Nobody expects the Yancey's Fancy gouda!

I failed to travel with the appropriate field guide for my adventures in D.C. and Maryland. Didn't realize cheese would be a recurring theme for the weekend, so I didn't check out the DK World Cheese Book.  

• In-flight Cheese Nips on Southwest

• Room 11's grilled cheese sandwich with marinara sauce for brunch with Oak Shade Cheddar, Fresh Mozzarella, Caciocavallo 

• Cheeses on the porch before my sister's fab cookout pork tenderloin
• Manchego with apple slices
• Yancey's Fancy N.Y. artisan gouda cured on Canadian hardwood

• Dessert tiramisu with Mascarpone cheese and Marsala wine

• Difficult to believe no cheese on the Ben's chili dog at the Nat's game. Sigh, but then

• Cheese tasting at Right Proper after the game while pondering the mural of animals retaking our nation's capital
• Nettle Meadow Kunik
• Cabot clothbound cheddar 
• P'tit Basque
• Two more delicious cheeses, one soft, one hard, that I can't remember perhaps because we were also tasting brews

• Italian dining on the deck with tomato mozzarella salad, "little ear" pesto pasta, broiled lamb chops, sweet corn, watermelon ...

Toto, I have a feeling we're not eating Velveeta anymore.

© 2013-2016 Nancy L. Ruder

Charmed, I'm sure

Brunched with long-time friends and shared our charm bracelets for show-and-tell. We don't actually wear our bracelets, but we could. I was contemplating a redesign of mine.

Because the collection of charms spans a lifetime some are childish, many were gifts, and others I gave myself more recently. They are symbolic and commemorative, linking my mom, my sister, A few never fail to get entangled in sweater cuffs.


I want to start a bracelet for my granddaughter. James Avery's charm bracelet catalog arrived the day after our brunch. I'm wavering between finding a child-size chain or beginning the collection on a full-size bracelet. What will be Little Missie's talents? Interests? Travels? Tools of her profession?




Landmarks in history? I have an astronaut charm for Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. Should I find a human genome charm for her? Melting icecaps don't charm me.

Some Grancy who will remain nameless spent way too much time looking at charms online...

© 2013-2016 Nancy L. Ruder

Puppy love for Valentine's Day

Spied from the sky, taking the George Bush west exit over Central Expressway it's hard to comprehend the fine points of Richardson's new dog park without crashing the car. That would be BAD. So we took a little field trip on the south Central Expressway 75 access road from Plano Parkway to the Bush Central Barkway.

As a non-dog owner my dog park experience is limited, but this is an impressive layout and clever purpose for otherwise unusable land. It is across a creek from the Renner Trail that also travels under the highway interchange through an urban forest. Someday a bridge will cross the creek to link the trail with the dog park. The hike/bike trail is a much-needed nature oasis in an area of rapid business development around State Farm's new headquarters.

 

    

 You can even host your next big dog party at the Barkway's rental event paddock.

© 2013-2016 Nancy L. Ruder

You oughta be in pictures

The morning could not be captured in a Power Point or even a big screen movie. This moment was a motion picture projected in a drowsy classroom full of dust motes. The red-haired kid in his red baseball cap. Monarch butterflies and queens and painted ladies all flying and feeding at the purple mistflower, dipping and swirling just above the kid with the cap. His smile widening. The fluttery-puttery sound of the projector reels turning. Opie and Aunt Bea.



I've never been happy with explanations of the butterfly" word origin. True, butter-yellow butterflies are very common. Do they hang around milk pails? I doubt that.

The monarchs look so lovely on the flowers the color of...? The color of... Why, that is just the color of the purple shoes worn on its ears by the very vain tiger!

And that tiger ran in circles around and around a tree until it turned into melted butter for pancakes! The little red-haired kid in the baseball cap is unlikely to encounter resourceful Sambo, that Clever Boy Odysseus. It's kinda sad since kids today have so many more tigers to outwit than I did.

 

In the butterfly swirl there were many Painted Lady couples. Talk about having some explaining to do! I think I'll go with the Victorian house definition of a "painted lady" having three or more paint colors to emphasize the architectural details.

And the skipper sips on.

2. 
   

© 2013-2015 Nancy L. Ruder

Brunch Advisory Council

After a perspirrrrrry walk in the Sunday morning humidity, the council met at the usual Corner Bakery. Two members ordered Power Flats with sides. One member of the council ordered pancakes. We had a lot of catching up to do.

The council has no by-laws or official leader. Its members offer advice with no expectation of implementation. The council members report, brainstorm, mull over, and shoo away grackles on the patio. General meetings are held at Corner Bakery. Quarterly sessions are held at La Madeleine. Members have no term limits and no actual power. A long shared history and a sense of humor are required for membership. You could say we come from "all walks of life," but the truth is we are old, slightly saggy, walking buddies and former soccer moms just keeping on keeping on through all the stuff life throws our way. In the movie version, I want to be played by Judy Dench.

After a review of the realities of a special education teacher duties, and a report on a police call involving a salty pork chop, we considered the problem of munchies for the team-building emotional intelligence session. One member advocated for donuts and OJ. I countered with reason after reason why this was unacceptable. The third member cut through to the wise course--a bag of Cuties, and a bunch of bananas. The items are naturally packaged in individual servings. Keep it simple.

Edvard Munch, is unfortunately best known as the Oslo painter of "The Scream". Munchies, therefore, have a chilly Scandinavian emotional component. After reading Luncheon of the Boating Party,by Susan Vreeland this week about Renoir's painting (owned by the Philips Collection), I've bounced to a Jo Nesbø audiobook narrated by Patti Smith about a dyslexic Oslo hit man in the Seventies.

As for the council's suggestions, I've taken them all under advisement. Meeting adjourned until the new movie based on Bill Bryson's book, A Walk In the Woods, opens. Thanks to all the many food face posters on the Web for your emotional intelligence. 

Find the sources of the collage. Team-building menu to follow.





© 2013-2015 Nancy L. Ruder