The Fairest's Fare

I love to cook, and I'm pretty good at it. But I don't have much range. I mean, to buy fresh is expensive, as are nicer cuts of meats, so I'm pretty much limited to chicken, ground beef, round steak and an occassional roast. Personally, just for tastes and digestive preferences, I don't eat pork, but I made it a lot for my husband and son.

We've had a houseguest/roomate for the last eight months. Our roomy, Ibriham, is from West Africa and doesn't eat pork. His favorite meat is lamb, something I admit, I really don't know how to cook, and he doesn't like lamb from a chain, so when we have it, he cooks it.

Now I've watched him and watched him to see how he creates his lamb and chicken dishes. The spices are so deep and rich and causing the mouth to water. But for a long time, no matter how hard I tried, I was missing something. It never came out the same.

Sometimes, we go on Saturdays to the different Indian markets in town. This is a great city for seeking out authentic foreign ingredients, and we have everything from hispanic, asian, eastern europe and middle eastern.

On one of our outtings, we picked several boxes of spice mixes, all filled with peppers, currys, cumin, corum...so lovely and fragrant. Agobe(found right in the grocery chains) is one of his favorites, and by golly, Ibriham has to have his msg.

I've been fixing this chicken dish for him. I found his secret and it's very simple. Don't measure anything and throw everything into the pan. I marinate the chicken in Lousiana Red Pepper Marinade for about 30 minutes. A few small, chopped carrots, a medium potato, chunks of onion, green peppers. Then systematically go through the spice rack and add spicy. Garlic powder, Chipoltle seasoning, red pepper flakes, Agobe, black pepper. Drizzle balsamic vinegar over the chicken and veggies. It goes in a 350 degree oven, covered, for about an hour. I always drain off the juice and use that to cook my rice in.

One day Ibriham took the left-over chicken to his work. He put it in the microwave and he said he got it very hot, so hot that the aroma spread throughout the cafeteria. A Jamaican man there made a comment, asking what kind of food was that, Jamacian?

Another woman, also from Jamaica asked him if his wife cooked it for him. He answered, no, his roomates wife had cooked it.

"Is she Jamaican? Is she African?"

He said, "No, she's a white girl."

Yes, sir-ree, folks. I have arrived. I can now cook African food(and it's yummy!)

Intro

As a teen, my best friend was always paranoid while driving. As often naughty girls, we never knew who may suddenly pop up behind us. So to keep her driving record intact, free of dui's or driving tickets, as well as keeping her ass free of welps, she worked out a special system...look at the road in front, check the rear view mirror, then check the side view mirror. After a short time, her movements became automatic. Front, rear, side...front, rear, side...front, rear, side.

Cruising into my forties, I realize that our driving mirrors share a valid comparison with our lives...it's a constant check of what's behind us, what's beside us and where we're going, all in the guise of keeping us safe and sane. How we rotate our mirrors as we drive is a good indicator of how we manage our individual lives.

I for one find myself getting stuck looking in the rear view mirror the most, straining to see what opportunities I left behind and holding my breath as a semi comes inches from relieving me of my back bumper. In the rear view mirror, the scene always loses definition, and details begin to fade. I spend so much time checking what's behind me, that I often miss the good stops coming up ahead.

I convince myself that if I keep looking back, I will not be doomed to repeat my same horrible mistakes. And yes, sometimes it does help. For that is what the true measure of intelligence is, the ability to learn and not repeat mistakes. As a society, we could use a little more rear view mirror searching, instead of the forward tunnel vision we seem stuck in. But as individuals, we must learn balance, and never to give any direction more attention than another.

So ride along with me down the Blogger Road, while I search for truth and balance. It will be a bumpy ride, filled with potholes and poor white trash in their natural habitat, but hopefully, at the end of the trip, there'll be a nice big Dairy Queen waiting. You just never know.