I'm a good cook, really!

Actually, in all honesty, when I got married, I couldn't boil an egg! For the first 3 months, we ate risotto just about every night. It was all Jurgis knew how to cook. Heck, we even entertained... with risotto! Our guests swore it was delicious. Uh... yes.

After 3 months of risotto, I bought a recipe book - one day I'll get it again. I miss that book. It was my intro into some truly delicious culinary delights (thanks Katey for sneaking my favourite recipes to me!) It was definitely the start of my baking (Viennese butter biscuits... deeevine! And cheese scones!).

I took to baking in a big way. Jurgis knew that, when he came home, there would always be full cake and biscuit tins. He'd walk in and shake each tin looking for something to nibble on until supper was ready.

I had begged my gran for Sophie's samp and beans recipe. That became our staple for shopping day because I could set it on a low simmer, go shopping, and come home to a delicious meal.

Shopping was usually done on a Friday evening. Jurgis would arrive home to fetch me and we'd go to the massive Hyperama. Before we left, I'd have supper in our super-duper AMC classic cookware pot, turned down really low. I had inherited my mother-in-law's virtually unused set when we got married. She'd gone back to Brazil and left her pots behind. I was not complaining. They were wonderful!

This one shopping day, we were in a rush for some reason. Shopping went well, nonetheless. When we returned home, we were just rounding the corner when Jurgis said, "Oooh! Someone's burnt their supper!" We laughed, thinking of the poor people and their burnt food. It was only as we rounded the last corner (yes, we'd smelt it miles off) that we saw the pall of smoke pouring out of our house.... the kitchen window, to be precise.

Dismayed, we rushed inside and opened all the windows and doors. The pot with its thick base had melted onto the stove plate. The food was a 1 inch layer of charcoal in the pot. The pot's handles melted. The house stank! We cleaned up as best we could. I think we had sandwiches that night. That wasn't the end of the story though.

We had no idea what to do with the expensive, ruined pot, so we hid it in the maid's toilet. All houses had maid's quarters. We used ours for storage at the time. I hid it behind the toilet and behind a mess of brooms, mops and sundry other items.

The pot was forgotten in my subsequent pregnancy and Ceinwen's birth.

Then Jurgis' dad came.

Having his daughter-in-law to wait on him and having his son working during the day left him bored. What happens to bored kids? They get up to mischief. Wouldn't you know it? He went scratching through our storage and he found The Pot. All hell broke loose. His worse suspicions were confirmed. I was the worst possible wife and housewife and he had the evidence! Ha!

Poor Jurgis was trapped between us. The old man stuck around for over two months. I eventually declared that either he moved out or I would move out. My gran arrived when Ceinwen was just under a month old and bullied him into something bordering submission or at least a grudging sulk. She busied herself making baby clothes, cleaning house and cooking.... the good housewife I most definitely wasn't.

Those first months of Ceinwen's life weren't memories of babyhood, but of The Pot. Months later, we eventually got it cleaned up. AMC is great with that. They renewed the base, replaced the handles and polished the entire pot. It went on to serve many more years. I went on to bake commercially with that set and to serve 3 course dinners to guests. I'm a good cook, really.... sometimes... when I'm not serving up burnt offerings ; )

Saturday deminishes into a pile of catch-up activities

I'm so far behind now, catching up is actually a joke. Let's see.... the weekend started....

Last night, I was ready to step into the shower when I noticed that Specs was strangely missing. She usually hangs around my feet when I'm getting ready in the bathroom. I looked over into the bedroom. No cat on the bed. I looked on all the chairs. Nada. I then took the torch and looked under the chairs, tables and cupboards. Nothing. I donned my gown and ran outside barefoot. I looked up and down the passages. No cat.

Thoughts of, "Omg, what will I tell Tat?" were running around in my head. I looked upstairs, in and around all the little nooks and crannies. I scanned the rooftops by torchlight. I went to the main house... upstairs, nothing... downstairs, nothing. I checked window sills for kitty paw prints in the layers of São Paulo dust. Then I checked the tops of walls. Nothing. Nada. I controlled the panic that was setting in and decided to go ahead with my shower.

When I finished showering, I went to bed. This is what I found...


Can you see it??
*mentally throttles cat*

This morning is laundry and general housework time. Throw into that mix a kitchen sink that needs to be removed, so we can cement it in place. It is totally loose and supported by random planks. The kitchen is currently a disaster zone.

I need to spend a few hours preparing something for my students this week. Most of them are great. Their needs are simple. Then there are the horrors *sigh* I have these teens who come from a supposedly good family. They are destroying me, slowly but surely. No, forget the slowly part. I come away from that class feeling depressed and fairly useless. Their talk is smutty. They have no respect for man or beast. One brat's idea of a great way to be rich is to have his own zoo with lions, tigers, hippo's, etc that he can hunt and kill as he wishes. They eat (if you can call it that) unashamedly in class. The one stood arguing with his brother with a very full mouth and bread spraying as he was talking.



The other fights sleep all the way through... when he bothers to fight it. The third takes delight in telling me that he knows better. I tell him that if he does know better, he needs to prove it. I know teens 'test' people, but they're taking the testing to a whole new level. Their language would make a sailor blush. They seem to go out of their way to try to humiliate *takes a deep, calming breath* I can do this. It's only 4 hours a week. I can do this. If I can just come away from half the lessons not wanting to cry, I'll consider it a success for now.

Whew! *puts drama to one side*

On the bright side, I came home from one of their classes desperate and sat listening to a guided meditation. Towards the end, a story I've been trying to write for more than a year came into my head in all it's entirety. I now know the characters, the plot, the end... everything! Wonderful! See? There is good in negative situations after all!

It's hot again today. This heat is bearable though. It's up to 30ºC, but it doesn't feel like it. I love dry heat. On the downside, the pollution is extreme. Apparently, yesterday, the pollution was such that the effects on the lungs were such that every breath was like smoking a cigarette, which instantly made São Paulo a city of 20 million smokers. Walking is tiring. As you walk, your lungs burn. We all have sore throats, coughs and burning noses. We need rain. Apparently they're getting nice rain to the south. This week should see some relief.

Looking over the rooftops, I spotted a new satellite dish going up in the favela (slum). Brazil doesn't have building standards, so every neighbourhood has its share of favelas. The favelas and their satellite dishes have always been a subject of fascination for me. This is one huge satellite dish! Thank goodness for a zoom lens.


Just being put up


I'm going to beg forgiveness in advance. I have a few blogs written up for the week that need to be typed in. If you're bored, happy reading, but I won't be offended if you leave them out of your weekend reading : )