Idea Pizzeria

Trim your nose hair.

There, I said it. This is what I was dying to say to someone yesterday, but absolutely could not bring myself to, because a) I had never met him before b) it was at a memorial service for a friend c) I desperately wanted the conversation to end. Now that I think of it, that probably would have ended it, but I didn’t have the nerve to embarrass him.

It was a really weird experience so I’m breaking my hiatus to share what happened.

I’m wandering around the reception area, mascara all over my face from crying, scarfing down cheese because it’s good and it’s there and what better place to indulge in comfort food than a memorial service. I see this older gentleman, graying but not particularly distinguished looking, and he seems to want to say something to me, so I finally look right at him, thinking maybe we know each other from somewhere.

Him: “Are you _______?”

Me: “Yes” (smiling politely)

Him: “I’m Joe Bob Bickerly.” (he says it as if that should ring a bell, but all is is quiet in my head)

Me: (still smiling politely but looking quizzically at him)

Him: I used to go to [church young adult singles group]. It was after your reign and during the reign of [Queen Ferdinand]. I had seen the website that you made, but when I showed up you had just left. Queen Ferdinand said you had gotten married and moved on.

By now everything was clear and I was officially creeped out by the fact that he had memorized my face from a website 8 years ago. He also seemed to be asking for verification that I was indeed [still] married. I made it abundantly clear that I was happily taken. I do admit, though, that my ego was lightly boosted by the fact that I resembled my pre-three kids self (despite the 30 pounds added to my once uber skinny frame) enough for him to recognize my face from those pictures.

Me: Yep, I helped start that group, so it was a blessing when two years later I met my husband there.

Him: That didn’t happen for me. I’m 47 years old and I’m still not married.

He seems to be moving closer to me in direct proportion to his disclosure of facts that are completely inappropriate to be sharing with someone he’s just met, who is married, and who is grieving the loss of her friend. If it weren’t for him being a “close talker” (thank you Seinfeld), I might not have recognized the severity of his nose hair overgrowth. It was like he had gnarled mossy twigs shooting out of his nostrils. If you’re going to do facial hair (and in most cases, please don’t), it should be intentional. A man who doesn’t tidy up his own face cannot be trusted to pay attention to more important details. Not to mention that it’s just plain icky, and in some instances, snotty.

Me: Did you try e-Harmony?

This is my standard response to the older dating crowd–it’s also the method I would have used if it had been available when I was still single, but it came out about a year later–I still have dreams (at night when I’m sleeping) about being single and going on eHarmony. I think it’s because I’m so into personality theory that I can’t help being curious about it. I also probably still have residual fears about never getting married. Thankfully I’m definitely with the right guy (even personality-wise–we’re both NFs).

Him: (excitedly) I’m on e-Harmony right now! I’ve been corresponding with this one woman up in Washington and another over in the Middle East. The first one came down for a few days, so we went out to dinner in the city at 8pm and we were still there talking about all kinds of deep stuff until midnight! Unfortunately my car got locked in the valet area, so I had to rent a hotel room (for myself) and got stuck paying the worst rate ($169/night) but it was worth it!

Me: That’s cool. I have to go find my ride now…by the way, you should trim your nose hair.

No, I didn’t actually say that–if I had come in my own car, I could have run out of the building, but since I was trapped there, I couldn’t risk his reaction. What’s really troubling is that I have single women friends in their 30s and 40s who are incredible people, but the only single men I meet that age (which is not very many since I’m not on the singles circuit) are scary. My own widowed mom ended up marrying a man seven years her junior, so that might be the best strategy for avoiding men who let their nose hair grow out.

I set out not to blog consistently and I’ve been pretty consistent about that :)  I need to take it a step further, though, and not blog at all until I get caught up on some stuff.  I don’t enjoy creating as much when I haven’t organized all that I’ve already created.  So I need to make a bit more progress and then I’ll be back.  Sporadically of course.  I can’t commit to anything when my first commitment is to my family, and we’re in a very hands-on stage right now, so mentally stimulating activities are low on the priority list, as unnatural as that tends to feel to me.  I know it’s the right thing.  This formative time in my children’s lives is precious and fleeting, so it’s more than worth a temporary lapse from my studious self.

