Gas station window

 

I’m not sure why they have the top down in the snow.

Happy New Year!

 

Somehow today doesn’t feel any different.  My first order of business was to take down my Christmas tree.  It made the room a bit too cozy (i.e.: crowded).  First I photographed my completed star, which I have hitherto failed to document, but has nonetheless adorned the apex of my Tannenbaum.   Fancy words!  

Today, Kate & I went to Lahaina.  We wanted to go to Barnes & Noble–mainly for their usually awesome selection of calendars–half-price now that the new year is here.  If I wanted kittens or puppies I would have been in luck.  Alas.  We went to the fancy grocery store and stocked up on Tuscan crackers, bought corn dogs and “cheddar munchers” for the ride home.  The “cheddar munchers” were actually little flat cheesy Tater Tots.  “Are you gonna eat your tots?”

Since I didn’t think I could make it all the way back home without emptying my bladder, we went back to B&N to use the bathroom.  I experienced an excellent omen for the new year:  I had to slide the little door to get a new roll of toilet paper.  Woo-hoo!   I figured it had to be a good sign. 

After I got home, I decided to go to the post office because I hadn’t checked my mail in a few days.  On the way, I discovered I had a flat tire!  

It does seem to be a tradition for me to welcome a major holiday with a flat tire so I’m trying to convince myself that it doesn’t cancel out my t.p. omen.   I changed it in 14 minutes.  I’m hoping to get a job with a pit crew! 

I’m not thrilled about having to go tomorrow to get a tire.  I wanted to spend that money for a yummy meal before Kate goes back to Honolulu.  Maybe I’ll luck out with the tire.  This is my third flat–all different tires.  The first one  could be repaired, the second just seemed to need air and has been fine since.  I guess I’ll wait and see.

I made a delicious supper of filets mignons, cut from the whole tenderloin I roasted for Christmas dinner; polenta; and roasted broccoli.  That should get my year off to a good start and hopefully trumps the flat tire.

And now for something completely different…

This morning I left home around 5:15 because I wanted to go to Wal-Mart, but the crowds were something I didn’t want to face.  

It rained all night, was POURING this morning around 4:00.  All the way downtown there was sheet lightning constantly, but the rain wasn’t heavy.  That is, until I left Wal-Mart, when there was serious rain and wind. I was deciding whether I wanted to stop at Safeway when things took a turn for the worse.   HAIL got added to the mix.  HAIL!   Since when does it hail?   Judging by the level of freaked-outness by the few people in Safeway, not often. 

Anyway, the rain was so hard I could see virtually nothing, but I crawled along to Safeway.  That’s when I realized that it was hail.  It was hitting my windows and made a pretty disconcerting sound on my convertible top.  I was able to pull up right next to the store so I made a run for it.  A cluster of people were standing at the enctrace expressing their disbelief.  

And, I had left home without phone or camera. 

So, now I’m home, it seems to be clearing up.  I’m cold and wet.  The house is cold and damp.   Time to bake I guess. 

I should have known that the giant toad I saw when I went to pick up my paper was a harbinger of doom.

Saturday

A few days ago I planned to head out early this morning for Paia.  I wanted to go to Mana Foods. Parking in Paia is always difficult, so I was going early to beat the crowd.    I did.  I got a good place to park–without parking illegally at the bank–not that I would ever do that. 

I decided to go to Des Ami for a crepe and a cappuccino.   Closed.  At eight-o’-clock.  What time do hippies eat breakfast?  So, I walked down to Anthony’s Coffee where there was a crowd around the counter.  I ordered a breakfast croissant, which was extremely over-priced and boring.

It was big.  I had to give up eventually, but not without picking off the bacon.

Then I walked back to Mana.  I was looking specifically for four things:   PG Tips tea, little lavender chocolate bars, decent white chocolate, and Silk nog.   I found the tea.   Apparently they no longer carry the NEWTREE chocolate which had the “TRANQUILITY” lavender variety.  I wanted a decent white chocolate for melting because past experience has taught that white chocolate chips don’t melt well.  I looked and looked all over the chocolate wall, which is right inside the door and everyone is frustrated trying to get past.  I thought maybe I would find Ghirardelli,  Scharffenberger,  or even Cadbury.  I finally found Lindt–the only plain white bar they had.  

I ended up spending less than $30–which is much less than I usually spend there.   It barely covered the bottom of my bag.

I got my tea.  But, can you believe that there was no nog?  It’s unacceptable.  I just knew I could get some there at a good price.  I love the Silk nog.  It has fewer calories, and significantly less sugar than real nog and it is tasty–with and without a little splash of something.   I can get it at Down to Earth or Safeway, but last year was much cheaper at Mana. I’ll get over it.

I came home to these miscreants, who are forbidden to touch, lick, chew, crawl under, or otherwise mess with the tree.  Any infraction results in a good water squirt.    Just look at them, acting all nonchalant: We’re just looking at it.  We’re not touching it.  Not to be trusted.   I bet with a dog, you just have to say, “no.”

The tree went up last night.  They were banished to the lanai during the putting-up.  Now they want to chew the branches, and lie under it.  I won’t have it.  So, when they are unattended they will have to stay on the lanai.  I don’t think they’re finding this “the most wonderful time of the year.”

I guess this might hamper my blogging for a while.

Alice has my camera!

Artsy-craftsy!

Here is my newest work-in-progress:

One-half of my dodecahedron.

