Yeah and I'm moving on to the "what's for dinner" thread, the cassoulet sounds good and mine will be strictly vegetarian..
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Yeah and I'm moving on to the "what's for dinner" thread, the cassoulet sounds good and mine will be strictly vegetarian..
Yeah and I'm moving on to the "what's for dinner" thread, the cassoulet sounds good and mine will be strictly vegetarian..
The What Is For Dinner thread is also beckoning me, and I shall be heading over there presently.
Cassoulet (which I love) is not on the menu; not today. That is for autumn, or winter.
But I did buy some monkfish tails yesterday at the fish stall n the farers' market, and am debating a fish goulash (gulyas).
Actually, that is a definite decision; in truth, the only issue that is up for debate is whether I prepare it - the fish gulyas - today or tomorrow.
Yet land snails and fish eyes are considered delicacies. We eat hogs and befriend dogs despite similarities in intelligence and emotional capacity. We're an interesting bunch, us humans.
Damn straight. Now I'm cutting out the middle man and buying mealworms directly.
Toasted mealworms have a faintly nutlike flavor. Seriously. I've tried them.Yet land snails and fish eyes are considered delicacies. We eat hogs and befriend dogs despite similarities in intelligence and emotional capacity. We're an interesting bunch, us humans.
Damn straight. Now I'm cutting out the middle man and buying mealworms directly.
Someone once brought me a little bag of toasted mealworms as a prank, and dared me to eat them. They didn't know that I'd already tried teriyaki toasted grasshoppers at a sushi bar some years before. I was perfectly fine slowly crunching the mealworms in front of them, and it was worth seeing the expression on their face.
The teriyaki grasshoppers tasted, unsurprisingly, like teriyaki sauce. They were very crunchy, almost like a bland nut or cracker of some kind, and the whole critter was so brittle there wasn't any problems like getting wings or legs stuck between your teeth. Unlike, say, sesame or poppy seeds.
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Got a new board game, Arkham Horror - 3rd Edition by Fantasy Flight Games. I already own Arkham Horror - 2nd Edition and all its expansions, but this is a total overhaul of the game. I love that it maintained the Lovecraftian feel of impending doom while at the same time it streamlined the rules and components. It is still a cooperative game.
The board is now a composition of several two-sided pieces which will arguably be expanded throughout the years for an enormous amount of re-playability.
The board is now a composition of several two-sided pieces which will arguably be expanded throughout the years for an enormous amount of re-playability.
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Monday was a very busy day in the office.
Sadly Monday night will be busy as well. Mowing and watering.
Selling houses is hard work.
Sadly Monday night will be busy as well. Mowing and watering.
Selling houses is hard work.
As is buying them, I should imagine.
Dinner - whenever it shall be ready, not for a while yet, a form of fish goulash - is on my mind.
Mine was pasta with sausage. Mrs AFB isn’t feeling great but did the washing up whilst I mowed.
More Imagine Dragons as I mowed. Noise cancelling headphones really make the mowing less arduous as a task.
What's on my mind is some work ahead of me for tomorrow if I think of it in more timely fashion. I was putting away the French press in the cupboard where it lives, and my eye fell on a copper sugar and creamer set that I think was a wedding gift to my mother, anyway somehow I ended up with it and the copper does need cleaning again, they are very old so not lacquered the way many decorative copper items are now. I just use salt and lemon to clean them.
The pair are simple and charming, plain copper on the outside with deep teal colored enamel inside, a sweet look to them, and a maker's mark hammered into the bottoms. For putting away in a cupboard, the pitcher just rests atop the sugar bowl in lieu of a cover. Usually these things in service would sit on a little tray, but with this pair there's just the containers, not even a tongs or spoon or anything (there may have been, but no more). I've thought to get a little bamboo tongs and use the set if some friend is over for tea, but all these years that ends up an afterthought.
The last two times I've put that press away I've been meaning to get on with the cleaning of the copper items and a little pewter flower vase in the shape of a pitcher as well. I have an endless to-do list, and it would seem that "what's on my mind" sometimes doesn't stick long enough to have counted for much.
Anyway both those things really belong in a glass fronted cupboard in the library that has a bunch of old one-off bowls and cups and saucers etc. They end up in that kitchen cupboard when they need cleaning, and can end up sulking in there for months on end! Maybe writing about them like this will motivate me to get on with the spruce-up tomorrow.
The pair are simple and charming, plain copper on the outside with deep teal colored enamel inside, a sweet look to them, and a maker's mark hammered into the bottoms. For putting away in a cupboard, the pitcher just rests atop the sugar bowl in lieu of a cover. Usually these things in service would sit on a little tray, but with this pair there's just the containers, not even a tongs or spoon or anything (there may have been, but no more). I've thought to get a little bamboo tongs and use the set if some friend is over for tea, but all these years that ends up an afterthought.
The last two times I've put that press away I've been meaning to get on with the cleaning of the copper items and a little pewter flower vase in the shape of a pitcher as well.
I have an endless to-do list, and it would seem that "what's on my mind" sometimes doesn't stick long enough to have counted for much.Anyway both those things really belong in a glass fronted cupboard in the library that has a bunch of old one-off bowls and cups and saucers etc. They end up in that kitchen cupboard when they need cleaning, and can end up sulking in there for months on end! Maybe writing about them like this will motivate me to get on with the spruce-up tomorrow.
What's on my mind is some work ahead of me for tomorrow if I think of it in more timely fashion. I was putting away the French press in the cupboard where it lives, and my eye fell on a copper sugar and creamer set that I think was a wedding gift to my mother, anyway somehow I ended up with it and the copper does need cleaning again, they are very old so not lacquered the way many decorative copper items are now. I just use salt and lemon to clean them.
