Notes from the Great Black Swamp

Punkinnutters

2010-10-09T00:14:00.008-04:00

In the spirit of friendly competition, I prepared these tasty morsels in response to Ken Albala's Homemade Sourdough and Lebanese Halwa-based Fluffernutter--which looks DELICIOUS! Since Fluffernutter traditionally makes use of commonly-available, pre-prepared ingredients, I tried to keep the variations to a minimum.

I started with the same Breton Mini base as in the previous post, then slathered on a layer or whipped creme cheese sweetened with locally-produced Maple Sugar from Fruth's Sugarbush in Vanlue, Ohio, then added another locally-produced product, Pumpkin Butter from Cooper's Cider Mill in Bucyrus, Ohio. Since Dave Cooper does an amazing job sussing the flavor out of the pumpkin, I did nothing else to it other than top it with a pan-toasted, maple sugar and cinnamon apricot kernel and a single lingonberry for a hint of seasonal tartness.

The flavor combination is amazing--if I do say so for myself--crunchy, smooth, fatty from the cheese, tart from the lingonberry. This morsel would be especially tasty if prepared with Amish goat's milk cheese or another soft chèvre. Also, the pumpkin butter could be substituted with apricot butter.

National Fluffernutter Day: A Personal Response

2010-10-08T21:20:00.004-04:00

For those of you who follow my daily celebratory foods updates on Facebook, you may recall that today, 8 October, is dedicated to the sticky-sweet-salty Fluffernutter sandwich. What is a Fluffernutter, and how might one go about celebrating National Fluffernutter Day, you may ask?

While I am not much of a fan of the humble Fluffernutter, and I made this clear on my Fb post, I do give props to Ken Albala, Food Historian and author of several books including The Lost Art of Real Cooking: Rediscovering the Pleasures of Traditional Food One Recipe at a Time, for ramping up what might be considered an extremely simple recipe to create an extremely desirable new sandwich. As a response to my post, he rushed home and produced his own version of the time-worn original. Needless to say, I was impressed and sought to respond with my own culinary creation:

A tasty combination of toasted caramel and marshmallow with a light sprinkling of sea salt, garnished with a sliver of a premium German 85% Dark Chocolate, all on top of a Breton Mini.

NC

Dust

2010-08-05T20:29:00.002-04:00

Hello?

Hello?

Gee, it sure looks like this space has not been used in quite some time--and --it sure is dusty in here. It even looks like some spammers have been squatting in the previous post. Damn it! They left their garbage and empty five-dollar gin pints scattered around an improvised fire ring. The dirty buggers have been breaking down and burning the furniture; and, what's THAT smell, Oh no! what's THAT in the corner over there!

I'm going to have to come here more often and clean this place up.

Art in the Age of Mindless Production

2009-06-26T10:56:00.009-04:00

One can best judge a eatery by the willingness of the staff to cater to one's requests, the quality of ingredients, the time it takes to go from placing an order to receiving the food, the attentive nature of the staff and the presentation of the dish. How many restaurants are actually willing to depart from a set menu in order to offer the customer what he or she requests? I know of a few in the Greater Bowling Green Metropolitan Area, but, my favorite is the Corner Grill at the intersection of Main (US 25, also known as the old Dixie Highway) and Court Streets. Seen here in a photo from February 2008:
This morning when I requested a one-egg omelet instead of the larger three-egg version of the same, the cook (who, incidentally, also took my order from behind the counter, served me, and was my cashier) suggested that I consider ordering a two-egg omelet, or a scramble, that it would be difficult to wrap all the goodness that is the quality fillings into a single beaten egg, but, he would try. I offered him broad artistic license to interpret my breakfast order as his set of skills would allow.

While engaged in conversation with my fellow companions (each foodies in their own ways), I carefully watched as he cracked a fresh egg into a stainless steel bowl, whipped it, and poured it out onto the griddle. On a separate quadrant of the grill, he mounded, cubed ham, green peppers, tomato, and cheese. I became distracted in conversation and in short time, this neatly-wrapped little pocket of joy and tastiness was in front of me (don't you just love the diminutive square of American cheese placed on top?:

If you don't have a favorite local diner or grill that prepares and serves "real" food--go find one.

Some Shameless Self-Promotion

2009-06-06T15:08:00.005-04:00

After a trip to the Libbey Glass Factory Outlet, a short stop for flowers, herbs, pepper and tomato plants at the Toledo Farmer's Market, and then to the original Tony Packo's on Front Street for a stuffed cabbage roll, paprikás dumplings with gravy, Hungarian pickles, and a signature Packo's hot dog,
Michelle bought me this delicious marble cake at Wixie Bakery in South Toledo.

I was fine with an unadorned cake, but Jessica and Emily insisted on the personalized message.

West Side Market--Cleveland

2009-06-02T17:10:00.010-04:00

To continue with the Cleveland day trip from this past weekend, I would like to post some photos from our second destination of three. Cleveland's oldest publicly owned market: The West Side Market. The building you are looking at has been in use since 1912; however, this site has been designated for use as a public market since 1840. One may purchase any of the large variety of prepared and ready to eat foods available at the market, like these Pasties (pronounced Pass-tee), a combination of meat, vegetable and starch in a light flaky pastry:
Then retire to the gallery to watch food shopping as a spectator sport. The interior concourse houses around 100 vendors. An interior shot from the spectator gallery.

There is also an exterior arcade with 85 vendors, mostly produce.

The monger below is selling some of the BEST dried fruit I have EVER tasted. I guess I should have taken a photo of the two-pound tub I purchased, alas, it was not to be. However, one may notice the vibrant colors and wide variety of dried fruits in the deli containers below. Our container held, pineapple, pears, peaches, two varieties of apricots, apples, whole dates, date pellets, figs, a variety of plump, juicy raisins, cranberries, prunes, candied ginger, papaya, star fruit, kiwi, bananas, coconut flakes, mango, and the BEST dried strawberries I have ever tasted. I really like eating a bit of the candied ginger then chasing it with some dried cranberries.

Also at the market, Buckeyes candy in both traditional and white chocolate:

Chocolate covered jalapeno peppers:

A plethora of dried ingredients:

Spices:

Cheeses:

Olives:

And even this little piggy's at The West Side Market:

Electric Sex in the Window--A Major Award

2009-06-01T12:30:00.009-04:00

Fans of Bob Clark's 1983 film A Christmas Story should recognize where I went this past weekend.

Michelle and the girls went to Washington DC, so Matt came down from Ann Arbor and we headed to Cleveland for the day on Saturday. If you did not already guess where I was this past weekend, our main destination was the recently-opened A Christmas Story House and Museum in beautiful and scenic Cleveland, Ohio.

The majority of the exterior scenes of A Christmas Story were all shot on location in Cleveland and St. Catherines, Ontario, while the interior scenes were shot on a sound stage near Toronto, Canada, with a few exceptions, such as the Higbee's Department Store scenes, and the leg lamp scenes (delivering and uncrating the major award, interior shots looking out onto the street, and from the street into the living room).

While some of the interior scenes shot on location make use of the family living room, kitchen and entry way, the floor plan of the house was not the same as on the sound stage and when the house was remodeled for use as a touristic destination and museum, it required extensive repair and modifications to look as it does today. For example, there was a bed room where the staircase is now located, and all the wood floors on the main level had rotted out and there were vermin living out their own Christmas story in the house. The reconstruction of the interior of the house carefully used production stills as a guide and there are numerous reproductions of properties in their appropriate locations. The vintage radio even loops the Little Orphan Annie Show!
Our docent informed us that, originally, each room was open to the public; but, folks kept eating the Lifebuoy Soap. Now, the bathroom is cordoned off.
Across the street from the house, the museum holds original costumes and props from the production. NC

The Fairy Doors of Ann Arbor

2009-05-28T14:51:00.008-04:00

On one of my many trips to pretentious and over-priced Ann Arbor, Michigan over the past few weeks, I decided to take my camera to capture some of the interesting sights of what the locals refer to as AA, or A2.

If one pays close attention to the little things in life, like flowers and architecture, one may also notice that "we" are not alone. A close observation of the small details can reveal the existence of wee ones, or Urban Fairies all around--and I have photographic evidence of their existence.

Like this eye-catcher next to the "people" door at Red Shoes at 332 South Ashley:

And this slightly more gritty portal in the exterior wall of Selo/ Shevel Gallery at 301 South Main (even fairies have to deal with a certain amount of urban decay):

Of course urban fairies are much like their much-larger, human counterparts, in that they read, eat, live in houses with doors and front stoops; yet, they live their lives on what may seem to their human neighbors to be a Lilliputian scale with everything that is theirs in miniature. However, to the fairies, their homes seem to fit them just right.

Holding pattern

2009-05-27T10:36:00.004-04:00

In the same way that American singer/ songwriter John Denver observes on the title track of his 1981 album Some Days Are Diamonds "some days are diamonds, some days are stone," so goes the business of writing. For the past six months, I have been putting in exceptionally long days in my office at the university trying to say something intelligent about modes of cultural production and transmission. Now, if every minute could have been productive, I'm sure I would probably have something more profound to say. Yet, some days are diamonds . . . you know how the rest goes.

More often than not, the business of writing is just that, something one must do, a task one must labor over, muddle through, carefully chip away at a little by little. Now that I've disposed of the most obvious cliches, my personal response to the writing process is that it is just that, a process. For me, writing is a process that simply must be worked through, and waiting for a muse to speak is not an option.

With that said, the dissertation is to my committee and I have been in a holding pattern for the past three weeks: unable to make significant revisions; unwilling to do much writing other than that which I must; waiting to see what the dissertation defense scheduled on 4 June will hold.

While I have used the past three weeks to reformat and make minor revisions to the manuscript, I seem to have hit the ground running, trying to make up for lost time. In doing so, I have completely avoided my office, taken lots of day trips, spent time with family and friends, and I've even taken in two festivals (The 35th Annual Utica Old Fashioned Ice Cream Festival and the 39th Annual New Straitsville Moonshine Festival)--more on these later.

NC

Strange sights in BG

2009-05-26T18:17:00.002-04:00

I'm sure riding this bike would live up to it's name.

Greetings from South Bend, Indiana

2009-03-21T00:02:00.005-04:00

Greetings from beautiful and scenic South Bend, Indiana; I'm here for the Great Lakes American Studies Association annual conference and have been on campus all day. Here are some images of campus icons: Notre Dame is a gorgeous, self-contained campus; however, South Bend has nothing to offer. For example, when I and my traveling companions motored into town, we all had a hankerin' for some good local food. We drove around the downtown area for an thirty minutes and finally decided to eat at South Bend's favorite local dive, Burger King. This "town" has nothing to offer in the way of food.

Tradition Dripping from the Trees

2009-03-08T21:41:00.016-04:00

Notes from the 2009 Seneca County Maple Festival:

Snavely's Sugar Shack stands in the same maple woods the Snavely family has tapped for seven generations. The original sugar camp was built in 1864 by Paul Snavely's great-great grandfather, Henry Bowerman, and stood until it was replaced in 1982. Today, the sugar shack is located on the site of the original camp on the north side of this twenty-acre woods.

Storms the night before, and the day of, the 2009 Seneca County Maple Fest brought more than two inches of rain. This is the "festival shuttle" taking people back to the woods. The water was between 12 and 18 inches deep on the crushed-stone road back to the camp. In years past, we enjoyed the walk to the woods; this year, no one walked or swam. Once there, festival patrons have the option of touring the camp and the woods, or heading straight to a hot breakfast of pancakes, locally-made sausage, vanilla ice cream, and all the fresh Snavely maple syrup you care to use.
We headed directly to Jenny Greer's mobile catering booth. Greer and her family have been participating in the festival since it started in 1992. Breakfast:

How often does breakfast come with an ice cream course? Not often enough! Especially when it's from Toft's and there's hot, fresh, pure maple syrup--straight from the evaporator--to pour on it.
Approximately 300 galvanized metal buckets hang from metal spiles (taps) inserted about waist high into the mature maple trees in Snavely’s twenty-acre woods, with an additional 1000 taps, all on buckets, in eight surrounding woods within two miles of their maple camp. Usually, this "creek" is dry:

I love my EB Tek gortex jacket, but I still needed my La Crosse rubber barn boots, Wellingtons for the Brits, and an umbrella to get these shots. Holding an umbrella while taking photos is not the easiest thing to do, but the rain really brightened the colors:

This is a collection of vintage spiles hanging on the inside wall of the sugar shack:
When the sap buckets are nearly full, they are emptied into 150-gallon gathering tanks pulled behind four-wheelers.
The sap is then poured into one of the four 300 gallon stainless steel tanks outside the the sugar shack, and leaves are filtered out. 180 gallons of maple sap is siphoned from a tank, to the evaporating equipment inside the shack.

Snavely's upgraded from a wood-fired evaporator to an oil-fired evaporator for the 2002 season. At the same time they completely refurbished the attached woodshed and converted it into a kitchen with a wood-burning stove for heat. Sugar maple sap only contains about 2 to 2.5 percent sugar, it takes 2.5 to 3 gallons of heating oil to reduce about 40 to 45 gallons of maple sap to make one gallon of maple syrup. Evelyn Snavely, in the cream-colored sweatshirt, explains the process to festival patrons:

The 180 gallons of sap is moved through 150 feet of heated copper tubing, cooking the raw sap down. The cooked sap is pumped into the evaporating section and is cooked until it reaches a temperature of 217.4 degrees Fahrenheit. Paul Snavely explaining that the temperature determining the final product varies depending on the barometric pressure. Once the correct temperature is reached, an alarm sounds and a red light turns on, indicating the syrup is ready to be dispensed. An automatic valve opens and allows the syrup to drain into a bucket at which time it is double-checked with a hydrometer to make sure the syrup has reached it desired temperature and density. If the syrup does not reach 32 on the hydrometer then the unfinished syrup is poured back into the evaporator and reprocessed until it meets all requirements for bottling. Paul Snavely with Emily and Jessica: When the syrup has reached the appropriate temperature and meets the other required measurements, it is then poured into the bottling container, but not before the syrup is poured through a fine cloth that separates the sugar sand and the syrup. After the sugar sand and syrup are separated the syrup is ready to be bottled into gallons, half-gallons, quarts, pints, half-pints and 3.5oz bottles. The syrup has to be at 180 degrees Fahrenheit, in order for the bottles to seal properly. The original 180 gallons of sap, when boiled and evaporated down, will make 3 ½ gallons of Ohio Maple Syrup.
NC

The President who Rolled Eggs

2009-03-08T20:31:00.007-04:00

Rutherford Birchard Hayes - 19th President of the United States
4 October 1822 - 17 January 1893

RBH lived in this Spiegel Grove home on and off from 1863 to 1880 and it served as his primary, post-presidency, residence from 1880 until his death in 1893. Hayes is the forgotten president who started the annual Easter egg roll on The White House South Lawn in 1878. A similar tradition occurs each Easter at the Hayes Home:

Our route to the Seneca County Maple Festival in Republic, Ohio took us down Hayes Avenue, past the nation's first presidential library: The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center at Spiegel Grove in Fremont, Ohio. On the day I took these photos, Northwest Ohio had already received well-over an inch of rain overnight, and the rain continued to pour. For this reason, these photos appear a bit grainy, but they aren't grainy, they're rainy. Notice the unique, ornamental gates in front of the center, they may seem familiar. They are the original White House gates; a souvenir of Hayes's tenure:

Of Wheat and Wealth - A Note from Republic

2009-03-08T18:42:00.009-04:00

Henry Morrison Flagler

2 January 1830 - 20 May 1930

In 1844, fourteen-year old Henry Flagler left upstate New York and went to live with his mother’s relatives who owned and operated a general store in the tiny Seneca County, Ohio, village of Republic. Once there, Flagler took a job with his uncle, Steven V. Harkness, working for five-dollars a month, which included his board at the general store where, “he slept under the counter, covering himself with wrapping paper” (Havighurst 109-10).

A Gilded-Age Robber Baron Slept Here

While in Republic, Flagler began buying wheat from Republic farmers to sell to the millers in Milan, Ohio. Occasionally, he would sell Republic wheat through a young commission merchant in Cleveland, named John D. Rockefeller. When Rockefeller learned of the discovery of petroleum at Oil Creek, Pennsylvania, it was Flagler who persuaded his uncle, Steven V. Harkness, to use the proceeds from his business operations in Northwest Ohio to silently back a new industry that would change the economic landscape of the world: oil.

In 1867, Flagler signed on as a partner with Rockefeller and Samuel Andrews in what would eventually become the Standard Oil Corporation, an enterprise that would make Harkness, Flagler, Andrews, and Rockefeller wealthy (Chandler 1986). Flagler took his wealth and went on to build the Florida East Coast Railroad, and to develop the Florida resort towns of Palm Beach and Miami.

Sugar in the Woods

2009-03-08T17:15:00.008-04:00

Photographic Essay: The 2009 Seneca County Maple Festival

Snavely's Sugar Shack, Republic, Ohio.

Vintage maple syrup cans at Snavely's Sugar Shack, Republic, Ohio:

Today's line of pure maple syrup containers:

The Festival is as much of a Snavely family reunion as it is an opportunity to invite the public into the sugar bush and sugar camp:

Ilene Fruth and one of the many Snavely grandchildren, Renee, making maple sugar. An entire galon of pure maple syrup is cooked down to a granular consistency, beaten in a Kitchen Aid, then sifted. Yields one pound of pure maple sugar:

Renee Snavely and David Fruth sift the hot maple sugar while Ilene Fruth prepares to pour out maple candies:

A little break

2009-03-01T11:15:00.005-05:00

Of late, I've been putting in longer hours than usual, trying to get the dissertation written. It's still a work in progress; however, it is taking it's final shape. I've taken one day off since the beginning of Spring Semester, and if you are wondering, I was in my office yesterday (Saturday) from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, took in a screening of Slumdog Millionaire (a brilliant, gorgeous, thought-provoking film), was back in my office from 6:45 to 11:00 PM. It's now Sunday, and I let myself sleep in until 7:00 AM, instead of the usual 6:45; drug myself out, and have been here in my office for a couple of hours now. I need a break. Fortunately for me, the Seneca County Maple Festival is scheduled for next Sunday at Paul Snavely's Sugar Shack in Republic, Ohio, and I'm going.

