Restaurant Widow

Things Lisa is Doing this Week

I have a busy week this week - I am going to be some parttime work for my parttime writing job, at a desk, in a cublicle (it's only for a little while; I think I'll be okay).

Writing might be a little sporadic as I am not used to having to be awake, dressed, and perky enough to answer a phone at 9am, and will probably come directly home and promptly fall asleep for 4 hours.

Here are a few things I've been doing recently, upon which I will expound later:

picked cherries
made apple pectin
made cherry jelly
made black & red raspberry jelly
made some killer super-cultured butter
made scones

On Wednesday from 5p - 7p, I will be blogging live (how exciting!) from Morton's downtown to be among the first in Columbus to try out their burger.  So you can come join me for happy hour if you'd like!

More new WCRS shorts, which can be podcasted, and I will add them soon.

Planning 2 dinners in August because my July plans have been derailed (more on that later).

Emptying litter boxes and trying to give kitties away, but wishing I could keep them all (by far our best batch ever, but last, I promise)

Other things I'm sure I am forgetting.

CSA & Market Report for June 28th

I'll tell you something - between ComFest, Pride, and the Origins Gaming convention going on, there is some very interesting people-watching in the Short North this weekend.  If I didn't have to work, I think I'd prop myself up on some patio on High St. with a really big latte and take pictures of people all day long.  Alas, I do have to work.

I overslept this morning and missed out on all the currants.  That's what I get for not getting out of bed at 7am when I first woke up. 

I have so much food in my fridge right now I was determined not to buy anything other than dairy products.  It was my turn to pick up the Elizabeth Telling CSA this week!  (Pictured at the top of post)  It contained cabbage, an onion (yay for onions finally being here!), dill, mint, lettuce, and eggs! 

The I zoomed off to Clintonville to pick up my share from Wayward Seed Farm - I had 2 pounds of peas - I've been eating a lot of peas this year.  Last week I used my homemade ricotta to make a sort of peas paneer with curry sauce; it was pretty tasty!  At any rate, there were also some little red scallions, some cute red turnips, some napa cabbage which the cats found fascinating, and lettuce (by the way, for anyone who is interested in our 1 year old kitty Fergus, she is in the foreground, the black kitty with the giant tail):

the fruit CSA contained apricots!  We never get local apricots - there were 2 glorious boxes and I very sacrificially let Husband take one with him to work, along with a box of cherries, most of which I consumed on the drive home, and a pint of raspberries:

I also stopped by Arbor Hill Organics for some yummy red thumb potatoes; those will go into another pea-related curry, methinks.  I went to the lunch buffet at Bayleaf Indian Cuisine this week and now I've been craving curry.  And then I stopped by Snowville Creamery for some Whole milk which was only $2!!!  I was very happy to see a lot of people excited to see them there and to hear they might soon be available at the Clintonville Giant Eagle.  If it does become available there, please go and buy it so that they will keep it in stock. 

I also swung through Blue Jackeet Creamery for some cheese curds (we love those - cooked or right from the container, they are delicious) and I also bought their new product, Quark!  Quark is a soft cheese with a texture similar to ricotta; it's actually quite similar to really good ricotta.  I bought the lemon flavor which is very pleasant; they were sampling it on graham crackers and when I arrived home I immediately spread it on some Trader Joe's cinnamon grahams.  Very tasty, indeed.

And what did you get?

psst.

shhh.  down here.

here.

don't tell anyone i told you . . .

Rainbow Over the Short North

Completely unrelated to food, but whilst trapped in the rain the other day, I snapped this picture of a low-slung rainbow over Union bar.  Something about this being Pride week seemed to make it fitting!  Plus I love the lighting and the way the building is reflected on the street.  Have a fun and safe weekend those of you attending Pride or Comfest!  Don't forget your umbrellas!  I can't remember the last rainy Comfest weekend.

Top Chef Tour Coming to the North Market!!

July 12th.  No other information right now, except to say that weekend is the Food & Ohio Wine Festival and  I will be a "celebrity" (ahahaha, roflmao) wine pour-er on Friday the 11th.  I'm the girl with the brown hair which has wound itself into one giant ringlet, with one poor little hair pin clinging on for dear life (assuming it's hot that day, anyway).  Oh!  and I have glasses.  And am generally nerdy looking.  See you there!

Things to do in Columbus::June 25 Edition

It's really hard to believe the longest day of the year has come and gone.  What is it about the solstices that I could sleep for 5 days straight?  Hopefully I'll shake it off in time to enjoy at least a little bit of what's going on this weekend.  I have to get down to ComFest at least for my giant turkey leg!

There are a ton of thigs to do this weekend, from free to cheap and on up.  If you can't find anything to do this weekend, you aren't looking very hard.

As always, this is only a smattering of what's going on this week.  If you have anything to add, please leave it in the comments!

• First up, Monday is a Small Batch Bourbon tasting at Morton's!  I will be there, because I heart bourbon and the sweet rolls they serve there are also very, very tasty.  And my favorite bourbon will be there (Basil Hayden's, if you're too lazy to link, or if you work for the Small Batch folks and would like to send me a few bottles).
• Next up, a repost from last week, but I think it's worth it - relatively new theatre troupe Carrickmacross Productions will perform  "Stones in His Pocket," a 2-man show set in Ireland.  Our friend Kevin McClatchy stars!  They got a great review in the Dispatch, and Husband and I plan to go on Sunday!
• This week, the CAPA Summer Movie Series presents His Girl Friday (today and tomorrow), Friday it's a double feature: Duck Soup and It's a Gift, and on Sunday, Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious.
• This weekend is ComFest at Goodale Park.  If you're new to the city, you should definitely get on the bus and head down to the Short North.  It's always a fun weekend, except when it's mindnumbingly hot and crowded.  There are lots of great bands playing and tons of fun things to eat and buy. 
• This weekend is Columbus Pride Weekend.  I love the parade; it's one of my favorite events of the year.  Certainly an eyefull.  Look for Crumpet bearing the standard for the Columbus Pride Marching Band - he'll be the one in the blue cowboy boots!
• Gamers unite!  This week is the Origins Game Fair at the convention Center.
• This weekend is the Powell Festival up in Powell.  Lots of fun stuff to buy!  and eat, I'm sure. 
• This Sunday is the German Village Haus und Garten tour.  There will be gardening demonstration and watercolor artists painting throughout the day.  There will also be a Marketplatz in Schiller Park.
• Speaking of Schiller Park, this week's Actors' Theatre Company presents Moliere's Tartuffe; unfortuantely, their website is down at the moment, but I am pretty sure the performances are Thursdays through Sunday at 7.

In Season with Lisa::Granitas

Today's In Season with Lisa short will teach you how to make granitas out of summer fruits!  You can read the recipe here, from last summer.

Having a Case of the Mondays?

I've updated the tiny blog just in case you need something to make you say "awwwwwwwww."  still have a few available, so drop me a line if you are interested!

CSA & Market Report for June 21st

What a beautiful start to the day!  I said I was going to keep things light this week and I kept my promise.  I popped into the North Market just to see how the grilling fest was going and see if I could find any currants, but it's been a cool week and they just didn't ripen.  But I did buy some sugar snap peas and dill - I have lots of buttermilk leftover from my butter-making adventures, so I think I'm going to make some buttermilk dill sauce for some salmon or something this week.

I stopped by Rhoad's farms, where Ms. Rhoads showed me picture of their straberry season-ending hail storm which happened on Monday.  Alas, they did have red raspberries and sugarsnap peas this week.  I think I am going to go out to their farm for a tour sometime soon.  I will, of course, write all about it.

It wasn't my week to pick up the CSA, so I'll have to wait until I hear from my friend to see what was in this week's box, but it looked like there might have been beef this week.  Now that I have my freezer, I'll be able to stock up on local beef from happy cows.

And then I was off to Clintonville, where my friend Jen was passing out samples of Snowville Creamer milk!  I drank some 2%, marveled at how sweet it was and how it tasted nothing like grocery store milk, and was pleased to see they had run out of milk to sell (you can, however, buy it at the Clintonville Co Op, the Greener Grocer in the North Market, and at the Pearl Alley Market.  They will only be at the Clintonville Community Market when there is room.  I ran into an old friend from high school, who grew up to be a preacher with tatoos and a Vespa, and I saw one of the guests from my dinner, who has begun making her own butter (Yay MB!)

And then I stopped by the Scooter place in Clintonville (next to Yao Lee) and looked at some scooters because, listen up:  the Widow household is getting scooters.  That's right.  We are in the process of scoping some out and hope to buy some before gas goes to $5.  That being said, hooray for a 3 mile commute!!  We've driven a grand total of 150 miles this week, and that's only because I drove out to Sawmill Rd and Husband drove to Worthington.  Hey, if you own a store which sells scooters and you'd like to sponser me with one, and I promise to take a picture of it and put it on my website with a link to your website and tell everyone where I got it, send me an email and we'll talk.  This didn't work for my camera purchase, but who knows.

In Which I Apologize for Being Hopelessly Behind

Dear Readers,

You know I love you, right?  In case I haven't told you lately, let it be known.

I am almost hopelessly behind on my emails.  This is one of the results of now having a phone where I can check my email; I read them all day long but only answer them if they can be answered in the truncated, text message-sounding manner.  I don't like to do that to you, only to people I'm working with or married to.  (haha!  Ended a sentence with a preposition!)

Please forgive me.  I'll get to you.  Maybe.

I'm also behind in my tiny blog updates, which is sad because I have lots of cute pictures and the tinies are about to start going to their new homes!

Speaking of which, is anyone interested in taking a tiny along with a one-year-old kitty or just a one year old kitty?  I had a cat returned from last year's batch because her new mom was moving and couldn't take her.  This kitty's name is Fergus and she is awesome.  Seriously, seriously awesome.  I love her.  She fetches and has this huge tail which looks like an ostrich-feather boa.  Unfortunately, she seems a little depressed because she loves attention but isn't assertive enough to get it when other cats are around, add in a bully like Grover Jay, it this just isn't her best situation.  She is very friendly, loves all sorts of people and other cats in small doses.  She also likes small dogs.  She is very picky about her cat litter, and she only likes the cheap rocky kind.  Please let me know if you are interested.  She is on the small side, is all black with long hair, doesn't shed much (I'm not lying); long hairs don't incur more allergic reactions than short hairs.  She has been spayed and has claws, but she is scratching post & scratching pad trained, and has never scratched furniture.  She is very fond of hanging out in the bathroom, especially when you are taking a shower.  She loves to sit between the shower curtain and liner.  She also loves playing with running water.  Her favorite toys are big hair elastics which she will dig out from the makeup drawer; if you throw them, she will fetch them and bring them back to you.  She is really great at catching flies. 

Please send me an email if you are interested in her.  I promise you will not be disappointed.