Still Vegatating

I have been so so drowsy today...I realized about a half hour ago that I had no cafe this morning. I had tea, to see if I really want coffee in the mornings. So far the answer is a rousing YES. So I just had a cup of coffee. I am not galvanized into action, but am not quite as sleepy as I was.

It's Halloween, and many children of the Tijuana persuasion will be here this evening.  You would not believe how beautifully costumed they are.  They're just adorable. Many mamas and dads are there with the kids, with their sacks, too.  Big babies, they are.  And last year I even had a granny.  I thought it was awfully funny.  I hope they don't eat all that candy they'll get. If they are smart, they'll take it to their spider holes, bag it up, and sell it off bit by bit, under which circumstances it will be better for everybody.  I was sitting on the sofa trying to read last night,and finally realized that the horrible chemical distracting odor I'd been smelling was coming from a bag of bubble gum treats that was sitting there next to me.  Horrible stuff.

I am still struggling along with the all-veggie meal plans. Today I fell off the wagon. I felt the need for some protein so had water-pack tuna with my raw cabbage salad.  It was pretty good.  But then later I had a teeny Snickers and 2 mini Tootsie Rolls.  Tell me, was there a relation between the eating of tuna and the craving for Snickers? Probably.

So I made a little sandwich of the rest of the tuna in one slice of brown bread, and just had that with my cup of coffee. Might as well be hung for a whole fish as a fin....It was a quite tiny amount, all in all.

Last night I made a wonderful dish of vegetable matter.  I sprayed a pan with grapeseed oil, disapproved of by Dr. McDougall of course, and then I sauteed gently: 2 c. mushrooms, cut thick, 4 cups chard cut in strips, and five or six green onions cut into thin pieces...they cooked and made their own juice, and were just delicious.  A winning combo.

I will have the last of that tonight, and I am going to have to be careful of making too much.  My grandmother would have described this diet in terms, not of fiber, but of "bulk" and "roughage."  Roughage it is, and it's very filling.  But vegetable cook-ups and stews do not bear with too much overheating the next day.  One service as a leftover, and that's that for me. It becomes too much like ensilage if it lingers in the refrigerator too long, and that is no good.  Tonight I don't think I'll have anything more since I had that half of verboten sandwich.  It's all too filling.

Well, tomorrow we take Mr. Taterton to the doctor to get bawled out about his blood sugars.  He blames me for what he eats, of course.  It is all too hard for someone who has never wanted to give a thought about what he ate or drank--except whether it piqued his fancy or not.  I have tried to feed him better. He won't eat it. But he is going to get a big helping of that vegetable dish up there again tonight, under the guise of a side dish for his hamburger.  YAZZYBEL

I Have the Feeling That Something's Missing

And that Something is a Someone--my longlost cousin Stuart.

Somehow I had the impression that this was the weekend on which he was making his visit to us--all was ready. At ten this morning, I thought I'd call to see when he was going to drive in from the airport. To my surprise, he answered from his home office in Connecticut.  Whoa.  He's coming next weekend, not this one.

I will freeze the roast uncooked...I will freeze the cake I made if I can't think of a way to give it away...and we will eat the frijoles, as they were already started and probably would not freeze well.  Well, if I refry them they will be fine. We'll see.

To fill in the great big hole in my (expected) weekend, I'll put in some more pictures of the work done by Filiberto and Cesar. These pictures will be boring, because tile floors in progress can only be boring..but that' s all I have to fill the space. YAZZYBEL

See?  Told ya. 

A Lot of Trouble but Worth It

 

Hi, everybody!

Up there we have Cesar and Filiberto.  They were the cheerful, polite, tireless workers who were here to put in new tile floors in our two tiny bathrooms, and our front porch.  It was a pleasure to have them around. Cesar was the boss, who frequently was telling Filiberto how to do the tasks correctly.  Filiberto did as he was told.  They were both very nice.  Cesar was here on Monday and nearly killed himself working so hard alone. So wisely he brought Filiberto along the next day, and still they barely finished by sunset, and both worked very hard all day long. I never really saw either of them take a break or rest at all. They said they brought their lunch, but if so I never saw them eat. They had big bottles of water which they slugged down from time to time.  It was pleasant and funny to hear them talk, to hear them talk on their cells to their wives, to hear their music which was playing noticeably but very very quietly out in front where they were cutting and placing tiles.

I am glad the job is done. Is it perfect? No.  Is it fine by me? Yes.  If anything went wrong with the job it was the fault of Home Depot, not the workers! It was great to have them about for a couple of days, and it is wonderful to have real, clean, hard bathroom floors at last. YAZZYBEL

McDougall-ish Ideas but the Dishes are Mine

Good morning; here is a picture of a delicious dish that would be loved by skinny bitches and bastards, McDougall-ites, and in fact any and all vegans.

Nothing is in this dish except vegetables.  I bought a huge eggplant and peeled it. I cut it in circles, put three circles together, cut them in small strips, thence into small cubes.  I sauteed them in a very tiny amount of olive oil,which Dr McD would not like but everybody else would.  Then I added cubed or sliced onions, garlic, red or green bell pepper, a tiny slice of a red serrano minced so tiny you wouldn't believe it, and I sauteed everything gently, and then I added one can of tomato sauce (saltless), and a small cubed red tomato. And some black olives.  You can also add a bit of water (not too much; eggplants are watery) and leave it all to simmer. Oh yes, you may add herbs of your choice. And a little salt and pepper.  It's amazing how little salt you need once you get out of the habit of salting thoughtlessly.This dish is sometimes called eggplant caviar, and it can be eaten cold on crackers or bread, or all by itself with a spoon. Or heated in a bowl as a comfort food.

Now, the sandwich above is the one that I wrote about in the last posting.  Is it not pretty?  And it is so delicious.  Sandwiches do not have to have meat or cheese in them to be very satisfying to the taste buds.

I ask  you also to look at the plate. I take these plates out every fall of the year.  I wish I lived where there were oak trees and acorns all over the place. Of course, up in the mountains near San Diego, there are lots of wonderful oak trees.  Many of them have been lost to bugs or burning over the last few years. Let us say a prayer of thanks for their existence on this earth.
They are so beautiful; the leaves are beautiful, the acorns are fascinating...I draw a lot of oak trees as we go on our drives up and down the coast of California.

The name of that set of plates is "October Days," and the maker is Homer Laughlin.  America used to turn out a lot of beautiful, simple, utilitarian things.  I just love my autumn dishes.  And the foods on them too. YAZZYBEL

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A Delicious Sandwich and a Casserole

I made a delicious sandwich for lunch today.  Inspired by the McDougall Diet, I have been experimenting with making whole meals without any animal products. As much as possible.

Today, I cut into small thin strips:
about 6 thin thin onion rings
a few tablespoonfuls of thin slices of red and green peppers...
And mixed these into a dressing made from 1 teaspoon mayonnaise, 2 t. chile sauce, and about 1/4 teaspoon mustard.
I spread the above on one slice of whole wheat bread.  Then I took one slice from a huge ripe tomato, which covered the dressing completely.
On the facing slice of bread I cut up and mashed one half ripe avocado.  Added salt and pepper. Put together and cut in two. 
That was one tasty sandwich.  Almost too juicy, but the dressing on one side and the avocado on the other kept the tomato slice under control.  Really satisfying.

The only non McDougall element was the t. of mayo. Well, and the s and p.

Dr McDougall doesn't want you to have any meat whatsoever, nor eggs, milk, butter. Nor sugar. Nor salt and (presumably) pepper.  It is hard for the average American to follow such a regimen.  But, with application and strictness, one can make a diet that will be far less full of fat and extraneous meat products than the average.  I figure, try to make the meals meatless and saltless and sugarless as Dr McD wants. Then, every few days, a breakout towards the hamburger or chicken leg can probably be tolerable in the scheme of health. 

I also made a smoothie of pineapple, cucumber, and orange juice.  Very good. You can definitely taste the cucumber. I like cucumbers, so that's OK with me. And I made a great "scalloped" potato casserole night before last.

Not Scalloped Potatoes

one potato, peeled and thinly sliced
green peppers, sliced medium thin into sticks
onion, sliced medium thin into rings or cubes

Using spray oil, lightly spray a glass baking dish.
Add a layer of potatoes.
A layer of  peppers and onions.
Salt and pepper.
Another layer of potatoes.
Another layer of peppers and onions.
Spray of oil.
Salt and pepper.
Add skim milk to tops of potatoes.

