Category: Food

Stay on good terms with engineers

Or they will f*cking KILL YOU. Or themselves, in this case.

I realized, reviewing my social calendar for the last few weeks, that it’s been pretty heavy on my rellies, and not heavy enough on cool boys who like to talk tech.  For this reason I called ScaryClown and invited him over for dinner.  Jeff was pleased.

He’ll be here late, as he’s got to go to BCIT first, but that is only one bus ride from here.  Now I contemplate what to cook, hoping for inspiration…. nah, I want chicken! That was easy.

Went to Shiloh 6th Avenue Church this morning to look at the space for the satellite service.  It’s a rather austere and functional room, but it’s still nicer looking and with a higher ceiling than Place Maillardville.  Peggy signed the contract for four months (one Sunday per month) of function space today.  Shiloh’s the church Suzanne goes to, so it’s all part of my insanely small world.  It was nice biking down there, but I was annoyed to discover that Neil Douglas’ shop doesn’t even open until noon these days.  I also checked out the menu at Olé Olé which made me instantly hungry.  I was thinking of biking all the way down to the new location of Renaissance Books but decided that was too much hill on the way back. I also thought of going to the Royal City Farmer’s Market.  But I won’t – I don’t like leaving the house when the dishwasher and laundry are running.

Margot is still in love with her toy.  Anything to get some exercise into that kitty.  I was telling Peggy last night that I’m looking forward to her first interaction with snow.  I bet she loves it.

Unca Dave’s “I’m not dead yet” partay will be the last weekend in September.

Carrie’s coming through town the third week in September on her way to see kids in Ontario.

Further news as events warrant!

Mike brings dinner and “something for the kids”

Mike brought marinaded chicken, with a side of rice, and I made salad and bought tiramisu cups from Langley Farm Market, and we watched the latest episode of True Blood and T2.  (After Keith and Mike had a Star Trek match).  My new fave movie scene is Linda Hamilton’s escape from the fool farm.

Mike said, “I brought something for the kids” which proved to be one of those motorized balls that wibbles and wobbles and scoots all over the floor.  The boys ignored it.  Margot LOVED IT, but doesn’t actually play with it, she just chases it around.  Will provide video once it’s available.

Mike recently had the astonishing experience of having an ex a) apologize for any harm caused and b) repay the money owing.  The universe did not fall off its axle, but I damn near did when I heard about it.  Wonders cannot cease while we live.

Today, return library books, add receipts to our monthly who-owes-what-to-whom reconciliation (grr, I lost my second biggest receipt this month), tweak various recordings for posting and adding to running-total list of songs, clean house from top to bottomus, prep for dinner with Tom and Peggy, try to get hold of Cindy to see if she can come tonight as well, laundry, and mow grass.  I will try to squeeze one song in there if I can, next up is “Beloved Coworker (I guess I never felt this way).  Which I wrote in Montreal.  I wrote “She” and “Evening News” in Montreal; my dwelling there was an interesting failed experiment in many ways, but at least I got some good songs out of it. Living in Montreal and Toronto have definitely brought me to a finer appreciation of Vancouver; with all its flaws it’s a very good place to live.

The weather has been overcast, occasionally rainy, and cool. Feels like fall already, but we had a deliciously hot summer and I had lots of beach days so no whining here.

Off to do the first load of laundry now….  Should think about what to bring up from the freezer while I’m down there.  It’s cool enough I could cook indoors, and I’m thinking meatloaf?  with spuds and veggies?

Partay

My dinner partay started off, amusingly, with me calling Mike around 5 and reminding him that we were set for dinner tonight.

After a very long pause (during which I began to worry about him), he sheepishly admitted that he was hanging out with his new squeeze.  I assured him that it was okay and got off the phone shaking my head and laughing.

Suzanne, Paul, Jeff, Keith and I ate, talked, ate some more, watched Bubba-Hotep (Suzanne hadn’t seen it) and played lots of pinball.  Supper consisted of (why, do you ask, do you always put the food in? because my mother eats extremely boring food so this is kinda food schadenfreude) pork chomps and chicken breasts and corn on the barbecue, plus I bought Portuguese buns and made three-cheese buns on the cue.  Recipe follows.  Suzanne brought puréed squash with cinnamon, squash gems (bacon and squash rolled in corn flakes) AND home made carrot cake with scratch made cream cheese icing.  I made a macédoine of vegetables (zucchini, broccoli, lima beans, green beens, carrots and onions, all fresh except the lima beans).

