Letter to Erin 20151021

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Hello beautiful Erin!  How are you, my gorgeous darling?  I suppose you're having fun with sports.  I'm sorry, but I'm not a sports fan.  I support the teams you love.  I like fish, though.  This morning, my Dad gave me a big scad.  A hardtail scad, with thick skin perfect for grilling.  But I need a new grill, plus I don't have any butter for basting, so I'm going to have to figure out someway else to cook it.  Let me teach you how to prep it.  Hardtail scad doesn't have scales.  First I use a pair of kitchen scissors to make a cut beginning from the anus right up to the gills.  Don't cut deeply, just deep enough to reach the stomach cavity.  The base of the gills start right at the mouth, so cut there.  Then make another cut at the opposite end of the gills, right at the roof of the skull.  So now you loosened the gills, pull on them with your hand, making sure you loosen the membranes that hold the stomach parts to the fish.  All the stomach parts should be attached to the gills, except the roe.  Separate the roe cautiously- it's delicious!  I got soft roe with my fish today.  Not as tasty as mackerel roe, but still good.  Keep the liver, too.  Then I used my big old Chinese cleaver to chop off the head and the tail.  My cleaver is pretty sharp, so I used it to fillet the fish.  I separated to biggest lengths of flesh from the skin, and put them away in the freezer.  There's still a lot of flesh stuck to the skin and bones, so I will be frying these up tomorrow inshaAllah.

Normally, I would have sashimi or sushi with the fillet, but today I want won tons stuffed with cuttlefish and chicken wings for dinner.  Ah, praise Allah!  It's a good day for food.  You must come and share my dinner with me.  I love you Erin, and I need you.

Letter to Erin 20151020

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

I absolutely must teach you how to process seafood.  Ugh!  Now don't get me wrong, I love seafood.  But prepping seafood is so tedious.  And stinky.  And slimy.  It's not like chicken or beef.  Tonight's seafood is cuttlefish.  Cuttlefish is a squid and like all seafood, fresh cuttlefish shouldn't have any smell.  Until you open it up, and reveal what they eat.  Fresh squid should have tight skin with evenly distributed color: white squid may be because the skin was peeled off to give the illusion of fresh.  Squid is stinkier than fish, but the good thing is that cats hate the smell of squid, and they leave me alone when I'm working with it.  First I separate the heads from the bodies, by carefully pulling it out of the body with the guts still attached.  Then I remove the ink sacs, the beak, and the eyes.  I keep the stomach and liver if it doesn't smell bad.  If there's something in the stomach, then it would smell bad.  If you managed to pull all the guts out with the heads, then there should be nothing left in the bodies.  Remove the spines from the bodies, and they're good to go.  Just wash them off, and keep the heads and the bodies in separate Tupperware.  Squid freezes well, and keep for a long time in the freezer.

But it's not squid for dinner.  My Mom gave some tomato rice, with chicken in a spicy red sauce, and a mixed pickle.  This stuff is usually served at local weddings.  I would share it with you, but I already ate it all.  Plus, you're not here.  Wish you were here.  I love you, and I need you.

Letter to Erin 20151019

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Hi there, beautiful Erin!  How's life treating you today?    What's it like to be so gorgeous?  You're such a sweetheart, Erin.  I love you so much.  Of course I need you.  You're my girl.

Nothing all that special happening today either.  Floofy is on a self imposed diet.  She does eat, but much less than she used to so her poop isn't as big.  She's still a fat cat, though.  I was right about her daughters ---- and -------: they're always in heat.  They take a 4 day break, then go back in heat.  Before they became sexually mature, they were somewhat disciplined about their pee.  At least it was somewhere around the cat box.  5 siblings, what do you expect.  Then they started to go in heat, so they used that excuse to point their pee wherever they please or rather, wherever is the best chance that I would step in it.  Varmints!  ------- has to be the naughtiest kitten I've ever had, and she sets a bad example.  But these kittens don't copy their mother, who is very well behaved.  Floofy had a tough beginning, perhaps that's why she's so well behaved as an adult.  Is that the reason?  That the kittens are too spoiled?  I love all my cats, though.

Other than that, there's nothing special on the menu either.  Just flat bread with leftover fish curry.  I clean my parents' bedroom every Sunday.  Even if I had money to pay a maid, my mother doesn't like strangers in her bedroom.  The robotics experts need to focus on designing house cleaning robots.  Focus on need, and that's where you can make some money, people.  Don't just think "war".  What the hell am I talking about?  Oh yeah, I would buy a house cleaning robot.  Other than that, I did some burning in the evening.  The grass over at your house inshaAllah is nice and short, and the yard is looking nice and respectable.  I still can't catch up with all the trees but inshaAllah, we'll get there, Sweetie.  We'll get there.

