Haaallppp!

I’ve signed up to bring the main dish to a potluck this Sunday, and I’m not sure what to bring. One person is bringing tabbouleh and Arabic cabbage rolls, which will be made with rice and ground beef. Others are bringing a salad, bread, and dessert.

What goes well with tabbouleh and cabbage rolls, people? Since the rolls have some meat in them, should I avoid a meat dish? The tabbouleh will be the starch, so pasta is out. I don’t think I would want to do a red meat, would I? I never do fish unless I know folks will like it, and I don’t know the food preferences of this crowd. I’m leaning toward something chicken, I think, but at this point I’ll take any and all suggestions … Haalllpppp! Puh-lease!!

Comfort food

Alicat and Sara have kicked off a really fun monthly event for food bloggers: the Weekend Cookbook Challenge. Each month they announce a theme and invite the blogosphere to contribute an entry based on the theme. This month the theme is the warm, familiar, hearty, simple genre of dish known as comfort food. What a great choice!

Ahhh, comfort food. It brings visions of mashed potatoes and butter. Tomato soup. Meatloaf. Apple pie. Macaroni and cheese. Rice pudding. Spicy peanut chicken stew.

Boinnnggg! Spicy peanut chicken stew????????

You have your comfort food, I have mine.

About 15 years ago, I was living in Manhattan in a one-bedroom apartment in midtown. This wasn't a fancy place, but it had a fold-down couch in the living room/kitchen that enabled friends to crash with me. Or friends of friends, as was the case when a friend living in Paris asked me if I would allow her friend from the Ivory Coast stay with me for a week or two while she investigated the possibility of emigrating to the US. I was glad to help. I remember it was near the end of the year, and my guest could not believe that I was not going to go to Times Square to see the ball drop in person. It was literally 7 blocks from my apartment, but I wanted nothing to do with the crowds and the pickpockets and drunks that could be expected to be among them. So, she descended to the crowds and I sat in a stairwell with a view of the ball, and we each saw in the new year in our own way.

The night before she left, she bought groceries and made an incredible pork stew with peanut butter that I absolutely loved. She left me the recipe, but it never did come out the way it had when she made it. So I went on a hunt for something similar, and what I finally found was this recipe for Spicy Peanut Chicken Stew, in Rick Rodgers' Ready and Waiting.

This is an uncommon slow cooker cookbook. Rodgers believes that most slowcooker food is boring because people think they should just be able to throw a bunch of stuff in the pot and come back to eat it in eight hours. Not so, he says, if you want fabulous food, you need to put a little more effort into it. Sear the meats so their flavor doesn't all leach out. Saute the onions to bring out the sugars in them. In fact, on Amazon you'll see comments from people who think there's too much prep work for a slow cooker recipe.

To my way of thinking, the results are worth the effort, but that may be because I like to cook!

This recipe has become something of a standard at our house. The Huz loves it, and we have often served it to company. I have modified the recipe somewhat, a fact that has caused me a little problem with my reputation when I served my pastor and his wife and some other friends the dish, and then gave them the original recipe when they asked for it, forgetting to tell them about my small but crucial modification. When they all said they weren't able to reproduce the wonderful dish I had served them, I realized to my horror that I had given them the wrong recipe! It has been a source of recurring joshing about my being one of those cooks who doesn't tell the right recipe so she can be considered a better cook than her friends. Sigh.

Anyway, here is the real recipe for my Spicy Peanut Chicken Stew. Try it with pork, too. Because it's essentially a braise, you can use a cheap cut and it will still come out tender. I promise it will warm your throat and your belly, and when you've eaten a serving, you won't be hungry again for a long, long time.

Comfy eating!

Spicy Peanut Chicken Stew
adapted from Ready and Waiting

2 T vegetable oil
2–3# lbs boneless chicken pieces (I use thighs) OR a 3-1/2 lb. chicken, cut up
½ tsp salt
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
42 oz diced tomatoes (I love Muir Glen brand)
2 T tomato paste
1 tsp curry
1/8–¼ tsp cayenne pepper, to taste
1 c plain yogurt
1 c unsalted, sugar-free peanut butter

• Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat till hot. Add 1 tablespoon of the oil. Immediately add the chicken skin-side down, in batches without crowding, and cook until the skin is golden brown, about 3 minutes. (Do not turn the chicken.) Transfer to a plate and season with the salt. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the fat in the skillet.
• Add the onion to the skillet. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring often, until softened. Add the garlic and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute (see this post for an idea for how to add the garlic to the pan without risking burning it). Transfer to a 3-1/2 quart slow cooker.
• Stir in the tomatoes, tomato paste, curry powder, and cayenne. Stack the chicken in the slow cooker. If you use mixed chicken pieces, place dark meat on the bottom and breast meat on the top. Cover and slow-cook until the chicken is cooked through, 5 to 6 hours on low.
• (Optional) Remove the chicken from the slow cooker, remove the skin, and cut into smaller pieces.
• In a small bowl, combine the yogurt and peanut butter. Stir the mixture into the slow cooker and cook just until heated through.
  
• Serve over rice.

Please don't ever serve me ...

I love to cook, for myself, for my husband, for large groups and small. I like to think of myself as a pretty adventuresome eater. Sushi's cool. Liver & onions with bacon --- yum! Indian food? Lovely. But there are some pretty common food items that you will not find in my kitchen, never mind in my mouth. I'm not talking about things that just aren't worth the space. I'm talking about nuh-uh, no way! Here are a few:

• iceberg lettuce
• beets
• uncooked green bell peppers
• lima beans

These are things that are in my kitchen ... can't live without butter! ... but that never pass my lips in the described form:

• cold butter
  
• rare meats (that's probably why I love braising sooo much! done but tender)
• undercooked eggs (eww!)

How'sboutchoo?

Weekend Dog Blogging #19

Emma the wire-haired fox terrier lives in Seattle with my sister and her husband, Mike, who is the dog's REAL owner. Mike takes Emma out in the convertible when weather is nice. And of course she must wear her goggles. Good doggie.

Attention Dog Lovers! It's time for Weekend Dog Blogging!
To see more fun dog photos and discover yummy new food blogs, head over to Sweetnicks on Sunday night for the complete roundup. We'd love to have you join us. Just post your pup and e-mail the permalink to Sweetnicks.

CU L8tr...

Those of you who know me will not be surprised to learn that I have overbooked myself. Teaching the class Friday night, having a large group here for dinner Saturday, and having company for brunch immediately after church Sunday. Ahem.

All this is to say...I don't think I'll be posting till early next week. Any prayers, good wishes, happy thoughts that you can send my way over the next few days as I try to pull this off will be MUCH appreciated!

5 Food Challenges for 2006

The lovely Paz (I haven't met her, but with a name like Paz, she has to be lovely. And her writing certainly is!) from The Cooking Adventures of Chef Paz, has tagged me for this Five Food Challenges of 2006 meme. Thanks, Paz, what fun!

Actually, there are so many aspects of cooking that I can improve in, it should be the 1000 Food Challenges for the Next Decade, but I guess that would get a little overwhelming! So here are some things I see in my more immediate future that will stretch my cooking (and other) muscles, hopefully not to the breaking point!

• TEACHING: As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been invited to teach a class called "Mardi Gras!" for my local food coop. They have fabulous cooking classes, which I've happily attended in the past. I've never cooked for pay in my life, never mind cooking while talking while helping learners learn! But it's something I've always wanted to do, and besides I want to spread the Gumbo Gospel. It's such a gorgeous meal. Note to self: blog gumbo! So, anyway, as it turns out there's enough interest to fill two sessions, one of them this Friday ... gotta get on the stick figuring out how this whole thing is going to work! And while talking with the teaching coordinator yesterday, she's invited me to teach a class on classy brunches this spring. So I will hopefully be expanding my cooking horizons in the direction of teaching this year. It's all very exciting!
• JAMBALAYA: Even though I love jambalaya, too, I haven't come across a recipe that I'm happy with. And since I've mastered gumbo (imho), if I can figure out how to make great jambalaya, I'll have mastered the Grand Duo of Creole cooking. Not to mention made my Huz very, very happy. So if you know the secret to killer jambalaya, I hope you'll consider sharing it with me!
  
