neotoma

Three quarts of strawberries, 3 pints of sweet cherries, a pint of sugar peas, locally grown brown rice, locally grown polenta, large soft pretzel, gruyere-bacon pastry wheel, lemon tart, fennel plant, dill plant, zinnia, cilantro, basil (all three plants given away by the local Master Gardeners group).

I guess I'm making strawberry jam this weekend.

Last night I went with greenygal, the Vegan Knitter, and A Person To Be Pseudonymed Later (aka Euterpe) to see Madame Satan, Cecil B DeMille's only musical at the AFI.

It was fun, though the male lead character does not deserve his awesome wife -- she's so much more interesting than he is, because he's just keeping a vaudevillian as his mistress, and she's willing to crash at the mistress' apartment, force her husband's friend Jimmy to keep up the charade that the mistress is actually his new wife, and when that doesn't solve the problem of her husband's straying, she crashes the masquerade ball that Jimmy is hosting on a zeppelin in a regal and extremely reveling dress as 'Madam Satan', who speaks with a French accent and captives her husband away from the mistress.

There is an extended dance sequence with 'Electricty' that is definitely influenced by the robot creation scene in Metropolis, and was performed by then-famous dancer Theodore Kosloff and an ensemble dressed as gears and mechanisms.

The film abruptly veers into a disaster film as the zeppelin gets caught in a thunderstorm and has to be evacuated via parachute. The film was made in 1930, which was after the USS Shenandoah disaster, but 7 years before the Hindenburg disaster, so the disaster in the movie is based on the Shenandoah, which crashed in three pieces.

The sound quality of the film and the singing styles of the time also means that I missed most of the words of the songs, but it still made sense without them.

Afterwards, we had dinner at Charm Thai and discussed how you would remake the movie today -- consensus was, we'd absolutely have to change the ending, possibly by having the wife and mistress run off together.

This morning, I went with ellen_fremedon and the Vegan Knitter to the Brookside Gardens Spring Native Plant sale -- they picked up some plants to replace the dawn redwood sapling they had to take out of their front bed before it grew big enough to damage their home's foundation and to replace a hosta and a boxwood in the back. I picked up a miniature rose, a stonecrop, a gold-edged hen-and-chicks sempervivum, and a pot of lance-leafed loosestrife (which has a lovely bronze color).

We swung by the Ace Hardware to get some leaf mould fertilizer and then by my place to pick up my garden fork, and then went to their place to get the boxwood and hosta out -- which was a lot of work, as the hosta was actually mass of hostas that we had to excavate around to get out. The soil here is mostly clay, so we mixed about a third of the bag of leaf mould in before putting the native plants in the ground.

Ramps! (I am definitely taking some to Texas), a porterhouse steak, new potatoes, sweet potatoes, a bacon-gruyere pastry wheel, an almond croissant, a lemon curd turnover, 3 arugula plants, a curry plant, a dill plant, a lemon thyme plant, a serving pack of frozen lavender-lemon verbena lemonade and an unsweetened packet to make another 1.5L of it (will take to Texas next week, because the water tastes of mud and the temperature is already in the 80s), three pink lady apples (may take to Texas and make Dad an apple-shallot tart) and a boule of sourdough bread.

Compliments:Two different people stopped me to tell me that they not only liked my packbasket, but my entire look, plus one of vendors wanted to know about my monarobot Diplocaulus as a Mayan glyph pin, and the apple person said I "looked great, as always".
Today's look:
dusty sage green canvas jacket from Talbots (at least 6 years old, needs its buttons replaced because 2/3rds of them have come off)
made-to-measure flared jeans from eShakti
Metropolis belt from Jon Wye
Godzilla tab socks
Oboz hiking shoes
the Velvet Night button-down shirt from MorningWitch over a light green racer-back tank from Talbots
the Diplocaulus pin on the jacket lapel
a straw panama gambler hat
a trapper's packbasket that I bought at least 20 years ago from a fur-trapper's festival
a necklace of amethyst, sugalite, and south american jade beads I made for myself years ago
these Zenni cats-eye glasses I buy again every time my prescription changes

1/2 lb of cremini mushrooms, 1 large royal oyster mushroom, a bunch of chives, a pint of chocolate milk, a half-pint of berry yogurt smoothie, 1 lb thick-cut bacon, 1.5 lb bone-in chicken thighs, 2 lemon-ricotta waffles, 1 pear ginger turnover, 1 plum-almond tart, winesap, granny smith, crimson crisp, and pink lady apples, 1 ginger root, and cheese from Keswick Creamery (Vacchina Bianca [soft cow's milk, similar to halloumi or paneer], Blue Moon [brie-like with blue], Vermeer [Dutch-style, creamy, nutty], Vulkin's Folly [creamy, salty, dry, hard, washed with beer])

Also, it's Girl Scout cookie season, so I bought 3 boxes and talked up going to Swallow Falls State Park to see the waterfalls.

