Dammit, Maurice!

Marbles I've found around here in an old bourbon bottle. I love finding things in this yard. I so often wonder what all lies right beneath the surface of the dirt of my yard. 

I woke up this morning in a fairly pissed off mood. Ms. Maurice insisted on sleeping on my legs all night long and I guess she kept waking me up because something surely did and it took me awhile to go back to sleep every time and before I knew it, she'd changed position or was doing a little late night grooming or something and I was awake again. 
Sleep is sacred. 
But of course I do like the company and a little extra warmth doesn't hurt right now. A guy from the heating and cooling place came over this afternoon and figured out at least one thing wrong with the unit and he ordered that part which will take 1-3 days to get here although he cautioned it may be longer than that. He said that as soon as the part was in his hands, he'd be back to get things running.
And I believe him. He was a sweet guy. And just as polite and friendly as he could be. And he liked to talk but not so much that I wanted to scream which has happened before with repairpeople. 
His accent identified him firmly as being from around here and since he grew up in Monticello, that would make sense. 
We ended up talking about turkeys (he and his girlfriend have six pet turkeys) and chickens and dogs and how he and his girlfriend will get married when they can buy a house. He's pretty proud that he has a good job already. And he should be.
When it was time for him to go he stuck his hand out and said, "It was really nice to meet you," and it sounded like he meant it. 
"It was really nice to meet you, too," I said. And I meant that quite sincerely.

Before that whole thing happened, I went to town and got my flu shot. I figured that since I have nothing planned for tomorrow I might as well get it out of the way. It's inevitable that I'll feel like shit tomorrow and actually, it's already hit me, that always-surprising WHAM of aching eyes and aching muscles and feeling cold. 
Or maybe I just feel cold because I am cold. 

I worked on my crow again this afternoon and again, I ended up smushing the clay back into a ball and feeling frustrated. I realize I have absolutely no idea how to form anything more complicated than a cartoon fish or a flower or leaves from clay. As I've said, when I was of the age to play with Play Doh (can you remember that sort of salty smell it had?) the only thing I could make was snakes. 
I have not progressed very much but I will continue to work at it. I got a comment from Anonymous on yesterday's post with some helpful suggestions as to how to go about creating this bird and I was not adverse to reading them and pondering them but the part where they described my first attempt as looking like a cross between a possum and a weasel was a bit disconcerting as well as hysterical. I do not entirely agree but as I said in my reply, that did not do a lot for my confidence. 

For those of you who are interested in the eggplant recipe, I will send you HERE which is an old post of mine from seven years ago and if you read the whole thing you'll see that my life has not changed so very much in seven years. If you want to skip all that fiddle-faddle, just go directly to the part in bold print and go from there. It was sweet to realize that Joanne, whom we so recently lost, was the one who had asked for the recipe. 
It is a good recipe in my opinion. 

Now, as to the very crispy tofu- the recipe I got is from the New York Times cooking app and I really don't know how legal OR ethical it is to do screen shots and copy them here and besides that, the recipe is for the crispy tofu with lemon rice and raita and I have not made either the lemon rice or the raita, I'm sure they are very good and I'm just going to do a little slicing and dicing of the recipe and pass on the ingredients and directions for the tofu. 
Okay? 
The recipe is from Nisha Vora. 

Crispy Masala Tofu

Ingredients:

Two cups water
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 
1 fourteen to sixteen oz. block of extra-firm tofu, drained
2 teaspoons garam masala
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons neutral flavored oil

Directions:

Heat the two cups water in a small pan until boiling, add 1 Tablespoon kosher salt or half that if using table salt or sea salt and mix until salt is dissolved. 
In a large heat-proof bowl, tear the tofu into approximately one inch size chunks. Tearing the tofu rather than slicing it is one of the reasons it becomes so crispy when cooking. And if your chunks are of pretty varying sizes, that is okay. I know this from experience.
Cover the tofu with the boiling salted water, cover it, and let it sit for ten minutes. Gently drain it and spread the tofu onto a dish towel and dry the bowl for reuse.
Gently pat the tofu to dry it with another dish towel and return it to the bowl. Sprinkle the tofu with the cornstarch, garam masala, a sprinkle of salt, and a few grinds of black pepper. Mix carefully with a spatula until well coated.
Heat the oil in a large skillet until it's rippling. Add the tofu in a single layer and cook undisturbed until it is golden brown and crisp on the bottom, five to six minutes but you know- judge for yourself. 
Flip the tofu and cook the second side until browned. Transfer to a large plate lined with paper towels. 

And that's it. 
You can substitute curry powder or cumin or whatever you want for the garam masala which I realize not everyone has on their shelf. 
Feel free to fool around with the spices but if you use a knife on the tofu instead of tearing it up with your fingers and if you don't use the cornstarch and if you don't let it brown enough, it is not going to be as crispy as it could be. The boiling water is absolutely mandatory. 
I eat mine with just a little soy sauce on it but again- you can fool around with whatever sort of dipping sauce you like. 
I have spent half my life trying to figure out how to make real crispy tofu, freezing it before cooking, pressing it before cooking, freezing and then pressing, etc., and this is the first time I've ever really achieved crispiness. I want to try it in the air fryer to see how that works and I will do that soon. 

Mr. Moon has made it to Iowa and if all goes as planned he will be sleeping in Illinois. He will be home when he's home and my hope is that he and his buddy Jim will not be crazy about driving long hours without stopping. He kept back one small bag of cookies to stash away for this Gun Dog Express journey home. I like to think that those will make the drive just a tiny bit better for them. 

And now my arm hurts. Wah-wah-wah. And la-di-dah. 
This is nothing, nothing at all, compared to the flu which, if you've ever had the real thing, are quite sure you never want to have again. 

It's SCIENCE! Which I believe in. 

Love...Ms. Moon

Conchita and Unnamed Baby.