The Hills are (Almost) Alive

I seem to be so lucky as to be regularly getting up to the Green Mountain State. Mr. Right and I decided we had had enough of trying to live in our house while also trying to sell it, so we went away for the weekend so the real estate folks could have it to themselves. It was a good trip -- saw some beautiful spots. We picked a funny time, in Vermont it's the "shoulder season," or to put it less euphemistically, "mud season." While things were turning pretty green in Boston in late April, Vermont wasn't quite their yet. Hence, the hills were almost alive ...

Let's go to photos, which I think is the point of this post, no?

First up, we met up with some of Mr. Right's old pals from college and their cutie pie daughter and explored an outdoor art museum called The Path of Life Garden. I'll just include one cool pic that is not of the garden as they asked not to share photos of the spot (which you can see on their website anyhow). It's a very restful and spiritually renewing place to visit.

On our way back to the highway, we passed a delapidated old dairy barn. Anyone who knows me well knows I can't resist such a photograph, so I took a couple dozen. Here are two of my favorites.

And here is a quintessential dillard57 blog photo. While technically, I was not on a food quest to find blueberry buckle in Vermont, I do always feel like I'm on the hunt for interesting regional foods, and this one passed the test with flying colors. My wonderful father-in-law and I enjoy naming all the fruit and cake combinations that exist in American cooking: crisps, cobblers, buckles, slumps, grunts, brown-betty, and pan-dowdy. So here's a buckle, which is a kind of crumb topped cake with fruit:

This trip was during that crazy 90 degree April heatwave, so a stop at the Ben and Jerry's factory seemed like a pretty smart idea.

Finally we arrived in Stowe and did a little exploring. There is a great 5 mile path that takes you through the whole town plus the surrounding woods (of which we maybe walked a mile). Then we drove up to the Trapp Family Lodge for dinner. I definitely come from a Sound of Music Family. I still know most of the words to the songs on the sountrack. When I was a girl, I thought Maria was incredibly glamorous (even whilst a nun). I still am a sucker for the movie, so I thought it would be very cool to see the lodge where they settled in the US. We had a surprisingly good dinner there considering it's level of uber-tourist attraction, and the views were sufficiently stunning to reassure us that the VonTrapp family had indeed picked a good spot for their new home. We finished the trip with a piece of Linzer Torte (above), which I have never loved for its dry texture, but this one was advertised as the best Linzer Torte in the country, so I figured I would give it a chance. And you know what, I would give it that vote. It was delicious, really nutty and fruity. Those Austrians know what they are doing. Now I just have to get myself to Vienna to compare it to the stuff in the old country.

And with that (and one small car breakdown and long tow later, but we'll save that for the new car buying post), we returned home to our cat and regular lives, looking forward to our next adventure.

Urban Hippie Wannabe (long post)

I have granola envy. Here in New England, they don't talk about hippie lifestyles, they say crunchy, or they say granola. I like these terms as hippie to me has always been synonymous with flaky.

I have scrutinized my copy of Back to Basics: How to Learn and Enjoy Traditional American Skills to figure out how to dig a well or build a smokehouse with glee but have no immediate intention of doing so. I have two friends, M and G, doing the crunchy cool Western Massachusetts Granola Thing. During our last visit, I sampled their home-made kombucha (a whole other topic I won't get into here), admired their huge garden, and cheered on their plans for launching a meade brewery and craft business. So why can't we do that here in Boston?

I've often spoken to Mr. Right about my desire to raise chickens, bees and even a goat if I'm feeling really ambitious. He is cautiously supportive although quick to point out it's probably better to wait until we've moved to our next house. He is a wise one, Mr. Right.

M pointed recently in the direction of the beekeeper life via the blog The Crunchy Chicken . And from there I pulled this list of skills that are very handy in trying to reduce your carbon footprint, as well as tickle the fancy of apocalyptic planners. My urban crunchy self loves this list! How do you fare on this list of skills?

