Merry Christmas

There's no snow here in Chicago, but both Christmas Eve and Christmas day have been sunny and clear--unheard of! Yesterday I actually took a bike ride along the lakefront. That is not entirely unheard of--about five or six years ago it was about 60 degrees on Christmas Eve, and I took the opportunity to go for a ride back then too. It was definitely colder this time, but not painfully so. I wasn't the only person getting a ride in yesterday!

Nothing about my family's holiday traditions is particularly European, except for possibly the focus on home, hearth, and family--which of course are valued among humans everywhere. Whether you celebrate Christmas or are just enjoying a day off, I hope you have the comfort of people you love around you.

an unusual flower

I thought at first that this bush had produced an unusual hot-pink flower in late fall, but then I looked closer--it's a lost glove.

A new building?

How come I never noticed this beautiful structure before?! Oh wait--it's a trompe l'oeil mural on the side of a bank in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago.

Seeing Brittany? Cape Ann, Massachusetts

Confession: I have never been to the Brittany region of France, but from the photos I've seen, it looks very much like the coast around the towns and villages surrounding Boston. I've visited the area regularly to visit my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew, who live in one of the towns along the South Shore. We always pick a day to visit a small town or two. On this most recent visit, we went to Rockport, Massachusetts, which is on Cape Ann near Gloucester. (Gloucester, you may recall, is the port from which the doomed fishermen of A Perfect Storm set sail.) I'm sure there are tons of visitors in the summer, but we were there in early November.

I love the waterfront geography here--the rocky shores, the little houses all clustered together.

I love the look of weathered wood.

Another day, my brother had to do some business in New Bedford, and I have an old friend who lives there, so while he was busy she and I caught up. New Bedford is a major port and has a large Portuguese and Portuguese-American population. Of course, for me, that means good food. My brother and I went to lunch at Antonio's, where I had the "Chicken Algarvia," kind of a Portuguese-style paella--rice with tomato broth and filled with chicken, shrimp, and clams. When it came out, I gasped--it could've served 10 people easily.

Of course we brought it home.

the end of summer

 It's Labor Day, the traditional end of summer in the U.S. Despite the season's late start this year and a lot of rain, I feel like I had a pretty good one. I enjoyed an outdoor pool near where I live and really made the most of the lakefront. I didn't get to travel as much as I would have liked, but Seeing Italy is all about seeing beauty wherever you are.

It's good to know someone with a boat!

The lily pond in Lincoln Park is a hidden treasure where you can hide from the heat, the noise, and the crowds of the North Side.

At twilight, a waveless lake can look iridescent.

Backyard hammock.

Buckingham Fountain at night.

This summer I was all about the fruit cobbler--blueberry or peach. It may not look like much, but it's good--and so easy. Cobblers are a lifesaver when you've got fruit about to go bad.

The outdoor pool in my neighborhood. Wish it stayed open past Labor Day.

Part of the best skyline in the world.

I finally downloaded Hipstamatic. 

City and prairie--taken from Northerly Island.

Clouds are underappreciated.

spicy fish soup

I've made this fish soup about four or five times in the past six weeks. It's delicious, easy, and perfect for summer (tomatoes!), but it also offers an excellent opportunity to show you how you can take some shortcuts on an "official" recipe to make it slightly less complicated to shop for and make.

Let's start with the fish. No need to buy four types of seafood or go to Whole Paycheck's fish counter. I get Trader Joe's frozen White Ruffy, which is a mild-flavored, slightly flaky fish, but it still holds its shape well enough to work well in the soup. Plus it's easy to break off one fillet, so you can make a small batch of soup at a time--great if you live on your own, since you don't really want to have fishy things sitting around in your fridge for too long. And it defrosts fast too. (I know you're not supposed to defrost fish under hot water, but whatevs, I've been doing it for years.)

Second, the tomatoes. In tomato season I use whatever I get from the farmers' market, and I certainly don't bother to peel them. In non-tomato season, it's all about the canned stuff.

Parsley: I never have this around so I don't bother. I do have a rosemary plant however, and you should too, since the prices stores charge for fresh herbs are ridick.

White wine: Surely you have a bottle open already. If not, why not? Wine makes life better. In a pinch, you could use dry vermouth.

The one thing I do do to make this slightly more complicated is that instead of adding plain water, I typically use some homemade broth stashed in the freezer. But this is easy too--it just requires some forethought. For the first few batches, I used shrimp broth I made months and months ago with shrimp shells left over from another dish. Then I ran out of shrimp broth, but I still didn't want to use plain water. Luckily I had some vegetable broth in there too, which I made a while ago by boiling whatever vegetables hanging out in the crisper that were not yet moldy but had passed their prime.  I spiked with a few drops of fish sauce. Delicious.

