Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Chicken and Potatoes

This is a true Dunnet winter favourite. You fill up the big roasting pot with some chicken legs, cubed potatoes, sliced onion, garlic cloves and covered it all with some spices. After putting the lid on the whole pot is left on the wood burning stove for 3 hours or so and in the end you have a slow cooked meal ready to go. What is essential is that the wood burning stove stays hot. Arriving home this afternoon the wife informed me that she had let the fire go out and dinner was in the regular oven. You win some and you lose some. Funny I always thought winsome was kind of a dark word but it turns out it means innocently charming. I vaguely remember reading about a winsome smile on a character in a novel. I always thought it meant tough and rugged. Maybe even stoic. Well there you go. Blogging increases intelligence. I hear it is fat free too. I'm gonna get me some more of that.

In family news the kids managed to make it through about 35 minutes of standing outside before there were too many tears and we had to be the first to leave the Rememberance day ceremony. Now there is a walk of shame. I am trying to give off the whole, "look its the kids, I would stay in hail storm but I can't force them to suffer anymore" look. Meanwhile, I am feeling the whole, "cut and run, you bastard, be a man" thing from everyone I walk past. It could very well have been imagined. I just wish some other family had cracked before us. There is always next year. I think about all the chickens who didn't even venture out. Yeah... think about that.

2 comments:

Rachel Catriona said...

I left my hour at ten yesterday and a neighbour was waiting for the elevator too. He asked me where I was going - I said Gastown. He said, me too, ceremonies run all day. Then I had to say, no, I'm going to get my hair cut.

Then I ran into the guy again at the Starbucks on the way there.

You're right - some people didn't even show.

Allison said...

some people just wander the mountainview cemetary in the rain for an hour looking for the ceremony the paper said was on. you were so pleased that you could walk to something near your house you follow dazed couples and dad's with cub scout sons sprinting about willy-nilly, muttering that he is certain the cenotaph is in the south west corner. then at two minutes to 11 you see flags outside the john oliver gym right near where you entered the cemetary an hour before and realize everyone is in the gym. dry. at this point you just walk home and try to think thankful things about all the people who have given so much more than you.