Greek Nachos

One of the things I love to do is explore all the really great food and cooking blogs out there, and one of my very favorites is called "Bitten." It is written by the amazing Mark Bittman, and appears on the New York Times website. It is a fascinating collection of recipes, food articles, with various guest writers and tons of commentary from the community reading the different articles...basically an all-out love-fest of good food. I check on it regularly and am never ever disappointed. INTIMIDATED, maybe, but not disappointed.

Last week Mark ran an article that included a recipe for Greek-Style Nachos, and it is one of those recipes that makes you smack yourself on the side of the head and say, "why didn't I think of that??" It takes the basic nacho approach -- foundation of chips topped with meat, veggies and cheese -- but the chips are made of pita, the meat is lamb and the cheese is a feta-yogurt-mint blend. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. Yum. Quick, fun and unexpected.

If you aren't familiar with Mark's cookbooks, you should know that he wrote one of my favorite general resource cookbooks ever, called HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING. And it pretty much is exactly that. Take a look here:

HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING

And if you want to check out Mark's rocking great blog Bitten, take a look here. (But don't forget to come back to mine. Fair is fair.)

BITTEN

Where I notice he just posted an article on Cold Sesame Noodles, which I already have five different recipes for, but because I worship at his feet I will be trying HIS.

And if you want to try his Greek Nachos, here you go:

Greek Nachos

Just remember who your friends are, and come back to me when you are done making friends with Mark. Because tomorrow I am making Mexican Tuna Salad, and last I checked, he hasn't caught up with me on that one yet!

The Hurt Locker bomb suit film costume...

The Hurt Locker is a fantastically compelling movie directed by Kathryn Bigelow, about an elite U.S. Army bomb disposal squad serving in Iraq and this bomb suit body armour movie costume plays a pivotal role in the film.

The Hurt Locker bomb suit body armour movie costume

The Hurt Locker movie poster

The bomb suit is worn by actors Guy Pearce (as 'Sergeant Matt Thompson' at the start of the film) and his squad leader replacement Jeremy Renner (as 'Staff Sergeant William James') in the movie.

The Hurt Locker Med-Eng EOD 9 bomb suit body armour

The bomb suit featured in the movie was photographed on display in the ArcLight Hollywood cinema foyer on June 30, 2009.

The Hurt Locker movie poster

Visit Jason in Hollywood for a movie review of The Hurt Locker.

Missing teeth

I had my old wooden comb replaced the other day. I'm still not sure what happened to my old comb. I have an odd feeling I threw it out, but subconsciously collected it from the bin during my sleep.

Pork and Chorizo Kebabs with Lemon Orzo

Now that I am practically a professional kebab-chef (see earlier post on Scallop Kabobs) I decided to really go for the gusto with some MEAT. I had another recipe on hand from Everyday Food (I wonder why I had all these kebab recipes? Obviously I had been harboring this secret, subconscious kebab craving that is just now working its way to the surface!). It followed the advice I got from my amazing cook of a mother, who pointed that that if one was having trouble having the meat and the veggies cook to the appropriate levels on the same skewer, one could use DIFFERENT skewers for the meat and the vegetables.

Wow.

She's right.

Different skewers.

Never occurred to me.

Anyway, this recipe loads up those skewers with chunks of marinated pork loin and chorizo sausage, along with layers of onion (which personally does not count to me as a vegetable). That's it! Cooks on a medium grill for about 12 minutes. In the meantime I followed Martha Stewart's advice and cooked up a side dish of Lemony Orzo, which went perfectly with the spicy kebabs.

Okay, I think I have worked the kebab thing out of my system for a while now. But in case you haven't, here are links to the Everyday Food recipes:

Pork and Chorizo Kebabs

Lemony Orzo

Different skewers. I feel so humbled.

Red, White and Blue at the Beach

The causeway to Robert Moses beach.

The first Monday of the school holidays.

So many important things to do.

Or to think about doing.

Important to keep the sea at bay.

And eat a lunch much frowned upon indoors.

Even the parking lot feels like summer.

At last.

