Where I Justify Eating Cow

We visited the local county 4-H Exposition this weekend. I never did 4-H as a kid -- my parents having signed me up for Girl Scouts at six without me having any say in the matter. Not that I would have said anything against it as I wasn't aware 4-H existed until junior high. 4-H just seems infinitely more practical than Girl Scouts. Girl Scouts, by the time I left it at age seventeen, seemed full of a lot of career planning (got enough of Wthat in school, thankyouverymuch) and girlie crap I didn't care about and not nearly enough outdoor activities like hiking and canoing. Not that 4-H involves camping, but it does involve lots of practical and hands-on learning.

We saw sheep, goats, oxen, chickens, rabbits, and a whole lot of cows at the 4-H Exposition. Part of my brain kept pointing out that I was looking at things which mostly existed to be eaten and oughtened I be affected by that? But, I wasn't. Cows don't exist in the wild. We made cows. These cows we made feed and clothe me. I am not bothered about killing and eating them. That the steak we ate last night came from a CAFO cow does bother me, but that bother has more to do with concerns over industrial farming, quality of life, and environmental impact than it does with the murder of a fellow living creature.

I got too much sun at the Expo and it knocked me out. I slept in the car on the way back and took a two hour nap when we got home, but still felt draggy and horrible when I got up. Boosting my fluid intake seems to help with the draggy feeling, but I'm so full of sodium (soy sauce and miso soup) now that I've probably just undone all the good of fluid boosting. For dinner, The Husband had the brilliant idea to order a takeout sushi boat for two from the sushi place five minutes down the street. Our "boat" consisted of chef's choice nigiri (vinegar rice topped with fish) and maki (rolled kind most people think of when they think "sushi") sushi and was all quite yummy.

Our nigiri consisted of:

• Amaebi (sweet shrimp)
• Hirame (halibut)
• Maguro (tuna)
• Saba (mackeral)
• Sake (salmon)
• Tai (red snapper)

I think our Kapa (cucumber) Maki and Tekka (tuna) Maki were actually Hosomaki ("thin" rolled sushi with the nori on the outside) rather than Futomaki which has more fillings and so is much thicker, but I am fairly ignorant about sushi and am just going with whatever the intertubes tell me. I'd love to try Temaki (nori cone filled with stuff), but it doesn't seem like a thing for sharing and what's the point of eating with someone if you're not going to share?

A Happy Weekend Out & About

For supper tonight, I had ice cream followed by clam fritters and more ice cream. Delicious and nutritious, no? Supper was supposed to have been McCormick's "Greek Style Skillet Supper" (made with soy crumbles rather than beef), but we were out and summer fun foods were everywhere and who were we to resist?

Desperate to get out of the house and away from the cries of woebegone housebound Catzilla Kitty, we had hied ourselves off to the farmer's market. She'd made us crazy with her poor plaintive cries to be allowed out (she has a nasty infection and is not allowed outside until she is quite well again). On the way back from the market, the highway was overrun with Summer People trying to get home to their various inland urbs so we escaped onto the side roads as soon as possible and ended up idling our way to the comic book shop.

Mmm ... Sarge's Comics. Picked up Girls, Volume 3: Survival, Loyola Chin and the San Peligran Order, Re-Gifters, and P.L.A.I.N. Janes. Those last two are part of DC's newish tweener girl graphic novel line, Minx. I think they're supposed to be comic books for girls who don't know they like comic books. The two I bought are really nicely put together and the stories seem a lot of fun, but I don't know how much they'll inspire their readers to explore the rest of the DC universe. Some of the Vertigoproducts look attractive, but how will tween girls find them? DC doesn't seem to be doing any cross-promotion.

Anyway, after Sarge's we took a little walk down to the pier and watched the ferry come in with all the returning weekend islanders then walked up the street, stumbled into Michael's Dairy Downtown, and shared a cup of "monster mash" (vanilla ice cream with crushed chocolate sandwich cookies, chocolate malt balls, and M&M's). Then, after I voiced a yearning for clam fritters, The Husband took me to Captain Scott's Lobster Dock where I ate some pretty fine fritters and "lobster tracks" ice cream ("vanilla ice cream with red colored chocolate caramel cups and chocolate cookie ripple") and where The Husband fed his french fries to the sparrows (who were obviously anticipating this).

Can we properly call them french fries once again? Or are they still "freedom" fries? Why do we dislike the French so much, anyway? Weren't they our allies during the Revolution and the War of 1812?

Don't Rain On My Croquet

We had my parents over for Independence Day and there was to be much croquet playing and firework lighting, but it rained. It rained, people. It is not fair.

We played lots of Skip-Bo and Phase 10, instead, and my mother beat the pants of everyone which is not particularly surprising, but it is infuriating that I did not inherit her card playing skillz.

We sent The Husband out into the storm to grill things lest we starve and he did a pretty good job of it though he complained bitterly the entire time. Did he melt? No. Look delicious all speckled with rain? Of course.  Mmm, Husband.

With the burgers and dogs, we had "Tortellini Salad" from Jan Mann's Cruising Connecticut with a Picnic Basket (Hillside House Publishing, 2006). I had made this salad before with quite tasty results, but this time I used dried parsley instead of fresh and I won't make that mistake again. While it's still a tasty salad, it needs the sweet tang of fresh parsley to give it that extra edge.

I also made "Corn Relish Salad" from the Crisco website. I was looking for a corn salad recipe like my mom's and stumbled upon this one. It's nothing like my mother's, but I had to try it as it combined something I had a lot of (corn) and something I love to eat (sauerkraut). It was pretty good, but I might use less sugar next time. It tasted like I had mixed a jar of sweet corn relish with my mom's sour sauerkraut salad and, while that may sound disgusting to you, it made my tastebuds rather happy.

For dessert, we had sugar-free brownies (King Arthur Flour mix) with fresh strawberries and whipped cream. The brownies came out quite nicely -- light and fluffy with an interesting kind-of whole grain texture (I presume from the almond flour) and I must remember to pick up some more of the KAF sugar-free mixes for when we have meals with the parents. I think it pleases my mom to know she can eat dessert, but it's not a special dessert "just for her." She gets to be like everyone else which, I guess, is a big deal when you have dietary restrictions.