February 28, 2010

Sadly, a week of abs workouts has not given us six-packs of steel. We still do not look like that man. But then, it’d be a little worrying if I did!
This week’s card is the Nine of Spades: Garden. “Garden? But it’s practically still winter!” True—but there’s still some stuff to do! It’s a little early to start seeds, but we can make a plan for starting the seeds we bought. It’s ridiculously late to plant bulbs, but we can at least get those tulips into a cool, dry place for next year and maybe start forcing the paperwhites (also much, much too late!).

In our garden, we’ll be growing Hutterite Soup bush beans, Early Russian cucumbers, Rosa Bianca eggplants, Yellow Wonder wild strawberries, Rocky Top mixed lettuce, Dwarf Siberian kale, Far North melon, Bloomsdale Long Standing spinach, Bush buttercup squash, Genovese basil, Polka Dot Mix bachelor’s buttons, Jet Black/Nigra hollyhocks, Late Spencer Choice mixed sweet peas, shade-loving mixed flowers, and “your grandmother’s flower garden” mixed flowers. All but the last two came from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

We chose our seeds for compactness—hence bush beans, bush squash (it’s usually a rampant vine!) and dwarf kale—hardiness—the spinach is unusually tolerant of heat, the melon and cucumber of cold, and so forth—and appeal—the flowers are mostly sweet-smelling flowers that last well in vases, the vegetables are all things we eat constantly. Strawberries are known to be quite hard to start, but sweet peas are very easy. Anyway, we’re very excited! Since the cards demand it, this week we’ll do research on the correct time and manner to plant our various seeds, and perhaps buy, beg, borrow, steal or scavenge some equipment (DIY coldframe, anyone?). Stay tuned, I’ll let you know what I discover!

February 22, 2010

The diaries were not a great success (I produced a total of two pages, across two days), and we have some ideas about why. For one thing, we had a busy week. But the main problem was taking on an essentially solitary activity that we had to do at night before bed. Motivation was just lacking, and neither of us is a regular diarist.
Moving onwards, this week’s card is the 10 of Hearts: Learn a new calisthenic and practice it for a week. After the many cupcakes we ate this past weekend, it seems appropriate, though we have already managed to miss Sunday.
The exercise of choice is a side plank with crunches. One look at the two of us doing it convinced me I should not post pictures. Instead, here is a demonstration by this guy. Mm, shiny red shorts.

 

So this evening we worked through a basic ab routine featuring the side plank crunches and I worked on my leg. I hope we’ll be able to crank a few of these out every night because it would probably do us – or at least me – some good.

February 15, 2010

Well, the rest of Thai week was pretty successful … especially the part where we went out to Sugar and Spice, our delicious (and reasonable) local Thai restaurant.
When not relying on Sugar and Spice we ate:
Stir-fried noodles with kale

Fried rice with vegetables

Lemongrass soup

All were tasty and quick, but not as impressive as the butternut squash curry. The soup sort of turned into bland rice-gruel ... would have benefited from some scallions.

This week’s challenge, the 5 of Diamonds (Diamonds again!) seems particularly appropriate for the first week of Lent: we are to keep a diary for a week. I’ve always admired diary-people: it seems like such a good way to reflect and contemplate on your life. And improve your handwriting.

Happy Lupercalia, Presidents' Day, and so forth!

February 7, 2010 (2)

Since we have completed our first Thai meal, there’s a second update today. As one of the three readers said, “woo hoo!”

First, the ground rules for this week. The task is described as “cook Thai food every night for a week,” but as we don’t want to go insane, it is in fact to be “cook Thai food whenever we cook.” This will probably mean 4-5 meals, the rest being supplied by leftovers or, possible, a meal out. (Yes, meals out must be Thai.)

Second, why Thai? Well, we both like it, and found ourselves in possession of a can of low-fat coconut milk and a Thai cookbook. Reason enough.

Third, recipe source: Real Vegetarian Thai by Nancie McDermott. I cannot speak to the merits of its authenticity, though the author spent some time in Thailand in the Peace Corps and teaches Thai cookery. Neither of us has experienced Thai food outside of restaurants. Hopefully this is indeed sufficiently Thai.

So: our first recipe.

Butternut Squash in Fresh Green Curry

It was delicious, and went together in under an hour. We left out the chilies (authenticity fail!) because we couldn’t find fresh ones and, more pertinently, because I am a wuss. The curry was a little runny (perhaps because we used low-fat instead of full-fat coconut milk?) but soaked beautifully into the special Thai Jasmine rice we bought.

No cooking tomorrow, because I’m going out (to see Fight Club with my parents, followed by a lecture from a professor in the department I work in. Strange but true). Later in the week we plan to make a Thai soup, a noodle dish, and a rice dish. More food porn (amateur food porn? food overshare? foodrotica?) to come!

February 7, 2010

Once again, a busy week. Unfortunately that’s par for the course now that Matt’s back at school and I’m taking a couple of classes of my own. But we still managed to squeeze in a visit to a museum yesterday. We decided that “new” had to mean “new to both of us” but it didn’t count if I, as a native, had visited the museum in elementary school. Because I don’t think there are any museums in this town they didn’t take us to in elementary school. Anyhow, we went to the MIT Museum yesterday.

