Mostly free day. Errands, merch, workout, and contemplate the concept of elevating native food. What is wrong with native food, and why must food rise to some third-party level? Who died and made haute God? Where is respect for home cooking as this happens in in any given place? Is political correctness failing on this point? *deep breath* Instead of rushing into that rant, I will look for more fun food shows because the processes are always interesting and the contestants are always melting my heart (even if the efforts behind shows might be to promote brands and cancel large chunks of the world's cultures). Hmm. And, Mmm! Above all, including haute cuisine, is a need to take at least two days off from the talking head job. After the first day back, my voice began to crumble after three hours. The second day, it was more or less good, or at least not so bad, primarily because there were few interviews. The little talking I did was enough to inflame my throat and be a clear sign from the universe: shaddap already!
*eta*
Today, I found an Indonesia Patisserie competition. In a perfect world someone would say of Indonesian and all the world's food, "Yes. Thank you for making Indonesian dishes as they are typically prepared by ordinary people. We can appreciate the methods of preparation, the varieties of presentation, the persons who prepare these foods, and the context of food and culture for each place. We do not need to change anything because we respect this culture and these people. However, since this is a competition we now issue a challenge. We will clean out the contest kitchens and provide a different style of kitchen doodads, take away one or two expected ingredients, and while blindfolded choose one or two unexpected ingredients to replace what we took. Finally, we ask you to find out whether you can use this new set of doodads and ingredients and somehow prepare another dish that is edible, presentable, and possible in the given time frame. Your challenge... starts... now!"

Do I ask too much?



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/11/2021 08:23PM by Shop-et-al.

Taping and painting

@Shop-et-al
The food competitions don't change how I cook at home. Going to guess they don't change how any local people cook. They are entertainment.

Now, eating here and there, trying different things myself - my cooking and my favourites have certainly changed over the years.

Nah. They blew it. They really did say in so many words that is it not okay to keep the humble home cooking and it has to go/be transformed into haute. Pah. They should have done something to bridge the gap and not diss all the contestants' heritages and world's societies. Anyway, along my journey I found the final round for a Japanese chocolate competition. I dunno how they do that, but I lovelovelove it! You might like it, too. One of the small entries that made me smile was the cigar of the future: made entirely of chocolate and whatever other edibles were permitted in this competition. Hah! I think I was amazed by everything I saw. Larger entries were, on my monitor, indistinguishable from something you could see in an art museum. There were no subtitles, and I do not speak Japanese. I do not know what they said. They gave out a large number of prizes at the end and later today I will try to find the rest of the competition. I would like to know how the fabulous Japanese winner fared when competing against other choco masters. How could anyone produce anything finer!?

@Shop-et-al..The Great British Bake-off is also a good watch on Netflix. My ritual for the holidays every year.
I am a stove-top cook with minimum baking skills but I love watching people whip and bake.

Bad headache today. Folding laundry, watching TV, and a lesson on State Government. Can we rush straight to December and enjoy the holidays?

Holidays, you say? The holiday bake-off is fun, too.....

Our niece's wedding was yesterday. What a gorgeous day weather wise and a beautiful wedding celebration. My SIL and niece were absolutely stunning. We drank, ate, danced the night away and had so many laughs. This late AM was a 3 mile walk a thon on the beachs's boardwalk. Tonight? Party of 5 at the Capital Grille for dinner. What a great weekend.

Happy Monday! This one is for errands, workout, and either time lolling in nature or time spent at the talking head job. Yesterday, we had a few minutes in nature. It was so good, I wanted to stay a few days. But it rained and we had to be back here for a planned day. Bro is still with us. He is weak and will remain hospitalized for a few more weeks. The large task is to clear the lungs. It would be easier if he were strong enough to walk and be upright for more hours per day. Upright and ambulatory help with that goal.

This AM, a whole bunch of phone calls to set up garden work estimates visits, book Geek Squad for a home visit, and other stuff. Lunch at a favorite Tex-Mex place with a shopper buddy. Will also work in some household tidying, laundry folding, etc. Back to MS tomorrow.

Up early to finish a report, commune with a scheduler, and have quiet time. This is my fave part of the day. It is just for me. Aaaaaaaahhhhh..... Eventually I will have my workout, porch time, and nap before work. I cleaned out & cleaned my purse and sorted the unprintable that I had been schlepping for weeks. Surely that counts as clean something, sort something, and thus feel infinitely better.

Beautiful day...I fed my plants out back. I picked chile peppers and serrano peppers along with juliet tomatoes. I put halloween pumpkin head solar lights out back. They will look way cool. Prolly ride my bike to garden plot and pick parsley and sage. I will pick some basil too and some more tomatoes.

Going to get my hair cut later today.

Wow, what a day... rode my bike to garden plot. Picked sage, oregano, parsley, basil and rest of green beans. Tore up tomato plants sand gave everything a good watering. I have to get a large bag to pull my beets.....
I have a whole row.
Decided to take the kayak out on the lake. This is the first time I got it on the carrier by myself. It is hard but well worth it!!!!!!!!

