Radically Retired

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  • The Hammer Lane

    The Hammer Lane

    Many years ago, when I hopped in for a semi trip with hubs, he explained the USA interstate highway system to me.

    He also explained what the drivers in their unique CB radio lingo were referring to in terms of the lanes on the highway through cities.

    The left lane next to centre was the “hammer lane”, meaning that you had to hammer down (accelerate) in order to pass.

    The right lane next to centre (excluding exit lanes) was called the “granny lane”, because this is where the slow traffic should be.

    The centre lane was appropriately, the “sandwich lane”.

    Our indoor track has three lanes, but they operate opposite to the highway. Our hammer lane is to the right of centre and granny lane is to the left.

    The gal in the hammer lane in my feature photo had just passed me.

    This gentleman was correctly in the granny lane

    I’m usually a sandwich lane kinda gal, unless someone’s speed has them in the wrong lane. Then, I’m hammer lane all the way.

    And then there are those who don’t play by the rules of the road and take up all three lanes at a less than normal pace.

    They looked like they were capable of walking faster

    As I come up behind groups like this, I call out “passing”, and the person on the right moves to centre.

    Next time I’m going to call out, “hammer lane”.

  • Foreboding Shadows

    Foreboding Shadows

    Do you like poached eggs? If yes, how do you prepare yours?

    Yesterday morning, as the sun was coming up and peering through our balcony’s big sliding doors, I was looking for something for breakfast to both photograph and enjoy.

    I came across a recipe on Facebook for air fryer poached eggs.

    I love poached eggs and have made them using many different methods but never the air fryer.

    As I looked for a spot on my table to set up for a photo, it didn’t matter what spot I chose, the sun coming in the adjacent balcony doors caused long, dark shadows. I was hungry, so decided to just go with it.

    My air fryer poached eggs were a disappointing fail of epic proportions. After the time given in the recipe, they hadn’t set one bit and were just slimy, unpalatable blobs, mocking me from the ramekins they were supposed to be “cooked to perfection” in.

    I increased the temp a bit and added two minutes. The eggs were slightly more set, but still not edible. I like my poached eggs to have soft yolks but the whites have to be completely set.

    I added three more minutes. Now, the whites weren’t great but just slightly more set, and the yolks were overcooked. The surface was wrinkled and not one bit appetizing in appearance.

    I plated it up anyways, took the photo, and grudgingly ate my brekky.

    Strike that prep method from my list.

  • Wordless Wednesday April 29/26

    Wordless Wednesday April 29/26

  • Trade-Offs

    Trade-Offs

    Due to freezing rain and icy streets and sidewalks, this past week and most of the next week aren’t conducive to outdoor walks.

    We’re very fortunate to have an excellent sports facility nearby that features an indoor track.

    Despite it being nearby, I’m driving over there to do my daily power walking.

    My feature photo is the view of the Legacy Park paths from the second floor walking track windows.

    I did some editing to clean up the photo and add a touch of drama to the overcast sky.

    Here’s the original:

    The paths are more apparent in the original and it also gives a better sense of the height it was shot from.

    Sometimes there are trade-offs in post processing, just as there are tradeoffs for walking indoors vs out.

    The trade-offs are both positive and negative. I prefer to focus on the positives
  • Mary and Me

    Mary and Me

    When I was growing up, Mary Moore was a household name among the womenfolk.

    Mary (Allen Clark) Moore, born in Hamilton in 1903, was a Canadian food writing legend. From 1928 to 1978, she was a nationally syndicated newspaper food columnist. Her columns, which appeared in as many as 25 daily newspapers across the country, were clipped and used by thousands of Canadians…

    … Moore was known for her heartwarming, highly personal recipe columns, in which she dispensed cooking advice and also encouraged her readers to take a long walk each day. *Exerpt from thewhig.com

    I remember both of my grandmas and my mom faithfully clipping the recipes from Mary’s column and either pasting or handwriting them into a notebook.

    Many of the main dishes and desserts I enjoyed in my youth came directly from Mary’s weekly newspaper offerings.

    When the first edition of her cookbook was released in 1978, I purchased a copy.

    To this day, it’s my all time favourite cookbook.

    In its pages, I can find recipes I remember my mom, my grandmas, and my friends’ moms and grandmas making. There are even recipes my high school home-ec teacher used in class.

    As I gently leaf through the ingredient stained pages of this well-used and mightily worn hardcover book, I’ll come across a familiar recipe and smile with a fond memory.

    One such recipe is Mock Marzipan Strawberries. My maternal grandma made these every year at Christmas and made them as table favours for my wedding.

    I now make them as well.

    These are mine

    Straight from the cookbook:

    First editions of this cookbook in excellent condition now sell for $200 CDN. My book is far from even good condition, but even if it was in excellent condition, no amount of money could purchase it.

