Last Soup Of This Winter (Chow)

My dinner last night was perhaps my biggest kitchen disaster in this house -- a failed carrot soup that tasted like overcooked canned carrots coupled with a lentil and fruit dish where the red lentils fell apart into a mush and the whole thing tasted mostly like limp baked apples. So, here is a photograph of a yummy vegetarian soup I made last week from some sweet potato and butternut squash, along with a little herb garlic bread.

Le Tongue (Pets)

The tongue, it is huge! The puppy stares at in with envy. One day it shall be hers.

The Colour Of Magic (Reblog)

Omigod (video)! The Colour of Magic! Starring Tim Curry!

Study Break (Pets)

Studying for zoo boards is a lot of work, hours and hours, night after night. It is enough to tucker a puppy out. NDM doesn't mind the drool on her Fowler as much as its emergency use as a teething pacifier...

Líle Wrangling (Pets)

Head 'em up!

For The Love Of Feet (Pets)

Líle loves her feet. AM visited us for breakfast, and here she is taking advantage of the situation.
Normally she's curled up on my feet in a dark little cave under my desk, proof versus attempts at photography. Here, she has accidentally leaked out into daylight and become vulnerable to the lens.
A better shot kindly provided by the wife.

Epic Cheese Dinner (Chow)

This past weekend CRB, JAL, and AM came over for an extraordinary cheesetravaganza. NDM and I had visited Caputo the previous weekend and required a rationalization for buying too much cheese.
We started with a cheese board. Not shown are two loaves of artisan bread I made, one standard and one whole wheat, with some olive paste and fancy butter churned between the thighs of nubile Irish lasses.

• Gjetost. This was the only cheese I'd had before, a really nice Norwegian goat cheese that tastes like caramel. Three stars!
  
• English Shropshire blue. An incredibly rich, creamy, luscious cheese; smooth and buttery with an acid bite of a bleu underneath. Three stars!
  
• Ireland cheddar with Guinness. This was a fine semi-sharp cheddar with a notable bitter taste from the beer, but I felt it lacked any genuine Guinness character, so I was a bit disappointed. One and a half stars.
  
• Goat cabra al vino. This is an acceptable firm goat cheese, a little mild, without much hint of the wine it claims on its label. Two stars.
  
• Chimay cheese. Like the Guinness cheese, this one was a bit of a let-down. It was like a Port-Salut with a bitter tang from the beer, which is OK as far as it goes -- but I didn't really get any of the deep delicious heady flavor of my favorite ale. Two stars.
  
• German Mirabo with walnuts. A slightly pungent variation on a Brie; I enjoyed the cheese, although I wasn't sure that the crushed walnuts added a lot to its experience. Two stars.
  
• Baltic Red 4 year Asiago, which I also substituted for Romano in the lasagne. This was the best Asiago I've ever had, wickedly sharp and tangy. Three stars!
  
• White Stilton with blueberries. A smooth, sweet, creamy desert cheese that I could even imagine eating with vanilla ice cream. Three stars!
  
• Ukrainian marble cheese. An innocuous mild jack cheese whose sole recommendation was that NDM is Ukrainian. One and a half stars.
  
• French Rodez. I don't know much about this cheese other than I assume it is from Rodez; it is a fine parmesan-like cheese which didn't offer any dramatic uniqueness beyond the standard Italian hard cheeses we use. Two stars.

CRB brought two nice red wines -- apparently JAL thought I was too rambunctious at our last three wine dinner, so she cut me off. CRB did bring me a nice consolation price which I might post a picture of in a later NSFW post. Maybe. (He knows me so well!)
After gorging on the cheese course we had the real meal, a spinach and zucchini lasagne made from fancy ricotta and fresh buffalo mozzarella from the same cheese store. I'll try to write it up and pop the recipe on the Kitchenarium later in the week.
We finished the evening with some yummy chocolate cannoli that NDM made. (I don't deep-fry stuff, it scares me.) I don't normally like cannoli, but these were pretty darn good.

Thank God for lactase!

Sleepy 'Dolon (Pets)

A miscellany of sleepy 'Dolon pictures. Here he is curled up in a blanket, which is very unusual for him unless he's crawling under our bedcovers with us. (He's very warm.)
And here he is on my feet. Mostly Líle sleeps on my feet these days, but it is largely unphotographable as it occurs under my desk.
Finally, 'Dolon and Líle taking some down-time together. 'Dolon is really happy with his new sister, even when he's stealing her food and toys while humping her.