The pair are simple and charming, plain copper on the outside with deep teal colored enamel inside, a sweet look to them, and a maker's mark hammered into the bottoms. For putting away in a cupboard, the pitcher just rests atop the sugar bowl in lieu of a cover. Usually these things in service would sit on a little tray, but with this pair there's just the containers, not even a tongs or spoon or anything (there may have been, but no more). I've thought to get a little bamboo tongs and use the set if some friend is over for tea, but all these years that ends up an afterthought.
The last two times I've put that press away I've been meaning to get on with the cleaning of the copper items and a little pewter flower vase in the shape of a pitcher as well.
Anyway both those things really belong in a glass fronted cupboard in the library that has a bunch of old one-off bowls and cups and saucers etc. They end up in that kitchen cupboard when they need cleaning, and can end up sulking in there for months on end! Maybe writing about them like this will motivate me to get on with the spruce-up tomorrow.
Use them, and enjoy them.
I have some stunning Le Mauviel copper saucepans, roasting pans, and sauté pans (a completely self indulgent gift to myself when on leave from one of my more challenging postings), - they are a pure pleasure to cook with - a sensual pleasure and an aesthetic pleasure; I also have Italian and German stainless steel (Lagostina and Fissler respectively) cookware, and some Italian handmade copper cookware.
Yes, they were stupidly expensive, but they are gorgeous to look at, and such a delight to use.
Do I shine them? No. Polish them? No.
Use them? Always.
When house elves appear in m life - and yes, I shall be guilty and generous as Hermione was - (or finances allow me to pay someone to do that, or, maybe some dirty winter's day in six month's time, I might get a fit of conscience and want some gleaming copper cookware to wink at me), then, they shall look as they did while new.
Anyway, lest a fit of guilt overwhelm me, do tell me more about lemon and salt. (And I sincerely hope, not too much elbow grease, unless I am suffering from an extreme case of political frustration and need to destress).
These days, I drink my wine from Waterford crystal (lead crystal - the sort that gives a satisfying musical chiming sound - like a bell being struck - a pure note - when tapped) - Lismore pattern; gorgeous, and sufficiently sturdy to withstand my drinking habits.
Use whatever good stuff you have, and enjoy the use of it, rather than locking it away in a cupboard because "it is too good to be used".
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The main thing is find out if the copper piece is lacquered and if it is, do not ever try to just clean it with metal cleaners or lemon/salt either, its problems will be exacerbated. There's some way to de-lacquer such items, and then to clean and restore it but that's way past my pay grade. One would have to search on the net and maybe find a professional cleaner if the piece is very valuable.
But for unlacquered pieces: Well it does take a bit of elbow grease, the salted lemon cleaning... not much complexity to it, just use table salt for decorative items and kosher salt for more utilitarian things (if bothering to clean the latter).
It's best to wear dishwashing gloves or disposable ones because the lemons' citric acid and salt can irritate skin. Cut a lemon in half, pour the chosen salt on it, then just rub at the piece in circular motions to clean away the tarnish, squeezing out the lemon some more to get more juice into the picture, add salt as needed, keep going (it can take a few lemons to do a big piece). When the tarnish seems gone, rinse the thing very well in warm water, check to make sure you didn't miss something, then dry it off and start buffing it with a soft cloth -- I use those big glass towels-- going over and over the piece for a nice look to it. It's probably not the thing if one has trouble with arthritis, and it can require taking a break now and then during the scrubbing process; the muscles you use can tense up without your noticing until they suddenly complain.
But for unlacquered pieces: Well it does take a bit of elbow grease, the salted lemon cleaning... not much complexity to it, just use table salt for decorative items and kosher salt for more utilitarian things (if bothering to clean the latter).
It's best to wear dishwashing gloves or disposable ones because the lemons' citric acid and salt can irritate skin. Cut a lemon in half, pour the chosen salt on it, then just rub at the piece in circular motions to clean away the tarnish, squeezing out the lemon some more to get more juice into the picture, add salt as needed, keep going (it can take a few lemons to do a big piece). When the tarnish seems gone, rinse the thing very well in warm water, check to make sure you didn't miss something, then dry it off and start buffing it with a soft cloth -- I use those big glass towels-- going over and over the piece for a nice look to it. It's probably not the thing if one has trouble with arthritis, and it can require taking a break now and then during the scrubbing process; the muscles you use can tense up without your noticing until they suddenly complain.
How little I like this tendency of certain software companies to have websites posing as instructional guides. They'll explain a couple of (bad) methods to frustrate the user… and then suggest their own software.
It's like offering a parched runner tar, mayonnaise… and a coke.
It's like offering a parched runner tar, mayonnaise… and a coke.
I was looking for the path to recovery Photoshop files on OS X and found this brilliant guide on Disk Drill's "blog," explaining how to recover lost PSDs. Apparently, you can open the trash can and drag files out (try to contain your excitement), you can use Time Machine (which if you already set up, you'd already know how to use!), or you can use a trial of Disk Drill. Who'da thunk it?!
The trial only lets you preview lost files (I'm guessing it just looks in ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CS6/AutoRecover which is what I was looking for) and you need to pay to actually recover them. **** that. Some poor sod might take it seriously.
Two cold calls in the last week on my mobile. I never give out my mobile to anyone to avoid that option.
But I had to give it to an Estate Agent. Coincidence? I don’t think so?
But I had to give it to an Estate Agent. Coincidence? I don’t think so?
I don't think so either.
Time to start heating the tar and collecting feathers.
(I wanted to put a smiley on that to indicate "not rly srs", but find I can't do that entirely in good faith.)
No. Just no. Vile. Never liked liquorice. It’s horrible.
How about some of those hard boiled sweets (fruit flavoured) with sherbet in the centre?