Town Tour -- Laboring Over the Stove: A Working Definition of Detroit Cuisine

If I had $675 to spare, believe me, I would be the first to register for the American Table Culinary Tour of Detroit. After all, what better way to enjoy a couple of days than learning about a combo of food, history and Detroit?

The tour, which is coming to Detroit June 26-28, will focus on the culinary wonders that surround the city and America's Auto Industry. Some highlights of the 2-day tour include:

• A coney dog showdown hosted by UAW V.P. Jimmy Settles;
• Discussion of dugout eats by Curtis Granderson (my FAVORITE Tiger!);
• "Houses of Worship" tour led by Detroit Free Press columnist/co-editor of The Detroit Almanac Bill McGraw (samples of pierogies, burrma and baklava will be noshed along the way);
• Tour of the historic Germack Pistachio Company;
• A presentation by Ari Weinzweig -- founder of Ann Arbor's famous Zingerman's Deli;
• A shopping trip to Eastern Market led by Lois Johnson and Margaret Thomas, authors of Detroit's Eastern Market: A Farmers Market Shopping and Cooking Guide;
• A breakfast at Avalon Bakery;
• Picnic on Belle Isle;
• Baking lessons where tourgoers can learn the art of making Mexican cakes, Middle Eastern pastries or Southern sweet potato pies;
• Festivities will conclude at Cadieux Café, a featherbowling bar.

To view the itinerary (and drool over the mouth-watering descriptions), click onto this site: http://www.tabletours.org/itinerary.html

Hope some foodie reporters out there cover this event hardcore so I can live vicariously through them. I can't wait to see what wonderful stories are written about what everyone is able to experience -- all in the yummy, cultural city of Detroit.

Thanks for choosing Detroit, American Table. Annnd, in 40=/- years when I retire, feel free to come back to Detroit so I can take the tour myself.

Last Day to Vote for Children's Hospital!

Please go vote here. We are just behind Houston. Let's show those Texans Detroit can show the love like no other!

Cast your vote! The Detroit Zoo's zebra foal needs a name

Votes are in for the newest zebra addition to the Detroit Zoo family! They are: Bella, Chloe, Holly, Noel and Zahara.

Which name is the best fit for the little foal? Cast your vote here.

Twitter Me

More of you people need to use Twitter! Feel free to "Twitter" me -- the name's metrogal84. Everyone can use more social networking in their lives!

Thought for the Day:
"Time you enjoyed wasting is not wasted time." - T.S. Eliot

Improvisational Quilts of Susana Allen Hunter @ The Henry Ford

What goes into a quilt?

- Love.
- A lot of time.

- A lot of fabric.

Yes, all of these are true. But what is hidden among the array of fabric we see is a piece of the quilter's soul.

Prepare to see the soul poured into one woman's quilt collection at the brand new exhibit at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich. called "Quilting Genius 2: The Improvisational Quilts of Susana Allen Hunter."

The exhibit features 30 creative quilts created by Susana from the "fabric" of her everyday life in Wilcox, Alabama -- one of the poorest counties in the nation.

Susana's quilts, dating from the 1930s - 70s, provide a feeling of life context to her experience as an African American female living in the Jim Crow rural south. In her inspiring designs, she incorporated pieces of her life -- rice sacks from food she consumed, feed sacks from the farm animals she took care of, jeans from old farm overalls and cotton that her and her family had hand-picked in the hot, southern sun. Every piece was reused or recycled and no fabric went to waste.

When I walked through the exhibit, I felt connected to Susane and got the vibe that quilting was her way to escape the harsh reality of being an African American female living in the racist/sexist south. It was through her creative outlet -- quilting -- that her mind was able to escape the confining and complex barriers of the era.

I believe through her quilting, Susane sends a message to all of us -- creativity can't be judged by material things. Sometimes it's the imperfections of art coupled with the soul and emotion poured into the piece that create true art and always out-measure any store bought item. Sometimes it's the lack of what we have that makes us artists -- after all, it's always those who can make something out of nothing that always ends up on top.

To Susane, the fabrics she chose for each quilt seem to symbolize hope for change and a desire to express herself. Her quilts are not just simply blankets for the purpose of warmth. To me, they each tell a story of her strife and longing to escape and make something that wasn't "pretty" in the first place, beautiful and purposeful.

The exhibit is truly something to see. I had chills thinking about the soul that had obviously gone into the amazing pieces. This lady was poor and down on her luck at times, but didn't let that stop her from using her mind to create something that helped her escape.

Check it out for yourself. The exhibit is going on now through April 27, 2008.

Caffeine Craze to Hit Metro Detroit with Biggby's Growth

Yay! Lansing-based Biggby Coffee (formerly Beaner's Coffee... and yes, that was a poor name choice) is doubling in locations (with many more to come in Metro Detroit) in the next two years, according to an article in the Detroit Free Press!

Believe me, Biggby is SO much tastier than Star-spend-a-lot-of-bucks. And, the best part is, you support a Michigan native when you stop by for a caffiene fix. Keep it as incestuous as possible people; Michigan needs our economic help.

Top Forward of the Day -- Hot Chocolate vs. Life

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired.
During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups-porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite -- telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.

When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said:
"Notice that all the nice looking; expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each others cups.

Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have.
Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate we have.

The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.

And enjoy your hot chocolate!