Last week, the maples that make up the last little wooded area on my home town’s territory made their last stand, their vibrant red hues blazing in defiance of shortening days and plunging temperatures. Raging against the dying of the light, it seemed. This week, their leaves have turned crisp, no longer softly rustling in the breeze; now they crackle and crunch like the chrysales of so many butterflies flown south in search of sunlight and warmth. How I wish I had wings like the geese, to lift my head and take to the skies. It’s a common wish, one I hold dear year-round, but one which intensifies every October. I can imagine their sore shoulders and their struggle to continue, lest the cold and snow catch up and trap them mercilessly with no access to food or water to fuel the next stage of their journey. But are their bodies as sore as my heart aches once the last days of Indian summer have gone? Oh, to be a bear and sleep my way through winter, waking only once the suns’ rays begin to feel warm on my skin once more. To dream of warmer days through the bleakest of Februaries.
The forecast calls for snow for many areas of the province tonight; just the thought makes me want to cry. And to those who would have me embrace the season, I will say I have tried skiing and snowboarding, and I have absolutely no sense of equilibrium on a slope. I'm much more effective on a flat surface, but ice skates give me blisters the size and colour of loonies within an hour or so (and no, it's not that they aren't laced up tightly enough - I've had them laced by a college-level athlete, with exactly the same results. It's just something about my arches, I guess.) So that leaves me with what? Cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and ice fishing? It's just not my thing. So I batten down the hatches and wait for the storm to pass, finding comfort in warm blankets and hot chocolate, and dreaming of May.
Oh. Wait. Oops, it appears that the original writing prompt had more to do with chili than with...chilly. In that sense, I must agree that spices are trips. As far as my taste buds are concerned, I'll try anything once. Call it extreme culinary sports. Although, I must admit, there comes a point where the peppers are so strong that all that remains is heat. Just like an overly bright light is completely blinding, spices can completely obliterate any surrounding flavours. That's where I draw the line, personally, not because I can handle the heat, but because there's more to the dish before me than just heat (or at least, there should be.) So put a dab of wasabi on my sushi, add some jalapenos (now, where the heck did the tilde go on my laptop?), a touch of habanero, or the smoky smoothness of chipotle peppers to my quesadilla, and mix up your smoothest curries. I'm in. (Although on second thought, my stomach also wishes to mention that a dish of butter chicken will do just fine, too, in a pinch.)
(537)
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
web drifting
I can't even call it surfing - it's not directional enough. The pace is also slower, as I stop to find delightful details where I wouldn't expect anything mind-boggling.
So here we go, somewhat randomly:
From Word Ferret (a usual haunt), a quote from Gustave Flaubert: I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within.
Or rather, in the original French:
Which then led me to Cakelava, cake decorators in Hawaii, whose work is completely at the other end of the spectrum. Pat thought the Tiki cakes were really cool, but then, who wouldn't?
On the main blogger page, you can see the names of blogs flash by as they are updated. Sometimes I click on one when the title appears promising. It's a hit or miss process, but in a relatively "miss" click, I found a link to a book whose concept is so insanely appealing I may just order it: A Field Guide to Weeds, by Kim Beck. Once again, my fondness for dandelions shines through.
What does this show? That I'm procrastinating again. I should be doing something more productive (it's been fairly quiet lately on the freelancing front, so I actually have my evenings to myself...W00t!) but then, isn't this what summer is for? And for my sake, please don't mention that September is just around the corner!
(372)
So here we go, somewhat randomly:
From Word Ferret (a usual haunt), a quote from Gustave Flaubert: I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within.