• Food gardening and food storage (canning, dehydrating, pickling, fermentation, etc.) -- I'm not a great gardener, but I'm learning and getting better each year. The seedlings are going, inspired by CF who is the seedling queen! I usually manage to grow lots of wonderful herbs, flowers, enough zucchini to overwhelm us at least for a month or so before the grubs take over, and a few peppers, tomatoes and cukes. Anything else has never really taken, but this year's a new year! I'd love to become good at arugula, chard, cucumbers, radishes and peas, which all are really pretty easy and so delicious when fresh and organic. My ambitious future goals would be carrots, eggplant, grapes, strawberries, and pumpkins. My mother in law (who reads this blog, hi Mom!) is promising lessons on canning/jams, and through my in-laws we have wonderful access to rhubarb and berries, even blueberries! I've done some limited pickling, and I think it is very fun. So! Doing pretty good here.
  
• Seed saving and/or fruit tree grafting -- I'm not bad on saving seeds, the hardest part is finding a place to keep them so I don't lose them over the winter. Again my wonderful in-laws are ahead of me here -- they have a variety of beautiful fruit trees. I'll have to ask them about this grafting business.
  
• Foraging for wild foods, mushrooms, etc. -- I'd love to take a class on this. Fascinating! (Makes me miss my California days where you can really live off of foraging: when I lived in Santa Barbara, foraging was too easy -- you had advocados, figs, oranges and lemons landing in your lap as they fell off the trees in the neighborhood. Paradise!) As for mushrooms, I'm not a huge fan, and the whole poison thing, well, you know, makes one nervous. I know, I know, you learn the difference. But still.
  
• Composting -- We're doing pretty good on this front as we share a bin with a neighbor. It's amazing how much less frequently you take out the trash when you use a compost bin, plus the trash is less stinky. Cool! Now I actually need to use the compost in the garden, which will be new for me. Nervous about the gross factor in actually spreading out the stuff sitting around from last fall. We shall see!
  
• Animal husbandry (chickens, goats or larger) -- Definitely nothing larger than a goat, but how cool would it be to get to know some chickens, have eggs, and have a goat friend who is also a lawn-mower/milk-maker. The goat part is pretty unlikely unless we actually move to the country, and I'm nervous about the whole baby goat part. Not so comfortable becoming a butcher even if I like goat meat. So that's a iffy one, but I still like the idea of having one. I can dream, can't I?
  
• Beekeeping -- Very interested in this, may even be doable in the suburbs. Hmm. Research.
  
• Animal skinning, processing -- umm, well, not high on the list. Appreciative but squeamish, although I'm intrigued that the writer of The Julie/Julia Project turned to butchery.
  
• Sheep or other animal shearing -- fascinating but also not high on the list. Love sheepies though.
  
• Spinning wool -- how cool would that be! But alas I am not a knitter...
  
• Knitting -- I do like to do things with my hands so I may revisit, but all the exactitude drives me nuts. I drop more stitches than I knit.
  
• Sewing -- I think this would be fun. Need a sewing machine and then how to use it? Definitely suits my practical nature. And I'm awesome at sewing on buttons, so that's a start, right?
  
• Cooking, baking -- I think I'm good on this one as I cook and bake a lot. Whew. At least I can really check one off. Thanks Mom and Grandma, Moosewood and Cooks Illustrated!
  
• Making own cheese and/or yogurt -- I've made yogurt many times. It's so easy and so much milder than the store version which is so very sour. I was perversely proud of the puzzlement generated by asking for a yogurt maker on my wedding registry. Have done some cheese-making which is fun. However unless you have a huge supply of extra milk around, it's not a big priority. Definitely when I get a goat, mmm goat cheese.
  
• Making beer and/or wine -- Mr. Right has made beer. Cool! Wine making would be fun if I had a ton of grapes. So, not high on the list until the arbor is up!
  
• Solar cooking -- Might be worth researching when I've really become crunchy.
  
• Alternative medicine and/or first aid -- I've started to play with herbs and really get into that. Am definitely into the doula/alternative birth options scene, which I've discussed previously on this blog. I have and continue to give a lot of serious thought to midwifery, and I strongly support and can attest to the power of healing touch through massage/accupuncture/reiki and so on. There is a LOT to learn here and I am very excited to do so.
  
• Making soap (cold process from oils and lye) -- could be fun! I have been experimenting with making my own laundry detergent and dishwasher detergent, as I'm horrified by the price of the more environmental stuff, and I'm horrified by the nastiness of the cheaper stuff. Tadah, the internet offers a bounty of other options! I'm also absurdly into drying my clothes on the line outside. I love how they smell afterard.
  
• Making candles -- if I had a bee hive, I'd make candles in the morning, I'd make candles in the evening, all over this town...
  
