Saturday, January 31, 2015
Friday, January 30, 2015
Dinner
This was surprisingly good!
Lousy picture but really good soup
CHICKPEA VEGETABLE SOUP
w/ Parmesan and Rosemary
This is from that big NYT collection of snow day recipes that I posted earlier in the week, at least I hope I posted them here, I did Facebook - and this one really stood out. A) for being vegetarian and B) I did not have to buy a whole lot of strange or expensive things to make it.
Here is the picture from the article and it really does sort of look like this.
I double this and it made a TON - so if you are not cooking for a large group, just do a single, but it is really good, and will be there to eat for a while. Also don't be afraid of using the rosemary , which can be really strong in some dishes. I did not have any fresh rosemary , and was just going to use parsley, but Neil talked me into it, and it really gave a good flavor. SO, do get fresh . Also, when you soak your garbanzos over night they will soak up much more water than just white or black beans do, so use a bigger bowl / pot and much more water than you do for normal beans.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 whole clove
- ½ onion, sliced root to stem so it stays intact, peeled
- 1 pound dried chickpeas, soaked overnight and drained
- 1 sprig rosemary, plus 1 teaspoon finely chopped leaves
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 fresh bay leaves or 1 dried
- ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 ½ tablespoons salt, more to taste
- 1 small Parmesan rind, plus 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
- ( it is really easy to find parm rind up here, but if you have trouble, just buy a wedge and get if from there )
- 1 cup diced tomatoes, canned or fresh
- ( I used canned and it was fine )
- 2 medium carrots, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
- 2 celery stalks, sliced 1/4-inch thick
- Zest of 1 lemon
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
PREPARATION
- Insert the clove into the onion. Put the onion in a large pot with the chickpeas, rosemary sprig, garlic, bay leaves, olive oil, salt and cheese rind. Add 5 cups water and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for about an hour, or until chickpeas are tender.
- Add the tomatoes, carrots and celery, cover loosely, and simmer until the vegetables are soft, about 25 minutes longer. While soup simmers, mix the chopped rosemary, grated Parmesan, lemon zest and pepper in a small bowl.
- Season the soup to taste and ladle into bowls. Sprinkle with the Parmesan mixture.
Do not skip the topping part, the lemon zest and extra cheese add a really nice flavor - and just chop the rosemary really fine - the sprig in the soup cooks to nothing. But do pull out the stem and whole onions before you serve.
Daily Koda
This morning is as warm as it is going to be for the next 10 or so days, with that hard core cold coming later on. Even with the heavy snow coming down, we were out and enjoying it.
Blog Pass
A pre packaged pot roast from said Wegmans -
pretty good, Neil liked it, more tomatoie than I make mine.
It's the end of Sunday night as we know it ...
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
The king is dead, long live the king , not really .
ANDREW SULLIVAN QUITS THE DISH.
( really )
In what all the nattering nabobs are calling the final nail in the blog's coffin, LONG time blogger Mr. Sullivan, sort of out of the blue, called it quits. Read his FINAL POST ( if it is - I am not really sure, did he just end it BOOM - no dragging it out ?? ) HERE.
He took his blog through many many incarnations, from private, to magazine, to uber website to a pay site ( kicking up some major bucks ) over the years.
I stopped reading on a daily basis maybe a year ago, too too much Jesus for my tastes, but I did read every day for many many years, and my " relationship " with him goes back a long time - starting with me evidently embarrassing myself at a book signing at the glbt book store in Atlanta in the early 90's.
He took his blog through many many incarnations, from private, to magazine, to uber website to a pay site ( kicking up some major bucks ) over the years.
I stopped reading on a daily basis maybe a year ago, too too much Jesus for my tastes, but I did read every day for many many years, and my " relationship " with him goes back a long time - starting with me evidently embarrassing myself at a book signing at the glbt book store in Atlanta in the early 90's.
Daily Koda
We were out pretty early today to a purely glorious high winter morning.
Not too cold, if you can call high teens not too cold ( meaning that it was not so cold that it hurt Koda's paws ) This was as blue of a sky as you will ever see, and truly not a cloud to be seen.
Mendon, NY .
WINTER FOOD
As the storm to end all storms was brewing , ready to bury all of the tri state area, the NYT came out with a really nice list of Winter Foods, to get the folks of Gotham through the coming melee.
I am going to make the Chickpea veggie soup on this list ASAP!
Around the World
POTUS and FLOTUS visited INDIA this week.
