Necessary Chocolate

How to Eat Supper: lentil soup

It's a good thing my house is cold, The cold made lentil soup sound good.


I wouldn't normally consider making lentil soup. It's another unphotogenic food. But this is "Coriander-Orange-Scented-Red Lentil Soup" from "How to Eat Supper." And it is so so good. Onions, dried and fresh coriander, garlic, and orange zest all sauted together, with lentils and a chicken broth-orange juice base. Just before you eat it, you add some fresh lemon juice and more orange juice. This just might be the perfect comfort soup.

Today, the Typepad formatting works perfectly. Maybe change is good after all...

How to Eat Supper: refried beans

My heat quit working last week. That shouldn't be an issue in May, but the outside temperature and the inside temperature have averaged 53 degrees this week, and in my world that's a cold house.

When things like this happen, there are always small blessings. For instance, when there was a mouse in the kitchen, I cleaned the kitchen every night. Not a bad habit to start, whatever the reason.

This week, I've wanted to cook real food. Warm food. Hot food. And that desire coincided with buying "How to Eat Supper" and listening to the podcasts from Lynne Rosetto Kasper (from "The Splendid Table). She and her producer, Sally Swift, can make anything sound amazing. Really. I listened to the beans podcast one morning, and ran to the grocery that night so that I could make the refried beans.















I'm not sure that there is any way to make a photo of refried beans look appetizing. The macro isn't much help.
















But just imagine them bubbling hot, smelling of cinnamon, cloves, and a little jalapeno. Wow.

Just have to throw in how much I dislike the typepad interface. Anyone else having problems getting the text to be placed correctly? And it looks like I need to re-establish my photo size. Ugh. Oh, and I should add that my work schedule has been such that I couldn't meet a repairman this week or next. And I did eventually get rid of the mouse.

My new favorite font

I've had lots of fun playing with the font Olicana Smooth.  It's a beautiful script with lots of swashes, ligatures,  blotches and strikeouts:










Yet another wonder of the internet - the font isn't distributed in the US, but it is available in Britain, and I could purchase and download from there. Cool.

An ode to my printer

Well, not an ode. I'm not feeling poetic today. A tribute, instead.

May I present my friend, the Canon IP4200. Two years ago I didn't want this printer - I wanted a different Canon, a better Canon, one I had researched to death. But the store didn't have that printer, and my poor father had to do some harding talking to get me to buy this one. I think I said something like, "If I buy it, and it doesn't work, it will be your fault." Or something equally mature.

In two years, sitting on the floor next to my couch, it has never printed badly. It has never skipped ink, leaked ink, or done anything but print out consistently.

In the last few weeks, it has spit out:

400 invitations to an open house at the church
900 flyers, 38 posters, and 200 double-sided programs for the church women's conference
900 flyers (double-sided) and 38 posters for the church picnic

And, in a blessed break from church stuff - my cousin Diana's wedding announcements.

All in color, may I add.

I have had great fun playing with InDesign, a birthday present to me from me, and new fonts, too. I'll write about those later.

Hopefully, next week, if I'm feeling poetic, I could add an ode to the sewing machine. I have all of thirty minutes of work left on Allison's skirt.

Slightly more cheerful pot pie

Well, I made the biscuits from scratch, and so of course they didn't raise much. It's just that kind of week. But they look a lot more appetizing than the pie crust! I ripped off the crust, stuck the filling back into the oven for 15 minutes, and then put the biscuits on top. Ima Garten suggested brushing the biscuits with an egg wash (1 egg beaten with some water), and so they came out shiny and golden. Flat, but golden. And good enough.

Sad pot pie and music therapy

A friend, who is a music therapist, once recommended that we put together a list of music, starting with sad/angry songs that reflect our worst moods, and working up to happy songs. You listen to the music, in order, and gradually you feel better. Doesn't that sound like an interesting exercise? 

Today, the first song on my list would be Joe Purdy's "Just Can't Seem to Get It Right Today."  I put off buying tickets to Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and now it's sold out. I've gone to bed late, and showed up to work late every day this week (how am I ever going to teach a 5:50am class next fall?). I made sticky buns for a birthday at work, and they were blah. And now, the final blow.

My chicken pot pie looks like that.

It's supposed to look like this. Seriously, I make beautiful pies.