• Carpentry -- Mr. Right digs this stuff. Certainly would be handy.
  
• Plumbing or electrical -- Another handy skill, not high on my list. I rue my girlyness.
  
• Bike maintenance and repair -- I have some very very very basic skills here, certainly could use more.
  
• Appliance repair -- I'm a pretty good fiddler with appliances, but motor repair is certainly beyond me. Funny, I never even thought of this as a skill, but of course it is!
  

I would love to have more of these skills. There is an authentic-ness to these skills and a link to the past that makes me happy when I am berry-picking or pie-making or yogurt-making. Totally energizing for me!

How are you on this list? Does it intrigue you or exhaust you?

I've never been able to resist a bakery. So when I spotted Tatte Bakery in the neighbhorhood where I was meeting a friend for lunch, I decided to stop by. I had admired their booth at the Copley Square Farmer's Market. Their set-up was beautiful in this antiquey, nostalgic sepia-toned way, and I wondered what other wonders their store might hold. It was as pretty as I had hoped: the displays of pastry and funny antique signs making my camera finger itch in an almost painful way, especially with no camera on me.

Their pastry offerings are artful and expensive. $6 for their signature "nut boxes" which, as promised, are a box made of shortbread filled with nuts in a caramel glaze. Simple and very elegant. So simple and elegant that I have to confess I am not crazy about them. I like some messiness in my pastry, cream squirting out the side or fruit on my nose. I want to be overcome when I bite into something because it fills my mouth and nose with flavor and texture. When something is so pretty and not really, well, bite-able, it turns it into sculpture rather than food. I like sculpture and I like playfulness with food, but if it's supposed to be a cookie, then I want to be able to bite into it. I'm still not sure how you are supposed to eat the nut box. Mr. Right and I mostly just picked the nuts out of the box and ate them, and then ate the sides. It definitely tasted good. And the puddle of caramel at the bottom of the box made up for the non-smooshy no cream factor.

They also have Hamantashen, which is much more biteable as a cookie and I adore them, if only because I love their story. Their name means Haman's Hats, and they are based on the Bible story about Queen Esther, who outsmarted and triumphed over the evil Haman who was out to have her killed. Traditionally they are made with poppy seed or fruit filling, but here they had nutella filling. Awesome! And to make it even more fun, as I was looking up how to spell the name and story about the cookie, I found out about this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Latke-Hamantash_Debate which I'll leave you to read and enjoy on your own. And I was very happy with the hamantash I ate.

What is it about baked goods? Proust may have been one of the first to describe the emotional power of the pastry, but they definitely take me back to childhood. Maybe it's the memories of going to the bakeries with my mother when I was little where the lady at the counter would give every kid a cookie.

I'm glad I went in and wow, the place definitely got my blogger's juices flowing in a powerful way. My reaction surprised me a little -- with them it wasn't the product itself but the way they presented it. I loved how they packaged it. I would enjoy taking friends there. So I say hat's off to Tatte for doing something interesting and beautiful.

Winter Questions

Winter is a good time to settle in and take things slowly. We have some amaryllis bulbs unfolding slowly in the kitchen, and, like life, it will be blooming before you know it.

I don't mind the snow and the cold. And there are some seasonal pleasures, like blood oranges. They are in all the grocery stores right now, and I love their beautiful color and sweet, berry/orange flavor. Eating foods in their season just makes them so much more special, more of a treat.

We're also pondering some questions during this quiet time. Put the house back on the market in the middle of a crazy economic downturn? What about renting it? What about nursing or midwifery studies? And our two old cars that occasionally show signs of giving up, what to do about them?

So, we're taking it slowly, keeping warm and weighing our options.

Cookies for the President

I love baked goods and I love photography, but I'm not sure I like photos on baked goods. I guess if you are having an inaugural party, these would be a fun part to have somewhere on the menu. They were at a local bakery and I just had to take a photo. I've seen these pictures on cakes before and always thought that eating someone's photo is a bit odd.

Nonetheless, it's an exciting moment in history, and I'm glad people are inspired enough to create such cookies at this time.

And happy MLK day! I love the James Taylor song, "Send a Little Light," which says,

"Let us turn our thoughts today to Martin Luther King, and recognize that there are ties between us,

all men and women,

living on this earth,

ties of hope and love,

sister and brotherhood."

