Quotes and thoughts for the day

[digitS']

 

[flowerbug]

if you can be happy with simple pleasures life is pretty darned good most of the time.

for today it was waking up, cracking jokes with Mom, getting things done outside until it got too hot, coming in and talking about what we wanted for lunch, deciding that both of us were ready to go do something different out together for a change of pace. ran into town to pick up something from a friend, stopped to check out the shovels at that hardware store, ran into another town where i could finally have some decent butter pecan ice-cream. then we did some shopping at a thrift store where we bought four nice long sleeved shirts that we'll use for gardening and i needed some shorts so i got two pair of those that were decent enough - all for less than $18. then we did some more shopping (which i don't like but we weren't there too long so it was ok) for food and i got a shovel. simple things, nothing too expensive or crazy, a lot of good laughs and then home in time for Mom's siesta and me to stretch out and listen to some music. i could have fallen asleep but decided to do something else instead.

oh yes, lunch, was mini-corn dogs. we'd talked this morning about what sounded good and i said corn dogs but i wanted to try the ones that didn't have sticks in them so we looked that up and found we could get them where we were going in the freezer section so that is what we had when we got home - with a bit of mustard.

simple stuff:

Humor, Companionship, Sharing, Food, Caring.

Ice Cream, Clothes, Shovel.

 

[flowerbug]

i would have bought ice-cream for a stranger today if he'd been a little bit slower and i were a little bit faster.

he'd pulled up to the ice-cream store as we were sitting there enjoying our ice-creams. he went in and a few moments later he came out and said something that Mom didn't quite understand and i sort of understood it but i had my mouth full. he'd gone in not seeing the sign that said they didn't take credit/debit cards and that was all he had. as he was leaving he commented about that and said he was really looking forwards to a Blue Moon and then he walked away to leave. by the time he got into his truck it was too late to call him back and tell him i'd spring for it.

so is there a moral to the story? perhaps being a bit slower will get you what you want?

 

[Pulsegleaner]

i would have bought ice-cream for a stranger today if he'd been a little bit slower and i were a little bit faster.

he'd pulled up to the ice-cream store as we were sitting there enjoying our ice-creams. he went in and a few moments later he came out and said something that Mom didn't quite understand and i sort of understood it but i had my mouth full. he'd gone in not seeing the sign that said they didn't take credit/debit cards and that was all he had. as he was leaving he commented about that and said he was really looking forwards to a Blue Moon and then he walked away to leave. by the time he got into his truck it was too late to call him back and tell him i'd spring for it.

so is there a moral to the story? perhaps being a bit slower will get you what you want?

There is a story my parents will NOT let me live down (perhaps "live down" is the wrong term, as that is usually for BAD things you do.)

We were going to a craft/antique fair somewhere a bit upstate, on a day that was BLAZINGLY hot. While wandering around the fair I found that Old Chatham Farms (a local dairy that specializes in sheep's milk cheeses) has set up a booth and, amongst other things, were selling homemade sheep's milk ice cream with herbal flavoring. Feeling like a treat, I went over and got myself a cup of lavender something or other (even back then, I had an allowance, and so had money in my pocket independent of what my parents had). Walking back with it, I found my parents and my sister who was thoroughly miserable from the heat. When my parents saw the ice cream, and I told them where I got it, they asked if I wouldn't mind getting my sister one to cheer her up (and said I should get another for myself, as they were quite small.) I said no problem, and went back to the booth with them. Unfortunately by this point world had gotten around and the line was VERY, VERY long now, to the point that not only would it take some time, but there was a real possibility of them running out. So I turned to my sister, handed her my ice cream, and said she could have the rest of it while I continued to wait. It turned out they DID still have some when I got to the front of the line (though only of the other flavor they were carrying which I think was something like orange bergamot.) so I got two cups, came back handed my sister one of them and we continued on.

Ever since then, my parents have gushed about how generous, mature and selfless I was. This actually EMBARRASES me, since, from my POV I really didn't do all that much. Giving up a little ice cream was hardly a world ending sacrifice, and in any case, I'd say I came out ahead, since I both wound up with 1 1/2 ice creams AND got to taste BOTH flavors (which I wouldn't have under normal circumstances).

I've just never really understood being praised for behavior that, to me, is just something that EVERYONE should be expected to do. Living properly in society requires being selfless and considering others, that's all there is to it. In fact, the fact that altruism is so rare that we need to single it out and celebrate it is, to my mind, kind of sick. It isn't a matter of "I just did what anyone would do." it's more of "I just did what anyone SHOULD HAVE done."

My sister also is very grateful to me for introducing her to Haagen Daz Honey Vanilla, which is still her favorite flavor (or was, since I don't think they still make it.) She also credits me for introducing her to Capogiro's Chiccolato Scuro Gelato (also no longer made), but technically, she actually found that on her own, I had just found it first. It just turned out the gelateria was headquartered in Philadelphia, where she was going to college, I didn't know that at the time (and that revelation actually resulted in a little tension, as it meant that BOTH OF US were after the pints I could get at Whole Foods*.)

*Not to mention that, having both had that, no other chocolate ice cream or gelato has ever quite measured up, so we are now both perpetually disappointed.