It’s an odd place with an eclectic collection. Particular emphasis is placed on robotics …

artificial life …

and the future possible applications for this amazing technology.

They have a stunning collection of holograms, and a lot of kinetic sculptures (look up Arthur Ganson). It’s not a big museum but it’s fun and worth a visit.

Our new card is the Queen of Spades: Cook Thai for a week. I guess we’ll be buying some coconut milk.

January 31, 2010

This week’s challenge was to identify seven species of tree in one area. Not, perhaps, the most seasonally-appropriate activity. We chose today based on the weather forecast, since it was the warmest option in a bitterly cold week. Mt. Auburn Cemetery was practically deserted (we saw a photographer), and while it was nice to have it all to ourselves it was very clear why there weren’t more people around.

We played as follows: choose an interesting or pleasing tree, make a guess about it based on the field guide, and go look at the tag. Here’s how it went:

Tree #1

We guessed, correctly, that it was some sort of European Beech. In fact, it was a cultivar called Purple-Leaf Beech (Fagus sylvatica var. Atropunicea).

Tree #2

We guessed it was a Red Maple, but it was in fact a Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum var. Green Mountain). It was planted in 1986, the same year Matt was born. Okay, actually he was born sometime in the 14th century and has been surviving off the blood of the living for over half a millennium ... but hey, close enough.

Tree #3

We had no clue. We guessed, from the leftover flowerheads and seed pods we could see, that it might be some sort of buckeye (flying blindly with the guide), but it was actually something called an Empress Tree (Paulownia tomentosa). Since we have never been to its native China, we couldn’t really be expected to get it …

Tree #4

Hm … it’s some sort of weeping pine, we said. Let’s count the needles … 5 on each bunch. That’s white pine, right? Okay, let’s guess weeping white pine.

Booyah! It is a weeping white pine! (Pinus strobus var. Pendula.)

Tree #5

We thought it was a larch, with its long evergreen leaves. But it’s a Japanese Umbrella Pine (Sciadopitys verticillata). What’s that? Well, it is the only species in the Sciadopityaceae family, of course! Obviously. Hmph.

Tree #6

“Oh, that’s a plane tree!” “Yup.” It was indeed a London Plane Tree (Platanus acerifolia), familiar to most of us from various public places.

Tree #7

After some deliberation we guess, correctly, that it was a Red Oak (Quercus rubra). Look at all those cute little acorns!

“Tree” #8

Couldn’t identify this one beyond the color actually …. Well, that and where it was growing.

Even in the dead of winter, the cemetery was lovely. Next time we do this, we’ll try for a slightly more wild area, we think—the presence of so many wacky exotics was a bit of a pain. Then again, we would also have preferred to do it in less of a hurry, which was necessary both because it’s been a busy week and because it was too cold to linger over a field guide much. Amherst people would recognize many names among Mt. Auburn's dead: we saw a Converse, an Appleton, and a Pratt, and there's plenty more where that came from.

We also drew our latest card: the Eight of Diamonds (Visit a New Museum). Yes, it is indeed the fourth diamond in a row, and there are only 11 in play (2s and 7s are wild, remember). We’d really like some Spades (cozy domestic activities) or Clubs (crafty things) for a change … despite our best efforts most of our Hearts (physical activities) are not really winter-friendly, so it’s a good thing we’re not getting those at the moment. But … really? A month of Diamonds? Anyway, we’ll be picking a museum soon—stay tuned!

January 24, 2010

We watched another silent film last night—Der Müde Tod (Weary Death) from 1921. Wow. What a lovely movie. It is visually stunning, presumably because Fritz Lang directed it, and the special effects are amazing. (And not just “amazing for 1921,” but really great.) Sadly, as far as we can tell, the original musical score no longer survives. The edition we got our hands (inexplicably titled Destiny) had a replacement score based on German folk songs and contemporary film music, and we never knew the difference. There were also English replacements (in period-appropriate fonts) for the original German titles. It tells four stories—the bracketing main plot is about a young woman trying to convince Death to give her beloved back. She enters his domain and Death sets her the challenge of saving at least one of three other young men whose candles are about to flicker out. The film quality is less than ideal, which has the unfortunate effect of reducing some of the detail, and the story includes a little bit of rampant Orientalism and racism, but we found the story very gripping. There’s something particularly sad about watching German films from before the war: it’s hard not to think of how much of the world depicted, and of the artistic world behind it, no longer survives. Matt quoted me Johnny Cash’s line that “the culture of a thousand years is shattered with the clanging of a prison door behind you,” and I imagine something similar might be said (and probably has been said) about war. Anyway, here are some stills.

                                      

(Thanks to a Polish film blog, found at http://mojaoaza.blox.pl/html)

 And I’m sure you’re all on tenterhooks to find out what our next card will be!

We have just drawn the Queen of Diamonds: identify seven species of tree in one area. (We had to veto an Ace because Matt is shopping classes this week.) Looks like we’re going for a hike! We’ll probably be spending some time in Mt. Auburn Cemetery this week with the Sibley Guide to Trees—stay tuned!