• COOKING FOR A CROWD: About the largest group I've ever cooked for was 30. It was a not-insignificant accomplishment, though, because the kitchen was small and the crowd barely fit around the tables! This spring, a good friend who operates a great non-profit organization, W8NG, has asked me to plan and execute a dinner for a much larger crowd, perhaps in the neighborhood of 100. And I said yes! What am I, CRAZY? But it will be done in a good-sized commercial kitchen, and I'll have lots of help. In fact, if I can work my way into the dramatic entertainment being planned for the night, I'll do most of the prep work ahead of time, get everyone all set for the dinner, and then go Do Drama instead! Does that sound a tad optimistic to you? Um .. me too. We'll see. Meantime, do you know a great dessert to serve after a chicken putanesca meal? One that scales well, can be made ahead of time, and delivered to tables by teenagers? Haaaeeelp!
  
• FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY: Errr, ah, take a look at my food photos. Not disgusting, but nothing like beautiful, either. Nuff said.
• YEAST BREAD: I would love to get comfortable with, and proficient at, baking yeast breads. I've tried a few recipes in the past and have been none too proud of the outcomes. Would love to take a class at King Arthur Flour's headquarters, which is not so very far from me ... but they do cost a lot! Maybe I'll ask for that as a Christmas present. From multiple gifters. In which case, learning will happen in 2006, actual doing in 2007. Does that get me kicked off the 2006 Challenge boat?

Ok, there are my five for '06. Now I tag:

• anyone
• who
• wants
• to
• do it!

The last time I tagged poor Kalyn, and she is so popular that she had a backlog of memes to do. Rather than risk doing that to another busy person, I'll leave it open-ended. It was a fun exercise, Paz, and I thank you for tagging me!

If you decide to take up the challenge, please let me know, please, please, so I can read yours! And I'd love to add a link to your blog if you'd like.

Happy memeing, all!

Braised London Broil

The ever-delightful Stacey of Just Braise has it right, in my book. On Chef Michele's Adventures recently, she waxed rhapsodic about the virtues of braising, which can elevate an inexpensive piece of meat to a juicy, tender, falling-off-the-bone mouthful of heaven. She expressed it far better than I ever could, so I will just refer you to her post, which also features a great recipe for Bourbon-Pomegranate Molasses Beef Short Ribs w/ Broccoli Rabe and a discussion of the two kinds of short ribs. Who knew there were two? Now I know.

I came to braising late in life. I had a subscription to Yankee Magazine for one year. It's something you wouldn't subscribe to unless you're a New Englander or a New Englander wannabe, but I'm here to tell you, I got many, many good recipes out of that mag. One month they featured braising, with lots of recipes. The simplified cassoulet recipe that I got from them has become a company dish at our house. It's incredible.

Since then, I've begun to experiment with braising as a lifestyle. What a great way to get dinner started, put it in the oven, and forget about it till it emerges tender, succulent and flavorful. So, last night I decided to pull a one-pound London broil out of the freezer and present my beef-loving Huz with a pseudo pot roast, using just the supplies in my fridge.

I had some beef flank cut for London Broil in the freezer that I had picked up in bulk for $2.99 a pound. It's not a well-marbled cut, so braising is just about the best way to fix it so it is not dry and tough. I happened to have onions and carrots, but no potatoes, but you certainly could add them if you wanted to more closely approximate pot roast. I decided to add some Marsala wine and summer savory; for amounts I added the wine one tablespoon at a time, tasting after it cooked for a minute. The summer savory was a total guess. I haven't cooked with it before, but it smelled good and seemed as if it would complement the other flavors well. I love it!

You could use a red wine and bay leaf and/or oregano. I must say, though, that the Marsala and summer savory made for an unexpectedly heavenly sauce. I'll let the Huz chow on the beef. Just give me some rice and a big spoonful of that sauce! Yum!

Braised London Broil

1# London broil
olive oil
2 handsful chopped celery
2 handsful chopped onion
4 large garlic cloves
3 T marsala
2 tsp summer savory
1 can beef broth -- fat free, reduced salt
2 handsful carrots
2 large onions, quartered
¼ c soft bread crumbs

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Chop the celery and onions, and quarter the two large onions. Sprinkle lots of kosher salt (see picture below) and fresh ground pepper on one side of the meat.


