Fun is over...back to work!

See you next year!



Although, there is talk of a houseboat rental in the Summer!

Well, we reorg'd again. I'm no longer mailgirl or car mechanic. I start my new/old job this week working for my Legal and Compliance Departments full time. FMM-Laurie has been promoted and is move'n-on-up to the executive office. She'll be working for our ED and his crew.

Never a dull moment!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

We were surprised to find lots of snow up here. Started seeing it about about 5,000 feet. But really, who cares about that...It's all about the food. Here's yesterday's breakfast:






Yep, that's Becky-Bacon and Amy-Mae's buttermilk biscuits and RayRay-Mae's hollindaise sauce! JJ-Mae also made her famous steel cut oatmeal. That was our first course.

After breakfast, we decided we needed to go for a hike or we'd all have to go take a nap. So, first we checked in at our headquarters, the Donner Museum. We had the Maes watch the Donner Party movie that was made in the 60's. It was like one of those movies you'd see in school when you had a substitute teacher for the day. After that, we headed off for our hike.


Fortunately, the weather cooperated with us and we all made it safely back to the wagons.

Time for a cocktail!

We went into Truckee to Bar America. For some unknown reason, Winkie-Mae pulled this out of her jacket pocket and maliciously flaunted it right in my face...



WTF?? Winkie-Mae is not my friend! Evidently, she carries this freaky-minkey as a lucky snow boarding charm. Whatever!

Then, while the Maes were playing "Extreme Charades" (Yes, there was dissension in the ranks and we were ready to eat our own) I found this in a copy of Real Simple magazine:



This is someones idea of art...are you kidding me?! I had nightmares all night.

Today, the Maes are going back out for some kind of snow activity. I will stay back at the cabin where I'll be on pork duty. He's in the oven and just finished one of his six hours.



I think it's time for a mimosa...

More later.

Today is my Friday!!!

I'm off tomorrow to prep for our Donner Party trip this weekend. Guess what that means?




Good friends, good food, really good wine! Reminds me of a song...

Here’s to good friends,
Tonight is kind of special.
The beer we’ll pour
must say something more, somehow.
So tonight, tonight,
Let it be Löwenbräu.
It’s been so long.
Hey, I’m glad to see ya.
Raise your glass.
Here’s to health and happiness.
So tonight, let it be all the best.

OMG...I just figured something out...Seester you're going to love this!

In doing my research for the Lowenbrau jingle, I found something else. When we were kids and had our elbows on the table, my Mom would say "Get your elbows off the table Mabel, the money's for the beer." We never really understood that saying...until now!

Hey Mabel, Black Label. Carling Black Label.

After a lackluster decade of poor sales, in 1951, Carling came up with the now-iconic Mabel the Waitress campaign, hiring New York actress Jean (sometimes spelled “Jeanne”) Goodspeed to play Mabel in TV commercials and print ads. Sales skyrocketed. In fact, they kept using her image long after she left the business in the mid-1950's to start a family and eventually even included an animated version in later ads. The Mabel campaign finally ended in the early 1970s. For me, I think what made the slogan was the whistle that precedes the slogan in television and, presumably, radio spots. Also, Mabel’s wink and a nod at the end of each ad is also priceless, even when they went to an animated version they wisely kept that element.

Could this be the origin of that little gem? I can't seem to find out anything else. Makes sense though. Now if we could only figure out "I see Christmas without any pies baked"!

Anyway, off to Donner Lake for a long weekend. Not all of the Donner's can make it, but we've got 7 so that's a party if you ask me. I'm going to be making the highly acclaimed and tested Momofuku Bo Ssam. It's a Korean pork dish. The recipe came from the NY Times. It was given to me by two folks, Wilber's Mom and Rayray-Mae. Wilbur's Dad made it and evidently it was good! Want the recipe? Are you sure? Okay...

Momofuku Bo Ssam

Pork Butt (Ha ha, it says "butt")
1 whole bone-in pork butt or picnic ham (8 to 10 pounds)
1 cup white sugar (or 1/2 cup Truvia)
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon kosher salt
7 tablespoons brown sugar

Ginger-Scallion Sauce 2½ cups thinly sliced scallions, both green and white parts
½ cup peeled, minced fresh ginger
¼ cup neutral oil (like grapeseed)
1½ teaspoons light soy sauce
1 scant teaspoon sherry vinegar
½ teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste

Ssam Sauce
2 tablespoons fermented bean-and- chili paste (ssamjang, available in many Asian markets, and online)
1 tablespoon chili paste (kochujang, available in many Asian markets, and online)
½ cup sherry vinegar
½ cup neutral oil (like grapeseed)

Accompaniments
2 cups plain white rice, cooked
3 heads bibb lettuce, leaves separated, washed and dried
1 dozen or more fresh oysters (optional)
Kimchi (available in many Asian markets, and online).

1. Place the pork in a large, shallow bowl. Mix the white sugar and 1 cup of the salt together in another bowl, then rub the mixture all over the meat. Cover it with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours, or overnight.

2. When you’re ready to cook, heat oven to 300. Remove pork from refrigerator and discard any juices. Place the pork in a roasting pan and set in the oven and cook for approximately 6 hours, or until it collapses, yielding easily to the tines of a fork. (After the first hour, baste hourly with pan juices.) At this point, you may remove the meat from the oven and allow it to rest for up to an hour.

3. Meanwhile, make the ginger-scallion sauce. In a large bowl, combine the scallions with the rest of the ingredients. Mix well and taste, adding salt if needed.

4. Make the ssam sauce. In a medium bowl, combine the chili pastes with the vinegar and oil, and mix well.

5. Prepare rice, wash lettuce and, if using, shuck the oysters. Put kimchi and sauces into serving bowls.

6. When your accompaniments are prepared and you are ready to serve the food, turn oven to 500. In a small bowl, stir together the remaining tablespoon of salt with the brown sugar. Rub this mixture all over the cooked pork. Place in oven for approximately 10 to 15 minutes, or until a dark caramel crust has developed on the meat. Serve hot, with the accompaniments.

Lucky for me, we have a Korean market within about 10 minutes of work. Yay!

There will also be Fajita Night...Yep, with Poppy's To-Kill-Kelly-Margaritas. I'll take a pass on those. How about Eggs Benedict w/RayRay-Mae's hollandaise sauce? Also, JJ-Mae's almost world famous oatmeal.

I don't even care if there is snow or not. I've not had any time off in a long, long time where I could just sit and stare at the wall. This is that weekend.

Babye!

Thumper and stuff...

A few years and about 20lbs ago, Adventure-Poppy and I took a trip to Espana. While in Jerez de la Frontera (yep, the place where Sherry hales from), Shoppy-Poppy and I went to the Mercado. I got it in my craw that I wanted to cook a rabbit. I'd never had rabbit. Oh, and Food-Adventurous-Poppy wanted to fry up some bull's testicles. So, we bought the rabbit (the nice lady skinned it on the spot) and the Ferdinand testicles and some stuff to make rabbit stew.

We decided instead of cooking that night, we'd save it for the next because we wanted to take a ride into Seville. Once in Seville, we were having too much fun and decided to stay the night there so we could watch a bull fight. When-In-Rome-or-Spain-Poppy had seen a bull fight before and thought it was very culturally cool thing to experience. So, I decided it would be a good thing for me to see. I was reminded when I was a kid and how my Grandma would watch them on the T.V.; that and wrestling!

Thing is, we had ringside seats right where all the action was so to say it was graphic doesn't describe fairly enough. Oh well.

We also happened into a restaurant where they had their own Sangria recipe...El Buzo. Yeah, no kidding. Did you know that Sangria is pretty much a touristy drink. The only reason Spanish folks drink it is to get drunk.

I also learned that seafood paella is also a touristy dish, they don't hardly eat that either. Paella is like the kitchen sink dish...whatever you have goes in it. That said, if you had the seafood, it would go in.

What was I talking about? Right; Thumper...So once we came back to our little place to make our Thumper stew, we walked in the door and the the place smelled funny. We opened the fridge and quickly discovered our fresh Thumper and Ferdinand testicles had got bad. Boo!

To this day, I've wanted to cook a Thumper. As luck would have it, Sunset Sooper where everything is a dollar sells frozen Thumper!

I found a recipe for braised Thumper in white wine. Since I didn't want to open a whole bottle of white wine, I used Shoaxing Rice Wine...which strangely enough, tastes like cheap fino sherry. I'd give you the recipe, but really, would you cook a Thumper?





Because Thumper was a farmed rabbit, he really did taste like chicken...

Yesterday was game day and also National-Day-Of-Pork. Okay, I just made that up...I'd bought some boneless porky-chops and they were some fatties! Decided I'd make them for lunch, I wanted to brine them so here's the recipe. It's an Alton Brown recipe that I've embellished:

Brined Porky Chops

2 thick pork chops
3/4 cup kosher salt
½ cup Truvia (or 1 cup of Brown sugar for you carbos)
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 tablespoon Coleman’s mustard powder
2 bay leaves
1 cups cider vinegar (heated until hot)
1/2 lb ice cubes

Directions:

1. In a non-reactive bowl, put the salt, Truvia, peppercorns, bay leaves and mustard powder; add in the HOT vinegar and swirl to dissolve the sugar and salt completely.

2. Let the mixture stand for 20 minutes at room temperature to develop flavor.

3. Add in the ice cubes and shake to melt most of the ice.

4. Add in the pork chops, making certain that the meat is completely covered with the brine.

5. Cover with plastic and refrigerate for 2 hours (NO MORE than 2 hours!).

6. Rinse the pork well under cold water before cooking.

7. Cook as desired.

Some years ago, Grill-Master-Poppy bought me my own training grill. It's actually a little clay piggy that is a replica of the same deal that's used for street food in some foreign land. He'd already lost one of his ears, then I knocked the other one off yesterday so now he's my Mini-Earless-Training-Grill. I wanted to grill my brined pork chops, but since I was only doing two of them, I didn't want to use the Smokey-Joe, so I used Mini-Earless-Piggy. Problem with Mini-Deaf-Piggy is there's no lid and it was very windy. Oh, I also put some wet sage in the bottom of Mini-Hearing-Impaired-Piggy so that would give them some yummy smoke. Worked out pretty well, only I did overcook my porky-chops, but they sure were good.



What, I can't hear you? Now it looks like he's got Joan Crawford's eyebrows! See what I mean?



Also my vision of my brined porky-chop was to fry an egg and put it on top. Why? Because everything tastes better with an egg on it!



My-Worst-Food-Critic-Poppy said it was "Okay." You know what that means...I bet she's just threatened by my grilling prowess!

Smokin-Hot-Poppy made a batch of her home cured and smoked Becky-Bacon. This was the best batch to date! Guess what that means? Yep, BLTA's sans the bread. So good!!!



So ends Not-Really-National-Day-Of-Pork!

Okay, all you mens stop reading now cause I'm going to talk about the lady bits.

Yesterday was that special time of month where I had some stinkin bad cramps. I said to What's-Old-Is-New-Again-Poppy that I wished we had a heating pad. Low and behold, she brought me this:



This evidently, is what folks used before the rubber hot water bottle was invented. When Takes-After-Her-Dad-Poppy and the fam were in Scotland many years back, I guess it was in the dead of Winter. The only heat source was fed with coins (yeah, kind of like Magic Fingers only different) but Poppy's Why-Spend-Money-On-Heat-When-You-Can-Freeze-Dad didn't want to pay for the heat. Wonder where Tight-Wad-Poppy gets her spend-thrifty habits? Anyway, they had these ceramic bottles so you put boiling water in it and wrap it in a towel and you have a nice hot heat source. So did the trick! Yay Poppy! Even Roger liked it! The bottle was still warm this morning!



Why is it when the smoke alarm battery is dying, it only does it in the wee hours of the morning? GOD-DUH!!

Recall my nickname at work is "Nubbins" because if my handican'd pinky fingers. Well, I just want you to know that for the first time in Nubbins' life she feels whole! IT'S A MIRACLE!






Fun times, eh?.

Good things come to those...

Who have Prime 2-day shipping from Amazon!





Unfortunately, while I got the heavy-bag on Prime it's too heavy for the 2-day shipping so it won't be coming until Wednesday next week. Guess I really will have to beat up Typhoid-Poppy. Yeah, that's right, she's home sick. Nice rainy weekend to be sick. Football and movies, I'm thinking.

Speaking of As-Seen-In-Its-Real-Habitat-Poppy...she's been collecting those sand dollar things from the beach. Now she's put them in the front garden as they would naturally appear if they were alive in the ocean.



See, right there next our sea cactus.

So I did a little sand dollar research on Know-It-all-Wikipedia. Pretty interesting junk...

The term Sand dollar (or sea cookie or snapper biscuit in New Zealand, or pansy shell in South Africa) refers to species of extremely flattened, burrowing echinoids belonging to the order Clypeasteroida. Some species within the order, not quite as flat, are known as sea biscuits. Related creatures include the sea urchins, sea cucumbers and starfish.

Sand dollars, like all members of the order Clypeasteroida, possess a rigid skeleton known as a test. The test consists of calcium carbonate plates arranged in a fivefold radial pattern. In living individuals the test is covered by a skin of velvet-textured spines; these spines are in turn covered with very small hairs (cilia). Coordinated movements of the spines enable sand dollars to move across the seabed. The velvety spines of live sand dollars appear in a variety of colours—green, blue, violet, purple—depending on the species. The tests of dead individuals are often found on beaches, the textured skin missing and the skeleton bleached white by sunlight.

The bodies of adult sand dollars, like those of other echinoids, display radial symmetry. The petal-like pattern in sand dollars consists of five paired rows of pores. The pores are perforations in the endoskeleton through which podia for gas exchange project from the body. The mouth of the sand dollar is located on the bottom of its body at the center of the petal-like pattern. Unlike other urchins, the bodies of sand dollars also display secondary front-to-back bilateral symmetry. The anus of sand dollars is located at the back rather than at the top as in most urchins, with many more bilateral features appearing in some species. These result from the adaptation of sand dollars, in the course of their evolution, from creatures that originally lived their lives on top of the seabed (epibenthos) to creatures that burrow beneath it (hyperbenthos).

The Common Sand Dollar, Echinarachnius parma, is widespread in ocean waters of the Northern Hemisphere, from the intertidal zone to considerable depths. It can be found in temperate and tropical zones. The Keyhole Sand Dollar (three species, genus Mellita) is found on a wide range of coasts in and around the Caribbean Sea.

The snapper biscuits we have are the purple ones.

Well, there you go. Enjoy your weekend!

Fatass almost floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee!

Guess what's on its way to Fatass?!



Not just the bag, but...



And we can't forget these...



I learned from reading reviews on Amazon that the handwraps are extremely important. Something about protecting your bones and tendons. Not only that, you have to put them on a special way. Don't you just love the pink?



It's a whole new world; I'm so excited!

All I can say is Poppy best mind her P's-n-Q's or I'll have to show her my new moves up close and personal!

Pow!

This is the funniest thing I've ever seen...

Yep, funnier than Pajama Jeans or Forever Lazy!

Block and paste into your browser: http://bosommax.com/

Make sure you play the commercial.

Fatass ain't that fat...

A year ago November I bought a pair of Carhartt jeans. I have a pair of the twill Carhartts that will last forever, but these jeans seem not to be as sturdy as the twills and are wearing out in the oddest places...again, Fatass ain't that fat!





So I emailed Carhartt and they'll pay for me to send the pants back to their quality control department to determine whether it's a design flaw or Fatass is just fat.

My-Home-Is-My-Castle-Poppy has been wanting new furniture for a long, long time. We came close a few months back; she had her eyeballs on a sectional from Macy's called "The Lucas". I thought it would be cool to have furniture named after my nephew. You may recall, we went all the way to San Leandro to sit our asses on The Lucas. Dad even liked it! Tickled-Pink-Poppy just lub'd The Lucas too...only, it's made of Bicast leather. What is Bicast leather you ask? How do I know, ask Poppy! I will tell you this, Bicast is a kind of shiny-slickery leather that when you sit on it, you slide off onto the floor. Not just furniture, but entertainment! After much research, Fact-Finding-Poppy decided against The Lucas.

Well, wouldn't you know it, Macy's furniture flyer came in the mail the other day. Kid-N-A-Furniture-Store-Poppy exclaimed "The Macy's furniture flyer came...it's the President's sale and you know what that means?!!" Yeah, I know what that means...that means we're going to be spending lots of money on furniture I don't think we need. Of course, if it were up to Kelly-Raised-By-Wolves, we'd be sitting on milk crates and eating off paper plates. Why bother using silverware, it's just one more thing for me to clean!

Since I was being less than supportive (I can't help it, Fatass is hormonal) about Must-Have-New-Furniture-Now-Poppy's decision to buy new furniture, I refused to go with her to shop and sit on said new furniture. Besides, I trust her to make the right decision, even if I don't want any part of it. Not like it matters that I don't want it, plus we'd sat on Alessia before. We both liked it, but Measure-Twice-Buy-Once-Poppy said it was too big for the living room. Evidently, our house has grown a few cubic feet since then.

Alright, it's official; meet Alessia:



That's right Aunts, Uncles and MomJean, you'll be sitting on the lap of luxury when you come for your visit and you won't be sliding onto the floor. There won't be any tables or bookshelves cause they won't fit. I'm not even sure the T.V. will still be in the living room. Well, we could mount it on the ceiling, I guess. Seems to hospitally to me though.

I hate change! I guess, maybe, it's not the change, but the selling and lifting of the old furniture to get it out of the house is what I'm really not looking forward too.

Boo and a big Sigh!

Alright, enough about the furniture. As usual, Poppy did a good job...but how about if I get something that I've been wanting for months? Yeah, Poppy's needs, what about mine?? Instead of sitting my Fatass on that new furniture, I'm going to be busy...



I know, you thought it was going to be a pair of shoes...wrong!

Can't take it with you, right?

Later.

Leftovers...

What do you do with leftover spinach and broccoli? I know, make an omelet! So that's what I did.



Stuffed it with cheddar and parm too. Not just that, but it was my new/used pan's maiden voyage.

I can't remember if I talked about my new/used pan before. If I did, we'll call it Oltimer's disease and you'll need to humor me.

I think it was last weekend, Looking-For-A-Deal-Poppy and I ended up in the Mission at one of those thrift stores. First place I go to in these stores is the shoe section. This was the store, a few years ago, where I found a pair of black Blundstones that were in perfect condition. You can't get these for under $100! The store wanted $8 for them. Score! Second place I go is the kitchen area. You can usually find a cast iron pan or two, but I've noticed over the years they're a pretty hot ticket item so I don't see too many of them.

I picked up a small saute pan, but I didn't give it much thought and left it. Sometime later, I found Eye-Spy-Poppy with her hands full of junk, inculding that pan. She said it's a great pan...one of them anodized aluminum pans. It's made by the Commercial Aluminum Cookware Company which is really Calphalon. Check it out...

1963 – Original Calphalon Company Founded: Commercial Aluminum Cookware Company
Ronald Kasperzak purchases a small metal spinning company in Perrysburg, Ohio— Commercial Metal. Renamed Commercial Aluminum Cookware Company, Ron’s purpose is to expand and upgrade the limited line of aluminum cookware for the food service industry.

1968 - A Renaissance in Cookware
Commercial Aluminum Cookware is the first company to adapt and apply a new technology developed by the aerospace industry. Hard anodizing is an electrochemical process of treating raw aluminum to create a new professional line of cookware called Calphalon.
1976 – Calphalon Hard Anodized Goes Retail

Calphalon Professional Hard Anodized enters the retail market. For the first time, consumers experience the superior cooking performance and durability that previously only professional chefs enjoy.

1992 – Calphalon Nonstick Line Premieres
Calphalon premieres a nonstick cookware line: Professional Nonstick from Calphalon. With the development of a new cooking surface, the ‘Calphalon’ product name evolves into a brand name.

1993 – Food Service Division Closes
In order to focus solely on the consumer market, Commercial Aluminum Cookware Company closes its food service division. Calphalon’s commercial heritage remains the hallmark of Calphalon consumer product design.

1994 – Utensils and Bakeware Launches
Calphalon expands its portfolio with the launch of its utensil and professional bakeware lines.

1997 – Announcing The Calphalon Corporation
Under its new name, The Calphalon Corporation reveals a new cookware line--Calphalon Commercial Nonstick—featuring Cool V™ handle technology.

1998 – Newell Purchases Calphalon
With Newell’s purchase, The Calphalon Corporation joins a family of well-known brands, including Levolor, Sharpie, and Goody. The following year, Newell purchases the Rubbermaid brand, changing its name to Newell Rubbermaid.

1998 – Commercial Hard Anodized Launches
Calphalon introduces its Commercial Hard Anodized cookware that combines Cool V™ handle technology with the original hard-anodized cooking surface.

2001 – New Tri-Ply Stainless
Calphalon launches Tri-Ply Stainless Steel cookware, designed with three layers that deliver even, consistent heating, while matching the beauty of stainless steel with the cooking performance of aluminum.

2002 – Calphalon Extends Into Cutlery
The same high standards of performance, durability and design that make Calphalon cookware distinctive for more than 25 years now distinguish Calphalon Traditional Cutlery.

2003 – Contemporary Platform: A Design Masterpiece
The new Calphalon Contemporary platform includes Contemporary Nonstick Cookware, Contemporary Stainless Steel Cookware and Contemporary Cutlery. The multi-layer nonstick provides ultra durability, versatility and uniquely shaped vessels. The stainless steel combines modern style with professional performance and dishwasher safe convenience. Finally, Contemporary Cutlery offers consumers a proprietary, patented feature: the name of each knife etched into the end of its handle, so there is never a doubt which knife you are pulling out of the block.

2005 – Introducing Katana Series™ Cutlery
Calphalon enters the Japanese VG1 Damascus style cutlery market with the launch of the Katana Series Cutlery.

2006 – Gadgets Get The Green Light
Calphalon Kitchen Gadgets introduce soft touch, control zone handles for comfort and better control to help you make the most of your ingredients. The collection of 14 includes a can opener, garlic press, pizza wheel, vegetable peeler, ice cream scoop, citrus zester, and coarse 2-way grater.

2007 – Introduction of Classic Nonstick Bakeware
Calphalon Classic Nonstick Bakeware brings to baking what Calphalon cookware brings to cooking-–classic professional quality construction and advanced features for reliably spectacular results. It features a durable, reinforced nonstick coating that provides effortless release of even the stickiest baked goods. The ideal choice for a lifetime of baking.

2008 – Electrics Heat Up
Calphalon Kitchen Electrics offer Style. Performance. Simplicity. Items in the original line include a panini grill, XL convection oven, removable plate grill and No Peek™ waffle maker. In 2010, Kitchen Electrics expands the line to offer a 7 qt. digital slow cooker, 2 and 4 slot toasters, and XL digital convection oven, with more products in development. The collection features our exclusive Opti-Heat System, designed to provide accurate temperature control and even heat delivery, ensuring that foods cook evenly and thoroughly, for results you can count on – every time.

2009 – Revolutionary Release. Dishwasher Safe.
Calphalon UNISON Nonstick cookware offers professional results with nonstick convenience. Two surfaces make the difference: the revolutionary, ultra-smooth Slide Nonstick surface releases foods effortlessly; essential for creating tender omelettes and delicate sauces; and a specially textured Sear Nonstick surface seals in flavor to create juicy braised beef, tuna and vegetables. Each surface is designed to enhance the specific cooking purpose of the pan. The perfect pair – in one set. Calphalon Unison Nonstick is also dishwasher safe!

Committed to natural sustainability, Calphalon creates its ReNew program, an industry first! It is the easy way for consumers to recycle old cookware.

2010 – Calphalon.com: Click. Buy. Cook.
With the redesign of calphalon.com, Calphalon launches their online store and improves the user experience. The site features delicious recipes, culinary tips and tricks, and product information to keep Calphalon kitchenware looking great and performing beautifully. Calphalon.com is the definitive online Calphalon destination.



Whew knew?

I decided I'd make NOM NOM Chicken for dinner tonight. I went to Sunset Super where everything is like a dollar! Sunset Super is a Chinese grocery store. I love buying local organic food, but frankly, we can't afford it. I'm sure that Chinese chicken isn't treated any worse than Foster Farm's merican chicken. Get this, I bought 9 chicken thighs and 3 chicken legs for $9.28! I also needed 3lbs of beef short ribs. Got those for $8.57! How about 2 large Napa Cabbages for $.99? Oh, and 3 avocados for $.99...so what if they're from Mexico. Four limes for $.60, 3 huge yellow onions for $.47 and 5 bulbs of garlic for $.99!! Tightwad-Poppy is proud of her Fatass!

They have a great variety of Chinese veggies. Since I don't know what they are, I buy and try. Tomorrow we'll be having beef short rib soup with Baby Gai Choy.



Chow!

Larb...that's what's for dinner!

For those of you who don't know what Larb is, here's the definition from my favorite site...

Larb (Lao: ລາບ; Thai: ลาบ, RTGS: lap [lâːp], also spelled laap, larp, laab) is a type of Laotian and Isan (Northeast Thailand) meat salad that is regarded as the national dish of Laos. Larb is a creation of the Lao people, with 20 million living in the Isan region of Thailand, and 4.5 million in Laos. Larb originated in Laos and is one of the most famous dishes from Laos. Since larb is eaten all over Laos, including the southern half of Laos, which formerly included present-day Isan region of Thailand, published books regarding Southeast Asian cuisines generally refer to larb as simply a Lao-style (Laotian-style) salad.

Pretty tasty except for the use of the endive leaves. I thought that would make for a good vehicle, but the bigger leaves are bitter. Next time, I'm sticking with regular iceberg lettuce.

Well, I got a new haircut...I also got a bug up my fatass that I wanted a bow tie. So I got one and learned how to tie it. Not from Wikipedia either but from some nice old guy on Youtube.



Why is it that my head isn't proportionate with the rest of my body? This picture reminds me of a turtle. So far, I've been called Perky and Poindexter. What is a poindexter; let me consult Wikipedia...

Poindexter is a surname endemic to the island of Jersey, of mixed French and Latin etymology.

Well isn't that interesting?

Here are some notable Pondexters:

Admiral John Poindexter (born 1936), National Security Advisor for the Reagan administration, involved in the Iran-Contra Affair

Alan G. Poindexter (born 1961), American astronaut and son of Admiral John Poindexter

Buster Poindexter, pseudonym of rock musician David Johansen, (born 1950)

Charles Poindexter (born 1942), American politician from Virginia

George Poindexter (1779–1853), American politician

Hildrus Poindexter (1901–1987), epidemiologist and scientist

Jennings Poindexter (1910-1983), American baseball player

Joseph B. Poindexter (1869–1951), territorial governor of Hawaii

Larry Poindexter (born 1959), American actor

Miles Poindexter(1868–1946), American politician from Washington

That's about all the edumacation I can handle for one day.

Have a nice weekend!

Stupid-Rock!

Oh fine...Per Proud-Of-Her-Stupid-Rock-Poppy's comment on yesterday's blog, here's her Stupid-Rock in its final resting place.







Last Sunday, we went antique shopping. Techno-Poppy is looking for just the right what's-old-is-new-again shelving system for all her electronicals. We didn't find anything, but ended up in the Mission for some low-carb tacos (aka taycohs). After that we went into a Mexican market. Eye-Spy-Poppy saw a bag of Tamarind and said that you can make a drink out of it. It's a sweet and tangy drink.



I've had Tamarind once before some years ago when we went to see MomJean. MomJean's friend, Rowena, made us all an authentic Filipino meal. But wait, how come Filipino is defined as a person from the Philippines yet it's spelled with and "F" and not a "Ph". I think I'll have to consult Wikipedia on that!

So the Tamarind was used in a dessert. The dinner was fabulous, but I'm funny about my dessert and I didn't care for it so I was a little hesitant to make a drink out of the stuff. But, what Mi-Poppy wants, Mi-Poppy gets!

I found a recipe on that thing with all the wires and tubes. Then redesigned it to be low-carb. Check it out...

Also, I can tell you that, once cooked, Tamarind bears a striking resemblance to Hanky-The-Christmas-Pooh. See?





Here's what you'll need for some yummy Agua de Tamarindo:

15 Tamarind pods (there were only 13 in the bag)
32oz of water
1 cup sugar (I used just about a half cup of Truvia)

First remove the hard shell and the other-worldly looking string stuff from the pod (now it's looking like something from Invasion of the Body Snatchers). Bring the water to a boil, throw in the Tamarind and Truvia, give it a stir and remove it from the heat. Let stand for 90 minutes.

Now comes the fun part...stick your hands in the pot and remove the hard seed from the pod. Once that's all done throw it in a blender. I used my immersion blender. Then run all that through a sieve.



And there you have it!



Although, I can't drink it straight, it's really good with ice and some fizzy water.

Now I'm hooked and will be making lots more.

See ya!

What a weekend!

Adventure-Poppy and I...oh, and I-Love-The-Beach-Jax went to Fort Funston on Saturday for a long walk on the beach. In order to get to the beach you have to walk down this big fat hill. Once we hit the beach, we noticed it was low tide and you know what that means??? Yep, hidden treasures abound!

We'd neglected to bring the Chuck-It for the little dog, but lucky for us, we found a used tennis ball. I rinsed it off in the ocean and Like-The-Wind-Jax was ready to go. I can't tell you how many times South-Paw-Poppy threw that ball for the little dog. Even had her fetching it in the water. This made me nervous cause what if Power-Poppy overthrew the ball and it went too far out and Jax went chasing after it and got caught in a riptide and then I'd have to go in after her? Someone died not to long ago doing that. I'm getting all worked up again just thinking about it!

I decided I'd take my shoes off (even though they are new running shoes and are supposed to get dirty, I just couldn't stand the thought) and walk in the sand with my bare feets. Then I decided to walk in the water. I've never done that before. Sure felt good!



As we walked you could see what looked like the remnants of a pier or dock or something. Full-Of-Energy-Poppy said we should walk to those piers and check them out. So we did. Here's what they were covered with...



I think we saw Andrew Zimmern eating these on one of those Bizarre Food shows. I wasn't feeling that adventurous since who knew how long they'd been rotting in the sun. Probably why the dude has no hair.

Have I mentioned that it felt like we were having a heat wave? I think that's why putting my feet in the subzero water felt so good.

Way further down the beach there was an outcropping of rocks so Treasure-Hunting-Poppy said let's walk to the rocks. So we did. Because the tide was so low, there were all kinds of neato things to see and pillage...fossils and all kinds of pretty rocks and rusty metal junk. I should probably mention that we've pretty much walked to the outskirts of Pacifica.

By the time I got bored of pillaging we managed to collect about 40lbs of rocks that we wanted to carry back. Mind you, I think we were at least 3 or 4 miles from the spot we started at. So I put as many rocks as I could in the little man-purse (aka Murse) I was carrying and then put a bunch in some of Jax's biodegradable pooh-pooh bags and off we went. This will be a nice reference for the rest of the story:



Don't worry, neither of us (or the dog) became the poster-people for this sign.

As we walked back, More-Is-More-Poppy found a large piece of driftwood she just had to have. If only I'd taken a picture of her with her 3'X 1' ugly old piece of driftwood, that she wanted to repurpose as a shelf or something, and her 20lb rock.

We kept trudging along and then saw a couple of folks riding horses take, what I assumed, was a shortcut. Why-Take-The-Long-Way-Poppy thought it would be a great idea to try the shortcut. I agreed. So we did. As luck would have it, it wasn't a shortcut and the terrain was very steep, very sandy and VERY hard to walk in (especially in bare feet). Picture one of those old movies where some poor fool is sinking in the quicksand...yeah, that's us.

Seems like we'd been walking forever with our 40lbs of junk. I kept calling Poppy's prized rock stupid as I was groping for pieces of Ice Plant to hang onto and hoist my still fat body up the side of the cliff. In my frustration and heat exhaustion, I told her that she needed to get rid of either that F__king-Stupid-Rock or the driftwood! Stubborn-As-A-Rock-Poppy said she'd come this far and wasn't about to dump any of it.

Have I mentioned we're having a searing heat wave and neither of us has eaten or had anything to drink since earlier that morning and it's now 3:30? I very reluctantly had to put my new shoes back on cause my foot was bleeding. Boo!

We finally reach the top of the cliff, only, we're not really very close to where we started. Actually, were on the 4th hole of the Olympic Club golf course...Crap! I'm freaking out because (a) we're on a private richy-rich golf course; and (b) we've got a little dog and that makes it 10 times worse than if it was just us. I'm thinking I should pick her up, but I can't because I've got 20lbs of rocks that I refuse to give up. Oh, before we reached the top, Perspiring-Poppy decided to leave the Stupid-Driftwood behind.

Anyhoo, there were a few folks playing on the hole so I thought we could be kind of inconspicuous and follow them by walking the along the edge of the cliff, but that proved difficult since we were carrying a bunch of blue pooh-pooh bags, we have a little dog and a really big Stupid-Rock! One of the richy-rich guys, dressed as Tiger Woods, kept staring at us. I figured I'd pretend we were foreigners and speak in my Faux French accent, but since Mr. Wanna-Be-Woods is rich, he'd probably taken French in school and I'd get busted. So, I decided honesty was the way to go and told him we'd gotten a little off track and were trying to get back to the truck over the hill. He didn't spit at us or anything. Who knew rich folks could be nice?

By now, we reached the edge of the golf course and Fort Funston. The only thing between us and salvation was a chain link fence. Poppy wouldn't let me climb over it. I think she said I was delirious or something. So, we decided to head down the cliff and that's what I did...I went ass first down and got back on the trail. Poppy heaved her Stupid-Rock over the fence and then made her way to the trail.

We made it! Although, we were still quite a hike from the truck and Pooped-Poppy still had to hike up a little hill to get Stupid-Rock. After she did that, she offered to go get the truck if I stand guard with all our loot. What a fun 3 hour hike!

By the way, we'll be heading back sometime this weekend to get the Stupid-Driftwood.

Ugh.

Friday's Dinner...

Since Primal-Poppy and I are workin the caveman diet, we decided to go whole-hog (I crack me up) and bought a couple of Mark Sisson's Primal Cookbooks. There is a recipe for a BLT where you use chicken breast as the bread. What a grand idea since we still have some Becky-Bacon.

We decided on turkey breast instead of the chicken. Unfortunately, the turkey really didn't stand up as a good vehicle for the BLTA (yes, A-vocado) so we made them open faced.



Per usual, my food porn never looks as good in the picture as it does in real life. Oh well, trust me, it was pretty and damn tasty!

Let's talk about some words and their origins. Here are a few words:

Whatchamahickey
Whatchamacallit
Whatchamajigger
Dewhickey

Where did these words come from and what do they mean? I used the term Whatchamahickey in an email to describe an item because I didn't know what it was. But, did I really mean to say Whatchamahickey? What if I really meant to say Whatchamajigger? Would it have the same meaning?

What about Dewhickey and Whatchamacallit? Is a Dewhickey something that you might play with, say a water meter? And would you use the term Whatchamacallit to describe the Dewhickey?

According to Wikipedia, Whatchamacallit is a shortened version of "what you may call it". It's also a candy. It's also an album by the group Pussycat Dolls. Hmmm, so many meanings to the word Whatchamacallit.

According to Wiktionary, Dewhickey (Doohickey) first attested 1914, of uncertain origin, probably from doodad (1905) +‎ hickey. Defined as a thing (used in a vague way to refer to something whose name one cannot recall).

According to the Urban Dictionary, Whatchamajigger is defined as a person who's name you don't remember.

As we know, Wikipedia and Urban Dictionary are to be taken with a grain of salt (say, what is the origin of that term?)

It's clear to me that for one to truly understand the meanings of such terms, one would have to be an expert in the origins of the English language...say someone who has spent their entire adult life studying such things instead of relying on Wikipedia or the Urban Dictionary for your definitions.

Now, let's take a look at some mythology...say, Neptune, for example. According to Wikipedia: (Neptune (Latin: Neptūnus) was the god of water and the sea in Roman mythology and religion. He is analogous with, but not identical to, the Greek god Poseidon. In the Greek-influenced tradition, Neptune was the brother of Jupiter and Pluto, each of them presiding over one of the three realms of the universe, Heaven, Earth and the Netherworld. Depictions of Neptune in Roman mosaics, especially those of North Africa, are influenced by Hellenistic conventions.

Unlike the Greek Oceanus, titan of the world-ocean, Neptune was associated as well with fresh water. Georges Dumézil suggested that for Latins, who were not a seafaring people, the primary identification of Neptune was with freshwater springs. Like Poseidon, Neptune was worshipped by the Romans also as a god of horses, under the name Neptunus Equester, a patron of horse-racing.



If you ask me, and nobody did, I think Mr. Neptune is hella Wet and Sexy!!

Enjoy your weekend!