Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens

I recently got to experience a Friday afternoon at the Cincinnati Zoo, courtesy of a work outing.  It was the first wonderful, sunny day that we'd experienced in a while and the zoo was absolutely packed.

The zoo seems to be having a lot of problems with their giraffes lately.  One died earlier this year.  The new baby giraffe has a broken leg.  Wonder whats causing the problems?

We got to see this Rhino two ways.  Standing here catching some sun rays, and again in a swimming pool later.  If I hadn't known better, I'd have thought he was a hippo :)

It was a great day for a swim at the zoo.  This polar bear was doing backstroke laps in his swimming pool.

Wish there wasn't a window in the way here!  I wanted to swing around too.

Baby Bonobo Monkeys.  You know what they say about bonobos. 

The zoo had a lot of volunteers outside holding animals that you could touch.  I don't remember them doing things like that when I was little.  I tried to pose with a bunch of them.  Wouldn't it be odd to realize that you are in pictures with a whole lot of people?

What's also cool is when you know somebody who knows somebody and you get to meet an elephant up close.

This is me with Mai Tai. 

And a boa constrictor

No visits to the alligator or crocodiles though

The gorillas were awesome.  There was a zoo keeper giving a presentation and he was throwing pieces of fruit to them.  They were pretty good at catching, too.

Don't worry, folks, I've got this situation under control.

My guess is that this peacock was not showing its feathers on demand...I'm thinking it was probably getting ready to stab someone's eye out...

Maifest

I braved the rainy weekend to check out Maifest in Main Strasse.  It was still fun, even though it was drizzly.

Check out this giant mettwurst with sauerkraut!

In other news, summer semester at Xavier has officially started.  My nose is back on the grindstone.  When I'm not dancing in the rain with my umbrella. ella. ella. of course.

Or...taking night vision goggles to steal other peoples chicken tenders.

I didn't actually eat any of his chicken tenders though. 

Later, we split a cream puff.  There was only one vendor selling them...and they were not delicious.  I was sadly disappointed and we tossed it out.  :(  Maifest fail.  Oktoberfest, bring it on!

Red Velvet Cheesecake

For some reason I've been having trouble uploading photos here.  It's working ok now, so hopefully the trend will continue.

In other news, grad school is a complete time drain.  One day, it will be over.  And I will have awesome free time back again, right?

In the meantime I've made a couple amazing cakes.  This red one was in honor of Red's Opening Day.  I was in the parade, so I took this cake to work a few days in advance to let everyone eat it up.

It was quite well received.  That's a layer of cheesecake there in the middle. 

A wee bit lopsided, but strategic buttercream frosting pile-ups can hide a lot.

I've heard they serve these at Cheesecake Factory.  It's not something I would have picked.  But how fitting for Cincinnati Red's Opening Day!

Yum.

Click here for recipe

Roast Chicken with Rosemary-Orange Butter

I found myself with a blood orange and a whole chicken and wondered what kind of delicious creation I might make.  Luckily, my stand by recipe website, Epicurious, came through with a recipe for Roast Chicken with Rosemary-Orange Butter.

Here is the chicken:

And the blood orange ready to be zested.  Oooh sexy, zesting.

lol


Mixing up the rosemary orange butter

I made a bed of carrots, onion, and celery for the chicken to rest on with the intention of eating the veggies with the chicken.  Frankly, they didn't look very appetizing after the chicken was cooked, so I just threw them out.

I made small slits in the skin and put the butter on the inside and the outside.  rub down the chicken.

And here is the finished result!

This was a pretty tasty recipe.  I took some of the juice from the oranges (I roasted them in the cavity of the chicken) and made gravy with a little white wine.  Then I saved the bones for my next batch of chicken stock.

Bockfest

I didn't get to spend much time at Bockfest, but I'm glad I went.  I wish it was happening more then just once a year...I guess I'll have to settle for Taste of Cincinnati and Oktoberfest goodies in the meantime.

Walking up to the event

I suppose the goat lives here?

Not Bock, but pretty good none the less...

Yummy dinner!

om nom nom nom nom nom nom

 Definitely need to spend more time there next year.

Turn of the Century Tour-Bockfest Weekend

 I know this was a few weekends ago...but I'm in grad school now and that means I went from having tons of free time to having zero free time.  So, I am a bit behind on blogging.  I haven't even been cooking much.  I do have a delicious cake and a chicken recipe to share soon though.

You remember in my previous post I talked about the brunch I had at Memorial Hall during Bockfest weekend.  We bought a package deal which also included a "Turn of the Century Tour."  This was a walk through a few local points of interest and I've put together some photos to share.

It was interesting and enjoyable and I definitely saw some things I'd never seen and learned some things I didn't know.

The tour guides said that this was at the funeral for Abraham Lincoln.  It has what look like a bunch of dried flowers on it.  If it looks this good now, I can hardly imagine how good it looked when the flowers were fresh.  Hanging in Memorial Hall

Washington Park reconstruction

Talk about the restoration of Memorial Hall

Tiffany :)

Emery Theater.  Look, Ma, no support beams!   Likely not a bad seat in the house :)

more Emery Theater

Tour guide and folks from the tour on stage at Emery Theater

The orchestra pit looks like it could double as a wading pool...

Backstage!  I really wanted to roam around back there.

More Emery Theater

Piano at Emery Apartments

Classrooms turned into awesome apartments!  Too bad they aren't condos..

Emery Apartments

Walking to St. Francis Seraph

St. Francis Seraph

St. Francis Seraph

Choir seats at St. Francis Seraph

St. Francis Seraph

Dove on the ceiling window

This used to be on the main alter at St. Francis Seraph.  Now residing in the basement

The crypt at St. Francis Seraph

The crypt at St. Francis Seraph

I'm not sure if the scratches in the paint were done to save money or to creep people out

Really nice meditation garden at St. Francis Seraph

What it used to look like before the current state

Beautiful mosaic tiles

Stained glass windows

Don't fall down these stairs!

I had a great time exploring these places.  I probably never would have set foot in them otherwise, and it was amazing to learn more about the history of this town I call home.