Saturday morning market.

At least you can get a parking place this time of year. (Note the pig head on the counter.)

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Posted at 10:34 am in Uncategorized |
 

55 responses to “Saturday morning market.”

  1. maryinIN said on January 18, 2014 at 11:16 am

    Hmmm. I get that it’s fresh, but that seems a little flippant. Never thought I might be sensitive to a hog’s feelings, but I guess maybe I am.

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  2. coozledad said on January 18, 2014 at 11:58 am

    I don’t know if it’s still true, but in NC you couldn’t sell the heads because TB was endemic in hogs. There were a lot of them showing up at market with tuberculous gummas in the brain.

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  3. beb said on January 18, 2014 at 12:01 pm

    Could that farm be any gaier?

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  4. beb said on January 18, 2014 at 12:01 pm

    er, gayer, for the joke.

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  5. coozledad said on January 18, 2014 at 12:35 pm

    The Port Authority needs to be handed over to federal administration:
    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/hoboken-mayor-christie-team-shook-us-down-for-sandy-relief

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  6. Sherri said on January 18, 2014 at 1:41 pm

    A story (not really) about artisanal toast: http://www.psmag.com/navigation/health-and-behavior/toast-story-latest-artisanal-food-craze-72676/

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  7. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on January 18, 2014 at 2:04 pm

    Sherri, THANK YOU. Very cool, and not a little inspiring.

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  8. Dexter said on January 18, 2014 at 2:37 pm

    Artisanal toast explained. Now we know. This is one hell of a story. And for those of you who may have never tried to swim in the Pacific Ocean at San Francisco, it’s cold, very cold.

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  9. alex said on January 18, 2014 at 3:06 pm

    Dex, as a kid I tried swimming in the Pacific off the Monterey Peninsula in the summer of ’76, expecting it to be like the warm Atlantic I’d known off the Carolinas and Florida. Not only did I find it unswimmable, and the pebbly shoreline unwalkable, I soon discovered that I had inadvertently stumbled into an enclave of frolicking nudists. Of course, San Francisco was also a freak show to these unseasoned eyes.

    ###

    If it oinks on Thursday, it’s not going on my plate any day. My partner has officially become an insulin-dependent diabetic and I had a heart attack over two years ago and we’ve finally decided that restaurant dining and cocktailing will henceforth be a rare and special treat instead of the norm. I’m working on adapting meal plans from both the ADA’s low-carb low-cal diet and the American Heart Association’s heart healthy menu. Looks like a lot of kale, black beans and Mrs. Dash, but I do see that it’s permissible to eat red meat if you cut the fat off of it and braise it.

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  10. Sherri said on January 18, 2014 at 3:26 pm

    This is unfortunate (and it’s not even the Super Bowl, just the NFC Championship, and the game is in Seattle, not San Francisco): http://www.sfgate.com/49ers/article/Muni-to-pull-streetcars-cable-cars-off-line-for-5154279.php

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  11. Sherri said on January 18, 2014 at 3:29 pm

    Oh, and (sorry, Dexter) Go Hawks!

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  12. Sherri said on January 18, 2014 at 3:54 pm

    So, reading this (http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2014/01/chemistry-experiments-west-virginia-dont-try-home/all/) about the West Virginia company spilling a toxin into the water supply, I wonder what the no regulation/small government/libertarian response is? I know a friend of mine of that persuasion believes that situations like this should be handled by torts (why yes, he is a lawyer), but of course, the first thing the company did was file for bankruptcy, so suing the bastards isn’t going to be much help. Without government regulation and inspection and independent study, how do you prevent corporations from poisoning people as collateral damage?

    BTW, the writer of that article, Deborah Blum, was a contributer to an interesting recent PBS American Experience episode, The Poisoner’s Handbook.

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  13. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on January 18, 2014 at 4:09 pm

    Sorry for your troubles, Alex, but black beans will never steer you wrong. You can make hummus from them, too. Mmmm, hummus.

