It was a bit cooler today. Finally we're hitting the start of winter, although very soon that will mean rain. We're having low humidity -- 88 percent, which is like an angel's kiss -- but I know that won't last. As the northern hemisphere tilts away from the sun we also approach perihelion, and with Sigma 957's eccentric orbit we will experience a second fall with less heat but a lot of wetness.
It seemed like perfect weather for cooking. I brought the cooker outside and turned off all the other power sinks: the AC, the crapper, the printer. All off. And, since it would be stuffy inside anyway, I'm outside too. The tangroot will boil for at least eight hours, the first four to destroy the deadly alkaloids and the second four to make it vaguely palatable. Tangroot is named both for the aftertaste from all the chemicals that might kill us, and also after another yellow food used by early astronauts. Jinyong has published some interesting recipes, but I don't have most of the ingredients. It's tangroot and melange for me!
It reminds me a little bit of cooking day back home. My calendar modus says late December, a time for collective dorms to start pooling resources into huge parties. People had different names for the season. The solstice was obvious and yet kind of meaningless. Others called it Yule or Hanukkah or Christmas -- in our family it was about cooking. We had a day for gathering; we had a day for cooking; we had a day for eating. Cooking Day was the big deal. We would spend hours working the pots and adding the spices and just smelling the vapors. My childhood is filled with the smells and the sounds of Cooking Day. To me it meant family. I only wish that I could recreate that feeling here.
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