Everyone knows that TJ’s sells reusable grocery bags for cheap, but have you tried their wine sack? It holds six bottles of wine and costs a buck or two. Normally, I use it to buy and store our liquor (we have no wine rack or liquor cabinet), but yesterday I discovered an alternative use for it–a water bottle holder for a family of five en route to the beach. Insert kid-sized water bottles, sippy cups, thermoses, virtually any kind of bottle. Carry to vehicle and distribute as needed to various passengers. When you get to the beach, put the bottles back in, and cart out to the beach. So basically any time you’d like to keep your family beverages upright and/or organized, this wine sack will do the trick. You could even use one compartment for straws. If I sit here and think about it, I can think of a multitude of uses–portable art supplies, anyone?  Now I’m going to have to go buy another one…

The cheapest wine at Costco is Red Truck California Red Wine ($7).  I’ve always admired its whimsical packaging, so I’m happy to report that what’s inside is just as delightful.  We had it for the first time last night and it went beautifully with the pasta puttanesca I made.  Normally we only drink on the weekends, but this particular dish was just begging for a glass of red, so I gave in, and I’m very glad I did.

If you have fresh ingredients (basil, tomatoes, garlic) and a can of anchovies, I urge you to try this puttanesca recipe, because it is so simple and delicious.  It’s a “no cook” sauce, which I am partial to because it means one less pot to wash, so all you have to do is boil some noodles.  The rest is chopping–I used the food processor to mince the basil (I left out the parsley).  It says to reserve some of the cooking water from the noodles, but I didn’t need it (olive oil, vinegar, and tomatoes made it saucy enough).  We topped ours with freshly grated romano, but parmesan will do.

While researching puttanesca recipes, I made the unhappy discovery of the vulgar meaning of its name [insert rant about the tastelessness of sexual metaphors and food].  It deserves a name worthy of respect, so  I christen it:  Purritanesca.  Because it makes this puritan purr

P.S. Saltimbocca is Italian for “jumps in the mouth”…now that’s fitting!

P.P.S. My next post won’t be about food…probably…

P.P.P.S.  I know I need pictures to go with these posts, and I have them, but I’m behind on my uploading, and I have this annoying habit of having to sort everything chronologically, so for now just use your imagination (or google images or flickr–you know what to do)

P.P.P.P.S.  As a child, I littered all my correspondence with P.S.’s and xo’s and swak’s

The following is an illustration of my typical cooking style.

My husband put a little bug in my ear yesterday when I mentioned cooking chicken stuffed with prosciutto. “How about chicken saltimbocca?” I like to make new things and I like to please my man, so I immediately went for the challenge. I browsed nearly all the saltimbocca recipes on my favorite recipe site, and chose this one because I liked all the sage (fresh and dried) and that it incorporated mushrooms (something I had a surplus of). The only problem was that I didn’t have white wine. Or pork, but I figured I could substitute chicken.

Things started out fine. I pounded the chicken but not quite as thinly as it said (I was afraid of it disintegrating). I then followed the directions to cover each slice with a piece of prosciutto (or 5 pieces), a fresh sage leave (2 actually), and a sprinkling of dried sage (well, rubbed, because it was all I had). I also took the liberty of adding a slice (or two) of Fontina. I mean it was just begging for cheese.

I browned the chicken but it wasn’t done so I cooked it a little more. It was still pink in places but I figured it would finish cooking in the last step, so I removed it from the pan as directed.

This is where things started to get interesting…

At this point, I was supposed to deglaze the pan with white wine, but I had a small problem: no white wine. So since the recipe also called for chicken stock, I figured I’d just pour it in now with the garlic and mushrooms. It tasted a little bland and wasn’t getting syrupy like it said, so I added some apple juice. Then it tasted too sweet, so I added a bit more chicken base, as well as some beef base, salt, and worcestershire sauce (when all else fails, add worcestershire, and please spell it correctly). That perked it up and seemed to cancel out the sweet, but it was still lacking, so I threw in some rubbed sage to keep the sage theme going. And a sprinkle of garlic powder. Then I repeated all that again at various taste intervals (but no more apple juice of course).

