2003-06-16

2003-06-16 - 3:40 p.m.

Food find of the week: tomatillos were $1/pound at the Asian market I frequent. Mushrooms, both button and eryngi, were also $2/pound. Putting the two together yielded extra yummy enchiladas with green sauce.

Kaetchen's salsa verde cocida
Skin and wash the tomatillos (I used about 2#), then throw them on a grill (or under a broiler) with a few cloves of garlic and a thick-sliced white onion. Grill until marked and soft. Throw all of this into the food processor with the leaves from an entire bunch of cilantro, a big pinch of salt, ground pepper and a small pinch of sugar. Add one chipolte in adobo. (As noted a few days ago, I keep a container in the fridge.) Blend.

Heat a teaspoon of oil in saute pan; when it's hot, slide the sauce in gently. Be careful, it'll splatter! Cook the sauce on low heat for about fifteen minutes. This helps mellow the acidity and lets the garlic develop. Cool it, serve it and love it.

Notes: Sugar helps balance out the green acidity. Tomatillos also require a lot of salt, for the same reason. For a great discussion of salsas, read Rick Bayless' book Mexico One Plate at a Time.

I make no claims of authenticity for this salsa; it just tastes good to me - and is very easy.

2003-06-16 - 10:43 a.m.

As mentioned a few days ago, starting immediately, I assume a 50% internship with the human resources unit in my office. Exciting, yes. Gratifying too. BUT.

As with anything new, there are adjustments to be made. I also serve as a floater, covering absences in critical positions, plus perform a separate set of duties for the summer than during the academic year. On the up side, I'm learning new things. On the down, my Outlook inbox currently contains 20 emails where people are arguing over my time, my obligations, sharing equally, blah blah blah.

My response to all this has been censored for office consumption, but here's what I'd like to say: "Thank you for the opportunity. Now could you all please shut the fuck up and let me get something done?"

2003-06-16 - 9:50 a.m.

I woke up this morning just as NPR announced, "and it's going to be 103 today; our air will be unhealthy for sensitive groups..." Happy Monday indeed.

I am infinitely distractable today. A co-worker wandered over with a question about how to sequence heavily titled individuals for blind copies; I ended up spending 20 minutes thinking about a title's possessive modifiers. Before that I was immersed in the office's Bible-sized copy of the OED, looking up "periphesence", a word Jeffrey Eugenides uses in Middlesex to describe the first flush of lust/love. He claims the word is an invention; I'm curious if this is accurate.

None of these distractions, of course, are helping me get any work done.

Comments: Speak your piece!

former / latter