Fire!

When Linn and I first moved into our building, we got some sideways looks from friends who couldn't believe we were moving to a spot that isn't exactly known for wholesome activities.  But in the year we've lived here, it's turned out to be a pretty quiet building.  Well, maybe "quiet" isn't exactly the right word.  The guy below us blasts music at odd hours, our bedroom window looks out on a fairly busy parking lot, and we're next door to a church that is quite lively on Saturdays and some weekday evenings.  But there hasn't been much activity that crossed the line from makes-me-feel-annoyed-because-I-was-sleeping to makes-me-feel-unsafe.

Well, the other night we had major excitement outside.  Linn and I were in the living room and we were both working on our computers with headphones on.  At one point I heard a loud, sustained beep, but we hear honking and car alarms all the time, so I didn't give it much thought.  A little while later I got up and went into the bedroom, which overlooks the parking lot, and couldn't believe my eyes.

Out back was a fire truck with all its lights on and six firemen hosing down a van.  The van was parked right outside our window and was on fire!  Like, actual flames!  I called for Linn to come look.  He, of course, wanted to go downstairs and get the scoop on what was happening.  I, of course, wanted to stay upstairs in my PJs.

The view from our bedroom window--very close!

I watched from the window as the firefighters put out the flames.  The van looked completely gutted.  The roof was totally gone and I could see the glass from the windows shattered on the pavement.  All that was left of the seats were the metal frames.

That blinding light on the right is the fire truck

Well, this story is a little anticlimactic because it turns out we missed most of the excitement.  I did see some flames, but apparently at one point they were 20 feet high!  The loud beeping we had heard was the van's horn short-circuiting.  Linn talked to the fire inspector and she said that no one seemed to know who the van belonged to or how the fire started.  There's going to be an investigation and an official repot.

Oh yeah, Linn asked her about the report because guess whose car was parked next to the burning van?  That's right.  Ours.  Luckily it fared pretty well.  The windshield is cracked and there are melty spots along the front bumper, headlight, and right side mirror.  So it needs some repairs, but it's completely drivable.  Now I just get to have the always enjoyable experience of dealing with the insurance company.  Woohoo!

There's the van and our car to the right.  You can see shattered glass on the pavement.  And that's my bike in the bottom left corner.  The real tragedy would have been if something had happened to my bike!

An hour later, the van was gone.  It would be poetic to say that it was as if nothing had ever happened.  Sadly, there is still glass and bits of roof all over the parking lot and it still smells pretty toxic.

To me, the craziest part of this story isn't the fire.  It's that Linn and I managed to not notice anything was going on until it was almost over.  Next time there's an exciting incident in the parking lot, I'll be sure to figure it out sooner so I can report back on all the details!  For now, though, things are back to not-too-quiet normal.

Salmon roasted in butter with herbs

I have always loved sea food. Growing up in the mid-Atlantic meant lots of blue crabs, and summers at the beach with a father who loves to fish meant lots of fresh fillets.  I love clams, shrimp, scallops, and even squid.

But I always hated salmon. Yes, salmon, the fish that fish-haters love. And yet I, a fish-lover, hated it. To me it tasted too fishy and the color weirded me out and I just thought is was...icky.

Unfortunately, salmon is kind of a difficult thing to hate. I've been invited to dinner at friends' houses (or worse--friends' parents' houses) many times only to sit down to a fancy salmon entree. Hard to not eat it when someone's prepared it for you. And of course, there are all the health benefits that I read about every time I open a cooking or health magazine.

So about a year ago I decided that I was going to start liking salmon. I started small: I talked a lot about liking salmon. Yes, I needed to take that baby step to get mentally prepared. Then I ate a few bites from a buffet at a work event. Then I tried my aunt's famous whipped salmon mousse at Christmas. When my uncle seared some salmon and I actually really liked it, I decided it was time to try cooking it myself.

So I bought some salmon. Then, as I always do in times of uncertainty, I turned to Mark Bittman.  And Mark, as he always does, led me to an amazing recipe. It's simple--just salmon roasted in butter with salt, pepper, and fresh herbs sprinkled on top. I added slices of lemon because I love lemon with fish and also because the yellow lemon, green herbs, and pink salmon were pretty. I served it with brown rice and kale sauteed with garlic. It was delicious--and now I can truthfully say that I like salmon!

