Friday, March 31, 2017

For those of you who read this, I have been absent mentally.

I have good intentions, but between the worst head cold I have had in five years (I get them rarely) and the heavy work load (two people out for personal reasons) and the miscellaneous crap at work, I have not felt like sharing.  I could share but it would be the sharing of crappy stuff and who wants to read that?  No one. It's not like just making fun of the hotel or telling stories. Simply put, there are some Ricardo Cabeza situations at the hotel lately.  

But I read a good book, I will report back in the next day or two.  I miss keeping in touch.

xo 

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Old movie, good times and a duck stock risotto

Who knows why but I just watched the 1974 version of "Taking of Pelham One Two Three" with Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw and many others. A good movie. It's tight, not a lot of time wasted on background stuff, just good guys vs bad guys, NYC subway trains and minimal amount of shooting.  (Not that I mind that. Sometimes shooting is fine.) It's that sort of Friday night mindless movie that has a bit of tension, a bit of dated banter and some good characters.  Too bad it's a Tuesday, not a Friday, but hey. Whatever.  Free streaming on Amazon if you have Prime. 

The risotto:  I get duck bones from the hotel because they are doing a duck confit hash right now for breakfast, so the bones are a byproduct of that.  The stock is salty but delicious.  I wanted chicken stock to make soup, feeling scratchy throat-ish, but only had duck stock.  (oh, how sad.) So i made a small portion of risotto.... and it was so, so good. Used red wine instead of the typical splash of white, toasted the rice until it was almost golden, duck stock, and then I tossed in some leftover sauteed mushrooms and asparagus at the end, with the requisite butter and parmesan cheese.  Added a small amount of toasted almonds for crunch.  It was a small amount of finished product, like a cup, but it was perfect. 

OK. Over and out.

Sunday, March 19, 2017

Here is why we read, those of us who are readers. Just please read this.

Today in the NY Times, this is one of the best editorials/articles I have read in a long time. Read it.  Read it out loud and tell me you don't get teary or get goosebumps or something.  Don't be put off by the word "Trump" in the title.  It is about reading far beyond the Trumpness of our world now. It is simply about why we read, why we should read, why we must read. To me, it is about my life in reading. Just read these two sentences:

But the most magical moments in reading occur not when I encounter something unknown but when I happen upon myself, when I read a sentence that perfectly describes something I have known or felt all along. I am reminded then that I am really no different from anyone else.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/16/opinion/sunday/books-can-take-you-places-donald-trump-doesnt-want-you-to-go.html?ref=opinion

You know, now and then you come upon a truth, something that someone else has put on the page and you stop, you read it again, you shake your head in amazement that some stranger has captured, in a few words, what you think about all the time. This is one of those times.  


Read it and pass it on. Everyone knows someone who loves to read, to whom reading is almost a lifeline. Share this with that person.  We are really no different from anyone else and that needs to be shared. 

Love. Reading. Truth. Life.  

Another Paris photo.  If I had a photo of a book, this would be a good time to insert it, but I don't. So. Whatev. I would love to live on the boat on the right, the one with the garden patio area.  sigh.





xo LTBT

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Sunday, March 12, 2017

Stir frying with no stirring and no frying!

I know, a stupid title but the alternative was "who needs a wok when a cookie sheet will do?" and that sounds equally as stupid. 

Some nights you just want a voice to call to you, to say "open the oven at 7:38 and the meal will be done" but that never happens.  (It never happens to me, maybe it does to some of you out there?)  Some nights you want to really cook a meal and sometimes that does happen.  And some nights you really want a pizza and a small salad (teacup size) but you know that isn't going to be good for your belly or for your arteries, and besides, you have convinced yourself to wait until Monday night and then order that pizza.

So you are faced with tonight and since you have been cooking for the past three or four or five  nights and not very successfully, you are tired of cooking but you know you should do something with those veggies in the not-so-crisp crisper, especially if that pizza becomes a real (not virtual) dinner tomorrow night. You could stir-fry them, of course, but what a mess it makes of the stovetop and the smoke it creates from the hot frying pan and what a pain.