Or rather, in the original French:
(...) j'ai si peu l'habitude d'écrire et je deviens si hargneux là-dessus, surtout vis-à-vis de moi-même, qu'il ne laisse pas que de me donner assez de souci. C'est comme un homme qui a l'oreille juste et qui joue faux du violon ; ses doigts se refusent à reproduire juste le son dont il a conscience. Alors les larmes coulent des yeux du pauvre racleur et l'archet lui tombe des doigts...Looking for the original quote, I stumbled upon another too-true thought of his:
Pour qu'une chose soit intéressante, il suffit de la regarder longtemps.Moving along, I laughed until I cried while discovering a recent blog of note, Cake Wrecks. The tartan wedding-cake fiasco is absolutely priceless. This is one blog that I read from front to back in its entirety.
Which then led me to Cakelava, cake decorators in Hawaii, whose work is completely at the other end of the spectrum. Pat thought the Tiki cakes were really cool, but then, who wouldn't?
On the main blogger page, you can see the names of blogs flash by as they are updated. Sometimes I click on one when the title appears promising. It's a hit or miss process, but in a relatively "miss" click, I found a link to a book whose concept is so insanely appealing I may just order it: A Field Guide to Weeds, by Kim Beck. Once again, my fondness for dandelions shines through.
What does this show? That I'm procrastinating again. I should be doing something more productive (it's been fairly quiet lately on the freelancing front, so I actually have my evenings to myself...W00t!) but then, isn't this what summer is for? And for my sake, please don't mention that September is just around the corner!
(372)
Friday, May 9, 2008
food, animation and childhood
Sometimes, not getting what you want reveals lovely surprises. Now, most people who know me realize I am an avowed dessert junkie. After lunch today, I returned to the cafeteria for a little sweet to get me through the afternoon on a day when the warm sunny outside world beckons and work is tough going. I looked at the oatmeal cookies – overbaked. (I like mine light and chewy.) The other cookies? Ditto. No chocolate pudding. Not in the mood for Jell-O. So that left me with a single option: butterscotch pudding. The prospect didn’t immediately thrill my mind, but my taste buds sang from the moment the first spoonful touched my tongue. Songs of childhood and days gone by, of mother’s love and after-school snacks. Yummy. Its creamy smoothness contrasts nicely with a cup of strong hot coffee, too.
I guess I’m just feeling a little nostalgic these days, what with translating a text about how marketing can bank on nostalgia, and mother’s day being just around the corner. Also, there’s a new release out on DVD this week: a double-disk compilation of episodes of La Linea, Italian animated shorts from the seventies.
It took until last year to figure out what the show was actually called; I had always referred to it as “monsieur Bayou Badou”, after the first seconds of the theme music. I still imitated how he would stretch once the pencil had completed his outline, before taking off down the line. Funny, then, to learn that he was called “Balou” in some parts of Europe and “Badum Badum” in Slovenia – without words, a lot of us naturally converged on the same principle!
Once I had figured it out, it was right over to YouTube for a session of concentrated linearity. (Isn’t it marvelous how easy it becomes to find something online once you know what it’s actually called?) But I’m still going to invest in the DVD. Or splurge, whatever. Besides, it’s a healthier form of nostalgia than butterscotch pudding!
(334)
I guess I’m just feeling a little nostalgic these days, what with translating a text about how marketing can bank on nostalgia, and mother’s day being just around the corner. Also, there’s a new release out on DVD this week: a double-disk compilation of episodes of La Linea, Italian animated shorts from the seventies.
It took until last year to figure out what the show was actually called; I had always referred to it as “monsieur Bayou Badou”, after the first seconds of the theme music. I still imitated how he would stretch once the pencil had completed his outline, before taking off down the line. Funny, then, to learn that he was called “Balou” in some parts of Europe and “Badum Badum” in Slovenia – without words, a lot of us naturally converged on the same principle!
Once I had figured it out, it was right over to YouTube for a session of concentrated linearity. (Isn’t it marvelous how easy it becomes to find something online once you know what it’s actually called?) But I’m still going to invest in the DVD. Or splurge, whatever. Besides, it’s a healthier form of nostalgia than butterscotch pudding!
