Swedish meatballs

It's getting colder here, with lows in the 40s and 50s...We may have to turn on the heat tonight.  It's a bit sad for me to think that 40s and 50s is cold, but I actually am cold in the morning on the way to the gym.  I think I need to move out of this climate before the change in my cold tolerance becomes permanent.

Cold weather usually (to me) means snow and comfort food, but here in SC it just means comfort food and fewer bugs.  All h*ll breaks loose when it does actually snow.  In the mood for something that went well with mashed potatoes - the ultimate comfort food in my book - I found this recipe for Swedish meatballs.  It seemed fairly straightforward without a lot of odd ingredients.  In fact, I had everything on hand except the ground beef (I didn't add the ground pork since I don't really like it) and the potatoes.  It was simple but took a bit of time - mince and cook bacon and onions, mix all the meatball ingredients by hand, use a 1 tablespoon cookie scooper to measure out the balls, use hands to roll smooth, fry, make sauce, simmer all together.  I think if you follow the instructions exactly it makes about 70-80 little meatballs.  I would make these again and freeze 1/2 the meatballs before (or maybe after) browning.  Best yet, the recipe was great!  It was another keeper and an "if I had a restaurant I'd serve this" sort of meal.

The finished meatballs were small, which was a perfect size.  And they were very tender - handle the raw meat carefully and just mix enough to avoid big lumps of ingredients.  Don't mix it to a paste.  Serve with mashed potatoes or noodles or even toothpicks as an appetizer.  I was generous with the sour cream (read: I used way more than 2 tablespoons!).

Mmmmm...meatballs cooking.

And this is neither here nor there, but I also made my favorite (in the whole wide world) recipe for cranberry sauce.  The recipe came from my friend Katie (grad school friend) who got it from her friend who got it from her grandmother.  So, it's grandma-approved.  I'll never go back to canned again.  This is so easy and the orange together with the cranberry cannot be adequately described by mere words.  So make it yourself (or hie on down here for Thanksgiving) and see.

Katie's Friend's Grandma's Cranberry Sauce (recipe is easily doubled or even quadrupled, in fact, the original is 4x this one)

1 - 12 oz. bag fresh cranberries
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
grated rind from 1 orange
1/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice (grate rind before squeezing)
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

Pick over and wash cranberries and place in a saucepan with all of the other ingredients.  Bring to a boil, stir, cover and boil until the cranberries burst*.  Remove from heat, transfer to a heat-proof container and allow to cool.

*I like mine 'well-burst', but if you like more intact berries, cook less.  I usually cook for 6-7 minutes, the original recipe says 4-5 minutes.

playing with my new camera toys

I took my new tripod downtown last night to try some longer-exposure photos.  We didn't have a plan; it was a nice night for a walk so we wandered the streets looking for fountains or other pretty things.  I don't know what I'm doing when it comes to taking pictures in the dark, and I was still getting the hang of the tripod attachments and adjustments, but it was fun.  The picture above is one of the better ones, and the last one of the night (maybe I did learn something).  The good, the bad, and the ugly are all presented.

I didn't see the leaf in the foreground (the blurry spot in the lower right) when I was shooting this fountain through a wrought iron fence.  Definitely a 'whoops'.

This one is ok, a bit overexposed on the top tier below the spire.

This one is crooked.  I felt like a spy in a James Bond movie taking it though...you know, like I was doing some secret reconnaissance.  Or not-so-secret since I was in plain sight in the street, but whatever.

This one is definitely overexposed.  Oh well, live and learn.

Coastal Carolina Fair

The Coastal Carolina Fair is a lot like the SC State Fair - only closer to home, a bit smaller, and with far better food options.  At the Coastal Carolina Fair they even had a "Hot Wisconsin Cheese" stand- yee haw!

We stuck around for about four hours, wandering the midway and buildings and watching the kids barrel racing.  Some kids were really good and clearly knew what they were doing.  Some were really, really bad.  Steve said the highlight of the fair for him was when one of the barrel racers who was really struggling to control her horse let out a "Holy Crap!" as she and her horse ran out of control past the stands.  We were pretty shocked that there was no mandatory helmet use...but then again we're pretty shocked by all the stupid things we see in this state...

Steve and Beth enjoying some hot mini-donuts.

 This was my favorite piece of kid's art.  I love the colors and for some reason it just makes me laugh (in a good way).