Bake in medium hot oven (remember I have no calibration so have to guess) about an hour until done. If they are getting too brown on top, turn the oven down.  When vegetables are done, remove and set on table or top of stove.  They are delicious, filling, and satisfying.

That's a way you can cook without meat. I never thought I'd be able to do it for any length of time. Aside from beans and rice and tortillas.  But with a salad, and some good fruit for dessert (and maybe a cookie)...that is a good supper.  Of course I am not supposed to use milk. Don't know what that casserole would be with water instead of milk...OK. Better than nothing for sure. YAZZYBEL

Yes, It's Been a Long Time

Well, I have no excuses.

Inconveniences, yes. Excuses, no.

This will be quick. Or short. Or both.

Up at five, sleepy yet after going to the bathroom. Back to bed prepared to snooze till seven.

Lights on!  My spouse up and maundering about in the bedroom!  "Why, may I ask?" 

"I thought you were up," sez he.  "No, I am not," sez I from the depths of the comfy warm puffers.

Lights continue on...hubby off in the living room where the roar of the TV can shortly be heard. So I said, the heck with it, and got up.  He got up to await the opening of the market and the price of Apple. 

"But it's only five thirty," sez I.  Continued application of attention to CNBC was my only response.

So here I sit at the computer with burnt-out eyes, feeling disagreeable.

This is as good a time as any to give the Kitty Blanko report.  Should I say, Kitty Blanca?  Still not absolutely sure, but the pendulum seems to be swinging that way. Astute peeking skills have been applied, and I think he's a female. Pretty sure.

Kitty Blanko's injured eye looks better, more like a regular eyeball, but I think he's blind in that eye. He has showed up here twice with a fluourescent green shoestring tied about his neck, and I have made Theo remove it each time.  Someone is trying to restrict his movements (KB's) or is giving us a signal that KB belongs to someone else.  I need to send them the signal that if a cat is yours, it's your responsibility to give it food.  Well, it is a long day ahead, I hope.

The dr. wants to make me take Lovastatin.  I am conflicted.  Lots of irritants today. Grouchily yours, YAZZYBEL

Churchless Sunday!

Yes, it was a churchless Sunday.

I was reared to go to church whether I would or no, so I miss it when I do not go.  But have spent years entire not going...so it must be old age that really impels me to go now.

Today there was a "run" in the park, and when there is a run, parking is impossible because people come from near and far to take all the parking places at six a.m.

Theodore and I went out to eat breakfast at a nice restaurant in Chula Vista because I forgot to buy bacon yesterday when we went shopping.  He's gotta have his bacon.

The restaurant is the Trattoria Italianissimo, right on Third Avenue.  It is a beautiful, tastefully decorated restaurant. It started off about a year ago with high ideas and high prices. A year of suffering has brought about changes.  All restaurants are trying to lower prices now and to serve less food.  The great thing about this restaurant is that it serves real food.  And the food was served by a waiter dressed in black pants and white shirt just as if it were evening...And there was a blindingly clean and white tablecloth on the table. Thank goodness I spilled not one crumb for once.

We sat in a bright window table.  We had coffee, and Theo had bacon and eggs. Plus toast and butter. And a tiny thin circle of orange slice and a tiny sprig of parsley on the plate.  I had lemon-ricotta pancakes with butter (sparsely spread by me) and the tiny thin circle of orange and tiny sprig of parsley. Over my pancakes was sprinkled a dusting of grated lemon peel and a thin dusting of powdered sugar.  Another plate came with dish of whipped butter, dish of raspberry jam, and unidentified bottle of syrup.  I ate 2 of 3 pancakes, plus the slices of orange and sprigs of parsley from my dish and Theo's. And raspberry jam.  My, how delicious it was.  The whole thing including generous tip was $25.00, and well worth it.  In a lower genre restaurant the meal would have been closer to $15.00 plus tip, bringing it up close to $20.00 anyway. And no delicious home potatoes to bring home, and no white tablecloth and good waiter. So...bring it on.