Cheese melts. I took the left over feta, which I had soaked in water rather than brine so it was much less salty, medium cheedar and parmesan, and mixed that all up, then added pepper, basil, parsley and garlic powder, then stuffed the buns, then wrapped each individually and tossed them on the cue.  Keith turned up when there were two left and then devoured them with an eagerness that was truly remarkable.  I know I made the damned things to be eaten; I wasn’t expecting to watch them disappear like soap bubbles.

Speaking of truly remarkable: KEITH DIDN’T GO HOME.  He appeared at my bedroom door, remarked that he had just put down the game controller for Arkham Asylum, and that he’d like breakfast. I told him to help himself to the leftover waffles. (I make waffles pretty much every Saturday morning with the waffle iron Jeff inherited from Granny.)  So he didn’t sleep over, but he didn’t go home.

Anyway, Paul brought the corn, which was yummy, and two pies which we didn’t even touch because the carrot cake was SO amazing (superlative, actually, maybe best ever) so I feel like I hardly had to cook at all. We had much enjoyment of each other – everybody very mellow and low key and comfy.  Suzanne drinks very sparingly, but I thought I would tempt her by picking up some Baja Rosa yesterday, and she had one small glass on the rocks, on the back deck while perusing Jeff’s copy of the Joy of Cooking for yet more squash recipes (her friends keep giving them to her).

From all this is should be obvious that I had a good time.  I think everybody else did too.

Saw District 9 this afternoon

It kicked ass.  It is also rather a guilty pleasure.  But really, worth seeing on the big screen.

Kat, Kashka and Katie, plus Paul and Keith, were here for supper.  Barbecued chicken thighs, garlic bread, broccoli and scratchmade cheese sauce, potatoes or yams.  Strawberry rhubarb pie for dessert.  Katie and her housemates are playing on the Star Trek…. happy sigh.

Watched the Ellison doc last night

Dreams with Sharp Teeth is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.  Mike, Paul, Keith, Jeff and I had a glorious evening of pizza, beer, G&Ts, wasps drowning themselves in our drinks (this being August in Vancouver and virtually impossible to avoid), me printing out songs of mine for Paul to put in his songbook, me and Paul hanging the Japanese door hanging in the R. John Caspell Memorial Pinball Parlour, pinball (Great Finagle, but how much better that thing works when it’s level), bodywork, cheesecake and fellowship.

Dreams with Sharp Teeth is a must see if you’re into Neil Gaiman, BSG, or the English language.  The initial ‘interview’ sequence between Robin Williams and Harlan Ellison is PURE COMEDY GOLD. Also Richard Thompson does the soundtrack.  Once again, how much do I miss sharing stuff like this with John.

Now I am trying to wheedle Jeff into getting milk so I can make waffles.  I haven’t made waffles in ages.

Paul and I said to each other last night how much we missed small group ministry.  You think it’s Newage Nonsense, but it’s not – it’s major amounts of stress relief for your poor ol’ brain.  I remember the group meditations as being just about the only thing that kept me sane during a very trying period of my life.  Earlier in the day Paul came by and remonstrated with me about my lack of a rear view mirror on my bike (as well as to pick up the sewing kit, which is going back and forth between our houses like a sorry assed ping pong ball) and then he went out and not only bought one for me and installed it free gratis he got me a couple of really good bungie cords too.   All demonstrations of interest in my safety and comfort gratefully accepted, thanks.  As soon as the weather cleared in the midafternoon I went to get beer on the bike, and what an awesome ride that was, the temp being perfect, and the only hitch was when I tried to clear the intersection at Mary and Edmonds and nearly got crushed between two cars, and pulled a muscle in my calf.  It still stings – it’s a consequence of my ongoing L5S1 nonsense in my back, with the sciatic nerve pinging like a gas station bell – but I am taking painkillers PRN and otherwise ignoring it.

Also, I watched a DVD about church growth from a U*U perspective (man, it was interesting!) and had a long, interesting conversation with the minister.  Also, I practiced guitar for two hours and worked out the chords for Catnip on My Shoes, which I had never done before, so I can actually perform it in public now.

And here I was thinking I didn’t DO anything yesterday.

Unca Dave and others

Unca Dave is in town this week for cancer treatment, and Paul and I went to see him at the Lodge downtown.  It’s a really nice place although he says the one in Kelowna is nicer.

What can be said?  It’s all management; of energy, of medications, of treatments, of emotions.  He is as cheerful and forthright as ever, and it was great to see the names of his other visitors in the guest sheet.  We had a cup of coffee and visited for a couple of hours.  Paul will be taking him back to the airport today.