It still wasn’t thickening though (and why should it?), so it was time for cornstarch. I guess I didn’t dissolve it well enough but I ended up with gooey globs in the sauce, which I quickly removed. Thankfully, it still did the trick and gave the sauce a nice consistency.

I added the chicken back to the pan, cooking it in the sauce, but I could tell that the meat needed more than a reheating. The problem was that if I kept simmering it, my sauce (really a gravy) was going to boil away and the mushrooms would get overcooked (if that’s possible), so I did something I rarely do. I went into denial, deciding the fleshy spots on the chicken must not really be there, and smothering it all in the mushroom gravy on our plates, accompanied by steamed artichokes and oven fried potatoes.

Guess whose chicken ended up back in the frying pan? Yep, mine was 1/3 raw. Thankfully, it held up well (even the cheese) and with the gravy on my plate instead of the pan, the chicken cooked the rest of the way pretty quickly. My husband’s piece was all cooked except the edges which I fried with mine.

Lessons learned: Saltimbocca is a dish worth making (the finished product was very yummy). Pound the chicken thinner. Don’t just brown it in the first step–cook it until it’s done. Keep white wine on hand (or use all broth–no juice). Dissolve cornstarch fully. Or use a flour paste (?). Thank husband for growing me a container herb garden that includes sage.

Love the Grocery Outlet that just opened in our area, but have learned to just say no to corn bacon–it tastes funny (my husband made me buy a new batch at Costco just so he could set his tastebuds back in order).  I’m glad I said yes to a pound of prosciutto for $4 and two pounds of salami for $5.  Both marked “ends and pieces” which makes absolutely no difference in flavor, or even texture (only a couple ends–all the rest thinly sliced).  And the ripe cantaloupe for $2 went perfectly with the prosciutto.  The avocados (6 for $4) turned out great (also yummy with prosciutto) and the green bananas turned yellow, just like the manager promised me they would.

Don’t even get me started on the cheeses.  Trader Joe’s is no longer my main supplier, not with the ability to get fontina, blue, brie, aged cheddar, havarti, romano, and many more at $3-4 a pound at Grocery Outlet.  I bought all of the above, and none were imported from China (mostly from Europe, which is as it should be).  However, the frozen shrimp imported from Thailand is a great deal and good quality, too.

The Pinot Noir experiment is chugging along without any memorable results from this past weekend.  Can’t even remember the name of the one we tried, let alone the taste, but it seemed too alcohol-y, which is something I’ve noticed more with French wines than California wines.  The Twin Fin Rose I got from Grocery Outlet was nice–more dry and less fruity than I like in a pink wine, but still good–my husband liked it more than the usual sweet summer ones.

Speaking of Food & Wine, I love that magazine.  I’ve read many a food magazine in my day and they’re not all the same.  That one and Cooks Illustrated are my favorites, because  I like good food writing…and good  food.  What I didn’t realize is that I also like reading about wine, thanks to F&W’s Lettie Teague.  Her column, Wine Matters, is responsible for piquing my interest in wine.  I’ll never be a conoisseur like she is, but I enjoy drinking vicariously through the experiences and information she conveys in her column.  She’s a great storyteller and never pretentious.  Of course I am always astonished and aghast at the costs of the wines (and even the corkage fees!), but that’s just sour grapes

Earlier I tried to correlate the classic four temperaments with the Myers-Briggs system, but I’m not completely convinced of my original conclusion, and have been revisiting other theories I’ve entertained throughout the years. It is also possible that there actually is no correlation, but being the intuitive feeler that I am, I “sense” there is a connection between the temperaments and type.

