Mr. Freeze

After multiple visits from AAA Heating and Cooling, each to engage in a slightly more aggressive treatment of our central air conditioning, it finally became clear that it would cost more to fix the poor beast than to replace it. So tomorrow, Mr. Freeze comes to visit. The unit weighs a ton or so, so it will take a couple days to install. Of course, it's pretty cool right now, but I've spent a few rather uncomfortable muggy nights waiting for this day...

I Think That I Shall Never See

A tree as pretty as Jean! And yet, she pines for this tree, boughing before it's majesty. Anyway, she wants to plant one in our yard.

Musical Acquisitions

It's been awhile since I bought a new album or song. About a week ago I bought one that's been getting mostly positive feedback on the weblogs I make the rounds of, and I'm pretty happy with it:

Saint Elsewhere by Gnarls Barkley

I also bought a single song by another group I've never listened to before, Architecture in Helsinki. The song was Do the Whirlwind. Very pop, kicky kinda tune.

Senate Restaurant Bean Soup

I should just rename this the Bean Soup Weblog. I got around, at Jean's request, to making the famous Senate Restaurant Bean Soup, made with small naval beans and ham shanks instead of hamhocks. It tastes quite good, but I still prefer the Black Bean Soup we prepared earlier. Not that this soup is not good. It's great. The black bean soup is just so much better!

School Musical

This time the banner image is from a few weeks ago. Renee's school put on their annual parent trap, er, musical performance, and I attended with camera. As always, my lenses were not really bright enough to stop the action, but I got a few that will give you the idea. Starting with Renee en regalia, marching toward the stage.

As I get around to it, I'll post the handful of salvageable images to my Flickr account. Keep watching the skies!

Black Bean Soup

I'm immensely tardy writing up my experience with this recipe, since I prepared it last Saturday, but better late than never. Max wanted me to ping her when I tried out a new recipe, so here you go. I'd rank this recipe a low-intermediate difficulty. Not nearly as much work as my most time-consuming favorites, but not the simplest to prepare either. Total prep and cook time was in the neighborhood of two hours.

The result, to my tastebuds, was excellent. Without the addition of fats or creams, the soup was rich and creamy in texture. I used black turtle beans, and they kept their integrity enough to lend a nice texture and chew to the soup. For my own portions, I added a simple topping of mushed avocado and diced onion. Definitely try that.

My daughter, Renee, who is not all that fond of soup or beans (other than canned baked beans) gave it an unqualified thumbs up. Okay, she qualified it with the "even though I don't like soup..." line.

Jean was sitting next to me the evening I made it, and had just put a spoonful into her mouth, when she looked at me like she'd found a bug in it. Wide eyed, pausing in mid-masticulation. Then she said, "... this is so good!"

So there you have it. If you like soup, or black beans, try it out. The link leads to America's Test Kitchen online, and they annoyingly insist on a registration email, but they are not really that spammy, so I think it's worth it. But you better hurry. The recipe is free for now, but once the program's television season is over, they'll move it behind the online subscription firewall.

Sinus Infection

This post is for my own records. I get sinus infections now and then, and therein lies the problem. I think they occur maybe once a year, twice every three years...

So this time I'm noting it. Last Tuesday I took a course of antibiotics for a sinus infection that was being rather stubborn. Feeling mostly better now, but skeptical that it's really all gone. Cross your fingers.