the week in review: art, flora, my "least meal" and staggeringly thoughtful birthday gifts

A pictorial review of the week. 

/ 1 / 

A Sunday trip to the Birchfield Penney art museum. James J. Vullo's "flying sculptures."

A recreation of Charles Burchfield's studio.

/ 2 / 

Birthday dinner at Tempo. Tasty tart mocktail to start.

Antipasto. The feta and salami were amazing, and even better paired with the roasted red pepper spread.

Best carpaccio in town: herb and sea salt marinated rare beef sirloin with arugula, shaved parmigiano reggiano, garlic dressing and capers.

This would - hands down - be my "last meal." It's been my favorite special occasion meal in the city for the past five years or so: proscuitto wrapped filet crusted in warm gorgonzola, over the best gnocchi I have ever had (browned and somewhat crispy on the outside, pillowy and warm inside) with garlic braised escarole. Looks fussier than it tastes, but the combination of flavors is seriously stunning considering that they are not particularly exotic. Just perfectly prepared.
Never ever fails me.

Sorbet trio for dessert - highlight was the one on the right: a lemon buttermilk sorbet. I wasted no time in looking up recipes to make at home. Found one here - a bowl of it is sitting in the fridge, waiting to be put through the ice cream maker this weekend. 

/ 3 / 

And speaking of sweets, here's just one of the small cooler full of whoopie pies my Grandmother sent me for my birthday. *Verklempt!*

/ 4 / 

The medley of shade loving plants that my mom lovingly packaged up from her garden in Maine and sent to me for my birthday for my shade garden project. Verklempt again!
There's Solomon's seal, peony, lady's mantel, lily of the valley, white and red bleeding heart, columbine, Bethlehem sage, ferns and hosta. 

I don't even have words. To say my mom is amazing is such an understatement. 

/ 5 / 

Saying goodbye to the ridiculously long-lasting dubium bought weeks ago. I kept trimming and downsizing, trimming and downsizing until almost every last bud had popped. Finally, I came home to this. It's as if they collectively said, "Enough already, lady - our time has come. Just let us die!" Either that, or the last bloom standing decided she needed more space and shoved all the others out. 

/ 6 /

Grocery store flower pick of the week: Campanula. I plan to play around with them this weekend.

/ 7 / 

Tired of wasting fruit, citrus and herbs on their way out (but still edible), here is my quick and easy solution - especially good for cleaning out the fridge before or after a trip to the grocery store. I am enjoying a big glass of apple-lime-mint flavored water as we speak, and it's fantastic. 

Highlight not captured on film: Baby's first real kick! Big enough for Evan to feel. The look on his face when he felt it was priceless, and I'll never forget it. 

Definitely not a highlight - Adam Yauch's passing today after a battle with cancer of the salivary gland, age 47. The world lost an extremely talented musician and (although I didn't know him personally, I'm willing to bet that everyone who did would say that he was) just a really, really good person. RIP, and xoxo.

Happy weekend, everyone. 

tour de farms

On Saturday Evan and I participated in the Massachusetts Avenue Project's 3rd annual Tour de Farms. If you aren't familiar with MAP, their mission is to "nurture the growth of a diverse and equitable community food system to promote local economic opportunities, access to affordable and nutritious food, and social-change education." You should check out their website right now, because the work they do is amazing. 

Tour de Farms is an annual community bicycle ride that celebrates the Western New York local food system, by exploring everything from urban community gardens, to farmers' markets to rural farms. Registration fees go toward supporting both MAP and Green Options Buffalo, an organization devoted to making bike riding a healthy, environmentally sustainable and community-friendly mode of transportation for more Buffalonians. In other words, making Buffalo more bike-friendly.

The first stop on the tour was MAP's Growing Green Urban Youth Farm, which has grown by leaps and bounds over the past few years. They have an aqua-ponics fish farm, a chicken coup, and several raised beds growing herbs, tomatoes, peppers, rainbow swiss chard, and lots and lots more. Its so impressive! 

If you've never been, they have farm tours every Saturday at 11am during the growing season. 

Growing Green Urban Farm 

389 Massachusetts Avenue 

Buffalo, New York 14213

Phone 716-882.5327 ext.2

Here are some highlights of the day through pictures. 

First Stop - MAP's Growing Green Urban Farm.

Second Stop - Trinity Place Community Garden. This place was stunning. Especially considering that in April, it was an eyesore of a vacant overgrown lot. Raised beds were constructed in May, and all this beauty ensued over the next few months. 

Can you believe it?

For more about the quirky house in the above shot, click here. For more about the Trinity Place neighborhood, click here. The members of the community garden put out a delicious homemade spread for us - so thoughtful!

Third stop - Wilson Street Urban Farm on the East Side of Buffalo, operated by Mark and Janice Stevens. The story of how these two farmers from rural Wyoming County decided to move to one of Buffalo's most impoverished and abandoned neighborhoods and set up an urban farm in an effort to help the neighborhood "reconnect to the environment and to each other" is pretty inspiring. 

Massive greenhouse full of tomato plants.

Bikers gather to listen to Mark Stevens talk about the farm. 

Click here for a slideshow of the farm from the Wilson Street Urban Farm blog. And click here and here for articles about Mark and Janice Steven's saga in getting the necessary city approvals for their farm.

Fourth Stop - The Clinton Bailey Farmers Market. I can't believe I had never been there before! I will definitely be adding it to my Saturday routine next summer.

These peppers were so red, and SO enormous!

If I weren't riding on for 20 miles or so, and already had a full bike basket, I would have brought some of these home with me. They were some of the prettiest most perfectly ripe tomatoes I've ever seen. 

We made a fifth stop at Bippert's Farm, but I only got off my bike long enough to stretch, and chow down a granola bar. By that point we were about 10 miles from our destination at Ole's Farm, and starving, so we just wanted to get there!

Grilled corn and potatoes, barbecued pulled pork, cucumber, tomato and green bean salad, coleslaw, cider, oatmeal cookies and Flying Bison's Rusty Chain beer on tap greeted us at the farm....

... as well as many many adorable children. I could take some style tips from this little girl - I mean look at those bangs! That jacket! Those tights! Not to mention those moves!

Happy baby Owen and mama Bess. 

Couldn't resist a stroll through the flower beds.

Long lush row of Thai basil - smelled amazing as you can imagine!

I walked a bit down a dirt road flanked by masses of jewelweed. I couldn't resist showing my friend Liz how the seed pods "explode" if you touch or lightly squeeze them - so funny how I had completely forgotten about these pretty weeds from my childhood, but as soon as I saw them that was my first thought - "MUST! POP! SEED PODS!" 

Boing!

And then there was this alluring electric purple flower, that from a distance looked like a giant thistle. On closer inspection, we realized it was an artichoke! I had no idea that they developed flowers like that!

Red and green lettuce. 

It was such a fun day - if you live in Western New York and you own a bicycle, you should definitely put the Tour de Farms on your radar for next year!