It’s a Meat Week- blogging from Jim’s Steaks Philly

Steve and I drove out 290 miles after school. He’s going to a conference and Mary and I are making it a mini vacation. She’s back at the hotel but we hoofed it .6 miles to South Street to Jim’s Steaks

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Here is a cheesesteak with

Yea, we ate organic cheddar from Mercer County on the drive out bit tonight it is Cheez Whiz , baby. No provolone.
Plenty of grilled onions

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And here it is. We shared one.

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More for Philadelphia tomorrow

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Steep Streets

Pittsburgh has some steep streets. I plan to find them and photograph them when winter’s gone.

carrick streetA friend posted an info-graphic  Steepest Streets in America.  The top ten.  Two are in Pittsburgh.

Dornbush Street and Canton Avenue.

This street headed up to Brownsville Road is a steep one.  It is also a one way so I didn’t drive up it.

On the way to school the other morning…

The sidewalk turns into stairs and has a railing the whole way up.  It isn’t on the info graphic but you know I’m on a mission to find the two steepest Pittsburgh streets listed and photograph them for the blog.

In the early ’90s we used to drive down a street in Mt. Washington that  looked like you were driving off  the end of the world. Three kids strapped in seat belts in back. We’d go around again, they’d lose their stomachs and we’d pretend we were on a roller coaster.

The list of the top five steepest streets in Pittsburgh -and one is in the Carrick neighborhood where I was driving.

Excerpt from Frontiernet.net  below-

  • Canton Avenue is a 37% grade, and is in the Beechview neighborhood. It is the steepest street in Pittsburgh.
  • Dornbush Street is a 32% grade, and is in the East Hills neighborhood.
  • Boustead Street is a 29% grade, and is in the Beechview neighborhood.
  • East Woodford Avenue is a 27% grade, and is in the Carrick neighborhood.
  • Rialto Street is a 25% grade, and is in the Troy Hills neighborhood.

 

I went and looked up the info about Steve McQueen driving in Bullitt and what street that was in San Francisco.

Taylor Street is not in the top ten but here is an interesting post about the making of that famous driving scene.

DJ’s Butcher Block in Bloomfield

Since we’re talking about meat…..

on the way home from school I stopped at DJ’s Butcher Block (Butcher Shop) on Penn Avenue.

What a selection of-

antibiotic free, local, grass fed, custom cut and ground meat.

There is also Amish Butter and Organic Cheese, one item I bought today was from Mercer County.

Local farms provide fresh eggs and rich milk that separates in a glass  1/2 gallon bottle   (to be returned)

DJ the proprietor is a also a chef,  trained at the Culinary Institute of America (I read in this Pgh CityPaper Article)butcher dj

Butcher Block and CleaverSteak thickness

He knows what he is doing

Bacon Soap

for the vegetarian?    A couple of vegetarians were in front of me buying sausage today.

Someone else was picking up a custom order of braciole.

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You can get a Savory Meat Pie to take home and bake.

pound of ground steak

I bought a pound of the grass fed ground beef and made burgers which were delicious, fried up in a cast iron skillet.

During Little Italy Days I had photographed DJ at night.  Thanks for allowing me to tour your butcher shop and photograph you again.

dj- butcher-block for blog

Where the Wild Boar Roam

Erika and I went to order lunch at Hill’s Market in downtown Columbus on Sunday.

We were at the Deli Counter and I saw the Wild Boar Salami packages.

Printed on the labels it  said Made From Free Roaming Wild Boar

so I asked the man making the sandwiches where the Wild Boar roamed free before they were made into salami.

He had no idea.                 I figured it wasn’t Columbus, local.

I picked up the package and read the fine print but no location mentioned.

It’s mentioned on the Creminelli website though-    TEXAS!

Then I looked it up on the internet and it says there are “wild pigs in FORTY FIVE states” (USA)

I remembered hearing Wild Boar in the Grafenwoehr trash in Germany, scraping a jar or a can along the concrete walk in the middle of the night.  And going to the Wild Boar Park in Germany, seeing baby wild boar.  Ate a plate of Wild Boar meat at a Boar Fest, remember his snarly face on the spit. Ugh.

Anyway the packages in the deli case got me wondering about Wild Boar and where they roamed free in America.

