A Wonderful Day for Food

Yesterday, I weeded for about 5 hours. Now this may sounds bad, but just imagine this after the day before you weeded for 5 hours. I am sick of weeding! By the end of the day, I showered and just hoping my fingers were not stained brown and cut forever...

Jonathan had been mixing cement and pouring it on the mud hut foundation. It seemed to be coming along and I helped for a bit. It was a dirty job with the sand, and wet cement flying everywhere. Jeremiah was relaxing on the hammock and then came over for a bit. I took that as my chance to skip out on the previous help I offered with a "looks like you and Jeremiah have it covered." Jonathan made a comment about my slick escape and I just smiled.

Before he left he offered to take me back to his place to check it out. Jeremiah came along as well. The place is nice, but not up to the standards that he had spoken of it. I knew this going into it as I had spoken to Megan about it earlier. It was nice though and after living in a caravan with up to three other people for more then 4 months, of course the place looked awesome. It was nice and we hung out. He was a nice host and made me a pita, eggplant, hummus, bean, rice, I don't know what else sandwich followed by some cold pomello...yum! We went for a walk and then he drove us home. Good night.

This morning I woke up and spoke with Suzanna about what the plan was for the day since Amir would be busy off the farm again. I weeded for about an hour and a half and then helped her finish a bed and put on the drip irrigation pipes. It was pretty uneventful. There was not a lot to be done so she got the materials to make signs and I weeded in the nursery. I finally had had enough after getting an uncountable number of clear tiny thorns stuck in my hands that were like silent daggers that randomly went off and never escaped. I made lunch and Suzanna and Jeremiah continued their work.

For lunch I made some pasta with a side of veggies for people to put on at their discretion. We had eggplant, onions and mushrooms and then we had carrots, sweet potatoes and peppers. Suzanna set the table and brought a salad and pesto. Oh yea, I had also made tomatoes with basil and olive oil. It was a fabulous meal. Jeremiah declined any of it as I guess it had vegetables but also he said that he was making some egg fried rice.

Oh yes, I have a story that goes along with this. The day before he had asked me if you needed oil in order to fry rice. I was a bit taken back by the question and responded with "... I am pretty sure..." Anyway, after Suzanna and I had our first rounds Jeremiah came out of the kitchen. His plate looked like rice kernels and rice. He bit into it and you could just hear the crunch, I mean it sounded like he was breaking bones! Anyway, after about two bites he said that it was bad and he was going to give it to the cats. I had asked if he cooked the rice first and he said no. Suzanna told him not to give the rice to the cats as uncooked rice is probably not good for them. She looked at me and said "right? it isnt good for humans either?" and I responded with "I don't know, I have never had uncooked rice. Jeremiah took his plate and left the table as I asked Suzanna "have you (had uncooked rice)?" to which she responded "...why would I?"

We laughed for a bit and then pulled ourselves together before he returned. I offered him so pasta after we both had taken some seconds and Jeremiah jumped on that finishing all of the pasta and tomatoes. He did skip the vegetables, but I was expecting that. After lunch I went into the kitchen to clean up and the door was wide open. The cats had of course taken complete advantage and knocked over the compost, went all over the counters and eaten everything then could, including the residue of the pasta in the colander. I was way peeved since cat paws were everywhere and there was no reason for it (literally muddy paw prints on all of the counters and the smell of cat saliva).

I began cleaning all of my pots and pans and whatnot when Jeremiah returned. I told him that the door was open and he said "oh sorry." Then informed me that they went into the bedroom after he got up and were on my bed. Like seriously, are you doing this on purpose or what?! I cleaned all of my stuff and told him I was going to leave everything else out for him to clean. He showered and then I went off to take pictures of Rishpon (the town that I am staying). I got back and the pot he used had been rinsed (yes, residue still remained) and the paw prints were still on all of the counter tops, rice covered the stove, the compost was still spilled over, soy sauce was left out, and oh yes the giant mixing bowl that he had filled with rice (glad I made a comment about that being a lot of rice) was still sitting on the counter.

I took a deep breath and just counted to three...okay ten. I cleaned up the compost and left everything else as is. It is crazy how someone could think that was acceptable, IT SMELLED LIKE CAT SALIVA! After a day of cooling off and talking to Suzanna about possible ways to approach this, it was time for dinner. Jeremiah had gone to the store and bought a hot dog and the whole kitchen smelled like mustard (gross). I cleaned up everything that I would be using - this is a funny thing for me. Back in college Justin had lived with some people who were dirty and every time that I would visit he would clean everything before and after he used it, dishes, utensils, etc (I think I already told you this but I already began so I shall continue). Anyway, I used to laugh and think it was so silly, but now...now I understand as I do the same thing.

Anyway, I decided that all of this talk about egg fried rice, made me want some. I had never made it before and decided to check to make sure I had the basic idea correct. I was on point, but needed the rice to be cold. I started the rice and then went into the field to pic fresh green onion and peas. I got back to the kitchen and cut up onion, green onion, and carrots. I cooked those up while I let my rice cool (okay I let it cool for a while then I put it in the freezer to speed up the process). I mixed it all together, added the egg, and added some soy sauce, salt and pepper, YUM! It was good and I thought about how excited I was to bring this easy little recipe home.

I ate it with complete delight and was happy that Jeremiah was in the room as I would have felt bad eating some delicious, cooked, egg fried rice in front of him. I then watched many youtube clips of Who's Line is it Anyway and counted the number of days until I head home :)