In Memoriam: Randy Pausch

DEFEAT CANCER, MUSINGS, pancreatic cancer awareness, Randy-Pausch

Jul

24

Sourdough Sun-dried Tomato Rolls

July 24, 2008 | 30 Comments

The dog wags his tail, not for you, but for your bread.
- Portuguese Proverb

Click on the logo to see previous posts in the series.

… with Garlic and Rosemary.

Ever since we moved to the middle of nowhere a few years ago, we’ve been baking bread at least once or twice a week. That’s ‘cos in this land of plenty, buying ONE loaf of natural crusty wholegrain bread is a huge project.

Albertson’s which is close to our home, stocks bread that’s old. Very old. Hardly anyone goes to that store and things gestate on the shelf for days.

Then there’s our co-op. It takes us five to 10 minutes sometimes at the tail end of grocery shopping to go down the bread aisle reading all the labels. Most of their freshly baked loaves are made of white (refined) flour. Or reek of cinnamon. Or are laden with crap - like high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated fats and preservatives. The lovely gourmet bakery is a 20-mile round trip. And we need one loaf - not three as they sell at Costco.

You know you live in a sucky place when the two or three types of bread you can tolerate AND access easily are all at the sweatshop.

Cornmeal, Flour, Flours, Garlic, Rosemary, Rye, sourdough, Tomato, vegan recipes, vegetarian recipes, Wheat, whole-wheat

Jul

22

Storm on the Mountain

July 22, 2008 | 19 Comments

The camera makes everyone a tourist in other people’s reality, and eventually in one’s own.
- Susan Sontag

Click on the logo for more Photo Essays.

“The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.” ~ Robert Pirsig

Olympic Mountains, Olympic-National-Park, PHOTO ESSAYS, TRAVEL, Washington, Washington-state

Jul

21

Peas and Lettuce Salad

July 21, 2008 | 35 Comments

Gardening is an exercise in optimism. Sometimes,
it is a triumph of hope over experience.
- Marina Schinz

The In Season series is a web diary of the gardening successes and mishaps of two eternally hopeful novices. The ladybug above will lead you to previous posts in the series.

Assorted lettuces and edible flowers

Lotsa lettuce. Lotsa peas. Don’t feel like turning on the stove. A salad would be nice. What kind of dressing should I use?

I’m scared to google ‘peas and lettuce salad‘ for fear of confronting the dreaded ‘M’ word - mayonnaise. Raw egg yolks and oil. Blech. Double blech.

bell-peppers/capsicum, GARDENING, Lettuces, mustard, Olive, Orange, Peas, red bell pepper, vegetarian recipes, yogurt

Jul

20

One less remote

July 20, 2008 | 4 Comments

This appeared last year on the blog Dining Hall. That site has since closed down.

We have a little basket which houses all of our remotes. Yes, we have five of them. One each for the TV, DVD Player, CD Player, Amp, and a VCR that has been packed away and out of commission for more than a year! Even if we went for an Universal Remote, we’d not get rid of the other remotes, so why add one more to the pile? (What if the Universal malfunctions?).

Since we stopped watching TV 22 30 months ago (although we watch an occassional movie), our reliance on TV remotes has gone down considerably. Blogging has surreptitiously slipped in to fill the time freed up. So it was ironic that the subject of remotes was brought to the fore due to blogging. We take a lot of pictures with long exposure times and the 10 second blink-blink of the self-timer seems interminable at times. The problem is aggravated when the subject matter is predisposed to melting. The number of times we shuttled between the freezer and this particular shoot is not funny.

camera, Canon EOS 300D, Digital Rebel, food-photography, MUSINGS, PHOTOGRAPHY, PRODUCT REVIEWS, RC-1, remote

Jul

18

CLICK fundraiser: Raffle Winners

July 18, 2008 | 40 Comments

We appealed on May 30 for 12,000 U.S. dollars to meet Briana’s out-of-pocket medical expenses to treat her breast cancer. We set a timeframe of six weeks.

You delivered. And how!!!! We reached our target in 20 days. The donations, good wishes and love kept pouring in.

As of July 15, we had

plus

CHEQUES IN THE MAIL = around $3,250

LIST OF DONORS

TOTAL = around $17,000

breast-cancer, CLICK for Bri, CLICK---the-photo-event, DEFEAT CANCER, fundraiser, raffle, winners

Jul

16

In the making: Lavender Honey

July 16, 2008 | 36 Comments

The camera makes everyone a tourist in other people’s reality, and eventually in one’s own.
- Susan Sontag

Click on the logo for more Photo Essays.

English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) yields a highly effective essential oil and has the sweetest overtones of all the lavender varieties. They are also much more cold-hardy than the French and Spanish varieties. We have two types of English lavender - Hidcote and Munstead.

A certain someone with a good-sized garden (I’ve seen it with my own eyes) has been giving a bewildering array of reasons why she can’t participate in Grow Your Own.

Nothing grows in Colorado, she dislikes rabbit soup, she can’t buy beans to sprout, her neighbour’s cat pooped on her lawn, Medha’s got summer holidays ….

Well, I thought of snipping some dried lavender flowers and mailing them out - just to confuse her and maybe, get her to stop hacking into my comments form.

When I stepped out this morning, scissors and camera in hand, I encountered some winged gourmets who like lavender as much as we do.