Smithy

Oh, dear...now that you mention it, it does look like that from the road!

Breakfast this morning was yet another pita with avocado and the last of the salmon spread, and a plum. Lunch will be leftover beans and chicken from last night. Summer's back. I hope to get some good North Shore photos - and a representative sampling of smoked fish - on the way home tonight.

I've tried just about every way. My preferred method, when I have time, is to peel and de-seed them. When I'm in a hurry I just de-seed them and call it good. This particular batch had been chopped in a food processor (not pureed, just chopped) but I've sometimes just cut them in half, dug or squeezed out the pulpy seedy stuff to the extent possible without damaging the flesh, and crammed them into a container or freezer bag.

Those are home-pickled lemons, and they more or less puree their own pulp after they sit long enough. I just slit them into quarters still connected at the end, pack with kosher salt, mash down into a jar and cover with more lemon juice. Turn the jar over every day or so to redistribute the settled salt, and they're done in about a month. I tried using some other spices once, but the batch went wrong and I wasn't impressed. By the way, I've had the best success doing this with lemons right off the tree. In the USA commercially packed lemons, even the organic ones, have been harder to get right because the peels have stayed hard instead of going soft and salty tasty. I think the food-grade wax coating must prevent the brine from penetrating the peel. The last time I tried preserving store-bought lemons, I scrubbed the exteriors thoroughly with a clean new abrasive pad (safe for Teflon, no soap, that kind of thing.) It worked better, but I still prefer getting them off the tree. How is citrus handled in Japan, or New Zealand? There's something about porous clay that really seems to make a difference in the cooking, but beyond that there seem to be differences among the clays. I haven't tried side-by-side comparisons yet, but my Moroccan Rifi tagine seems to behave differently than either of my Egyptian (Nile clay) pots. What's your earthenware nabe like?

Isn't ceviche a Mexican take on cured fish? (Sorry, no recipes at hand, just an idea.)

Dinner was djej mqalli from Paula Wolfert's Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco. I used the tagine again and made almost the right adjustments, but needed to make a couple more. Start with a cut-up chicken, marinaded in a mix of preserved lemon pulp, garlic, salt, oil. The chicken is supposed to be coated with this mix and left overnight in the refrigerator, but I only was able to give it a couple of hours. Pour chicken and sauce (don't forget the livers, they really do make a difference) into the tagine, along with other spices and seasonings. Bring it to a simmer, and turn the chicken periodically. I started warming the chicken before adding water, and I added much less than the recipe called for, because that seems to be what the tagine wants. After the chicken has simmered for a bit you're supposed to add the olives and preserved lemon peel, and mash the chicken livers. I forgot all that until the boiling-down step. After the chicken is nearly done, put it in the oven to brown and crank the heat up on the sauce to boil it down and thicken it. Here's where I went wrong, I think: I should have put the sauce in a different pan and put the chicken in the oven in the tagine. I kept the tagine on the burner with the sauce. It didn't really thicken properly, even after a half hour. It might be that I didn't defat the sauce, but I think it was because I didn't dare bring it up to a furious boil. As it was, I had the heat on medium-high, and even with a heat diffuser I hated to turn it up more. Eventually I gave it up and put the browned chicken back into the sauce. You're supposed to spoon the thickened sauce over the chicken and serve at once. Oh, well... ...it was still very, very good. I really like this recipe, a lot. I served it with Cub Foods Italian Peasant Bread, one of the reasons I shop at that particular grocery store. The bread is one of those heat-and-eat things. You good bakers don't need that sort of thing, but this has a better texture and flavor than anything I've ever made. Djej mqalli, Cub Foods bread, and green beans tossed with a vinaigrette and sesame seeds. Oh my, oh my.

