Read Drink & Be Merry

Recently I gave Wilder and the city an ugly grade of D+ for the reconstruction of Battery Park. I’m thinking I may have been wrong in giving out that grade. You see, giving a grade or an evaluation implies that the project is complete and can now be assessed. In reality the project is not complete, the park is not open, empty lots abound with no sign of progress or even real clues as to what to expect. The bi-weekly newsletter the city promised to send after the floods to keep us informed of the project and it’s progress? We received two hard copies a couple of years ago (the same exact information with only the dates changed) before it went online. I’m not sure what bi-weekly means to the city of Richmond but it looks like 4 issues in over two years. The last one released claims it’s now a monthly, published in June…

I should have given them an ‘I’, for incomplete.

Four years after the floods started and two years after the collapse of the storm drains and the destruction of the park and $47 million dollars later where should we be? Frankly, a lot further along than we are.

The drains are fixed. While we haven’t had a true hurricane deluge to test them the heavy rains we’ve had recently have produced nothing more than large puddles. Great! Couple of questions though…

When we flooded so did the park north of Brookland Parkway in Ginter Park. Do the new drains cover them or are they the next domino to fall in the whole north Richmond drainage system of Ginter Park-Battery Park-Shockoe Valley & Bottom?

The drain near my house on now depopulated Joshua Street looks to be working fine. Now I’m not a city engineer but shouldn’t drains be flush or below ground level? If the concrete lip of the drain is seven or eight inches above ground level…. Kinda defeats the whole drainage thing doesn’t it?

The sinkholes have been filled. Personally, I find sinkholes very scary. Has the city ever really fixed the one up in Church Hill from a couple of years ago? The mini-ones that opened up in the park and in the middle of tennis courts weren’t that big but have any studies been done to see if there are any more lingering just below the surface and how safe is the neighbourhood as a whole?

The park is not open. The only noticeable work that had been done for most of the spring and through the summer seems to have been reconstructing a brick buidling and installing a prefab (although very nice looking) playgound set. Work has picked up of late, however, with some attention paid to the resurfacing of the tennis courts. I would love to think it was due to my last post on the park but I suspect that our city leaders only read my blog if they are looking for ways to take potshots at each other… Being a bit more cynical I suspect it has much more to do with our upcoming election. I fully expect our council woman, Ellen Robertson, to be knocking on our door in the next few weeks (as she does each election cycle) to ask for our vote. Once she is done with that she can go back to ignoring phone calls and emails from her constiuents. At least with Sa’id Al’Amin we got noticed. Our current empty suit is a bit of a wall flower in city politics.

The park expansion seems to have been forgotten. When the city tore down the two apartment complexes and the dozen or so homes a couple of blocks from my house there was much talk of a community center, gardens, or any number of things. Can’t find anything resembling a plan out there (if someone knows pass it along!) and the area is turning into a poorly maintaned grassland. Couple that with the unknown future of Norrell School (at least they didn’t send the kids back to a school polluted with who knows what), the unused baseball fields (which they continued to water while we were under water restrictions…) and you start to wonder where all the promises (and the money) went.

Speaking of money…. I had a number of discussions with friends after the first post on all this. One thing that kept coming up was the money and the timeline. One almost has to wonder if Wilder, rather than repair and maintain the drains with city money when the problem started appearing, waited the two years until they completely collapsed so he could apply for Federal money to replace them…. Don’t know that’s what happened but just wondering and if so, were we an ‘earmark’?…

In sum…

We’re dry but will everone upstream stay that way?

The park is still closed but the election season has brought a few workers onto the scene and some incremental progress is being made (will it continue after Nov 4th?).

The park expansion forced dozens of people from their homes and now seems to have been forgotten.

Communication is either not the cities priority or not in their skill set.

The other thing we decided to do was to take part in the city’s composting scheme.

Did it seem a little quiet in a few neighbourhoods in town this last Sunday? it could have been the result of a few very tired kids and their very tired/hungover parents.

To close out the summer we had decided to have a few people over for a ‘foodie’ potluck. Your basic bring an ‘A’ game dish or a family favourite. Combine lots of good food with copious amounts of alcohol and there is always fun to be had.

