Super bad

169/365
June 20, 2010

I almost got into a squabble over this photo. This shirt, which I've seen elsewhere, was in a booth at the 7th Avenue fair. I liked the image of the silly shirt with a brownstone in the background. The woman at the booth got mad and told me I had to ask her permission to take the picture, and I (nicely) told her I didn't . If the shirt had been on her, it would have been nice for me to ask her but at present you can still take a picture in a public space (the street) in NYC, legally.

Dangerous doors

168/365
June 19, 2010

A building in downtown Brooklyn. I think it's in the process of being torn down I think, and this row of doors just open to nothing.

167/365
June 18, 2010

I planted the garden back in May and you could see a lot of dirt back then. This photo is a little blurry, but you can see that the impatiens are coming in nicely. I love my colorful backyard.

Hydrangea flowers

166/365
June 17, 2010

I cut these from the bush in the yard. The raw photo was kind of boring, so I thought this was a good one to play with in editing. I really like the finished product here, but maybe I'm just biased.

More home made pizza

165/365
June 16, 2010

This is another decent attempt at pizza, but this was before my pizza class so it wasn't amazing. I used sourdough starter for to make the crust and then let the dough sit for 24 hours before baking to let the flavor ripen. Boy did it ripen! The taste of the crust almost overpowered all of the toppings, but Craig really liked it. This is pre-baking.

CSA week 1

164/365
June 15, 2010

I mentioned the CSA in an earlier post. This week I got more than we needed with the regular share plus the make-up share for the failed first week delivery.

Some of the stuff I got this week: strawberries, various greens (kale, bok choy, spinach, vitamin greens, lettuce), turnips, radishes, green onions, garlic scapes (the green part of garlic plants), cut flowers, and a pot of mixed herb plants. I probably left some greens out of the list, but you get the idea.

Dinner at Joe's Shanghai

163/365
June 14, 2010

A friend we made from Craig's grad program at UNC, Leo, was stopping through NYC with his girlfriend so we met them for dinner. They are both Chinese (as in born and raised there) and she lived in NYC for a while a few years ago and was craving real Chinese food so we went to Joe's Shanghai. It's known for its dumplings (at least that's what I had heard about), among other things. Leo's girlfriend chose most of the food, starting with dumplings and ending with this fish. The colors from the fish dish were so overwhelming (orangey fried crust and read sauces) that I had to make it black and white to make it more tolerable. I am not an adventurous eater, but I tried everything but the fish. To make sure I didn't go hungry, I ordered myself the nice plain chicken and broccoli dish pictured below the fish. I think we were all very full by the end.

Through the stairs

162/365
June 13, 2010

This is another shot taken while waiting for a train that never came (at least during the 30 minutes I waited) at the Jay Street station. I eventually took those stairs up and walked to another station.

A whole lot of pride

161/365
June 12, 2010

One of the many street fairs/festivals around here is the pride weekend fair. It happens on the road along the park (they close streets for these fairs) and there are the usual street fair booths with food, jewelry, sheets and this event also has things like churches (that are gay friendly) and health vans.

This guy is apparently a fixture at the event. He just cracked me up with his outfit, the parrot on his head, and the poodle in the stroller. By the way, a dog in a stroller is far from uncommon here. I think most of the dogs in strollers are old and not very mobile with owners who take them out for fresh air.

Oops

160/365
June 11, 2010

Deck, meet fire. Fire, meet deck. This has now been fixed but it ruined our mood for grilling for a while. I focused on the flowers for the shot on purpose-I'd rather not think about that hole incident much.

A feast fit for a dog

159/365
June 10, 2010

Sometimes Shep gets sick, with um, digestive issues. When all of your dog's time outside is chaperoned my you, and you pick up his poop, you know when the pup is sick. Vets suggest feeding a bland diet to keep from further upsetting the stomach. A bland diet however, requires effort and time so I just make a batch of it if I run out and keep portions in the freezer. Luckily Shep doesn't need this often, but when he does, I want him "stopped up" ASAP since he is stuck in the house when we're gone.

The basic idea is chicken (no skin--fat is bad for an upset dog stomach), rice, some fiber (I use sweet potato, some dogs like pumpkin), and oats. I usually cook the chicken in water, remove any fat and bones, shred the chicken and then cook the rice, potatoes and oats in the chicken water then mix it all together. Shep's pallet is not too refined, so there is really no such thing as overcooking any of the ingredients. I then add water to it when I feed him to get more fluids in him.

Cheese dip

158/365
(taken June 21)
June 9, 2010

The recipe for this cheese-dip came from an Arkansas cookbook I was gifted years ago. One of the recipes was for "Stoby's Clone Cheese Dip". Stoby's is a small restaurant in a few towns in Arkansas. People go gaga for their dip and this recipe is pretty close, though I like my version, which has lots of tomato and cumin, better. People tend to have a strong feeling on the dip, and we love it in this house. I often make a batch for bbq's.

If you want, I can post the recipe but I am too lazy to do that right now. I will tell you it has coffee creamer, which is its most surprising ingredient.

Sad, empty bag

157/365
June 8, 2010

I joined the Park Slope CSA (community shared agriculture) this year. A group of people, several hundred for this neighborhood's, people join and partner with a farmer and pay that farmer before the season for produce throughout the growing season in the area. I am doing the vegetable, fruit, and flower shares with ours. You get whatever is available to be picked that week.

