Jaws rocks

I could write a dozen posts on my love for the old movie "Jaws". It has to be in my top 5 favorite films of all time, I've seen it more times than I can count.
One of the things I love isn't even in the movie itself: the iconic poster image (used originally for the Bantam paperback edition of the novel on which the movie is based) of the great white shark coming up from the depths to attack a girl swimmer. So much visceral messaging is packed into this one image...horror, sex, doom, nature, vulnerability, etc...while also being just a great graphic.

So I had the idea the other day to create my own homage to the poster on a rock. Yes, a rock. I'm always looking for craft opportunities and, well, this seemed like a fun project. And it was. I found a good sized flat specimen just right for painting the image. I love the way it turned out.

Now, the only person I know who's a bigger fan of "Jaws" than myself is my friend Ron. When I posted this picture on Instagram he commented "How much?" I knew he would love it. So then I decided to make another rock as a house warming present for he and his boyfriend, David. They've recently been re-doing their guest cottage in East Hampton and the decor is decided nautical. This little 'object d'art' would fit in nicely. 

On the back I decided to inscribe it with a quote from the movie uttered by the feckless mayor, "'Amity', as you know, means 'friendship'". Well, they loved the gift, and Ron totally understood the quote was meant sincerely. 

The hutch

Sometimes the light in the Hamptons is so pretty. Often I'm sitting in my dining room sitting on the little settee next to the dining table and I love the way the light looks streaming in. It's the room that has the most windows and doors so it's very bright. I was sitting there the other day and snapped this picture of some hydrangea from the yard sitting on the yellow hutch. I liked all the greens and off-ochres of the objects in and around the piece. Lovely.

Pooltime

In the Summer, there is no better place to be than at the ocean or in a pool. Even better is when the pool isn't yours so you don't have to pay for all the installation and upkeep for only 2 months of use!
Thank God I have a great friend (Dean) who has the perfect pool in the perfect yard at his house in Settler's Landing, a lovely enclave in East Hampton. This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago, but in fact I'm going there today (on the most glorious weather day of the year) for a BBQ. I'm bringing my favorite recipe of Texas potato salad. Stay cool everyone!

Carrot Salad

All of a sudden it hit me. A major hankering for carrot salad. And I had never really been a fan of this dish in the past.
But I remember that good ol' Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa herself, had a recipe in one of her old cookbooks.
I found it and, as usual with her recipes, it was very easy and flavorful. Boy, was it good. She uses fresh pineapple chunks, golden raisins, and a little sugar for sweetness. To make it my own I added some diced delicious apple. Terrific. I "ate on it" for 3 days along with hot dogs I made on George Foreman grill, a long ago gift from my parents. It was 4 days of Classic Summer Eatin'.

Wok on the wild side

I've been thinking about getting a wok for some time. In fact, I said to myself that I would get one the next time I came to the house, probably at TJMaxx in Bridgehampton, they'd maybe have them cheap.
My favorite cookbook, "Dinners in a Dish or a Dash", that I've blogged about before, has a whole chapter of stir fry recipes that I've never tried. I had my mind made up, now's the time to get wokking!
Well, it just shows that if you put out the positive energy then you will get it back in kind.
As I got off the bus the other day, the weather was beautiful walking to the house. As is the custom in this village, people put things out on the curb, sometimes with a "FREE" sign attached, that they want to get rid of. There in front of a house on my walking route were two big cardboard boxes of stuff. Dishes, vases, old books...and, lo and behold, A NICE WOK! It looked nicely made and well-used. I actually liked that it had some age on it. I plucked it right up and brought it home.





Scoured it (I know this isn't especially advised but I wanted to make sure it was somewhat sanitized), and oiled it.



The first dish I made was a flank steak stir fry with carrots, zucchini, and brown rice. YUMMO.



It worked nicely right on top of my gas stove grill but I ordered a wok ring from Amazon (just $6!) and it came today.



Now I'm ready for my next creation.

The new oil tank

Back in January I got a call when I was in the city from Petro, my oil company. Seems they were making an oil deliver and were worried that there was a spill in the basement (they normally deliver from outside the house into a pipe that goes down into the basement tank). I told them where the hidden key was, they looked downstairs and all was fine, but they cautioned me that my tank was very old and it was in need of replacement soon. I ignored that and mentally filed that away. Who has that kind of money?
Cut to a few weeks ago. I get another call from them. Now they are telling me they can no longer deliver to me as my tank is too old and not safe to deliver to. Ugh. Of course my first thought is this is just a ruse to get me to spend more money, but on reflection, the tank is as old as the house--almost 70 years!--so it's probably wise to bite the bullet and get this over with. A new tank it was. Given that I had just done the KIND freelance project, I was due to get some cash flow soon.
Here's the old tank. I had painted it white years ago so that it wasn't such a hulking MASS down there.


So I set up an appointment with their sales rep to come take a look at the layout of the situation so he could give me a bid. I BEGGED him to give me the best price he could. I said I was a 20 loyal customer, that I was a senior citizen, etc. I tried every trick in the book. He came back he next day with a quote of $2600. Not cheap. But not as much as I was expecting. We made the appointment for the installing crew to show up the following week. They arrived about 10am and it took them the better part of the day. It was a big job. They had to disconnect the old tank, bring the new tank downstairs, transfer the unused oil, the haul the old tank back upstairs and out to their truck. It also involved adding an extra access hole to the outside that needed cement sealing all the way around.
Here's the new tank:





And here's the new pipes going outside:



I don't love that it's black, maybe I'll paint white someday. I do need to paint the wall in back of it, that looks pretty crummy.  At least this is something I won't ever have to think about again. Whew.