Meat and Greet

Every good grocery store has a meat department, unless it's a vegetarian grocery store. Yeah, give me a few vegetarian steaks, please. Fran Lebowitz once said vegetables are interesting but lack a sense of purpose when unaccompanied by a good cut of meat. Our family has a rule that if you get lost in the grocery store, let's always meet in the meat section. If you need something to hum while waiting to be found, the movie The Sound Of Music has a nice little tune called Doh-Ray-Meat.

Sponge Pudding

If you're craving some good sponge pudding, you could either:

1. Make some yourself.

Preparation: In small bowl mix 4 oz raisins, 2 oz currants, 3 oz dark brown sugar, and grated lemon zest for the filling. Sift 8 oz self-raising flour into large mixing bowl. Add 4 oz shredded suet* and a pinch of salt. Rub together to combine. Add a little milk. Cut through mixture with knife. Gradually add more milk until it comes together. Use your hands to combine into soft elastic dough. Add more milk if needed. Total amount of milk used should about 2 fl oz. Place dough on lightly floured surface. Roll into 8 x 12 rectangle. Evenly spread filling mixture over dough leaving 1/2 inch border. Brush border with a little cold water. Carefully roll up from narrow end. Soak clean cloth napkin in boiling water for a few minutes. Squeeze to remove excess water. Wrap roll in napkin twisting at each end and secure with string. Steam the pudding roll for 2 hours in a steamer. Wrap pudding suet roll in foil. Bake 400ºF for 1.5 hours. Unwrap. Cut into thick slices. Serve in warmed bowls with custard. Enjoy.

*Suet is a rich form of solid white beef fat that is usually derived from the fat surrounding beef kidneys. It's sold ready-grated and dusted with flour. Vegetarian alternatives are readily available, altho people who wish to avoid the hydrogenated vegetable oils from which they are made may like to try finely ground brazil nuts as a substitute.

Or you could:

2. Purchase a can of Heinz spotted dick sponge pudding.

Glowing Globes

This downtown Fargo store window gets a Glowing Globe Award. This is fitting since it is directly across from the famous downtown Fargo Theatre. Downtown Fargo continues its revival but also continues to have a parking problem. They started a program called POP (plenty of parking) but just because we have a POP program doesn't change the fact that there isn't enough parking. Fargo Theatre

Yellow Brick House

After following the yellow brick road, you may very well end up at this yellow brick house. What would normally just be two more windows on the East side of a building have cleverly been transformed into something out of a fairy tale. What a clever idea. It's surprising we don't see more of this type of creativity. One way to promote creativity like this would be an annual contest with prize money. Our government would probably decide to tax it to promote bigger government.

Funny Friends

I met some funny friends while strolling through the Mall O'America. These guys were obviously enjoying themselves. Mr. Bird on the left was sipping his morning coffee just like me. His buddy on the right was taking a picture of me while I snapped this one of them. We had a great time. I'm glad I got to meet them before they got on their bus back to the funny farm.

Horsing Around

Camp Snoopy at the Mall of America has now been taken over by Dora & Friends. Last Saturday morning, I was the first person to enter Camp Dora. During a very quiet solo walkabout without anyone else present (except for Dora), I snapped this picture of the Merry-Go-Round. This horse probably got mucho circular action during the rest of the day. I was delighted to capture him reflecting during his rest in the morning.

Burrito For Eato

This picture documents the fact that: 1. You can now purchase everything in frozen meals from burritos to omelettes, and 2. I actually thought to stop and take a picture of some frozen burritos. Regarding #1: We've come a long way from fish sticks and TV dinners. Regarding #2: I must either have way too much time on my hands, or I have a window shopping blog that is waiting to be fed its next post.