They Said Snow SHOWERS

Showers.

They said snow SHOWERS.

This was not snow showers.

Oh my poor day lilies and Hosta. OH my poor clematis. Oh my poor Red Bud.

Of course, the snow won’t stay around all that long. In fact they are saying that the temp will warm up enough to have a rain/sleet/snow mixture by afternoon.

Oh. Joy.

Sigh. I will just have to do some things today that bring me joy in other ways.

Like taking some pictures of a fabulous kitchen.

And maybe finishing some knitting.

And ignoring the ironing that needs to be done.

And watching my corned beef brine. Yes, I will tell you all about it next week when it has completed it’s brining and cooking.

And yes I know that St. Patrick’s Day is traditionally the time to have Corned Beef. But on St. Pat’s Day I was in Peru eating all things fish. I am not sure that they would even know what corned beef was in Peru. And I didn’t have time before leaving on the semi-annual Peruvian trek to produce a corned beef. It takes 5 days to brine, or so Michael Ruhlman tells me. PLUS I didn’t have one of the ingredients, Prague Powder #1. I had to order that from Amazon when I returned home.

And yes I do know that I can buy said corned beef at the grocery store already “corned”. But you know me…

I do it MYSELF!

I think I might have rabbit trailed there for a minute.

Oh well, anything to take my mind off the snow. Even though I know that having snow in April is a distinct possibility here in the Frozen Northeast Ohio. And sometimes a lot of snow in April. So I shouldn’t complain.

But I am.

 But Alpha! I so love the snow. But perhaps not so much now that I have my “summer cut”. I feel slightly chilly in my nether regions.

Spring You Are So Cruel

This has been just the strangest Spring.

Everything has started to bloom a month early or so. We all were getting used to 60-70F weather in MARCH!!

And then.

Today.

Really? Is this necessary?

My Tea Viburnum are not going to be happy.

The Ostrich Ferns are going to want to stick their heads in the sand…or the ground…

And the Clematis was none too joyful either. Of course, that might also be because the marauders from the woods deer have been nibbling.

The only plant that is really all happy happy joy joy are the Johnny Jump Ups. Which have self seeded in the pots on the deck.

At least someone is happy about the snow.

Cujo

This is not the Easter post I had thought would be here. That will come tomorrow because I know you want to know all about what I did on Easter weekend.

Besides eating a lot of chocolate that is.

And taking pictures of the Easter Monkey.

Did you say “Easter Monkey”?

Yes I did.

But I digress.

We spent the weekend visiting the Parental Units as well as TMO, TSiL and Shoe Queen. Friday, the day that we arrived, Mimi had invited one of my cousins and her kids to have lunch at the old homestead. I hadn’t seen Beth in a boat load of years. It was loads of fun to catch up and to see her children, and to meet the newest addition Miss Chub Thighs (shouldn’t all babies have chubby thighs? I think they should!).

I had decided because there was already a lot of stuff going on all at once, including small children unfamiliar with dogs, that Max the Magnificent should just go to the basement. But after lunch was done and things had calmed down a bit I brought him upstairs and introduced him to the boys. All seemed to go well……

I stepped out into the kitchen to talk to TMO and Shoe Queen. We were chatting….

And all of a sudden there was screaming and mayhem and the sound of……

the sound of…..

I can hardly say it.

Max the Magnificent bit my cousin’s 5 year old. And I do not mean just nipped him a bit to make a point. Oh no no no. He did a complete and thorough job of staking his territory or reacting to being startled or who knows what.

Oh he was trying to make a point alright. And he made it by biting Ben in the leg and leaving two lovely, bloody gouges as well as totally ripping his pants. And scaring the shit out of every one of us.

CUJO

My cousin was the heart and soul of graciousness in the face of my Cujo of a dog. She was calm and cool and collected. And smiling. If it had been me I might have been going for the shotgun.

I was amazed and horrified that it all happened in the blink of an eye. There were no overt warning signs. It was just BANG! BITE! RETREAT! SCREAMING!

I can say for certain that Max the Magnificent will not be hanging with any more young children. Not that he does now anyways….and that may be part of the issue. He just doesn’t have a boat load of face time with small people. And he is eleven years old. And he was totally and completely intent on finding the crumbs under the table. Single minded in his purpose and do not get in his way.

I should have just gone with my gut and left him down there in the basement the whole time.

Lesson learned.

The hard way.

He Is Risen!!!

He is Risen Indeed!!

7 Quick Takes……Is Taking an Easter Break

7 Quick Takes isn’t here this week.

All of us who participate are taking a break for Easter. I will be back next week to tell you ALL about my battle with iTunes and who knows what else.

Be afraid.

Have a wonderful Easter.

Curse you iTunes!!!

I hate iTunes at the moment.

I just thought you should know this.

Dislike.

Want to scream.

I really did have another post that I was going to write today.

Something fantastic and erudite.

With a picture or two. Talking about my new lens.

But that post is not here. And that is because for the last two days, when I haven’t been doing the usual house stuff and going to the garden and having lunch with a friend and having dinner with a friend….

I have been fighting with iTunes. And trying to get everything switched over from my old computer to the new one.

And you would think that would be an easy thing to do with their “homesharing” option.

But you would be wrong.

So very, very wrong.

Alpha you have scared me greatly by yelling so very much at that thing on your desk.