Good heavens, that's something I'd've never thought of, and it looks wonderful! (I love eggplant.) Can you give the rough proportions of about how much bechamel per eggplant? It's definitely something I want to try! I'm really enjoying the blog! Thanks - Marcia. ← It's one cup milk, plus a couple tablespoons heavy cream, so whatever amount that makes of bechamel in the usual proportions (1.5 - 2c?), to 3 lbs' worth of large globe eggplants (I use 3). The eggplants really collapse in on themselves, so there isn't as much eggplant volume as 3 lbs would suggest. It's darned close to half and half, judging by the eyeball. It really is wonderful.

Downy woodpeckers already? Ours pretty much vanish for the summer. We've given up on leaving suet out once it gets warm: not because the suet melts (our orchard store actually sells suet blocks that are guaranteed not to melt) but because the &^%$ squirrels demolish a whole block in about ten seconds. Do you have a squirrel issue? ← Our downies stay around all year, courting and raising babies and sticking through the winter. I hadn't realized they'd be migratory elsewhere. The squirrels can't get at these suet blocks because they're suspended from second-floor windows. It's fun watching them try, but they haven't needed to since we have put out a feeder for them on the deck rail. They haven't been there lately either, though. I'm afraid they've either disappeared into the woods (I hear some occasionally) or into the gullets of our animals. I've done something stupid with the formatting, and after 3 or 4 attempts I'm going to give up trying to requote you. As for the dishwasher: I looove having a dishwasher! When Russ and I were courting we used to compare notes on the most important features in our living quarters. For him a dishwasher was a prerequisite, and for me it was a garage. He bought me a dishwasher, ostensibly as a gift but really out of self-defense. It's made a huge difference in the way I cook, and I'd hate to do without one now. I'd still forego the dishwasher before the garage in this country, but it would be a closer race. As for the range hood: don't I wish I were so skillful! It's definitely an issue not to have a hood, and I choose what I cook accordingly. Unfortunately our stove is on an interior wall, with a bedroom on the next floor up, so there's no good place to send a vent. That's something I'll want to change if we ever remodel.

Glad to oblige, and thanks for the compliments! Here's a cross-section of potica. Noted the ultra-thin layers - one of a fine breadish dough and the other of a sweet walnut filling. It's all rolled together like a jelly roll, but considerably more delicate. This is usually a special-day or holiday treat, because it's so labor intensive...that is, unless you get it at the bakery and pay someone else for their trouble. When you slice it, you can warm it up if you're patient enough. I wasn't. It's sweet and nutty, a wonderful pastry. Edited to add: I don't know whether there are regional versions of it. I've never heard of any, but I only heard of it - much less learned to pronounce it - last year.

How interesting! Any idea whether they taste the same? I guess I'm going to find out, one way or the other, but guidance never hurts.

I'm finally caught up to this morning, and wondering whether everyone's bored and wandered off, or doing something else, or feels as though he or she is being offered a drink from a fire hose. Breakfast was buttered toast and coffee. I didn't have to go anywhere right away, so I could enjoy the bright sparkly morning. It's warmed up in the last couple of days, although the wind blew hard while it did so. I tell you, I'm so thrilled with the bouquet Shubie made for me yesterday, I feel a bit like Winthrop in The Music Man: "Thithter, thithter! Ithn't thith the motht thcrumthiouth thing you've ever theen?" (It's really hard to write a lisp, isn't it? ) While I was enjoying coffee and sunshine, I heard a suspicious bump coming from under the sink. Gracie Mu has taking to exploring cupboards lately. Here's a better picture of a downy woodpecker eating outside the window. The downside of having these feeders so close is that the suet that holds the seeds together gets sloppy when it's warm, and it speckles the window. I think this bird is starting to molt. Someone asked offline about what the kitchen looks like, and over on MelissaH's thread there's certainly been a lively discussion about kitchen design. Here are some photos of my kitchen. Not much counter space, given the way I cook and tend to clutter things up, so this cart rolls out to be a work surface when I need more space. Most of my good china and glassware is here - at least, the stuff we got for our wedding. Now that my parents have cleared out their house, I've got more tucked away out of sight. Mom and Dad gave us money some years back, when we moved into this house, "to buy something nice for the house so that when you look at it, you'll think of us". Well, we bought the china hutch and Mom and Dad were able to come see it before it was too late. Dad choked up; it was just the kind of thing he'd wanted us to pick out. I think of them often anyway, but now that Dad's gone it's more poignant. MelissaH, this last is especially for you, in light of your kitchen renovation thread. Note the storage, but not much useful work surface, under the corner cupboards. Now. I'm going to go away and do some useful things like the critical shopping I didn't do yesterday. I'll check back later to see if there's any feedback on what I've posted so far. Any questions? Anything you'd especially like to see? Am I already giving too much information? Edited for spelling and clarity.

