Old car, dogs and movies

Today was one of the milestone for our family... We finally donated our old Subaru, which was waiting patiently in the garage,  to a radio station. While I was cleaning the car I realized that there was still a lot of little things which remind me of our old lazy doggies Kaja and Majka. Their toys were hidden in different places, the old sticks and of course the pieces of old tennis balls under the seats... Even the dirty windshields. Yes, we did not clean our car too often. So these lazy dogs were the Subaru dogs and today was the end of the Subaru epoch.  Aki and her future sister will be the bmw dogs. In fact,  Aki has been already spreading her toys all over the bmw :-)

Of course the departure of the Subaru was not without a drama. Remember the movies when you say "No, it is impossible! this cannot happen". Well, it can happen! Tom signed the car title and then placed it at the edge of the table... so Aki would have had a perfect opportunity to grab it. Fortunately Tom noticed and moved it to a secure place.... It was in fact really secured place at the back of the cabinet's counter-top standing by the back wall. He was very precisely placing the title there making it clearly visible to everybody, however, he did not notice that the back of the counter was not sealed and after a precise adjustment the title disappear behind our build-in cabinet. Tom looked at me and said "the title is gone!" This is the movie moment!  The title was really gone, hidden back behind the build in cabinet.... How can we get it out? We did investigate many options: used the mirror to look into a very tiny opening between the wall and the counter-top; placed the wire from a hanger behind the cabinet - did not really fit there; vacuumed to pull it out; considered calling the contractor, or cancel the car transfer etc. The final option was to dismantle the cabinet, lift the granite counter-top (heavy!), take all the screws out and lift the cabinet up. Yes! We found the title sitting at the bottom of the hole and rescued it. So, the transfer of the car could be completed today and the garage is empty tonight. All this time I had a feeling that the Subaru did not really wanted to be gone today. The end of the era...

The Blizzard and cooking

What to do when it is snowing with bitter cold and strong wind outside? Cooking is one of better options, as you can keep warm at the stove with nice warm outcome of the activity.  This morning I tried a recipe from Nigel's Kitchen Diaries which I have never cooked before. I made  ricotta raspberry pancakes - the recipe is in the book, but you can also find it in the lower part of his 2004 guardian entry:

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2004/oct/03/foodanddrink.recipes

The pancakes were delicious and we ate all 8 for our Sunday branch.

I guess this is the Nigel's cooking weekend. Yesterday, I made the chocolate pudding with my modification to his recipe - replace hazelnut spread with a shot of good whiskey. Today I will also make a lamb stew for dinner. It will be cooking nicely for a few hours keeping the kitchen warm.

Then I have to decide what to cook tomorrow, so plan to check the two volumes of Tender that are piled on the side table in the kitchen hidden from Aki's teeth.

Lazy Dogs and the Active One

Our two Lazy Dogs are gone and we miss the quiet times and slow evenings. Now things are quite different. We entered the new world of the very Active Dog when we brought our 8 weeks old puppy home a couple weeks ago. We forgot everything about puppies!  Our little puppy sleeps a lot, but when she's awake she wants to play, chew, run, jumps all at the same time. She is so excited about the world and every new day brings new excitements. Discovering the woods and a lake. She was afraid of the lake she saw for the first time in her life this morning. Is it possible that a Lab can be afraid of the water? Hope not!
Now, the question is whether we'll get a second puppy, so Aki will have a sister to play with and somebody else to chew on.

Melons

I am realizing that there are many types of melons. Many of them are much much better than what I have normally had and called a melon. Of course summer is a perfect time for  trying  some new and strange types. There are plenty of them in the market now. We had "Crenshaw" melon which looks like a cantaloupe, but it is much softer and more delicate and overall much better than the traditional cantaloupe. We also had "Casaba" and "Canary" melons which were great. on the hot summer day. However,  I still did not find the one I had in Madrid last June. That melon was dark green on the outside and light green in the inside,  and surprisingly sweet. I saw "Piel del Sapo" which looked very similar, but had quite a different taste. I need to try different variety at the market and keep looking. I may find it one day, but I also discovered that I like these new melons much better than honeydew or cantaloupe, so I'll be eating them until the end of the summer!