Here's an image of the heated tents surrounding the sugaring operation during the 2007 festival. The billows of steam are from the evaporation of maple sap into maple syrup--the key ingredient of the festival. There is a modest admission fee to the festival; but, the fee includes hot cakes, sausage, hot beverage of your choice, a scoop of Toft's vanilla ice cream and all the fresh, pure maple syrup one cares to consume. Additionally, David and Ilene Fruth will be making maple popcorn, maple sugar, and maple candy--all for sale. I plan on bringing home a year-supply of maple syrup.

NC

Ol' Jenny from the block

2009-02-25T09:18:00.004-05:00

Nest Heads by John Allen

I'm posting this for my friend Jenny, who is struggling with the possibility she may be becoming the crotchety old lady of her neighborhood.

Happy Pączki Day!

2009-02-24T12:24:00.010-05:00

Pączki, pronounced Poonch-key, (plural for pączek) are fruit-filled, fried dough, glazed with a sugar coating. They look similar to a jelly doughnut. The traditional, and my personal favorite, is filed with a prune jelly; however, one may find a wide variety of fillings such as apple, custard, red raspberry, black raspberry, blueberry, and lemon. These Pączki are from Stimmel's Market here in BG, but Pączki are also available at the Lagrange Street (Lagrinka) Community Center, and at many supermarkets throughout the area. But, bakery fresh is always best.

Pączki are a Traditional Polish food typically prepared and consumed on Fat Tuesday. When Polish immigrants came to Northwest Ohio to work in the industrial factories, they brought this edible tradition with them. Typically prepared in the days leading up to Fat Tuesday, the purpose of this sweet is to clear the pantry of butter, lard, eggs, and any fruit that would spoil or go rancid during the forty days of fasting. Even though yours truly is neither Polish nor Catholic, I still appreciate and enjoy this edible Polish tradition. An added bonus, I can buy the leftovers at a discount on Ash Wednesday--the beginning of lent.

Enjoy!

NC

Dodging academe

2009-02-19T11:19:00.019-05:00

What is it about the task of writing that inspires me to cook? For example, a few years back I had to take the mother of all exams, where, over the space of four days I had to demonstrate academic mastery of the principal areas of my Ph.D. course work. Seems simple enough, right? The exam was formatted into three parts: from part one, choose two questions from a list of five and develop a response to each; from part two, choose one question from a list of five; part three was the same. Michelle and the girls accommodated me by flying to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico while I stayed back in beautiful and scenic BG submitting to my round of academic hazing. Since the family was gone, I had the house to myself and the only breaks were to meet with a friend for a daily meal and BS session. In between writing forty pages in four days, I found this time to be ideal for preparing my long-simmered ragu. I make it completely from scratch and in my 12 quart stock pot, so there's plenty to freeze and take out for a "quick" meal. It's such a "common" food in our house, I don't have any recipes or photos to share. If you're wondering, since I'm still here at BGSU, now an instructor in Sociology, and working on my dissertation, I guess it's obvious I passed the exam.

I don't really know why I choose to take on additional tasks while burdened under the weight of academics; however, I'm doing it again. Only this time, I'm doing something completely different from anything I've done before. It's important to know that I need to have the dissertation written and to my committee within six weeks. In order to meet my self-imposed deadline, I've been putting in long days at my office where I have ample opportunities to gaze out on the bustle of undergraduates in constant motion, but when I was there all day Saturday and Sunday this past week, I looked out my window, and this is what I observed. Moseley Hall directly across from me:

University Hall in the center of the frame (home of the Eva Marie Saint Theater) and Hanna Hall (home of the Gish Film Theater) to the extreme right:And, it appeared as if I were the only human on campus--I quit counting the squirrels darting, dodging, scurrying across the quad. But, no other human life--I truly am pathetic.

My new deviation started with a discussion on the ASFS list about cheese, and I've always wanted to try my hand at making cheese, so, in between e-mail on cheese, and reading blogs about cheese, I decided to source some supplies for making ricotta. I researched a number of suppliers that seemed to fit my paradigm of ethical consumption where I tend to order from small, independent suppliers and I really liked the way the folks at the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company presented their business and described their products, and I decided to spend my money with them. Well, today I decided to work from home, and two good things happened: first, I work on a contract where I get paid monthly--I got paid today; second, my faithful letter carrier brought me this (I really like the big BLUE smiley--this company rocks):

Inside, Non-GMO Organic Veggie Rennet, two ricotta baskets that accurately mimic the traditional straw baskets used in Calabria and Sicila, and the crack that keeps me high for weeks on end, a catalog of cheese making supplies--GOOD GOD, I want to make more cheese and I've not made ANY yet!Stay tuned.

Not quite buried alive…yet

2009-02-06T20:44:00.007-05:00

I have legitimate reasons for not faithfully maintaining my blog for the past while. Yesterday, I handed four chapters of my dissertation Food That Matters to my advisor for some light reading while in Ireland. Now, I have to pound out another chapter in the next ten days she'll be gone, oops, nine days. On a related note, I've had friends badgering me to start a Facebook account for years and recently that has stepped up; however, I have successfully resisted and as of now I don't even remotely see it on my horizon.

My camera's been giving me "the look" lately and I'm starting to think it suspects something, or someone, or another camera may be coming between us. I guess I need to shoot some flower pics with it, or take it out to dinner and satisfy it with some food pics, or simply spend some quality time with it again. This blog looks oddly unadorned without visuals, so I'm going to post a picture of some American chestnuts I found at Zingerman's Deli in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

If you've never had roasted chestnuts, they are very easy to prepare. The best way to roast chestnuts is over an open flame, but since 2008-2009 has been a bitter cold winter in Ohio, my gas oven roasts like a charm. Preheat your oven to 350. While your oven is warming, score an X with a sharp knife on the flat side of the chestnut and place on a baking tray. When the oven is warm, insert the tray of chestnuts. They should take approximately 30 minutes or so until the semi-soft shell peels back. Let stand until cool enough to handle, yet warm enough to enjoy.

They have a subtle sweetness and a somewhat grainy mouth feel to them, but if you down them with a warm beverage...it's like heaven, only with chestnuts.

NC

Days gone and days yet to come

2009-01-09T22:41:00.004-05:00

I am looking through some photos to illustrate a point I want to make in a lecture next week--and it is bitter cold out, snow falling, roads icy--when I came across this. The Marblehead light at Marblehead, Ohio. I enjoyed seeing it all fresh and clean and green and bathed with springtime hues--gorgeous--and I want to share it with you:

Jessica slipped and fell into Lake Erie:

Sun setting on the Davis-Besse cooling tower, Lake Erie:NC

Ice-Storm Day + Two

2008-12-23T13:44:00.007-05:00

Photos celebrating the beauty of nature in my yard--enrobed in ice. Song Sparrow nest in the flowering plum in my front yard. It has been fun to watch the sparrows return to this nest the last two years. I also have a couple bird houses in this same area of my yard that get used annually.Ice-covered Holly.
White pine in ice.

NC

Ice-Storm Day Part II

2008-12-23T12:23:00.011-05:00

After scraping the ice and slush off the drive, sidewalk, and front approach, I treated the girls to BG's best hamburg at Corner Grill; then we were off to the Wood County Historical Center and Museum for some icy photos.

In reviewing the photos I took last Friday, I noticed something Abbey-esque. In the same way that the reader of Edward Abbey's homage to nature and seasonal park rangering, Desert Solitaire, would not be apprised to the historical reality that he was not alone, from the following photos, it would appear that I was alone. In this same way, I have obscured the historical fact that Jessica and Emily were with me all the while. The following photos were shot "on the fly" (using in-camera tricks) and have not been manipulated with any photo editing software.

I hope you enjoy your vitual holiday tour of grounds of the Wood County Historical Center and Museum:Front entrance. The stone arches and walls gracing the complex were completed using resident labor during the 1920s East entrance, looking toward the Portage River.The Pest House. Nest door to the former Lunatic Asylum. Those with communicable diseases would stay here.

Evergreen in icicle.

Mini light encased in an icy sheath.

A calm place to think icy thoughts. Ben: an homage to the Museum's farming tradition.
Front entry of the former county home. This area was mainly used by staff and guests, not residents, or patients, or both. The Wood County Poor Farm was in operation as a poor farm from 1869 to the 1950s. From the 50s on, it's main use was a nursing home for the elderly. It was closed and slated for demolition in 1971, when a group of concerned citizens proposed a new use. After extensive renovation and preservation, the county home reopened as the Wood County Historical Center and Museum in 1975.
The Staff Dining Room, decorated for the holidays.

Wall sconces in the main entrance. Notice the delicate shadows made by the intricate cuts in the crystal.