No Dukes in Braintree

Mr. Right and I are watching the John Adams series and liking it very much. We are in the episode where John Adams is accused of wanting too much nobility given to the President, so his colleagues are calling him "The Duke of Braintree." We find this very amusing as we watch from beautiful Braintree, MA. Here is a photo I snapped last fall using the cell phone. This spot is about a 20 minute walk from our house, which, unfortunately, does not have such a beautiful view of the water, nor a duke.

Christmas Culinary Craziness Part II

One of many reasons I married Mr. Right: in my stocking he includes palm sugar (on right) and organic coconut curry chocolate bar (left). Happy sigh. How did I get so lucky? Oh and please ignore the Christmas morning hair do. Stop looking at it!




Here is Laura's now semi-famous semi-freddo. No, it's not semi-freddo, it's flan. But it was fun to write semi-famous semi-freddo.













Finally, my sister Sue's really gorgeous and equally yummy Buche de Noel (or Yule Log for you non-Frenchies). Happy new year!

Christmas Cooking and other treats

I am a little late to capture any last vestiges of holiday spirit, but I wanted to share some of my culinary explorations this past holiday.

From Lynn Rosetti's cookbook, The Italian Country Table, I made sugared chestnuts which were extremely fun because you got to light them on fire. Here's a picture post flambee as having the fire going and taking a photo was just more than I could handle. Also some beautiful dried figs soaked in a vermouth syrup. Oooh fancy.

I finally got to try Mr. Right's mom's famous quahogs -- large stuffed clams only describes their most literal properties; they are one of those local-only treats that make you go, ohhhh, this is why people love clams. They were as wonderful as everyone promised. And I finally learned how to say their name correctly (ko-hog). Mr. Right says her clam chowder is even better, but she doesn't make it anymore because no one in the family digs clams anymore. I also consumed the second of two holiday meals that commenced with still warm homemade cinnamon buns, some sort of family tradition that just about made me weep as I encountered them, either with pleasure or confusion at how this could be part of the same meal as a slab of prime rib, I am not sure.

Next, Mr. Right had asked that when we visit Pittsburgh over the holiday, could we please please have breakfast at DeLuca's in the Strip? He had seen it on the show "Man vs. Food" and wanted to try the mixed grill featured. I was amazed that my entire family agreed to meet us down there for breakfast on a Tuesday morning. It was some wonderful family togetherness and Mr. Right was really thrilled. I took a photo of the mixed grill which really doesn't do the diner goodness justice. I guess I should have taken it before the ketchup was applied.

Now you'll just have to hang in there for part two of this little documentary which will include some new year's treats. It's food blogging this week on the dillard network! (to be continued!)

Happy Solstice!!! Let It Snow. Ok, that's enough now.

It's been a while since I have truly felt snowed in, but this weekend counts. Here in Boston we had plenty of warning of an oncoming snowstorm on Friday morning. My coworkers and I nervously awaited the verdict on an early release at work, remembering the nightmarish commute the year before where people sat on the highway for hours. Late morning the e-mail arrived: 1:00 release! Woo hoo! Snow day! The charm never wears off. I never knew I'd get to have them as an adult.

The storm hit that afternoon and now it's Sunday night, and we really are buried from two separate storms. There's somewhere around a foot of white fluff (or maybe slush) out there. Any plans for holiday shopping and holiday parties were derailed. We now have a LOT of holiday cookies and buckeyes we were planning to bring to a party today, waiting to be eaten. We are valiantly doing our best to eat them to avoid the tradgedy of stale cookies. As for the shopping bag full of fancy chocolates Mr. Right bought for his cousins' kids, well, we may have to help with those later as well. It's difficult. But I am getting to actually catch up with various householdy tasks and hey, even a blog entry. And make a snowman. Mr. Right and I both liked his pipe.

I do love the snow, think it's beautiful and love to play in it. Cross country skiing is one of my favorite things. But I've got this bum foot, a fractured 5th metatarsal achieved very boringly while housecleaning. So no skiing of any form, and even walking in the snow is complicated. I've got what they call a ski boot instead of a cast, but ironically, it's terrible in the snow, mostly because of all the huge holes all over it which scoop the snow right into my sock. Ergh.

