In world that sometimes seems cold and heartless, where bad behavior gets rewarded too often, it’s wonderful to see the story of a waitress who was given a $16,000 college scholarship for being kind to an elderly gentleman who needed help cutting up his breakfast. The story speaks for itself.
Has some ever been kind to you?
Husband and I have vastly different ways of dealing with leftovers in the kitchen. I just eat them until they are gone. Husband gets bored with them and tries to improve them. Last week he made some Italian bean soup. The recipe made a lot, and after a couple of days he added rice, leftover cooked yellow zucchini, green beans, and a jar of home canned tomatoes. Instead of having six cups of bean soup that we could have finished in a couple of days, we had 10 cups of minestrone that I am still eating. The minestrone was pretty good, but most of his renovated leftover aren’t very palatable, and he ends up eating them for a day and them throwing them out. I call those creations “glop”, since that is their consistency and their appeal, and I am often afraid to eat them. He has never been able to appreciate my argument that what he does just makes for more leftovers. Boredom trumps volume, I guess. Now, if you will excuse me, I am going to heat up some minestrone.
How do you manage leftovers? What are you afraid to eat?
Today’s post comes from Barbara in Rivertown.
A friend has forwarded to me the information that (get ready) February 18 is “Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast” day. According to one story, E.I.C.F.B. originated to increase awareness about childhood cancer, and to commemorate the short life of a little girl named Malia Grace, who lived from February 18, 2001 to Dec 7, 2010. “First celebrated by a group of close friends to commemorate her life and creativity, Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day went on to become a day to honor all the children who have or are battling childhood cancer. It exploded onto the scene, with thousands of people from all over the world taking part and spreading the message to thousands more.”
Happily, this year February 18 falls on a Sunday, when many of us have more time to hang out with our family, our pets, etc., and indulge.
I also came upon a different site: This article relates that a mother named Florence started the trend to cope with the boredom experienced by her six children. The next year her kids remembered, and it got to be a tradition. And “thanks to Florence’s grandchildren, who have traveled extensively — Ice Cream for Breakfast Day has been celebrated in countries all over the world, from Germany, to Nepal, to as far as Namibia.”
Whichever story you relate to, enjoy! As the t-shirt says, “Life is short. Eat dessert first.”
What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
What else should we have for breakfast that doesn’t usually come to mind?
Today is Shrove Tuesday, when all our sins are forgiven, and when we need to eat pancakes and all the cream before Lent. Husband and I celebrated early and had Norwegian waffles on Saturday. Shrove is the past tense of shrive, which means to confess one’s sins, repent, and be forgiven and absolved. Pancakes are powerful. Germans eat pastries called Fastnachts for the same effect.
We visited Montreal several summers and stayed in the Old Port. There we purchased carnival masks made in Venice in a lovely book store near the Notre Dame cathedral. We tried to find Renaissance Commedia dell’arte masks instead of the fantastical masks you can find in more commercial venues. We managed to get a zanni mask. A zanni is a servant who sometimes has a long nose. The longer his nose, the more ignorant he is. The mask reminds me of a plague mask. His name is the derivation of our English word “zany”.
A couple of Harlequin (Arlechinno) masks. He is another zanni, but with a shorter nose. He is a somewhat clever servant character:
And two Columbine (Columbina) masks. She is Harlequin’s love interest and a very perky, very clever servant.
Our local Catholic School district has a major fund raiser they call Mardi Gras every year in February. It involves games, entertainment, and lots of good food. It is open to the community and region. People are most unhappy since the new bishop in Bismarck decided a couple of years ago that all the money raised had to be sent to the diocese, and he would decide how much of the money should get sent back to the local Catholic schools and how much would be used for diocesan expenses. Sounds like a perfect Commedia plot. I am sure the clever servants would get all the money back, further any thwarted love interests, and show the bishop to be a fool.
What does the word carnival mean to you? What is the appeal wearing a mask? What kind of mask would you like to wear?
You all know that I’m fascinated by coincidence and the baader meinhof phenomenon. I don’t know why, but it won’t surprise you that it’s happened to me again.
Last weekend, while watching some cooking show (something about how you’re eating it wrong?), there was a snippet about slurping noodles. The theory is that slurping makes the noodles taste better because the increased air in your mouth allows the flavors to mingle and develop.
Then last night I started watching “I’ll Have What Phil’s Having” (thanks BiR for the suggestion). The first episode is filmed in Tokyo and Phil spends one whole afternoon and evening going from one noodle shop to another. In the first of the shops, the owner/chef tells Phil that he needs to slurp the noodles and then explains how they will taste better with the extra aeration! This is amazing to me to hear this tidbit twice in a week when I’ve I’ve never heard it before.
How to you like your noodles?
My treasure has turned 23! I so clearly remember going to China to get her – how little she was – it seems just like yesterday sometimes.
We celebrate Family Day every July and for the past 10 years or so, we’ve splurged with a trip to The Melting Pot in downtown Minneapolis. (Yes, I completely get the irony that we’re celebrating the blending of two cultures/two races by eating at a place called The Melting Pot).
