kochleffel

Not wearing orange since I no longer have any orange clothing that is wearable. A person might think that Mona Lisa and DaVinci were pampered cats, but they would disagree. They also want you to know that the service here is terrible, just terrible. No on the menu (shrimp) but I would probably like the drink, maybe only once. This is the second time we've had a Brunello di Montalcino, but this one is from a different maker. For a Finger Lakes red with a note of cherry, I might go with Weis Vineyards Pinot Noir 2021 from Keuka Lake, $29.99. During the last hour of online class on Thursday, after donating blood, I started to feel exhausted, and that persisted into Friday--just total depletion, and not only of blood. It's better today even though I slept very badly. I shifted gears on the shepherd's pie and made it as a stew, using the matzah kugel batter for dumplings. Will have it again tonight, with a salad of Boston lettuce. A friend who is a 9-1-1 dispatcher and EMS trainer is recruiting 30 volunteers to be made up with fake injuries for a drill at the end of May. I would be more willing if it weren't at 7:00 a.m. and about 25 miles away.

It's impossible to forget the Chernobyl disaster. No Australians within hugging reach at the moment. Because of the charges of scientific fraud and plagiarism, plus racism and body-snatching, against John James Audubon, some chapters including those in Seattle, Chicago, and New York, have changed their names, although the National Audubon Society did not. OK on the menu suggestion although I wouldn't go out of my way to get farro or whatever. No on the drink, especially since I'm still not sure what it's really supposed to be. For the wine, Glenora Blanc des Blanc 2015, $30.99. The bruising of my arm is worse, but it's less painful. The main project for today is lawn mowing, then making a shepherd's pie using turkey and a matzah-kugel topping. I have a little bok choy left, not enough for another stir-fry, and may just add it to the turkey mixture.

Summer Love If you're my age, and many people here are, you probably remember the Summer of Love. The Summer Love cocktail appears to have nothing to do with that, but there may be some sort of philosophical lesson in the extreme variety of recipes for it--no two were alike or even similar, although many of them are pink. I'm going to offer two. Summer Love 1 2 oz vodka 1 oz lemon juice ½ oz simple syrup 5 mint leaves (buy) 1 oz watermelon liqueur In a cocktail shaker, gently muddle the fresh mint leaves to release their aromatic oils. Add the vodka, watermelon liqueur, fresh lemon juice, and simple syrup to the shaker. Fill the shaker with ice cubes and shake vigorously for about 15 seconds to combine all the ingredients and chill the cocktail. Strain the mixture from the shaker into the glass with fresh ice cubes and garnish the cocktail with a watermelon slice or a sprig of mint (optional). Summer Love 2 40ml rum 3 strawberries 15ml limoncello liqueur 15ml honey Juice of half a fresh lemon Champagne Muddle the strawberries. Add all of the other ingredients except the champagne. Shake over ice. Double strain into a Champagne coupe. Top with champagne. Garnish with half a fresh strawberry.

Blood donation was successful in the senses that (a) they got a pint, and (b) I didn't faint. On the other hand, it was exceptionally painful and also took a lot of fiddling to get good flow, and it still hurts a bit. I just removed the bandage; there is some bruising and I think there may be more by morning, but no swelling.

I can't help thinking of Fred Small's song "At the Elbe." Pass on the meal, with prejudice (shrimp). Also pass on the drink for now (Passover). For a Sauvignon Blanc, Hosmer 2021. I've been to Santorini but don't have pix handy. Rather full day today: groceries, blood donation, and the last class of the semester, with our Nature Appreciation slideshows. I don't expect any of the snacks at the blood donation to be kosher for Passover. Actual dinner will be a tofu and bok choy stir-fry, with brown jasmine rice. Jews of Ashkenazi background don't eat either tofu (or any legumes) or rice during Passover, but I switched to Sefardi rules for Passover almost a decade ago.

Mexican Coffee If the name of today's drink made you think of Irish coffee, you were on the right track, and you might be able to guess how it's made. 1 fluid ounce coffee-flavored liqueur (such as Kahlua®) ½ fluid ounce tequila 5 fluid ounces hot coffee 2 tablespoons whipped cream (some versions use plain cream) Stir together coffee liqueur and tequila in a mug. Pour in hot coffee and top with whipped cream.

