Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day! And I thank my friend, Art, for the reminder.
Here is an article from TIME that talks about the event. The story includes a very handy Pirate Name Generator.
For the rest of the day, you may refer to me as Capt. Angelina Firepants, or just stick with my true pirate name, Anne Bonney.
See:
Aaaarrrrrrr!
I love these colorful manhole covers from Japan.
Here are some others:
From Seattle . . .
I don’t know where this one is from.
This is one of my photos from San Diego
You know the water meter covers that you see on the street? My mom always told me that if you step on one you will have good luck. However, she said, if you step on a gas meter cover, you will just get gas.
PLUMS and Plum Blossom Tattoos
A few years ago, my friend, Betty, invited Roz and me over for dinner and made a Plum Galette for dessert. After dinner, Roz and I politely ate a slice of the galette, and then another, and then abandoned our forks and finished off the galette so that only crumbs were left.
I bought some lovely purple plums in Whole Foods the other day and made this tart. While it was not devoured all in one sitting, it was pretty good.
The recipe is an adaptation of Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Plum Flame Tart in The Pie and Pastry Bible
1 recipe sweet cookie tart crust
3-4 large purple plums sliced into 1/8 sections
1/3 – ½ cup sugar – depending on the tartness of the plums
½ t cinnamon
1/8 t nutmeg
1/3 cup Apricot or other preserves for glazing
Heat oven to 350 degrees
Place a cookie sheet on a rack in the lowest position in the oven
Crust
One stick of cold, unsalted butter cut into pieces
¼ cup sugar
1 ½ scant cups of all-purpose flour
1/8 t salt
1 large egg yolk
2 T cream
Combine the egg yolk and cream and set aside
Using a pastry blender combine the sugar, flour, butter and salt until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. You can also use a food processor for this part. Add the egg and cream mixture and blend with a fork. I needed a little more cream to make it come together. If the dough is too soft, refrigerate it for a few hours or freeze for about 10 minutes. Mine was perfect as is to press into the pan. Press the mixture evenly over the pan bottom and about ½ inch up the sides. Use a tart pan with a removable bottom or a similar spring form pan. No need to treat the pan because there is plenty of butter in the dough and it will release easily. I used a 10” spring-form pan because that is what I have.
Bake the tart shell for 8-10 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool.
Place the plum slices on the tart shell in concentric rows beginning with the outer edge of the crust, working toward the center. Mix the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg together and sprinkle over the tart.
Bake the tart for about 45 minutes, or until the plum slices are soft. Remove from the oven and cool.
Glaze the tart by warming and straining apricot preserves and brushing over the tart. I had an extra plum or two, so I just made some plum preserves, strained them and used that as the glaze.
Why did I photograph the plate upside down?
And the tattoos?
I was driving down the road the other day and saw this sign on a truck that was next to me at the light.
It made me wonder what the truck was transporting and where it was headed.
It reminded me of a bus company that I used to see around. Their name that was painted boldly on the side of their buses was, “Glory Train.” That would make me stop and think before boarding.
“I’m ready when you call me, Lord, but give me just a little more time.”
– Albert Brumley
Today is bean soup day. What bean soup is more well known than Senate Bean Soup. Here is a reference from the U.S. Senate commenting on the possible genesis of Senate Bean Soup (which is on the menu everyday that the Senate is in session.
I offer a recipe from Food.com:
Ingredients
1 lb dry navy beans
1 meaty ham bone
1 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup chopped celery
2/3 cup mashed potato flakes or 1 1/2 cups mashed potatoes
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 1/2 teaspoons pepper
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon basil
1 bay leaf
salt, to taste
Directions
And the tattoos:
Lima Bean
Mr. Bean
El L Bean
So raise a mug to salute this musical fruit and let everyone know como frijoles, or how you bean.
STAR TREK first began its mission to explore strange new worlds, and so on . . . on September 8, 1966. The link is from Science.com.
Click on this timeline to make it bigger:
This blog is Gunsmoke and KNITTING, so to celebrate the birth of Star Trek, here is a knitting project for your little Klingon. And speaking of Klingons, did you know that Michael Dorn has a role on Castle? (If you are interested, there are a lot of links in the previous sentence.)
See more like this on All She Wants to do is Knit.
Koko is the gorilla who was taught American Sign Language by researcher Dr. Penny Patterson. Koko is particularly fond of kittens. The connection is another gorilla story. Glenn Cravath (American artist 1897-1964) was born this day. He is the artist for the book cover for King Kong, published in 1932, and for comic strip style advertisements for the movie based on the book. The film was released in 1933 with Fay Wray playing the hapless bride. A remake was done in 2005, starring Naomi Watts as the female lead and Jack Black as King Kong (no, that’s not right.)
How did courgettes become zucchini, or vice versa? Through my exhaustive research, I have found that: Courgette is a French dialectal, diminutive of courge, gourd, from Old French cohourde, from Latin curcurbita. Zucchini? – same etymological root, but this time coming through Italy.
This vegetable (fruit) is also known as summer squash, vegetable marrow, marrow, and marrow squash, as well as courgettes and zucchini.
In Spain, they are called calabacín, in Polish – cukinia, in Portuguese – aboborinha, in Turkish – kabak, in Croatian – tikvica, in Japanese – ズッキーニ, and in Arabic – كوسة
Love them, or not, here is a yummy-looking recipe from Frugal Feeding for chocolate cake that incorporates that ubiquitous green item that is the subject of this post.
Firearms, fibers, any news or behaviors that make me say, "hmm, let me take another look at this."
I still miss my man, but my aim is getting better.
Gunsmoke and Knitting 