Friday, April 2, 2010

02 April 2010

This is the view from my kitchen. Currently. I think the view will improve with time; actually not since the kitchen will be behind a wall....so maybe, to be more accurate, this is the view from my dining room. Currently.

The weather today was much more comfortable than the last week. Even though the temperature was only a couple degrees cooler, we had a breeze off the ocean and the humidity was relatively low. I spent some time up in the hammock on the roof of Jay's building; enjoying a good book and the freshness.

Caroline, Jay's girlfriend, went out to the property with us this morning. She hasn't seen the construction for about six weeks. She was amazed at how much progress had been made. When you see the project every day, it all seems so slow. It was nice to have her perspective and to be reminded that much had indeed been done. I still doubt things will be ready for the cabinet guy when he arrives, but we will just have to deal with it.

The saga of the fan continues. We took the fan back to the refrigerator repairman in Los Organos today. He wasn't there, but his "shop" was open. One of the old regulars across the street told me he should be back soon and not to worry; he would watch our fan for us. I left the fan on his doorstep and went into the market to finish shopping for the workers. Even after that, the owner of the shop hadn't returned. So we decided to go ahead and deliver water and groceries to our property and we'd stop by on the way back. As we pulled up, the owner was enjoying the breeze from our fan as he worked on another project. As I approached, he began asking me what the problem was....it appeared that the fan was in perfect working order. And at that moment in time, it quit. Hoorah! Oh, there is a problem after all. He promised to work on it and said we could pick it up later in the day. We opted for tomorrow, rather than another trip to town. Hopefully he will be able to figure out what's going on with it.
Tonight we had dinner with Jay and Caroline. I fixed a Tandoori chicken recipe with the spice Daniella had left me. It came out really well and we shared a great dinner. If you are interested, here is the recipe:

Tandoori Chicken
2lbs. chicken
1t, salt
1 lemon, juiced
1 1/4 C. yogurt
1/2 onion finely chopped
1 clove garlic
1 t. grated ginger root
2 t. garam masala
1 t. cayenne pepper
2 t. finely chopped cilantro

1. Skin chicken, cut lengthwise slits in meat, place in shallow dish and sprinkle with salt and lemon juice. Set aside for 20 minutes.
2. Combine in medium bowl yogurt, onion, garlic, ginger, garam masal, cayenne pepper. Spread yogurt mix over chicken; cover and refrigerate for 6 to 24 hours; the longer the better.
3. Grill over med heat.

I served this with steamed green beans mixed with pieces of pineapple sauted in butter with a bit of brown sugar. I added some bacon bits to the green beans. Caroline had some maple syrup so we grill pineapple rings with brown sugar and then put some maple syrup over the top for desert.
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4 comments:

  1. Where do you get the garam masala? I've never heard of it. Just catching up on all your posts...it was a busy weekend! Sorry the potential buyer for the house didn't work out.

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  2. My friend Daniella from the Yukon left me her spice stash when she left to return to work this March. She and her husband have bought property in Vichayito, and spend their winters here. She gave me a two gallon can full of spices...haven't scratched the surface yet!

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  3. But what is garam masala? Do you think they have it in the states? Could anything be substituted for it?

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  4. My guess is that garam masala is a spice you might be able to find....she found it in Canada.

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