There were brand-new baby goats!  I think they were less than 2 days old.  I wanted to keep one. Steve said no, I could not keep it in our bedroom.  :(

And last but not least, we watched the Coastal Carolina Miss Pre-teen pagent.  The girl third from the left in the long pink gown won.  We were rooting for the girl next to her in the red, since she seemed to have the best personality.  It was surprisingly fun to watch.

The SC State Fair

 I love the fair.  There is always a strange mix of people and smells, mostly bad food with some good food mixed in.  There's 4H projects, dusty barns, 'the world's biggest/fastest/tallest/heaviest' something or other, strange people, stranger people, zealots, carnies, racing pigs, and Rastafarian bananas.  The South Carolina Fair didn't really disappoint on any of these, although it was disappointingly small.  It was about the size of the Dane County Fair, which means it was about 1/6th the size of the MN State Fair.  It was about 1/2 midway and while we didn't go on any rides, it made for some pretty awesome people watching.

 

There were a couple of exhibit buildings that we wandered through.  The "Agriculture and Fine Art" (yeah, odd mix to me too) was kind of fun.  My favorite was the photography submissions, and we sort of skimmed over the other art - paintings, drawings and other.  I never understand the agricultural section - what makes one apple 'blue ribbon' worthy over all of the other apples there?  They look the same to me.  The same question goes for the gourds, buckets of peanuts, pear, tomatoes, corn, beans, etc.  Inside the building they had a giant, 8 ft tall bale of cotton.  I wonder how many t-shirts you could make from that much cotton.  And I wonder how many acres of planted cotton it would take to make that bale.  We've seen cotton in the fields around here and it seems like there's not a lot on each plant. 

Racing pigs!  I had to take a picture of this between races, because it was 10 deep with people watching the piglets race.  It reminds me of a time when Brian and I were kids in Colorado.  We went to a rodeo and at a break in the rodeo the boys could chase a greased pig and girls could chase chickens.  If you caught something it was yours to keep!  I caught a sorry-looking chicken missing half it's feathers.  When I proudly showed up in the stands with it Dad asked what I was going to do with it now.  Um, huh.  I hadn't thought that one through.  We gave it to the people sitting behind us - they lived on a farm and I suppose they ate it.

Some of the highlights from the Midway.  I LOVE the squid hat.  And I also love the zoom lens on my camera  so I can take pictures like this without people knowing!  The "drop zone" ride, in mid-drop.  We went on something similar Great America in Illinois, although I don't know that I'd trust one at a fair.

There were some crazy rides...I didn't think traveling fairs like this had such wild rides (there was even a huge roller coaster).  And, of course I had to show proof of the Rastafarian banana...

My favorite part of any fair is the animal barns, of course.  We wandered through the cows, chickens, and horses.  After we'd been walking for a couple of hours we stopped at the arena and watched the horse events.  This little girl was so darn cute!  Her pony was about half the size of the other horses in her event and we were rooting for her.

Lastly, the goat showing.  This was the judge...love the tie.

Butternut squash with pasta

Tonight is another new recipe night - and it features a food Steve doesn't really like - the dreaded squash.  I, on the other hand, really love squash (and sweet potatoes and pumpkin and all things orange and starchy, I suppose). You roast the squash with onion, garlic, crushed red pepper flakes, and lemon juice, then toss with cooked penne and finish with a bit of parmesan cheese and parsley.  It's best served at room temperatures, says the recipe, but I'm not sure what I think of that idea so I may have to eat it warm.

I hope it turns out well because I don't want to be eating it (by myself) for the next week.  The recipe is from the Whole Foods Cookbook, and we'll had pretty good luck with the recipes in the book in the past...their Thai-style peanut sauce is fantastic.  I'll check back in later to tell you how it all turns out, right now it smells great.

Update:  It was really, really good!  Even Steve liked it and said I should make it again. 

Baked potato soup

Oh man, I wish y'all could smell our house right now.  I'm making 'loaded baked potato soup' in the crockpot.  It's an endeavor that started by cooking bacon, then sauteing onions in a bit of the bacon grease.  It smells pretty awesome in here.  I'll try to take a picture of the final product and post it later...

It's been a busy week but it was all work and little fun.  The independent review of my current project was Tuesday-Thursday, which kept me busy from early in the morning until late at night.  Even though this is the easiest of my workshops since I don't actually run anything, it's still exhausting.  Steve was on his own with leftovers all week.  The review went incredibly well, which is great.  One fun note from the week - a couple of scientists from Chile have been observing my project because they want to set up their own stock assessment process back in Chile.  One of the scientists was at the review this week and a coworker and I took him out sightseeing around Charleston on Monday.  He's really fun and I've gotten to know him quite well since he's been at my last three workshops.  He told me he'd try to talk his boss into flying me to Chile to give a presentation on our stock assessment process when they finally come to the point of laying out their plan.  That would be so fun!  I'd have to bring Steve down too so we could do some sightseeing of our own.

Soup update:  Yum!  It's a definite 'make again' recipe.

Charleston Art Walk

Four Fridays a year the Charleston art galleries stay open late for an 'art walk'.  Each place offers some food and beverages and you can stroll from gallery to gallery and admire the art for sale.  Most of the galleries are in one area of downtown, so they're easy to visit.  I'm sure the intent is to draw people in so they will buy something, but it's nice to go and look and sometimes meet the artists. And it's also just fun. 

Last night it was busy - sometimes shoulder to shoulder in the galleries - which I don't like because it gets hot and you can't see the art.  But there were some very beautiful sculptures and photographs that I would have bought if I had $10,000-30,000 to spare.  I guess I have expensive taste!  Not all of the galleries are so expensive.  It's also really fantastic people watching...some people dress up and make a night of it (we didn't).  I didn't take any pictures of the galleries but we walked around quite a bit and I did get a picture of one of the big churches (above) and this night shot of some building that I can't remember what it is (the library? or maybe it was the historical society?).  Hmmm...I'll have to go back and check...

Shem Creek kayaking

 

Steve, Beth and I took the kayaks out for a couple of hours today.  We kayaked upriver with the tide, then turned around when the creek was so narrow that we could almost not paddle anymore.  Coming back downriver it was almost slack tide, so it wasn't hard paddling but not as easy as going with the current.  By the time we were done we were all a little sore!  It was just nice to get out on the water again - I don't think we've had the boats out since April.  Beth had to rent a kayak and the rental company also runs the ferry out to Bull Island, which is a part of the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, just north of Charleston.  We've been talking about taking the ferry to the island since we moved here, and I think we're finally going to do it this fall.  Some people call the refuge the "Galapagos of the Eastern Seaboard".  Even if it's not that interesting, it should be a fun trip (and far cheaper than Equador).

I was hoping we'd see dolphins in the creek, but we didn't see them until the very end of the paddle.  That's ok though, we did see jumping fish (startled Steve when a big one jumped right in front of his kayak), and lots of birds.  And hey, it was a gorgeous day to be outside, so I can't complain.

I'on Swamp hike

This afternoon we visited the I'on Swamp and Sewee Visitor Center,  Both of these sites are in the Francis Marion National Forest, about 30 minutes north of Charleston.  We 'hiked' just shy of four miles between the two places.  The Visitor Center was far more interesting - they have three red wolves on site and a nice trail out to see them.  On the trail we also saw a glass lizard, some green anoles, and a velvet ant.  The glass lizard looks a lot like a snake because they don't have legs, but when you look closely the head just looks wrong for a snake.  Beth was with us on the hike and she really doesn't like snakes.  She thought we were just telling her it was a legless lizard so she wouldn't be afraid of it!  Unfortunately, I didn't get a good picture of the lizard, but you can find one online if you really want to see one.

The velvet ant was also really neat, and something I've been trying to get a picture of for a while now (they're really fast!).  They are not ants at all, but wingless wasps (I guess we were on a 'looks like something it's not' theme today).  They're big - about 3/4 to 1 inch long and have another nickname - 'cow killers' - because their bite (or sting, I suppose) is so painful.  They are kind of pretty though, and I was able to get a quick picture before it was off the trail and into the woods.

And of course we saw some green anoles.  They're everywhere here, which I like because they're fun to watch.  This one was pretty small, but not the smallest we've ever seen.  We had one on our mailbox that was shorter than my pinky finger, including it's tail!

Everybody's eating breakfast

This morning we took Seca downtown for a walk in the (fabulous) cool weather.  The tide was really running hard when we arrived at the Battery and you could see where the water from the harbor was pushing into the outflow from the Ashley river.  In fact you could see a distinct line in the water where they came together.  Right at this interface there were hundreds of fish feeding in the current, and pelicans feeding on the fish with spectacular dives from the air, and then dolphins diving into the schools of fish as well.  Since we'd just come from the bagel shop where we'd gotten breakfast, Steve said "Hey look, everbody's eating breakfast!".  It was really cool to watch it all happen.

We walked along the water to Waterfront Park, where a cruise ship was loading up.  I don't know where they go from here, I'll have to look it up.  It was such a nice morning, finally, for a walk!