from 50 to 90

And just like that, summer has arrived. Harry is pleased.

popcorn

In the pot, five by five

I'm pretty sure I remember when my parents got their first microwave. I was a junior in high school, and it was 1989. My mom (and now my dad) have always been from-scratch cooks, and we didn't use that microwave for frozen pizzas or pot pies or hot pockets. No, by golly when you made a pot pie you made it in the oven and it took an hour. When there was a babysitter (which wasn't often) there would be the huge treat of a frozen pot pie for dinner and a person could practically camp out in front of that stove waiting for the damn thing to cook.

I digress. When that microwave oven came into the house it was used for one thing only: popcorn. Oddly, that enormous hunk of technology was used to provide a service that had been provided flawlessly for as long as I could remember by a big pot on the stove. Was it the novelty? Well, yeah, you could make popcorn by pushing exactly one button. The one that said "popcorn." Yay, Modern Life! Bring me my jetpack, for I am embracing The Future!

It took years for me to go back to in-the-pot popcorn and I am proud to announce that my microwave is now mostly used to defrost containers of soup stock. In the Brown house this is important, since the freezer is about half-full of various stocks and we use a lot of it. And it takes a very long time for a frozen 4-cup block to defrost on the counter. Now when I have a hankering for popcorn I do it the old fashioned way.

1. Put a big pot on the stove. Pour enough oil in to just cover the bottom, drop in 3 popcorn kernels, put the lid on, and turn the burner on high.
2. When the kernels pop, dump in as much popcorn as you want. Typically 1/4c kernels for 2 people.
3. Wait for them to start popping, and when they do, shake the pan back and forth every 10 seconds until the pops slow to one per second.
4. Open lid, sprinkle on desired condiments. Salt, pepper, chinese 5-spice, cayenne, aleppo pepper, cumin, sugar, whatever you like. I do not recommend putting all of these things on at once. Please for your sake only pick things that match up in flavor. I highly recommend salt, sugar, and cayenne. Feeling like you need to top off your day with a million calories? Melt some butter and mix that in, then sprinkle on parmesan cheese.
5. Dump into bowl and eat.

More work than the microwave? Well, you do have to wash the pot eventually. But it takes probably 5 minutes max to go from "I want popcorn" to "I have popcorn."

My secret ingredients for an excellent popcorn experience:

Oh, msg, I faint in your flavorful forbidden embrace. Please don't tell anyone.

Popcorn leads to mandatory flossing, which leaves you with the wonderful glow of hygienic superiority that only flossing can give (nevermind all of those parmesan calories)

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Cat ecstasy:
I have never seen Harry so content in all of his 12 years of life.


Best thing about this picture:
Right after I took it Charlie said "you're not going to put this on your blog, are you?" I assured him it was completely tasteful and that no one would make fun of his red plaid comfy pants.

Proof of Florida

To remind myself that it wasn't just a dream:

Sand like sugar


Seafood seafood everywhere

and pruned fingers to prove it!

feed the fish hanging around the docks...

...so they can grow up to feed these fish, which you can catch and eat

Forget your sunscreen? Spray it on with this crazy car-wash-hose looking thing!

Marvelous invention: beer in a metal can so you don't have to worry about breaking it. Now if only they would start serving Stella Artois in those cans instead of american beer...

No trip to florida is complete without a pilgrimage to chick-fil-a

Wait an hour for dinner? Sure! We're game! At least there was a bench to sit on while we waited, and waited, and waited. Then when we got inside we waited another hour for food. But the fried shrimp was still delicious.

Sienna, how sweet you are.

Prunes

Number one sign that I am enjoying myself: Pruned Fingers


Steamed shrimp, and snow crab, and lobster, and king crab, and more shrimp and more shrimp and it is all delicious. To get to all of that delectable meat you have to get your hands very very dirty. During meals there is a golden moment where I pause and inspect my hands. They are covered with red flecks of seasoning and slightly greasy from butter, and my fingertips are totally pruned.

I think I have scared Charlie just a little with my ability to tuck away quantities of steamed seafood. I can't help it.....it is so good!

mutant

We are spending the week in Florida visiting Charlie's family, including super-cute niece Sienna that I am meeting for the first time. She is a smiling girl!

Yesterday morning we walked over to the beach, trying to get some swimming in before the rain came. The water was balmy and warm, shallow sugared sand that went out for ages before it got deep enough to be over your head. I discovered that I could achieve perfect buoyancy on my back and floated with my arms out, ears filled with warm salt water. A pod of dolphins appeared, swimming out of reach but having a fine time slapping their tails and flipping back and forth.

I tipped back into the water again, closed my eyes and the water in my ears blocked out the sound of the beach and I hung there. And I tried to summon the dolphins. I though about them swimming towards me, thought about what their clicks and squeaks would sound like in the water. I offered to scratch their itches. I thought in words and pictures, concentrated as hard as I could. After a few minutes I stood up and saw them still far out there frolicking.


