WEEKLY MENU 05.15.22
We’re feeling artsy during the Weekly Menu 05.15.22~
Why is art on our mind during the Weekly Menu 05.15.22? Andy Warhol, who was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania painted an iconic image of Marilyn Monroe many moons ago. It recently sold.
NEW YORK (AP) — Andy Warhol’s “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” sold for a cool $195 million on Monday, making the iconic portrait of Marilyn Monroe the most expensive work by a U.S. artist ever sold at auction.
The 1964 silkscreen image shows Monroe in vibrant close-up — hair yellow, eyeshadow blue and lips red — on a rich blue background. It’s also the most expensive piece from the 20th century ever auctioned, according to Christie’s auction house in New York, where the sale took place.
PBS News Hour
Why does this particular sale impact us here in Erieland? Let me tell you.
A few weeks ago, my baby seester and I headed to Pittsburgh for a girls weekend. We stayed at a fabulous hotel downtown, where the rich and famous may have also been hanging out. When we checked in, our bellhop told us, in a stage whisper, that Justin Bieber was in town. I asked if he was staying at the Fairmont, and he backpedaled a bit, telling us that he wouldn’t say that. I would like to point out that, although my sister is considerably younger than I, we’re both well past the point of being Beliebers.
But we were intrigued.
And then promptly forgot about it. Until the next morning, when we had to head over to Market Square to get a coffee. {Real nice hotel, but it lost points for not having any coffee or tea readily available in the lobby first thing in the morning. But I digress.} As we headed to the corner, we saw not one or two, but FIVE tour buses pulled up on the street next to the hotel.
The Biebs was definitely in the house!!!
But we never saw him. After a fabulous massage in a renovated row house (within walking distance of the hotel) we got cleaned up and prepped for lunch and our afternoon excursion: a trip to the Andy Warhol Museum.
It didn’t start out all that auspiciously. For the first time in all the rides I’ve had in Ubers, I was actually frightened by the driver and I can’t pinpoint the reason why. His liberal dropping of the “F” bomb didn’t help, of course. Now, I’m no prude, and I probably have the saltiest language in the house, but it was unexpected and unnecessary. He also dissed beautiful Erieland, playground of the Pittsburgh elite, twice. Of course, I gave him a five star review – I was afraid he’d find me if I didn’t. But I digress. Again.
Pittsburgh has many awesome museums.
The Carnegie Science Center, The Frick Pittsburgh, and the Senator John Heinz History Center are some of the best. Sadly, in our opinion, The Andy Warhol Museum is not in that exalted group. A review we saw after visiting the museum summed it up perfectly:
If you are not already a Warhol fan, you probably want to skip this one
One of the floors was closed, so we didn’t see whatever was there. If you think you’re going to see any iconic Campbell’s Soup art and take your Instagram selfie, think again. It’s not there. There were only a few items of interest to either of us in the entire museum and most of them were in the early years. The 70’s are even weirder than I remember.
travelgirl888 Tripadvisor
Warhol was very… eccentric. Yeah. let’s go with that. And none of his iconic art was there. If you’re looking for a Campbell’s Soup can or one of the dozens of pictures he did of Marilyn Monroe or Elizabeth Taylor, you’re going to be disappointed. And maybe a bit creeped out. In one room, there were three large screens with close up movies of people kissing. A little pornographically. The whole place was a little dark ~ I don’t think I’d take the kiddos.
We rounded out Saturday with a visit to a fabulous Italian restaurant, so all was not lost! And we still had a great girls weekend. As you can imagine, we had a little vested interest in hearing that one of Warhol’s paintings sold for an astronomical fee. Since my sister and I both agreed that we probably could have done most of the art in this museum at least as well as he did.
Speaking of art…
I was the lucky recipient of a new pair of golf shoes, thirteen bottles of wine, a bottle of tequila, and a cookbook for Mother’s Day. I think you can see where my interests lie. Anywho. The cookbook is a work of art. It’s practically a text book, but I’ve been reading through it like a magazine, putting post-it notes everywhere. I highly recommend all 680 pages of The Milk Street Cookbook. (Affiliate links precede and follow – see Disclaimer Page for details) Thanks, D!
Weekly Menu 05.15.22 ahead!
In fact, two of our dinners on the Weekly Menu 05.15.22 come directly from it’s pages – the Carne Adovada and the Stir Fried Chicken with Snap Peas & Basil look divine. I’ll add the Chicken Piri Piri next week – I didn’t want to freak us all out with too many chilis.
We’re having a pseudo Italian meal on Sunday. Garlic Alfredo is one of the boys faves. How to make it a little better for us? By adding grilled chicken and a fabulous knock-off Olive Garden Salad. Klondike Sundaes and a bite of Sausage Stuffed Pepper to start and we’re set with a super duper easy meal we can make at the last minute!
The Mississippi Crock Pot Roast is doing double duty next week – with mashed potatoes on Monday and mixed with our favorite Barbecue Sauce on Friday. This is a perfect recipe for Monday – pop all the ingredients into your crockpot and forget about it. Plus, it uses a cheap cut of beef. Thumbs up!
