This past Monday morning I headed to Minneapolis for a few days. First off, I made a long awaited visit to The Textile Center which is a delightful modern museum type of establishment showcasing all manner of textiles and lovely handmade items are available for purchase in their gallery shop. It is also where the Weavers Guild of Minnesota is housed so, needless to say, I spent time there learning about weaving education opportunities, chatted with several weavers and purchased some weaving supplies and books. Then I made my way to my Cousin Mary’s house where I was staying and we headed to her sister’s house for a lovely summer bbq. I always enjoy catching up with my Krakow cousins! Ecstatic about cooler temperatures, Cousin Mary and I headed to the Minnesota State Fair early the next morning and visited the usual destinations including the Fine Art Center, Creative Activities Annex, Agriculture/Horticulture Building, Miracle of Birth Center along with the West End Market, Merchandise Mart, Grandstand and Coliseum for shopping. In addition to the Food Building we stopped at numerous food stands throughout the day to sample some of the oldies but goodies along with some new offerings. The blueberry key lime pie was tasty as was a beef brisket taco but we missed the duck drummies which sounded good to me. My cousin loves the raspberry malts in the Dairy Building and I think we showed great restraint staying away from Aunt Martha’s Chocolate Chip Cookies this year. I think I have become a creature of habit because my favorites remain cheese curds and corndogs. I still need to try a Pronto Pup which is like a corndog only dipped in pancake batter instead of cornmeal batter. Well, there is always next year!
This week we had an overabundance of peppers so my canning experiment was Hot Pepper Jelly which is a sweet, tangy delight that pairs nicely with creamed cheese and served on crackers. We also made Stuffed Green Peppers again and this time the stuffing included a tasty mix of hot Italian sausage, eggplant, onions and a grain called Faro all brought together with our homemade tomato sauce and a little parmesan cheese on top. If you like peppers, I encourage you to try them. I came home from Minneapolis with several boxes of very ripe tomatoes so we canned nine quarts of Italian tomato sauce this week. I planted numerous herbs in pots this year and we have lots of lovely mint that I steeped in simple syrup and froze in ice cube trays to use in ice tea or cocktails.
Over the weekend we spent quality time with some of our great neighbors here at Eagle View. Pat’s Friday Night Happy Hour was delightful and turned into a sit down buffet at which numerous hot and cold appetizers were served. We brought pulled pork which went over well but her crock pot chicken legs were excellent. I was lucky enough to get a fishing invitation from my neighbor, Rick, over the weekend and fishing with him means quickly catching your limit. I have mastered putting minnows on the hook and am feeling quite comfortable cutting the ribs off and the Y bones out of the fillets. My rod management skills still need some help and I have yet to tackle getting the fish off the hook and learning to use the electric knife needed for the first step in cleaning the fish. The weekend ended with an invitation to his Weekend Fish Fry during which we enjoyed the perch caught by his weekend fishing guests. There were lots of tasty sides from the garden and we made Apple Crisp for dessert. Oh, and my friend, Shirley, was here for the weekend and at 9:00 pm Saturday night she announced she needed chocolate. I quickly rustled up some homemade brownies which went well with the leftover vanilla ice cream in the freezer. It’s sad to admit I had never made brownies before. Now that it is September and Paul and I have probably gained 10 pounds each over the summer, I think it may be time to move away from the food theme in my column; except there are so many fall harvest items to enjoy and potentially write about in the coming months. Stay tuned!