"Cleaner"

"CLEANER"



    Rachel first noticed that the clasps of her wedding ring gave way as she emptied the dish water from the sink to realize that her wedding diamond had indeed gone missing.  Alex would surely beat for this and this was a good excuse as any.  He acquired the diamond with much effort from a shady source in a shady hotel in a shady part of Johannesburg, for a very modest price mind you but with much cost to his already teetering conscience.  Alex would deffinatly freak out and her most recent bruise was now just healing and almost didn't require the extra make up to hide it.

    Rachel prays out loud to God that it didn't go down the sink as she hated the dirty task that is plumbing chores.  She asks her maid if she has seen the stone in the carpet, but the new guy that was hired had done a thorough job of vacuuming just this morning.

    Josh was lucky to find a paying job as easy as this for a rich white woman.  As his day ended he finished his spam sandwich while taking apart the pieces of the Dyson vaccume cleaner apart when he noticed something very bumpy in the dust of the filter.  He almost threw it away when he caught the glimmer that the little rock gave even under the damp light of the kitchen stove.  Josh managed to isolate the little rock and a spit to wipe it off.  It was in fact a precious stone, a very fine diamond as far as hee could tell.  He wrapped it in a pare towel an planned to visit the pawn shop the next day, but before he left out the front door for the evening Rachel approached him and inquired as if he'd seen a missing stone from her wedding ring.

    "I haven't ma'am" he said
   
    "If you come across such an object, I am prepared to offer a reward" Rachel said with a slightness masking her desperate need to find the diamond.
   
    "yes ma'am, I will alert you at once"

    "Yes, please do it would be most kind"

    "If I did know something about this little rock, what would the reward be? Just being curious"?

    "I am prepared to offer you $400 dollars on your next paycheck"

    "That seems a bit low now for such a prize now doesn't it ma'am"?

    " So what is it then? You want more cash if you happened to stumble upon my beloved wedding diamond that belongs to me in the first place'?

    "My lady wouldn't offer a prize if losing her rock wasn't a source of harm to herself, so that tells me she might be willing to go an extra mile in order to keep this terrible loss under wraps"

    "Okay then name your price boy, what'll it be then?"

    "Not money ma'am, it's your company I wish to claim, I trust you wouldn't be too opposed to sharing a cup of coffee with me now would you"?

    "Coffee? Really? is this the only way you know how to ask for a date? You understand I am a married woman right?''

    "How bad do you want this stone of yours then ma'am?"

    "How am I to know you really have it?"

    "You don't, but how badly do you wish to avoid another cracked rib or a blood spout eye"?

    "That is certainly none of your business young man and I will thank you to mind your own!"

    "It is none of my business, but this business of yours becomes more and more apparent to the rest of us, and it's hard not to feel protective over a nice lady as you are."

    "Don't speak of these things like you have and idea of what makes this world work, He loves me and I love him"

    I certainly hope he does, but I did indeed find a diamond.  And I know it's yours, and I know you need it back otherwise maybe you get a concussion this time or be taken to the hospital."

    "Fine!"

    "Starbucks by safeway tomorrow.  I have to send Tony off to school by eight, and I have to wait for the mason to clear his tools out of the fireplace hopefully the damn thing will be done by then. I'll meet you there after that."   

    Tony wakes up around 6:30, hungry as ever so he helps himself to a bowl of Lucky Charms, however Rachel meets him and insists he eats oatmeal and toast  instead of that sugary crap for breakfast. Rachel takes her time to prepare Tony's breakfast and makes sure he eats it all like a loving mother should. After his bowl is clean she rushes Tony off to the school bus so she can keep her date with Josh. 

