Musings

We lunched in and wandered the streets of Buffalo, the model for the county seat of Durand in Craig Johnson‘s Longmire series (books, and now on TV). This lovely rocker was in a log cabin that was moved to the grounds of the county building (I think that’s what it is) about a decade ago.

Johnson doesn’t copy the town, and instead captures a version of its flavor and sass. We got some of its flavor, too, as we lunched at the real Busy Bee Café, where Sheriff Longmire often dines. He gets the regular, but he isn’t sure what his regular is. The proprietress brings what she choses, and that’s the way she likes it. He must, too, as he frequently returns.

I had a really good bison burger with a side of cole slaw. They make the vinegar and slightly sweet version, with the cabbage somewhat wilted, just a tad. Very yummy, but I’d probably never make it that way.

Posted at 11:56 PM | Comments Off on For me (you, too)

Dinner menu by special request: bison burgers on these buns. Tossed salad. (Simple.)

Yum.

Posted at 8:19 PM | Comments Off on Medium rare

This was the most colorful of today’s projects—making cubes of leftover coffee…leftover because my coffee-drinking partner is off on a quick jaunt to the Midwest, and I didn’t want to toss what I didn’t drink. Plus, he loves iced coffee, and what better cubes than ones made of coffee?

Meanwhile, one of his projects showed up (thank you, UPS guy wearing earbuds; maybe you’ll hear me this time). Clearly, someone at #Walmart was having a bad day. The box is about 34x17x14 (inches) and there are yards of brown paper packing. The closing tape has cross-strips, I guess because the initial down-the-flaps piece didn’t stick.

The contents? ONE windshield wiper blade. And, despite the fact that it would fit in the box without bending, the end was bent—just the package and not the wiper. That looks okay.

I texted The Guru about the arrival, and he said there were supposed to be two wipers. Will I see a twin Walmart package tomorrow?

Posted at 7:56 PM | Comments Off on Projects, sorta

If only I could get the focus point on the right part of the image….

When your vegetable garden is three plants and some herbs, harvest time is a Big Deal. While there are two tomato plants and one pepper plant in my garden-ette, one of the tomato plants is sacrificial. The strange anti-squirrel cage that I (over)built of ¼-in mesh hardware cloth is only big enough for one (hyper-folded) tomato plant. Besides, the squirrels are just darned aggressive.

Thnx for the photo, Guru, and for artfully posing the ’maters so they ALL look unblemished.

So, after the cloudburst this afternoon, the Guru and I went out to harvest. We’d been watching three tomatoes in the cage ripen, and yesterday I figured today would be The Day to Pick.

Turned out two of them have slug(?) holes and one of those two is half rotten. But the third has great color and is merely…not particularly large.

Poi-fect Guru photo; love that dangling droplet.

And there’s a green pepper coming on. It may be a poblano, judging by the shape. Or maybe not. I didn’t check the tag (too distracted by the easy weeding) and can’t remember.

Posted at 6:20 PM | Comments Off on Harvest moment

When I left this morning, this leaf was perched beneath a layer of dew on our slanty Prius windshield (gazing skyward?). This shot, however, is from when I returned from my walk…and, actually, the leaf isn’t any drier or less flat than when I left, although my impression at the time was that it was. (Photographic comparison/proof….)

The okra is another matter. I spotted this fine specimen in a little raised-bed garden on a verge, a fine patch of green-ness, but not a big enough garden to feed a family even for a long weekend. Still, this okra is firmly in its upright and locked position…in typical okra style….

I hope I don’t sound critical, as I love to see produce coming along right by the sidewalk.

City lights…the vegetative kind….

Posted at 9:28 PM | 2 Comments »

Craving veggies. Tomato-veggie soup for lunch. Huge tofu stir-fry for dinner.

Posted at 10:50 PM | 1 Comment »

This was after I made the coffee, and before we woofed down the delicious Carol-muffins.

Yesterday we had a choice to make: one or two days. Of travel to ATL, that is.

I think we were leaning ever so slightly toward a push of making it a one-day, long-and-into-the-night run. However, the weather and a couple of minor traffic snafus, plus some simple curiosity meant we were not making fast time. But we were having fine, albeit short-term, “local” adventures.

The Guru found us an historic overnight. At a real hotel. As in, the room charge doesn’t include more than coffee. In the room and in the lobby. Other foods, they charge more for.

However, we had a double-load of Carol-love-muffins, which, with the hotel coffee offering made a slamming good breakfast. Youall should be so lucky!

We spent the day in relatively slow-drive mode, mostly avoiding big ol’ I75, taking little side roads, which slowed us less than you think, because our route was shorter/straighter. (Side result: gas mileage improved throughout the day!)

Actual homecoming relatively uneventful, except that you must realize that the best way to clean accumulated weird things from your freezer is not to leave the freezer-drawer-door cracked open while you’re off on vacation, so that everything “down there” melts a wee bit too much for way too long. Yuck. But cleaned up now.

Posted at 10:38 PM | 2 Comments »

With permission, I raided the hunter-gatherer-horticulturalist-gardener neighbors’ potato supply that wintered over, and took two plants of this year’s cilantro. They went into a Columbian version of potato salad, you might say, with the dressing not vinegar and oil based, but instead salsa (more or less). With the fresh cilantro leaves torn and artfully adorning the bowl. Secret ingredient: the whole was augmented with some chèvre soft goat cheese….

Had to add this photo of the corner of the stacked-log playhouse. Have lost track of what’s in there these days. Besides spiders….

Posted at 10:17 PM | 1 Comment »

Out in the wee hours, with the chipmunks and the robins…I found this plastic fence almost glowing in the streetlight. Turns out the English word picket is from the French piquet, meaning pointed stake. Pike, as in the defensive weapon, is a related word. And the fish is so named for its pointy jaw.

The other day we enjoyed pesto from our Genovese basil. Tonight, we feasted on Thai basil added to Thai curry sauce, hauled home from TJ’s.

These are among the quotidian topics at this ranchero. Meanwhile, the country has moved a bit forward with grieving in Charleston, ending the escapees’ travel plans in NY state, and a(nother) Supreme Court ruling I didn’t expect (feeling very cynical about some members of that bunch; yea! for majority rule).

Posted at 7:57 PM | Comments Off on Night moves

For birthday-in-the-family reasons, we ate cake! And celebrated!

Yum!

LTEC = Let them eat cake

Posted at 10:22 PM | 1 Comment »