It has been terribly hot out for the last few days and I haven't been in the mood to cook very much.

For lunch today I had some fruit, bread and cheese and it took me back to when I used to visit "La Fondue", a restaurant that used to be located at 43 W 55 St. in NYC. La Fondue is where I learned about cheese when I was quite young. They had well over 100 cheeses on the menu, and I would always pick one of the Cheese Tours - especially the French, Italian, or "Continental". They were not afraid to put some challenging, sophtisticated cheeses on the plate. Each tour would come with 4-6 cheeses, great breads and crackers, and the most delicious fruit.

Anyway, today's lunch brought it all back.

Mill Valley Kitchen in St. Louis Park, MN: I stopped in for a weekday dinner with my friend Earl. The ambiance was light and cheery, the servers were smiling and attentive, and the food was quite good. I had a warm spinach salad with blue cheese, apple and walnuts - just perfectly constructed and lightly dressed. The salmon I added was grilled to perfection, though it might have been overdone for some tastes, but it was beautifully flavored and moist. A quibble: On the side I ordered risotto, but instead of risotto I got a plate of puffed brown rice. It was delicious, but it had nothing to do with risotto, so it was puzzling. For dessert I had a shotglass full of maple panna cotta. The maple flavor was overwhelmed with smoked sea salt, but I still appreciated the dessert very much. Portions were small, but satisfying and appropriate to the price charged. I appreciated the quality ingredients used and the skill with which dishes were prepared. I have no reservations about going back at some point to try more of the menu.

As usual, discussion with Earl was amazing, ranging from jobs and careers to friends and family and fun things we plan to do together in the future.

I've been helping my old college friend Larry tweak his new website Wordbender.net.

Larry is a great writer and is starting a new consulting / freelance business to help nonprofits, government organizations, public policy-oriented companies and community leaders craft and promote effective communications and PR.

If you know and like Larry, you should also link to his site!

I haven't been posting much to LJ because, while I've been overall happy, I've been in a bit of a rut. Work. Eat. TV. Repeat. Not so good, that.

On the work front, I've almost finished half of my "Real Estate Information Security Essentials" workshops - 10 city tour - Washington DC, Dallas, Orlando, San Diego, San Jose, Phoenix, Los Angeles., Detroit, St. Paul, and Chicago. It's gone really well but there are more non-techs showing up than anticipated. I've found an agenda structure and balance that works for it, and it's actually been really helpful to get the non-tech perspective. Their questions have inspired some blogs and articles that I plan to get reprinted in local industry newsletters. Those are over on my pro blog - http://www.realtown.com/mattcohen/blog/. Anyway, I've gotten some good kudos which may be useful in trying to extend the education engagement with the National Association of Realtors - more workshops, webinars, articles, etc.

Last night E and I went to Heidi's - http://heidismpls.com/ - in their new space over at 29th and Lyndale. I like it there - being in LynLake, it feels more like *my* neighborhood restaurant now. We got the tasting menu and I got the matching wine flights.

The "Bennie" - Eggless Benedict with huitlacoche and truffle

Tongue - Pickled beef tongue, roasted shiitake mushroom salad, mustard/soy "noodles"

Mussel Soup - Creamy mussel broth, roasted parsnips, tomato stew and fried parsley

Seared Duck Breast - Duck breast & coffee pecan pancake, scallion foam, lingonberry sauce

Nitro chocolate mousse - with roasted marshmallow, peanut butter bliss and honey

The only dish that wasn't out of the park good was the "Bennie" - I appreciated that they basically made a poached egg out of non-egg ingredients and used all the fancy molecular gastronomy tools to do it - but in the end it just tasted like a slightly salty poached egg. Imagination and technical expertise appreciated, but for my first course I'd like something really yummy?

I can only remember a few of the wine pairings but I'll say that all the wines were well selected to accompany the food flavors and it was great to try some expensive wines that I probably would never choose for myself. They actually served me two wines with the duck - one white, and one red. The red really complemented the duck, while the white went amazingly with the pancake beneath it.

Anyway, it was a fabulous evening and I'm sure we'll go back. E said she liked it more than Vincent's - more fun. It was certainly less expensive and tasty.