    Josh was waiting at a corner table for Rachel to show up, she managed to in fact show up on time on the dot at 9;oo am. At first glance Josh could tell that she took her time with her make up this morning.  Her hair also was obviously looked after a bit more than normal, so much so that the way it was brushed was unfamiliar to her that when she opened the coffee shop door the gust of wind unsettled her pretty comb job that she had to control her new bang style with both her hands at once to settle it down.
    This was quite charming to Josh as he never has seen her out of control in any way. This was the first time he saw her vulnerable and in a vulnerable situation. As Rachel sat down and talked with Josh, they both found a profound fondness for one another through simple interests they shared and primal mutual attraction for one another.  Josh handed over the diamond with no dispute just to touch her hand and perhaps keep a memory by way of scent of the encounter in case he should never see her again.  Rachel thanked Josh with an honest and warm kiss to his mouth and a lingering embrace as he left her, which sealed finally the feelings Josh harbored for her a long. He was now completely enamored with her. No going back

    With the diamond now found and taken to the jeweler to be reset, Rachel feels confident and safe from a certain wrath of Alex had he found out what had happened with the stone and with the goings on between her and Josh.  Alex liked Josh very much and was happy to keep him in his employ.  So  he hired him further to clean up after the masons sloppy job of the fireplace and to also walk their little pug "Daisy".  Josh was more than willing to take these small jobs as it kept him close to Rachel.  The two of them were able to steal a moment here for a kiss or a chat to maintain the affair they harbored.

    Alex finished his last swipe of a shave but forgot the hand towel to dry his face off with. As he walked to the hallway closet and before he opened the closet door he saw Josh leaving with dog Daisy, but before he left the apartment door he and Rachel shared a passionate and lingering kiss along with a groping embrace that surely confessed the nature of their relationship.  At least enough for Alex to consider proof.  As Rachel closed the front door she went on to make Tony's breakfast as usual. Alex pulled the string to the closet bulb, trying to be quiet as possible but once again the bulb was gone,(twice this week now). He grabbed a random town to wipe his face with.

     "Eat up now sweetie, all of it,..got to be strong for school now don't you"

    Yes Mom, thank you,..may I have more syrup please?"

    "Of course honey"

    With that Rachel drizzled more Syrup on her son's oatmeal.  Tony never found it sweet enough but never did complain.  He knew his mother loves him and just was content to be grateful.  Rachel was too busy attending to Tony that she didn't hear Alex slip out of the front door. It was only the quiet slip of the lock latching that she heard him leave.

    "By honey!" she almost shouted, receiving no response.

    Alex made his way down the sidewalk at a brisk pace following Josh, who was not far ahead judging by the still steaming turd left by Daisy just a block away.

    The # 207 bus stopped at the intersection where Alex caught up with Josh and Daisy.

    Alex wrapped his arm around Josh's neck and let his legs fall to drop both of them to the ground, long enough to render Josh un conscience out of breathing air. With the little time he had Alex wrapped Daisy's leash around the bike rack on the front of the #207 bus with no one noticing what was happening and lightning fast precision  wrapped the  other side of the around Josh's neck clasping the chain to secure it right as the bus sped off to it's next stop.  Crushing Daisy right away causing her intestines to protrude with violent force onto the cars passing by, the rest of her flopped along the side of the bus while Josh slowly awoke to meet the hard pavement scrape away the bones and teeth of the right side of his face before the bus could stop and the driver realized what has happened,

    Lisa the bus driver of 13 years now would end up quitting and train aid dogs for a living in brookins Oregon wrought with guilt and horror. But that is another story for later.

    With this sight Alex ran home sweaty and full of adrenaline just in time to see Rachel send Tony off to school, The mason's truck was gone and the house was empty.  Alex followed Rachel up the stairs without her hearing him.

    "I'm afraid Josh and Daisy have been crushed by the bus darling,.." Alex said very calmly and with enough love still in his eyes that made him feel sorry for her.

    "Oh my god! what happened!"

    "You cheat my dear, and this is what happens"

    Next to the still drying mud on the fire place Alex found a small trowel and walked slowly towards Rachel.  He grabbed her wrist and muscled her arm behind her back much like a police officer might control a hostile drunk before handcuffing him.  Alex wrapped his arm around her throat like he did with Josh. 

