Update.

Here are some updates. Mom is in the hospital with anemia and pneumonia. She was looking better then last week.

Spent large time over the weekend doing stuff for mom. Like taking in the mail lighting lights in the house. And cutting down a messy grape vine.

Will be doing lots of visiting after work.

Mom in Hospital

Mom is in the hospital. She'll be in for a few days. We have been visting her and trying to comfort her.

George busts a move at the White House

White men can't dance. I report you decide.

Weekly Roundup.

For those who asked my arm is well on the mend. The big bag of ice on my shoulder and Aleve, did wonders.

Now I can do some stuff. Hopfully this weekend we'll do all we need to launch the boat. Saturday should be a whirlwind of work to get that done.

It's be some of the best mornings here. The weather has been just perfect. I wanted to ride the motorcycle to the train station. But I could not get a chance to fix my bike so I can get it running for the year. A task now on the weekend list.

We have to get the snow tires off the cars. I'm hoping the snow is done for the year!

I'm going to mix up some dough for a pizza crust. I want to try to make pizza on the outdoor gas grill. I made bread last year and it was great. Pizza should come out great.

Battle Garlic!

Watching Iron Chef tonight they had Battle Garlic. Chef Mario was taking the challenger in a garlic fight to the finish.

On quote of the evening was :

"Garlic is the ketchup of intellectuals."

Hmmm.... I'm not sure about that. There is one thing I do know. It has to do with garlic and snowfall.

Garden news

Here are our tomatoes up and ready for the next phase. We are going to put them in cups and get them ready for the planting sometime in may.

We put the herbs back on the deck. They looked a little weak but a few days in the sun will perk them right up.

Here are the peppers and herbs ready to go.

Marilyn's Birthday at Athena

Here is the picture of all of us at Athena. Here is the link to the album.

Pasta Fagioli Recipe

Some people wanted the pasta fagioli recipe
So here it is:

Pasta Fagioli

1 medium onion
4 stalks of celery
5-10 cloves of garlic
1 small pkg of fresh baby cut carrots
1 can of garbanzo beans
1 can of white cannellini beans
1 1lb pkg of elbow noodles
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
3 bay leafs


There is nothing you can do to make this wrong.
Use any bean you want and change the ingredients to
What you would like.

Choose a 4 qt sauce pan


Drain and rinse beans
Chop garlic cloves fine
Dice onions and celery fine
3 tblsp of olive oil in pan
Sauté garlic till lightly brown
Toss in onion and celery
Season with cracked pepper
Sauté until onion is clear
Toss in carrots
Toss in beans
Fill pan with water or chicken broth( you will be putting in pasta so leave some room )
Toss in bay leaf
Bring to a boil
Salt water to taste
Simmer on med until carrots are tender about 15 min
Pour in pkg of pasta
Simmer for 15 mins till pasta is over done. ( pasta water thickens the soup )
I throw in chopped broccoli crowns now for color
Simmer for 5 more minutes for crowns
Ladle in to bowl top with good olive oil

Enjoy


Variations
1) Use bacon or panchetta for the inital garlic saute.
2) Throw in any veggies you like mushrooms, squash
3) Throw in some smoked ham in the boil. Then let boil longer for flavor.

Splash down delay

Well the boat may have to wait a couple of weeks. With my arm and shoulder hurting like this I'm not going to push it to paint the bottom. I'll really regret it. I was planning on painting and getting all ready this weekend. I called up the boat yard and they will be happy to hold the boat for a few weeks. No problems. If things get bad I'll have the boat yard throw a coat of paint on the bottom. It's not rocket science.

An other entry in the Ouch file.....

Well my right arm has been getting better. But for some reason my left arm decided to give me a pain. If I banged it or lifted something heavy I could understand this pain.

Well good thing I'm right handed. Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation for now.

Snow this morning.

Woke up to snow this morning. Seem the Nor' Easter after dropping over 5 inches of rain on us it gave us a couple of inches of slush to deal with this morning. Trains are all messed up as the hi winds are toppling trees onto the power lines.

This is spring?

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to Marilyn!

We had a great get together at Athena in Glenside last night for Marilyn's birthday. Mike,Gail,Saul,Ellen,Meg,Eric,Jeanie,Rose and the Howie were there.

We ate talked made merry and had cake at the end of of the night.

And Saul, still not going to tell you how old!

Nor' Easter

Raining like crazy here. And the storm is still a bit away yet.

