Back From Bubbler City

I'm back from my fun-packed mini-vacation in Milwaukee. As usual, I had a great time visiting my family. The weather cooperated somewhat--except for two days dealing with the remnants of Hurricane Ike.

It'll take a day or so to write some posts and sort through photos, so here's a quickie to tide you over.

The Pryor Avenue Well is not technically a bubbler, but it is a fine example of public water distribution. Actually it is the only example, as it is the last public well in the city. This artesian well was built in the late 1800's. It is located on a regular city street in the Bay View area of Milwaukee.

The water has a distinctive iron taste and is super cold. I really like it. This is a pretty popular place and people are usually around filling up jugs. The house facing the well is for sale. I think it might be sort of fun to live there, but it could get old fast.

Fill yer jugs here!

Bubbler Research Trip

Tonight I'll be leaving for a week in Milwaukee. The highlight of the trip will be another family reunion. We had such fun last year, we decided to do it again.

Not sure if I'll be doing any posting while I'm gone. We'll see how it goes.

GO PACK GO!

Today begins a new season and a new era for the Green Bay Packers. A blank page. What will be written over the coming season remains to be seen--my only hope is that more good things than bad things will be written by the time the season is over.
The team has undergone a tremendous sea change since last season--a few veterans remain, sprinkled amongst many new faces. A time of learning and adjustment for player and fan alike.
Go Pack Go!

This interesting story was in today's JSOnline. A puff piece, some good PR spin, or the real deal.....I don't know. But I liked it.

The Old Becomes New

Chez Melange is moving! After 26 years at their original location in the Palos Verdes Inn, co-owners Michael Franks and Robert Bell are pulling up stakes and moving to a wonderful space in the heart of Riviera Village.
When it opened in 1982, Chez Melange was on the leading edge of a culinary trend that now is the norm for any restaurant that is serious about food. They were among the first to feature a daily-changing menu that strove to use the best and freshest offerings of local growers. Farmers and other purveyors were credited in the menu. The partners also sought to share their enthusiasm of good food and wine by hosting special events with wineries and by having weekly themed food specials and by offering cooking classes.
The name said it all: the menu was a far-ranging melange of different cuisines and choices. French, Californian, American, Asian.....it was all there.
I started going there in 1984 when I moved to Riviera Village. "The Chez" became my corner bistro. It was great...I could walk there and have a wonderful meal. Even though it was a busy, popular restaurant, the place always had a family feel to it. I remember having dinner there one Christmas Eve and Franks' young son--he must have been about five years old--was wandering around in the restaurant. The customers were keeping him occupied while Mom and Dad were on duty. Now that young boy is part of the restaurant operations.
Chez Melange was a favorite of my Mom's and whenever she visited me she always wanted to go there. I had many birthday dinners there too--including my 40th, which was duly noted on that evening's menu.
Why the move? The Palos Verdes Inn has been on-again-off-again for sale a number of times. The restaurant's 25-year lease expired and they were on a yearly lease. The hotel owners weren't really interested in doing the much needed remodeling. So when the new space opened up nearby, Franks and Bell decided to make the move. The old restaurant closed at the end of August and the new place should be open mid-September.
The new location will bring some new concepts to The Chez. In addition to the bistro, there will be a gastropub offering a more casual menu, a bar for each, and best of all...an outdoor patio. "Natural, seasonal and sustainable" is how they describe their new offerings.
Their lease with the PV Inn obligated them to a 365-day, breakfast-lunch-dinner constraint, and this will be changing with the new restaurant. Breakfast will only be on the weekends now. In my opinion, they had the best breakfasts ever.
I can't wait!

Chez Melange
1611 S. Catalina Avenue
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
540-1222

Bad News

The other day I got an unwanted telephone call--sewing class has been cancelled yet again! This makes it two semesters in a row, and it is messing me up!
I thought for sure this semester would go as planned, since I saw that my favorite teacher was back after taking a semester off. We had a replacement for one semester--who was a little nutzo and might have caused the low sign-up for the following session (which was cancelled), now this semester is also cancelled because again not enough people signed up.
The class I attend is through Torrance Adult School and is more of a sewing lab than an actual class. Students can work on whatever projects they want to and the teacher is there for assistance. I like it because there is a lot of space to spread out your cloth and projects and it's great not to make the mess in my own house. The same students keep coming back, so the atmosphere is like an old-fashioned sewing circle. The Torrance version of a sewing "Stitch 'n Bitch" I guess.

I really had a ton of projects I wanted to work on--
--dress for lady scarecrow
--curtains for bedroom
--misc things for the yard haunt
--ver 1.2 of bedside electronics caddy
--electronics caddy for co-worker (he's really disappointed the class is cancelled)

Why not just get a sewing machine? Lately I'm in the mode of trying not to acquire too many "things". I really don't have any where to put a machine and once it gets stored in the garage, I'll think of 1000 reasons not to haul it out when I need to. The class was perfect for me. But I do need to get these projects DONE, so who knows, I might have to get one. Although.....

Next week I am traveling back to Wisconsin for a visit. One of the things on the agenda is to help my dad and sister deal with my mom's "sewing closet". My mom was a fantastic seamstress and throughout the years accumulated quite a trove of patterns and material. In fact, at her request, her obituary included the line..."The one with the most fabric wins". I think she won. Now we have to figure out what to do with it all. My younger niece also sews and has expressed interest in taking some things. I know I will be bringing some back with me. Depending on what we find, I may eBay some of it.
There is also the possibility of me taking her sewing machine. It is an old Singer--the type that came in a nice cabinet that looks like a piece of furniture. Mom worked at Singer and bought the machine on employee rate right before she quit working to have me! These models are considered work-horses and can sew just about anything. How to get it to California is the dilemma.

This is close to what it looks like...the machine is the same, Mom's cabinet is different. I got this image from a nice blog named Blackbird Pie, a sweet, crafty blog.

Soup and Salad Days

The other day my neighbor came by with a big bag of tomatoes from his garden. This is the second time he's done so, and I am thankful for the generosity. Last time I made a small batch of tomato sauce, this time I made Roasted-Tomato Soup With Parmesan Wafers. Move over Campbell's--I scoff at your puny offering! Easy to make--I roasted the tomatoes yesterday and finished it today. Roasting the tomatoes intensifies their inherent sweetness and the result is incredible dose of tomato-ness. The little bit of cream at the end is almost gilding the lily, but it adds another level of flavor. Many cooks commented that they skipped the straining step. I didn't and it is totally worth the extra time to get a completely silky smooth soup. I just pass it through a coarse chinoise--it gets all the seeds and stuff the blender doesn't get. I really love silky soups.
The roasted tomatoes--

Soup, beautiful soup--

Monday I made some salads for our dinner. The Ribboned Zucchini Salad is one that I make often. I use the recipe as only the barest of guides--and I skip the anchovy paste, endive, mint and basil. The olives too, are sometimes absent.
The garbanzo bean salad is just something I throw together with lemon juice and olive oil. Tomatoes, cucumbers, onions...whatever is around. Feta is nice too if you have it.

"It'll Rock You In The Head"

For all my nerdlinger readers--I share this awesome video about the Large Hadron Collider. Now I totally understand particle physics! Enjoy!