Dinner last night was an experiment of adapting a recipe to the tagine, and doing one of my favorite eggplant treatments. Both of these recipes, or at least the originals before I messed with them, came from The Sultan's Kitchen, by Özcan Ozan. First, my adaptation of Sultan's Delight, a tomatoey lamb dish that I wanted to try in the tagine. (He calls for doing it in a standard metal skillet.) Start with these ingredients: and, if you have a tall dog, be vigilant. I threw him outside (politely) after I snapped this photo and before he got any closer. Unfortunately, the phone rang later and distracted me while I was overseeing the outdoor charring of the eggplant. I lost a lamb chop then, and threw the dog back outside less politely. Cut up the lamb and start browning it. I used probably more fat in the tagine than I needed to, but the lamb was lean. After a bit, add the chopped onion, garlic and seasonings, and still later add the tomatoes. These tomatoes are the last of my frozen hoard of wonderful Farmers' Market tomatoes. Mountain Pride is one of the most memorable tomato varieties I've run across, in terms of flavor. Deb Shubat says she'll start some for me next year. I spooned them out to avoid adding more liquid, because I could already see I had more than I needed. Cover, and simmer until the meat is tender. While that's simmering, start the creamed eggplant (Hunkar Begendi). Watch, and you'll see some magic. I'd never heard of creamed eggplant before finding this cookbook. I'm amazed at how it works when you do it right. Poke the eggplants all over with a fork or knife. Char them over a flame, or under the broiler, until they collapse. It's important for them completely to collapse, or you'll have extra work later. (I did.) After the eggplants are soft all over, put them someplace until they're cool enough to handle. Peel them and drop them into a mix of water, lemon juice and salt. This is to keep them from browning too much, but it also adds flavor. Rather than show you those steps, I'm going to show you one of my favorite kitchen gadgets: my trusty Wear-Ever lemon juicer, rescued by my mother from a Navy wife who threw it away when Mom and Dad were in Okinawa. My mother knew a good thing when she saw it. This juicer has done yeoman's service for 2 generations now, squeezing countless lemons for lemonade, lemon meringue pies, and the odd bits of cookery. I use it nearly every day. If you ever see one on eBay or at a garage sale, get it. You'll wonder how you ever lived without it. So. The next step, basically, is make a bechamel sauce: butter, flour, then milk with a touch of cream, all whisked until it's creamy. I'm glossing over this but I'll add detail if anyone asks. Once it's creamy, add the (drained) eggplant. Now here's the magic: if you've done your job properly at the charring stage, the eggplant just falls apart and whisks into the bechamel. If you haven't been patient enough, you have to do a bit of choping and pureeing. A wand blender works well for this task. At some stage, shredded kasseri cheese is added in to finish the deal. Meanwhile, back at the tagine, the lamb is done. I used too much fat for the meat, I think. I hadn't added any liquid (the recipe calls for a lot, but I didn't think the tagine would want it) and there's still a lot there. Still, the lamb was tender and tasty, and the marriage of lamb with tomato and creamed eggplant with kasseri is perfect. I don't especially like kasseri on its own, but with the rest it's delicious. Isn't Shubie's bouquet wonderful?! That pinky dangly flower is called "Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate".

Nope! (That reminds me, I'm out of saffron, and I need it!) What size are your typical juice bottles over there?

