GR&DF thank you for your very kind comments on yesterdays post - they are a really good morning hug here in chilly old San Francisco. It has been in the 40's and 50's from dawn to dusk the last few days. We are expecting a big winter storm to push in off the Pacific on Sunday.... this is our wintry wet season and the storms off the northern Pacific can be cold, wet and windy.
Yesterday I went on my weekly visit to the Farmers Market (no good snaps of the market today) and I picked up the usual things, cukes, tomatoes, potatoes, winter fruit... and some nice big walnuts. Being from the South I grew up being able to get lots of pecans, and do miss not being able to get them fresh from the grove, but out here in the west you get beautiful walnuts. The getting of the nuts put me in the mood the start on some Christmas treat making, but of course I needed to shell the suckers first!!
Here is a snap of my high tech operation... I find that one good wack on the point usually yields a good half nut or larger piece of nut than a wack on the side. For my pecans I just get a bag of them already shelled from Trader Joe's - ain't that living high on the hog!! A preshelled nut! I have a few new recipes I am going to try and it looks like a treat making weekend - the Holidays have really begun at our house.
We ran to the Safeway in Diamond Heights yesterday evening - I needed a few things for the treat extravaganza and I hate the grocery store on Friday, Saturday or Sunday - just way too many people crowded into a store for my taste. Going through the produce section they had Cherries - yes - you read that correctly - a delicious Summer fruit - so of course I had to buy a small bag - at $6 a pound it certainly wasn't going to be a big bag!!
They are from Chile and very nice looking, but on the sour side. I think it is crazy that you can get fresh cherries in the winter - and I am such a sucker to buy them out of season. It is one of the main reasons I love going to the farmers market as it is local, fresh and IN season. Oh, well sometimes you just gotta buy the odd and weird!!
I haven't talked about any flickers lately.....so.... last night was a pretty good night for a couple of them. The first up is "The Great American Broadcast" - 1941 - starring Alice Faye, John Payne, Jack Oakie and Cesar Romero. This nice little musical is set at the beginning of Radio just after WWI - and the love triangle or I should say love square was a nice touch but predictable. I just love watching Alice Faye and really enjoyed this flicker. You may know that she got her start in early Radio so she was perfectly cast in the roll of Vicki Adams - early Radio starlet!! The second flick was "Steal a Pencil for Me" - 2007 - This documentary was story of two Holocaust survivors - Jaap Polak and Ina Soep - They met just before the Netherlands was invaded but the Nazis on May 10th 1940 - she a single girl and he a married man - I like what a reviewer had to say..... "Man, Wife, Girlfriend, Holocaust." That sort of sums it up. It is a a film of interviews of Jack (Jaap) and who became his second wife, Ina. The story they have to tell is important and told very well through this film. Two more very good films - check them out.
Still working on the black box for the letter "C" and still not a snap in site - whoops!!
Thanks for stopping by and do come again!!!
Take care,
edgar
Yesterday I went on my weekly visit to the Farmers Market (no good snaps of the market today) and I picked up the usual things, cukes, tomatoes, potatoes, winter fruit... and some nice big walnuts. Being from the South I grew up being able to get lots of pecans, and do miss not being able to get them fresh from the grove, but out here in the west you get beautiful walnuts. The getting of the nuts put me in the mood the start on some Christmas treat making, but of course I needed to shell the suckers first!!
Here is a snap of my high tech operation... I find that one good wack on the point usually yields a good half nut or larger piece of nut than a wack on the side. For my pecans I just get a bag of them already shelled from Trader Joe's - ain't that living high on the hog!! A preshelled nut! I have a few new recipes I am going to try and it looks like a treat making weekend - the Holidays have really begun at our house.We ran to the Safeway in Diamond Heights yesterday evening - I needed a few things for the treat extravaganza and I hate the grocery store on Friday, Saturday or Sunday - just way too many people crowded into a store for my taste. Going through the produce section they had Cherries - yes - you read that correctly - a delicious Summer fruit - so of course I had to buy a small bag - at $6 a pound it certainly wasn't going to be a big bag!!
They are from Chile and very nice looking, but on the sour side. I think it is crazy that you can get fresh cherries in the winter - and I am such a sucker to buy them out of season. It is one of the main reasons I love going to the farmers market as it is local, fresh and IN season. Oh, well sometimes you just gotta buy the odd and weird!!
I haven't talked about any flickers lately.....so.... last night was a pretty good night for a couple of them. The first up is "The Great American Broadcast" - 1941 - starring Alice Faye, John Payne, Jack Oakie and Cesar Romero. This nice little musical is set at the beginning of Radio just after WWI - and the love triangle or I should say love square was a nice touch but predictable. I just love watching Alice Faye and really enjoyed this flicker. You may know that she got her start in early Radio so she was perfectly cast in the roll of Vicki Adams - early Radio starlet!! The second flick was "Steal a Pencil for Me" - 2007 - This documentary was story of two Holocaust survivors - Jaap Polak and Ina Soep - They met just before the Netherlands was invaded but the Nazis on May 10th 1940 - she a single girl and he a married man - I like what a reviewer had to say..... "Man, Wife, Girlfriend, Holocaust." That sort of sums it up. It is a a film of interviews of Jack (Jaap) and who became his second wife, Ina. The story they have to tell is important and told very well through this film. Two more very good films - check them out.
Still working on the black box for the letter "C" and still not a snap in site - whoops!!
Thanks for stopping by and do come again!!!
Take care,
edgar
Your Christmas spirit is making me in the mood to start making candies and breads! The cherrys are beautiful! You are so cool, I still want to come live with you and Rico! Rico is a very lucky guy! Amy from OK
ReplyDeleteDes cerises!!!!!!!!!!!!! wouah! En cette saison, quel régal!
ReplyDeleteHere's an idea for your walnut shells. You take the pieces that can be fit nicely back together. Spray paint them a pretty gold color (something old looking, not shiny). Once dried, you put a note inside with the year and write about something important to you from that year. You glue the halves back together - with a ribbon for hanging of course and you have a beautiful ornament on your tree. You do this every year and then years from now, you can start opening them to read the notes! My family and I have done this for a few years now and they look so pretty hanging on the tree. When our boys are grown, we'll start cracking them open to see what they wrote when they were little. I even make up kits - the painted shells, ribbons and little cut note papers - and give them as gifts to neighbors.
ReplyDeleteC for cat is the block I want to make most! So looking forward to seeing it as it comes along! :D
ReplyDeleteI need some of your Christmas spirit to rub off on me! lol! I'm going to have to remember that trick for shelling walnuts -- never been able to do that well. And cherries in winter! Yum!
ReplyDeleteOh, PS--I am also a total sucker for fresh cherries! I love the white (are the ranier?) Cherries, too! But, I have to say that I only like cherry as fresh fruit, and never a flavoring or etc.
ReplyDeleteSo, I'll buy the 6 buck imported cherries along with you. :P
I also do like strawberries...and even cranberries!
Mmmm...walnuts! Love them.
ReplyDeleteDid you notice they are doing classic double features at the Castro? Very tempted to treat myself on Sunday...or be lazy and rent them from Netflix and watch from the couch. Hope it doesn't get too stormy!
The cherries look yummy! I would have bought them too.
ReplyDeleteI think everyone in South Carolina, but me, was making Pecan Pie for Thanksgiving Edgar. I wanted to get a small bag for a sweet potatoe topping, and there wasn't one to be found!
oh, the cherries look delicious!
ReplyDelete