Cod fillet

I intend to post an update on this blog every Wednesday. Today is Thursday. I do my best to be flexible as I intend to co-create my life with the universe. This means being flexible at moments or taking an entirely new direction completely depending on the context and circumstances. I like to cook often. To me, food is love. I was inspired after work yesterday to try something new. Rarely do I buy fish. I chose to get a small cod fillet. I was going to look online to see how to prepare the cod. Yet, my housemate, Amelia was home so I was able to glean her knowledge and cooking wisdom to prepare the cod. I put garlic salt, pepper, slices of heirloom tomatoes from Happy Boy Farms on the fish. Then I sauteed garlic and onions with thyme harvested from the garden. Finally, I added fresh squeezed lemon to the fish. Amelia suggested that I prepare the cod in the oven and turn on the broiler. As the oven was heating up, I re-heated some cabbage, onions, and garlic, brown rice, and a few potatoes from a previous meal that had been in the freezer, yet had de-frosted in my fridge. This reminds me of a very entitled customer who I had an interaction with a month or so ago at work. She purchased an overly priced half pint of cabbage and quinoa. I asked her if she knew how to prepare cabbage. She looked at me stunned that I knew how to prepare cabbage and then she inquired as to how I prepared it. I told her I added spices like cumin, turmeric, thyme, salt, pepper, etc. I first saute onions, garlic, and then add cabbage. Sometimes I include bragg's in it too. I told her that I prepare a large amount, usually with quinoa and brown rice and/or potatoes. I usually make kale, chard, or collard greens to go with the rest of the food. Then I have leftovers for lunch and I put the rest of the food in the freezer for several meals that I will eat within the month. As our fridge is old in the lovely house that I live in and the landlord may or may not procure us a new one that has a consistent freezer where food can be kept for more than a month that doesn't taste freezer burnt. When I told the entitlement woman at the store where I work about freezing the cabbage she looked at me, an adult woman looked at me and said an exaggerated "eeewwww," in a shocked tone to my face with a look of disgust in regards to hearing that I freeze some of my meals. I live a very active life and I have a literal and figurative full plate! Thus, preparing more food in advance saves me time, energy, and I have a delicious variety of meals to choose from when I'm hungry. This experience highlighted one of the most interesting, blatant, and rude class dynamics I have personally experienced while at work. It is one thing to disagree with someone. Yet, a grown adult woman saying something that a child would say in a school yard or playground was very surprising to me. This brought up many feelings and thoughts. One thought was about class dynamics. I was raised middle-class. Both of my parents went to graduate school to become social workers. They are both Licensed Clinical Social Workers. Both are retired now. I've been a student most of my 20's. I'm at the end cusp of graduate school and I work part-time. As an artist/filmmaker I view myself as a graduate student and in a creative/artistic class. Is being an artist working class? I view the artistic/creative fields as a realm of their own. The class dynamic that I experienced while working was one that felt like I was working-class and this women upper-class. That is the dynamic that I felt. Is it working-class or artistic/creative class or not based on class at all to think ahead, plan, be economical with food, and prepare meals to put in one's freezer? What do people think/feel about this? I personally let this experience go, it feels good to write about, and it high-lights different forms of eating habits, etc. This woman can afford to buy an $8 half pint of cabbage and quinoa, while I a student and emerging creative professional prepare quinoa and cabbage at home. Getting back to the cod fillet. I put it in the oven. I checked on it after 6 minutes, as Amelia had advised. Amelia suggested that I put the cod in the broiler. I thought that if I put it in the oven it was on broil. Yet, in the oven in our kitchen there is a lower broiler area which I had recently discovered. I accidentally touched the hot pan that was on the counter across from the stove as I prepared to put the pan into the actual broiler. I instantly burned two of my fingers on my left hand. I put my hand under cold water in the kitchen immediately. I cook often and I don't remember being burned like this once. The last experience I remember burning my finger(s) was when I was in pre-school at a friend or babysitter's house and I touched a heater with one of my fingers as I was exploring around. That memory and age instantly came back to me as I plunged my hand into a jar of cold water and sat down for a few moments before putting the fish into the broiler. Two blisters emerged and my fingers continued to hurt. I'm feeling better today, yet it was a very unpleasant cooking experience to get burned. Amelia apparently burns herself all the time when she cooks. I'm grateful for my mom's input about how to deal with a burn and my buddy Samuel's hug, neosporin, and red crayola band-aids for my fingers. They are feeling better today. Yet, hurt for a while last night. The fish came out excellently and I enjoyed it more today rather than last night. Thanks for reading!