Speed Trials

I often give people a hard time about the general loss of common sense today. No one tries to figure anything out for themselves anymore, what with sites like Yahoo Answers and wikihow and soyouwanna, it’s so much easier to google something and get a second or third opinion. I mean, really, really, a video on how to organize empty food containers? But yes, there it is…

But then I made a vegetable soup last week, and for the umpteenth time, it ended up tasting like *cricket sounding* nothing… I ate some of it down, because it was filled with some of the healthiest food on earth (I don’t eat nearly enough beets according to whfoods.com) but I sure didn’t like it.

Then today for lunch, I ordered an “Italian style minestrone” at a local salad/soup bar. The cook who served it to me asked me if I’d ever been to Italy. When I said “no”, he said, “Well, you’re going there now!” I told him I couldn’t wait, and damn, he was right. That soup was Capital-T-Tasty.

I got back to my desk, and despite all of my complaining about the mountains of garbage on the internet, I had to swallow my pride, realize that I had lost the ability to produce homemade soups with flavour, and went to the internet for advice.

I googled “why are commercial soups so much tastier than homemade soups?” but didn’t get anything productive… Then I typed in “Best homemade soup recipes” and came across this website: http://www.homemade-soup-recipes.com/index.html

Flavour base. Broth. Main Ingredients. Are you kidding me? Well, apparently I needed it.

Of course my big problem with soups is my total aversion to fats and salt – i.e. flavour country. I found most broths were too high in sodium, and so would just use water in my soups. Well, you can’t release the flavour of your ingredients in water. Pretty common sensical, and yet, somehow, I’d lost that piece of the puzzle.

My mom actually is the queen of stock. She makes the. best. turkey. stock. And she makes a boatload!! After thanksgiving and Christmas, once the meal is done, the visitors have gone home, the wine has left it’s earmark around the glasses, she debones the bird, saving the meat for sandwiches, and dumps the bones, the fat, all the leftover bits into a huge pot, along with any leftover stuffing (yeah right!), vegetables, even the mashed potatoes are dumped into the stock pot, and filled with some raw onions and a couple of bay leaves (I think) and water. Simmer for three to four days (yes, days) and pass through a sieve. Dump liquid into single serve containers (oh, about 36 thousand of them) and freeze.

While I’m still reeling from my last pathetic attempt at soup, I do have faith, and hope, for the future. I will take the information imparted to me from the big bad web, and will do my best with what I’ve learned. I will add oil and salt to my soups, and hope that I somehow regain that bit of my logical, rational mind that seems to have been lost in the haze of my late 20s… Or something…

Here are some things I’ve been up to lately…

2000 pieces bitches! Count it!

I also tended to the garden (something I hadn’t done ALL summer… It felt good to get a little dirt under the fingernails, and weed that SOB!)

Our corn is doing super well:

Our beans are getting eaten by some bugs (cute bugs, but bugs nonetheless):

Our tomatoes are still green…

And I reffed another AMAZING derby bout here in Ottawa: Swelter Skelter!

It was hot as hell in that arena, but the girls played SO well, and traumed the Green Mountain Derby Dames. I feel I reffed a nice tight, clean game, and called them as I saw them. There was one contentious spot in the game, and I got called out by a player, but I didn’t let the emotions of the situation get in the way, I thought about it objectively, and from that perspective, I made the right call and was able to back it up. And I feel that the girls respect you more when you’re cognizant of your own convictions rather than blindly agree with them.

And even work is starting to pick up this week, which is great.

***

Total Aside: Before reading the book or watching the movie, I always had this idea of what “Gone With The Wind” meant. I had heard about this bold and exciting lady called Scarlett O’Hara, and I thought the title referred to her character being rootless and impetuous, and that her whole life was a whirlwind that she dared not to control or steer, because she was free and carried along, gone with the wind…

But after reading the book, I quickly discovered that the author meant to convey exactly the opposite: that Scarlett was rigidly stuck in one place while her whole life: the traditions and customs she knew and loved, and all her worldly possessions and status and pomp, THEY were the ones that escaped her grasp and were gone with the wind, leaving her behind.

Interesting, huh?

If you know me, chances are you’ve heard the words: “I hate desk jobs” come out of my mouth, on more than one occassion. Unfortunately, those are the only kinds of jobs I’ve had since I graduated from University (with a degree in Theatre Performance… Go figure!)

This is where I spend 40 hours a week. In terms of cubicles, I’ve had better, and I’ve had worse. I’m angling to move to a window cubicle, which would go a long way in appeasing me in my cubicle life, I’m sure… But until then, these three and a half walls are all I’ve got!

I also have files. Lots of files. And yes, every single piece of paper in those files has an identical counterpart saved electronically. Mega sigh.

I especially hate desk jobs when there’s a lull, and not much going on… And so when I say “I’m bored at work”, it’s really not because I’m putting off doing certain tasks, or in between special projects… It’s really because there is nothing going on…

Case in point:
Nothing in my meeting folders.

No messages on the phone.

Nothing in my inbox

Bikepolo.ca on the computer… (heh heh)

There are certainly advantages to working an office job, but for me, if I had to do it all over again, it would definitely be something I’d actively avoid. Funny though, because when I was kid, I didn’t play “house”, I played “Executive” or “Interior Designer” where I’d set up my office, and use all kinds of post-it pads, coloured flags, and file folders to run my little business. I was doomed from the very beginning!!

Just sayin’…

It’s freakin’ Sandwich Month. I know, I can’t believe I’m five days late either…

I had delicious sandwiches yesterday and today, and I plan to stick with the sandwich theme for most of the week. This may or may not have anything to do with the fact that I’m filling in for Angelo at the Bakery this week (delivering their goods to a nearby health food store in exchange for lunch). Bread and Sons bakery happen to make the BEST sandwiches you can buy…

Like the AMAZING Avocado sandwich with tomato, sprouts, sunflower seeds on slightly sweet spelt bread.

Or the Gouda sandwich, with roasted potato, watercress, and a slightly spicy olive tapenade. Mmmm…

I’ve always been a sandwich monster. I really love sandwiches, but over the last few years I was made to believe that, in order to lose weight, I had to forgo my beloved sandwich. I tried making substitute sandwiches, wrapping my food in eggplant…

lettuce…

Or even resorting to the “open face” sandwich that is impossible to eat like a SANDWICH (with two hands, elbows on the table, mustard smeared across your face!!!)…

And so now…

Layout…

Closed face!!!

Now I get to relish in the wonderfulness of sandwiches ALL month long…

Now I basque in the glory of the sandwich, and take you to a throw back from my previous phone… This was my cellphone picture for as long as I can remember… A sandwich I made at the behest of the sandwich master, my younger brother Roscoe…