YAZZYBEL

Saturday Miscellanea

Good morning.  As I wrote that title to the blog, I suddenly realized that I don't know how to spell miscellanea!  Just rewriting the word now, it still does not look right.  I have never written it before, but I would have never had trouble writing it before either.

Today we are going to the dump to take my husband's used diabetic needles and prickers--"sharps", as they are called.  You'd think there would be available depots all over town, given the number of people who are sticking and pricking themselves in any period of time, on a regular basis, by orders of the doctor, and as a duty. But when we called Kaiser Pharmacy, who hand that stuff out like candy on Halloween when it's their time to give out, we got a baffled, "Wha? Who? Us? What? Err--we don't know where you can turn them in."  Tell me if that makes sense.  We found that we can go to the big dump here in CV, where there is a little special dump stuck like a wart out in front, and on Wednesdays and Saturdays they accept these loathesome supplies. And I wonder what they do with them.

I also want to write about avocadoes today. On Wednesday morning, Theo left with special instructions to bring back an avocado for Patricia's and my lunch salad. He brought back a bag of Costco avocadoes, large, black, perfect looking---and watery.
I have not yet found a good avocado this year. Gosh, they are awful.  Avocadoes are supposed to have a rich, flavorful texture, almost buttery. Better than buttery.  I truly love them.  But these--they would not even make a good guacamole even if rich olive oil is added to the mix.

This reminds me of the time when I was about twenty, and Maria came from Mexico City to preside in my mother's kitchen when Mother was on a trip. Maria was the wife of Luis, and she was in Brownsville because Luis was my father's driver for a time and Maria was supposed to fill in to keep my father going at mealtimes.

Maria was one of those classical Mexico City women of time immemorial.  God made them whole and set them down in Mexico to keep the men alive. She was square, brown, dynamic, and a big know-it-all.  And she did know it all, so we should not object.  She gave me a couple of lessons in the kitchen.

Picking up a beautiful, green smooth Fuerte American avocado, she said, "Estos no son aguacates.  Estos son paguas."  She went on to reiterate that what we Americans called an avocado were a different fruit altogether from the Mexican aguacate of my childhood. I think I've told you, conscientious reader, of the savory, tender, aguacates we used to eat, full of big strings that had to be taken out before the fruit could be made into guacamole.  In fact, I am sure that's how guacamole was invented. By the time you got the strings out, it already was guacamole.
She also taught me how to make Guachinango a la Veracruzana.  You take a whole beautiful rose-pink and pearly colored red snapper from the Gulf of Mexico, clean him up and put him on a baking pan. Inside him you place this stuffing: tomato, peppers, onions, garlic, capers.  It was the capers that were new to me then. Oh, olives too, you put in.  Anyway, my mother being of good Scotch Irish stock knew not of the capers, so I learned how yummy these strange little knots of pickled nasturtium buds can be.  Anyway, then you bake the fish.  Yummo is all I can say.  I have not seen a real fresh huachinango in years, I think.

I got to put in a lot of italics today, did I not? It's fun and I would do it more often if I were not afraid of blowing the whole posting away. And it has happened.

 And that is all for Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011.  YAZZYBEL

Perhaps a Hiatus now...

Good morning.
We've been moving along, but perhaps this is the time for the hiatus. Time to move the computer. Not tomorrow, not Sunday, but some day the week following.

Just be prepared for a hiatus, okay? I am getting prepared for one.

Mentally.

This week we had a few days of warmth, the kind of autumn weather that is so different from summer in California.  It's clear, it's hot, it's dry.  It's the kind of weather that makes you want to cook dinner at noon because you surely won't want to be cooking in the evening.  It's the kind of weather that makes you  leave the windows wide open in the bedroom at night and lie on top of the covers until nearly dawn, when it finally gets cool enough for a coverlet and you snuggle down happily.  Those nights are rare enough for an oldster--  Anyway, we are expected to go back to cooler weather today and through the weekend. I just hope we keep the beautiful sun.  We've had enough gray featureless days this year to last us.

