Almost fruit season

 

Hi beautiful Natty!  How's life as a glamorous supermodel?  I hope you're having fun wherever you are.  Please show us some snapshots of your food!  I'm sure the world would love to see that, me included.  I didn't prepare anything too complex today.  For lunch, I had ramen.  I love ramen!  I guess you could call my ramen complex.  I've stopped using those seasoning packets that you would normally find inside packets of ramen.  Instead, I buy ramen by the 10 pack, without any seasoning packets.  A saving of 50%!  Plus, the latest batch of miso is really good.  Mix that in with a seaweed broth, and you're ready to go.  Today I added some fish jerky flakes (I had to use the stuff up or throw it away).  It hurts my tummy, but I washed it down twice in the sink before putting it in the soup.  The Japanese would use bonito flakes for their broth, but we don't have that here.  Instead there is a wide variety of salted fish, which I plan to use for broth once I get rid of this fish jerky stuff.

Mango flowers aren't suitable for bouquets, and they are seldom as pretty as the snapshot above.  But they are a labor of love, for sure.  Looks like this year's fruit season will peak right at the beginning of Ramadan inshaAllah.  There is always some early fruit and some late stragglers, but I intend to keep an eye on them all.  This year it looks like cashews, horseradish beans, 3 types of mangoes and some bananas should all ripen at the same time.  I don't know what to do with the horseradish beans.  The only thing I can think of is a sushi condiment, and there's far too many of them to do that.  I'll give it all away to the locals, and they make curry out of them.  I don't think I would have time to experiment with the stuff.  Well, maybe once.  Watch out, tummy!  I'm going to make sweet mango pickles this year inshaAllah.  Those things will last a long time, and maybe I can make them as good as cucumber pickles.  I finished making one harvesting pole with a wire mesh catch this evening, I'm going to make another pole specially for harvesting the horseradish beans.

The chicken and egg theory

Hi Natty!  How's it going with you today?  I hope you are well and having lots of fun.  I've been admiring your feet, Honey.  You look like you have strong feet.  So much stronger than my feet, which are oversized and not in a good way.  You're going to have to slow down to keep up with me whenever we walk together.

Since today is Sunday, I had takeout rice for lunch because I spent the morning cleaning my mother's bedroom.  I would rather have my own cooking, because Allah gave some knowledge of cooking and I can prepare what I want to eat as long as I can afford the ingredients.  I decided on chicken tenders and fries for dinner.  Dammit, I don't have any breadcrumbs!  I didn't want to go out and buy breadcrumbs, so I thought I would just coat them in a savory flour.  Which got my thinking, with chicken tenders you coat the chicken with flour then dunk them in egg then roll them in breadcrumbs, right?  But isn't egg chicken, and chicken egg?  Why bother with giving the chicken a coat of flour?  So I didn't, and the savory flour still stuck to the chicken dunked in egg without the coat of flour.  But it wasn't good enough.  Dammit, I needed breadcrumbs!

Here are some more nice snapshots from the How does your avatar look today ? thread:

 

Familiar flower

 

Hi Natty!  Oho, you don't recognize it?  You don't remember your own illustrious career?  I'm sure you do.  It's been a long time, huh?  So much has happened, and the world turned inside out then crept into its cave.  And that cave is where I've been all these years, bur my grave doesn't fit me yet.  I don't have my girl!  I love you, Natty.

This morning I was quite active in the kitchen, but I didn't get to finish all that I wanted to do.  Let's see, I started a new batch of pickled soybeans, and I made a nice soup to go with my noodles, but I didn't get around to making dough.  I had to go out and do some shopping for my mother.  In the evening however, I was unmotivated.  I did get started on a pole with a wire basket for this year's mango season, but then I had to make a batch of cat food.  Dinner was scrambled eggs with sliced bread.  So unmotivated.  Maybe I need a nap.  I hope you are having tons of fun at your tropical paradise!

Pleased

 

Natty, you're back at a tropical paradise!  Ah, the glamorous life of a  fabulous supermodel.  Natty, you're so pretty!  From those overland power lines and coconut trees, it certainly looks tropical but not Asian.  I would guess that right now you're somewhere in the Caribbean.  How marvelous!  How a wonderful time my beloved, and please take care of your health and safety.

Here's another nice snapshot from the How does your avatar look today ? thread:

Mary Unknown7 has been pleased with me lately.  She says I've been doing my job.  How annoying!  How could I not be doing my job?  What else is there for me to do?  Anyway the light in these snapshots is strangely pale, so much that the hair has much greater contrast to the skin.  The face and body almost look out of focus, don't you think?  It was a great photo shoot though.