We got in a good walk yesterday. We that the walking trail leads to the new Post Office and with a little discovery we found a way to the library.

I also got the Marilyn's motorcycle running. I was going to run it over to the house but with the storm coming I did not want to leave it out in the rain. It looks good with the new seat. It will run a whole lot better once I fix the carbs and tune it up.

Tonight we are taking Marilyn out to a local Greek resturant for her birthday. I'm hoping that the rain dosen't dampen the party.

Black Bean Hummus

Several people from the book club was asking for the recipe for the black bean hummus. Here it is :

Black Bean Hummus

2 cans of black beans
½ cup tahini
2 cloves of garlic
Juice of 2 lemons
1 tbsp Cumin powder
¼ Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Hot Sauce (optional)
Cilantro

( if your food processor is small make in
2 batches )

Put garlic in food processor and chop fine
Open, drain and rinse beans
Put all ingredients in food processor
( except cilantro )
Blend , if too thick add lemon juice or oil
Season to taste
Let sit in fridge for an hour.
Put in bowl top with oil , lemon juice and
Garnish with cilantro

Silly Me

I had my eye on the clock yesterday. Maybe I should have been watching a little more carefully. I wanted to get on the 3:55 train. So at :47 past the hour I ran down to the train station. I got there at :56 past. Damn, missed the train. Hmmm. next train at.... Hey it's only 2:56 ooops!

Hey I got home early anyway. Got to make up the hour today.

Book Club.....

Marilyn and the ladies of the book club will be meeting at our house tonight to discuss the lastest read.

Marilyn made cupcakes and I have tapped to make my Pasta Fagoli and black bean hummus. I have to get home early tonight to start the soup simmering.

A wing and a prayer....

I'm changing VOIP providers. For all you non techies I'm changing my telephone company that I use to make calls over the internet.

I have been using Vonage. You know the one with the stupid commercials. We are changing to Verizon Voice Wing VOIP. Seems like Vonage lost a patent suit and I'm not sure of the viability of Vonage.

I just got the equipment yesterday and I'll set it all up this weekend. When it's all installed we should have the same number and no one should see a difference.

I love the Internets......

I really love the internet. And it's just for a reason like we had yesterday. I broke the microwave door latch.

It's a small plastic part and if I went to try to get it from a parts dealer I'd have to take off work during a weekday and go to three places just to order it to get it in 2 weeks. And no help on how to put it together.

I found the part on the Sears web site. And they had exploded diagrams to show how to fix the thing. Total cost $10 and 3 days.

Easter Cake

Marilyn and I were watching the food channel program Ace of Cakes. We were watching them decorate the cakes. So we wanted to do the sheet icing that they have. It's called marshmallow fondant. So we bought a pound cake, marshmallows, sugar and coloring and went to town. The icing was more work than we thought. It came out better expected for the first time fooling with it.

Pizza Everynight....

We were disappointed with pizza the other night from Wegman's. And it would be easy to just call a local joint for a pie. We wanted just something different. We decided to make our own. I found a web site all about pizza . So I tried one of their recipes for pizza crust. I left it over night like the bread dough. I stretched it out into a pan pizza. Marilyn loaded it up with sauce, mushrooms and cheese. Into the oven it went. The result, not bad. We didn't throw it out. The crust was pretty light and it was not too greasy. All in all pretty good.

Boat work....

We were going to do some work on the boat this weekend. Until we heard that there is snow in the forecast.

So this will give my arm a chance to rest, us a chance to clean the house ahead of the book club meeting, and a opportunity to organise the parts coming in for Marilyn's motorcycle.

Next weekend for sure. May 1 is coming quick.

Ouch!

Marilyn was making Scones this weekend. I was helping her take the scones from the cast iron scone pan. I rotated the pan over and OUCH! I have a bit of tendinitis and it felt like my arm was being ripped off. It was hurting from the shoulder to the wrist. It's better now thanks to liberal doses of ibuprophen.

The Shooter...

We went to see the Movie "The Shooter" last night. It was based on the book Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter the Washinton Post film critic. The movie was in the genre of the aging gunslinger lured out of retirement to do a job and is double crossed and seeks revenge. The movie is loosely based on the book. ... Well the only thing that is the same is it's in the US and the main charater is Bob Lee Swagger. But it does justice to the books and is good movie to see.

What was Stephen Hunter reviewing this weekend..... Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...