Cucumbersome » life

Boggle

britt — Thu, 29 May 2008 19:40:11 +0000

Kenneth: I’m sorry, this is a private party.
Ridikolous: Hold on, we’re with Tracy Jordan.
Kenneth: And Mr. Jordan himself said “don’t let no one in who’s not on the list ’cause this mess is gonna get raw like sushi, so haters to the left.”
Ridikolous: What’s your game?
Kenneth: Boggle!

In true Kenneth fashion, we are addicted to boggle. Isn’t that sad? But also awesome? No? It is to the point where we have to hide it or we compulsively will find words in the example picture on the box(tint. tin. tiny. fin. find. fins. gate. gates. stint.).
One night after a particularly long time of playing with Garren and Serena, as I was falling asleep I kept seeing clusters of letters. It’s like when you ride a rollercoaster over and over again and every time you close your eyes you feel like you’re still on it… just way nerdier.

Sandwich Time

britt — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:57:24 +0000

During the renovations, we didn’t eat well at all. We frequented A&W (it’s one of the only fast food places here), which is a very sad thing. No one should frequent A&W. Mostly we would grab a bacon ~~and~~ n’ egger (on a wheat bun, with tomato) in the morning. One morning, shortly after we had moved in, I was rushing around to get ready and grumbling about how I wasn’t going to have time for breakfast and I was craving a bacon n’ egger.
Ryan surprised me with a delicious toasted sandwich with a fried egg and tomato. It was so good.
Since then, we have perfected the breakfast sandwich. In our minds, anyway.
We buy kalamata olive bread. At first we could only get it at Safeway but the other stores must have missed our business because they soon started to offer olive breads too. When toasted, it has the best crunch to it. We spread a smidge of mayo (real mayo - don’t give me any of that “salad dressing”) and then layer on a fried egg, two slices of calabrese salami (good and spicy) and a couple thin slices of tomato. And a little salt and pepper.
Best. Breakfast. Ever.
We had it this morning for the first time in a while (thus the passionate description). I decided that I would make a second one and take a picture to post here.
But, um, a dog took it.

Alpacas

britt — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 02:08:12 +0000

This morning I was taken to meet these lovely alpacas. I loved their big eyes and long eyelashes. These ones had just been shorn so they had a poof of hair on the top of their head and feet, like big awkward poodle-llamas.

The one below is named Black Beauty:

And this little one is Gracie:

Cravings

britt — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 22:33:38 +0000

I’m torn.
Do I risk invalidating my authenticity by telling you squabblers that I haven’t been posting because I’m doing a cleanse? Yup, I’m on day 4 of a ten-day cleanse/fast. But in my defense, it isn’t a fad - it’s been around for 60 years. And it’s not a diet. I was just sick of feeling sick. It’s supposed to rejuvenate you and make you clear-headed.
The first day I was craving poutine from that place in Calgary where they make the Montreal smoked meat sandwiches so bad that I couldn’t think about anything else.
Day 2 I just wanted a big old greek salad, which I normally eat pretty much every single day.
Day 3 I occasionally thought about how nice it would be to have a cup of broth.
And today, I’m really not hungry. Although I was watching last night’s episode of 30 Rock online today and when Liz picked up that piece of pizza, I salivated a little. So today, I’m feeling more on the road to a clear mind.
It’s funny because I just read Kafka’s “The Hunger Artist” a couple of weeks ago and I keep thinking that there is some remote chance that I too will want to continue fasting after the 10 days.
But I really can’t see that happening.
Anyway, I find it fascinating to see what has happened to our lives. First of all, the days are sooo long. Yesterday, instead of preparing/eating/cleaning dinner, we watched a cheezy 80’s movie and it took the same amount of time.
And the kitchen stays so clean.
And what do you do socially with people if you don’t eat? All we humans do together is eat and drink.
Apparently once your tongue goes back to pink, you’re done. So we’re pushing for that. Maybe not a full 10 days. I mean, we’re young and healthy - how toxic could we be? It would be nice to eat - not even for the food but because of the sheer boredom!

