Mysteries become obvious Sunday, 25-Oct-26 21:26:49 CET

Sunday, 01-Nov-26 21:22:05 CET

Cauliflower and chickpeas curry

This week I made a cauliflower and chickpeas curry.

Monday 26 October

Last night, our cat Merida came to our bed and slept between us. She lay half on my chest and purred loudly. I could sleep a little. On the one hand, Merida is rather warm, so I don't want a thick duvet, but when she starts kneading me with her nails, a thick duvet is better. So I was lying in a puddle next to Merida. I suppose it is a way of welcoming us home.

Both DW and I worked from home today. I started the day by cleaning the kitchen counter. Somehow, DS hadn't been able to keep it clean while we were in Sweden. I made a smoothie as usual; today I also added blackcurrants.

We need to adjust the heat pump to switch from summer to winter mode, but it is a tedious process that runs over several days. I will not bore you with the details, but I nudged the settings every day the entire week.

At lunch, I opened up so that the sheep could graze the newly sown area of the south-west field. The ground is still soft from the tilling, so the sheep must go there and compact it as well.

In the evening, we even fired up our wood stove. Here is a slow-motion movie of the fire.

The wood comes from our cottage in Sweden. If we bring wood with us every time we go to Sweden, we don't need to buy any wood in the Netherlands. We use the wood stove only for special occasions, so we don't need much wood here.

Today I experienced a surprise from yesterday's drive. I wrote about it on last week's blog. It was a great challenge to drive through Denmark and Germany. The car engine stuttered any time it had to produce a little more power than it could. I could not use the speed control. I had to push the pedal and feel where it was at, downshift if necessary. It was a demanding drive. Today I had right knee pain. I hadn't anticipated it. I do hope it will recover.

Tuesday 27 October

It is funny that I decided to take the car to work. The car hasn't been fixed, and the knee condition it caused still hasn't been repaired. I don't think it's that bad to bike with my knee, but it's going to rain heavily by the end of the afternoon, so I opted for the car.

At work, people were pleased to see me again. "How was your holiday?" I told them about hauling trees and handling the tractor, and my sore knee. It felt a little like a thin copy of my blog.

On the way home, I noticed more warning lights on the car's dashboard. I have more to talk about when I bring the car to the garage on Thursday.

Wednesday 28 October

This morning, DW went to the office; I worked from home.

My knee was much better today. The work progressed nicely in the morning. After lunch, I took down the canvas we had mounted in front of the living room windows. It is a large thing, so DW and I need to fold it when we are both available.

I also harvested zucchinis. This time, it was 11.5 kg of zucchini. I cleaned each zucchini so they would look beautiful. Then I brought them to the pickup point, from where they will be distributed to the vegetable market in Amsterdam. It might be the last zucchini harvest this season.

This evening I made dinner. I decided to make the curry that I have been talking about on this blog since 2011. I haven't taken the time to write up the recipe until now. Here it is:

Creamy Indian-Inspired Cashew Curry with Chickpeas & Rice

Ingredients

• Prep time: 15 minutes
• Cook time: 30 minutes
• Total time: 45 minutes
• Yield: 4 servings
• Equipment needed: Medium pot (for rice), large pot or Dutch oven (for curry), blender, cutting board, and knife.
• 2 cups white or Basmati rice (plus 4 cups water)
• 2 medium yellow onions, halved and sliced into half-rings
• 1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 cup raw, unsalted cashews (divided)
• 1 medium head of cauliflower, cut into bite-sized florets
• 2 cups water
• 2 tbsp cooking oil (like avocado, canola, or vegetable oil)
• 1 tbsp Southeast Asian-inspired curry powder or spiced bean seasoning blend (Note: Look for a blend containing ginger, cumin, garlic, coriander, lemongrass, black pepper, cinnamon, turmeric, cayenne pepper, and lemon, or mix equal pinch-sized parts of these yourself!)
• 1 cube vegetable bouillon (broth concentrate)
• 1 can (13.5 oz) full-fat coconut milk (about 1.5 to 2 cups) or 200 milliliters
• 1 can (15 oz), or 400 grams, chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed
• 1 handful fresh cilantro leaves, roughly chopped for garnish
• Salt and pepper for final seasoning.

It doesn't matter much if you use a little more or less of an ingredient. It just means that the next time you make the same dish, it tastes different; that's lovely.

Instructions

Cook the rice: Combine the rice and 4 cups of water in a medium pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes (or according to the package instructions), until the water is fully absorbed.

Toast the cashews: Heat your large curry pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the cashews to the dry pot (no oil needed). Toast the nuts, stirring often, until fragrant and golden brown in spots. Transfer the toasted cashews to a plate and set aside.

Sauté the aromatics: Add the cooking oil to the same pot over medium heat. Toss in the sliced onions and cook until they are soft and translucent (about 5 minutes). Add the sliced garlic and sauté for 1 to 2 more minutes, until fragrant, being careful not to burn it.

Bloom the spices: Stir the seasoning blend directly into the onions and garlic. Cook for about 30 seconds to release the aromas.

Simmer the cauliflower: Add the cauliflower florets, 2 cups of water, and the vegetable bouillon cube to the pot. Stir well to dissolve the bouillon and coat the cauliflower. Cover the pot and simmer over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, or until the cauliflower is fork-tender.

Blend the curry base: While the cauliflower cooks, put half the toasted cashews in a blender. Pour in the coconut milk and blend on high until completely smooth and creamy.

