Indian Summer Sunday

We have had the most incredible stretch of weather (sunny, with highs in the 70's and low in the 50's).  Living on the shores of Lake Michigan, we normally get "lake effect" everything.  We supposedly are second to Seattle for cloudy days.   So yesterday afternoon, my husband and I decided to take advantage of the sunshine and go for a hike.  We got in the car and drove five miles down the road to Hoffmaster State Park.

For some reason, we often go cross country skiing at the park but rarely take advantage of the trails for hiking.  It was hardly recognizable without the snow.  (I felt like Norman in On Golden Pond.)  The hills were so much easier to go up without skis on, but not as fun going down.

My usual view on a hike. 

It was amazingly warm on the beach (normally during the spring, summer and fall, it's 10 degrees cooler than inland).  There were lots of boaters taking advantage of the last nice weekend.

The lake was relatively calm.  And cold.

Driftwood

Autumn Colors

Unfortunately, this all ends on Thursday when a front moves in and the rains and cool weather come with it.

BRRRRR!!

I would love autumn so much more if winter didn't follow it.

Pre-Dinner Snack

My worst time for noshing is while I'm making dinner.  I'm usually hungry and I have food shouting out my name.  With apple season upon us, I've been slicing an apple and munching on that while I cook.  It keeps me from grabbing chips, or pretzels, or rice cakes, or whatever else I can muster up in a hurry.  It also helps me eat less at dinner.  Hopefully the old saying, "You are what you eat" won't come true.  If that's the case, I'll have to switch to pears.

Great Old/New Recipe

This past week, I was going through some old recipes I had torn out of magazines but had never tried, and I came across this one.  Now mind you, this came out of Bon Appetit, the RSVP section, in June 1993.  That means it survived two moves (we moved into a rental home in 1994, while building our current home).  I'm so glad it came with us, because both my husband and I made multiple yummy sounds while eating this.

Chicken with Roasted Garlic, Mushrooms and Spinach

4 servings

1 large head garlic, cloves separated (unpeeled)
3 tablespoons olive oil

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
All purpose flour

1/2 pound button or stemmed shiitake mushrooms, sliced
1 cup dry white wine
1 pound tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and diced
2 cups packed fresh spinach leaves
2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
3 tablespoons unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 350 F. Place garlic on small baking pan.  Pour 1 tablespoon olive oil over; toss to coat.  Bake until soft, about 20 minutes.  Cool garlic.  Press garlic between fingertips to release from peel.  Transfer garlic to bowl.  (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

Roasted Garlic

Using meat mallet or rolling pin, pound chicken between sheets of plastic wrap to thickness of 1/2 inch.  Coat chicken with flour; shake off excess.

Heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add chicken and saute until cooked through, about 3 minutes per side.  Transfer chicken to plates.  Tent with foil to keep warm.  Add mushrooms to skillet and saute 4 minutes.  Add wine to skillet and boil until liquid is reduced by half, about 4 minutes.  Add tomatoes, spinach, rosemary, and roasted garlic and saute until spinach wilts, about 3 minutes.  Add butter and mix just until melted. Spoon mixture over chicken and serve.

Changes
Since fresh tomatoes are out of season, I used canned.  I reduced the wine due to the juice in the tomatoes.  I also cut the butter in half just to reduce the fat and calories.  It doesn't look like anything special at first glance, but this was so good.  It must be the butter and roasted garlic.

I ended up wearing this recipe on my shirt.  I need an apron.

Memory Lapse

We are in the middle of a gorgeous weather pattern.  After a week of off and on rain, the clouds have finally cleared out and we are experiencing clear blue skies with temps in the 60's.  So after hitting the Farmers' Market this morning, I decided to go for a run.  I'm tired of my usual route, so I opted to run out to Lake Michigan.  It's been a few years since I've run out there and I had forgotten exactly how far it is.  I was thinking it was 10 miles from the house.  That was more than I wanted to bite off, so I decided to drive and park a couple of miles from home to lessen the distance by four miles.