There rises now a single tide of tourists passing through They've traded old ways for the new, old ways for the new --Stan Rogers, "The Citadel" How Duluth has changed, Part the First. PamR, you asked about what Duluth is like now, how large, that sort of thing. Where did you go to school in Minnesota? Duluth's population is now around 85,000. It's shrunk since the early 1980's when it had a larger industrial base and heavier shipping industry. The 1980 census had the population at just over 100,000 people, although wags claimed that the census takers went out and counted all the crew members of ships in port, no matter their citizenship, to get that number. Regardless of how justified the count was, at the time Duluth had a lot of grain shipping, a lot of iron ore (taconite) shipping, and - if not in 1980, then just before that - a steel mill. Maybe I'll get energetic enough to find a map and post it, or at least a link to one, but in the meantime, for those who don't know, Duluth is a seaport via the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Atlantic. With something close to 1000 miles (CBATG) worth of seaway, Duluth is the United States' most inland seaport. It might even hold the world record, but again, CBATG (with thanks to Adam Balic). When I moved to Duluth in the early 1980's, industry was slipping and a lot of areas were going derelict. The spirited mayoral race of 1984 was between the incumbent mayor, champion of the blue-collar boys, and an upstart who said Duluth is a beautiful place, a natural for tourism, and that its future depended on attracting the tourists. Well...Mr. Blue Collar won the race, but Ms. Tourism's ideas prevailed. Over the years, industries have swung up and down many times, but the derelict areas keep being beautified, the city council keeps working to attract more tourist dollars, and - for better or worse - the tourists are coming in. It's a mixed blessing. Frankly, I like a lot of the selections available up here now, far better than I did when I moved here, because appealing to tourists means providing more variety. On the other hand, I hate crowds and have a low tolerance for traffic. Around here, more than 5 cars in line constitutes a traffic jam. During high tourist season it can be dozens...and then there's the Lift Bridge, but I'll get to that. The Farmer's Market is an example of the old that hasn't changed much but is flourishing nonetheless. Despite my best intentions, I didn't get out the door and to the market until around 9 a.m. By then a lot of the selection is gone. In fact, this woman - from whom I bought garlic, and wanted to buy shallots but she was sold out, commented to another customer that "these photographers should come earlier before we're all sold out!" She was a bit embarrassed, she said, to have her produce look so puny, and wanted me to make it clear that she'd had a lot more earlier in the day. I missed Talmadge Farms, somehow; she's a neighbor and she sells not only produce but also jams, jellies and pickles. She's been willing to sell me dill on off-days on occasion. Next to Talmadge Farms is Shubat's Fruits. Deb Shubat runs the greenhouse at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, as well as her own busines. I bought some garlic from her, also, as well as a bouquet. Check it out: 3 different varieties of garlic! That's my bouquet she's holding. You'll see it better in later photos. Cucumbers. I bought some lovely cukes here a couple of weeks ago, and now can't remember from whom, so I bought from several people. This lady was a bit bemused that I wanted her picture, but she gladly complied. That's a Diva cuke she's holding. She sells flowers, too. The Hoffbauers had the best-looking tomatoes, so I bought some and a few potatoes from them. I didn't buy a chicken this time, as I usually do, because I was sure I had one in the freezer. More potatoes came from Mark's place. Through it all, a couple of our local musicians were jamming. We have a strong music community here, and the old-timey and Celtic musicians often oblige on Saturday mornings. I haven't seen too many of the bluegrassers around, and the blues/rock folk don't seem to be the Farmers' Market types. Just up the hill from the Farmer's Market is one of the changes. The Whole Foods Co-op started out oh, 15 years ago? in a little storefront in some obscure neck of the city. Perhaps 10 years ago they expanded and moved into their present location. They're now doing so well that they've worked out an owner lending program enough to finance a new location by renovating what was a large restaurant in a more central downtown location. They expect to moving this fall. When I asked about photos and explained that I'm trying to show how Duluth has changed in the last 20 years, the manager said, "For the better, I hope!" He was delighted to hear about some free (good) publicity. Here's just a small selection of what they have. The deli case is the latest and greatest addition - I think only a couple of years old. When I'm hungry I'll pick grab something from here, but I was still running on coffee, fruit and sandwich at that point. SnowAngel, you asked where I shop. This is one of the places I shop regularly; I get most of my spices here. I get some fresh produce here (you see why), but I have to admit, I often forget something and I don't get here as often as I get to Cub Foods. Here's my haul from the day, except the green beans, which I forgot to include in the photo. Notice the 3 white eggplants in there? Except for the color, the round one looks like what I see in Egypt but never here. I don't know what to make of the long ones - albino Japanese eggplants? Does anyone know what I got? What should I do with them? From there I went down to Park Point, where my airplane lives at this time of year, for a lesson. To get there you go through Canal Park, one of the best and most vivid examples of city renovation. I wish I had a "before" picture. This was the warehouse district when I first moved here. There were warehouses and bars and rough streets with rundown paving, and it wasn't a place to be after dark unless you were large and burly. Now it's filled with shops, restaurants, hotels, and a few offices tucked away. That building on the left at the end, the Dewitt-Seitz Marketplace, is home to 2 of my favorite shops: the Blue Heron Trading Company, where I get a lot of kitchen wares and take the odd cooking class, and the Northern Waters Smokehaus, home to artisan cheeses and smoked fish. I hope to get photos for you, but I didn't get them yesterday. That bridge is the Duluth Lift Bridge, and they're celebrating its centennial this year. The entire span goes up and down to allow the ships through. Pretty, isn't it? What you can't see is that this is the only way on or off Park Point, and during the tourist season the traffic can be backed up for a mile, waiting for the bridge. When an ore boat or a salty is coming in the bridge is raised well in advance, becuase it Just Won't Do for a vessel to be coming in to port and suddenly discover that the bridge is stuck. The stopping distance for these vessels is something between half a mile and a mile at low speeds. They're impressive, and fun to watch. When one is coming through, the best thing is to shut the car down and go watch the ship.

