No, I didn't eat the bird. Its bedraggled feathers and panting demeanour, in my opinion, perfectly sum up how this Dallas, Texas summer of 2011 has felt. Blistering, wiltering, overpowering heat for 70 days. It's a new record. Whoopee.
However, I enjoyed the 90 days of June, July and August, in spite of the heat. I had a new job and a new living arrangement (house, roommate). The job sucked but the cooking at my house was spectacular! I love playing off the creative instincts of another good cook who's as competitive as I am, so together and separately we cooked amazing meals. The Cooking Channel played almost constantly to keep the creative juices flowing.
Rick wins in our theoretical cooking competition, with perfect risotto handed to me at 12:40 a.m. with a glass of wine, as I dragged in from work. (I need a different job, by the way. I'm too old for this shit.) That thoughtfulness -- and the food -- revived me enough to show up for work the next day.
However, I was able to counter with an awesome Sunday al fresco lunch consisting of fresh-made coleslaw, hot bollilos grabbed as they came out of the oven at Fiesta Mart, a whole snapper and whole tilapia plucked live from the tank, cleaned and gutted at the store, and grilled over mesquite wood chips. That was a vodka/tonic, rum/juice event, appropriate for this summer.
Summer is OVER (would someone please tell the atmosphere that???) and Rick is back in cool California. He taught me to appreciate Marmite. I showed him how to eat raw oysters. We watched innumerable episodes of "Chopped," "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives," and gained some weight. Good times and bad times, and lots of memories. Life is still good!
But I still need another job. Seriously.
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