I could eat kale every day!

Salmon Roasted in Butter

Adapted from How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

Some butter (Mark calls for 4 Tbs, I think I used 2)

One 2-3 lb salmon filet (I used a few smaller fillets)

Salt and pepper

Chopped fresh herbs (I used fresh parsley and some dried basil.  Mark says you could use tarragon, chervil, basil, dill, thyme, or a combination.)

Lemon, sliced into rounds

1. Heat oven to 475. Melt butter, either in a saucepan, in the oven as it heats, or (my favorite) the microwave. Pour butter into baking pan.

2. Place salmon in baking pan. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and chopped herbs. Lay lemon slices on top.

3. Mark says to roast about five minutes, flip, and roast for three to six minutes longer until fish flakes easily. I didn't flip mine, and it cooked a little faster since I used small fillets. Enjoy!

I used code!

You've probably noticed that the blog has a new look!  I've completely changed the color scheme, there's a new banner, and I switched from a two-column to a three-column layout.  There's also a new "About Me" page.  What do you think?  I'm much much happier with it!

This is the first time I've changed the look of the blog significantly from the template.  I did some coding!  I'm even using html code in the posts to make the photos the same width as the text.  That's right. Coding in the posts. Are you impressed?

Code!

There are, of course, bits I still want to change.  If you looked at the blog in the last week, you may have noticed that the header image was cut off.  I seem to have fixed that, but please let me know if it looks wonky on your computer.  The biggest thing that's bugging me right now is that the email, Facebook, and Twitter buttons on the right sidebar are spaced so far apart.  Anyone know how to change that?  I also want to make the date at the top of each post smaller.

There are other things, too.  I'm not going to go back and change the formatting on all the old posts, so if you look back the photos are going to be too big and stick out into the sidebar.  But I can live with that.  Overall, I'm pretty proud of getting a look I like on my own.

Did I mention that I used code?

Announcing Free(ish)!

I'm excited to announce the launch of the internet's newest hotspot!  Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but it should be the internet's newest hotspot because it's very cool.

It all started when we lived in New York and were fairly broke.  To find things to do, we relied heavily on a blog called The Skint, which lists free events going on all over the city.  Then we moved to Minneapolis and were fairly broke, but nothing like The Skint seemed to exist.  We had a really hard time finding free things to do and Minneapolis started to feel pretty boring.

Well, it turns out there are fun, free things to do in the Twin Cities, they're just hard to find.  So Linn, seeing an opportunity, spent the last month working into the wee hours of the night creating Free(ish)!

Free(ish)--also on Facebook--compiles and publishes daily lists of free and mostly-free things to do around the Twin Cities.  The types of events really run the gamut.  They might include happy hours, live music, lectures at the U, free museum hours, neighborhood events, or anything else that's free and open to the public.  On May 1 it even listed protests and demonstrations going on for International Workers Day!



This isn't just a plain-old list, either. It's actually pretty funny to read. For example, here's part of the description for the 331 Club: "A fantastic, friendly, intimate space for music, but never a seat in the house on popular nights. But when the musical saw takes a solo and people start really bopping around, you wouldn’t want to be sitting anyway."

The website also has lists of recurring events organized by day and then by category (my favorite being "Libations and Vittles").  There is also a great list called Any Day, Everyday, or Every Now and Again. This has recurring events as well as tips on how to do not-free things for free. For example, if you volunteer at the well-known and somewhat pricey Cedar Cultural Center, you get to see half the show the night you volunteer and you get a free ticket to any show after you volunteer for eight hours. Good deal!

Linn has been working really hard on this website (by which I mean, he's barely slept in weeks).  I had no idea he knew how to build a website, but apparently he does.  Right now he's compiling the lists on his own and could really use a little help, so if you live in the Twin Cities, please contact him if you know about free(ish) things going on.  You can also like Free(ish) on Facebbok, even if you don't live in the Cities.  I'm so proud of him for getting this off the ground, so check it out and make all his sleepless nights feel worth it!