WD Daily Chat - Talk about anything You Like

[crustyo44]

Ray,
Australia has Quarantine laws that stops whole seeds in the post from overseas. If they are ground and in original sealed packaging. No trouble at all. This might be your solution.
Enjoy your holiday,
Jan.

[DelNorte]

Hmmmmm.... did I ever tell you guys about the time John Wesley Powell and I went through Cataract Canyon in a canoe with a hole in the bottom and fought off grizzly bears with a rattlesnake?

Why you bean pushing cow chaser, you stole that move from me! I once used a Massasauga rattler to ward off killer snapping turtles in the Tittabawassee River. I dun know who twas more afraid when I went to swingin'- the rattler or the turtles - both made fer a good soup later tho.

Ray,
Australia has Quarantine laws that stops whole seeds in the post from overseas. If they are ground and in original sealed packaging. No trouble at all. This might be your solution.
Enjoy your holiday,
Jan.

Yeah, I PMed Ray that very thing about seeds coming here, and your same idea. But thanks for making that point anyway. Everyone reading these posts will learn some things about shipping stuff internationally and how it's not so easy, with all the rules and laws.

[sawhorseray]

OK, the dog's in the slammer and I'm all packed for the morning! Of course it's a little different story for my beloved spouse. I clicked around a bit and now think I can get a two pound box shipped to South America for right at twenty bucks. I'll take each spice and run it thru my coffee grinder turning it into powder, shrink-wrap and label. Then I'll shrink-wrap the entire load and stuff into a box, gonna make sure it doesn't weigh more than two pounds. Send me your address DelNorte, let's see what happens. RAY

[sawhorseray]

Sometimes the best way to see what something is going to cost and prove out is to git her done. I got everything individual shrink-wrapped and labeled



Put it all in a bigger bag and shrink-wrapped that



Boxed it up and took it to my local post office, it's on the way to Uruguay for $24.74 US



So DelNorte, if it actually gets to you and you are happy with what was sent, mail me a Christmas card with $25 American money in it. If it doesn't get there you can pretty much surmise that Julio the Customs Guy is seasoning his bug burrito with your sausage spices. RAY

[DelNorte]

Ray your the man! I can't believe you did this before going on your vacation. I guess there are some really good people left on this earth. I don't know how you were able to do the price for postal, but I'm grateful. I'll let you know when it arrives!

PS. Crusty ol mate, thanks for inviting me to this website. What a nice bunch of people here I have run into.

[sawhorseray]

Heck, I just hope it gets to you. What goes around comes around, good karma. Perform a random act of kindness for someone you don't know, it feels good. RAY

PS: I didn't write "seed" on any of the labels and ground the coriander to dust. I understand heroin can be pink, be a sad day for anyone who tried shooting up some Instacure #1!

[HamnCheese]

Sometimes I amaze myself with my own stupidity. And then I laugh, because, really, what else is there to do?

We were at our favorite Asian market/Pho restaurant a couple of weeks ago and while we were checking out I saw Vietnamese yeast. Well! How much fun is that? There were twelve little buttons of yeast in a clear plastic package for ninety nine cents. FABULOUS!! Can't wait to try it!

So fast forward to day before yesterday. We were almost out of bread so I pulled the Rose Berenbaum bread bible off the shelf, made a biga and then yesterday, took the biga (made with Podravka Digo Croatian yeast), added the other ingredients, and substituted the Vietnamese yeast in the full dough. Put the bowl in the living room where it is about twenty degrees warmer than the kitchen (thank you wood stove) and waited. Hmm. Not much going on. Took the dough down to the kitchen, did a couple of envelope turns and took it back to the living room. Three hours later, nothing. Hmm. Well, I guess maybe it's slow acting. Let the dough go over night.

This morning, there was some activity, but still not enough to call it 'risen' bread dough. Back to the kitchen for another envelope turn. Better, but still not good. Two hours have passed and there is marginal activity. My guess is that the Croatian yeast from the biga is carrying all the weight. I take one of the buttons, add it to some warm water, sprinkle it with ground ginger and put it next to the stove to see if it 'proofs'. Nuttin' honey.

So I go online to check this stuff out. After an hour of searching, I find the answer.

Apparently, there is a traditional rice wine dessert made with rice which is sprinkled with the yeast I bought, formed into balls and fermented. It's a wine yeast, not a bread yeast.

So I'm having a good whine and if this stuff raises enough, some wine bread, too!