Ice-Storm Day

2008-12-19T08:47:00.004-05:00

Here's another photo to add to the Empty Nest Series; I shot it this morning off my front porch.Overnight, a massive weather system made it's way across the Midwest dumping eight or so inches of snow across Southern Michigan and a narrow band of ice from Nebraska, all the way across Southern Iowa, Central Illinois, Northern Indiana, Northern Ohio, and to Philadelphia, PA.

Today was supposed to be the last day of classes for Bowling Green Schools before the long holiday break; however, due to weather conditions, school was cancelled before 5:30 AM. It's slick-slidin' out there, and ever-determined Michelle went to do her daily swim at the BGSU rec center this morning at six, and then to Ben's Table a local restaurant for breakfast with the swim team. Some things are natural, others are just crazy. I think I'm going to take Jessica and Emily to Corner Grill for breakfast and then to the Wood County Museum; crazy?

NC

Fall Semester 2008 has expired

2008-12-12T22:52:00.002-05:00

Wow! Look at that...did you see it? Time just flew by. And now? Fall semester 2008 is over--It's been a challenging semester with an overabundance of ambivalent students, liberally peppered with with freshly-cracked whine--my glass runneth over. I'm tired. I'm fed up, I probably should not be posting these thoughts on my 'family-friendly' blog, but to quote the masters of rhyme and lyrics, Nada Surf, "Oh fuck it, I'm going to have a party," and no students are invited.

I'm really looking forward to the winter break to catch up on all the things I have neglected this past semester, like breathing, and writing about the nasty-ass, dead albatross hanging around my worthless albatross-killing neck--no offence to Sam Coleridge, but his beautiful piece of prose has become a cliche used by folks who have never read "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"--the dread dissertation. I have to wrap it up or I'll be the one getting wrapped (or tagged and bagged for you crime drama folks).

Winter: Part I of ?

2008-11-16T16:57:00.003-05:00

It's bitter cold in Northwest Ohio, but at least we have inexpensive gas again:

Winter blew into BG yesterday, and left a short-lived dusting of snow across town, but we were not here to feel it. Michelle competed in her first swim meet since 1991, which took us to Miami University in Oxford, Ohio--more on this later. I have a backlog of day trips to post here (one to Frankenmouth, MI, our second trip to Holmes County, Ohio, and yesterday's trip to Oxford in SW Ohio) and hope to find a few minutes this next week to do it.

Empty Nest Series

2008-11-06T10:43:00.005-05:00

Instead of working on my dissertation, I took this series of three photos of an empty song sparrow nest in my front yard this morning. For each, I changed the setting for the color accent feature in my camera.

The first is auto color, the second is a custom red isolating the remaining leaves on the non-fruit baring ornamental plum, the third isolates the brightest color of the grass/ straw of the nest and also picks up accents in the tree bark and background. I think the third is my personal favorite. Enjoy the leaf peeping:NC

Price for 87 octane today in BG

2008-11-04T12:06:00.002-05:00

Saturday, as we were leaving for Holmes County to buy Amish cheese and baked goods, the price for 87 octane dipped to $1.91, but today the price is four cents higher per gallon. It seems that gas prices may have bottomed out here in NW Ohio; suffice it to say, I'd be pleased to see prices remain in this range for a while.

Fresh from casting my ballot for change in the gymnasium of Bowling Green High School, I took this picture at 10:15 this morning at the Circle K on Wooster. Michelle went to vote at 6:30 AM and stood in line for fifty-five minutes. I, on the other hand, arrived at the high school at 10:00 AM, was able to get right in and vote to make America a better place in under ten minutes.
NC

The calendar is back

2008-10-30T18:04:00.010-04:00

I don't expect you to remember something I mentioned in passing back in August, but last spring, I was asked--along with three professional photographers--to contribute images to the Bowling Green 2009 Calendar.

Well, the calendar is back from the printer and features full-color, glossy images of architectual points of interest, often overlooked on Main Street BG. For those of you who are looking for a unique holiday gift, it is available for $15.00 at the CVB, Main Street BG, Calico, Sage and Thyme, For Keeps, Grounds for Thought, and the Wood County Historical Center and Museum. I'm sure you'll want to know my photography is featured six out of the twelve months and also on the cover. I'm pretty darned proud of it and am excited to share it with you:

Tasty treats in Albuquerque

2008-10-28T11:23:00.016-04:00

On my first night in Albuquerque (Thursday) I had the most tasty Chicken Green Chile burrito from a street cart vendor. I don't know why, but push-cart food gets a bad rap--I guess I must have good luck or poor taste--but I seem to find some of the best food from the small, local vendors. Here you can see my traveling companion, MWS (Stiffler), purchasing his dinner from the same cart:

Day Two (Friday). With the strong recommendations of fellow listers on the ASFS (Association for the Study of Food and Society) listserv, Stiffler and I went to Frontier Restaurant for fresh flour tortilla, baked in-house, which were absolutely wonderful...soft...pillowy...warm...delicious:The tortilla were the perfect vehicle to deliver the flavors of the Southwest. Here is my combo plate with beans, rice, shredded beef taco, chicken enchilada, and tamale smothered with Green chile stew (Stiffler commented the food was so good he did not want to eat it, because then it would be gone): Day Three (Saturday): Started off with a solo trip to the downtown farmers market for breakfast. The first course was a breakfast burrito with green chile--which was delicious--and I'm not a big fan of breakfast burritos. I ordered one with egg, jack cheese, hash browns, and fire-roasted green chile. From there, I progressed to an beef and potato empanada, samples of sweet potato pie (I bought one for later), BBQ sauce, and some of the best organic raspberry jam I have ever tasted from Heidi's Raspberry Farm.

I bought a jar of the Red Chile Raspberry and a jar of the Red Chile Ginger Raspberry jams. Like I said, it is some of the best I have ever tasted. The raspberry flavor is bright and vibrant, it is not muddled with too much sweetness, then there is the heat lingering in the background, with a subtle hint ginger. These are ADULT jams if there is such a thing.

Red chile is also available. Here is a dried red chile ristra for sale by the same vendor who is roasting the fresh Hatch Green Chile: Which brings me up to the sweet scent of green chile being roasted at the market. The Hatch Green Chile are still in season and available at the market: The Chile are loaded into the roaster, a propane flame is ignited toward the rear of the roaster, and the operator carefully turns the roaster for five-to-seven minutes until the chile blister: The Chile are then loaded into plastic bags to sweat, which makes for easier removal of the skins:Also available at the Albuquerque farmers market, prickly pears, which taste a lot better than their texture would suggest:I picked up a bag of new crop pintos:

Stiffler rejoined me around 11:00AM and we ventured off to Old Town Albuquerque, where we enjoyed the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of this 300 year old village: He bought a turquoise ring set in silver for J. Notice Stiffler in blue shirt toward the center of the frame:

I purchased a pendant and chain with matching earrings of turquoise set in intricate silver scroll work made by Loyce Arnell and her daughter. Here, Loyce is holding the set I chose for Michelle:We ate lunch in old town and were both underwhelmed, so no pictures are going to be posted here, but the sopapillia were fresh, hot, and delicious with honey:I also bought some Chocolate Red Chile Fudge, White Chocolate Red Chile Fudge, Piñon Toffee, and a Piñon Nut Roll from the Candy Lady: The trip was more of a straight-line wind than a relaxing retreat in the Southwest, but when one is conferencing, that is what is expected. Day four started early, much earlier than I would have liked, but I did get to capture an image that many undergraduates, and probably many of their professors, rarely see, the sunRISE:

Chocolate's hard to shoot

2008-10-15T13:41:00.007-04:00

I mean, really, have you ever tried melting it to the consistency that the syringe will take it up through a needle? Really?

To top-off our night in Findlay, we stopped at Dietsch Brothers Fine Chocolates and Ice Cream, where they have been working to exploit the two tastes all humans come hard-wired to desire: sweet and fat. Uummmmm...sweet AND fat in one tasty place, did I die, is this heaven? Can I live here forever? Alright, for you concscenti, I am more addicted to See's Candies than Dietsch's, but when in Findlay...you know the cliche. Because, when you gotta have a fix, even grandma's perfume will do. Glaring defiantly at me from the candy case was a small, yet curious, looking little milk chocolate-dipped square, with something strange on top.... The placard read Milk caramel with SEA SALT. Interesting, I murmured to myself, and anything interesting gets extra points in my book. So I bought a small assortment, you gotta have a base line in order to judge the unique and interesting, and I have been working my way through some homemade caramels, one plain, one dipped in milk, one in dark, and cleansing my palate in between with fresh-pressed apple cider. Their caramel is respectable; the chocolate serviceable. There are also two chocolate cherries (one milk, one dark) on the plate--we'll see how they taste later. And now the milk caramel with sea salt...sweet, caramel, chocolate, salty, unexpected bits of salt get mixed in and offer little bursts of flavor, another bite confirms the initial response...hummm...pretty good, not bad, their caramel really caries the show, and I declare it delicious.

Good eats in Findlay

2008-10-15T12:29:00.005-04:00

After watching a celebration of American food in George Motz's documentary and reading the companion book of the same name, Hamburger America , I was buying what they were selling, at Wilson's Sandwich Shop in Findlay, Ohio. Last night, we drove 30 miles South of BG to Findlay, Ohio, where one-hundred years ago this year, native son, Tell Taylor, penned the lyrics and music to Down By the Old Mill Stream.

