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Showing posts from October, 2016

Fingers crossed

Just made some more calls for Hillary - apparently I have made 37 calls now. Keeping my fingers crossed for next Tuesday. (I got a Blogger app that is compatible with iOS 10, but it makes me title every post.)

Comey

I'm so annoyed with James Comey right now. His timing couldn't be worse. 11 days from the election, he makes this announcement. And it will probably be nothing.
Zoe just got a bunch of early birthday presents from my mother and sister. She was thrilled. "I love all my presents!" she said. 'They wanted to give me presents before my birthday. That's nice!" It made me kind of nostalgic for childhood, when presents make you ecstatic. Most adults are kind of "eh" about presents.
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I don't like the iOS 10 update on my phone. It requires an extra step to unlock your phone and it's not compatible with the Blogger app. So I'll have to blog from my laptop like a Cro-Magnon; much easier to include photos when I'm blogging from my phone. Now I have to email them to myself, download them, and attach them. (First world problems.) I went on a field trip to Governor's Island with Zoe's class today. They have the longest slide in NYC; also good views of the Statue of Liberty. I also made white bean soup in the slow cooker today. Very simple, but tasty. You use 2 cups dried Great Northern beans (no need to soak them), a bay leaf, a chopped onion, 6 cloves of garlic and 6-7 cups of water. Then you cook it on low until the beans are tender, and you can use an immersion blender to puree it, and add a little extra virgin olive oil and salt. I added about a teaspoon of salt and a drizzle of oil. I also left some chunks in when I pureed it, becaus
I'm making calls for Hillary in Ohio today. I was getting mostly answering machines and then I talked to a live person who said, "Our whole family is voting for her." It was nice to hear. 
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Last night I saw Alexander McCall Smith at Barnes & Noble. He spoke for over an hour to an appreciative audience. I've read most of his books and the others seemed to as well. It was a nice community. Finally he said, "I'm getting concerned looks from management," and started to sign books. He wore a kilt and bowed at the end of the reading.
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Autumn minestrone from Pinterest. I made it in my new Dutch oven. For the first time, I added Parmesan cheese rind. It does seem to add dimension. 
Pinterest is the best for slow cooker recipes. I'm currently cooking this white bean vegetable soup . This kale soup and veggie pot pie are on deck. (I learned that expression from my old ob/gyn when Zoe was about 37 weeks. I asked, "How much longer?" and my ob/gyn said, "She's on deck." The ob/gyn also did stand-up, hopefully not mentioning any of her patients). The veggie pot pie in particular is intriguing. I've tried several iterations of it, all of which involve making your own dough, and this version looks good and not labor-intensive.
I just watched Michelle Obama speaking in Phoenix on Facebook Live. She always makes me feel better. A great antidote to Donald Trump. I hope she runs for president one day. 
I watched the third debate. For me, the most disturbing things about it were: 1) how is Trump even a contender? I know I've said it many times, but it beggars belief. 2) his refusal to concede if Hillary wins. He just seems like a malignant growth on the face of humanity.
Eric has been reading the Anne of Green Gables series. He's on the fifth book in the series. I'm relieved that he's reading them, and enjoying them, because it was one of my favorite series as a child. 
Eric made pumpkin soup. I'd never had it before, and I wasn't sure if it would be good. It was :)
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We went to the zoo again today.
It just struck me that when I started this blog in 2005, I had no idea I'd eventually be writing most of my blog posts on my phone. And I think my first entry was about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes! I made Tuscan white bean soup from Pinterest today. It was a kitchen-sink soup with tomatoes, celery, carrots, onion, zucchini, summer squash, cannellini beans, kale, broth, olive oil, garlic, rosemary, thyme, red pepper flakes, sugar, salt, pepper, and white wine vinegar. I liked it. 
I like using the crockpot to cook steel-cut oats overnight, but they do tend to catch on the sides of the pot. That's what happens cooking on low. So last night I decided to cook them on warm (the lowest setting). It worked perfectly. They cooked, and have a nice nutty flavor, but they didn't catch. (I put in 1 cup of steel-cut oats, 4 cups of soy milk, and 3 Tbsp brown sugar.)
I have a very simple crockpot recipe, but it's so good. 1 1/2 cups lentils, 4 cups water or broth, 3-4 sliced carrots, 1 chopped onion, 3 cloves minced garlic, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper. You're supposed to cook it for 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high, but it always takes less time than that.
Just finished Bridget Jones's Baby. Such a nice, happy book. And funny too. Now I don't need to see the movie (though I probably will when it comes out on DVD). Too bad Hugh Grant dropped out of the project.
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I went to a farm with Zoe's class today. These pigs look peaceful but they try to eat your feet. Zoe also milked a cow.
There was a bonanza on my Kindle this morning. New books by Alexander McCall Smith, Jennifer Weiner, Jodi Picoult, Margaret Atwood, and Helen Fielding. Of course I am reading the Bridget Jones book first :)
I stayed up way too late watching the debate last night. We all did. Eric said he didn't want to miss a minute. The boys stayed up later, watching the post-debate commentary. Even after Zoe was asleep, though, I had trouble falling asleep because of all the adrenaline from the debate. It was riveting TV, but Trump is a huge a--hole.
Just read an article in the Times, very disturbing, about the horrible torture of detainees in secret CIA prisons post-9/11. Many of them were held without explanation, and one out of four were wrongly detained. Trump wants to bring back "waterboarding and worse." Another reason not to vote for him...as if you needed one! 
The soup was good. Next time I make it, I would use less water (1-2 cups less). I would also purée less of it - though I got to use the immersion blender, and that was fun. It's actually pink (the blender, not the soup). I cut the potatoes in smaller pieces than the recipe required, and I'm glad I did that. Not tiny pieces, though. 
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Making this. It smells really good.
I just finished Winter Storms by Elin Hilderbrand. It was the third book in the Quinn family trilogy, set on Nantucket (like all of her novels). She is one of my favorites. A couple of fun things from the book: a local band called Four Easy Payments; and a scene where a character "sabers" champagne (slicing off the top of the bottle with a saber). Don't try this at home...
More crockpot hijinks--frozen tortellini, diced tomatoes, vegetable broth, spinach, some Neufchâtel, oregano, cumin, thyme, garlic pepper, salt and pepper. I'll see how it turns out. 
I'm finishing up Christmas Caramel Murder by Joanne Fluke. I love this series. It keeps getting better as it goes along. And the characters are always baking something or thinking of baking it. 
I like Pinterest. The people there have cute names like The Suburban Soapbox and The Recipe Rebel.
Breaking news in the NYT: Trump has paid no federal income tax for 18 years. Anyone who votes for this racist, misogynist, unethical creep needs their head examined.