There had been a fair amount of discussion about a certain drink over the course of the summer and how not to make it – the mojito. A certain downtown bar, and big seller of this beverage, seems to be leading the list of misguided attempts at mojito mixing (sorry, Jack). Pre-muddling the mint is bad but their addition of sweet and sour mix just turns it into a mint flavoured rum collins. It’s funny that as our restaurant food gets more creative and less prefrabicated that bars are moving in the other direction. In the August edition of Bon Appetit (sorry, not online) is a great article about cocktail construction in Japan. Seems their mixologists pride themselves on making individual cocktails from scratch using fresh ingredients and lots of imagination. Here we seem to be drifting to a McDonalds approach to bartending with premade syrups and mixes. Bit of a shame.

With that in mind I decided to make mojitos (for the first time) from scratch. That afternoon I made a batch of simple syrup, and then set up limes and mint. For each person requesting a mojito I muddled the mint and then addded the syrup, light rum, lime and club soda. Except for the first one (which I managed to make half of in one glass and then finish off in my Rangpur & Tonic – not a good combo…) they seemed to be a hit. Next time I’ll need more syrup… and rum.
My first course out was Grav Lax. Made with salmon from Yellow Umbrella and then salt/sugar cured for 48 hours. Served on sliced bread with an espresso dill honey mustard. The lack of leftovers led me to believe it was a hit.
I had orignally planned on cooking something on the grill. A trip last weekend to Carytown with my visiting parents and my first glimpse on Penzy’s got me thinking. They had a certain spice that caught my eye – English Prime Rib Rub. The heady aroma of celery, pepper, onions, and garlic got me craving a major piece of beef.

Belmont Butchery provided me with a choice cut of prime rib that I could work with. Rubbed down first with grapeseed oil and then the Penzy spice I opted for the controlled heat of my oven rather than the grill. Fifteen minutes at 500 and then 2 hours at 230 (both on covection roast). During the 30 minute covered rest I made a jus by adding stock and sherry to the pan to deglaze and then reduced over high heat.

There were no leftovers.
Since I didn’t use the grill the queue for others was shorter.
Sketchy brought his mythical DragonFish. Using a cute little trick of molecular gastronomy he used a protein glue to reform several pieces of halibut into a piece resemebling a tenderloin. Then, again using the glue, he attached thin spicy slices of chorizo. Roasted over the grill it came out crispy on the outside and moist inside. I could swear that Sketchy managed to achieve umami with this dish, a real accomplishment with fish.

Another fun dish for the evening was made by Koolz. He stuck to his roots and made a meatball dish from a family recipe. Pork meatballs grilled over my infrared then topped with basil and slices of mozzarella. Well spiced and Koolz did well for his first work with the searing temps that my infrared grill puts out. M seems to be aggitating for him to make some ziti and show off his tomato sauce skills. Sounds like a call for a repeat performance.

A late arrival for the evening was RVA Foodie. That was probably a good thing as nearly all of the dishes woudln’t comply with his ‘meat is murder but fish is justifiable homicide’ type of vegetarianism. His arrival did usher in a bout of heavy beverage consumption. As the wives put the kids down we engaged in mojitos and a number of rounds of shots.

In true foodie fashion we had both sweet and savory shots. I pulled out a bottle of akvavit, a Danish tradition flavoured with caraway and anise. Sketchy brought a bottle that he had altered…. Italian Lemoncello that he had unbottled and then carbonated. The thick heavy liquid held the carbonation until it hits your toungue and then bubbles up in small explosions. Both were great but weren’t exactly great together and we had some casualties….

Oh, and if anyone was out and about around 2 in the morning in the Fan we are looking for any witness to a ‘missing’ bicycle trip that someone took…

Living in Battery Park the last few years has been a bit of a challenge.

While all the attention has been paid to The Bottom our storm drains crumbled and finally collapsed under the weight of Isabelle and Gaston.

As the mayor partied it up in Japan I was told by Richmond’s finest that if I didn’t leave my house (the water was within a block of my house but we sit up so high enough that we were never in danger) they would arrest me and turn Finn over to Family and Children Services.

As we debated whether we could drink the tap water and others were forced repeatedly from their homes after the lightest rains we saw a parade of politicians from Senators to the ever-elusive, and very absent, Rep. Bobby Scott make their obligatory stop for a photo op in our damp ‘hood. Ellen Robertson, our council person, hasn’t been very present either – except for her weekly spam phone messages. We soldiered on, dealing with detours for our new, above ground, drainage pipes and pumps the size of elephants that blocked our streets.

Rather than admit the boondoggle that is the city owned golf course changed the topography thus turning Battery Park and the surrounding environs into a lake, the city seized homes, rendered apartment renters homeless, and put the problem to the bulldozers. Oddly, some seized homes have been deemed ’safe’ and are currently being rehabbed and de-molded. It will be curious to see who gets to buy these homes and at what price….

Then, on what must have been a slow news day for out mayor, the Battery Park project was declared complete last December. Really? The pumps were still there. Sink holes in the tennis courts. Bulldozers and cranes were everywhere. Fences and no trespassing signs would lead one to believe the park not open. The floods, the clean-up crews in haz-mat suits… it all continued. Methink the mayor a bit hasty.

Spring arrived and the gashes in the ground were covered and they seemed to be moving on to cosmetics. The ground leveled, new playground equipment installed. Would we be able to use the park this summer? No. As far as I can tell we only get city work crews 2-4 days a month, and rarely two days in a row. At the rate they’re going I would expect the park to re-open about the time Finn finishes college.

So, that brings us to today. As Fay dumps much needed water onto our very brown lawns and for what may be the real first test of the city having spent millions to move water around the very critical 3-hole golf course. The shiny new grates near my house are working well and there is no standing water. Glad to know that bulldozing an apartment complex and displacing all those families had allowed the city to protect the sandtraps for the golf course. OK, I’ll admit, I don’t miss the apartments. They were a source of trouble but wouldn’t it have been easier to dig up a sand trap to rebuild the drains rather than raze a bunch of buildings with people living in them?

Moving over to the park proper, doesn’t look too bad. Six months ago the south side of the park would have been under anywhere from 6 to 30+ feet of water after more than 24 hours of rain. Today it looks a little soggy but not too bad. The brand new playground, however, looks like it is sitting in the middle of a lake. Hard to tell from a distance but at least 6 inches of standing water. The question is where did that water drain from? Is it just a puddle? Would you let your child play there? Will the men in the haz-mat suits return?

How did the city and our rock-star mayor do? I guess I would give them a ‘D+’.

Had they listened to the residents earlier about water back-ups they could have averted the whole problem by inspecting the storm drains around the park.

The houses were all built nearly 100 years ago and didn’t have problems until the city changed the topography of the area for the golf course. Yet, somehow, the city made it sound like we had all built in a flood zone and that we should feel grateful for the buy-outs.

Oddly, while Bush declined to name our area a federal disaster he named an area up in New York one. Same storm. Same number of people effected in roughly an area of equal size. Could it have happened to have been due to us having a Democrat as a Rep and them having a Republican in a tough re-election bid weeks before the 2006 election? Hmm….

Communication during the flooding basically sucked and the police were way too authoritative.

Months of detours really sucked and the city has yet to do anything about adding or upgrading access to the neighbourhood.

We got a really cool red back-pack from the Red Cross with emergency supplies if we are ever stranded in our home.

The plans for the park look to be very family friendly and are designed to reduce the drug activity.

The pace of the work make me fear it may not be done in my lifetime.

The new drainage looks to be working under it’s first heavy test.

The all-important golf course is open – without which the water would have just naturally drained into Shockoe Valley….

It’s been several months since the unnoticed dead body in the illegal rooming house across the street caused a bit of an uproar in our ‘hood. Sadly, there seems to be no interest in uncovering the events that lead to the death. At first I thought it might be due to his colour but I suspect it has more to do with his socio-economic status and involvement with drug dealers. Who cares about another dead junkie? Somewhat of a sad indictment on the police, the media, and us, the community, when we can judge some people to be of less value. His suspicious death will probably only be of value if someone higher up the ‘food chain’ of drug dealing can be connected. Otherwise it may very well languish and be forgotten.

The whole incident did get the house onto the city’s radar. A very determined housing inspector finally got access to go inside the house about a month ago. Sitting on my side porch enjoying a martini I was able to witness the slumlord being taken to task for multiple violations on the outside of the house with (I’m guessing – due to the nearly two hours they spent inside) an equal number of problems inside. I was a bit dismayed when I heard the owner tell the inspector ‘thanks for going easy on me’ which made me wonder what he might be getting away with.

