a “teaser” and a “wazzat?”

First the “teaser”.

The Austin Food Blogger Alliance is in the midst of our second annual “Austin to Boston Food Swap”. I missed this last year somehow, but this year I jumped on the chance!

Those of us who chose to play were paired with a food blogger from up north, tasked with spending no more than $30 on “local goodies” (by local I mean Texas, so…) and given free reign otherwise.

My goods and goodies are about ready to ship. I will, of course, tell all in another few weeks when I’m sure the package has been received, but for now all you get is:

anybody’s guess… mmmmm!

I just have one more thing to pick up that won’t be available until Thursday morning, and that’s all I’m saying. Well, almost all… I surely do wish I could have sent some local cheeses! The refrigeration thing was just too much for me, though.

And, I wish I could have sent local beer but the post office seems to have all sorts of rules that make it, well, less than a good idea. So…

I’m awfully curious about what my new friend Ken from Eating & is sending me, but that’s his secret (for the moment). We’ve been swapping email, and yesterday he sent “I’m wrapping up: almost done. I’m very happy with your box. I hope you will be too. taunt, taunt, taunt.” What a tease and teaser!

Trust me, I’ll let you know what all I reap as well as what I’ve sown!

Now, about that “wazzat”.

A friend was thrift store shopping for kitchen goodies and picked up one of those “bargain bags” that had something she needed in it. It also had this:

your thoughts? please??!

Its a nifty thing, and I do think it has some “kitcheny” use, but I have no idea what. It doesn’t look like any sort of lemon or lime squeezer that I’ve ever seen, and there are no markings on it anywhere that state “made in…” so that’s no help.

I don’t think it is a nutcracker. What do you think it might be?

Here’s a detail of the inside. It seems to be supposed to grip something.

does this help?

It doesn’t seem to be missing any parts, and it doesn’t seem to be broken. Beyond that I honestly don’t know!

If you’ve ever seen one please let us know what it is and what it is called, OK? Whatever it is, she gave it to me so it’s mine now!

Other than that it has been a pretty quiet week around here.

Great weather this weekend – nippy! I put in most of my fall herbs (including lime thyme – mmmmm!) and they seem quite happy in the large (but not totally unwieldy) pots by my side door. They’ll get filtered sun and a little full sun each day, and if I need to haul them in (should we actually have, oh, winter this winter or something) I can. Pictures in a week or so…! I must say, no matter how long I live in Austin I will never quite get used to planting in October!

Enjoy the fall (whatever that means where you live), and please, if you have any idea what my new toy is, let us know!

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