Busy Monday

Looks like I'll be busy today doing things that need to be done, and that's good. I can only hope that includes showing the house, but I never know about that until the day is well underway, usually in the afternoon. We have decent weather at the moment, but yet another system of rain is due to arrive in the afternoon and stick around through Wednesday. Well, the flowers, at least, are really enjoying this wet, cool weather. Our daffodils all blooming at once now, practically choking themselves out, but they'll survive....they're so cheerful I thought they'd brighten your day, too.

As I write I am also freecycling. Our garage is filling up again with things we don't need, and I am getting the usual instantaneous responses, so every now and then my email chimes and I have to stop writing here to arrange for a pickup. Wish the house would sell so fast! (Hmm....maybe if we gave it away...d'oh!)

One of the things happening today was unexpected and definitely not welcome: the replacement of our furnace. Since we hadn't had our HVAC checked in a couple of years and the house is on the market, I thought an inspection would be prudent. Well. Turns out the furnace motor is leaking oil and the exhaust duct leading to the outside is rotting. The technician showed me where the problems are--merely touching the duct tube brought a cloud of corroded, rusty particles. He stated the obvious, that an engineer doing an inspection would never advise a potential purchaser to the buy the house with the furnace as-is, so we have no choice. It's a wonder we didn't have a case of carbon monoxide poisoning. Four thousand bucks! No sooner did we get our credit card out of the stratosphere than it heads right back up because of a thing like this. And there's no real way we can recoup this expense, since a furnace is a basic necessity. Whaddayagonnado???

So now I'll post my sunshine music and then cut the grass. It's growing like topsy in this rainy weather.

FOOD FRIDAY!

MAQUE CHOUX WITH SHRIMP COMMANDER'S PALACE RESTAURANT

First, the end of my story yesterday about burning the potpourri: our agent got feedback from the agent who showed the house. He said he and his client loved the house, and he (the agent) was especially curious about where I got that potpourri because it was "fantastic." I had to laugh. Well, first you take some cinnamon, some orange peel and a few cloves. Then you burn them. But not too much! Just until they smell like molasses cookies. Then get them the hell out of the house before you set off the fire alarm. I passed the tip along...

Oh, and they liked the music. They were just kind enough to turn it off when they left.

On to the recipe. This is adapted by Saveur Magazine from Commanders Palace Restaurant in New Orleans, and is featured in the current issue. I've adapted it further to my own taste. I confess I had never heard of maque choux, but I guess that's OK since I'm not a native of New Orleans. It's a folk recipe that mixes Acadian and Native American elements and therefore is adaptable to the extent that you use ingredients typical to the region. ("Maque choux" is probably a French corruption of whatever the Native American word was.) The ingredients in this version are true to the magazine (and therefore, I guess, the restaurant); I just changed a few quantities. The original was a bit dainty for my taste.

The bottom line is that it's delicious and a unique mixture of easy-to-find ingredients. It's good enough for company, and quick and easy enough for a weekday meal.

One note: given the old-fashioned French influence prevalent in New Orleans, there's more saturated fat (bacon fat plus butter) here than I would normally use. For that reason, quick and easy as it is, I'll probably save it for special occasions.

2 slices bacon, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and finely chopped
1 jalapeno pepper. cored, seeded and finely chopped
10 okra, sliced thin on the diagonal (to make about 1 1/2 cups)
1 medium can sweet corn, drained (or a 10-oz package of frozen corn)
4 scallions, thinly sliced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
16 medium shrimp (about 8 oz.) peeled and de-veined
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 cups cooked white rice

In a 12" skillet over medium-high heat, cook bacon, stirring occasion­ally, until crisp, about 7 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer bacon to a paper towel-lined plate; set aside. Melt 1 tbsp. butter in hot bacon fat. Add garlic, shallots, peppers, and jalapenos and cook over medium ­high heat, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Increase heat to high; add okra and corn and cook, stirring occasionally, until crisp-tender, about 6 minutes. Stir in scallions and remaining butter and season with salt and pepper; set aside and keep warm.

Meanwhile, heat oven to broil and place a rack 8" from broiler ele­ment. Toss shrimp with oil in a large bowl and season with salt and pepper. Transfer shrimp in a single layer to an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet and broil, for two minutest, then using tongs, turn and broil on other side an additional two minutes, until pink and cooked through. Add shrimp to cooked vegetables. Serve on top of a bed of rice; garnish with reserved bacon.

Houses

We are in "hurry up and wait" mode. We've been so pumped for so long about selling the house that it seems a gross injustice that we should now have to wait for it to actually happen. It's been a whole day! Why isn't the phone ringing off the wall???

As a matter of fact, the house was shown yesterday. I got a call from an agent telling me he'd like to bring a client; he gave me an hour's notice. I ran around turning on all the lights (one of the rituals of showing a house--make it bright!), taking cat-covers off the furniture and generally sprucing things up. One bit of advice I decided to act on is to make the house smell nice. I have a homemade cinnamon and orange peel potpourri in a teapot that I set on the stove to boil for a bit just before anybody comes. I figured a whole hour would be enough to send those mom-and-apple-pie aromas wafting decidedly through the house, so I turned on the flame under the teapot and set about other cleanup business. About a half-hour later I happened back into the kitchen and detected the unmistakable scent of carmelized sugar--oh, no! The potpourri was burning! The water had boiled off! I filled the smoking teapot with water again and set it outside to cool; luckily things never got past the "something's baking" stage, odor-wise. When Steve came home a couple of hours later he was looking for the molasses cookies.

Another hint I tried was to supply soft background music. I chose some very good piano stuff, standards played by my old friend Ron Browning, and set the Ipod to "play" just as I left. When I got back, I noticed the Ipod was still playing, but the sound on the Bose had been turned off. Hmm.....did I have it too loud? Or is the music a bad idea? I'll try it again next time, softer......

To kill time while the agent showed the house, I took a ride out to Falls Church and the neighborhood where I grew up. I do that every now and then; the street just gets more beautiful as new owners re-model the old houses (mostly very tastefully) and the landscaping matures--it invites me to idealize even more the already pleasant memories I have of the place. All is well on Meadow Lane except for our old house, which, alas, has received additions that render the place almost unrecognizable. The back yard, where the Winesap apple tree once stood and my parents planted their gardens, and where our dog Peanuts is buried, is completely taken up with an extension on the house. The graceful brick and stone front stoop has had a totally inappropriate two-storey portico added to it--"McMansion" springs to mind much too quickly. The house has been given a faux grandeur it that looks nothing but uncomfortable. Interior changes, while I can't see them, must be as drastic as those on the outside.

It's a desecration of the old place, but in perverse way, I'm grateful for it. The house as it was remains in my memory, and that's really the only Meadow Lane house I'll ever know, anyway. There is no longer a physical structure for me to want to return to. It's a concrete affirmation of the notion that you can't go home again, and that's a healthy and realistic antedote to nostalgia. Onward and upward is the only direction that remains.

Come visit at Peace Corps Worldwide...

You'll find a new post here.

All over but the shouting...

I know the photo above doesn't look much different from the one I've posted in that space, but believe me when I say you're seeing new things. All those colors are newly applied, and they are different. We simplified the paint on the spindles, making them all one color instead of banding them with all the colors on the porch, as they had been before. But more than that, this represents the culmination of all the work I've been telling you about for over a year now. We'll never paint that porch again. There are some small things that we still have to do to finish the cosmetics, but we're ready to go. That "For Sale" sign was a long time coming!

I'm waiting now for our agent and his partner to come and make it all official. A lockbox must be put on the front door, and then the house will go on the MLS. Ron and Kelli (the agents) tell us they've had inquiries already, just from the sign being there. And, as we were on the porch all day yesterday working, we saw the traffic, the people stopping by on their walks (one woman asked, "are you giving up that beautiful porch?" I smiled and told her we couldn't take it with us.), and the cars slowing down to take a look.

The house is as shiny as it's ever been, inside and out. Here's hoping it all goes quickly and smoothly.

