Today I am writing in the diary about what a productive day today has proved to be. First of all, I finally completed two icons that have been worked on for several months; they are based on some very old icons from Carpatho-Rus. These were chosen because they are both basic and carefully follow the canons of iconography. As well, only 5 colours are required so are much easier to work with.
The second productive activity has, once again, taken place in the kitchen. Since yesterday the main dish was a salad created with various kinds of fruits, it seemed that today it would be a good idea to make kasha with various chopped vegetables. With today not being a fast day, it meant that I could also use eggs for both protein content and an extra bit of flavour. I had already prepared the kasha by soaking it overnight so it was ready for the frying skillet. Olive oil was put into the skillet and heated, then the kasha was added in order to brown it. The chopped vegetables were stirred in, along with “Mrs Dash” which is a seasoning mixture that takes the place of salt. After the whole mixture was steaming, I broke three eggs atop and placed a large cover in order to cause the eggs to cook as well as keep in the heat for continuing the frying of the kasha and vegetables. I have to tell the diary that I got a surprise that was unexpected. The end result was that even though I checked the kasha and stirred it in order to prevent burning or scorching, that is exactly what happened. My idea was to create a browned crust on the bottom of the kasha but what actually happened was that the bottom burned to a black so that it was actually a very thin charcoal layer. I could not smell that the mixture was turning so had no idea of what was happening to the mixture. Any way, once I could see what was happening, I turned off the heat and allowed the kasha to cool, just a bit. Oh no, I didn’t throw it away. Since reading about how it is good to have occasional charcoal in your diet, I simply scooped the kasha and vegetables into a bowl, made a large glass of Inka, thanked God for the food and then ate. It wasn’t too bad. In fact, it tasted quite a bit like a bowl of cereal which had burnt popcorn added to it. The productive aspect of this whole kitchen encounter is that I learned something important about how to fry kasha and not burn it. We do learn from experience, right?!
The third productive activity was receiving a call from a very good and old friend who was calling to check on how things are at the monastery. We had an interesting conversation which was quite long and worthwhile. He is not Orthodox but very much interested and wanted my advice on reading materials that I thought would be proper for his level of understanding. Thankfully, I do have suggestions which were helpful in this case.
Having related the events of the day, it is good to sign off by reminding the diary that, “Christ is Risen!”