Cocoa Pasta

britt — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 19:38:49 +0000

So this is what we had last night for dinner. We bought the pasta at Culinary Conspiracy a while back but I have been looking for the perfect recipe for it. There are lots of dessert recipes but I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. So I decided to just use the sauce recipe on the package, which calls for mascarpone cheese (which we just happened to have for the first time ever - my mom gave it to us), walnuts, garlic, milk and parmesan. We had all of those things so I just had to pick up the parsley and pine nuts.
It was… interesting. First of all, it looked gorgeous. Those pictures don’t do it justice. The pasta was almost black and looked so rich. The overall taste was rich, creamy and very earthy but sort of subtle (we are, however, non-tasters so “subtle” to us may be overpowering to you). We added salt and cracked pepper and that helped to bring out the flavors. It did leave that almost powdery feel to my mouth, like after eating a dark, 85% cocoa chocolate bar. We both thought that it needed something to liven it up, maybe orange zest or something. I would love to experiment with it some more. The package and several sites said it tastes good with game, but I’m still a recovering vegetarian and not quite ready for that.

Very Hush Hush

britt — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:32:43 +0000

Last summer, an artist named Cathy Terepocki opened up shop here in Nelson with designer Tracy Fillion, in an airstream trailer in a back alley. Okay, it’s only sort of a back alley as it does have a name (Herridge Lane) and is also occupied by one of the best restaurants in Nelson, All Seasons Cafe. Anyway, in anticipation of the re-opening of Very Hush Hush this summer, I wanted to do a little tribute to Cathy and Tracy’s boutique.

Check out Cathy’s site: Horn of Plenty
Tracy’s shop: Dear Pony,

I have a wedding-related story for each of these, if you can bear it…
First of all, Ryan bought an adorable blue/gray argyle shirt by Dear Pony for me to wear to a bridal shower when I was feeling particularly lackluster. It has silkscreened crows on it and the words ‘a murder of crows’. I love it.
As for Horn of Plenty: I wanted to buy one of Cathy’s glass pendant necklaces for each of my bridesmaids (four of them) and she kindly offered to bring in the ones she had from home so I would have a greater selection, which I thought was really sweet.
Do I sound wistful? If I do, I can assure you it has much more to do with wishing it was summer than planning a wedding. Don’t get me wrong, the wedding was great (especially the food) but what with Ryan losing the pants to his wedding suit a week before and not hiring a DJ until the day before… I’ll just say that I’m happy to be married to Ryan and I really just want it to be summer so we can go to the beach and wander through Cottonwood Market again.

Home

britt — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 21:08:25 +0000

After spending the majority of 48 hours sleeping, I woke up on Monday morning feeling pretty good. Good, but with a keen awareness of the fact that I hadn’t been out of the house in several days. A moderate case of cabin fever set in. We haven’t gone anywhere all winter, I realized. Half an hour after telling Ryan of my predicament we were on the road. We ended up going to Spokane and spent a whole 24 hours there. But it felt like about four days. In a good way. In a cabin-fever-curing way.
It actually feels good to be home again.

Spicy

britt — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 18:31:46 +0000

One on the many organizational accomplishments of the weekend is this new magnetic spice rack. I know, the whole magnetic spice tin thing isn’t news by any means. Maybe even a little played out. But it’s still genius. We put them up on the side of our fridge. I wasn’t going to label them because I always think I can tell the difference between oregano and basil (which, due to many years of not having a sense of smell, I always get mixed up). And of course there are times when I end up throwing curry into my greek salad. Well, one time anyway.
So I designed these little labels with some futura fontage (futura is currently my favorite font - I used it on my etsy banner too).
This reminds me - our new filing cabinet is in need of some file labels. Is it sad that I’m really excited about that? We cleaned out the office/guest room this weekend. Both of us had boxes and boxes of things that we have been storing at our parents’ houses and now that we’re settling down were forced to take back. Boxes and boxes. And Ryan has approximately one million canvases.
We had just collapsed from exhaustion and were sitting, enjoying the clean result, when Dan called and said he’s coming to visit. Good timing! We’ve got a functional guest room and, now, a guest for the room.
Last year Dan came at the end of March and we all ended up jumping in the lake. It’s still really cold so I’m hoping he doesn’t make us do that again.

Happy Time Indeed!

britt — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 21:41:04 +0000

I love espresso.

Goat Cheese Covers a Multitude of Sins

britt — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 03:02:35 +0000

We had a delicious greek salad with our dinner. Cucumber, tomatoes, bell peppers with goat cheese, fresh lemon and a drizzle of olive oil. And, lastly, a sprinkle of thyme and a heavy dousing of… curry?! Sure, those stainless steel spice jars look nice but, functionally, it’s nice to have labels. So I decided to just add some more goat cheese.

Maybe I’ve stumbled upon some culinary masterpiece. Okay, upon eating, I can safely say I didn’t. But what if I had?

In any case, it would pale in comparison to these:

So… maybe if I serve it on a slate tile or something…?