Kaimusailing

It was Friday night and there were cardboard signs saying “Shrimp Night”, Cornelia Marie said, however, “Tonight the Fisherman’s Grille” is opening for the season.” We took the dog to Ape Hole to run around and converged on the Grille which was crowded and had a 30 minute wait. CM’s mom and partner showed up as well as Eve. It was too cold and blustery to wait outside. We drove as a convoy across town to the American Legion, that was where the Shrimp Night was happening. It was crowded, too, but Eve pointed out that cars were leaving. We went in and found a small table for 3 and then stole chairs to make a table for 5. There is no service staff, drinks are ordered at the bar. The shrimp service was in another room, cash only, $16 for a styrofoam tray of 1 lb of steamed shrimp, hush puppies, and macaroni salad. We ended up enjoying two stints of 2 lbs of shrimp. We stuffed ourselves but there were leftovers. We retreated to CM’s mom’s waterfront house and consumed wine. We tried the screened porch outside, right above the channel into the Small Boat Harbor, but went inside due to the chill.
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More wine was consumed. Mom’s BF Buster got us out to the screened in porch. I was wrapped in a blanket, shivering, consuming wine, we commiserated, we ended up going back inside where it was warm. Then we departed, it was late, great night.
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The next day was pizza night and Ev (not Eve) wanted to have pizza night at her house. So, all the paraphernalia had to be gathered there and deployed. She had a black lab that was learning to be a big puppy and insisted on play with a ball, slavered by the puppy. I ended up scoring goals, kicking the ball all over the place and the dog exercising, with some difficulty, the swerves and jumps to get the ball. Ev painted on her porch and would stand back a good distance to look at the array of her painting, the go in to add some detail. This is a really good artist, and a good cook, there is detail attention to life that some are in tune with. Her dog, not so much, slobbering puppy mutt.
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I spent most of my time worrying about the chilly temperatures, making the dough, hoping it wouldn’t flop. The oven was set up and lit. It warmed the house, that’s the way the wind was blowing. Also, odors from the oven came in.
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I made a pie when all the others were kibitzing. It was a simple pie, just make a margarita with other toppings. After ten minutes of baking, including the 180 at 5, the pie came out and they dove on it, pie was toast.
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But I was done as a pizza guy, the girls went into the kitchen and came out with two exquisite pies. Great, we sat there consuming pizza and wine, and then it was time for Ev and CM to bring out their final pie, it was greater than any other pie, ever. Just great.
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Turn off the propane, who’s gonna clean up, is there any more red wine.
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The next day was Mother’s Day, and poor CM’s mother had to go to the winery without CM, suffering from covid vaccine day two, she was accompanied by the artist and a friend. I was on Sunsplash suffering from what some would call a hangover, but there is another factor in it. Old age, I can’t back down and say I’m out of it, I have to try to get back up. I got myself together and made a small grocery list, for future breakfasts, cheese, and such. CM was home. Not at the winery. I said I had to shop for some essentials. She said take my car. I dedicated myself to make the ultimate comfort food, cream of chicken soup. I got a lot of kale and spinach. This is the Eastern Shore where much of this stuff is grown, so it wasn’t in plastic bags from California, it was fresh, in bunches. I was making a half recipe, so a pint of heavy cream was OK. An onion, no leeks in the store, I got some other things, but when I got to the house, CM was watching a Netflix series.
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I put 3 cups of water, 3 teaspoons of chicken base, and 1 heaping teaspoon of Montreal chicken spice in a pot and brought it to boil. I trimmed the kale from its ribs and added it to the pot, filling it. I then trimmed the stems from the spinach and added it to the pot which now had room. While the greens were cooking down I prepped a small box of mushrooms and an onion. A package of skinless boneless chicken thighs were dumped into the pot along with the mushrooms and onion.
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The Netflix series was some sort of teenage horror series. It was well acted but the plot and the whole premise seemed contrived to me. I returned to the kitchen and warmed a small pot with ¼ cup of butter and added ¼ cup of flour and whisked it to make a roux. The chicken thighs were tonged out of the soup pot onto a plate and allowed to cool. I began ladling stock from the soup into the roux, whisking out any lumps. When I ran out of stock I returned the roux to the soup pot and mixed it, tasted it. Next a pint of heavy cream was added along with some black pepper. I tried a small bowl of the soup. Quite good.
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The image is a photo of Ape Hole, the marsh around Ape Hole Creek. For more search YouTube for Ape Hole.