Sunday, November 23, 2008

Sunday night

No Desperate Housewives tonight. Damn.

Was back at the gym tonight. I hadn't been there in two weeks, since I came down with the stomach flu. (I went earlier than usual so I'd have time to do some shopping and cooking before Desperate Housewives started.) Made chili and boiled a pound of Florida wild pink shrimp. Tomorrow I'll make West African Tuna Casserole, a Joy of Cooking recipe that appeared in an edition of the cookbook from the '70s. My first partner made it while we were at FSU, learning how to cook (while going to school). It's very tasty and healthy and pretty simple (it's online now, but that recipe uses tomato sauce instead of 2 TB of tomato paste--as in the original). I don't put the au gratin topping on it. I don't think it's necessary and just adds extra calories to an otherwise perfect dish.

It's great having food smells back in the apartment. Tonight I boiled the shrimp in Old Bay Seasoning and McCormick pickling spice, plus ground cloves and fennel seed that I first cracked in a mortar, etc. I let this simmer for a while before putting the shrimp in. The place smells great. (And the shrimp were tasty and fragrant.) I was quick to remove the shrimp's packaging and shells from the shrimp I'd eaten to the garbage chute, however, since otherwise the place would be stinky by the morning.

Getting used to the fan in this room. It's very powerful and I don't want to catch a cold.

The electrician was funny yesterday. He saw all the feathers on the floor and asked whether I was feeding the cats live birds. I then showed him one of the plush feathered cat toys. (Lucky eventually chews all the feathers off them.) I'm indulging him and allowing him to have the kittenhood he may never have enjoyed as a foster cat. He's a happy cat here and finally has a home now.

Bootsy's happy here too. I just wish B. would come to see him, but the new BF probably doesn't allow it so long as B.'s back with him. (I can imagine the BF saying: What more important: me or a cat?) Maybe it would upset Bootsy anyway.

Bootsy's doing fine here--it's been his home for years--and with the way B. has been moving back and forth between the mother's and the BF's (as reported by B.'s sister), Bootsy would have suffered had he been with B. Cats are very much attached to their physical environment and generally don't like being moved around. It's very stressful for them.

No comments: