Getting stonedkitchen.org up and running does involve some work, but mostly, it’s tons of fun and I’m learning a lot. this Blogcast post shares a bit of the process with you.
These pictures show some examples of what happens when “Pepper takes an idea and runs with it.” Over the past couple of months, Pepper and I have been having a lot of back and forth about things like logos, the homepage “header,” and of course, our stoned letters! Dan is providing excellent background support and feedback here, (but might not be too enthused about me sharing that with you.) It’s just when I was showing him Pepper’s latest magic, I was thrilled that Dan and I had the same opinion-and once again, was a little in awe of the things he sees and knows.
“Auf Anhieb, ja” he said, after seeing one of the first tries Pepper had sent me. I’m not sure exactly how to translate that. Keep in mind, most of the time Dan and I speak German when we are alone together, and with our German-speaking friends. It gets a little tricky language-wise a lot in Stoned Kitchen, though. I’m lucky that almost everyone we come in contact with speaks some English (or German, or Greek.) In Stoned Kitchen, English is generally our “default” language setting when we need to find a common tongue in Stoned Kitchen.
Anyway, after Dan was enthusiastic and said he liked one of the scripts at first sight (auf Anhieb), I asked him, “Can you tell where I took that picture of the stones that Pepper’s using for the lettering?”
He looked more closely at them. “Definitely not at our place,” Dan replied. Then he proceeded to pinpoint the location right down to which wall I’d photographed “up close” for Stoned Kitchen purposes.
“Those stones are part of the ruins across the street. Those builders of old really knew how to lay stones.. Look how tightly they are set together.”
“And imagine,” I chimed in, “They didn’t even have trucks to get those stones here. I guess whoever built that old whatever it used donkeys to transport the rocks. Maybe.”
“Nah, they just picked up some stones and carried them every time they came to work. That “Schrott” is lying around all over the place here.”
With Schrott, which means junk, or even garbage, Dan was talking about the stones. They really are in abundance here and come in practically all shapes, sizes, strengths, colors, and textures. In German-speaking countries, people use the expression steinreich to describe the ultra-rich as being “rich in stones.” Dan and I have often joked that we are steinreich, too – and so we are. And so is just about everybody else in Greece, too, I imagine.
As for our real financial situations, I’d say…nothing more except: It is clear that no one here in Greece is going to be having the 2020 season they were planning only some few months back in “pre-Corona” times. How the season will turn out instead, nobody knows. But I get a sense of cautious optimism from many here, and well as our Greek friends (and meanwhile me and Dan, too) often say, “Ti no kanome?” What (else) can we do?
In other news, it is 4:26 in the afternoon here on 22 May 2020. The contrast to what I am doing now (writing this post on a beautiful, cool, cloudy day where it even rained a bit, yippee!) to what I was doing this time last year (sitting behind a desk at the police station in Moires) could not be greater. (For more on this, see Stoned Kitchen: or how a slightly illegal po(t)cast helped save Greece- if/when available.)
As for me, I’m now going to get down to the next thing on my to-do list: Shorten and fine-tune the first blogcasts for recording. My friend who is helping me out here and I had a second “play around and create” session yesterday afternoon….(Their Stoned Kitchen name is coming soon. My friend needs some time to think about it…)
Anyway, the two of us had a grand time playing around with a couple of original songs, and then did our first practice takes of eSKay’s first “Reaching out to….”
There was a point, where we had to stop because we were laughing so much, plus I had accidentally knocked over a shot of ouzo and needed to dry off my laptop quickly. Stay tuned, (and note to me: Next time, try not to get the headset cable caught on anything! Yiammas!
Stoned Kichten is jammen, jiven, and just about ready to open!
Selfie (snapped by me) on 21 May 2020, part of what I hope will be a series with many more to come and someone else taking the pics!)
Amendment: (at 5:36 pm on the same day.) I’ll have to do the text shortening for the blogcast posts later. I’ve lost track of the time while working (unexpectedly as in “not planned” and “not on the list”) on this post here, instead of reading, slashing, rewriting those pages for recording. It is now time for me to leave my desk and go clean a “mess of fish” as we used to call this back in Alabama. This morning, I unthawed a bag of a local catch. Zach had given them to us the day before social distancing took off here in mid-March. They are on the menu for tonight.
After I clean them, I’ll just dredge those fishies in lightly salted flour, and fry them up in a pan. As a side, a bit of fresh coleslaw that’s light on the mayo, but heavy on the grated carrots, minced red peppers, and chopped onion (“green onions” are best!) Finish the dressing with salt, pepper, a teaspoon of sugar (optional) lemon juice or apple vinegar, and your favorite oil. Make a lot! It keeps well stored in the fridge for about a week!
It’s not that I love cleaning fish, but well, someone has to do it, and in Stoned Kitchen, that’s usually a “Dan job.” But he’s working late (there are a lot of things to do to get hotel rooms, taverns, etc. ready for “safe tourism” in the Time of Corona.
Anyway, cleaning fish (that a friend caught and gave us) while getting some fresh air in the garden is light years better than being in police custody. I’m going to toast my freedom!
Miamou was delighted to receive a fish as a treat for her dinner, too. (She doesn’t do veggies – yet.) Yiammas!
She did though, almost “clean her plate” and the fish was a hands-down winner over her normal “cat food” as demonstrated in the photo below.
