Better lighting

Here's one more taken last night after sundown.  The natural light overwhelmed contrast and detail in the photos taken earlier in the day.

Nice table.

The table is really nice but the chairs, particularly the side chairs, are like pieces of art.  Two arm chairs, four side chairs.

In time for dinner

Another day when we reaffirm the price that we pay now for the reward that is June, another dumping of snow and as soon as that stopped the temperatures started to plummet.

Luckily for us some nice young men came around and dropped off a surplus dining room table so we will be able to have sit down dinner after all.

One with the very pleased new proprietress (and flash) and one without (and no flash).

You maybe have to be in the room to get the full effect but . . .

Nice table.

One step closer to homeless

As of late this afternoon we don't even have a dining room table.

Angela and Jon came by and picked up the one we used to have. Circumstances forced us to sell.

But check back tomorrow. These things usually turn out OK for us.

Pink flamingo redux

I don't even remember being in Florida recently but I do know that the family outpost in Florida does return forgotten items to recent guests using Priority Mail.  Despite me personally not having any recollection of having been outside the polar vortex I assumed that today's mail must have been the arrival from Floridia of my forgotten, oh, I don't know, flash drive?

Well, particularly nasty weather!!  But that's a completely different story.

Apparently my December posting entitled Pink Flamingo which did not actually feature any flamingo, pink or otherwise, rippled through the universe creating waves which have finally pounded back onto these ice encrusted shores.

It's a really swell pink flamingo and I think it goes well with our really, really cheesy Florida souvenir from back in the days when I was seriously into cheesy souvenirs.

We are torn between visions of the pink flamingo actually on the Christmas tree or perhaps as a new character for the small "c" catholic nativity scene which is a part of our annual pagan winter holiday celebration.

It will be much closer to the next appearance of the winter solstice before we are able to divine the true path.

General statement of relativity

For where I live this is very cold.

Here is the same information as gathered by the more high tech remote sensor on the tree in the front yard and radio transmitted (somewhere on the FM band) to the indoor display in the Vonnegut section of the living room book case.

Well, actually, I guess minus 20 is pretty cold just about anywhere.

New Year's Eve left over cheese tart

I got a really nice tart pan for Christmas.  The last time I bought crust there was a 2 for 1 on the crescent roll dough.  We had quite a bit of left over cheese after our New Year's Eve extravaganza.  I thought that the moons had aligned for yet another version of the cheese pie.

This one has NO camembert, it is mostly brie with a bit of Saint Andre.  The brie that we had left over and that I used IS a quite high quality brie, the one that has within the group that gathers annually at Lake Michigan acquired the sobriquet of "smooshy" cheese.  The Saint Andre is a bit firmer but this does not detract, it is in our view an exceptional cheese.

Or as described in the Wikipedia article linked above:

It has a soft buttery texture, tangy edible rind, and tastes like an intense version of brie.

The fat content of Saint-André is so exceptionally high it can make a white wine taste sour and metallic.  A crust of baguette and a light beer or simply a slice of pear are suggested by the manufacturer as better complements.

This time I went with twice as much bacon (two of the microwave bacon 4 strip packs) and more spinach.

Nice pan.  Really nice pan.

As is always our practice with this dish, baked today for consumption tomorrow meaning no taste review is available at this time.

I think it LOOKS pretty good though.