Lemony Zest :: Kim Lewandowski

Archive for the ‘General’ Category

We have some fennel plants in the herb garden. A couple summers ago, I was weeding the garden and noticed that there were dozens of ladybugs in the fennel fronds.

Barbara and I had dinner at Rajput last night. It was pretty good, although service was slow. They seemed confused about whose table it was.

I’m not as familiar with Indian foods and flavors as I am with some other cuisines, so I generally end up ordering the same thing: chicken tandoori. And that’s what I had last night. The chicken was nice and tender and the tikka masala sauce was tasty. There wasn’t a lot of heat, though. Next time, I might ask for some hot sauce. I also ordered garlic naan – that was delish!

Barbara had lamb biryani and offered me a taste. It was very good, with a bit of heat. Nice flavor. I forgot to bring my camera in, though, so no pix. This post is primarily a reminder for me, so next time I go out for Indian, I can look back and see what I liked.

I’ve been watching the new show Aarti Party on the Food Network, to learn more about basic Indian cooking. Now I need to actually try some of the recipes And I already have all five of her basic Indian spices.

Time flies when you’re freezing half to death. I can’t believe it’s been so cold here in January. So that’s my excuse for not blogging more That and my micro-studio fell apart and I haven’t found a suitable new box for it yet. Anyway …

This week’s Photo Friday challenge is Travels, and those of you who know us know we love to travel. So for this challenge, I went back to the photos from our 25th anniversary trip to Europe in 2009. We had purchased train tickets for traveling from Rome to Florence and then from Florence to Zurich to Frankfurt to go home, and we had an extra day of travel on the tickets. So while we were in Florence, we took a side trip to Pisa.

This is when you find out how important prior planning is Since the tower isn’t stable (it’s leaning, after all), they limit the number of people who can climb it at one time, and you have to buy tickets in advance. We had no tickets, so we spent a beautiful afternoon wandering the grounds and taking pictures of the tower, the cathedral and the baptistery.

I was hungry after we traveled to Pisa and walked several blocks from the train station to the grounds, so I bought a local specialty as a snack – marinated seafood salad – and ate that as we sat and admired the beautiful marble that comprised the buildings.

Marinated seafood salad and Pisa guidebook

The popular thing to do in Pisa, apparently, is to hold your arms as if you’re preventing the tower from falling over. I can’t tell you how funny it was to see dozens of people from all over the world all posing the same way.

“Holding up" the Leaning Tower of Pisa

The tower *is* leaning to a frightening degree. It was definitely worth the side trip to see it again (for me – Dan had never seen it before).

I got my new Gorillapod the other day. Isn’t it cuuuute?!? This will be fun. I really could have used this when we were in Florence last fall. We had a great view of the river out the window, but with the furniture where it was, I couldn’t get the tripod set right to get a good picture of the two of us in front of it. I could have put the desk chair on the bed and hooked the Gorillapod to the chair and whamo! We’re in business! Oh, well, we’ll just have to go back.

Okay, I was out shopping at Bed, Bath & Beyond last weekend and noticed that the phrase “Live, Love, Laugh” is all OVER the place: picture frames, wall art, napkins. I’m just not into associating something I use for self-expression – this blog – with a phrase that seems to have “jumped the shark,” or made a caricature of itself. Hence, the new name, which I like a lot better: Lemony Zest – for life, for food, for new and fun experiences, and one of my favorite flavors

My baby daffodils are in full bloom and my mint is peeking out from the soil. Yesterday was sunny and warm and today’s rain will nudge the peas along. I love spring.