Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Annie and Margot could be in a calendar!


You may have seen this picture of Annie and Margot skiing on the Blue Ridge Parkway in the winter of 2010. I recently submitted it to the Ray's Weather Center Photo Calendar Contest, and it's in the finals for one of the winter shots. (On screen, they are very tiny off in the distance, though you can click for a larger view; if the photo gets in the calendar, of course, we'll all know it's them!) If you like this shot, you can vote for it here.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Belatedly: Memorial Day Picnic


Daisy follows the route of the Brasington van odyssey as told through their souvenir patches.


A woodland jam session led by Jody Pred, rabbi of rock and roll.

Construction clouds

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Knife and Fork keeps winning


Those who have been following the Knife and Fork team's progress through the WNC Chef Challenge probably know by now that they won again in the semi-finals. The final will take place on August 13 as part of the WNC Wine and Food's grand tasting event.

Tammy and I were talking about Nate and his team winning three in a row against teams from very good restaurants, and we were wondering why they've done so well. The obvious answer is that Nate is an exceptionally creative chef, and he put together a great team. But then it occurred to us that Nate has particular advantage--which is represented by this photograph of Wendy writing up the day's menu at the restaurant.

Knife and Fork sources most of their ingredients locally, and they change the menu every day, depending on what is available. Most restaurants have a set menu and a few daily specials. It's not that Nate doesn't repeat himself or have certain dishes that appear frequently, but he really is putting together a menu every day. And it changes--every day.

The WNC Chef Challenge works on an Iron Chef model, so on the day of each challenge, the teams are presented with an ingredient (at the last challenge, it was peaches) that has to be used in every dish. They are then given 30 minutes to come up with the dishes (three per team) that they will make using that ingredient and a pantry that is well-stocked but is not their own. It stands to reason that if you are in the habit of making up a new menu every day in response to what's locally available, you might have a bit of an edge.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Mammatus clouds over Spruce Pine


The sky was amazing on Tuesday and for a while produced a crazy movie light. I didn't get any pictures of these terrific clouds, but Steve Hill hooked me up with some pictures taken in Spruce Pine by Cara McKinney. Steve identified them as mammatus clouds (you can probably guess why they are called that).

Sunday, June 5, 2011

And Bruce is 60


Bruce Greene singing and playing the fiddle late Saturday night during his weekend-long birthday celebration. Old Man Greene actually turned 60 back in January but decided to postpone the party so he could get some of his old friends together for the weekend. On Saturday night, all of the guests took turns entertaining.


Luminaries around the rock labyrinth that's in front of Bruce and Loy's house.