Saturday, 20 February 2016
First, I sautéed mushrooms. Then I chopped veg, got a pot of rice going, and started the iron skillet heating. Finally, I threw it together. The latter is the step that some recipes would indicate takes something like five minutes. For me, it’s more like fifteen.
Here’s the final plate. The seared tuna steak is under the green onions on the right side.
Friday, 12 February 2016
Today we repeatedly juxtaposed old and new, sun and shadow. We didn’t set out to do that…it just…happened.
We drove a stretch of the Old Dixie Highway, and saw a bit of Old Dixie, noting eroded soils, falling-down wooden buildings, weeds in droves, aging pecan groves, and rising fire-ant hills.
We also wound through back streets of Social Circle and Madison, trying to avoid the new construction and the upscale. We went by the HS of SC and saw the football players dispersing after practice, all headed, one by one, to jacked up shiny pickups. Where has all that money come from?
The highlight was visiting the new-old house of family (see cat in “cat-through”), and attending a dinner celebrating ninety big years.
Monday, 8 February 2016
Let me lead with the headline: we ate our longevity noodles just like you’re supposed to for Chinese New Year (I bet they don’t use the C word). The trick is that the noodles have to be long and you can’t bite them, hence the slurping stereotype. And long life.
Did get out; did find some sunshine.
Also discovered a sleeping duck on the newly landscaped lawn, contravening the friendly sign.
Friday, 29 January 2016
These crocuses surprised me—seems pretty darned early for them, even in ATL. (#notmyyard #notmygarden)
The sign says “open,” but the restaurant’s really closed and for lease. It’s not that I’m a skeptic!—it really is!
This is just a simple, organic beauty shot, the kind I like so well…in this case, gleaming chestnuts from China.
Today’s a Random-Topic Friday in this little spot on the web.
Thursday, 21 January 2016
I don’t mean close-up with a microscope, but at close range with the eye. Here are two fruits: rambutan and guanabana. Both tropical.
And here are two fishes, dried butter fish and scad (fresh). I am not familiar with either, whether they’re marine or fresh-water, and what part of the world they’re native to. (And I’m not G00gling them now….)
My ignorance is thoroughly revealed.
Saturday, 9 January 2016
We returned to the favorite Chinese restaurant, and had the homemade noodles we’d had before, but all the other dishes were different. Plus, mid-day on weekends, they have additional offerings that are more…labor-intensive? Anyway, these were something like BBQ steamed buns, or hum bao (my guess on spelling; I know bao is the steamed bun part).
Then, we walked about a third of the way around Green Lake to stretch our legs and get our big luncheon to settle into our toes (or something). And back. Parts had a skim of ice, even after mid-day and in the sunshine….
After that, we whiled away the afternoon at the new Star Wars movie. Lots of wars. Or several battles in one war. Plot twists. H_Ford family-talking with now-General Leia. Too many annihilations for me….
Friday, 8 January 2016
I walked along the path near the creek, and tried to hear it burble. I could easily hear a huge flock/murder of crows down by the creek mouth, both in the water and in the overhanging trees, just cawing away (“this is MY branch; get your own” over and over, I imagine). Up the valley, I could hear a bag-piper; was it music from “Outlander,” I wondered. I had to adjust my path to get close enough to the creek to hear the water-noise. Finally, yes! Then, my phone rang.
I wasn’t even sure I had service down in this valley. Turned out the oldest kid was out of school—closed because of a bomb threat. Sigh. Okay; readjust afternoon plans. We can do that.
Youngest nephew is having buddies over for spaghetti, with ice cream cake dessert. Oreo cookie crumb crust, with three flavors of ice cream. All good! I figure a half-dozen boys and a big dose of sugar constitutes another noise source….
Sunday, 3 January 2016
I looked back through the meager collection of today’s photos and first I thought: hey, the flowers in the fungi-stump, that’s the one.
Then I thought: no, the two chocolate hearts.
In the end…(see title).
Friday, 25 December 2015
When he was around The Botanist was my #1 apple dessert fan, especially pie, but he’d take crisp or even sauce. He was also my #1 peeler. I did a crisp today and thought of him through nine apples, Cameo I believe they were called. Came out pretty tasty. Yay for Vietnamese cinnamon.
This is a taste of Randall Munroe’s exemplary “Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words,” in which he marshals exceptional drawings and a vocabulary of only 1000 words to explain complicated things. The 1000 (aka “ten hundred”) words apparently include flies but not ants. We gave away the copy we bought, and I think we’ll buy another copy for ourselves…yay, dead-tree books!
Thursday, 26 November 2015
Tried a dish I’d never cooked before. Not even remotely. Make a turkey breast sandwich with dressing between. Wrap first in carefully conserved skin, then in butter-soaked cheesecloth. Roast. It’ll take an hour and a quarter.
Hmm. Took much longer. Skin did get crispy. Made the dressing too wet (my error). Should have flattened the breasts a bit so they weren’t so lumpy.
Still, the meat was moist and tasty.
Reminder to self: don’t experiment for a dinner party again. (I knew this….) Second reminder: my guests love my version of pimiento cheese. I made it a day ahead so the pimento could completely rehydrate.