Therefore we have the cookie sheet version: I cut all the veggies into similar size pieces. Wilting red pepper, two golf-ball size potatoes, a small half of a sweet potato, a quarter of a winter squash, some asparagus that I left in bigger pieces.  Put them onto the cookie sheet, tossed with some olive oil, salt, pepper, tiny bit of garlic powder, some spices of Provence, put them into a hot oven for about 12 minutes. Took it out, stirred, and then put 2 large handfuls of spinach on top, sprinkled a little olive oil and some salt on top of that and back into the oven for about 3 minutes. That's it. Took it out, stirred all of it together and let it sit for about 5 minutes.  It was fucking beautifully awesome and delicious. With a couple of slices of cold roasted pork tenderloin (protein!) that was dinner, with some nice wine.  One sheet pan, one spatula, no splatters on my stovetop. YAY.  Next time I will perhaps add some lemon zest and/or a squeeze of lemon juice.  Or not.

I want to talk about the stupidity of Daylight Savings Time but it can wait until another day.  Or maybe not wait, let's get it out right now!  The good thing is the darkness in the morning when I walk the dog.  The  not good thing is the everlasting sun in the afternoon.  I like it when it gets dark at a normal time, like around 7:30. Or even 5:05 in December, I love that! I do not like the days to bleed on for hours, and bleed they will through June when the sun doesn't set until almost midnight (it seems) and people are all cheery and out and making noise until way past bedtime. 

One perk, besides walking the dog in the dark, is that the darkness is a great cover for stealthy covert actions and thus it is much easier to steal Meyer lemons when the sun is still hiding under the horizon.  But soon those days of purloined lemons will be gone. Starting today, I am gathering at least two each morning. Simply because it is possible. 

Again, good night all. I leave you with a creepy photo from 
Paris.  Cardboard cutouts. 



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Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Ah, we'll always have Paris.

It's been a week since I have been home from Paris and sometimes it seems like it's been a month but if I really think hard and close my eyes and click my heels together, I feel like there's no place like Paris, there's no place like Paris......  oh wait!  That's from another movie!  But seriously, there is no place like Paris. 

In the end, Paris did not disappoint, Paris, for me, has never disappointed. Someone asked me why I would waste two days flying, one there and one back, to spend a week in Paris. They said "it's so far for just a few days."  My response was "I would go for five days, so eight is just fine. It's not too far for a place I love."  And it is true. For whatever reasons, I love Paris. I love the busy streets, the noise that goes on all night long if you sleep with windows open and I love the sound of heels on the streets in the middle of the night with those open windows. I love the smell of baking bread mixed with the smell of diesel fumes, the smell of stinky cheeses as you walk by a fromagerie. I love the tiny parks, nestled randomly around the city, small miniature islands of peace right off a large boulevard.  I love the outdoor cafes, the claiming of a table for an hour for the price of a coffee, just to watch people walk by.  I love not knowing enough of the language to be able to eavesdrop and thus getting to feel like I am living in a foreign city, where  no one knows my thoughts just as I don't know their conversations. 

Going to Paris reminded me of all of the above and so much more. It reminded me that THIS IS WHAT I LOVE TO DO: TRAVEL.  It reminded me that it is only a plane ticket away, that the plane ticket is just some money, that the money is the reason I work and that the work is just a tool to get that money.  It reminded me that I need to travel more, now, while I can, while I can still maneuver the labyrinth that the travel world has now become: the airports, the airplanes, customs, more airports, public transportation, all of it. At some point I will be too old.  I figure I have a good ten years, maybe more, and this trip to Paris reminded me that I need to take more and more trips.  Damn the money, damn the expense. This is life.  This is my life. I need to travel.

Wow, the above is a bit wordy, but it is important to say these things in order to make them solid.  Well, it's important to me, at least, to say them. 

Paris was so much fun.  As I might have already said, Tom and I end up laughing a lot.  We have the same silly and sick sense of humor, which is necessary at times. We both like to hunker down and read for a couple of hours but we are both always ready to go out and do something. Anything. Tom is une bonne copain du voyage, as the French say.  A good traveling companion, and more than that, he is a good friend. We hadn't traveled together in almost ten years, it was nice to be back in a foreign city with him.

A few photos.  There are many covered passage ways in Paris. This is in one. 


A coyote with wings and a nice necklace.



                          Flower stall.  Duh. 



                     A cool old French woman. She was having her afternoon wine and cigarette.  I love her look of disdain.  So French. 

More photos will follow. Thank you for following along. Bon nuit.

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