    Alex said nothing but pushed the dull dirty trowel into her throat slowly but vigilantly in order to do the job right.  Rachel did manage to give a gurgled whimper as her neck was opened and cried a little before she succumbed to blood loss.  Alex dropped her on the carpet to bleed out no better than a deer after a hunt.

    Alex ran down the steps to the sound of sirens.  He was caught and he knew it.

    Tony was rushed to the hospital with no body noticing as the happenings of the day out shadowed something as small as a kid being sick at school. Alex later heard about his son a few weeks later.  Tony had died from ingesting liquid drano and crushed glass.

    Rachel would use a mortar a pestal to grind used light bulbs into a fine powder and mix it with oatmeal and a little "under the counter cleaners".  She fed it to Tony for breakfast in hopes to garner attention as an attentive mother when young Tony was sick,  Unfortunately she fell victim to attention of another kind in the way of a charming young man who cleaned her floors and walked her dog.  They both died at the hand of a violent man who deserves to be in prison.  But they died outright instead of a slow death that a mother who needed to feel more important than she was and Alex always found comfort every time he thought of it when "lights out" was called

picture "perfect" we shall see

Okay let's see if Cody can put a picture on here,..if this worked then you are looking at the house's Christmas dinner.  Last time i had Christmas dinner with my roommates we also had this bone in rib, with cauliflower puree and roasted brussels sprouts and a nice demi glace.

             Ah Christmas morning, last year i was with the family for the first time in years, but alas this year i get to spend it with my fellow co workers much like many years in the past. that's the wonderful part of working hospitality.  who knows, perhaps the snow of maine will render everyone drive less and stuck indoors so the hotel will have no choice but to let all of the fine people at the haraseeket inn enjoy the fruits of our labors, and they would all have to listen to me play piano.
             Any way, shot pointless post, i mostly wanted to see if i could put a picture on here.

Okey dokey,.so here is my amuse back from September 21'st at 4:21 in the pm.  Man i must have been running late. So an amuse is somthing complimentary that each diner gets before the meal starts, "amuse bouche" not sure what that translates into exactly but i think loosely it means a good hours worth of work by Cody that either doesn't get used by lazy servers and thrown away and or complained about because the guest wants something else..yeah my french is rusty,..
   Anyway let's see here, i have purple endive as the base with herbed chevre(goat cheese) brunios red bell, and curly scallion.  the point here folks is really to make a one bite little taste to start of the dining experience, nothing too aggressive, but something cute or dandy, looking more to feed the eye you know.  in fact i think i will use this blog spot to document my daily amuse so i don't forget, as my short term is kinda shot,..wow especially with peoples names at work.  What's more it seems that having worked there for 5 or so months they get annoyed that i can't remember them.....

  

sorry i'm not webster

miripoix= ratio of onion 1/2,carrot 1/4,and celery 1/4
brunios= small dice aproxy, 1/4 on an inch by 1/4 of an inch,...so small pretty dice really
mise en place=everything in it's place, meaning all of your ingredients, organized and ready to go.
blogger dashboard=?
i have these terms that we use in the work place and am unsure sure if they are common knowledge or not

i'm'na get a camera soon for this

sailor bean soup(navy)

okay sister holly,..navy bean soup easy to read:

1 1/4 cups  navy beans
2 tbls olive oil
3/4 cup brunios carrot
1 cup brunios celery
1 cup brunios onion
1/2 tsp minced garlic,...done properly mind you
smoked ham hock
1 Qt stock,chicken, veg but not beef please
Sachet(see recipe)
S+P tt
tabasco or another vinegar based hot sauce tt

    So the important part here are the beans really at first,..you want to make sure there is no rocks or any nonsense like that cover the beans with a good few inches of water and boil, take off heat,cover and let soak for about an hour or so,.the longer you let them soak the softer the bean obviously, meaning you can eat a soft bean right away or if you keep them a little less cooked then you get to enjoy the magic that happens after you let the soup sit overnight,..your choice.