Well, how else would you find out if you had a super mutant power to talk to dolphins? You have to try!

watermelon chicken deer

one-watermelon bag

After more consideration, I determined that I had in fact bought the wrong bag pattern. I saw a sample of the bag made up at a shop, and what I really wanted to buy was the pattern for a very similar but smaller bag. Aha! Much of the construction was similar but it had lighter interfacing (the big bag has actual fleece interfacing in it, to plump it out and give form) and a long inner pocket rather than side pouches. I added my usual phone pocket and did the rest according to directions. Verdict: I have been using the bag for over a week and quite like it. Since it's fabric it becomes a bit problematic while out and about in rainy town. I am loathe to put it on the floor for even a moment for fear it will get mud covered. I think it would hold up to washing just fine, but I really don't want to have to go through all of that hassle.

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I finished Julia Child's autobiography recently and it made me want to have a billion pots and pans and cook all day long. I am not overall a fan of French food because they seem to relish eating bits that I would rather pass on. No matter how much one rhapsodizes on the pleasure of eating poached brains it never brings me closer to wanting to try it. Plus side to French cooking: butter. I do love that. I am inspired now to read The Art of French Cooking because the writing of it sounded like such an epic journey. I don't know how much I would cook out of it, but I am keeping my eye out for a used copy and will probably just read it in bed.


One of my favorite parts of the book were her descriptions of boning poultry, both envying her chef tutor his skill and speed and then being proud of her own increasing skill. I was making chicken soup, and decided to get an entire chicken and try my hand at dismembering it. Perhaps I managed to channel a tiny bit of her soul, because I was able to get the legs off without hacking at the joint, but for the rest I was hopeless. It didn't help that my cleaver is about as dull as a spoon.

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Finally, a visitor to our yard the other day. Charlie noticed him poking around the back and managed to zoom in for a little deer-paparazzi.

miscellany

Yesterday:

Pressure washing during rain showers equals a muddy girl

these socks were white when I started out

but damn, look at those sparkling rocks!

all the way down to the fire pit, gloriously clean and non-skid (mostly)

dinner: my tagine experiment of lamb with pistachios, dates, and almonds

tasty with buttered cous cous

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Tonight: Live Blogging Tostones! Tomorrow's party menu includes these delectable twice-cooked plantains with garliky dipping sauce. Tonight Charlie did the first fry to save some time tomorrow.

after the first fry, squashed and ready for the second

Tostones in action, being lifted out of the peanut oil

Hairy

whispering, whispering

Yesterday marked the beginning of summer for Harry. Sure, it was 55 degrees and gloomy and chilly and rainy. But I was wearing shorts, dammit, (and a sweater) and his fur was out of control. Enter, the Cat Whisperer. Seriously. He calls himself that and whatever he whispers to my cat while out in that little pull trailer is worth it. Harry comes out a few hours later smelling like a high class prostitute and shorn into velvet.

before, on a sunny day

so soft

Amusing result of grooming: I don't know if it's that he smells very very different, or that his whole body is shaved enough to change his appearance, but whatever it is Henry doesn't like it. Not one bit. Whenever he sees Harry he starts hissing and growling. It's the little cat thought-bubbles that make me laugh.
Henry: Hiss! There is a Strange Cat here! Begone, evil Strange Cat!
Harry: Huh? Wha? Where! WHERE is the strange cat? Is he behind me? OH NO! RUN!

And then Henry gets what he wants, which is for Harry to run away. Of course, Harry is running because he is sure that his kind brother has alerted him to the presence of a third dangerous cat and he is going to hide. Poor guy. Thankfully this phase only lasts a couple of days.

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Elisa and Maggi joined me in chatting and blowing bubbles while the boys ran around. And pushed trucks, and rolled balls, and chased each other in circles, and fed chickens, and made cat sounds (Julian) and popped the previously mentioned bubbles that had settled to the ground with his chin (Isaac). Good fun! Elisa made her comfort lentils and while the day was dreary and cold at least my belly was warm. And there was also cake, glorious tea cake from Maggi.

lentils take shape

Then outside Julian fell twice and bumped his head, and Isaac slipped all over the place, and then Elisa fell, and I threw my hands up in the air and went and finally bought a pressure washer after they left. Excuse me while I go out into another gloomy day and turn my Danger Toddler Slippery Rock yard into something a little more safe for the smaller set...

Yarn Fiesta

early evening play

The other night I was working on a project and left one of my smaller balls of yarn on the floor. The cats provided great entertainment. Henry loves to cram the ball into his mouth and run around with it, Harry following after the tailing end. The night wore on, we went to bed, and I rolled up the ball and completely forgot about it.

note the vertical yarn where they dropped it back down

The cats didn't. I have no idea how they did this without waking me up. In the m I got out of bed and looked down and there was yarn all over. Everywhere. They had started in the computer room, went into the kitchen and around the island, under a stool and around another stool, back into the computer room, into the living room, around a small table, up the stairs, around the corner and down the hallway to our bedroom, up onto the bed, back down, across the bedroom, back into the hallway, and dropped the rest of the ball between the stair rail spindles where it fell to the floor below.

up onto the bed

How I managed to sleep through them scuffling the yarn around on the bed is a complete mystery.

Melon

It's one of those extremely petite one-person watermelons, but you get the point.


The point is that I could fit FIVE watermelons in this bag.