Love Is In The Air

Thursday Special Dinner

Another in the series of Classic Pairings dinners from the GVSU food service. This year's Valentine's February dinner had American fare from "along Route 66", running from Chicago to the Santa Monica Pier. As they did in 2008, they also made a point of advertising to the Alumni Association, and so there were quite a number of couples besides "the usual suspects". We sat at a small table with some library people and a young couple, GVSU Class of '09 and '10. Ah, to be young and just starting out again... (grin) Mrs. Dr. Phil took one of the crayons available on the table and made us a heart:


February 11th, 2010
"Me and My Baby Down Route 66"
Alumni House

5:30 pm Appetizers

6:00 pm Dinner

1st Course
BBQ Short Rib, Maple Gastrique
Brioche Black Pepper Mac n Cheese
Watermelon Salad, Shaved Fennel Slaw

2nd Course
Chicken Tamale with Red & Green Sauce
Corn, Bacon & Black Bean Hash

3rd Course
Santa Monica Shrimp Panzanella

4th Course
American Apple Pie

Actually, the meal began with a light pilsner from the Philadelphia Victory brewery and a tiny little Chicago-style hot dog. The miniature wieners were from Chicago and properly dressed with lurid green relish, pickle, onions and celery seed. The miniature hot dog buns were from the local Nantucket bakery -- and the chef had to keep after them to make the buns softer! The short ribs were so tender that a knife was totally unnecessary, and the two salads were quite refreshing. We've seen fennel salads/slaws on a number of the cooking shows, but haven't had it before -- might have to play with that. The wine pairing was a Syrah called BOOM BOOM, which we've had before along with a wine called (oops):

Everything was fabulous, as expected. The apple pies were more of an individual Michigan apple casserole, not too sweet, and served with cheddar ice cream -- very yum! The wine pairing was a local Fenn Valley ice wine.



On Saturday, The Kitties Got Eggs

Mrs. Dr. Phil was making a corn pudding for dinner on Saturday, for which she needed two egg whites. So the kitties each scored an egg yolk. Both Sammy and Blue like eggs. And it'll make their fur even softer. (grin) But we give them eggs every once in a while because we love them.

Yup. Love is in the air...

Dr. Phil

All Our Fairy Tales At Once

Let's Try This Again

We were supposed to go Grand Valley last Sunday to see GVSU Opera Theatre: 'Into the Woods' by Stephen Sondheim. Alas, I was feeling under the weather and so we bailed. Good news, was that February 7th was NOT the last performance, so Mrs. Dr. Phil was able to exchange tickets for seats at the closing performance this afternoon. Yay!

Into The Woods

Grand Valley State University, Louis Armstrong Theatre, 2pm

GVSU did Into The Woods probably ten years ago. It was a delightful production, especially the cow. A non-speaking part, they had a guy in a cow suit standing there, sort of the worst realistic cow ever, just standing there with an udder poking out of his gut. Hilarious. Then there's the delightful nonsense of the musical itself.

Fairy tales are a mixed bag. Some are overly familiar. Some have been greatly watered down or Disneyfied from their earlier grim/Grimm incarnations. All of this has been tossed into a blender and the resulting puree is all at once familiar, funny, poignant and deadly serious. Yup, Cinderella's evil stepsisters lose toes and part of a heel in their mother's desire that they marry the prince. People get killed, mostly squished by the wife of the Giant from Jack in the Beanstalk. This does include the overly dramatic pompous professorial narrator, whom the characters figure is screwing around with their lives. Now what? Besides Jack and Cinderella, we get Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and more.

You want your "happily ever after"? It may not be so nice. (grin)

Lovely set, costumes and fantastic casting. The sound system was perfectly balanced and everyone was easily understood, except for one brief moment when the Baker's mike cut out. But the glitch was quickly fixed. This is a cast and crew that was having a great deal of fun -- and working with really good material.

Better, worse or the same than ten years ago? Both productions were excellent, but the words were harder to make out during the complex songs in the earlier un-miked production. So this was smoother, more comfortable. Final call -- SO GLAD we didn't end up missing this version.

As for the cow, that part was played by a small cow on wheels, which also had a handle. Much easier to move your cow around when it had a handle. The second cow, practically a cardboard cutout. You didn't know they needed a second cow? What makes you think the first one didn't die and get buried? Oh, and Little Red Riding Hood, with her sharp little knife, practically stole the show. (double-edged-grin)

Dr. Phil