Fantastic Machine, Cost of Food, Herbs, Prince Caspian

This is quite an incredible piece of musical apparatus all built from farm machinery and which took 13,029 hours to set up. The pictures come from a company called Animusic and you can see more of their animations here. A friend sent me this today and I was very impressed. I just got Matt to look at this and he figured it was boring. Amazing the difference between us.

This morning GMA were talking about the rising costs of food and what people are doing about it. Some are going to considerable lengths to decrease their grocery bills. A lot of people are growing their own food so they don't have to go to the store at all. There was one couple who had filled in their swimming pool with dirt in order to grow food instead. I thought this was rather extreme, it must have cost a fortune for all that dirt anyway. If you are an apartment dweller, it isn't possible to grow very much, at least we have a balcony which a lot of apartments don't. We haven't yet been to get our herbs for the summer, we like to have basil, thyme, sage and rosemary. I particularly need to make some basil pesto to put in the freezer. I ran out a couple of months ago. Plus I like basil for my homemade tomato soup. It is so nice to have fresh herbs available when you are cooking. I would also like to grow cilantro, but for some reason we have never had any success with it. We tried several times when we lived in North Carolina. We could grow all kinds of herbs, but the cilantro went to seed almost immediately.

Talking of food costs, we popped into our local store yesterday for a rotisserie chicken for supper as we hadn't done anything about supper earlier. They were selling local asaparagus quite cheaply, but when we looked at it, it had stems which needed the ends removed - if it's local, why is that do you suppose? The asparagus I buy, every bit can be used. Tough ends are supposed to indicate how long the asparagus has been picked, but if its local, it can't have been that long surely? We will be heading out to Barrie's Asparagus today, I still had some asparagus left on Sunday and no time yesterday because of bowling. I will be suffering from withdrawal symptoms soon *g*. Can you imagine what I go through once the season has ended? I live til next Mother's Day when the season begins once more.

Tomorrow night I am going to see Prince Caspian with a friend. I have heard some good reports of the movie so am looking forward to it. I will probably end up buying the DVD. I want to get the Spiderwyck Chronicles too, haven't seen that movie, but will rent it when the DVD comes out. I have somewhat forgotten the story of Prince Caspian, but I understand there are bits in it which didn't happen in the book, so I had better not re-read it before I see the movie. I see its rated PG as well which, considering its a children's story, seems a bit stupid.

Having talked about Basil Pesto, here is an original Italian recipe that I use. There are hundreds of versions out there, but I like this one very much.

Pesto

Source: Great Italian Cooking

1 Cup fresh basil leaves, washed and thoroughly dried
6 sprigs parsley
3 sprigs marjoram
1/2 cup pine nuts
3 cloves garlic, crushed in the press
1/3 cup Parmesan, grated
1/3 cup Romano
3 tbs olive oil
2 tbs softened butter
1/4 tsp salt

Blend everything in blender briefly. Makes 1 cup. By leaving out cheese and adding another 1/4 cup pignole makes a good sauce for hot boiled fish. Use the regular recipe and add to hot consommé or tomato soup.

Have a great day.