Happy Veeday, redtail, decisions

Happy Valentine's Day, it's for friends and friendship and thank you all for being the. 

One of the local friends I sent Valentine greetings to is a nun. She was very pleased, saying, well, this is the only one I'll get, so it's precious. I expect there was a certain amount of eye rolling, too.

Today I dragged out the garbage and recycle, how does a single person manage to create so much, despite my green efforts, to the dumpster area, and got a dazzling reward.

I heard bird cries like a bluejay but louder, and spotted 

A red tail hawk, high in the tree on the left there, preening, maybe with mating hopes, and probably hunting small birds. This is a hungry time for the hawks, their usual prey hidden under the snow, so they start showing up near bird feeders. 

The small birds are very scarce as long as she's up there. We have several pairs around here, doing fine despite development, traffic, habitat threat. They're wonderful athletes to watch swooping around the sky.

Then food had to be fixed. I'd thought of a red lentil curry but didn't feel like making it, then I thought ah, red lentil tofu. So that's what happened. 

There was a good bit of blended lentils leftover so that's in the fridge with the frozen cooked sweet potato, for soup when I get to it.

Then there was the other ambitious plan, a blueberry clafouti. This is officially an easy dish, but that's when you're in the mood for it which I found l wasn't. Then I thought pancakes. Not that either. 

Anyway while I was trying to decide, I set the berries to macerate in a bit of sugar, some molasses, which entailed emptying and wiping down a cabinet shelf, and soaking the glass plate a lot of items had been on, including the now apparent bonded jar of molasses. 

Anyway, jar separated, plate wiped and repurposed, cabinet neat, I got on with the food. I don't think this kind of thing happens in posh cooks' kitchens. 

After the molasses incident, I added in lemon zest, some of that minced ginger I was bragging about yesterday, cinnamon, salt and cornstarch. Then I left it alone.

I was listening to Lucy Worsley interviewing a food historian while I was blundering about in the kitchen, seemed a propos. 

The tofu cubes, with a nice sauce, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, worked fine. And enough for tomorrow.

The fruit sauce, jam, stuff I boiled like jam briefly, smelled great and decided it was sauce with plain yogurt.

Note sneaky reflection. 

The green beans were accidentally enhanced when I was scraping the berries into a small pan, and mistook the identical pan with the green beans in it, and put a spoonful of marinade in it. No harm done. 

I expect a posh cook has a fancy name for it, even. Haricots verts maceres, maybe. Add your own accents throughout this reading.

Speaking of accidentally enhancing --if I can disable the highlights I will. I hit the button by accident. Small screen, big fingers. And I'm told that only removing all the formatting, however that's done, will fix it. 

Happy day everyone, cook for the uncritical people. Such as yourself. And disregard highlights. 

 

Tuesday, cabinets, locks, Textiles and Tea

Tuesday's plans got moved around a bit. Michael the Marvellous Maker, installed the cabinet and the door keys.

Ted and Big Ursy checking there, to make sure he does it right.

Then we had a ceremony of carefully keeping the new keys, tossing the old, and I tossed all the old then later had a thought. The top lock, for which I had several keys, was the original builder-installed one. As is the lock for the outdoor storage.

I vaguely remembered there was a key for the outdoor storage, too. I never lock it but, in case any kind neighbor turns the inside knob and carefully locks it, locking me out, I'd better find the key. 

So I retrieved the two old keys for the top lock and, clever me, they fit the outdoor storage. So now they're labeled and saved. 

I thought about the neighbor possibility because years ago in our first house a visiting friend followed us out to the garden, to drink tea,  locking the door after her. 

I was too late to stop her, and pointed out I didn't carry house keys out to drink tea in the garden! And the only other door was the front porch, which only locked and unlocked from inside. Windows were too high for any of us to force. Very expensive locksmith visit ensued. The friendship was a bit dented by this incident.

Back to the present, Gary buzzed in and out, admiring, making me accept potato bread, he's deglutenizing his kitchen, retrieving the plants I minded for him, and Billie barked along. 

After all this I thought I'd rest a minute, after lunch, before my Tuesday knitting group. I woke when it was half over. Oh. But I did make the planned delivery to the food pantry, ahead of their Thursday distribution.

Then it was a pot of tea on the deck, crowds of shouting birds, and my kindle open to

Late summer deck reading, very niche.

Textiles and Tea was a revelation about making, farming, dyeing and working with silk.

Karen has literally done all that and learned from silk farmers in India, working with wild and domestic silk production. That's what her book is about. She's a plant whisperer!

I made the crunchy tofu for supper, this time as dice, with more seasoning -- umami mix, cayenne -- in the batter. 

It used up the rest of the batter from the fish, and the panko. I thinned the batter a bit.

This worked fine, in the toaster oven, not much oil, and it still crisped up, about 40 minutes at 400°f, or what the toaster oven claims to be that.

Foyle in the evening. Nice day, despite detours.

Happy day, everyone, may your detours be fun ones.