StephanieL

After that brutal heat wave, we went into jacket and light rain weather, to be followed tomorrow by temps around 90. Fortunately, we're only getting a day or two of hot. Chicago next week looks like it's going to have highs in the low 60s and lows around 50. Perfect fall weather, especially for a day game at Wrigley.

No. We just take the cover off and give it fresh to the cats when we feel like giving them a treat. (Or rather one of the cats--the other is all "just say no to drugs".)

We have catnip growing in our garden. N now has a cover over it to stop the local wandering cats from rolling around and sleeping in it.

One of the many experiments in homemade hooch.

The Lion's Tail: 2 oz. bourbon 3/4 oz. allspice dram (we have a version N made) 1/2 oz. lime juice 1/2 tbsp. simple syrup 2 dashes Angostura Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. The recipe says you can use less allspice dram if you want, and I will the next time I make this. The allspice flavor overwhelmed everything else.

Very happy to have scored tickets to one of Mavis Staples' shows at SF Jazz in February.

N said that the original TikTok video was supposed to be a joke, riffing on the idea of chicken soup being medicine for a cold. At least, I'm hoping that Nyquil chicken wasn't meant to be taken seriously.

Some months back, N made a huge pot of beans, barley, and some aromatics that she said we could freeze and add proteins to when we needed an easy meal. THAT was stodge. I usually love what she cooks, but I dreaded eating it and was glad when we finally cleared all of that out. I told her to never make that again.

I think Tadich Grill might serve the perfect martini. At least perfect for me. Not too dry, and not served in a bathtub-sized glass.

We had to do the steel wool/mesh thing when we had a rat running around the crawl space under the house.

I discovered that a Jack Rose doesn't taste as good if you use a combo of regular and Meyer lemon juices rather than only regular lemon juice.

A 1/2 pound of beans yields 4 servings for us, or 2 dinners' worth. If we make the whole bag, we're eating leftovers for days. Last night's dinner: tofu and vegetable stir-fry in a Thai-inspired sauce with peanuts, served over jasmine rice.

My father always used Irish Spring soap to shower with. Now I know why we never saw any mice around!

My first Russian professor in college was French. She taught us that we had to pronounce unstressed o's like "ah" rather than "oh", lest we sound like peasants. (Seriously, that was essentially how she put it.) So the phrase "I speak Russian" would come out as "Ya gah-vahr-yoo pah-rooski", rather than "Yah goh-vohr-yoo po-rooski". The actual-from-Russia prof we got later didn't correct us.

I like strong fish, but I hated bluefish growing up. It wasn't just the oiliness--it was the metallic taste on top of it. (Maybe it was because they were caught off Jersey waters.)