So that's it. Totally easy, yummy, and healthy too. If you don't like spicy, you can cut out the red pepper, but frankly I think it makes the dish.

beach vacation

I'm not much for dedicated beach vacations. Generally I prefer vacations with lots of things to do and see. Lying around for several days? No thanks. I think the last beach vacation I took was in college a couple decades ago, when I went with some friends to Jamaica. (And had a great time, I might add.)

Maybe it was the long winter this year, or just that I needed to relax, but suddenly the prospect of doing very little except looking over some water under a hot sun sounded great. So I booked a trip to Isla Mujeres, Mexico, in April, and it turned out to be just what I wanted--pretty beaches, laid-back so I could relax, but with enough to do over about five days so I didn't get bored.

Although it's just a 20-minute ferry ride from Cancun, Isla Mujeres is still an antidote to Cancun's spring break, party-til-you-drop mentality. Although development does seem to be picking up, it still resembles a small Mexican village in many ways, down to the occasional chicken picking its way through the streets.

I went by myself and had a great time. Snorkeling was perhaps my favorite part. I used my swimming goggles to check out the fish hanging out near some rocky bits by the hotel beach, and also went on a group outing to snorkel around an underwater installation of sculptures that is part of the Museo Subacuatico de Arte. Having all these fish flit around so close to me was a wild experience! The group on the tour was terrific--two women from Australia whose parents were from Spain, so they chatted in those raspy Spanish accents with one of the tour guides, who also happened to be originally from Spain; their boyfriends; and a mother/daughter from Minnesota.

I stayed the perfect amount of time--any longer and I would have been fried to a crisp. I'm not all that fair, but that sun was powerful and very hard to avoid, especially since I was out and about riding a rented bike, going to lunch in the town, etc. And since I was by myself, getting sunblock on my back was a challenge! I got pretty red in places, but no major damage, luckily. I don't think I could live in such a climate, but it is really a treat to be able to visit.

lunch is served

I recently got the OK to work at home once a week, and I couldn't have picked a better day this week than today--it's sunny and really warm, finally--about 80 degrees! Spring has been sooo slow to start here--even at the end of April the trees barely had buds--so this is most welcome. Too bad it's supposed to cool off a little for the weekend . . .

Working from home means a yummier lunch than frozen Trader Joe's meals (they're good, but still frozen meals) or the Corner Bakery. I've been eating a lot of vegetables at home. Asparagus of course are in season right now. I usually just broil them with some olive oil and salt, although there are some more really delicious ways to prepare them here. A poached egg adds some protein . . . and I've really been into this capocollo and Calabrese salami lately. A tiny drop of red wine, and I feel so European eating on my newly flower- and plant-filled balcony.

Think I'll sneak out later for a quick bike ride and/or a swim at the pool--if only the outdoor pools were open!

chiuso per vacanze

I'm off for vacation for a few days--not Italy though, nor France. It's somewhere closer that I've never been before, but it's not completely unfamiliar. I'll be back soon with some photos and hopefully some good stories!

Italy videos

I just realized I never posted any of the short videos I took during my trip to Italy last spring.

Here's a taste of the peace and quiet in Parco Maremma.

Also in the park--an animal or insect was making a very loud, strange, slightly alarming noise.

And finally . . . there were a lot of foxes running around, including a pair that at first I thought were a couple dogs owned by the people walking ahead of me. I wasn't quick enough to get them but I did spot this guy a little later.

Sounds of Italy

Oh no! Thanks to Just Another American in Paris I think I just found yet another way to procrastinate on the Internet. She posted about the Freesound Project, a site on which you can search for ambient noises and other sounds from all over the world. I haven't found too many great files for Italy, but here are a few worth a listen:

• a street performer playing the accordion somewhere in Italy
• birds singing (and a bee buzzing) in Tuscany
• church bells and street noises in Venice
• a street market in Montevarchi, Tuscany
• the sound of the sea in Livorno
• a typical exchange in a caffe

 Sigh. I want to be there!

&@$%!!!

OK, so this has nothing to do with Italy, but this was the sight that greeted me outside today. My car up on a cement block and two whole wheels missing. Apparently early 80s cars are popular amongst the gangsta set for pimping out, and Honda Fit wheels are--well, a perfect fit. I found out today (after ranting on Facebook--thank God for being able to rant on Facebook!) that the same thing happened to a friend with a Fit a year ago, only they took all four wheels. There's a pretty decent police presence in my neighborhood, so they must have been really fast. And in a hurry--they left two lug nuts behind. So I've got that to make me feel better.

I have insurance, but it'll still cost me $250 (on top of shelling out $260 for a traffic ticket this past week), and of course it's a huge hassle. I will be buying a set of locking lug nuts tomorrow.

