Bizarre vandalism a culinary treat and a culinary disaster

January 3rd, I managed to get in a 7-mile walk, including going to see Me and Orson Welles, which was a pretty good movie. I went with Zoe and Jim, and Jim didn't think it was too realistic, but since I know very little about Orson Welles, I thought it was enjoyable. I came home and decided it was a cooking night. I had thawed some chicken and had bought a butternut squash and an eggplant. So I went to the Internet. God, do I love the Internet. You put in the food you have and it gives you a recipe. I found this nice recipe for a chicken curry with coconut milk (which I had) and butternut squash and eggplant. Unfortunately, I will never know how this was supposed to taste because the last step was to thicken the sauce with cornstarch. Because of bug problems, and the fact that I don't do much cooking, I keep most of my flour-type stuff in jars, rather than in the original boxes. Unfortunately, for the first time in my life, I used the baking soda jar instead of the cornstarch jar to get the thickener. I should have realized my mistake when it bubbled up in the pan when I poured the "cornstarch" in, but it was only when it didn't thicken up and I went to get some more that I realized my mistake.

Yuck. No way to rescue that. I put the cornstarch in, and it did thicken up, but the whole dish was ruined. John was a good soldier and declared it edible. (It wasn't) We'll see later on tonight how that much baking soda in a rather raw way affects us.

We had a wonderful New Year's day, which included a wonderful tea at Doreen's house. She is originally from England, and is interested in Art Deco and old houses and every year on New Year's Day she has a high English tea. I always meet someone new and interesting at this event. We usually fix beans and invite people to stop by and have Hoppin' John on New Year's Day, but I wasn't in the mood for it this year, so we didn't get around to it.

I always keep my car covered since I hope to get good money for it when I sell it, even though it's a death trap Toyota.

January 2nd, however, I woke up to find that someone had vandalized my car -- well, sort of. There was a Christmas tree on top of it. Not mine, and I have no idea whose it was, but they thought it was a good idea to plant it on top of my car. Actually pretty funny, and much better than the graffiti that got sprayed on the car cover two nights in a row a few months ago. Still, seems like a really odd thing to do.

Also on January 2nd, Mike and Heather came over with Rina to bring us our Christmas present -- which is that Mike made dinner for us and we got to visit with Heather and Rina while he was cooking. He made a wonderful cauliflower risotto and roasted fennel. Everything was delicious, though it was an all-white meal. I was sorry I didn't have any white dishes to make the all-white presentation perfect. Rina made some new friends -- Raggedy Ann and Pooh, and Grandma found out that Rina doesn't like heaters or hair dryers.