Food, cleanup and at the end of the day sad news

Friday Michael the Transformer came and took away the kitchen doors and drawer fronts to refinish them and let them outgass across the street at his house.

He cautioned me to pace myself with clearing out, now that I can see what was behind the doors.  Hm. Not sure how that's done.

And an hour after he left, I'd sorted the two left cabinets 

So much easier when you can see what you're doing.

One thing led to another and I remembered the ginger in the fridge still waiting to be diced. Instead, having also remembered the microplane, I thought I'd just grate the ginger, skin and all, and dice what was left.

Now it's in the freezer ready to use. I don't like peeling and dicing ginger despite the lovely smell, so I think the microplane will be the go-to from now on. 

I was given it and thought I'd never use it. But it's so much easier than the way I used to zest lemons and limes, and now process ginger. 

I don't like prepping food at all, but do it because I need to. I do like the results though.

Then I went out and pulled out a huge armload of daylily foliage and dayflowers. I set them down to settle before carrying them to the woods to dispose of them. The front area looks much less wild now  

Then later I noticed a feature about items better made at home than ordered in a restaurant. One was about poaching shrimp in a court bouillon, which I'd never done.

I don't have any white wine but I had the necessary peppercorns, lemon slices, salt and you can use bay leaf but I used curry leaves.

I simmered this ten minutes, strained it, then brought it to a boil again, put in the shrimp, frozen, turned off the heat and poached for about five minutes. It's a couple of minutes longer than you'd use for thawed shrimp.

 

Poached shrimp, whole wheat toast, dipping sauce, summer supper. Another time I might put the court bouillon flavorings into a bag to make them easy to remove without straining.

I'd prepared this blog then I got a call from a local friend,  to say our longtime mutual friend died Thursday. She'd been sick and we'd been anxiously following her for news recently but it's still a shock.  

I went to visit her husband right away and at his request notified other mutual friends and neighbors.  She'd requested no services, a quiet private ceremony only.  She was in her sixties.

Three of my friends used to plan to be my caregivers in old age. I have now outlived all of them.  Please do vibes or prayers or what you do, for her widower and son. Her son has now lost his partner and his mother over just a few weeks.

Not a happy day, more of a getting through it day.