Findlay's glory days are evident in the architecture, but one need not wax nostalgic for days gone by, just go to Wilson's and order a double special, as I did, with a side of some of the best fast food fries ever, and a chocolate malt (Michelle and Jessica got malts, I has my favorite prescription filled by Dr. Pepper).

I'm still playing with Michelle's point-&-shoot in these photos, not nearly as many options as with my S3IS, but will work in a pinch. I've decided to take the S3IS with me to Albuquerque--unfortunately Bobcat Bite is closed for their fall vacation--no Green Chile Cheeseburger for me.
NC

Grand Rapids, Ohio Applebutter Festival 2008

2008-10-14T22:13:00.008-04:00

Hey kids, what time is it? Its Grand Rapids Applebutter Festival time! The time of year when boiled cider and shredded apples are cooked down in a multi-day process to make a tasty spread for biscuits, bread, pork, or whatever you like the flavor of applebutter on. It you've been with me for a while, you might remember the photos I posted of the 2007 Applebutter Festival and the 2008 flood in Grand Rapids, Ohio. This year, I was badgered into taking Michelle's point-and-shoot Sony DSC-W80 instead of my Canon S3IS for portability reasons. Since I don't plan on publishing any of these images, the slight reduction in quality doesn't bother me that much.

I'm heading to Albuquerque, NM this week to present my current research at the Annual Meeting of the American Studies Association, and had been toying with taking Michelle's little camera, also for portability reasons, but since I've never set foot inside New Mexico, I'll take the S3IS--it has more features and memory than my first notebook computer--and shoot my heart out. Of course figuratively, not literally.

Would you like to be cool and make your own applebutter? Well here's a recipe (ATTENTION: the first step may be a deal breaker, if so, just buy 4 pints at next year's fest):

Day One:
Procure a 50-gallon copper kettle (if you don't have one, Helen Picking Neff of the D. Picking Co. in Bucyrus, Ohio can fix you up with one. Just be aware that it will be hand made, just as they have been since 1874, and D. Picking is so back-logged with orders, it may take approximately one year for delivery. Remember, cost must NOT be an issue--this is a kettle you are buying for your great-grandchildren).

Stoke a fire and set up the kettle over the flames. Be sure to have an ample supply of fire wood as the next process will take an entire day.

Boil 15 gallons of fresh-pressed cider down to approximately five. Reserve for day three.

Day Two:
Peel and core approximately 38 bushels of apples, cover and reserve for day three.

Day Three:
Fill the the 50-gallon copper kettle with the boiled cider, and and 30-or-so bushels of the peeled and cored apples. Stoke the fire under and continue feeding it throughout the entire process. Bring to a boil, With a long-handled stirring stick, keep the apple butter stirred constantly. Add more apples as the mixture cooks down. Somewhere around hour 6, check the apple butter for consistency, you do this by dipping some out and putting it on a slightly-tilted plate. you are looking for the "run" or the "weep" to go away. Then start to add 75 pounds of white sugar, stir until dissolved and applebutter is back to a full boil.

Ladle cooked mixture into hot, pint-sized jars. Leave 1/4 inch head space place seal on jar, then screw down ring, and place upside down for 30 minutes-or so.

Yield: approximately 350 pints

Also at the festival, tasty local foods: Silly girls, one with a Buckeye nut necklace and the other with a Buckeye nut key chain. It is an old traditions that Ohioans carry a nut from the indigenous buckeye tree in their pocket for good luck:
Big crowds, and long lines for bean soup and bison burgers:and tasty, open-pit chicken from our friends at the Tontogany, Ohio VFW:
And many other activities, such as corn shelling using antique equipment and bike rides:NC

MacQueen Apple Butter Stir

2008-10-14T17:32:00.007-04:00

The morning after the Nigerian Independence celebration we went to MacQueen Orchards for their annual Apple Butter Stir. MacQueen's produce a flash-pasteurized fresh cider that they then put into a slushy machine and it rolls and rolls around until it churns into a little bit of heaven...an icy heaven. This is a destination drink. It keeps me coming back year-after-year, well a little full disclosure is needed here, the delicious baked goods and doughnuts hold their own too. Notice the progression from fresh, raw apples for sale:

The apples then go to the cider mill. The secret to a tasty cider is a balance of equal parts sweet, tart and a juicy apples:
This machine turns apple cider into tasty li'l angels from heaven,which then we drink--ummmmm--delicious:

Also delicious:

Dave and Mirium Cooper of Cooper's Cider Mill come all the way from Bucyrus, Ohio to stir a 45-gallon copper kettle of applebutter over an open fire. Dave is the gentleman in the white shirt and straw hat who is helping Dara stir the kettle of the delicious spread:

Nigerian Independence Celebration

2008-10-14T16:43:00.005-04:00

Some friends invited us to the Nigerian Independence Celebration in Toledo; we gladly accepted. Obed is an engineer and originally from Nigeria and Emily, Ph.D. is from Akron, Ohio, and they were unable to attend the annual festival, so they offered their tickets, and their children to us. We took both--the children were on a one-night basis. Who would pass up an opportunity like this: The men and women in traditional Nigerian dress:
You gotta love the food:

Dara, Emily , Jessica:

Dilly Beans

2008-10-04T16:36:00.019-04:00

A few weeks back, I bought some lovely green and wax beans at the local farmers market here in BG, with the express intent of turning them into tasty pickled Dilly Beans. Almost every person I or Michelle said anything to about the Dilly Beans expressed curiosity, but confessed unfamiliarity, with the product.

Which surprised me because NW Ohio has a strong agricultural tradition where many farms are dedicated to the cultivation of commercial crops such as corn, soybeans, and tomatoes, that make their way to commercial processors such as Con-Agra, Heinz, Hunts, La Choy, Pepperidge Farms, etc. Additionally, there are numerous truck farms where farmers grow crops to sell at road-side markets, and/ or markets in the urban centers. Moreover many rural families tend a garden plot to suit their individual tastes and needs. Given the strong agricultural heritage in NW Ohio, it would seem natural for such a product to exist, yet it seems that Dilly Beans are not a common food in Northwest Ohio.

This situation can be explained by thinking about how raw foodstuffs, on their own, tend to be associated with the land they come from, and by extension, how many conoscenti (those in the know) claim that specific crops can be/ are enhanced by the geography, soil composition, and climactic conditions of the land where the produce is grown. For example: Vidalia onions are grown in Vidalia, GA, or Muskmelons in Milan, Ohio, or Garlic in Gilroy, CA, or Honeycrisp apples, and Montmorency cherries in Michigan. Except for notions of quality and constructions of superior taste to similar products grown elsewhere, raw produce is not imbued with specific meanings that say anything about the people who grow or consume the fruits or vegetables. It is what one does with food and how that food is prepared that communicates ethnicity, region, skill level, artistry, socio-economics, religion, or ethos. And here, Dilly Beans says something about me and where I come from.

Dilly Beans are a commonly-consumed food in the Intermountain West, where many families have their vegetable gardens and around August, those Blue Lake Bush Beans start to mature, and mature, and mature. They mature in waves that require regular harvesting, and as long as the weather holds, they continue to mature until the first frost--or frustration--hits. The socio-economic realities of the hard-scrabble existence of those first waves of Anglo settlers who carved out an existence in the Great Basin telescopes into the contemporary culture where many Westerners consider it their duty to work toward their own subsistence, or at least reconcile with the past--each summer--by tending a ten-foot by ten-foot plot of tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, peas, zucchini, perhaps an eggplant, and beans. Given the commonly-held value of economic thrift in the Intermountain West, those ever-growing mounds of beans coming in from the garden must be preserved, and reserved for, or held against impending periods of privation that may come--or at least the perception that eventually one may be down on one's luck and have a hankering for a Dilly Bean. Moreover, notions of thrift and preparation are circulated through religious networks that council to have a ready supply of food in one's pantry to ward against starvation during extreme situations.

Before relocating to a small university town in America's heartland, I had extensive perennial and annual flower gardens and tended a forty-by-eighty- foot vegetable garden where I grew old standards of corn, beans, tomatoes, carrots, parsnips, and squash but also experimented with broccoli, cauliflower (I grew it for Michelle even though I find it unpalatable), brussels sprouts (another yuck), sweet potatoes, honeydew melons, muskmelons, watermelons, multiple varieties of peppers, onions, potatoes, etc. And all had to be harvested and preserved. Now Michelle came from a tradition where home canning was practiced but not passed on to her, so I stepped in and played with the traditional construction of the division of labor and canned it myself with her helping me. Here, the traditional division of labor is trumped by personal experience, interest, and need. And with so much produce coming off the garden we needed to preserve it or throw it away; and throwing it away was not an option.

