More Cheese More Chocolate

And two weeks later, I am back…  Hello.

After I published my post on pizza, I headed out the door for the airport and flew to North Carolina to spend the weekend with my friends from studying abroad.  We shared small plates at Good Food on Montford, we told stories about our days in Toledo, we (I) drank too much red wine, we ate a delicious strata, I bought a clock, I ate two bagels in two airports in one day, and, most importantly, we celebrated the marriage of our friend Jon.  It was wonderful.  Spain Reunion 2011: mission accomplished.

I came home exhausted (but full of delicious bagels!), had a few long days of work, and then headed south to Iowa for another wedding.  The early morning sun and wildflower-studded prairie grass made for the perfect backdrop for pictures of my brother’s daily yoga session in our parents’ yard. (This one’s for you, Gretchen.)

I watched an Iowa win with an adorable Hawks fan.

Our friend Kelly got hitched.

We reminisced about our childhood days at the golf club pool where we spent Labor Days filling floaty shamus and beach balls with water and throwing them off the roof to watch them explode.  We were fun kids.

More wine, more celebrating.

More sad goodbyes.

I was going to go into detail about the fish that my dad and brother caught in our pond for our dinner one night while I was home and how that’s something that’s never happened in the 20ish years that we’ve had our farm and how my dad’s strict catch-and-release rule applies to everyone except my grandpa who doesn’t really believe in release, but I have other things to do today.  Let’s get to the pictures, shall we?

When I pulled up to our house after almost six hours on the road, I saw my dad and brother driving the four-wheeler out toward the pond.  An hour or two later, they returned with dinner.  And a really old Cubs hat.

Fish friends

Eat it

Bass + crappie?

Catch of the day

The guys cleaned the fish while the girls took care of the sides

Filets o’ fish

We battered the fish in a mixture of flour, finely ground cornmeal, salt, and cayenne (after dips in straight flour and then eggs), and then we baked them for maybe 20 minutes until they were golden brown.

Oven fries on the side

Washed down with Calabaza Blanca – two thumbs up

I took my bread starter home and made two loaves of Tartine Country Bread.

Bobby made a super delicious kale salad with a tahini/lemon/olive oil dressing.

Fresh bread, kale salad, veggies, and plenty of cheese

With a couple more tasty beers

I headed home to Iowa for a few days this week to see my parents and my brother, who was in town from Portland.  We cooked, we baked, we ate, we sampled good beers, we took late night walks in search of owls, we mowed, we scrubbed pesky little flowers off of my car, we celebrated my parents’ 36th anniversary and my grandparents’ 65th anniversary, we ate a little more, and I took a bunch of pictures with my phone.  It never really feels like summer until I head home and eat something that my mom bakes with freshly picked rhubarb, and it officially feels like summer now.

A giant pig that greeted me when I walked into my room.

Backyard

Front yard

Locust tree

The lane

Chives that I forgot to snip to bring back with me

Rhubarb that I forgot to pull to bring back with me

The rock from afar

Steps

Happy to be home

Irises

Sun!

Dinner

Blue sky

Heading out to mow

View from the tractor

Another view from the tractor.  I have a feeling that real farmers don’t drive tractors in flip flops and bathing suits.  They probably don’t listen to Kanye while working their land, either.

Wildflowers in the prairie grass

Fluffy clouds

Neat rows of trees

Flowers from the yard

Huge storm

The cat that cleared the bird feeders at my grandparents’ house.

I didn’t really mean to disappear for several days without warning, but after I hit “publish” on my last post, we jumped in the car and drove seven hours to Chicago to visit my newborn nephew.  You can blame my lack of food talk on baby Magnus, but don’t be surprised if he doesn’t care.  All Magnus seems to care about is clean diapers, napping and effortlessly looking cute.  Life is rough when you’re a week old.

Our first meeting

Big yawn

Aww

Awake time

After spending a couple of days with Magnus (and eating some of the best deep dish pizza I’ve ever had), we inhaled a couple of doughnuts and headed to Milwaukee for a Brewers game with Matt’s mom.

I demolished this smothered polish sausage.

Then I cheered on the polish sausage during the sausage race.  I would have been happy with the chorizo winning, too, but it was the hot dog that came out on top.

I also bought a new shirt so I can have another team to cheer for when the Cubs inevitably blow their season.  Hooray for baseball!

Finally, after several months of anticipation, I tasted the forbidden fruit: Kopp’s frozen custard.  Unfortunately we missed the mint chip by a day, but the turtle sundae and root beer float still changed the way I think about ice cream the world. I wouldn’t normally quote Rachel Zoe, but I die.