Lazy Weekend

*stretch*
*sigh*
What a gloriously relaxing weekend. There are days when sitting on my ass is the absolute last thing I want to be doing, but then there are days when it's just what the doctor ordered. Friday evening, my friend and fellow Battlestar Galactica fanatic, Zac, drove up from Portland to join Gerad and I in watching the premiere episode of the final season. We drank wine, smoked a little green and I made us a lovely dinner consisting of vegan cornbread (recipe at HappyHerbivore.com), spicy rice and beans and Jaymbles' Famous Beer Bread. I normally use a fancy pale or amber ale to make the dough but this time Safeway's dismal selection of brews led me to pick up a bottle of framboise, a Belgian beer made with raspberries, and the final result was nothing short of delicious.


This was my rediscovery of framboise. Cecilia introduced me to it my last summer in Boston and it slipped from my memory since I moved out to Washington. It probably has something to do with the fact that Washington state has an odd way of regulating the sale of booze. Someday, I'll work up the motivation to research exactly why liquor stores can ONLY sell liquor and beer is relegated exclusively to grocery stores, gas stations and 7-11s.

I thought Massachusetts had retahhded liquor laws, but now I find myself set adrift on memory bliss when I remember the florescent glory of the one-stop booze marts of the Commonwealth. I miss Marty's Liquors, with its seemingly endless aisles stocked full with every assortment of alcohol imaginable. 22s of various Berkshire Brewing Company offerings, bottles of Unibroue with their beautifully illustrated labels. It brings a tear to my eye when I wander over to the beer aisle and my only choices are Coors, Bud, Pabst and Heineken. Suffice it to say, now that I know where I can find framboise, I'm going to have to go back and buy their whole stock.

But I digress. Zac was visiting this weekend and we had nothing planned except good food, good television and great company. We woke up in no hurry on Saturday morning and I cooked brunch-- vegan biscuits (VeganDad.com), Cajun mango mash-up and not-quite-vegan country gravy. Later on we decided to go see My Bloody Valentine in 3D. Of course, they waited until after we purchased our tickets to let us know that the film was NOT, in fact, in 3D at this particular theater. We begrudgingly decided to go see it anyway, deciding preemptively that we were walking into a two hour long suckfest, but lo and behold! It wasn't that bad. It wasn't cinematic gold by any means and, yes, I was under the influence of ganj and Sprite at the time but it's still the most entertaining dice n' slice movie I've seen in ages. I give it three out of four dismembered teenage victims.

Well, I'd like to give you a play-by-play rundown of today's events but the time is now 6:30 PM and that means dinner time at the Markham-Simon household. Tonight's secret ingredient will either be brown rice pasta or black beans. I'll leave you with a photo from today's foggy stroll through Earthworks Park.


!!!

TODAY'S REDISCOVERIES...

• PM Dawn's "Set Adrift On Memory Bliss"
• The awesomeness of watching live episodes of Battlestar Galactica.
• Framboise