Vacuum - Edward Vielmetti in Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104

Picking a hotel with Hotwire and the help of the net

I'm about to do some travel, and I don't really care precisely where I stay as long as it's reasonable; here's some notes on that process.

When you go to get a hotel on Hotwire, it doesn't tell you exactly which property you're going to stay at. That's mostly OK except when the hotel inventory includes some stinker places you'd really rather never go to again. Here's one part of how to figure out what they're selling you.

Better Bidding is a forum for Priceline and Hotwire users to exchange information about which hotel they're getting when they bit through those services. The Better Bidding Pittsburgh page lists star ratings, locations, and amenities of featured sites, plus for Priceline how much people paid.

To look at general hotel reviews, one source is Tripadvisor. The Tripadvisor Pittsburgh page gives lists of what things other travelers (or perhaps paid shills, who can tell) have said about places. You can't trust any individual review any more than any random Amazon review, but in the aggregate they're a good display of alternatives.

I have yet to find a travel site that does good pricing and availability for travel along a route, the question we run into every year where we want a room somewhere between the Bridge and West Branch that's nice and pretty cheap. If you know where you're going to stay, and it's a big city, and you're willing to dig a little, there are some deals.

Harnois Farms local turkey for Thanksgiving 2007

From Kim Bayer via Kelly Dunham:

Dear Slow Food Supporter:

This year, Harnois Farm will be once again be offering a Community
Supported Agriculture (CSA) program for those interested in
purchasing a heritage turkey for the holidays. Through the CSA,
customers put down a deposit of $25 by October 15th to reserve their
turkey. In the end, CSA members will pay $8/lb, while non-CSA members
will pay $10/lb. John Harnois anticipates that he'll have 48
Narragansetts available this year.

John will also have about 50 pasture-raised Broad-breasted White
turkeys available for the holidays. These are not the Broad-breasted
birds found at your local supermarket! They are succulent AND
flavorful. The Broad-breasted White turkeys will be $3.50/lb.

John, who raises an assortment of rare and conventional birds with
the help of his nine-year-old son, manages his farm as a model of
proper land stewardship and animal husbandry. The birds are given
free access to the outdoors where they can scratch and peck about as
they please and at night they're tucked away safely into a coop to
protect them from predators. John even takes his birds to local
schools where he teaches the kids about what it really means to be a
good steward of the farm and animals. As he says, "I love my birds."

Harnois Farm was featured in Business Week last fall:

If you would like to purchase a share, please send your name,
address, phone number, and size preferences (small = 8-12 lbs; large
= 13-18 lbs) to harnoishappyhens@gmail.com no later than October 15,
2007. While size is not guaranteed, John will accommodate your
preferences as much as possible. The turkeys will be available for
pick-up the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Questions? Send us an email or give Kelly Dunham a call at
734-761-2333. Please pass this on to anyone else who might be
interested.

Make sure to order your turkeys early! All turkeys are available on a
first-come, first-served basis.

Warm regards,
Kelly

Technorati Tags: john-harnois, harnois-farm, turkey, annarbor, michigan, thanksgiving, csa, slowfood

Stuffed Winter Squash

We bought a case of winter squash from farmer's market for $5 before Thanksgiving, and we're still eating them. They're delicious just plain baked, and we had stuffed squash for Thanksgiving. I don't think the box will last through to the new year.

I know that stuffing is something handed down from generation to generation and carefully guarded as a Thanksgiving secret, but that's behind us now and there are all those lovely squashes needing something to keep them company.

Here's a roundup of stuffed squash recipes from the net, and I'd love any reviews you have of them or your favorites.

Amy Rosen, from Cook This: apple, celery, pecans, sage, bread crumbs, havarti cheese
adaped from The Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourmet: red onion, almonds, ginger
Food Reference fruit and nut stuffing: onion, celery, apples, bread crumbs or rice, nuts, seed, dried fruit
Vegan Stuffed Organic Squash from ChooseVeg: rice, onion, celery, pecans, apricots, cranberries
Chowhound asks What Can I Stuff Acorn Squash With? aged cheddar cheese, mashed potatoes, cheese top
Better Homes and Gardens Vegetarian: pears, green onions, ricotta, raisins, pine nuts, lemon zest, nutmeg

Wow, and there's 1000s more.

Some themes emerge: a starch (bread crumbs, panko, rice, mashed potatoes) plus a sweet (apples, apricots, cranberries, pears) plus a savory (pecans, almonds, pumpkin seeds, cheese) plus spices to taste. Sounds like time for some Google cooking.

As we experiment I'll add to these!

Detroit Thanksgiving Day Parade 2006

The Detroit Thanksgiving Day Parade has a new route this year. The Parade steps-off in Midtown at Woodward and Mack Avenues on Thursday, November 23 at 9:20 a.m. and ends in downtown Detroit at Woodward Avenue and Congress Street. A dozen marching bands, the Fred Hill Briefcase Drill Team, and other performers travel down Woodward, starting in front of the Detroit Public Library all the way down to Grand Circus Park. The floats will be on display at the Michigan State Fairgrounds in Detroit Friday through Sunday at the Holidays on Parade festival. Watch the show on WDIV TV 4. Shuttle service from the Detroit Zoo, Eastland Mall, Fairlane and the Town Center starting at 9:30am for a small fee. Call (313) 923-7400 for more details.

Plan your trip Local Radar Detailed Forecast

Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom will be grand marshal; his family doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving (they're Swedish) but he understands his job: "Smile and wave".

The first parade in 1924 had four bands, huge heads carried on the shoulders of marchers, 10 floats depicting nursery rhymes, and bands from Highland Park, Hamtramck and Northwestern high schools. Floats included The Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe and Mother Goose. Detroit’s Thanksgiving Day parade was modelled on Toronto’s parade, after the display manager at the J.L. Hudson Company heard that Santa arrived at Eaton’s department store in an old-fashioned carriage.

