Good Morning Dear Friends in Tea. Yesterday snow, today, rain on top like a glaze. We are approaching the all time record amount of the white stuff. The sky is pretty in pink over the top with ribbons of blue weaving it all together.
Thank you so much for the corned beef recipes...I am eyeing it. when I open the fridge..and it is staring at me right back! I don't want it to best me but every day it's what we are not having for dinner. I had a fish like that once.
When I was first married and finding my way through the blinding light of cooking. I took my limited budget and bought a package of what was termed as 'Pan Ready Dressed Trout'. Simple, hahaha. I could avoid getting into a small fishing boat [after nearly drowning husband, dear on our honeymoon]. I opened that box and promptly dropped the thing on the floor...it still had its eye on. Oh boy....fish eye.
We were pretty desperate in those days and ate a lot of things we didn't particularly care for but, hunger was a big motivator. WE had set up housekeeping in a place that we lovingly called 'Bornio'. There was much crime and nightly happenings. During the day I participated with the season and generally was too naieve to to know things were a bit....hazardous to my health.
Back to the too real fish. I put on my armor and picked up that fish off the floor and tossed it into the freezer. It was my plan, that if we ever were truly starving, I was going to cook that fish. After two years...DH threw it out. It had become more than a fish...it was a symbol of being far enough from poverty to avoid it. I worked so hard to avoid that fish we got away clean. I am sure it was a perfectly lovely fish...but give me a bowl of Quaker Oats any day.
DH and I passed, like ships in the ocean, working, working working. He worked nights and I worked days. I remember it as one of the happiest times of my life as our youth and enthusiasm always won out whatever challenge came.
Fast forwarding to here and now...I don't miss that fish. I don't fish and despite having one of those trecherous deboning knives, I thank God that every fish that has come to visit has been filleted and didn't have eyes. Ewww.
Today's Tea is dedicated to 'The Amazing Journey From There to Here'.
I had to blink twice to rid myself of the deer in the headlights look. I don't get afraid much, but once in a while, I let it get ahold of me and its hard to get rid of once you've got it. We are more defined by the risks we take than by anything handed to us the easy way. Survival is not always rewarded to the fitest, but to the most gifted. To be gifted you don't have to be pretty, smart or talented. It comes to the weakest, plainest, dumbest most inept bunnies in the basket. The hinge on the door is set not by having a plumbline to hang the wallpaper but from the wee small voice inside that makes you test the water and not give way to failure. There are more ways to win than you can ever count. Honesty, honor and sheer mule stubborness set your face in Mt Rushmore and if you are lucky, you love every minute of it.
This is lovingly referred to as 'Pothole Season' here in MI. It is totally possible to get flat tires and lose your hubcaps. Take small children by the hand, leash your pets and don't fall in any holes you can get out of without the national guard. It creates jobs and sets of rolling laughter from the locals.
My tea blend, is just that, this morning. 'Republic of Tea, Mint Fields' has no black, green or white tea in it but, it is so good I made a whole pot [no hole]. I don't even want to search for a better tasting tea. St Pat's Day is coming and there is parade schedulled in nearby Bay City. I hope they fill the street holes with ashpault or we will have piper's down. WE might have piper's in snowsuits walking behind snowplows. If that doesn't make you smile...you might need to visit the local clinic. More psychiatrist couches are filled by people who don't know how to laugh, than by people who have real honest to goodness crisis's. When you are busy avoiding that fish in the freezer...you don't have time for anything else.
Your very grateful hostess and friend, Mary