1. Over the last, oh, let's say twenty years, I've given a lot of time over to doing things I enjoy and tried not to pressure myself into thinking I had to get really good at them. My ZOOM mates and I spent some time in our last meeting talking about this very thing -- we were talking about our lack of interest in "monetizing" things we do out of enjoyment of them.
I know that I'm not a superb writer, photographer, actor, cook, movie reviewer, beer taster, or, well, anything I do as an amateur. I don't think I've embarrassed myself (too often, at least) on stage, in the kitchen, behind the lens, and doing other things, but when I read really good writers, see superb photographs, watch cooks prepare superb food, I'm not in their league, nor do I need to be.
In baseball, a ton of players have played the game well, but aren't in the Hall of Fame.
Often they are said to be in the Hall of Pretty Good.
I think that's a fine place to be.
So, I plug along.
Today, I thought about how frequently, it seems, on Chopped the competitors say they will turn the ingredients into a ragout or a ragu.
So, I devoted a good chunk of time today to learning more about the stew known as ragout.
I also began looking more broadly into the different possibilities for making the pasta sauce known as ragu.
I need to write down my thoughts about the ragout and. ragu or else what I'm thinking about will disappear in the foggy wetlands of my short term memory.
2. Another thing I've been contemplating is going off script with our HelloFresh bags.
This evening, I followed HelloFresh's recipe and directions for Smashed Black Bean Tostadas, and then, once I'd finished HelloFresh's way to prepare them, I fried two eggs and put an egg on top of each of my tostados.
It was a simple move, inspired by a Chopped episode I watched that focused on brunch and how a good yolk-y egg enhances any number of entrees, entrees from a variety of different countries' cuisine.
I liked what I did.
I have leftover beans and cooked green peppers and onion seasoned with HelloFresh's southwest paste and southwest spice blend.
My plan now is to fry potatoes and some bacon and turn the leftover tostado ingredients into a kind of TexMex black bean hash.
3. I am very grateful for a post Bridgit made on our Westminster Study Group page. Right now, Bridgit's mother is very ill and in agony. Bridgit and her siblings are also agonizing and very upset about their mother's suffering and the inadequate medical attention she's received.
In the midst of all this trauma, Bridgit took time to go back and read blog posts I made as our mother was dying, and, not only quoted some of what I wrote in August 2017, but wrote about how much she appreciated knowing that Christy, Carol, Paul, and I, as well as other family members and friends of Mom's, were at Mom's side during her time in the nursing home, except at night, and gathered around her bed to bid her farewell right after she died, not long after Carol and Paul had been singing to her and had gone home.
Bridgit profoundly understood our devotion to Mom and, again, I'm very grateful that she wrote her appreciation and understanding.
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