Posts from the “Ypsilanti” Category
Sunday, January 20, 2013

Ypsilanti: A Winter’s Sunday Squash

What do we do on a cold feels-like-one-degree day in January? Bake and cook squash, that’s what we do. To stay warm, mostly. And save money for the bounty of spring and summer, when Ms. H and I partipate in Tantre Farm’s summer farm share. Tasty!

Color photo of homemade country breadToday I am making country bread, which I love. It has no yeast and takes less than an hour from start to finish. Ms. H is the real baker in this relationship. I don’t have the patience with leavening agents. She does, however, and has a repertoire of yeasted bread performances that are nothing short of spectacular. We’ve invited friends over and watched them devour two fresh loaves of oat bread, which isn’t surprising, given how fantastic it tastes.

In these winter months squash is the vegetable of the day, week and month. Color photo fo black bean and butternut squash chiliRight now on top of the stove a black bean butternut squash chili is cooking. This recipe guarantees a warm kitchen. The dried beans cook for about three hours before the butternut squash is added. Oh humidity how I love thee! (You won’t be hearing me say that in the summer, though….). This chili will be hot, as I’ve added some dried chilies from Taos, New Mexico, seeds and husk. Spicy food is fantastic in winter, especially when I sweat. I’ve known people who sprinkled chili powder in their shoes to keep their feet warm. I’ve not tried it yet, but your mileage may vary.

To this lovely ode to heat and gas I will add a blue hubbard squash soup. The blue hubbard squash will roast in the oven at 350 for an hour. I like to roast squash for certain soups. For others, like the chili above, I don’t. I say experiment and find out what you like. We lucked out this year with Blue Hubbard. Normally these squash come in a beast-size only. But we did receive two smaller ones that mean I won’t have to freeze what we don’t use today.IMG_0046 I haven’t added anything to the squash. The soup recipe will have nutmeg and sage and bayleaf and coriander. I figured there is no point in mudding the flavors by adding something to the squash as it cooks in the oven.

The seeds will get roasted after the squash comes out of the oven. Those are the seeds across the top of this entry.

I grew up with a father who cooked all our meals. To us he bequeathed a kitchen confidence that I relish to this day. Over time I have developed enough skills and confidence to freestyle cook, often with no recipe. I liken it to the culinary equivalent of flaneuring. I start off with some basic ingredients, mix,cook and adjust. In the end I hope I am the most surprised of all.

Squash will continue to be the winter food of choice in this latitude. We don’t have any other choice, really. And I’ve tried purchasing vegetables grown elsewhere at Costco and other places. The taste is decidedly lacking. So squash it is. I’ve come to realize that all this squash makes those first rasberries and asparagus of spring that much more delicious and that much more fleeting.

I have no right to hold on to culinary tastes throughout the seasons anymore than I have a right to peak experiences every minute of the day. Even if I could, I wouldn’t want to.
Monday, January 7, 2013

Ypsilanti: Archictectural Ruins at Gault Village Shopping Center

Yesterday we walked by the mangled remains of the old Kmart Department store, Gault Village Shopping Center. Mold infested and abandoned for the last twenty years, the building stood sentinel for a time of post war prosperity through UAW strength. Prior to the shopping center John Gault ran a farm, where famed country superstar Patsy Cline boarded as a tenant.)

The northern part of my township – the part of the township I inhabit – at one time flourished Gault Village housed several businesses that served both the Township and the City. But the Grove Road exits posed driving threats that provided the basis for the State’s claim to close them. The City and Township found some initial success in stalling the closings, but, ultimately, lost. Businesses suffered immediately.

Charles Pollow, Manager of the W. T. Grant Department Store (the predecessor to K-Mart) said (business) “has been lousy – it’s been very bad….I’d say we’re down 25 to 30 percent.”

Gault Village became a shell of its once robust self. The Township opted to pursue business growth at the South end of the Township at the Huron exit (which opened right after the State closed the Grove road exits).

Flaneuring through this area remains troubling. The topography is ugly, the historical reminders are sad. A now closed UAW legal office sits in the back of Gault Village, near the Dollar Store. Township residents forty years ago would have scoffed at the idea that the UAW union and the auto industry itself would have been cut out from everyday life here in Ypsilanti Township.

But here we are. (Special thanks to Adventurestew for the Ann Arbor News links.)
Friday, November 9, 2012

Ypsilanti: CBC Radio 2

When I flaneur I often have music playing in my head. From childhood music has played an integral role in my overall sense of well-being. Without, I become rather crabby and very curmudgeonly. By the time I left Chicago in 1997, public radio there had become a vast land of talk radio. Granted it was NPR talk radio, but talk radio nonetheless.

I do like the occasional talk-radio program. But mostly I live for music on the radio and interviews with musicians. I could the rest of my life and never watch another television program again. Without radio, though, I would be lost.

One of the very best and great things about Ypsilanti, Michigan is our proximity to Windsor, Ontario. We are just east enough from Ann Arbor to receive the Windsor feed of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Radio 2 broadcasts. Every day. All day. I love that the local news is Canadian and the world news is from a Canadian perspective. I love that they have a variety of music ranging from opera to jazz (though Tonic, Radio 2′s jazz show, is fantastic, it will never be the same for me once long-time Tonic hostKatie Malloch retired in early 2012).

In short, CBC Radio 2 provides an international perspective for a tiny hamlet on the Huron and Ypsilanti rivers. For a world-travelled soul such as myself, I find I need a decidedly non-American approach to both the news and the music.

And it is the realm of music the Radio 2 shines. Of course they play Canadian musicians of all genres. But they also play lesser known American musicians or unknown cuts from concepts albums by more well-known American artists. Radio 2′s commitment to travel the lesser known musical sounds (read here “not-so-corporate”) led me to Zooey Deschanel’s collaborative debut album, She & Him, Volume One when a Radio 2 DJ played ‘Why Do You Let Me Stay Here.’

Hearing this song, I felt like a shot of adrenaline had entered my heart. I’ve listened it to endlessly and am grateful for Radio 2 and our Canadian friends to our north. The quality of radio programming offered without commericials and with a commitment to a much greater variety of artists than NPR could ever hope to offer makes living in my little rust-belt hamlet well worth it. In fact, it’s one of the reasons I’m loathe to move, that’s how much I love CBC Radio.

(For your additional listening pleasure, I include below a very charming video of ‘Why Do You Let Me Stay Here’ that Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt created for their movie ’500 Days of Summer. Enjoy!)