I finished my Nature Appreciation requirement on Monday by visiting a forest preserve and a nature center that are near each other. Houghton Land Preserve Spencer Crest Nature Center

I wouldn't mind some Sauvignon Blanc and it would go with the salmon cakes, but the wine I have open is a kosher Gamay-Pinot blend from France. Believe it or not, salmon patties were already in my plan for today, the recipe adapted slightly for Passover. I was up too early for brunch, even with a mimosa waiting, and after the second seder last night I probably shouldn't drink any more for a while. No Nebbiolo grapes here, so I might substitute Chateau LaFayette Reneau's Petit Verdot, $29.99. I seem to have attended not one seder (required), not two (customary in the diaspora, but I follow the Israeli calendar), but three. The second was virtual, starting at lunchtime EDT yesterday because it was being led from Germany. The third was at the synagogue with 65 people, more a community event (with very good food) than a religious occasion. I had arranged to sit with my hosts from the first seder and a medical student whom they had invited; a Presbyterian minister joined us. I also led part of the morning service yesterday.

Mimosa This is another drink that should be too simple to mess up, not that people haven't tried. 1 part freshly squeezed orange juice 1 part Champagne or other sparkling wine The sparkling wine for this need not be, and should not be, the best French champagne. Domestic American champagne, so-called, prosecco, or cava will be fine, but avoid one that is too insipid. Pour both the sparkling wine and the juice into a champagne flute (they mix better if the sparkling wine goes in first). That is all.

It's good to have English Language Day and English Muffin Day together, because muffins demonstrate once again that England and the United States are two countries divided by a common language. In other online venues, people in England declare vehemently that what is called an English muffin over here is not a muffin in any way, shape, or form -- but what is a muffin is something that there's less-than-complete agreement on in England, especially if you add pikelets to the conversation. The menu suggestion would be OK if I had any of the ingredients. I would simplify the drink to just Campari and soda, because I rarely have an open bottle of prosecco handy. For the wine, I'd go with whatever Bordeaux-style blend happened to be available, perhaps Rooster Hill's Cabernet Franc-Lemberger blend, $24.99.

Campari Spritz A person might think that a Campari Spritz was such a simple idea that the Interweb couldn't possibly mess around with it. Such a person would be wrong, but in this case, the maker of Campari has provided an official recipe. 2 oz. Campari 3 oz. Prosecco 1 oz. soda water Pour the Campari, Prosecco, and soda water into an ice-filled wine glass. Garnish with a orange slice of fresh orange.

Thank you, and not to worry. As I was puzzling over the many formulae for the drink, some of them farfetched, I realized that it was setting me behind on the Passover prep, and so left it for lunchtime. If I am too impaired in the morning, I might not post until lunchtime tomorrow as well, although tomorrow's drink is an easy one.

Fujiyama There are about a thousand different recipes for this one, and they don't agree on anything. Some of them seem to think that it's named for Fuji apples, not for the mountain, and use apple juice as the mixer or applejack as the spirit. One of them is a pseudotini that contains a tiny amount of sake and large amounts of other ingredients. There's even one that thinks it should be made with Mountain Dew. Here is the least bizarre that I could find. 2 tsp of Triple Sec 1 1/2 oz of sake rice wine 1 1/2 oz of sweet and sour mix Stir ingredients together in a cocktail glass. Garnish with a slice of lemon and a maraschino cherry, and serve.

I think that the coleslaw needs to accompany a pastrami sandwich (after Passover). Will think about the drink when I know what it is. For the wine, I might substitute Fulkerson's Zweigelt even though the variety is from the other side of Europe. I've been to Mykonos but any pictures I have are of Delos.

Thank you. The kitchen is prepared, except for emptying a cabinet for the Passover dishes that are in the drainer now.

My kindergarten teacher was Mrs. Decker. She was one of the last graduates of a specialized kindergarten-primary teaching school still working in our district, but there was nothing old-fashioned about her teaching. I would like some chocolate-covered cashews but probably won't get any. The stir-fry would be OK if I had any of the ingredients. No on the pseudotini even if it's French. For a Sauvignon Blanc, Ravines Wine Cellars 2022, $22.95. The big projects for today are shopping, including cleaning supplies for Passover, and Passover cleaning. Some people start Passover cleaning weeks in advance, making it harder and harder to cook in the interim. Ordinarily I do it quickly in the morning before the first evening. I'm going to do pre-cleaning, basically the ordinary kitchen cleaning, today, so that tomorrow it requires only what is specific to Passover, including unpacking and washing dishes and utensils. This is because I want to Appreciate Nature in the afternoon. I'm not cooking for a seder at home, and my contribution to one with friends is wine, lots of it. BTW, a self-cleaning oven is the most important thing for Passover, imo. Some people prepare their ovens using a blowtorch, and in Los Angeles, the fire station serving the large Orthodox neighborhood of Pico-Robertson has its busiest day of the year right before Passover, as rabbis go from house to house starting fires.

