Attempts at productivity didn’t really pan out. But I’ll recap anyway.
I.
This morning we picked up Ms. S.’s car, which we took in yesterday to have its oil changed and tires rotated. I feel my car on the road and suspect that its fluids need to be check and the air in its tires adjusted.
For the first time in … months? years? perhaps ‘ever’ … I had a batch of pancakes not turn out. It was a tested recipe; at the moment my best guess is that the greased skillet wasn’t quite hot enough. The batter popped its air bubbles properly and began developing a brown crust around the edges, but then stuck to the pan and didn’t want to come off. It’s a shame … the batter had a nice flavor.
In the afternoon my father called and we had a good pre-X-mas conversation. He was happy that BSU (men’s basketball) pulled out a nice win against LSU (and some time before then against then no. 11 Creighton), though he was sad that they only scored 89 points, as with 90 or more ticket holders would have gotten free burgers.
When I was a kid attending games with him, we’d cheer for the Broncos to keep opponents under 50 points, as that would earn us free burgers from Wendy’s. Often we couldn’t redeem that ‘prize,’ but we still employed the coupons on the back of our tickets, and I ate a lot of ‘classics’ and sucked down a lot of shake-like chocolate Frostys …
II.
Ah, calf liver.
In addition to a load of iron and protein, it’s full of vitamins A and B12 as well as zinc and selenium. It’s a bit of a powerhouse. And I had about half a pound left over in the fridge. I can’t really cook it when Ms. S. is here, as the smell nauseates her, but since she was at work and I had hours before her return, it made sense for dinner.
Instead of splitting it between a couple meals, I made it all at once, along with some barley and onions. Another ‘ah’ … or ‘aaahhh….’ Onions … chopped, put over medium heat with a gentle coating of olive oil and a generous punch of salt until some of them start to brown, then the heat is reduced (a lot), water is added — and a lid — and they cook down for the next twenty or more minutes. Not quite to the point of onion jelly, also quite delicious, but somewhere between fried onions and caramelized onions. The liver is just cut into strips, lightly coated in a flour, bread-crumb, and seasoning mixture, and then quickly fried in butter.
The smell of liver is a smell from childhood, and I can appreciate, in a way, that if I hadn’t grown up with it and it were new to me I find not find it appealing. But I find nothing disgusting in it, though others do. The only word I have to describe it is … liver.
In one large serving of liver I have all the protein I need or a day, plus a couple thousand percent of my daily value of B12. I can’t really complain.
If I were looking at a relatively sustainable complete protein, I’d probably be looking at insects and their larvae. Intellectually I know they’re good, and I also know that there’s nothing “grosser” about larvae than there is about … liver, steak, eggs, cheese, yogurt … or, more closely related: lobster or crab. But whereas I’ll happily crack open crab legs, dine on buttered lobster, or chew on breaded prawns, I’m not sure I’d put meal worms in my mouth if they were on the menu.
But then again … I might.
See also: “Mealworms Beat Meat For A Place On The Menu in Environmental Study”
III.
I had a number of holiday-related plans for this evening, but none of them really worked out.
Ms. S. bought some x-mas lights a week or two ago. We, alas, do not have an outlet outside the apartment. It’s possible I can string them (the cord) through a small gap at the bottom of our front door and power them from inside the apartment, in which case I’d run them around the door and probably the front window, but I’d still need something to hang them on outside (and the facade is vinyl siding). Another idea was to hang them inside and frame the window (so they could be seen outside). I need push-pins, but we were out, so I went to a local store … which didn’t have any, but which did have a box of thumb-tacks for $1, so I bought that instead. I can still hang the double-wire/cord of the lights on/around thumb-tacks, I told myself. But, I discovered, the frame around the window inside is not that conducive to said tacks … that is, they tend to bend when I hammer them (gently). I may return to this later … but my mini-goal of having them up to surprise Ms. S. with when she returned home was shot.
And a couple weeks ago Ms. S. also bought a small fake tree, which we have set up on the floor and which the cats have knocked over several times. But not in the past several days. In any case, Ms. S. joked that we should put the tree away and instead make some paper trees and tape them to the walls instead …
… so I bought construction paper the other day. Many colors. And trees will be made. I thought of doing them tonight, but I got distracted by the x-mas light project, which came to naught.
And I still have a couple gifts left to … construct. One involves: boxes, paper, glue, ribbons. Another: a big, thick book, a blade, and glue.
I still have time for all of these, but I had been hoping to have some of them done tonight.
