Taste-ing Tuesday

There's a new cooking challenge show on TV which started last week. The theory behind "The Taste" is that each thing the judges have to work with is a single spoonful of food. They don't know who made it. They don't know what's in it. They don't get the five-minute edited backstory that the audience sees. They just have that one taste to try to decide whether the cook moves forward in the competition or not.

I fully admit that I decided to try to watch the show because it has Nigella Lawson as one of the judges. And... well... I think she's amazing. It also has Anthony Bourdain as one of the judges. And... well... I'm watching it anyway. (Sorry... I know there are people who love him - including some close friends of mine - I'm just not one of them.)

But, anyway, the concept of the show, added to the fact that Christopher and I did a ton of cooking for our gathering last weekend, got me thinking: If I had one hour to make the one thing in my kitchen repertoire that most perfectly defines me, what would it be?

I make a darn fine pie crust, so maybe that would be involved, but what would go in it?

Would some kind of cookies be better? Or maybe scones? And how would those go in a spoon?

Maybe some comfort food would work to describe me - but I don't really have any of my own recipes for that. I mean... I have lots of borrowed and/or adapted recipes, but I don't develop many of my own.

In some strange ways, it seems like these are the culinary version of an "elevator speech." You know, the "How would you introduce yourself to a prospective employer in only the time that it takes for you to ride together in an elevator?" thing.

There's a difference, though, between describing what you do and who you are. I can tell people that I work as an editor, proofreader, and copywriter. And even if I say that, in my free time, I like to cook and bake, they won't know that I also like to dance in the kitchen - or that I once burned my thigh on a hot cookie sheet on my bed. (Long story.)

So... Yeah... A life summarized in a single spoon. I'm not sure how many episodes I'll be watching, but I do know that it certainly got me thinking.

Question: What would your spoon (literal or metaphorical) hold?

The Sound and the...

I had the strangest sensation this afternoon. On a day when the forecast was for freezing rain or snow, I leaned outside and saw... nothing.

Okay. I know that seems like not a bad thing, because it typically would mean that there was nothing falling. But I could hear something.

It sounded like sand falling on the hardened snow, but there was nothing to be seen.

About half an hour later, I looked outside and the entire sidewalk was covered in what looked like ground-up diamonds.

In other words, the world had been covered in sleet - probably an eighth-inch to a quarter-inch deep.

I think there's probably something profound that could be said about many invisible particles eventually becoming a whole to be reckoned with - but that's probably just more sound than it's worth.

Friday Flowers

When I lived in Paris (many years ago for about 9 months), one of my favorite small splurges was to stop at the corner shop that sold flowers once each week (or two) and buy a bouquet to take home.

I shared a very small apartment, so even just a few flowers could make a very big difference. Most of the time it was daisies - which are fresh and sunny, and also tend to last a while.

Now, all these years later, the grocery store closest to us has nice flowers, and so I pick them up for the house every couple of weeks. Typically, though, now I'm picking up roses, because the roses are 10 stems for 10 dollars, and there's something incredibly decadent about buying roses for the house every few weeks.

Christopher and I are hosting a gathering of sorts tomorrow night, and so I was in the store looking for flowers. I had thought I would get some carnations and roses, since they make a nice arrangement, but the carnations were all shades of orange or pink - not exactly what I was looking for.

Then I walked back around the corner and noticed the white daisies with their yellowy-green centers. They were almost the same color as some yellow roses with tinges of green which I had noticed in amongst all of the "normal" rose colors.

So tomorrow night's arrangements will be a past/present combo of daisies and roses, with just a hint of spring thrown in in the middle of the coldest week of winter.

Sounds about perfect to me.

Changing It Up

Birthdays are strange things. They really don't change anything, and yet we mark them each year.

Christopher's birthday is today. He's going from a young'un in his 30s, to... well... a young'un at age 40.