Fast forward to living in Ohio, I brought my garden tiller here with me, but due to the soil conditions--I live in a modern subdivision built where a farm had operated for 175 years, in a reclaimed/ drained swamp. I have hard-pan clay that is so difficult to chew through that the environmental and geographic conditions trump my heritage and interests. Therefore, I have greatly reduced my a gardening to perennials, shrubs, and trees. I have some herbs in amongst the perennials and the shrubs, that the rabbits enjoy, and two pots for peppers and tomatoes, so, instead of growing the beans myself, I bought fresh beans, garlic, and dill weed at the farmers market and had everything else--except for the Pickling Salt--in the pantry. Here is the recipe:

DILLY BEANS

4 lbs. green and wax beans, trimmed to fit into a pint jar
2 tsp. cayenne pepper flakes
16 cloves garlic
8 heads fresh dill weed
1/2 cup canning (pickling) salt
5 cups water
5 cups white vinegar

Pack beans, lengthwise, into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space. For each pint, add approximately 1/4 tsp. cayenne (more if you like 'em hot), 2 cloves garlic, and 1 head dill weed.

Combine remaining ingredients and bring to boiling. Pour hot brine over beans, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Adjust caps. process pints for 10 minutes in boiling water bath.

Yields 8 pints of Dilly Beans
We let them sit and pickle for four weeks and then popped the seal on the Ball Mason--and oh so delicious--they are crunchy, tangy, have a nice balance of herb to garlic, with a pleasant heat from the cayenne flakes on the finish.

You gotta love someone who loves eating in Dearborn...and sings about it

2008-10-04T10:47:00.005-04:00

Since it’s the beginning of a new month, and this is my first post of the new month, it seems only fitting that I cast some attention toward the wonderful diversity within an hour’s drive of my door-to-the-world.

In roughly the same time it takes to teach a class session of Cultural Anthropology, I can be in Dearborn, Michigan eating some of the best food in the nation and experiencing culture. Dearborn is home to the Ford Motor Co. The Henry Ford, and Greenfield Village. It is also considered to be the Arab American capitol and Warren Avenue is the heart of the community. I was first introduced to the New Yasmeen Bakery and Shatila—both within a block of each other on Warren Ave.--by my good friend, Matt Stiffler, who is in the Arab American Studies program at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). Since then, I have become a New Yasmeen and Shatila junkie.

Now, if you consider yourself a foodie and want to start out with the savory and progress to the sweet, I suggest stopping at New Yasmeen for any of their daily specials over majadara with cracked wheat, a fried kibbee, a meat, cheese or spinach fatayer, some stuffed grape leaves, hommus, and pita—be sure to buy extra pita, and extra everything, to go.

My unelaborated assessment of Shatila is that ranks among the best pastry shops in the nation. Inside their palace of pastries, one will find an assortment of fine French and Lebanese pastries displayed like fine jewels. Here, food tickles both the palate and the eye, without asking much in return. I suggest buying a French pastry to eat there, and if you’re only one, a dozen to go.

If you can’t make it to Dearborn, I suggest watching the following video and dream of the day you too can eat hommus with Thomas Jefferson:

Next time I'm in Dearborn, I'll take photos and post them here.

Time traveling in Ohio

2008-09-23T12:40:00.008-04:00

One need not procure a machine off the internet to travel through time, one needs only to drive two hours in any direction from Bowling Green, Ohio. In a relatively short space of time, one may engage with the 300-or-so years of recorded history in the area and many millenia of unrecorded history where artifacts and earthworks whisper of the past.

To celebrate Michelle's **th birthday (20 Sept) and Jessica's 13th (21 Sept), we took a road trip through Holmes County, Ohio's Amish country. The day was full of meat and cheese tasting--and buying, of course--at Guggisberg and Heini's, pastoral scenes of 10-cow farms, friendly merchants selling the fruits of their labor, horse-drawn enclosed black carriages, folks speaking German, and family-friendly good times. Amish carriages at the Holmes County Home:

Carriages share the roads with automobiles, in some places there are secondary (depending on your perspective they may be considered primary) networks of roads exclusively for carriages.

Rolling hills dotted with family farms are the way of life in Holmes County: Amish farmers typically milk fewer than 10 cows each morning and transport the sweet milk to dairies and cheese factories in steel milk cans in the back of horse-drawn carriages. These two photos were taken outside Heini's Cheese Chalet in Bunker Hill, Ohio:

After a full day of sightseeing and cheese tasting, the best way to finish was with a nice dinner of chicken, roast beef, sauerkraut and sausages, potatoes, noodles, and dressing at the Farmstead Amish restaurant in Berlin. This is a picture of Emily and Jessica posing with the horses outside at the restaurant hitching rail:Looking into the restaurant as it was closing for the night (around 8:00 PM).

Justice and Community Identity

2008-09-23T11:46:00.006-04:00

The county courthouses of some of Ohio's 88 counties are among the most beautiful examples of public art and architecture in the Midwest. Most date from the mid-to-late nineteenth century and reflect the popular tastes and styles from which they emerge. Over my time in Ohio, I have become aware of the tenuous place these grand buildings hold in their respective communities and what it can mean for a community, both economically and symbolically, to maintain these buildings. Eighteen have been replaced by featureless pieces of modern or post-modern architecture (such as the Franklin Co. Courthouse in Columbus)
and others are endangered, as in the case of the Seneca County Courthouse in Tiffin. This is what the building looked like a century ago:
And what it looks like today. The County has received demolition bids to convert this Beau Arts beauty-in-distress into ROAD BASE. Of course, there has been an intense debate over preservation and the county commissioners seem to be coming around to the side of the preservationists. This is what the building looked like in January when Michelle and I toured it and donated to the preservationists cause. I hope to see it looking grand again.
I have made it a point to photograph the courthouses as I encounter them. This past weekend I was able to see two more: the Wayne County Courthouse in Wooster
and the Holmes County Courthouse in Millersburg, Ohio.

NC

Weekend in bloom

2008-09-23T11:22:00.005-04:00

I have a thing for flowers and this past weekend I took the time to stop and photograph some. This is a berry of some sort growing on a tree outside the Holmes County, Ohio courthouse. I don't know what it is but was taken in by the beauty and took a photograph to help me identify it later: A common blue salvia (an annual) growing in mass in a flower bed outside Heini's Cheese Chalet in Bunker Hill, Ohio:
Emily say this rose intertwined in the railing outside Heini's and wanted a picture of it:
Since classes started at BGSU back on the 25th of August, my time has not been my own. I have been putting in extremely long days preparing for my Cultural Anthropology and Minority Groups class and trying to write a dissertation. Of course, as I'm sure you can tell by the way I organized that last sentence, the course work is dominating the majority of my time and the diss is being pushed to the back burner to simmer--not boil. This week I will change things up a bit. The diss is being shifted to the big main burner and the flame is on high.

Local kid, Jonathan Burkin, makes AWESOME on America's Got Talent

2008-09-03T20:24:00.008-04:00

I've seen Jonathan Burkin at a number of local festivals and parades in NW Ohio and my reaction is that he CONSISTENTLY ramps up the quality of any parade he is in. Although he was not at the Milan Melon Festival this year, his group was, and they were there for him.
Over the years I have been conducting field research at food festivals in NW Ohio, I have tried to get photographs of him in action, but this dude has some quick moves and I usually end up with shots of his back. Here are some action shots at the 2007 Walleye Festival in Port Clinton, Ohio where he EARNED and won a BIG trophy.

If you are reading this, please throw your support behind him and any other kids who resist mindless conformity and dare to dream big.

Milan Melon Festival Grand Parade 2008

2008-09-01T14:42:00.004-04:00

Of all the festivals and events that belong to the Ohio Festival & Events Association (http://www.ofea.org/index.php), the Milan Melon Festival Grand Parade is recognized as the best parade in the state. Much of the credit needs to go to Art Dickman, who has been organizing the parade since 1971, and Doris Weiss, who has been in charge of the queens since the festival started in 1959. There are many other types of festivals in Ohio, but festivals featuring food are the most prominent. Although parades are not a significant area of my research, I am interested in the ways that food is presented at these parades. This year, the parade lasted an hour and 15 minutes. Here are just a few photos:

Milan Melon Festival 2008

2008-09-01T12:45:00.006-04:00

Sam & Dayna are coming over for dinner tonight (Labor Day) and Michelle gently suggested that I refrain from talking about my food festival research; I think she fears that, after three years of researching the SAME THING, I'm quickly becoming a one-trick pony. So, I'm only posting a few of my favorite pics from our trip to Thomas Alva Edison's boyhood home in the Connecticut Western Reserve village of Milan, Ohio with short captions, not a drawn out discussion. I hope you enjoy the 50^th year of Milan Melon Festival, I did.

http://www.milanmelonfestival.org/index.html

Toft's Dairy in Sandusky produces some of the best ice cream I have eaten in the USA (yes, I also love Cincinnati's Graeter's http://www.graeters.com/) and churns two PREMIUM flavors exclusively for the Milan Melon Festival: muskmelon and watermelon ice cream. The Edison High Athletic Boosters offer both flavors in cups or cones, but many people come out for a half of a locally grown Milan Melon with their choice of Toft's vanilla, muskmelon, of watermelon in it:

Festival-goers seated around the American Civil War monument enjoying hand-scooped Toft's Ice Cream in a half muskmelon grown by David Weilnau:

Weilnau (back to the camera) helping a customer choose a melon:
The Edison Cheerleaders have exclusive rights to sell muskmelon soft serve and Jessica et. all finds it delicious:The festival typically draws 150,000 to 200,000 festival-goers to this village of under 1500 residents.

