My church does a thing called “Dinners for Eight”. People who want to participate get put into groups, then they take turns eating at each other’s houses. The host provides the main dish and drinks, the guests bring the rest. I have developed something of a reputation for salads, so my hosts often ask that I bring them. My reputation is mostly based on my version of Panera Bread’s Fandango Salad. I’ve brought some of my own inventions as well though.
My next dinner is tonight. Last night I decided I would try to reproduce a salad from another restaurant. This time it’s Sushi Hana – my favorite sushi place. The salad is iceberg lettuce with a carrot dressing. I got close to replicating the dressing, but there’s something slightly different about my version. I don’t know if I’m leaving something out or using the wrong kind of vinegar or what. It’s still quite tasty though. It’s made with food-processed carrots, rice vinegar, a little water, and sugar. Very simple, but very good. I think it will be a hit tonight.
I added red cabbage for color.
UPDATE: I just made the dressing for tonight. It must be cold to taste it’s best, so I wanted it to chill in the refrigerator all day. I found the missing ingredient! It’s ginger. Here’s the recipe:
1 16oz bag baby carrots
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup seasoned rice vingegar
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon ginger powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Blend in a food processor. Chill.
Yum!
One of my regular internet link sites announced the release of a new version of the Bible… a Manga version. “Manga” is the name for Japanese comic book style drawings. It’s the New Testament only. The book contains the comic, then the “Today’s New International Version” of the New Testament. It’s so cool, I had to get it!
Click on the picture below for a larger version of the image.
Last night just before I went to bed, I went to my computer room for one last look at email. This is also Ned’s bedroom, since there is a cushy sleeping pad and a nice heater for the cooler nights. There was something on the floor that looked like a dead leaf or something. After seeing what it was, I went to get the camera. Ned sat proudly nearby.
It is a mouse! Congrats, Ned, on your first kill of 2007! I don’t anticipate too many more mice. They haven’t come around much since 2004. I had a big problem with them then, but Ned would catch them, eat their heads, and leave their bodies so that other mice might behold his terrible wrath.
Ned may be dumb, bless his heart, but he’s a pretty good mouser.
Okay, sorry for another plant post, but this is a big event.
This is my “corn plant”. Latin name: Dracaena fragans.
These are quite common houseplants because they’re so easy to keep alive. I have it in my computer room, which is my “jungle room”. So why am I excited? Because it’s blooming! Actually, my corn plant blooms every spring. The blooms are among the most powerfully scented flowers I’ve ever encountered. The year it bloomed it’s heaviest, I could smell it when I walked in the front door… down the hall and down the stairs!
This year, there’s only one bloom stalk. It’s still a big deal though. It still smells good. According to this page, it’s kind of unusual for a corn plant to bloom anyway:
Yellow flowers, very scented in ending panicles, only appear in adult samples being more than 1.80m tall. Blooming is usually very rare, since it only happens once or twice throughout its live.
Pretty cool, eh?
The bitter-metallic taste is back. The last few days, I’ve had a weird taste in my mouth all day long. It is identical to the taste I wrote about in September. Last time it was my toothpaste. (And thus my obsession with Tom’s of Maine unsweetened toothpaste.) This time, I at least know to look for artificial sweetener. And this time, I believe the culprit is floss.
I have recently been very good about flossing. So good that I ran out of floss. I like Glide floss because it doesn’t break so easily in my crazy-tight teeth. It also doesn’t shred and leave pieces of floss stuck between my teeth. (Not a good sensation, let me tell you.) There are several kinds of Glide. When I went to get a refill from the drugstore, I got a different kind than my usual. This new kind I got said “Deep Clean”. Apparently, it’s textured, so it scrapes your teeth better. The problem with it, as I’ve discovered, is that it’s flavored and sweetened. The artificial sweetener gets in my mouth and doesn’t leave. Thus the bitter-metallic taste. And thus, I won’t be using this floss anymore.
