June 23, 2024

This weekend's south of the border foodie fun chez Stas: baked chayotes rellenos (pic 1) and yellow rice with peas (pix 2-4). The color of the latter, as you can see, comes from achiote seeds, which you drop in hot oil for a minute or less until the oil turns a rich golden red color, then discard. They don't add any significant flavor, but the dish sure is purty. (NB: Not one to be bound by borders, I used edamames instead of peas because that's what there was at hand, and I threw in some corn because, well, it was at hand.) Not pictured: the main course, a turkey chili that is really tasty but not much to look at. 😋

 

June 8, 2024

I tabled outside the East End Co-op today for PFLAG Pittsburgh, and our timing couldn't have been better because they had raspberries on sale for $.79/half-pint [sic]. Afterwards, I nabbed a few, then asked a gal working in produce why they were so cheap, and she said she thought the buyer had ordered strawberries but received more raspberries instead. She then said she was thinking about making jam, and suddenly my Plan A, adding them to my breakfast fruit bowls, seemed woefully inadequate.

  

May 6, 2024

In other news, foodie doings this past weekend Chez Stas:

 

(1) Pasta with figs and walnuts (lunch) - prep stage

(2) Moqueca (Brazilian fish stew) (dinner) - early prep stage

😋😋

April 27, 2024

Little Spike, my fugitive night blooming cereus leaf, has now produced three stalks, two with two leaves each, and this monster, now almost three feet [sic] long, with lots of frilly spikes in tribute to her mama. So I've decided to name her Spiny Norman.

  

April 8, 2024

This past weekend's foodie fun chez moi.

1. Dessert first: fig cake
2. Fig cake after a little mouse helped herself
3. For lunch: pork bowl with lotsa goodies in it (shredded/thinly sliced cabbage (red and savoy), carrot, red pepper, garlic, fresh ginger, honey, rice vinegar, etc.)

😋

 

April 6, 2024

After an 11th hour change in plans, I decided to go see Dune 2 last night. I haven't seen the first film, but know the general outlines of the story, so I was able to follow along without any major problems. The film is visually stunning, and I also really liked its slower pace -- the fact that it took its time letting things unfold rather than trying to feed the adrenaline junkies in the movie-going public. But I otherwise can't say that I was wowed by it. In terms of its script and acting, Dune 2 felt like Avatar made by the Game of Thrones production team with a less hamfisted Great White Father racial overlay. Having only read part of the first of the novels when I was a teen, I'm curious how much of the latter comes from Herbert's trilogy. (For a comparison, without a radical rewrite, Lord of the Rings is marred by Tolkien's racism and arch-conservative politics.) In any event, Dune 2 is good escapism, and for $10 at the Manor with a can of Guinness for company, it was a fun way to close out my Friday.

April 1, 2024

Foodie fun chez Stas this weekend:

 

1-2: Rhubarb crumble (in process and completed)

 

3: Trader Joe's latest weird fruit: a Mayan ball melon, which is basically a honeydew with racing decals