Meat comas and food babies...

Whew!! 

It's almost the end of September - holy crap!!!  We've had a pretty eventful week that has been slam packed with food.  Delicious Southern food!  Jim visited this past week after recently returning from a year in Iceland field work.  He came by to check out how to setup the lab for bug picking now that he'll be in Montana with soooo many surber samples to pick through.  Thankfully he'll have an army of pickers and now he's seen the "machine" that is the Benstead picking lab.  

Sprinkled in between the work bouts we had gluttonous feeding frenzies and took in some Tuscaloosa (football memorabilia) sights...His first night in town we went to Nick's Filet House for a delicious steak dinner...next day we had a tasty spinach-mushroom-deer omlette, then a rib-rific dinner at Benstead's house (p.s. a pulled pork sandwich is AMAZING with a topping of kimchi - who knew!!?).  The next day we gorged on Carmelo Cafe's tasty Meat-and-two brunch (smoked gouda grits, fried catfish, crab-n-crayfish benedicts, and shrimp n grits to name a few of the dishes), not to be outdone by dinner we went over to Mr. Chen's Chinese restaurant with a big table to have a family style Sunday night dinner - the pictures do not do it justice.  The next day we sampled the new Mexican Joint we recently discovered, Lopez, and their tamales are outstanding...simply outstanding..  Dinner was another coma-inducing meal at Big Daddy's - a delicious Mediterranean place that is so low key and so so good - the chicken shwarma wrap with spicy pepper sauce and tahini is just drool inducing...Jim left the next day so we have to send him off with a bang with a huge breakfast at City Cafe (biscuits and sausage gravy can be the best thing ever there), and then a lunch time visit to Archibald's for BBQ.  We really wanted to sample the sliced pork, but once again we came too late for the pork and only had ribs available.  Still tasty, but simply not the same...

So, to say the least, Dan and I are now starting a detox program to reduce the amount of pork fat racing through our veins...holy schmoly we haven't gorged like that in a while..

Anyhow, Isaac is only giving us some cloud cover and a bit of wind right now...but rain is going to roll in soon so I hear...Thankfully, nothing like what the folks on the Gulf Coast have to deal with...yikes this does not look good...Let's hope he speeds up a bit and dissipates...

Here are some pics that include:  Dan's return home, Jim (aka "Junks") visits Alabama, and food..always food...

xo

p.s. oh!! I forgot to add!! Chau FINALLY defends her Master's work in October and I've set the date as Oct 26th!!  (Why and I talking in the third person?!)  I'll likely head up to Moscow on the 23rd and stay a week.  Let the freak out begin!!!  Ahhh!!!!

p.s.

I forgot to add - today my splurge purchase of Death Wish Coffee arrives in the mail today - perfect timing for Dan's return home!! 

200% more caffeine than the regular cuppa joe, I'm looking forward to a crazy buzz that will start my day.  I heard about it on NPR and just went for it...we'll report on its affects when we come down from the caffeine high tomorrow morning!!

This will be good for Dan so he can slowly work back into american coffee, which is far inferior to his Iceland coffee that he has been sipping on for the last summer...

I however, have been enjoying the coffee my mother sent - French coffee, Vietnamese coffee, it goes by many names, but delicious nonetheless...

YEAH!

hiya foks! It's D-Day...Dan Day!!

Yippee..right now Dan should be somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean!  He lands in Boston at noon, then hops onto a flight to Atlanta, then on yet another flight to Birmingham!  He should get in around 6pm tonight, but we've found that flights are rarely on time into Birmingham...sigh...add on top of that some storms and the airports on the East coast seem to be a complete cluster-f...Hopefully he gets in tonight and we don't have to travel to Atlanta to pick him up like last year!!

Here are a few pics!  Mostly of the garden really, which is slowing down big time.  

It's been a SUPER rainy August!  - great for the planties, but ack! the mosquitos (6 cases of West Nile in AL so far!)!!  Hannah and I limit our backyard time, but walks in the evening have been quite pleasant.  It's nice that the summer thunderstorms are back - I like waking up to them in the middle of the night and staring at the curtain of rain pounding the ground!  

Hannah does not appreciate the storms as much.  She did have to pee this morning at 4am - right when the storm was its fiercest!  I was surprised she actually wanted to go out, a bit hesitant at first, looking outside from the porch then looking at me asking 

"Really???  In this???"  

