Cookery 101

For the first half of my adult life, I was a pretty good cook--always trying new recipes: Egg rolls from scratch, macrobiotic fish-less sushi and pot roast with vegetables. 

For the second half of my adult life, single, kids all grown up, I lost my mojo for cooking.

Thanks to Jan, I'm re-learning.

I'm making spinach pie.  It calls for 6 cloves of garlic and lemon zest.  I asked if I could borrow her zester and she gave me more: a lesson on how to peel lemons and zest them!  

So today I went calling again.  Could I borrow her garlic press?  I couldn't find mine.

She reached under her cabinet and brought out a Japanese-style chopper and wooden bowl.  OH, I said, I have one just like it at home.  It had never occurred to me to use that for chopping garlic! 

So I came home again and re-read the recipe and went back: Could I borrow a small onion?  

Jan was already on her way to my house with a peach, but we went back inside and got an onion.  She is cheerfully tutoring me on the finer points of cookery.  And the spinach pie is now in the oven.

We'll see how it turns out.

Jan thinks we need one of those clotheslines you can send from one window to another, attaching baskets and bags for carrying food. 

These are the survival ideas of two women who can't abide the thought of grocery shopping in this brutal heat.  The best we can do is walk sixteen steps to each others' front doors to trade.