 

[flowerbug]

...
*Not to mention that, having both had that, no other chocolate ice cream or gelato has ever quite measured up, so we are now both perpetually disappointed.

i'm quite fond of Ben & Jerry's Pistachio Pistachio. while i do like some ice-cream flavors this is the one that if i have to pick from the freezer section for a special treat it is most likely the one they'll have that i like the best. if they had a maple walnut or a black walnut i would pick those now because they're something different and i really like those too.

that said, what i can make at home is sometimes so good i don't think that anything i can find out and about compares. maple buns were things we used to buy and were good, but several weeks ago i made some maple flavored frosting and got a big container of roasted peanuts (with skins) and those in combination without the added chocolate coating were even better to me than a maple bun. i thought that tub of frosting and the container of peanuts would last me a month but it turned out i really liked it and the frosting didn't last more than a week or two.

the funny thing is the day after i made that maple frosting one of my brother's and my SIL came over and she just blurted out how much she hates maple frosting or maple sugar candy and how disgusting it is (before i even told them about making maple frosting). i'm like, noway, i love that stuff, maple sugar candy is like a gift from the gods to me. i have some once every few years. the only thing that would have made the maple frosting even better was some real maple syrup.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

i'm quite fond of Ben & Jerry's Pistachio Pistachio. while i do like some ice-cream flavors this is the one that if i have to pick from the freezer section for a special treat it is most likely the one they'll have that i like the best. if they had a maple walnut or a black walnut i would pick those now because they're something different and i really like those too.

that said, what i can make at home is sometimes so good i don't think that anything i can find out and about compares. maple buns were things we used to buy and were good, but several weeks ago i made some maple flavored frosting and got a big container of roasted peanuts (with skins) and those in combination without the added chocolate coating were even better to me than a maple bun. i thought that tub of frosting and the container of peanuts would last me a month but it turned out i really liked it and the frosting didn't last more than a week or two.

the funny thing is the day after i made that maple frosting one of my brother's and my SIL came over and she just blurted out how much she hates maple frosting or maple sugar candy and how disgusting it is (before i even told them about making maple frosting). i'm like, noway, i love that stuff, maple sugar candy is like a gift from the gods to me. i have some once every few years. the only thing that would have made the maple frosting even better was some real maple syrup.

The problem is that most of the flavors I particularly like are pretty obscure ones, so it's not like I can simply go to the nearest supermarket to get them. Back when I was still visiting the city, I'd often check the Ciao Bella stand in Grand central to see if they had any rose petal left, or mint (not mint chocolate chip, just mint.) Alas, they usually didn't, since the only time they would have rose petal is if some local Persian restaurant had cut back their order (or they had made a bit too much) and the only time they had straight mint was when they ran out of chocolate chips.

I also would occasionally pick up tubs of mint ice cream from Il Labrotorio de Gelato (and I mean tubs, they sold it in what looked like margarine containers.) But they closed ages ago.

A little shop in Greenwich Village had some spectacular goat's milk violet ice cream, but only once and they didn't sell pints, just little cups. And when it was "hot" I tried the color changing blue ice cream that the little spot in Chinatown sold, but didn't see what all the fuss was about.
Speaking of Chinatown about the only flavor I like that is semi available is Green Tea, and even that is on a brand by brand basis (I'm still haunted by the green tea ice cream the Cornell Dairy used to make back when I was in college, where they got a little confused as to what kind of green tea you are supposed to use, and wound up creating a jasmine infused version that tasted like dish soap! Their blue mint chocolate chip was pretty good though, nice salty chocolate bits.)

I can also get as much rose flavored falooda khulfi as I want with any trip to an Indian grocery store, but I don't like the texture of khulfi (plus, the basil seeds get stuck in my teeth.)

Now that we are both adults and WAY past the legal drinking age, my sister has become VERY fond of Tipsy Scoops Bourbon Vanilla (which, despite what that term usually means, actually DOES have bourbon in it.) I don't really see the point (still less in the Chocolate Whisky, where I can't taste the whisky under the chocolate. But who am I to judge, I'm the person who invented the Blessing of the King of Siam, with Giant Tusks (which is basically a version of an established cocktail called an Elephant Shake, except you use ginger ice cream instead of vanilla, and put in between three and four times the amount of Amarula that you normally would. Quite tasty, but it would always leave me so hot and sweaty I'd have to go to sleep with the window open in the middle of winter! (I used to think it was the alcohol, now I know it was the lactose in the ice cream.) )

 

[Dahlia]

Back when I could still eat dairy products I used to love to get the lemon custard ice cream on a cone! My favorite ever ice cream though is the mint & chip organic ice cream - OMG so yummy! Now I can't tolerate dairy cuz it makes my stomach hurt. So I have converted to products using coconut milk and coconut oil. Now I love the coconut based ice creams available at Trader Joe's! Very good!

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Back when I could still eat dairy products I used to love to get the lemon custard ice cream on a cone! My favorite ever ice cream though is the mint & chip organic ice cream - OMG so yummy! Now I can't tolerate dairy cuz it makes my stomach hurt. So I have converted to products using coconut milk and coconut oil. Now I love the coconut based ice creams available at Trader Joe's! Very good!

Count yourself lucky. On top of the lactose intolerance, I seem to have a bad reaction to fats in general, so even things like soy and oat milk will set off the same gas and bowel issues as actual milk.

Actually, by now, nearly EVERTHING sets my stomach off. I've talked to my doctor about it, be she seems to be of the opinion that every food I have to eliminate is a good thing, since it will make me lose weight even faster, and, eventually, break the link between eating and pleasure. (she SAYS she wants me to be happy and enjoy life, but I'm beginning to think she actually means she wants me to be "happy about" and "enjoy" living on boiled chicken breast and undressed unseasoned greens for the rest of my life and exercising every single waking second that I am not working or doing something else vital to my survival.)

 

[digitS']

 

[CarolPNW]