A recently published article on a trip to Norway in July 2024. If, for some reason you’re blocked and really want to read this, it’s on Facebook and LinkedIn. Excuse ads, inserted by the folks at Go World Travel.
https://www.goworldtravel.com/norway-trolls-glaciers-mayonnaise/
Several of you out there have told me my blog is blocked. In an effort to stop this, I have changed my email marketing service. I very much hope this gets rid of any problems you have had.
I, f in the past or recently, you were blocked and no longer are, could you take a second and let me know?
Thanks for your feedback. Enjoy Thanksgiving.
Mari
A dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker, I learned a lot at Yorkville and the Arts, a free walking tour sponsored by Friends of the Upper East Side. The Yorkville I remember from childhood centered on East 86th Street where there were many small German shops. My
Marzipan pigs
favorite was the Elk Candy Company, home of marzipan pigs and a fried egg in a skillet.
The tour group first walked 95th Street from Park to Lexington Avenue, a beautiful block I had never set foot on before despite living on East 94th street in my earliest years and later at Park and 96th, with my husband and daughters. (How parochial is that?) We paused to admire Al Hirschfeld’s house, still looking spiffy and well-tended. Finding all the ‘Nina’s’ in his cartoon on the front page of the New York Times was a Sunday ritual.
Al Hirschfeld’s cartoon of himself–look for the Nina’s
The Marx family—Chico, Zippo, Harpo, Grouch et al and their parents—ten people altogether—lived at 179 East 93rd. Pre-comedic success, theirs was a life of relative poverty as what income they had came from their father, Frenchie, an ‘incompetent’ tailor. According to our guide, the Marx apartment had running water but no internal toilet or shower so family members went to the 92nd Street Y, (recently rebranded 92NY probably at great cost), to bathe.
Zeppo, Groucho, Harpo and Chico (if I got it right)
(A link to Groucho, one of the the funniest men ever, singing Lydia the Tattoed Lady} https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVBBxptpSY8
Painter Helen Frankenthaler and her husband, painter, Robert Motherwell, moved around within the area several times. Both artists needed large spaces for their huge canvasses which accounts for their many housing shifts. Their marriage was a great success until it wasn’t as they divorced after thirteen years.
Our group moved to 87th street to view the 1868 firehouse rented by Andy Warhol for five months until his lease was revoked. It was a bit of a wreck but for $150 a month I guess Andy made it work. In 1965, the building was bought by art dealer, Daniel Wildenstein, who made it over into a sculpture garden. The exposed east side of the building has a fairly recent caricature of Warhol’s head and wild hair which you can see with some neck craning.
Warhol’s 1960 studio built in the 1860w
The tour ended at 83rd and York Avenue where the corner building has a mural by Richard Hass. Called Glockenspiel, it dates to 2005 when residents of a new luxury condo across 83rd were unhappy with what they deemed a ‘shabby’ view from their lobby. The condo owners had the mural painted to give the illusion that the neighborhood was sufficiently upscale to justify the apartment prices.
The lower part of the mural could use a touch-up but the upper sections, that include images of mounted NYPD officers, gargoyles, a sewing machine, and a trompe l’oeil bay window, are in pretty good shape.
Note the mounted police officers towards the top of the mural
I think Schaller & Weber is the only German business left in an area now given over to the likes of H&M, Shake Shack and P. C Richard’s. What’s left of the old Yorkville survives in memories like this warm German Potato Salad that would stand out at any meal.
Warm German Potato Salad courtesy Five Heart Home
Recipe serves six:
2 pounds small red potatoes
1 ½ teaspoon salt
12 ounces bacon
⅓ cup cider vinegar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar (you can get away with two or even less—taste)
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic, about 3 cloves (not as made by me)
½ cup chopped parsley
Scrub the potatoes and cut in half so that all pieces are roughly the same size. Put potatoes in a big pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and stir in 1 teaspoon of salt. Reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until potatoes are tender when stabbed with a fork. Drain.
Leaving potatoes in the pot, return the pot to the still-hot (but turned off) burner. Leave the lid off of the pot and allow the potatoes to steam dry for a couple minutes.
Set another large pot over medium heat and cut bacon strips into approximately 1-inch pieces. Put bacon into pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until crispy.. When bacon is done, remove with slotted spoon leaving bacon fat in the pot.
Slowly add vinegar, sugar, mustard, remaining salt, and pepper to the pot of bacon grease. With pot back on the burner, bring the mixture to a simmer, and stir for a couple of minutes. Stir the minced garlic (if using) into the mixture and cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute, until the garlic starts to turn a light golden.
