Category > In My Backyard
I'm sure many of you will agree: there are few things finer, really, than spending an afternoon doing battle with weeds in the garden on a hot, sunny day... followed by stretching out in a chair and opening an ice-cold beer. There's something about this ritual that says, your work here is done. Put up your feet. Brewski for yewski. One thing that interests me about beer, besides the fact that it's beer, is that we so often forget …
A couple of weeks ago, my husband called me at the office to let me know he had just seen something I might find interesting. He was in Urbana, on his way back to his office from running an errand, he said, when he spotted a woman walking down the street. With her chicken. We're hardly strangers to fowl here in Urbana, Illinois. People have legally — and quietly, for the most part — been keeping chickens within City …
Talk about food is everywhere. Never before has there been such wide interest in where food comes from, how it was grown, who grew it, who should have access to which kinds of food, what is good for us to eat and what is not, what can be sold at farmers markets and by whom, what's for lunch in school cafeterias, prisons, hospitals and other institutions, how our food suffers (or might suffer) the effects of weather and resource …
So... the nature of the work that I do, which is primarily managing a large farmers market in east Central Illinois, requires that I get out into the Illinois countryside and visit some of the farms that sell fruit and vegetables at the market. So each spring and summer I hit the road. Here's something I've noticed on my travels: Small-scale fruit and vegetable agriculture is just not very visible in Illinois. When you're on the interstates, you don't …
April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain. — T.S. Eliot April has indeed been cruel; the lilacs' leaves are barely budding, and those "dull roots" Eliot mentions better be sharpening up with all this rain falling out of the sky. Sheesh. We could all do with that 75-degrees-and-sunny day that brings about abrupt, overnight greening in Urbana-Champaign, the kind that takes your breath away …
It had been an excellent couple of days in Chicago seeing Mazes and Soundtrack of Our Lives, but the promise of early-vegetable planting weather in C-U for the remainder of the weekend (plus the orange galoshes I found in a resale shop on North Avenue) made getting home Saturday afternoon, a priority in order to prep for Sunday planting. See, the weather is absolutely perfect right now to start a few really early vegetables by sowing seeds directly into …
The best way to be hopeful for the future is to prepare for it. –James Howard Kunstler Every February, my family and I load up the car Clampett-style and trek down to Florida for about ten days. Our reprieve from this year's deeply unfriendly Midwestern weather involved two beautiful beaches and some extended family hijinks. It was excellent. However ... I've noticed that vacation, at least the way we take this particular vacation and the way so many other …
Now, nobody imagines his modest little patch is going to be the greatest thing since copper bracelets, no. But it will be personal, and it will be fascinating, because there is no such thing as dullness when the gardener is going full steam ahead and damn the torpedoes, as it were. –Henry Mitchell Something usually happens around late January/early February that helps me shift into Backyard Mode. Maybe that something is happening a bit earlier this year thanks to …
“How can a nation be great if its bread tastes like Kleenex?” – Julia Child I know, I know. Baking bread seems like something almost akin to sewing your own jeans or building your own car — why bother? There are people around here who can do that for us, and it’s true. If you live here in Champaign-Urbana, you have access to transcendent, locally-owned and operated bakeries. (They’re not true boulangeries, because they sell pastries in addition to …
Food everywhere is an expression of community relations. —Stephen Gudeman Some of the best food I’ve ever eaten — and along with it, some of the best company I’ve ever enjoyed while eating — has been at potlucks (or covered-dish suppers, or bring-a-plate dinners). O, the humble potluck!
Most Recent Food Comments
Love CSR. Apart from making my way through the regular roasts in 1/2 pound increments, I also like to pick up some of the little sample packets of the flavored stuff for when the lady and I feel like getting crazy. Sticky Bun is pretty nice.
