Filling Out Your Absentee Ballot Even Though the Process Sends You into A Tailspin

There's the tiny print on the normally large form. It's impossible to fill out those very small ovals without a miniscule smear or dot getting over the line.

Disqualified? Anyone's guess. For the record, in case my vote is never recorded because of that tiny smear or dot going over the line, here's my ballot. For posterity: 

Then there's the placing of the ballot inside the "Security Envelope for Special Federal Voter" which is another sheet of paper which must be folded very precisely:

All of this goes inside another precisely folded sheet of paper, which one is supposed to tape shut (meanwhile, the German post office almost refused the last one because it wasn't in an envelope.) When I sent the next in an envelope, I'd broken some rule and had to send in an official "cure," and here's a piece of that: 

This is all starting to look as complicated as German bureaucracy. Although it isn't. Not quite. 

Sending my ballot today . . . I guess it will get there before November 8. All hail to he/she/they who process this.

When this ballot's in the mailbox, I get to go to the gym. That's what prevents tailspins of all kinds.

Goodbye, little ballot, and Godspeed!

Basic, Betty-Crockerish Delish: A Fish Recipe

This is creamy comfort food, and healthy, too!

You will need:

Mayonnaise

A good Dijon mustard, the kind riddled with little mustard seeds (I used a Maille á l'Ancienne that I believe I actually bought in Dijon, but anything will do. Pommery is fine)

A smooth creamy sharp mustard

An herbal salt--I used Silk Route Seasoned Sea Salt

Black olives (seedless)  in a jar--the bland kind, not the exquisite kind you'd put on an hors d'oeuvres plate. 

A little olive oil

Vegetable of your choice: I used zucchini

Optional: lemon juice, small red onion, pressed garlic

Instructions:

Pre-heat the oven to 200º celsius (About 390 Fahrenheit).

Grease a medium-sized Pyrex baking dish with a little olive oil.  Place the slices of salmon side by side in the dish. I used two 300-gram slices (around 10.5 oz) for two big eaters. The usual recommendation is around 200 grams (but to me, that's if you're planning a dessert to follow the meal, which I was not).

In a small bowl, mix the mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, sharp mustard, and herbal salt to taste. I used about three parts mayo and one part mustards--around a tablespoon of the Dijon and slightly less of the sharp. But mix and taste. When you like what you've got, spread it on the fish. Thickly. 

Drain the olives in a sieve and rinse. If they're not already sliced, slice them and spoon them over the fish.

Put fish in pre-heated oven for about half an hour or a bit more. Less if you're using only around 200 grams. You'll probably need to bake it for at least twenty minutes, but if you want the topping crispy and more "baked in," longer is better. 

While the fish is in the oven, start your rice or potatoes--I made Jasmine rice in a rice cooker. 

Rinse and slice the zucchini and place in a large bowl into which you've put olive oil, juice of half a lemon, a chopped small red onion, and some pressed cloves of garlic. And a little more herbal salt. Toss mixture and sauté. 

I should have waited to photograph this before I stuck my fork in it, but I was too hungry: 

Basics of Baking Chicken

 You will need:

A whole chicken Buy a good bird--organic or corn fed.

A Pyrex baking dish that has room for the chicken and a bunch of potatoes and veggies.

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

Potatoes, any variety

A red onion or two

Garlic--preferably the elephant kind, but any will do

Carrots

a lemon

Frozen peas

Instructions:

(1) Remove chicken from packaging and put in Pyrex dish. Salt and pepper chicken and stick it in the fridge, preferably overnight. A few hours will do. Remove half an hour before you put in oven.

(2) Fill a large pot with water. Rinse the potatoes and carrots, cutting the ends off the carrots and any flaw off the potatoes. Put salt and the potatoes in the cold water and let boil. Once they've been boiling long enough to slightly soften the potatoes, add the carrots. Poke the potatoes; they should be soft enough to slice but not mooshy. Drain and rinse with cold water. 

(3) Peel the garlic--I used around ten cloves--and the onion. Put in a large bowl with a tablespoon or two of olive oil. Add the drained potatoes and carrots. If the potatoes are large, slice in half. Toss in olive oil.

(4)  Briefly remove chicken from Pyrex dish--put it on a plate or a cutting board. Put the veggies in the Pyrex dish. 

(5) Rinse a large lemon; cut off the stem and punch a few holes in it with a sharp knife. Push lemon into chicken

(6) Put the chicken on top of the veggies  and slide all into pre-heated oven at 190º Celsius (375º Fahrenheit).

(7) After about half an hour, remove chicken and turn it upside down, so that the part that's been sitting on the veggies is exposed to the heat.

(8) About twenty minutes later, add peas and put chicken rightside up again. 

In a few more minutes (depending on size of bird) your chicken is ready to eat: 

 

Enjoy with a glass of Prosecco or a light white wine.

 

 

 

How to Make Really Good Pasta without Much Effort

Jump to recipe!

Basic Ingredients and implements:

Olive oil

Cloves of garlic and a garlic press

One chopped onion, any size you like

Zucchini, organic, sliced (if you use non-organic I won't tell)

Cherry tomatoes and/or a can of same

Grated parmesan

Goat cheese wrapped in bacon (available at many supermarkets) baked for around twenty minutes. 

Prosciutto, sliced but not fried.

Pour a little oil in the frying pan--a tablespoon or two, and heat. Add chopped onions and pressed garlic, stirring constantly, and reduce heat. Add sliced zucchini and sauté; add whatever else you want, but probably the tomatoes, and stir. You'll have something like this:

This, dumped over the pasta of your choice, which you've been making alongside the sauce, is fine, but ordinary. What makes it special is the following:

(1) Once you've poured the sauce over the pasta, you add the prosciutto, which has been cooling its heels on a little board:

Toss in the prosciutto. I once tried frying it--a bad idea. Just toss it in.

Top the whole thing with the goat cheese wrapped in bacon, still sitting in your oven, where it's been baking at around 190º C (375º F) for around twenty minutes. Sprinkle on the parmesan. Enjoy with a glass of red wine--I recommend EntrecÔte.