This and That
Had a great beginner Italian session at Panera on Saturday morning -- about 15 showed up, and instead of random stilted conversations Ava had us all go around and introduce ourselves (because of the all the new members) and say something about ourselves, and then the others could ask questions. It was really a great format, and I recommended that they do it again -- this way I have to think about what I want to say myself, but also have to respond to questions and then format the answers. Hard work, but worth it!
Saturday night was pizza night (Pizza Italia -- in our opinion, the best NY style pizza in Raleigh) and a 2003 Cetamura Chianti -- decanted an hour before, it was pretty decent. I had asked my wine guy for some inexpensive "spaghetti wine" and this was one of his recommendations -- it was either $9.99 or $12.99. This was better than the other one (I got two different ones -- so this was probably the $12.99. We find we have more expensive taste in wine. Too bad!)
Last night Lamb Chops braised in Tomatoes and Wine, baked potato, and sauteed asparagus. The lamb was yummy, and a great sauce. From The New Best Recipe, again. I love that cookbook and have had great success with it. A friend I gave it to says the Meat Loaf is really good, but she had trouble with their prime rib -- "an expensive experiment" -- although I think it was her fault that it came out tough, not the recipe -- they say to cook it long and very low heat, but after the suggested time she said it was very raw. She then raised the heat and cooked it longer to get to the doneness she wanted. That is probably why it came out tough.
Well, haven't seen The Departed, Last King of Scotland, or The Queen, so I don't know if they were the right calls but everyone seems to think so, so I'll bow to mass judgment. Will probably see The Departed at the theater but wait for the other two. Very glad to see Al Gore win -- although an undisputed win in 2000 would have made me much happier than this one did! I've arranged for one of the local presenters for An Inconvenient Truth to come and do one for the WCR next year.
Docent training today, and then a doctor's appointment -- I didn't go back "one month later" after the last time when they told me I was anemic -- but since I called about something else, now they want to deal with that, also. Oh well. They will send me for some invasive testing and then probably not be able to fix anything without telling me to give up certain foods and drinking wine every night -- not going to happen!
Saturday night was pizza night (Pizza Italia -- in our opinion, the best NY style pizza in Raleigh) and a 2003 Cetamura Chianti -- decanted an hour before, it was pretty decent. I had asked my wine guy for some inexpensive "spaghetti wine" and this was one of his recommendations -- it was either $9.99 or $12.99. This was better than the other one (I got two different ones -- so this was probably the $12.99. We find we have more expensive taste in wine. Too bad!)
Last night Lamb Chops braised in Tomatoes and Wine, baked potato, and sauteed asparagus. The lamb was yummy, and a great sauce. From The New Best Recipe, again. I love that cookbook and have had great success with it. A friend I gave it to says the Meat Loaf is really good, but she had trouble with their prime rib -- "an expensive experiment" -- although I think it was her fault that it came out tough, not the recipe -- they say to cook it long and very low heat, but after the suggested time she said it was very raw. She then raised the heat and cooked it longer to get to the doneness she wanted. That is probably why it came out tough.
Well, haven't seen The Departed, Last King of Scotland, or The Queen, so I don't know if they were the right calls but everyone seems to think so, so I'll bow to mass judgment. Will probably see The Departed at the theater but wait for the other two. Very glad to see Al Gore win -- although an undisputed win in 2000 would have made me much happier than this one did! I've arranged for one of the local presenters for An Inconvenient Truth to come and do one for the WCR next year.
Docent training today, and then a doctor's appointment -- I didn't go back "one month later" after the last time when they told me I was anemic -- but since I called about something else, now they want to deal with that, also. Oh well. They will send me for some invasive testing and then probably not be able to fix anything without telling me to give up certain foods and drinking wine every night -- not going to happen!