Happy Veterans' Day!
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| Jacksonville flags the shops for Veterans/ Day |
After morning coffee and blogging and internet researching next weekend's fun and games, I dropped Judd at his school for his prep work. Someone loaned him a power saw and he was pre cutting 8 foot boards so the students would only have to hand saw two cuts for their project. I went off to the Medford Veterans' Day parade to walk behind the VA banner with colleagues. I parked on the street at the very end of the parade route and then walked up the main street to the park where the parade was setting up. I hiked past volunteers in vests or cops at every corner along the site as they readied for stopping traffic. I actually passed 2-3 people per block who looked like they intended on watching the parade, either sitting on the curb or setting up a lawn chair.
When I got to the park, I passed everyone already lined up: fire trucks, police, cars, fancy cars, ugly cars (all with engines idling.) Then the Scouts, various troops of Girls and Boys, with various means of transport including floats and horses. And then the Veterans-- in all era uniforms as far back as doughboys, in cars, in jeeps, on foot, on motorcycles. I got the 1/4 mile to the end and had not seen one VA colleague. So I called my boss, the Chief of Staff and found him, then 2-6 more VA employees. We walked back up the line until we did find the VA banner and friends, just as the parade was departing. It turned out to be a very well attended event, with both sides of the streets lined with viewers all the way to the end. I even recognized a couple of people in the audience: a couple of VA employees and a couple of Vets I've taken care of at the hospital. The worst thing I could say about it was walking in the exhaust but, as they say in Young Frankenstein, "it could be worse--it could be raining." We had a sunny fall day.
I went back to help Judd saw wood and put up posters in his classroom and then Day TWO of the Chef off began. We needed to stop at the store just one more time as, in yesterday's fooding frenzy, he forgot to buy his main course. Judd developed his menus as he went. He is really the master improviser. He substitutes easily if a core ingredient is too expensive or not available. He admitted to mixing up his two menus for a little while. He incorporated the secret ingredient I game him, a vat of Pub Cheese, brilliantly into his had whipped salad dressing. And since we had no theater to get to, we planned a later dinner, so he was out with his headlamp, grilling cod in the dark. The menu was seared cod with spicy lentils, kale and hand crafted salsa verde; roasted carrots with smoked paprika; shaved brussels sprout salad with toasted hazelnuts and hand whipped pub cheese dressing. Very savory and much more virtuous ingredients than I prepared. I had just explained the glycemic index to Judd and that we were going to start eating fewer white foods. Then I brought home white rice and cream for my recipe. We gave up the "keep track of calories or carbs or cost" for the contest. Too labor intensive and totally diminishes the taste of the food.
Left over ingredients:
double bunches of cilantro
most of a bunch each of parsley, and kale, and spinach, and red cabbage
half a stalk of brussels sprouts
1/2 bag each of lentils and green split peas
3/4 each of a red onion, yellow onion, shallot, 4 green onions
cheeses including: gouda, parmesan, blue and Oregon cheddar, oh, and pub
jars of garam masala, cardamon, cayenne, red pepper flakes, paprika (and although both our recipes called for saffron neither of us could splurge for that)
7 of 8 ounces of heavy organic cream
9/10th of a box of vegetable stock
and
11/12th of a jar of capers
It sounds like a Christmas song.
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| Stolen off the internet |
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