1. Our Zoom group met this morning and continued our casual look at the literary genre of comedy. Our focus today was on how works in this genre often explore ways of knowing, the nature of our knowledge, and the nature of reality itself, with special emphasis on wonder, delight, amazement, marvel, and astonishment not only as something we experience, but as ways of knowing, as sources of knowledge. This led to our discussion of invisible realities, with special emphasis on dreams, the imagination, visions, and other realities, often regarded as not real or as inferior to that in the world which we experience with our senses. We looked at a short passage from Frederick Nietzche in which he argues that dream reality, not waking reality, is primary and most important in human experience. We talked about literary works where we see this played out and where characters by non-rational means, by being capable of astonishment and wonder arrive at truths inaccessible by other means -- we see this in The Accidental Tourist, The Winter's Tale, in the poetry of Mary Oliver, and, thanks to a reading by Colette, in the essays of Ross Gay, especially in his book, The Book of Delights.
Our discussion of concepts in comedy moved away from books, plays, movies, and poems to our own experiences with imagination, wonder, joy, dreams and triggered a really good discussion of what in our lives lives on beyond us, what the sources of continuation are in our lives. In comedy, the metaphor most commonly employed to give us a picture of continuation is marriage and its implicit promise of bringing new life through children into the world.
Our discussion included how having children (or step-children) is a source of continuation, but we also talked a lot about other ways we contribute to the continuation of life by means other than having children through good deeds, art, inventions, all that we create, our accomplishments, and other things.
Ross Gay's essay, "'Joy is Such a Human Madness'" sparked conversation of another sort as we looked at the co-existence of terror and joy in life, at the way in which terror and joy do not cancel each other out, but are means by which we know know ourselves, know one another, and connect with each other more deeply.
Our two hours of learning and discussion energized us as we enjoyed the vitality of one another's stories, insights, and explorations.
(ZOOM mates: If you feel so moved,please feel free to add to my description of our meeting in the Facebook comments -- I'd love to have you fill in my inevitable gaps.)
2. We ended our time together on Zoom and BOOM! I went straight to the kitchen to prepare my offerings for today's Mother's Day family dinner. Carol is the only mother among us, so Christy thought it would be fun for her and me to prepare a meal fulfilling whatever request Carol made.
Carol told us she wanted a Middle East fish dinner.
Christy texted me later and volunteered to prepare a cocktail, a salad, and dessert. I was happy (ecstatic actually) to figure out a fish entree, our appetizers, and wine.
I love food from the Middle East. I'm also inexperienced when it comes to cooking fish. Therefore, I was mildly anxious about what I was taking on, but excited at the same time.
So, on Saturday, I bought two chunks of frozen Chilean Sea Bass at Pilgrim's, each thick and weighing a little over a pound and I thawed them, and, before I jumped on Zoom, I took them out of the refrigerator so they'd soon be at room temperature.
My next move was to make a marinade mixing cilantro, parsley, cumin, saffron, garlic, and paprika and combining it with fresh lemon juice, white wine vinegar, and tomato paste.
I cut the two fish chunks into four and put the marinade over the fish, sealed the container, and let it sit for two hours.
While the fish marinated, I poked holes in a large eggplant and put it in the oven at 375 degrees and roasted it, removed it, and let it cool.
Once cooled, I removed the skin and let it sit in a colander for about 10 minutes. Once embittering liquid had drained from it, I mashed it in a bowl and added tahini, minced garlic, and lemon juice, mixed it together and, last of all, added olive oil. That's all it took to have a bowl of Baba Ghannouj.
I also wanted to make another dip available for our appetizer, so I got out the food processor, dumped a can of chickpeas in it along with a quarter cup of the liquid from the can. To this I added lemon juice, garlic, and tahini, flipped on the food processor, put the mixture in a bowl, drizzled olive oil over the top and that's all it took to have Hummus for our dinner.
I then turned my attention back to the Moroccan Baked Chilean Sea Bass with Olives, Tomatoes, and Potatoes.
I cut three Yukon Gold potatoes into half inch thick slices, brought them to a boil, simmered them for about fifteen minutes, drained them, and let them cool.
I also cut a red pepper into thin slivers and cut each of the cherry tomatoes in a pint container in half.
Soon I decided the fish had marinated long enough so I assembled the ingredients. I lined the bottom of a glass baking dish with parchment paper and created a layer of the Yukon Golds. I topped the potatoes with the chunks of Chilean Sea Bass and spooned the leftover marinade over them. I topped the fish with the tomatoes, red peppers, and pitted Kalamata olives.
The dish was ready to go into the 350 degree oven.
Here's where my mild anxiety took hold.
The recipe called for the fish to bake for 30 minutes, but I didn't really know if these pieces I was baking were of the same or similar thickness to what the recipe assumed.
I quickly went on line and discovered that sea bass is done when its internal temperature is between 135 and 145 degrees.
My primary concern was over cooking the fish. I didn't want it to be dry.
So I set the time for 25 minutes, baked the fish, took it out and measured the temperature in a thick spot of one of the chunks.
It still had a ways to go.
I then baked the sea bass in four minute increments. After each of these periods, I took the fish's temperature, and after about four returns to the oven, I determined the fish was baked through and still moist.
I knew that in the time between my arrival at Carol and Paul's and when we ate, the fish would cook some more while resting, but I trusted that it was in good enough shape to bear more slow cooking while at rest.
3. Because the fish entree took longer than I had planned to bake, I texted Christy, asked her to take over the pocket bread and two dips since I was going to be late.
She did so happily.
I arrived at Carol and Paul's. Molly had come up from Moscow and Christy was in the process of serving the best cocktail, in my opinion, that we've ever had for family dinner.
In the Middle East tradition of loving cucumber and mint and lemons and oranges, she made a cocktail that mixed lemonade with cucumber/mint vodka, garnished with orange peel and mint. I loved the citrus and the mint working together and cucumber always has a cooling and refreshing effect on a mixed drink. I hope this cocktail will return one day!
So we snacked on Prophet's Ezekiel 4:9 pocket bread -- I read the verse from the Book of Ezekiel that inspired the bread -- dipped in Hummus and Baba Ghannouj and enjoyed the cocktail.
We moved on to the main course. Christy made a vibrant, fresh, and deep tasting Middle East green salad and I'm happy to report that the fish I baked was neither undercooked nor dry. The combined flavors of the marinade along with the red pepper, olives, and tomatoes worked perfectly and the somewhat neutral tasting potatoes were a welcome balance to the other more bold tasting ingredients. I'd never, to my memory, eaten sea bass before and it was velvety, not really rich, and very pleasing. I'd love to return to this fish sometime. I brought a bottle of Pinto Grigio and it paired beautifully with the fish and salad.
For dessert, Christy made us chocolate Israeli truffles with sprinkles. I don't think any of us expected sprinkles on anything and so were were delighted with the truffles and enjoyed how tasty they were. Christy brought her homemade limoncello to drink with our truffles and Paul made a pot of decaf coffee, and, for me, the slight bitterness of the coffee was a welcome taste, balancing out the subtle sweetness of the truffles and limoncello.
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