Right now we are waiting for a cable guy to come install our new television set. It's HDTV!  We'll have joined the modern age!! It's a miracle as all our other sets are the old fashioned tube in a box sort, huge sets that glower from the tops of dressers in the bedrooms. So, slowly and gradually we'll be replacing those too as they falter. The living room TV faltered in a strange way.  All of a sudden the picture  was partially occluded by a black rectangle of nothingness, like a second screen.  We tried everything we could to get rid of it but we could not.  We don't have the Capability. This is why oldsters need keepers, as in, children.  In a digital age, without them we are as helpless as babes.  I hate to even say that. Don't tell anybody, readers...YAZZYBEL

Yesterday I Essayed Hard Boiled Eggs and More

Good morning.
Of late, I've essayed four things: hard-boiled eggs, Katy Kornettes, Chopin, and Mandarin Chinese.

I have never mastered hard-boiled eggs. Yesterday when I made them for Patricia's salad I got out the cookbook. But even that failed me, and the eggs had a thin green line where the yolk met the white. That was not Fanny Farmer's fault; it was my fault for not paying strict enough attention.

I am still essaying Katy Kornettes. Every time I make them they are different.  Edible, because white cornmeal plus salt cooked in water =super-edible.  But not what I want. I now think I must pay attention to the recipe, which says: Pour them out in circles the size of silver dollars.  Pour.  Not dab.  If they are thick enough to be dabbed they are going to be soft and pliable and I am looking for thin, brown and crispy.

Chopin is another story. I struggled at the piano yesterday with no success. If you are working on your left hand, I suggest the Etude No. 3, which keeps up a steady running bass in the left hand with simple melodic touches in the right.  I am playing it at plodding pace, which doesn't seem to be doing anything for me.  But if I'd do it every day--perhaps. Since I broke my left wrist ten or more years ago, my LH has been going down hill.  It's a miracle I can still play, even ploddingly.

Mandarin Chinese comes to me in a lesson a day from a great program called Transparent Language.  Have I learned anything in 2 weeks? Yes. Wo, pronounced "wuh", is I--and I can recognize the character.  When I get the word of the day I enter it into my day book. First, word in Mandarin, then the pinjin, (the word in English letters,) then its translation.  Let me tell you, copying those characters  is sheer heck at five thirty in the morning while trying to see through cataracts to boot.  Beneath the word is a sentence using the word (more incredible copying)...and then a little horn which if you touch it will say the word "pronounced by a native speaker," then, click on another little horn and you hear the whole sentence "pronounced by a native speaker."  Whoa. What a challenge. I'm lucky I can even recognize "Wo."
Love to all, YAZZYBEL

An Essay a Day

Good morning!

An essay is an attempt, and these little daily essays are attempts to make some kind of statement.  The heart of what we are trying to say often eludes us, but we keep trying (essaying) for success.

A poem a day is also an attempt. By its very nature it can only be a sketch of what we mean to say.  Like a dream, the whole poem in its perfection exists somewhere. We try to capture it before it evaporates entirely.  And I do believe that overworking is as bad as ignoring the whole thing, often. 

Yesterday's book club report was of the poem-a-day variety.  Incomplete, and yet in some measure it taught me  line by line what I was trying to say.  If I stay with it a bit, it will improve. If not, there it is, a sketch, a day's worth of poem hanging in midair unfinished. And yet you'll maybe agree with me that the germ of poetry in it stays with you after you've read it. There's a thought there, however unfulfilled completely.

It is like our lives. Every day we get up, start off with the best of intentions to get it right this time and use our observations and intelligence to make the best life we can.  Sometimes we are taught what the day is about as we go along. Sometimes we miss the point, or we like lambs have such a good time that we forget to pursue it.  Those are good days too! Perhaps the best.

God seems to ask two things of us (according to Jimmy Swaggart, who in spite of messing up a lot of his personal days in my opinion) (and I have no right to an opinion about his days): God asks that we praise his name and that we give thanks. As a matter of fact I saw Jimmy Swaggart say this on television, and he said, "First give thanks for our lives,"and then he went into his little trancelike dance as he said, "And praise and bless his Holy Name."  How simple. I try to remember to do this. Say, God be praised. Thanks be to God for this day. And then we essay to live our lives. I don't do the little dance, but maybe it helps.
YAZZYBEL

Book Club

Old ladies sit around a well-appointed room,
Talking about a book we read, or did not read.
We have been doing this for thirty years
And knew each other when,
Though we did not know it, we were young.
We are cheerful. Life has not brought us down,
Though in most  instances, it's tried to.
Each of us is a volume of literature on her own,
A treasured souvenir with associations to a past
That we can scarce remember. 
We smooth the tattered pages, knowing by their age,
That we're not new either, and we are the words
That reveal our literatures, or disguise them.
"After the meeting, a lavish dessert was served,"
The paper would have said,
If papers really said things any more.
Truth to tell, coconut cake was sliced and wolfed,
Cream whipped, coffee drunk, tongues eased;
And then the tales began,
And now the books came open.

