Spice Dish

Seven Down and Counting

Yeah Brazil!

Ok, so many months ago I posted a list of things I was going to try in order to get my creative juices flowin’ and to add some spark to my days. Let’s do a little check-in shall we?

• Ride in a hot air balloon- I went hang gliding in Brazil (Close enough for me!)
• Have a conversation in a language other than English (Tried my hand at Portuguese in Brazil – fail)
• Find a food I've never eaten and eat it (Cashew fruit juice in Brazil again)
• Try a new restaurant in San Francisco (Done x15)
• Learn how to perform a magic trick (I met a Vegas magician, does that count?)
• Become financially literate (I’m getting there)
• Write an article and have it published (Coming soon!!)

Ok so it turns out that my Brazil trip knocked a few of these out but I really, really need to get on this! Anything I should add?

EB

Creativity Sparks

Dali Themed Street Art. Creative.

I went to a book club a little while ago. It was full of strangers. I’ve never, in my life, done that before. We had an amazing conversation and I left completely creatively energized. It wasn’t just that I was using my critical thinking skills for the first time in months, but that I was trying something new. I realized that I needed to do lots more of this sort of thing--  not in the interest of 'self improvement' but simply for the sake of experience. For fostering creativity. For enjoying life. So I came up with a list of “Creativity Sparks” (i.e. stuff I’ve never done before but am going to try in  order to keep  my brain excited and to experience new things) Hey if Stephen Fry can get pierced, I can find things I've never done!

I’m not calling it a ‘bucket list’ because I don’t care if I do or don’t do these before I die. Dying is not the point. Some are little things, some are big life altering things. Some are free and some make me thankful I have no kids in need of a college education. 

I think I know which one I’ll start with, but I’m not sure. I don’t even know how closely I’ll be keeping track, hell I don’t even know how many items are on this list! (Just counted... 64) Here I go. Here’s to creativity!

Ride in a hot air balloon
See the northern lights
Take a sailing lesson
Write a book
Have a conversation in a language other than english
Send a message in a bottle.
Ride a camel (or elephant) etc
Take a ballroom dance class
Learn to play a musical instrument
Take a singing lesson
Make a complete fool of myself
Eat at the French Laundry
Learn to juggle
Learn to drive a stick shift
Spend three months getting my body into athletic shape
Go fishing and eat my catch
Ride a motorcycle
Work on a farm for a day
Learn a new skill (no idea what yet)
Make soup dumplings
Run a 5k (not walk)
Find a food I've never eaten and eat it
Go to a jazz show
Play a game of ice hockey
Go horseback riding along the beach
Learn to ski
Take a fencing lesson
Go on a helicopter ride
Sleep overnight on a train
Collect fresh chicken eggs from a nest
Go to the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
Try a new restaurant in San Francisco
See the Parthenon in Greece
Go to Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain
Read Moby dick
Visit the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy
Spend an afternoon in El Prado in Madrid, Spain
See "Guernica" by Pablo Picasso at the Museo Reina Sofia
Spend a week in Bora Bora
Attend a Japanese tea ceremony
Learn to sculpt
Learn how to perform a magic trick
Learn to knit one thing
Make cheese
Watch lawrence of Arabia
Face a fear (not sure which one)
Become financially literate
Go to an auction at Christie's or Sotheby's
Sleep in a castle
Create a well-stocked pantry
Go to a yoga class by myself
Become an 'expert' at something
Write an article and have it published
Register for NaNoWriMo and write a novel in one month
Do NaBloPoMo for one month
Write a cookbook
Audition for something
Travel to another city to go to a concert/show (performer TBD)
Try fugu
Get a tarot card reading
Get hypnotized (for what I have no idea)
Eat something I've grown
Travel solo (even a day trip)
Get rid of 100 of my possessions

 

So what about you? You have a list? 

EB

Resolutions 2012!

Happy New Year's!

Again, I'm not a New Years resolution kind of gal, just never have been. But lovely Marisa, of Food In Jars inspired me this morning. Just because I don't do personal resolutions doesn't mean I can't make some bloggy ones! So here goes, my Blog Resolutions for 2012:

1- To post more vintage cookbooks (you guys seem to like those)

2- Maybe a little re-design (change is good right?)

3- In general, just be more consistent with my posting (I can do it!)

Sound good? Ok then. Happy 2012!

EB

Of Anniversaries and Things

My first picture posted

I started SpiceDish four years ago. FOUR. It’s strange where life takes you in four years. I’ve never been a diary keeper (too embarrassing) but I realize now that SpiceDish is a diary of sorts. Looking back on past posts I can see when I was happy at my work (fewer posts), when I needed escape (more posts), when I was engaged with the blogosphere (lots of comments), and when I was playing recluse (no comments).

I can see when larger life issues, very personal ones, took precedence over posting or when I was compelled to post by those same issues.

I have met some truly amazing people because of SpiceDish. People like Bethany, Victoria, Sarah and Jessie.  I have been let into many other worlds in the past years and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.

Like a lot of you, I’m at yet another crossroads in life. The ‘what’s next’ type. The ‘can I really make that happen’ type.  I have no idea where I will be come next October’s blogiversary, and that’s a bit scary. I do know that I’ll be able to look over the year’s posts and see where I’ve been. And that is comforting.

Here’s to another year.