Ms. Obama is known for her occasional preference for Indian origin designers. In her earlier visit to India in 2010 she donned designs created by Indian origin American designers Naeem Khan and Rachel Roy.
Also this is not the first time the First Lady chose one of Mr. Mohapatra’s works. While appearing in a show ‘Tonight Show with Jay Leno’ in 2012, Ms. Obama had worn one of Mr. Mohapatra’s collections. Mr. Mohapatra hails from Rourkela in Odisha and is based in New York.
The designer tweeted the photo of the First Lady exiting Air Force One.
Later that day Mrs. Obama went with a navy print Carolina Herrera for dinner
Cant say that I am a massive fan of this skirt shape - but just going to stick with my usual that she can do no wrong in anyway, anytime.
NOW! It was the very next day that caused the internets to melt.
Cutting the India trip short, to fly to Saudi Arabia for the funeral for the late king.
#Michelle_Obama_NotVeiled” tweeted @Random_Arora. “She was a guest in another country &culture. She should make no judgements, but show proper respect at a funeral.2 #Michelle_Obama_NotVeiled,” wrote @MonaBadah.
The thing is, Obama wasn’t really flouting any rules when she chose not to wear a headscarf. While foreign female visitors to the Kingdom are expected to wear long, loose fitting garments as a sign of respect — Obama obliged with a long coat over dark trousers — the headscarf is optional. The muttawa, or religious police, might growl menacingly, but there is nothing legally wrong with going uncovered for non-Muslims. Doing so may draw unwanted attention, and the ire of conservatives, but most Saudis treat the headscarf as a sign of piety, or at least feigned piety for public consumption.
When it comes to women’s rights in the kingdom, the headscarf is the least of any Saudi activist’s worries. She is more likely to be concerned about the right to drive, the right to vote, the right to keep her children after asking for divorce and the right to travel, marry and work without express permission from a male guardian. So maybe if Obama had driven to the funeral herself, it would have been worth a stir. Instead, she did as several other notable female visitors to the Kingdom, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice among them, have done before: dressing respectfully without compromising their own personal sense of style. It’s not like Mr. Obama decided to don a thobe and shemaghfor the occasion
Can you just imagine how loud the roar would have been on FOX news if the First Lady had , like she has other times in the past, chosen to cover her head ?!?
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
The Morning After , again
Boston and the rest of New England are taking the full brunt of the storm that was supposed to hit NYC and did not. We had almost as much snow as they did down there - and just called it Tuesday.
Out story is being back in the deep freeze, we got a nice long walk in today, and hopefully one tomorrow then it will just be quick business minded jaunts out.
And this is Rochester's forecast, we will be a little bit colder ....
Monday, January 26, 2015
Feeling your pain.
As I type this the Eastern Seaboard is getting hammered with winter storm Juno - when I stopped watching tv tonight the snow fall estimates in NYC were being lowered a bit - but then I saw some things in the paper that said, the tv talking heads were wrong and it was all still coming down hard.
So, waiting for Junoman was on in the background all day long - as it was snowing all day long here, and it is very cold. We are back to not being above freezing the rest of the week, with a little sub zero by Friday or so - which is all 100% normal for January in lower Ontario.
But, my brain had this massive blizzard coming towards us - so I went into storm mode, thinking something was about to happen, wanting to just be hunkerd down - when will this fresh hell be over ?
Yeah, but it is just an average night here in Mendon and I am just way way to susceptible to the television.
So, waiting for Junoman was on in the background all day long - as it was snowing all day long here, and it is very cold. We are back to not being above freezing the rest of the week, with a little sub zero by Friday or so - which is all 100% normal for January in lower Ontario.
But, my brain had this massive blizzard coming towards us - so I went into storm mode, thinking something was about to happen, wanting to just be hunkerd down - when will this fresh hell be over ?
 |
| The only car in the Mendon Meadows Market Parking Lot |
Yeah, but it is just an average night here in Mendon and I am just way way to susceptible to the television.
I did make a big pot of yummy soup.
Sunday, January 25, 2015
EPIC TV NIGHT
We are back in that totally rare sweet spot time of year when Sunday nights are just the highlight of the week - tv wise ( the rest of our watching week is just pretty much MSNBC and Househunters ). This one possible may be the very best ever - even with MAD MEN, CALL THE MIDWIFE , Game of Thrones and some possible SHERLOCK to come
THE GREAT BRITISH BAKING SNOW
This is just pure cheeky British fun - with us not knowing half of what they are talking about. But the biggest GASP of the night from all four of these shows was when someones tiered pie ( not at all what you would think.... ) almost fell over. I just love it.
