Posted tagged ‘chocolate cream pie’

“Even though it’s dark and cold there is always a shade of light.”

November 27, 2016

The turkeys know they are free to come out of hiding. Yesterday I saw 14 of them taking their time strolling across a lawn, stopping to scratch for food or just standing there looking majestic which is quite a feat for turkeys to pull off. I got out of the car and used my phone for pictures wishing I had my camera with me. They began moving away one by one from me while still looking for food. I watched as the stragglers caught up with the rest of the rafter then I drove away.

It rained on and off as I shopped yesterday. I didn’t go to many stores, but I still managed to spend a bit of money. My last stop was for a few groceries and lunch. I treated myself to a quesadilla, a pulled pork quesadilla with a side of guacamole. I bought Gracie a special biscuit. I bought all the ingredients for a chocolate cream pie for game night tonight, but we’re not having a game night. I don’t dare to make the pie anyway as I’d eat it all.

Today is a lovely day, sunny and seasonally warm. My dance card has only a single item, the dump. I’ve already filled most of the trunk and have only a couple of bundles sitting by the front door waiting to be put into the car. Gracie will go crazy when she sees me going outside. She’ll know it is dump day.

I put a new plastic on the dog door. The old one was disgusting. Gracie now stands on the deck and looks through the clear plastic to the kitchen. I have no idea what she is looking for, but whatever it is makes no never mind. She comes in when she sees me. This morning the plastic was on the ground. The four screws didn’t seem to hold it. Two of the holes were bigger than the screws, but they were the same as on the old plastic which held for years. I must have forgotten the trick of making the screws stay in the holes. I tried again this morning and screwed them back into the plastic. I have high hopes.

Some of my neighbors have their houses lit for Christmas. It makes me anxious to have my house and deck lit. I love the way the colored lights in the front and the bright white star on the gate shine through the darkest of nights. I sometimes sit in my car just looking at my house and yard.

 

“Life is a combination of magic and pasta.”

April 9, 2016

The doctor says no surgery. It won’t change a thing happening with my back. He is, instead, referring me to the pain clinic hoping they’ll find solutions which are quick acting and will allow me to walk longer distances.

I think the news buoyed my spirits. Tonight I’m having friends over for dinner, and usually on the day of the dinner, I start to regret the invitation purely because of my back. Today I am raring to go.

I have a list. I always have a list. I also have a flow chart, and I am already behind my time. Talking to my sister did that. She wasn’t on any list.

Dinner will be Indian Chicken and Cashew Rice and a side of green beans for color. I don’t want to get your taste buds aroused but appetizers are blueberry, feta and honey-caramelized onion naan pizza and honey prosciutto with gouda on flatbread. For dessert I’ve already made my dark chocolate cream pie.

When I was a kid, I would have laughed if you had told me I’d be eating Indian food. Now it is among my favorites. Traveling has opened up my mind but even better it has extended my palate. I have eaten the oddest foods I would have cringed just looking at when I was young. Buying a live chicken for dinner would have grossed me out. Chicken comes in packages from the supermarket. Killing and plucking are not necessary. In South American I ate what in the United States are pets: Guinea pigs. They were tasty. In Finland I have no idea what I ate. The second language is Swedish. I just ordered what looked good.

I didn’t even know foods like hummus and falafel existed. I ate Wonder Bread not pita bread or lavash. The most exotic bread I ate back then was Italian scali bread.

On my first trip back to Ghana, I couldn’t wait until I had fufu for dinner and kelewele for a snack. They were my Ghanaian comfort foods.

Morocco was my last trip before the two and soon to be my third trip back to Ghana. Though the country is in North Africa I wasn’t eating African food. I was eating tasty, varied and delicious Moroccan food. Some of it I knew as I could translate the French names but others I chose by appearance. I never made a bad choice.

Part of the adventure of going somewhere different, somewhere new, is eating unfamiliar and maybe even unrecognizable food. That it is sometimes in a foreign language helps.

When I get to Ghana, I want kelewele and those round donuts the small girls sell. I love that in a far different country than my own I have favorite foods which don’t come from stores but from aunties, as older women are sometimes called, who cook and sell the food along the roadsides.

Stop the car!! It’s dinner time.