I'm delivering it to an elderly couple; her hip was replaced, and Friday is my turn to take over a meal. Neither of them know me, and certainly won't care if the pie is homely. Nevertheless, I desperately want to swing by the store, buy some canned biscuit dough, rip that crust off, and replace it with the biscuits.  I want to create something beautiful this week.

At least Someone is getting it right:

The crabapple trees at the end of my driveway are blooming, and I can stand under a cloud of pink blossoms.

And sometimes, when I do stand under the blossoms, I want to sing TMBG's "Birdhouse in Your Soul." Or Brian Woodbury's "The Oranges." One of my happy songs.

Saturday mornings vs. Sunday evenings

On Saturday mornings, I believe that I will be a better person all week. My house will be clean, I will wake up early, I will go to work on time, I will finish sewing projects, and I'll eat healthy all week. It's my own little New Year's Day every week. On Saturday morning, I go to the farmer's market and buy great bread and what healthy foods there are. If there are the right flowers, then I'll even be the kind of person who has fresh flowers in the house.

By Sunday evening, I've usually not eaten much of the healthy food. The house is rarely as clean as I'd like; tonight, not clean at all. But tonight I can take solace that I did, at least, manage to have fresh flowers in the house, set on the only flat surface that is clear of stuff.

Aren't they beautiful? Especially the quince (that's what they said it was, anyway):

So, I have the flowers, my concert is over, and Cranford is starting. I'm still the old person, but it's a pretty good ending to the weekend.

My favorite Cranford quote so far: "This is no time for sport! There is lace at stake!"

 

Netflix knows more than I thought

When I signed onto Netflix last week, this was the recommendations window:

Not just "Work and the Glory" -  No, "Work and the Glory III."

For those of you not in on the joke - that's a film based on a series of LDS (Mormon) historical fiction novels. I haven't read them. I'm sure they're great. I admire the author. People I admire like the books. But one of my idiosyncrasies is that I like to separate my fiction from my real life, and so I avoid even good LDS fiction (and trust me, there's really bad stuff in that genre) as much as possible.

I'm still laughing. I guess that anime, Slings and Arrows, and the Preston Sturgess stuff I've rented just don't outweigh Return to Me and all of those PG-rated period dramas.

Choirs

Have I ever mentioned that I'm in a community choir? It's a combination of the Russell Sage College Choir, the St. Augustine Church Choir, some musical types, and me. I've sung with this choir for the last few years, and I've been introduced to challenging music that I wouldn't ever have a chance to sing otherwise.

Tonight we sing Haydn's Creation at the Troy Music Hall, and I can't believe I'm lucky enough to be singing this music.

I love choral music. I love challenging harmonies. And I love recognizing the utter miracle that it is when the piece turns out well. All of the divergent personalities, every level of musical talent, the boring rehearsals - it all works into something amazing. Connie Willis' latest story, "All Seated on the Ground" is all about the accord that can come with singing. I'll have to go to the library and find her quote about church choirs; when I do I'll post it.

I won't be able to sing with this choir again, at least not for a year or two. I'm going to be teaching an early-morning religion class to the teenagers at church come September, and there's no way I can do evening rehearsals. So I'll savor tonight, and hope that I don't come in too early on the last song. Really really really hope.

And the trim on Allison's skirt will be...

Thank you so much for your comments regarding Allison's skirt. It would have helped more if you'd talked to each other first and reached a consensus. But here's the e-mail that I received today:

Allison says blue!!

Decision made.

Tanya asked a while back if I'd show the back of my embroidery. Finally, there was enough sunlight AND I got up early enough to take pictures before work. Here are two of the onesies that I haven't given away: one with bullion knot ducks, and one with split stitch redwork:

And here are the backs:

Not too bad. I don't like carrying threads across, so I try to start and stop every time there's a break. That makes for a neater look, although the thread can build up a bit when I weave the ends under those little bullions.

I use iron-on Touch of Gold interfacing as my stabilizer, but I'm not sure it's the best choice. I like it because it's very soft, lightweight, and it's just temporary, so that when I'm done I can pull it off and trim close to the outside of the design. It tends to fray a bit, though. Maybe I  should try a sew-in non-woven interfacing, and use a temporary fabric adhesive?