That's the kind of silliness that birthdays make us all look at. I mean... He's still the same number of years younger than me. He's still the same person. But the change from 30s to 40 can be a big deal.

For my 40th, we actually ran away to France and England. It was great. And it was, in large part, great because we were celebrating places I'd been, but also looking ahead to where we wanted to go in the future.

I think that's probably the best way to look at birthdays - with both a backward glance and a forward eye.

Granted, even so, it's easier to say that when the birthday being celebrated is someone else's, and my own is still 4 months away. After all, I said I like the idea - I didn't say I was always great at following through.

Bitter... and Cold

According to the weather guy on TV this morning on one of our local stations, the current weather is a "bitter cold."

In response, the traffic guy asked what was next: Would it be angry cold? Hostile cold?

When I posed that to some other people, today, the response I got most often was a suggestion that our weather is, currently, a "passive-aggressive" cold.

And I think that's probably right.

It's the kind of cold that doesn't want to be bothered with you, yet doesn't want to leave you alone, either. It doesn't want to actively annoy you, but it causes no end of annoyance, even so.

Christopher commented a couple of weeks ago that there's always a major cold snap before his birthday, but they hadn't, yet, predicted how cold the start of this week would be. No one had said that it would be the coldest weather we've seen in 4 years - or that we'd be spending between 36 and 48 hours below zero between last night and tomorrow.

Of course, by the time we're done with this, we'll all be feeling that satisfaction of having survived that I mentioned over the weekend. (Click here, if you missed that.) But, I have to admit that right now I'm really ready for it to be done.

What was that countdown to spring, again?

I Don't Hate Winter

I really don't hate winter. I don't.

It's one of the seasons. And I like the fact that Minneapolis has all four seasons.

Fall wouldn't be so urgent if we didn't have winter. Spring wouldn't be so exciting if we didn't have winter.

We wouldn't have anything to say "Just wait until winter" about on hot summer days.

The problem, I have realized, is that I also don't really like winter. What I do like is being able to say that I have survived it.

It's a badge of honor to get to work on a snowy day and be able to tell people that I did.

It's strangely exciting to look at a weather forecast that is predicting 48 hours or more all below zero and think "we can do this - after all, the next day it's going to be a balmy 10 degrees."

So, no, I don't hate winter. I just wish it didn't stick around quite so long - which is a frustrating thought in mid-January.

Feed a Cold

I have always wondered about the "Feed a cold, starve a fever" adage. Mind you, I have no idea where it came from, nor do I really have any desire to research it.

I've also heard the corollary of "Feed a fever, starve a cold," which makes an equal amount of sense to me.

And yet, when I posted a question online, today, asking people the best course of action when confronted with a cold - this is NOT the same as the flu, I know that it's not the flu because I checked all of the 2013 flu symptoms online on reputable websites and was assured that it wasn't that - the answer was pretty clear.

I know that a cold is one of those things that just "is." There really isn't a way around it. You can stock up on vitamins and herbs and tea and all that stuff, but if a cold has you in its sights, there's a very good chance you'll be catching it.

For me, my cold started as a sinus issue about a week ago. Then, on about Monday, I started to feel the sinus thing moving into my throat. This happens about once every couple of months, so it wasn't a surprise to me.

But then the throat thing started to move south, and I started feeling it in my chest. No coughing. No sneezing. No fever. Just a weird feeling in my sinuses/nose/ears/throat/chest.

In other words, the start of a cold.

So I've been pumping up the vitamins and minerals and wearing a heavier scarf. But I've got some stuff going on in the next 10 days that I can't be sick during, so I decided to reach out to friends and family for some suggestions.

Happily, most of the comments were actually sort of helpful. Or at least not too snarky.

Hot and sour soup, whining, a few brand name medicines, and nasal flushing all made the list.

Mainly, though, what I've come away with is that I need to eat and drink more - particularly Brandy and carbs. Which is lucky, considering that the other repeating suggestion was to sleep more.

Wish me luck.