Thursday, June 30, 2005

It's Possible To Cook Like A Lunatic
I know, because I did it. Lydia kept telling me about a dinner party she had arranged for this evening. She kept asking me what I thought she should serve. Those facts coupled with the knowledge that I'm going to be away for five weeks and should empty the fridge of things which might spoil...So I volunteered to cater her party. I put off starting the job because I had one more book to finish of my most recent grocery store book binge. That complete, I stood with the fridge door open for a long time considering my options.

Eventually I made aubergine au gratin. Also I produced two main course salads and baked chicken in teriyaki sauce, sliced it up. I made deviled eggs. Outdoors, I picked an enormous sack of Black-Seeded Simpson lettuce, came indoors and cleaned it and put it into the fridge to recrisp. All of this began to seem like work. By 4:00 P.M. I was hot and sweaty amd wondering if I am a lunatic. Before I actually collapsed on the kitchen floor, everything was finished and Lydia came to collect it. At the last minute I also did a big pot of just-picked Crook-Neck Yellow squash. I did succeed in cleaning a lot of stuff out of my fridge. Also I washed and put away many, many pots and pans. Further, I am tired, so maybe I can sleep tonight. All good points, but I still think I'm a lunatic. What kind of a nut would do all that work for no pressing reason? I could have put the stuff in a sack and given it to a neighbor. There was no moral imperative at work calling out to me to toil over a hot stove on a hot day. Crazy. If I ever run out of other more interesting ideas, I'm going to take my head to a shrink and see if I qualify, officially, that is, qualify as a wacko.

Oh, that latest book binge...the best of them was The Hundredth Man by somebody Kerley. Very good. It's his first book and he looks my age. Guy shoulda started before this. By now he could have produced many entertaining tomes. Instead, he wasted his life earning a living. People!

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