Saturday, January 19, 2019

Three Beautiful Things 01/18/19: Emails and Carrot Ginger Soup, Moscow Stomps Kellogg, Nightcap at the Lounge

1. After a hearty breakfast with Ed, Buff, and Scott B (Jerry had to shovel snow on the east end of the Silver Valley) at Sam's, I returned home and finished writing my blog and, as the day continued, wrote a couple of long emails updating Adrienne, Molly, and Patrick about what's been happening over the last several months with my kidney situation and other related matters.

In between writing those emails, I made a carrot ginger soup. It's one of many low potassium, kidney friendly recipes I've collected over the last few weeks. All I had to do was saute onion in butter and then add a bunch of sliced carrots, chicken broth, and minced ginger to the pot, bring the mixture to a boil, and turn down the heat and cook the carrots until tender. I let it cool and then poured this mixture in a couple or three batches in the blender, returned it to the Dutch oven, and added whole milk (the recipe called for cream and didn't have any) and heated in back up.  I loved the result. I love ginger and it complimented the sweetness of the carrots beautifully and the milk made the soup rich and creamy. It's a recipe I'll return to often.

2. At breakfast, I mentioned to Ed that I was strongly considering going to the high school to watch the Wildcats boys varsity basketball game against Moscow. Ed called me about an hour before the game and said we'd be a little late, but that he'd pick me up. Earlier this season, I watched the Wildcats get pasted by Shadle Park and it brought back memories of the Wildcats team I played on in 69-70 getting similarly whacked by Shadle. Tonight, I had flashbacks of lopsided losses the Wildcat teams I suited up for suffered at the hands of the Moscow Bears. In February of 1972, my teammates nearly defeated Moscow in the district tournament (I rode the bench for the entire game, appropriately), but that was the exception to the rule. Moscow usually owned us. Tonight, Moscow owned Kellogg, just like when I was on the team, and the only reason the 64-34 margin wasn't wider was because of the Idaho mercy rule: the game clock didn't stop in the fourth quarter once Moscow had a thirty point lead.

Moscow has a 6' 4" sharp shooter named Gabe Quinnett. The name Quinnett sounded very familiar to me and the Moscow coaching staff had a very tall guy on it, also named Quinnett. Once home, I did some crack research and it all came back to me. Gabe Quinnett's father is former Cheney High School star and Washington State standout Brian Quinnett. It's been thirty years since he was a Cougar. Brian Quinnett also played about three years in the NBA.

3. After the game, Ed and I went up to the Inland Lounge. I drank a couple of beers, Ed and I yakked with Cas a bit about baseball -- with special emphasis on former Red Sox great Dwight Evans, who had family in Rose Lake, Idaho -- and soon we piled into Ed's Camry, leaving the laughter and classic rock music of the Lounge behind, and I was ready to hit the sack.

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