stuff I'm doing that isn't reading
Watching
We finished S2 of Outlander (the finale was kind of hilarious in its 1960s-ness!) and will probably start in on S3 of Turn soon. Which I imagine everyone who's interested has already watched! But I'm super-interested in seeing the sudden but inevitable betrayal, i.e. Benedict Arnold. Also a second season of Marco Polo is out!
Listening
This is cheating a bit, since it's just a follow-on to Wednesday's reading post. But I wanted to report that I started listening to the Underwood and Flinch audiobook/podcast (it was recorded and released as a serial podcast, but it's essentially an audiobook in that it's a book being read aloud) and...it's really good! I was a little dubious since it's a Smashwords book, and also read by the author rather than a voice actor, but he's a wonderful reader and the production is first-rate. I've only listened to the first part, which is just set-up 50 years before the actual story begins, but so far I love it.
As far as music goes, I have been trying to chase Hamilton out of my head, where it seems to be on infinite repeat, by listening to an old favorite genre - sea chanteys in Polish. Now they are on infinite repeat in my head...
Cooking
As I have mentioned before, I'm doing a CSA this year and as a result am eating a lot of vegetables and trying to come up with ways to cook things I don't normally eat, or worse, things B doesn't normally eat. Like for example, chard. The other day I sauteed some gourmet cooked sausages (Applegate's chicken and peach) with chard, thyme, garlic scapes, and tomatoes, and then poured it over sliced heated rounds of polenta (the kind that comes in tubes). Seriously tasty.
Last night I got inspired by the dill in my CSA bag to make dumplings and dill sauce, which is a traditional Czech dish (koprová omáčka) my mother used to make (my father is Czech, and his mother taught my mother to make various specialties). My mother's recipe mostly consists of handwavy "mix enough water with the flour so it's the right consistency" but she and my brothers and I had recently discussed this dish by email, so I had a few recipes my brother had tried, and then I also looked up a few others, and kind of mishmashed it all together with my memories. So, mostly this recipe except using lemon instead of vinegar in the sauce, and boxed stock, and more stale bread and far less water in the dumplings. It turned out really good, though the dumpling log expanded ridiculously huge in the boiling water, which I wasn't quite prepared for. And we have leftovers!
Vacations
Last summer we did one big one (Canadian Rockies roadtrip), this summer we are doing lots of small ones. A couple of multi-day mountain bike rides, a couple of backpacking trips. Next week we're heading out for six days in the wilderness with a group of friends - we do a backpack together every year. Looking forward to it - here's a photo from two weekends ago, a spur-of-the-moment hike into a remote mountain basin for a couple of days:
Our destination next week is a somewhat to the south and east of the photo, but part of the same big wilderness area here in Colorado. We'll be hiking up one major river, then going up one of its tributaries to cross a pass into another river basin and hiking out that way. Six days! Woo!
Drinking
As everyone in the US knows, it is hot. When the going gets hot, the hot drink gin and tonic. I've been making my own fizzy water using a Mastrad Purefizz, and this is my go-to recipe now for G&T:
1.5 oz gin (I haven't been able to find my favorite locally lately, alas)
0.5 oz St-Germain liqueur
1 oz Ruby D tonic syrup (I've been using the original, but have some spiced to try when this bottle is empty - I kind of want to try extra bitter, too)
~6 oz fizz
ice and a squeeze of lime
Cheers!
Crossposted from isis at Dreamwidth where there are
comments. | Comment at Dreamwidth
We finished S2 of Outlander (the finale was kind of hilarious in its 1960s-ness!) and will probably start in on S3 of Turn soon. Which I imagine everyone who's interested has already watched! But I'm super-interested in seeing the sudden but inevitable betrayal, i.e. Benedict Arnold. Also a second season of Marco Polo is out!
Listening
This is cheating a bit, since it's just a follow-on to Wednesday's reading post. But I wanted to report that I started listening to the Underwood and Flinch audiobook/podcast (it was recorded and released as a serial podcast, but it's essentially an audiobook in that it's a book being read aloud) and...it's really good! I was a little dubious since it's a Smashwords book, and also read by the author rather than a voice actor, but he's a wonderful reader and the production is first-rate. I've only listened to the first part, which is just set-up 50 years before the actual story begins, but so far I love it.
As far as music goes, I have been trying to chase Hamilton out of my head, where it seems to be on infinite repeat, by listening to an old favorite genre - sea chanteys in Polish. Now they are on infinite repeat in my head...
Cooking
As I have mentioned before, I'm doing a CSA this year and as a result am eating a lot of vegetables and trying to come up with ways to cook things I don't normally eat, or worse, things B doesn't normally eat. Like for example, chard. The other day I sauteed some gourmet cooked sausages (Applegate's chicken and peach) with chard, thyme, garlic scapes, and tomatoes, and then poured it over sliced heated rounds of polenta (the kind that comes in tubes). Seriously tasty.
Last night I got inspired by the dill in my CSA bag to make dumplings and dill sauce, which is a traditional Czech dish (koprová omáčka) my mother used to make (my father is Czech, and his mother taught my mother to make various specialties). My mother's recipe mostly consists of handwavy "mix enough water with the flour so it's the right consistency" but she and my brothers and I had recently discussed this dish by email, so I had a few recipes my brother had tried, and then I also looked up a few others, and kind of mishmashed it all together with my memories. So, mostly this recipe except using lemon instead of vinegar in the sauce, and boxed stock, and more stale bread and far less water in the dumplings. It turned out really good, though the dumpling log expanded ridiculously huge in the boiling water, which I wasn't quite prepared for. And we have leftovers!
Vacations
Last summer we did one big one (Canadian Rockies roadtrip), this summer we are doing lots of small ones. A couple of multi-day mountain bike rides, a couple of backpacking trips. Next week we're heading out for six days in the wilderness with a group of friends - we do a backpack together every year. Looking forward to it - here's a photo from two weekends ago, a spur-of-the-moment hike into a remote mountain basin for a couple of days:
Our destination next week is a somewhat to the south and east of the photo, but part of the same big wilderness area here in Colorado. We'll be hiking up one major river, then going up one of its tributaries to cross a pass into another river basin and hiking out that way. Six days! Woo!
Drinking
As everyone in the US knows, it is hot. When the going gets hot, the hot drink gin and tonic. I've been making my own fizzy water using a Mastrad Purefizz, and this is my go-to recipe now for G&T:
1.5 oz gin (I haven't been able to find my favorite locally lately, alas)
0.5 oz St-Germain liqueur
1 oz Ruby D tonic syrup (I've been using the original, but have some spiced to try when this bottle is empty - I kind of want to try extra bitter, too)
~6 oz fizz
ice and a squeeze of lime
Cheers!
Crossposted from isis at Dreamwidth where there are
comments. | Comment at Dreamwidth