Baseball vernacular is great – so descriptive of the foibles we encounter while living. Sometimes that ball comes charging at you going 95 miles an hour, other times you can hit it out of the park when it comes to you in a perfect arc. Vin Scully is my favorite broadcaster – he has a wealth of witticisms, and brings me back to listening to the games on a transistor radio. Can’t stand to hear the way the game is called today on TV – different audience, different priorities, different game. Have to go there in person to enjoy the play, or just turn off the sound.
Today’s title, though, applies to the Kentucky Derby yesterday, when Bodemeister was edged out of contention in the home stretch by I’ll Have Another. Great race, even though Bodemeister hit the stat splits but came up empty at the finish. I usually wear my hat during the broadcast, but we taped and watched it later and I didn’t have a pick going in to the race. Didn’t have the ingredients for a mint julep in the house, but made due with a shot of cinnamon-infused Red Stag, courtesy of Jim Beam. I am sure I will find out a way to use that stuff in cooking, at some point.
My day was a continuation from the previous evening, when I had mixed a starter for some home made olive bread…it rose beautifully, and I was able to reproduce it from my scratchy notes, which were attached to the King Arthur bagel recipe I had modified for the bread. Love the texture of bagels, and thought it would be good in a bread, had a jar of greek olives on hand – you get the picture. Now all I have to work on is the right oven temp and baking time.
There are recipes that instruct you to heat the oven to like 5000 degrees (ok, I exaggerate, but you get the point when your jewelry burns your skin as you open the oven door and there’s smoke) and put a pan of water on the bottom (are you CRAZY???? this is a house, not a restaurant). To get that crispy crust without killing the crumb, nothing less than a good spritz of water and baking at a higher temperature will do. I concede the point. Note to self – 350 degree doesn’t do it. Note 2 to self – a pan with ice cubes and water evaporates pretty fast and is not a good thing on the oven floor; makes for nasty stuff. I like simple ingredients, a simple mix, and a painless delivery.
I also like Trader Joe’s Goat Milk Cream Cheese spread on my olive bread. And when it’s toasted? YES! Pour some more tea there, will ya?
We’re past the picket fence on the scoreboard and that horse is coming in on the stretch…..
Vairarenbeth's Blog 
In Search of Acacia, or Caught in the Thorns
Acacia with Saguaro
I am not a morning person. And I have been able to indulge in my slow-moving attitude through the winter months. But with April has come spring weather and an earlier sunrise. Quails, Flickers, Desert Wrens and all sorts of birds I haven’t been able to recognize (yet) chirp away at the sun and move me to get up and check it all out. As I sit here in my office, I spotted quails (or noodle heads, as we affectionately call them) walking the top of the fence, in a single file, with their usual intent of getting from one place to another. They are the most perseverant things I know.
Desert vegetation has a distinct feel – and I have finally discovered the acacia, one of the local variety that I had been searching for in vain. It seems that (according to the books I researched) the only time of year you can really tell them apart from mesquite is during the spring, when they bloom. Acacia are like the cherry blossom trees of the desert, sprouting their little yellow or white balls before the leaves pop out. At this time of year mesquites dump all their leaves and after a week or so of sheer nakedness, then they burst out their foliage. Palo Verdes fill in their foliage and bloom like crazy soon afterward. But I am totally struck by the beauty of a spring acacia. Clean contrast, elegant lines.
Back to the morning. One confession I must make, though, is that my early burst of energy and good intentions usually falls flat as I get side tracked and side-lined into all the things I want to do. I manage get one thing or two things done if I use one as an excuse to not do another (psychology at its best). Housework is usually a good activity to avoid. That said, this weekend I finished reading three (3) books, starting knitting a linen sweater with a pattern I found in the local library (and I have more patterns that I can shake a stick at at home, ha ha), helped my husband trim the shrubbery in the back, all while bemoaning that my ironing pile was looking more full than my closet. It has been said that success is the best revenge. I suppose that depends on your perspective.
So this morning I have been concentrating on getting my goodreads site updated, cleaning out a bit of my email, going for a neighborhood walk and then maybe getting that ironing out of the way before I finally attack that rug project that is on my weaving loom, so I can cut it off and dress it up with a more fun project instead. I may get distracted by the sweater, or one of the nine library books I have piled on the side (my husband is convinced that I am trying to read every book in the library, but in all fairness two of the books are knitting patterns). This Monday does have some anticipation in it, however, since this week I am going to have my first Arizona Weaving Conference experience! Starting Thursday, I will be going to the Fiber Through Time Conference, and take a workshop in kumihimo. More on that after it happens.
In the meantime, I am ready to get that metabolism going!
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