52 Food Adventures (Vol 6)- Eating Peru

You know me, always wondering what I am having for the next meal.

And oh how I love eating in Peru. Why? Because I can have fish every single day and it will all be different.

And I can drink Cusquena Beer to my heart's content. It is a bit difficult to get here in the States, although not impossible….unlike Primus, the national beer of Rwanda. I haven’t found a supplier for that yet.

I just thought we would take a short tour of some of the things that I consumed on the latest trip to Peru. I think this can count for a 52 Food Adventures because there were certainly several new food items that I hadn’t ever had before……you will see.

Sorry for the blurriness of the picture. It wasn’t that I had had too much Cusquena, it was that I only had the little camera with me and the lighting was low. And I was laughing at the kitten that was trying to climb up my leg. Yes, there was a kitten in the taverna. A bit on the “mangy” side so I declined to pet it.

Now back to the picture. These are not potato fries. These are Yucca fries. And they are delicious. A bit more of a dry and mealy texture than regular French Fries but so much better in the long run. And where ever you order them they seem to come with this mayo/curry sort of dipping sauce that is to die for.

I had a lot of Yucca fries in Peru.

Oh yes, again this trip we made a stop at the “Bread Place”. If it has a name I do not know it. I only think of it as the place along the highway where I can obtain little bread pillows of goodness stuffed with olives.

Oh be still my beating heart.

And since it was my birthday that day and we were going to the beach and we were passing, conveniently, right by the place, Mom and Alberto made sure that we stopped and bought PLENTY of the little “Olive Pillows of Heaven”.

I might have eaten one or five.

I need to tell you how they “do” coffee most places in Peru. They start out by making a sort of coffee sludge. A viscous liquid that if consumed straight up will strip your bowels of all flora.

Sorry, I said bowels.

What you do is you put about an inch of coffee sludge in the bottom of your cup and then you fill up the rest of the space with either hot water or hot milk. And you then have a perfect cup of coffee.

And believe me, I am picky about my coffee.

I forgot to label this picture but the thing I wanted to point out was the little dish of what looks like corn in the middle of the table. That is the typical nibbly stuff that everyone gets to consume when you are drinking your first beer. Oh and the tiny dish of salsa at the bottom right corner of the picture?

DEATH in liquid form.

We had Sunday lunch at this very small taverna that is located in the middle of this little market. If you didn’t know it was there you would totally miss it. You have to walk in, past the barbershop, turn left at the poultry seller and you are set. Don’t be put off by the fact that it doesn’t look like a place you should eat. Be bold! There were only about 10 small tables and a very small kitchen. But the chef was dressed like a chef so……Everyone gets a cup of the special soup of the day. This stuff was delicious, a fish broth heavy with chives and ginger…..but I did not eat the muscle that was lurking at the bottom of the cup. Not my fav. But I am going to try to re-create the soup part.

I have no idea what this fish was. All I can say is that it was lovely. Light, not fishy, delicate.

I am making myself hungry.

Locally produced goat’s milk cheese purchased at the local “mercado” which is one of the farmer’s markets.

All I can say is that this stuff was fabulous. Just tangy enough and with a lovely smooth texture and finish.

Holy Kalamatas Batman! These were just so very olivey and good. My mouth is literally watering at the moment.

This is Causa (Cow-sa). One of the national dishes of Peru that you can find in many forms. We were eating at a fancy restaurant so they made their Causa a bit more “froofy do” than you would normally find it. That didn’t stop me from eating it all up. Causa happens to be one of my favorite Peruvian dishes.

I ate a boat load of this stuff too.

This fish is Mero….also known as Patagonian Toothfish….also known as Chilean Sea Bass. This particular piece was the “cheek”. I don’t think I even knew that you could eat the cheek of a fish.

I am going to go out on a limb here and say that this might have been one of the best pieces of fish that I have ever had. Capers, lime juice, a garlicky sauce. Oh good Lord in heaven. It ranks right up there with the Mahi Mahi that I had at Mama’s Fish House on Maui back in 1997.

And I didn’t EVER think I would top that particular meal.

Along with the daily ingestion of fish I seem to have consumed a vast quantity of squid testicles tentacles. Sorry, family joke there. I love squid, otherwise known as calamari. I especially like it deep fried.

Ahhhhhh, a cup of good coffee consumed beside a raging river after climbing around Machu Picchu for 2 hours. Excellent.

I will tell you the longer version of this Pepper of Death story later in the week I think. This beauty was on HHBL’s plate as a garnish. It was just one slice and looked like a regular red pepper that you might get here in the States. HHBL didn’t hear Alberto telling me about the fact that he didn’t know the name of the pepper but that I shouldn’t eat it because it was hot like an incendiary bomb (my interpretation). Just about that time I looked over to see that HHBL was doing the international sign of distress, grabbing his throat and indicating that he might have eaten something hot. Evidently he had eaten half the slice of pepper in one fell swoop.

It was not a good thing.

Yes, not only can you knit with yarn made from Alpaca wool……you can eat the Alpaca.

And they are delicious. I would know. I had some for lunch one day. Very tender, intense “beefy” sort of flavor. Yum.

Oh, and that guinea pig?

Another national delicacy in Peru. But I haven’t tried that particular dish yet.

But that isn’t to say that I won’t. In fact I am dying to. The time just has not presented itself yet.

WHAT???

Pet…..lunch….whatever.