Signing Off
It’s hard to believe I’ve had this blog since April 1st, 2012! So many years, and so many friends made along the way! It’s time to move on though, to new and different things. I have a new business that I’ve started and I’m excited …
Tag: personal
Photo of the Day
There’s an effort by a group in our neighborhood to help increase the number of bluebirds in our area here in Northern Illinois. We’ve spotted them on rare occasions over the years, so 2 years ago we put up a house to attract them, which …
Hello March
Hallelujah, it’s finally March. It’s still snowing here in Northern Illinois but March is here and with it the knowledge that spring is just around the corner. I admit that I tend to hibernate a bit in the cold winter months but now, as the days grow a little longer and the sun shines a little brighter, I can feel my energy level rising.
Also rising are all of my seedlings that I planted in early February. This was the earliest I could start them this year, due to an incredible birthday trip to the French Quarter that my husband surprised me with for my birthday.
Though I used to try and start a number of plants indoors, now I just start tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. New this year, I also started some Imperial Star artichokes, which I’m really hoping gives us some of my favorite veggies this summer. We didn’t have much luck with these the last time we tried, but this time we got an early start. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.
Here’s one of my beautiful tomato plants:
That’s just a little piece of heaven in my book. A lot of my seeds this year are from Sustainable Seed Company and they germinated quite nicely. I don’t usually start my seeds in Jiffy pots but my mom gave me a bunch of them and I think we all know how I hate for things to go to waste. So this year, I’m back to Jiffy pots and everything is looking good.
Here’s a shot of one of my artichoke plants:
I also started some purple Violetta artichokes, which I ordered from Reimer Seeds, but the first batch failed to sprout so I just planted my second round. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for those.
If you’ve not seen any of my previous posts on seed starting, I plant mine in pots with a base of potting soil and then a 2-inch topping of seed starter. This way, the seed starter is light enough to help the seeds sprout well but the base gives the roots something to really latch onto as they grow.
Also, I have a smallish, portable 3-shelf greenhouse with a cover that I use for starting my seeds. This helps hold in the heat and moisture until everything has sprouted. Lastly, I’m very lucky to have tons of windows to provide lots of sunshine and warmth for my seedlings.
It won’t be long now before we’re tilling up the garden and planting leeks – these will be another “first attempt”, so wish me luck. Man, I love leeks! Then come radishes, beets, peas, lettuce, greens, and onions – I ordered some cool black radishes this year that I’m very excited about. Finally, typically in mid-May, everything else will go in – tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, beans, fennel, carrots, etc.
I can’t wait! Are you growing veggies this year? What’s on your garden planner? I’d love to talk veggies, flowers, herbs and dirt…let me know what you’re looking forward to the most.
Please Excuse My Mess
If you’ve been a previous visitor to my site, then you can see I’ve made some big changes recently. With a desire to have more control over my content and design, I decided to make the move to a self-hosted site and, with that decision, …
Preparing for the Summer Garden
Well, the tomatoes and peppers for my summer garden are on their way. I started my seeds about 2 weeks ago and just thinned them down to 2 plants per pot. I like to start mine in 3 to 4-inch pots because, in my personal …
Abreo Restaurant Rockford, IL
Happy New Year 2014!
My husband & I celebrated New Year’s Eve at Abreo Restaurant, in downtown Rockford and it was amazing, just as we knew it would be.
We’re big fans of Abreo, who catered our wedding, and this is our first time there since their remodel. We don’t make it down there as often as we’d like, but we always enjoy our experience there, when we do.
Our dinner reservation was for 8:30, but we arrived at 7:30 to enjoy a cocktail at the bar. The new bar area is beautiful, though the fireplace is gone, which I kind of missed. As my husband noted, it was most likely taking up prime real estate, as far as seating goes, and I have to agree on that point.
We waited only about 40 minutes before they seated us (we were an hour early, remember) and I can’t say I love their new dining area. It may have been a set up strictly for New Year’s Eve, but it’s not nearly as intimate and unique as it used to be.
We were well prepared for the menu offerings for the evening, since I’m a smart cookie and subscribe to their e-newsletter. They offered 2 menus: a three-course for $50 and a five-course for $75. Of course, we opted for the five-course and It didn’t take us long to decide what each of us would be ordering. We agreed to each order something different than the other, so that we could taste a wider variety of things.
Here are the selections that we chose:
First Course:
- Me: Vodka-cured hamachi, toasted crepes, cream fraiche, chive oil, osetra caviar and pickled fennel
- Husband: Foie gras torchon, micro herbs, fig, sourdough toast and pickled apple
Second Course:
- Me: Yellow fin tuna sticky roll, with jicama, mint, cilantro, sesame lemon vinaigrette, wasabi caviar and cucumber
- Husband: Pork belly with a slow-poached egg, poblano potato mash, frisee, sweet & sour croutons and pickled onion
Third Course:
- Me: Lobster cocktail, with horseradish brulee, peas, tomato gelee, preserved lemon and micro greens
- Husband: Roasted beets with frisee and arugula, dijon, aged gouda, red wine vinegar and sunchoke chips
Fourth Course:
- Me: Coffee-cured beef tenderloin with balsamic jus, roasted mushroom, asparagus and hazzard farm polenta
- Husband: Elk prime rib with parsnip mash, dried cherries, port wine, roasted brussels sprouts and bacon
Fifth Course:
- Me: Chocolates – chili, miso, dried cherry, salted caramel and orange lavender
- Husband: Chambord crepes with raspberry and vanilla
Overall, the shining star was the pork belly dish – my husband & I could have devoured about 6 of them alone and been blissfully happy.
His elk and my tenderloin were the next favorites and temped beautifully. Both were very flavorful and I absolutely loved the coffee flavoring on my tenderloin. We weren’t served steak knives with these, which struck me as odd, especially when I saw other diners with them, but we happily didn’t need them – that’s how tender these cuts of meat were. We each had a glass of Cabernet with our dinner and it was a perfect accompaniment to both of these meats.
The hamachi and caviar where delicious, and I loved the tuna rolls, with its fresh herbs and lemon. The foie gras was good, though it didn’t bowl us over, but we loved the roasted beet dish.
My chocolate dish was pure chocolate overload and could have been split between the two of us. 5 pieces of chocolate was a lot to digest at that point, but my favorites were the chili and the miso, with the caramel a close third.
Sadly, continuing snowfall made for inclement weather and cut our evening a bit shorter than planned. After enjoying some coffee, we headed back out into the snow, and slowly made our way home.
I hope that if you live in the area and haven’t had a chance to experience Abreo, that you’ll get there in 2014. Service is always friendly and helpful (thank you Melissa and Debbie) and the food is always fabulous. Paul, the owner, splits his time between Abreo and Social, another fantastic downtown Rockford restaurant; both are worth the trip.
Happy New Year to all my friends and family. Thank you to everyone who helped make my blog a success in 2013 and I hope we’re all blessed in the year to come.