Cars and Travel, Japanese Chicken Rice Bowl.

What a lovely time we had yesterday, we did our weekly shop and then went to drive home and the power steering had suddenly gone, made the oddest noises. Called for a tow truck (don't have to pay luckily). Meanwhile I took our ice cream back to the store as I figured it wouldn't stay frozen very long. Then we spotted a friend and asked her to take me home (diabetes and lunch) leaving poor Matt with the stranded car. Luckily the garage fixed it and we got it back that evening, quite a bit poorer of course. Its a good car but its getting old, the picture shows a car similar to ours. Several people said to me that we were lucky we were OK on our recent trip. The thought blows my mind, it could have happened anywhere. Especially with our shrimp in the car, oy vey as a friend would say! As it was, we had a reasonable trip home on the 26th. We picked up the shrimp which were good and solid in the frozen cool box and got some ice put in the cooler with the turkey breasts. We chatted to Captain Sam, Sheri was off shopping somewhere. He was talking about getting pix done for his upcoming election bid. He was horrified because the photos looked just like his daddy, he didn't realise he was getting to look that old, LOL. Do we ever? First time we have really chatted to him. We then went and got the last fillup of cheap gas and headed out. Shortly after we left, we saw a large flat bed truck loaded with what looked like cardboard boxes although they must have been more than that, loaded with eels. There was a map on the boxes showing they went as far as Canada. I didn't know eels were a business in the Carolinas. Matt suggested they could be freshwater eels, obviously we don't know, it was going too fast for us anyway. I have to confess that I do not enjoy eating eels. My parents loved them but it is something that has never appealed to me. We stopped for lunch at a Subway and I had an excellent ham sub. I also got a double chocolate cookie which turned out to be delicious with gooey chocolate in the middle. I went back and got three more!!!!!! We ate the last two in the hotel that night. Boy were they ever good. I don't make cookies but I would if I had the recipe for those. Just as well I don't, I do not need them LOL. Once we were well into the hills of Virginia, I was commenting about how pretty it looked with the clouds hanging on the hilltops then as we got higher, we drove into the clouds and it wasn't so pretty plus it started to rain, and rain, and rain. Awful weather. I am also very upset, all my life I have understood that cows lay down before it rained, all these local cows were standing around eating. Maybe they didn't know the rule? We were glad to check into the hotel at 5:30 we had had enough of driving in the rain. The hotel had wifi, so guess what!!!!!! Went to supper and I had shrimp and asparagus pasta, Matt had Chicken Caesar. Not yer haute cuisine, but not bad. It was still chucking it down. Back in our room we played crib and I had Celtic Thunder on the laptop for a bit of music then we quit cards and watched it for a while. Could use some speakers. There was a wedding party staying in the hotel. Typically they were noisy late at night but luckily, not for long. The next day I have little to say about except it rained and rained and rained. Never seen such rain. It was coming down in torrents, sheets and buckets all at once. Much worse than Saturday. We drove through wonderful scenery and could hardly see most of it although looking out of the side windows we could see that the fall colours were well under way in the mountains. We stopped for lunch at another Subway, but they didn't have the same cookies, how sad. Finally when we got to New York, it stopped raining, thank goodness. We were totally sick of it by then. We were lucky at the border, no hold ups; found out later that people had waited up to 4 hours the previous weekend as the customs officers were on strike. Home around 6 ish and got hold of a cart from the super to move the coolers and cases into the apartment. Everything was still good and solid in the coolers. Down the road for supper, we were so tired, I have no idea what we ate. We weren't long out of bed I can assure you. The shrimp and turkey breasts were unloaded the next day, with difficulty. Have to break off all the ice. This is how it all looked in the freezer. That's two rows of shrimp by the way. Eating Well are promoting some dinners for less than 350 calories. This is one of them. Japanese Chicken-Scallion Rice Bowl From EatingWell: April/May 2005, The EatingWell Healthy in a Hurry Cookbook (2006) Here's the quintessence of Japanese home cooking: an aromatic, protein-rich broth served over rice. Admittedly, Japanese cooking leans heavily on sugar - for a less traditional taste, you could reduce or even omit the sugar. 4 servings Ingredients * 1 1/2 cups instant brown rice * 1 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth * 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar * 2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce * 1 tablespoon mirin, (see Ingredient note) * 2 large egg whites * 1 large egg * 8 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch pieces * 6 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced Preparation 1. Prepare instant brown rice according to package directions. 2. Pour broth into a heavy medium saucepan, along with sugar, soy sauce and mirin. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium-low. 3. Stir egg whites and whole egg in a small bowl until just mixed. Add chicken to the simmering broth. Gently pour in the egg mixture, without stirring. Sprinkle scallions on top. When the egg starts to firm up, after about 3 minutes, stir it with chopsticks or a knife. (The chicken will be cooked by now.) Divide the rice among 4 deep soup bowls and top with the chicken mixture. * Ingredient Note: Mirin is a low-alcohol rice wine essential to Japanese cooking. Look for it in your supermarket with the Asian or gourmet ingredients. An equal portion of sherry or white wine with a pinch of sugar may be substituted for mirin. Have a great day.