WTF-Beta

They talk about Edmundston and Madawaska in that article, we routinely went to both towns when we lived on the edge of the universe (Fort Kent). Madawaska depended heavily on the Canadian traffic to their businesses, I’m sure it’s been devastating. Madawaska has a tractor supply and my favorite store ever, Mardens. We pretty much went every Sunday. That part of Maine is trump country for sure.

@Mik said in WTF Cookbook:

Make this. You'll thank me later. I just used ground chipotle and some adobo spice instead of the can. also breasts instead of thighs. Also sauteed instead of firing up the grill for two little chix breasts. Still delicious. Marinated for three hours.

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1023145-tajin-grilled-chicken

This looks great, definitely will try it!

lol!

He’s adorable.

@AndyD said in Guess who came over for dinner.:

Lovely photos and interesting room!

I think its a Yueqin on left and Pipa on right, old Chinese instruments(MrsA watches a lot of Chinese&Korean movies on youtube). Gusle is new to me.

Our visitors from Seattle who stayed with us last week were really into ukulele playing.
They had a carbon fibre electronic model. Also a hand-built by Luthier wooden one. Sounded a bit different to our £40 plywood job.

Oh and thank you for the instrument names! It does look like a Yueqin. I have the purchase receipt somewhere. The other instrument has animal skin covering the body. I will take some closeups of it. I love the ukulele, though I haven’t been playing much lately. I have a tenor and a baritone, and Steve learned the bass so he could play with me, but he has Dupuytren’s contracture in both hands and has not been able to play for about a year. He’s going to have surgery this fall.

Yes, I think so. It was held together with tape. I don’t know what happened to it, I remember Steve getting it to make some noise, so it was around til ‘fairly’ recently. There was also a really cool wooden flute with some silver keys, but that disappeared too.

Yes, very mid century!

PD - some of them are playable.

The one on the left plays, it wasn’t really created as an instrument, but as an ornamental object according to the receipt - it was purchased by Steve’s uncle in Japan ages ago. The one on the right is a real instrument (but I can’t remember its name), it came from Steve’s family. Both have strings that vibrate at certain piano key frequencies, so I have to put pieces of felt on the strings sometimes to keep them quiet!

The violin came from my Dad’s family in England - it’s got a crack in the body, and the bridge is missing (I think the crack was caused by the bridge) and it has not been played for as long as I can remember.
Here I am in about 1964 playing the harpsichord my Dad built for my mom from a kit. The violin is on the shelves - that my Dad also built. He once told me that he signed up for a shop class just so he could make these shelves for our living room.

This one came from one of my Dad’s trips to Serbia/Croatia - it’s real, it’s called a “Gusle”. I like it for obvious reasons.

When my Dad and Stepmother moved into senior living, I asked for the instruments, and a huge box arrived with some of these. There are a couple of unplayable concertina type instruments and a mangled old trumpet and several wooden recorders as well - that all lived on those shelves my dad built.

The ukuleles are playable.

Pique and Mr. Pique came down for the folk festival and stopped by the Jodi’s for dinner. ️

I’m sorry. It is sad and exhausting. My father died of it. He lasted 3 months in memory care and he went out angry and violent. My mother is currently in memory care, she’s been there for over two years. I wish I could say it was a wonderful place to be but it’s not. It’s safe. My mom hates it.

Jesus. Brave new world.

Oops, link to Reddit thread here: https://www.reddit.com/r/casualcanada/comments/qw5ukm/favourite_bannock_recipe/

@wtg said in In honor of Canada Day:

Versatile stuff, this bannock.

https://www.voyageurtripper.com/campfire-bannock-recipe/

This is the Reddit thread I came across, I was particularly interested in the posts by the person from (of?) the Métis culture/nation.
This was the bannock recipe they linked to. Steve bought a little portable fire pit and is always looking for campfire cooked bread recipes - so maybe I’ll give it a try!
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/6919/bannock/

@Nina said in In honor of Canada Day:

Nanaimo bars FTW! But in addition to BC salmon (so much better than Atlantic IMO) I would have to add BC sushi. It seems almost impossible to get bad sushi in Vancouver, and some is downright legendary. It's not traditional Canadian, but still....

When we lived in the top left corner, Richmond had some of the best dim sum ever. Loved the Food in BC.

Ok, I just looked up bannock recipes, and found a post by someone who said it’s often (traditionally) cooked over a campfire on a stick. Now I want to try that…

I love Nanaimo bars. I found the tortiere to be boring, but I only had it once, just across the border from Fort Kent.

️ ️

@RealPlayer said in NYT article about Brahms Romance in F (with audio):

There’s a Mendelssohn Song Without Words called “Duetto” that is just lovely, a dialogue between the left and right hand. And a couple of Grieg pieces that are just so delightful. So yes, I do this now and then.

Duetto is one of my absolute favorite pieces. And the Brahms intermezzo that is in the same book with the one that started this thread. (Can’t remember the number).

We have always gone through our insurance, they eventually get the money from the other person’s insurance (if they have it). At least that’s what has happened for us. We got a refund on our deductible several months after the taxicab hit us in Seattle, once they got all the money from the taxicab company.

@Bernard said in Grandma's hobbies:

I finished my large needlepoint tapestry about three weeks ago. I am almost done backing it then it will go on the wall.

That’s gorgeous!