All posts by verily sherrilee

Directionally challenged, crafty, reading mother of young adult
2024, Food, Media, News

In a Pickle Over Pineapple

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The symbol of hospitality is taking a beating in Italy this week.  A famous pizza maestro in Naples, Gino Sorbillo has added pineapple pizza to his menu.  Horror of horrors according to many Italians.

The pizza is actually a white pizza, cheese and twice-baked pineapple: no tomatoes and no pepperoni!  According to Sorbillo, most of the folks who have been brave enough to try it have been happy with the new taste.  But for many, this new pizza topping is a sacrilege; Sorbillo has taken a beating on social media and a food critic even denounced the offering on national tv.

Like other uproars, I don’t get it.  If you can’t stand the thought of pineapple on your pizza, then don’t order pineapple on your pizza.  I know that some folks with allergies can’t even be in the same room with their allergens, but I think if you’re allergic to pineapples you can’t count on any restaurant to be safe for you without research.  I’ve been a vegetarian for 51 years and I don’t get my shorts in a bunch if meat is on the menu.

YA likes pineapple on her pizzas quite a bit.  While I like pineapple, I’ve learned over the years that pineapple doesn’t like me much; I get a sour stomach even if I have something with pineapple juice in it.  I do adore all kinds of olives on my pizzas though.   Any pizza that gets delivered to our house usually has half pineapple, half olives!

What do you like on your pizza? 

2024, Automotive, Business, Seasons

Mailbox Euphoria

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I’m guessing that I care more about mailboxes than your average Joe.  I’ve done the math and on average, I send out a card every day.  Most days when I send something, I just leave it at my mailbox for the mail carrier to take.  But quite often, if I have three or more cards to send in one day, I like to drop them at the post office.  Seems safer and easier on the mail carrier. 

Drive-up mailboxes are my preference, since it’s meant to be a quick errand (usually in the midst of a list of errands) and that means Richfield or Nicollet.  But I’m fussy (I know, you’re shocked, right?)  The Nicollet box is curbside but on the right side of the street, so I have to get out of the car to put the envelopes in.  That leaves Richfield as my drop-off point of choice.

To my shock and horror, early last spring, they removed the three drive up boxes!  There was a note on the post office door explaining that they were taken out due to the road repair that was taking place.  The note did ensure that the boxes would be replaced when the roads were finished.  Considering all the problems in the world, this wasn’t the biggest deal, but it was a pain in my patoot.  The road near the post office seemed finished up to me in early fall but the mailboxes didn’t come back AND the note about the boxes was gone as well. 

I’d pretty much resigned myself to always having to get out of the car to put something in the mailbox until two weeks ago, when I turned the corner into the Richfield lot… AND THERE THEY WERE… all three of them in the same spot they were before.  You would have thought I’d won the lottery – it made my day!

Any small happinesses in your world to report?

Family, Food, holidays, home, Nature

Maple Syrup

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The son of my BFF is what we used to call “a gentleman farmer”.  He and his family live in the big farmhouse and they have goats and chickens, a massive garden and maple trees.  Every fall he taps the trees and boils down the sap to make syrup.  He also has black walnut trees which are harvested.  I don’t understand the science behind any of it but the output of the maples and the black walnuts varies greatly from year to year.  I try never to get my expectations up about whether I will see the syrup and about whether any of the syrup will be “maple black walnut”.

This year the maples did fine but not the black walnuts our holiday gift was maple alone.  This is not a problem for me and I was looking forward to a couple of months of fresh from the farm syrup.  (This is particularly good when paired with Ben’s fresh from the farm eggs!)  YA tends to shy away from foods that are “different”; this means that farm eggs and fresh maple syrup are usually left completely to me.  Last years black walnut syrup was all mine.  Delicious.

For some reason YA decided to taste this year’s syrup.  Then she decided to make pancakes that night.  She’s now made pancakes four more times since Christmas – she even went out and purchased a new box of Bisquick after she used up the box in the cabinet.  I’m thinking I’d better make some pancakes of my own pretty darn quickly or I won’t even get to TASTE this year’s syrup!

How do you like your pancakes?  Is there a place that makes particularly good pancakes?

2024, Family, home, Seasons

Welcome 2024

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We’re putting away all the holiday decorations today.  Normally we do everything today but YA has been chomping at the bit so started cleaning up “around the edges” the last couple of days.  She doesn’t do more because, of course, she’ll leave most of it to me.  Not a problem… pretty much everything goes into the plastic bins that are currently sitting on the front porch.  Only takes about an hour or so. 

Except for the wreath.  I like to leave it up until after Chinese New Year.  Not entirely sure why – except that they are darn expensive and I like having it on the front door with our welcome sign.

