Mango Lassi!

Before our dinner making, but after a visit to the farmer's market, the Teet, and the pool, The Pedant and I made some mango lassis. We had a hankering for this tasty beverage since it was quite warm outside and they are quite refreshing.

The mixture:

1 Mango
2 Cups Fage 0% Greek Yogurt
1 Cup Skim Milk
3ish Tablespoons Splenda sugar blend

Put in blender, mix.

The outcome: Tasty. It wasn't quite as thick as a mango lassi at an Indian place but also about 1/3 of the calories. And it was fairly filling. And super refreshing. Plus, we have leftovers int he fridge!

TP and I think this might be a recurring project. Granted the Fage yogurt is a bit pricey but oh so worth it.

Land of the Wine Beverages!

So the Sherbs and I bit off more than we could chew with a Mark Bittman recipe involving roasted vegetables and yogurt - possibly because A) our broiler sucks and B) we don't have a broiler-safe casserole dish even if it didn't.

Also: it takes freaking forever to char tomatoes. Should I just put them over an open flame or what?

To counterbalance our not-quite success with the roasted eggplant, peppers, and yogurt, we made sangria - and stumbled upon a not too bad recipe. I don't think we'd use Weinstock kosher red wine again (it is so tannic), but a mix of red wine and cranberry wine, with chunks of granny smith apples, was tart and refreshing and did not taste as if we were trying to make Bartles & Jaymes (speaking of which - now that we have Mike's Hard Lemonade and such, does anyone drink Bartles & Jaymes anymore?).

We had a goodly amount of the sangria watching the Joan Collins film Land of the Pharoahs, which is sort of a telling of how the Pyramid of Giza was built, if you can allow for glaring failures in plausibility such as Joan Collins playing a deceptive and murderous Cypriot. There are some supporting characters who are interesting, but they take up only about a half hour of the hundred-minute plot, about as much time is taken for long pans across Egypt watching extras pretend to haul or build things.

I ♥ Trash Compacting Robots

The Sherbs and I saw WALL-E last night. It was charming. You should go out and see it and continue to make the folks at Pixar rich so they keep making movies like this.

The best part, in my opinion, was that the movie was sustained less by snappy dialogue and throw-away pop culture references (unlike, say, most Dreamworks animated features), but on a more universal humor and joie de vivre. Also, cute robots, and lots of them.

Fun fact: WALL-E has a real human doing his voice. Only one of the other robots is voiced by MacTalk, and I didn't realize it, probably because they modulated it a little to make it have more emotion.

Bagel Exegesis

The Sherbs tells me that I was good to use "bagel Samson" in my bagel biblical analogies as, although bagel David did fight the Philistines (even defeating bagel Goliath), he also brought back one thousand Philistine foreskins, which are not bagel-y at all, because bagel Saul asked for a hundred.

While a Bagel-ful® is mildly phallic (like any tubular food), it's not that phallic, and now I'm not sure I want to eat them ever again. Unlike real bagels, which are often prepared by people without foreskins, so I don't have to think of them at all!

And I won't. I'll think of how whitefish salad tastes great on pumpernickel with a slice of onion and a slice of tomato.

Bagels and Manhattans

I had some Kraft Bagel-fuls® recently. I had a coupon and the Teet had them at two-for-one.

They taste like Lender's with industrial cream cheese in them. Not bad, per se, but not real bagels.

A couple weeks ago, I had a conversation with some of my friends and the topic of bagels came up. The friend said that one could get New York grade bagels in Virginia. When I corrected this friend that no, you absolutely cannot get a New York bagel in the DC Metro Area, the friend then asked why people think things are so great from New York.

If you do not think New York bagels are better than other bagels, you are a bagel philistine. You are standing there in bagel Philistia, continually invading us bagel Israelites, and hopefully bagel Samson will come and gut you with the bagel jawbone of an ass.

I don't care if you personally like your steak well-done, your whipped topping non-fat non-dairy, or your cheese whizzed, but to claim that those preferences are better than the established consensus of people who care about food is culinary know-nothingism. Mimi Sheraton hates you, and I just think you're wrong.

So, my friend, please enjoy the Bagel-fuls® as the pinnacle of bagel achievement you so clearly believe them to be. Philistine.

* * *

On the other side of the Israelite/Philistine coin, do not make a manhattan with Kedem brand sweet vermouth. I had the aforementioned drink at a wedding last weekend, and there is really a difference that no maraschino cherry can cover up.

Lament, Lauds, etc.

[Note: I started this post this morning before The Pedant blogged.]

There are no excuses for our lack of blogging. It's not like we've eaten bad food lately. On the contrary, it's been quite good. Perhaps life has gotten in the way? Perhaps we have become bored with blogging? Both untrue, both lame excuses.

So, I find myself blogging again. I will both lament and laud several things.

First the lament:

At a lovely wedding this weekend, really it was lovely, there was only one problem: trio deserts! The Pedant and I are sick of trio deserts. It is not Iron Chef! You are not running a tasty restaurant in Alexandria! Give me many or give me one! Also, no wedding cake. I want frosting dammit! However, the deserts were very tasty and they had little truffles with a ganache that was probably frosting.

Now onto the lauds:

Iced Coffee: I have begun making iced coffee for the warmer summer days for work. I just double brew the coffee, fill with ice and milk and splenda and when I get to work it's delightfully cold. I am super smart. Best idea ever.

Summer Salads from Vegetarian Times: Last week for dinners, TP and I made 2 "summer salads" from VT, and orzo and an Asian noodle. Both were incredibly light and tasty. Hooray!