I realized sometime in the night that I'd left out the return trip from the Range on Friday, and the meal I made with it. One of my favorite stops, when I can take the slightly-back-roads route home, is the Makinen Market. Makinen's one of those typical small widely-dispersed communities around here with its own volunteer fire department and its own Post Office, and that's about all I know about it - except that this guy makes excellent sausage. Here's a small sampling of what he offers. He makes it there on the premises, but since "he" wasn't actually around I couldn't see about getting any photos. I bought a package each of Cajun, Smoked Italian, Landjager, and Smoked Polish sausage there. This is called "stocking up", and this is why our refrigerator, freezers and pantry are always stuffed. I'm a frightful impulse buyer. Dinner involved some of the Smoked Italian sausage. In progress: This is one of my typical "wing it" dishes, with some basics but no firm ingredient set. Can you identify what went into it this time? Can you guess what I'm sprinkling into the pot right when I shot that photo? The finished operation, about 15 minutes before my company arrived. I knew they wouldn't be eating. Most of mine ended up in the leftovers, too.

Funny, Andiesenji told me hers grows like a bush too. Maybe mine will be like horseradish and I just don't know it yet. I have 3 favorite uses, and counting. I love sorrel as a sauce base over salmon, and in a cream base with chicken. It's too bad about the army drab color, but a sprinkle of the fresh stuff after cooking really livens it up. The third favorite use is in a panade out of the Zuni Cafe Cookbook. I haven't tried sorrel for wrapping yet (as in stuffed sorrel leaves) but I want to try that before mine disappears for the year. What do you use your sorrel for in the spring? Why don't you bother later?

pa-TEET-sa? MelissaH ← YOU WIN!! Now, how am I going to get this stuff to you without it falling apart? The first time I ran across potica, I went to my coworked and rhapsodizing about this wonderful new pastry I'd discovered. He listened carefully, and said "and what is this stuff?" "POT ica," I replied. He smiled gently before correcting my pronunciation, but I could tell he was trying hard not to guffaw.