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  14. MichaelG said on January 18, 2014 at 4:30 pm

    Was in L.A. area for a few days and didn’t have a computer. That was a big, ugly, dark gray smoke cloud blowing west from Glendora toward Mary. And congrats on the new car. You’ll like the Golf.

    Go Niners!

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  15. Dexter said on January 18, 2014 at 4:31 pm

    BEAT SEATTLE. I am oddly really fired up for this game way more than the tired, played-out new/old match up, Peyton v. Brady.

    My Facebook pal James in Bremerton is the younger brother of my Vietnam service pal Dave who had an interesting job in Vietnam: he was the inoculation man. His favorite job was shooting penicillin into the asses of the prostitutes who hung around the downtown whorehouses and came on post to peddle themselves.
    Anyway, four years ago, after retiring from a long career as a computer IT guy for the US Navy installation there around Seattle someplace, Dave decided to kill himself.
    But I bring this up because James is a season ticket holder for the Seahawks. He has been making a killing selling his extra ticket on ebay every game. And he has been busting my balls for being for the San Francisco 49ers.

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  16. Deborah said on January 18, 2014 at 7:08 pm

    They say these things come in threes, in my world first there was Prospero, then Little Bird’s friend Bill and now our friend Jon Anderson in Chicago. You journos might know him or of him he was a newspaper man. We only came to know him in the last couple of years, he was a very interesting dinner guest, the stories he could tell were amazing. Here’s his obit from the Trib, http://my.chicagotribune.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-78928337/
    also in the NYT http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=jon-s-anderson&pid=169155305

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  17. Linda said on January 18, 2014 at 7:58 pm

    Re: pork heads. My grandma used to buy them all the time to make homemade head cheese–one of my dad’s favorite dishes. And like any good Polish granny, she liked to pick her live chickens for the salesman/butcher to kill right in front of her, because how else will you be able to tell if they are REALLY fresh? For the same reason, many of the fish served at Christmas Eve’s Vigilia dinner were kept alive in a tub of water until the big day.

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  18. Basset said on January 18, 2014 at 9:01 pm

    Same deal at our local Asian market, several kinds of fish and sometimes eels and shellfish, kept alive in big tubs with air pumps.

    Meanwhile, kinda late for a new topic but I’ll probably repost tomorrow… We’re going to have a few folks over Feb. 9 and watch a DVD of Ed Sullivan right at 7, that being the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ historic appearance… any suggestions for N appropriate 60s meal? I was 8 at the time of the original show and remember it well, blanking out on what we ate back then though.

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  19. LAMary said on January 18, 2014 at 9:20 pm

    That big smoke cloud was really nasty Thursday night and Friday morning. I felt lousy most of the day yesterday, like I was getting the flu or something. The air is better today and I feel fine, so I’m thinking the grey crud in the air wasn’t doing me any good.

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  20. maryinIN said on January 18, 2014 at 9:48 pm

    Basset: fish and chips

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  21. alex said on January 18, 2014 at 9:54 pm

    Basset, here’s the perfect cookbook! It provided the theme for a party I once attended fresh out of college and living in Chicago in the ’80s. It was a potluck and each invitee had to attempt one of the recipes.

    Actually, these cookbooks were published annually throughout the 1960s, and said party might have been utilizing one from later than ’62 because I made a Jello mold soda pop marshmallow monstrosity contributed by Nancy Reagan (the recipes were from the wives of prominent Republicans not necessarily members of Congress) and there were fondues and such which were more late ’60s fare. Oh, and it was a dress-up-like-the-’60s party as well. Needless to say, none of the attendees was actually a Republican. It was all about making fun of them.

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  22. Charlotte said on January 18, 2014 at 9:57 pm

    Oh Deborah — I know Jon Anderson’s daughter Ashley (I babysat her husband as a little guy, his brother and my brother were roommates, we all go back to Lake Forest etc). I never got to meet him, but sent Ashley a note yesterday — so sad for her. She really loved him.