After the visit, we poked our heads into MEC, where I got two of these in black.  (Always ask if they have some in the back… I had checked inventory and there were lots of black ones, but not on display.)  Paul had loaned me a carrier and I fell madly in love with them and got two of my own.  They are only fifteen liters but I got four bags of groceries into one on Wednesday… I had to get some.  Also I got a map, because I like maps.  They don’t have topos of the city any more, pity.  Paul got raingear for his trip with Tish and Terry. After that we went to Pho Hong and I had one of these. Then we went to Rona and recut the keys that didn’t work.

pOp got himself hauled off to the emerg in Victoria in a most discomfiting fashion recently.  He’s back at home looking forward (not) to further tests to find out which end of the malingering/mad-with-worry pole he should be attached to.  And of course there are two other members of my family experiencing health problems that we know of – I light virtual candles for all them not because it will do a bit of good, but so I can turn my attention elsewhere.  Really, hard core atheists don’t know what they’re missing out on with church.  It’s just so comforting.

Fed the cats the free food that you get as a sample from the pet store for breakfast this morning.  Margot makes the most astonishing assortment of grunts and duck calls when she eats – she literally quacks when she’s excited or disturbed.  I put her on the Star Trek pinball but it’s too noisy for her, even though she did chase the ball a couple of times.

Sundry and various

Laundry all done.  Much practicing on mando yesterday, at least 90 minutes and my fingers are all callous-y again.

Family barbecue with lamb, chicken and steak (mmmm) and garlic bread and pan fried enoki mushrooms and couscous and greek salad and beer and green tea ice cream.

Katie got her documentation from the Hair Design School – she passed all exams with flying colours and got her certificate.  Yeah!  Should make job hunting a bit easier. We celebrated her success but she skated out right after True Blood to go keep an eye on a friend of hers (long story, likely tinged with fiction).  But it was great to have the fambly including Mike to dins.

MANY WASPS…. the funniest incident was when I was done with my steak and an extremely determined wasp tried to fly off with a hunk of meat still attached to the steak by a tiny thread of connective tissue.  He kept trying to lift off and then whizzed around like a tiny tethered helicopter, setting down, trying to chew through….. I finally took pity and took the knife to the meat and he took off, flying low but triumphant.  Keith had an interview yesterday, it didn’t go as well as the previous one but he is still looking and still hopeful.

Margot was batting at Gizmo’s tail the other day.  He just lay there, looking long suffering.  Gizmo and Eddie are both, very suddenly, much more affectionate with me.  Eddie has gotten up into my lap a couple of times (he’s not a lap cat).  Margot sticks to Giz like glue when they are outside at night.  Hopefully he will teach her not to be an idiot around cars.  She already runs away if you come up to her outside, always a good sign.

Swithering turns into action.

Yesterday I decided I’d had quite enough of lying around feeling sorry for myself, especially after I realized that my last week of angsty angstiness was hormonally triggered.  So I got up and reorganized the hell hole that is the plastic container cupboard, cleaned the kitchen, washed the dishes, ran two loads of laundry and tidied my room.

Paul called around noon and said he would come over to sing and play for a while and then take me to Jericho.  This was an extremely welcome idea – he turned up around 4.   Paul put some very tasty ornamentation and frills of the guitar variety overtop Home on Derange and Lifeline on John’s old six string Guild; then he made a face and said, “These strings are dead!”  Yes, I made the natural joke, in exceeding bad taste, that follows on to this.  We examined our cases for replacement strings (my mando sounded like shite) and had a socially mandated “Not only do we tune because we care, we occasionally change the strings, too!” session.  Zow.  My mando, never quiet, now sounds quite brassy.  I am about to inspect it for how well it stayed in tune.  Funny side note…. I tried tightening the strings without putting the bridge back.  Bwa ha ha.  Fortunately Paul didn’t laugh; just advised me to loosen a bit and then see if I could slide the bridge in, which didn’t take too much effort.  I may have to adjust it a trifle as I never seem to get the octave to line back up when I change the strings.  The colour difference between the old and the new strings made me laugh.  Paul said, Recycle them, and I said, nope, they aren’t recyclable.  The chart on the fridge settled the argument, and he said, quite reasonably, that if the metal recyclers take them it’s odd that the city doesn’t.  So they went in the trash, but we tried.

I was having such a good time singing and playing I wanted to drag my feet and not go to Jericho; Paul was firm.  “After 4 days in the hangar I want to be out doing something” – so we went.

AS ALWAYS I was glad we went; there were (just in the opening acts): miniature bagpipe.  Banjo. Steel drum; tight three part a capella harmony; penny whistle; lovely folksongs, newly minted and strictly trad.  Although, how you do Barbara Allen on the steel drum might be one of those things ya can’t picture until you see it.  (Answer, very well, thanks, it was very well done.)  For once I didn’t play myself – didn’t feel the need.

Crashed at Planet Bachelor; woke in the morning to the sounds of Keith puttering and the divine scent of coffee.  Got up – no Keith; from the back door being unlocked and the dearth of cream I assumed he’d gone off to fetch breakfasty stuff.  He came back and was just so irrepressibly cheerful and productive as he made himself a yummy brekky (I had cherry strudel and coffee with floods of cream for brekky, bad me – Keith had eggs).

He has an interview Thursday.  I have a good feeling about it.  He’s off to Ted’s optical joint to volunteer and keep his customer skills up while he looks for work.

Sometime in the next few minutes birthingway should show up and drop off the clipping bag for the lawn mower, and if she forgets again, I will just smile and expect her next week instead.  I don’t feel unplugged from time – that’s hard to do when I talked to Unca Dave on the phone this morning – but I don’t feel the whirling urgent torrent of it the way I did when the kids were smaller and there was always something emergent.

While I was at Jericho last night LTGW called.  Things aren’t great at the old stomping grounds, but he has his parachute packed.  It was great to hear his voice; I don’t miss work at all but I sure miss the smiling faces of the folks, as was brought serenely home to me at Brian’s birthday bash.

Today, I jump on the cycle and do a shop, and then a family feast on the q, the whole fam damily plus Mike, and a huge couple of salads, and something sweet and cold for dessert.  And I should likely get more beer.  Later, Katie will come over.  And then True Blood again, cause that just never gets old.

Oh, and I got a Lone Wolf and Cub movie out of the library – maybe we’ll watch it, Mike and Keith are ENORMOUS fans of the series.  Mike even gave Keith his Lone Wolf and Cub t-shirt, which he prizes.

So I’m feeling better, but singing and playing with people always does that for me.

Sundry and Various

I’ve been feeling quite odd for the last few days, like I’m coming down with something.  I can’t be too wobbly – my appetite is unimpaired.  I am also completely uninterested in work, which is why I’ve been doing things like posting bits of humour I worked on 15 years ago.  I wrote a couple of movie reviews.  Saw Bon Cop Bad Cop last night and LOVED IT… I will definitely watch it again.  Jeff is starting to see the value in borrowing movies from the library 🙂

Leo and Linda are in Newfoundland.  Here’s a pic of him playing with an outdoor chess set.

leoplayingchess

Tom L’s mother passed away yesterday. I light a candle for the journey.

The carpet cleaning man came yesterday and removed the smell of dog from our house.  The sofa and love seat and the carpet in the games room were all cleaned; Granny’s carpet went away to be cleaned (and the underlay got hauled away, thanks be, so we don’t have to cut it up and throw it out) and will be back in ten days or less.  Harry gave a vivid description of how the carpet is first put into an interesting machine which beats it with leather straps.  Insert random BDSM comment here.

Paul and Keith are back tonight tomorrow night; I have to jump on my bike and get over and feed Kira.

Pork chops marinated in pear juice and rosemary and then barbecued, and home made tabbouleh for dinner last night.  Jeff said, “What’s fer puddin?'” after this minor feast, and I nearly snarled at him; then remembered we had a frozen peach and raspberry pie, and that it’s actually cool enough to turn the oven on.  So we finished up with pie.

Salt, sand and sunjuice (the day at Wreck)

Mike picked me up around 2:30 – wearing his kilt.  Ten minutes later we were at Suzanne’s; she was waiting downstairs after I called her to come on down, and you should have seen her mile wide grin as she saw Mike’s ride pull up.  They introduced themselves.  We had a gorgeous, rather warm ride in Mike’s Mustang convertible.  We spent about ten minutes gossiping about family members – neither of us being too pleased with the respective number two childer in our families, nuff said, and then dispensed with further whining for the rest of the day. Continue reading Salt, sand and sunjuice (the day at Wreck)

Furbabies & Gilgamesh

This morning, while Eddie was grumbling the whole time, Eddie and Miss Margot played over the same little  stuffed mouse.  I am trying to train Miss Margot to run along a track (which is interesting, because once she has ‘prey’ in sight she’s indefatigable, like a squat and furry greyhound) and Eddie got into the act.  Then, grumbling still, he walked away.  Twice or three times this morning he’s bopped her on the head.  She never says a thing, just flops on the ground.  She’s 1/3rd his weight, it hardly seems fair.  Gizmo never hisses at or hits her.