This Tuesday was my first pick-up day and I was very excited to see what I would get. Sadly, when I arrived at the pick-up spot, there was no food. NOTHING! The delivery truck got lost going to an earlier stop (they provide for multiple CSAs and maybe some restaurants?) and did not make it out to us, their farthest stop. I was crushed. To make up we would get a double share the next week. Not an ideal solution--a lot of the next week's share went bad before we could eat it. I'm just glad that wasn't one of my days to work the distribution booth and have to tell all those people they had to go home empty-handed.

Anyway, hopefully this will be my only empty bag picture for the CSA.

Grilled vegetables

156/365
June 7, 2010

We love grilled meals. My aunt Faye and her family gave me a gift certificate to Pampered Chef for Christmas and one of the things I got with it was the basket below (photo snagged from their website). It seems kind of small when I look at it, but we can get enough vegetables for several people in it. It's great because you can just drop the veggies in, which is much faster than skewering that many little pieces.

For the veggies, I usually just cut them all and toss them in a ziploc with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice (because I seem to add this to everything these days), and some kind of dry seasoning (salt+pepper, or some mixed seasoning for vegetables) and leave it all in the refrigerator for a few hours. The results are always tasty.

Meat lover's pizza

154/365
June 7, 2010

This beauty is Craig's pizza from our dinner at Fornino. I posted this one on my Flickr account a while back and it has gotten quite a few views, and I'm guessing those views are from people who want a slice of it. And yes, there have been many pizza photos, and there are more to come since I've been learning to make better pizza at home.

Fornino grilled pizza

154/365
June 5, 2010

I posted this on my flickr page at some point, but it deserves to be posted twice. Fornino is a popular pizza joint in another neighborhood and they recently opened a fancy pizza joint here, it's grilled not baked. We went out to celebrate a friend graduating from a program and had an entertaining evening.

As usual, I had a cheeseless pizza and it was very good.

Jay Street station

153/365
(for June 4)
June 7, 2010

There are two reasons I end up on the platform at this station. One is that I'm transferring to an A train to go to the wonderful B&H photography store. That's a good reason to be at the Jay Street/Borough Hall station. The other reason is that there is a problem with the F line, which is my main line to take. This day it was the latter, unfortunately. I was on an F home when it stopped here and emptied us out, then no others were coming for a long time. Luckily it was nice out so I just went outside and walked to an R station, which is my back-up line for getting home.

"Charcoal kills trees"

152/365
(for June 3)
May 16, 2010

The Parks Department has a new campaign up to save trees. In the summer, particularly on weekends, the park fills with people grilling and picnicking. Grilling is allowed in some areas, and not in most. A big problem with grillers is that they dump their coals right where they are instead of in the designated bins (which aren't helped by idiots who put trash in them). Many coals get dumped at the bottom of trees. In response to this, the department put these ribbons around the trees in popular grilling spots. There are also signs with a cartoon of a sad-faced tree with the "charcoal kills trees" message in many languages.

Personally, I don't think this is near the top of pressing issues in the park because I'm out there every morning and don't see that many coals dumped on trees. They are dumped in inappropriate areas (and I've stepped in them while still hot), but I just haven't seen much on trees. The mounds of trash left by the grillers is my big issue. (See an example here) They bring and leave tons of stuff: platters of food, bags of raw meat, grills, chairs, wrappers, cakes, dirty diapers, etc. I think they need many more trash dumpsters (cans are too easily stolen) and to ticket people littering. We've seen plenty of them just tossing used plates, cups, and the like on the ground so it shouldn't be that hard.

Beautiful mess (aka pound cake)

151/365
(for June 2)
June 12, 2010

I decided to make this pound cake kind of late in the evening to go with fresh strawberries we'd bought that day. The recipe (from Southern Living) called to bake the cake almost two hours. I was not going to stay awake long enough to bake it, let it cool, and consume it so I foolishly upped the temperature a little in the oven and cooked for a shorter time. The texture and doneness were excellent (as was the flavor-I think I've found a new favorite pound cake recipe) but as you can see, I had a ton of trouble getting it out of the pan. Hopefully next time I make it according to the actual instructions it will come out of the pan without force.

It went perfectly with strawberries and fresh whipped cream, as seen here.

Duck, duck, duck

150/365
(for June 1)
June 12, 2010

This little flock is one of the few groups of ducks in Prospect Park this summer. I've never seen any that look like this. What are they?? I'm guessing some hybrid, but of what I'm not sure.

R.I.P.

149/365
(for May 31)
June 12, 2010

Someone made this little grave marker to put by the stump left by a very large, old tree that used to stand there. I think the marker was made from a piece of the trunk. I'm not sure if this tree died on its own or if it was one of the casualties of the big spring storm of 2010, but I thought this marker was cute and kind of funny.

Sunday shopping

148/365
(for May 30)
May 16, 2010

A big farmers market happens on Saturdays near our place, but I'm alway happy when the smaller Sunday market reappears in the spring. If I miss the Saturday market or realize I didn't get enough of something (like the strawberries) I can go to this market for it. When will I learn that I can never buy too many strawberries?

Roof-boarding

147/365
(for May 29)
June 12, 2010

This building is in Prospect Park (*our* park) near the Audubon House and as far as I can tell, is used for nothing since we've lived here, until this day. A bunch of kids with skateboards were hanging out on the roof this sunny weekend and occasionally sending a board down, sans rider luckily.

Waiting man

146/365
(for May 28)
taken June 12, 2010

This guy was just sitting in a chair, seemingly in his own world, at a concert in the park.