Musings

Early morning sun…has crested trees and is backlighting droplets on squirrel-cage hardware cloth, making them spherical diamonds. Photo doesn’t capture magic.

Late evening sun…shining upstream along the Manistique. Bubbles are natural foam from upstream cedar swamps (chemistry) plus rapids (to stir it up).

Between the two all kinds of things happened (as in rrrrrt (imagine turning wheel of vehicle), change of plans), including my Wally Dinner. I might have called it walleye. Definitely yummy.

Posted at 7:37 PM | 1 Comment »

I know these as non-spiny veggies (perhaps botanically fruits), but these spiny chayote emote “don’t touch me.” I sure wouldn’t. Internet recipes suggest boiling the whole spiny plant-porcupine, then peeling after the flesh becomes soft. I dunno.

With the non-spiny versions, funny thing, when you peel them, or just cube them, the flesh very slightly oozes a slightly slimy slippery substance. You really notice it if you don’t have a sink to wash up in.

Posted at 10:17 PM | 2 Comments »

Dreaming about chocolate…

…what I had to eat instead was (Napa*) cabbage.

Savoy photo for illustrative purposes only.

Posted at 9:16 PM | 4 Comments »

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

Sending you a flower today, this time from a ginger plant. Lovely, subtle colors. Unknown function of the dangling parts.

Not sure why Tío Flaco is a good choice for a food brand. It means Uncle Skinny/Thin. Great colors, though….

Posted at 5:09 PM | Comments Off on Greens, of a sort

I’m not real keen on celebrating my own birthdays, but I’m happy to celebrate others’. Tonight was a classy 75th high-quality years. Gooooooo Lovely Linda! 💚

Posted at 10:28 PM | Comments Off on Cake/ice cream

I didn’t get the oregano buds cut off, so they are blooming and trying to attract pollinators.

The fennel, on the other hand, has moved past the blooming stage, and is curing its seeds.

Posted at 6:28 PM | Comments Off on Urban edibles

I get a little charge of excitement when I discover that what I have in the pantry and leftovers can be combined into a tasty (vs lame) menu, without additional shopping.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Small victory #3865119

Experimented. Maybe I’ve done this before, but it was aeons ago. The GrillMeisterSupreme™ did the heat portion of the operation (also veggies), then we all fell on the spread. Yum.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on A win

I didn’t stumble this morning (yawn!) when I made the switch back to our venerable drip coffee-maker from the northern coffee method, a French press.

Posted at 8:32 PM | Comments Off on Rolling with change