Carpet Cleaners, Alcatraz, Staples, Hungry Rats.

Today we have the carpet cleaners coming. I basically only do the main room which includes our dining room and hall, as its too expensive to have all the rooms done. It really needs cleaning too, I don’t know why it has got particularly dirty this time, but it certainly has.

I picked up the next book in the Alcatraz series, Alcatraz vs. the Scriveners Bones. I have read half of it and I have decided Brandon Sanderson is a nut, albeit a prolific one. Presumably he takes time off from writing his serious books to write these nonsense books. I really like them – they are a lot of fun. The picture on the cover is of the head of a glass dragon (not living) which is used as a means of aerial transport. Can you imagine flying and being able to see the ground, or clouds I guess, beneath you? Would take a bit of getting used to. The dragon’s eyes are where the cockpit is, but of course its not flown in the regular sense but by a kind of telepathy. But then in Book one there were cars that drove themselves. Talking of Brandon Sanderson, I understand the last volume in The Wheel of Time series is now finished. Must be very hard to take up the mantle of another author, but so far he has done it beautifully. I read, on his page, that he has been doing WOT for 5 years now and is both sad and glad that its finished. Luckily Robert Jordan left a lot of notes and scads of written text to help Sanderson get the job done.

We went to the Mandarin with our friends yesterday. As usual a very good meal although my Hot and Sour soup wasn’t quite as warm as it should have been, but everything else I ate was fine, and I certainly ate a lot. We ended up a party of 8 but sitting on a long table, that doesn’t really work very well as one end can’t hear what the other end of the table is saying. Needed a round table like King Arthur, LOL.  However, it was great to meet up with everyone again and I never have a problem with their food. Afterwards, I wanted a couple of things from Staples so went to the one close by, surprise, surprise, its closed down. How very odd. I am puzzled, although it did occur to me that maybe they get more orders on line than in store these days.

One of our friends mentioned an interesting story he had seen on the TV recently, every 48 years rats overrun rice crops leaving none for humans. It turns out that a particular type of bamboo, Melocanna baccifera, blossoms and fruits every 48 years, the fruit is extremely nutritious and the rats gorge on the it, then cease cannibalising their babies and also have an increased birth surge so the large amount of offspring need more food, hence they attack the rice fields. This lasts for about three years until it all goes back to normal. According to the article, it primarily takes place in North East India and you can read all about it at the link. Its interesting reading.

I have always enjoyed Yakitori, but never thought about making it myself, not sure why. Anyway, here is a fairly simple version I found yesterday in Recipe du Jour.

Yakitori
1/4 cup sake (rice wine)
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons grated peeled fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into 24 bite-sized pieces
5 green onions, each cut into 4 (2-inch) pieces
Cooking spray

Combine first 6 ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil; cook until reduced to 1/4 cup (about 2 1/2 minutes). Remove from heat; cool.
Combine soy sauce mixture and the chicken. Cover and marinate in refrigerator for 1 hour.
Heat a large grill pan over medium-high heat.
Thread 6 chicken cubes and 5 green onion pieces alternately onto each of 4 (10-inch) skewers. Brush kebabs with the soy mixture. Coat pan with cooking spray. Place kebabs in pan, and cook 4 minutes on each side or until the chicken is done. Makes 4 servings.

Have a great day