Saturday, April 15, 2006

News from MN, 4/15/2006

Hellos,

Spring is springing here. 70s and greening up nicely. I washed and
waxed the white one (obligatory photo attached) to the beautiful
tweeting of red robins. Real robins this time <grin>.

From what I have heard, it sounds like most (all?) of you bought my
April 1st red robin story. To be fair, I should have added a few more
bird antics to give you guys a more of a chance to see through it.
Something like 'then the robin hopped over to the fridge and made
himself PB&W sandwich'. I suspect robins like worms better then jelly,
but since they are a close relative to the squirrel (both belonging to
the those-that-live-outsidess genus), I'm sure they like peanut butter.

I've re-discovered my wok recently. I've been cooking just about
anything that fits in it, and it is a big wok. My email friend Helen
(you Maui-ans might remember her as the one who's email you caught me
reading) has turned me on to a bunch of new food groups:

Olive Oil. More specifically, Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO), which
can be use in just about anything, including I suspect, Zach's high end
racing engines. My wok especially likes EVOO.

Irish Oatmeal. Grandpa Tate would be proud. McCanns cooks in minutes.

Forbidden rice. A black rice that used to be reserved for Chinese
Emperors. The Greeks banned because it they thought it was powerful
and feared it would aid their enemies in battle.

Yellow squash. Not at all like Orange squash which I suspect is
still yucky, although Helen is trying to convince me otherwise, even
though I have explained that my Mom has already tried, unsuccessfully,
to disguise Orange squash in various recipes. Yellow squash, though,
is not at all nasty. Pleasant even.

Kohlrabi. This veggy comes with 2-3" root bulbs, attached to massive
green leafs. When handed to a grocery cashier, be prepared for a
puzzled, maybe even scared, look. And it helps to remember the name
Kohlrabi, so they can look up the price, or otherwise, they will
continue looking at it, at a full arms length distance, hoping and
fearing it will spring to life and announce its name. Like most
veggies, the root can be boiled, baked, or sliced and wok-ed.

Still on the hunt for Helen recommended Fennel. I've printed out
addresses of all the grocery stores and town and am visiting them a few
at a time to see whats for cooking. I found a food coop the other day
with a back room labeled 'bulk' which was full of all kinds of unknown,
but likely edible, food things.

I registered http://brucewinter.net last week. The price for domain
names is now down to $8 per year, so figured why not. Usually more if
you want to actually do anything with them, like host web pages, but I
signed up for a free beta service from google.

Zack hosted a driveway barbeque last night. A few pics attached. He
and Jessy took a borrowed motorcycle for a spin. That pickup is one
Derek picked up for $25. They cranked up the music, filled the back
with bodies, and swayed it back and forth to the beat of the music. A 3
meg video here:

http://brucewinter.net/06_04_derek_truck_dance.avi

Also posted a video from the jelly jet jars I wrote about last month:

http://brucewinter.net/06_03_jelly_jet_jar.avi

Later gaters.

Bruce

No comments: