Bayside Place: June 2004

Today's word

Chunnering

verb:to mutter, grumble, talk incessantly

Cello practice

Fireplace Rose

Inspirational site

http://www.dayspring.com/movies/

Quote

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug." --Mark Twain

Googlewhack

We think olallieberries terrorist might be a googlewhack.

Restaurant review

This evening we tried a restaurant we hadn't been to before. The following is our review of our experience tonight.

Antonio's Ristorante at 626 W. Tefft Street in Nipomo

We arrived about 6:30 and there was only one other couple in the restaurant. All the tables in the restaurant are close together. (about 16-20 tables) We were seated at a table for 4 near a window (and right next to the only other couple).

Don ordered Diet Coke, garden salad with bleu cheese dressing and one of the specials for the evening, Lasagna with meat sauce.
Andy ordered Sprite and a small double cheese pizza.(10")
Liz ordered Water, garden salad and Spaghetti with Meat Balls

Our waiter, brought our drinks promptly and also a basket of warm bread and butter. The bread was dense and chewy and very good.

The garden salads were very fresh with a mix of salad greens, thin onion slices, a few slices of tomato, and freshly grated parmesan cheese. The dressing was on the salad and was just the right amount.

As we waited for our food (not very long-timed nicely with the bread and salads), the restaurant began to fill up. When we left most of the tables were full.

Don - Large serving, meaty (***) brought 1/2 home.
Andy - pizza was very good, finished it all. (****)
Liz - small meatballs, meaty sauce, plenty of sauce and parmesean cheese. Meatballs were bland. The sauce had a surprising cinnamon taste and probably had some cream. (***) Large serving-brought 1/2 home

Overall rating: *** (3 of 5) Atmosphere (***) Food (***) Cost ($$$$$)

Friday night!!!

Knitting Update

Finished blanket.

Yarn: 5oz. Caron Simply Soft country blue ombre
Pattern: From Knitting For Baby - Easy Eyelet Blanket
Needles: Size 5
Finished size: About 36 inches square

Library Day

Fiction
1. Domestic Pleasures by Beth Gutcheon
2. Five Fortunes by Beth Gutcheon
3. The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov

Non-fiction
Insider's Guide Monterey Peninsula (2004)
Moon Handbook Monterey & Carmel (2002)
Baker's Flower Quick Mix Cookbook
Retro Breakfast (2004)
Two Suns and a Green Sky
Modern Biology at a glance
Time Management for the Creative Person
DK Organizing Hints & Tips

Also picked up Cuesta College and Allen Hancock fall schedules

http://www.wowzone.com/whattree.htm

What Tree Did You Fall From?

WEEPING WILLOW (the Melancholy) - beautiful but full of melancholy, attractive, very empathetic, loves anything beautiful and tasteful, loves to travel, dreamer, restless, capricious, honest, can be influenced but is not easy to live with, demanding, good intuition, suffers in love but finds sometimes an anchoring partner.

Inspiration for the day

Today is the birthday of Stephen Dunn. His collection of poetry, Different Hours, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000.

TO A TERRORIST

For the historical ache, the ache passed down
which finds its circumstance and becomes
the present ache, I offer this poem

without hope, knowing there's nothing,
not even revenge, which alleviates
a life like yours. I offer it as one

might offer his father's ashes
to the wind, a gesture
when there's nothing else to do.

Still, I must say to you:
I hate your good reasons.
I hate the hatefullness that makes you fall

in love with death, your own included.
Perhaps you're hating me now,
I who own my own house

and live in a country so muscular,
so smug, it thinks its terror is meant
only to mean well, and to protect.

Christ turned his singular cheek,
one man's holiness another's absurdity.
Like you, the rest of us obey the sting,

the surge. I'm just speaking out loud
to cancel my silence. Consider it an old impulse,
doomed to become mere words.

The first poet probably spoke to thunder
and, for a while, believed
thunder had an ear and a choice.

Stephen Dunn

Morning Baking

Morning weather(8:30): Overcast and 56 degrees.

Yesterday we found blueberries, raspberries and olallieberries at the farmer's market in Arroyo Grande. I find when I buy berries at the farmer's market they are very ripe, so I have to use them in a day or two. I made this recipe last summer a few times and it was delicious. I made 18 muffins from this recipe and I baked them for only 22 minutes.

So what exactly is an olallieberry? It’s a loganberry crossed with a youngberry, or what we know as a blackberry crossed with a European raspberry. It’s deep purple in color and tartly delicious in taste, perfect for pies and jams.
http://www.sbceo.k12.ca.us/~uccesb1/smfnws10.htm

Banana Raspberry Muffins
I found this recipe at www.chocolatesnowball.com/muffins.html

Slightly redolent of banana, these moist, berry-full treats are wonderful for Sunday brunch. Blackberries or blueberries can replace the raspberries in this recipe.

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted (I used margarine)

2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

3 eggs

3 ripe bananas, mashed (I used 2 1/2 )

2/3 cup whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups raspberries, fresh or frozen (I used a mix of the berries I found at the farmer's market)

1/4 cup Butter Streusel (see fundamentals) (I didn't add this)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line 12 muffin cups with paper cupcake liners, or coat the muffin tins with melted butter and dust with flour, or spray generously with cooking spray. To make sure muffins release with ease, coat the top of the pan as well as the inside of the cups when you grease the tins.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside. Whisk the butter and brown sugar in a large bowl, and then whisk the eggs. Add the bananas, mil and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients all at once, stirring just until blended. Quickly fold in the berries. Divide into prepared muffin cups and sprinkle with Butter Streusel. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until the tops of the muffins are golden brown and they spring back when touched with a finger. Cool for about 5 minutes, then remove from the pan.

Makes 12 muffins.

High altitude: Reduce baking powder to 1 3/4 teaspoons.

Inspiration for the day

Dream Catcher

I watched you closely
As you ran fast as you could across the field of life,
Frantically chasing a dream-butterfly
With your net.

I saw you stumble over rocks,
And slip in streams,
All for the sake of this butterfly,
That you couldn't seem to catch.

So gently I lifted you up,
And took you in my arms.
And told you a truth I learned
Too long ago to mention.

"Little dreamer, dreams are free creatures.
You cannot catch them in a net,
Nor trap them in a bag.
Nor should you try, my friend.

For look! See this field,
That you were trying to cross so fast,
Is covered with beauty and wonder,
If only you could stop and see!

So keep your mind on your dreams,
But do not chase them so hard
That you miss everything else there is to see!"

And then you raised your head and looked.
The beauty made you gasp,
And as it did, a butterfly flapped tiny wings,
Floated down to land upon you,
And made all your dreams real.

-- Andrea Smith