19 January 2014
Food
19/01/14 10:11
Let me tell you a story ‘bout a week of food.
It’s a bit messy, and at times kinda crude.
Sorry, Beverly Hillbillies flashback there.
We had a week of food related adventures. It started early on when I was in line at the grocery store. Some yards away on the end of a row was a pop-up cardboard display rack full of spices in small plastic jars. I’d noticed it because I’d almost tripped over it while shopping. While I was waiting I heard somebody with a squeaky cart round the corner. I looked over just in time to see her cart clip the display, flip it over and dump the 50 or so jars of spices onto the floor. They rolled all over the place getting underfoot, breaking, generally causing a huge mess. For a few seconds the place was silent. Then a loud voice said “I didn’t do it.”, which cracked everyone up.
That voice was mine. So yes the week started on a good note.
Later Marsha found a recipe for Pasta Fagioli soup. It looked really good so she decided to make it. It was really good, one of the best Pasta Fagioli soups I’ve ever had. It did look, um, a bit odd though. It was, kinda’ well you be the judge. Here’s a picture of a bowl of the soup:
Near as I can guess it may have had too much Pasta and not enough Fagioli. Oh well, it was delicious.
Last weekend we went over to Barb’s place for BBQ Ribs. She makes great BBQ. She roasts the ribs on low heat for a long time and then covers them with BBQ sauce and finishes them for another hour in the oven. They come out moist and flavourful, and surprisingly lean because much of the fat is rendered out. Having ribs was a big thing for me because I had never had her BBQ before. Up till now I had been a vegetarian, and so I compared them favourably with some of the better roasted tofu I’d tried. For some reason Marsha doesn’t like that comparison.
At work I’ve been taking baked potatoes for lunch. Add a little butter and cheese and maybe some salsa and it makes a great easy meal. Just a couple of minutes in the microwave and it’s ready to go. So I was sitting at my desk eating lunch with a plastic fork and cutting the potato into small bits with my pocket knife. Out of the blue it struck me that this might not be a good idea. I mean this was the same pocket knife I’d used to strip wires, cut open bags of greasy parts, scrape off paint, and just that morning pry something out of the bottom of my shoe. For a bit I wondered if maybe it might be a bad thing to idea to use this same knife on food. Then I remembered something I learned at an early age.
Wiping your pocket knife on the leg of your jeans sterilizes it.
It's something all guys know. Something that is one of the deep truths known to humanity. It was known to the Conquistadors. Some say the knowledge came back from the middle east with the Crusaders. Regardless of where it came from, it’s a fundamental law of nature. No bacteria can survive five-seconds of contact with denim. Trust me I know what I’m doing.
When I came home from work on Thursday I brought home a box of TimBits. It had been a rough day for Marsha, so when she came up from her office I handed her the TimBits and some fluid and directed her to the chair in the living room while I made dinner. A few seconds later I heard a confused outcry from Marsha. Inside the TimBits box was a small white box. Inside that was a tiny green box shaped like a pirate treasure chest. Inside were a pair of opal ear rings.
I tried to convince Marsha that Tim Horton's sells 'special' TimBits but she wasn't buying it. In reality there’s this jewelry store in Lantzville that was having a big sale and I decided to surprise Marsha with something shiny It had been a while since I’d done anything like that and, you know, she deserves it for all she does.
And finally a bit of poetry.
It's called 2:38 AM
thump, thump, thump
In the middle of the night
thump, Thump, Thump
Waking me, causing fright
Thump, Thump, THUMP
Is it a burglar trying to catch me unawares?
THUMP, THUMP, THUMP
No, it’s just my cat batting a ball down the stairs
Somebody tell me again why we keep cats as pets?
It’s a bit messy, and at times kinda crude.
Sorry, Beverly Hillbillies flashback there.
We had a week of food related adventures. It started early on when I was in line at the grocery store. Some yards away on the end of a row was a pop-up cardboard display rack full of spices in small plastic jars. I’d noticed it because I’d almost tripped over it while shopping. While I was waiting I heard somebody with a squeaky cart round the corner. I looked over just in time to see her cart clip the display, flip it over and dump the 50 or so jars of spices onto the floor. They rolled all over the place getting underfoot, breaking, generally causing a huge mess. For a few seconds the place was silent. Then a loud voice said “I didn’t do it.”, which cracked everyone up.
That voice was mine. So yes the week started on a good note.
Later Marsha found a recipe for Pasta Fagioli soup. It looked really good so she decided to make it. It was really good, one of the best Pasta Fagioli soups I’ve ever had. It did look, um, a bit odd though. It was, kinda’ well you be the judge. Here’s a picture of a bowl of the soup:
Near as I can guess it may have had too much Pasta and not enough Fagioli. Oh well, it was delicious.
Last weekend we went over to Barb’s place for BBQ Ribs. She makes great BBQ. She roasts the ribs on low heat for a long time and then covers them with BBQ sauce and finishes them for another hour in the oven. They come out moist and flavourful, and surprisingly lean because much of the fat is rendered out. Having ribs was a big thing for me because I had never had her BBQ before. Up till now I had been a vegetarian, and so I compared them favourably with some of the better roasted tofu I’d tried. For some reason Marsha doesn’t like that comparison.
At work I’ve been taking baked potatoes for lunch. Add a little butter and cheese and maybe some salsa and it makes a great easy meal. Just a couple of minutes in the microwave and it’s ready to go. So I was sitting at my desk eating lunch with a plastic fork and cutting the potato into small bits with my pocket knife. Out of the blue it struck me that this might not be a good idea. I mean this was the same pocket knife I’d used to strip wires, cut open bags of greasy parts, scrape off paint, and just that morning pry something out of the bottom of my shoe. For a bit I wondered if maybe it might be a bad thing to idea to use this same knife on food. Then I remembered something I learned at an early age.
Wiping your pocket knife on the leg of your jeans sterilizes it.
It's something all guys know. Something that is one of the deep truths known to humanity. It was known to the Conquistadors. Some say the knowledge came back from the middle east with the Crusaders. Regardless of where it came from, it’s a fundamental law of nature. No bacteria can survive five-seconds of contact with denim. Trust me I know what I’m doing.
When I came home from work on Thursday I brought home a box of TimBits. It had been a rough day for Marsha, so when she came up from her office I handed her the TimBits and some fluid and directed her to the chair in the living room while I made dinner. A few seconds later I heard a confused outcry from Marsha. Inside the TimBits box was a small white box. Inside that was a tiny green box shaped like a pirate treasure chest. Inside were a pair of opal ear rings.
I tried to convince Marsha that Tim Horton's sells 'special' TimBits but she wasn't buying it. In reality there’s this jewelry store in Lantzville that was having a big sale and I decided to surprise Marsha with something shiny It had been a while since I’d done anything like that and, you know, she deserves it for all she does.
And finally a bit of poetry.
It's called 2:38 AM
thump, thump, thump
In the middle of the night
thump, Thump, Thump
Waking me, causing fright
Thump, Thump, THUMP
Is it a burglar trying to catch me unawares?
THUMP, THUMP, THUMP
No, it’s just my cat batting a ball down the stairs
Somebody tell me again why we keep cats as pets?