Musings

I don’t know enough Photoshop to color-correct this to a tad more greenish….

Due to fluishness incubating elsewhere, the cake-and-candles RHB 82nd celebration has been postponed until Friday—although maybe without the candles. In recognition of the actual day, we took over a beeg pot of split pea soup for leetle lunch….

If menus influence the weather, then the wintery pea soup may be the reason it’s supposed to get a bit nippy around here overnight and tomorrow—well, if you call high in the mid-40s nippy….

Posted at 6:10 PM | Comments Off on Beeg soup!

Tomato basil soup with goat cheese* for creaminess….

Leftovers can be such a pleasure! A lovely meal, at your fingertips….

* Hmm. The parm melted on top doesn’t look so tasty in this close-up….

Posted at 10:22 PM | 2 Comments »

BTW, I’ve added a couple of new, winter-appropriate recipes….

You might enjoy James’ Borscht Stew, if you’re up for spending more time cooking, or a fast-meal of soup—with myriad variations—I just developed.

Posted at 4:33 PM | 1 Comment »

Sometimes the best food comes in unassuming packages. Tonight we ventured into the cold (for here) and had the Family Style Dinner (and more) at Nicola’s, a Lebanese restaurant not far from here. Excellent.

And the best part was when Nicola himself came out and danced, first with this youngster, then with me, then with the belly dancers! Nicola is so smooth on his feet that he can balance a glass of wine, or, here, a kid-cup, on his head without it moving one bit as he gyrates!

Nicola came out first with a tray with a lit birthday cakelet for this kid’s table, and danced a bit, then danced down to his knees, still balancing the burning cake-and-candles, then gestured to the adult b-day celebrant to blow out the candle. As the guest bent forward to do so, Nicola bent backward, more and more, until the guy finally had to get up to blow out the candles! What fun!

Posted at 10:22 PM | 2 Comments »

Immature. But which hawk? Sharp-shinned?

Impulse led me to check the Internet Archive to see if Brillat-Savarin’s oft-mentioned 1826 (I think) work, Physiologie du goût (The Physiology of Taste) was there—and it was!

Deep within the text I found a couple of jokes (adapted by me):

Hey, have a raisin.

No, thanks. I don’t like wine in pills.

That cracked me up. Here’s another:

Monsieur (said an old marquise to me one day), which do you prefer: Burgundy or Bordeaux?

Madame (I replied), I have such a passion for contemplating this matter that I always postpone the decision for a week!

Posted at 5:49 PM | Comments Off on Brillat-Savarin

Even transplanted Southerners make sure they work the magic available on New Year’s Day. The Magnificent JPB conjured up pots of collard greens (to bring money in the coming year), black-eyed peas (to bring luck in the year ahead), and mashed potatoes (’cause you just gotta have them to round out the meal), along with cornbread (not shown; included because all true Southern meals have a side of quickbread).

BTW, I haven’t written enough here about my talented BIL, JPB. Among other impressive undertakings, he composes a weekly comic strip you ought to check out. He calls it Grumbles, and it’s outstanding.

Posted at 8:34 PM | Comments Off on Luck & money

Sunny today, but more rain expected. In a burst of winterliness, we’re having white bean soup for dinner.

It’s also a good antidote for examining theories about civilizational decline and transformation.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Antidote-soup

I have a new passion (passionette?): charcoal-roasted green tea aka hoji-cha. Xmas gift. Yamamotoyama brand. Highly recommmended!

And don’t you think my Seattle Art Museum mug is pretty special?

Posted at 4:51 PM | Comments Off on Hoji-cha

A lovely bottle of bubbly we shared on Xmas Eve; hand-carried to us all by S. from Germany.

The OLPC laptops are making a (positive) difference, the WP reports; kids favor especially using the camera and video capabilities. Their story is from very rural Peru. Give one (or more) here. You can choose to get one for yourself, too!

The snooty discriminating French may bow to market pressure and expand the geographic area that can produce effervescent wines that can legally be called champagne. Well, at the earliest in 2009, and the vines won’t come on line until, um, at least 2015…leaving them plenty of time to reverse or adjust the decision….

The NYT has finally published (dated yesterday; hmm, I was too busy to read the paper and missed it then) an article that explicates the anthropologist’s analysis of Diamond’s “Collapse”—basically too much environmental determinism and an unbalanced argument about human decisions. Diamond is a geographer, and gets it a bit, well, skewed (you’ve probably gotten that from me eight or ten times; apologies for the repetition). Yes, climate change is a factor, but, the complexity of cultural evolution isn’t addressed properly in D’s volume. [Reminder to self: get that MS finished!]

Posted at 9:09 AM | 2 Comments »

One huge stalk of Brussels sprouts: that’s the four bucks….

Our non-traditional menu today: chicken cacciatore (mmmm, mushrooms, olives, green herbs, mmmm) with a side of Brussels sprouts freshly harvested from the stalk, a huge green salad, pie. Choice of pumpkin and apple, of course—or both!

Posted at 10:22 PM | 2 Comments »