The Corona Diaries Vol 47: Covid Kept the First Footer Away

(January 2022)

(Watch this entry's prelude.)

2022 began as have the last however many years it's been since my Frau and I started going steady with a bowl of her Hoppin’ John.

Hoppin' John is a Southern dish of black-eyed peas, pork, and rice that apparently dates back to the 19th century. She picked up the tradition from her father's family which hails from Montgomery, Alabama. The fine aged cheddar you see here is a Wisconsin addition to this Southern recipe.

 

  

Somehow she forgot the customary corn but, since it’s the black-eyed peas that bring you luck, this omission was not a big deal.

After breakfast I went out for a stroll around the neighborhood. It was very chilly outside as the Green Man could attest.

 

 

I wandered down to Starkweather Creek. Although I saw a lone mallard here and there, it was generally calm and quiet.

I crossed over on our fancy new bridge and began wandering the creekside path. It wasn’t long before I encountered the handiwork of our local beaver.

Farther along I discovered even more evidence of our rodent neighbors.

Still, I couldn’t find its lodge. I am assuming that beavers gnaw on trees near their homes but I may be wrong. But you would think that they wouldn’t want to be hauling felled trees over long distances. Or do they chomp on trees at times for practice or simply because they cannot help themselves?

While I am not one to make New Year's resolutions, I did vow in the early hours of 2022 that I was going to cook Ethiopian food this year. I have no recollection as to why, though. My suspicion is that I noticed we have a surfeit of barbere, an Ethiopian seasoning blend, and thought it would be a good idea to start using it up. The Frau has made doro wot, a spicy Ethiopian chicken stew, before and I suspect that I was figuring that I could inveigle her into doing so again.

"Oh honey, I went hunting today at the supermarket and brought home a bounty of chicken breasts for you to turn into doro wot because you're such a good cook."

I bat my eyelashes.

To go with it, we would need injera bread, a spongy, sour, pancake-like flatbread that adorns all Ethiopian tables, or so I am told. It is made with teff flour and I found myself staring at 2 varieties at the store. Do I get whole grain or not? Hmmm. Teff flour is the ground seed of a plant in the millet family and is apparently gluten-free, good news for sufferers of celiac disease.

Following the directions on the bag (which involved letting the batter age in the refrigerator) was the wrong move so I put my bowl of batter on top of the microwave and covered it with a dishcloth. It sat there for 3 days absorbing the yeast in the air until it was bubbly and redolent of the terroir of our house. Then I got my griddle greased and poured some out in a spiral. I let it cook for a few minutes and voila!

It was an epic failure. Although the Frau found them repulsive, I didn't think they tasted that bad. But they were not light and spongy like those made by the pros and were instead a bit dense, crumbly, and gritty. I did some more reading online and found that cutting the teff with some wheat flour is a good way for beginners to learn to make injera so I am going to try that next time.

Rather than waiting on me being able to concoct a passable injera bread, I plowed ahead on Ethiopian cooking and made zilzil alecha. This is beef in a green pepper sauce. Strips of steak and slices of onion simmer in a sauce of pureed green peppers, a chili, cardamom, ginger, turmeric, salt, and pepper. Oh, and wine too. "Authentic" recipes call for an Ethiopian seasoned and clarified butter called niter kibbeh which involves exotic and rare herbs so I decided to tackle that another day. The zilzil alecha turned out quite well, if I do say so myself.

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My youngest stepson spent Christmas Day with us. I sat him down in front of the TV at one point and made him watch one of my newly acquired blurays – John Carpenter's The Thing from 1982, a favorite film of mine. After this, I was determined to finally read the novella that it was based on, "Who Goes There?" (1938) by legendary sci-fi author and editor John W. Campbell. Several years ago, 3 chapters that he had removed from the tale for publication were replaced and the unexpurgated story was republished as "Frozen Hell".

It was a very fun read. I could see why he cut out the 3 chapters as they added unnecessary exposition that merely delayed getting into the fun parts. There were some genuine creepy moments. BBC radio adapted the story as a radio play in 2002 and it is very spooky with some genuinely disturbing sound effects. You can find it here.

Not long after finishing "Frozen Hell", I went to a friend's house down in West Chicago for a weekend of gaming. The first game we played? The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31, based on Carpenter's film.

There were 7 players in total and a couple of us were infected by the alien but those unsullied didn't know who which caused a lot of paranoia and recrimination. In other words, fun!

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It being winter, I have taken some time to catch up on my movie watching. My first viewing of the new year was (finally!) Metropolis. Thankfully our DVD rental emporium has the mostly restored version which incorporates the footage found back in 2008.

What a wonderful film! The sets and special effects were incredible. It was hard not to watch it and not see other films in it – Blade Runner, Brazil, and The Fifth Element most readily came to mind. It has to be the prototypical dystopian sci-fi movie upon which most of those that followed are based upon in some way, large or small. And you can't tell me C3PO from Star Wars wasn't modelled after the robot lady.

The second movie that I watched this year was the extended cut of 1973's The Wicker Man. I adore this movie starring Christopher Lee.

The extended version has 8 or so minutes of footage that was not in the theatrical release. Much of it comes at the beginning before Sergeant Howie makes his way to the island. These scenes establish him as being a very pious man/a total prude. Other additions I noticed included more of Britt Ecklund's callipygian figure during her nude dance routine as she tried to lure Howie into temptation and a scene where Lee's Lord Summerisle brings a teenaged boy to Ecklund's boudoir so that he may become a man, so to speak.

I just love this film. It's a lot of fun and who doesn't like Christopher Lee?! Plus all of the pagan/folklore elements are neat.

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You may recall many a diary entry ago that I mentioned the The Great Butter Fire of 1991. I have found some news footage from that fateful day that shows the rivers of butter I referred to.

While I am embedding videos, check out this song by one of my new favorite bands, Canailles. I discovered them on a radio show called Accordion Noir out of Vancouver which, as the name suggests, is all accordion music. Canailles, which is sadly no longer around, were a band from Montreal, I think. They combined bluegrass, zydeco, cajun, and whatever folk music the French-Canadians have concocted up in Quebec.

I have no idea what the lyrics say as I don't know any French but this is good music to shake yer booty to.

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Bonus photo: Here's Piper taking a snooze while I am hard at work.

(Go to this entry's postlude.)