So much has happened since my last post. I took a two week trip to Texas. We have new living room furniture. The catalpa has bloomed. I tried making Neufchatel and failed horribly. My classy next door neighbors vacated. No one has replaced them yet. Which makes me uneasy. Like the saying, the devil you know is worth two in the hand. Or something like that.
We have a long way to go to catch up. I'm afraid we have to go back to March to wrap up the Irish Invasion.
Shen-Anne-igans
We took Anne for a tour of campus. You know what that means. We had to visit all the usual spots.
Ricker Redux
You remember our old buddy, Nathan Ricker: first person with an Degree in Architecture in the US, designed Altgeld Hall and Harker Hall.
He also designed the Natural History Building which sits to the East of Harker Hall.
Built in the American High Victorian Gothic style, whatever that means, in 1892, it served as the home to a variety of science departments as well as the now dispersed Natural History Museum. The 3,000 piece cultural artifact collection moved to the Spurlock, another local gem we have not yet strip mined for a Jabbo post.
We also dragged Anne to the Ricker House. It's interesting to see what architects design for themselves. Frank Lloyd Wright chose the Shingle Style rather than the Prairie Style for which he was famous. We've seen Ricker work in Richardsonian Romanesque (Altgeld), Second Empire (Harker), and (most recently) Gothic (not to mention two more buildings we haven't seen yet). So how did he design his own home? In 1892, he designed and then moved into a quaint little American Gothic house on Green Street in Urbana.
And, yes of course, both of these buildings are on the National Historic Register.
What is American Gothic?
Ok, that's a tough one. Since its popularity peaked around the same time as Victorian, it's difficult to tell the two apart. In fact, they sort of ooze together at times. Look for a steep, cross-gable roof (as opposed to the a hipped roof with cross gables that you usually see in Victorian). These houses are mostly symmetrical with ornate scroll work on the eaves and porches. Roughly 1840s to 1880s.
Disappointment: It's What's for Dinner
We've still been trying some new things. Some better than others. Here are two that didn't cut the mustard.
Millet Chard Wraps from the Forks over Knives Cookbook. I executed this dish flawlessly. If you like rainbow chard or millet, this is probably the dish for you. We liked neither.
I found the innocuously named Root Vegetable Bake online. It included almost every root vegetable you could imagine: red potatoes, yams, carrots, parsnips, jicama, and turnips. After baking for an hour and a half, most of the ingredients were still a little crunchy and we mostly didn't like it at all. If I ever do this one again, I'll probably boil the roots first. That is, if I can talk myself into the half hour of peeling and chopping required.
Sticks to Your Ribs
We did find a couple recipes we loved.
Also from the Forks over Knives Cookbook: Cuban Style Black Beans with Brown Rice. We slapped these on some corn tortillas and added some feta. This is now a popular dish in the McWebb household.
And just as glorious was the Pad Thai with Shrimp we tried. I found this recipe on the Closet Cooking blog. It tasted super duper, but next time we'll probably try the version in the Betty Crocker Cookbook as is popular among certain Holmeses we know. It's slightly tastier and a lot easier to fix.
But this one was still top notch.
Parting Shot
In unrelated news: ANGRY CAT!
No comments:
Post a Comment