What I Learned This Week: #43

Sunday, March 18 – Saturday, March 24

The Week in Kitchen Techniques: One of my meals this week was Three Sisters Soup, a take on the traditional Native America recipe featuring corn, squash, and beans – three sisters of ingredients. I like to use corn on the cob as opposed to frozen corn kernel and for years I cut corn off the kernel on a cutting board. That’s messy and inefficient. Now I know better and I’ve got my de-kerneling act together (as seen in the picture). Plus, I never think a meal is done until I’ve used as many of my cooking tools as possible. Plus-Plus, I throw the empty cob in the soup for more flavor before throwing it away. (Smart and frugal, she’s a keeper!!)

corn on the cob.jpg — The two bowl method of de-kerneling helps me use (and have to clean) as many extra bowls as possible.

The Week in Drinking Like It’s My Job: I walked out of my apartment at 1 pm on Saturday with the full intention of eating lunch and walking back home. I did not intend that the interval between my starting and ending point would be 10 hours. But, there you have it. Coming back from lunch, I found a buddy sitting at MOTR. I joined him for a drink and a chat. And then some more of that. When I sat down there were a few day drinkers in a mostly empty bar. When I left, the bar was mostly full, the first band had played, and 10 hours had passed. I had a blast. I know this because my phone had 3 pictures just like this on it!

I don’t remember taking the picture, but I remember having a great time.

The Week in One Last Word: Walking home from MOTR there was a man in front of me on the sidewalk, back to me, bent over tying his shoe. As I closed in on him, I announced my presence, a habit of mine because I think it’s polite. So I say, “coming up behind you,” and he stands up, orients himself to my presence and says “no problem.” As I passed on I said “have a nice night” and he said, inexplicably to me, “nice hat.” Honestly, I think he said nice hat. But my hat isn’t spectacular. Maybe he said, “ass hat.” Something to think about.

The Week in a Book and a Beer: The beer is Rhinegeist’s The Truth, perhaps appropriate for the book. I’m reading Kaffir Boy, an autobiography about growing up black in Apartheid era South Africa. Written in 1986 just a few years before the end of Apartheid in 1991, it’s a tough look back at the atrocities of that era.