Jules: before I go
For somebody who's getting on a plane to China in a few days, I'm feeling unusually placid. I think it's because I have accomplished the crucial tasks, meaning I've been arranging for us to have money while we're there.
Regarding reaching one's bottom (ew! not like that!): I'm familiar with 12-step recovery ideas and the Low-Bottom-Drunk/Addict/Whatever is the most mysterious, in the way that some people resist the plain evidence that Something Is Very Wrong Here to astonishing extremes. (I had a friend whose mother systematically drank herself to death in her early 50s; according to my friend, she was hospitalized with serious drinking-related problems and on the verge of admitting that she had a problem when her doctor came breezing in and said, oh no, dear, you just have too much stress. And that was enough: she was a drunk until she died within a couple of years.)
Whoa, dark. Moving on then...
So, just to pick a trivial topic, how are you feeling about the state of reality TV these days? I'm enjoying TAR and am peeved that we'll be out of the country for the finale. I've got it queued up on the TiFaux, but I still have to beg: dood, can you tape it for me? Just in case? Because missing it would suck bigtime.
And, you had questions!
1. Ok, time for a confession: I rarely cook brisket. Mostly because any big honkin' piece of meat around here usually gets smoked and that's Eliot's department. Also, before we got the smoker I usually just picked up pre-smoked brisket from a barbecue joint, which brings up the oddity that I almost never eat brisket that wasn't smoked. Hm. Not sure why. Though my mom does an oven-roasted brisket that tends to be tasty enough but kind of boring, probably because she religiously trims off all the fat before she cooks it; most brisket is fatty enough not to get too dry when she does that, but it lacks a certain fat-a-liciousness.
2. Flank steak? Stir-fried, mostly. I haven't made fajitas in ages, because it's so cheap and easy to get pre-fajitaed around here.
Gawd, if I'm not careful, I'm going to turn into Sandra Lee: no actual cooking occurs in the kitchen. In my defense, it is usually summertime when I'm craving fajitas. Oh, and I have to confess: I've never boiled beef. Those New England Boiled Dinner recipes have always horrified me, as if someone suggested that I boil the Thanksgiving turkey. But for vaca frita? I'd boil beef, fer sure.
3. Latest good book? Maria Tatar's Annotated Classic Fairy Tales has been interesting, though not exactly kid-friendly. As is the Rough Guide to China. And did you know that Christopher Isherwood wrote a children's book? It's a bunch of dark and funny poems about animals.
4. Your next vacation? Austin! Ok, I get it, your next exotic vacation... how about that Iceland? If for no other reason that to be able to say, I'm taking an island vacation and then scoff at people who start babbling about the tropics.
My turn:
1. Are you taking an interest in the new season of Survivor? I'm not sure, because the last season was so disappointing in so many ways. The ads show a lot of pretty people looking very unhappy, which is kind of meh.
2. What's your favorite Chinese food? I love all things Dim Sum, with the lone exception of chicken feet, which are a poor ratio of meat to bone. Of course, I should try to remember that in China, it's just food.
3. Have you ever cooked mutton? I don't think I've ever eaten mutton, and had hardly tasted lamb before I lived in NC. Beef, it's what's for dinner. [in Amarillo. And Lubbock.] I wonder if mutton could be smoked... and I'm pondering expanding my culinary horizons, meatwise.
4. Speaking of one's horizons... what's your limit, foodwise? I have two limits that I can think of offhand: I don't think I can eat any creature that I've gotten to know (note: one doesn't get to know lobsters, and don't even talk to me about clams; it's not about if they were alive in my presence, it's whether they had a personality that I'd been aware of). I had an uncle who was a rancher and there was an ugly family scene when the wife and kids became aware that when "Blackie" disappeared, he ended up in the freezer.
The other limit I can think of is any vegie that smells/tastes/has-the-mouthfeel-of dirt. Grit in the spinach, parsnips, inadequately scrubbed potatoes, all make me shudder and I canNOT soldier on with the dish--it's a dealbreaker.
I have a feeling I may learn more about my food limits on this trip; those two things are the only ones I can think of at the moment that will stop me cold. I'll even eat liver on occasion (depending on preparation, that sort of thing), so I think I'm fairly broadminded.
Well, that took the edge right off my appetite.
Say, dood, just want to say, thanks for all your support while we've been preparing to make this trip. It means a lot. I can't wait for you to meet her! Y'all are gonna have SO much fun!
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dangerchicks) wrote,
