Randomly On My Mind

Subtly citrus, floral, spicy, complex. The glossy deep green leaves are used in Thai and Vietnamese cooking, and the scent and flavor combined can absolutely “make” a dish. We love our makrut lime tree. We love our makrut lime tree …maybe tree a little too much. We worry about our makrut lime tree. Probably any tree of which you actively consume the leaves, one should worry over… We worry mostly that… we’ll kill it. There are really good sauces to be made from makrut or Thai lime leaves. We made a simple sauce with pulverized leaves, garlic, shallots, curry paste, Peppers of Death Sauce (made with chile d’arbol and far too little water and corn starch as a stabilizer), a little oil, and vinegar. Others typically used include fish sauce (nuoc main or nam pla). Cilantro and ginger add their own special verve. We’re halfway through our second batch of sauce, and we have wild salmon coming fresh off the boat very soon. We’ll have to make more sauces… and make them last. Because, again, it’s a tree, of which you eat the leaves. How much eating of the leaves does it take to kill off the whole tree?! Most recipes only call for two or three leaves… at the rate we use them, it’s time to fertilize. Or buy an additional tree… or two.

Meanwhile, it’s an oldish story, but it’s back again for Round II: Eating bagged salad greens can give you E.Coli.

It’s a fact: twenty-six people in three states have recently had untraceable food poisoning through consuming bagged salad greens as recently as this past April, 2006. Many of the people who suffer are small children, for whom busy mothers prepare quick cherry-tomato-and-green-stuff salads to at least brush past the “healthy eating” requirements in their heads. But after the kidney failure and other things that have struck otherwise healthy people, it pays to heed Consumer Report recall information, and be sure and:

• Wash Your Hands
• Wash Your Bagged Greens
• Chuck the Salad in the Fridge
• Really Check the Use-By Dates

and my personal fave:

• Grow your own freaking lettuce – All you need is a sunny window and a little time.

GOOD NEWS (for once): I found out that our local Lumber Store has both bamboo and cork! At $.99/foot, the cork flooring is quite a good deal, I think. QUITE a good deal. We’ve been rattling around in our brains the idea of doing tiles in the kitchen because we’ve read that bamboo is hard but a bit brittle, and wood in the kitchen can be prone to water damage, but a cork tiled floor can a.) be replaced in pieces if there is damage, b.) is softer and easier on the back and legs, and therefore might be worth checking into. Several people have cautioned against cork because of the gouges in soft flooring, the problem of putting coasters under furniture and the bother of not dragging appliances and furniture. The one person I know who has a cork kitchen mentioned that her cork faded slightly in the strong sunlight cast by the back door sunshine in her single-paned window kitchen, but the fading is slight, and can be refinished. At such an expensive price per square foot, and already pre-finished, this deal is a steal. The price goes up for darker stains, and larger grains in the cork, etc., to where it’s more expensive than bamboo, but it’s certainly worth further research, maybe worth doing the floors in the whole house with something soft, insulative and noise-canceling. Options, options! Hm.

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