Still “discussing” whether to put the tree out in the back.  YA wants to but I’m a little skeptical that it might lure little critters into a false sense of security when there is a killer beast let loose in the yard several times a day.  I’m campaigning for the front yard but YA thinks that will look messy from the street.  It’s pretty much the last thing that will be done today – plenty of time for more “discussion”.

Other than that, no particular acknowledgement of the beginning of the new year.  We used to write bad habits that we wanted to leave behind onto flash paper and burn them up but haven’t done that for years.  I’m not even sure the magic store, where you can find flash paper, is still in the Mall.  As I suspect is the case for most of us on the Trail, it’s an arbitrary day and if you’re not already in the mood to make changes to your life, circling this day on the calendar probably won’t do it.  Don’t tell the weight loss companies who are right now flooding the market with ads that I said so. 

Will put up all the 2024 calendars today as well!

Do you still write checks – how long does it normally take you to write the correct year in the date?

2023, Automotive, Business, Family, Food

Mixing Your …. Metaphors

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YA and I don’t do much fast food but we do like Taco Bell.  I’m probably in the drive-through at the Edina location every couple of weeks. 

Two weeks ago our fridge was filled with ingredients for party food so I stopped by Taco Bell on the way home for lunch.  We almost always get the same thing so it wasn’t a very eventful  stop until I came around the back of the building.  Right in front of me was a Papa John’s delivery car, complete with the sign on top.

I thought it was pretty funny and understandable.  Even if you get all the pizza you want to eat for free when you work at Papa John’s, every now and then you probably need something else to tease your tastebuds.

Hopefully his management thinks it’s funny too and not poor advertising!

Do you ever do the drive-through for anything?

2023, Food, Travel, Uncategorized

A Little Tipple

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If you don’t count the wine advent calendar, I probably have three or four alcoholic drinks a year.  It’s just not something I think about often.  Even when I’m out and about, I often abstain since I’m usually driving (although YA drinks less than I do and can be counted on to drive if necessary). 

So why I thought I wanted to go to the Old Smokey Moonshine Distillery when I was in Nashville.  A friend of a friend had gone there and mentioned it on social media; when I mentioned it to Pat, she said she’d never been and would like to see it as well.  When she told her son Chad that we were going, he volunteered to drive if he could join us.  Voila, a party of three.

Old Smokey is in a huge building: half large bar and half tasting bar and merchandise.  It was a gorgeous day and there was a lot of outside seating with music as well.  It had not occurred to me that we would be tasting moonshine, but apparently it’s “the thing to do”.  Four bartenders serve the tasting, one takes care of one quadrant of a big rectangle bar, serving 8-10 people at each tasting.  Each moonshine is served in a teeny little shot glass – can’t hold more than a couple of teaspoons – and there were five flavors of moonshine that day: apple pie, peanut butter, peppermint, butterscotch and eggnog.  Then there was also a piece of moonshine pickle and a piece of pina colada pineapple.   The bartenders have their schtick down pat – fairly enjoyable.  I didn’t eat the pineapple and I only had a small sip of the peppermint (it was 100 proof) but even considering that and the tiny size of the offerings, the alcohol went straight to my head.  I was really glad somebody else was driving.

It was a fun experience and the moonshine tasted better than I had expected but it didn’t convince me that I should buy a bottle of my own.  They make a huge variety of moonshine and they have the bottles all strategically stationed along the windows so that the sunshine lights them up.  Harriet enjoyed sitting among bright colors.  She’s underage, so while she could look at the week’s flavors, she wasn’t allowed to imbibe!

What did the bartender say after Charles Dickens ordered a martini?

2023, Baboon Achievers, Food, Music, Songs, The Baboon Congress

End of an Era

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I teared up more than I expected listening to the re-broadcast of the last Morning Show at The Fitzgerald.  Since I was in the theatre, none of the re-broadcast should have been a surprise, but 15 years does dull the memory and I ended up crying just as much as I did that day.  At the end when Neal and Leandra did “End of the World”, I completely lost it.  (I simply could not explain this to YA who happened to come upstairs right at that point.)

When I went downstairs to make a little dinner, I decided I needed comfort food; Ralston Hot Wheat Cereal was on the docket.  Ralston isn’t making the hotel cereal any longer; I’ve known this for a couple of months, but I still had my container in the freezer.  When I measured it out, I had exactly enough for one serving.  Somehow it seemed fitting that the last of one of my favorite comfort foods was eaten after hearing the re-broadcast. 

I’ve done quite a bit of research and I THINK that Wheatena may be close.  I did purchase some last month but haven’t tried it yet.  Fingers crossed that it’s close.  The Ralston has been a favorite of mine since I was a kid, so we’re talking DECADES.  I’m trying to take it in stride, but it’s hard.

