Adventurous Eating

I am not an adventurous eater. While I wouldn't call myself a picky eater because I like a lot of different things, I don't venture out of my comfort zone very often to try new things. Especially if they contain one or more ingredients that I don't like. But last night I did.

Caviar  (Photo source)

Ward and I went to a dinner at a friend's house. We thought we were going to a casual open house, but as it turns out we went to a traditional Russian birthday dinner for our friend. I say traditional, but I'm not sure. When I was in the Russian club in college, our traditional dinner was borscht and a doughnut. This was a little different. There were 30 people there and there were more dishes than there were people. We sat down to a beautifully spread table with copious choices, many of which, we weren't sure what they were. The mostly Russian crowd tried to help us as we were handed one dish after another. There were many kinds of sushi, beet dishes, salads, pate, scalloped potatoes, beef and mushrooms, meat and cheese platters, and fish, fish, fish. Everywhere you look, another fish dish. And did I mention caviar?

Ward and I and the couple of other uneducated eaters, sampled this and that until we were getting pretty full. Then one of the informed diners said that this was only the cold course--like hors d'oeuvres. The hot course was still to come. What?!! Our eyes bugged out of our head and got almost as big as our stomachs were at that point. If we'd known earlier, we would have paced ourselves a little better. But more steaming dishes of salmon, chicken, beef (tongue), pork, and vegetables came out of the kitchen to fill our plates. I had to pass on some of this because I only had so much room. However, Ward was enjoying it all.  He leaned over at one point and said that this reminded him of when we were in Japan. (That's a story for another day.)

Then the food slowed down. We wondered if there would be a dessert. We thought maybe when there was this much food in the main meal, they don't have a dessert. However, later, several kinds of cake, fruits and chocolates came out. And during the whole evening, there were many toasts made to the birthday host, who was running around coordinating everything. (Remarkably, the host put almost all of this together herself. She said that shopping for it took the longest.)

So when the evening was over, I was still walking around astonished because I couldn't imagine how someone puts together a meal like that in an average size kitchen.  I was also pleased with myself for going out of my comfort zone and trying so many new things especially since I don't like fish.  But the lure to try caviar for the first time was all the motivation I needed. I've had it now, so you can sign me up for the "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous", but you better do it quick, because I didn't like it. Too fishy. :)

(I wish that I had gotten some pictures because each dish was beautifully served, but whipping out a camera at someone's dinner table seemed rude.)

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

 St. Patrick's Day This and That

Irish dancers in St. Patrick's Day Parade, Washington, D. C.

I usually don't do a lot to observe St. Patrick's Day except wear green--a habit that started in elementary school days to avoid being pinched. If you didn't wear green, you were fair game. I wondered how that crazy tradition got started and found out that, most likely, it was started by Irish immigrants in this country a couple hundred years ago. Supposedly, wearing green made you invisible to mischievous leprechauns who would pinch you if they could see you. A pinch from someone reminded you to be aware that a leprechaun could sneak up on you at any time.

However, it wasn't until last year that I learned about wearing orange on St. Patrick's Day. Apparently, you wear green if you are Catholic and orange if you are Protestant. A friend, whose mother is Irish, said that she was always insistent that they wear orange instead of green on St. Patrick's Day. I think that detail was lost on most of us in this country or at least me.

Shamrocks (white clover)

I learned another new thing this St. Patrick's Day--what a shamrock is. Sarah, my special buddy, gave me a shamrock plant for St. Patrick's Day. It was in a green pot from a store and labeled as a shamrock. However, it looked just like white clover to me and was not at all like my image of a shamrock. But I was surprised when I looked into it. While there is disagreement among the Irish about which variety of clover is a shamrock, it is a clover plant. Yellow clover is what most agreed on with white clover coming in second. I have a white clover plant. I'm not sure if I'm going to let it join the rest of the clover in my yard or bring it inside. I may make it a house plant.

St. Paddy's day in New Orleans ( Photo source)

And while I usually don't do a lot on St. Patrick's Day (not green beer drinker or corned beef eater), I have been to a few parades. This was especially a big event when we lived in New Orleans. The fun part about a St. Patrick's Day parade there was they threw vegetables from the floats to make an Irish stew. That means that along with the beads, they threw cabbages, carrots, potatoes and onions. We usually took them home and did just that--made a stew.

We've been to one parade here and while it was enjoyable, it didn't quite live up to the vegetable throwing in New Orleans.

I've been thinking about St. Patrick's Day more than normal this year because I found out I'm half Irish--DNA speaking that is. As a curiosity, I had my DNA tested by Ancestry. com and found out that I am 48% Irish. I knew that there was some Irish background, but didn't realize how much. That may be because it was only recently, through the same avenues, I got a new grandfather. Meaning birth certificates don't always represent what's really going on. It's a long story.

So as I go and figure out what green thing I'm going to wear to work, I hope you have a Happy St. Patrick's Day however big or small you chose to celebrate it.

A Second Look--March 17, 2016

It rained most of last week which limited my exploration time for a Second Look. So I looked mostly around the house between showers. I found more crocus blooming, but no daffodils yet. I had a surprise when I looked out my front door yesterday and saw that one of the peris japonica bushes was in bloom. It is about a month ahead of schedule.

Otherwise, the bird activity has picked up again. For 4 days, we saw almost no activity around the feeders. I'm not sure what was going on (my theory was that there were extra hawks in the area), but the birds are slowly coming back. I thought all of the juncos had gone because they are a winter bird for us, but I've seen a few the last couple of days.

Here are some things I saw this week

 during a Second Look.

Crocus

Pieris japonica

Bluebird, male

Dark-eyed junco

Cardinal, female

Sunrise Sunday morning. 

Today...

Today I'm going to put my geese* in a row, and
then let things happen as they may. 

I like to have a plan. I like to know what is going to happen and how I can best use my time and efforts with it. But you know what happens to best laid plans...**  When that happens, I am going to just go with the flow*** and not get stressed about it. Because try as I might, there's only so much that is under my control.

*The phrase is actually, "Get you ducks in a row," but I didn't have any pictures of ducks, so I said geese. And the rest of my family can't tell the difference between a duck and a goose, so maybe it doesn't really matter. I wondered where the phrase came from, and as with most of these sayings, there are several ideas. The first is a mother duck getting her ducklings in a row behind her. Another says that it is getting bowling duckpins in a row for the next ball.

**I tried to remember what came next after, "Best laid plans..." but I couldn't. Turns out the whole phrase is "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry," and comes from a Robert Burns poem, To a Mouse, written in 1786.

***Another wording of this is "Go with the tide".

Photo by Theo.

Thankful Sunday--March 13, 2016

I am thankful for a clean freezer.

Yesterday we defrosted and cleaned our freezer.  Luckily, our freezer doesn't accumulate frost very fast because we've been meaning to get around to this for a couple of years. Even though the freezer is not full, we did find a few good surprises--like some flour I had forgotten about. And the important part of the whole process is we put the freezer up on rollers. Now when we need to get behind it or have better access to the circuit box, it's just an easy roll to move the freezer out of the way.

So for a clean, easily movable freezer, and another job that can be crossed off the list, I am thankful.