Goodbye leftovers, farewell Thanksgiving

Tags

cauliflower, dinner, food, gratineed spinach, leftovers, postaday2012, saffron

Yesterday, I bid Thanksgiving a fond farewell until next year when I finished the last of the gratin of spinach. It was nice to be done with the leftovers because you do get bored eating the same thing day after day. On the other hand no more leftovers means more cooking, on the upside I had cauliflower in the refrigerator along with button mushrooms so I was at least prepared to cook something for myself this evening.

While walking Jack, I was going through the things that I wanted to do today such as; hauling more firewood, finish the Christmas tree, clean out the refrigerator and light bulb! cook the cauliflower in such a way as to be good and not boring. So I decided to caramelize two onions and four cloves of garlic and then throw in the sliced mushrooms and chopped up cauliflower florets and I seeped a nice pinch of saffron in hot water and added a little bit of chicken stock and put that in with the vegetables, I increased the heat for a few minutes and then put the flame on low and covered the pan so that everything can meld together as it slowly simmered. I figured that all this would take about ten minutes or so,

I figured that I would go in the living room, catch up on Sons of Anarchy and put the finishing touches on the tree. Why can’t I ever remember that I can’t multi-task? It isn’t a question of learning that I can’t multi-task, I know that I can’t do it. I just can’t remember that I can’t do it. I was lucky because, I think it was when I was about to fast forward through commercials that I realized that I had been doing something in the kitchen, then it hit me and I threw the remote control onto the couch and ran into the kitchen. It was a save, just in the nick of time. The vegetables were seriously caramelized but it was salvageable with some more chicken stock to help loosen any sticky bits.

It was good, the vegetables are for me only anyway so it wasn’t as if I had any pressure or anything. My deficient memory is becoming a theme here, but it does give me material to write about every now and again.

An Alternate History

Istanbul – Turkey

My sister and I were backpacking through France, Italy and Greece. We had hooked up with these 3 unbelievably sweet and funny Australian girls, I'll never forget them we hit it off so well; Natalie, Jennifer and Fiona. All five of us were hanging out at the train station in Rome to see the train schedule for the next day and we ran into these 3 guys who knew our Australian girls, they were 3 Canadian musicians; John, Greg and Bill, who were off to Corfu which is where my sister and I were planning to go to the following day. The Canadians and I hit it off immediately so we made plans to find them in the tiny village of Pelakis in Corfu. We did and we had a great time with them for a week exploring Corfu and eating exceptional food at this family held restaurant. At the end of the week John invited my sister and I to go to Istanbul Turkey. We declined, one of the biggest regrets I have. If we had gone, first we would have continued to be serenaded by the three of them, their favorite song to sing to the both of us "The Girl from New York" I know that we would have eaten phenomenal food because John had the nose to sniff out good places. Those three were certainly characters, Bill had the driest wit and Greg just walked through life, all laid back, never realizing how much of an impact he had on the ladies. He was completely consumed by music, constantly making up lyrics at the drop of a hat. If I remember correctly, Istanbul back in the mid eighties was much more secular than it is presently and I am sure that we would have had so much fun visiting the ancient church, the Sophia which is now a mosque, I believe. I know that Istanbul, what used to be Constantinople, was the crosswords of Christianity and Islam so the historical sites are for both cultures, I am not leaving out the cuisine, the pastries I have read everywhere are unbelievably yummy; baklava is the only one I know, but with a tradition cemented in that technique of honey and filo dough and nuts sprinkled in, everything must be just as delicious as the well known Baklava. I have also read of the spiced sauces; not spicy in terms of heat, rather very flavorful with a lot of cinnamon, cardamon, nutmeg and onions and garlic as a sampling of the spice palette. After spending a sight-seeing bonanza of a week, it would have been back to Greece to resume our journey back home to Bordeaux, France