Tuesday, July 22, 2008

7/22/08 Scratchin' In The Kitchen

Scratchin' In The Kitchen
7/22/08

One kind of "scratch" in the kitchen is Cindy's mosquito bites. She has them all over her. She showed me one line of 5 bites that went from right shoulder to left shoulder in almost in a straight line. I have none, nada, zilch, ZERO. I told her that she may have something else biting her besides mosquitoes. Maybe she has something in her clothes. Anyway, she is sure scratchin' in the kitchen.

Kitchen life in Novo is much different than in Sacramento. First, it is S-M-A-L-L. Cindy used to have me sit at the breakfast table to get me out of the way while she cooked. Now if we held hands and stretched out our other hands we could each touch a wall, and she still wants my help in the kitchen. Imagine that!

The second difference in Novo is that very few things you'd cook are pre-mixed or packaged. No Eggo waffles, no cake mix, no Shake-N-Bake, etc. You do everything from SCRATCH. Here she is fixing one of my favorite things; tempura eggplant. She has always made this from scratch, but with a lot more tools. I caught her on camera showing her love for me in the kitchen and wanted to make it public.

First, just to find eggplant here is a success. Second, the preparation is laborious. She slices the eggplant, dips it in beaten egg and then in flower. Finally it is fried in olive oil for that good Italian touch. It could use a little more garlic, as I always day about everything, but you haven't lived until you've dipped a hand fried, battered eggplant slice into 
sauce and eat in one bite. That's livin'.

In the midst of all that effort, she even has the energy to make soup from scratch; boil the chicken, pull the meat, boil the bones, add the seasoning and noodles. She is the queen of soup and the czar of the kitchen.
What a woman.
DS

5 comments:

Marilyn said...

Maybe what Cindy has is scabies rather than mosquito bites. When we lived in San Jose the kids got scabies all the time. They are some sort of little bug that lives on animals (in our case horses) that rubs off onto plants (in our case the weeds by the river where kids rode their horses). At first the dr said their "rashes" were poison ivy/oak, then when treatment didn't work, the dr said it was something else. The next dr at first glance said it was scabies because the bites are in a straight line. We cleared up multiple cases with some ointment (sorry, don't remember which because it's been such a long time). I'm as good as the 3rd dr with scabie diagnosing because the kids seemed to have them a lot. Ask some missionary dr what to try for scabies.

Shannon Simmons said...

You are the best mom! And I know you love dad...dad, she really does love you - in case that was in question. All growing up I have memories of mom in the grocery store and in the kitchen saying " I will buy & fix this because your dad loves it and I love him." Thats the simplicity of true love and affection. Way to be! Stop scratchin mom! Do they have calamine lotion over there? I will send you some if you would like...no problem at all!

Trisha said...

Love it. Maybe you could do what was done in the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding. They used windex on their bites. WHo knows. Love the Idea of things being made from scratch. i am starting this too. Oh the things we learn from our parents.

Dave and Courtney said...

Before we left for Siberia, we were told to take Vitamin B-Complex. It stinks like crazy, but that's the point. The giant encephalitis-ridden B-52's that they call mosquitoes have an aversion to the smell of B-Complex so they stay away from you. If you can find some in Novosibirsk, I would recommend it.

Bob said...

Thank you for your detailed descriptions and for the photos. We miss you both and your blog gives us the opportunity to stay close. By the way, our blog address is
www.bobandshirley.blogspot.com. Come and visit us when you can.

Bob and Shirley