Whilst talking with Becky yesterday, our conversation helped me to remember to set out chicken to thaw. So, late last night, I whipped up a batch of Thai Honey Peanut Chicken, which I poured over Jasmine rice. Today, I made the chicken part of Lemon Chicken Gyros with Tzatziki and Feta, since I already have the gyro dough made. I also found a last bag of shell pasta in a different location from all the other pasta. So, a batch of Pasta alla Vodka is in the freezer as well. That means I now have 12 servings of pasta and eight servings of chicken dishes to diversify my stash of my favorites, making 10 different meal options at the present. Diversification goal achieved!
It is a bit hard to just jar up this peanutty-tastiness for a latter time. Still, I am happy this freezes so well.
I made a small tweak to the lemon chicken for gyros upon a later date. I pulled out the chicken once it was cooked, but before the herb and lemon marinade reduced down to mere crustiness as I would have if folk were coming over to feast on these. I then added a bit of cream to the pan and made a reduction out of the remaining marinade to capture that herby twang. This way, I thought I could make a faux tzatziki sauce by mixing the creamy marinade, Greek yogurt, a dash of dill, and a bit of minced cucumber. I did this because I cannot make up a batch of true tzatziki sauce and eat my way through it. Also, I have little confidence that it would freeze well with the minced cucumber in it.
My goal for July's budget, even though I have still 9 days left of this month, is buy only dairy, fruit, vegetables, and beef for stew. I have on hand the ingredients for an additional batch each of Chipotle Chicken Chili and Spicy Dr Pepper Pulled Pork. Plus, I have four additional chicken breasts and some bacon for the odd recipe I might find. And there are those two steak recipes I've been too chicken to try, though I may still have some missing ingredients to gather for them ... I can't remember. Anyway, I want July to be a bit of a catch-up month grocery-wise. Because I keep cooking ahead—my chief coping mechanism of late—I really do not know just how economical I can be with grocery spending. Of course, part of that is due to being single. Most of the recipes I have encountered serve between 4-8. I'm always going to have some sort of stash, right??
We had some rain today. With the sanded boards wet, I got a glimpse of just how beautiful the floor will be once it is finished. Once the weather turns back. Once the near-never-ending sanding is recommenced. Once the restoration is complete.
With it too hot to sand the back porch floor at the moment, no need for cooking, the dresser finished, and the mass mailing completed, I am a bit of a loss as to how to distract myself from my thoughts and fears. What I have chosen for the moment makes no sense. I started watching Battlestar Galactica again. Round 5 or 6?? Who knows. But it, like a few other shows I know, is more like reading a book than watching television. And it is, to me, a rather fascinating examination of faith and forgiveness. Forgiveness in the face of the very worst of human flesh. Faith in the inexplicable, in the mysteries that cannot be understood. Love. Hatred. Loyalty. Betrayal. Sickness. Health. War. Famine. Pestilence. Despair. Rage. Annihilation. The end of the world. It's all in this believable, futuristic story.
What is life?
What is hope?
What is forgiveness?
What is faith?
Funny, in watching the first half of the pilot movie, I started weeping, thinking about the loss one character faces. Her questions, her anguish so close to my own. Is it odd that I find a particular kind of beauty in the story that is the modern re-telling of Battlestar Galactica? Is it strange that I find it fitting that the machines believe in the one true God whilst mankind believes in many gods, in the Lords of Kobal?
Even though I am not sure what is right, what is true of me, I have been reading the Psalter, psalm by psalm, comparing the KJ in my 1715 Bible, the KJ in my 1836 Bible, and my beloved NASB 1977 ... just looking at the differences in translation over time. I also looked at three centuries worth of the Common Book of Prayer containing the Psalter. Thinking about words and the Word.
For example, I considered Psalm 51, particularly verses 3 and 14. Those were the ones that I noticed were softened, have been made less, in the Common Book of Prayer, the earliest version I have of which is 1881. For I know my faults instead of my transgressions, in verse 3. God of my health, instead of God of my salvation, in verse 14.
Faults. Those are something that you can work on, improve, even eradicate. Sin, not so much. God of health?? Well, I cannot fathom why that would be a better prayer than God of my salvation. Except that you can effect some measure of control over your health, you can contribute to it in some fashion. To me, this is a particularly peculiar translation given that the first half of that verse is Deliver me from bloodguiltiness...
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, Thou God of my salvation...
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, Thou that art the God of my health...
Odd changes to me. Odd that while they are in the Common Book of Prayer, they are not in the Revised Standard Version or the Revised Standard Version Anglicized. I suppose folk think it is okay to change the translation of the Psalter in a prayer book, as long as it is not changed in the Bible? Like I said, odd. And, in my opinion, dangerous.
Words matter to me.
Both those I understand and those I do not.
I think they should matter to everyone.
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