Thank you! I tried many times to get those hummers. They zoom around so fast, and the camera insists on focusing someplace else. I was glad to get one bird out of the three clearly, anyway.

Babbitt, Palo, Waasa, Embarrass. The Iron Range town names still seem exotic to me, even after 2+ decades in this area; they're so different from the Spanish names I grew up with in California. People from around here stumble over "La Jolla" (pronounced "la HOya") but have no trouble with "Chequamagon" (pronounced "she WAH ma gen", admittedly an Indian name, not Slavic or Finnish or Italian). They also have no trouble with "potica", but I'll get to that. I started my cross-Range drive at Babbitt and headed west. The first stop, because I had the camera, was Embarrass. A few years ago they won the bragging rights of being the nation's cold spot; previously it had been Tower, Minnesota, a little farther north. Life can be pretty slow up here, just as Garrison Keillor describes it, and people are easily amused. On the other hand, it takes a special mentality and temperament to just be able to stick it out and keep working when it's bitterly cold. (This is still true for many mining jobs. If something breaks down, you fix it. You can't always move it into a nice warm shop.) It was even harder in the pioneer days, not all that long ago, when all the food had to be grown locally and put up for the winter, or else you went without. I am keenly grateful to have fruit or vegetables out of season, if necessary, although I draw the line at winter stone fruits, and I'm even more grateful to have ripe produce - really ripe produce, trucked or flown in from not too far away - when it can't be grown here. I really think the climate affects cultures in ways we don't necessarily recognize on a day-by-day basis; it's easy to be carefree if you don't have to plan food carefully. The carved statue next to this "weather center" is of a pioneer farmer. Embarrass has a little information center about the winter of 1996, when they had 27 or more days in a row of subzero (F) weather. New records kept being set: first, at -54F, then down to -64F. The -64F was the record-breaker, when the Tower observers said "liars!" But the thermometer was photographed at -64F, then sent away to Taylor Instruments for a calibration check, and certified as being accurate. (At the time I lived in Castle Danger, on the North Shore where Lake Superior has a moderating effect. It only got down to -44F there.) Part of this little information center is a thermometer, with the temperature marked down to the appropriate level. I should mention that at some point the official National Weather Service thermometer broke, or froze, or separated, or some such. That was an earlier year, I think, but they knew it had quit working somewhere below -50F. Inside the "weather station" is a bunch of newspaper articles, letters, and photos documenting that bitter winter. One of those articles led with the information that, if it gets cold enough, you can use a banana to drive a nail into wood. It had been done on the -54F night. There's a food link for you! Past Embarrass there are Aurora, Hoyt Lakes, Palo, Waasa. For those of you who've heard or read The Finn Who Would Not Take a Sauna: Yes, Virginia, there IS a Biwabik. There's also an Eveleth, where they really do have a Miner's Ball every year. There's also a Virginia, but I'll get to that in a moment. I drove past Gilbert, wishing I had time to stop at The Whistling Bird. Of all things, in this area settled by waves of Polish and Italian and German and Slovenian and Finnish and Irish immigrants, there is a Jamaican Restaurant. Don't miss it. They somehow manage to get good seafood all the way up here, but it you aren't a seafood person there are chicken jerks and other meat dishes. The food is outstanding and spicy, the drinks luscious and creative, and the owner - if he stops by to chat - will give a description of the offerings that is a sensual experience in itself. You may need reservations, but it's worth it. I had to stop my tour in Virginia, only halfway across the Range, but there they have the Italian Bakery. The locals agree that this bakery makes the best potica around. I'll have photos of that later, but in the meantime: would anyone care to guess how that word is pronounced? Iron Rangers need not apply to this game. Edited to fix photo.

