Pantry cooking

I didn't bring enough food to work last night, so I was rather hungry driving home (having successfully resisted the call of the Chocolate Drawer). I debated stopping to get some sushi, but it was raining, and I didn't have a hat. So, home it was, to find something to eat.
( what got cooked )

Pesach cleaning

Cleaning for Pesach is a huge job, but one that is less large than some people make it. The goal is to make sure that you don't have any chametz (non-kosher-for-Passover food) in your possession, not necessarily to do spring cleaning as well, though many seem to include that, which means, of course, extremely exhausted people at the seder, which is less than ideal.

I'm on a rather right-wing (Jewishly) mailing list that I've been too lazy to take myself off of, especially since every so often there's something I rather like. Today, there was a guide to Pesach cleaning, by the Rosh Yeshiva of Ateret Cohanim, R. Shlomo Aviner, that emphasized what must be done rather than what may be done. I was glad to see another rabbi emphasizing the minimum in this case, rather than the maximum, even though there are things that are not as I do them...
( his text with my annotations [in brackets] (long) )

Embrace mackereality.

I shouldn't have been eating while reading: this site's commentary on 1974 Weight Watchers recipe cards almost lead to laughter disaster...

On the science front, there's now not just giant squid, but colossal squid, about which the scientist studying it says it is "something you are not going to want to meet in the water." Thanks for the warning.

I stopped at the Butcherie tonight, figuring I'd get much of the Passover stuff (making sure they didn't run out of certain things I like, as they did last year...). There were a couple of things I'd not seen before, including a rather large can of "white truffles," which I haven't seen available at other times of the year. I don't know what I'd do with them, actually, though they are fabled for a reason, I assume. Also interesting was that they had not only the range of regular matzahs (machine, hand, shmurah, etc), but whole wheat, spelt, and oat ones, too (extremely pricey, of course). On the "why the hell do they need a Passover version of THAT?" front, new this year is Passover granola. Yup, bits of (presumably flavored) matza, I think with dried fruits or nuts. I didn't look too closely... Still missing: almond butter. I don't get it; that would be such a logical product.

OK, the name meme is going around. Just in case anyone is interested, I'm a graceful bee in summer, or am favored with wisdom in the summer ("wear a hat and sunblock at all times!") and I have no idea what I would've been called had I been a boy. When I went looking to confirm name meanings, I found a wonderfully improbable site, which has the top ten dog names in Hawaiian. I still don't understand why...