Bonne Fete Nationale du Quebec!

Today is the anniversary of the birth of Saint Jean-Baptiste, the patron saint of the Province of Quebec.

Food From Another Planet?

It was a brave (or really, really hungry) person who took a look at this and said, "MMMM that looks like it would be something good to eat!"  I saw it and said, "WOW look at that freaky-ass vegetable--I gotta get that on my blog!"

The young man that sold it to me said it is an Indian Bitter Melon and (surprisingly) it is very bitter.  And apparently it is good for ya too.

I'll have to check around and find a recipe that uses it and if I survive I'll post about it.

Meet Charlie

This is Charlie, one of the stray cats that has been hanging around Fartwood Manor for the last six months or so. FatCat is still around passing the time between the three houses on my street. MomCat--not preggers as originally thought--just fat-- is still camped out under the deck, but getting bolder (and not in a good way). Black Irish must have found a better gig, since I haven't seen him for a few months. 

Charlie is such a cutie that we were hoping he'd calm down a bit and be a little more accepting of us. Lately, he's come up to the back patio door but retreats once I go there to dish out the food. The other night I accidentally left the slider open and was in the next room at the computer. I looked up an there was Charlie in the tee-vee room checking out the Laker game. I kept still and he wandered around the house for about 30 minutes. He just quietly sat there looking at me sitting at my desk. I had to take this photo so Dale would believe me that he had actually come into the house.

Last night when we got home, Charlie and MomCat were eagerly waiting for some food. Dale left the door open and eventually Charlie came in again. Dale found some catnip left over from HellCat and put that out and Charlie rolled around in it and had a good time, but eventually got spooked and ran out. 

I hope he gets mellowed out and wants to stay with us.

It's Donut Day!

First, it is Accordion Month and today it is Donut Day! Life is good.

Life is going to get even better this afternoon--I'm going for a weekend in SanFrancisco! Dale has been up there all week and I will join him for the weekend. Hard to believe we've never been there together, so it will be fun to do some exploring. Saturday's agenda includes a trip to Alcatraz. I hope to check out the Ferry Building Farmers' Market too.

But first, I think I'll have a donut.

UPDATE: Turns out this Donut Day thing is a real deal not just some crazy idea made up by some marketing guy at Dunkin Donuts. It is a time to honor the Doughboys of WWI and the Salvation Army Lassies who provided these sweet treats during the dark days of wartime. Thank goodness we don't have to make donuts in Army helmets anymore!

It's Accordion Awareness Month!

It is always Accordion Awareness Month at my house, but this month it is official. So, in honor of Accordion Awareness Month, I have put together a little podcast showcasing just a tiny bit of the diverse music styles that feature accordions. It's not your grandfather's accordion music anymore! Sure, everybody thinks accordions equal polka music...but pretty much all cultures have some sort of squeezy-box. The rising popularity of world music is bringing all this good stuff to more ears. 

Click here to check out the podcast. Here's a little bit of info about the songs that are included:

The ever-awesome (and Grammy award-winning!) Brave Combo gives an old standard polka a totally new sound. 

Nortec Collective from Mexico brings the traditional sound of accordion to the alternative beats.

Cajuns like Bruce Daigrepont are famous for using accordions.

Texas is home to a huge Czech population that brought the polka music with them from the old country and morphed it with the twangy country music.

Chicha music is a freaky psychedelic mix of Peruvian, Columbian, Andean sounds that began in the late 70's. Chicha Libre is a contemporary band from the US that re-introduced this genre.

Gogol Bordello kicks ass with their over-the-top Gypsy punk.

The rest of the list are the kinds of traditional polkas that I grew up listening to.

And of course I had to put some Weird Al in here!

This is by no means a complete list of accordion music...just some of the bands and songs I like. If you want to explore the wonderful world of accordions, check out Let's Polka, a treasure trove of all things accordion.

My cousin Kathleen took this awesome photo of her husband Mark and his accordion. He serenades her (and sometimes the squirrels) every day.

Apricot Clafouti

All week I've been trying to make this Apricot Clafouti. I got the apricots last Saturday at the Farmers' Market and I was hoping they wouldn't get too overripe by the time I got to use them. This is my only complaint about using the Farmers' Market: sometimes I end up over-buying. I have such noble ideas for what I want to make for the week's meals--I plan my meals ahead of time and make a shopping list that I am good at sticking to, but it seems something always comes up--like staying late at work and then I end up blowing off the meal plans and making a frozen pizza. As tempting as it is to sign up for a CSA box--I could never make that kind of a commitment right now. I would sure hate to have to throw stuff away. I wish there was some kind of a way to have the market every day!

Thankfully, the apricots hung in there and I made this yesterday. Clafouti is usually made with cherries, but really, any fruit would be good. I have made it with pears too. This particular recipe is purportedly on the "healthy" side as it does not use the usual dose of melted butter and skimps on the eggs. But I think the healthy tag comes from the fact that this recipe was to serve 12. WHAT?!?! Who are they trying to kid? Dale and I ate half for our dessert and I'll probably polish off the rest tonight.

First Grill-Out of the Season

The grill saw a lot of action last weekend. First of which was a long-overdue wash job. (Anybody know where to get some "Simpsons Yellow" touch-up paint?) After that it was just the difficult job to decide what to cook.

Saturday, I started off the 2009 grilling season with Johnsonville Hot Italians and some grill-wokked asparagus. What? You've never had grilled asparagus? One of the best foods ever.  It is really easy in one of these grill woks--just toss the asparagus with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper and toss it in the wok. Move it around to cook and in 5 minutes or so, it is done.

Sunday, it was the grill-wok again. This time with shrimp that eventually ended up in my Southwest Salad. The corn also gets a little time on the grill, then gets cut off the cob.

Monday I did double time on the grill. Chicken was on sale this week so I made a ton of Jujeh Kabob that we ate for dinner and that I used during the week in my lunches.