365个英语简短小故事-165. Ham and Eggplant

He arrived home a little bit hungry. First, he had to take a small package of ham out of the freezer. But before he did that, he took the big pot off the stove and put about an inch of water in the bottom. Then he put the steamer basket into the pot. He put the pot on the stove and turned on the gas burner.

He opened the refrigerator and took out an eggplant. He washed the eggplant with soap and water, and then rinsed¹ it. He sliced the eggplant into thin sections, and put them all into the big pot. He put the lid on the pot and set the timer to 20 minutes.

In 20 minutes, the eggplant would be deliciously soft, almost like pudding. He would take half of it out of the pot, and put it into a bowl. Then he would add a little butter, salt, ground pepper, and fresh-squeezed lemon juice. Then, he would chop up some microwaved ham, add it to the eggplant, and enjoy! But first, he needed to take the ham out of the freezer.

Before he did that, he took a lemon out of the fruit bowl on top of the refrigerator. He sliced it in half and looked around for the lemon squeezer. It was supposed to be hanging on a hook above the sink. It wasn’t, of course. He dug through the pile of clean dishes in his sink. It wasn’t there. He looked through all the stuff on all the countertops. He looked on the stovetop, in the fridge, and in the microwave. He looked in the kitchen drawers. He gave up.

He sat down at the dining table and cursed his lack of organization. I’ve spent half of my life looking for things I’ve spent the other half misplacing, he muttered. Just then he spotted² the lemon squeezer, sitting on top of his printer. Of course, he thought. Where else would it be?

The timer went off. He turned off the burner. He squeezed the lemon. He took half the eggplant out of the pot, put it into a bowl, added butter, and watched it melt. He shook salt and grinded pepper onto the eggplant, poured the lemon juice on the eggplant, and sat down at the dining table. He took a bite. It was delicious! But, something was missing. What was it? Just before the last bite of eggplant, he remembered.

 

1 rinsed   

v.漂洗( rinse的过去式和过去分词 )；冲洗；用清水漂洗掉（肥皂泡等）；（用清水）冲掉

参考例句：

• She rinsed out the sea water from her swimming-costume. 她把游泳衣里的海水冲洗掉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The clothes have been rinsed three times. 衣服已经洗了三和。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

2 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。