Florida woman. Former Jersey girl/Jersey driver. Likes hairspray, the beach and cutting you off on the A1A.
Sweet potato chips and so-fresh-it’s-still-foamy gazpacho.
It wasn’t that good. The sweet potato directions came from that well-known healthful eater, Martha Stewart. She’s the Al Capone of recipes, that one. They had to lock her up for insider trading but everybody who ever got burned by of one of her untested recipes was just glad she got locked up period.
Next time, less oil and thicker slices.
Just a quick update in between workplace crises:
Product endorsement: Prepara Gourmet Cruet Set with Chrome Carrier. I suppose this is technically a gadget endorsement.
We keep a small oil cruet on the counter for quick dashes into saute pans or salads or to dribble into things like pesto and hummus. It has not been a smooth relationship with our current cruet to say the least. No amount of careful use or preventive measure could stop the dribbling down the side of the container. The most livable solution we came up with is frequent emptying of the vessel, using a pin to remove the caked-in oil from between the ridges and using an inverted pickle jar lid lined with napkins to contain the mess. Never was there an encounter that wasn’t icky, save the first sad use after a trip through the dishwasher, knowing that as soon as the oil starts flowing the problem returns.
But this pair of cruets sent that problem right down the memory hole. The crazy little two-layer spout design makes these 100% drip proof. The set seems pricey at first glance, especially compared to our previous dollar store bottle, but this is a clear case of you get what you pay for. Amazon had the best price I found plus free shipping with Amazon Prime .
Very highly recommended! Don’t know who Prepara is, where they came from or how long they’ve been around but if all of their products give this much satisfaction I might have to order their ice balls, too.
VB6 update: going very well! Just got done tucking into a salad as big as Jethro Bodine’s cereal bowl for lunch. I just hope that next year there’s no federal report issued that says chick peas are bad for you. I’ve become quite dependent on them.
Ah Monday! Only New year’s Day and perhaps the moment of Confession done and Penanace fulfilled can surpass a Monday for optimisim and good intention.
Too Many Lobsters! With warming seas, lobsters become an abundant bargain Sing it with me:
AnthropogenicGlobalWarming, huh, yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing!
Uh-huh
AnthropogenicGlobalWarming, huh, yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Except swelling the lobster population and giving us cheap classy eats for the rest of the year and possibly longer
Say it again, y’all
I could live with inexpensive and plentiful lobster.
Too Many Carbs! This is – what? – Week 2 of VB6. It’s extremely livable and easy to follow. I’m eating a lot more fruits, vegetables and grains than I usually would and by the time the 6 part shows up where it’s essentially “anything goes within moderation”, I’m so tired of thinking up things to eat that I just have a boiled egg or a hunk of chesese as my protein and call it a night.
That eating a lot more fruits, vegetables and grains than I usually would thing is troublesome to me, though. I mean that I’m eating A. Lot. of carbs. Stepping away from an entire adulthood of carb avoidance, it doesn’t seem right. Maybe that’s the point of it – to re-set your eating style. Still, on a day like today when I’m planning oatmeal and plums for breakfast and leftover sauteed angel hair pasta with red onion and broccoli for lunch, it sure does seem like I’m going down the wrong road and only more carb-loaded disaster awaits at dinnertime.
Gazpacho, hummus and pickled onions are my staples now. As soon as the days cool off, I’m going to resume the 5 Minute Bread baking. I was good at that.
Work: V. busy week coming up and it’s short one day, too. That doesn’t forgive the work – it just means you have to make the other 4 days super productive.
Home: Someone will be traipsing about inside my house today measuring for new windows. I did not succeed in total decluttering of the unused /overused upstairs rooms. My strategy is to be at the office during this time so I don’t have to look the guy in the eye.
Health: Grateful that my husband knows how to make Cairo-style koshary by the tubful. Grateful that I can just Grab ‘N Go some for breakfast or lunch. Grateful that my breakfast plate is 2/3 vinegar vehicles. My husband is grateful that I’m using pickled onions instead of the precious stash of caramelized onions.
Don’t bother looking up the recipe for koshary. The internet is completely wrong about this. If you must look it up to make it yourself, all of the layering and ancillary toppings are I guess a matter of taste but the real key is to cook the the rice and the lentils together. They cook for different amounts of time so you will have to train yourself to get it so that both are done exactly right – the rice won’t be undercooked and the lentils won’t be overcooked and all of the water is absorbed. You’ll probably need a sitto around to supervise, cluck her tongue and shake her head.
Related: “The most striking feature of the Melkite rite is its love of mystery.“
Emboldened by my recent success with the IT department, I thought I’d try going outside and bossing the weeds around for a while. A fairly short while, it turns out. Even though I was working in the shade and it was only 8 am, the humidity got me and I gave up. I did accomplish about 2/3 of what I set out to do so at least there is something to show for it.
I can’t help admiring my old hosiery that now hold up cherry tomato plants.
Of all gardening activities, nothing gives me more pleasure than adding another knee-high to the tomato support system that I have going on out there in that pot. I think I got this idea from way back when I used to subscribe to Organic Gardening. Or maybe I just read it some random place. I know for sure I never actually saw anyone do this – and come to think of it, I still haven’t seen anyone except me do it.
But it makes sense. The stocking stretch thin but still provide efficient support and yet do not cut int the stems of the plants. Plus they’re free and you do your recycle bit (which I do not care about at all*) by repurposing them. That’s why I think I found this in Organic Gardening. Thinking about it a little more, they must have advised use of panythose to hold up heavy vegetable otherwise why would a stem be cut into by normal garden string? Anyway, I really enjoy talking about garden use of hosiery.
*I’ll start worrying about natural resources when they order Las Vegas to turn off the lights and the fountains and not before.
Here’s tutorial in case I can spread this genius idea around:
I’ll leave you to ponder that while I go off to be a vegan. Watermelon smoothie for breakfast; corn and avocado salad for lunch.
Cripes Suzette 