I didn't have much consolation since it was her deal to begin with (Maybe we should think about a pee before we go to bed instead of curling up for the night at 8pm???)  Anyhow...she soldiered on, doing that squinty thing with her eyes and shirking her shoulders like we do when forced out in the rain for a quick jaunt - why do we do that?  It's like we wish we were turtles and could pull our heads into our shell to keep from the rain - does this actually do anything? Maybe next time I'm caught in the rain I'll raise my head up high to embrace the rain a half millisecond sooner...

So a day of lab work, next week if machines are behaving I'll be working at the Gas Chromatograph shooting samples all day...I feel like I have about 300 of those samples to deal with...they run 6 min each, so that's about 30 hours in front of the GC...that won't be bad split up over the week...let's hope I have that number right.

Speaking of sample numbers..I finally crunched the number of water samples I have to push through the Ion Chromatograph - it'll be 10,000+ by the end of the Iceland project - holy moly!!  At least that's job security...

all for now, next time you get a blog Dan will be around - woo hoo for the reunited fam-diddly-amily!!

naan naan naan naan naan naan naan...naan naan naan naan naan naan..gettin' bready wit it..

sorry, that was bad..explanation near the end..

Hannah and I took a long walk around downtown.  Considering my record of dog walking, it seems I should mark these occasions.  She allowed me to take a longer walk around town and it is just so pleasant outside - absolutely no sweating during our evening walk - amazing!!!  Merle Haggard is playing down at the Amphitheater.  I think the opening act was Jamie Johnson or something?  Anyhow, it turns out there is a great area to catch a free show in the Tuscaloosa News office - free parking, great sound, and if you bring binoculars you may actually see someone on stage.  In fact, there was a decent crowd in the parking lot and the grassy knoll surrounding it.  They had brought out lawn chairs, coolers, and a festive atmosphere.  Tailgating for a free concert - for sure something we'll need to do soon for perhaps Gotye or the Avett Brothers...(or maybe Kelly Clarkson - ha!!)

If you've got 20 minutes to spare, here is a short film with David Rakoff called The New Tenants...Not the greatest resolution, but it's good. The link for the movie is for the first 10 minutes, then part two starts automatically afterwards.  It's dark, dark, dark and most definitely not suitable for the children or for work due to language...It's kind of amazing the story you can tell in 20 minutes...you never know where you'll be taken and what you'll feel like afterwards...given my attention span these days, short films are probably more my cup of tea...sigh...I fear I'm getting all too glum about Rakoff's passing...searching for his writings, listening to past interviews...just pathetically wallowing in it... I learned of the movie upon listening to the the Fresh Air interview between Terry Gross and David...  I also, for good measure, picked up his book - Don't Get Too Comfortable, at the library - a collection of essays (again, given my attention span, just the right length, but perhaps a bit longer than my usual reading material - recipes and magazine articles....).  All this new searching, reading, watching, listening...because he died recently...sorta like how I revisited Michael Jackson's music after he passed.  Do I not appreciate things until they are gone?  Seems to be the case.  I hope to remedy that soon.  PEOPLE!!  I love you!!!  You know who you are!!  small steps...I need to stop reading his words of cynicism and pessimism because it's transporting me back to my annoying angsty high school self (**eye roll**).  For a complete 180 on David Rakoff, imagine him white water river rafting...with Glenn Close...he wrote about it for Outside Magazine here

On a slightly upbeat note...I made this recipe today for carrot and tomato quinoa and it was just delightful - I had no spinach so I just added a can of black eyed peas (sans Fergie) for an extra protein punch -  much more satisfying that I thought it would be, excited for leftovers.  I also put together a naan dough via our 5 minute artisan bread recipes and the first go around was moist and spongy...sorta like injera but with more chew and less sour...mmmm bread...I'm very excited (hence the blog post title) about baking "naan-stop" the coming week...why so punny Chau?  And bad puns at that...

Here are random pictures...worked in the garden a little bit in the evening..mosquitoes were RIDICULOUS so it was a short session...at one point I looked over to see 5 swarming Hannah...she couldn't really understand my swatting (and accidental smacking of her head) were all for her own good...she does take pills for heartworm which is passed via mosquitoes, but she don't need to test to see if it works or not!!

also, happy birthday to my youngest brother Anthony...

xo

so sad...

oh no! David Rakoff...I first heard of you on This American Life, oh how I will miss your voice gracing the radio waves...you've made me laugh out loud so very often...it's time to visit the library and look up some of your books so you can live on in some respect...please do rest in peace...cancer sucks.

xo

cool air on my skin makes me happyyyyyyyy

Mostly food related thingies:

The coconut banana bread recipe.  I had 4 bananas so I doubled the recipe.  BUT! I only had two eggs, no coconut milk (used almond milk), and added a dollop of yogurt for kicks.  I refuse to let a few missing ingredients come in between me and food...

