Yum, yum yum yum (yum yum yum yum)*

Tonight we dined on some delicious curry butternut squash soup. The recipe is from The New Best Recipe, the virtues of which I have already extolled here. The white stuff is a yogurt-lime-cilantro topping to cut the spiciness of the curry. So good. The coolest bit of this recipe (which I would post but I'm not sure how the whole copyright deal works, so I highly recommend at least checking the library for this cookbook) is the use of the squash seeds and strings in the liquid used to steam the squash. Then the liquid is strained and used to thin the steamed squash into the soup. "Mmmm, bo!" (as Little Omi would say)

*Sung to the tune of the theme from Oz.(Link not recommended for the faint of heart; Oz was a graphically violent HBO television show set in a prison.)

Weekend update

How was your weekend? We had a good one, starting on Friday night when our dear friends B & L came over for temaki-zushi. We've tried doing sushi at home before, but always got bogged down by the precision needed to make rolls (not to mention the sharp knives needed to slice the rolls into precise little pieces). Then we discovered this wonderful description of temaki-zushi on Blue Lotus and knew we had found the answer to sushi at home.

Here is L's very first roll. Y U M M Y ! At the end of the night, B played his guitar and serenaded Little Omi to sleep. I wish he could come over every night and do that.

Today Big Omi and I decided it was high time for Little Omi's first trip to the zoo. We are sort of unenthusiastic about zoos in general, especially the smaller ones, which Big Omi calls "sad animal parks." We visited one such park in Japan that just had a single deer in a cage. Very sad, indeed. But we do feel it is important for Little Omi to get to see some big animals and after all, it may just inspire her to do Great Things with her naturalist's side.

We arrived at the zoo around 1 pm and could not have asked for a better day. The weather was perfect; warm but not hot, cloudy but not rainy. We saw almost every animal the place had to offer. The gorillas were particularly interesting. One female came right over to the glass and gave Little Omi a good long look, which was pretty intense for Big Omi and me.

OK, so this is a statue, but it pretty accurately depicts what the scene was like with the real gorilla.

Rhinoceroses are cool.

Little Omi found them fascinating.


Being big Meerkat Manor fans, we were delighted to see some meerkats. We watched them for quite awhile, but couldn't discern which one was the dominant female since none of them was wearing a radio collar. ;) Plus, look how fat and sassy these little guys are! I guess the zoo is a far cry from the Kalahari desert.

Thinking inside the box: Four items

item 1. Little Omi loves to climb into this little soft storage cube. Sometimes she'll just sit there, other times she'll get out and then get back in again over and over. The other day she discovered she could also fit a bunch of blocks in with her, which was quite amusing. Last night I had a flash of an idea, inspired by this post at craftlog, to cover these boxes with this fabric. Another project to put on the ever-growing list...

item 2. This evening has been filled with organizing, paying bills, setting up online accounts so more bills can be paid online, and re-organizing Firefox bookmarks. So many blogs to read, so much fabric to look at, so little time to do this when you can't even find the things you want to look at in the jumbled mess of hundreds of bookmarks. Unfortunately, everything is now very tidy on my computer's desktop, but the actual desk the computer sits on is still a total mess, so from across the room it looks like nothing was accomplished.

item 3. Today we made these chocolate chip pumpkin muffins from angry chicken. Oh, dear, they are too delicious! If asked, I will categorically deny that I ate 4 of them for lunch.

item 4. In football news, we are quite depressed over the Sooners' upset today. It seems like this happens every year. They are woefully underrated by all the pre-season polls, then shine in opening games, making us think, "Maybe this is the year we go all the way and don't choke in the bowl game!" and then we lose in a horrible, gut-wrenching nail-biter, usually involving bad calls or trick plays. On the way to pick up Big Omi from work after the game, we noticed someone had put out a small, hand-written yard sign that read: "F you CU! And the Ref's, too!" It made me feel a little better.

Simply the best

I mention in my profile that one of my interests is learning to cook. What I mean by that really is learning to like to cook. Ina Garten's TV show and cookbooks got me started. After seeing Ina say "How easy is that?" enough times, anyone would be willing to give one of her recipes a whirl (plus they're all so delicious). With some confidence gained after roasting approximately fifty chickens, I was ready to take on this behemoth. Intimidating only in its size, The New Best Recipe offers 1,000 recipes—some quite basic, others advanced, but all extensively tested to make them literally the best. My favorite bits are the detailed essays included on how they arrived at each recipe, like how it worked better to cook a meatloaf on a baking sheet instead of in a loaf pan, or how to bruise the basil leaves before making pesto in a food processor to mimic the action of grinding in a mortar and pestle. Delightful! My sister just gave me The Best Make-Ahead Recipe for my birthday, and I can't wait to give it a try.

Making it happen

Every summer I tell myself that this will be the year I make regular trips to the farmer's market, and every summer I completely forget to go. Until this year. I'm sure part of the reason I've started to make a habit out of going has to do with wanting to feed my daughter (let's call her "Little Omi") delicious fresh vegetables, and part of it has to do with wanting to eat locally and lower our carbon footprint, blah, blah, blah. But mostly I think it helps to break up the monotony of the week. Wednesday mornings are particularly wonderful at the market, because it's so small and not too crowded. Saturdays are more exciting, with the hustle and bustle of the crowd, all the flower vendors, and often there are big animals to be seen (A couple of weeks ago there was a horse show! Very impressive to the little girl who has only seen dogs and cats up close.).

Here's hoping that this is the start of a trend in my life: making it happen. Getting off my duff and actually doing the things I've been saying I would do for years now.

I bought these zinnias last Saturday—don't they just shout summer? Today we picked up some fresh tomatoes, okra, and an acorn squash. I was always intimidated by the big squashes until I read in The Joy of Cooking that we could microwave acorn squash. Who knew? Just pierce the skin a few times and pop it in the microwave (I put it on a plate first) for 3 minutes, then turn it over and give it another 3 minutes. When it's done, slice it in half, scoop out the insides (discarding the seeds), mash it with a fork and toss a little butter and nutmeg on top. Delicious and quick enough to have at lunchtime or as a last-minute vegetable at dinner.