Category Archives: Whatever

Pastimes, Whatever

Are we hot yet?

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Who in their right mind makes chili in the middle of summer?

😉

Me.

I’ve been looking for an excuse to make this recipe for a while, but it didn’t turn up until today. The peppers were cheap at the market and there’s still those sweet onions I plucked from the dirt a couple weeks ago, so all I really needed to buy was some chicken to roast and shredded cheese to drown everything in.

Why, BTW, is chicken so expensive? $13.00 for 4 split breasts… jeez. Good thing I don’t eat meat very often; I could hardly afford it.

Anyway… this chili is nice; not a traditional spicy chili, but something lighter and sweeter. I added some kidney beans and served it with rice… and had an avocado on the side. Delicious.

I like hot stuff, but traditional chili can easily end up tasting like dirt if you’re not careful with the spices. I usually make something like Cincinnati-style chili, sweetened with cinnamon and served over spaghetti. That’s probably my favorite way to have it. Susan keeps promising me an authentic recipe. Hint, hint!

While I’ve sort of veered away the last two weeks from the intent of Vicki’s Saturday Shopping Challenge, a good by-product is that I’m paying a bit more attention to what I spend and I’m actually spending some time in the kitchen on weekends. Generally, I’d rather do anything besides cook!

So… what was on the menu for you tonight?

Bunnies, Garden, Whatever

Mid-week bunny fix

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No… not one of my pampered housebunnies, but a wild one caught freeloading in the veggie garden.

The neighborhood cottontails seem to know they can get away with it here. The groundhogs still haven’t figured out they’re not welcome, after many years of well-aimed flip-flops tossed in their direction.

😉

From the field, Whatever

Bondage

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Relax, Susan.

😉

Silly me didn’t plan far enough ahead to schedule visits for this week; which means I’m chained to the desk, to this view, for the whole long week. It’s a good thing, really. I’m feeling almost caught up now, ready to cope with whatever curveballs my clients try to toss my way.

I sort of moved in today, finally, after a year at this desk. I brought some things I love… things to make me smile, things that comfort me, things that let me feel content in this place without a view of the outside, things that remind me of happy times spent elsewhere. Honestly, I’m coveting the recently-vacated window cubicle, tho the view is far from spectacular; at least there is sight of the sky and some green and growing things. I’ll stay here anyway, on the aisle, subject to whoever happens by with something to amuse me. The distractions are constant… homemade brownies! … bochinche (gossip) that I’d missed… the boss asking me into her office, the phone forever ringing.

😉

What I’d really like is to be free of all of this… to have the summers I remember as a kid… the sun and the sand and the ocean. Freedom… freedom from being responsible to anything but what brings joy and makes me smile.

(Dreaming)

This morning, on my hike from the parking lot, there were coworkers gawking and pointing at the dozen or so turkey vultures warming their wings on the roof of the building, waiting for some warmth to lift them aloft… waiting for something to carry them away from the needs and obligations of their mundane everyday life.

Garden, In the neighborhood, Whatever

Sunday Market

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Blogger was behaving badly this weekend and rather than fight it, I gave in to my occasional tendencies to be a lazy bum and didn’t even bother trying to post anything. Summer doldrums, maybe.

I made it to the Farmer’s Market in town this morning – that’s were I found this drop-dead gorgeous crocosmia – I love the burnt orange flowers. I hope this one’ll fare better than the one I planted years ago; the nice lady who sold it to me said it’s winter hardy if well-mulched. We’ll see. The hummers should appreciate it as long as it lasts.

The Red Bank Farmer’s Market is an odd mix: part traditional market, part craft show, part kitsch. Today there was a huge display of silk (plastic?) flowers next to a table with the sweetest organically grown herbs, a vendor peddling a dozen varities of pickles, someone selling tacky t-shirts, etc. all surrounded by fresh Jersey produce. All I bought with my $20 was the crocosmia; the rest went towards one too many cups of coffee in the park down by the river. Plus, I got sunburned, again.

😉

Cucumbers and eggplants and squash and peppers are in – as are peaches! No donut peaches, yet. Ever tried them? They’re a favorite in my house – the flesh is white and the skin really thin – and they’re very juicy (definite kitchen sink snack) and they taste just slightly of almonds. Yummy. Maybe next weekend.

Snapshots, Whatever

Fish stories

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Update: Susan had a bit of fun at Delia’s expense also. Delia, of course, knows we make fun of her only cause we love her so. You know that Delia, right?

This pic of Delia, unashamedly stolen from her blog (and a definite contender for next month’s cover of “Field and Stream”) reminded me of this pic of the DH:

Apparently the size of the fish has nothing whatsoever to do with the goofiness of the fisherman’s grin.

😉

Small truths, Snapshots, Whatever

A postcard

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Summer has its windows open: listen to the crickets and smell the thick breath of the sea. There’s not a cloud in the sky and miles of warm sun-scented beach ahead. We could walk for hours… leave our shoes on the boardwalk, skip stones by the jetty, trace our dreams in the sand.

That magic place where the sea meets the sky… I want to look at it forever, watch the slow progression of waves and listen to the dune grasses strum, laughter carried across beach blankets, the laughter of gulls rivaling ours, that old longing in me now so familiar as the waves roll in.

My sense of time and distance is lost to the lullaby of the surf, to an egret stalking the salt marsh on angel’s wings, the beckoning breeze and its thoughts of you.

Take my hand, stay for a moment, taste the sea’s kiss on my lips.

A postcard scene… wish you were here.

It rained today, all day.

I daydreamed.

Garden, Whatever

Good thing I like potatoes

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For Vicki’s Saturday Shopping Challenge this week, I thought I’d try my luck at one of the U-Pick places. Other than apples and pumpkins in the fall, there’s not much local for picking yourself, so the DH and I drove an hour or so west to a U-Pick farm that I used to visit occasionally to buy greens for the bunnies.

Collecting our buckets for picking felt something like standing around in the international arrivals terminal at the airport; I registered at least five different languages being spoken. Apparently, many farms and CSA’s in the area are catering to the 1.5 million immigrants that make their home in NJ by growing produce from around the world. At least 2/3 of the farm fields today were planted with vegetables that were unrecognizable to me: African eggplants like Kittaly and Bitter Ball, greens like Sour Sour and Callaloo, Thai peppers and eggplants. Judging by the carloads of families there picking, I think I must be missing out on something good… and according to the manager of the place, more traditional (less ethnic) vegetables rot in the fields because (white) people are too lazy to spend a day picking them, so they’ve made a business of planting what can’t be found in most supermarkets.

Potatoes and onions were ready today and I recognized them, so that’s how I spent my $20. A bucket of red potatoes went for $10 and I had the most fun digging them out of the dirt. Has anybody else ever pulled a warm potato out of the sandy ground and been amazed with the way things grow? Very cool.

I’m easily amused, I know.

A dozen or so big sweet onions went for $4.18 and the DH grabbed some odd melon from the farm stand on the way out and we called it a day for $20.17.

I’m thinking of French onion soup and mashed potatoes. Lots and lots of mashed potatoes.

😉