I know what you're thinking. She said she was moving and things were chaotic, but really, she was just blowing us off. Or, she moved from the city to the
boonies suburbs, and has no internet capability in those parts. I apologize for the absence, but am excited that a) things are calming down and b) we wised up and looked on the bottom of the modem/wireless router for the password so we could actually use the wireless connection we've been paying for for 4 weeks already. (seems silly to have to sit within a 5 foot radius of the router and still pay the same as those lucky ducks who get to sit anywhere in their house--or even
porch, perhaps?? and use their fancy interweb connection, right?) So here I am, in Smalltown, PA, getting used to birds chirping (loudly. in a mammoth bush. right outside our bedroom window.), commuter train horns, and a slightly larger but much uglier kitchen in place of the pedestrians' converstions, police sirens, ice cream man's song, and a slightly smaller but much easier on the eyes kitchen that we left behind in Fairmount. So far, I've learned:
- my oven runs hot (tragic Easter weekend apple cake disappointment);
- I can fill 6 kitchen drawers in a flash, even when I made do with 2 mini-drawers for 2 years;
- stopping on the way home from work for ingredients here isn't nearly as convenient as there;
- we don't know all the weeknight specials at the good bars/restaurants yet.
Enter bullet point #4, a week and a 1/2 ago (Yes. I've had this material for 11 days. Don't judge. It gets worse when you see the sad attempt at photography.). It was an ordinary Tuesday. But an "ordinary Tuesday" in Fairmount is capped off with the most delicious tacos at
Lucky 7 Tavern. Taco Tuesday, of course! So my brief elation that Tuesday had come around for another visit was quickly crushed when I remembered that Lucky 7 isn't exactly "right down the street anymore." Then I remembered we still had some
croaker in our freezer (yes, we moved frozen foods), and I could bring Taco Tuesday to us! I wanted to make a good effort though, as to not settle for the next best thing. So I searched for a good batter recipe (although the one I've used from
Joy of Cooking isn't half bad), as well as a good topping to put on the fish. So I found Sunny Anderson's
Cerveza-Battered Fish Tacos and Emeril Legasse's
Jicama Buttermilk Coleslaw. The amazing (to me, at least) thing was that the only ingredients I needed to pick up on my way home were the cabbages and carrots! Seriously, who has buttermilk and jicama just sitting around? Me, apparently. So I followed Sunny's batter recipe as written, except that I didn't realize I was supposed to divide the flour. So I separated it after I mixed the spices in, only to have a flavored-flour dredge for the fish. No harm there! Emerils was changed just slightly, to add that kick that my non-mustard-fan Hubby loves so much. Instead of the mustard, I chopped a chipotle in adobo finely and added that to the slaw mix. By George, I've done it. I managed to combine the ultimate topping (first tasted on routinely burnt battered fish filets cooked by a certain, unnamed,
Hell's Kitchen contestant) and the perfectly cooked (well, most of the pieces) battered croaker filets.
I do apologize for the poor photography effort. In the mess of moving boxes and renovation materials, we couldn't find the camera, so this was taken on my phone. No worries, the camera has now been found...hanging on a dining room chair. Oops.
But in all seriousness, I do miss the city, and although I'm getting there, I just don't feel "at home" in our new town yet. Its still a recent change, I'm not disappointed or sad, I'm just surprised that I didn't slip back into suburban life as quickly or easily as I thought I would. I am thrilled though, that I was able to successfully bring another piece of our old home into our new home. That's what matters, right? Not the house itself, but what makes the house a home.
I do hope to be back on a more regular basis now...we'll see how that goes.