Remove pot from heat and toss in sliced potatoes, mixing until potatoes have absorbed all of the liquid. Fold in the cooked bacon pieces and chopped parsley. Put potato salad into serving dish and serve warm. (Don’t let it sit at room temp for more than two hours before refrigerating.)
I’ve made this and it’s wonderful. Serve with sausages from Schaller & Weber or hot dogs or pretty much anything (pork loin/ chicken/lamb anyone?). I gather that Billie Eilish’s Birds of a Feather is currently popular in Germany but Bach’s Brandenberg Concerto would be just as—maybe more—pleasing to some ears. Or an oompah band. Here’s the Brandenburg: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=Brandenburg+concerto#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:f477c2f8,vid:NCPM8DEsvmc,st:0
I spent a delightful week in Tuscany in a watercolor workshop. The group, organized by Il Chiostro, that runs a variety of programs in Italy and elsewhere, housed us at Borgo San Fedele, near Radda in Chianti.
Restored Borgo San Fedele
The Borgo, once a large Romanesque church that had fallen into near total disrepair, has been entirely restored. The marble stairs throughout including those up to my attractive second floor room provided an excellent workout. The property hosts private and corporate events, workshops and weddings.
Between bouts of painting we went to several nearby Tuscan towns including Gaole in Chianti, (near where my husband and I rented a villa for our family twenty-two years ago), Castellana and Radda. One mildly rainy day we drove to Sienna where I went inside the Picolomini Library, tucked into the black-and-white striped Duomo.
In Picolomini Library (These folks got the memo about matching outfits)
Inside the Library are manuscripts and terrific frescos including one depicting Raphael, the painter, in chic maroon tights. The cathedral itself is a jewel and the library a special treasure.
At a vendemia, (grape harvest), we watched workers wielding scissors to clip bunches of grapes off the vines before dropping them into plastic buckets. Filled buckets were tossed into a tractor-truck heading to the mechanical crushing area, Gone are the days of barefoot grape stomping rendered so hilariously by Lucille Ball.
Who did not love Lucy?
There is a newish (2006) archeological museum in Castellina exhibiting finds from Etruscan burial mounds. The museum is next to the fortress that has a walkway at the top for a wonderful view which I skipped as time ran out. Vaguely scholarly note: the Etruscans, who peopled ancient Italy, passed on many cultural and artistic traditions to the Romans and occupied
Ancient Etruscan settlements
what is now Tuscany and a great deal more of modern Italy.
During the week I ate lots of pasta, gelato, various riffs on salami and what I’ve incorrectly been calling biscotti for years. Biscotti translates as ‘cookie’; cantucci are specific ‘cookies.’ (Think of ‘cookie’ being the category and ‘chocolate chip’ the specific kind of cookie.) The traditional way to eat cantucci is to dip them into Vin Santo, a sweet dessert wine, but I happily inhaled them out of the bag.
Here’s a video of making cantucci although the presenter refers to them as biscotti.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx9FnQ0G0t4
Typically, biscotti are very hard – a treat for the dentist, hence the classic dunking. To complete your experience, corral a bottle of Vin Santo and listen to a snatch of Italian opera, maybe something by Puccini. Think of the rolling hills of Tuscany.
This is the third August that I’ve rented in Bucks County. This years’ house was terrific, a stone beauty from the 18th century with all mod cons, well-appointed and set on a 100 acre conserved farm. The front of the house faces a little creek and the property includes numerous outbuildings including a large barn. Finding places to plug in all ones’ electronics is a little bit of a challenge but manageable, more than offset by the wonderful kitchen, good showers and comfy beds.
Sake, my cat, came with me and had an A+ vacation. After vanishing for a day and a half dealing with the terror of being in unfamiliar quarters, she ventured out to enjoy prime cat
Sake watching a good channel
TV via the bird feeders close to many windows, had her first experience with stairs, and interacted with the company.
On my first morning at the property I managed to run out of gas, thankfully in the driveway. It took some time to rouse assistance (hello AAA) but finally a local guy came with two precious gallons, enough for me to get to a gas station for a full tank.
My daughters, along with one’s husband and the other’s partner, came for Labor Day weekend. On Sunday we went tubing on the Delaware where I began by not centering my butt in the innertube, causing me to fall into the fairly warm river. Once we
People–not us- tubing on the Delaware
were all launched, the outing was fun although by the last half hour we felt we were ready to get out of the water.
