The Best of the Blog

Where to start? So many good posts, so little time to recap. It was hard to choose, but here are my favorites...some for the pictures and some for the stories behind them...of what I've already posted on the blog. Each title links to the original post.

The Top Ten (In No Particular Order):
1) At the Cottage
2) Irving Place
3) Lawnmower Escape Artist
4) He's Sad Because We're Eating Him
5) A Birthday Invasion (This one goes out to the late, great Grandma Alma)
6) Fountain Play
7) Girl
8) Late to the Party
9) Family Round Up: Part 4
10) Cherry Tree Time of Year

The Runners Up:
Halloween - The Morning After
The Family Chef
Friday Means Fries Day
Blame E.T.
Self Portrait
6 Train
Like Dads Do
Just Your Average U.F.O.

Also, my favorite photo series on the blog (East Side Walks was a good series, too):
Let's Put the Cat in Things
Let's Put the Cat in Things: A Before and After
Let's Put the Cat in Things: A Reprise
Let's Put the Cat in Things: A Reprise, Part 2

It's All About the Polish...

Yesterday was all about the Polish...

The Polish Racing Sausage got the Brewers' season off to a very good start yesterday at Opening Day (I had a great time, even though the Brew Crew lost)...

And I got to see my Polish cousins (here, Madelynn draws a picture, and right after mispronouncing my name in a very endearing way for about the 40th time)

Grandma's Cookies

My great-grandmother Alma passed away this past week. She was a whopping 96 years old, and just decided one day not to wake up for us. I decided to blog about her because she was something of a family matriarch (she shared that title with my other great-grandmother, who is herself an impressive 95 years) and because it's the Christmas season. Grandma Alma's parents owned a German bakery when she was growing up, and every Christmas she still brings over plates of homemade cookies, just like she used to make in the bakery. These cookies are a family favorite, and no one makes them like Grandma did.

The recipe is a simple sugar cookie one, and the taste is not unusual as far as cookies go. The real secret to their deliciousness is that Grandma hand decorated each one with chocolate chips, colored sugars, sprinkles, nuts, powdered sugar, sno-caps, and hershey kisses in the shapes of candy canes, stars, christmas trees and ornaments. At her funeral, one of my younger cousins was crying because he was afraid he wouldn't get to have any more of these...not exactly grief for the loss of Grandma, but I'm sure she would still be pleased to know that she, and her cookies, will be missed. I'm hoping the recipe won't get lost, so I'm putting it here for myself, and for any of you, if you're interested.

The Family Chef

Mama D is one hell of a cook - while I was at home visiting her and the family this weekend she whipped up a lobster bisque, steak, carrots, and baked potatoes for dinner. She's a pro, and is single-handedly the reason that I cannot cook very well (I'm learning...I only fill the kitchen with smoke about once every two weeks now...quite the accomplishment). Above, she stirs the bisque, and below, stirs up some simmering carrots.

Everyone Loves a Parade

Ah, the 4th of July. A time to spend with family, celebrating our country's independence. If you're from my family, you celebrate by getting up at 9 am, putting on an outfit of red, white and blue and driving to your Great-Grandmother's house in Niles, Illinois to watch the annual Niles Fourth of July Parade from her front lawn and then enjoy a classy afternoon of Boston Market catering and Bud Light. Here's Michael J. ("the J is for Jackson") Pierski setting up the obligatory red, white and blue lawn chairs for the parade.



The parade approaches...it always includes the marching bands, the clowns, the elected officials in shiny convertibles, the Shriners in their funny hats and bicycles, parade floats, and free candy and mini-American flags. We're Polish, so we love anything cheesy, like the parade, and anything free, like the candy and handouts.

My cousins are, by now, experts at this yearly parade stuff. They're saving their enthusiasm for the good stuff, the parade floats that throw out candy and cheap toys. If you look closely enough, you'll see that just about everyone's wearing the red, white and blue, and two of the girls are even sporting red-and-blue eyeshadow.


Everyone loves a parade...except if you're two years old, like my cousin Madelynn. She mostly preferred to check out the bugs in the grass.

Stuffed and Roasted

My first pig roast! It was far grosser looking at the pig than I imagined, probably because he's stuffed into that roasting contraption pretty tightly. If meat wasn't so damn tasty, I'd be a vegetarian.

Too Cool for the Ground Level

Again at my Great Grandmother's Birthday Party: Two of my cousins, Jessica and Tiffany, chill out way above the crowd on top of Jessica's family's RV.

Our Idea of a Good Time

Ok, so my family is crazy and Polish. And we're conscientious too. We'll throw a good party, but let you know when the appetizers are hot and spicy (or spiked....like my aunt's specially made lemonade...)

Family Round Up Part 4

Here's little Everett again playing with some of those stackable colored rings. I really liked something about the way he would very methodically tell me what color each ring was as he took them off the stack and put them in a line....and the way this game amused him for a good half an hour, too.

Family Round Up Part 3

The third of family cook-out pictures...this one is my cousin Cassie about to bounce into a cartwheel.

Family Round Up Part 2

The second of some family pictures from the weekend cook-out, this picture basically proves that I have loads of cousins. If you notice that there are two girls pushing that yellow ball in the background, then you'll count 8 in this picture alone. There are 2 more who weren't in this shot but were there as well.

Family Round Up Part 1

Here's the first of some pictures of my family's weekend cook-out in Chicago. My cousin Everett checks out the scene.