More food. Emily has that don't-even-think-about-asking-for-a-taste-of-my-fried-Swiss-cheese look in her eye. Jessica and her ear of Edison Music Boosters' butter-drippin' corn:
Shredded chicken sandwich from the Milan Friends Church Youth Group. A NW Ohio staple:

Potato Pancakes from one of the regional vendors:
Jess with her jumbo onion rings from another regional vendor:

Interlude

2008-09-01T12:18:00.003-04:00

Non-festival-related pics of Milan -or- Just enjoying a saunter.

The Four Seasons

Urban Renewal

In the Shadow of the Vermillion Light

2008-09-01T11:40:00.004-04:00

After the Melon Fest, we took the short drive out to Vermillion, Ohio to sit back and relax with a Lake Erie view.

Here are two of my favorite pics from a trip we took a month ago to the same beach. We were there during the "golden hour."

Twinkie Sushi

2008-08-26T10:06:00.005-04:00

Hi folks,

Do you have plain old twinkies lying around and the kiddies or the husband just wont eat them anymore? Cue the sound of kids moaning, "ahhgh, twinkies are just not hip anymore" (as if kids today use the word "hip"). Well then, run--don't walk--to the kitchen and ask your mom (as if mom is conveniently in the kitchen, think Joan Allen in Pleasantville) to help you turn those dusty old Twinkies into TWINKIE SUSHI! Now if your mom is challenged in the kitchen, or lacks creativity, or is just ambivalent about presentation, the good folks at Hostess have written this recipe and many more here: http://www.hostesscakes.com/recipe_view12.htm

"Hey ma, will you pass the wasabi?"

Related note: Best line in a film referring to the Hostess Twinkie goes to Nick Reve (Steve Buscemi) to Chad Palomino (James LeGros) in Tom DiCillo's film about filmmaking Living in Oblivion (1995): "You Hostess Twinkie mother f*****...."

DO IT NOW and ENJOY! NC

Another culinary curiosity

2008-08-24T21:21:00.005-04:00

After spending the day at Oval beach, Lake Michigan, we bummed around Saugatuck. We all wanted to ride the chain ferry, but it was closed due to high winds, which causes me to ask what high winds? Anyway, here's a pic of Jessica and Emily wishing they could ride the chain ferry.

While looking into the shops in town, we came across Kilwin's Old Fashioned Chocolates, Fudge, Ice Cream Est. 1947 and decided to go in.

To my surprise, in amongst the over-sized nut-caramel-chocolate patties, I found the most pedestrian/ unique item in their candy case...a chocolate covered TWINKIE!

This kind of stuff causes me to abruptly shift into academic gear and describe/ analyze what I see going on here. I'll spare the blog the gory details, but here is the condensed version: (1) Twinkies have been around since 1933 and can be purchased at finer gas stations nation-wide. (2)Virtually anyone who grew up with any measure of affluence in the US has consumed or is at least aware of this "delicious" cream-filled snack cake, but here, (3)the good folks at Kilwin's have taken the "beloved" snack cake and ramped up the presentation with a liberal--not Democratic--dipping in milk chocolate, then is drizzled with both dark and white chocolate. (4)One may purchase this triple chocolate bomb for a just $6.50 each. If you are wondering if I bought one? The answer is NO.

When looking at the points above, One may see that Twinkies--an industrial food, common across the nation--can be personalized/ presented in a way that capitalizes on the nostalgia of eating this food while increasing the desirability/ visual appeal by adding value, here multiple layers of chocolate, that raises the price and makes the "Striped Twinkie" significantly less affordable than the original product and may be seen as more exclusive. Unlike the common Twinkie, a staple of lunch boxes across the nation, this Twinkie is only available at Kilwin's and is made uncommon by what Kilwin's does to it--in the same way that adding a signature to a document communicates authorship--Kilwin's adds their identity to a mass-produced food.

Happy eatin' NC

Last weekend before semester starts

2008-08-24T20:52:00.003-04:00

Title says it all but could also be titled: last weekend before the craziness starts. I'm looking forward to teaching Cultural Anthropology and Minority groups, but needed one last fling with the family before the "real" work starts. Se we went to visit Neil & Erica in Grand Rapids and then back out to Saugatuck and Lake Michigan for a day. I caught some interesting bird pics (below) and invite you to vote on YOUR favorite. (1)"Drunk Bird Walking" (2)"podiatric self-diagnosis" (3)"I dare ya..." or (4)"hop-d-wash"

First day of school

2008-08-19T16:28:00.004-04:00

Jessica survived her first day of junior high...

But she sure looks tired:

Emily is happy to be in fifth grade and is looking forward to earning her way to camp by selling candy bars...would any readers care to buy one, or ten?

Best, NC

34th Annual Birmingham Ethnic Festival

2008-08-18T08:55:00.010-04:00

Isten Hozott!

Thirty-five years ago, the Birmingham neighborhood in East Toledo was about to be bull-dozed in the name of "progress." They rallied the neighborhood by rolling out their traditions and heritage for a one-day event under the mid-August sun. Thanks to that large hand-full of active, forward-thinking individuals who stood in middle of the intersection of Consaul and Genesee--under the shadow of St. Stevens Church--and stared down "progress," the traditional Hungarian neighborhood still exists today. Subtitled "A Sunday in the Old Country" the Birmingham Ethnic Festival has celebrated the victory with a street festival that functions as a large family reunion. I overheard comments like "If you want to see someone from the old neighborhood, this is the place to be" and witnessed embraces from friends who may only see each other when they make their annual return to the Birmingham neighborhood.

Unlike the rainy day last year, it was a gorgeous day for the festival; I hope they experienced record attendance and that the coffers of the community organizations, that depend upon this festival to provide funding for their activities all year, burst from the proceeds. This year, Michelle and I attended the Calvin United Chicken Paprikas Dinner--delicious--of a perfectly seasoned chicken breast and wing, perched atop on a bed of dumplings, all covered with Paprikas Gravy, with hand-made Kolbaz, a side of creamed cucumber salad, crusty Vienna bread, butter and choice of beverage (water, fruit punch, coffee) in the basement of the historic church.

Out on the street, there were options galore. Calvin United had a stand selling Szalonna Sütes(Hunky Turkey) Sandwiches. Their version differs from that prepared by the Hungarian Club, in that the Jowl Bacon is freshly roasted over a apple wood fire and the rendered fat is drizzled over the entire combination of bacon, pepper, onion, and tomato on a single slice of crusty Vienna bread:

And there is beer, beer, beer, running through the streeths. I'm amazed how much beer there it here. Each church has a beer stand, the bars are open, and according to one of my informants from last year it's a tradition of sorts for him "Uncle Andy" to introduce the underage nephews to their first beer at the festival. Not only is this ritual tolerated, it's expected--it's part of the culture in Birmingham.

There's music:

And Dancing:

Games of chance:

And no trip to Birmingham is complete without a stop to George Takacs's Market for foot-long links of their delicious kolbasz sausage.

Best, NC

ALSO THIS WEEKEND...

2008-08-16T15:42:00.008-04:00

There's a lot to do this weekend in NW Ohio. All of the venues I am writing about occur within an hour's drive (the way I drive) from BG. In addition to the Bucyrus Bratwurst Festival and the Pemberville Free Fair, there are:

The National Tractor Pulling Championship, in Bowling Green, Ohio which I have never been to but since I live within 2 blocks of the grandstand at the Wood County Fairground, I can hear the roar and smell the exhaust well enough from my back yard:

Here is a shot from across the street from the fair grounds--a short 4 minute walk from my house:

Corn City Festival in Deshler, Ohio. These are photos from last year. I don't think we will be able to attend this year.

Steamed corn in the husk:

Over-sized ear of corn made out of MANY 1 gallon and 1/2 gallon milk bottles (I love folk art):

I'll have to see if I can make it to the International Festival at the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo in Perrysburg, Ohio today. I have "real" work I need to do before the semester starts like finish writing two syllabi and prepping for two new courses: Cultural Anthropology and Minority Groups. But what better sets of data can one research? I guess you could ask me where the distinguishing line between work and play is here...but as an academic who works with an expanded definition of "academic" I can blur that line as long as I produce something useful.

On Sunday, we will be at the Birmingham Ethnic (Hungarian) Festival in Toledo. If you remember Jamie Farr's character from M*A*S*H, Corporal Klinger, you have heard of Tony Packo's Hot Dog Stand in the Birmingham neighborhood in Toledo. Tony Packo's anchors the festival at the intersection of Front and Consaul. There's an amazing story about this festival, peppered with a dose of intrigue, literally about taking back the street and preserving the neighborhood from "urban progress" and those who want to "improve" a public/ private space.

Hunky Turkey Sandwich (flame-roasted jowl bacon, onion, green peppers, tomato, and a liberal dousing with rendered jowl-bacon grease on crusty Vienna Bread, two douses if you want it "Hungarian" style:

When we think of the average work-a-day Joe as the repository of culture, these types of events gain traction and one may ask, what is it about this festival that generates such interest and what does it do for those who organize, participate in, or attend this festival?

