Research project: Asparagus stink-o-meter

Just had a fine late-evening snack because Pam and I had some hors d'oeuvres a few hours ago at the museum's 75th anniversary kickoff event, but no real dinner. So we were hungry. For a snack, I prepared two small plates of sliced pepper-jack cheese, about eight spears of cold salted asparagus, a pile of walnuts and a banana. It hit the spot.

Which leads to the experiment. It came up at dinner the other night that it would be nice to know what factors might affect the distinctive odor that is a byproduct of asparagus consumption (let's call it asparagus "water"). How long does it take to become evident? If you are drinking a lot of water, does that dilute the perfume? What if you're a bit dehydrated; does that mean that if you don't need to urinate for six or 10 hours, you'll still get the A-E (asparagus effect)? How quickly can the effect present itself? I seem to remember that Michael once identified very rapid release of the perfume. What conditions were present for that to happen?

Here's my own initial data, from yesterday. Four hours after consumption, a pretty impressive odor. Two hours after that, definitely still there. The following morning, nothing I noticed.

I'll have more data later, what with the snack and all.

Dog kibble again

Its been a long boring day at the Barry house, from the moment the humans woke up, ate and left to the moment Grace got home and petted me. I've been a little downhearted lately, mostly because every single day, every single week, every single month, every single year I've been with the Barry's I've had to eat kibble. I'm not so computer savvy, so i couldn't put a picture on, plus i don't have opposable thumbs so i cant exactly work the camera. I'd like to say I'm sick of this, this kibble! who says dogs have to eat "healthy, delicious food" ? I'd say that food tastes like grease and dirt and elephant poop. ( not that I've ever ate elephant poop. I'm a sensible dog, okay?) i demand some delicious, juicy steak, some melt in your mouth ice cream, crackly brown bread. and yogurt. yoghurt's really good. Now who will rise with me and strike against the tyranny of greasy kibble? who shall? you sir? come Tesla cat, we shall unite and strike, to forever change the history of canines and felines forever!

Dream Catchers, pie, and decapitated hares

seeing as its April 14Th and the last post was on April second, i thought it a good idea to "freshen up the blog" i haven't got any food pictures, no, but i do have something for your oddities folder. yesterday mom and i went to Micheal's to get a mini hare to replace the one i had accidentally decapitated. (yes, lots of blood. maybe you can do some research on this mini stuffed hare blood. and yes, HARE H-A-R-E hare, NOT bunny.) this i a wonderful picture of my gruesome murder. i had trouble with lighting.

gruesome, isn't it? feel afraid? apprehensive? we'll too bad. while we were there, we got a macrame kit. i other words, a pile of stings and metal hoops. one of the projects was a dream catcher and that's what i did. it took a lot of work, mostly because the instruction booklet didn't show you how to do half of the knots and referred to an unseen diagram. but, with a little (okay, a lot) of help from my dad, we managed to knot it off at the end. i have no idea if we did the dream catcher right, but it looked fancy and it took a lot of time, so we decided to keep it that way. notice the real duck feathers used at the bottom, instead of those stupid plastic feathers they give you.

and on my last note, i have composed a plan to make a pie each month. first we made apple pie. then we got the pies from jewel. oh well.

grace

Sandwich Wars: the side dishes

Okay the grilled eggplant sandwich with arugula, avocado and smoked caciocavalo cheese could have been made in December, but the side is truly Spring.

First I steamed the fresh fava beans, baby artichokes and new potatoes. Then I tossed them together in a sauté of onions and garlic in a lemon zest sauce.

What sides are you creating?

24 cars in ditches

The Barry-Monahan group made their way to Ypsilanti through some awfully snowy weather that created some pretty harrowing driving conditions. Grace reported that they saw 24 cars in ditches along the way. Most of the trip was spent in silence, but we did have some entertainment by Adam-having to pee so badly that he was sweating. Last night we had excellent steak tacos with a dessert of fruit tart and vanilla ice cream. As all Barrys do, we stayed up late talking- 11 Michigan time. then we woke to french toast, courtesy of Lori Starkenbarry we went out to Borders and the farmers market up there in Michigan. After that we ate some food at this...place. So as we were going out the door, Adam created the olive oil incident. Since Erin says its better with gestures, I won't tell you.We went home, read, Kevin got here, we ate a delicious dish called (unspellable) it was rice with bean goop and it was delicious. Cake and ice cream followed. And then we posted this. (written primarily by Grace)

Breakfast in Ferndale

I was in Ohio last week for work and then Monday morning I took Greyhound up to Detroit for a visit to the Barry clan in Michigan. Mike picked me up and when we got to campus, we visited Kevin in his lab and I understood about a quarter of what he said.

Monday night in Ypsilanti, I enjoyed a lovely peanut sauce stirfry that Lori made and hung out with Mike and Lori and their menagerie of dogs. And then on rainy Tuesday morning we met Kevin for lunch on Nine Mile in Ferndale. Didn't think of taking out my camera until then, and didn't take any pictures of the food. But here are a couple photos of us.

Mike's first attempt at using my camera, which has a brief red-eye-prevention delay, resulted in him taking a photo of his shoes. But he assured us it was intentional, to get us laughing. It worked.

Spring comes to Barry backyard – finally

Pat and I enjoyed yesterday’s taste of spring. We both had the day off as compensation for working too many hours the week before. We had hopes of starting the day in the backyard doing the usual spring clean up and covering the frozen ground with plastic to jump the gardening season. Unfortunately our neighborhood pyromaniac had the day off as well. He had already started a fire burning old lathe and wet leaves. We wisely decided to take a walk until the smoke cleared.

Our walk included a stop at Devon Market where we filled our backpacks and a couple of canvas bags with broccoli rabe, spinach, asparagus, kale, potatoes, grapefruit, bananas, avocados, pasta and fresh mozzarella for about $30. Carolyn was coming home for spring break so we took the opportunity to stock up.

We returned home hungry. So I chopped and sautéed some onions, peppers, tofu, ginger, garlic and carrots then added leftover green beans, spinach and rice. While the fried rice was cooking the straw-thin asparagus was steaming. Yum.

By now pyro man and the smoke were gone. I was ready to tackle the yard, but before I could head out a very large cooper’s hawk appeared and treated us to a graceful display of soaring on the wind and chasing the backyard flock of pigeons. Pat thinks it’s the biggest cooper we’ve seen, with a wingspan of over 3 feet.


After the cooper left, Pat went out front to prep and repaint the front steps and install a dutchman (a wood block to patch a rotten spot) and I went out back to clean up under the bird feeders. I easily filled the wheelbarrow with cracked open sunflower shells, feathers and rabbit droppings. All of which I dumped in the compost.

Pat and I regrouped for some late afternoon coffee and were treated to a kestrel sighting. And not just one kestrel, but two! The pair hung out for half an hour then flew east.

The backyard flock returned soon after the hawks left. The male cardinal fed the female, a couple of male finches fought over a female and a robin appeared. Spring is here.