Gossamer Tapestry

Reflections on conservation, butterflies, and ecology in the nation's heartland

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Wet Weekend

Greetings from Portland, Oregon. It was a very wet weekend in the Chicago area. In Elgin, over 10" of rain fell on Friday and Saturday. I was trapped indoors, so I did lots of food prep. On Saturday, I made a Caraway Gouda. It should be ready by thanksgiving, though I may save it to be a Christmas cheese. I also made blueberry ice cream. On Sunday I made applesauce with Cox Orange Pippen apples from our trees.


Caraway Gouda

Because Sunday was Leon's birthday, I offered to bake him a cake. He wanted chocolate, a kiind of cake that I don't have much experience with. The recipe in my favorite cookbook looked really fussy and involved. What to do? Homer to the rescue! He recently posted about a chocolate mayonnaise cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting. He described it as both easy and tasty. He was right on both counts, though his turned out prettier than mine did.



Sunday, we woke up to a find that the roof was leaking into the dining room where a small section of ceiling was sitting in a puddle on the dining room table. A couple of books, my laptop, and my P&S camera were all wet. Fortunately, the laptop is fine. The books are probably ruined (but they're not expensive items). The P&S is damaged. It may be OK once it dries out, but I need something from my trip here to the Pacific Northwest. To resolve this problem, I got a new digital camera on Sunday. It's Nikon Coolpix P80. I'm looking forward to trying it.

Tomorrow, we're off to the Oregon Zoo to learn how they do conservation of an endangered Fritillary butterfly. I'll be learning how yurts are used in butterfly conservation. On Thursday, it's up to Seattle, to see thier operation working with the same butterfly. For the weekend, it's back to Portland where I'll (finally) be meeting Mark and Rodger in person.

Labels: ,

13 Comments:

At 05:18, Blogger Lemuel said...

I am sorry to hear of the water damamge to your home and items.

As for the cheese, the apple sauce, and the cake, I think *I* could have done damage to all three! :)

Have a great trip!

 
At 10:17, Blogger robin andrea said...

Sorry to hear about the damaged camera. Yikes that was quite a leak.

How cool that you are going to meet Mark and Rodger. Say hi for me!

 
At 10:32, Blogger R.Powers said...

Can't go wrong with chocolate cake.

 
At 13:07, Blogger rodger said...

Ouch...the ceiling on the table? At least the laptop lived.

Mark and I are definitely looking forward to finally meeting you too! Hopefully the rain will hold off until Sunday afternoon and we can get in hike or two.

Oh...and the cheese looks lovely.

 
At 14:02, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake with a Cream Cheese Frosting. MMMMMMMM! I've been wanting THAT cake since reading about it on Homer's page. Maybe you'll have to make another one on your ONE day here, HAHA! SORRY about the flooding, it was BIG news here, and I wondered if you'd even make it out here. You'll have to help us get a cooler bought so we CAN make the cheese you're making! That Caraway Gouda looks Fabulous.

 
At 17:38, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Doug,

The Nikon Coolpix P80 is an excellent choice for the kind of work you do. (Good deal)

 
At 23:18, Blogger Ur-spo said...

leon's birthday was last weekend?
oops
major faux pas

 
At 23:49, Blogger Doug Taron said...

Lem- Thanks, it could have been a lot worse. With me here in Oregon, Leon is left at home with the rest of the chocolate cake. I know what's happening in my absence.

Robin- The camera may be a blessing in disguise. So far, I'm really liking the new one.

FC- Indeed. I was happy with how it turned out.

Rodger- It was only a little bit of the ceiling.

Mark - We'll have to make the most of the one day.

Roy- Thanks for the encouragement. I'm still getting used to it. I like it, but I'm not sure I'm yet using the macro function exactly right.

UrSpo- Give him a call. He's home alone for the rest of the week. I'll bet he'd enjoy hearing from you.

 
At 16:58, Blogger Kathie Brown said...

Doug, you are making me hungry! Even the cheese looks good but I would die for some blueberry ice cream! Sorry about the rain damage but I hope you like your new camrea. I had a Coolpix before Gus got us the D80. It's a good camera.

 
At 16:50, Blogger Fresh Kiki said...

Your nephew is extremley jealous of your penguin encounter- your brother in law wants you to reply to his emails :-) and me your sister wants to eat the carraway gouda- my goodness that looks gorgeous- BTW you would love the blueberry pie I made this week- your nephew is of course eating it each morning for breakfast!

 
At 20:19, Blogger Homer said...

So glad the cake turned out!

 
At 09:15, Blogger H Oh said...

Who does the dishes around there?

;)

 
At 22:43, Blogger Doug Taron said...

Kathie- So far, I really like the new camera

CG- If this Gouda doesn't come home for Christmas, another one will.

Homer- Thanks for the recipe.

Heather- Mostly Leon, at least for meals. I (usually) clean up when I've done this sort of thing.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home