  • Wordless Wednesday

    Wordless Wednesday

  • In My Mind’s Eye

    In My Mind’s Eye

    On yesterday morning’s power walk, there wasn’t a breath of wind, which resulted in stunning mirror reflections on the river.

    Because I didn’t want to slow my pace, I didn’t take the time to adjust the exposure on my iPhone camera before I took the shot.

    The result was a slightly more washed out photo than what I had hoped for.

    Our province’s motto is “Land of Living Skies”, so my goal in many of the landscape images I capture here at home is to honour that motto.

    In addition to not taking the time to adjust the exposure, I didn’t wait until there were no vehicles passing by. I don’t mind vehicles in a landscape photo that showcases reflections on water, but only if the vehicles themselves are also in the reflection.

    A bit of post processing brought the photo to how I envisioned the scene. I first removed the cars using the eraser in my phone’s native photos app. I then took the photo into the Lightroom mobile app for minor adjustments to exposure and colours. I added a wee bit of vignette at the end to draw more light to the main subject. Within less than five minutes of simple editing, I was able to achieve what was in my mind’s eye for this scene from yesterday morning (feature photo).

    In some instances, I edit out telephone and power lines. This time, the lines were also a detail in the perfect reflection so I left them in.

    Here’s the original.

  • Happiness Is …

    Happiness Is …

    It’s so hard to grasp that 1966 was 60 years ago.

    I was seven years old when Ray Conniff released the song that has lyrics true to this day.

    Happiness truly is “different things to different people”, as the iconic and familiar lyrics state.

    When we sold our condo and started renting a condo from a friend, I was dismayed that the oven in our rental was completely unpredictable in terms of temperature and sometimes was so far out, that I couldn’t risk using it. I was especially distressed because my fussy French macarons need predictable and accurate oven temps.

    Despite how much I insisted, hubs was against letting our friend/landlord know. He didn’t want us to be “those” tenants.

    Finally, last week, I decided to risk hubs’ ire for a day or two and called our landlord. I worded it that I thought he’d want to know because every year, things get more expensive to replace. He agreed 100% and said that from here on in, if anything at all stops working properly, he wants to know immediately.

    My new stove (feature photo) arrived the day before yesterday and everything works perfectly.

    After I made his fave oven-prepared dish for dinner, hubs was ok with the situation, and decided that maybe we need a new fridge too 🤦‍♀️.

  • 3 C’s: Chili, Comfort, Cleanup

    3 C’s: Chili, Comfort, Cleanup

    One of my favourite cold weather comfort foods is chili con carne. People seldom use the full name anymore and have shortened it to chili.

    Although this dish was originally Tex Mex (from the border area of Texas and Mexico), I can recall my mom at home in Canada making her version of it when I was a child. Mom always called it by its full name.

    In researching chili for this post, I was surprised to learn that the dish was introduced to eastern Canada in the early 1900’s. I wondered, given the distance, how that could be? Further reading explained that a group from San Antonio introduced it at a chili stand at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. This explained a lot, because Chicago is much closer and Canadians were very well represented at that fair.

    There are many variations of this hearty meat stew, and I make it a bit differently each time.

    The one in my feature photo has carrots, red bell pepper, button mushrooms, onions, celery, and three bean varieties with the lean ground beef and diced tomatoes. I prepared it in my Instant Pot, as I do all of my soups and stews. Pressure cooking has a way of locking in and enhancing flavours, which is key in one-pot meals.

    We like our chili either over a baked potato, or with a side of toast. Sometimes I garnish it with shredded cheese and/or sour cream.

    If you eat this dish, what sides do you enjoy with it? I’m always looking for new ideas.

    I used the Touch Retouch App to clean up the bowl. As I did this, I recalled cooking competitions on TV, and how the chefs always wipe the edges of the dishes and bowls before serving.

    By doing this task digitally, I was able to finally realize why that’s done.

    Here’s the dish before cleanup.

    Much more appealing with the dishing up smears removed, I think. Do you agree?

  • Happiest Places

    Happiest Places

    After walking the same six streets over and over again in our south Texas park for the past six months, I’m loving being back to our walking/biking/hiking trails here at home in Sask, Canada.

    There’s just something about the trees getting ready to leaf out, the fresh air, the river, the variety of trails, and the familiarity of home that makes my morning walks here at home so peaceful, meaningful, enjoyable, and special.

    The winding trails are always inviting
    Bridges over the Souris River are plentiful and varied in design
    Our city does a great job of path management and maintenance
    The river views from the many bridges are always peaceful and grounding
    One of the many bridges on this trail – one day I’ll make a post about all of them
    You always wonder what’s around the next bend

    Do you have a place that’s your happiest?