Redemptive cooking

I must say, I felt pretty crummy about my Thanksgiving meal.  Maybe not cooking last year caused me to lose my edge.   Now, after this year, I’m wondering, “what’s the point?”  Here are some of the facts:

• My kitchen is small
• There’s no big family to share my meal.
• Figuring out the logistics of how to get it all finished at the same time makes my brain hurt.
• I can’t eat a great quantity of food.
• Turkey doesn’t taste that good anyway.
• I’m over it the next day and don’t want the leftovers.
• There is too much washing-up after.
• All I want is stuffing anyway.

Last night I made cranberry sauce, which I had forgotten on Thursday, and heated up the leftovers.  They were not enjoyable.  I considered putting an egg on top of some stuffing, but wasn’t sure the benefits would outweigh the risks.  Why should I waste an egg and stuffing in case it wasn’t all I wanted it to be?  I ate some stuffing and gravy and cranberry sauce, threw out the rest, and made egg-in-a-hole. 

Today, the leftovers ceremoniously went in the trash.  And I made a vow not to do the whole turkey and trimmings nonsense if it’s just Muscleman and me.  There. 

Next year:  seared ahi, polenta, and something green.   Here are some reasons:

• Don’t the historians say that fish was served at the first Thanksgiving?
• I am truly thankful for ahi.
• I can sear ahi without messing it up (how can you mess up something that takes less than a minute to prepare?).
• Polenta is made from corn.  Again, I cite the historians.
• Polenta leftovers are very useful: there is no question that you can put an egg on top of fried polenta.

But this is supposed to bring me to today’s breakfast, wherein I make an attempt to redeem myself in the kitchen.

I had to buy a big can of pumpkin, but Muscleman only used half for the pie.  While I had no qualms throwing out a whole turkey, it seemed a waste to throw out a half-can of pumpkin.  I looked at how beautifully orange it is.  Anything that vivid has to be healthy, right?  I thought about pumpkin bread,  pasta with a savory pumpkin sauce, pumpkin oatmeal, but decided on pumpkin pancakes:

Look good?

I had no pancake syrup.  I have maple syrup, but I don’t like it straight.  So I made some syrup.  Pecan & Jack Daniels Syrup.

Whisky! Now that’s what I call breakfast!

So, I’m leaving my bad turkey behind and moving on to a new season of truly yummy cooking and eating.  I’m off to a pretty good start.

hic!

Tough turkey and couch pie.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.  

 My day started out with this: 

a flat(ish) tire.  Luckily, I was up early and had gone out to take a picture of the fire across the street: 

Terrible picture, but you get the idea.  I thought the neighbor would be cooking a pig in the hole, but not so much.  Stouffer’s lagasna maybe.  We saw him taking out foil covered foil roasting pans later.  Kalua turkey, maybe?  I digress.

So, anyway,  my tire was very low, and I didn’t want to drive on it, so I had to change the tire.  Here is the evidence.

Here is the end result:

I had to go to the airport so it was fortunate that I found the tire early so that I had time to change it.  I was able to go to the store early, and stop by the service station to get my tire checked.  The nice young man could not detect a leak, so he put some air in and put it back on the car for me.  I paid them, tipped him and headed on my way.

After I got home with Muscleman I started cooking.  Here is my 9-lb. bird (before I cooked it!):

Here is my bird after cooking.  Looks are deceiving!  Oh, how they deceived. 

It was the worst turkey I ever had.  I only paid $4 for it, so I didn’t feel so bad about throwing it out after lunch. 

I forgot to make the cranberry sauce, but the rest of the meal looked like this:

Stuffing, green bean casserole (Muscleman’s specialty), corn pudding, sweet potatoes,  and delicious gravy (at least the turkey drippings were exceptional).  

We decided to worry about pie later.  Pie is another Muscleman specialty.  But, she was tired, and wanted to watch Jeopardy, so she made the pie while seated on the couch.  Like you do. 

So now, we’re waiting for the pie to bake. Then we’re heading downtown. There are bargains to be had.  I remembered just the other day that I had trashed my Christmas tree last year.  According to propoganda circulated with today’s bulging newspaper, artificial trees are half-price at K-Mart.   We shall see. 

Happy leftovers, everybody!. 

 

 

Breakfast

National Bundt Pan Day (or, The Best Laid Plans…)

I learned about National Bundt Pan Day yesterday, and subsequently planned to bake a cake.  In a bundt pan.  So, imagine my delight when I woke up this morning and discovered that it was a relatively cool day–a good day for baking and cooking.  Plus, this Lovely Thing was calling to me:

It does that from time to time. 

I thought about what kind of cake to bake.  First thought: pound cake.  Well, recipes to fill a bundt pan required as many as nine eggs!  I couldn’t deplete my egg supply so severely.  And, I wasn’t making a special trip to the store for ingredients for a cake–which really does not belong in my diet anyway.  So, I decided on rum cake.  Ta-da!  Yummy, delicious, buttery rum cake.  Booze + cake = Taste Sensation. 

So, I unwrapped two sticks of butter and put them in the mixer bowl so they could come to room temperature.  I went out to the shelf in the “garage” to retrieve my bundt pan.  Guess what!  I don’t have a bundt pan!  I was sure I did.  Operative word: did–as in past tense.  I have a tube pan, but that’s not really a bundt pan.  I believe my bundt pan got trashed when I moved.

Since I couldn’t do the whole bundt thing, I figured I might as well do a pound cake after all.  I could halve the recipe and bake it in a loaf pan (and I can stop typing the word bundt). 

Thus:

It’s a vanilla bean pound cake.  I found vanilla beans at Costco, packaged in two lovely vials.  It would be a shame to let them dry up unused. 

 To the Stupid Holiday Police, or whomever  it may concern:  Please know that it was made in the spirit of a bundt.