Super Mardi Gras Bowl Day

Lots of American excesses going on this week- though all of New England is in mourning for the Pat's perfection season- lost in the last 35 seconds. Ah well. I did enjoy the game, though the commercials are much more fun.

I know nothing about football, though Debbie says it was all because "Tom Brady wasn't protected when he was in the pocket". I have no idea what that means, but it went a long way for my street cred- I quoted it all day with a disgusted look to patients and heir husbands- and was grateful for their lack of follow-up questions. Only the dead know Brooklyn? a similar argument could be made here.

Wore Mardi Gras beads to work, reassuring anyone who asked that, at my age, they throw beads to you to keep your shirt down, not up.

Apparently New Orleans is hot again, the cold snap that Lysse and I endured is over and they are back to normal. What's next? "First Hawaiian Snow Fall" the first time I fly in? "Rapid Glacial Melt Seen in Antarctica" wait, wait- that's been done. not my fault. phewww.

Dinner, thanks in part to NYT's The Minimalist

cast iron pan, heated in the oven to at least 5oo degrees.

any one of:

thick hunk of salmon, thick pieces of tenderloin, whole trout, scallops, swordfish, tuna, nicely marbled steak----

a little spray of olive oil, toss of coarse salt, shake of lemon pepper, other mix- or nothing

then a quick return to the oven. the cast iron sears the bottom surface and the hot oven quickly crisps the rest. Watch the timing unless you like your salmon cooked well done

I think his recipe (Bitman's) involves pork tenderloin, apples and Calvados. I've made it and it's heavenly.

Dogs and Cats Living together

In the old days, when Zooey was just a kitten, Molly had the advantage of weight and strength. Now, however, since Zooey has five very sharp ends and is fast and agile, she has Molly pinned in no time flat. It's kind of like Mexican wrestling but without the costumes and slightly hairier.

Coconut Cilantro Rice

I can't get over how good this was.

Cooked rice, a couple of cups, white, long grain

to this add a pureed mix of

1/2 cup lite coconut milk (may take more)
a clove of garlic
good handful of cilantro
squeeze of half a lime
fresh ginger

You can also toss in, though not pureed, some toasted unsweetened coconut.

top with green onions, quick stir fried with more garlic and ginger, other veg also stir fried, shrimp, chicken, tofu, ditto.

I did firm tofu dusted with Wondra flour, fried in very hot olive oil/butter, and I hate tofu. Really.

but crispied up dipped in leftover cilantro puree and I finished it off standing at the stove. (Molly helped some.)

I froze the leftover coconut milk in an ice cube tray. Martha would be proud.

Winter, continued

Semi frozen stream at Wolf's Neck State Park. Bright cold day with more of the same promised. Trails icy and treacherous for humans, Molly had no problem at all with her built in four wheel drive.

The high bush cranberry, still holding on to its berries. As long as we feed the birds they don't have to resort to them, but they're there as a backup in case we let them down.. .I have seen the turkeys go for these even when there is other food around, but maybe turkeys have a natural affinity for cranberries.

Little frozen wren found outside without any marks in the snow to indicate what happened. It looked like it had just fallen from the sky.


I think I am spending more time reading and thinking about knitting than actually working my two sticks and string. I love the stuff they have at Morehouse Farm and may be buying this. Although the Snowfall scarf, the Alligator scarf, the Lobster claw mittens and at least a dozen other things look enticing, too.

Meeting in the Middle

Back when we first began planning to meet somewhere in the middle, New Orleans seemed like the perfect option. Not too far, but different enough from Maine and Oregon without having to deal with monetary exchange rates. And hot. Sultry. Swamp-like. Hot.

With a nod to my true nature this turned out not to be the case. NOLA was in the middle of a cold snap. Warmer, yes, than mid-coast Maine, and slightly drier than Portland, Oregon, it was still cold, with a stiff wind, and us without our basic winter garb- silks, balaklava, thermo-kevlar-diachrotic inner and outer liners, boots, hats, gloves, Inuit nose warmers.




But really, really wonderful, with a feeling of history and grace and slightly the worse-for-wear beauty that I thought only I possessed.

Here's me at Joey Bonhage's studio. Note the appearance of disbelief. We had ducked into the Commander's Palace for brunch, and found Joey was closed when we finally re-emerged from our food coma. Lafayette Cemetery, across the street, was also closed but we visited St. Louis No. 1 twice to make up for it.

This was a grave disappointment, but we recovered quickly and after another streetcar ride felt nearly back to normal.





The Krewe du Vieux- The first of the Mardi Gras parades of the season and one of the last to still eschew motorization with all the floats man or mule pulled, winding through the French Quarter and with a nice nasty political leftist bent.


We were there by luck and happenstance and the good fortune of knowing Peace Corps Dave, a New Orleans stalwart who turned us onto the parade, welcomed us to his place for a pre-party ( we bailed on the post party due to flop-belly- a condition well known to travelers far and near) and is an all around good person to know.

We wandered, took a couple of guided walking tours, ate, drank, wandered some more and got familiar with the tiniest portion of a really wonderful city.

Not what you think

Despite all indications to the contrary, this is not Zooey and her litter box. No, this is Zooey and a birthday cake made for a cat crazed friend. Layers of cake, butterscotch pudding, chocolate chip muffins, vanilla pudding, topped with crumbled cookie and artfully carved tootsie rolls. Served (because presentation is very important) in a new litter pan with scoop for dishing out the, well, stuff. Note the clever addition of a tootsie turd hanging over the edge.
This is not a cake for the faint hearted, and I nearly turned green myself as I was assembling it. Not something I will repeat, though carrying in a filled and used litter box to the office gave me some kind of perverse enjoyment, and I wish I could have seen the looks on Amy's two boys faces when they saw it. If only I had had the internal fortitude to spell out Happy Birthday Amy in poo script- that would have been a fine finishing touch.
Next year Amy can make her own cake.

Where we are not...

The front lawn of Fusimana, Lajas de Yaroa, Dominican Republic, home base for the team of nursing students and others taking part in the Partners for Rural Health in the Dominican Republic winter trip.

Right now there are sixty or so souls down there who have given up the joys of a Maine winter to travel south to deliver health care to Dominican villagers. Our teams arrive twice a year with medications, supplies and most importantly, caring smiles and hands. In little mountain towns that exist with minimal infrastructure, treacherous roads, unreliable power, questionable water sources, and a non-existent social safety network the teams arrive and set up clinics. The students are learning the basics of the physical exam and the intricacies of cross-cultural care, but really they're learning about the world and their place in it. Those who make the trip often say they've received more from the folks in our villages than they receive from us in terms of soap and tylenol and diabetes teaching.

I'm thinking a lot about the team that's down there now, and I send them health, strength and safety. Here's to them, and our friends in El Hoyaso, El LLano, Yayita, Rincones, Yaroa, Caya Quemada, La China, Arroyo Ancho, Pajones and all the other people in places that are so dear to my heart.

Skiing at the Pinelands Center

Spent the afternoon skiing (and falling) through the woods.

Pinelands is really lovely, with well groomed trails that go on forever through the woods and fields of New Gloucester Maine. It had been a home for institutionalized children, but after the closure, has re-emerged as a cultural center, with outdoor sports, festivals, businesses- and a working dairy.

At the end of the day, there's a bakery for snacks and hot chocolate, and we passed around the ibuprofen in hopes we wouldn't be too uncomfortable in the morning.

Despite a number of really spectacular falls, including butt and face plants and a terrific split on skis that the Russian judges rated a 10, we had a good time, and departed swearing we'd be back.

New Year's Day

Went down to Portland last night to visit with the Sues. We had a spread of goodies including stuffed dates (chevre, pine nuts and prosciutto) , shrimp, olives and feta, and herbed cashews. I refrained from drinking as my stomach has been on the outs since last week, and this meant that for the first time I my life I was the DD! We went down to the Nickelodeon to see Charlie Wilson's War, which was really funny but sobering at the same time when you realize what's become of Afghanistan and our relationship with it and with Russia since then.

After the movie we wandered around the Old Port amazed at the drunken high heeled girls. The best were the lights, everywhere Christmas lights still up, and covered with snow. Since the snow fall Monday, there hasn't been a breath of wind, and the snow remains stacked wherever it fell, capping even the thinest branches and wires with an inch of white.

Back through town, stopping for a pizza, to talk till we watched an ancient Dick Clarke at Time's Square, and then headed home, me at forty miles an hour as the road was shiney with what I thought was glare ice. I didn't really find out, since I managed not to touch the brakes for the full fifty miles.

Home now, and watching even more snow pile on top. still no wind, but if it comes it won't be pretty as limbs will be falling.

holiday edition

Those two days of blogging back in September really must have taken it out of me. My internal voice started narrating (and improving upon) everything I was doing so it would sound better in print, and I was seeing typeface in my dreams. With a tiny brain like this it's not hard to get a brain worm even in such a short time.

So, Christmas is over for another year. I only had two meltdowns.the first one started while I was coring onions, so I didn't really notice right off when it turned into an official cry, and then I was sort of crying snorting and dripping and trying to keep snot out of the stuffing mix, as it's not technically vegan, and our vegan guest was going to have to limit himself to cranberries and tofu if things kept up.

Non-vegan recipe for Lysse:

Pepperoni con rigatoni

two nice onions
one moderate stick of pepperoni

chunk up both, and begin melting down the onions in a little olive oil/butter. then add the pepperoni, and continue to cook over low-medium heat.

toss in a can of chunked tomatoes, and let cook together till reduced a bit.

~meanwhile cooking a pot of rigatoni or any other thick bodied pasta~

Now, slowing while stirring all the time, stir in cream (light, heavy- or milk-or plain soy milk, though I can't testify to how that would turn out) to the reduced tomato mixture. I like to add enough get it back up to sauce consistency, and it will all get thick and firm again if you let it sit at all.

Salad, bread wine- you know the drill.

High Bush Cranberry

A blazingly beautiful day in Maine

Sun, blue sky, Simpson's-quality puffy clouds. A walk in town, visit to a little local art gallery, home to make pesto. Twelve more baggies to put in the freezer, green explosions of summer through the winter to come. The winters in Maine are the price we pay for the summers, and the pesto stored up make the trade off more than even.

Pesto-a non-recipe:

Basil leaves, avoiding the snails, japanese beetles and heavy twigs. 6 cups- at least
pine nuts
garlic
romano, parmesan
olive oil
salt
food processor
blend up the garlic- one healthy clove with some oil, a small handful of the nuts and some salt- heavy crunchy sea salt if you can.

Feed in the basil leaves, adding more oil to keep the blades running smoothly. Then another, larger, handful of pine nuts, added towards the end so they stay in chunks. If destined for the freezer, leave out the cheese for now or toss it in along with the leaves if you're indulging right away.

Protect the pesto from the air: pour a layer of olive oil over the top or the bright green will brown. Baggies with the air pressed out work well, keeping the quantities pretty small : just enough to pile on some fresh pasta.

It's on days like this that the thought of leaving this place breaks my heart.