Best, NC

Pemberville Free Fair 2008

2008-08-16T15:08:00.006-04:00

The tiny village of Pemberville, Ohio lies approximately 10 miles down the Portage River from BG and hosts a plethora of historic and heritage events. Historic in that the Pemberville Free Fair is the last remaining free fair in the State of Ohio and the community regularly selects an item, event, activity to highlight as a way of communicating and constructing community pride. There are events throughout the year, and the community puts on a quality gathering--all the time. The restaurants are a notch above serviceable and I have never walked away dissatisfied. Pemberville is also the home of Beeker's General Store, one of Ohio's oldest general stores. A great place to visit and shop if you are looking for a unique item. I tend to buy a lot of gifts for friends and family at Beeker's.

Last night, we were in PV for the free fair. Michelle wanted her annual Waldo Sandwich fix. A "Waldo" is named after a small village near Delaware, OH where they take thick-sliced Eckrich Bologna and fry it on a griddle, slap it on a sandwich bun with a slice of American, dill pickle slices, and offer your choice of condiments: HEINZ ketchup or French's mustard. Michelle says it tastes like a flat hot dog. It's my hand, but I don't eat fried bologna:

Here is an image of my friend Sam Herrington with his heart-healthy Giant Tenderloin Sandwich I talked him into buying. I compared it to a Wienerschnitzle folded in half and slid between a diminutive bun with pickles and your choice of condiments: Heinz and French's. He took my advice that it was delicious and dove in. Since he had just finished the five-miler, he downed it with glee and declared it delicious! His metabolism runs so high, you should watch this dude down a plate of fried potatoes at The Corner Grill in BG at 2:00 AM.

Kermit the Tenderloin says HAVE A NICE DAY!

Best, NC

Bucyrus Bratwurst Festival 2008

2008-08-16T14:08:00.007-04:00

Willkommen!

One of the chapters of my dissertation focuses on the role of ethnic foods and heritage in constructing a sense or connection to place. I have conducted a significant amount of field research at this festival but needed to attend and document the opening ceremony. So, this past Thursday, I dragooned my junior research assistant, Emily, and we drove to Bucyrus to be at the kick-off and to interview some of the participants.

If you want a more detailed description/ analysis, you'll just need to buy the book when it becomes available.

For 36 of the Bratwurst Festival's 41 years, Boyd Long has run a ceremonial "First Brat" from the Colonel Crawford Lions Club booth located on Sandusky Avenue two blocks South to the main stage on Warren Street.

As he rounds the corner from Sandusky to Warren, the two-man band strikes up a rousing rendition of "Happy Wanderer."

Long delivers the "first Brat to the standing, and anxiously awaiting, Bratwurst Queen and she takes the first bite, passes it to her first attendant, the first passes it to the second and then to the festival director, Greg Northrup. In unison, the royalty declare the 2008 festival officially open.

Then they all dance to the "Beer Barrel Polka."

Polka music fills the streets and the HEAVENLY aroma of brats wafts on the gentle breeze. You'll notice that the streets are busy for 12:00 PM on a Thursday...wait til after the parade. This festival typically draws 150,000 people to this town of around 14,000 for delightful treats such as Pita-Wurst from the Colonel Crawford Lion's Club:

Bratwurst Casserole lovingly prepared from a fifth-generation family recipe by the First United Methodist Church in Bucyrus:

Hand-cut-and-battered fried Swiss cheese:

Jumbo Bavarian Cream Puffs from Schmidt's in The German Village, Columbus, Ohio:

and the BEST bratwurst in the nation.

Best, NC

Framed Art

2008-08-11T10:43:00.004-04:00

We have this amazing frame shop here in BG, Ben Franklin on Main Street. It is an all-purpose craft and general store with an old fashioned candy counter. This past week I took a 12" x 22" print of this photograph in for custom framing. I just heard that it is ready. This place consistently has the best custom framing.

Now about the pic. This was taken from my mother-in-law's place in Ogden on Christmas morning 2007 and is Ben Lomond Peak, Wasatch Range, Utah. The snow was fresh and you can see the powder blowing off the peak in the morning sun.

Best, NC

GR Applebutter Festival October 2007

2008-08-11T10:01:00.007-04:00

This post is for my good friend, Michelle Conrow, who is also interested in food festivals, takes these epic morning walks, and shares her pics with us. The following images are few of my favorite food pics culled from my research into food festivals. These are from the Grand Rapids (Ohio) Applebutter Festival, an annual one-day event that draws around 100,000 people into this Maumee River village of around 1000 inhabitants to buy the sweet pioneer treat and a whole lot of other stuff.

Stirring the 55 gallon copper kettle over an open fire.

Filling the bottles with boiling applebutter

the final product

Front Street, Grand Rapids during the February 2008 flood.

Best, NC

An issue of fairness

2008-08-10T19:18:00.008-04:00

I may not have been totally fair with the cultural scene in NW Ohio in my last entry.

BG is a spit-and-polish Midwestern town and offers many cultural events, such as the Black Swamp Art Festival, and is the home of four museums not attached to the university: The Wood County Historical Center and Museum, American Civil War Museum of Ohio, the National Construction Equipment Museum, and Snook's Dream Cars.

Front Entrance of the Wood County Historical Center and Museum.

What more can you expect from the county seat of Ohio's CORN-iest county? (Wood County Boasts the largest amount of corn, soy, and tomato cultivation for commercial use in the state of Ohio). Nothing beats having pride in in the works of one's own hands and I see that pride reflected in some of the barns in the area:

Community pride also make itself visible through the architecture and maintenance of the community. This past spring, I was asked to contribute some perspective on the historical architecture of Main Street, BG for the 2009 Bowling Green calendar. Although I do not consider myself to be an artist, I believe that my curiosity and eye for the less-than-obvious contribute in ways that are just as important. I will not burden you, dear reader, with a plethora of images, but here are just a few details of BG. Oh, it also doesn't hurt to have a decent camera. I'm shooting with a Canon S3IS.

Looking North on Main Street (Dixie HYW) in BG

Old City Hall, now headquarters of BG's Finest

Wood County Courthouse

Detail of Huntington Bank

Marquee of the Cla-Zel Theater. It is presently undergoing renovations to convert it into a bar/ multi-use entertainment venue. Soon, one will be able to have a meal, a drink and watch live theater, listen to live music, or watch a film all at the same time.

One more update: Michelle brought it to my attention that we will BE IN TOWN during the tractor pulls and in Grand Rapids, Michigan the FOLLOWING weekend--beh.

Best, NC

Haute Culture in BG

2008-08-08T17:56:00.004-04:00

Culture drips from the trees in NW Ohio and in order to maintain the critical balance that prevents the time-space continuum from rupturing and obliterating our little corner of paradise BG is the home to both the world's first Department of Popular Culture at BGSU and The National Tractor Pulling Championship. Each August, by official mayoral proclamation, Bowling Green, Ohio transforms itself into PULLTOWN! --FULL PULL!-- (oops, I'm sounding like a native) and the rumblings of tractors of all sorts can be heard across town.

It's full-disclosure time here...I have never been to the tractor pulls, but I have been to the smaller-scale pulls at the Wood County Fair:

Did I mention that we live a block away from the Wood County Fairgrounds? Well, not only can the tractor pulls be heard across town, we can hear them in our basement with the Onkyo 6.1 surround system cranked. This year, Michelle, Jessica, Emily and I will crash Neil & Erica's place in Grand Rapids, MI for a weekend on Lake Michigan and a side trip to Holland for some tulip bulbs. Unfortunately, we will all miss the tractor pulls.

Wednesday at the Wood County Fair: Combine Demolition Derby

I took Jessica over to watch some quality entertainment. Admission: $6.00, tickets to the main event: $5.00, crowd watchin' at a COMBINE DEMOLITION DERBY: can't put a price on it.

An admirable sentiment: "The Survivor" is dedicated to the women in the driver's life who have battled breast cancer. Although this image does not show what is scrawled across the rear of the combine, this team is out to "save the tatas."

Best, NC

Just another weekend

2008-07-28T21:58:00.003-04:00

Weekends in the Crook household tend to be busy, we like to get out and better familiarize ourselves with the culture of NW Ohio and our surroundings. This past weekend, Michelle and I helped some of our friends move to Grand Rapids, MI.

Neil got a new teaching gig at Davenport University and will start teaching after Labor Day, and Erica will be teaching online at Muskegom Community College. After the move, we all went out to Saugatuck, Oval Beach on Lake Michigan,

and then to Holland, MI. All I wanted was to buy some tulip bulbs to replace the ones the wild rabbits ate this past spring, but Holland, being the happening town it is, rolls up the sidewalks at five PM on Saturday and I could not even find a dutch boy to stick his finger in a dike. But I did get some pics.

My academic research examines the cultural significance of food an how groups construct/ maintaine a sense of place through food. Here's a nice pic of Michigan Blueberries in Holland:

Although I was unable to buy bulbs, I did come away with a five-pound box of fresh-picked Michigan blueberries.

Best, NC