It was so nice outside and the route was bringing back lots of memories.  For starters, I ran past the elementary school my children went to.  It seems like eons since the kids were there.  (About a year ago, a study was done on the quality of air on playgrounds in the Muskegon area.  Lincoln Park Elementary had the worst due to the foundries that are a couple of blocks away.  I hope my kids don't end up with COPD some day.)

My favorite part of the route is along the lakes.  There is a bike path along Muskegon Lake.  It's wide and shady with a great view.

I stopped to take a picture of this Buster Keaton sign.  I've never stopped to read it before today.  It doesn't say a whole lot, so I had to "google" it.  As it turns out, Buster Keaton's parents had a home near the lake when he was growing up.  They spent their summers in Muskegon every year.  Who knew?  I've lived here most of my life and never knew that until now.

First glimpse of Lake Michigan

You know it's the end of summer when the fences go up on the beach.

They help keep the sand from blowing too much.

Lake Michigan is beautiful to run along, of course.  There are houses across the street from the beach.  The only negative about living there would be that, between the snow and the sand, you'd have to shovel year round.

Only a few boats were out this late in the season. 

This boardwalk was built about 10 years ago. 

 Heading Inland

Muskegon Country Club

I knew when I looked down at my watch at this point and had been running for 65 minutes, that I had remembered the distance to the lake incorrectly.  Oops.  Oh well, I was glad to get in a little longer workout.  I clocked my run with the car afterwards and it ended up 8.4 miles.  I ran it in just over 84 minutes, which I was pleased with.  Tomorrow, I will probably be a bit sore, but it feels good in that I know I stretched myself.

Patient Humor

One of my 85+ year old patients was commenting about her somewhat high blood pressure this morning.

"Oh well, what are you going to do about it?  I guess someday, it'll be down to nothing."

Now that's positive thinking.

ArtPrize

The city of Grand Rapids is the stage right now for an international art contest called ArtPrize.  The general public decides who the winner will be.  The prize--$250,000.  This is the third year for the contest and it's quite amazing.  My husband and I, along with a group of friends, went yesterday afternoon.  There were over 2000 pieces of art, of which we only saw about a quarter of, if that.  It amazes me how many talented people there are.  Here is just a sampling of what we saw.  

The amazing thing with this collage is that you can't see

the eye until you look at it in a photograph. 

  This was not done with a cast but was sculpted by hand.

I don't remember it being so blurry.

Amazing when you look at it up close. 

I wonder when my husband posed for this?
These are truly abs of steel.  Or maybe bronze.

 I'm going to get out my son's Legos and work on something for next year.

 This is a single sheet of hand-cut black paper.

The artist cut 20,000 holes to make this.

 Now that's a big bird.

I thought this should have been in the top ten.

This was done with duct tape. 

These are monkeys hanging from a bridge. 

One of the nice things about ArtPrize is that the museums 

are open to the public for free, since they are venues for 

much of the art.

The following pieces were voted in as the top ten.

This is entitled "Rain".

I'm sure it was more difficult than it looks.

"Rusty" was made from old junk.

Note the old bicycle seat on it's nose, 

the tire with hubcaps for the collar, and the trees for legs.

"Mantis Dreaming" 

"Ocean Exodus" is carved from driftwood.  

You have to look closely at it to see all the intricacies.

There are dolphin, a sea turtle, jelly fish, an octopus 

and more carved into this.

 "Under Construction" was interesting.  The man on the left is real.

He would start hammering and moving around every now and then.

"President Ford Visits ArtPrize"  

The artist was there demonstrating how he sculpts.  

He formed a finger while we were standing there. 

"Grizzlies on the Ford"

These wood carvings were in the fountain

outside the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum.

If you live anywhere near Grand Rapids, this is definitely worth going to.  It's free and they have shuttle buses to bring you to the different neighborhoods that are venues.  The pictures don't do justice.  Especially these pictures with my little point and shoot camera.

Lake Michigan Fury

On windy days, we like to ride down to Lake Michigan and see how big the waves are.  The winds were gusting at 50 mph yesterday, so after dinner, we went to check it out.  Big disappointment as far as the waves go.  But the sunset was beautiful.