Archive for October, 2008

Adventures at the Food Co-op: Hardy Kiwifruit

October 24, 2008 at 9:17 am · Filed under Food, thoughts

I’d never seen a hardy kiwifruit before.  As you can see from the picture, they’re pretty tiny, like the size of a grape, and they don’t have brown furry skins like regular kiwis.  They taste very similar to regular kiwis just a bit sweeter with a richer, more complex aftertaste (in a good way!).  Maybe that’s the skin that I’m tasting?  The texture is the same.

They’re fun and easy to pop in your mouth for a snack, but I can also imagine them in a tart or something else that highlights their smallness – like sliced on top of a cake as decoration.

The woman who rang me up said that they grow from a plant that handles cold weather well, so they’re easy to grow in New York.  If only I had access to a backyard!

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Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien.

October 23, 2008 at 10:17 am · Filed under Quotations, thoughts

Sometimes I neglect the good because it’s not great. Like – I buy plain yogurt instead of fruit-flavored because the kind with fruit has a lot of sugar. But then I end up eating something else entirely, something even less healthy, because sometimes plain yogurt isn’t going to cut it. As I was eating Oatmeal Surprise yesterday, I felt bad about the jam – and then I thought – it’s oatmeal! For dinner! How much more healthy can you get? I suppose slightly – because you could leave out the jam. You see where this is going…

I had a nagging thought that someone said it better than me. Turns out it is Voltaire. The English translation is “the best is the enemy of the good” or less accurately, but as I remember it, “the perfect is the enemy of the good”.

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Oatmeal Surprise

October 22, 2008 at 9:23 am · Filed under Recipe, thoughts

My mom’s invention.  Here’s the recipe:

  1. Make oatmeal.
  2. Put most of the oatmeal in bowl.
  3. Drop a spoonful of jam in the middle.
  4. Cover with rest of the oatmeal.
  5. Top with milk and spices if you want.
  6. Eat around the edges.
  7. Surprise!

It’s delicious.

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Happy Birthday, Eleanor Roosevelt

October 20, 2008 at 9:21 am · Filed under Personal

I rode up to Eleanor Roosevelt’s little house in Hyde Park last Saturday (which happened to be her birthday – October 11).  The area is gorgeous this time of year, the leaves are changing and there are views of the Hudson river and the Catskills.

In a short video about her life Eleanor talks to some boys in front of a sign printed “Elinor Roosevelt’s School for Boys”.  Then, on her desk in her office, there is a nameplate “Elanor Roosevelt”.  The tour guide said someone asked Eleanor about it and she said that a little boy gave it to her and she wanted to display it prominently in case he ever came to visit.  I wonder how many people assumed they had been misspelling her name after seeing that nameplate on her desk?

Also interesting is that the film referenced Franklin’s lifelong affairs.  A friend worked at the Teddy Roosevelt House on Long Island about ten years ago.  At that time the tour guides weren’t allowed to acknowledge the sordid (and therefore especially interesting) parts of history – the suicides and affairs.

My ride up was leisurely and uneventful.  I took a winding local road to enjoy the scenery.  I stayed too long, though, so my trip back was slightly harrowing.  I rode for the first time on the highway in the dark.  The highway had no shoulder and I spotted several deer grazing on the side.  I ran out of gas and had to switch to the reserve tank and hope it lasted until I could make it back to a populated area.  And I learned that the mountains are cold at night on a bike!  Little adventures.

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