Have you seen any wild boar lately?

wild boar salami

Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio -Three Rivers

Threes.  Many things come in threes. It’s a strong number- a favorite number of many.

Still on the theme of three with a triptych story with the suggested 3 pictures will be coming in the near future……………

Thanks Mark for this thought on the Three Rivers even though the stadium by that name was demolished in 2001

(see implosion below)

Panorama from the Duquesne Incline platform
Panorama from the Duquesne Incline platform

Allegheny River on the left

Monongahela River on the right

Forming the Ohio River at the triangular point!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All You Need is a Ceiling Fan, a Light Source, and Tape

Tonight I was camping out in my 5 year old granddaughter’s room, lying on a mat on the floor.

I looked up and saw the ceiling fan.

I  remembered a youtube demo of light writing.  Have been working on light writing at school with the students and thought I’d experiment.

Maura said the fan made her too cold so it was not a lengthy experiment.  Not as many variations as I would have liked to try.  I think it would work well with regular glow sticks.  She liked the way the photos looked, though. Crazy Grandma.

Photo-  light   graph – write

You need a darkened room.

Set your camera on bulb setting ( or long exposure)

      Manual focus

A tripod would have been useful.  I just braced it so it’s soft focus.

I used a Flashing/Glowing White Lighting Stick and tried three different settings.

You need some tape (that won’t damage the paddle) to attach the light source to a ceiling fan blade.

Here are  the Light Write Experiment results

Moving the camera around
Moving the camera around

 

Holding the camera as still as I could
Holding the camera as still as I could

 

 

 

 

With the Light Stick on blue
With the Light Stick on blue

 

Moving the camera around
Moving the camera around

 

Multicolor flashing setting on the Lightning Stick
Multicolor flashing setting on the Lightning Stick

 

 

 

Here is one I did at school with LED Christmas Lights, trying to make and intentional circle shape.

 

LED Christmas Lights in the Dark Room at school
LED Christmas Lights in the Dark Room at school

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Threes

Three 

Rub-a-Dub-Dub, Three Men in a Tub

Three Little Pigs

Three Bears

Three Little Kittens

Wynken, Blynken and Nod

Three Sailing Ships

No Three on a Match

It’s bedtime in Ohio.  Three photo story post for a different day.  Kicking off the Weekly Photo Challenge by Michelle W with this single photo of all the threes I could find on the grandkids’ bookshelves.

threes in storiesIf you think of another threesome in nursery or fairy tales, please add it in a comment below.

 

Three Little Pigs Cartoon 1933- familiar music Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf

Blue Skies and Sunlight Hint Spring

 

 

 

Anyone bored with weather reports? It’s so much lighter for the morning drive to school.

I actually saw a robin in a tree down on East Liberty Boulevard. He was shivering.

I think.

This  tree is in my front yard.

Today it climbed to 48 degrees.                                     I promise a new topic soon.                      Very soon.
Berries on Branch

 

Photographed on Tuesday. I swear I heard bird song.

 

sunlightOld cat damage on the arm of the couch and

Sunlight through lace curtain onto hardwood.

 

 

 

 

Pittsburgh Seltzer Bottles in Bridgeport Conn Crate

The glass bottles attracted my eye as I saw them sitting on a soda fountain counter on Carson Street  in the South Side.  Only when I got home and uploaded the photo did I read Bridgeport Conn.   The bottles are from the Pittsburgh Seltzer Works but that wooden crate had Bridgeport Conn, stamped right on the side.

Bridgeport – where I spent four years of my life. Granted, a long time ago. It’s where I got my Art Education degree.

Oh and it’s home to the P.T. Barnum Museum, where Elias Howe invented the first sewing machine, where Sikorsky(now gone global)  manufactured helicopters, where Dr Fones founded Dental Hygiene profession  in 1906 and a ton of other well known names born there including Walt Kelly and Al Capp.

I think Paul Newman  when he was filming The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, once called it the “armpit of New England” which wasn’t very kind.  There was lots of industry and manufacturing, and then decline, departure and attempts to revitalize. The P.T. Barnum Museum is worth a trip, though.  Seriously.  And if you are into deterioration and dilapidation reports click here to read about Remington Arms.

 

Pittsburgh Seltzer Bottles