It’s too hot to move and it’s tomato season. The perfect combination for pasta with raw tomato sauce. I diced some tomatoes, and mixed them in a bowl with garlic, red pepper flakes, extra virgin olive oil, and basil. Let the flavors combine till the pasta’s done, then mix that in. Basta!
Reading: I’ve gotten the currently open books down to My Life in France
Listening to: Taller Children
Watching: We caved and added Royal Pains to the season pass list. Also BBC America finally got around to showing The Next Doctor, the first half of which was good and the second half, uh, well, wasn’t. As much as it pains me to admit that Doctor Who isn’t always superb.
Let the differences in doneness show the importance of making sure all your cookies are the same thickness.
They still taste really good with a little raspberry jam.
There’s a lot that needs updating in our house. But I do like this little corner of our kitchen where we eat. The countriness of it concerns me a little bit – I never would have pegged me as that person – but most of the stuff there has a story, which I do like. And I like that the kitchen chairs don’t match.
Reading: The Death of Adam
Watching: Before Sunrise
I’m sure I’m just about the last person to post this, but: Frack from Ikea, for $9.99.
Back in my day, we only got 64 colors and we liked it! Who needs these new-fangled 120 colors?
Reading: I still have far too many books in my to-read pile. The list is the same as last week: Girl With Curious Hair
Listening to: Fred Astaire
Watching: Sixteen Candles
I hadn’t planned on growing broccoli until one of the local community gardens had a seedling sale. We stopped by for herbs; the broccoli was just a why-not addition. It’s growing like mad. Broccoli does well here.
Over 5000, though most of those are spoken by only a few people. The Bible, or portions thereof, have been translated into over 2000 languages. English, Spanish, and Mandarin are spoken by the largest number of people. [Source, the Linguistic Society of America - pdf.]
If I plant all of the arugula seeds they will all grow and flower before we can eat it all. This happened last year too. Which is why I had so many arugula seeds to plant.
As the mother of a five-year-old who’s never gotten over her “why?” stage, I answer a lot of questions. I’ll start to occasionally post the more interesting ones here. I’ll always cite sources and make no guarantees that the answer is complete, or even, you know, right (though I will do my best).
No, though tomatillos are related to tomatoes. And I love them and the enchiladas verdes they make possible.
A write up in both The Economist and the NYTimes? Not bad for a small town bakery.
As the mother of a five-year-old who’s never gotten over her “why?” stage, I answer a lot of questions. I’ll start to occasionally post the more interesting ones here. I’ll always cite sources and make no guarantees that the answer is complete, or even, you know, right (though I will do my best).
Reading: I’ve got 4-5 books going at the moment, and that’s not good. They are, in no particular order: Girl With Curious Hair
Listening to: I cannot stop listening to Portions For Foxes
Cooking: I haven’t been posting pictures of what I’ve been cooking lately because my iPhone is on the fritz. I need to get to an Apple store soon. I’ve been experimenting on the snack front. Plain Greek yogurt with honey and raspberries was a revelation. Radishes with cream cheese was surprisingly good — though I’m going to try seasoning them with chives next time. I’ve got a can of garbanzo beans I’ve been meaning to spice and roast, too.
As the mother of a five-year-old who’s never gotten over her “why?” stage, I answer a lot of questions. I’ll start to occasionally post the more interesting ones here. I’ll always cite sources and make no guarantees that the answer is complete, or even, you know, right (though I will do my best). This one actually comes from my brother (again).
According to IMDB, it’s the “Canzonetta sull’aria” from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro
As the mother of a five-year-old who’s never gotten over her “why?” stage, I answer a lot of questions. I occasionally post the more interesting ones here. I’ll always cite sources and make no guarantees that the answer is complete, or even, you know, right (though I will do my best). This particular one came from my brother, who makes a lot of stew and noticed that rump roast was cheaper than stew meat and wondered if it made a difference.
The short answer: it would probably work better because god only knows what’s in the stew meat. I’d also check out chuck roast for a price comparison.
The long food science answer:
Good stew meat is the kind of meat that has a lot of collagen/connective tissue and fat in it. When you let it cook forever, the collagen turns into gelatin and the fat all liquifies into the stew and those two things are YUMMY.
Flank and plank steaks are tough, but don’t have the connective tissue because they’re from the belly of the animal — the part that’s always working to help them breathe – so those muscles get a lot of work.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Cuts_of_beef
You want the cheapest thing you can find with gristle and fat — slow cooking will make any tough meat easy to eat – and the chances are that’s going to be anything from the brisket/chuck/round areas of the animal. And Rump roast falls into that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_steak
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_steak
As the mother of a five-year-old who’s never gotten over her “why?” stage, I answer a lot of questions. I’ll start to occasionally post the more interesting ones here. I’ll always cite sources and make no guarantees that the answer is complete, or even, you know, right (though I will do my best).
We went to the Mariner’s-A’s game on Monday afternoon and everyone – both teams, the umps, coaches, everyone – was wearing red hats. Why seemed to be the question of the day. A quick internet search finds that the hats honor the fallen and will be worn on Memorial Day, 4th of July, and September 11th. According to this CNBC article, the Toronto Blue Jays will wear them on Memorial Day and Canada Day (1 July).
No word on how much MLB will make on sales of the hats.
I feel like I should point out that I’m writing this in a post-run euphoria. The reason I know it’s Not Normal is that I ran on an empty stomach (…which is a mistake I’ll never make again), hated every minute while I was doing it, and now think “Hey, that wasn’t so bad.”
So, I’ve taken up running. The main reason is just to get in shape. The other big reason is complicated.
I’ve never been a particularly athletic person. My mind has always taken precedence over my body – the most I ever think about my body is about the food I put into it and how hungry I am. But when I was pregnant six years ago, my body was a marvel to me. I was regularly amazed that I had a person growing inside me! And my body knew what to do with it! And it all worked! I want to feel like that again, like my body is working as it should, that I can rely on it like it’s mine and doing what it’s supposed to.
I’ll get there, eventually. Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go drink a gallon of water.
