I Cook Therefore I Am

 For whatever reason, I am taking the current lock down and COVID surge much better than the first one in the spring. Maybe it is because this one is so much worse. Now I have a number of people I know personally who have become sick. Maybe it is because in some ways it was so obviously going to happen. Maybe it is because I know the drill now whereas before I was in denial and wondering why we had to do things the way we did. 

But a big part of it is that I simply have more time and can be more relaxed. When the first shock of the pandemic lock downs took place, I was just at the launch point of the Theodora Project. For months, I was scrambling to save it, relaunch it as a totally virtual learning environment, forcing it to bootstrap income because donor funding had dried up. 

Fast forward nine months and the project is stable, has WAY more support in terms of both financial and people working on it. While there are significant aspects of the model that need to be tested in 2021, I and the others working with me can see a clear way forward and a great potential. 

As a result as we went into the holiday season, I focused on chilling and for me that means cooking. I missed the whole first lock down wave of cooking mania so maybe I was just catching up. So without further ado here is what I've been cooking up

Paella

Most of our ingredients

Clockwise from top, shrimp and scallops marinating in olive oil, garlic, sherry wine and pimenton (smoked paprika), special Spanish short-grain rice, chorizo sausage and jamon serrano, aromatics (shallots, onions garlic & pimentos)

You will also need some strong chicken broth with saffron and a well used paella pan

Saute the cured meat in olive oil

Add the aromatics

Add the rice

Add the stock

Cook until it becomes thick soup consistency. Then add the seafood.

Put in a 325 oven for 20 minutes. Take out and let rest covered for 10 minutes

Forget to take picture of the final product

Put remember to take a picture as you are actually eating it

Deviled Eggs

Forget to take picture of all the ingredients which have come together as a flavor base of shallots, garlic, chorizo sausage, pimentos, sweet and hot pimenton (notice the similarity? I bought a lot of Spanish food products recently)

Using my trusty Thai mortar and pestle work the flavoring into the egg yolks

Add Mayo and continue to work until smooth. Check the seasoning

Not exactly the best filling job but damn tasty

I am working hard to get out of certain cooking ruts by perusing a series of old but excellent cookbooks I inherited from my Mother called the Good Cook published by Time Life back in the 1970's I believe. Each book is about an individual subject such as beef, lamb, eggs, sauces, desserts, etc. I wanted to make a pot roast and thought my methodology had gotten stale so I checked out options in the Beef book. Here is what I ended up doing.

Brown the meat well after seasoning and putting on flour which you beat into the meat with the dull edge of a knife so the flour sticks and you get a good brown crust. This worked well.

My aromatics of choice are parsley, celery, carrots and leeks...A Lot of Them

Add some canned tomatoes. I used beef broth and white wine as the cooking fluid. I cooked this baby for 6 hours at 325 turning the meat every hour and a half or so

Forget to take pictures of the rest of the process which included doing a major flavor adjustment. I found the sauce was too sweet so I added some Thai Fish Sauce which as a salty umami punch and some apple cider vinegar for acidity.

Also don't take pictures of draining the sauce and squeezing all the flavor out of the aromatics, returning the sauce to the pan and finishing the accompanying vegetables (potato, carrot and daikon)

AND FOR GOD'S SAKE FORGET TO TAKE PICTURES OF THE FINISHED PRODUCT!

Need a break from cooking?

All time best Winter Orchid

All Wife's work

The joke is that we got this as a present from SiL 2B and for the longest time Wife thought it was an artificial plant. Now we honor Wife for bringing the artificial plant to life! Let us know if you need any resurrection services.

This And That

 Well there hasn't been a whole lot momentous going on here. I mean in the world there is. It has been three whole days and our beloved outgoing President hasn't been mentioned in the national newscasts even once! As one of my Ghanaian participants would say, "How Cool Is That!"

But little things of life do strike my inner chords.

We made latkes, raw potato pancakes that are traditional for Hanukah. I had leftovers. My fertile culinary mind said, "Hey these are basically hash brown potatoes." So I served on up with some fried eggs and some homemade New Mexico Green Chile for breakfast!

It was time to put up our Christmas tree. It ended up unusually tasteful and balanced. We usually strive for garish and outlandish. 

I did however create this little tableau

Those Star Trekkers will recognize Captain Janeway on her command deck

She is surrounded by Angels and Birds of Peace and holds the dominate position above the Borg Cube.

I had mentioned in an earlier post that we were getting really good leeks and my intention of making classic Eastern European Jewish Chicken Fricassee using leeks instead of onion. 

It turned out Great!

Finally, we've had some small bits of snow. So the trail I do for my exercise has (as usual) started to get snow covered. I have great winter hiking gear including a pair of boots that are good in the cold and have extra traction. 

It snowed on Tuesday. I was shocked when I got toward the end of the hike that the snow was virgin...no one had hiked this far yet! 

Kind of cool

The Return Of Video

 Since 2014, I have essentially not watched any kind of video entertainment. That was the time when I began the great book writing process. The story I was creating held far more interest to me than anything I could watch. Plus, I found that I was becoming very sensitive to sensory overload. Video entertainment in general (at least for me) is way over the top in terms of sensory stimulation. 

Recently, however, I have been enticed to give video another try. Daughter #1 was the stimulus for this. She asked if I had seen a China produced food series from Netflix called Flavorful Origins. She extolled its production values and creativity. I gave my usual protests that I didn't do video and couldn't get it any case. But Wife pointed out that I could use the Netflix account we have on my computer. 

So I gave it a try. It was very interesting. And with having it on my computer I could actually control easily the amount of time I spent. So I am using it as a break between writing in the evening.

Is Illusion Better Than Reality?

 In my last post, I bemoaned the fact that I had not magically lost 10 years of aging...Despite HAVING TWEETED LOUDLY THAT THAT WAS THE TRUTH. I mean because we know that saying something over and over, louder and louder makes it true. Right?

Well maybe it has had some effect.

Wife was talking to a fellow Rotarian today about a project. For some reason the subject of age came up (maybe because it is my birthday...not to late to send presents btw...cash is always good 😀.

This woman, who is 67, thought that Wife and I are IN OUR 50'S!!!!!!

Shit, that's 10 years better than what I was hoping for. Now if I can just get the Grim Reaper to buy into this narrative, I'm golden! 👍