Saturday, January 5, 2013

Bowling, Weather, Nian.

Pin_Animation1Much to my surprise, having had so many days away, I bowled really well yesterday and was pleased with myself. Matt did too which was a good thing. Actually had a good afternoon, nothing really hurt for a change. It is always great when you play a sport well, I only wish it happened more often.

They keep forecasting snow, but so far we haven’t had any more. Not that I am complaining you understand. At least we are not having the dreadful weather that the UK has been having for months, a friend in northern England says the ground is so wet the rain just runs off it any more. In some areas they have had flooding and people have lost their livelihoods because of so much water. The weather is not helping on the east Coast of the States either, some friends took 4 days to travel to Florida because the roads were iced up so badly. God help those still feeling the effects of Hurricane Sandy.

Chinese New YearHad an email yesterday telling me the Mandarin, our favourite Chinese restaurant, will be celebrating Chinese New Year from January 14 to February 24. This year, it is the year of the Snake. The restaurant will be having their dumpling festival and as I love dumplings I will certainly be there. They have different foods this year from last year, pity, they did an ice cream I loved. This year they have ginger ice cream. I just picked up this cute little story from their email.

Chinese New Year evolved from a mythical creature called "Nian" which Nianmeans "year" in Chinese. This creature would go to the village every year to consume all of the villagers' food and livestock. If there was not enough supply, it would even consume people! Soon the villagers discovered that Nian was afraid of the colour red and of loud noises. Thus, every year, villagers would dress in red, use red decorations such as red scrolls, and light firecrackers to scare Nian away. Ever since then, Nian has disappeared and never returned. This representation of Nian is red anyway!!!

Tonight we have having the Spicy Pork Tenderloin for which I gave the recipe yesterday, we thought it looked good enough to eat. This recipe below looked really colourful and is something I often do with collards but I guess any greens would do, kale would certainly work well. I always use olive oil for health reasons.

Sautéed Greens with Garlic

By The Nourished Kitchensauteed_greens_garlic
WebMD Recipe from Foodily.com

Ingredients

  • 2 bunches greens
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 1  shallot
  • 1  dried red pepper
  • 1 teaspoon ghee or coconut oil 

Instructions

  1. Start by chopping the garlic and the shallots. Some people prefer them minced, but I love big, sweet chunks of garlic.
  2. Trim the stems from the leafy part of the green. In some cases, you can reserve the stems and use them like celery. Roll the greens tightly and cut them in thin strips.
  3. Heat your desired fat in a pan, and fry your shallots and onion until they’re tender.
  4. Add the greens and cook until they’re bright. Add a touch of dried red pepper.
  5. Serve warm. Cheap, wholesome and tasty.

Have a great day

Jo

8 comments:

  1. Ginger ice cream. You'll have to let me know how that tastes.

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    1. I will but it won't be for a week or two yet.

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  2. When I lived in Singapore the Winter celebrations went on for days as we had Christmas and then the Chinese New Year.

    Now we have a home on Fuerteventura (Canary Islands, Spain) they have an interim one as they celebrate Kings Day tomorrow 5th January. Three kings on camels ride through the town tonight throwing sweets to the children and tonight the children leave food out for the camels and (if they've been good) the children get presents tomorrow!!

    Any excuse for a festival!!

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    1. Do you mean the 6th Sue. Epiphany? That's when the 3 kings were supposed to have arrived with their gold, frankincense and myrrh. The only thing we do is take down our decorations. No presents sadly.

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  3. And that's my color red, too. I can wear a rich warm red but not the blue toned reds.

    The greens do look good. I use olive oil, too, for health reasons. Vegetable oils have a great deal of corn and corn is almost all genetically modified and bad for you. Despite what they say, the dna injected pesticides remain--which is why I don't eat corn either, unless I grow it. Organic and no dna altered anything.

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    Replies
    1. Well you can frighten dragons away then.

      I use olive oil practically all the time, much healthier.

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  4. The only cooked greens I like is spinach, so hopefully that works in the recipe.

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    1. Spinach would wilt very quickly though. Collards and kale etc. stand up to more cooking. I am surprised you don't like collards, I never cook mine the way they are cooked in the south but like this recipe more or less.

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