Monday, June 19, 2023

Three Beautiful and One Very Ugly Thing 06-18-2023: The Ugly Thing, Return to Zoom, Roasting Shrimp, An Ina Garten Family Dinner

* Around 7:30 on June 18th, four people were shot to death in Kellogg about a block south of our house. I'm going to go ahead and write about the things that happened earlier in the day that were fun and enjoyable. The homicides are grievous. A suspect is in custody. 


1. After a hiatus of several weeks, Bridgit, Bill, Diane, and I jumped on ZOOM this afternoon and spent a couple of hours talking about a wide variety of fascinating topics. We talked about health concerns as we age, movies and television shows, contrasts in these shows between comedy and tragedy, the difficulties the Oregon Shakespeare Festival is experiencing, and our thoughts and observations about current stories in the news. 

I augmented my enjoyment of talking with my Westminster Basement friends by sipping on two cans of Nelson Brewing's Loki Lager with fresh squeezed lemon juice added. I don't have any of these beers left now, but I sure enjoyed them and will be sure to buy some more next time I travel to British Columbia! 

2. My assignment for family dinner was simple and, as it turned out, delicious. First, I combined ketchup, chili sauce, fresh squeezed lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, horseradish, and a touch of hot sauce to make a shrimp cocktail sauce.

Later, after thawing out a couple pounds of shrimp, I spread the shrimp out on a couple of parchment paper lined baking sheets, drizzled the shrimp with olive oil, seasoned them with salt and pepper, and roasted the shrimp for about 9-10 minutes. 

That's it. 

The shrimp cooled. 

I packed them in a container and PRESTO! tonight's appetizer was ready to go.

3. We had a great turnout for family dinner tonight: Christy hosted Paul, Carol, Molly, Brian, Debbie, and me on her backyard deck. We all dressed a little warmer than usual since we are having a spell of cool (and very welcome) weather. 

When Christy hosts family dinner, she likes to have all of us join her in fixing a contribution from a single cookbook (or cooking website) source. 

Tonight, we all prepared an Ina Garten recipe.

Along with my roasted shrimp cocktail, Paul started us out with a Limoncello Vodka Cocktail. For our dinner, Debbie made a string bean salad and Christy fixed skillet chicken and potatoes and prepared what Ina Garten calls Outrageous Garlic Bread. We topped off our dinner with Carol's strawberry rhubarb crisp. 

We yakked and laughed about any number of things, but when news of the shootings reached us, the night turned somber.

Paul and Carol left. All I really know is that Paul opened up the church across the street, offering it as a place where law enforcement personnel could use the bathrooms and for any other purpose that might be useful. 

I haven't talked with Carol and Paul since they left the dinner table. If they learned more about the details of the shootings, I don't know what they learned.

I'm avoiding rumors on Facebook and waiting for any reports that might come from the Shoshone County Sheriff's office or be covered in the CdA/Spokane media. 

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