Pergola in Action!

To finish a great Labor Day/Hawkeye football weekend we had Laurel's birthday dinner outside under the pergola. Both sets of grandparents and Aunt Lori and Uncle Matt were there. We seated a table of six under the pergola, and another table of four in the patio between the pergola and the pond:



On Saturday the Hawkeye footbal team played my undergrad alma mater, the University of Northern Iowa.

My Panthers gave Iowa all they wanted and then some. Setting an NCAA record, Iowa won the game by blocking TWO field goal attempts on consecutive plays, to win 17-16.

We had guests for the game from Los Angeles, Portland, Oregon, and St. Louis as well as our usual visitors and friends. Here is one pic from before the game:


And one with three of my best childhood friends after the game:


And even though it wasn't from this past weekend, here is a special shot of the "Corn on the Cob" cupcakes that Rowan made after she took her cake decorating class, a great way to finish the "end of summer" post here on Foxcroft:


The "kernals" are jelly beans, the "butter" are starburst candies.

Always the Bridesmaid

I had high hopes for my green tomato pie in today's University Heights Chautauqua Pie Contest. Regular readers may remember that in last year's inaugural contest I finished second with my mulberry pie.

I thought green tomato would be a winner. I made sure to put extra flour in the recipe so it wouldn't be runny like last year's mulberry pie was. The crust I made last night was the best I've ever done. Perhaps my downfall was that I forgot to put tin foil around the pie pan to keep the edge of the crust from getting too well done. Maybe using last year's tomatoes, in the basement freezer since last fall, wasn't a good idea, but anyway the result is once again I came in second out of two entries.

And I couldn't be happier for the second place finish, because first place went to youngest daughter. When driving to the store yesterday for baking supplies she asked if she could make a pie, I said "Sure, what kind?" She thought and answered "Cranberry." We bought a bag of frozen cranberries. When we came home I got out two bags of frozen apples, each one just enought for a pie. She read the directions for apple pie, and did all the mixing and measuring. She added half the cranberries to each set of apples and she made "CranApple" pie.



The winner is shown above with her first place ribbon and the wonderful facepainting done by Mary Richard. Mary won the cake contest with an incredible chocolate cake with a gardenia on the top!

Runner Up!

Yesterday was the 3rd Annual University Heights Chautauqua. The new wrinkle in this year's event was a baking contest. There were four categories: Cakes, Cookies, Bars, and Pies. I don't like to brag, but I took second place in the pie category:

And as I said to elder daughter, the fact that there were only two entries does not diminish the prize in the least. Every other category had at least 5 entries, prizes were awarded to top three in each. The winning pie was a multiple berry pie with strawberries, blueberries and raspberries. What was really fun was that after the contest everyone got to taste each entry. Everyone that is except for those of us who were performing as part of the program, since the band was on stage at time. The girls and Lisa said that everything was very good.

For the record I made mulberry-rhubarb pie. We had seen several mulberry trees on our Ride the River bike tour last Sunday. Saturday morning I got up early and went out with a very large bowl and a tarp. I spread the tarp out under the tree and shook the branches. Then I carefully shook the berries on the tarp into the bowl. Here is my bowl when I got home:

It is a big bowl, I had over 8 cups of mulberries after I washed and picked through them. Sadly I didn't take a picture of the finished pie! Here is the recipe:

INGREDIENTS

• 2 1/2 cups mulberries
• 1 1/2 cups finely chopped rhubarb
• 1 1/4 cups white sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix together mulberries, rhubarb, sugar, and flour.
2. Pour into unbaked 9 inch pie shell. Dot filling with butter or margerine, and add top crust.
3. Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
   Bake until pie is done, about 30 minutes.

MY SUGGESTIONS TO CHANGE THE ABOVE

• add at least 1/2 a cup of flour, mulberries make a runny pie, I think that contributed to my second place finish!
• I baked closer to an hour rather than 45 minutes.

On Saturday after I picked mulberries, Pete came over and we built the frame for the porch over our new footings:

Next will be working to get ready to put the decking back down.

Mardi Gras Success

We had a great time with our Mardi Gras dinner. (see previous post) Everyone was able to come in spite of the weather. We have had a pretty hard week: no school Monday due to heavy snow and big winds causing drifts. We dismissed early Tuesday due to impending freezing rain, and no school Wednesday due to Tuesday's storm that lasted through Wednesday. This week we've gotten 20+ inches of snow plus some ice (I know to the Minnesotans that doesn't seem like much)

We had mask making and Ellie had the hands down best one:


We had great food and of course beads:




And Ellie found the baby Jesus (masquerading as a blue dinosaur) in her King cake so her family will host next year.

Fais Do-Do!

Happy Mardi Gras everyone. We are hosting a dinner tonight, and as a former catholic turned neo-pagan I really appreciate mardi gras. The menu will be entirely Cajun.

On Sunday I made lagniappe stew, which is a true odds and ends dish. Sadly I was unable to find a ready source of cow brain, heart, or kidney (insert Mad Cow joke here) and went with only pork sausage, beef marrow guts and beef liver. My Luxembourgish Grandmother would think the stuff is extremely spicy brauschweiger.

Lisa made pralines, and a King cake. Whoever finds the baby (this year it is a toy dinosaur) will have to host next year's dinner.

Others are bringing gumbo, jambalaya, and etoufee.
There will be chicory coffee, cornbread, and red beans and rice.

Mardi gras always makes me nostalgic. My first girlfriend was Cajun. I was four years old and so was Cindy Barrilleaux. She lived across the street from us in North Liberty. Her father was at the University of Iowa getting a PhD. He was the first member of his family off the bayou. I think he and his wife had a lot in common with my parents, who were both the first of their generation off the farm. The grandparents came up from Louisiana one summer, I had never met anyone who didn’t speak English before. I remember standing and watching them talk, amazed that they could understand each other. That was where we were introduced to gumbo and red beans and rice. My dad could never get used to chicory coffee however.

When Mr. Barrilleaux finished his doctorate the family moved back to Louisiana and Cindy broke my heart. It wasn’t a total loss however, she and her brothers left us all their winter coats and snow sleds. Hence my nostalgia every year at Mardi Gras time, I’d be out sledding and think of Cindy.