YAZZYBEL

Blood tests, a bruised arm, and bean soup for lunch

Good morning, barely.
Up at crack of dawn, out to Kaiser blinded by the rising sun, to get my blood drawn to placate the doctor. I hope for generally better results than usual as a result of what I hope are better eating patterns. We shall see (and elucidate.)

It is nearly nearly noon and the bean soup is simmering on the stove. I made it hastily from a can of "small red beans",  water, onion and garlic sauteed in olive oil, and 1/3  eight oz. can of El Pato's Salsa de Tomates con Jalapeños plus a small handful of that cooked brown rice that I told you about last night. 

I went out to the Tchr's Credit Union now renamed, to find that it was closed, fancying itself a bank and this day a holiday.  When Columbus Day rolled around and I was a kid, we were in school making boats out of walnut shells and (futile-ly) trying to float them across a sea of blue paper from Spain to the New World. Nowadays that concept is not popular but they make it even more important by making days off. Dumb.

So I went to the Marshalls where I bought a mouse colored velvet tam for my mouse colored hair, plus a thin white tee printed with exotic gambling motifs, plus a bunch of spices and things for the kitchen, plus two vegetarian cookbooks. Just a moment, gotta check the soup.

I shall let it "set" for a mo, having added a dash of chili powder and a grind of black pepper, then eat it with a toasted tortilla. Then I shall nap, for tonight is the Book Club and off I'll go to Martha's for a good time even though I did not like the book.

Book Club Report tomorrow. YAZZYBEL

Time Passes By

Wow, so much time has passed by since Wednesday. I have had good ideas for things to write about nearly every day. I wanted to write. But the time never worked out.

Today I was up at five and was going to make up for lost time, but by six thirty, Theodore was up--wonder why? That is so rare. Several times I have started to write the blog and have brought up the dashboard--but have to shut down for one reason or another.

I wonder what will happen to those lost ideas.  Will they resurface, or reappear slightly altered? Who knows?

One thing I've been doing is eating all those diet things I mentioned earlier in the week. Doesnt seem to have made much difference in my bodily composition.  I also made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing. They do make a difference. If I eat a couple of those (I make them half size), I'll know it.

Here's what I have been subsisting on, largely, over the last few days (besides a cupcake or two per day)L:

red bell pepper, cut in matchsticks
green bell pepper, cut in matchsticks
celery, cut into horizontal slices, lots of it
tomato cut into small dice
raw carrot cut in matchsticks (provided by the supermarket)
onion sliced very thin and cut up, diced, or whatever
green onion ditto
chopped herbs
thinly cut or chopped cabbage, napa, brussels, bokchoy or whatever
spinach or chard

one (two if huge amount) garlic clove minced

Make a mixing bowl full of the above, and add a dressing made of a small amount of vinegar, a dollop of chili sauce (less corn syrup than ketchup), a very small amount of olive oil, and toss it up. You may also add any other cut raw vegetable. Radishes are very nice.
When you eat that, it is like eating a bunch of twigs and leaves and your tummy feels very full and it takes a long time to digest. Tonight I got brown rice from Trader Joe's that you can put into a microwave...Put some in a bowl and a bunch of that salad above on top. Very tasty and you feel as if you are in Thailand, and you are full.
I'll try to do better this week, catch my thoughts or write down a hint so that when I do get to the blog, I can get those golden ideas down on paper. I mean, air, of course. YAZZYBEL

If Music Be the Food of Love

Today, Pat and I played the piano. It was a dark and stormy day, though the promised rain did not fall all day long until now at twilight....

And the tree men came to prune the coral tree.  They arrived at about the same time as Patricia, so all was confusion for a time. But they settled into their task as we into ours.  We had a good couple of hours working things out, and as they finished up their work we were done with playing and ready to go to Aqui Es Texcoco, a little restaurant here in Chula Vista, on Broadway.