Today is the 6 month anniversary of Mr. Right and I. We were married on the summer solstice, the first day of summer. Now we have gone through two seasons together and it's the winter solstice, the return of the light. I like that we were married on an equinox, on a traditional day of marriage, one that reflects the seasons. It seems more real and powerful and grounded somehow.

So on this day of the return of the longer days, the return of sunshine and warmth which is so hard to imagine when it's dark at 4:30 and we can't go anywhere due to the snow outside, I wish you happiest of solstice. A wonderful holiday season, a happy 2009.

Old Scituate Lighthouse

Mr. Right and I are big fans of taking walks. But where to go? It's maybe not so surprising -- I, the lady from the land-locked Pittsburgh, usually request walks in the woods. R, man born near the sea, requests ocean. We take turns on our destination and happily, we have both options nearby. And we are both pretty happy just to have such beautiful places to walk.

Last Sunday we decided to try and find the Scituate Lighthouse again after stumbling upon it several months earlier. We'd had an adventure trying and failing to find it again a few weeks ago. This time we applied some radical technology and actually googled it before we left and were able to locate it on a map! So we found it with pretty much no problem. It's a great spot with a fun story (see sign), and it couldn't be much prettier. Not that we're comparing lighthouses -- goodness, I could get myself in trouble in this area that way.

It was very very windy and cold, but we were happy with our success in finding it. And that I actually brought my camera this time. These walks are such a comfort, such an escape from the humdrum office and gym and commuting worlds.

My stepson described us as being "a family that likes to take walks." I thought that was kinda cool.

Plymouth in November

We took a walk down on the jetty in Plymouth this past weekend. It was fun to see Plymouth in the height of its Pilgrimishness, and it was my first visit back since June. I took a picture of the Pilgrim women's fountain, site of our big event, surrounded by falling leaves. It's a pretty place. The statue reads, "To those intrepid English women whose courage, fortitude and devotion brought a new nation into being, this statue of the Pilgrim Maiden is dedicated."

The jetty in Plymouth is a wonderful walk. Jetties are new to me since moving to Massachusetts. This one goes pretty far out into the water and has lots of interesting graffitti that the kids know to look for along the way. including someone's graffiti-ed grocery list of milk and chips and dip. At the end we now always take a photo (well, two times in two years we have). So I thought I'd throw in a mushy picture of us, just for fun.

Sick Day

It's a gorgeous chilly fall day, and I'm enjoying it all from the couch because I have been struck immobile by a nasty sore throat and achey thing. It's the only time I stop frantically running around, so I try to enjoy the immobility while it lasts before I start getting incredibly antsy. Blah.
Anyhow, it's been a while since I've talked about baking or cooking, and pre-illess yesterday, I made a loaf of the sorta famous "No Knead Bread" that was on all the internet baking circuits about a year ago. We make it on a sorta regular basis here in Braintree. It's incredibly easy, requiring only four ingredients (5 if you count water), and while it involves time for it to rise, it involves little to no work, yet it comes out like something from the fancy bakery. Before I had this recipe, I would occasionally make bread and it was always, well, cakey. Like banana bread but without banana, especially the whole wheat. It made you feel virtuous in a kind of "I made this and it's good for you" way. I think I usually used a Moosewood recipe.

Today as I watched the steam rise off the beautiful interior and admired the crisp crust, it is clear that I would never go back to the old way. I will post a photo as soon as I can find my dumb battery charger that is hiding from me.

I learned to cook with the Moosewood cookbooks. The first thing I cooked was my mom's tuna casserole, with all the Campbell's cream of mushroom soup and some sort of cracker topping. But when I moved to California for grad school into a groovy vegetarian/vegan co-op with 14 other college students, we had to take turns cooking and cook for 14 other people. I loved it. I loved the challenge of coming up with something good, and I liked it when it worked and everyone was excited about what you had made. And I liked it that when you cooked, other people had to clean up. I was (and am) a messy cook. We made lots of casseroles involving millet, chopped tofu, and vegan cheese. We even made a chocolate dessert with tofu and couscous that I still like but no one I know will eat.

I really don't ever cook from Moosewood anymore. Partly because we're not a veggie household. Partly because I've moved on to different cookbooks after finding the Cooks Illustrated world of obsessive test-kitchen yumminess. I still like paging through them and looking at the drawings and seeing the little notes I included ("needs lots more salt and some hot sauce" seems to be the mantra). Funny how your cooking self changes over time.

