A Visit, An Anniversary and, Chefly Delights

Rather unusually, I felt quite alert when I retrieved myself from duvet land and, within fifteen minutes had made my way to the shower room. Stranger still, this occurred after I had my acupuncture session yesterday afternoon whereas, recently, my usual morning after response has been to feel (not unpleasantly) floatingly zonked out.

A degree of tiredness overwhelmed me during Kazim’s late morning visit; I’m afraid that rapid fire talking, by a guest, tends to have a head-swimmingly soporific effect. It really is rather sad that some people, desperately seeking friendship, tend to become over loquacious, in their attempt to demonstrate / display their friendly qualities and an over-preparedness to oblige. Unfortunately, the reality is that friendships take time to develop, unlike acquaintanceship which is more instantaneous. We’re happy to extend our hospitality but, we don’t rush into committed friendship; that takes time and effort. It is one thing to befriend, something quite different to become bosom buddies!

I recovered sufficiently by mid-afternoon, to visit the 75th Anniversary Exhibition of the Methodist Church in Starbeck, where my father was a Supernumerary Minister for twenty years. It was good to see a photo of my Mother, with a small group from Women’s Network which I’d never come across before. The twelve floral displays, on the theme of Christian Heroes, was quite impressive and, it was encouraging to see that some of the displays had been prepared by members of their neighbouring Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches.

Whilst listening to the Jazz on Radio 3, I adopted my Cheffish persona to devise a main course for Sunday Dinner. The resulting creation has been christened as ‘Spiced Chicken & Pineapple Casserole’ and, it smells far more enticing than you can possibly imagine. .As usual, most of the initial cooking was of the griddle pan variety; I started by coating a few chicken breast fillets in a concoction of ground black pepper, coriander, turmeric, garlic and ginger before griddle pan frying them along with onions, peppers, mushrooms and some freshly diced pineapple, with generous lashings of basil and thyme infused olive oil. I diced the chicken in situ, partway through this preliminary cooking, before tossing all the griddle pan contents into a casserole dish. To this I added 750ml of a garam masala laced chicken gravy. The casserole dish, complete with contents was then popped into a pre-heated oven for twenty-five minutes.

Next came the par-boiling of my spice and herb imbued roast potatoes. Come tomorrow, all that remains is the roasting of the potatoes and heating through of the casserole.

I rejoice and am glad in this day the Lord has made.