Note to self: when in doubt, check it out.
Note to self: be a little more in doubt sometimes.

Lynn


(Update: beautiful loaf with spicy notes, large open crumb and crispy crust. A bit of sourdough flavor at the end. In other words, I'll do it again!)

[Chuckwagon]

So I'm having a good whine and if this stuff raises

Whine yeast?

[HamnCheese]

Yup, CW. It was cryin' time.
Again.

[redzed]

redzed - I HIGHLY recommend something called Synergy Spanish online. It's quite affordable and makes sense to those of us who are not linguists or good at the textbook methods. The guy who designed the course is a genius. He also has another Spanish course that is lower level. The Synergy one is for those who want a crash course in being able to communicate on trips. You download the course and study in your own time. They are audio and video courses. Well the video is seeing the sentence written, but it sure helps... de hecho (in fact), I was studying in this very course when I got a notice for this thread being updated.

Thanks DelNorte, I looked at the Synergy website and it does look promising. Now I just have to find enough time and motivation to start studying again. I have taken at least six evening courses in Spanish over the years, and have done well in them, but the problem is that I forget after a while because I have no opportunity to use the language. The old adage "use it or lose it" is so true. The same goes for my high school French. I also studied Russian in University for four years and became quite proficient in it, but a lot of it has evaporated out of my brain. Two years ago I was in St Petersburg for a couple of days and was able to get along well, but not at any intellectual level. I have made a concerted effort to maintain my Polish by speaking to my parents only in that language, occasionally to a few friends and I read Polish novels and newspapers. But if I were to do it all over again, I would study Italian which has become my favourite "other language"

When you stayed out of Iquitos did you stay at the Miyuna Ecolodge? I'm with your wife on this one, though. The mosquitoes ate me alive. Tha Amazon is for others to enjoy!
I did study Spanish for several months for my South American adventure, but it takes a long time to become proficient. And a lot of self discipline to stick with it. I loved the language and have continued to study it for the last three years, and am reading Harry Potter in Spanish at the moment.

Hi Ursula. We stayed at a small "lodge" (very generous use of the term) operated by Ricardo's Tours, recommended by Lonely Planet. What a mistake. Glad to hear that you have progressed so well in your Spanish. You are one hard working and determined lady!

Anyway, my vagabond travel is over for now, I'm back home, sleeping in my own bed - the best place to be! Today I'm attending to my sausage making withdrawals by making a Salame di Cervo, a big batch of headcheese, curing a venison loin and brining a ham and a pork loin for smoking.

[DelNorte]

Thanks DelNorte, I looked at the Synergy website and it does look promising. Now I just have to find enough time and motivation to start studying again. I have taken at least six evening courses in Spanish over the years, and have done well in them, but the problem is that I forget after a while because I have no opportunity to use the language. The old adage "use it or lose it" is so true. The same goes for my high school French. I also studied Russian in University for four years and became quite proficient in it, but a lot of it has evaporated out of my brain. Two years ago I was in St Petersburg for a couple of days and was able to get along well, but not at any intellectual level. I have made a concerted effort to maintain my Polish by speaking to my parents only in that language, occasionally to a few friends and I read Polish novels and newspapers. But if I were to do it all over again, I would study Italian which has become my favourite "other language"

redzed - I couldn't agree with you more on the "use it or lose it" statement. I've found that if I get busy (or lazy) and some time lapses between studying days, then I'm struggling to maintain what I had learned in the last lessons. I try to make myself be devoted for an hour each day studying. It takes me that long, only because I pause the audios, write both in English and Spanish, and then see if I'm correct by unpausing.

Also, one of my problems is that my fear for giving speeches creeps in to talking with people en español. I'm fairly good about attempting that with local mom and pop store owners that know me, but then they get excited hearing me speak and then start BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH! really fast, thinking that all of a sudden I can speak the language fluently. Then I hear one loooooooooooong word and look at them , freezing.

I really need to practice more often SPEAKING with my husband in Spanish, since it's his native tongue, but in our house it is the only place I can speak my language, and well he's enjoying learning English more proficiently from me. Lucky him. He has a talent for learning languages. But being a linguist along with studying language structure and origins, he can learn new ones easily. I often envy him.

So it seems you have a bit of a talent yourself in learning languages. I'm sure that reading the things in Polish greatly helps you to retain it. I wonder if there are any meetings of language groups locally that you might be able to practice with?

