Happy Palm Sunday

No, I cannot lie -- I skipped church. I never know what to do with the palms they distribute ... I'll be better next week.


I'm ready for the week.

On the left is curried chicken with broccoli, chicken thighs wrapped in bacon with roasted radishes (with a bit of bacon); the tall center container is cooked bacon; the right containers are quiche with ham on the bottom. The problem with using plastic containers is that you have to let everything cool before putting them into the container unless you want to melt the plastic! I have glass containers but they are heavy so I only use the smallest ones for my lunch.

Would you believe it? Seeing that there are only 4 lunches, I remembered that I had put a corned beef in the crock pot. It's right next to me and will be great for supper while I watch 60 Minutes.

 

How about them radishes?!

Last time I served someone radishes (in pot roast) they remarked that they must have been big radishes. They looked and tasted like new potatoes. So I thought I would show you that they are, indeed, large. You probably have already figured out that is a nip bottle of Patron ...

And I made Strange Blueberry Muffins. They are Kristie's recipe (Cooking Keto with Kristie) but I put some orange extract in because I didn't have blueberry. I like the flavor a lot even if it did spill in a bit more orange than I expected! I knew you would ask, so I took one for the team and tasted them: yummy!

I would have regaled you with pictures from Ann and my latest excellent adventure yesterday. But a very officious young docent requested that I take no pictures at the Smith College Museum of Art. We had gone to see the Oplontis exhibition. 

Originally, Ann was going to accompany me to Northampton to pick up my taxes from the accountant. (It has become a ritual, she did it last year too.) I decided that wasn't going to be very exciting, so I stopped at the Library and got the free pass to the museum -- not knowing it was a Community Day and it was free.

Oplontis was a seaside village made up of luxurious villas next to Pompeii.  You guessed it: it was covered in lava and people and houses were covered in lava. The excavation only really went forward when a university in Texas (I forget which one) got a grant and started the official excavation. They have uncovered about 100 rooms of what they think was a 200 room villa. The artifacts are amazing, some dating to 59 CE. I was blown away. 

Of three amphorae (the style of which Jesus used when He turned water into wine), one was evidence that they imported fish sauce from Portugal.  Who knew? And what did they use fish sauce for? Maybe it was their style of soy sauce. 

Ann was admiring the jewelry and then realized it had all come from skeletons. When I joined her in that corner, I looked up and someone had diagrammed exactly how and where those skeletons were positioned. Creepy. Although it was interesting that not only the rich had gold jewelry. I guess they would know forensically if the person had to work for a living.

It was amazing to me how many slaves they had. Of course, having taken Latin for so many years and spending a whole year with Julius Caesar, the warrior, I knew that they took slaves every time they conquered an area. And they conquered a lot. 

The exhibit included stone weights for a loom. A villa of this size would have slaves in the atrium weaving. They were there daily not only to make the woolen cloth, but to show visitors how well they took care of the household and how well they would treat visitors. 

There was a sun dial with its original brass piece which cast the shadow indicating the hour. The Roman day was divided into 12 hours and each hour was longer in the summer. Not good for the working stiffs.

I was trying to take a picture of a piece of flooring because I liked the design but also it is a traditional quilter's pattern. (The other floor had two recognizable patterns, but no pictures ...)

So you'll have to make do with my crude sketch. What you can almost read is my note: 'floor = opus sectile.' I remember that opus means work (as in a body of work), but I never had the word sectile.

 

They had activities for Community Day, many of which were designed to educate kids about volcanoes and the ancient Romans. 

They gave us golf pencils and we were supposed to check off when we found the statues shown on the paper above. Hmpf. They also had an olive oil tasting. It looked like really good bread -- Tuscan bread. I asked Ann what she thought of the olive oil and she said, "All I know is, that is really chewy bread!" They were giving out free little bags of kettle popcorn which was 'sweet and salty.' I have no idea why. And, finally, they had a whole bunch of jars with a shaker lid that opened. You smelled the scent and tried to guess what plant or flower it came from. This was 'Smells in a Roman Garden.'