Weather, Dinner,

I've decided Matt and I must be very odd. We were sitting on our balcony for a while yesterday evening; when it is sunny, we sit there a lot. In the Carolinas we used to sit out on our decks (two different homes) and enjoy the weather which you could do for a large portion of the year down there. We are mostly alone. No-one else seems to want to enjoy the open air but remain inside their little nests, probably with the TV on too. In fact that is something we also find peculiar, going away in a camper, trailer or tent and having a TV. Don't you go away to get away from such things? I sure do. Admittedly the cottage we are renting in Sept. has a TV but at the most we watch it for the weather. I talk about sitting out last night, this morning we have had nothing but horrendous thunderstorms - quite a sight. The power went out twice, how dare it when I am about to do my blog. The New Yorkers are complaining about the weather and the meteorologist on GMA said the jet stream is bringing down the cold weather from Canada, er sorry, further north matey, we are getting cold weather we shouldn't get too. You should have seen the rain this morning it was lashing across the park, glad we weren't in its path, the balconies at an angle to us must have got loads of wet. At one point the lightning was certainly within a mile. Bit scary that. Now I have to reset all the digital clocks. Our radio loses its presets too - that's Matt's job *g*. Have friends coming to dinner this evening which should be fun, we are going mixed countries, starting with the Heirloom Tomato Tart, followed by Moo Goo Gai Pan and my friend is bringing the dessert. Matt used to do a lot of Chinese cooking at one time, but rarely does any nowadays, he just seemed to lose interest in it. I love to eat Chinese, but I was never in to cooking it much. We have two large woks which don't see much use any more. Our recipe comes from The Joy of Wokking by Martin Yan. I have had this book for many years and even have Martin Yan's signature in it. He visited a store in the area - I was unable to go, but a friend got his autograph for me. I actually posted this recipe a year ago, but as we are doing it today, I thought I would post it again. Moo Goo Gai Pan It is easy to prepare, yet a delightufl dish. This is perhaps one of the most popular dishes on any Chinese restaurant menu. 3/4 lb. chicken breast, skinned 1 cup button mushrooms 4-6 dry black mushrooms soaked til soft (optional) 1/4 cup canned button mushrooms, (optional) 1/3 cup fresh snow peas (optional) 1 1/2 tsp dry sherry 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 Tbs dark soy sauce 1 Tbs oyster sauce 1/4 cup broth 3 slices ginger, slivered 2/3 Tbs cornstarch in two Tbs broth 3 Tbs cooking oil Skin, debone and slice chicken breast to thin bite-sized strips. Preheat wok or skillet for 30 seconds, add cooking oil and heat another 30 seconds. Stir-fry chicken with ginger over high heat for 2 minutes, remove and set aside. Add softened black mushrooms into wok and cook for 3 minutes with chicken broth over medium high heat, add snow peas, fresh and canned mushrooms and cook for another 1 1/2 minutes. Return cooked chicken to wok. Put in all the seasonings and thicken to serve hot. Oyster sauce is optional, yet a good idea to use. It gives a fantastic flavour to the dish. Therefore stock up a bottle in your refrigerator. Note: Matt only uses one kind of mushrooms - today he is using Baby Bellas. He does use the snow peas though. Have a great weekend.