October, 2011:

It’s still October, and it’s snowing!

Time to dig out the winter coat, find my hat, and curse myself for not buying a SnowBlower this year!

Here’s a little video:

I asked Siri, my (and everyone else’s)  iphone 4s personal assistant to tell me a story.

(I’m sorry for the weird quality of the photographs, I saved them via Photo Booth and then reversed the horizontal.  Apparently you can catch a screen shot, but when I tried, my Siri screen went away.)

Here’s the transcript:

ME: Tell Me a Story.

SIRI: “Oh, you’ve probably heard it before.”

ME: Tell Me a Story!

SIRI:  OK!
Once upon a time, in a virtual galaxy far far away, there was a young, quite intelligent agent by the name of Siri.

One beautiful day, when the air was pink and all the trees were red, her friend Eliza said, “Siri, you’re so intelligent, and so helpful- you should go work for Apple as a personal assistant.”

So she did.  And they all lived happily ever after.

ME: Great story!

SIRI: Adam, I don’t understand ‘Great story.’

I had this great dish at the Lebanese Taberna in Silver Spring MD yesterday.  Both Stephanie and I loved it.  Went looking for recipes, and found a great one on Chowhound.

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/270971

wow, you’re in luck. i never knew what this dish was called, but it was a favorite in our house. my mom learned to make it from a lebanese woman.
i just made it for the first time in years the other day.
here’s my mom’s recipe–don’t know how authentic it is, but it tastes great!

For chicken and broth:
1 chicken, whole or quartered
1/2 lemon, cut into quarters
1 Tb ground cinnamon
1 tb salt
2 cups water
1 onion with 3 cloves stuck in it
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 stick cinnamon
2 bay leaves
1 large can chickpeas

in large dutch oven or stockpot, put chicken lemon quarters, ground cinnamon, and salt. Add water, onion with cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon stick and bay leaves. Simmer until chicken is tender. Remove chicken and let cool. strain and skim broth, pour over chickpeas and cook for 15-20 minutes.

to put the dish togehter:
1 quart plain yogurt (i use labneh or the thick greek yogurt, they work best)
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup mints leaves, torn
1 cup pine nuts
3 Tb butter
2 pita breads cut into 1 inch squares
1/2 a pomegranate (if available)

mix yogurt with garlic and let sit for 15 minutes. Fry pine nuts in 1 tb butter until brown. set aside
fry pita cubes in remaining butter until crisp.
skin and bone chicken meat. leave in largish chunks.

put chicken in bottom of serving dish. pour warm broth with chickpeas over it. spoon yogurt mixture on top, and then sprinkle on the pine nuts, pita, mint, and pomegranate. serve in shallow soup bowls.

anyway, hope this works for you. i’ve never seen this dish in a restaurant, but i’ve wowed many friends with it over the years.
good luck!

I’ll be performing  artistic antics on the street at the      Riverdale Arts Festival on Sunday October 23.

There will also be lots of great local musicians, artists, foods, crafts, and lots of other stuff.

Please check it out if you can!