Sorry for the delay. I voted!! Chris Murphy and Chris Donovan for the 5th District. Nice walk over to my polling place -- and started to rain, of course -- but just drizzle. I asked the nice woman who is the greeter if there had been many voters. I arrived at about 11 and there were about 5 of us. She said, suprisingly, yes. We agreed it had everything to do with the 5th District House seat.
I had an etiquette breach. One guy was at the check in table but there were 5 women with address sheets. I thought I could go to any one of them. So I did and one woman said, gruffly, "No! Back in line!" The other ladies gave her a bit of a glare and one told me to come over and check in. I looked like I had never voted before.
On the way back I pass the Democratic headquarters so I stopped in for a bit and the place was full of volunteers -- all on the phone. I'll check back later to see if they need more help.
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Now for a recipe. Here's one which uses an ubiquitous summer crop and it is from the cookbook, Plenty: Vibrant Vegetable Recipes from London's Ottolenghi by Yotam Ottolenghi.
Cucumber salad with smashed garlic and ginger
Ingredients:
Dressing:
3 tblsp rice wine vinegar
2 tsp sugar (I'm not a sugar fan so I cut the sugar considerably)
2 tblsp sunflower oil
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
Fixings:
1 small red onion very thinly sliced
1 1/2 inches fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
1 tsp sea salt
2 large cloves garlic, peeled
4 small cucumbers, peeled
1 tblsp toasted sesame seeds
3 tblsp chopped cilantro
To make the dressing, whisk together all of the dressing ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. Add the sliced red onion, mix well and leave aside to marinate for about an hour.
Place the ginger and salt in a mortar and pound well with a pestle. Add the garlic and continue pounding until it is also well crushed and broken into pieces (stop pounding before it disintegrates into a paste). Use a spatula to scrape the contents of the morar into the bowl with the onion and dressing. Stir together.
Cut the cucumbers lengthways in half. then cut each half on an angle into 1/4 inch thick slices. Add the cucumber to the bowl, followed by the sesame seeds and cilantro. Stir well and leave to sit for 10 minutes.
Before serving, stir the salad again, tip out some of the liquid that has accumulated at the bottom of the bowl and adjust the seasoning.
Then choose 4 guests from the following list and enjoy!
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