In the big picture I know this is not a big problem, especially since I have the money to handle it, but it still rankles, of course. Luckily a friend offered to buy me a drink. Alcohol--the solution to, and cause of, life's problems.

la neve

Wednesday morning, February 2, 2011, around the corner from where I live.

It's not very Italy-like around here with all the snow, unless you're talking about the Valle d'Aosta or perhaps the Alto Adige (but we don't have any mountains around here, except for the ones the snowplows have made at every corner). I had hoped we'd sneak past winter this year without a big snowstorm, but old man winter packed a wallop last week. Not sure of the totals, but I bet it was at least 18 inches. 

Chicagoans are old hands at dealing with snow and we've got the equipment for it, but the storm still caused a lot of chaos, especially on Lake Shore Drive, where some drivers were stuck for several hours and even all night when the snow started piling up around them. Firefighters finally had to rescue them and the cars were stuck there for at least a day or so while the cleanup went on. But really, any Chicagoan worth his or her rock salt knows to avoid LSD in rainstorms, much less a major, major blizzard that was forecast for days ahead of time.

The cleanup continues, as does an old Chicago tradition of saving the parking space you shoveled out while freeing your car with patio furniture, milk crates, or maybe some faux-architectural garden decor.

Bet the ancient Greeks never imagined their architecture would inspire so many creative applications.

I opted not to "dibs," as the practice is known, because I think it's tacky. A lot of people are doing it, but fortunately I haven't had much trouble finding an open space in the neighborhood when I get home.

 

Art Institute day

It was my birthday a couple days ago, and since I went all-out last year I didn't do much--a friend took me out to dinner, I invited some friends to a bar, and I took the following day off from work and went to go see a movie.

A lot of my friends have January birthdays too, so on Sunday I went with friend Gwen and some others to the Art Institute of Chicago to get some culcha. Even though I think the high was like 15 degrees, it was a perfect day to go because of the Bears/Packers championship game, and consequently the crowds were light. As in, no crowds. As in, stare at that painting for as long as you want without someone breathing down your neck and getting in your space, causing you to seethe silently and despise all of humanity, then feel guilty for being such a misanthrope. OK, maybe the last part is just me.

We started out seeing watercolors by John Marin, who was also Georgia O'Keeffe's husband. I actually liked his drawings better, particularly one of a boat that was just a series of short lines, really, and then an image of a canal in Amsterdam made of all horizontal lines. Most of his watercolors didn't thrill me but his technique was really interesting--he would scratch lines in the paint, let it pool down, draw little dots around the painting, etc. It made for some very kinetic works and you could see the influence or at least awareness of the same forces that caused Cubism. A lot of movement in those paintings.

I always have to go visit the European paintings from before 1900, although I wish they had more Dutch and Flemish paintings on view. They always have tons of works by Monet and Van Gogh, who are not my favorite. They just don't move me on an emotional level. My favorite work on this visit was "The Maid" by Francois Bonvin, for the bright red coat and the way it reminds me of a Vermeer. The photo doesn't do it justice. It's like a little jewel, small and shiny and precious. I also like to look at the Hubert Robert paintings of romantic ruins. They're not actual ruins--I don't think there are many that oversized in Rome, except for maybe the Colosseum and the Baths of Caracalla. There are four of his paintings in one gallery, and they're so big you get the feeling you could walk into them and chat with the women gathering water at the fountains and other passersby. In fact I vaguely remember a childhood book where the protagonist did exactly that with some murals.

The Art Institute itself is actually a beautiful Beaux Arts building constructed for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Today the Modern Wing gets all the attention, but I love the old building, with its pretty courtyards and arches. There are some lovely and peaceful little parks with fountains on either side of the building as well, which never seem to be that crowded.

We finished the day with wine (a Rosso Conero from Le Marche region of Italy) and delicious food at Purple Pig, which I had wanted to visit for a while but it was always too crowded and rather noisy. Thanks to getting there around 4 PM and the Bears/Packers game, they had plenty of open tables and we had a fun, peaceful meal. The pig's ear is the thing to get, but we passed on it for this visit. We did have bone marrow on toast with salt, capers, and parsley; anchovies with arugula, puntarelle (a green that is really rare on these shores) and orange; caponata; whipped feta with cucumbers; fried balls of butternut squash and sage; and jamon serrano with wild mushrooms and a fried egg on bread. It was really delicious and I highly recommend this place.

The day made me wish I worked downtown instead of having to drive to the suburbs every day! There are so many little parks you can relax in and the lake gives a great feeling of expansiveness. In fact I'm coming to realize that living near a large body of water is more important to me than I had realized.