Teriyaki Salmon

This is the Alaskan salmon season and we had salmon for dinner. One of the best!

Here is some detailed recipe to remember.

1 lb of Wild Sockeye salmon  filet

First marinade in Teriyaki sauce  - I only use SAN-J brand - put filet on the plate/bowl and cover with the teriyaki sauce : pour directly over the fish  so it goes all over and bits spill around. Add a fresh (or powder) ginger - a sliver grated on top of the fish, so it is sprinkled over the top, and then put the teriyaki from around the fish over this ginger, so ginger is moist with the sauce as well.  Keep the marinade on the fish for about 20-30 min... 

Now, heat-up the oven to about 400F before turning on the broiler options.

When the oven is heating place the fish on the broiling pan - cover the pan with the aluminium foil and cut through few of the broiling holes (this foil is mainly for Tom, as he needs to clean it :-)) Put some oil on top of the aluminium foil before placing the fish there. Pour some sauce left over in the marinading dish over the fish. Set the broil on high and put the pan with the fish under the broiler, on the rack which is closest to the broiling flame..

Now it is hard to say how long to cook. Today I set the timer for 3 minutes, checked at the 3min beep and pour more of the left-over marinade, all of it, all over the fish to make sure the fish is covered and not drying... then broil fish for another 3 min on high, after 3min check - the top sauce will be a little burned and black... take the pan out of the oven and cut the filet in the middle to check if it is done... Today it was a bit too raw, so I cut into two parts and put back into the oven for another minute on low broiler setting, It was not fully done after this last minute, but I took the pan out of the oven  - the broiling pan was hot, so the thickest slice would cook while out of the oven sitting on the broiling pan. 

We ate the thinner parts of the fish first and then the thicker... We have not finished the entire fish, but there is only a small slice left for tomorrow's lunch. The fish was really good!

 For the sides I made roasted fennel and warm kale (with some Asian dressing). Pairing with French rose  wine - Sincerite.

Cold and Exercise

I got a cold last week! I do not remember when I felt that bad last time...  The modern medicine does wonders, so today after taking decongestants and pain killers I felt much better. I had enough energy and wanted to exercise. Of course the gym or yoga is out of the question as I would infect the others and who knows how I would feel afterwards anyway.  It is too cold for a run, but the day is so nice sunny and clear with no wind... I decided to go for a power walk in the woods, a 50 mins walk on the old dog loop. It is really sad not to be able to walk this loop with the dogs anymore. They got a bit too slow for such a long walk. It is only 2.5 miles, but with hills and rough terrain they would take more than an hour or longer to do it and then spent the next few days on their couch... But maybe one day we need to try it.  I went alone, but took my Garmin and iPhone. The woods were great and really quiet for Sunday morning. The only sounds were given by the ice on the lake... Great sounds of expanding, contracting and cracking of the ice. Typically we have a lot of snow on the lake in January. But there is no snow this year, so the ice is all clearly visible and one can see different shades of ice across the lake, the history of the ice forming. We'll have a few cold days now, so the ice will get thicker.... I guess not for too long as the temperatures are swinging up and down this season and after a few days of cold we will get the warm days again.  The sun sets after 5pm now and the dark winter days are almost over! Tom is climbing in the gym today, but I can't wait till the first climbing day in Rumney! It will be here soon.

Spring in January

We had a great warm, 57F, and sunny day today! Real spring feeling. I walked back from the meeting in Harvard Yard and saw small green leaves picking up from the ground. Squirrels are fat... They seem to be confused and still collecting and hiding the food to survive the winter. Maybe the winter is still coming?
Of course Tom and I like this weather. No shoveling... well there was a bit of snow last weekend but very fluffy and easy to push. We managed to go cross-country skiing, but then collapse exhausted after just 45 min of cross-country! This is a tough exercise. Good for us and we need to practice, but again there is no snow. Spring is good. We may even be able to go climbing in Rumney soon. Climbing rock not ice. However,  maybe we still be able to go skiing this winter, at least up in the North country.