Concerning the LGMS and the final broadcast, I am definitely seeing the bright side, as I would not be part of this fabulous community without the Trail! The Morning Show probably wouldn’t still be on the air at this point anyway and we baboons keep going and going!

What’s a product you’ve had to learn to live without?

2023, Food, Nature, Travel

Henrietta Makes a Pig of Herself

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I love bakeries – you all know this.  Luckily most of my close friends are also bakery fiends, so I never have to worry about any bakery withdrawal when I travel.

Long before I visited Pat in Nashville last month, she had emailed me a link from a bakery that she wanted to try with me.  Most mornings we made breakfast at her house but one morning we did save for The Franklin Bakehouse.

Franklin is a small community about a half hour from Pat’s home in Nashville.  I expect that the folks in Franklin would bristle at being labeled an outer-ring suburb, but as Nashville has grown, that’s exactly what it has become.  It is the epitome of a small town – lots of little shops, wide sidewalks, picturesque streets.  It didn’t hurt that it was a beautiful fall day in Tennessee, making the drive very pleasant.  There were huge pots of chrysanthemums at every corner of the “downtown” – just gorgeous.

The aroma inside The Bakehouse was amazing and the array of pastries and sweets made it really hard to choose.  I ended up getting a massive cinnamon roll and a beautiful blueberry tart, knowing I couldn’t possibly eat it all (I asked for the to-go container right away).  Pat had the dutch apple pie/bread pudding.  It’s in the picture above and was almost as big as her head.  She also ended up taking some home.  We also ordered coffee and sat at a window table and watched the world go by.  It was a fabulous was to spend an hour that morning.

Henrietta didn’t really make a pig of herself; she actually bristles at the idea as she is a peccary, not a pig!

When was the last time you were able to really relax over a nice meal?

2023, Business, Food, Kids, Travel

Goo Goo’d

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One of the places that Henrietta and I visited in Nashville was the original Goo Goo Cluster store – it’s downtown just a block off of  Broadway. For those of you not from the south, a Goo Goo Cluster is a candy bar, similar to a Nut Goodie.  Instead of the maple center of a Nut Goodie, Goo Goo Clusters have a nougat/caramel center.  Goo Goo Clusters are VERY Nashville and you can find them everywhere, even at the register of a pizza place where we ate one night.  I knew about Goo Goos from programs that I’ve run in Nashville – it’s a fun welcome gift and I’ve purchased them for groups several times but had never actually tried one. 

The storefront isn’t a large space – most Goo Goo Clusters are made in a huge factory these days – but they make premium Clusters at the storefront and have some historical photos and old equipment on display.  And merchandise, of course.  Like usual, I sent several photos of t-shirts to YA to see if she liked any of them.  She thought about the long-sleeve cream version but eventually decided against it.  Just as well, because I got one of that design and she probably wouldn’t have been excited about us wearing matching shirts!

I also purchased a couple of boxes of Clusters to take home.  It wasn’t until I was home that I noticed that the Peanut box was mis-printed.  That’s a pretty big fail in my book.  Hopefully no one lost their job over it.  I thought about saving it – maybe someday it will be valuable – but decided against it.  I’ll have photos and a nice t-shirt to remember my visit.  (They tasted just fine despite the misspelling.)

Do you have a favorite candy bar?

2023, Business, Family, home

Home Project Lessons

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I learned a couple of things during the course of our bathroom project.

First… do everything in your power to get a good contractor.  Hugo was highly recommended (by my next-door neighbor, who is the head of construction, maintenance project and capital planning for the Minneapolis schools.  Hugo communicated well through-out, was easy going, delivered bad news gently and, of course, did a nice job at a good price.

Second… also do everything in your power to have a handy person living in your house with you – especially someone who is invested in the outcome of your project.  I have YA for this.  She is MUCH handier than I am, as she is more patient as she goes about whatever she is working on.  She installed the toilet paper holder and the towel racks.  She un-installed the new light sconces because she thought there was a “ridge” along the edge, spackled and sanded and then re-painted.  She also installed two slider baskets on the bottom shelves of the vanity so it would be easy to get at our stuff.  And she also took a teeny paintbrush from my studio to “straighten” a couple of the paint seams. 

And she gets credit for most of the decisions in the bathroom.  She picked the tile, the flooring, the wainscotting design, the medicine cabinet and the light sconces.  I had final approval but most of the time, her choice was OK with me.

So between Hugo and YA, I don’t really get any credit for the bathroom, unless you count having to arrange all the financing!

Any lessons you’ve learned this week?