Shabbat menu

This week's constraints: less than two months before Passover, I'm trying to use up frozen things; one guest is allergic to gluten, so only the bread has any; and I'm trying to use the farm share produce, also what remains of the fish share, while minimizing buying other groceries.

• When Pigs Fly rolls^, Bartenura Moscato 2009 (brought by guests)
  
• turkey soup*^, from Thanksgiving
  
• green salad* with cod*^ bits
  
• potato*^ salad with pickles
  
• sauerkraut*^
  
• roasted sweet potatoes* and green peppers* with onion^, black pepper, and cumin
  
• apple bits^ baked with marzipan and 'crumb' topping (a mixture of brown rice flour, sugar, cinnamon, allspice, and gluten-free bread crumbs)
  * organic
  ^ local

The salad was rather plain, being only greens (mesclun, arugula, red leaf lettuce) and cod, with balsamic vinaigrette. I'm not sure why I so wanted pickles in the potato salad, but I did, and the garlicky pickles pleased me. The apple dessert was not quite as I'd wanted: the marzipan got a touch scorched on the bottom (which surprised me: this is the first thing that has done so in this particular heavy covered casserole).

Random bits of this and that

How can it be snowing fast, with large clumps of flakes, and barely have any accumulation?

Why is it Tzom Gedaliah, yet Ta'anit Esther?

Sock peeves:

• ankle socks that slip past my heel
  
• knee socks that don't reach my knees
  
• knee or above-the-knee socks that slide down to my ankles
  
• knee socks that compress my calves uncomfortably

For those who like Guy Gavriel Kay's duology Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors, some related nonfiction: there's a movie being made about the tunnels under Hagia Sophia (and it looks like there aren't tunnels from the temple to the nearby palaces, alas), and a history of Justinian and the black death. I was surprised at how much solid history is in GGK's book, while some things I'd thought likely true weren't at all; he weaves a seamless cloth.

Which leads to the other links that have been hanging around:

Maps
- tactile maps, including maps of coastlines and touchable plans made for a blind architect
- a flood map of the world, ranging from 1 m to 14 m; looks like my house technically is ok to 10 m (though of course, given how blocky the flood overlay is, I suspect deep trouble at that depth anyway)
- a map of Europe in booze belts (the rest of the blog is interesting too)
- Tube maps: using food names or in Maori

Science
- carnivorous plants' sticky pitcher fluid may become useful as a natural fungicide
- the Jantar Mantar, Indian astronomical observatories that did not have telescopes, but amazing architecture (including a huge sundial accurate to 2 seconds)

Living/Art/Music
- living 33 feet in the air, on the outside of a wall
- audio files of cassettes from Africa
- a remake of the War of the Worlds, in 30 seconds, with bunnies