I've posted pictures from state fair to Facebook -
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=485472&id=783395178&l=15d20b80cd

If you're not my 'friend' on that site you might not be able to view the photos, but not sure of that.

I always love to see the differently colored honey



Between the milk booth visits, the pina colada shake, the fried cheese curds, and the Kiwanis malt, if I was lactose intolerant I'd be dead by now.

I've been in NYC on business - yesterday I had to have walked at least 150 blocks for fun though.

Look at all the consumers go! Apple store is under the plaza, enter through the cube and go downstairs...	Metropolitan Museum of Art - best dang museum anywhere
Central Park - kids love playing on the Alice in Wonderland sculpture	Central Park - model radio-controlled yachts
In most of Central Park you can't see the city, or at least not much of it - but you can in this area.	One of the great fountains in Central Park, boaters behind.

I had always heard that if I started digging straight down, I'd reach China. That idea failed the hemisphere sanity check. I finally juggled my latitude and longitude and realized how disappointed I would be if I started digging. At some point I would just reach the sea bed in the southern Indian Ocean southwest of Australia.

Over the previous few years our backyard had fallen into a bit of disrepair. The ground had sunk unevenly, the back stairs were falling apart with the last step being a bit of a leap to the sunken ground below, and we had lost the war with Creeping Charlie. The backyard was never quite what it could have been - the old patio lay at a deep slant and was too small for a decent sized table. So, we finally had the back yard properly landscaped. There are still things to do this week - putting in the new stairs, cementing around some newly exposed foundation, maybe getting some patio furniture - but I'm so happy with the results so far! Too bad I won't have a lot of time to enjoy it before winter arrives.

Usually when I travel for work I don't get to see a lot - just the airport, rental car, hotel, office and/or server room. My trip to Lake Tahoe for the CMLS Conference was exceptional. I spent some extra time and took a hike to Emerald Bay, Inspiration Point, and Sugar Pines. I went out on a dinner cruise and danced like mad to Jamm Sammich, a band with one of my clients (a tech guy named Brian) playing guitar. I'm a bit blown away - pictures follow...

( Read more... )

My brother Jonathan and his wife Beth are visiting. Their first night here we took it easy, focusing on nearby and easy pursuits. First we went out to The Red Stag (http://www.redstagsupperclub.com/) for dinner - highlights included a lovely pickled appetizer plate and some lovely fish and chips. For dessert we obtained various cupcakes from Cupcake (http://www.cup-cake.com/). After some conversation back in the living room, during which I shared Eddie Izzard's "Languages" segment (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hJQsvoY6VU), we turned in.

The first full day of their visit we first went to the Mill City Farmer's Market (http://www.millcityfarmersmarket.org/) where we got some delicious omelets courtesy of Black Cat Natural Foods (http://www.blackcatnaturalfoods.com/) and browsed all the local foods and wares. Then we headed south, stopping at La Societe Du The for some teas for Beth, then down to Linden Hills where Beth and Michelle ogled various yarns and I picked up some extra snacks (roast turkey, pickled ramps) at Clancy's. From there we went back to Michelle's place on Nicollet Island, where we lounged in the backyard and snacked upon various cheeses, some black truffle terrine, the roast turkey, Provencal olives, and the ramps - along with accompanying beverages. Neighbors dropped by at various points, but by the mid-afternoon, the peace and quiet was broken as preparations were underway for the afternoon entertainment- Orpheus and Eurydice: A Picnic Operetta.


Directed by Scotty Reynolds, this production of the classic myth (in which Orpheus goes to the underworld to plead for his wife Eurydice) included well sung opera (ranging from Monteverdi and Offenbach) plus Motown and more modern influences. Various parts of the operetta were sung in French, Italian and English. The singers were accompanied by accordion, violin, and drum. Appropriate to the backyard garden and park setting, chef Nick Schneider provided a local-sourced menu throughout the production, starting with gazpacho served in a cucumber cup, a turnip dish I can't begin to describe, and some roasted zucchini.

Afterward, the patio-based festivities begun earlier that day continued, but with more neighbors and some of the performers dropping by.