Take-off on Heidi Swanson's Bulgur, Celery & Pomegranate salad over at 101cookbooks.com.

The dressing is just pomegranate juice with some garlic powder and oil.

Here's the whole pile:

Before the dressing:


I used rice instead of the bulgur, and adding the pom seeds and some Craisins gave me this.


You can see the zucchini frying in there too, just added these on top, roasted some pine nuts with the second batch of zucchini, and topped with some Parmesan cheese. It was a good way to use up a pomegranate, as it required both the juice and the arils.

For the record, I've determined that pomegranates follow the so-called 80/20 rule: with 20% of the effort required to get all the seeds out, you can actually get probably more than 80% of the seeds, without washing away the delicious juice by putting the wedged fruit in water to separate the pith and skins. My recommendation: if you need Every Last Seed in the fruit, use two and save yourself some tedious picking through detritus.

Idea stolen from sports blog The Big Picture. This was a recent one

**Caution: Bad Language**

Link here, regarding using the brights on a crowded freeway. Key quote:

Flashing your brights on the freeway is different. I do that s*** all the time. Especially in Seattle where everyone drives like a student driver. I'll come up behind a c***weasel who's doing 55 in the fast lane. I'll flash my brights at him to change lanes so I can continue driving like a person who has a sack. If he moves over, a courteous wave follows; flashing the brights worked.

You probably don't want to know what he'll do if they don't get over...

But what really grinds MY gears is the extra lyrics to "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and other Christmas songs. I taught music to K-3 students last week. The real lyrics were sung, sometimes even with joy; the extra words (like a light bulb") were SHOUTED. Same with "Jingle Bells", which went like this:

Jingle bells, Jingle bells, Jingle .... (trail off)
HEY!!!!!
Oh what fun .... (mumble)
HEY!!!!!
[repeat]

Mumbling until chorus.

Why don't people explain Christmas songs to kids, so they know what they're singing? And what is with the 'extra' lyrics? Those things really grind my gears.

To alleviate the irritation, here's a song off the new Gorillaz album.


Direct Download Link

Starting with the best, although it doesn't look hugely appetizing in the photo. This was a Miss Bee creation, flash-fried eggplant with wilted spinach and cherry tomatoes, served with Parmesan cheese and yogurt cheese over rice. Our "Hear No Evil..." lamp is in the background. Thanks Carrie.

It was delicious as leftovers too, with zucchinis fried with Parmesan added in.

Next up was Breadsticks night. Breadsticks rolled up from Trader Joe's whole wheat pizza dough, red sauce is tomato paste thinned with water and yogurt cheese.

Catch-all salad with cherry tomatoes, pine nuts, Craisins, etc. and Dijon and oil dressing.

I just became aware of this television show "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader". This is a pretty good one:

I'm not a huge fan of spicy Christmas-style ales; I'm not a huge fan of many spices to begin with. I prefer herbal flavors, and hops being an herb, Alesmith Brewing Company's Yulesmith is right up my alley. Definitely a West Coast Double IPA, with almost barleywine levels of malt and viscosity. As noted above on Beer Advocate, comes in a winter and summer edition. Haven't had the pleasure of a summer, but enjoyed 2006's winter and this one tonight. Recommended if you can find it. My rating came to 4.35 out of 5; average was 4.37.


Also, the Trappist monks of Westvleteran were featured in the august pages of the Wall Street Journal, who apparently sent their most irritating reporter to check in on the brewing brothers. The article is perfectly harmless, with all of its facts straight I believe, but the video included with the online edition is just super-annoying. Read about what is possibly the most sought after beer in the world today with its combination of rich flavor and rare production here.

Miss Bee and I are the newest volunteers, walking and feeding dogs, and helping out when the public comes in to look at dogs and cats.

A six year old German shepherd mix. Miss Bee found a friend. For posterity, our first dog that we took for a walk.
Playing ball in the kennel.


Sniffs.

A little Pit bull mix puppy while I clean out his kennel.


His brother, whose not as reticent as you might think from this picture. They were both adopted.


A Basset hound/pit bull mix. He's low-slung and friendly, but you can see the pit in the coat, face, and strength.

This pictures shows his left paw turned out like a regular basset. This is one strange-looking dog.


I call this "Stray Cat".

Guess what. It rains here too.

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving saw Miss Bee's class at the Mesa Southwest Museum. I chaperoned for another class that day, and then the Tuesday after Thanksgiving I subbed for a third grade class that went to the same place. Not many good pictures on the cell phone camera, but here's the best.

Sleeping on the bus back:Here's Fuad:
All the chiddlers:
Miss Deisy:
Goofing off:
The view from from the top of Dinosaur Mountain:
The kids looking at T-Rex:
Here's from third grade, by the Columbian mammoth: