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Tuesday Five Things
1. Am rather glad the weather has gone back to snow. The strong strong sun of March has a way of showing how dirty the windows are. So I clean the windows (notably in the front and screen door) and then the strong strong sun of March reveals the thin scratches in my 25 year old linoleum and the dust that won't come out of corners, and I despair of my house. In winter all that matters is that one is inside, cozy, and everything else is out.
2. But in those fine clear days the Front Lawn Dollar Store and Libraries got underway again. Last week I scored two glass glasses (could have had more, but I'm not greedy) and on Sunday a Tiffany lamp. I've no need for a Tiffany lamp, but it has a white globe attached to it which I might be able to use on the kitchen light, whose globe I broke back in '02. I picked up an Inspector Morse omnibus (sometimes I have to ignore my own No New Books rule), put out eight variegated volumes of my own, and at twilight brought in seven. -_- Yesterday, walking home in beginning snow along Yuppie Row, I saw that someone had abandoned a pile of books under a tree. I hastened to brush them off, intent on rescue, but they were Stephen R. Donaldsons, so I left them to pulp.
3. Succeeded in making decent roast vegetables on the weekend. Carrots, celery root, yams, and beets-- the latter separately because they take three times as long as the former. My roast veg have always burned, or browned the tin, or done other unspeakable stuff like that, in spite of oiling the baking sheet or using parchment. The secret is my brother's: coat them, not in enough oil to make sure they don't stick and to give me indigestion, but in a mixture of bouillon and a tablespoon of oil, and cook in a roasting pan. Also, never mind that the daycare cook does her broccoli and cauliflower at 400F for an hour: 350 max for as long as it takes, stirring regularly.
4. As far as I know Caitlin Kittredge is not a pseudonym of Suzanne McLeod, but oh my god do they sound alike, and OMG do their heroines not have the sense god gave a gnat, and why in heaven's name must these double threat magick!werewolves or vamp!fae resort to dialogue like "'Stop that!' I cried" or "'If you touch her I'll make you regret it!' I growled", and similar unconvincing lines. IIRC Kittredge is worse than McLeod, but both are bad, and I can't begin to think how Aaronovitch can bear to read either of them.
5. My downfall lately has been Starbuck's peppermint lattes. Which are calorific and costly. Cleaning kitchen shelves a week or two back unearthed a bottle of peppermint oil, evidently the real thing. Now I put it in my cocoa (van Houten's-- accept no substitutes) and die of bliss. Calorific, but does not cost. Alas, neither does it have a coffee shop around it. For all my 'winter is inside' belief, like an 18th century gentleman I need to go out daily to a coffee shop to feel that life is worth living. Not that people talk to you at coffee shops here, and doubtless a good thing too, given what hangs out at Second Cups and Starbucks. The local indy is full of euppies (elderly urban professionals), who are sometimes interesting but mostly, umm, euppy.
2. But in those fine clear days the Front Lawn Dollar Store and Libraries got underway again. Last week I scored two glass glasses (could have had more, but I'm not greedy) and on Sunday a Tiffany lamp. I've no need for a Tiffany lamp, but it has a white globe attached to it which I might be able to use on the kitchen light, whose globe I broke back in '02. I picked up an Inspector Morse omnibus (sometimes I have to ignore my own No New Books rule), put out eight variegated volumes of my own, and at twilight brought in seven. -_- Yesterday, walking home in beginning snow along Yuppie Row, I saw that someone had abandoned a pile of books under a tree. I hastened to brush them off, intent on rescue, but they were Stephen R. Donaldsons, so I left them to pulp.
3. Succeeded in making decent roast vegetables on the weekend. Carrots, celery root, yams, and beets-- the latter separately because they take three times as long as the former. My roast veg have always burned, or browned the tin, or done other unspeakable stuff like that, in spite of oiling the baking sheet or using parchment. The secret is my brother's: coat them, not in enough oil to make sure they don't stick and to give me indigestion, but in a mixture of bouillon and a tablespoon of oil, and cook in a roasting pan. Also, never mind that the daycare cook does her broccoli and cauliflower at 400F for an hour: 350 max for as long as it takes, stirring regularly.
4. As far as I know Caitlin Kittredge is not a pseudonym of Suzanne McLeod, but oh my god do they sound alike, and OMG do their heroines not have the sense god gave a gnat, and why in heaven's name must these double threat magick!werewolves or vamp!fae resort to dialogue like "'Stop that!' I cried" or "'If you touch her I'll make you regret it!' I growled", and similar unconvincing lines. IIRC Kittredge is worse than McLeod, but both are bad, and I can't begin to think how Aaronovitch can bear to read either of them.
5. My downfall lately has been Starbuck's peppermint lattes. Which are calorific and costly. Cleaning kitchen shelves a week or two back unearthed a bottle of peppermint oil, evidently the real thing. Now I put it in my cocoa (van Houten's-- accept no substitutes) and die of bliss. Calorific, but does not cost. Alas, neither does it have a coffee shop around it. For all my 'winter is inside' belief, like an 18th century gentleman I need to go out daily to a coffee shop to feel that life is worth living. Not that people talk to you at coffee shops here, and doubtless a good thing too, given what hangs out at Second Cups and Starbucks. The local indy is full of euppies (elderly urban professionals), who are sometimes interesting but mostly, umm, euppy.
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Will try that roast veg trick! In fact, will probably try it tonight -- the parsnips need using up.
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Ahh well ...
Ooh roasties! I love them but have never tried to do beets. We never get those except in cans. Also cauliflower and broccoli in the oven too? Hmmm I guess I never think to do those in the oven unless I'm doing brocco/cauli and cheese. I do know the cheese makes it unhealthy ^_^, but it isn't something I cook often anyway.
I have read some of the Inspector Morse, however I watched more Morse on the telly. I quite enjoyed the spin off 'Lewis' where it many more years down the road and Morse's sergeant has now made Inpsector himself. Ahahaha and I won't tell you more just in case you ever decide to watch it.
In spite of everything your house always sounds like this marvel of unending treasures and books! I love hearing about it.
Easter is next week I hope the weather is kind for you and you get to enjoy the break doing the things that bring you joy.
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Cauliflower likes me no better than any other cruci-whatsis, but it's a cheap and filling veg. Trouble being that I grew up with both it and broccoli boiled to death, which is ugh. Roasting it with herbs gives you more flavour and I believe keeps more nutrients; but of course the temptation (with cauliflower at least) is to add that cheese in. It probably does better in a veg curry anyway.
I may have come across Morse before, but all these British chief inspectors do run into each other in my mind: Morse, Felse, Wexford, Dalgliesh, Banks, Rebus, Barnaby...
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Caulis taste much better in curries and if thrown in at the last ten minutes of cooking, absorbs flavour while still retaining crunch and taste. My English schooling experience introduced me to the 'veggie boiled to greyness and death'. As foreigner then I was intrigued and seriously thought at first it was some kind of new style of cooking. Silly me! ^_^
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Oh but it is a style of cooking! Trad Brit, meat is food but vegetables are the enemy! Not sure why my French mother adopted it, but then put French sauces on the grey squashy things.
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