This is also the speedy skillet roasted okra dish I made the other night, simple and tasty!  I added a splash of vermouth to deglaze the pan, that made it special (as if eating shrimp on a weeknight wasn't already special enough).  Atop brown rice this was a super satisfying dish, maybe because it was after a month of harvesting our okra and squirreling it away in the freezer for such a dish (I had planned on saving the okra for Dan's return, but alas I could not do it!!  This was too tempting a dish...Not to worry Dan, there are a couple gallon-sized bags full of tomatoes that you will get to enjoy!).

Lastly, tonight I made THESE.  I picked up a load of red potatoes from the Farmer's Market on Tuesday without much of a plan for them.  Just craving carbs I suppose.  After a bit of searching for inspiration on the internets I came across this recipe (and many similar ones floating about) and was lured in by the promise of crunchy crispiness (redundant I know but I am a total texture freak when it comes to food), and the hopes that the insides would be creamy velvet - sorta the best of both worlds when it comes to potatoes in my mind - having a both mashed and fried potato in one bite.  

This my friends delivered - on point. The gushing continues:

I had planned to eat these with some of the leftover pulled pork from Jon (gifted to me as a thank you for taking he and the family to the airport on Sunday-score!), and some sliced tomatoes - also from the Farmer's Market (mine are only producing an occasional cherry tomato every 3-4 days or so, sigh).  However, once these puppies came out all other food items were but a distant memory.  I also thought I would smother these in ketchup, because:  I. Love. Ketchup.  But alas, they needed no such condiment.  I don't know how many I ate, but I do know I at least have leftovers.  So that's good to know that I did not each 2.5 lbs of potatoes in one sitting.

Also, I am writing to you in the comfort of home with ALL WINDOWS (that can actually be) OPEN IN THE HOUSE...because it is 73.1 degrees outside.. THIS IS AMAZING PEOPLE!!!  My temperature prayers have been answered...a low of 68 degrees tomorrow - I am GIDDY with excitement...For the record, we can open 4 windows in the house and the front door.  That is 4 out of 13 windows...31% folks...that just ain't right...

I tried to take a long walk with Hannah to relish the cool weather, but she would have none of it.  A block and that was it for me...sigh...this dog of ours...now I feel like she was taking ME for a walk...

It's supposed to be 90 when Dan gets in on Friday, I hope he's ready for it!!!  I must be getting old, the weather has never been this interesting to me in the past...sigh...

xo

ct

Quick hello!

Hi all!

Just a quick one...I still need to upload wound photos..they are mostly on my phone which is annoying to upload...I'm down to one scab on my knee!  It's so difficult to keep from picking at it!

In the meantime, here is my latest project - putting up window film in the downstairs living areas...I love it!  It lets in light and gives us privacy - super fantastic!  I was thrilled that the pattern I wanted was half-price as well!  Score!  The window film goes on super fast and easy with a squeegee and a spray of dilute dish soap water.   The film peels off easily so we can take it with us if we so wanted!  That'd be a little sticky to store, but still, good to know!  To do all four windows cost about $40 - not bad!!

Let me know what you think!  I guess I should take some pics from the outside looking in...things to do..things to do..

Dan comes home in 8 days!! woot woot!  Everyone else in the lab left for ESA in Portland, OR so the lab has been super quiet - nice for getting work done and I can have private little dance parties as well while processing samples - woo!  A mix of Katy Perry and Lady Gaga have been in heavy rotation on my grooveshark playlist...

I should probably take more garden pics...it's been hot and humid still around here...but we have been getting more rain, in fact, a couple blocks away from our house there was some flash flooding - thank goodness we are slightly higher than this area! The plants are plodding along, things are a little slow now with the heat, but I put some chicken poo fertilizer on the beds so hopefully that will jump start things.  I'm starting to plan for the fall garden already!!  Mostly greens and some radishes!

Oh how I dream of 60 degree weather!  Jeans!  Not sweating! Cutting down to one shower a day!! Beanies atop our noggins!!  Soon...soon...and by soon I mean November...

sigh.

xo