   Okay, beans on the side resting covered, now get to your miripoix, that'd be the brunious veg(small dice) get some olive oil in the pan you plan on cooking the soup in and heat up the miripoix just to a sweat, also a little salt works wonders here as it helps to let the water from the veg seep out thus releasing good flavor for the beans to soak up.
    now our veg is done add the beans (drained of course), to the sauteed veg along with the stock, simmer for an hour,....
    side note here,..some like to add diced potato here as a thickening agent, i never thought it was necessary though, but like i said, "some" like it
   also if you opt for no potato then this is where you would add the "sachet".. this being a tsp peppercorn, three thyme sprigs, 3 or so bay leaves, and parsley sprig all encased and tied in a cute little bundle of cheesecloth,..or i've used a section of a towel or a t-shirt before, but that's gross.  if you want to get fancy tie some large leek leaves around it, but the important thing is to make sure you can take your little sachet bundle out in one piece so you don't have to separate all those aromatics from your soup later, as we just want this thing to season it.

okay, so now we have beans, stock, sweated miripiox, sachet, and now for the ham hock, add it and simmer for however long it takes to be done,....so that's when the beans are tender right?  at this point i remove my sachet and my ham hock,..pick the hock apart and chop to nice bite size pieces, a medium dice should suffice!  HA good rhyme, i should send it to chris for a song,...

    sorry anyway take a portion of the beans out,..and this is all a matter of textural preference really,..if you like a silky smooth soup then you could blend the whole thing, want a bit more texture then only blend a partial amount...i like about a third of the beans blended.

   So after the blend you mix in, season for taste, let us not forget that starchy foods like this absorbs much salt so you might need more than you think,....also starchy food like this is a great place for food born illness so refrigerate properly.
 
    And when i say season i mean S+P and the Tabasco, remember the thing when tasting your food is to ask what flavor is not hitting your palate, you taste beans, and savory ham, and salt, and ,and and,..what's missing? train your taste bud to feel what's not there,..is it sweet perhaps ? or maybe a little bitter,  just how i like my girlfriends, little and bitter! HA!...

  okay so that was my first recipe, with ingredients and everything,..harder than i thought,..holly i hope this works for you and your step mom i believe was inquiring about it

Cody

bad dog

A day off is always nice,..my wonderful and hetero life mate charlie bought me a little baby gate,.. you know the ones you use to block of hallways or staircases that would certainly result in death to a person just learning how to walk,..(small children). 
  
       anyway charlie bought me the baby gate for the purpose of keeping his little mini schnauzer out of my room as he has in an act of aggression defecated in my room many occasions. i'm not happy with that however, he does have small hard little poops, easy to clean, not sloppy and smear it the carpet poop.  okay enough of that talk, me thinks that's more dessert conversation.

 So now that "bo bo" ( great name to shout out in the hood when you try to sound tough), had n accident with his BM, it seems he ate thread or floss or something , so he was unable to dislodge properly his feces after being let out for "potty" ( and yes they cll it that)  so the little guy had a sizable piece attached to his very hairy little dog butt. which went unnoticed by all parties of the house. so he dragged that smelly dog crap all over charlie's room and bed and blanket's,pillows, clothes and carpet.

    I witnessed comedic justice, charlie had to put the dog into the bath and pull string, or whatever it was, from bo bo's smelly hind parts. all the while gagging and fighting vomit.  he used about two rolls of toilet tissue while cleaning bo bo, thus clogging the toilet as well,..so we have flooding poop water, and wet dog in bathtub while he is cutting the poop from his body with our kitchen shears, which are now our "dog shears".

