Many of you long time readers of these missives may remember that moment in Bahrain when I found myself using an electric toothbrush to clean a coffee filter. At that point I had thought I had hit rock bottom on the ‘nothing else to do, nothing else to worry about’ scale. I was wrong! This morning I was wide awake at five am, lying next to the most beautiful woman in the world, warm and cozy and yet my thoughts were not about Cindy, they were about sheets. I just lay there wondering how that little washing machine had been able to completely wash and rinse the two flannel sheets and two pillowcase load that I did yesterday. I kept thinking that there is no way it could have really done a good job and that there most likely was detergent residue on the very sheets we were sleeping on. I waited for Cindy to wake up, made her breakfast and kissed her out the door and then went into action.
My thought was this: If I rewash the top sheet all by itself, without using detergent, I’ll be able to see if there was still detergent in the sheet. I stripped the bed, ran to the washing machine with the top sheet and set it to wash without adding detergent. Sure enough, not five minutes into the cycle, there was detergent foam forming around the little window. (An Aside: a week ago Cindy’s mom got a new compact, front loading washer/dryer for her home. She told us she just sat there and watched the first load go though the cycles. When Cindy asked her if that was boring, she said it was more interesting that most of what is on TV. I now understand!) I was really shocked at how much detergent was still left in the sheet but by the final rinse everything was gone and in it went to the dryer while I started another load with the fitted sheet and pillowcases. Same thing happened with them, so it appears I did have something to be concerned about and from now on I’ll wash them in two loads. Perhaps this is why I’m not winning any Nobel Prizes, my energy and creative thought go into housework instead of solving the mysteries of science, economics or peace.
I used all the rest of the turkey last night by making Curried Turkey Pasta. In a wok I cooked some chopped onions, garlic and carrots until they were tender and just browning. I then added the cubed turkey and made sure everything was blended nicely before adding a mixture of a quarter cup of water, quarter cup of white wine, two tablespoons of spicy curry, a tablespoon of turmeric, a one inch piece of fresh chopped ginger, chili seeds, pepper and salt. Once all of the was well heated I added the remainder of the turkey gravy, about a half cup and turned off the heat to let everything sit for an hour or two.
Just before preparing the salad, I placed some salted water on to boil for the pasta and added a quarter cup of yogurt and a quarter cup of sour cream to the turkey curry, stirred it up and placed in on a low heat. I still had some of the beet, cabbage, tomato, and garlic salad from the night before so I placed two grilled pieces of baguette on the salad plates and topped them with the salad mix and sprinkled tarragon on that. By the time we were done with the salad the water was boiling and I added the pasta while stirring the curry mix. I place a large handful of arugula on the pasta plates, placed the hot pasta on top, and topped that with the turkey curry. I added some Parmesan and topped it all off with pomegranate seeds and brought it to the table. Cindy has returned my star!
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| Beet,Cabbage, Tomato, Garlic Bread Salad |
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| Curried Turkey Pasta |
When Cindy set off for work this morning it was a chilly MINUS 12 degrees F, which is minus 25C. By the time I was up and out it had warmed up to MINUS 7 degrees F. It was sunny today and that fooled me a little bit but once outside it was no joke. I only planned on walking to the store to get some fruit and veggies and I wanted to take the long way to get some exercising in, however once outside, I took the shortcut. Coming home was a real pain since I had two very heavy bags but my gloves are so thick that I can’t get my hand in the handles so I have to carry everything with three fingers in the handle, which is certainly not ergonomically appropriate. As I was walking the wind picked up and blew the scarf off my nose and face so I had to put the bags down and rewrap and then get moving again. This happened four times on the rather short walk and by the time I got home I was miserable. I thawed out and immediately ordered thermal underwear, a decent balaclava and some protective eyeglasses. If you want to see what I look like when I go out, here is a cool little piece from the BBC. Click on the little video, it really is just like that here. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11875131
The temperature in the house, depending upon how far you are from a window, goes from 53 to 63 degrees. My desk is next to a window so it is about 55 here, which with proper clothing isn’t that bad. Cindy has rehearsal for her quartet that will play this Sunday at the AAS Gala Holiday Party, so this goes without benefit of her editing. Best wishes for December, Cindy and Wm.
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