DOWNTON ABBEY
Oh my goodness... what is Lord Fellowes doing to us this season?!? Is it just me or have we gone slightly off the rails here ? Just way way improbable things happening there at the big house. Crazy mixing of up and down stairs with most of the posh lot seemingly just going around in circles. Bringing up the death of Mr. Green again, really....zzzzz....Edith stalking that poor baby , the weird teacher woman that I guess has a room somewhere in the manse .... lets hope things pic up .
It is still beautiful to look at, and parts of it are a joy to watch , but the stories are just getting to far fetched. NYT's review of tonights episode.
LOOKING
HBO's nod to the gays, GIRLS with boys as it were. Started out slow and tonight just sort of dissolved into out right porn - but classy porn, with really cute guys - of all ages and body types, a very first for broadcast tv. Our local PBS station hosts a call in post Downton show, so we get to watch the half hour show with out missing any of the Sunday Night PBS greatness.
GRANTCHESTER
Are you staying tuned post Downton for this FANTASTIC show ? It is one of those please just let me crawl inside my tv and live in the same world as these wonderful people. Now, it is sort of very much along the same lines as another one of my absolute favorites, ITV's Endeavour. Only this time we are in early 1950's Oxford and not the mid -60's. There would also be the problem of people dying all the time, but to be near our hero priest, it would be totally worth is. We are only on the second episode if you have missed them , I bet they are on PBS.COM for free. It is one of those WAY British shows that we have to use the subtitles for to understand a lot of what is going on
Dinner
Sort of phoned this one in. But needed to be settled in for my Sunday night stories.
Roast Chicken
Sweet Potato
Brussels Sprouts
/in apple cider vinegar
very good!
Ala - not-so-damn -bama
SUNDAY NIGHT
SATURDAY NIGHT
FRIDAY NIGHT
One would like to think that this is an only in Alabama story, and it sort of is. Friday night a Federal Judge says MARRIAGE FOR EVERY ONE. Saturday - hell, I can't keep up - it has something to do with the actual way the marriage licenses are giving out there in the heart of dixie, that all marriages were off the table - and now Sunday, a 14 day stay has been issued to figure all this mess out. Will you people NEVER learn ??
JUNO IN NYC
A little bit of panic is starting to set in down New York City way as what could end up being the biggest snow dump in one day ever in the Big Apple. The numbers are all over the place , and if they are like snow fall totals here , they are exaggerated but THIRTY inches ???
Good thing there is no climate change. It should be a fun thing to watch from a great distance. We are getting nothing out of the ordinary here, too far north and west for Miss Juno effects.
Daily Koda
Saturday, January 24, 2015
MOVIE DAY
As of this afternoon we have seen all of the movies nominated for the 2015 Oscar.
Whiplash is a very good small film, that I am very glad is getting some recognition from the Academy. JK Simmons, ( who has FREAKED me out since his OZ chacater ) took home the Golden Globe for best supporting actor in a drama, and he was just as good if not better than any of the other guys on the list. I don't think we would have seen the movie with out the Oscar buzz , and I am happy we did.
It is not a David Lean epic, its just a small tight little film about people - and drums. The kid in the movie, Miles Teller so should have been nominated along side Simmons.
AND - the big and, I will be doing a whole post on this : I am in camp BIRDMAN for Best Picture.
also, our small little local movie house in liberal enclave of Pittsford NY was setting up a special queue for the coming crowds to see American Sniper - BY FAR the worst movie on the above list.
Friday, January 23, 2015
Now marriage equality does not bother me , Does your conscience bother you? Tell the truth
ALA-DAMN-BAMA !
This one was a shocker - I did not know it was even on our radar for tonight. I was taken aback. Wow.
The gold states on the map Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas and South Dakota - have all had their marriage laws ruled unconstitutional, but the ruling is stayed.
Georgia, Louisiana, Nebraska and North Dakota are all states with marriage cases pending before their courts, although all are in Federal court districts that have ruled in our favor.
Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee have all had their laws upheld by the Federal Circuit court - and are headed to the Supreme Court. By the time of the ruling it is not out of the question that they could be the only four states with out same sex marriage.
Dinner
Sausage w/ Onions and Peppers
This does not look that good, nor is it that healthy, I just had a craving for one.
On a roll
lots and lots of ice all around though -
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