Wednesday night – Douglas Sweets

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In keeping with the food theme of yesterday.. we had another sweet evening.. Diane was up helping Deb  with her new Shortbread business ‘Douglas Sweets’ . Deb makes the best shortbread in the world..She has plan, chocolate dipped, jam filled, lemon flavored, peppermint..   Really yummy and made from good stuff. most of it from here in Vermont, . Deb was up there cooking since 7am.. Diane joined her midday..   Gabe and I went up there around 6 to sample the wares and have one of Deb’s wonderful dinners.

Sitting around the table in Deb’s up on the mountain reminded me of all those days where we’d gather Deb’s house after Sam died..   that was where we went to be surrounded by our ‘winter friends’..   tons of kids on skis and snowboards, great food and lots of wine..

hose memories are coming back stronger with each passing day .. Monday marks the fifth year since Sam’s death.. and each day brings me some new memory..

it might have been 5 years ago today that I saw him for the last time… .. I’e been crying alot.. and it feels good to let it out.. each year is a little different .. and I know better than to try and predict what this one will be like.

we miss you sam…

nite all,  nite sam

-me

 

 

Tuesday night – dulce de leche

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Cool experiment tonight.. last Summer while Gabe was in Argentine , he  fell in love with a sweet glop called ‘Dulce de Leche’. The Argentines put it in or on everything.. and it really was delicious. I’d never heard of it.. but it reminded me of the ‘Leche Quemada’ we used ot get in Mexico.. that translates ‘burnt milk’.. and it turns out.. that’s just what it is !. Our freind Julietta is from Puerto Rico.. and she just gave us her grandmothers secret recipe for making dulce de leche . You start with a can of sweetened condensed milk.. You peel off the label..

 

 

and drop it in a pan of cool water… then you turn on the heat.

you boil the thing  vigorously .. unopened (!!) for an hour

then you let it cool a bit (we were impatient).

 

Then you open it.. and voila.. Dulce de Leche.. instead of condensed mile. you have this golden creamy goo that’s amazingly sticky and yummy..

 

 

the final test was to try it with ice cream

ironically.. or fittingly.. all we had was ‘dulce delish’.. a flavor based on dulce de leche..

 

it was a little differnt than argnetina.. but plenty good.. and almost magical to make..


try it yourself.. it brings a little sweetness to a part of the year that needs it..

 

at last for us it does..

 

nite all, nite sam

-me

 

 

 

Monday night – the matrix

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here’s a question… .. how many things do you like doing that your good at ? … vs thing you like… and are not good at.. or are no good at and like.. or.. neither like nor are good at. This thought has been rolling around in my mind for the last couple of weeks I call it ‘the matrix’ . I’ a huge believer that people excel in things they both like doing and are good at.. but often get dragged into things they’re good at.. .but don’t like doing…  Sometimes you end up int the ‘not good at side’.. and then it’s time to quit and restart (see last nights blog)…   So … my goal for this week is to fill this in.. .. any suggestions ?

night all.. nite sam

-me

 

Sunday night – The Upside of Quitting

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Woke up, hugged my in-laws then Gabe, Diane and I drove back to Vermont.. it was a beautiful day to be out driving.. The way is easy now with all three of us able to drive. We listened to podcasts of Freakanomics for part of the drive. I really enjoy them.. especially one on the Upside of ‘Quitting’ .. The story told of the advantages of giving up what you’re doing when it clearly isn’t going to work.. It paid particular attention to the fallacy of ‘sunk costs’ .. that is.. ‘I’ve spent so much effort so far on this … that it doesn’t make sense to quit’. Actually.. the opposite is often true.. as soon as a negative outcome is likely.. it makes sense to give up.. Goes against the old adage ‘Quitters never win and winners never quit’.. but they had good economic theory to back it up.

I’m not suggesting that any of us quit anything in particular… just saying it’s always a good idea to reevaluate your situation.

One thing I did not quit today was driving.. a couple of hours after getting home tihs afternoon, I went and picked up friend Chris and we drove to Lebanon NH to see Mike Gordon and his band play. It was an awesome show..  and even though it was an hour and a half away.. I ran into many friends..  It’s fun to see Gordon playing his own stuff.. with a little Phish thrown in. His stuff is very cool, fun and quirky.. and always musically really, really good.

 

I left a samstone at the Lebanon opera house.. too

 

ok.  It’s really late and I need to sleep.. More tomorrow

nite all, nite sam

-me

 

ps. Here’s a picture i just got of my cousin John meeting his Holiness the Dali Lama. John is the director of Global Health Studies at U of Wisconsin in Madison. John and His Holiness were  together at a convference on global health. how cool is that ?!