On Such a Winter's Day

Ground Turkey Pot Pie in Cast Iron Skillet

Someone made dual snow people on the pier.  I sat for a minute resisting the urge to kick them but since there was a child snow person, I felt guilty.  I examined them, took a few pictures and left.  I wondered if kicking down snowmen was a normal reaction to such a lovely surprise.

For Christmas, I made dough for two pie crusts and froze one for later.  Today was later.  This buttery flaky crust was even better atop ground turkey gravy and vegetables.  

Carrots

Potatoes (chopped and parboiled)

Celery

Onions

peas

Ground Turkey

Stock with turkey drippings

flour

Salt and Pepper

Worcestershire sauce

Mustard

Cooking oil

Preheat oven to 400.  In a cast iron pan, cook the ground turkey with a splash of Worcestershire sauce, salt pepper in fat of choice.  Add small chopped onions, carrots, celery, and potato.  Cook until tender and fond develops on bottom of pan. Add two tablespoons of flour and cook until the raw taste is gone.  Add stock to thicken and a small dollop of mustard, stirring all together and scraping bottom of pan.  Test for seasoning before covering with the pie crust.  Cover with egg wash, make a couple of slits in crust and bake on 400 for 35 - 40 minutes.   

The homemade pie crust made this deliciously buttery and comforting.  This will appeal to those who prefer not to add cream or half and half.  Instead, use the flour to thicken and stock to flavor.  I still craved the bottom crust, which you could add, but this way makes it a very doable recipe for a weeknight meal. 

Morning breakfast tacos

This, the first real snow of the year

Backyard view

California Dreaming on a Winter's Day

Cooking can be like any other creative project, if you approach it with the intent of exploring and inventing.  This is just one of many luxuries we might take for granted here.  The ability to play with our food as art. I count myself lucky to have an interest that serves not just an everyday purpose but one I can also lose myself in.  

Shrimp Lettuce Tacos

Spicy shrimp on lettuce leaves doesn't sound all that impressive but there is a skill to getting the shrimp charred without overcooking.  It's fun to add color with vegetables but using ones that will compliment, not just look good.  With lettuce tacos, romaine works well because it's sturdy at the base.  Shrimp is a solid choice because they line up along the seam and stay within the fold while eating.  Experimenting is fun and I try not to look at imperfections as failure, only another opportunity to get it right next time.  In hindsight, a white salty cheese may work better and this was begging for some red onion, but otherwise not a bad attempt at adding a little springtime to this cold, otherwise uneventful, winter day. 

Coming up from the subway, on this icy 2/22/22 and my sister's view below.

Make Your Own Kind of Music

I remember people through music, sometimes a movie but mainly songs.  Some friends remind me of a particular artist.  Other's represent a period of music, like the 90s.  I remember my brothers' album collections and piecing together images of them in my mind.  They were older and had whole sides that I didn't get to see firsthand but could imagine through their album selections.  I'd listen in headphones to try to tap into their world. Ohio Players, Honey.  The Doors, LA Woman.  War, the World is a Ghetto.  Aretha Franklin, Lady Soul.

My sister in law always played old Motown and sang while driving me around in her car.  Her long delicate fingers tapping to the beat on the steering wheel.  I loved the vibe she created while cruising in that car. I listened to the words like she was telling me stories.  So laid back and calm.  Upbeat and steady.  Times in my life are permanently attached to certain albums.  Elton John's self titled album, skipping school and inviting depression and loneliness over not knowing how powerful music can be to a young mind.  But then learning  in the same way, how it could uplift you when nothing else worked.  How through the headphones you could lose your current bleak reality and step into a vibrant exciting realm where time did not exist, only the moment you were hearing.

I remember when my sister attended her first concert.  I was so jealous.  Donny Osmond.  She came home aglow! Glowing I tell you!  I made her tell me every detail.  A coworker at Virgin, a true lover of new music, when given the choice to play any album often chose one of three.  Todd Rundgren, Seal, or Annie Lennox.   Now I can't hear any of them without immediately thinking of her.

My mom loves festive tex-mex.  The accordion of Flaco Jimenez.  She is not a naturally upbeat person.  She let out her music in other ways I believe.  But when I think of her, I think of that music and food and fresh air, and beauty and color.  When I met my mate he played me Kris Kristofferson and seemed to be from another time entirely.  I instantly found him fascinating and wanted to be hear everything that could make someone like him at a time when music was loud and violent and angry.  It almost seemed absurd to me when Hole was performing at the IBeam that this guy would rather write songs in his room.  But that was everything about him at once and I admire and appreciate all of it to this day.  

I've noticed the new people in my life are not reminding me of any music at all.  I don't hear a thing. And I wonder if it's me.  Have I lost the ability to create friends and times that reflect the amazing sounds of the moment?  Is that a tool you don't get to keep?

Maybe it's harder hearing people's sound through all the largeness of this city.

Too many times in recent years I've tried to tune out my own station.  But on this day, I got a surprise and was not required to work my scheduled shit shift after riding to work on a beautiful day.  I had the afternoon to just enjoy the sights and make my own views.

When I got home from a 3 hour ride, I made a tomatillo pork and potato stew that made my entire body sing!  Chunks of red potato, carrots and slow cooked pork along with cumin, tomatillos, stock and lime.