Back to the couch with me. I'm reading Ethan Canin's newest novel, America, America. It's OK so far. More complicated than I expected. I loved all of his previous stuff. Also reading more art books, and continuing to make art. Yay!

Still Some Art in There

I've gotten distracted from most things artistic in the last, er, year or so and I have missed my art life. So I'm returning, little by little.

I was once complaining that I didn't feel always feel "inspired" to make something, and a friend pointed out that a musician sits down and practices every day, whether or not she is feeling "inspired." I have a lot to learn about how to work with the muse, how to be patient, how to coax her into showing up, if only by being around when she might. I've taken up trying to keep a sort of artist's journal, drawing something, anything, a few times each week. That was inspired by the blog, Lifecraft, written by a woman I've never met whose story fascinates me and who would likely be bemused to know that I follow her work so closely.

I've also started to get all kinds of books from the library, trying to teach myself more about art history. So many holes in my education there. When I learn about it, I feel like I'm drinkly deeply from this well of history and well of meaning. I recently finished Robert Hughes' book, American Visions which is really heavy and hard to read just in a month from the library, but it was so much fun as a read that I pulled it off. I've now got a whole new armload of books about contemporary women artists. Yay!

And I saw a great movie called "Who Does She Think She Is?" about contemporary women artists struggling to make art in the face of the demands of family and work and all those normal life things that say "pay attention to me! over here!" There were five women, each with a compelling story, each with some really good, hard reasons for them to give up making art. But they don't, because they pretty much can't stop. It is so worth seeing, both for the inspirational stories but also because their art is really good, really satisfying stuff. I was particularly fascinated by the deeply religious woman from Ohio with five children, making cool but creepy fairy tale statues. Yikes! I could say a lot more about all of those factors, but I will hold off for now for fear of blog-book creep.

I have certainly continued to stay at least a little in touch with my artsy side through photography, and I have really enjoyed my new camera. It has been great capturing moments from this momentous year. It makes me wonder if I can do more with photography in a way that will satisfy my creative side. Hmmmm.

I started this entry thinking I didn't have much to report. Guess art gets me all going.

Time for the Annual Fall Photos

Mr. Right and I have doing our routine thing, traveling around getting to our errands and hangouts and meetings wherever they may be. But when it is fall in New England, these trips here and there suddenly become little mini-holidays of colors and kicking oneself for not having the camera. Who knew you would need a camera on the way to the post office? But the trees are just gorgeous right now and I don't think we've quite hit the peak yet. Fall in Pittsburgh was always beautiful too, and I'm not sure if the colors were any different or more or less beautiful, but because people travel from all over just to see our leaves here in New England, well, I guess it makes you pay a little more attention.

We stopped at a farm stand Saturday in New Hampshire and of course I went nuts with the camera. Between food and fall foliage, I was in my element. This little stand had something like 14 kinds of apples and weren't even trying to sell the raspberries and 5 kinds grapes they also had growing in profusion. So I was having these fun Napa Valley photos right in New Hampshire. I love the smell of grapes on the vine, so incredibly sweet. The last was a tree that was almost blindingly orange. It was just on a random side street. It made me happy that I wasn't the only person stopping to take photos of it, that all of us still get excited by seeing such a beautiful thing occuring in nature, even when it is the most normal thing in the world.

Oh and the last one I had to take as proof that canned brown bread really does exist here -- I had previously posted about this phenomenon. Here is a restaurant serving it for Saturday lunch, which is apparently a proper time to do so. I'm not sure if $5.25 is a good deal or not.

Photo Play

I had fun taking a couple of quirky shots at the wedding, so these are for people who enjoy something a little different.

The top one is just so tender. I really like it. Those little moments and details can just make me so happy.





I also got this one of the veil and dress. Not a complicated shot but I like how it came out.









The bride was so beautiful, I love this one of her Greek dancing ... it reminds me of a Sargent painting ... I love the shapes and color.




















And then here below is some fun on the dance floor. I think you get a real sense of the pulse in this one.

A Lovely Pittsburgh Wedding: Don't Forget Your Cookie Bag

We had a great time at Tina and David's wedding. I don't think you need me to say much, just get to the photos, right? It was a gorgeous hot September day and of course the bride was stunning. The look of joy and relief on both their faces, so lovely. I remember that same feeling walking back down the aisle. Whew!

