Lakefront view

Photo by K.D. Jones. Lake Michigan view, Navy Pier in distance.

This is another photo taken by my Gumpy, probably in the summer of 1938 when he was working as a lifeguard at nearby Indiana Dunes. This was taken during a visit to Chicago, with the earlier one I shared from Shedd Aquarium.

Birthdays

A year ago we were in Evansville, Indiana over Memorial Day weekend, celebrating birthdays for Allison's grandmother and our son. We're still celebrating birthdays, but will do so virtually for Marilyn and here at home with S.

Marilyn at 14 in 1943.

Photo by B. Jones. S & my sister with Maya. 25 May 2020.

Quarantine Cooking: Pulled Pork & Blue Corn Tortillas

Photo by B. Jones. Shredding the pork. 25 May 2020.

Yesterday we had a Memorial Day feast of pulled pork, homemade blue corn tortillas, grilled pineapple, rum & pineapple barbeque sauce from a recipe by Kauai's Koloa Rum, and sides from our local Pork Barrel BBQ. My sister even brought a spicy jackfruit as a vegan alternative to the pork, which made for a great addition to the tacos. As with my other quarantine cooking posts, I'm recording these recipes for future cooking, and also for a reminder of how we passed the time during the stay-at-home period to become better cooks. For the blue corn tortillas, we used blue corn masa flour from our local Mom's Organic Market. From the photos below, these tortillas turned out awesome and went very well with the pulled pork & jackfruit.

Photo by A. Jones. Blue corn tortillas.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Jackfruit, pineapple, cucumber & guacamole.

For the pulled pork, I picked up a 4.5 lb pork shoulder from our local butcher. The evening before grilling, I seasoned the meat with Traeger Pork & Poultry Rub and about 4 tablespoons of brown sugar. To smoke the meat, I roughly followed the timing on this recipe from Traeger Grills. The pork cooked for about 5 hours at 250 degrees until it reached 160. Then I placed the pork on a foil pan, added a 1/3 cup of apple cider and covered with foil. I kept the meat in the foil on the grill for another 3 1/2 hours. After the meat hit 205, I removed it from the grill but kept inside the foil pan to set before pulling.

While the pork was smoking, I cut up a fresh pineapple into circles, and held back a 1/2 cup of pineapple to go in the rum & pineapple barbeque sauce. I stumbled onto this recipe while browsing Koloa Rum's Instagram feed from Sunday night. While I don't have any Koloa Rum in the house, I did substitute with a nice Rhum Barbancourt 8-year old rum from Haiti. The remaining pineapple was placed on the grill for 30 minutes after I removed the meat.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Koloa Rum's BBQ sauce.

Rum & Pineapple BBQ sauce from Koloa Rum
1/4 cup dark rum (I used Rhum Barbancourt 8 year)
3/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup fresh pineapple
1/2 Tb mustard (we used dijon)
1 clove garlic
2 Tb Worcestershire Sauce
1 Tb vinegar (Apple Cider Vinegar)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 Tb Maple Syrup
1/3 cup water

Mix ingredients in blender and pulse to desired consistency. Pour into small sauce pan and bring to a boil, allowing the sauce to cook down and darken in color. Pour into a mason jar and enjoy (will keep 3-4 days).

Allison prefers spicy barbeque sauce, so we ordered a squeeze bottle of Pork Barrel original BBQ sauce along with our sides. I thought the Koloa recipe turned out pretty awesome, and I'll be using this with the leftovers this week.

Pork Barrel's cool cucumber salad and potato salad accompanied the tacos as sides, along with fresh corn on the cob, refried beans & cheese.

Her couch

Photo by Patrick Jones. Maya owns the couch. 25 May 2020.

Summer at Indiana Dunes

Photo by K.D. Jones. Indiana Dunes, likely Summer 1938.

During the summer of 1938, my Gumpy worked as a lifeguard at Indiana Dunes. I think the photo above is from that summer. Another shot below shows a parking area next to the famous dunes.

Photo by K.D. Jones. Indiana Dunes.

Welcome Maya

Photo by Patrick Jones. S & Maya.

After months of waiting, we've adopted a black lab from our local lab rescue. We started the process back in January, and had to wait for Maya's hair to grow back, but she looks great now. She's 18 months & enjoying the new home.