The days passed. No work was done on the house. Drug dealers and ‘working ladies’ busy as ever. Looked like nothing was going to change. That is… until I noticed something strange one afternoon last week. A very determined looking lady (you know the type – bluetooth earpiece affixed to her head…) was crawling all over the property with a couple of men taking measurements…. Interesting.

Seems the city had denied their application to operate legally as a rooming house. They could operate as a rental property if they made some major renovations but now that the city has the owners on their watch list it they are inspecting all their other properties as well so it looks like they are opting to divest. May be a hard sale, unless they let it go for a song, as they’ve made to many half-assed repairs (many without permits or inspections) and not thought things out (like replacing the plaster with drywall but not bothering to upgrade the electrical while the walls were down). House flipping is still happening in our neighbourhood so we’re hoping somebody sees the value in a house with 6 fireplaces in an up and coming area.

The city is allowing people to live there in the meantime, under a few conditions. They have to reduce the number of people to five (we think there may have been as many as 10 people living there) and one room on each floor has to be opened and converted into a common area. They also have to keep the front door unlocked so if the police want to enter they can. A couple of the drug dealers, thinking this bad for business, have since moved out.

Now we’re waiting for the ‘For Sale’ sign to go up. Hopefully it won’t be on the market too long. I can handle construction traffic. It’s junkies to lazy to get out of their cars sitting in front honking their horns that get on my nerves.

Finally, under the heading of ‘be careful what you wish for’, there’s the feral felines. The cat colony has gotten as large as it has due to their feeding of the cats. I put out a little bit of food a couple of times a week (mainly for a couple of orphaned kittens living in our bushes) but am not sure if I want to put out food every day or for the whole population. There is almost always three or four cats on their front porch and I have never been able to trap any of those. I seem to just get the stragglers living on the edges of the colony. When the house sells or when the boarders are forced to leave the cat colony is going to be in for a bit of a shock. Hopefully, with all the cats I’ve had fixed, the population is sustainable. Just have to wait and see.

Oddly, we just had a knock on our door (M is at home today). A police officer and someone from the RRHA (Richmond Redevelopment Housing Authority) asking if someone called the police… M said no and they went on to the next house. She had the impression they were checking out the interior of our house. Fishing trip for other rooming houses in our ‘hood? Perhaps, I just don’t know why someone from the RRHA would be with out on a random police call. Anyone else have a better idea?

corporation (noun) – An ingenious device to create individual wealth without individual responsibility. Ambrose Bierce

Some companies care about the communities that they operate in. They support programs for the poor and hungry. Unused land gets set aside as wetlands or as parks for the communities. Others just don’t give a damn. Sinclair Broadcast Group is a company that doesn’t care and doesn’t care if you know about it.

Now I’ll admit Sinclair hasn’t given me warm fuzzies for years. Their attempt to influence the 2004 election with propoganda posing as a ‘documentary’ was contemptable (note – I don’t think either side should be allowed free time like that unless the station, using the public airways, allows an equal response). Their censorship of Ted Koppel’s tribute to fallen troops in Iraq shows they care more about ideology than the truth (a very bad sign for a company that transmits the news) and honouring those who gave their lives is an even lower priority. Earlier this year they started playing a shell game with a corporate holding company to skirt the law against having two TV stations in the same market(Fox 35 and CBS 6). And, now, they are killing cats.

Over the years their employees have been leaving food out for a colony of feral cats living on Fox’s property. To me that makes them morally obligated to the care of the colony not to mention that the colony has been there for over 30 years, predating Fox itself. Last month Fox started taking steps to exterminate the colony. The Richmond SPCA sprung into action and tried to take steps to stop the killing of the cats. Fox, well, they really didn’t care.

Their solution to this little PR kerfuffle was to trap the cats. Did they contact experts in animal welfare or one of the local humane groups? No, they called an animal control company who trapped the cats, took them home, then killed them. Charges are pending. The next steps makes you question their claims that they didn’t know the trapper was going to kill the cats. They sent in the bulldozers.

