Hello,
I am leaving now for Barcelona with Joaquim. so far Joaquim has only been lost once. David and I went into a store that sells wax candles to look at the large wax alligator and while we were there, Joaquim left his place at the bank window and got lost. He left me there with no money, no information about that last name of the lovely sister in law with whom we are staying, no phone number and no Catalyn phrases memorized yet, like i´m lost.
David and i stayed still and we found him. Hard now for me to type on a typewriter that has many cedilla´s, won´t capitalize letters for me and gives me pointy brackets, when I don´t want them. By the time I send the next message i will have all of that under control, even being able to say t´ me perduit, should Joaquim get lost on us again.
xoxo
Arta
Hope you are having a great time even though you have lost each other once. Don't lose each other again.
ReplyDeleteHello from Wyona:
ReplyDeleteSounds interesting. It is difficult when the tour guide gets lost. And where was Bonnie. Do you have a telephone number Arta? Send it if you do.
Wyona
Arta taught me how to make a chicken dish for the 2pm Catalan meal. This is the two hour lunch period when stores close, large meals are eaten and naps are encouraged.
ReplyDeleteShopping List
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8 chicken thighs
1 can of whole tomatoes
1 onion
1 stick celery
2 cloves of garlic
salt
pepper
hot red peppers
1. Unload groceries while Arta runs to the basement for onion.
2. Skin chicken while Arta chops the onion. (Note to self - no grosser than playing with playdoh and more satisfying outcome).
3. Chop garlic while Arta chops celery.
(Note to self - Next time, wait to toss in garlic until Arta says or garlic might burn.
4. Cut up tomatoes in can while Arta stirs ingredients in frying pan on medium heat, adding hot peppers.
5. Look for salt while Arta adds tomatoes and chicken.
(Note to self - Always have Arta always be the tester of which container of white crystals is salt. The first had sugar. She took an even larger taste of the next, perhaps riding on the expectation that it would be the same sweet taste when she licked her palm next. ¨Now give me a LARGE glass of water and I have done my daily gargling.)
6. Look for pepper while Arta gargles.
7. Measure pepper rather than shaking from jar unless your company likes the heat level high. (Note to self - a third of a cup of pepper is still a little too much for most people even if you scoop as much of the accidently spilled pepper out and quickly rinse two of the half cooked thighs under the tap.)
8. Cover and let simmer for 20 minutes. (Taking lid off after 15 minutes to let the sauce reduce a bit).
9. Make salad while chicken cooks Wyona style.
Serve with white rice (cook for 20 minutes at setting 3 or Rosa´s stove top with only half of the an on the burner to avoid boiling over).
Salad
-5 radishes sliced and cut in half if bigger than a Euro coin
-1 stalk of celery chopped
-one head of green leaf lettuce
-one bag of arugula
-one avacado cu into moon shaped quarters
-one tomatoe cut in half and then quartered (put on seperate dish for guests to add so it doesn´t make the salad too wet if you have leftovers the next day)
-julienne one carrot
Serve with olive oil and balsamic vinegar
I have been eating the occasional piece of fish, bite of chicken, and even retried a frequently eaten dish from my teenage years (ginger beef). I just don´t have a good explanation why, or one that will make sense to anyone, even me. I may stop. I may not. It´s a conversation that will be even more boring for me than the one about why I am-was a vegetarian, so I have not had a big ¨coming out¨ party.
As we sat down to eat, I noticed my Catalan relatives only taking salad or salad, a bit of rice and some of the tomato broth from the cheickn dish. I wondered whey they were not taking the main. I said aloud in English, ¨Looks like the chicken is not going fast¨ and then put a thigh on my plate.
I spent the next 20 minutes on my knees at the other end of the table from my plate trying to cajole David into eating. He has not had an appetite for a few days. While on my knees, my sister-in-law queried in Catalan, ¨There is chicken on your plate. Did you mean to put it there.¨ I just didn´t know what to say in English, let alone in halting Catalan. I asked Joaquim to translate the following. ¨I have been eating some meat here and there, but didn´t make a big announcement to all my Catalan relatives before the visit. I wanted to seem simple rather than complex to my relatives.¨ Joaquim stoped translating and asked what I meant. I said ¨Just translate it!¨ He acquiessed. Rosa laughed very hard. Joaquim and his brother stared at each other blankly. That makes no sense one of them said. Arta, Rosa and I just laughed some more. Translation. Not an easy task.