Select a large, nonstick fry pan that can go in the oven. Get it smoking hot over high heat. As soon as it begins to smoke, put the meat in, salted side down. While that side is searing, sprinkle more salt and pepper on the other side. Cook the first side for 2-3 minutes or until nicely browned. Turn and do the same for the other side. The less you disturb the meat while searing, the better seared it will be.


You can see from this picture how heavily I salted the meat. The seared salt shows up as yellow.

Remove the meat to a plate. Quickly put the olive oil in the hot pan and immediately add the celery and chopped onion. Turn the heat down a bit, and saute till the onion begins to turn translucent. It will also be a bit browned. This is good!

[Note to self: next time try searing the quartered onions briefly and removing them to a plate, also, before beginning the sauteing. They tasted fine this way ... what would searing them add? Worth trying.]

When the onions are done, heap the onions and celery in the center of the pan, and put the garlic through a press onto the top of it. This technique allows you to put each garlic clove through a press right into the hot pan without having to worry about the first one burning before you get the last one pressed.


Continue sauteing until the garlic is gently done, not browned but also not raw. Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and saute for a minute or two.

Add the beef stock, the summer savory, and 2 T of the Marsala. Stir and inhale deeply; it's starting to smell divine! Bring the stock to a rapid boil and reduce liquid by about a third, perhaps a bit less.


Return the meat to the pan. Surround it with the carrots and quartered onions. Cover the pan and put in the oven. Set your timer for 2½ hours. Pour yourself a small glass of the Marsala and sit down with your feet up. Feel free to eat some bon-bons while the oven finishes dinner for you.

When the timer goes off, stir in the final 1T of Marsala. Sprinkle the bread crumbs over the sauce (no need to put them on the meat but also no harm. You want them to soak up the sauce and thicken it a bit). Put the skillet back in the oven, uncovered, for another 30 minutes or so. It can stay in the oven longer without harm; you might care to turn the oven down to 250 or so and put the lid back on to prevent evaporation of what I'm now beginning to think of as not just the sauce, but The Sauce.

Serve with rice or bread to sop up The Sauce. It has a sweetness from the carrots and the Marsala, and great body and color. You will be able to cut the meat with a spoon. I could say more, but it's bedtime. Night-night.



Calling all lurkers! It's time to leave a comment. Let me hear from you! Come on, sass me!

Tables make great caves ...

Simba loves to sleep under our table, even while we're eating there. Stretched out, he barely fits between the legs if he uses the base as a pillow. Hey, the Japanese use wooden blocks for pillows (or used to, anyway) so what's so weird about that?

Of course, when we're eating there, he doesn't sleep all that soundly. After all, there might be some doggy business to do, cleaning up accidentally dropped food. Amazingly, he doesn't go for the food bits until he's told he may, or we leave the table. Yes, I know, he really is the best doggie in the world.

See a previous picture of Simba

Attention Dog Lovers! It's time for Weekend Dog Blogging!
To see more fun dog photos and discover yummy new food blogs, head over to Sweetnicks on Sunday night for the complete roundup. We'd love to have you join us. Just post your pup and e-mail the permalink to Sweetnicks.

Cooking class X 2!!

I mentioned a little while ago that I've been hired to teach a one-night cooking class at my local Co-op. A few years back, I had the good fortune of learning how to make authentic gumbo from friends from the New Orleans area. Since then, it's become something of a signature dish for me. I'm sure if I lived in the New Orleans area, everyone would be ho-humming to beat the band about this. It seems as if everybody makes gumbo down there, and every recipe is a little different. But up here in snowy New England, gumbo is a rarity. Many people don't know what it is, even.

My class description went like this:

Short, cold, dreary days call for lively flavors and bone-warming foods! Cajun and Creole dishes need not be spicy, but they are always intensely flavorful. Come learn how to make a traditional Mardi Gras meal of Hot Gumbo over Rice (to call it a soup is like calling champagne a table wine), Easy-but-Killer Corn Bread, and delicious pecan and chocolate cream pies. Gumbo is the perfect make-ahead meal, actually improving with time and eminently freezable for later meals. This is Creole peasant food at its best!