   i got done laughing at his dilemma and decided to help,...i plunged and help wipe up, but i thought i had to share this story,..can't think of a good segues for a recipe, so there it is

seven,..Catch

Funny word this one,..ever notice it,..usually it has a positive connotation,.."Nice catch" when someone throws something at you, or "she's a good catch, a real keeper" ..which i always thought funny 'cause i think that relates to a fish right? talking about a potential soul mate as a fish,...."catch of the day!" that doesn't sound very monogamous. However i guess you can catch hell from your boss, or catch a bullet, or catch the flu. no one ever says ''nice catch" when you catch the flu, it's opposite then,..you throw things then, throw that Kleenex away, I'm throwing you out of work, your sick,..then i go home and throw up. funny these words.
   i guess you catch catch a crook right? or catch something on fire, or catch someone in the act of something,...you know now that i think of it the word has more negative connotations than positive.  i'm sleepy now so maybe catch some Z's.
  just kiddin i had had to finish the joke, but "catch of the day" reminded me of food, and i want to mention something about cooking in these blogs.
         Maine folks have a problem with fish ,..but that's just me, i am a westerner,...they have wonderful fish here, lobster, clams , mussels, haddock(not very good),..but they can't cook salmon, or halibut,...they bake it it seems. so i want to talk about fish.
             fish should be cut right, the cut should be even as possible, i know that it can't, but it's not too hard to cut fish for home use.  fish cooks pretty quick you see so uniformity is important so as not to have dried out piece of fish on the end and rare piece at the top....okay i think i've gone over that enough.

            Now, salmon  i know pretty well having worked in seattle hotels and restaurants for a while,...i have found salmon, even though i am quite sick of it, always turns out better when seasoned(S+P) and at room temp, put into your pan, cast iron if you have it, with clarified butter on the skin side mind you. Now that doesn't mean there has to be skin, it just means the side the skin was on, i rather like the skin on however. anyway a good sizzle from the fish, and then add the cubed unsalted butter to the pan with thyme and a clove of garlic that you just smashed with you knife. tip the pan so the melted butter pools to the bottom, and with your spoon, gently pour this aromatic butter over the raw side of your fish. "basting" it i think is the term,..i like calling it "cooking the fish right" but basting is one word and easier to say, plus it sounds professional,...okay off the subject.

now when the fish is done cooking you will be able to tell by the way it looks,....nice crust on the bottom and gets more rare to the top, as we never flip it, we let the butter do the cooking from above, meanwhile, the thyme and garlic perfumed the butter, and now you remove it from the pan and present it with the seared side up on some rice or spinach, or really whatever your cooking now, and one has salmon ,..not steamed or grilled but in my opinion,....cooked how it should be to represent seattle.!

   hope my hopelessly style of a recipe was easy enough to "catch"

curry with the english

never made curry before really,but i was in portland yesterday and found a great indian grocery! like most indian markets i've been to, they sold EVERYTHING!, spices teas, rice, frozen goods, naan, baliwood movies, baliwood posters of half naked dudes,candy charms,tea pots, insence, lotterey tickets lifeinsurance,spare tires, hotel rooms, half hour special girls, gummy bears, bike pumps, passports, and the will to live....
   okay some of that was just for fun,. there was no lottery tickets, and the will to live came in the form of chicken thighs and basmati rice that i scented with some black tea i recived from my lovely and talented hair lady from scotland or wales, i'm not sure, i just no she's hard core but very polite about it,..plus she cut's my hair perfect too! i don't have to explain to her what i want,..she just knows how to make me look not so unfortunate looking.
     Anyway i got the chicken thighs marinating in spices and yougurt, lot's of tumeric,..sear the meat and then saute those good veg in that fat with more tumericm and garlic powder, chili flake, deglaze with soy and simmer with coconut milk....oh my heaven it was great!

I also got a new robe today, which makesme feel comfortable and cozy, and very unproductive all at the same time, ..what a great article of cothing to inspire so many different and clashing moods.

so the curry went well,..i wish to try it out on sombody that knows the what curry should taste like as i really don't know much about it.   i see many idian joints around here,(not casino's) but i don't know if they are ny good, i just know that the indian peole i have know were all very attractive, i get the brown fever from my mom i think,..is tha offensive?  it's not racist when you "like" the race right?