The SPCA moved fast and got video crews from the other TV stations onto the scene. It was then Fox showed they do care about something, their bottom line. Bulldozing cats leading the evening news might make advertisers a bit squeamish. The bulldozers stopped. Finally they came out to say they cared about the colony and would try to do the right thing and work with local humane groups for a solution. Small problem with that statement. A month later and none of the local humane groups have been contacted. Sounds a little like in 2000 when George Bush said he was a uniter and would work across the aisle to bring everyone together…. Whatever happened with that?…

The SPCA and a few other groups have been trying to trap some of the cats. While some of the cats are able to be adopted out many aren’t and it is very difficult to relocate feral cats. It also doesn’t help that Fox isn’t following through on their promise to cooperate with the humane groups and is actually hampering their efforts by putting up No Trespassing sings on the property with the colony.

I suppose it would be one thing if dealing with the colony in a humane way would cost them an inordinate amount of money or effort but it doesn’t. Sinclair Broadcast Group simply doesn’t care. The public airways are there for the benefit of the people. They use it for an agenda. The FCC restricts media ownership in single markets to ensure balance in information. They use shell corporations to skirt the law. They stifle opposing views. They kill cats.

To save a colony and keep it healthy is not that hard. Once a month I set out a few traps with a little bit of mackerel. Whatever cats I trap go to the vet the next morning. Next we go out to brunch with RVA Foodie and family (we actually don’t plan it that way it just seems to happen) and that afternoon we pick up the cats from the vet. Spayed or neutered, vaccinated, wounds treated, de-wormed and even a dose of Frontline. The result has been healthier cats, less kittens and with a higher survival rate, and much less fighting amongst the Tom’s plus I don’t have to explain to Finn why he can’t pet the mauled and dying kitten twitching on our front steps.

Did have some good news at our colony. Last month one of the cats I caught did not come out of the anesthesia. What made that worse was the cat was lactating. We looked for the kittens but couldn’t find them. Over the past couple of weeks a cat and kittens took up residence on our back porch. The kittens were less than 8 weeks and oddly the mother was one that we had had fixed 3 months ago. Our guess is she adopted the orphaned kittens. Made us feel a bit better.

This weekend we only caught one cat. An orange tom. He came through with flying colours and was released back into the ‘hood yesterday.

The score if your keeping track -

4 female/3 males – Trapped Fixed and Released
1 male – Not Healthy or Injured – Euthanized
1 female – Didn’t Learn Lesson & Trapped Again
1 female – Didn’t Survive Procedure

See you next month for round #5

Last Saturday we had the Sketchy’s over for for a little infrared grilling. Up till now we had only been trying small cuts of meat and fish on the grill and I was dying to try a slightly bigger cut. I called my faithful butcher, T at Belmont Butchery, and put in an order for a 4lb leg of lamb, sirloin end. She came through and I picked up a beautiful piece of meat ready for the grill.

The evening arrived and so did the Sketchy’s. Actually it got off to a rather shaky start but you would need to read about that at Sketchy’s Kitchen for the full story. After repairing the damage and making the first round of martinis we tucked into the first course of the evening.

Purple Artichokes. I had found these at Fresh Market and they looked interesting. I thought about serving them slightly chilled with a garlic aioli to dip. Thinking back, while at the market, I remembered a slightly frustrating story by RVA Foodie and his attempt to make aioli. Erring on the side of caution I decided to pick up some organic garlic aioli at Fresh Market and save my first try at the substance when I might end up only killing my own family through a culinary mishap. Upon arriving home I noticed that the aioli had expired several days ago. Not a good thing for a mayonnaise containing uncooked eggs. Making the trek back from Battery Park to Fresh Market…. well, if you add up the time, energy, wasted gas, frustration. Should have tried to make it from scratch. Live and Learn.

Back to the artichokes. I steamed them for 45 minutes (a little longer than I would green ones as they seemed a bit tough) with water, wine, lemon and onion. Allowing them to cool for a bit they then went into the fridge to chill further. The result was ok. They were very pretty but, even after the 45 minute steam, were still a bit tough and a little stringy. The hearts were good but I am afraid that if I steamed them longer to make the leaves softer they would have been too mushy. Bottom line, looks good on a plate but not worth the premium over green artichokes.

For the lamb, I decided to get some professional advice and went to Brown, Alton Brown. So he gets the credit for the paste and the basics, slightly altered for my grill, of cooking. I had T at Belmont Butchery prep the lamb for me. Basically debone and butterfly so it was a large flat piece. The next step was to make the rub. In a small food processor I added:

8 mint leaves
4 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons canola oil
5 tablespoons dijon mustard

Blend into a paste. Rub the paste on one side of the lamb, roll it up and tie with butcher’s string. To help the flavours even out I did all this the day before. I removed the lamb from the refrigerator about an hour before cooking. When it came time to grill Alton was no longer any help as he used charcoal so I was using educated guesses after that.

