Bonsai at the Botanical Gardens

 

And Dinner

Photos taken June 10, 2026 © mae sander

A Few Good Meals

 

Upper left: cold chicken platter. Upper right: the chicken on the grill.
Lower photos: the fully cooked chicken being carved.

Spaghetti all'assassina (Assassin's Spaghetti) is a famous pasta dish from Bari, Italy. Instead of boiling the pasta, you cook it in a frying pan with successive additions of olive oil, garlic, chili, water and tomato paste. The pasta becomes charred and (we thought) quite delicious. The origin of the name is disputed — maybe the cook is trying to kill you with the hot chili peppers! Len didn’t use an excess of hot pepper, and we enjoyed the result.

Breakfast: A muffin from Trader Joe’s

Grilling pork chops…

The pork chops, beautifully seared and cooked. It’s definitely grilling season!

AND Swans

This pair of trumpeter swans at a pond outside of town have quite a little brood of cygnets!

Photos © 2026 mae sander

The Silk Road

 

I have been reading this new book about travel in some very unusual places.
The recipes are fun to read, but I doubt that I’ll try them!
I wrote more about the silk road here: https://maefood.blogspot.com/2024/06/i-am-not-pilgrim.html
and here: https://maefood.blogspot.com/2020/03/what-did-marco-polo-eat.html

Images from Ansari’s Silk Roads

Fruit preserves in the style of the author’s family.

Reading Next: A different view of this history

A Long Time Ago

Many years ago, I read about medieval voyages in various contexts, and I wrote a book called Jewish Time Travel. Its pretty obscure though amazon.com still has a listing for it.

Blog post © 2026 mae sander

The Peony Garden in Full Bloom

 

Quiet Days in West Lafayette

Visiting Elaine in West Lafayette. Sushi an other good food at the Japanese restaurant Izakaya.

Clover in the woods.

Mural near one of the local shopping centers.

Detail of mural.

Bridge across Happy Hollow Creek.

 Photos © 2026 mae sander

Blintzes and Pie

 

Elaine’s blintzes are the best. I’ve posted photos of them before but they are worth another look!
We had them for dinner and are about to have more for breakfast.

Elaine’s peach pie is the best.

Photos © 2026 mae sander

Where We Are

 

Now in West Lafayette visiting my sister Elaine.

Sunday at Home

The last day of May was very beautiful. I hope everyone will have a happy month of June.

Morning walk in the park.

Levi next door had a lemonade stand. Price: 25¢ (or free). It was delicious.

Another scene from our walk.
People leave scooters all over the neighborhood. I hope nobody trips.

Thinking about the Lewis chess pieces for no reason.

Alice Makes Dinner and We Visit the Botanical Gardens

Saturday Dinner at Alice’s

Alice cooked chicken and vegetables for a delicious dinner. Ice cream bars for dessert.

At the Botanical Gardens

One Sandhill Crane was wading in the pond.
Michigan is now home to around 25,000 cranes, with many more present during migration.
Cranes were almost extinct 60 years ago, with a dramatic turnaround in the 1970s.

Spring flowers were beautiful.

A sale of garden plants was taking place in one of the greenhouses.

We didn’t want to plant sneezeweed, but it’s a great plant name.

Random Mona Find

 Blog post © 2026 mae sander