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Cooking...
The siren blasted off the other morning as I walked into the swimming pool area... It completely discombobulated me. A siren? Why?... Usually, when they have a test like that, they announce it in advance. Nothing was said about it this time - no mention in any of the media - and as I looked around, I could only stand in utter wonder; nobody paused, nobody even looked up!... The swimmers continued to swim, the gym people continued to exercise, the life guards continued to concentrate on exercising their fingers on that small "thing" which keeps everybody from child to old-age-pensioners occupied these days... while I stood transfixed, still hearing the siren in my ears. Finally, I said to somebody; "did you hear the siren"?... "Sure" said he, "probably a test". Probably?... Am I the only mad one around?... Probably! I swam so fast and so hard that morning, that when I got out of the pool after my usual half an hour, I was shaking physically as well as mentally! But you know what? They are right. "Life-in-Israel" goes on!

Cooking is the best medicine for everything! With a tall glass of something very strong and very "soothing" standing by, replenished constantly, there is nothing better! But, again, we did not go shopping and the fridge was empty. Somebody said to me: "your fridge is always empty! Why do you eat so much?"... We do not really; just lazy at this stage of our lives to go shopping! But remember, we can always do something out of nothing! That should really be our "motto"!

SO, I looked into that fridge; there was a sorry-looking boiled potato: I grated it into a well oiled disposable pan. It made a base; for what?... There was a small container of still decent looking mushrooms... So, a large onion was sliced thinly and dumped into hot oil; when they became "golden", the mushrooms were added, plus two cloves of grated garlic, salt-pepper and some fresh thyme. Mix-mix. I let it just lose that fresh mushroomy look, then I let it cool. I had three eggs left, so they were smashed with some water - decided to leave the last bit of the milk for breakfast tea and coffee. The mushroom mix was added to the eggs, plus bits and pieces of cheeses which were grated in. More mix-mix. The strange mix of cheeses did add a very good "kick" to the pie!... Onto the potato-base it went and into the oven for half an hour. It grew, became light brown and fabulous! With a salad, once again of bits and pieces from here and there, we had a lovely supper. The L&M even had a cheese cake for dessert, complements of my aunt, who send it over. Hey! Life is good again!

I do not remember where I found this recipe of "Chicken with Almonds"... Now, you-ALL know that I love chicken and now, that almonds have been designated as "healthy-and-good-for-you", what could be better?... But this recipe had 18, (eighteen!) ingredients! Can you believe that?... Would you bother with that? I do hope not and, I most certainly will not! But, I could not resist the temptation of the mixture of chicken and almonds, so I created my own recipe based very slightly on that one, because of the idea and it was really a great one; the chick turned out to be, one of our best!

I had six chicken thighs, which I placed skin side down into a very hot pan. When the skin got brown and let off all its fat, I flipped them over and browned the other side. While this was going on, I chopped a very large onion and crushed in my small crusher 4 cloves of garlic, about 4 cms of fresh ginger and 100gr. of almonds. The chick came out of the pan and as there was enough fat in the pan, the onion went in. Mix-mix for a few minutes. Then I added the crushed mixture of almonds plus. Mix-mix for a few minutes, then added a tin of coconut-milk... (It always upsets me in a strange way! To add "milk" to chicken?... Good grief! Funny, but true! It not only says "parve" on the tin, but Kosher-l'Pesach as well! And yes, I am feeling really ridiculous putting the chick into this sort-of-white-milky-liquid! I never really believed in "substitutions" of that sort....but there you are! With age, we get bolder!...)... Right; lets not forget salt and pepper and get on with it! When the sauce came to a nice bubble-bubble boil, I added the chick and let it simmer for half an hour, flipped and gave it another half an hour. It really was special. I served only green beans with it - the sauce was perfect over the beans. It would be perfect over anything and everything! Just a simple salad of avocado-apple-red-onion and lettuce... I serve it as a sort of a dessert! Remember?...We did that a few times before.

The L&M loves hot chicken broth in the late afternoon (we never call it chicken-soup!). I made some turkey necks for dinner the night before, so had a container, which I heated up for him; there was just a wee bit of stock in the pot, so the left over green beens which were in the fridge from a couple of nights ago were re-cooked in this broth, adding crushed almonds and kosher salt. They were really special. The L&M had another portion, which never happens with him and veggies! And I made baked potatoes in the toaster oven! One sweet potato and one regular; I sliced them length-wise and 45 minutes later we had perfect baked potatoes. Yes, we had them and the beans with steak, which for a change was quite good!

Send your questions to The Wacky Cook: email: POOP_1@netvision.net.il      

Debbie Morgenstern is the author of "My Life in Israel" and other short stories.