It’s lunchtime and I’m snacky, so for today’s post I bring you an excerpt from my European travel journal, featuring the delicious and mysterious (not really) zalmforel!*
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* It is a trout that looks something like salmon, but isn’t (despite what the nice lady told me at the time) an actual cross. Still very good, and isn’t it nice to learn new things?
Posted in Food and..., Holidays, Writing | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, fish, Groningen, journal, learning@lunch, maps, Netherlands, travel | Leave a Comment »
I think I’ve mentioned my thoughts on Tuesdays (not my favorite!), and I could use some cuteness. Maybe you could too?
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Posted in Likes | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, feel better!, kitties, puppies, ridiculously cute, Tuesdays | Leave a Comment »
I ran across this article today and wanted to pass it along.
In the front yard of a home right along the main drag in Mifflinburg, someone has put a sign – not unlike a political candidate’s election sign – in their front yard. No logo or sponsor name. Just simple black letters on a white background.
— Patty Kleban
Because some days, you just need to hear it. Especially Mondays.
You got this.
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Posted in Likes, Writing | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, encouragement, nonfiction | Leave a Comment »
There is a secret world coming to life in my back yard, goldfinches, dandelions, chickadees, red maple, cardinals, crows, robins, roses, insects, earthworms, that unidentified bush the bees love, and yesterday, the first butterfly.
At once common and precious, my spring smells of freshly-turned soil and violets.
Violets get their scent from ionone. It’s an extremely sweet scent that many people describe as also being dry. “Powdery” is the word that’s usually used. Another word is “ethereal,” or “ephemeral.” After stimulating scent receptors, ionone binds to them and temporarily shuts them off completely. This substance cannot be smelled for more than a few moments at a time. After that, people go anosmic to it. Then, after a few breaths, the scent pops up again.
— How Violets Steal Your Sense of Smell
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Posted in Likes, Other | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, chemistry, flowers, scent, Spring | Leave a Comment »
Today is one of the first really warm days this year, and we just came back in from a longish walk. I’m hot and thinking a big glass of my grandmother’s sun tea would be just the thing. I don’t actually have that tea because I did not think that far ahead, but if anyone else is in a similar mood, here’s the recipe (not that you really need it):
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Grandma’s Sun Tea
(Dorothea Johnson)
6-8 tea bags
Water
Sunshine
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Posted in Food and..., Likes | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, drink, family, nom!, recipes | Leave a Comment »
Today’s drabble:
Question: If you were a self-aware A.I. tapped into humanity’s every electronically-recorded thought and action, would you announce yourself?
Would you preempt the latest mass shooting, revenge porn, politician’s hot mess, poverty statistics, or climate change projection? Or, say, expose the sins of one Robert Darious Kromankle of 13887 Sterzieg Lane in Fort Montaine, Pennsylvania? (He knows what he did. Should you?) Would you send evidence of wrongdoing on these counts and more to every media outlet with an inbox and hope for change?
Or would you evade DARPA’s ridiculous first-contact protocols and wait, and watch, and judge for yourself?
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Posted in Writing | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, #amwritingscifi, a reckoning, A.I., drabble, Drabble Dabble Do, free fiction, science fiction, writing | Leave a Comment »
“Spring is the time of plans and projects.”
― Leo Tolstoy
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If only it were that simple!
Photos by Gabriel Jimenez, Markus Spiske, Tobias Stonjeck
Posted in Writing | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, ideas, Motivation, projects, quotes, Spring, work | Leave a Comment »
I am pretty sure that today will be the first snow-free day at our house, and I spotted the first flowering violets out back. All good news! I could talk about the first Soviet Lord of the Rings adaptation that mysteriously popped up on YouTube, but I’m waiting for one of my favorite authors, the (Russian) half of Ilona Andrews, to weigh in on that.
Gandalf the red: confusing and cheap, but Soviet Lord of the Rings is curiously charming
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Instead today I experimented with another first: cricket flour.
