Saturday, May 26, 2007

Long, Languid Weekend - One

One of my goals to myself this year is to return some balance into my life. So I'm taking advantage of the three day weekend to get some relaxation into the mix. This is not the easiest thing for me to do since I've gotten myself into a habit of being ober-committed to my business.

They imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And I've found that Pulisha's new format with various headings for subject matter is quite engaging. So I've decided to borrow her format. (Actually I believe in literary circles they actually call this form of flattery plagiarism.)

Global Warming?
I went hiking on the South Crest Trail today, a trail I've written about before. We're having an incredibly wet spring. The newspaper said it was weird. For you folks in areas that are not deserts, this means we've had almost 3 inches of rain in April and May to date. This compares to the less than 1 inch which would be normal. It did make for a really nice hike as it was cool when I started and the trail was a bit softer.

Kids on the Trail
On the majority of the hike I didn't see too many people which is the way I like it. As I get an early start I don't usually run into too many people until I'm well on my way down. Today their were an inordinate number of people with their kids. There was one family with three in tow. The one in front, a young girl around 7 looked anything but happy. Then their was a boy about 5 or 6 that had successfully caught a baby horned toad lizard. He was doing a very good job of being gentle and letting it go. Finally I ran into a Mom with her 6 to 7 month old in this really cool backpack carrier. And she was well up the trail after one of the major climbs. This girl was in great shape. And the little one looked it (he/she?) was having a ball.

Cicadas ? Bah Bicyclists!
Chicago may be having its 17 year cicada infestation but every weekend we get our cyclist infestation (and I say this fully knowing that I am at risk of retaliation from my cycling daughters). They are all over the place and at certain intersections it seems they're coming from multiple directions. Needless to say when I'm driving, tired after hiking, keeping track of all these multi-colored bikers (they all look like they're riding in the Tour de Drugs, I mean France) taxes my fatigued brain.

Indian Cooking Breakthrough
I've had problems over the years getting the dishes I make with Indian inspiration to taste different. They don't taste bad. They just all taste the same and their has always been a certain something missing. I discovered one missing element a little while ago, fenugreek seed. I found another today when I toasted the spices (using whole seeds for the most part) I was using prior to cooking with them. The results were a dramatic improvement! Chalk one up for the Pewter Chef.

2 comments:

alexis said...

I totally recommend for indian following recipes rather than ad-libbing. It's really the only way to get a feel for the different flavor combinations at first.

I can't really comment on the biking thing - it's so totally different here I really worry more about getting hit by another bike or hitting a pedestrian more than I do getting hit by cars!

Glad to hear you're relaxing!!

Pulisha said...

I agree with AinA. I spent years trying to reproduce this korma I had at my favorite Indian restaurant in Monterrey, and I could never get it quite right. I finally came pretty close after learning that I would have to make my own cashew paste combined with homemade ghee (store bought just didn't give it the same flavor). That is just too much work for me with all these darn kids underfoot! So I've pretty much resigned myself to trying not to duplicate anything I find in a restaurant and just sticking to cooking directly from an unknown recipe so I'm not disappointed with the results!