Tuesday, December 31, 2002

Thanks to one of my favorite bloggers, I can still experience New Year's in Madrid--only without the worry of having to drag my pre-schooler through those crowded streets. Another rather disastrous supper tonight.  I bought a box of crab legs for a special New Year's Eve dinner.  I guess they turned out alright.  I just heated them up in the oven and served them with a little garlic butter--but I bet I cracked a dozen legs and probably managed to consume about 25 calories.  My husband gave up after 5 calories.  I promised to make popcorn later.  Because if there's one thing I can do exceptionally well in the kitchen, aside from the dozen or so repertoire items, it is popcorn.  The secret is to use moderate heat, let the steam escape, and pop in coconut oil--(saturated fat be damned. I am more afraid of boxed cereal than I am of saturated fat, when it comes to health, but that's a fututre diatribe.) However, my popcorn making was interrupted by a telephone call from a Mexican friend, asking me to come over to her house if we had no plans. We had no plans. In the wake of our trip to Spain and then a hasty Christmas, I'd forgotten all about New Year's Eve.  So Kipp and I trundled over to her house for a quiet visit.  I guess I misunderstood because we wound up in the middle of a veritable fiesta.  I was dragging and really not in the party mood so we didn't stay long.  But as I was leaving Mina, as usual, insisted I take food with me.  She made me up a huge plate of chicken salad which didn't look particularly appetizing. When I got home, out of a sense of obligation, I tried it and was transported to another dimension.  Maybe it was because I was hungry--those 25 miniscule crab calories I'd had for dinner had long since been burned off--and hunger is the best spice.  Or maybe it was because this Mexican chicken salad was the perfect combination of protein, carbohydrate and fat.  The point is it was SUBLIMELY DELICIOUS.  I could scarcely stop from eating the entire plate.  From what I could see there were only four ingredients:  shredded chicken, diced potatoes, diced carrots and mayonaise.  What I need to find out is exactly how those 4 ingredients came together so deliciously.  A new quest.  I've a feeling that if I ate a little of that chicken salad every night before bed, I'd sleep like a baby and wouldn't wake up in the middle of the night craving something sweet. Have to see how I sleep tonight.  Regardless, I am definitely adding that chicken salad to the repertoire, especially for summer meals. comment []9:44:25 PM     I could have called this blog "The Mortician's Sister".  Not too appetizing though, I suppose. You're thinking I have a gloomy gus brother employed in the trade.  Nope. My sister, my statuesque runway-model-type sister, is indeed a mortician.  I've been trying to convince her to start a blog.  In this small town it's always interesting to hear who has died and why, and occasionally, how.  Out of respect for the dead, she demurred.  Or maybe it's because she doesn't have a computer.  Or the fact that she has a life.  Only good girls, or perhaps bad mothers, have the time to keep a blog.  Reverse Cowgirl notwithstanding. comment []3:53:28 PM

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