Shedd Aquarium

Photo by K.D. Jones. Shedd Aquarium, Chicago.

Here's another undated photo taken by my Gumpy, outside the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. This is possibly from 1938, when he was a lifeguard at nearby Indiana Dunes at the age of 17.

Indy 500 History

Photo by K.D. Jones. Indy 500, possibly 1937-38?

Traditionally, Memorial Day weekend in Indianapolis features the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing", the Indy 500. This year due to COVID-19, the race has been moved to 23 August 2020. While going through a set of my Gumpy's old photos, I stumbled on these, possibly taken in 1937 or 1938. The one above looks like it was taken from Section 70 into a turn. Below is a cool shot from pit row, and another of a camera crew to capture the action.

Photo by K.D. Jones. Pit row?

Photo by K.D. Jones. Camera crew to capture the race.

I'll need to review Gumpy's collection of short stories to see if it sheds some light on when these were taken, or provides any of the back story to his day at the track. These are a cool bit of Indiana sports history. I have more to share over the weekend from his time as a lifeguard at Indiana Dunes and action shots from a football game at Arsenal Tech.

Social Distancing, from the National Park Service

Source: Washingtonian; NPS/Matt Turner.

The Outdoor Office

Photo by Patrick Jones. Work on the back deck, 15 May 2020.

Morning on the Water

Photo by L. Jones. Yesterday morning with the Pentagon in the background.

Yesterday morning my sister and I took advantage of the nice weather to go paddleboarding at the Columbia Island Marina, which is connected to the Potomac. We had calm water and I didn't fall in.

Photo by L. Jones. Me on the water.

Balboa Island Ferry

Photo by L. Campuzano Reid. Balboa Island Ferry, 1970.

This is another slide converted to digital, taken by my Granny during a visit to see family in Arizona and California in the summer of 1970. This is the drive to the Balboa Island Auto Ferry, at Newport Beach, California. One of her brothers lived there with his family during this time.

Happy Mothers Day

Photo by Patrick Jones. My Mom & sister yesterday on the back deck.

The Open Road

Photo by L. Campuzano Reid. Summer 1970.

While looking back at slides scanned to digital, this set taken by my Granny while on a road trip to visit family in Arizona and California in 1970 recall an earlier time when there were fewer cars on the highways. Although many states have seen substantially reduced traffic and cars on highways during the stay-at-home orders, as states lift these restrictions, traffic will soon return.

Photo by L. Campuzano Reid. Summer 1970.

  

Missing Paris in May

Photo by Patrick Jones. Musee d'Orsay, 13 Oct 2019.

Before COVID-19 changed plans, I was scheduled to be in Paris this week for a series of events. Unfortunately this trip was another victim of the travel restrictions. Perhaps next year or late 2020, travels will return. I've already cancelled my LA stop for June and our Malaysia meeting has been moved to online, which also cancels my stop at the Singapore office and flight to Kuala Lumpur. Other travel in July, August and likely September has been cancelled too. I understand the reasons and want to be safe, but I'm missing travel and the in-person engagement that usually happens each month.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Maubert Market. 12 Oct 2019.

Point Dume in Black and White

Photo by Patrick Jones. Point Dume, 23 Sep 2016.

I'm looking through various travel photos for a potential printed book, and I stumbled onto the black and white shot above. Google Photos made a black and white version based on a shot I uploaded. I posted the original color version on the blog back on 24 Sep 2016. I like the color photo, but this version is quite dramatic with white surf hitting the beach.

Quarantine Cooking: Smoked Duck

Photo by B. Jones. Smoking duck, 4 May 2020.

As part of my ongoing series to capture some of our quarantine cooking during this COVID-19 shelter-in-place experience, this is a recap of Monday's smoked duck. I followed a variation of a recipe shared by our friends Katie and Mike. We found whole duck at our local Costco. After thawing out the duck, I removed the flap of fat near the neck, and used a fork to poke marks in the skin. The initial seasoning sauce is below:
- 2 Tablespoons local honey
- 1 Tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 small onion, quartered
- 2 small mandarin oranges, quartered (place onion and oranges inside the duck, after you remove the neck and giblets)

I put the initial seasoning on the duck & then put in a gallon ziplock bag inside the fridge for a few hours. The instructions said to do this overnight, but because I forgot to start this process on Sunday, two hours was enough for me.

