The past few months are rather cloudy in my mind. Pain, followed by narcotics, followed by surgery, followed by pain, followed by....you get the picture. Although each round of narcotics was brief (one to three days), it left me feeling pretty weird. Take stuff like that and you could turn into a nut case; think of Rush Limbaugh who was hooked on the same drug I was taking.
I didn't feel like myself and probably offended several people by my inappropriate and immodest behavior. Sorry about that.
Finally, though, I feel like myself again. I've been desperate to cook, to bake, to try something new. A day or two ago I ventured into the kitchen again as more than a spectator and advisor. I made biscuits! I made banana nut bread with black walnuts! I cooked up a pot of chicken tortilla soup that tasted marvelous topped with sour cream, avocado and cilantro!
Today I made, for the first time in my life, caramel egg custard. Here it is, cooling in its pan of water. You can't see the caramel, which is on the bottom of each cup, but a little has seeped up in one of those on the right.
After trying to caramelize sugar in a pan on the stove, I gave up. It never even melted. On the good old web I looked for a microwave method and voila!, there it was. Three minutes later the caramelized sugar went into the cups, followed by the custard mixture. Kudos to our "girls," the hens, who produce the orangey-yellow yolks that give the custard its rich color.
I'm back at home in the kitchen, standing at the range, cooking up some grub. Oh, joy!
Downloading the custard photo I found some outdoor shots I must have taken during a recent brief moment of sanity. The first is something I first saw from the living room window. From a distance it might have been a snake or a piece of garden hose. But when I went outside I found it was just a small dead branch from a walnut tree, which had self-pruned during a recent blow.
It broke off one of these walnut trees, probably the center one.
I took this picture facing east. Notice the pale pink at horizon's edge; that is characteristic of our winter sunsets. The east is a pale reflection of the fiery pink western light in the late afternoon.
It's good to be "Home on The Range" again. That's our state song, you know.
I didn't feel like myself and probably offended several people by my inappropriate and immodest behavior. Sorry about that.
Finally, though, I feel like myself again. I've been desperate to cook, to bake, to try something new. A day or two ago I ventured into the kitchen again as more than a spectator and advisor. I made biscuits! I made banana nut bread with black walnuts! I cooked up a pot of chicken tortilla soup that tasted marvelous topped with sour cream, avocado and cilantro!
Today I made, for the first time in my life, caramel egg custard. Here it is, cooling in its pan of water. You can't see the caramel, which is on the bottom of each cup, but a little has seeped up in one of those on the right.
After trying to caramelize sugar in a pan on the stove, I gave up. It never even melted. On the good old web I looked for a microwave method and voila!, there it was. Three minutes later the caramelized sugar went into the cups, followed by the custard mixture. Kudos to our "girls," the hens, who produce the orangey-yellow yolks that give the custard its rich color.
I'm back at home in the kitchen, standing at the range, cooking up some grub. Oh, joy!
Downloading the custard photo I found some outdoor shots I must have taken during a recent brief moment of sanity. The first is something I first saw from the living room window. From a distance it might have been a snake or a piece of garden hose. But when I went outside I found it was just a small dead branch from a walnut tree, which had self-pruned during a recent blow.
It broke off one of these walnut trees, probably the center one.
I took this picture facing east. Notice the pale pink at horizon's edge; that is characteristic of our winter sunsets. The east is a pale reflection of the fiery pink western light in the late afternoon.
It's good to be "Home on The Range" again. That's our state song, you know.
2 comments:
As an afterthought, how does one safely dispose of narcotics? Not down the drain because that would contaminate the water supply, maybe make the populace crazier than ever.
I opted for the land fill. I sure hope those pills don't make the rats insane. Oh, I forgot, they bury everything right away now. Probably no rats.
Everything is different now. Fifty years ago, driving to Starlight Theater on a summer night, I saw the city dump burning. It looked like hell to me.
Now that last image sounded like it was narcotic-induced! Burning hell in good ol' K.C.! Reminds me of barbeque, which I'm constantly hunkering for!
Love that you are B-A-C-K in the land of energy. I don't know of anything you did to remind me of Rush Limbaugh, for heaven's sakes!
Wish we could be sitting down together to enjoy those beautiful custard cups. I remember eating your homemade custard and tapioca when I was little! I bet a lot of people don't even know what homemade tastes like!
Love you!
Great Post! I needed to read something upbeat today!
Nanjo
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