I like this one of Tina laughing:


And oh my goodness, I do love wedding cake. I can stare at photos of wedding cake for inappropriate amounts of time.




It's lots of fun taking photos at weddings. Now that I've been through the craziness of planning a wedding myself, I especially enjoy the details that I know the bride has agonized over for the past 8 months. Each of the tables had a fun photo of all the parts of Pittsburgh. Cool!



And speaking of my earlier post about Pittsburgh food, we have a very proud wedding tradition in Pittsburgh called The Pittsburgh Cookie Table. It's so ubiquitous at weddings in Pittsburgh that people at the wedding didn't even understand when I called it, "The Pittsburgh Cookie Table." It would be like referring to a "French Baguette" while in France: it is somehow ridiculously redundant. Whereas anywhere else in the country they are asking you the question, "Why are you having cookies at your wedding?" Of course we had one at our New England wedding, and it made me very happy as a true Pittsburgh Bride.

Anyhow, this was the mother of all cookie tables. It streched on for miles and had so many varieties I'm not going to list them all. Sufficient to say it was cookie heaven. My photo does not do it justice, but does demonstrate there were so many that everyone there packed up baggies to take home (and some unnamed bloggers may have packed more than one bag but only because the cookie makers told her to).

Pittsburgh Food

One of the many pleasures of Pittsburgh is its variety of exquisitely delicious-but-bad-for-your-arteries food. As I show Mr. Right around town, it's been important that he learns about these options. So far he has been an enthusiastic participant in my tours.

In town last weekend, to my great joy, we hit the Pittsburgh culinary jackpot: a Polish Food Festival! We had one of everything. We Have No Shame.

I took a photo of our tray. We've got stuffed cabbage, pierogie, haluski, and kielbasa (in the bun). I'm looking at the kielbasa and I'm thinking, yikes, my husband does love mustard. That's what those squiggles are. You can't even see the sausage. Well, it's one of the things that brought us together, our shared love of condiments. Salsa Girl, meet Mr. Mustard. What else could follow but true love?

And of course we went to Primanti's. I tried to get a shot that shows the french fries on the sandwich with the ubiquitous Iron City behind it. Pittsburghers put fries on sandwiches and salads. It's just what you do. I am proud to be from such a great city.

And Dillard57 Roars Back to Life

Roaring might be a bit of an exxageration, but I am returning to life on this blog. I was momentarily distracted by a little event back in June when Mr. Right and I tied the knot. Here is a photo from the day. If you want to read all the dorky details, feel free to do so at www.cooper-ayles.blogspot.com. To sum up: It was a good day, beautiful and sunny. We are incredibly blessed with wonderful friends and family who joined us in Plymouth. We are very happy.

And so, back more or less to our regularly scheduled programming.

We spent this last weekend in Pittsburgh for my dear friend Tina's wedding. I'll blog more about the trip in a bit. But this post is just to say, well hello old friends of dillard57!

The Painting Is Done Now the Next Thing

I've switched some these days from painting canvases to painting walls. After some seriously arduous wallpaper stripping, we finally were able to lay down a very nice coat of pale green paint in the kids' room. It looks nice! We were just amazed at how much it transformed the room. I know, this isn't revolutionary. People Paint Room! It Looks Nice! Details at 11:00!!! Nonetheless, we were proud, and I wanted to document the moment so here's Mr. Right, changing a room that looked like a warzone into something that looks like a bedroom. I mean, the walls really were that weird brown color you see underneath there.

That's what blogs are for, right? All of these random moments that no one really cares about but us. But who doesn't like to see the photos??? He's working so hard that his roller painter thing is a blur! Or it could be I used to low of a setting on the camera. Whatever. The rooms are done!!!

And of course, now the quest for matching bed spreads begin. Sigh. What have I become? Oy.

Old Dog New Tricks

Not sure if I count as an old dog yet, but I'm learning new tricks with my new Pentax. There's this cool thing called depth of field that makes things close up look in focus and further away items look soft and out of focus. It's just a neat trick, but it can make a simple shot much more interesting. The photo above shows what I mean.

The salt shaker is in focus, the pencil can is not. You can switch so the pencil can is in focus and the salt shaker is not. Or so that they both are in focus. It all has to do with how open or closed your aperture is. Anyhow, that's it. My new trick. More soon and fewer salt shaker photos I promise.