Since I've never tried to teach a cooking class before, I didn't know what sort of response to expect. To my delight, not only did the class fill up (12 people), but there was enough interest to schedule a second class! I'll be spreading the Gumbo Gospel* to twice the number of people! This is very exciting. I'm very excited. Can you tell? :o)

*Did you know that "gospel" is a Greek word meaning "good news"?

Satisfying soup suppresses appetite!

It almost sounds like a National Enquirer headline, doesn't it?

Anyway, in a study at Johns Hopkins University, researchers compared soup with other appetizers to see which most effectively dimmed the desire to eat. Here's what they did. They invited 12 men to lunch for two weeks. On different days, the men received different appetizers of tomato soup, Muenster cheese on crackers, or fresh fruit. Calories in each appetizer portion were equal. Then the men were given a main course to eat.

Results: Tomato soup was the most satisfying appetizer. It beat out all the others in reducing the number of calories of the entree that were consumed. The least satisfying appetizer: cheese and crackers. Soup reduced later calorie intake by 25 percent compared with cheese and crackers. (It's not clear to me how they determined that, but hey! I'm believing the synopsis, especially after my own unscientific experiment, described below)

This little beauty did the trick for me this evening. And in addition to being "effective at dimming the desire to eat, " it's incredibly simple to make. Just bring some broth to a boil (I used chicken broth but you could use vegetable if you like), add some parsley, edamame (or substitute frozen peas) and small whole-wheat pasta, cook till the pasta is done, add a touch of white wine and salt, and top with fresh parmesan. Full recipe.

[Hmmm ... do you suppose this soup qualifies for Sweetnick's ARF (Antioxidant Rich Foods)Tuesday?]

I must confess, I'm not a fan of clear-broth soups most of the time, although I do adore a good salty miso soup. But this little cuppa tasted mighty fine! I was waiting for T to come home for a late dinner, so my tummy was growling away. Eating a cup of this soup was incedibly satisfying. By the time we had dinner an hour and a half later, I still wasn't in any rush to get to my meal. If, like me, you're working on getting the pounds off, give this a try! I'd love to hear what you think.

I'm going to have to try making my own tomato soup one of these days. Do you have a favorite recipe?

(No) snow #8

Sorry to have not posted for a while. I decided on fairly short notice to fly out to Seattle to surprise my niece, who was having a decade birthday. I think it's fair to say she was surprised. She shouted "Oh, my G--!" and nearly fell over when she saw me. So, it was worth the two days of flying to have two days with family. :o) And I got to meet the new dogs in my sister's household, Emma and Katie, who will later be my entry in Sweetnick's Weekend Dog Blogging this week!

Meantime, I need to stop putting up beautiful pictures of snow, because we have nearly none left. The gorgeous snow that produced all those pictures was on January 5. We've had nearly no snow since then, and have had lots of days with rain or warm temperatures. At this point, gardens and grass are peeking through a very thin layer of wet, heavy snow and it's all quite dispiriting, I must say. I know there are those who feel winter is to be avoided, but I absolutely love it, as long as it includes snow to coat the world and make everything magical.

Anyway, I took this picture a couple of days after the big snow, when the sun came out to illuminate the white birches behind the massive maple tree next to our house. Isn't that blue sky gorgeous?

Photo taken Jan 7, 2006, All rights reserved.

Snow #7

Do you ever wonder how on earth large birds like turkeys can survive in the woods in the winter? These seed-laden dried plants help explain that mystery.
Taken Jan 5, 2006, All rights reserved.

Snow #6

Also from our back yard, looking up at the underside of snow-laden branches. This is a lone pine in the midst of lots of bare hardwoods. The contrast is lovely!
Taken Jan 5, 2006, All rights reserved.

The last thing I ate or drank was lunch: chicken corn chowder with leeks, a piece of whole wheat toast, and almond cake.

