1. Back home. Back in my bed. Sleeping on my side with Luna next to my chest, all but her head under the covers. Copper pressed against my hip or thigh. It wasn't immediate, but once it registered to Copper and Luna that we were all back together, it's been a happy reunion. I'm very happy to report they were content under Debbie and Christy's care while I was traveling.
I should also mention, as I rest my laptop on his back while he's on my lap, Gibbs and I also have had a happy reunion.
2. It's chilly, almost frigid, out and I decided Debbie might appreciate some hot soup when she returned home from school today. I shopped for a few minutes at Yoke's so that I had just what I needed to make a Greek chicken rice soup and a batch of (not Greek!) corn muffins.
The soup was simple and I had a blast making it. I loved being back in the kitchen again, making sure dinner was ready whenever Debbie wanted it when she arrived home.
First, I combined two quarts of chicken stock, a pound of boneless chicken thighs, four celery stalks chopped into tiny pieces, and 3/4 of a cup of jasmine rice in the Dutch oven and slowly brought the stock to a slow boil and then turned down the heat a bit so the chicken and rice could simmer for about a half an hour.
While the soup bubbled away, I chopped about a half a cup of celery leaves and half a cup of cilantro. To these leaves I added the zest of a lemon and a grated clove of garlic and some salt.
I set this leafy mixture aside. It would garnish the soup.
I juiced two lemons and set the juice aside.
After simmering for about thirty minutes, the chicken was cooked. I used tongs and took out each piece and, using two forks, I shred the chicken and returned the meat to the pot.
Now I just let the soup stay warm until Debbie told me she was ready to have some.
At that point, I turned up the heat a bit, poured much, but not all, of the lemon juice into the soup and we each ladled ourselves a serving and topped it with the garnish.
This would be a bright and satisfying soup without the garnish, but the combined flavors of the celery leaves, cilantro, lemon zest, and the raw grated garlic made this soup taste really good and it did its job warming us up on this chilly evening.
I also made corn muffins, using a pouch of Marie Calendar's corn muffin mix -- I just followed the package's directions. It worked.
3. It's been about three weeks or so since I've tuned into Bill Davie's Poetry Break. It was a great pleasure to be back tonight. Listeners to the program sent in some excellent poems, Bill read his latest additions to his growing collection of "Old Manhood" poems, and he read two superb poets whose work is new to me: Leslie A. Fried and Kim Addonizio.
Oh! I blasted up to our local polling place at the Elks and voted. I can't bear the tension of following results as they come in. I'll try to digest it all when we are as close to knowing the final results as possible and then check in on occasion with the contests that won't be decided for some extended period of time.
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