Kitchen Kaboodle

I’ve been here over a week now and I will certainly fill-in many details about my life here over the coming weeks, I’ll share a small anecdote about cooking here, having just made my first attempt at cooking eggs, potatoes, and onions – generally a good gauge of how difficult things will be.

No: peeler or paring knife, scrambling bowl, frying pan, cutting board or surface.

Yes: dirty dishes (like years of dust and grime caked on), sauce pot (handmade out of aluminum by a 4 year old?), plastic stir-thingy, fork, plate/bowl, steel wool, 8-inch cutting knife.

I got to scrubbing and managed to clean a steep-rimmed, but still shallow glass cup to use for scrambling the eggs. The fork was being difficult and didn’t want to wisk the eggs into a fluff. Ok, no biggie, the eggs will be less fluffy than is ideal. Horror of horrors. Moving right along. I used the big knife to peel (slowly) and chop the potatoes and onions, using the plate/bowl as my perfectly ideal slippery surface – safety first. Cooked the onions and potatoes (45 minutes? Seriously? Yes.) and added the eggs, which each stuck to the bottom of my sauce pot like white on rice. 15 minutes later I had golden-y goodness in just over an hour. I worked harder for those two eggs than any other eggs I’ve ever eaten. Too long you say? Nay, I reply. It oriented me with the kitchen. I now know many of the quirks and hindrances of the facility, which I promptly reorganized and will be cleaning in the immediate future. I’m looking forward to my diet of eggs, pita, lentils, eggplant, and cucumber, possibly spiced w/pepper and cumin. I hope to come back looking like a Kenyan marathoner, complete with exposed ribs and a dark tan complexion. Unnecessary? Probably.

Perhaps a Turkey update next time. Perhaps.