things I did in 2020

An incomplete list of things I did this year, in something resembling temporal order:

• went to New York with @adrian_turtle and @cattitude to see my mother and my aunt Lea. That turned out to be the last time I saw my aunt.
• practiced/learned at least a little French almost every day, via Duolingo. Reached "diamond league," a meaningless ranking that I nonetheless was somewhat motivated by.
• finished indexing a book that I edited in 2019 (my first-ever indexing job, the author's idea rather than mine)
• a lot of text banking, and some phone banking, for candidates in the 2020 elections (mostly Biden/Harris, the Maine senate race, and non-partisan get-out-the-vote efforts that probably reached/motivated more Democratic than Republican voters)
• joined the local Senior Center so I could use the exercise room, which I did once before the pandemic and lockdown in March
• socialized via Discord and Zoom, and got to know some new people through those
• got ice cream delivered regularly
• baked bread from scratch
• had telemedicine appointments with doctors both by phone and with video (over Zoom)

shrimp dinner

Tonight's dinner was a shrimp thing I made up, from what we had in the house and something vaguely in the shape of a shrimp curry recipe I used to make fairly often.

I started with a diced onion, some minced ginger root, and strips of red bell pepper. First, I started cooking rice.

Then, I sauteed the onion in canola oil, with a fairly low light, and sprinkled on a little cumin. After several minutes (sorry, this is more notes to myself than a recipe) I added the bell pepper and the ginger--and some more oil, because the pan seemed dry.

When the vegetables and rice seemed ready, I added some chicken broth, and raised the heat until the broth started to simmer. Then I added the peeled shrimp (medium size, 41-50 shrimps/pound) and some lemon juice. Cooked until the shrimps were properly pink, and served it over rice, doing my best to get all the bits of ginger and onion, but not all the liquid.

It needed salt, and more lemon juice.

I will probably do this again, and use more spices and maybe herbs. I thought about garam masala, and this time I decided to just use cumin, because it goes well with onion and I am fonder of cardamom than cattitude is. Maybe don't put any lemon juice in while it's still cooking, but at the very last minute or at the table.

Garlic (fresh or powdered) would be good, I think. [ETA: try this with scallions, as suggested in my comment below to readerjane. Also, maybe try carrots, sliced thin, green beans, or snow peas along with or instead of the pepper.]