Tonight is Trivia Night and no cooking since we eat at the Pub –
O'Brion's – my spelling is correct, I jest not!
Since my
potential students will be at Trivia I think a little class planning
might be prudent – although never a boy scout I like to be
prepared. Thoughts so far are:
Mushrooms
in Balsamic
Fish Pie
(including making a roux and mornay sauce)
Chocolate
orange mousse
or
Croque
Monsieur
Tarragon
chicken
Orange
tiramisu
I digress -
back to this morning. Shopping trip today, hurray - nothing quite
like a spot of retail therapy to gladden a girls heart. Coastal
Kitchen a truly wonderful, but expensive, kitchen shop. I've
recommended that my friend, who is a keen and competent cook, acquire
a potato ricer. A piece of kit that removes lumps from potato and so
for posh fish cakes and the like it's invaluable. Whilst there I
acquired a new white jacket – a present from my friend who would
not let me pay.
From the
sublime to the ridiculous, shopping mecca for GOM is “Super
Walmart” where I found – in the baby products aisle – Take &
Toss – small pots with lids designed for baby food in great colours
(or colors if you want americanese) six pots for $3. Perfect for the
Chocolate Orange Mousse that may form part of the cookery class –
funky individual containers for students to take away and keep. Result.
-x-
Off we set
to Trivia, a journey of about 10 minutes. The Pub is in a really
attractive area with a few expensive high end shops and cafes. As we
swing into what my friend thought was a parking space, albeit a tight
one, he “touched” the back of a large Mercedes – as those of us
know if we ever “touched” another car, the sound is much worse
than any resulting damage. In my friend's defence, along with my
husband, they immediately checked both cars for damage, all was fine.
Outside the Pub, there are tables and chairs and full of customers.
As we crossed the road there were ribald comments from said
customers. Another friend had already arrived and secured our Trivia
table and along with the rest of the gang we were ready to roll.
That is
until, a few minutes later, the main door of the Pub opened and your
all American cop entered, sashayed through, saying, “is the owner
of BMW registration... here – you've guessed it, our friend's car.
He rose to greet the cop who said, so politely, please step outside
sir …..
As you can
imagine some fairly animated conversation took place between those
left behind, thankfully and coincidentally it transpired that the car
“touched” belonged to our Trivia friend already inside the pub,
who high tailed it (sorry, seemed appropriate) outside to back up our
friend. The assembled throng outside had called the police saying our
friend was drunk! All ended well and the policeman actually
apologised since it was clear to him that no alcohol had been
consumed. Don't misunderstand me I applaud and agree with enforcing
laws relating to drinking and driving but struggle when clearly by
implication we were either all under the influence or guilty by
association. In this state it is not against the law to speak or
text on a cell phone whilst driving and believe me many drivers do.
You couldn't make this stuff up!
Note to self
….. don't ever order fish and chips in an American bar ….. the
flounder in a spiced crumb was outstanding, imagine my horror when it
was served with an enormous heap of potato crisps. It takes a while
to adjust, one has to be specific – whilst I appreciate the
cultural differences with lots of different things I find it
difficult to grasp why anyone would want to eat a really good piece
of fish with a heap of crisps. For those who aren't familiar, in the
US what we call crisps are referred to as chips - what we call chips
they call fries.
Another
quiet day at the office, oh and the class is on.
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