It's a Jungle In Here

A mere three weeks and three days ago, I showed you this pot of baby basil plants. Remember? I had this trio in here, on the window sill by my desk and another pot with a single plant on the window sill by the dining table. I was figuring to compare the difference in growth between the southern exposure (here) and the western exposure (there).

Well! I ended up with all the plants in the dining area window as of a week or so ago. The singleton was doing its best to outgrow the triplets. Also, the singleton seemed perkier, somehow. The leaves of the trio tend to hold themselves in a sort of umbrella mode. I thought that might change with the new location but, no, they continue to bow like inscrutable Orientals and the singleton continues to do its jumping jack routine.

Aside from that minor personality quirk, all four plants are suddenly behaving as though they want to form their own private jungle. I pinched off the top leaves of each plant maybe two weeks ago and they have unquestionably begun to get bushier -- even as they continue to vault vertically.

Here they are, as of today, gracing the window sill and telling me they're ready for another trim. I'm sure there will be an entry on the menu that would benefit from the addition of a few tender basil leaves. I'll just have to think on it a bit. Something will come to me.

At the moment I sitting here content after a dinner of shrimp and mixed rice. I tried something a little different when I made the rice. Threw in a handful of the blueberries I had dried in the dehydrator. They plumped up as the rice cooked and make marvelous little surprise jewels of semi-tart sweetness in the finished dish -- especially welcome since the Scoville rating of the mixture got a bit out of hand.

What it was, was, I sorta-kinda overdid the red curry paste. I had thought to saute the shrimp in a mixture of curry, olive oil and soy sauce before adding the rice. I wondered if I had been a bit too generous with the curry when the fumes coming up from the pan made me catch my breath. Then, when my taste buds began screaming and begging to jump in the pool, I realized there needed to be a rescue effort. A quickie peanut sauce with bit of coconut milk and the remainder of my peanut butter supply soon had the mixture gentled down to a thermal level that didn't require asbestos mouth liners. Sure cleared out my sinuses though.

Now I'm just relaxing and checking in on the afternoon football games every now and then. My guys don't start playing until sevenish, Pacific time, so I can dink around a bit. And yes, my taste buds are fine, thank you. Semi-conscious but fine. When you live in a jungle, you have to learn survival tactics, don'cha know?