When it reminds you of how much people and friends and gathering together can be.
I hit a new restaurant with a large group of parents while our middle schoolers enjoyed their last school dance of the year. I was able to sit with people that I see practically every day, and really enjoy them for a short while. Some I have known for several years, but we never seem to make the time to get together- even though we all think the world of each other. I met parents with a daughter one year younger and a son at the high school The Boy will attend next year. Two of the most enjoyable people I have met all year, and I have only just made their acquaintance.
What wonderful people we connect with when we set aside our shyness or anxiety and put ourselves out there to meet with the people we see all around us, every day! I have GOT to do this more often.
I’ve tried to make refried beans before, and mine are nowhere near as good as our favorite Mexican restaurant. I’ve followed The Mom-In-Law’s recipe and still, no better. I decided to try a different kind of bean as suggested by a phenomenal woman I met when we moved back to California. Eva suggested trying Peruano beans, she liked their texture.
I’d do just about any suggestion that Eva offers. She is one of the first people we met at our kids new school six years ago, and she treated us like family. What a wonderful gift that is when coming to a new city and school! I will never forget when Southern California had a massive power outage four years ago right when I was to pick up my son for the day. The school principal and I wisely decided to wait out the traffic jam, saving ourselves HOURS of traffic misery (HA! A wise decision, in hindsight, see yesterday’s post!). Eva made a fried chicken dinner for the four of us, and this is typical of her kindness.
So, peruanos it is!
Cooked beans on left, uncooked, right…
Once the beans were cooked, I poured them into my cast iron skillet that had about a tablespoon of melted bacon grease and another tablespoon of corn oil. Next step is to mush away with a potato masher- I prefer the masher as pictured…
Voilà! Refried beans!
If you want to make these a more decadent dish, stir in about a half cup (or more!) grated cheddar, or even better/worse, crushed chicharrones. NOT the kind you get in the snack food aisle at the quickymart. Get real, freshly made chicharrones from a Mexican grocer, or don’t try it at all- there is no substitution. Curious? Here’s a link to a home made chicharron recipe: SeriousEats.comTheNastyBits:HowToMakeChicharrones
Our usual (and usually traffic-jammed) route home from school was crippled by road work. Again. Only one more month of this drive for the sake of school, then I can freely visit this lovely beach town as 75% of the other cars on the road with me every day- as a tourist!
We decided to take a different way home today, climbing up through streets wide enough for only one car. A dozen other drivers and I were mighty glad we didn’t meet anyone traveling the opposite direction. We really enjoyed our drive. One of the breaks between houses hugging the side of the hill opened up to the most SPECTACULAR view of this part of So. Cal. that I have ever been treated to. Even The Boy remarked how glad he was that we discovered this detour, though by the time we hooked back up to a more familiar (traffic free!) artery, he was declaring that only nut-jobs could live in such precariously perched houses. It was a beautiful detour.
This week I overheard a news clip about the effects of traffic on the frail, human carcass. A little on-line research uncovered a couple of the lengthier articles that the talking heads on the news were sound-bite summarizing: one from WomensHealth.com (where I found and borrowed the only photo in the post), and another, more in-depth spread over at The Wall Street Journal.
Some of the effects include, but are not limited to the following:
These info bits come from a slew of studies, not just one, spread out over the course of several years, and for me, are a generous serving of Food for Thought.
Photo from The Women’s Health online article “Ten Things Your Commute Does to Your Body”
“Everything old is new again.” Several tours of The Boy King have made the U.S. and international circuits many times over the last eight or nine decades. I’d never seen the recreations of Howard Carter and his teams’ discovery of the nearly untouched tomb of Egypt’s King Tutankhamen until this weekend.
This exhibition focuses on the discovery and care taken in recording the splendid artifacts uncovered, and though none of the items on exhibits are the original objects, the fascination remained intact. The actual treasures stay in Egypt now and tour no more.
If at any age you had ever watched the television specials, read magazine articles or pored through books, you were probably fascinated with the detail of this lost king’s rediscovery. The really interesting aspect of this tour is how with much care, the size and placement of the tomb’s rooms and objects are shown exactly as they were found. I was surprised by the size of the sarcophagi and coffins, and astonished to see the amount of objects catalogued- even though this was a small number of reproductions! After seeing photos and drawing and television specials since my childhood, it really was exciting to view in person the scale and placement of all the relics and the chambers in which they were uncovered.
Carter’s IllustrationsCollar from Carter’s illustrationsTour description of famous gold collar
The tour displayed reproductions of Carter’s drawings of what he found and descriptions of their placement. One of the biggest finds was the largest amount of period textiles ever to be discovered but unfortunately not cataloged as well as the traditional treasures of gold and precious stones.
Three strand necklaceDescription of necklace
I’m trying to find where this tour is headed next, but the information is proving difficult to unearth… lol… apropos for this post, no? The company putting on the tour is Premier Exhibitions, Inc., and are also behind other mega-popular tours such as “Bodies, The Exhibition,” and “Titanic, The Artifact Exhibition.”
Since Premier Exhibitions is being so stingy with next tour dates info, I’ll leave everyone with the one clip that we all remember whenever The Boy King, King Tut is talked about:
The directions we received were simple: “If you beat us to the restaurant, ask for Nakamura-san”
We were following the instructions of new friends that we are really enjoying. And what is more fabulous than new friends who know more about the Asian cuisines that you love, but have actually spent time in these countries? A bunch of time? You get great advice and pointers and promises all-around to hit more restaurants, too… oh yeah!
Last night we got to find out which restaurant is really close to little bit of Japan in our own city. This restaurant served sushi so lovely that my own 75 year old mother not only tried sea urchin with me, but wasn’t grossed out, and didn’t stop there.
We’ll be back. Oh yes.
Quail Eggs on some spectacular creation that The Husband got to eat.
branching out... on a limb 