Food & Drink

2 Movies, 2 Books & 1 Unique Bumper Sticker

/ Ally Bean / 12 Comments

As part of my attempt to live a more balanced life in 2013, I have given myself the assignment to watch 2 movies and to read 2 books each month.  Here is my February report.

2 Movies

The Magic of Belle Isle – Bland + trite.  With Morgan Freeman and Virginia Madsen in it, I thought that this movie would be a sweet, but nuanced, look at life in a small town on a lake.  It was not.  In fact, it was boring, mildly insulting to women over 40, and just a plain waste of beautifully decorated lakeside homes.  Not recommended.

Helvetica –  Fascinating + inspiring.  Helvetica is a font that was born in 1957 and permeates our lives.  It has been revered and it has been marginalized, but it is still here.  The interviews with graphic artists are compelling, even if you disagree with what they’re saying.  Recommended if you have an interest in typography and the world around you.  [H/T to alejna at collecting tokens for telling me about this documentary.]

2 Books

The Spice Necklace –  Charming + fun.  I enjoyed this book.  In a nutshell, Ann Vanderhoof and her husband decide to live on a boat, travel around the Caribbean and research the local cuisine.  Along the way they make friends with some nutty characters the locals, learn about alcoholic beverages regional history and decide to conjure up recreate Caribbean specialities in their tiny  galley kitchen.  Recommended if you like recipes, travel and cheerful adventurers.

Marrakesh By Design –  Beautiful + informative.  In this colorful book on Moroccan decorating, Maryam Montague explains the history of the region as well as the reasoning behind this style of decorating.  The photos of patterns, colors and homes are perfect.  I read the book all in one sitting, then came back a few days later to get lost in the photos.  Recommended if you have an interest in African history, art and/or home decor.

1 Unique Bumper Sticker

The bumper sticker on the back of the van said: Play More Viola.  I saw it first and was silently thinking about it when Zen-Den noticed it, too.  Naturally we needed to know more about it, so I googled it.  I half expected it to be a line from a Saturday Night Live skit a la “more cowbell.”  But its origins were much simpler than that.  It’s a bumper sticker encouraging everyone to be more joyful… by playing more viola.  Cute, huh?

Odds & Ends

/ Ally Bean / 19 Comments

::  I’m waiting at home today while my car, Olivia, is in the shop.  She is a 10 y.o. Honda Accord Coupe.  Yesterday I went in for an oil change, knowing that there’d be more to it than just that.  At ten years there has to be.

Apparently at year 7 something involving the timing belt [belts?] was to be done.  But I didn’t do it then.  Probably because no one at the dealership told me to do it.  Whatever.

So I’m having it done now.  And this, people, is why I like Honda Accords.  They are very forgiving about maintenance schedules, which is a good thing when they belong to a person such as me.  That would be a woman who means well, but often forgets to have the oil changed on a timely basis.  A woman who maintains her car based on whims– and prayers.

::  I got a new slow cooker [aka crock pot] for Christmas.  Did I tell you this before?  Probably not.  Exciting news such as that I usually keep to myself because I wouldn’t want you, gentle readers, to be jealous of my good fortune!

My new slow cooker is shiny and bright red– and works about a hundred times better than the old one.  Considering that I have the time today, I’m going to research some new recipes to make in it.  Clearly I know what herbs +  spices are available in our kitchen.  Plus we have a busy weekend coming up, so fixing and forgetting a meal sounds like a good thing to do.

Anyone got a favorite slow cooker recipe that I should know about?

::  I’ve mentioned this before but as a refresher: Murphy Brown had Eldon, the painter– while I have Greg, the landscaper.  And it being on the cusp of spring here, Greg has been in touch.  Actually he first phoned me in January, but I dodged his calls because I didn’t want to talk about gardening.  Couldn’t I just have one month off?

However, Greg is nothing if not clever.  He started emailing Zen-Den, who then started forwarding me photos of shrubs and bushes and such– so that I’d decide a thing, or two, about this year’s spring garden clean-up & replacement ideas.  [We’ve been at this residence close to 14 years now, so lots of the original bushes are near the end of their vitality.]

And you know what?  Much to my surprise I’m rather pleased to be looking at photos of + details about green growing things.  I think that I’m ready for spring.

I Cleaned Out Our Spice Cabinet For The First Time In Years

/ Ally Bean / 27 Comments

Here is an easy quiz for you.

DSCN3948

Q1:  What percentage of our herbs, spices & seeds did I throw away because they had expired?

  • 15%
  • 45%
  • 63%
  • 80%

Q2:  How many containers did I throw away? 

  • 11
  • 23
  • 29
  • 36

Q3:  How much money did I toss out when I cleaned out our spice cupboard? 

  • $18.00
  • $72.00
  • $97.42
  • $150.00, more or less

Q4:  Were any of the herbs, spices & seeds never opened before being tossed out?

  • Yes
  • No

 Q5:  Were any of the containers duplicates?

  • No
  • Yes

Q6:  The following is a list of dates. Which date do you believe accurately describes the oldest container in the cupboard?

  • June 14, 2003
  • October 5, 2002
  • November 25, 2000
  • so old there is no date on the container

Q7:  Are all the above dates real dates that I found on the containers that I threw out?

  • No
  • Yes

Q8:  The following is a list of herbs, spices & seeds.  Which is the oldest one that I found?  

  • Celery Seed
  • Basil
  • Leaf Marjoram
  • Dill Weed

Q9:  Of the following herb/spice blends, which one am I saddest to see go?

  • Poultry Seasoning
  • Lemon Pepper
  • French Seafood Seasoning
  • Pizza Seasoning

Bonus Question for Extra Credit:  Of the following three extracts which was the only one that we opened and used?

  • Pistachio Extract
  • Almond Extract
  • Vanilla Extract

DSCN3938

Answers are in bold.  🙂

The Tale Of The Lonely Beet

/ Ally Bean / 22 Comments

DSCN3608Once upon a time the Lady of the House went to the grocery where she purchased some beets.  She was going to roast them and serve them as a side dish with some ham for dinner.

:: The Lady of the House had good intentions.

However, when the Lady of the House came home from the grocery, she put the beets in a stainless steel bowl which she put in the frig.  Then, she forgot about their existence.

Because the beets were well-mannered, they did not call attention to themselves in the frig.  No, they just sat in the bowl and slowly allowed mold to cover them.  Perhaps they were cold and considered the mold to be like a sweater.  Perhaps they were content and enjoyed connecting with the mold.

:: We will never know for sure.

All we know is that the next time the Lady of the House looked at the beets she saw six moldy, dried out vegetables that were way past their prime.  Upon seeing what had happened, the Lady of the House said a few words that will not be repeated on these pages.

But the Lady of the House had another idea for the beets.  You see, the Lady of the House’s mother had a saying which she said to the Lady of the House when the Lady of the House was a girl.

:: And this saying was: waste not, want not.

Remembering what her mother had told her to do, the Lady of the House decided to toss the beets into the wooded ravine behind her house.  The Lady of the House thought that some of the deer or raccoons that live back there might like to feast on said beets.

:: However, she was wrong about this assumption.

A few days later when the Lady of the House chanced to look outside upon her backyard realm, she noticed that all the beets were still there.  And that one beet in particular, that had the misfortune of landing on top of a concrete wall instead of on the ground, was positioned in such a way as to create a perfect photo-op.

So, the Lady of the House, who also happened to be a blogger extraordinaire, grabbed her camera.  Then she went outside and took one of the best artsy-farsty photos she has ever taken.  Not wanting to let this photo go to waste, the Lady of the House figured she could put this photo on her blog, tell her readers how this beet came to be so alone, and call it a blog post.

:: And that is exactly what she did.  The end.