Call it a failing, but I think social grace is important. Important enough that I've been known to drink well water in rural Ghana when it was offered to me by a family that had nothing else to offer. Important enough that today I accepted honey-sweetened tea and a slice of freezer-case torte from someone newly-arrived who provided them as a gesture of hospitality in the hopes of founding a friendship.
I didn't feel well afterwards, and I still don't, but I'd probably feel worse if I'd refused the food.
February 22, dinner: Moroccan chicken (using preserved rather than fresh lemons); a giant mixed green salad.
Tasks: put in double batch of almonds to soak. Where do they go?
February 23, breakfast: 2 pork patties; 2 fried eggs; a few still-wet soaked almonds.
Tasks: dry almonds, soak sunflower seeds
Lunch: Store-bought creamy cake and sweet fruit tea; some kind of meat-rice casserole; filter coffee.
Tasks: jar almonds, put in sunflower seeds to dry. Contemplate electricity bill (we don't have a dehydrator, so I use the oven on 60 degrees C).
Snack: 1/4 pear; 3/4 c crispy almonds
Remarks: The Moroccan chicken had a good flavour profile, although I changed the main ingredient in a relatively simple recipe and left out the recommended rice or couscous. This - and the omission of 2 Tbsp flour - did make for a relatively soupy sauce. I think if I make it again I'd keep the spice mix and tinker significantly with the process. The recipe preamble indicates that it was rewritten from a more complicated and time-consuming version, so perhaps I'm just moving back towards the original. If a meal only contains a handful of ingredients, I'd say it behooves the cook to do what it takes to bring out the best in each!
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