Ya Gotta Taste This

There are more than three senses.  Yet there are only three sensory blogs on my list of non-Bucket-List lists.  Sight, sound, and smell have been covered already.  Time now for the all-important taste factor.  No, this will not be a Fear Factor-type list of tastes.  Just things to taste before I die.

• The best cup of coffee.  Check.  Already done.  At a breakfast shack in Destin, FL, on the last day of a girls' weekend.
• Champagne at my daughters' weddings.
• Perfectly sautéed soft-shell crabs.  Check.  That was the main course at a dinner party at chez Gaelic.
• Blood pudding in Scotland.  Haggis can be quite good if made by someone who knows how.  Unfortunately, on our holiday in Scotland, our innkeepers didn't serve blood pudding.
• The fruits of my gardening labor.  Last year's garden produced: beets, carrots, onions, leeks, spinach, tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, corn, strawberries, and figs.  For this year, add to that okra, eggplant, watermelon, raspberries, potatoes, garlic, zucchini, and three types of winter squash.
• Acacia honey with bread at an inn on Lake Como.
• Sauteed fiddlehead ferns.
• Blinis and caviar after touring the Hermitage.
• The perfect crème brûlée.  It's all in how the sugar is burnt.
• S'mores dark chocolate pudding.  Check.  This was the dessert for a private Valentine's Day dinner at chez Gaelic.

Guessing at things to taste before I die is difficult.  How does one know about all the different flavors in the world until one is exposed to them?  My eyes, and mouth, will be open for new taste adventures.  But no shots of horse semen.

VD Gone Viral

Happy Manufactured Day that Really Doesn’t Mean Anything Except to Extort Things from Men with the Threat of Withholding Sex If Women Don’t Get What They Want Which Most Often Is an Engagement Ring or a Promise of a Monogamous, Long-Term Relationship Complete with Children and a House in the Suburbs, Oh, and a Dozen Roses Delivered to Her Office to Make her Coworkers Envious that She has Such a Thoughtful Boyfriend Who Felt that He Had to Send Her Flowers Because of the Date on the Calendar!!!

And Many Happy Returns of the Day! Unless she has to return what your sorry ass messed up as “the perfect gift” in which case you won’t be getting any for a month. Or until you grovel in front of her and her friends.

[I'm not hating on Valentine's Day. I'm just wondering why there are so many expectations for one single day.]

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Psst. Wanna know a secret? Come closer and I’ll tell you. [Looks both ways and leans in close to the monitor.] Christmas is on December 25th this year. And Valentine’s Day will be on the 14th of February next year. And your taxes will be due on April 15th.

A neighbor posted a photo online of her cat on top of the tax forms she was filling out. She LOL’d that they were late again this year filing the taxes. Why do people drag out the agony for so long?

Unlike Easter, Shrove Tuesday, and Ash Wednesday, which are always on a Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday respectively but move all over the calendar based on the date of the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox (can’t you just imagine the ecclesiastical debate over that one?), the other holidays always fall on the same day. Every year.

So, guys. Let this be your first warning. You have 149 days until Christmas. Don’t let me catch you in the stores on December 24th with only one person marked off your list!

As for birthdays and anniversaries, you’re on your own.

The One Zagat Forgot

What’d you do for Valentine’s Day? Imagine this, a four-star one-table restaurant. Our table for two was by a steady fire, two candles on the linen-covered table. Delicate bone china, softly patina’d silver and sparkling leaded crystal rounded out the setting.

The first course was artichoke-parmesan crostini. Our fingers lifted the four crisp pieces from the small plates. The first round from a bottle of an Argentine Malbec filled our glasses. The entrée was a medium-rare for me, rare for the husband pepper-crusted filet mignon with a red wine reduction sauce served alongside creamy spinach and slow-roasted tomatoes. More Malbec. Finally, the pièce de résistance. Two individual light-as-air Grand Marnier soufflés with crème anglaise. Decaf coffee, if you please, came with a pitcher of real cream.

Total bill for the evening? $35.00. Where’d we find such a well-kept secret? Chez nous.

Yep. I cooked; the children set the table and built the fire; the two youngest acted as our servers. (The kids had pizza for supper and their own individual soufflés for dessert.)

No cards, no gifts, no flowers. Just a simple home-cooked meal for two.

Valentine's Swap

Fresh off the press! Pictures of the swap spread. My swap buddy was S.L. Here is the whole kit and caboodle that she sent.

A close up of the adorable card.

Here are the dish towels and the pretty plates.

The card-making or scrapbooking supplies, plus the candies, the heart-shaped bathtub grippies, and the little mailbox.

Here's a close up of the little mailbox, soon to be filled.

Thanks to S.L. for the best Valentine's Swap!!!

Creativity Under Construction

This is the first time I've participated in the gift swap. My giftee might have opened the package and gone, "What the?" I feel like I could have done better. Because after I opened the package from my gifter, my eyes started to well up.

What adorable heart-patterned plates! And the red-heart-on-red towels! And valentines making supplies complete with the cutest little mailbox I've seen. My swap buddy really outdid herself. Thank you, S.L.

So to N.W., my swapee (is that really a word?), the thought process was that everything relates to bubbles. Enjoy the bubbly in a bubble bath while blowing bubbles. And if you just need to let out some steam with the way the economy is treating you, stomp on those bubble wrappers.

Bring on the next swap, Becca. Wifey is going to roll up her sleeves, put on her thinking cap, and scour the pages of Etsy. Watch out world!