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Skriven 2015-07-25 21:15:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av NANCY BACKUS
Ärende: awkward 15
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 ML> Ah. Here I'm staying with my friends Bill and Linda; her mom
 ML> is in that same situation, but in this case Linda is the
 ML> caretaker, driving half an hour to the home every day (used
 ML> to be an hour, but the full-care facility she's been moved
 ML> into is closer than the assisted place was).
 NB> Been there, done that... and had to be at the care facility with my
 NB> friend almost full-time to make sure that she was doing the rehab work
 NB> the way she was supposed to, and that they didn't mess up her meds any
 NB> more than I couldn't prevent...

It gives structure to your life if nothing else. Sort of the
way the stocks or a straitjacket might do.

 I fully agreed with my sister that
 NB> bringing Mommy back home, to where she lives semi-independently
 NB> (usually) with my sister, was much the best idea for her... especially
 NB> as she is easily affected by hospital like setting caused delirium...

A terrible but understandable side effect of staring at
a field of white and a bunch of medical apparatus and
personnel all day. It's a different reality and one that
makes one want to break out of it altogether. When I was in
for the head, for a while I had a roommate who had become a
screamer - I had to push my earplugs in extra deep when he
started up. The doctor had to explain his condition to the
family and made no bones about its origin (long stays in bed
with scant mental stimulation) and its name (hospital-induced
psychosis). 

 NB> So I get to drive the 40 minutes or so each way to help out with her
 NB> care at home, but it would only have been more onerous probably if we'd
 NB> let her go into a rehab setting where we'd still have to be covering
 NB> things pretty much 24/7, and she'd be more out of it... 

Hard on the family, but easier on her - and perhaps less hard
on you than if she were in the worse environment .

 ML> November 17. I'm trying to figure it out. Nobody would give a
 ML> care if I showed up or not (actually, some of the old-timers
 ML> would be mildly put off if I did), unless there's an afterlife,
 ML> and if there is, Gunther probably wouldn't mind my absence,
 ML> having better things to do.
 NB> So it mostly boils down to whether or not you feel you should be or
 NB> want to be there... and whether the extra points give an extra
 NB> incentive to do it... ;)

I see no reason to think about it for a while.

 ML> Maybe my attitude still requires adjusting, because I found
 ML> both wanting, but in different ways, the former for its
 ML> ham-handed stereotyping of all sorts of English types - though
 ML> Swiftian satire does paint with a broad brush, one prefers a
 ML> hair or two of subtlety now and again -; the second for its
 ML> plot holes, of which there are so many one suspects groundwork
 ML> for a sequel, of which there was none.
 NB> Perhaps you've merely developed a finer-tuned discrimination, with
 NB> reading having been so difficult for so long...  ;)  One does want to
 NB> maximize one's efforts especially when one is at a disadvantage...

I was always a highly critical reader and sometimes have to
rush through a book to blur over the inconsistency of details.
I had a young lady friend once who read plenty of what one might
call classic mysteries and who recommended to me three women
authors who she thought would please me - Marjorie Allingham,
Josephine Tey, and Dorothy Sayers. The first had just too many
inconsistencies and improbabilities, the second was too transparent,
and the third I read with some pleasure, enough to reread at a more
measured pace ... upon which I discovered holes that at times
compromised my enjoyment quite a bit.

 ML> our mutually confessed assessment that the greatest chef in
 ML> the world was Cheong Liew at Grange, which had become known
 ML> to him via colleagues in the academic world and to me via
 ML> colleagues in the FIDO cooking echo.
 NB> Some things just make for a lasting bond... :)  And perhaps there were
 NB> more, perhaps more subtle, things that you also had in common...  :)

We were all three interesting and rather eccentric, though in
the other two's cases their level of talent was such that they
managed to get a centric of their own. It is true that Gunther
and I sometimes saw eye to eye on things that nobody else
would understand the same way, and that was a source of pride.

 ML> Spiced prawn sushi
 NB> Certainly isn't sushi... but it does look like it could be quite
 NB> tasty...  :)

Could be, could be.

---------- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06

      Title: CHEONG MENG FOO KWAI [STUFFED PUMPKIN]
 Categories: Chinese, Asia-n, Microwave, Stuffed
      Yield: 10 Servings

      1 sm Pumpkin [1.2kg]
    250 g  Pork- lean
    300 g  Fish- prawns
           ;shelled
     10 g  Herb- parsley
      2 sm Eggs
           ; FLAVOURINGS
      2 tb Sauce- light soy
      1 tb Oil- sesame
    1/2 ts Spice- pepper
    1/2 ts Spice- five-spice
    1/4 ts Salt
    1/2 ts Sugar
           ; DISPLAY
      1 lg Carrots
     10    Mushrooms- dried
           ; GRAVY
  1 1/2 c  Stock- chicken
  1 1/2 tb Sauce- oyster
    1/2 ts Sugar
      2 tb Sauce- light soy
  2 1/2 ts Flour- cornflour
           ; GARNISH
     10    Eggs- quail, hardboiled

  PREPARATION: Wash the pumpkin and cut off a section 1/3 from the top.
  Scrap out the seeds.

  Mince the pork, prawns, parsley and eggs with the seasonings' soy, oil,
  pepper, 5-spice, salt and sugar and mix into a paste. Place this stuffing
  into the pumpkin.

  Shap the thick end of the carrot into a tortise head and the remaining
  sections into feet and a tail.

  Soak the dried mushrooms to soften and drain off the water.

  COOKING: Place the stuffed pumpkin in a 4L casserole and microwave on
  MEDIUM-HIGH power for 14 minutes, uncovered. Set aside.

  Place the shaped carrot tortise head, feet and tail in a small plate and
  microwave on HIGH for 1 minute, uncovered. Set aside.

  Combine the gravy ingredients with the black mushrooms in a 24c,/9.5"
  casserole and microwave on HIGH for 6 minutes, uncovered.

  Add the cornflour and microwave on HIGH for 1 minute.

  ASSEMBLY: Place the cooked stuffed pumpkin on a serving plate with the
  skin side up, to resemble the shell of a tortise. Place the carrot head,
  feet or tail in position with cocktail sticks.

  Pour the gravy mixture over the pumpkin and garnish with quail's eggs
  surrounding the tortise.

  From: THE CHINESE MICROWAVE COOKBOOK
  By: PEARLY HOH
  ISBN 9971 65 504 7
  Typed by: KEVIN JCJD SYMONS
  U/L SEPTEMBER 2001
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