My college had a lot of students majoring in Chinese, but I didn't study it. Even in my grad program in eco-spirituality I hadn't head of cli-fi and I'm not sure that I am better off for knowing about it. No on the pasta--Brussels sprouts are OK, cream and scallops aren't, and beginning on Monday, pasta isn't, either. Also giving the cocktail a pass. I don't think that any Nebbiolo is grown here, or could be, so I'll suggest the Standing Stone Teinturier Saperavi, which shares Barolo's need for long aging. When I got home from the synagogue, I needed to lie down (nothing actually wrong), so I haven't been out to Appreciate Nature. I had leftover chicken and green beans for lunch, so will be back to vegetarian for dinner.

There is a 1930 Marx Brothers film called Animal Crackers, starring Margaret Dumont along with Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo. They tried to get around the Hays Code, not entirely successfully, and in 1936 a censored version was issued. No on the sandwich and on the drink; too complicated. I was confused because I know someone who was the city manager of a small city called Long Beach that is on Long Island. I don't associate cranberry juice with southern California. No Grenache here, so I'll suggest the 2021 Saperavi from Deer Run. (Deer run everywhere here. Have they been sampling the wine?) What struck me about the wine was the reference to Australia's vine-pull scheme. In that, Australia was probably following the lead of the EU, which had paid growers to reduce their plantings, in order to reduce the "wine lake" of overproduction. (The term parallels the EU's "butter mountain.") The result was a worldwide wine shortage.

One grandmother of mine came through Ellis Island as a toddler. (Family legend says infant in arms, but the dates don't fit that.) Her eventual husband was somewhat older; he had come from the same region in Poland-Lithuania earlier. I owned a Ford Mustang ca. 1980, during the period when they were least like Mustangs, but when there was a big German engine and the CHP used them as pursuit cars. It got me into some difficulty once, trying to enter Canada. Pass on the pie, as much as I love rhubarb. The Applejack Sour appears to lack sourness. Only one of the typical grapes, Syrah, of a Rhone blend is cultivated here, so I'll suggest a different blend, Element Winery's 2018 Can’t Stop/Won’t Stop. One of the minor characters in E. F. Benson's Rye novels called her cottage Taormina. I'm not firing on all cylinders today. Last night I was asked to fill in for one of the officiants in the synagogue on Saturday morning, which kept me awake much too late. The part I'm to cover is the section that I'm least comfortable with, and which doesn't include any of the parts that I really like to lead.

The Erie Canal is about 60 miles north of here. Oddment: after it was built, a subsidiary canal connected the Chemung River at Elmira, a tributary of the Susquehanna River, draining to Chesapeake Bay, to it via Seneca Lake. Seneca Lake's natural drainage is to to the St. Lawrence via the Oswego River and Lake Ontario. So canals tied together the St. Lawrence, Hudson, and Susquehanna watersheds, although the actual movement of water among them would have been minimal. Little or no remnant of the Chemung Canal can be seen today. Only a block or two from She-qua-ga Falls, of which I posted a photo recently, is a sign marking where a bridge crossed the (now filled-in) canal.

Well, I fell getting up from my desk, with my left leg straight out. I checked later but could not find any banana peel. The sprain is also my left ankle, but sustained 10 days later.

The menu would be OK, but I think that the drink is just lemonade with vodka in it. There is still (since yesterday) no Tempranillo in the Finger Lakes. I'll counter with the gold-winning Stoney Lonesome Estate Zweigelt from the Three Brothers Winery. I haven't been to Whitehorse or anywhere in the Yukon but I watch Dr. Oakley, Yukon Vet. Today was going to be the last sunny day this week, and I wanted to Experience the Beauty of Nature twice, at a forest preserve and a nature center that are very near each other, but there wasn't time. So here is what looks like a rail trail but was actually built to provide utility access for a Corning Inc. facility.

Passover decorations (not really a thing but I started doing it in 2020)

Probably. Today I did not find much serenity on the Lackawanna Rail Trail. It has nice river views on one side, but there's an interstate highway on the other. This is from a railroad bridge that the trail uses.

I had to wear a sling for a month after breaking my arm (surgical repair, so no cast), even in bed, but I always had clothing under it, since it was December. My first cruise was four months later, and I dislocated the other shoulder shortly before it. The ortho doc said that I could go, provided that I used rolling luggage and checked it, kept my cabin bag light enough to lift with one hand, and followed instructions from a physical therapist. It led to some odd packing, such as an ice bag (made all the difference) and a carpenter's folding ruler. The latter was for mobility exercises; any stick that was long enough would have done, but would have been too long to fit in the bag I was taking.