Empty Tamales

Last week at work one of the young ladies took orders for fresh tamales made by her mother for $1 apiece. I asked if they could be made without meat; sure! So I actually ordered ten, as I'm crazy for tamales but commercial ones all seem to have meat, and I certainly don't know how to make them.

Came Friday, and by pure luck or the grace of God I'd brought a ten dollar bill with me, because I'd completely forgotten the day of the tamales. So in comes Lia with the steaming, warm bag of fresh tamales, and I'm thinking, "Oh, boy!"

At lunch I get out the first tamale and open up the corn husk wrapping. Corn meal, delicious, warm, and wrapped around . . . nothing. No beans, no sauce, no vegetables, zippo. I guess she figured that if no meat, I didn't want anything in them.

I was telling the other nurses about this later in the day, and we started to wonder about Lia's mom, making ten empty tortillas, one after the other, and imagined what she must have been thinking. "What kind of a moron wants ten empty tortillas? Oh, well, these vegetarians . . . eight, nine, ten . . ." We laughed so hard I almost peed my pants.

Girls' Night Out

We had a good day today, Pearl and I. We picked up her car from being repaired within an inch of its life, just short of totaled from her hitting a pole on one of her first expeditions after getting her license. Her car wouldn't start. There wasn't a drop of gas in it. If she hadn't hit a pole she would have run out of gas. We had to buy a container, fill it and learn how to fill the tank with the complicated spout.

Tonight we went to Benaroya Hall for the Seattle Symphony showing of "Psycho." I went to Value Village, hoping to find one of those animal noses, but what I did find was a pair of leather mules with a spotted animal print, which I took home and used the tops to make a pair of cat-like ears. These I sewed onto a scarf which I tied behind my head [I left my latest felt hat at Supercuts or I would have used that.] Then we used long-lasting reddish brown lip color to make a nose and black lipstick to draw whiskers, art by Pearl. A fun and minimalist costume.

She used green, then white makeup for a zombie effect; then added a bar code and the number 5, a fake bruise, red around her lips, and a realistic patch of green circuitry revealed by a bite. [The girl is good.] Then she dressed in white shirt, black vest and pants, a black bowler, carried a black umbrella, and went as a zombie android sort of deal. Very cute.

We met my sister at a great Vegan Thai restaurant called Araya on 45th Street in Seattle's University District. Imagine: an entire menu available to plant-based diners! And all delicious.

Psycho at Benaroya Hall, with the Seattle Symphony playing the score, was a hoot. About a third of the audience was in costume. A lot of men were dressed as women; not just dressed as any woman, but dressed as a woman in costume. So late in the 1960 film when the psychologist is giving his psychobabble speech and mentions transvestites, there was a roar of laughter from the audience.

Two cute coincidences: the opening date on the screen is December 11th, my daughter's birthday. And Marian Crane buys a 1957 Ford [my birth year.]

Be Thankful In Adversity

Things to be grateful for:

a glorious sunrise
onions
a framed copy of a picture I admired, by & from a friend
Feast
a wonderful gathering at Gig Harbor Saturday
doing two admissions and still getting off work on time because there are two of us
apologies accepted
pressure cookers
having an efficient way to cook beans [at last] [see above]
people who care whether I attend events
still having a daughter
Baha'u'llah
Enayat's hands and heart and voice and spirit
liking my cooking better than the average restaurant's
having someone to clean the kitchen for
having a chance to revise my lifestyle while I still can

The Place For God's Creatures

There's a really cute T-shirt I've seen twice in the last few days, with the caption, "There's a place for all God's creatures--right next to the potatoes and gravy."

I'd like to make a shirt that says, "There's a place for all God's creatures--in your coronary arteries, your adipose tissue, your liver, your pancreas . . . " I'm not sure about the graphics, but there are a lot of gruesome possibilities.

Some Sort of Succatash

Last night I was given great quantities of zucchini; this morning I hurried up to Tacoma from Eatonville with less than an hour to make lunch: succatash. At least, a dish reminiscent of what we called succatash.

Succatash

One ample zucchini [1-2 lbs], diced
two slices onion, chopped
two medium fresh tomatoes, diced
one ear of corn, divested of the kernels [put in the kernels]
sliced mushrooms--I forgot to put these in, but they would have been good
one can beans such as pinto or kidney beans, drained & rinsed
Seasonings: about an ounce of grated turmeric root, two cloves garlic
A shake each of cumin, coriander, dill
leaves from a sprig of fresh basil

Place virgin olive oil in bottom of wok [I never mentioned this, but I make most dishes in the wok]
Saute seasonings in olive oil. Stir in zucchini, corn, tomatoes, mushrooms, onion & stir fry until beginning to soften. Before they brown, stir in one cup water, basil and beans, cover and simmer about ten minutes. Serve with slices of polenta sauteed in olive oil and seasonings of choice.

Yum!