(334)
Saturday, May 3, 2008
on candy
On one of the “blogs of note”, Scribbit, there was an entry on candy. It was a delightdul little bit that brought back memories and showed some nifty stuff too (check out that gummy bear candelabra!) Overall, however, I can’t say I share the author’s tastes in candy, apart from a few notable exceptions, such as RPBC and Twix bars (but I wouldn’t go as far as she does in my appreciation of the latter.)
On candy, then:
My memories connect candy and chocolates to events and to people. Grandmas always have candy at the ready, don’t they? And I've left behind a lot of candy that I've "outgrown", like the phases in my life.
My first independent shopping experiences involved candy. And cigarettes. Yep, you read that right, smokes. Back in the day, when minors were allowed to do a whole bunch of stuff that is verboten today, there were no age restrictions on buying cigarettes. Every other weekend, my aunt would come over for the weekend. (Inversely, we went to her place the weekends in between.) She smoked Peter Jackson cigarettes; as soon as I was old enough to walk to the corner store on my own, she would give me money to run that particular errand for her. I clearly remember that a pack of Peter Jackson’s was $2.50. She would always give me $3.00, which meant a 50-cent tip every time.
Now, we often had chocolate at our house, so this money usually went to hardcore sugar concoctions. I occasionally strayed to those little sprinkle-coated chocolate “pennies” (that were actually 2 cents a pop), or those powder-filled fruit thingies, or banana-flavoured popsicles when the weather was right, but my habitual shopping list went as follows:
- 1 pack of Fun-Dip – grape and orange flavours – price 15 cents
- 1 pack of Fun-Dip – lime and cherry flavours – price 15 cents
- 1 pack of Sweet Tarts – grape flavour – price 10 cents
- 1 pack of Sweet Tarts – cherry flavour – price 10 cents
Thank goodness for O-Pee-Chee!
Which brings me to celebrate another great creation, this one from Wonka, of which I have written about before: I love Nerds! Just about any flavour, too…and it’s even better when they clump together into mega-Nerds that are tough to shake out of the little square opening in the top of the box! They used to be a luxury item at 35 cents a pop, and that price has since more than doubled…but I still splurge once in a while, usually in the summer, when you think back to days of youth when keeping busy throughout your vacation was your biggest challenge.
I developed a taste for raspberries and gummy bears in high school. Then I tasted gummy bears in Germany, where each colour actually tastes something different, and I haven’t been able to have regular, indistinguishable North American gummy bears since.
I don’t really like jelly beans. Never have. But one of my best “coaches” (he refused to let us call him “boss”) had a Jelly Belly dispenser on his desk, so it became a staple during meetings. Every one on the team had favourite flavours, and there was very little overlap – another sure sign we were a great team.
Then they fired the boss (he took his dispenser with him) and broke up the team, and I don’t think I’ve had jelly beans since (this was 2006.) But I still think of him when I see Jelly Bellys, particularly the Orange Sorbet ones. They were his favourite.
I have fond memories of splitting tins of Quality Street chocolates and toffees with my mom and dad around Xmas time. Like three kids at Halloween, we called dibs on our favourites; again, there was little overlap – or was someone just being nice to their kid?
Here was the breakdown: Dad had the flavoured chocolates (orange creme, strawberry creme), no contest. Mom had all the light green triangles; looking it up, they were chocolate noisette pâté…I had the toffee pennies, the toffee fingers…those are the ones that stand out: I think a combination of who stayed up late and sheer gluttony determined who got the other kinds!
I just read that Quality Street were among Saddam Hussein’s favourites. Well, that’s just…ugh. I haven’t had Quality Streets since my mom passed away anyhow, and now, I really don’t think I will again.
Speaking of Xmas chocolate, I hate mint, but once a year, at some holiday party or other, I will have After Eight squares, or their later stick form, just because it’s the holidays. And I will enjoy them thoroughly.
My mom always used to buy those little boxes of Neilsen’s chocolates – rosebuds and macaroons. I used to empty the former when I was really young, but my taste migrated to the latter by the end of grade school. I don’t think I’ve had rosebuds since…at least, not when there are macaroons to be had.
