Soufflé gone bad

This is what was suppose to happen: A soufflé is a light, fluffy, baked dish made with egg yolks and beaten egg whites combined with various other ingredients and served as a savory main dish or sweetened as a dessert. The word soufflé is the past participle of the French verb souffler which means "to blow up" or more loosely "puff up" — an apt description of what happens to this combination of custard and egg whites.

This is what we created: Trust me, we analyzed this to death. The end observation: the pan was too big for the contents. We should have bake this in smaller pans. The taste was all right - but we all know the big fluffly presentation is what it's all about....We will try again!

Let the building begin

Todd and the guys (Paul, Eric and Al) went to the U.P. this weekend in part to check out the Beaton property. The building permit is posted and the concrete foundation was poured last week for the cabin and sauna. We're now another step closer to the northwoods cabin. Click here to see more photosThe boys then headed on up to the Keweenah property to play work on the new electricity and gas connections to the trusty trailer on the property. Aside from 16ft tall tree stands for deer hunting season, the guys also dammed up Gay Lake and now have a water source from one of the above ground springs on the property.

Ryann's new digs

Went to the Twin Cities on Saturday to see Ryann's new place for this school year. What an awesome little house just minutes away from the campus by bicycle. You can see a slideshow of house pictures here

Also found her a bed and desk as well as loaded her up with groceries. Went out to dinner on Saturday night with the usual suspects, Ryann, Margo, Ryan Dean and Raine. We ate at a new little restaurant called Kilimanjaro - Saturday's special was goat stew. The stew was fantastic with great seasonings. You dont' find goat at Copps. I can tell you that.

Luciano Pavarotti and James Brown Kick it!

Beef Stroganoff - a family favorite

Apologies to our non-meat eating friends, just scroll past this entry. During our last supper (before Ryann left for school) Todd taught Ryann the art of making Beef Stroganoff, a family favorite. Made with tenderloin, mushrooms, red wine, beef stock, whole mustard and sourcream, this dish is just too good to pass up. Poor Teiko didn't stand a chance getting a piece of the meal. But he sure gave it a good try asking Todd for some leftovers (of which there was none as evidenced by the empty plate....)

The last hurrahs of summer

Todd, Raine and I got a nice treat over the labor day weekend. Frank offered us his cabin. Raine has spent a lot of time up at Beacon Lake helping Frank with the myriad of projects that always need to be done before opening the cabin for the summer. But I don't think Todd or I have been to this little piece of paradise in a couple of years, since we spend most of our time further north at our property in Michigan.

Here's a little slide show of our our weekend. You can either watch it here or click on the images to see bigger versions and captions. (Still working with the picasa webalbum features....)

Ryann has left the building

Ryann has gone back to the Twin Cities for the start of her junior year at the University of Minnesota. Mama sad. Well, not really sad, because it was nice have my messy kid back in the nest for the month of August. Messy, meaning, she leaves stuff everywhere. Bowls, dishes, clothes. You name it, Ryann has left it laying around....One of her cooking feats while home was her famous pizza night. She has got the dough and fresh made pizza sauce down pat. Wow! That kid could make a living opening a pizza joint somewhere. Friends come out of the woodwork when word goes out that Ryann will be pizza making. Here's a photo of the Pizza Meister putting the finishing touches on her sauce (made with fresh herbs from the momma's garden!)