A Crash Course in Prague
Potluck Sunday
There is good reason why there is no picture of the kitchen after I finished cooking today.
It’s because it looked more like a radioactive waste dump than a kitchen.
So instead here is the view from the kitchen balcony.
So here’s a new way to wake up. I’ve been woken by cats, falling stools, shattering Galileo thermometers, phones ringing, Nextel’s beeping, people screaming, beams of sunlight scorching my eyelids, bears in the campsite (or at least the nervous people because of the bears in the campsite), the wind, a bump in the road while sleeping in the backseat, but this, this was a new way to wake up...
Snow falling through my skylight onto my feet.
It’s slightly jarring at first, but it would still fall under the list of more pleasant ways to wake.
Anyways, after throwing myself out of bed to shut the skylight, I decided it was a better idea to just get up than waste more time sleeping.
So up and out I went to find the necessary ingredients for tonight’s dinner. I was pleasantly surprised by how cheap everything was: 2 chickens at $4/each, 6lbs of potatoes for $1.25, 5 onions for 50 cents... But 20 safety pins for 5 bucks.
Go figure. Anyways, after working my way thru the store I headed home, picking up some bacon along the way... I have yet to find the bacon in a supermarket, so I just get it at the local store.
After breakfast, I peeled, washed, and cut the potatoes, before boiling them for 25 minutes. Surprisingly enough I was able to find a ricer to really mash the potatoes, and the right butter, and the right cream cheese.
It might have been a first... Being able to find everything.
Anyways, after a fair amount of pot-transfer-craziness I was able to get all the potatoes, mashed, mixed, and riced, into the pot I wanted.
Next came the chicken... And again, everything went well with the birds. Yes, I made two. But they were only 3 pounds each.
So after an hour at the prescribed temperature, I pulled and foiled the chicken, and began to make my roux.
The gravy didn’t turn out quite as well as I wanted to, but at the same time I was still thrifty and used my teapot as a gravy boat.
The chicken was good, but the thighs and drumsticks were undercooked.
But everyone loved it. For next week’s potluck I’m hoping to find a five rib roast.
We’ll see what I can turn up.
Anyways, after dinner, even though I had run the dishwasher 3 times already, I found myself doing dishes and cleaning the kitchen again. All is good now. The kitchen is clean.
Anyways off to bed. Lots of work to get done tomorrow.