It’s 6:20 pm and it just started pouring rain outside my apartment. This is a good thing because my car (92 blue volvo) has bird poop on the windshield and needs a good soaking.
I have learned that taking the light rail both to and from BWI airport from my apartment is very painful. I don’t think I will do it again. It’s a 30 minute walk from my office at Johns Hopkins and a similar distance to get home from the Woodberry stop. Cost is only $3.20 while driving to/from the airport costs $7/day for parking plus a $1 to $2 tip for the driver of the shuttle each way not to mention the cost of gas and wear and tear on the car. However, despite the cost, I don’t think I will take the light rail to the airport anymore.
I’m in a blue mood tonight. My hope is that cooking a big pot of curry chicken will make me feel better. The act of cooking is cathartic for me. The end result is often not that important. I can get lost in the act of chopping vegetables and throwing them together in a pot and watching the chicken brown in a hot pan. Helps distract me from my sad thoughts. Another source of catharsis for me is writing letters. Not emails or text messages, but hand-written letters. The act of writing (not typing) is helpful for me. I like focusing on making each letter look legible and organizing my thoughts into a longer piece of prose, using proper capitalization and subject/verb agreement. Lastly, knitting often makes me feel better when I’m down. It’s still too warm to knit, but when winter hits, I like to make scarves (the only thing I know how to knit) in preparation for the holidays.
I don’t have a TV in Baltimore and I try not to watch too much junk on the internet. I feel that TV shows and short articles in the NY Times trains me to have a very short attention span.
Grace’s Curry Chicken Recipe (adapted from my mom’s)
5 chicken legs
1 small piece of ginger (peeled and cut into slices)
1/4 cup of sherry wine and 1/4 cup of soy sauce (for marinating the chicken) along with ginger slices
First, marinate the chicken pieces for 30 minutes or more.
Cut up 1/2 onion (I’m saving the other half for black beans I want to make tomorrow), otherwise, I would use the whole onion.
Chop 4 carrots, 3 red potatoes into 1″ pieces.
After browning the chicken in some canola oil (you can also throw in the onions before adding the chicken), put them into a pot along with the marinade sauce left over and 2 tbsp of curry powder (my mom brought me a bag of powder from China or Taiwan).
Then add the carrots and red potatoes. Add 2 cups of water and cook for about 30-40 minutes until the potatoes and carrots are tender.
I prefer for curry beef. No ginger. 1/2 Onion, 3 Carrots, 2 Potatoes, Beef cubed and marinaded overnight, smashed garlic (for the juice), beef broth, curry sauce, sugar, salt to taste.
Also, I prefer serving over noodles instead of over rice. I think the trick is to cook on low heat over a long time so that the starch from the potatoes makes a nice thick sauce. Not too long though, or all you get is mush.