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  23. Bob (not Greene) said on January 18, 2014 at 10:40 pm

    Cooke, what’s the update on the dog?

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  24. Bill said on January 18, 2014 at 10:43 pm

    I remember getting the boar’s head from a downstate (Illinois) small town locker about 20 years ago for the Madrigal Dinners at the La Grange Township HS in La Grange. My wife was the HS home ec teacher who worked in conjunction with the drama and music department to put on the annual Madrigal Dinners. I picked up the pig’s heads for a couple of years. No problems because no one ate the head. It served as a decoration for the Boars Head song.

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  25. Deborah said on January 18, 2014 at 10:53 pm

    Charlotte, Jon spoke very highly of Ashley, when he was last at our house her book had not yet come out, “Chocolate Money”. That’s when I found out about his ex being a Rockefeller, I had no idea. Jon’s wife Pamela is a dear person, I feel so bad for her now.

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  26. Jolene said on January 18, 2014 at 10:57 pm

    Definitely think a jello salad is in order, basset. If you’re thinking very casual, maybe sloppy joes, potato chips, and chocolate cake.

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  27. basset said on January 19, 2014 at 12:04 am

    I was disappointed to learn that TV dinners don’t seem to come in foil trays any more, not since microwaves.

    That Congressional recipe book… damn. Spaghetti, cabbage, and Wisconsin cheese casserole, and the line in the preface about “the delicate taste of China, dating from the days when its people had food.” Subtle.

    Some other options: http://www.nashvillescene.com/bites/archives/2014/01/14/whats-your-favorite-or-most-disgusting-vintage-recipe

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  28. basset said on January 19, 2014 at 12:05 am

    And… no jello for us, multiple vegetarians will be present and won’t eat it.

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  29. Dexter said on January 19, 2014 at 12:11 am

    You must eat from TV trays. Any kind of pan-fried meat, perhaps Swiss steak. A huge pan of fried potatoes, fried in lard. Apple pie, the crust made with lard. A glass of 4% milk.
    Coffee made on top of the stove in an old percolator.

    Kill the color if you can figure out how and watch TV the entire day in black and white. Demand silence when The Beatles come on. Invite some old people to come in and yell “they should have sunk the boat the came over in!”
    Pass out cigarettes and everybody lights up five minutes before Ed announces them; you need that smoke-cloud for authenticity.

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  30. Dexter said on January 19, 2014 at 12:28 am

    Alex, I used to try to swim at Carmel beach, a couple times anyway, but I needed a wetsuit to fight the cold, which I did not have. When I arrived in Monterey, a nurse in the hospital I worked in told me to be very careful if I ventured into the waters near Carmel to Point Lobos. She told me a story of horror…what was it…something about the Stanford swim team were training at Carmel beach and the crazy sneak-waves got them and carried them to their deaths. I can’t find a damn thing about any of it via Google right now. Over the years, the ocean there has claimed many lives. Cold, deep, crazy wild rogue waves…whoa! I mostly walked the beach and sat on the sand when I was there. Carmel beach is sort of a personal spiritual mecca for me. I used to go there many times because it was just a short ride down Highway 1 from the army post.

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  31. Dexter said on January 19, 2014 at 12:30 am

    basset, really? Vegetarians huh. Well, have fun.

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  32. basset said on January 19, 2014 at 1:09 am

    Yes, really. Probably just make ’em a big tray of mac and cheese, the rest of us can have spam casserole or something. And the women will be expected to squeal when the Fabs appear.

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  33. Sherri said on January 19, 2014 at 1:15 am

    Dexter, there are some serious riptides all along the coast from Point Lobos to San Francisco, but it’s gorgeous country. I’m not a good enough swimmer to even consider swimming in the ocean there, and even wading in the ocean at Santa Cruz is usually too cold for me! I just stuck to watching the sea otters play in the kelp.

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  34. Dexter said on January 19, 2014 at 1:56 am

    Sherri, My good buddy Bob Ballard , a friend of his, and I used to camp on the beach a little south of Santa Cruz on weekends for a while. We’d pitch a couple little tents and build a fire and cook supper over the fire. I learned how to roast artichokes. Bob didn’t eat meat and didn’t like the smell of fire-burned meat so we mostly just warmed up beans. Bob had Indian Basmati brown rice and always made a pot of that. We always stopped a Safeway for bread and apples and a couple jugs of grocery store red wine. One time I harshed the mellow by getting drunk on that wine; not cool with that crowd. I was never invited back after that. Life marched on.
    A few months after I quit camping with those guys and began venturing off by myself to Yosemite, some tourist were murdered by maniacs very near where we camped earlier. Fuck me!

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  35. Dexter said on January 19, 2014 at 2:02 am

    Godspeed in your new recovery program, Dennis Rodman:
    http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/APNewsbreak-Rodman-checks-into-rehab-center-5156062.php

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  36. Sherri said on January 19, 2014 at 2:36 am

    Roasted artichokes are yummy! Further north, Duarte’s Tavern up in Pescadero also had wonderful cream of artichoke soup and olallieberry pies.

    Back when the kids were young, a friend and I used to pack them up and head to the coast regularly, from Half Moon Bay to Monterey. All doable as day trips from Silly Valley. We’d do longer trips to camp at Big Sur, Big Basin, Portola, Henry Cowell, or just to spend time in Monterey to visit the aquarium. It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun, too.

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  37. DellaDash said on January 19, 2014 at 2:54 am

    Was going for a quick scim, but snagged up on Giuletta’s toast. Thanks for that, Sherri. Love it! Also love Dex harshing the mellow on the shores of northern Cali.

    Mom (who turns 88 next Saturday), took a scary nose dive, right under my nose, onto the carpet…two broken ribs. Things have suddenly become more intense around here. I’m a bit sleep deprived…but have finally rigged up the baby monitors I bought last summer. I can hear her breathing evenly upstairs, so I’m off to catch a few zzzzzz’s, myself.

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  38. Deborah said on January 19, 2014 at 5:07 am

    Great article about artisinal toast and Giuletta.

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  39. Connie said on January 19, 2014 at 9:30 am

    For ideas about food back in the day you might look at http://www.midcenturymenu.com/. It has some very entertaining bad food.

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  40. Maggie Jochild said on January 19, 2014 at 10:27 am

    Sherri, was thrilled to see a mention of Duarte’s in Pescadero. Best fish and chips in my life were had there. I discovered them because I was a zealous adherent to the Sterns’ “Road Food Good Food” bible, back when it was a massive paperback and before the internet. They never steered me wrong: Samoa Cookhouse near Eureka, Buntyn’s on Memphis, the Dinner Bell in McComb, Mississippi — so many of the most memorable meals of my life were a Road Food Good Food recommendation.

    As for the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, I remember it vividly as it was my mother’s birthday. I was 8, my older brother was a teenager, and the fit hit the shan when (after TV dinners, yes, and icebox chocolate cream pie that you defrosted in the box, remember those?) we saw the Fab Four come out and begin playing. My brother loved ’em, Mama went ballistic and began ranting about how it wasn’t EVEN MUSIC, and I felt absolutely torn. I was a Mama’s girl, but damn, those songs reached right into me. I finally just scooted closer to the screen and tuned her out.

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  41. Deborah said on January 19, 2014 at 11:29 am

    I vaguely remember the Beatles being on Ed Sullivan the first time. I looked it up and the date was Feb 9, 1964, I would have been 13. My mom was still alive then, she died in Oct. I don’t think I went gaga for the Beatles until after she died. I remember thinking it was odd how worked up the young girls in the audience got. I think I was so preoccupied with my mother’s illness that I didn’t notice much else. My sister never really had much to do with the Beatles or rock music for that matter as I recall.

