Feeling The Pressure - So What If It Took A Decade

 How is it that you have a tool that has been sitting on your kitchen shelf for at least a decade before you finally decide that it might be useful. AND THEN, find not only is it useful, BUT IT DAMN NEAR CAN TRANSFORM YOUR COOKING LIFE!

What's bringing forth such passion?

My Pressure Cooker.

Not the new fangled Instant Pot. No my traditional, on the stove pressure cooker. 

They say that necessity is the mother of invention. Necessity in this case is a lack of time. Theodora Africa Phase II has been launched (more on that in a future post) and there is a host of work to be done to realize the expansion. As a result less time to cook. YET, it is the time of year for long, slow cooked braises. And I have a freezer filled with pork shoulder, boneless lamb leg, beef chuck roast all begging to be slow cooked. But where is the time to do this?

So a month ago, I said, "Damn de-I, you've had this freaking pressure cooker you barely use for over a decade. Give it a try."

My first go was a pork shoulder pot roast. A challenge cooking here at altitude is getting meats like these tender because of the lower boiling temperature of water (causing all liquid based cooking to take longer). In the case of braises, a lot longer. Often, I would use a two-day process of cooking to get the desired tenderness and depth of flavor. Well I popped in my pork should with a bunch of flavorings and after 2 hours, it was this incredibly fork tender, taste imbued meat.

A couple of weeks later, I decided I wanted to make a lamb curry. Instead of a laborious, hand pounded curry paste, I put all my roots, leaves and stalks (galangal, ginger, garlic, onion, tumeric, cilantro, kefir lime leaf) along with my dried spices into the blender with some stock. I blended it into liquid (like is done with Ghana cooking). Put that and the lamb chunks in the pressure cooker. An hour and a half later, incredible lamb curry.

Today it was beef pot roast. On Friday, I had defrosted the chuck roast and covered it in dried flavorings (salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, sage, rosemary). I let it sit refrigerated overnight. On Saturday, I whipped out the pressure cooker, browned the meat on both sides, put a can of beef broth in, fired out the pressure cooker, an hour and a half later, turned it off. Let it rest until the pressure was down. When opened the meat was fall apart tender.

Now I am of the tribe the finds all braises are better the next day. So in the fridge it goes almost ready for Sunday dinner. An advantage to this is all the fat congeals and you can scoop it off so easy. I parboiled potatoes and carrots for 15 minutes. Reheated the roast and juices in the microwave for 7 minutes. Added said potatoes and carrots to the roast and put in a 350 oven for 20 minutes. Pot roast perfection for Sunday dinner (he says with extreme modesty). 

Easy Come, Easy Go

 Travel in the time of Covid adds a degree of stress to an already stressful process.

• Get your Covid test before you fly in the proscribed time - usually very short
• Fill out the country specific disclosure documents for travel 
• Upload your test results and forms to the airline
• Curse mightily as you realize your upload was not successful and you can't check-in
• Re-upload your documents and finally succeed in checking in
• Now get back to your packing which as always you've delayed and are now rushing through
• Reserve your Uber to get you to the airport tomorrow
• Collapse into an exhausted sleep
• Wake up to 19 texts on your WhatsApp account telling you that 3 out of 4 members of the #3 household have tested positive for Covid!
• Get on line with the airline and see if there is any way to change your flight for a week later. Sure there is. If you want to pay $10k more! 
• Realize that this trip isn't going to happen. Cancel the flight
• Mourn

Welcome to travel in the age of Covid.

BANZAI! The Full On Travel Offensive Begins!

 I want you to build in your mind the image of a terrifying invasion force. Populated by an old couple. That's it. Just one terrifying invasion force consisting of one old couple. That's Wife and I and our determination to TRAVEL DAMN IT! Pandemic be damned. We're vaccinated and boosted. We are not interested in eking out more years of bored, deteriorating life. We are going to reclaim our heritage as elder travelers. This year I have already been to Ghana once. Here is what is on tap the rest of the year.

• We leave tomorrow for a quick see the #3's trip to Amsterdam. We leave on a Wednesday and return the following Wednesday.

• Two weeks later, I head back to Ghana for two and half weeks. 

• A ten day rest and in early April Wife and I are quickly visiting friends and family in the SF Bay area.

• Nine days to recover before the two of us head out to Portugal for five weeks of the travel we love best.

• A week to recover before I go to Houston, TX for the Rotary International Convention for four days the beginning of June.

• Another week to recover, and we take two of our grandchildren (1.1 and 1.2) to New York City for four days of cosmic, big city experience.

• Then, would you believe it, I am home for three weeks before I head back to Ghana!

• This is followed by staying in Albuquerque for the entire month of August (where did I screw up?).
  

• But as soon as September hits, we leave and return to our beloved apartment in Cefalú , Sicily where we are going to stay for two whole months, our first experiment to see if we can be content actually living in another place without running around like maniacs.
  

• In November, I will be back in Ghana while in December we will do another quick trip to the SF Bay area.

• I have my eyes on going somewhere in SE Asia or Sri Lanka the first quarter of 2023.

 I am so pumped. I have no idea what others my age are thinking or how they are planning their lives going forward. And truthfully, I really don't care. I know what gives me fulfillment and I am going to grab as much as I can of it for as long as I can. To paraphrase James Dean...

