One Question Leads to Another

So after eating at a local sub shop the other day and having their black bean soup, I decided I *must* make a version of that soup. It was smooth, chunky, sweet, hot, and all around wonderful.
They called it Sriracha Black Bean soup. And apparently, it's a hot soup right now.

So I went to researching the ingredients, which lead to another research on the origination of food products.
Sriracha is named so for the area in which it was developed. One source lists Sriracha as being made from red jalapeno's, another from any chili pepper (usually the yellow Madame Jeanette and red cayenne peppers).
That search lead me to the Grand Exchange (aka Colombian Exchange)...because when I research a topic, it snowballs. Literally.

Did you know that before the Colombian Exchange, there were no oranges in Florida, no bananas in Ecuador, no paprika in Hungary, no potatoes in Ireland, no coffee in Colombia, no pineapples in Hawaii, no chili peppers in Thailand, no rubber trees in Africa, no tomatoes in Italy and no chocolate in Switzerland?
Fascinating stuff...this exchange and trade system.
Today we call it economics.

I mean, I knew some things, like potatoes were not from Ireland; that they were from the America's....but the sheer magnitude of foods we continue to think of as an inherent part of a country (tomatoes and Italy? Come on!) has all been a lie! (j/k)

Go. Read about the exchange. Not because you must, but because knowledge is good.

Just a Bit of Fun

Because what's life without a little whimsy, right?

Last year I painted a few wine glasses for a gift and was so pleased with the result, I decided to make a few of my own.

I'm not really a painter. But I am a bit crafty in the arts kind of way. I have so many art supplies I'm thinking of giving them away. Why give them away? Because I have a horrible habit of trying something to see if I can do it, to enjoy doing it, to pass the time, whatever, and then not having the time to go back and continue doing it.

One year, I spent months painting a plaster christmas village. Dry-brushing is easy-peasy and doesn't take a lot of time in and of itself.  But once I did that village, I sort of lost interest in painting little houses.
But I at least still have the paint. Or most of it. A lot of it has dried.

Although over several occasions when my stepson would come over, he and I would take time and paint glass ornaments. We decided to focus on a different color each year. One year we did blue, we've done red, silver, etc.

So, back to the wine glasses....