What's For Dinner

This afternoon Son Donald announced he was going to an ethnic grocery store and asked if I wanted anything.  After a little thought I remembered I needed dried garbanzo beans, which are much cheaper there. Donald said he'd also replenish some of the things he'd used up from the pantry and refrigerator (like sesame oil) that I didn't even realize were gone.

As he was putting the finishing touches on his list I presented him with a challenge.  I told him I'd like something easy-to-fix for tonight's dinner.  His budget was five dollars. I didn't care what type of cuisine, and it could come from anywhere in the store.

This is what he brought me:

Beans, sausage, and samosas

The beans were for later.  I read the samosa instructions, which involved deep frying, and decided to save those for another day.  That left the sausage, which I was unfamiliar with.  I turned to
Wikipedia, which told me that...

"Longaniza is a Spanish sausage similar to a chorizo and also closely associated with the Portuguese linguiça, which is popular in the cuisines of several regions of Spain, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and the Philippines."

Now that I knew what I was working with it was time to figure out what to do.  Donald suggested I incorporate the head of cabbage in the refrigerator, so I did a Google search and came up with a recipe called Filipino Sausage and Bok Choy which was close enough for me. 

The dinner ended up as more work than what I'd originally what I had in mind, but it was WAY better than what I had in mind.  It was basically a stir-fry with onions, garlic, and cabbage and the sausage mixed with a light sauce of broth, cider vinegar, and soy sauce.  I made a batch of rice to serve with it, and at the last minute added today's tomato harvest on the side.

What's for dinner

Five years ago today: Kids Today

A Plethora of Pockets Is A Problem

Last month when I was in a resale shop looking for warm-weather clothes I  picked out a pair of  khaki-colored shorts that I thought would be perfect for walking.  I took them into the dressing room and tried them on.  They fit well, so I decided to buy them.  It wasn't until I was hanging them back on the hanger that I noticed the half zipper tucked under a flap on the hem and realized that the shorts had originally been a pair of travel pants with zip-off legs.

The lightweight nylon shorts have enough storage for an entire day's adventure.  There are two deep front hand pockets, two front cargo pockets with flaps close to the hem (with a stash pocket behind each), two rear flap pockets, and a loop on the waistband to attach keys.  Even though my outdoor adventures aren't long enough to need half that capacity, the material is perfect on hot, humid days.

This morning was a good example.  I left the house after breakfast and walked  a couple of miles through the neighborhood.  All I had to carry was my cell phone, an MP3 player, and a lip balm.  Three things for eight pockets.  When I got home and took everything out I couldn't remember where I'd put the lip balm, and it was so small I had trouble finding it.

Five years ago today: Easy And Open Access To Information

Yellow Cuties

Last month I bought large tomato and pepper plants that had already set some fruit.  Some of the plants didn't have identification tags, and the ones that did just said "tomato" or "pepper", with no indication of the type.  That was alright with me-I've never met a tomato I didn't like, and I could tell from the tiny blocky peppers hanging from the stems they were a mild bell variety

I planted everything, then waited.  As I expected, nothing happened above ground at first, because the plants were putting their energy into growing roots.  However, about ten days later the plants started growing taller and the tiny tomatoes and peppers turned into larger ones.  Last week I noticed the remains of a tomato that a critter had taken off the vine.  It didn't look very red, but I guessed it had been ripe enough to appeal to a bird or squirrel.

Since the tomatoes were obviously ripe enough to be attractive to something I started checking the plants each day.  I found a couple of red fruits buried under some leaves on a bush variety plant, but the easy-to-see ones weren't turning.  Today I took a good look at the plant and realized the fruits weren't red--they were yellow!

Today's harvest

The yellow tomatoes are about an inch and a half across, bigger than cherry tomatoes but smaller than full-sized fruit.  They taste delicious.

Five years ago today: Thanks for asking!

Where's The........?

By far the most common question I get at the mall Customer Service desk is 'where is the bathroom'?

The request comes in many varieties, though. Sometimes the speaker uses that exact phrase, but sometimes they use an alternate word to designate the room they're looking for. Occasionally I have to really think about what the person is looking for (especially if they speak with a heavy accent or use an unfamiliar label for the room).

In my meanderings through the Internet the other day I came across a fun article called 101 Names for a Toilet. Scrolling through the list, I was amazed to find out I've been asked about twenty of them:

Can, Commode, Facilities, Head, John, Latrine, Lavatory, Little Boys Room, Little Girls Room, Loo, Potty, Powder Room, Restroom, Toilet, The Gents, The Ladies, Wash Room, Water Closet

Five years ago today: Talk Is Cheap

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Yesterday Son Donald came home from his shift at a grocery and said the store was having a sale on fried chicken all weekend.  I filed that information for future reference.  Donald and Hubby Tony are in charge of Sunday dinner.  Whoever comes up with the main dish idea plans the cooking strategy.

When I mentioned the sale to him, Tony decided it would be a great idea to take advantage of it, so last night he and I stopped by the store and picked up a bucket. After lunch today he and Donald figured out the side dishes, then they went to the store and bought the missing ingredients.  Shortly before it was time for dinner they heated the chicken in the oven, then put it on the table along with mashed potatoes, gravy, and cole slaw.    In the midst of all their preparations I learned from a friend's Facebook wall that July 6th is National Fried Chicken Day.  Who knew?

We enjoyed our Fried Chicken Day meal, and we'll continue the celebration tomorrow night when we eat the leftovers.

Source

Welcome To My Garden

When I pulled into the driveway today I noticed that the planting beds by the front door were really colorful.  They inspired me to grab my camera to document all the flowering plants in the yard.  Here are a few of the highlights:

I purchased a six-pack of alyssum plants from the garden center six or seven years ago. Since that time they've self-seeded and come back every year.

Balloon flower blooms only last for one day, but there are a lot of them and the display goes on for weeks.

This may be a plain orange "ditch lily", but when you look at the flowers up close there's nothing plain about them.

The phlox has just started to bloom...it's stunning this year!

Five years ago today: The Intersection of Art and Nature

Independence Day 2014

Happy Fourth of July to all my American friends!

Five years ago today: Attack!

Do, Do, Dew

This morning I answered a question at the mall customer service desk from a woman who was holding a can of soda that had a label written in Chinese characters. Seeing her can took me on a trip down memory lane.

In 1995 Hubby Tony and I went to China on a group tour.  We spent ten days seeing the sights starting in Beijing and ending in Shanghai with a couple other stops in between.  As you might imagine, I bought lots of mementos for us and lots of souvenirs for other people. I didn't plan to get anything for the students of the tutoring center I was running at the time.

On our last day in Shanghai we had some unscheduled time before we had to get on the train to take us to the Beijing airport. Tony and I stopped at a grocery store to get some snacks. I was wandering up and down the aisles; when I got to the soda aisle I stopped in my tracks.  In front of me were cans of Mountain Dew with the familiar logo on one side and Chinese characters on the other.  My students' soda of choice was Mountain Dew! I could get them each a can, which I thought they'd find amusing, and not spend too much money.

 I had seven students at the time, but I got a few extra cans so my boys could each have one, too. The cashier put the soda into several plastic bags, and we carried them back to the hotel and rearranged things in my largest suitcase so they'd fit.  Of course, the soda made my suitcase heavier, but we were checking that bag.  I got it to the airport, left it at the airline service counter for them to deal with, and didn't think any more about it.

Until halfway through the 12-hour flight, when I had a horrible thought. What if the lower pressure in the baggage section caused the soda to explode? It would make a huge mess and probably ruin the other things in the suitcase, as well as the suitcases next to it.  I was on pins and needles until I was reunited with the bag in San Francisco, where I had to carry it through Customs.

I'd declared the soda on my Customs form, so the officer didn't question the strange purchase (although he did raise his eyebrows a bit). Before the next leg of the flight home I decided to transfer the cans to my carry-on suitcase. Of course, this was before 9-11 and there were no restrictions on liquids. The extra soda weight made my bag cumbersome and very heavy to lift into the plane carry-on bin, but I managed to successfully get it home.

My students were appreciative of their gift, although they said it didn't taste exactly like what they were used to.  We decided it probably had a different sweetener.

My can now, with a faded label

July Second

July 2nd is the midpoint day of a common (non-leap) yea.  As you might imagine, it has a full compliment of important happenings:

Births

• 1877 – Hermann Hesse
• 1908 – Thurgood Marshall
• 1986 – Lindsay Lohan

Deaths

• 1961 – Ernest Hemingway
• 1973 – Betty Grable
• 2007 – Beverly Sills

Events

• 1776 - Continental Congress resolves "these United Colonies are and of right ought to be Free and Independent States"
• 1901 - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid rob train of $40,000 at Wagner, Montana
• 1937 - Amelia Earhart disappears

However, at our house today there's an even more important event that you won't find in any historical roll call....exactly 30 years ago Son Tony was born!

Five years ago today: A Candy Bar Would Have Been Safer

What Does It Mean?

I'm a firm believer that there are no coincidences, and everything happens for a reason. Sometimes, though, the reason is easier to figure out than others.

For example, I've heard a song three times in two days...once on the oldies station, once on an independent radio station, and once on the piped-in music at the mall.  Was it inspirational, thought-provoking, or significant?  Nope.  It was "Dancing Queen" by ABBA.

Five years ago today: The Setup