The
cabbage was a recipe from the current bandwagon of cooking vegetables by
roasting them in the oven. The plan was to seal sections of cabbage in their
own little tin foil packets with nummy flavorings inside. How could I lose? I thought. We love
cooked cabbage, this requires little work, and I throw away the foil, nothing
to wash.
The
result was tasteless and dry. The recipe followed the foil into the trash.
Fortunately,
I had picked up two obscenely fattening pieces of rum cake at the store for
dessert, so we were just fine.
On
to cribbage, which was invented in the early 1600s by Sir John Suckling, and
English courtier, poet, gamester and gambler, who spent a hefty portion of his
time in pubs, raking in his winnings. Of course, the fact that he’d invented
the game may have given him a bit of an edge.
Cribbage
entered the picture because I had picked up the game for a Christmas grandchild
gift. We decided we’d better find out how to play it first, and save an itchy
child from having to wait while his grandparents toiled their way through the
instructions.
Good
thing we did.
Combine
cryptic explanations with arcane terms –
a two-point maneuver by the dealer is titled “for his heels”, and the flip of a
particular card is called “one for his nobs” – and we were left wondering how in the world
we’d ever managed to acquire those college degrees.
This
called for another approach. The only logical way to learn a game from the 17th
century was of course to look up videos on the internet.
This was
another eye opener. Any secret dreams of cribbage making us cool quickly
dissolved as the videos opened on cluttered basements and high school bedrooms.
Each on-line instructor looked increasingly like someone who had just paused
from a four-day session of Dungeons and Dragons. When we got to the ten year
old whose pre-pubescent hands were almost too pudgy to deal, I figured we had
learned enough.
We finally
played a few games and enjoyed them and I think we know what we’re
doing. Not only do I envision some quality time with the grandkids, but there’s
always that fixed income to plump up. Did you know that cribbage is supposedly
the only game you can play in an English pub for money?
I am not a fan of roasted veggies or cribbage. Fortunately, my sister no longer tries the former and taught all her neices and nephews the latter.
ReplyDeleteDidn't know you could play it for money. It sounds a bit confusing, but I feel that way about cricket too.
ReplyDeletemy grandkids like/liked games though we never played them when I was a kid or when I had kids. consequently, I have a lot of games here but now that they are older, the games don't come out so much. we do like to do jigsaw puzzles though.
ReplyDeleteDry cabbage? A travesty and a tragedy.
ReplyDeleteI like cribbage. My partner and I learnt at the same time and were fairly evenly matched. So we started playing for household chores. Then he started winning consistently. Stripping and making the bed (after I had lost yet another game) I discovered a 'how to play cribbage book he had secreted under the pillow. We are again fairly evenly matched.
I'd say you're evenly matched all the way 'round.
DeleteI've never roasted vegetables that turned out as good as they look in pictures. I was hoping you were going to say the cabbage was delicious. My ex-husband played cribbage. Guess I understand now why he stopped playing when he married me.
ReplyDeleteWho needs cribbage when you have the company of the charming Miss H.P?
DeleteWhy do things that seem to easy end up being so difficult. Is it because we are thinking more slowly or because we are wiser??
ReplyDeleteI love crib. I even play crib on line. They do the counting for you.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I've ever actually SEEN anyone playing cribbage in a pub, but maybe I just don't go to the right pubs. (I've never ever played it myself.)
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's only found in time-warp, Harry Potter sorts of pubs.
DeleteCribbage is something I've only ever read about in novels of earlier times. I know my mum had one of those cribbage boards, but don't remember if or when she ever played.
ReplyDeleteCabbage, on the other hand, featured often throughout our growing up years and I still love it, but don't over cook it to mush texture like my mum used to. That was back in the days when vegetables of any kind had the life boiled out of them.
These days I shred mine finely and add it to stir-fried finely sliced onion, carrot and garlic. As I toss in the cabbage, I also ass finely sliced zucchini sticks, stir, then slam on the lid and take it off the heat immediately. Leave it a couple of minutes, then serve.
Sounds good - I'll try it.
DeleteI'll sometimes slice cabbage thinly along with thinly cut carrots and cook quickly in a skillet with a little chicken stock.
I used to play cribbage with one of my former husbands. it is an interesting game. I don't remember how to pay any more, but I remember saying "15-2, 15-4 and a pair is 6." Isn't it interesting what remains in the old brain? I love EC's comment! :-)
ReplyDeleteI confess to never having really learned cribbage, despite the fact that my wife and now-grown children are very good at it. Must try again soon; maybe knowing its background now will motivate me.
ReplyDeleteAnything that began in a pub deserves a bit of respect..
Delete