Michigan Blueberries

            When Liz returned from Michigan she brought back with her a fairly large container of fresh, wild, Michigan blueberries that she had picked the day she was to fly back. I had not eaten blueberries in some time. They are just not something that is usually top of mind for me. That being said, I ate them like candy, throwing them down my throat one by one. Of course there are other things that you can do with blueberries rather than just eat them plain. Though that is never a bad thing. We decided to give a few of them a try and Liz took some pictures.

            Blueberry milk. Stirred a reduced blueberry syrup into the milk. You know Hershey’s Syrup?

Yeah, like that, but with blueberries instead of chocolate. Part of me just wants to drink it for the color.

            After I made the blueberry syrup for the milk I was left with the cooked, smashed berry portion of the recipe. Liz mixed that with honey and topped sliced cinnamon apples and added them to a cheese plate. 

       And of course blueberry pancakes had to be made.

       With about half of the blueberries still left in the freezer, I am looking forward to what other  concoctions we can come up with… that is if I don’t eat all of them first.

American Tobacco Campus

            In the short time that I have been in Durham, I have primarily been enjoying the downtown area. Anything beyond downtown Durham and my mind map begins to get a little fuzzy. One of the many areas that I enjoy and that interest me is the American Tobacco Campus (ATC).

            The American Tobacco Campus has been a Durham fixture since the early 1900’s. I am told that before production ceased in the late 80’s, you could smell the sweet scent of the tobacco being processed downtown. Not in a burning, secondhand smoke kind of way, but a smell of sweet, rich curing leaves. Nearly a century after being built, the warehouses were abandoned and left to deteriorate.

            The previously abandoned American Tobacco Campus was repurposed and reopened in 2004. It has since grown to house many businesses, offices, restaurants and shops. The red, brick smoke stacks still help define the Durham skyline.

            

            Burt’s Bees headquarters sits at the north end of campus. The Art Institute of Raleigh-Durham and the Durham Bulls Athletic Park help bookend the south. Immediately east is the ever-popular Durham Performing Arts Center. Live music is played on the lawn underneath the shadow of the large Lucky Strike water tower. The base of the water tower doubles as a stage.

            Looking through windows while walking through the ATC, you will see a variety of businesses and office spaces. Many contain beautiful exposed brick, polished hard wood, exposed ventilation, cement floors and steel supports. The combination of the historic red brick warehouses with the modern urban style offices go hand in hand. You may even wander into the underground corridor where tech companies set behind glass walls and recline in their chars to view multiple monitors. Personally, I would go down there for the free arcade games.

            The vibrant and diverse downtown area is only elevated by the rich history that it has experienced. If you know which windows to look through, and aren’t afraid to press your face near a dusty windowpane, you can see the old tobacco processing equipment. Almost as if you were looking through a window to the past.

Homemade Ravioli

            Recently, I have had an unusual amount of time on my hands. As a result, a lot of that time has been spent in the kitchen. I was flipping through a book called “The Geometry Of Pasta” and got a wild hair. I decided to make homemade ravioli.

            I allotted myself much of the afternoon and decided that I would make the pasta and three kinds of fillings for the ravioli. 1) Hot Italian sausage, crushed red pepper and ricotta cheese 2) Caprese like ravioli with roasted tomatoes and mozzarella 3) Tomato and basil goat cheese with spinach and scallions. The first task… roast the tomatoes.

            A small disclaimer: I very much dislike raw tomatoes. I know, I know. It may be borderline blasphemy. Any other way, shape or form and I enjoy them. But raw? No. So I roasted them. To be honest, afterwards I ate them like candy. Was it because of the seasoning or the sweetness that was acquired through roasting? I don’t know. They were tasty.

            While the tomatoes were roasting, I started to make the pasta. As the pasta dough chilled, I mixed the internal ingredients. I tried to determine what sauces would go best with each. Number 1, a light red sauce. Number 2, reduced balsamic and olive oil. Number 3… whatever you want to put on number 3. Making the internal ingredients was simple. Making pasta was simple. Rolling it out, without a pasta roller was another story. Sweat. Soreness. Long stoy short, I need to invest in a pasta roller.

            Just after I cooked one of each of the raviolis, and gave them a taste test, the power went out. A little bit of lightening hit and then some thunder. No Oklahoma tornado. No East Coast hurricane. Only a sprinkling of rain. Seriously?

            I lit a candle…

            While it was a unique experience trying to prepare a future meal by candlelight, I threw in the towel after I finished 1 of 3 batches of ravioli. I could feel flour handprints around the house. On the candle. On my phone. On my computer and camera. Luckily flour handprints can be cleaned in daylight. And luckily ravioli can be frozen.