Live Fast, Die Not As Old As You Might!

Transition 3.0 Update 2022

 It was almost exactly a year ago when I announced and wrote about what I call Transition 3.0. So what has happened over the last year? Has the transition played out as anticipated? Has it disappointed? Is there a Transition 4.0 on the horizon.

I can happily report that Transition 3.0 has turned out as good as I would have hoped. No, that's not correct. It has turned out way better than I would have hoped. 

As a loyal reader, you are well aware that the Theodora Project has continued to develop and grow. So that aspect of the transition plan continues to provide stimulation and satisfaction. You will also be aware that we're back on the travel bandwagon. The trip to Sicily in the fall revived all our sidelined travel lust. We have two big trips booked for this coming year and are joyously looking forward to them. But there are two other elements that have been added to the mix. The Rotary Club to End Human Trafficking (RCEHT) and Lunchclub, a virtual networking organization.

RCEHT is very unusual in the Rotary world as it is a cause-based, virtual club. The vast majority of Rotary clubs are associated with a geography. They clubs of local people who band together to do good things, network and enjoy fellowship. But this club exists for a specific purpose. It wishes to be international in scope. And as a virtual club it has members all over the country and the world. It also has members from virtually every age segment from very dynamic people in their 20's to older folks like myself. Originally, I joined because I thought it would be a good vehicle to promote Theodora within Rotary. But what has happened is I have been drawn into the bigger mission. I find the leadership to be really wonderful people with a great vision and an openness to different ways of thinking. As a result, I have some of young participants from Theodora in the club and in significant positions. And I have been drawn into a leadership position where I am getting a chance to create a potentially dynamic project from the ground up.

Lunchclub has allowed me to recreate my network all over again. The prior network I had developed over the decades no longer served my new purpose. It had gotten stale and unrewarding. But this virtual, AI driven Lunchclub platform has allowed me to meet a wide variety of people around the world that are in tune with my new life's direction. I am using all the networking and connecting skills developed over decades and building new and stimulating relationships.

So here I sit in my mid-70's pursuing projects that are inspiring and exciting. Meeting people from all over the globe. Learning and growing. Extending my network of contacts and enjoyable acquaintances with people across generations. It is true that I am putting in a lot of effort. But with such a wonderful reward of stimulation and engagement.

I've had a lot of people say to me, "You certainly seemed to have failed at retiring." If by that they mean, I have failed at sitting around reminiscing about my past, I would have to agree. But then again, I never sought out retirement. I sought transition to a new life that was different than the work-a-day life of most of one's adult years. I sought new meaning, growth and transformation. In that I have succeeded in spades.

Losing Is Winning

 My long-time friend and lover of football (REAL FOOTBALL not that American run around with the ball in your hands version), the Count, have a long tradition of betting on the results of certain games. This started innocuously enough as he is a passionate supporter of the English Premier League team Chelsea, and I am a passionate supporter of no one. But for some reason we decided that I would root for a recently promoted minnow team (I can't even remember their name!) that clearly was going to go nowhere. We jokingly bet a meal on a game where my team was visiting Chelsea where no minnow would be expected to win. But no! They did win. Next year, I jokingly up the ante with a double or nothing offer. Damn my team won again. This improbable run continued through a third year with the Count now in debt to having to visit Ghana! (More on this in a future post).

We then zeroed things out and started over. Our next bet ended up with me losing and the price was I had to go to lunch at a fast food place called Arby's to mock my usual culinary focus. Yesterday was pay up day.

I approach feeling a little like Christians being fed to the lions in the Colosseum

Gad, how many freaking options are there. One of the Counts people say I should try the Fish Sandwich. I hate Fish Sandwiches. No way.

The Count orders the improbable Gyro with Lamb. Who serves lamb in a U.S. fast food place? Evidently Arby's does. I really like lamb. I am going to give it a try too.

Damn! It's really good. Real meat. Not the reconstituted meat paste that you get at so many Greek places here in Albuquerque (including some higher end ones!)

I can see this being something I will be going back for. Who would have believed?

Reunion

 

 My luggage and I were reunited today. While I had made adjustments to get myself home at a reasonable hour after the days of traveling, I had, unfortunately, lost my bags in the process. Thankfully they were found languishing in Amsterdam, were put on flights that got them back to me today. 

It was a happy reunion. They had missed me and I certainly missed them. They were so happy to be back but let me know in no uncertain terms that I was not to do this again, change my itinerary in mid-travel. I promised.

 

The Laugh Of Vengence

I spoke way too soon about MUPGT having simply gone through the motions of interrupting my travel. For, in the event, getting home incurred yet a number of new major delays, and rebooking. Instead of going to New York, I was routed through Amsterdam. My next flight was going to be five-hours late causing me to miss my connection. I changed flights again now going through Atlanta. Actually, I have been pretty proud of myself, that my knowledge of how to communicate with and work the airline reservations systems during times of crisis had come back to me easily.

Finally, at the end of Monday, almost the start of Tuesday, I got home a full 54 hours from when I should have started my return trip. Unfortunately, all the changes I made caused my bags to do their own layover in Amsterdam. It is a day after I have arrived and the bags are still making their way to me. 

But the important thing is I did get back safe and sound.