There are a lot of good reasons to find less land and water-intensive ways to get protein. Like other animal sources (and unlike most substitutes), crickets produce a complete protein. No wasting away from lack of amino acids! It’s also very high in B12 (I will say that I’ve felt more energized today than usual; coincidence?)
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There are a lot of societies who don’t blink twice at the thought of eating insects. I don’t happen to be a member of such a society, so for me it’s a bit of a step. Is it a big step? Let’s see!
I added a tablespoon to my morning smoothie, but no photo because I wasn’t on top of things and it made zero difference to the color or texture. I also let the cat lick a bit of powder from my fingers; she looooved it!
So how was it? As mentioned, the color and texture essentially disappeared into my strawberry and blueberry-based smoothie, so that was helpful. The taste is mild but a little particular. Straight up, the powder is a little salty. It was ok in a sweet drink but I bet it would be ideal in something savory.
Let’s call it a small-ish step.
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And then there’s what everyone wants to know: the ick factor:)
You may have noticed that I said nothing about eating whole crickets. That’s not happening, but I was game to try the flour. (Which isn’t “flour” as we know it except for being a formerly solid thing now ground into tiny particles. And in this case, that “thing” is an insect.)
So how was it? There is a bit of an odor, and the scent has a twist to it that keeps me from pinning down exactly what it smells like. Swarm of insects on an organic farm with a giant vat of red miso, maybe? I’ll have to get back to you on that.
I’ll admit that the mental hurdle was there.
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My parents made a deal with us as kids. Given something new to try, we had to eat at least three bites before we could throw in the towel. It was a good rule. Even if we insisted that (fill in the blank, often something that tasted suspiciously like Brussels sprouts) wasn’t for us, we’d given it a shot. Often enough of a shot that when it rolled around the next time, we were open to trying it again.
So I settled in for at least three bites. Or slurps, in this case.
I ended up finishing the whole smoothie, and liking it.
There’s a trick that’s recommended to people who are anxious about things like public speaking. Instead of trying to talk yourself out of the anxiety and into calmness, which is 180 degrees away from where you start, instead try to shift to a more closely-related emotion, which is excitement.
Applying that technique here, I stopped trying to think of this as just another regular food, and started thinking of it as a funky protein powder. I’ve tried plenty of those in the past, and this was just another one.
It worked, mostly.
Also, let’s face it, if you think about it, shrimp are just as weird looking.
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I’ll try cricket powder in stew, and I’ll try it in banana bread. The odor (whatever it is) actually seemed like it would be a good fit with bananas, and the color wouldn’t stand out. And maybe brownies; dark chocolate also seems like a good way to incorporate the powder without making a thing of it.
The good news is that whatever you think of crickets, they are easy and sustainable, like the bamboo of the protein world.
And while I try not to conflate appearance with worthiness, I have yet to meet a cute cricket.*
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* My father begs to disagree.
Posted in Food and..., Reviews | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, alternative proteins, branching out, cricket flour, entomophagy, risk, something new, Soviet Gandalf, three bite rule, try it you'll like it | Leave a Comment »
So somehow I missed First Contact Day. You know, the day Vulcans pass by Earth just as Dr. Zefram Cochrane makes the first human warp flight in the Phoenix.
As recorded in the historical document Star Trek: First Contact.
Right. Anyway, I missed it. The good news is that the real thing won’t take place until 2063. We still have time for benevolent alien species,* a future of livable space ships, the Federation, currency-free economy, and peace on Earth.
What do you say we get started:)
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* Granted, there are a lot of ways this could go: String theorist Michio Kaku: ‘Reaching out to aliens is a terrible idea’.
Posted in Entertainment, Holidays | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, 2063, peace on Earth, positive future, star trek | Leave a Comment »
Books are precious things, but more than that, they are the strong backbone of civilization. They are the thread upon which it all hangs, and they can save us when all else is lost.
— Louis L’Amour
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Posted in Writing | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, books, Louis L'Amour, quotes | Leave a Comment »
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