The Detroit Lions play the Miami Dolphins at 12:30pm at Ford Field in a nationally televised NFL game.

In Ann Arbor, take an early run near Michigan Stadium in the first-ever Zingerman's Ann Arbor Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot. The 5k course map takes a loop around Michigan Stadium and two loops around Elbel Field.

More information and sources:

Detroit Free Press, PRIMPING FOR A PARADE: Expect a magic ride, warm temps on route.

Detroit News, "Lidstrom will lead parade"
The Parade Company, "America's Thanksgiving Parade"
Detroit News has a good parade history, "Detroit's Thanksgiving Day Parade"
Go City Kids has a Thanksgiving Day event calendar for kids in Detroit.
"Dashing through the streets" - history of the Toronto Thanksgiving Day Parade, from the Toronto Star.
Parade info from michigan.org

Previous parade coverage:

2004 Thanksgiving Parade a Hit for Detroiters - South End Newspaper

Technorati Tags: detroit, thanksgiving, elections

Thanksgiving vegetarian menu planning

We're planning a vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner, with some thoughts in mind.

It would be great to have as much of it come from local sources as possible, and so I'll have my eyes open for things from the Ann Arbor Farmers Market.

We may have a main dish that's not vegetarian (some kind of fish, perhaps) but there's no turkey on the table or in the oven. No tofu turkey either - did that one year - no need to repeat. It's not that I don't like turkey, and I even have a source for a local organic turkey, but we'll let someone else cook that and we'll share leftovers.

The new stove is being delivered this week, and I am trusting that everything will work out with that. It would be really hard to cook on one small burner. First step in that process is done - the old stove is out - there will be a report on the new one!

Partial recipe ideas - I'll fill these in after some discussions and some more shopping at market.

Baked stuffed squash. We had a nice meal the other day with acorn or delicata squash filled with a mixture of rice, pine nuts, and dried cranberries. Start from this recipe in the Seattle Times and then work backwards to simplify and use the ingredients you have, it's pretty adaptable.

Brussels sprouts. This might just be for me, if the family doesn't go along. Epicurious has a very simple buttered brussels sprouts recipe with an amazing collection of variations in the comments.

Sweet potatoes. I like them baked, without much fuss.

Greens. The greens at market this week were turnip greens (delicious in a mustardy sauce) and collards (blanched and then seasoned). We have a good kale recipe with a sesame-soy-vinegar sauce that's really nice.

More sources:

• Vegweb.com Vegan/Vegetarian Thanksgiving Recipes

Technorati Tags: meals, menu, recipes, thanksgiving

Harnois Farm, local organic turkeys for Thanksgiving

My friend Kim writes:

This email is a commercial for a local turkey farmer - delete if you don't care.

I went to a Slow Food Huron Valley meeting tonight - heirloom apple tasting at the new Corner Brewery in Ypsi. Dragged Bob along too. :) There are usually about 15-30 people there. We had Zingerman's bread and goat cheese, some local organic concord grapes, and about 6 or 8 different varieties of apples. Fun.

But this message is  coming to  you in case you're looking for a local, organic turkey for Thanksgiving. There is a farmer nearby who does a really amazing job of raising turkeys. His Heritage turkeys are already spoken for, but he also has "regular" broad-breasted turkeys.  Apparently, he puts them out to forage every day and then has to go find them and bring them back into the barn at night so they don't get eaten by critters.

They will be ready on the Saturday before Thanksgiving and they cost $3.25/lb. He says they cook 1/3 faster than regular turkeys. We're going to be at Bob's parent's place for Thanksgiving, but I'm going to get one to put in the freezer for Christmas. :)

Harnois Farm
John Harnois
deadend@umich.edu
734-449-7172
734.645.0300

Tell your friends. He has 40 birds he needs to sell. He loves doing this, but his main problem is marketing and connecting with the people who want to buy his special products.

Why don't we have a place to go to match people who have things with people who want things?

Kim

More local organic turkey farms at Slow Food USA.

Thanksgiving 2004, Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh PA

Late night in Squirrel Hill. We're staying at Alice and Tim's house, just down the street from Annette's old place - very generous of them to lend us their house. It's in the same row of houses where we've stayed before, so we get to experience the wonderful effect of seeing what someone else has done with a space and layout that we're pretty much used to.

It's very quiet out on the street at 10:30pm - everything is closed except for the brand new big Rite Aid and for a bar or maybe two. No cafes are open. That meant for a brisk walk through the evening.

Wherever I go I hope for free anonymous wifi - I haven't seen it here yet, the three networks visible from the house are closed.

Dinner was wonderful, a nice big meal to sit down to after a 6 hour drive through Michigan, the Ohio Turnpike, and Pennsylvania. Roadgeeks note that the Penna Tpke toll collectors have a labor action going (says AM 1640, the voice of management broadcasting from tollbooth micro-radio) so we sailed through Pennsylvania free of charge where it would usually cost us $1.50. I'm sure that EZ-Pass toll transponders have cost some jobs and will cost more before the years are out.

Some fotos will be on Flickr - if you're not in my "friends and family" group let me know and I'll add you in.

--

Found the open wifi - I have to sit in the front room, not the dining room, and from there I pick up two open nets.

At Starbucks the next day there are two pay networks, one from t-mobile, one from Telerama broadcasting from across the street at Pittsburgh Knit and Bead. Further investigation found a free network visible from one window, so I did finally get online.

--

Back home. Ohio Turnpike busy but not bad except for one jam-up near Toledo. We stopped at the Maumee Friendly's on the way back.