I've written about how things have changed along the North Shore. The Vanilla Bean Bakery in Two Harbors (about 28 miles upshore from Duluth) is a prime example. There have been a couple of cafes in town for years, but only about 10 years ago - maybe less - did a bakery come in that offered freshly baked breads every day, a variety of muffins and filled pastries along with the usual donuts, and cookies that were softer than a hockey puck. There's a restaurant too, although I'm fuzzy on their hours or offerings and I'm not sure I've ever eaten there. They call themselves a "bistro style" cafe, for what that's worth. I needed some employee "bribes" so I stopped in to get a selection of sweets. At slightly after 6 a.m. they were almost sold out already, and I did a good job of clearing out more. The photos are from just after we started. I am particularly fond of their muffins - tart raspberries, sweet tender dough, far more than I need to eat at once, but I do my duty. I drove inland some 60 miles, not quite as the crow flies, toward the eastern end of the Iron Range. I'd hoped to be able to show you a moose, or some deer, from my drive, as they're usually happy to oblige. I did almost hit a deer or two with my car (deer are far more of a road hazard than other vehicles around here) but by the time I'd braked they were long gone. The great blue heron I disturbed also wasn't willing to wait for the camera, alas. The only entertaining thing I could photograph was this sign, where a bridge is being reconstructed and the road is down to one lane: Does that tell you something about the amount of traffic in the back woods? Lunch was constructed from the previous night's meal. The remaining venison tenderloin, some mushroom slices, a bit of the other vegetables, with a scattering of tarragon and basil from the garden and a dollop of dijon mustard under it all was lunch. I'd eaten the first pita already before I remembered the camera. I must say, the mustard really added to the flavors. Next time I'll try that on the initial dish.

You can also make feeders out of inverted plastic pop bottles. There's of course a commercially-produced plastic gizmo that screws onto the bottle that makes the seed feeder tray, but I've seen plans for suspending something like a small tin pie plate below the bottle neck to act as a seed catcher. Or you can keep the bottle upright (or capped) and cut small holes in the sides to hold perches (chopsticks? pencils?) with slightly large holes just above for the birds to reach through. That could be a good project for you and your son.

If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. --Yiddish proverb insha-allah -- Arabic expression meaning, "God willing" Everything is subject to interference. The only reason anything gets done is that interference is itself subject to interference. --one of Murphy's corollaries Sorry I've been away from this blog longer than planned. Yesterday I was out the door before 6 a.m. and on the road to the Iron Range. Partway through the day I started getting persistent messages from my cell phone, announcing that I had voice mail even though the reception was too lousy to get the messages. When I finally connected, it was to learn that a nephew and his son wanted to stop over for the night, on their way north camping. The excursion, coupled with the visitors and today's plans, kept me from posting - although not from eating! - until now. It'll be a while before I can get photos uploaded and the stories written, so here in the meantime are photos of the local wildlife we support. Aside from feeding and running around with cats and dog, the other regular food duties are to keep the feeders filled. Yesterday when I came home I was divebombed by hungry hummingbirds, wondering why their food had run out. Last year we had at least 2 families' worth of hummers, we think, because there were sometimes as many as 8 of the little devils jousting for food. This year we've only seen 4 at once, but they're still entertaining - even better than a Calder mobile. With 4 "flowers" and 3 birds, you'd think they could share, wouldn't you? But they're usually busy fighting for dominance. It looks as though they expend more energy arguing than they could pick up at the feeder, but that must not be true. The goldfinches are still in their summer plumage. Handsome, aren't they? We have both downy woodpeckers and hairy woodpeckers coming to the feeder, but they're so shy it's hard to get a good shot. The pileated woodpeckers rattle and kack around the yard, but they don't come by the house. This one's a female downy woodpecker. I didn't get a picture of the bats cruising around in the pre-dawn light catching bugs yesterday morning, but I cheered them on. When it comes to mosquitoes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Besides, those bats are wonderful aerobats. I've been eating a salad and drinking water as I typed this, but haven't got that photo yet either. Green salad of spinach, lettuce, diced cucumber, cherry tomatoes warm from our deck. Vinaigrette of garlic-and-salt paste mixed with lemon juice, date vinegar and olive oil. Finished with pepper. Photos to come if they're any good; the battery ran down on the good camera and I had to use the old grainy backup.