Enjoy-

EB

 

Resolutions Away!

It's that resolutiony time of year it seems. I've never been much of one for the "quit smoking," "lose 10 lbs," "call my mother more often" type of resolutions, or any type really. But this year, as I looked back on last, I realized that my crazy little life got in the way of well... my life. The things I love most kind of fell to the wayside while I dealt with other things. So, for the first year in many (or maybe ever) I'm making a few resolutions. Declaritive statement time. My New Year's Resoultions for 2011 are to:

Eat: Elsewhere. There are literally thousands of restaurants in this city, and I go to a lot of them. But every once in a while I realize I have a few places that have become go-to's more often than they should be. Places like George's have been on my list of to-get-to's for ages. I walk by it weekly. Yet I've never made it inside. 2011 is your year George!

 

Listen: Music. There is some amazing live music in this city on a nightly basis. I've started taking that for granted and getting lazy about going to shows. Hey... I've got a work schedule that's a little less than stellar... but I need to kick it into gear and get out there and discover the next great group to sell out.

 

Do: "Stuff". Another thing this city is full of? Odd, hidden little places. Like the Seward St Slides. These kinds of things are always in my mind, but rarely on my calendar. It's time to fix that.

 

See: Movies! Specifically at the Red Vic, the Castro & the 101 year old Roxie. I love films. Hell, I teach film! But I rarely get to the theater to see them, much less the awesome indie theaters we have. Way beyond the blockbusters, these theaters show gems like everyone's fave "The Room."

Make: Food. This last year was one of many changes and unfortunately what took a hit was my cooking. I simply don't really cook anymore. New year, new(ish) kitchen. Let's do this thing! I'll finally tackle the stack of recipes and books in my kitchen that unfortunately became dust collectors last year.

So that's it. A fairly doable list I think. Oh well, those and to actually friggin' blog this year. Sheesh.

 

EB

Tomato Watch 2009

So the good news first... my tomato plant is HUGE. Bad news... the bugs are devouring it! Any non-pesticide suggestions?

Thanks
EB

Creamy Snail Mail.... Mmmmm

Mail is a good thing right? I mean, when it's not a bill? Like when it's a postcard from someone nice? Someone nice who really likes ice cream? Would you like some nice, not bill-related, but ice cream offering mail? The real kind? In your actual, attached to your house mailbox kind? Yes, I thought you would.... 

Join the Ice Cream Recipe Postcard Swap from Scoopalicious!

Have Fun (and send me mail :)

EB

Look Ma I'm A Farmer!

Look Ma I'm a Farmer! Ok not really. Actually every time I try to grow something... I kill it. Black Thumb.... definitely not green. But strangely I always try again. This Spring I've decided to grow my own tomatoes. Now, I live in an apartment. One that most definitely does not have a backyard. There is a slab of concrete where I get to park my car (yes I have a space!) and on that slab my neighbor has set up a makeshift 'garden' comprised of lots o' pots of flowers lined up against the other concrete slab that is the wall. I really wanted to grow something, but since this is the space I have to work with, I got one of these upside down growing things, stuck a tomato seedling in there and hung it from a bamboo pole. But check this out... Voila! It's growing!!

A week of constant watering and check those out. Those are little yellow blossoms! If this whole, me growing another life form thing, works out... I'll keep you updated on the progress. If not... well, those blossoms were nice.

EB

Fifty Two Fridays

San Francisco

I know I've been a little MIA lately but I am around I swear. Just ask Victoria! You can find the both of us over at Fifty-Two Fridays. What goes on over there? Well, you can check out the adventures of two ladies who live 2,913 miles apart (exactly). Every Friday we each post a pic of what's going on on our side of the country.

Manhattan

Come visit us!

EB
 

Dime Store Pulp

The James Beard Cookbook how do I love thee? Let me count the ways….  Seriously I could wax poetic about this little paper-bound piece of fabulousness for pages. First off, it is a 95c paperback edition that has a whiff of cheap, dime-store, trashy, pulp novel about it. It has green painted page edges, which nobody does anymore. My edition is from 1966 and features a plump, latter day Beard on the cover stirring up a sauce to place, delicately I’m sure, on the rotund oysters laid out before him.

There are no glossy ‘food-porn’ shots, just skillfully drawn, 60’s-mod sketches of “Cold Dunk Sauces,” appetizers on sticks, and assorted vegetables along with illustrations of sour faced pigs partitioned off into “Fat Back,” “Picnic Ham,” and “Head Cheese” portions and a diagram of lettuces to be used in “Vegetable Salads.”

The book starts off with a list of “Practical Don’ts” which really are practical and still relevant today. Beard starts off this list with “Buy good food, and buy often” noting that you shouldn’t “buy food you don’t need just because it’s cheap.” Here Here!

 

This 518 page jem has recipes for everything from “Anchovy Butter” to “Wine Merchant’s Sauce” and “Aspic” to “Yorkshire Pudding” but have I made a single recipe? Not a chance. And why not? Because this fantastic piece of culinaria has taken up residence in my purse. If I’ve got a few minutes before class or a long line at the bank, a few minutes with a mug of coffee or a tardy friend, out pops Mr. Beard and I’m off in my head whipping up “Braised Beef, Bordeaux Fashion” or reading up on the origin of the hors d’ouvre.

Thank you Mr. Beard.

EB