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  42. MichaelG said on January 19, 2014 at 1:03 pm

    I saw the Beatles on the Sullivan show in my dorm at the Univ of Ill. Lord. Fifty years.

    I lived with my first wife in Berkeley. We had a friend whose family owned a motel in Santa Cruz. We used to spend weekends there in the “Bridal Suite” for free. It was a horrible, garish red plush with mirrors all over and a round bed. We were young and it was fun. One Friday we were almost at the summit on 17 between San Jose and Santa Cruz when I was pulled over by the CHP, My wife and her girl friend had been sharing a joint. I hadn’t partaken but we were scared that the cop would smell it. I guess he didn’t since he let me go with a warning. My friend was kind of an odd guy. He declared his dog as a dependent on his taxes and wouldn’t drive anything but Corvairs. He would buy one, drive it for several months, wreck it and buy another. This happened several times. He was Italian but liked to pretend that he was Puerto Rican. I never did figure that one out. I once bailed him out after he was popped for driving drunk. He later took his own life.

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  43. basset said on January 19, 2014 at 1:22 pm

    The high school girl next door came over to watch the Beatles that night because her family didn’t have a tv… squealed and got all excited.

    I think we have a winner on the 60s-dish discussion:

    http://www.midcenturymenu.com/2012/02/liver-pate-en-masque-a-retro-gelatin-dare/

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  44. brian stouder said on January 19, 2014 at 2:27 pm

    Basset – if those ‘multiple vegetarians’ you referred to object to gelatin, then you must be in a flatly evil mood, if you’re gonna serve up liver pate’!!

    I’ve almost no scruples about food – other than avoiding cannibalism – but I’d sooner eat a used oil filter than any damned liver!

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  45. Dave said on January 19, 2014 at 2:57 pm

    Ed Sullivan was in black and white in those days, I’m almost certain. So, shouldn’t be an issue. I remember it, I was also 13, in the eighth grade, but what really stands out in my memory was the next morning at school. Our English teacher, Mrs. Fast, was also a music teacher, the choir director, and she ranted on and on about the travesty that had been on The Ed Sullivan Show the night before, those three note somethings. Can’t quite recall what she called them.

    Afterwards, Basset, you should watch an episode of Bonanza. Ed Sullivan was at 8 EST. Bonanza came on at 9 on NBC and everyone in my part of the world, anyway, watched Bonanza. I know we saw that in black and white because, even though NBC developed Bonanza to be a showcase for color TV, we didn’t have one. Hardly anyone I knew had one.

    Bonanza The Cheating Game
    Episode: 153 | Aired: February 09, 1964

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  46. Julie Robinson said on January 19, 2014 at 3:02 pm

    Basset, along with the Spam I think you have to have those little cocktail weenies in a sauce made from ketchup and grape jelly, and pineapple upside down cake. Those dishes were considered exotic at the time. And your mac & cheese should be made with Velveeta. Ick.

    Although I was only 7, my big sister liked the Beatles, so of course I did too because I wanted to be just like her. Dad called them Those Mop Tops. Hilarious, when I look back at the pictures now.

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  47. LAMary said on January 19, 2014 at 3:06 pm

    I have a 1961 Betty Crocker cookbook and I still use the pineapple upside down cake recipe from that book. It’s good but requires canned pineapple. It doesn’t work as well with fresh. I skip the maraschino cherries you’re supposed to put in the middle of each pineapple ring.

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  48. beb said on January 19, 2014 at 3:56 pm

    A bunch of short comments.

    Alex, eat healthy my friend.

    Artisanal toast…I dare say we have fallen through the foodie looking glass.

    Sherri, in a libertarian world there would be no bankruptcy a and no limited liability corporations. Not only would the company be liable for all damages caused by their pollution but so would the various CEOs and stockholders. Some times I think that would be fair since companies like Freedom Inc seem to make no effort to minimize the risk of spillage.