Another day we went to Ringing Rocks Park, an eight acre field of boulders, some of which make a quasi-musical note when struck with a hammer. If ever you go there bring one.
Scrambling over rocks minus hammer
I had two dinners at the Riegelsville Inn, one with friends, one with family, both lovely. I also met another friend of many years for lunch and a catch-up at the Doylestown Inn. Afterwards I went to the Michener Art Museum, named to honor author James Michener who was born in Doylestown, and wrote Tales of the South Pacific, Centennial, Texas and The Bridges at Toki-ri among other works. Michener’s third wife, Mari Yoriko Sabusawa, was interned along with her parents in a camp set up by the U.S. government during the early years of WWII.
Altogether, it was a lovely eleven days with interesting things to do and see and many good meals. Having invested heavily in local peaches, I made this peach crisp for one night’s dessert:
Peach Crisp by Yossi Arefi from NY Times Cooking:
3 pounds peaches cut into ½-inch slices (absolutely no need to peel)
⅓ cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Salt
1cup all-purpose flour
½ packed cup light brown sugar
½ cup grams rolled oats (the same oats as used to make oatmeal)
½ cup unsalted butter, softened and cut into pieces.
How To:
Heat oven to 375 degrees with a rack in the center
In a large bowl, combine the peaches, granulated sugar, lemon juice, cornstarch and a pinch of salt. Stir to combine, transfer to an 8-by-8 inch baking dish and press down gently to compact the fruit in the dish.
In another bowl add the flour, light brown sugar, oats and ¼ teaspoon salt; stir to combine. Add the butter and use your fingers or a pastry blender to mash the butter into the flour mixture until evenly mixed—it forms clumps.
Sprinkle the clumped mixture evenly over the peaches, then bake the crisp until the topping is golden brown and the peach juices are bubbling, 45 to 50 minutes.
Serve at room temp (or warm if just made) with vanilla ice cream.
If you remember the (very) old song, What did Delaware?” sing it. If you don’t, here it is, sung by Perry Como: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Udei5HzMnfM
As in Island, not a conflagration with sympathies to those forced to deal with the red-hot kind.
I visited a friend of many years’ standing on FI over the weekend. She’s been coming here since she was an infant, in fact, her father was the Mayor of Ocean Beach in the thirties. Several of her children and many other relatives also have houses on the island concentrated in the community of Seaview.
Ocean breezes notwithstanding, it was very hot Friday and Saturday; probably marginally cooler than in NYC although once the sun went down the temp decreased somewhat.
Saturday morning we went to an annual baseball game honoring two Seaview men who lost their lives on 9/11.
Most of the players were men in their mid-years with a sprinkling of teen boys and a few young women. Good playing all around but due to the heat we left after five innings.
Later that day we walked to Ocean Beach. There’s a lot of bamboo along the streetsides but so far as I know a panda invasion isn’t threatening. 
Once in ‘town’ we browsed the shops buying nothing although there is a new store with pretty jewelry and woven baskets. We passed lots of restaurants, mostly noisy and full of beer-drinking young people, as well as a few realtors and other businesses.
That night, the woman my friend shares her house with made a wonderful dinner of Eggplant Stacks served with pasta and a salad with veggies from the garden. More on that later.
Throughout the weekend people dropped by—friends, family and neighbors including one with her dog who has passed the required tests to become a therapy dog. Fearless deer browsed outside. The place is a kids’ paradise thanks to no cars and a roster of activities.
Among my fave pastimes was enjoying the outdoor shower—there’s something about looking up into trees that makes it special. My other delight was a long walk Sunday morning on the beach where the waves looked pretty terrifying to me, a fairly capable but far from Esther Williams swimmer. It was about nine a.m., so lifeguards were setting up rescue stations and I was glad I had no plans to enter the water above ankle level so would not need rescuing.
We read, watched the Olympics and hung out. I painted a little and did a quick sketch of my friend who is a knitter extraordinaire, rarely seen without needles and wool in hand. She completed a baby blanket and then embarked on what will be a beautiful scarf, most of her output going to people in need.
It was a great break on a sultry weekend.
Here’s the recipe for Eggplant Stacks a la Carrie N.
Peel an eggplant in strips leaving some of the skin on. Slice it into roughly ¼ inch thick rounds.
Spray a baking dish (a 9×12 Pyrex pan works well) with Pam or olive oil.
Brush both sides of the eggplant slices with olive oil.
Bake at 375 flipping once if you want to until slices are soft. Let slices cool.
Coat the pan with ‘red sauce,’ either homemade or out of a jar like Rao’s or Ragu.
Lay eggplant slices on top of sauce. Dollop each with pesto, homemade or bought. Top each with a piece of mozzarella about the size of a silver dollar.
Start over: red sauce, eggplant slices, pesto, mozzarella. End with red sauce and toss on some fresh basil leaves if you have them.
Bake at 350 covered with foil; remove foil towards the end of cooking which is when the stacks are hot through.
FYI: you can substitute zucchini, cut the long way, for the eggplant.
Serve humming Come on Baby, Light My Fire, if you so desire.
Alice Liddell aged seven
Victorians eroticized children even as they considered them total innocents which may have been very convenient for Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll. Scholars dispute if Carroll was a pedophile but it is generally acknowledged that his relationship with Alice Liddell, her two sisters and other young girls was unusually intimate. Dodgson may have wanted to marry Alice, one of her sisters or perhaps her governess. Despite many theories nothing has been conclusively proved but one thing is clear: Carroll’s 1865 novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has never been out of print, has been translated into 174 languages and is an endless source of enjoyment in films, art, ballet, opera, musical theater and theme parks as well as board and video games.
Using Wonderland: Curious Nature as a theme, the New York Botanical Garden’s current exhibit attempts to bring it to life. Some of it is wonderful like the White Rabbit,
White Rabbit at the exhibit
(although he’s green as he’s made of plants), in the center of a pond and the rabbit footprints that lead visitors from area to area (which are on a paper map- better had they been painted on the paths.) The exhibit at the Mertz Library, focusing on mind-altering plants like mushrooms and depicting the Victorian interest in science, includes four mini-dioramas and some material from Charles Darwin but would have been even better had more works been included. The day we visited, the “high tea” served in various locales featured sandwiches on stale bread and lacked the promised clotted cream and jam supposed to accompany the very dry scones.
My “tea’ came in a paper bag with a plastic glass of weak iced tea
The New York Times raved about the exhibit:
www.nytimes.com/2024/04/24/arts/design/new-york-botanical-garden-wonderland.html
but my friend and I gave it a B minus feeling there should have been more Alice-related items to see and far more comprehensive signage directing visitors. We noticed these odd-looking plants but thought only that they were peculiar and not set out to “stop and 
interact {with}. ” (My interactions with plants were limited to getting them into the ground, weeding, watering, and cutting them. We rarely spoke.)
It was a glorious late May day and the garden was uncrowded. That alone was like tumbling down the rabbit hole. The exhibition runs until October 27th; if it sounds like fun, try to bring a child along. A young companion won’t be jaded and will likely find parts—or all — of the exhibit terrific.
Get into your own Wonderland with:
Crimini mushrooms
Mushroom Risotto
4 tablespoons olive oil
1½ pounds mixed mushrooms, chopped
¾ teaspoon sea salt, plus more to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped (or less or none; I’m impossible about garlic)
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
1½ cups uncooked Arborio rice, rinsed
⅔ cup dry white wine
5 cups warmed vegetable broth
½ cup grated pecorino or Parmesan cheese plus more for serving
Chopped fresh parsley, for garnish
Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a Dutch oven or large, deep skillet over medium heat. Add the mushrooms, ½ teaspoon of the salt, and several grinds of pepper and toss to coat. Cook, stirring only occasionally, for 8 minutes, or until soft and browned. Remove from the pan and set aside. Work in batches if necessary.
Wipe out the pan and return it to the heat. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil, the onion, and the remaining ¼ teaspoon sea salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 to 8 minutes, or until softened. Stir in the garlic, thyme, and rice. Let cook for 1 minute, then add the wine. Stir and cook for 1 to 3 minutes, or until the wine cooks down.
Add the broth ¾ cup at a time, stirring constantly and allowing each addition of broth to be absorbed before adding the next. With the final addition of broth, stir two-thirds of the sautéed mushrooms into the risotto. Cook until the risotto is creamy and the rice has a slight al dente bite. Stir in the cheese and season to taste.
Top with the remaining sautéed mushrooms, garnish with parsley, and serve with more grated cheese.
Maybe it only makes an impact if you watch? Do so: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=i%27m+late+song#fpstate=ive&ip=1&vld=cid:15cd8ae8,vid:Q93VrYOXSe8,st:0
These are the animals shown on Michigan’s shield along with a sun rising over a lake. I spent almost a week visiting a friend’s house, bought by her father in 1947, that is literally on the shore of Lake Michigan. Factoid: Some people refer to Michigan as the “Mitten State” because of its shape. If you go with this, her house would be on the bottom of the palm.
