August 11, 2009

Alternating Creativities




The Botanical Building in Balboa Park is a true lath house.


Himself: Got newer job hunting books from the library, and bought one on line. Heard nothing from the stove folks. Heard from the COBRA folks through email.

Herself: Scheduled mammogram at last. Worked on a poem and an essay about cooking. Got a chance to chat with neighbor Jean9 yesterday. Hospice has been called in. Sons and daughters are here. Gosh her voice sounds strong.

Reading: A Juvenile with a happy ending. I’ll pass it on to Lessa.

Balance: Beautiful, cool weather with glorious sunshine.

I can still draw, some days. On other days the ink scratches in my sketchbook look like something the cat brought in. As a corollary, I’ve discovered that some days I can still cook. Really cook.

Yesterday, I whipped chicken parts into a stock base while I was whacking apart that failure of a zucchini casserole. I masterfully whipped up three eggs, tossed them in the macerated zucchini, and put the chicken on to simmer.

Very professionally. I used to cook for a living; did I mention that?

I grated a bit of cheddar while the zucchini frittatas cooked, and whipped together a milder version of the soup….thinning it with a little V8 while throwing a salad together. It was just like drawing on a good day.

G went down to take the laundry out of the dryer.

I’d carefully gone through every piece of laundry, especially the new white shirts, after my laundry failures of the day before. I’d removed a mountain of cardboard, pins, tissue, and plastic bits, strips, clips, and orts. When I took the whites out of the washer, I discovered a tiny bit of washed cardboard. Again I went through everything very carefully before putting everything in the dryer.

“Did you know that the sleeves on one shirt were still pinned in back,” he reported with an angry look on his face. “And the sleeves were still lined with cardboard?”

I hadn’t known. Perhaps I went through only one of the two shirts. He laughed, “Those shirts were really made wrinkle free. The minute I took the pin out and shook the shirt, all the wrinkles vanished.”

I can also report that dinner was really good.

5 comments:

  1. I just wrote a comment but it disappeared, if by any chance it is repeated, please erase one. I wrote that you had a very good day. Your cooking sounded delicious, it made me so hungry, I love vegetable frittatas. You were like a captain of a well run ship. One friend once told me "when you can move through a house blindfolded it belongs to you". That's you!

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  2. Sounds like today is a better day. Things coming together properly. I have been thinking about Duck lately.

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  3. I wish I could cook like that - on any day, good or bad! I can follow a recipe, and I did used to love to...but never have I been able to "whip something up." I admire your energy and your ability. And now I am hungry, so off to the recipe books.

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  4. Aha! You see, Maggie? Now it's your turn to make me hungry. And thanks for the chuckle about the misadventures with the laundry. Because that's the kind of thing I do, don'cha know? Well -- we're all in this together.

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  5. How life goes... ups and downs, and there's always a bright spot to offset the trials and tribs. Yummmm! Sure sounds like a delicious dinner!
    Hugs from Corea, ~ Sil

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