Yesterday I wrote another tune.  The recorder was sitting in front of me. I recorded it.  What was so hard about that?  Why have I not done that before?

A zillion years ago Loki told me that the oldest story was the epic of Gilgamesh.  It’s been on my list of things to read since I was a small child.    The most recent reworking of Gilgamesh is by Stephen Mitchell, a noted scholar, writer, translator, and custodian of wisdom literature.  I heard about it when the book was released on the CBC and put it on my list; it seemed that finally the translation, or retelling, worth reading now existed.

Yesterday I went to the library, because the *^%&$$ ICBC finally got off its duff and sent me my address change, without which I would not be able to get an update to my library card.  I did so, and Gilgamesh was waiting for me; that and a number of other fine books and movies.

I highly recommend it.  I wish a really good animation studio would bring it to life; there’s no way you could do it as a live action film, in my view.  What a different world that was, even in the mythic retelling.  To read the flood myth…  a snake stealing the  plant of immortality…. to feel Gilgamesh’s grief when Enkidu dies…. to shake one’s head how the gods cluster round the first offerings after the flood – they are so hungry because their humans are all dead and there’s no one to make offerings …. to smile at the wisdom of the tavernkeeper Shiduri, taking shelter on the roof of her tavern when Gilgamesh shows up, not wanting to be killed by the powerful and crazed-with-grief man…. it was all very beautiful, and very strange.

I have had dreams about Uruk, the city of Gilgamesh.  I just didn’t know that’s what I was dreaming about at the time.

I had a productive and happy day yesterday.  I ran errands on my bicycle, and Jeff and Keith and I watched The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn, saw Katie, and Paul briefly, and Mike came over for dinner.  Mike’s kilt came, so I gave it to him and he was VERY happy and immediately donned it. Best gag of the day – BOTH KIDS assumed we were watching Court Jester, because there’s Basil Rathbone in the same sets.  Anybody ever notice how Una O’Connor and Mildred Natwick look awful similar?  I didn’t until yesterday.  And Errol Flynn is among the hottest men who ever lived.

Anyway, if you like costumes, you have to see Robin Hood.  Olivia de Havilland’s gowns are swoonderful.

We watched Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey (the documentary by Sam Dunn, which like his followup Global Metal, was awesome… and SO Canadian) and we celebrated Jeff’s birthday by eating barbecued chicken, and steak, and heart of summer salad with blackberry vinaigrette, and home made garlic bread, and bear claw ice cream.

This morning Jeff walked to 7-11 and they were OUT OF MILK.  Why?  Because their fridges were not able to maintain safe temps for dairy.  Kinda tells you what the last week in the GVRD has been like.  So he went to the other 7-11, which is a bit closer as it turns out, and they had some, and I made Jeff waffles and bacon for brekky.

Here is the recipe for heart of summer salad.

1 mango

1 small purple onion

1 tomato

1 orange pepper

1 red pepper

Cut everything into half inch pieces and drizzle either store bought raspberry dressing or home made blackberry dressing over top.  Take a tablespoon each of Tom’s blackberry jelly and olive oil and three tablespoons of vinegar, add basil, parsley and garlic to taste, then mix well.  If it sounds yummy, it is.

If I was making it in quantity I would likely add half an english cuke and more tomato.

video and audio

I found a tape of me and John singing, at a coffeehouse or something.  Don’t know how old it is.  He starts off singing Demon Java.  Jeff is going to transfer it into more easy media for me.

The house is a LOT more secure (good luck trying to kick the doors in) now that the locksmith has done his thing.

I forgot to mention that one of the really amazing things about the Cavalcade of Cheese on Tuesday was the soundtrack.  Patricia’s friends make AMAZING mix tapes.  I’m so old I still call them mix tapes.

Butter chicken, height-of-summer salad and rice pudding with strawberries and nectarines last night.  It was a darned good meal if I do say so.  Height-of-summer salad is purple onion, peppers of various colours, mango, and tomato, all chopped into even(ish) pieces in a raspberry dressing.  For the rice pudding, I cut up the fruit and briefly soaked it in rum, allspice and sugar, then turned it into the pudding and cooked it.  Jeff om-nom-nommed like a good thing.

Jeff predicted (but I note in my blog of April 29th that I don’t mention it was his idea) that NCIS LA would come to pass, and so it has. The new series debuts 22 September.

Here’s video of the Wednesday night fireworks.