Frostbite of Bluster
Mar. 4th, 2023 09:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ismoWe had no more than an inch or so of pretty snow casting a temporary veil over the landscape. South of here, where Tron and the Lumberjack, as well as Deb and the Prussian live, they had about eight inches, and a traffic emergency was declared. It was in the forties today, so I'm hoping that their surplus snow has melted away. I was feeling pretty lousy by the end of the day yesterday, and a night's sleep didn't help much. I have various cold-like symptoms that are discouraging. I tested myself for covid, and it was negative, so I suppose it's no more than a cold. I'm still not enjoying myself, and I hope to goodness it goes away before Wednesday.
I felt like doing nothing this morning, but then I remembered that I had some chicken I needed to cook, and wanted to add a bit more from the freezer. So I had to thaw it out, and for that I needed the large glass mixing bowl, which was, provokingly, in the dishwasher waiting to be washed. Okay, I'll just go so far as to wash that out so I can use it, says I to myself. BUT before I could do that, I found I needed to wash up some things from last night that were in the sink. So I started in on that--but I won't bother doing my usual clean-up job, I thought. Because I'm tired and have the sniffles. However, in the end, I couldn't resist. I had to finish what I started. I saw a few things waiting to be taken down to the basement and took them there. It then occurred to me that I didn't have to wait for the chicken to thaw out completely to make chicken curry. I could start with the vegetables instead of the other way around. So I chopped up the red pepper, garlic, onion, and ginger and started cooking them. By then the chicken was ready to be coated in flour and spices and browned in the skillet. Before you know it, I had actually prepared dinner and had it simmering on the stove for later. And THEN I recalled that I also had a cucumber and some mint that I was planning to make raita with, to go with the curry. Thus does one thing lead to another. But I do recognize some limits, so at that point I sat down and had a sandwich. I was pretty tired by then, but the smell of curry is very consoling. I think it's good for colds.
Searching through our DVDs for something to watch, we started on "The Barchester Chronicles." The Warden was the first volume of Trollope I ever read, probably when I was 15 or so. I conceived a great fondness for Mr. Harding and his daughter Eleanor. The book is a record of folly and misguided energies, but nevertheless it's suffused with the sweetness of those two. Barchester Towers has a lot more comic energy, but it's much more savage too, and the world is revealed to be a much more appalling place than poor dear Mr. Harding would like to believe. It's been a long time since I re-read them. On watching the first two episodes of the dramatization, I think I'll have to do so again soon. They are astonishingly relevant. Trollope was both perceptive and prescient.
I felt like doing nothing this morning, but then I remembered that I had some chicken I needed to cook, and wanted to add a bit more from the freezer. So I had to thaw it out, and for that I needed the large glass mixing bowl, which was, provokingly, in the dishwasher waiting to be washed. Okay, I'll just go so far as to wash that out so I can use it, says I to myself. BUT before I could do that, I found I needed to wash up some things from last night that were in the sink. So I started in on that--but I won't bother doing my usual clean-up job, I thought. Because I'm tired and have the sniffles. However, in the end, I couldn't resist. I had to finish what I started. I saw a few things waiting to be taken down to the basement and took them there. It then occurred to me that I didn't have to wait for the chicken to thaw out completely to make chicken curry. I could start with the vegetables instead of the other way around. So I chopped up the red pepper, garlic, onion, and ginger and started cooking them. By then the chicken was ready to be coated in flour and spices and browned in the skillet. Before you know it, I had actually prepared dinner and had it simmering on the stove for later. And THEN I recalled that I also had a cucumber and some mint that I was planning to make raita with, to go with the curry. Thus does one thing lead to another. But I do recognize some limits, so at that point I sat down and had a sandwich. I was pretty tired by then, but the smell of curry is very consoling. I think it's good for colds.
Searching through our DVDs for something to watch, we started on "The Barchester Chronicles." The Warden was the first volume of Trollope I ever read, probably when I was 15 or so. I conceived a great fondness for Mr. Harding and his daughter Eleanor. The book is a record of folly and misguided energies, but nevertheless it's suffused with the sweetness of those two. Barchester Towers has a lot more comic energy, but it's much more savage too, and the world is revealed to be a much more appalling place than poor dear Mr. Harding would like to believe. It's been a long time since I re-read them. On watching the first two episodes of the dramatization, I think I'll have to do so again soon. They are astonishingly relevant. Trollope was both perceptive and prescient.
