April 3rd. Car, Cascarones, Grilled Cheese and thinking ahead.

Waiting to be healed

Friday--perhaps while I was enjoying my Egg McMuffin, or maybe going through my yoga paces, my car, waiting patiently in the Fred Segal parking lot was smacked, right in the soft bumper spot next to the Obama 2008 bumper sticker.  The perpetrator chose not to leave a note.  Could I ignore it?  The damage is just cosmetic.  Even here in car-crazed Los Angeles, I haven't minded driving my 1997 Camry, but once it starts looking like a moving wreck, we're entering another paradigm.  Appearances are, after all, appearances.  After doing due diligence, I brought the car to Jack.  He could take care of it, he assured me, but it would have to be there for at least two days.  That was almost fine, but first I had to make quick run to TopValu--the Mexican market for eggplant, zucchini and peppers for tomorrow night's dinner.

I had intended to take the long walk home, but as I was now laden with groceries, Linda, who works in the office gave me a ride.  En route she told me about Cascarones, confetti eggs.  A tradition in her family, as in Mexico, you can think of them as a cross between pinatas and Easter eggs.  Colored eggs are filled with confetti, and after the Easter Egg hunt, everyone pelts everyone else--filling the room, or yard, or wherever with tiny bits of colored paper.   According to Wikipedia, they originated in China and eventually made their way to Mexico.  Rather than dying hard boiled eggs for an Easter Egg hunt, the eggs are empties (Linda starts saving her hollowed out shells around Christmas time).  "In this economy, you wouldn't hollow out eggs without eating them," she says.  At one point, when she ran a restaurant, she had hundreds of eggs to paint and stuff with confetti.    She is her families designated Easter egg preparer, and this year, she told me she's just doing a few dozen.  If any are left over (not likely), she offered to save one for me.

Waiting to be chopped

Once home, I began preparing the vegetables for the eggplant and zucchini brew that made me so happy last week.

Waiting for the pan

Conventional wisdom, as well as my own opinion, is that this dish will only improve by tomorrow, so was pleased to get started today.

Took a break for an early evening walk with Katya.  Coming home, I finished the eggplant dish and finally had the time to make the sandwich of yesterday's yoga dreams--grilled cheese sandwich with bacon, tomato and avocado.  Very good indeed.