Palpable

Hi Honey!  How are you?  How's work?  I hope you are taking time to relax, and eat properly.  I'm still keeping to my house and trying to stay out of sight.  The tourists are more active today than yesterday, and they can be seen putting around in the countryside.  Nothing special on the menu, just chili and pocket bread.  Not worth photographing.  I'm sorry you didn't like my chicken and corn the other day.  When I look back at that snapshot, it did look kind of squalid.  That's how I feel right now, squalid.  It takes money to eat well.  But I have enough food, so I don't have to shop for more until the tourists leave town.

Hey Natty honey!  How are you doing, you gorgeous girl?  I know you are popular, and that you are being invited to parties and such.  You're just killing the college guys with how hot you are.  Please avoid drugs and alcohol, OK?

Eerie

Hi Honey!  How are you today.  I hope everything is going absolutely grand for you, and that you are keeping warm.  Nothing much going on here, because I trying to keep it that way.  I trying to stay away from the crowd.  The atmosphere is hot and creepy.  There is an eerie silence overall, but we all know that there is a lot of people here.  When I took out the trash just now, all I saw were the eyes of strangers.  Nothing special on the menu, either.  I had a couple of burgers for lunch, and I fried up some rice vermicelli for dinner.

Natty Honey, how's it going?  Are you keeping warm?  I could sure use a little bit of snow right now- it's very hot here.  Yes I am watching a movie right now, but I'm not going to tell you what it is.  Let's just say it's a scary movie.

Timber!

Hi Honey!  How are you?  You must be very busy, as usual.  Yes, I am quite busy here.  This weekend is the Chinese New Year, and we will be inundated with tourists.  I thought the Chinese New Year was last weekend.  This town was bloated with tourists last weekend, so it's going to be worse this weekend.  Plus the General Elections are coming up in a month or so, and the locals are behaving very strangely.  I was planning to go downtown to pick up more veggies for this month's exploration into Erin's food, but scratch that.  Instead, I'll have to go to the "closest-whatever-that's-open" store to pick up basic Zam food, and barricade myself in my house for the next 4 days.

I did cut down a tree this evening over at your house inshaAllah.  Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him) once mentioned that a Muslim is like a palm tree, straight and true.  Well this coconut palm had lost its crown due to corruption and parasites, and is curved towards the road.  Whatever that may (obviously) mean, it has to come down and away from the power lines.  But it was curved towards the road, so no matter how I notched it, it would still fall towards the road.  So I used ropes to break and control its fall, away from the power lines.  Alhamdulillah, it went well.  It was scary though.  It wasn't a big tree, but big enough to kill little old me.

Natty Darling, you are so smokin' hot I'm surprised that you feel cold at all.  The beautiful Snow Queen feels the chill.  If I could, I would package this sweltering heat and send it over to you to help warm you up.  It never gets cold around here.  If it does cool down, it's nothing more than a cuddle or a blankie can't solve.

Chicken and corn

Hi Honey!  How are you today?  How is your left eye, by the way?  Is it itching, irritation or allergies perhaps?  I'm just checking, that's all.  It is HOT today.  It's past sunset right now, and it's still hot.  That freakish cool weather is definitely over.  I need to start watering the plants earlier.  But I so love to sleep in!  I don't though.  I need to go and buy more vegetarian fixings for this month's exploration into Erin's food.  You don't just eat vegetarian, do you?  I know you eat corn bread.  So I made chicken and corn with tortillas for dinner today.  I slow cooked the chicken breast in a sauce of honey, soy sauce, garlic, and red hot pepper puree.  All I did to the corn was add black pepper and heat it up.  Nice and simple.  You must like this.  It's good for you.

Natty Honey, how are you?  Are you studying hard?  I don't have any movie assignments for you today.  I don't know if you noticed, but these movies can take over one's life.  But it goes deeper than that.  Let's just say that God is my Program Director.  Ya Allah, please forgive and protect me and my loved ones!  Say, don't you agree that your big brother looks a lot like Roger Moore?  Shave off the beard and put him in a tuxedo, and voila!  007!  Want some chicken and corn?

Cats

When I got done with voice training today, I walked out of my bedroom/office to find Floofy with a claw tangled up in the hairs of Chee Cheah's butt.  They were both snarling and growling at each other, but they were very well stuck to each other.  Oh yeah, I managed to get them free.  Of course.