Shopping in India (continued from Dec 7-9)

The first place Celine took us, I didn't bring my camera. Darn! Because it was by far the most "foreign" shopping experience we had.

Nanette was interested in buying some jewelry for the girls, and possibly also some gifts if the price was reasonable. So Celine took us to one of those open-fronted shops that almost looks like a stall, very tiny. It was perhaps 12 feet across, with shelving along each side wall, so that the actual floor space was more like 8 feet across. The shelves contained knick-knack type things, carvings of elephants and camels, decorative items in wood and stone and marble, I really couldn't tell you what-all was there, because we went right past them.

These shops, which we saw in Mumbai, give you a sense of the one were were in. If you've ever been in a third-world country, you've seen them.

The stall was about twice as deep as it was wide. It was very clean. Halfway back, there was a low jewelry display case with very low stools in front of it. The three walls around the back of this area were just loaded with jewelry, some displayed hanging on the walls, some in bags and boxes. Behind the display case, sitting cross-legged on a cushion, was the proprietor.

At first we didn't pay him much attention, not wanting to spark a spate of hard-sell. He was a young man, slim, nice-looking, with longish hair. He was diplomatic, just biding his time, watching what Nanette and Celine looked at, pulling out similar items and silently placing them on the display case. I'm not much of a jewelry person, so I also watched them and admired what they admired and tried to be helpful in an unhelpful sort of way. You know. Surplus shopper, along for the ride.

Before too long, I sat on one of the stools in front of the display case, and soon Nanette joined me, looking at the items our proprietor had pulled out. By then, we had been in the store maybe 10 minutes. The young man asked us if we would like some tea, Kashmiri tea, "if you drink this tea you will never want another kind." I didn't want to be rude, but I also wasn't sure if the tea would be safe for us to drink. I turned to look at Celine and asked, "Is it Ok, because it will have been boiled?" He heard me and said, "No, no, no, I make with bottled water!" and pulled a large water bottle out to show us. So then of course we said yes, and he began to prepare the tea. He had an electric kettle of sorts, in which he had water already warmed. (There obviously was electricity in the shop.) He put the tea into a filter basket, which he plunged into the hot water. Then he asked if we would like sugar in our tea. We said yes, a little, so he showed us a quantity of what looked like rock candy to me, very large sugar crystals, and poured that in. Then, of course, we had to wait while it steeped.

He was right, the tea was delicious! He served it to us in nice china cups with saucers, very proper. As Nan and Celine pored over the offerings, he pulled out more and more until there were cloths and papers with jewlery spilling out of them piled high on the counter. He was such a pleasant young man, not at all pushy. I asked him if he had made the jewelry himself. He said that yes, he had, not all of it but most of it. He learned it from his father, who is also a jeweler. They make periodic trips to Kashmir to purchase stones and other raw materials. We learned his name is "Shine." Not sure I heard it correctly, I had him say it again. Curious.

Most of the gems in his shop were semi-precious, but he did have some beautiful precious gems, as well. The settings varied from extremely simple to quite ornate. Some of the necklaces were in the traditional India style, with loads of jewels hanging in a variety of settings from a choker-sized chain. It's hard to describe, but suffice it to say it looks like something Cinderella would have worn to the ball!

Finally my eye was caught by a large, white, opaque stone which turned out to be a polished shell. There was a tan-colored swirl in the white, and it had been set in a pretty silver setting with an open back, so you could see the back of the shell. It was quite large, perhaps half-dollar sized, and I thought immediately of a friend, Mary, who wears similar jewelry. Likewise, Nanette thought of her mother-in-law, so luckily there were two! I don't recall how much it cost. I think it was in the neighborhood of $6-8 US. We each chose one.

Later, Nanette was looking at a very pretty purple stone, again set beautifully in silver. It was oval, about the size of a nickel. It was also very reasonably priced, and Shine pulled out similar items. I saw a smoky quartz, kind of a brownish grey, that I thought would look stunning against any of the many plain black tops I own. It was the same size and cut as Nanette's purple stone, but it was in a very plain setting that didn't complement it well, to my eye. I said as much, and Shine said he could reset it for me, for about $3. Sold!