[sawhorseray]

¨ But if I were to do it all over again, I would study Italian which has become my favourite "other language"¨

I´m in Ixtapa right now and doing well enough with what I know of Spanish to order meals, drinks, and get directions to where we want to go. The weather is about 7-8° cooler than when I´ve ever been here before, from what I see on CNN looks like global warming is certainly the real thing. I´m ordering the Rosetta Stone Italian course as soon as we get back, Rome and Venice are on the menu. Hope you are all coping with the cold back east, sounds ugly on the news. Not really liking the sausage here, staying away from things that look iffy. First thing I´ll thaw out upon returning home will be some maple-honey bacon and a hipshot burger. Time for the pool bar and that first pina colada of the day, then a walk down the beach to my daily massage. Grind, stuff, and take care, life is good! RAY

[ssorllih]

Ray try not to get too badly sunburned! we seem to be in the path of about a foot of new snow tonight and during the day tomorrow. The worst part will be the winds above 20 MPH. That will make for some drifts.

[el Ducko]

Sitting in a bar in Sochi, I was thinking about how I could write an Olympics story in terms of accomplishments, yet somehow with a new twist. After so many days, it was all beginning to sound the same. I was nursing a nasty eye infection, you see (not that I can), and had decided to stay indoors where the warmth of hot buttered vodka might quell the chill of my soul. Hopefully I could find and interview one of the international jet set who attend Olympic spectacles, or at least, through my thick spectacles, spot him or her in the crowd. Otherwise, statistics would have to be the crux of my reporting.

Suddenly, Bill Gates walked in and statistically, on average, everyone in the bar became a multi-millionaire. My confidence buoyed by my new-found wealth, I looked over at the bartender... bartendress... one of the local "beauties," and smiled.

"Hi. I`m..." I began, but before I could finish, she turned up her nose and pointed to the sign in the window. "Bar - B," it said in garish fifties-style neon. The Russians were still sticking to their old Cold War penchant for denoting places with romantic, memorable names like "Housing Block 7" and "Assembly Point D." ...and, of course, "Bar - B."
But then she smiled, and the sun seemed to come out. "I`m `B,` " she said. "...ees my bar. Tell me, Grazhdanin Reech Traveler, what you theenk of facility?"

For a moment, I thought she was referring to "the facilities," which apparently had been salvaged from a Soviet-era border checkpoint. But though her smile needed dental repair work, its mere presence spoke otherwise.

"Ees... uh... it`s very nice," I said. ...first time I had managed to attract and hold the attentions of a female-type lady for more than a fleeting second in the past week, and that`s all I could say? I must be slipping.

"Ees soon I bee comink famous," she said, and puffed out her rather ample chest. "You hear on Western news, da? ...ees beeg chance. ...soon weel to appear on cover of Sports Illustrated swim suit issue."

She must have seen the doubting look on my face. "Da," she said. "...me, `Bar - B.` Ees berry berry good for beesness."

She went on polishing the margarita glass in her hand, oblivious of the fact that the Mattel people must have had a certain wasp-waisted, anatomically incorrect, plastic someone else in mind when they decided to pull this latest stunt. "Soon, every wann ees comink to me for to drinking. Buy better grade of Scotch. Soon, lots of money."

...at which mention, Mister Gates, realizing that he had made a wrong turn and was now in one of the older, less prosperous venues in the old part of Sochi and perhaps, remembering how they had "dolled up" only the main street of Sarajevo for those Olympics, took a wary look around, clutched his billfold, and headed for the door. (...or perhaps he had grown tired of run-on sentences like that one.)

I motioned with my head toward his departing shadow. "...know who that was?" I asked her. "He is a rich and famous man."

About that time, a scream came from out in the street. (Did I mention that "it was a dark and stormy night?") It was dark out there, almost pitch black, and the poor man had fallen into a sewer manway, its cover missing and probably stolen for scrap value. When I looked back at her, she was nodding her head, but sadly.

"...another eemportant man, he ees gone."

"You KNOW him?" I asked, surprised.

She nodded, a sad look of pride on her face."...is berry sad. Wisitor ees Stephen Hawking. Know thees because he ees fallink into black hole but no eenformation lost."


In memory of the great Sid Caesar, who passed away today at the age of 91.

"The trouble with telling a good story is that it invariably reminds the other fellow of a dull one."

...and here it is.

[redzed]

Правда и только правда. утенок вас может быть уродливым, новы великая американская колбаса!