HUUUUUUGE fan of their Black Velvet roast…It makes up about 75% of my coffee intake. LOL CSR is definitely one of those Champaign institutions that I brag about to people not from here. :-)
We like CSR too! We french press at home and I leave the lid off while it steeps—letting the ground beans bloom. Then, like in your tasting, I scoop off the top layer before pressing. We really need to invest in a burr grinder though, as I…
I had their tea at the Urbana Farmer’s Market when they first started out and it was great! Their tins recently caught my eye at Walnut Street Tea Company and my guests used it all up before I could even try it! Way to go Tiesta, stay…
Im fine with missing ingredients and of course they fixed things what restaurant fights with the customer over things like that anymore. ( the way social media could affect them) My problem is that I am visiting you place of business within the first week of opening.…
The second visit to Meatheads included what tasted like a stale bun. That’s the end of going to Meatheads for a while.
That seems like an odd experience to me. Basically everything you mentioned, apart from price, is contrary to what I’ve witnessed or heard about. You ate at the restaurant and the burger was cold? Seems more like the complaint of someone who took something home. And if…
Unfortunately i did not have the same experiences that some of you may have had. I went to meatheads the 2nd or 3rd night it was open and I was very disappointed. My burger was cold and soggy. I ordered one of their specialty burgers. A spicy…
Ah, I finished it weeks ago—it was figuratively on ice over the holidays… I think each has its own appeal to various consumers, but I hit Buvons/Corkscrew most frequently. The current staff is extremely friendly and has never steered me wrong for a wine pairing, even when…
Most Recent Comments
Pamela - Are the roasteries in Seattle as clean as CSR? It always disturbs me a little that it is so clean in there.
Now you will be able to munch on pizza and shrimp cocktails in downtown Urbana (whilst a DJ spins?) after your dissolution of marriage http://www.news-gazette.com/news/business/features/its-your-business/2012-02-05/its-your-business-new-pizza-place-downtown-urban Is this a franchise of a Reno pizza joint, or just a coincidence of name? http://www.blackrockpizza.com
Signs someone is “fishing” for a factual anchor: 1. Starts call to radio with: “I’ve been an Illini fan for (XX) years” or “I’m a diehard fan,” as if somehow that unverifiable claim will justify the 5 minutes of B.S. that follows. 2. Makes reference to KenPom…
That’s what she said.
Black dog and Siam terrace is where I always go after my divorces.
Love CSR. Apart from making my way through the regular roasts in 1/2 pound increments, I also like to pick up some of the little sample packets of the flavored stuff for when the lady and I feel like getting crazy. Sticky Bun is pretty nice.
If you happen to be getting a divorce, or fighting a DUI prosecution, downtown Urbana is a great place to eat.
HUUUUUUGE fan of their Black Velvet roast…It makes up about 75% of my coffee intake. LOL CSR is definitely one of those Champaign institutions that I brag about to people not from here. :-)
We like CSR too! We french press at home and I leave the lid off while it steeps—letting the ground beans bloom. Then, like in your tasting, I scoop off the top layer before pressing. We really need to invest in a burr grinder though, as I…
Confidential? In this state? Hahahahahahahhahahaha
just confirmed: there will be white russians served. the art abides.
big lebowski at the art. mark it, dude.
There’s a great video promo out for “Company” too: http://vimeo.com/36077847
Wow, His Majesty took the time to answer your polite plea. It’s been a while since I spoke fluent arrogance, but allow this attempt at a translation: “I deeply regret the embarrassment…” = I wish we hadn’t got caught and it wasn’t a big deal really. “...and…
I love the Guitars
I had their tea at the Urbana Farmer’s Market when they first started out and it was great! Their tins recently caught my eye at Walnut Street Tea Company and my guests used it all up before I could even try it! Way to go Tiesta, stay…
Im fine with missing ingredients and of course they fixed things what restaurant fights with the customer over things like that anymore. ( the way social media could affect them) My problem is that I am visiting you place of business within the first week of opening.…
Thanks for that, Louis CK.
Your call to stay pissed is precisely why global warming fanatics will fail. Emotion has no place in hard science. The problem with the issue of global warming is that is has been pumped full of emotion and politics, and the science is becoming a by-product. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204301404577171531838421366.html?KEYWORDS=global+warming
Clearly the Postal Officials in favor of this cannot make an economic argument, as this saves the post office $0. What is their rationale?
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Pamela - Are the roasteries in Seattle as clean as CSR? It always disturbs me a little that it is so clean in there.