Curryoser and Curryoser
I'm making
Curry From Scratch for Cath, Terry, Eileen and Ky tomorrow. I haven't
decided what the world's best curry sauce will wrap itself around, but the nice
thing is that I don't have to know right now. After the basic curry sauce
is made, you can split it into separate pots and make each one different:
shrimp, chicken, lamb, even cauliflower. I have to check to make sure I
still have fenugreek in that big 2 quart ziplock bag that holds the curry powder
ingredients, but it would be nice to make a run down to Whole Foods to stock up
anyway − or even make a run to
Penzey's over
in Arvada. Cath has a whole shelf of Penzey's spices that I lust over
every time I'm there and Penzey's spices always come out on top in Cook's
Illustrated writeups. They're not really much more expensive than
supermarket spices, too. For example, an entire half-pound bag of
fenugreek is only $5.69. Anyway, I had always thought they must be in SF
or NYC, but it turns out they're in (gasp) Wisconsin, not exactly what you think
of as the spice capital of the country. But, I digress. I love
making curry because I can get everything ready and then sit down with my
guests. Also, it's so much fun passing around the condiments and trying
out different chutneys. Cath is bringing the beer, bless her heart.
Now, if Der and Sweet Junie could only be here. Junie knocked the last
poetry party dead with her idea of following curry with a dish of mixed sorbets,
all melon-balled into a cannonball stack, with some fresh mint leaves and those
delicious French cookies with the little boy on them.
NPR cracked me up today with something silly. Two commentators were
singing the praises of the Moray eel: "When an eel bites your thigh as you
go swimming by, it's a Moray!" I know, I need to get out more.
You know the old joke? An old man prays every night for years, "Dear God,
all I want to do is win the lottery". After 15 years of this nightly plea,
God answers him: "Larry, meet me halfway. Buy a ticket". I've
decided that if my Christmas and birthday gift presents are sometimes different
than what I'd actually like, I should do something about it. Since much of
my family is finally trained to check in at Whimsyland occasionally, what
a great place to put the Wish List! I can even cross off gifts that I
receive and give glowing attribution to the wonderful donor, enhancing
everyone's experience. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you
Whimsy's Wish List.
OK, let's take a poll. We've all been good eco-friendly protectors of the
planet and replaced all of our incandescent bulbs with CF (compact fluorescent),
right? I've even hunted down spotlight and other odd varieties, ending up
with a 90% replacement rate in my house, which totals up to probably 30 bulbs
(counting the work office downstairs). These babies are supposed to last 5
to 10 years, right? Guess what? So far at least 20% of them haven't
lasted 6 months. Three of the offenders are outside, where temperature
changes could be a factor but another half-dozen are all over the house.
So what's up with that?
See you tomorrow, most likely. Consider that the equivalent of what the
Dread Pirate Robert says to Westley: "Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the morning. ...
"