I started the heat out at the sear (700+) level. About 5 minutes on each side got the lamb going well. Next I dropped the heat level to the middle of the grill range which should put the temp at around 350. I did 20 minutes on each side (rotating 180 degrees to avoid cool spots) and then checked with a meat thermometer. Honestly, I am hopeless when it comes to meat thermometers. It kept coming up at 150 but I knew that was wrong. I laid down a piece of foil to avoid flare ups and put it on the coolest part of the grill for another 10 minutes. Removed from the grill and then covered for a 15 minutes rest. When sliced it was medium rare, except for a couple of rare slices towards the center. Perfect.

I had a hankering for some sort of reduction to go with it but couldn’t find a recipe for what I wanted. Made one up off the cuff with the idea that it would go in the trash if it failed. Took 1 quart of lamb stock (from Belmont Butchery), 2 cups medium dry sherry, mint leaves and rosemary. Placed in a sauce pan, brought to a boil, and then lowered the heat and allowed to reduce to about a cup and a half. It came out pretty good and it took only a little bit to add the flavour I was looking for.

Of course every dinner needs some sort of activity. What could be more fun than drinking and catching cats. So we put out the traps baited with oil infused mackerel. Quickly we had three cats in the traps and safely away into the basement. The next morning they were sent off for their visit with the vet and then returned in the afternoon. Sadly, that evening when I took them a post-op meal one of the cats had expired. A call to the vet at Operation Cat Nip and the consensus was a heart defect, the result of inbreeding in the feral cat colony in our ‘hood. The expired cat was also lactating so I checked around the house and in the bushes for any kittens but couldn’t locate any.

The tally, if your keeping track, so far:

4 female/2 males – Trapped Fixed and Released
1 male – Not Healthy or Injured – Euthanized
1 female – Didn’t Learn Lesson & Trapped Again
1 female – Didn’t Survive Procedure

Come back next month for Round #4 of the Feral Feline Hunt!

It all started with dinner one night with Mr & Ms In Vino Veritas with the thought of grilling ‘big ol’ honkin’ pieces o’ meat’. Compounded by an email from Veron about her Hungry Hubby having grill envy. The idea was simple. Fire up the new infrared grill and throw open the doors to a few foodies and allow them to bask in the 700+ degree heat with whatever food stuff they cared to play with. Emails flew back and forth for a few days and then the preparations began and the players arrived. Joining us were Mr & Ms In Vino Veritas, the Sketchy’s with little Aidan, Veron & Hungry Hubby, as well as our non-blogger friends Cy-n-Ide (with C4 still on board – so to speak). RVA Foodie was invited but decided to blow a gasket in a futile attempt at aioli instead.

Once everyone arrived, and Finn greeted Aidan (see above picture), martini’s were made and the grill fired up. To get things rolling I threw some fillets of grouper (marinated in a Japanese inspired liquid) on the grill. For this dish I used my grilling basket to avoid the fish sticking to the grill. Four minutes later we had juicy grouper for people to nosh on.

Next up to the grill was Hungry Hubby. After a few minutes instruction on the grill itself, HH pulled out a sword and measured the grill. Off to the kitchen he went threading sword after sword with chunks of meat daubing them with some sort of melted butter concoction. The smells that came off the grill were heavenly. The meat came out moist and juicy, the extreme heat having seared all the juices inside. After years of dry, overcooked kebab meat this dish has ruined all other possible attempts at kebab making. HH decided then and there that he was getting an infrared grill and Veron, after tasting the results did not seem inclined to argue.

Next up to the plate was Mr Vino. The Vino’s are on a cleansing diet for a short time so they were consuming no animal products. This made for a few adjustments for the evening. I had decided to make my faux mashed potatoes (actually made with cauliflower) for the evening so I had to adjust to make it vegan. Substitute Veggie Stock for Chicken, Soy Milk for cream, Smart Balance for butter, and I actually found a vegan parmesan substitute. The result was pretty good, I think I under salted but no one seemed to agree with me, so there you go. The Vino’s had also brought kebab’s, but of the veggie variety. We lowered the heat on the grill a bit, didn’t want the skewers to burn (they did anyway), spritzed with a bit of olive oil and on to the heat. While this was cooking I added a piece of cedar board and threw on a hunk of salmon with a bit of white wine and dill. Once again all came out well (except for the burned skewers). The veggies stayed moist and, since we kept them moving on the grill, they cooked all the way through without getting too charred.