While I was doing whatever it was I was doing that evening, I came across a realization of the connection between ranch dressing and alfredo sauce: the only difference is the eggs.  So I though I would try that out: as long as I kept an eye on it, it should turn out OK.  So I cooked my pasta and heated up the ranch dressing at low heat, I put a lid on the sauce and had to wait.  Of course.  Then I had to drain and cool the pasta, but Doutzen is in heat right now and she needed to be petted otherwise I would be kicking her all over the kitchen because she would be holding on to my foot at all times, so I forgot to stir the sauce or even check it.  Since I made my mayo from scratch using egg whites, the sauce turned into a very fluffy omelet (excluding the burned spot at the bottom of the saucepan).  So for dinner, I had pasta salad (fettucine) with ranch omelet and diced tomatoes tossed in Italian dressing.

It actually tasted quite good: it tasted exactly how it sounds.  And I had a huge helping too, as you can see.  But my stomach doesn't like strange combinations.  I should have made pasta salad with tomatoes tossed in Italian dressing, with a ranch omelet on the side.  This made me aware that I haven't tried pasta salads yet in this month's exploration into Erin's food.  Do you eat pasta?  Doesn't pasta have gluten?

Natty Dahlink!  You beautiful little sweetheart!  Your movie assignment for today is another James Bond movie from 1981, "For Your Eyes Only" featuring Roger Moore as 007.  Wow, my computer is really focused right now at giving you movies to watch.  Which brings to mind a concern I have, are you going to be one of those starlets that would do any nude scene just for the sake of the movie and eventually wind up doing porn?  I hope not.  You are recognized for your chastity, integrity, and piety.  That is your image and selling point.  You are my wife inshaAllah.

If my life were a movie...

Hi Honey!  How are you today?  I hope you are feeling and doing great.  It's been a hectic evening for me.  In a span of less than 2 hours, I did my laundry, swept and mopped my mother's kitchen, repaired a harvesting saw, climbed onto my roof and fixed some shingles, went to the store and bought water, hung up my laundry, cleaned up after the cats, cooked dinner and ate dinner.  Oh, I did the dishes and showered too.  I could have done just one of those things all evening and it would have been healthier for me, but it dudn't turn out that way.  One thing led to another.

Dinner was rice vermicelli noodles again.  Wok fried in sauce.  I don't enjoy working with rice vermicelli- it either clumps up into a big glob, or it fragments all over the place.  I prefer the big noddles.  Frying noodles in a lot like mixing a salad, I find.  Except that there's heat involved.  Dinner was tasty though, alhamdulillah.  Today's dinner, although not officially an act of exploration into Erin's food, could qualify as vegetarian.  Except the fish cake.  And the egg.

Hey Natty!  How are you, beautiful girl?  I have another movie assignment for you.  I don't have a lot of movies in my collection, especially in comparison to the huge database out there that you should be studying if you want to be a movie star.  I have only the movies which came into my life as it happened, which I want to share with you.  InshaAllah, the connection with me will help you become a movie star.  Today's movie is "Better Off Dead" from 1985.  Hey, it's on YouTube!

Ranch

Ray-yanch!  Ah gotta have mah RAY-YANCH!

This month's exploration into Erin's food continues with ranch dressing.  The beauty of ranch dressing is that it can make almost anything taste good if you pour enough ranch dressing on it.  Ranch dressing is basically mayo and milk with seasonings which is mostly salt and onions and chives.  When I was back at the restaurant, I made ranch dressing with buttermilk and mayo, but I think it's fine to use milk or cream if you balance the milky flavor with the mayo.  Today I made my own mayo with egg whites and palm oil.  Then I used milk, anchovy bouillon and chives and guess what?  It tastes like ranch.  But it was kind of runny (more milk than mayo) so I thickened it up with powdered milk ( I had to run to the supermarket to get that).  Now it tastes milky, but I'll balance that out tomorrow.  Obviously I don't have a set recipe for my home made ranch dressing yet, but it's still good.  So for dinner today, I made a veggie platter with jicama, broccoli and tomatoes.  With ranch dressing, of course.

 

Natty Honey, your movie assignment for today is "The Matrix" from 1999.  Yes I know you've seen it already but watch it again, this time from the perspective of a professional in mass media (namely, MY girl).  Or should I say "movie star"?  You can be a movie star if you want to, but please be my wife first if you want my endorsement.  You know, using humans as batteries is an interesting idea and all, but they should have farmed electric eels instead.  More power per hassle value.  The machines should have known that.