I remember MacIntosh toffee, how hard it was and how it stuck to your teeth and how yummy it all was. Haven’t had that in ages, either.
I discovered Turtles in late adolescence and haven’t looked back. It may be the only kind of widely-available chocolates that still truly thrill me at Valentine’s Day.
OK, enough for now…I’ll post on chocolate bars at a later date.
(889)
On candy, then:
My memories connect candy and chocolates to events and to people. Grandmas always have candy at the ready, don’t they? And I've left behind a lot of candy that I've "outgrown", like the phases in my life.
My first independent shopping experiences involved candy. And cigarettes. Yep, you read that right, smokes. Back in the day, when minors were allowed to do a whole bunch of stuff that is verboten today, there were no age restrictions on buying cigarettes. Every other weekend, my aunt would come over for the weekend. (Inversely, we went to her place the weekends in between.) She smoked Peter Jackson cigarettes; as soon as I was old enough to walk to the corner store on my own, she would give me money to run that particular errand for her. I clearly remember that a pack of Peter Jackson’s was $2.50. She would always give me $3.00, which meant a 50-cent tip every time.
Now, we often had chocolate at our house, so this money usually went to hardcore sugar concoctions. I occasionally strayed to those little sprinkle-coated chocolate “pennies” (that were actually 2 cents a pop), or those powder-filled fruit thingies, or banana-flavoured popsicles when the weather was right, but my habitual shopping list went as follows:
- 1 pack of Fun-Dip – grape and orange flavours – price 15 cents
- 1 pack of Fun-Dip – lime and cherry flavours – price 15 cents
- 1 pack of Sweet Tarts – grape flavour – price 10 cents
- 1 pack of Sweet Tarts – cherry flavour – price 10 cents
Thank goodness for O-Pee-Chee!
Which brings me to celebrate another great creation, this one from Wonka, of which I have written about before: I love Nerds! Just about any flavour, too…and it’s even better when they clump together into mega-Nerds that are tough to shake out of the little square opening in the top of the box! They used to be a luxury item at 35 cents a pop, and that price has since more than doubled…but I still splurge once in a while, usually in the summer, when you think back to days of youth when keeping busy throughout your vacation was your biggest challenge.
I developed a taste for raspberries and gummy bears in high school. Then I tasted gummy bears in Germany, where each colour actually tastes something different, and I haven’t been able to have regular, indistinguishable North American gummy bears since.
I don’t really like jelly beans. Never have. But one of my best “coaches” (he refused to let us call him “boss”) had a Jelly Belly dispenser on his desk, so it became a staple during meetings. Every one on the team had favourite flavours, and there was very little overlap – another sure sign we were a great team.
Then they fired the boss (he took his dispenser with him) and broke up the team, and I don’t think I’ve had jelly beans since (this was 2006.) But I still think of him when I see Jelly Bellys, particularly the Orange Sorbet ones. They were his favourite.
I have fond memories of splitting tins of Quality Street chocolates and toffees with my mom and dad around Xmas time. Like three kids at Halloween, we called dibs on our favourites; again, there was little overlap – or was someone just being nice to their kid?
Here was the breakdown: Dad had the flavoured chocolates (orange creme, strawberry creme), no contest. Mom had all the light green triangles; looking it up, they were chocolate noisette pâté…I had the toffee pennies, the toffee fingers…those are the ones that stand out: I think a combination of who stayed up late and sheer gluttony determined who got the other kinds!
I just read that Quality Street were among Saddam Hussein’s favourites. Well, that’s just…ugh. I haven’t had Quality Streets since my mom passed away anyhow, and now, I really don’t think I will again.
Speaking of Xmas chocolate, I hate mint, but once a year, at some holiday party or other, I will have After Eight squares, or their later stick form, just because it’s the holidays. And I will enjoy them thoroughly.