Water Study (Part 2), and a New Series on Influential Artists

As promised in my previous Water Study post, here is another, completely different interpretation of the same subject, this time in color. Since it was a "local" subject and I was in no hurry, it was possible to spend more time than I normally might working a very limited area, trying to construct as many variations as possible from this little area of falls. It's not just one grand fall, but a series of cascades wandering all around the rocks and trees below a mountain lake, so there are certainly many different possibilities to be had. This type of "intimate landscape" leads me into a new subject I've been mulling over for a while: I would like to give mention to some of the greats of photography (and art) that have shaped my vision, as well as a few of the contemporary people whose work I admire. So I'm going to occasionally steer you to some different sites that I feel are worth visiting if you are at all interested in the masters that have paved the road to where we are today, or some current artists that are very worthy of attention.

Some of the people I have in mind are very well documented and represented on the web; at least one that I want to refer to is surprisingly hard to find, so I'll start with an easy one because I found an excellent website covering his work: Eliot Porter. Probably the first great color landscape photographer, his show,"Intimate Landscapes" in 1980 was the first one-man show ever of color photography at New York's Metropolitan Museum and he was one of the first masters to catch my imagination during my younger days in art school. I won't repeat a lot of info about him here, because this website is concise and full of samples.
I'll mention others as they come to mind, or seem to tie in with my own examples; probably mostly photographers, but some other types of artists too... as well as some fellow bloggers that I have found since I started doing this blog. I know that with photography in particular, lots of people have been taken up in a sudden fascination on the subject and haven't necessarily looked into the history of what got us here, so I hope I can turn a few of you on to some great work that might inspire you even further. And I would certainly love to hear back from anyone who has their own favorite masters or contemporaries that they would like to share.

Do you like a good Conspiracy Theory?

I visited the blog Beam Me Up the other day because they were discussing a very clever short story written by Shaun Saunders entitled "The Colors 12." I listened to this short story on a podcast they have and I was amazed at the story and the interesting plot that included most conspiracy theories such as an elite shadow group that truly governs the populations and world governments are just their puppets on strings. In the short story, each member is referred to by a color such as Mr. Green and Mr. Magenta, and each member discusses issues ranging from population reduction, aliens, and zero point energy. They want to maintain complete control over all aspects of human life. As a side note, I think the Stargate franchise as been so popular because it includes so many conspiracy theories and they even poke fun at themselves in that regard, but back to the topic.
The blog post was interesting on another note in that they linked to an Austrian journalist named Jane Burgermeister who has brought charges against the WHO, UN, and other high ranking officials citing Bioterrorism and intent to commit mass murder with the vaccine being prepared for the A/H1N1 virus. She is not citing that all vaccines are deadly, this we know because many vaccines have saved many lives. She is referring to this particular vaccine because she believes that the virus was engineered in a laboratory in the first place.
I am bringing up the short story and the news article because there are many people who believe that there does exist and elite group that wishes to reduce the population in order to preserve natural resources for their superior lineage. Well, I do not doubt there are some who desire this but they have been unable to achieve this goal because the world population would not be more than six billion and growing. They would have maintained a small population throughout history but I do not doubt that in difficult financial times there may be some who wish to make as much profit as possible by any means possible even risking the health of people. They may rush to make a vaccine without proper testing protocols and the necesary time (in years) it takes to perfect such a vaccine. The H1N1 virus is not as deadly as Malaria, for example which leads me to believe that big bucks are involved in this entire ordeal, and money makes people do unbelievable things.
Getting back to the short story, what I love about science fiction is that you can take world situations or long held beliefs and turn them into wonderful stories that make you think about the world and people differently. Then you are left with the decision to make on your own: could this be real or is it really just fiction?
Here is the link to the podcast and you need to advance to about the 39 minute mark if you only want to hear the "The Colors 12."

Twitter

Aw look at that! I love watching pretty birds in pairs. Sure beats watching black crows and ravens raiding the dustbins in Malaysia! Or toeless pigeons hopping on the streets. I always wondered why some pigeons in Malaysia (or maybe just Penang?) are toeless. I have a guess that it might be human trash but I was never too sure.

Moonshuffling to the end

Where was I? Ahh yes temporarily I had buoyed my spirits with freeze spray, painkillers and tunes! Thus making miles 13 - 17 my fastest to date.  During this time the sun also came up, glistening over the water and twas a lovely site to behold. I was seriously tempted to run into the sea and drown myself stick my toes in the water, but decided that would be a bad idea. So I used my camera phone to snap a few shots and plodded on.
Well I should say it was lovely at first, then it started to get bloody warm! Where was the rain? the clouds? a bloody breeze? Hot, lovely sunshine is all well and good for larking about in the park, but not when one is shuffling power walking like they have never power walked before! Thank goodness I have a sunny disposition, otherwise it would appear that I was a total miserable sod. Sunny disposition in my case was plenty of water, fresh orange slices at mile markers and happy smiling faces (not mine). On approaching mile marker 19, I met up with some girls that I know from the walk the walk forum, so plodded on with them. They were decidedly in better shape than I and were excited to be approaching mile marker 20.