First, a clarification: when I say four temperaments, I am NOT referring to David Keirsey’s classifications which are actually based on the MBTI. As I mentioned in my previous post, people have (I believe) inaccurately correlated his system with the classic four temperaments like this: NF=phlegmatic, NT=melancholic, SJ=choleric, SP=sanguine. I find Keirsey’s classifications quite useful, but at the same time, a bit restrictive. I think there are commonalities between people who have any two preferences in common, and in fact, Isabella Myers was more prone to group them together like this: IN, EN, ST, SF. That makes a bit more sense to me since at least two of those (IN and EN) tap into the 8 functions, which is really the heart of the MBTI, and what so few people know about (including me for many years), but that’s a whole nuther topic…

…unless of course it relates to what I’m trying to do here, in which case maybe I should only use the 8 functions to try to make the correlation, and we’ll end up with this:

IN = melancholic (dominant or auxiliary function = introverted intuiting)
IS = phlegmatic (dominant or auxiliary function = introverted sensing)
EJ = choleric (dominant function = extraverted thinking or feeling)
EP = sanguine (dominant function = extraverted intuiting or sensing)

What’s interesting about this interpretation is that I checked it against my personality code and it still works with all the examples I gave.

What I would really like is to hear from any ISTJs and ISFJs about whether they would agree about being phlegmatic. Unfortunately, those types are among the least likely to end up here.

Oh, and the reason I reject the IF=melancholic and IT=phlegmatic is because I’ve known too many INTJs who were clearly melancholic (they’re way too intense to be golden retriever types).  And the ISFJs I’ve known have been the gentle more passive types (which is another reason I doubt my original conclusion that IJ=melancholic).

Are there people like this? They see a long line and they have to go stand in it. Even if when they reach the end, they’re told they’re too tall to ride the pony. Because it’s not about what’s at the end of the line, it’s the thrill of the wait, especially if they don’t know what the end of the line holds. In fact, most of the time when they get to the front, they just leave, especially if it costs money. They’ve had their fix, now it’s time to move on and find a new line, preferably a long one.

Waiters Anonymous (WA) meeting:

John Doe: I’m getting better at not wandering off from my friends to go stand in line but I feel guilty when I get a rush from going through the check-out lane at the grocery store–I still can’t bring myself to go in the 10 items or less line, even if I’m only buying a six pack of beer. The impulse to wait is too strong.

Because…

The aroma of steeping tea. Fresh tomatoes and basil. A cool breeze just when I need it. My children’s laughter. Water. Stories of redemption. Waking up every morning. A zillion kinds of roses. Cheese. Rainbows. The calming effect of lavender. Hugs. The flavors of our herb garden. Ruby throated hummingbirds.

To be continued forever…

Everyone will die at some point. Not one of us is immortal, so to say that God doesn’t exist because he lets people die makes no sense. Ah, but it’s not just death, but an early death, i.e. any time before old age sets in, that seems cruel on the part of God or points to his absence. These “untimely deaths” shake or break our faith. Because we can’t comprehend the actions of an immortal God who transcends time and calls some of our loved ones home sooner than we would like.

Loss is painful for all people, regardless of their beliefs, but there is one crucial difference for the believer and the unbeliever. The unbeliever regards death, and the resulting loss, as meaningless. Atheists view death as the end, but Christians see it as the beginning. So the argument that a “good God” wouldn’t let this happen only works on the atheist’s side who can see nothing good in death.

Nor do atheists believe in a higher being who has a higher purpose for our existence, so the idea that something like loss or pain could actually be used to draw a person closer to God, to cause him to grow and do great things, and to be a crucial component of an overarching plan for the greater good seems foolishness to them.

Life on this earth is short and I’d rather err on the side of love and faith (which enhances the quality of life) than err on the side of disbelief and bitterness, which not only shortens one’s days but diminishes their fullness.

Faith doesn’t have to be without a factual basis. “Christian intellectual” is not an oxymoron:  Augustine, Pascal, C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, Francis Schaeffer and Billy Graham are just a few prominent examples. Christians were/are scientists, lawyers, and in other professions requiring logic. They do not shut off their brains to believe in God. Numerous skeptics have read the Bible and come to faith. Faith is a gift, but the the path to receiving it is filled with evidence of a creator and a savior.