Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Three Beautiful Things 12/09/19: Staying Home, Seafood Chowder, Stu and I Were Peacemakers

1. I'd been out and about quite a bit the last three days. Today, I paid attention to some things, like my laundry, at home and I rested, worked some puzzles, and thought about places I might go and people I might try to see in the not too distant future.

2. I thawed a couple of quarts of crab stock and went to work on making an improvised fish chowder. I had a few chunks of mahi-mahi in the freezer along with a bag of shrimp, so I thawed those and I sauteed onions and celery in butter. I chopped up a cauliflower (I sub out cauliflower for potatoes) and cooked it, along with the onions and butter, in the stock. I added the shrimp and mahi-mahi. Meanwhile, I combined butter, flour, half and half, and stock in a frying pan over heat, cooked it until it thickened up, and put it in the soup, tried to sense how much it was thickening the soup into a chowder, and added more half and half. At the last minute, I decided to add corn. I cut open a bag, thawed out the kernels in the frying pan, and added them.  I had added some seasoning (salt, pepper, Old Bay, and garlic powder) to the chowder. It turned out pretty good. I had myself a  bowl or so of warming chowder and have a couple of quarts left over to eat later in the week.

3. In conversation with Stu today, it turned out that he remembers me being central in our efforts to keep Greg (Crush) H. and Spike from engaging in fisticuffs at the Fort Ground Tavern about 45 years ago.  It turns out, I drew upon my vast experience as a mediocre outfielder for the Kellogg-Wallace American Legion baseball team and distracted Greg with conversation about players from CdA I had played against and that he might know. At the same time, Scott worked on getting Spike to leave. For both of us, the exact details are fuzzy, but we both agree that neither of us wanted a fight, neither wanted to see a fight, and that we are happy that our quick thinking and gift of yakking spared the Fort Ground Tavern a brawl.

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