Nan bought several other items, including gifts for her daughters. We were offered more tea, and we all laughed, because it seemed when we drank tea we bought more. Shine understood our laughter and protested he didn't mean it that way. By now, we were very relaxed and enjoying our time with him, in his little store, with his gracious hospitality.

When it came time to settle up, we learned that he would need two days to reset my stone. This being Thursday, two days meant Saturday. On Saturday we were to pick up Hope, and we didn't know what time and couldn't promise that we could return to his store. We asked if there could be any chance of picking it up late Friday. No, that wouldn't be possible. Finally, he said that he would bring the stone to our hotel on Saturday. Personal service! Just try and get such a deal in a US store for a purchase that totalled in the neighborhood of $10!

So, we gave him the name of the hotel and our names, and he totalled up our purchases with, of course a bit of a discount because we had purchased several items and we wereguests in his country and it was his pleasure to ensure that we had only the most pleasant memories of India so then we would tell all our friends and they would come buy from him also. Each purchase was sacked in a cute cloth bag with gold strings to close it, and into each bag went his paper-thin business card. I sneaked a peek, and sure enough, there was his name, "Shine." I later learned that all Indian names mean something, there are no abstract names like "Jane." So Shine is probably the English translation for the word that is Shine's name.

You might be wondering whether we were concerned about giving our money to this young man who was unknown to us a short hour ago. And the answer is no. Firstly, because he seemed to be an honorable person ... but we're in a strange culture, so our instincts could be all wrong about that. So that brings us to secondly: the amount of money at risk was small. So, we departed without a concern, having enjoyed a time of connection with a handsome young man and having purchased some sweet things, and looking forward to seeing him again, hopefully, on Saturday.

As we left, I remarked to Celine that this little shop has a lot of very valuable jewelry in it, far too much to be carried home at night. I didn't see any way to close off the wall that fronted the street, although there probably was one. In New York City, they have stores like this, but they have what are basically overhead garage door-type walls that clank down and are securely locked at night. I wondered how on earth he managed to keep his inventory safe. "He might sleep there," she said. Which caused me to think then about what sort of sleeping accommodations our handsome friend had. Perhaps he hired a trusted friend/colleague to sleep there as a guard. Who knows? It's one of those little details that brings home what a very different world it is over there.

The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering the equivalent of a downtown shopping mall. To be honest, it was a bit of a blur for me. The jetlag was hitting with a vengeance. Nanette and Celine didn't seem so affected by it, so I contented myself with wandering vaguely and gathering what visual impressions I could without buying anything much. I did keep an eye out for fabrics that I might enjoy having made into a punjabi outfit for myself, at some later date, and I did spot some that were lively without being so tropical looking that I wouldn't feel comfortable wearing them to a party in northern New England. But I was way too exhausted to do the purchasing, never mind the measuring and decision making about styles: gathered tight ankles? Swishy wide ankles? What neckline? How fitted the bodice? Nope, out of the realm of my possibility.

So, the visual impressions ... and why one EARTH did I not bring my camera? ... were of narrow hallways with lots of tiny storelets, with normal glass fronts on them, some goods in the doorway or out in front of the shops but most displayed inside. Lots of jewelry and knick-knacks (I want to say "chochkies" but I haven't a clue how it's spelt!), makeup and shampoo, fabrics. I especially remember one store display that had several vertical rows of fabrics, each paired with one or two compatible fabrics, so the discerning sari or punjabi buying woman could be sparked with ideas for tops and bottoms. It was there that I spotted the fabrics that I liked, and which I never saw again on any of my journeys ... so I came home punjabi-less.

Oh, well. It's a very minor tragedy, that.

You'll have to wait for another posting to find out what happened with my smoky quartz. It's another charming India vignette, I promise!

The last thing I ate or drank was heavily salted shelled edamame (yum) and ice water. (I do eat more than cereal and edamame each day ... I guess I just tend to eat them before posting!)

Snow #5

From our back yard. Almost architectural, isn't it?
Taken Jan 5, 2006, All rights reserved.

The last thing I ate or drank was a big glass of apple juice. (I've had to fast today for a medical procedure tomorrow. Looking VERY forward to tomorrow's first meal!!)