There's a good-sized sorrel sticking out from among the petunias. I think I've finally managed to get sorrel established in my main flower bed, but I keep trying to get more to thrive. It seems to like partial shade, or shaded roots, judging by where it's growing best. The sorrel in the front yard, with bare dirt, is barely hanging on. Then again, that might be because my husband went overboard with the weed-n'-feed earlier this year...he actually managed to kill off some mint in that spot.

Bingo! My pea-brain enjoyed the visual pun during the planting. As I recall, Jackal10 did the same thing.

Thanks for all the welcomes and comments, y'all! I'll have to respond to more of them tomorrow, because I was supposed to be in bed over an hour ago, but I'm delighted to see some response, and I'll get to them. Late hour or no, I want to give you a snapshot of dinner. I got home quite a bit later than planned, but this morning I'd begun my dinner preparations by putting a couple of venison tenderloins from last year's deer into my favorite marinade recipe. I left it marinading for the day. Since it was frozen this morning the meat looked more like angular sausages than anything else. I erased those photos. The plan tonight was to cut up and marinade some other vegetables for the grill, make a pilaf, and have a shish-kabob of the marinaded venison, onions, peppers, mushrooms. I dithered briefly (see earlier post) over scrapping the whole idea in favor of spinach and eggs, then decided just to ignore the veggie marinade and fire up the grill. For one thing, the venison was thawed, and for another, I'm out of room in the dishwasher and I didn't want to dirty up any more dishes than necessary. Red peppers (from the grocery store), cherry tomatoes (picked off my vine, in the dark, so some aren't quite ripe), onions and portabellas, also from the store. Those sausagey things in the plastic dish are my venison tenderloins, marinading in my favorite all-purpose marinade. The vegetables would have benefited from some marinading too, but while I was cutting things up and heating the grill, here's what else was going on: Chow time for whoever happened to be in. 3 of our 5 cats like pouch cat food with gravy in it, but they really only like the gravy part. The dog has finally been convinced that I Am Bigger and Meaner Than He Is, and He Must Wait until the cats have gotten what they want, and enough of it, and THEN he can do the cleanup of their leftovers. (He has plenty of his own food, mind, that's better for him. He wants the cat food.) Mischke is a Siberian Husky, with "stubborn" and "what's in it for me?" embedded in his DNA. He's also a doggie teenager. But by golly, he's learning to wait his turn....sortof... My meal preparation has gotten this far while Mischke waited his turn: At last, his wait is over. Parents of teenagers will know how much oversight is required to make sure the rules are followed. They'll also know how gratifying it is to turn one's back or leave the room, come back in some time later, and find that the rules are STILL being followed! Meanwhile, the grill has been hot and the food has been cooking. Here it is, fresh off the grill: Here's the meal, up close and personal: It really did need to be put over a pilaf, and/or have more sauce tossed with it, but hey, it was 10 p.m. To be honest, if I hadn't been blogging I might have eaten a hunk of cheese, tended the animals and gone to bed...but then, I wouldn't have had any leftovers for sandwiches tomorrow. Caveats aside, this came out well. The meat was tender and had a lovely flavor. This marinade has olive oil, lemon juice, onions, and a few other things, and it works brilliantly with lamb, venison, chicken, and tri-tip steak. Someone else reports that it's good on pork too, although I haven't tried that. I have to be up at zero-dark-thirty for my day at Da Range, so I'd better hit the sack. I'll be back tomorrow night (insha-allah) with more photos and information, anwers to the questions I haven't gotten to yet, and - I hope - more time to cook and blog. Keep those questions coming, folks, and let me know what you'd like to see! P.S. I'm afraid to try to answer the "what's Moroccan cooking like" question too, so Behemoth started you off in a good direction. Maybe someone with a better grip on the topic can jump in with a good description.