Letter to Erin 20151018

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Oh hi Erin.  How are you, my darling?  Are you looking after yourself properly?  Please do so because I love you very much, and I need you.

Not much happening here today, my love.  Had fish curry for brunch, I cut grass over at your house inshaAllah after voice training, and now I'm waiting for them to call the sunset prayer, and after I pray then it's beef and potatoes with marinara sauce for dinner.  Want some?

Erin, I want you to know that if anything happens to me here, I would not impose on you.  I understand and accept that it is not your place to help or protect me.  It is my job to look after you.

Letter to Erin 20151017

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Hi Erin!  How's it going today, Sweetie?  I love you lots!  And I need you.  I hope you are eating properly, and getting enough rest.  Please look after yourself, since I'm not there to feed you OK?

Since I had all that mackerel, of course I made another batch of fish curry.  Alhamdulillah it turned out great today.  What's my fish curry recipe?  I don't know!  I don't have a recipe!  Besides, there must be a million recipes for fish curry out there, so people don't need mine.  I just try to follow my Mom's recipe somewhat.  She makes the bestest fish curry.  Plus I don't have the right ingredients, plus she never told me all the ingredients and measurements, plus I had this stuff that I had to use up.  Thus I flew by the seat of my pants as usual.  Story of my life.  There is no such thing as control.  The best we can do is to run towards Allah.  But my fish curry turned out great alhamdulillah.  Just remember to put the fish in last and not to overcook the fish, or it will disintegrate into the broth and make an unpalatable mess.

Letter to Erin 20151016

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Go Cubs!  Yay!  Woo Hoo!!  Woo Hoo!!  Woo Hoo!!  Woo Hoo!!  Woo Hoo!!  Woo Hoo!!  Woo Hoo!!  Woo Hoo!!  Woo Hoo!!  Woo Hoo!!  Woo Hoo!!  Woo Hoo!!  Woo Hoo!!  Woo Hoo!!  Woo Hoo!!  Woo Hoo!!  Woo Hoo!!  Woo Hoo!!

Hi Erin.  How are you feeling today, my love?  I have a bit of a headache today, probably from drinking too much coffee yesterday.  I did a load of shopping this morning.  Just the basics: coffee, sugar, creamer, soap, shampoo, noodles, and tomato soup.  Hey, these smart phones are pretty handy for keeping my shopping list!  I have a good tomato harvest, so I'll be making marinara sauce.  Mackerel was cheap today, half price from last time.  None of them had any roe.  I ate half of it as sashimi for lunch.  I'm thinking of a super thick curry sauce for tomorrow, because all I have for coconut milk is the thick stuff.  I try not to waste food, so I had some shrimp heads left over from the last time I made stuffed won tons, so I fried them up crispy then refried them in a simple batter of flour, egg, onions, water, salt and pepper as shrimp head croquettes.  Westerners balk at eating shrimp heads, but I have no problem with it. Very tasty and crispy.  Now I'm longing for jumbo shrimp heads stuffed with cream cheese fried in spicy sauce.  Oh so good!  But that's rich man's food.  What have you been eating?  Are you living on a diet of caviar on toast?  Princess!  I had caviar once, but all I could taste was salt.  I prefer fresh roe- doesn't need salt.  Try to eat a balanced diet because you're so busy, OK?  I love you and I need you.

Letter to Erin 20151015

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Hi Erin!  How are you, my darling?  Are you busy being the heart of the party?  You're my sweetheart.  Please look after yourself in my absence.  I love you and I need you.  I'm writing this letter a little earlier than usual, because it had been raining from 2 to 4 pm, and quite heavily too.  So it's too wet to cut grass (I tried that before and got wet gook all over my face, and a cold thereof), and the crops don't need watering.  Then my Mom got me some rice from downtown so I didn't have to bother about dinner.  She also said I smell like a cow.  What?  I took a shower at 11 am, and stayed in the air conditioning until 4!  It must the humidity, because the morning was hot and sunny.  Or it could be the influence of Floofy's daughters.  They're always in heat.  They take a break for 4 days, then go back into heat for 2 weeks.  Filthy beasts!  My mop has never been so busy.  But as a paradox, my floor has never been cleaner.  So I'm going to take this opportunity to laze around, watch TV and play video games.  Later after the night prayer, I think I'll practice bass.  Ya Allah, please grant me a good fretless bass and bass amp combo!  And the drum set I want!  And a 12 string gold top Les Paul!  With a nice tube amp setup!  And a complete studio setup!  So many necessities...