Musings

Since the quake in Italy, I’ve been thinking about the namesake dish of Amatrice, a pasta dish much discussed and without a specific recipe. From what I’ve read, the old country version had meat and cheese added, and that’s it. Sometime later tomatoes became part of the dish, for some people. There’s discussion of onion, garlic, and other flavor bits.

The meat, apparently, was an aged, flavored, pork cheek, called guanciale. I could find no guanciale, and had bacon already in the fridge…so, bacon. Some say substitute pancetta…. I still liked my bacon….

As you can see, my recipe does not match either the ancient or the later versions. I also added onion (yellow not red), a bit of garlic (a la Batali).

So—tasty, and not traditional….

Posted at 8:32 PM | Comments Off on VERY tasty

We ate dinner by-the-numbers tonight, as it turned out. Both were excellent numbers!

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on I was lazy

As far back as I can remember, I liked the juxtaposition of round and angular geometric shapes. What does it mean that these these forms are common on ancient pottery, if decorated at all….

Posted at 10:22 PM | 1 Comment »

I’m pretty sure this house is inhabited by students, which is darned unusual in this neighborhood. Some apartments, yes, but rarely houses.

Posted at 7:10 PM | Comments Off on Domiciliary “person”ality

We made a bread run this morning, and encountered a weekend project underway. This wasn’t pruning or mowing. It involved a “tree.” A techno-fix to a communications tree. That’s one tall crane!

Posted at 8:16 PM | Comments Off on Update?

I find this way of using tile scraps appealing. Also, the many grout/mortar separations mean it won’t get as slippery as a mostly-tile surface.

On the same property, the lettering of the name of the apartment complex is more formal tile-work.

Posted at 5:57 PM | Comments Off on Underfoot (again)

On the light side, I left early-ish (just after nine) headed for The Real Bakery (driving), and I was amazed that the car was cranking out warm air—outside temp was a mere 72°F. Of all things. Cold spell, I thought. [High eventually over 90°F, so only in the morning.]

On the national political side, the term “alt-right” surfaced in my brain for the first time. What is that?, I asked The Guru. Smokescreen for white racism, he said (approximately). Sheesh, I thought.

I was going to call this entry “Two sides” and then discuss that we could only see one gate in this photo (plus a version of the text above)…but somehow I didn’t find that…feisty…enough. Feisty in quotes, essentially. So the actual title is a bit of a punt, but it is late and I am weighed down by today’s USA political news.

This title…hmm. It made sense to me when I typed it. Give me a break? 💚😎

Posted at 10:12 PM | 1 Comment »

Here’s today’s utility shot. (😎Apologies; I couldn’t help myself.)

Then, is this a utility plant photo? Doesn’t seem like it to me; I do like the feathery pampas grass-heads….

Posted at 6:48 PM | 1 Comment »

I had some idea for pairing these two photos, but whatever it was escapes me now. I liked this light on a pewter(ish) blue terry bath towel, but it looks…strange here. And grey not blue.

All the color in this stained glass is in the glass; none is painted on. Somehow, this image is less interesting than I thought it’d be, too.

There’s always tomorrow!

Posted at 10:12 PM | Comments Off on Not grey

We went exploring today in our favorite mega-mart, the veggie and foodstuff place and not the Chinese-and-Asian-import kind. I liked the idea that these were “entertainer” crackers, but not enough to buy them.

I tried to parse the label and came up with Sauna Hat. Anyone know differently? (Today was hat day on a friend’s blog, as it turns out, but a very different hat.)

Posted at 10:06 PM | 1 Comment »