FOOD FRIDAY!

TURKEY AND BLACK BEAN PICADILLO

April has appeared with her showers. Not that I was around for the original to know for sure, but Mother Nature has been serving up what must be a flood of biblical proportions since last night, and it appears it will stay with us at least until this afternoon. Our back yard has water standing in low spots; the grass is a wildly exuberant shade of green and you can practically watch it grow. I have nothing pressing to do outdoors today. The big job will be scrubbing the kitchen floor, and I do mean scrubbing, hands-and-knees work that will make the floor look like new and be THE thing that sells the house. (Of course, after I'm done, nobody will be allowed to walk on the floor....)

Today's recipe is an adaptation of a rare thing: a recipe from The Washington Post that actually worked on the first try. The salty-sweet interplay between the raisins and the olives is a treat, and the texture of the healthier ground turkey actually works better, to my taste, than the standard ground beef, which in a dish like this can cook down to crumbs. It's a good, quick weekday dinner, and you can be as loose as you want with portions in the recipe. It calls for a "small" red bell pepper, for instance, but in my grocery store these do not exist, so I just cut up the entire monster that I had to purchase and it was delicious. Also, the original recipe calls for 3/4 pound of ground meat. Who can buy that odd amount? And if you only use 3/4 pound, what do you do with that little bit that's left over from the entire pound the store will only allow you to buy? I just used the whole pound.

Note: I left salt out of the recipe on purpose, because the canned tomatoes and beans have enough of their own. If you choose the unsalted variety, add salt to taste when you cover the Picadillo to simmer.

1 small red bell pepper
1 medium red onion
2 cloves garlic, or to taste
1 lb. lean ground turkey
2 teaspoons olive oil
Handful of stuffed green olives, coarsely chopped
One 15- 16-oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste
1 14.5-oz can Mexican-spice diced tomatoes
Handful of dark raisins
Cooked rice

Stem and seed bell pepper, coarsely chop and place in bowl. Coarsely chop onion and garlic and add to bowl with pepper and set aside.

Heat oil in large sauté pan, crumble turkey in and cook until pink begins to disappear. Add chopped vegetables and continue to cook until all trace of pink is gone from the meat and vegetables begin to soften. Add cumin, sugar, and pepper flakes and cook until the cumin is fragrant, then add the drained beans, the tomatoes with their juice, and the raisins. When bubbles appear at the edges, turn heat to low, cover, and simmer 10-15 minutes, until flavors have blended.

Off heat, stir in chopped olives. Serve immediately over cooked rice.

A Facebook reward

It's getting so my mornings are filled now with reading. Well, they always were--back before I entered this cyber-world with my concrete clodhoppers I read my trusty newspaper in the morning, but now, sitting down at the computer, catching up with Facebook, reading the blogs, all yours and the ones on Peace Corps Worldwide, and giving them thought and commenting where I will, is taking up a couple of hours a day. I feel I have to do it all at once so I can the get on with my resposnbilities in the F&B world, which indeed do call. Today's an overcast day and wettish day so far, but there are a couple of things with my name on them that I must get to. As to the poor old Washington Post, wraith-like as it now is, I'll get to it sometime today....

Speaking of Facebook, it's done me a huge favor by putting me in touch with one of my best friends from high school. We met for lunch yesterday after not having seen each other in over 30 years. Jane was a year behind me, and seeing her, sharing memories and comparing updates about mutual friends reminded me that I actually had more friends in her class than I did in my own. She has put me in touch with two more of my favorite people from those years, and in May, assuming we are still in this house, I hope to have a little get-together for them, maybe a brunch.

Yesterday's reunion was the perfect kind, where you slip into conversations and attitudes as if no time had passed at all. If I tell you Jane is a Hospice nurse, I think that's the most description you could need to know what kind of person she is. She's both a talker and a listener, bubbly but not sugary, naturally upbeat. Delightful. She and her husband Eddie have been married 40 years, have two kids and are starting on grandkids. And yet they're both still the "kids" I remember from 1964.

What fun!