    Basset – Pigs in a blanket and mac and cheese for your 60s meal.

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  49. Bill said on January 19, 2014 at 4:16 pm

    Deborah: Thought you’d enjoy Mary Schmich’s remembrance of Jon Anderson.

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-schmich-met-0119-20140119,0,7940086.column

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  50. Minnie said on January 19, 2014 at 6:42 pm

    That story that starts off about artisanal toast really gets touching. I’m sending the link on to friends who’s son’s struggle is similar to Giulietta’s.

    Tuna casserole is evocative of the ’50s. My mother’s version included crushed potato chips instead of noodles. She always stood a few upright in the mixture before baking. I loved it.

    As to food, thanks to whoever posted here a week or so ago about rubbing pesto under the skin of a chicken before roasting it. We cooked that for late lunch/early supper today. (Is there a brunch-like word for that meal?) I halved small Yukon Golds, tossed them with a little of the pesto, and roasted them along with the chicken. Delish.

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  51. alex said on January 19, 2014 at 8:37 pm

    beb, I’m happy to report that I’ve been cooking up American Heart Association meals all weekend and some of them are pretty tasty. Like this one. And this one. Their black bean soup was kind of meh, but a squirt of lime livened it up. (And it just dawned on me that I forgot the dollop of Greek yogurt that was supposed to go into it at serving time.) Right now I have a pork loin with all of the marbling and white sinew cut out of it marinading in adobo sauce, orange juice and some other stuff and it’s about to go onto the grill. We’ll have a week’s worth of healthful meals already prepared.

    Tomorrow night going to the hospital for an overnight polysomnogram. (Not sure how they expect you to demonstrate how you normally sleep when you’re in strange environs and hooked up to a bunch of machinery.) Anyway, I’m glad to finally be addressing this as well. I snore loudly enough to wake the neighborhood.

    And I can’t say enough good about Obamacare. I belong to a group plan but my partner isn’t eligible to join it and he has had to do without insurance for several years because of the prohibitive cost and the feast/famine nature of his work during that time frame. It’s from a lack of insurance that he didn’t have the regular medical attention he should have been receiving for type II DM. He just got signed up, has already met his deductible and he’s finally getting the level of care that should be everyone’s right, not a privilege.

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  52. Sherri said on January 19, 2014 at 10:29 pm

    Go Hawks!

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  53. basset said on January 19, 2014 at 10:44 pm

    Brian@44, we may be serving that pate, don’t expect anyone to actually eat it though. I sure wouldn’t.

    Dave@45, Bonanza would be perfect… where might I get hold of that episode?

    And Ed Sullivan sure was in black & white that night… including the scene from “Oliver” which featured Davy Jones, later of the Monkees.

    TV sure was different back then, not least during the commercials. There’s one for pancake mix during the Ed Sullivan show that I don’t think includes a single live human, just shots of the box and of the batter swelling up when it hits the griddle. Today, you might not even see the product, just suggestions of how much better your life would be if you used it.

    Pigs in blankets, made with canned dough… that just might work…

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  54. Deborah said on January 19, 2014 at 10:48 pm

    Thanks Bill, my husband went to the wake for Jon Anderson this evening. His report was that it was decent. The funeral is tomorrow (I think). Jon is the one who introduced me to the Cloud Appreciation Society, which I’ve mentioned here before.

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  55. beb said on January 19, 2014 at 11:13 pm

    alex, I had one of those polysomnogram once and it was easily the worst night of my life because I could not sleep. I sleep on my side – they wanted me to sleep on my back. I needed elevation to keep from choking my post-nasal drip. They wanted me flat. Come morning I staggered out to my car drove home feeling totally punch-drunk and fell in day. I hope to god your experience is better. And a hurray to you partner for finally getting health insurance.

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