have overcome that Committment Fear and bought a house here. Actually, it is in the "City of Pride", Monona. - more like the City of Social Security - it seems like everyone is over 65 here. But, we are on the East Side (shout out to my East Side Homeowners Association Ladies!) and that is the best side.
- odd side note, my high school's (Thornton Fractional North) song said - Stay on the North side of Fractional, and never cross that line. Stay on the North side of Fractional, the going's mighty fine.
Back to the core story here:
My mother is coming for a week in June and I am taking vacation.
I want to entertain her with Wisconsin-ness, so I solicit my Wisconsin resident friends for ideas and they pull through. Thus far:

Tuckowicz (I don't know what her online name will be.)- said Farmer's Market in Madison - excellent recommendation, it is already my mother's favorite thing to do in Madison. We will hit it two times if we are lucky.

11Frogs sent a list about a mile long, as expected. No one loves Wisconsin and Madison as much as she does.

I will keep you posted on what happens.