New collar blues

 

Hi Natty!  How are you feeling today?  I hope you are having a splendid time, and everything is easy going for you.  Do you like the morning glory?  It was actually almost time for the midday prayer, but that one flower was still in bloom.  The camera doesn't have a macro mode, so the neighbor's yard is sharper than the flower.  I guess I should have backed up a bit and used the zoom, but the zoom is kind of grainy.  Oh well, at least it's better than my old piece of shit camera.

I had to make a new collar for Lookie yesterday.  The old collar wasn't doing its job anymore, and Lookie managed to lick her butt raw again last heat.  She had figured out how to pin the edge of the old collar to the fold of her pooch, and then her snout was able to reach the vital areas.  The new collar is longer, so perhaps now that butt has a cjance to heal.  I guess I should have taken a snapshot, huh?  Poor kitty.

Mary wants to join a band episode 5: Don't make a Superband

 

Hi Natty!  Do you like the flowers?  Those are henna flowers.  The pods you see grow to be fruit that the ancients use to crush and make dye, not just for clothes but also for hair and temporary tattoos.  A very fragrant flower.  How are you feeling, my love?  How is the Public Eye treating you?  You seem a bit nervous.  Try to relax and enjoy the process.  Have fun with it.  At the same time, be focused and don't allow others to sway you off topic with their own agendas.  Don't worry Honey, you're going to do absolutely great!  I don't really pay much mind to the Public Eye.  It hasn't really given much of a shit about me, and the feeling is mutual.  I don't even shower for the Public Eye anymore.  I only shower for my wife, dammit!  Well also for my mother, and I always shower before Mary Unknown7 shows up for her voice session.  People try to influence me on how to conduct Mary's business.  Take for example Covet: the Public Eye seems to be of the opinion that Mohini Dey would be the best bass player for the band:

It's a sound concept.  Mohini would definitely be able to tackle math rock, and her Hindi style would bring huge dimension to the music.  But let's face it folks, Covet is Yvette Young's band.  Yvette is the star of that band.  If she accepts Mary Unknown7 in her band, then Mary would just be there to sing lead, then dance and look pretty during the instrumentals.  Having Mohini as the bass player would turn Covet into a superband, but is that right?  Would Van Halen sound like Van Halen with Victor Wooten on bass?  Would Metallica sound like Metallica with Les Claypool on bass?  And what would be Mohini's motivation to stick with the band?  I get the feeling she would probably be like Bill Bruford looking for a better Yes.  What Yvette really needs is help with songwriting and lyrics, to create a huge catalog of songs before that hit comes.  Because when that hit does come, then the band is going to need all those songs and they better be good.  This is the typical pressure on the star, you can see it in bands like Nirvana and early Pink Floyd.  Being a superband doesn't mean good songs.  "Sunshine of your love" by Cream is probably the tackiest and gayest song I have ever heard in my life.  Anyway, I would recommend sticking with loyalty.  A bass player who loves Yvette for her music, and would put heart and soul into the band.  Someone who doesn't blow off rehearsals and gigs.  If Mohini could do that, then that would still be up to Yvette.

Here's another nice snapshot from the How does your avatar look today ? thread:

The Garden

 

Hi Natty Honey!  How are you today?  I hope everything is OK and you are having a great time.  I decided to give my new cell phone camera a try, and take some snapshots of some flowers in the garden.  The camera is so much better than my other phone, but it doesn't have macro so I can't really get close up shots.  The flower above is the horseradish bean or "munggai".  The locals use it to make curry.  I tried to use it once just to try it out, and it hurt my tummy.  I guess I should stick to tradition and make curry.  It tastes like horseradish, and is hot like horseradish, so of course it would hurt tummies.

There's a giant black cat watching over Mary Unknown7!  Sounds like the story of my life, and Mary's too I guess.  That cat is too big to lock up in the kitty litter room while I make my dinner.  I had liver (spleen) in tamarind sauce for dinner, a local recipe, to go with my tortillas and scrambled eggs.  Even though it's a local favorite, I only first tried it a few months ago when my mother ordered some takeout from a restaurant run by relatives.  The meat was so tender and the sauce was perfect for it, I had to try it again but the next time I did, the liver was hard as a rock.  It occurs to me that the first time I tried the dish, they used spleen by mistake (probably from shopping at the same Australian beef freezer at the supermarket as I do then seeing the low price, thinking it was liver).  Spleen can be cooked well done, and remain tender and chewy.  Liver becomes hard when overcooked.