The tree looked great and still does. They did the exacting and wondrous task called "lacing out," and that is indeed what it is.  They removed the little branches and tag ends of twigs, and made the tree look very pretty.  They also took the pressure off a number of wires and cables coming in from the street, as a number of the branches had been growing unchecked into tensions and positions that were really dangerous. Now, I can hope for a really good blooming season this February, now that the tree is relieved of a great deal of energy-consuming wood and leaf. All the rest of the leaves will be down pretty soon, and the shapely new limbs will shine as they await the spring.

At Texcoco, they specialize in borrego.  A borrego is a ram, nothing more and nothing less.  The meat is slow cooked, barbacoa style.  It was tender and tasty in itself, but there were no seasonings applied to the meat that I could tell.  On the side, there were dishes of chopped onion and parsley, and two sauces, one dark and rich and sweet and one thin and green and bitey.

Patricia had sopes, which is the same meat put into tart style circles of masa with a rim built in, and fried.  That is, the meat is put in after the sopes area fried. Chopped iceberg lettuce and Mexican sour cream topped this modest presentation. Same sauces on the side.

I had consome, which is ==consomme, with some white rice and garbanzo beans and some flavorings cooked into it.  Very nice but a bit salty I thought.

Well, I was lucky enough to be brought up in the flavor richness of northern Mexico. I cannot fault the preparation nor the freshness of the food at Aqui Es Texcoco, but I long for a little bite, the kind of bite I am familiar with from home.  Texcoco must be a poor area, and the ram a great treat for the Texcocans. It is a delicious meat as prepared by these experts. No tallowy taste whatsoever. Just plain good.  And plain. YAZZYBEL

A Wonderful Concert

Yesterday Patricia took me to hear the opening concert (for the Sunday crowd) of the SD Symphony year. It was a stunner. It's so kind of her to do this.

May I say it was too loud? That is my only negative comment.  Other than that, it was simply breath-taking.

The main presentations were two, both concertos by Ravel, both played by Jean-Yves Thibaudet.  He was magnifique.  He had incredible technique and great sensitivity as well.  He's a very French -looking Frenchman in middle age, affable and very aware.  I really feel awed that I got to hear him.

I especially appreciated the pieces because I used to play lots of Ravel, not well of course. But with a great deal more accuracy, industry, and musicality than I now can do.  So I got the nuances, and the little hints of all the smaller pieces that I played that are always tucked away in these larger efforts.... what makes the composer the composer: the little almost obsessive themes and games that come up over and over again in his work.

The other two works (the louder ones) were Hector Berlioz' Roman Comedy Overture and Ottorino Respighi's Feste Romane.  I like Berlioz's overture, but I really love Feste Romane, especially the October Festival. It is a little masterpiece all its own. October has its own connotations in America, (mostly vulgar), and it is good to hear of October in another civilization. Beautiful.

Theo kindly chauffered me, which saves ten dollars for parking but does make him have to hover about for three hours  more or less in order to do my bidding. I think I should just pay the ten dollars and take myself again. There were plenty of places in the lot a small block from Symphony Hall.

Back to home and popped a casserole into the oven that I had assembled earlier.  Kitty Blanko was scuttling about in the wings and I am sorry to report that tragedy has befallen him.  I have been noticing for a week or two that he'd sustained an injury to his right eye, and it looks worse and worse. I have hovered, Neosporin in hand, but he won't let me get near enough to touch him, much less apply medicine. It's too bad, because the sight in that eye might have been saved. Now it appears that the body is doing its own thing but Kitty Blanko may not survive it. Sad. He had such bold, beautiful green eyes. YAZZYBEL

Yesterday's Intended Posting

Today I am writing about three or four things to have around if you're going on a diet. No, not pills, drugs or other pharmaceutical aids..though they worked, back in the good old days when the doctors handed out amphetamines like candy.  I couldn't take them, though, in any effective quantity, because they made me very nervous.

So,let's talk about benign substances that will help us get through the difficult days when we can't be eating all that we'd like. These are things you can make and assemble and put into the refrigerator to await the munchie attack.

