MyQuest | my thoughts on life's journey

The Home of the Reuben Sandwich

The Reuben sandwich was not invented in New York, but at the Blackstone Hotel in Omaha, across the street from our church. The World Herald went on a search for the best Reuben in town, and settled on that at the Crescent Moon, down the street from us, a place we 1st Central folk eat all the time (though I generally don't get their Reuben, I don't like it as well as those I've had in other cities/restaurants, sorry).

At 1st Central we make Reuben sandwiches for the annual meeting every year, not only because the sandwich was created across the street, but to honour our founding pastor, Reuben Gaylord (the sandwich was not named for him).

Housekeeping in Old Virginia

A year or so ago we picked up a cookbook and domestic guide from 1879 entitled Housekeeping in Old Virginia (Mrs. General Robert E. Lee is a contributor).  Yesterday, during some time wasting, I picked it up to browse a little bit and encountered this delightful paragraph in the first chapter which was on bread-making:

I would say to housewives, be not daunted by one failure, nor by twenty.  Resolve that you will have good bread, and never cease striving after this result till you have effected it.  If persons without brains can accomplish this, why cannot you?  I would recommend that the housekeeper acquire the practice as well as the theory of bread-making.  In this way, she will be able to give more exact directions to her cook and to more readily detect and rectify any blemish in the bread.  Besides, if circumstances should throw her out of a cook for a short time, she is then prepared for the emergency.  In this country fortunes are so rapidly made and lost, the vicissitudes of life are so sudden, that we know not what a day may bring forth.  It is not uncommon to see elegant and refined women brought suddenly face to face with emergencies which their practical knowledge of household economy and their brave hearts enable them to firmly meet and overcome.

3rd Day of Christmas

It has become my custom in the last half-decade or so to buy myself books after Christmas.  Based on end-of-the-year best-of lists and recommendations from friends, I buy a few books at Full Circle Books (I'm still collecting and filling up the cards that turned in give you a $30 value; I filled another one up this week, so will look forward to cashing it in, though it will be months from now).  This year I selected The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, and The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides.  This annual tradition is one of my favourite things to do during Christmastide and was one of the highlights of the third day of Christmas this year.  And we ran into Kristen McCarty at Full Circle.

Driving over to Full Circle, we went through the medical campus to see the new OMRF building and then down to see the new I-40 pedestrian bridge and back through downtown.  After Full Circle we made a much needed visit to Big Truck Tacos and lunch with Rob Howard and Tarae McDonald.  If you have still not eaten at Big Truck despite all my many writings about it, then you are missing out.  And this even goes for those of you who don't live in or around OKC.

In the afternoon I met up with Mekado Murphy (in visiting from New York City) and Doug Bradley at Sara Sara Cupcakes.  I had an unused gift card to use there.  When I handed it to the checker she said, "This is old."  My favourite thing about Sara Sara is the milk bar.  You get a frosted mug and have all-you-can-drink white, chocolate, and strawberry milk.  Oh, I had a coconut cream cupcake.

Mekado brought us up-to-date on films and told about his interview with Steven Spielberg.  We discussed politics and religion and our views of the future.  Doug asked me what I was most concerned about in 2012, and I said that we would continue to settle for mediocrity.  I also informed them that despite always being an optimist, I am not optimistic anymore and think that life will get more difficult than it has been or that I've planned for it to be.  At the same time, I said that this is an exciting and adventurous time to be in parish ministry, pastoring through all the cultural challenges.

After dinner Michael and I walked around the Myriad Gardens at night enjoying all the new lights.

We spent the rest of the evening with his parents, and I finished the Julian Barnes novel I had purchased that morning!

An afternoon in the kitchen

I've spent the afternoon in the kitchen.  

This morning I shoveled snow.  As soon as I was done it started snowing again.  Then I ran some errands and did some Christmas shopping.  The last stop was the grocery store to stock up on some baking supplies for my afternoon's activities.

First up was an eggplant/red pepper dip from our Spanish tapas cookbook.  We've made it once before.  It involves roasting the veggies first before pan frying them and then completing all the ingredients in the food processor.  This is for a party tonight.

Then I baked cookies -- chocolate chip, peanut butter, and oatmeal raisin.  Some went on a platter for tonight's party.  Some went in sacks for the church's Cookie Walk (yum) on Sunday.  The rest went in our cookie jar.  Not counting one or two warm ones I ate (more yum).

While the last batch was baking I warmed up some leftovers for dinner and made a salad with a clementine vinagrette dressing.

I enjoyed myself, but now I'm tired from being on my feet all this time.  I could use a nap, but it is almost time to go!

Apple Pie

One of the perks of ministry is occasional gifts of food.  Today I got an apple pie!  And it ended up being probably the very best apple pie I've ever had.

After the Battlefield: Gettysburg, PA

When we completed our tour of the battlefield, we headed into downtown Gettysburg for dinner.  This looks like a fun place one could spend an afternoon shopping.

We parked and walked a bit.  We first tried the Dobbin House Tavern.  The building was built in 1776 and seems to be the old traditional place to eat in town.  It looked really cool, but the wait was rather long.

I pulled out my phone and opened up my Yelp app and looked up nearby restaurants.  J's at the Village had higher reviews, so I pushed for the walking directions and we walked the short distance to it.  Though it didn't have the ambience of the tavern, the food and service were very good.  We both ordered that night's special -- a bison and beef meatloaf.  Notice the nice presentation.

From dinner we drove the one and one half hours back into Washington to our motel.  As we got into the city the traffic picked up.  Despite being anxious, Rob drove with great skill at high speeds along the very tight George Washington Memorial Parkway.

The Apple House

Upon leaving Shenandoah National Park and Skyline Drive, we headed the short distance to Linden, Virgina.  Before I left on the trip, when I was checking weather at the Weather Channel, I saw a guide to the best fall foliage drives of the season and Skyline Drive was number one.  In their recommendations for the trip, was The Apple House in Linden and their apple cinnamon donuts.  I had e-mailed Rob that this would be part of our trip.

 

At The Apple House we ordered breakfast and bought half a dozen of the donuts.  While waiting for the rest of our food, we devoured the donuts.  They were very good.

I ordered a very straightforward American breakfast -- eggs, ham, potatoes, and toast.  Nothing fancy.  But I think this was the best traditional breakfast I've ever had.  No kidding.  It was really, really good.  I'm guessing that the grill or skillet they used was well-seasoned with years of cooking.  Part of what made it so good was the ham, which was quite delicious.

If you are anywhere near Linden, Virginia, then you should stop at The Apple House.

From Linden, we travelled on towards Gettysburg, stopping first in Harper's Ferry.

Blue Ridge

 

From Bedford, Virginia and the National D-Day Memorial, we had a nice view of the Blue Ridge Mountains, particularly the Peaks of Otter.  Leaving the memorial, our route departed the interstate and headed through the nice small town and along two-lane roads up into the mountains.

Hungry for a little snack, we stopped at a quaint roadside fruit stand and grocer.  There we grabbed a sack full of apples of different varieties, which we then snacked on throughout the remainder of the trip.  Most of these apples were quite delicious, tasting like apples should.  Rob and I both prefer ours tart, as opposed to sweet.  Some of the varieties I had never had before, such as Arkansas Black, which was very nuanced in flavour.  I'm also not sure I'd ever had a Macintosh before.  They were very good.

But before we had the apples, we had the peach ice cream.  This was, simply put, the best peach ice cream either of us had ever had.  Most peach ice cream is really peaches and cream -- vanilla with some peach cut up in it.  This was not a vanilla based, but was made from crushed up peaches.  

Enjoying the local flavour, we headed up into the mountains and entered upon a stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkways.  The enjoyment of the fall foliage and the scenic views was just a foretaste of what would come as we drove Skyline Drive later.

On the opening night of the symphony season

The Masterworks series of the Omaha Symphony opened last night.  We went to dinner ahead of the performance with our friend Ken, eating at Zinc, the restaurant in the Holland Performing Arts Center.

We had eaten there once before and it wasn't remarkable.  This time we did enjoy it much more, though I over-ate.  The mushroom bisque was good and the mac and cheese was nice, though not among the very best of gourmet macs and cheese that I've eaten.  The portion size was too large as well.  The dessert, a sweet potato and apple crumble, was very good, but I should have skipped it due to being too full.

I was excited to get seated for a couple of reasons.  First, we have new seats this season.  Last year we sat on the very front row, which was a lot of campy fun actually.  Friends always knew when we were there!  Plus we got to interact with the Maestro and exchange smiles and nods of greeting with the musicians.  It was very nice to see upclose when Midori played the violin or when there were vocal soloists.  But you couldn't see the whole orchestra and the coreography of sound I like to watch.

Our new seats were in the second level of the Orchestra and were very nice.  Short people sat directly in front of us.  The site lines were good (I could see the tympanists and harpists!) and the sound was very well-rounded.  

The other reason I was glad to get seated was to see the program.  This year First Central has an add in the program -- we are the only church to so advertise.  And Michael and I were donors, so I was excited to see our names listed.  Last year I was surprised to see no (or only 1-2) gay couples, instead of the more one saw in OKC, listed.  It also made me feel like a philanthropist.

The program was entitled "Piano Romance" though the program notes were all about "Musical Fireworks," so that should have been the title.

They opened with a piece I was not familiar with, "Fireworks, A Celebration of Los Angeles" by Jerry Goldsmith.  I really enjoyed it.  Not too bombastic or dramatic, it was a nice opening for the season.

Next up were the fun and, at times, intriguing, "Symphonic Dances, Opus 64" by Edvard Grieg.  I was enjoying the show, but finding it difficult to focus my mind, which kept mulling over Facebook changes and their implications -- more on that in the next post.

After intermission, during which we drank our cocktails and chatted with friends, was the amazing Brahms "Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major for Piano and Orchestra."  The soloist was Andrew von Oeyen, who was tall and skinny -- all legs and arms.  

I don't think I've heard this piece live before, and it was a real treat.  I was a little more able to focus and follow the actual performance.  The third movement, the Andante, amazed me.  The cello is as prominent as the piano in that movement, and our friend Paul Ledwon is the principal cellist.  I did not know he had such a big piece to perform, but was really captivated.  He played beautifully.

Frankly, that movement sounded like the piano and the cello were making love.

Eat

3 guys, 44 days, 11 countries, 18 flights, 38 thousand miles, an exploding volcano, 2 cameras and almost a terabyte of footage... all to turn 3 ambitious linear concepts based on movement, learning and food ....into 3 beautiful and hopefully compelling short films.....

EAT from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.