Ugly and Cute

The Drama of the Mackerel Mousse

When I was a teenager I found a recipe for mackerel mousse and made it. I was rather proud of myself. We happened to have my grandmother's individual fish-shaped jello molds and I'm *guessing* I would have used them? All I remember is that it was tasty.

So when I found a mackerel mousse recipe that needed claiming on a recipe card project that I'd heard about, I was all in. Yesterday was the day. You know how there's always a can of mackerel at your local store? It's cheap and comes in a dog food sized can. Not so down the street. It was available, but in teensy Italian $4.00 cans. I made up for it by using gelatin in my cupboard that expired 10 years ago. I got it all together and realized I didn't have enough mayo (2 tablespoons) for the recipe. Which is why I have a pineapple on the counter now. I spent $30 to get the mayo I needed! OK. Back in action.

Ingrediments (as Auntie Marialani would say):

Ancient gelatin firmed up like it should:

The resulting mousse was absolutely delicious:

I got really excited about presentation, so I started messing around with radishes and cucumbers, and a favorite pretty dish that belonged to my childhood neighbor, FX.

With molds, it's the dismount that's the hardest part. And I could not get this sucker out of the mold. I patted it and it wouldn't budge. Then I put it in a basin of warm water and it only liquefied the outer layer. So I put it back in the fridge. At the time I was listening to a Freakanomics podcast about creativity, and it was making me a little anxious. I wondered whether I should just scoop it out and abandon my plan. I went out and did a little gardening to clear my head and came back in. 

I finally decided that I should just give unmolding a try and if it failed it failed. I put plastic wrap on the bottom of the mold, put a pillow on the counter and a dish towel on that and thwocked the hell out of it. No go. I tried to introduce some air and break the vacuum by sliding a knife along the side. Nope. Finally I put mrguy's rice-filled sock in the microwave and gently heated the top of the mold. And slammed it down like hell on the pillow. Success.

It turned out amazing. I managed to fuss some more with garnish and took some pictures, which I sent to the project for their records. I posted to fb, and a friend said: "I'm getting a bit of a Judy Chicago vibe, here". 

Darn it!! Had to laugh. 

A Better Day

Yesterday was a better day. After last weekend's fighting with siblings about mom, and revealing the true depth of my sorrow and anger, there was an agreement to some sort of family mediation. I can get therapy for myself, but the source of much of my angst is the conflict between my sister and the rest of us siblings. So if that scenario is still the deal, it's pointless to seek help.

As always, my caveat is that my sister works harder at this than all of us. But I don't think that my mom had to be taken to the Midwest, come back, quarantine until her Covid test came back negative and then have my sister take care of her solo for a week or more in order for things to be where they are right now. I am grateful and not grateful, I guess. Mom's now off all of her psych medications and taking Benadryl to make her sleepy.

Yesterday I got to hang out with both the sister and mom for a few hours in a park. It was relatively pleasant. No barbs were thrown. I socially distanced, but mom didn't wear a mask, and we sat by a path where lots of people passed by. It was fine. I made a flower arrangement for mom and she seemed to like it.

Having done that, today feels like a better day. Boy Kitten is feisty, having waged a successful battle against Rainbow String.

I cleaned his room and washed all of his bedding in hot water and bleach, gave him flea bath, killed a bunch of fleas, and tomorrow he will get a flea treatment.

Our friend, the hardest working man in Hawaiian show business delivered both mussel and limu poke today, and we are having it large.

Mrguy bought lots of potting soil yesterday, and we fixed up the dozens of succulent pots on the upper deck. I gave fertilizer (worm castings) to our plants.

A little more kitten play-time, some Indian food and Hamilton! I admit that things go so fast that I caught the lyrics on my laptop, and we stopped about a third in, because it was so interesting. The desire to sleuth about all of these people who you read about in school was too strong.

The desire to sleuth means that this is a better day.