My mom always used to buy those little boxes of Neilsen’s chocolates – rosebuds and macaroons. I used to empty the former when I was really young, but my taste migrated to the latter by the end of grade school. I don’t think I’ve had rosebuds since…at least, not when there are macaroons to be had.
I remember MacIntosh toffee, how hard it was and how it stuck to your teeth and how yummy it all was. Haven’t had that in ages, either.
I discovered Turtles in late adolescence and haven’t looked back. It may be the only kind of widely-available chocolates that still truly thrill me at Valentine’s Day.
OK, enough for now…I’ll post on chocolate bars at a later date.
(889)
Friday, March 28, 2008
i love nerds...
...the Wonka kind. Any flavour, really, will do, although grape/strawberry reminds me of my childhood and the double-dipped lemonade-wild cherry/apple-watermelon rock.
In other, more serious news, Dell has begun selling Ubuntu-loaded laptops to Canada! W00t! Now THAT is tempting…my fear has always been that I’m a fairly advanced user, but when it comes to tweaking the nuts & bolts that make things happen, I’m a novice. I’ve been looking into buying a laptop for a while now; my budget is fairly restricted, and I’ve heard and read all kinds of horror stories about running Vista on a relatively low-end machine. Running Linux would give me more wiggle room. I will probably look into running it from the CD on my desktop to see what works and what doesn’t.
As for today: Spiders make me itch all over.
In other, more serious news, Dell has begun selling Ubuntu-loaded laptops to Canada! W00t! Now THAT is tempting…my fear has always been that I’m a fairly advanced user, but when it comes to tweaking the nuts & bolts that make things happen, I’m a novice. I’ve been looking into buying a laptop for a while now; my budget is fairly restricted, and I’ve heard and read all kinds of horror stories about running Vista on a relatively low-end machine. Running Linux would give me more wiggle room. I will probably look into running it from the CD on my desktop to see what works and what doesn’t.
As for today: Spiders make me itch all over.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
miscellaneous
Sometimes I wonder whether my brain has a daily quota. That's the bit I worry about when I think ahead: translating all day, freelancing at night, between homework assignments...and yet I want to NaNoWriMo. If there is such a limit, I guess I'm about to find out.
In the meantime,
Sunday: Pineapple-glaze ham, under charged. Yum.
Monday: Long weekend over. Freelance, homework, presentation.
Tuesday: Presentation over with, vanilla bean latte.
In other news, this Saturday (March 29) is Earth Hour. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate, and I'll be able to take a walk during that time. Help the earth and get some fresh air! I really hope that downtown Montreal businesses will come aboard. I want to see the cross on Mount Royal go out. I want to see Hydro Quebec pull the plug on its corporate headquarters. Heck, I want to see...darkness.
Speaking of darkness, if you ever want to experience a really interesting culinary evening, head over to O Noir restaurant, on Ste-Catherine Street West, near the Faubourg. Eating in utter obscurity is something else; never in my entire life had I smelled red wine like that, and I don't even drink wine! I vaguely remember the food, but it's really secondary to paying attention to every other sense. It's fascinating, and I highly recommend it.
In the meantime,
Sunday: Pineapple-glaze ham, under charged. Yum.
Monday: Long weekend over. Freelance, homework, presentation.
Tuesday: Presentation over with, vanilla bean latte.
In other news, this Saturday (March 29) is Earth Hour. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate, and I'll be able to take a walk during that time. Help the earth and get some fresh air! I really hope that downtown Montreal businesses will come aboard. I want to see the cross on Mount Royal go out. I want to see Hydro Quebec pull the plug on its corporate headquarters. Heck, I want to see...darkness.
Speaking of darkness, if you ever want to experience a really interesting culinary evening, head over to O Noir restaurant, on Ste-Catherine Street West, near the Faubourg. Eating in utter obscurity is something else; never in my entire life had I smelled red wine like that, and I don't even drink wine! I vaguely remember the food, but it's really secondary to paying attention to every other sense. It's fascinating, and I highly recommend it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