While I was there my friend worked on getting the house in shape for upcoming summer renters. We still found time to pick wildflowers, walk on the beach, (some people were in the water which was about 60 so way too cold for this eastern wimp), pick up stones and paint a watercolor of them, cook, have dinner with her friends, eat outrageously huge portions of ice cream at a local stand, visit several Farmer’s Markets and so forth. 
In my friend’s parents’ early days the house stood almost alone but over the years others have bought or built around it. There is a lot of construction going on, some building new homes and some fixing or enlarging existing houses. The place has a vibe of beach-cum- rural living- cum- farming with a good sprinkle of independence.
Peonies at a market
Most of our lunches were salads in some form. One day, in a very successful effort to use up a bunch of bits and pieces hanging out in the fridge we had this:
Salad Lake Michigan
Salmon left over from being cooked the day before
Quartered small previously oven roasted red potatoes roasted with olive oil, onions and rosemary
A slice of grilled zucchini cut up
One slice leftover tomato
½ a yellow pepper cut into small dice
1 large radish cut into small dice
Gently combine all the above in a bowl
The dressing was roughly ¼ cup mayonnaise combined with roughly ¼ cup of my standard vinaigrette as follows;
Vinaigrette MG
½ cup olive oil
Less than ½ cup balsamic vinegar
Squeeze of honey (or a few pinches of sugar)
About ¼ tablespoon Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper
Pour dressing over the salad and toss. Pile the salad over lettuce, preferably from a local market.
Put on mittens and while serving sing a chorus of Hail to the Conquering Hero. If you’ve forgotten it, this should do the job.
Floating pollutants on Gowanus Canal
For my 2024 involvement with Janes Walk, named in honor of Jane Jacobs, City planner extraordinaire, I went on an excursion billed as a “Gowanus Soundwalk.” Organized by the Municipal Arts Society, my walk was led by delightful Miranda S., a musician whose knowledge made her well-suited to the focus on sound. About twelve people gathered at the starting point, many of them residents of the area we were exploring. We walked for several hours stopping to discuss the sounds we’d heard on each stretch and learning about the Canal.
As to what we heard: even though it was a Saturday there was plenty of construction noise to say nothing of cars, an EMS vehicle, trucks and the accompanying human sounds and yes, on some streets, chirping birds. Inside Powerhouse Arts, a “factory” for ceramicists, print makers and other artists, the sounds were very different partly because we were indoors. Interestingly, the people pushing heavy-looking carts around the Grand Hall didn’t talk to one another much but the noises of their carts and footfalls were audible. (Side note: Powerhouse Arts is well-worth visiting and offers tours. To learn more and sign up: https://powerhousearts.org/about/visit-us/)
Great Hall of Powerhouse Art, the former artists’ and squatters ‘Batcave’
The Gowanus Canal was designated a Superfund site in 2009; cleaning it up began in 2013. Despite all the work by the EPA and other entities including the City, and the over $1.6 billion and rising funding the work, my impression is that the main beneficiaries will be developers. The area has had stone and coal yards, flour mills, cement works, manufactured gas plants, tanneries, factories for paint, ink, and soap, machine shops, chemical plants and sulfur producers operating on its banks since the nineteenth century, all dumping waste into the canal. Waste from area housing is also in the mix. The lawyers of sewage, locally known as ‘black mayonnaise’ are deep; to add to the problems, climate change contributes to flooding. The air smells awful and apparently on hot summer days it’s awful plus 100. For more details on problems affecting cleanup, click here: https://www.eenews.net/articles/watchdog-to-epa-step-up-gowanus-canal-cleanup-enforcement/
The area was rezoned in 2021 with 8500 new apartments slated to be built over the next twelve years. 3000 units of this new construction will be “affordable” housing; luxury units are also being built.
Black mayonnaise is repulsive so here’s a recipe for the delicious kind:
Homemade Mayonnaise –courtesy Melissa Clark for New York Times Cooking
Makes 1 cup
In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolk, lemon juice, mustard, salt and 1 teaspoon cold water until frothy. Whisking constantly, slowly dribble in the oil until mayonnaise is thick and oil is incorporated. When the mayonnaise emulsifies and starts to thicken, you can add the oil in a thin stream, instead of drop by drop.
Watch Melissa in action: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/12459-mayonnaise (Note: some of the commenters report using an immersion blender. Melissa’s version with a whisk gives you a mini-arm workout as the video shows.)
I’m entirely confident about the recipe, far less so about the Canal.
