Sing out! (2 more days!!!)

(Thanks, Tommy)

3 more days

As I'm writing this, President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden are speaking to the crowd in Wilmington, Delaware as they make their train trip from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. (It's a little colder than it was when the picture above was taken.)

It seems like all of America, if not all of the world, is waiting for this new team to take office.

Me too.

Well . . . it's a thought

6 more days . . or 5

Less than a week left of the Bush presidency. As we here in America watch countless interviews with the President and the Vice-President, we ask ourselves . . . WILL IT EVER END?

Here are some of the soon-to-be ex-president's "finer" moments.

To the world: we apologize.

Mooney

O.K. I know I'm a bit looney over the moon. But this is a big one.

I just wish I had a longer lens for my camera. As it is, the moon just sort of washes out with the brightness. With a longer lens, I might be able to show you some detail. But here's the 100% full moon tonight.

Popovers

I cook in spasms. That is, I go for awhile where I am enthused about cooking and tackle some unimaginably beyond-my-abilities recipe, am disappointed by it and refuse to enter the kitchen for weeks.

But I'm learning to do simpler recipes. Most recently that has come down to Mark Bitten's column and blog from the New York Times. I also recently discovered that a friend from my bookseller days, J. Godsey, is writing a blog about cooking for one. I found a recipe in her blog for simple popovers. So yesterday I decided to try it. SWMBO has some of those neat silicone muffin tin liners so there was no need to spray the pan. I followed Godsey's instructions carefully but discovered the popovers were crispier than I would have thought they should have been.

SWMBO reminded me that Godsey lives at about sea level in Massachusetts and we are at 5,100 elevation in Arizona. She reminded me that in baking, the elevation can make a difference and adjustments are often required.

So today I tried it again but reduced the oven temperature from 400 degrees to about halfway between that point and 375, and also baked the popovers for only 30 minutes as opposed to 35 in Godsey's recipe.

Voila! They were perfect!

Slice one open, toss in a dab of butter or margarine and a slathering of Trader Joe's Boysenberry jam and it was a little dab of heaven.

(Sorry about the slight blurriness of the second photo. I must have been trembling with hunger and anticipation!)

What the hell is that?

I took this photo a short time ago.

Any one have any idea what it is?

It looks like the fallout from one of those old paper punches on a dusty floor.

Or a mysterious hole into another dimension.

Well, that last one might offer a clue.

Or not.

O.K. Enough teasing.

Here's a more distant look.

Yup. It's the moon over my neighborhood on a crispy cold evening.

But more than that. The Internet(s) tell me it is a Waxing Gibbous moon that is 98% full.

Now there's some information you can use at the bar.