The next guest chef was Sketchy. He had brought some skirt steaks. The heat on the grill went back up and wrapped pieces of corn added to the upper rack. As skirt steak is so thin these had to be cooked quickly but with lots of contact with the grill to encourage proper charring. Sketchy’s steak was a success. Perfect MR, juicy, and lots of flavour. The Sketchy’s had also brought tow kinds of homemade marshmallows. One was infused with lavender, the other peach. Great snacking items. Stopped eating marshmallows years ago because they were too sweet and just really didn’t taste of much. These were wonderful, especially the lavender. Sketchy mentioned maybe posting the recipe on his blog….

To finish on the grill I had planned a NY Strip tasting. I had got 4 NY Strips – One from Fresh Market and from Belmont Butchery a regular CAB, an organic CAB, and a Wagyu. All were cut basically the same, allowed to come to room temperature and sea salt applied. While they all cooked the same amount of time the Wagyu may have got a little more heat as the amount of marbling caused the grill to flare up a bit. Once cooked they were allowed to rest and then sliced thin. The results? The cheap one from Fresh Market was ok flavour, nothing special, but was a bit tough and had some gristle. The organic had really good flavour but had so much gristle that it was tough to cut and to chew. The regular CAB from Belmont Butchery was a winner, great taste, tender, and no tough spots. The Wagyu was excellent, buttery, tender, melt in your mouth. I would, however, give the ribbon the regular CAB based on the relative little damage it did to my pocketbook compared to the Wagyu.

Veron stepped up to the plate for desserts. Cupcakes, Financiers (little teacakes), and, of course, her macarons. All were delicious and the way we attacked them would make one think we were a bunch of 19th century orphans in London. Yum!

Of course with all this we had copious amounts of adults beverages. Martini’s, too many different kinds of wine to count, and akvavit. As the liquor flowed so did the volume on the side porch. My favourite neighbours across the street, the ones with the dead body a few weeks ago, seemed to have their illegal activities interrupted by all the noise and activity. Although there has been change. The drug dealers seemed to have been moved out by the owners and new people moved in. The new profession is not dealing but prostitution. Oh joy.

A week has passed since the body of a man turned up in the unlicensed rooming house across the street. Beyond the initial reports of the body having been there for several days prior to ‘discovery’ this is what we have learned so far:

a) The dead 44-year-old didn’t live there.

b) The person who occupied that room and didn’t ‘notice’ the dead body for several days has not been around lately. Speculation among the neighbours is that the body expired elsewhere and was brought to the house.

c) The owners have actually paid the water bill for two months in a row and they currently have running water (it’s been cut off twice this year alone – I guess the owners payment on their brand new Mercedes is more important…).

d) The police, having spoken to people claiming to be residents instead of the actual residents, actually have the death listed as a ‘pending matter’. Considering the house cleaning prior to their arrival I doubt there was any evidence left and they don’t seem to be treating this very seriously. Let’s keep the murder rate down through creative record keeping.

New developments for the house include a return of most, but not all, of the normal residents. Drug activity, which was down over the weekend is starting to pick up again. Oh, and a new city agency has them in their sites.

Yep, we’ve city building and zoning inspectors sniffing around. Normally that makes all of us residents nervous as most of our houses are in various stages of renovation (yes, rain gutters are on my list but I’ve got other things to do first…) but they are all interested in the ‘house across the street’. I don’t know what got them started. It may have been my multiple phone calls over the years. It wasn’t the body (they didn’t know) and it certainly wasn’t Councilwoman Ellen Robertson (who only gets really involved with the community just prior to an election – she comes by our house each election cycle, I complain to her about the rooming house, she says she’ll look into it, nothing happens.).