1.Tomato juice or V-8 or both.  They are amazingly tasty and filling, and if you grab one instead of the cookies you might otherwise have grabbed you'll find yourself quite satisfied with your choice.

2. Pickled beets.  Buy a can of sliced beets.  Put the beets and juice into a sauce pan and add these three things in the proportion that pleases your taste. More of one thing requires more of another so you must go slow and taste:  sugar, apple cider vinegar, salt. When you have achieved "pleasing," boil them up till sugar dissolves, allow to cool, and put in a covered jar or bowl in the refrigerator.  They serve a multitude of appetite needs.

3.  Pickled cucumbers.  Cut the cucumbers quite thin, put them into a saucepan with some water. Add as above: sugar, vinegar, salt. Dill is good too.  Boil up till sugar dissolves, let cool, and put into the refrigerator.  You may keep a fork in them to handily quell those randy tastebuds, as you open the refrigerator door and peep in.  Let it be a stainless-steel fork.

4.  Carrots with Jalapeños.  Peel large carrots, cut them in thirds vertically, and on the diagonal from side to side making diamond shaped pieces.  Place in saucepan with water, and boil them up.  They should be short-cooked but will be acceptable if cooked longer (i.e. leftovers)...Drain. Place in a glass jar.  Add as many pickled jalapeños as you want, proportionate to the quantity of carrots.  Add a bay leaf. There should be some of the pickled jalapeño juice in there too. Close jar, tip and shake, and store in refrigerator.

5. Instant Gazpacho.  Go back to No. 1 up there, and instead of drinking down the juice all at once, pour it into a bowl. Add any and all of the following: chopped green onions, chopped cucumber, chopped green and red pepper, jalapeño or serrano, and plenty of chopped fresh onion.  Add lots of cubed fresh tomatoes or even canned. Add to taste, lemon juice or a spoonful of vinegar. Add a spoonful of olive oil , or not if you are trying seriously to avoid all fat.  Add a dash of good Louisiana hot sauce like Crystal, Mexipep or Tabasco. Add s and p. Stir, cover, put into refrigerator to await the moment of Need. Guaranteed to please and satisfy.  

With these five rounds of ammunition, you will be well stocked for a siege of low calorization.  You will be so glad you had the little bowl of (beets, gazpacho, carrots, cucumber) instead of that bowl of peppermint ice cream you'd  thought you wanted. Throw that stuff out! YAZZYBEL

First of October

I entitled this posting with the date, because it seems impossible that 9/12ths, ie 3/4ths, of this year should have raced past already.

I am trying to clear out my house. It is hard to give away personal items, or throw them way, in essence. And one tends to love ones possessions.  Not because of their monetary "value."  Because they are things chosen for one by loved ones, or chosen by oneself, which makes them expressions of personality and gives them a life of their own.

But it has finally gotten through to me that I will never get over the regret of having to leave these things until they are actually gone from me.  I will then have a measure of freedom that I cannot really appreciate now. But when I have that freedom, I think I shall appreciate it indeed.  Freedom  from possessions, a valuable status.

Patrician is horrified when I tell her that I have plans to sell my grand piano.  She'd never do such a thing, which is why she lives in her same house with her same stuff and same family. Good for her. I think another route is prescribed for me. I hardly play the piano any more, and a couple of hours once a week playing duets hardly justifies living around a huge bulky instrument like mine.

In the meantime, it is anguish to go through things, to contemplate fragments of a life from long ago, to sort out and set aside the writings and drawings of children, to do the same for my own writings and drawings when I myself was a child compared to now.  But life has to keep regenerating, and we have to get rid of the dead leaves in order that the clear springs of living water might flow again.

It's tiring to do this sort of grubbing work: sorting and tossing and laying aside.   It hurts sometimes too, not just when fragments of writing from Gregory come up, but when the other things from the other two boys appear out of the past to rend the heart with joy and pain and remembrance.  For those little boys are gone too now, gone as far away as they could be.  I set aside things for them, to show to their families of today and of the future, but I don't know why.  My mother gave me a packet of things I made and I am not sure I know where it is. 

I was going to write about cookery today, about food, but this little essay came out of nowhere as a result of my constant burrowing over the last few weeks. Gracious!  Tomorrow I will go back to what I intended to write about when I started today. YAZZYBEL