Subbing for preschool all week. Needed a sub their first day. Yikes!

After mustering a lot of courage, I started watching 9/11 on Netflix. I had just started college when the news broke out. I remember watching it on the news, barely able to comprehend what was happening. I couldn't finish the first episode but yes, it was interesting how they explained the timeline that led to that day. I also read a story about a sweet couple who met in Canada after their flights were diverted because of the attacks. They got married and just celebrated 19 years together. I just want to remember what the couple said ""It's a 9/12 story. It's the aftermath of what happened on 9/11. But on 9/12, love reigned."

I am achy from my long kayak ride so I am taking it easy. Playing games on my laptop, cleaning up and will cook later.

Finishing a report, nap, grocery store trip, wine store.

Nice day here. Workout, read, quiet time, old movies that never were famous but should be better known (imho), some progress on projects. errands, and laundry. i am a little concerned about work because the voice misadventure has exceeded the time allotted for voice jokes.

Last day of work before three free days. Yay! Take car to repair place, workout, porch time (it's that time of year when it not warm enough until later in the day to be out there), and the last shift.

Getting a Covid test because one of those preschoolers must have given me a cold!
Worried because I met friends for lunch yesterday!

@prince..Hopefully, negative. All the best.

Setting up 2 mini-routes to capture EOQ bonuses. One is 2 days with a paid hotel shop overnight; the other is 2 days using a use-it-or-lose-it rewards night at a very nice hotel. So, instead of being crazy running back home each night, I will have quiet and comfortable evenings for report writing and relaxing.

Then I scheduled two garden help fellows to look at a small project in my front yard tomorrow and ordered the Geek Squad to come and set up my new computer and printer. Appointment date and time TBD.

Today is mine & hubby's 33rd wedding anniversary, so we went out for supper at a nearby Italian/Greek restaurant. I had the Gyro combo platter w/salad. It was delicious and couldn't eat it all, so brought some home. Hubby had Veal Parmigiana/spaghetti and enjoyed it. Plus we brought home a single serving of tiramisu which we will split later on this evening! Yum!

@guysmom. Happy Anniversary to both of you!! And may I say, yum, yum...

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/17/2021 11:34PM by Mum.

@Shop-et-al. I was watching a bake-off and my, oh my, sexual innuendos lace each and every episode. The judges are no better. The British Bake-off is the worst. Weird-shaped cakes are called all sorts of names, and I learned a few nasty terms like "eating carpet." Had to google it and didn't have the foggiest why everybody was laughing.
But, cake making and bread making have gone and reached levels our grandmas wouldn't dream of achieving. Fireworks coming out of cakes, soldiers coming out of desserts, and pulleys in action drawing chocolate out of a biscuit well!! I am sure they would snicker and yell at my mum's and grandmum's Toffee Pudding and Fruitcake as being too homely and not having enough pizzaz..whatever that term means.

Pizazz , razzle-dazzle, bling, it's all good. According to my mom, pizazz is something you were born with or not. You had it or you didn't. Anyway, there was no time for indulging in food shows today. Errands just kept multiplying and mutating... and finally, I ended up with a book. Obviously, I am not one of those born with pizazz. Someone with pizazz would have documented the whole day, photo-shopped it and made it look good or at least more nude, lewd, or thrilling, and posted it on Instagram where their eager followers would ravage this fascination for days, or at least until the next Instagram. In my nerdy world, I am loving cuppa, book, and light blankie because it is perfectly cool in the evenings and sometimes a sweater is not enough/a parka is a bit too much. Alas.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/18/2021 12:02AM by Shop-et-al.

@guysmom

Happy Anniversary!

My hairdresser, who moved her family to VA in August, is back to take care of some clients. She is retouching my color at 10. It will be great to see her.

2nd of three (or more) free days. I slept late, after reading during most of the night/early a.m. I could... clean the whole house, workout for an hour, color my hair, do my nails, or otherwise spruce up my world. Think I will head for the porch and bring Bryant & May with me. I must wonder if this beloved book series was given a nod in the beloved 'Signed, Sealed, and Delivered' movies, which are based upon someone else's book about a lost letter. Those people have similar circumstances which are amusing and yet telling. Only one computer-literate in the bunch, old office space, investigators as peculiar as the situations they investigate, etc. Mind you, I can find the book about the lost letter and figure it out for myself. Would that qualify me for a place in some peculiar crimes unit in the real world?

Another free day. It costs me a shift's pay to be able to stay home and work on the heaviest parts of the projects. But little by little, the seemingly endless projects are whittled away and I do not have to sit for hours on end at the end of a back-terrorizing day at home. This is good, even though it sounds horrible. Eventually, there will be no more of these particular tasks and all will be well again. Picture it: up early, work out, read, stretch some more, clean something in a typical manner, cook something decent, take a nap, and go to work with a back that is still happy and [presumably] a voice that is audible. What a concept!