Whatever it was the city inspector is pissed. There never seems to be anyone home (he should sit in the middle of the street and honk his horn like all their other visitors/customers) and he can’t get in. He says he knows it’s a rooming house but they don’t have the permits for it and it lost it’s ‘grandfather’ status due to a re-zoning (single-family homes only) of the neighbourhood which went into effect when the house last sold in 2004. The inspector has vowed to shut them down. Of all the people in life I do not want to have annoyed at me it’s a city building inspector.

It’s kind of sad. The police have allowed a known drug house to continue operating for years and look to be more interested in managing the ‘numbers’ of the murder rate rather than investigating a very suspicious death. No, instead the most dangerous house on the block will not be shut down by the men in blue but instead by a bureaucrat enforcing regulations. Who needs detectives and forensics when you can just be caught by the red tape.

You may well ask why we celebrate Norwegian Independence Day every year, especially considering we are Danish. We prefer to look at it as when the Norwegians were granted home rule and we are helping them celebrate their continued success.

Actually, the Charlottesville area is home to a rather large Scandinavian population and many of the immigrants have formed the Scandinavian Ladies Society. They trade books from the homeland, have luncheons with traditional foods, and just basically create a support network for each other. You do have to wonder, though, if their hair and skin were a little darker if their little group might end up on a Homeland Security watch list….

The biggest bash of the year takes place out on a farm near Zion Crossroads. 17 Mai (May 17th) or the nearest Sunday to it is when Hanna Bjorn rolls out the red carpet for the whole community to come. People bring out their best and favourite recipes, beer and drinks from the homeland and even dress them and their kids up in traditional dress. For over 15 years I’ve been lucky enough to be on the invite list as the child of a Danish immigrant, although I catch a bit of hell for not speaking any of the languages all that well.

The hostess, Hanna Bjorn, is what you would expect of a old Norwegian farm lady. Tough as nails, no-nonsense, chain smoking. She could also drink you under the table. One Christmas her and I sat in someones kitchen and managed to polish off an entire bottle of akavit one shot at a time. Sadly she lost her husband last year. Lennart was a Swedish neuro-scientist and professor at UVA. Prior to succumbing to cancer he managed to have all his lectures and classes videotaped so he could continue to have an impact of students in the years to come. It was due to his departure that, for the first time in decades, the 17 Mai celebration was canceled. There was some concern as to whether or not we would have any more.

A couple of months ago I got the call from my mother. 17 Mai was back on, although it would start in the evening rather than midday. My next dilemma was what to cook. I decided to braise a pork shoulder in apple and fennel. Not a traditional dish but the flavours definitely Scandinavian inspired. The day arrived and, braising done, we headed to Hanna Bjorn’s farm.

Norwegian flags were flying everywhere, people were decked out, lots of food and drink, but it was a somber affair. Only about half the normal amount of people, a fraction of the number of kids. The food was good (I can’t match some of the frikedeller – Danish Meatballs) but not as good as some years past. Drinks flowed but in a much more restrained manner. Normally we all stand around the flag pole, the Norwegian flag flapping in the wind, and sing all the anthems of the Scandinavians but this year it was only the Swedish anthem in honour of Lennart.

As Finn started wearing out from running with the small herd of kids we decided to leave early. I’m guessing my pork was good as when I went to find the dish it was empty and had been washed, any leftovers snagged by someone else. One the way down the dirt road back to I-64 we wondered about the future. Would the tradition continue or were we witnessing the winding down of an annual event. Next year will be telling. Will it be a return to form or smaller and quieter? We’ll wait and see.

The ride home provided some excitement. We left at the same time as the Nordins. Old friends from Capital One on the verge of reverse immigrating. Lars has already packed up and moved back to Norway and Anna-Maria and their four kids will be joining him as soon as school lets out. Driving behind them on 64 we noticed them suddenly steer off onto the side of the highway. I just happened to have her number and called to make sure everything was ok. Seems they had a blowout. After a couple of ileagle u-turns across the medians of 64 we rejoined them. The mini-van had a shredded and smoking tire. Fortunately, M know how to change tires so Anna-Maira and I entertained the kids while she did all the heavy lifting. We were soon safely back on the road and home again.

Once home we checked the cat traps we had left out. We had two takers for our four traps but one had been trapped last month. So one very angry tom-cat went into the basement for a trip to the vet. The score if your keeping track:

2 female/2 males – Trapped Fixed and Released
1 male – Not Healthy or Injured – Euthanized
1 female – Didn’t Learn Lesson & Trapped Again