Bisteeya and Getting Fit
Today marks the end of a decade: my last day as a 20-something. I spent the morning catching up on shopping for food and supplies. I found meringue powder, a necessary ingredient for various icings at a local party store that sells Wilton brand supplies. At the same time I also picked up a set of gel based food colorings and my birthday balloon. This year I went for a fantastic pastel colored unicorn balloon.
Our past few dinners have been remarkable. Notably, this past weekend we made our first bisteeya, a three layered Moroccan flaky pie. The author, Paula Wolfert, encourages one to eat the pie by plunging fingers straight in the steaming mass to pull out morsels of chicken, and explains that burned fingers are an acceptable side effect! Yesterday we made a recipe from The Cinnamon Club for spice crusted fish, using whole trout. Today we had Bombay Brasserie peri peri lobster with sag paneer and basmati lemon rice. The presentation was remarkable with the bold color combination of red, yellow and green. I had worried that the spicy masala paste would overwhelm the flesh but it was just perfect.
This month also marked a time to say goodbye to my red 1997 Honda civic. She was a good and reliable car, despite needing repeated and sometimes costly maintence in her geriatric years. The odometer reached 144,444 miles. We'll remember driving the civic down the East coast to Chincoteague, West to St Louis, South to the Carolinas, across Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi to New Orleans and New Year's outside Baton Rouge. She drove up highway 61 past the dueling blue guitars at the crossroads to Graceland. She visited Niagara Falls and trundled across Canada many times during vet school. She suffered Michigan Winters and narrowly avoided spin outs in an ice storm in Cincinatti (many others didn't!) She even got us out of a flood curfew in Eastern New York. Our new car is a 2010 base model Honda Fit in sensation blue. The road is wide open ahead of us.
The weather has continued to be questionable. In fact, the excessive rain over the last three weeks has been unprecedented in Boston's 100 year detailed weather history. At the Blue Hill observatory the monthly total reached 18.81, just surpassing the all time monthly record of 18.78 inches established in 1955. In Waltham, the water has again been flooding the streets and even I-95 was closed for a while last night. A handful of families had to be evacuated and we recieved a phone call today instructing us on how to contact FIMA if needed. Meanwhile, tulip leaves have sprouted, daffodils are reluctantly blooming, and forsythia bushes are making a weak showing.
Our past few dinners have been remarkable. Notably, this past weekend we made our first bisteeya, a three layered Moroccan flaky pie. The author, Paula Wolfert, encourages one to eat the pie by plunging fingers straight in the steaming mass to pull out morsels of chicken, and explains that burned fingers are an acceptable side effect! Yesterday we made a recipe from The Cinnamon Club for spice crusted fish, using whole trout. Today we had Bombay Brasserie peri peri lobster with sag paneer and basmati lemon rice. The presentation was remarkable with the bold color combination of red, yellow and green. I had worried that the spicy masala paste would overwhelm the flesh but it was just perfect.
This month also marked a time to say goodbye to my red 1997 Honda civic. She was a good and reliable car, despite needing repeated and sometimes costly maintence in her geriatric years. The odometer reached 144,444 miles. We'll remember driving the civic down the East coast to Chincoteague, West to St Louis, South to the Carolinas, across Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi to New Orleans and New Year's outside Baton Rouge. She drove up highway 61 past the dueling blue guitars at the crossroads to Graceland. She visited Niagara Falls and trundled across Canada many times during vet school. She suffered Michigan Winters and narrowly avoided spin outs in an ice storm in Cincinatti (many others didn't!) She even got us out of a flood curfew in Eastern New York. Our new car is a 2010 base model Honda Fit in sensation blue. The road is wide open ahead of us.
The weather has continued to be questionable. In fact, the excessive rain over the last three weeks has been unprecedented in Boston's 100 year detailed weather history. At the Blue Hill observatory the monthly total reached 18.81, just surpassing the all time monthly record of 18.78 inches established in 1955. In Waltham, the water has again been flooding the streets and even I-95 was closed for a while last night. A handful of families had to be evacuated and we recieved a phone call today instructing us on how to contact FIMA if needed. Meanwhile, tulip leaves have sprouted, daffodils are reluctantly blooming, and forsythia bushes are making a weak showing.