The container of ground coriander arrived this morning. That was the moment when I realized there was no more room for anything in the kitchen. There was barely room for me. When there are two of us in there, maneuvering gets tricky — and all three of us is one human over the line, especially when the Duke has joined us in his permanent hunt for something to eat. He is beginning to look less bulky. It’s slow. No starvation diet in this house. Duke would go insane. As it is, getting what is essentially exactly what he should be getting, he acts like he can barely stand on his legs from the starvation. No matter what he says, he IS getting enough food. Meanwhile, he follows us around hoping we’ll drop something edible. Or leave some form of food unguarded for a moment. He’s fast. He can scarf down an entire sandwich in about 2 seconds. I don’t think he actually chews the food. He just grabs it and swallows it whole. What a good boy!
We are still wallowing in the “relief zone.” President Deplorable is gone — at least as president. He’ll be back for his impeachment and unless his diet of McDonald’s burgers finally gets him, he will probably hang around longer than we’d like. At least we can turn on the TV these days and not see his leering face or hear that ugly honking voice. Our problems have not gone away. On a lot of levels, they are just beginning to surface.
I’m hoping that we’ve all learned something from this four year horror show, but I have a sinking feeling we haven’t learned anything. Back we will go to factional fighting. Cross party mini-wars, intra-party battles for power. I don’t know who the winners will be, but I’m sure we (“regular” people) will be losers.
The decorative corner
Since my early attempts at authentic Indian cooking have been a dismal failure, I ordered mace and coriander. Maybe if I use the right spices, it will make a huge difference in the taste. If it still doesn’t taste great, I will have to admit I’m not terribly fond of Indian food. I like curry, the dish that isn’t really a dish, but overall? Meh. Still, there’s an entire world of potential cuisine awaiting me. Tonight I’m going to do something simple. I’ve been spending too many hours in the kitchen. Cooking doesn’t take very long, but preparation — mixing, chopping, dicing, pre-cooking one part while the rest awaits me — often takes two or three hours on my feet. My feet don’t care, but my spine doesn’t like it.
If all else fails, I can go back to basic, boring “Blackstone Valley Bland.” I don’t think anyone who hasn’t grown up in the Valley would voluntarily eat this food. It is bland to the point of tasteless. Garlic powder is a fancy spice. Even salt is spicy. I’m not sure anyone uses pepper.
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Categories: Cooking, Food, Government, Photography, Recipes
Serendipity Seeking Intelligent Life on Earth 
Blackstone Valley Bland hmmm? I think we get that here too. Personally I call that plain cooking (or homestyle). Although I will admit there’s a bit more ‘spice’ to my dishes than garlic powder. Hubby liked meat and potatoes type of food and I’m good at that. These days I cook to please myself alone, so if someone’s whining about it, well it’s my own fault I suppose! ☺
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I’ve eaten all over the world and I have to say that the food here is the worst I’ve EVER eaten — and that covers a lot of territory. There used to be a few decent restaurants, but they closed long before COVID. At this point, our best restaurant is a local bar that serves decent burgers. Pretty pathetic. I’m sure people cook better in the privacy of their own kitchens, but even the cookbooks from the area are beyond bland.
Meanwhile, supposedly we can get vaccines. That would be if someone would answer the phone, of course.
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Indian food is incredibly complex in its seasonings – I’ve read the recipes and when you start with having to use several seasonings (spices) to make another seasoning – well they lost me. Even ordering a meal in an Indian restaurant is complicated (to me anyway) – you need something cool to offset the hot – but the few times I’ve eaten it I liked it very much. I have reached the point in my life where I hate to cook so I prepare only the most basic of meals.
We actually received a DT stimulus check yesterday – it goes into a pile of checks (who the hell sends paper checks any more – the gov’t and our insurance company, that’s who) that we can’t deposit for so many complicated reasons – bank in another state, no local branches etc. I suppose I could mail them to the bank but I don’t trust the post office – what a world!
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I had reached that stage of cooking, too, but being locked in the house all these months sort of forced the issue. If I wanted anything edible, I was going to have to cook it. I do a pretty decent Chinese — learned that long ago (like 50 years when I was first married). Not half bad at Caribbean (my mother-in-law was very good at it and she taught me a few things), but Caribbean is VERY hot and our stomachs are not as enthusiastic about jerk seasoning as they were a few dozen years back. So, I figured I’d try Indian. Bought the spices — and you are right — there are a LOT of them. Not all the dishes are hot, either. Many are just complicated and all of them seem to need yogurt, which is okay, but I don’t usually stock plain yogurt.
So far, though, i just don’t like it very much. That’s why I finally got the three spices I was missing: coriander, mace, and hot red pepper. I also discovered that a lot of these dishes are supposed to be grilled over coal — and it’s the middle of the winter here AND we don’t have a grill anymore. It died a few years ago after 18 years of use.
I’m going to try it a couple of more times and see if I can get the hang of it. If not, I think I’ll try Thai or Vietnamese. I know Japanese is beyond me. Can’t roll sushi. Can’t roll a joint, either. I have a rolling disfunction.
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I’m in awe that you do Chinese and Caribbean…I just cooked what I grew up with – peasant Italian. I had to learn some basic Anglo foods for my Boston-Irish husband but even then I had to jazz them up Italian style. My macaroni and cheese bears very little resemblance to American mac and cheese (mine includes besides the usual cheddar, smoked gouda, romano, garlic, white wine, hot sauce LOL)
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I love Chinese food and one day I decided that if half a billion Chinese housewives could cook it, so could I. I don’t do it as neatly as they do in the restaurants, but I think mine tastes better. I just bought a good cookbook and followed the recipes. They aren’t difficult. In Chinese cooking, most of the preparation is before you cook. Lots of slicing and chopping — but cooking it is fast. As for Caribbean, my mother-in-law — Garry’s mom — was a pretty good cook.
Really, if you have the right spices, you can cook almost anything, assuming you have the right kind of pots/pans/heating elements, et al. It’s easier than you think.
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And there you go…all the slicing and dicing and all the proper spices and odd ingredients? Nope not me…I hate to cook and anything that takes more than 1/2 an hour start to finish is not happening. Good thing I am not overly fond of eating anymore…eating and cooking is just too much bother.
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I hate to cook too, but I like to eat and no one else is going to cook if I don’t. So, I cook. Garry NEVER EVER cooks and probably never will. I get really bored with food, so I cook. It’s not what I want to do and if someone would do it for me, I’d be extremely happy!
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Can’t you deposit them via cell phone? Even our smallest banks allow it these days.
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Ah, there’s the rub our main bank is a federal credit union, treasury in fact and the only online service they have is bill pay. I have an account in my name only with a commercial bank and they won’t let you deposit third party checks via the app (the checks are made out in my husband’s name).
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