 Supposedly at Mile Marker Twenty a sense of uber calmness and elatedness descends upon you like a thousand angel wings providing a cool breeze. I may of ever so slightly exagerated the wonderment that is mile marker twenty, but it was definitely a woop woop moment for a lot of people. Why not for me? The pain and tiredness due to severe lack of training was screaming in my ear. My nasty inner voice was whispering "You still have 6.2 miles to go! still not just! you lazy sod!", my nasty inner voice is a right sod. Luckily for me,from deep within my being a competitive streak was sparked just ever so slightly at the prospect of keeping up with people.
The last 6.2 miles seem to take an age, heading back into the city of Edinburgh with the sun blazing and seeing all the sights that had been shrouded in darkness hours before. Edinburgh is truly a lovely city surrounded by greeness and beautiful architecture. Of course I was not really paying attention at the time because I was concentraing on putting one foot in front of the other. The cheeriness and enthusiam of the volunteers that are spreadout throughout the course is really a nice boost when you are flagging, even though they lie about how close you are to the next mile marker (cheeky buggers). They might not of actually been lying but boy did one mile feel like ten towrds the end! Oh and the curbs! Stepping up and down curbs is like torture towards the end.
Not sure when it dawned on me that I was actually going to finish the challenge, I think it was only as I recieved my medal, sat on the floor and took off my trainers!

As I sat on the grass with my medal and bare hobbit like feet, I felt like shedding a tear or two but was not sure why. I felt emotional because I had finsihed it , but also because I hadn't had enough faith in myself that I would finish it. My fears were not unfounded, because I had been so poorly prepared for it, with excuses abound from the mumborg to college work.  So after a moment of melancholy I popped my blisters, squirted blister juice in my face (yuck), used the glorious freeze spray and felt at one with the world. Then I tried to stand up.......

Variety with Vignettes

If you're a clean surfaces sort of person, vignettes are probably not your style. And I absolutely respect the idea of minimalism-- nothing to move and nothing to dust.

But I've found such fun things at thrift stores, flea markets and antique malls, I do love a good sideboard vignette. It's a great way of taking many different items and connecting them together.

Today, I'll show you just a few of the nutty and colorful combos I've put together in the house.

First we'll go into my bedroom. The post is late today because I was actually doing a cleaning marathon-- trying to get some of these things tidied up as my friend Josette's coming to visit over the Fourth. This is the quirky collection that's on my 40s hamper top...

Art nouveau style frames (featuring a young Gregory Peck!) and scent bottles have been paired with a nouveau bust of Scheherezade, who's styling one of my garage sale hats. Behind her is a vintage mirror I'd painted up, to reflect light and add interest. It's weird, and way colorful, I know. But I think somehow it works.

Now this is on top of one of my dressers...


The dolls were my mother's and my great aunt's. Paired with a set of thrift store vintage figurines, and a 30s lamp, they're all from about the same time period and the colors seem to connect. That's one of the easy ways to tie different items together-- color. The right color makes all the difference.

Like here. You might remember, I got this 40s bleeding heart still-life print just a few weeks ago for a couple of bucks at a flea market. I've put it on one of the shelves of my clothes wardrobe, along with a vintage box of soaps and my grandmother's perfume bottle...


That peachy-pink connects all of them visually, I think. And so somehow they really seem to go together.

This shelf showcases a vintage dresser box I picked up at the Salvation Army, along with my great aunt's candy dish and a perfume bottle my mother had gotten me...


Again, color seems to tie in the candy dish and perfume bottle. And it's amazing what colors get brought out in a print, depending on what it's sitting next to.

The last shelf is pretty simple. Just another perfume bottle, some home-grown photography in a K-Mart frame, and a lovely little box one of my coworkers had kindly brought me from India.


Now here, this is the table I've been working on for Josette's arrival. I've been trying to work with the fairies-and-chintz theme I'd showed you a week or so ago on the mantle...


Lots of pattern here! More, actually, than I usually tend to do with things-- which is why I've gone for the shiny aluminum bowls and cups.