I set the Traeger at 300. While the grill was coming to temperature, I made the glaze.
- 1 Tablespoon local honey
- 1 Tablespoon molasses
- 2 Tablespoons orange juice
- 1 Tablespoon balsamic (I used a cherry-orange balsamic blend)
- zest of orange

After taking the duck out of the fridge, I put it in a roasting pan & covered both sides with the glaze. With the grill now at 300, I put the roasting pan on the grill. At the 2 hour mark, I put on some more glaze. At the 3 hour mark, I bumped the temperature up to 325. This put a nice finish on the duck, as you can see below.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Smoked Duck. 4 May 2020.

We're planning to turn the leftovers into duck fried rice this week.

Olvera Street, 1970

Photo by L. Reid. Olvera Street, 1970.

While looking back at old slides converted to digital, I stumbled onto a shot taken by my Granny during their trip West in the summer of 1970. The shot above is historic Olvera Street in Los Angeles, a place I visited in January 2016, and a place where my 5th-great-grandfather Francisco Suastegui may have walked in 1835. While Cinco de Mayo takes on a new time for celebration in the US, it is also a time for reflection back on my Mexican side of the tree, and this photo by my Granny brings back a similar to feel for what I experienced walking down Olvera Street 46 years after she did.

Quarantine Cooking: Tequila Lime Chicken

Photo by Patrick Jones. Tequila Lime Chicken, 2 May 2020.

For this week's installment of #quarantinecooking, I made tequila lime chicken with grilled fresh cut pineapple. I followed the tequila lime chicken thighs recipe from Traeger Grills, with some minor substitutions, including two chicken breasts for the picky eaters in the house. These were awesome, and the leftovers will make great chicken tacos for Cinco de Mayo, if they last that long.

Here's the recipe and changes I used:
- 4 skinned chicken thighs (I could only find one package of four at the store, so I added two skinless chicken breasts in order to have leftovers)

Dry Rub
- 2 teaspoons of ancho chile powder
- 2 teaspoons of sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
- 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon chili powder (I used Penzey's taco seasoning instead)

Glaze
- 1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
- 4 tablespoons local honey
- 4 tablespoons of pineapple juice (I used a tablespoon of fresh pineapple juice from the pineapple I sliced, along with 3 tablespoons of Vita Coco coconut water with pineapple)
- 3 tablespoons of tequila (Casadores Reposado)
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (I left that out)
- 1 1/2 tablespoon hot sauce (I also left that out)
- 1 1/2 tablespoon butter
- 1 1/2 fresh lime juice

I set the Traeger to 375, mixed the dry rub & added the chicken, set it aside. While the chicken is cooking on the grill meat side down for the thighs, make the glaze. Bring the ingredients above to boil over medium heat, until it starts to cook down & thicken. That took about 3-4 minutes. I made a margarita to accompany the cooking.

I grilled the chicken for about 15-20 minutes, and when it was time to flip I added the glaze and the pineapple to the grill. I then cooked the chicken another 15 minutes. I may have checked it at the 10 minute mark to flip the pineapple and add glaze to everything.

Allison made Cuban black beans to go with the chicken, Sophia made white rice. I think this would be great with Mexican yellow rice or plantains. Enjoy!

Blue Angels & Thunderbirds over the Potomac

Photo by L. Jones. Blue Angels & Thunderbirds, 2 May 2020.

The photo above was taken by my sister yesterday while paddling on the Potomac, capturing the flyover of the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds.

Urban Wildlife

Photo by Patrick Jones. Momma Fox. 2 May 2020.

Earlier in the week we spotted two kits peeking out from next to a shed across the street from the house. This morning I saw the Momma fox on the hunt for some food, and managed to capture this shot from inside the house.

May Day

Photo by Patrick Jones. Coit Tower mural, San Francisco. 30 Sept 2018.

It's the first of May, around the world it is a time for Spring, and in some places, a day to recognize workers. The murals above and below are from historic Coit Tower in San Francisco. These were painted in 1934 by artists influenced by Mexican artist Diego Rivera, and feature workers and aspects of life in California.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Coit Tower murals.