Today I went to see a production of Come From Away. It's the story of Gander, Newfoundland and their response to the closing of United States airspace on 11 Sept 2001. I went with ellen_fremedon, M1, and M2; we were sitting in the 2nd balcony, which required taking the elevator up to the 7th floor.


Here's the NPR Tiny Desk Concert to give you an idea of what the musical was like.



The show is without intermission, and only about 90 minutes. The actors play one main role, but double and triple other roles to fill out the story. This production had some amazing lighting design that kept your focus on the actor currently performing, while allowing the rest of the cast to be the chorus or to move around the set while not being noticed.

If you have a chance to go, it's well worth seeing. Just bring tissues.

Dad recently asked for this recipe. It is from 12 Months of Monastery Soups by Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourette, who was a Bendictine monk in New York state.

Ingredients

• 4 parsnips (about 1 lb/500g), peeled and sliced


• 2 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and cubed


• 1 large onion, chopped


• 1 garlic clove, minced


• 4 tablespoons of butter, margarine, or oil of choice


• 1 teaspoon curry powder


• 1/2 teaspoon ginger powder


• 6 cups stock of choice (I suggest chicken or vegetable; for a thicker soup, use only 4 cups stock)


• 1/2 cup of half&half or heavy cream (or creamline milk, if that's all you have)


• salt and white pepper to taste (use black pepper if you don't have white pepper)


• chopped parsley, as a garnish

Directions

1. Melt the butter in a good sized soup pout (at least 6 quarts) and add the prepared vegetables. Saute them lightly for 2 to 3 minutes.


2. Sprinkle the curry powder and ginger on top and stir the vegetables thoroughly. Add the stock and bring the soup to a boil. Once it reaches boiling, lower the heat and simmer the soup, covered, for 30 minutes.


3. Blend the soup in a blender or food processor until thick and creamy and then return it to the pot (or use an immersion blender). Reheat the soup, add the half&half and the seasonings, and stir well. Add more curry powder if the soup seems to need it. Do not let the soup come to a second boil.


4. Serve the soup hot with some finely chopped parsley as garnish.

Serves 6-8 and goes well with crusty bread.

Parnsips are not always available, so you might want to check your local grocery's website if they list what they have in stock; if they are available, they will be with the rest of the root vegetables, and look like large, knobby, white carrots, and usually sold in 1-poound bags (at least on the east coast of the USA).

Nittany apples, 2 tomatoes, leeks, cheddar cheese, beets, cilantro, quart of creamline milk, 2 heads of garlic, molassess waffle, pear-ginger turnover, bakery-made whoopie pie, 1 lb of cubed goat meat, and a dozen eggs.

I also stopped at the local Japanese bakery and tea shop and bought 2 red bean buns, 1 pork bun, 1 garlic twist, 1lb loaf of milk bread, and a slice of mango cake.

It looks like we might get as much at 6 inches of snow between Sunday night and Monday, so I will almost certainly be working from home on Monday.

I plan to make soup, and possibly chili, tomorrow.

Sauerbraten -- Marinated Rump Roast

Start with 4 lbs of rump roast -- beef (or bison if you can get it)

For 4 pounds of meat you need the following, so you will need to adjust.

2 medium onions, sliced
1/2 lemon, sliced
1.5 cups red wine vinegar (can use cider or white)
2.5 cups water
12 whole cloves
6 bay leaves
8 whole pepper corns
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp powdered ginger

4 pounds rump roast
broken ginger snaps for gravy

1. In large bowl or crock, combine all ingredients except meat and crumbs. Add meat, turning to coat. Cover and refrigerate about 36 hours, turning meat at least twice daily.


2. When ready to cook, remove meat and wipe dry. Brown in 2 tbsp hot fat. Add marinade (remove lemon slices). Cover and cook 2 hours (at 325F) or till tender. Remove meat.


3. For each cup of gravy: combine 3/4 cup strained marinade and 1/4 cup water; add 1/3 cup broken gingersnaps. Cook and stir a few minutes to thicken.

Serves 10.

A pound of ground beef, a pound of pork belly (for Korean cooking), a conical cabbage (also for Korean cooking), a lemon tart, an almond croissant, a bacon-gruyere pastry wheel, shallots, green onions, bell peppers (for frying, chili, or pepper soup), a bulb of garlic, shallots.

Last week, I was lucky enough to find ground venison from New Zealand at the local Safeway, so I made chili. This week, I'll make spicy pork from Cook Korean! by Robin Ha, and maybe some more chili later in the week.

I'm also planning to make pffeffernusse for a holiday party next weekend.

Ruby and Ambrosida apples, harrow pears, green bell peppers, shishito peppers, bouvre and wallaby cheeses, gingerdoodle and dark chocolate walnut cookies, a half-pint of chocolate milk, a half-pint of berry yogurt smoothie.