To tie in the chintz plates from the mantle, I fit one last plate into the centerpiece display, along with some cheery birds...


The candlesticks and central bowl, with the fairies on them, were Salvation Army and Red White and Blue finds. I'd gotten them separately over time, though they do match.


Lastly, I thought you might like to see this little vignette in the entry way. The lamp and plate seem to really go together. The colors, the general style...

I had forgotten how old the plate was... 1906! Back from when Pittsburgh didn't even have an 'h' in it!...

Well, that about wraps it up for me today. I've been working for about 7 hours straight on things here at Waterhouse and need to grab a little dinner. (Not on the plate above.)

Hope you all have a terrific remainder to your Sunday, and that I'll see you again soon!

• If you missed Wednesday's post "Ahoy, Thar Be Treasure This Wednesday" and would like a peek at my dad's unusual Father's Day gift, click here.

Otherwise, keep cool and have a great week!

Variety with Vignettes

If you're a clean surfaces sort of person, vignettes are probably not your style. And I absolutely respect the idea of minimalism-- nothing to move and nothing to dust.

But I've found such fun things at thrift stores, flea markets and antique malls, I do love a good sideboard vignette. It's a great way of taking many different items and connecting them together.

Today, I'll show you just a few of the nutty and colorful combos I've put together in the house.

First we'll go into my bedroom. The post is late today because I was actually doing a cleaning marathon-- trying to get some of these things tidied up as my friend Josette's coming to visit over the Fourth. This is the quirky collection that's on my 40s hamper top...

Art nouveau style frames (featuring a young Gregory Peck!) and scent bottles have been paired with a nouveau bust of Scheherezade, who's styling one of my garage sale hats. Behind her is a vintage mirror I'd painted up, to reflect light and add interest. It's weird, and way colorful, I know. But I think somehow it works.

Now this is on top of one of my dressers...


The dolls were my mother's and my great aunt's. Paired with a set of thrift store vintage figurines, and a 30s lamp, they're all from about the same time period and the colors seem to connect. That's one of the easy ways to tie different items together-- color. The right color makes all the difference.

Like here. You might remember, I got this 40s bleeding heart still-life print just a few weeks ago for a couple of bucks at a flea market. I've put it on one of the shelves of my clothes wardrobe, along with a vintage box of soaps and my grandmother's perfume bottle...


That peachy-pink connects all of them visually, I think. And so somehow they really seem to go together.

This shelf showcases a vintage dresser box I picked up at the Salvation Army, along with my great aunt's candy dish and a perfume bottle my mother had gotten me...


Again, color seems to tie in the candy dish and perfume bottle. And it's amazing what colors get brought out in a print, depending on what it's sitting next to.

The last shelf is pretty simple. Just another perfume bottle, some home-grown photography in a K-Mart frame, and a lovely little box one of my coworkers had kindly brought me from India.


Now here, this is the table I've been working on for Josette's arrival. I've been trying to work with the fairies-and-chintz theme I'd showed you a week or so ago on the mantle...


Lots of pattern here! More, actually, than I usually tend to do with things-- which is why I've gone for the shiny aluminum bowls and cups.

To tie in the chintz plates from the mantle, I fit one last plate into the centerpiece display, along with some cheery birds...


The candlesticks and central bowl, with the fairies on them, were Salvation Army and Red White and Blue finds. I'd gotten them separately over time, though they do match.


Lastly, I thought you might like to see this little vignette in the entry way. The lamp and plate seem to really go together. The colors, the general style...

I had forgotten how old the plate was... 1906! Back from when Pittsburgh didn't even have an 'h' in it!...

Well, that about wraps it up for me today. I've been working for about 7 hours straight on things here at Waterhouse and need to grab a little dinner. (Not on the plate above.)

Hope you all have a terrific remainder to your Sunday, and that I'll see you again soon!

• If you missed Wednesday's post "Ahoy, Thar Be Treasure This Wednesday" and would like a peek at my dad's unusual Father's Day gift, click here.

Otherwise, keep cool and have a great week!

Evening Light/ShadowShotSunday

For other cool ShadowShots go to Heyharriet.

The weather in New York this so called summer has been quite batty.

Here is an example. Friday evening about seven, all wet, billowy and thundery.

After the storm has cleared just after eight, 

the setting sun cannons down 23rd Street.

At eight thirty, the sky over the Empire State Building

 is all cotton ball puffy pink.

(None of the colors have been manipulated at all.)