Bring it all together: Pour the blended cashew-coconut milk and the rinsed chickpeas into the pot with the cauliflower. Stir gently to combine. Lower the heat to a low simmer to warm the chickpeas through and let the flavors meld, making sure it doesn't scorch on the bottom of the pot.

Garnish and serve: Fluff your rice with a fork. Divide the rice and curry into bowls, then top with the remaining whole toasted cashews and fresh chopped cilantro for a beautiful presentation. Enjoy!

DW liked the dish!

Thursday 29 October

We both went to work. I took DW to the train station, then went to the garage. I came a bit early, so I had to wait for the garage to open. After the garage opened, I walked to work. It was an overcast day, perfect weather for a walk. It could have been raining, but it was fine.

Usually, overcast weather doesn't inspire me, so I don't bring out my camera. With so many overcast days, the blog becomes just words, no pictures; that is a little sad.

At work, it was too cold at first, then too hot. It is never good. When it is too hot, I can peel off a couple of my sweaters.

The garage found one faulty spark plug cable. They installed a temporary cable. Next week, they will install four new spark plug cables.

When we got home, we went straight to the dinner table because we had leftovers of yesterday's chickpea and cauliflower curry!

That evening, I had trouble falling asleep. That rarely happens. When it does, it is usually because a creative thought won't leave my mind. This time it was a kind of new photo-viewing tool on my personal blog, this blog. I wanted a mesmerizing photo display where images bounced around in a box, growing and shrinking. As they move around, they switch order so sometimes one image is behind another and sometimes on top. It was great fun to make! I went to bed late.

Friday 30 October

This morning I was not pleased to hear the alarm clock. Normally I wake up like a puppy that wants to play with a ball, but not today. It was misty, and DW had a day off. I had work ahead, but first I went outside to take photos because it was misty. I had promised myself to take misty photos.

 

Here I applied the bouncing images feature again. I think it works very well.

DW picked the last tomatoes of the season. She worked on her wool projects. She had a nice day off. I logged in from home, and I had a nice day working as well.

For lunch, DW turned the last bit of the chickpea curry into a soup. It is easy: add more water, blend it, and heat it. Then you get curry soup. Maybe I can make another interesting dish next Wednesday, too. That Wednesday I will also help distribute vegetables at the food cooperative.

In the evening, I was tired. I think the late-night bouncing images project haunted me. We watched the pottery throwdown on Swedish television via our cottage in Sweden. How funny is that!

Saturday 31 October

This morning I was not pleased to be woken up by the alarm clock again. But it was not the alarm clock. It was MIL who called. She had been trying to reach DW, but DW had her phone on silent because she had been at a conference earlier in the week.

Anyway, we were awake and did our regular morning ritual of drinking tea in bed and blogging.

We had a slow start to the day. We listened to a Dutch podcast that DW had recently discovered. We drank coffee while we discussed the podcast. It was all nice and jolly, but I wanted to get out to move the sheep before going to my music event.

When the sheep had been moved to the area between the neighbors on the west and north side of our property, DW dug out nettles, and I brushed the sheep platform below the rain roof.

After maintaining our sheep, I went to play Swedish folk music in a building called the sheep's cage. I can assure you this building is anything but a sheep's cage. It is a posh side building to a church in Hilversum. Calling it a hut is like calling a Stradivarius violin a "fiddle" or a Ferrari a grocery getter for the Albert Hein.

Thirteen people played music at this event, including me. It was a cellist, accordionists, key harpists, and violinists.

Here we are playing Julottan of Matt's Wallman, often referred to as Wallmans Polska. It is particularly popular among key harpists.

Now I'm on the way home from the music event. It was really great to meet my friends again. We didn't chat much. We had more fun talking with the music. People came from the Netherlands and Belgium. I think some traveled more than 2 hours to get to the music event.

I had parked in front of the church. I'm not really a churchgoer, so this is as close as I will get to a church this year.

I don't usually drive around Hilversum much, especially not in pitch dark. When I drove home, I thought I had accidentally been driving the wrong direction. That wasn't the case, but I think I got so stressed that I must have bitten too hard.

When I got home and sat on the sofa, I started seeing light effects. It wasn't a pleasant way to end the Saturday evening.

Sunday 1 November

We had an efficient morning. After breakfast, we went for a walk to stop by a neighbor who wanted to get rid of two roof boards. I have an idea to replace the tarp on the rain roof with a sturdier material. I don't think we'll finish the sheep stable within two years, so it could be handy to use a sturdier material for the rain roof. The tarp already has a crack, and I expect it to burst in the next storm.

The neighbor had two boards, and they looked like we could use them. I think we can get the boards next weekend. We'll probably need to buy more plates, but we can deal with that later.

Then we met the next neighbor. He reads my blog. He is also full of questions and stories, so I suggested several times that he should start writing a blog, but he said he is not a writer. Here he is giving DW a bean from Southwest Asia.

Our main activity today was to go to MIL. It is a one-hour drive. The weather was not particularly spectacular. It feels like the whole week has been either misty or totally overcast.

MIL was in a good mood. We were accompanied by BIL as well. We drank tea and ate cookies, and caught up on the latest stories. We told stories about our trip to Sweden, while MIL talked about visiting a glass-blowing factory and a traditional costume market.

Here ends this week's blog. If I hadn't blogged about this week, it would have disappeared from our memories. It was one stretch of overcast, chilly autumn days. We got to a workable result on Sunday evening with the temperature. Welcome back next week!