This year YA had a really hard summer with several summer school classes and a lot of work as well and we could never find a good time for The Melting Pot. With her birthday last week, we decided we should go now.
Usually we take the bus downtown because I really dislike driving downtown, but with the sloshy weather and how long it takes, we decided to drive. Instead of splitting a salad, we each had our own. YA remembered that last time we were there we tried their blackberry lemonade and didn’t care for it, so we just had water. Even though these parts of the tradition were different, we went with the only fondue that will do – the alpine with gruyere and emmentaler. They make the fondue right at the table so you get to see the wine, the garlic, the fresh ground pepper and even fresh ground nutmeg go in before your eyes.
And even after scrapping every bit of cheese out of the pot, we always finish up with chocolate. This year we did the milk chocolate with peanut butter. Little bites of pound cakes, brownie, strawberries, banana and pineapple – YUM-O! A wonderful end to our wonderful little tradition.
What is your favorite fondue dipper?
Life Rule #62. Never grocery shop when you are hungry. I suppose for my purposes we should add “or before breakfast”. I stopped for ONE thing. ONE!
What life rule do you have trouble with?
I have a naughty dog.
She’s 12+, moving slowly but three times this week I’ve come home to chaos. Three nights ago she had gotten into Nonny’s room and eaten the last two little bags of kitty treats that I had wrapped as gifts, as well as ripping open the wrapping on another gift. One box with a Ukrainian egg was downstairs, but luckily not chewed or broken.
Two days ago she managed to get a hold of a bag of spiced almonds that I thought were pushed back far enough on the counter. Guess not. She ate the entire bag (about a cup of almonds). I also found the box that had had rosettes in it on the floor, but YA says the box was empty when she left. Tell that to the shredded tissue paper that was in the box!
Tonight Rhiannon had managed to get back into Nonny’s room… she pushed the gate down. There wasn’t anything to eat in there anymore but she did knock down the box with the remaining Ukrainian eggs. Again no damage (luckily). That box is now locked on the attic steps.
She can’t even blame it on YA’s dog, as Guinevere is always kenneled when we’re out of the house. All the other dogs I’ve had over the years have become mellower over the years. Guess Rhiannon is going against the grain!
Are you getting naughtier with age?
I didn’t have the television switched on too much today but I think I saw Marie Osmond at least three times. It occurs to me that I haven’t seen her hawking her diet system since before Halloween. Interesting that the diet ads start up right away on January 1.
Weight loss is the number one resolution in America these days (and has been for decades). And I read something recently that says most folks have blown through all their resolutions after six weeks. I’m guessing that means we’ll have plenty of Marie Osmond until Groundhog’s Day.
I also saw recently that PETA wants to replace Puxatawny Phil with an animatronic groundhog. This seems absurd to me; would we really be able to program it to recognize its own shadow and forecast the end of winter? Of course, we could always program it to monitor diet ads; once spring and summer arrives, the ads drop off. This made me wonder if we replaced Marie Osmond with an animatronic dieter, maybe SHE could tell us when winter is ending and save PETA the trouble of replacing Puxatawny Phil!
What robot would be useful in your life?
Our son phoned the other day to ask if I had a recipe for pinkelwurst. Pinkel is a sausage especially popular in northwest Germany where my family comes from. It consists mainly of bacon, pork, beef suet, oats or barley, onions , and other spices. It is eaten with kale, or grunkohl. People in Germany take long winter walks called “Grunkohlfahrt” or Kale walks, and then return home to pinkel, kale, and schnapps. I have never eaten it, nor do I think I will ever make it. I certainly don’t have a recipe for it. I don’t care much for kale. Son said it was ok, he found a recipe and translated it from the German. He has a friend who is a butcher, and they have plans for making it. He then reminded me that I had the job of assembling the crib for their child, due in April, when I visit them over Christmas.
Daughter then texted me, asking if I could send her the blueberry coffee cake recipe. I found it and sent it. Then she asked me if I could make just one more kind of cookie to send her in the care package I had promised her, since she isn’t coming home for Christmas. They were chocolate mint cookies. I said I would if I could find the ingredients. I found them and made the cookies last night. All the care packages went out in Mondays’ UPS shipment.
My paternal grandmother always phoned my dad when she needed things fixed around her farm or house, even though my uncle lived a mile up the road from her. Dad always went to help her, even though she always bragged about how well his brother was doing, and never had anything good to say about my dad. Grandma never forgave Dad for his untimely conception before she and Grandpa were married. In her mind, Dad could never do anything as well as his brother, but she depended on him all the same.
I find it interesting how family members depend on one another. We really do need each other, but oh, the stress of it sometimes. I worry that my children are far too dependent on me. Pinkelwurst? Really? Why assume I know all there is to know? What will you do when I don’t make cookies anymore? Why did Grandma criticize yet demand? Oh, these families!
What does (or did) your family depend on you for?
What do (or did) you depend on your family for?
Trail Baboon 