Cooking Tasty
Every once in awhile hubby and I find a great recipe and YAY such an event happened last night. We tried a
so not bland one from Cooking Light magazine (for years we've enjoyed -and amended- many recipes but have snarkily renamed it "Cooking Bland"). Go! Get the ingredients right now and make yourself some
Tequila Pork Chile Verde for dinner. It comes together in about 30 minutes. Buying that ancho chile powder at
the Mercado last weekend was a most excellent idea. The flavors remind me of the excellent but probably fatty Tacos Monterrey at
Boca Chica.
Labels: food
I'd like to do that again.
- Donnay Dairy “Granite Ridge” Minnesota cave-aged goat milk cheese
- Pecan wood-smoked Yorkshire pork baby back ribs with caramelized onions and Concord grape glaze
- Organic frisée salad with roasted sweet peppers, St. Pete’s blue cheese, toasted black walnuts and port wine-apple vinaigrette
- Maple syrup-sweet corn pudding brûlée with a Minnesota black walnut bookie, toasted Illinois pecan shortbread and Ames Farm chestnut blossom honey-glazed hazelnuts
- and a most excellent spicy and aromatic cabernet sauvignon, the name of which I can't recall
Yum: dinner last night at
Heartland.
Labels: food
Idolatry
Say you've been listening to a band for a long time- say, since you were a teenager. We're talking a span of 20 years or so. The music was great then, and perhaps the band/musician's new stuff speaks to you now, as well. Some of those bands, you got to see as a teen. Some you didn't get to see live until 20 years later. How do you compare the experiences you had at the shows?
I was asked recently at a party what my two favorite concerts have been. In spite of the fact that two nights prior, I had experienced a fantastic Annie Lennox show, I unflinchingly brought up the Police and U2 shows I went to, when I was 15 and 18, respectively. I had worshipped Stewart C. and the boys for years, and was so enthralled at the prospect of seeing them live that I actually liked the fact that our seats were up behind the stage. As in, we were facing their backs for the whole show (but I was that much closer to Stewart). The U2 show was a true religious experience for me. The sound was amazing, the lyrics were very meaningful, and the energy of the crowd was hypnotizing.
At the Annie show, as with a Cheap Trick show I went to a few years ago, I found myself welling up with tears during at least one song. And said songs really weren't
sad songs at all. The music simply managed to unleash really strong feelings in me. I believe they were feelings of happiness. Listening to the recorded songs, and/or watching the videos for them, had always been transcendant for me. They'd always made me dance, or want to dance. For many years. Getting the opportunity to finally hear them played live was downright overwhelming.
In my past several years of yoga and of getting good massages, I've been told that some physical actions can release pent-up emotions, but I've never found myself crying in the middle of doing bow pose or getting my shoulder knots worked on. But there are some songs that just turn me into a puddle. This behavior didn't really start for me until the first time I had to pause for/sing a national anthem, after the 9/11 tragedy. It seems trite, expecially when as a kid, I was quite the crybaby, but that's when it started. I get some solace from the fact that Battle Hymn of the Republic has
always made me shake a little.
Annie
blogged about that concert. It sounds like she enjoyed it as well.
Carina Round did a most excellent opening act.
Labels: entertainment
Devil's cucumber
I love October. There is
datura in bloom, along my walk to work.
Also still blooming here, in the yard: Ozark sundrops, alyssum, wax begonias, cosmos, cleome, and even my Golden Wings rose. Shockingly, this year, my rosa glauca has held onto its leaves past August. It didn't flower at all this year. It's an odd but beautiful plant.
Post vacation roundup
Here's another photo from our trip, of the strange and wonderful fruit on a "strawberry tree."
The car decision has been made: within the week I will be picking up a brand new
Nissan Versa. I'll also be bidding a happy farewell to The Exploder.
I ran the Bolder Dash 5k race, back on September 22, and
finished first in my division, with a time of 24:30! I beat my current PR by .01, so am slowly inching toward that 7:30 split goal. That said, I'm taking a short break from running, aside from an easy jog 1-2x a week. I'll ramp the training back up again sometime this winter, to prepare for a 10k or 12k in the early summer-maybe the Boulder Bolder or the Sound to Narrows.
Labels: running
Italy pics up NOW.
The
photos from our Italy trip are up. We're giving the Smugmug photo sharing service a try. So far, I'm digging it. It makes a bit more sense than Flickr.
In addition to over 100 photos, we also brought the following back from Italy:
- 2 types of Tome cheese
- 1 jar of fig mustard
- 1 bottle of Marolo grappa
- 1 chic sweater
- 1 bag of Gianduiotto (chocolates with hazelnuts)
- ...and some darned effective cold medicine
Labels: travel
Abbiamo avuti un viaggio meraviglioso in Italia.
Panna cotta with fig jam.
Barbarescu. Swordfish Monterosso-style.
Cantucci dipped in
Schiacchetrà. Barbera.
Strawberry-tree fruit. 382 steps to Corniglia. Boat ride back from Portovenere. Fried zucchini blossoms.
Fiocchi/sacchettini (“beggar’s purse” pasta) filled with cheese and pear. Several hours spent with good friends who live far away. A guided driving tour through the misty
Langhe wine country.
White truffles on pasta with a cheese sauce. Black truffles on same. Learning about the
Slow Food movement from a passionate devotee, and enjoying mushrooms in Piedmont and sea bass in Liguria in the fall. Amazing Mediterranean vistas. Mussels. Bread soaked in the broth from the mussels.
Bunet. Warm fall sunshine. Fresh
focaccia with olives & tomatoes. Earning the dinner -and dessert- with 4+ hours of
hilly hiking. Learning that
grappa is called a coffee-killer for a reason. Extra-bitter chocolate, pear, and roasted chestnut-flavored gelato from Torino's
Grom shop. Fresh sausage. The Infinity Trail.
Vermentino.
Nebbiolo. Hazelnut cake with muscat cream.
Grissini. Coffee, Italian-style. Testaroli with pesto. Farinata.So, we had a great trip, hiking, eating and visiting in Italy's Liguria and Piemonte regions. Photos coming soon.
Labels: travel
