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.

Theatre, Books, Nova Science Now

Today I am off to Grand Bend again to the Huron County Playhouse. We (friend and I) are going to see 'I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change', which is, presumably a farce. We are hoping to have a picnic lunch outside the theatre, but at the moment it is threatening storms, so we may end up eating in the car. This is the same theatre I went to a few weeks ago to see My Fair Lady. I have one more theatre visit, next week, and that's it for the summer for me. We have booked for the Pantomime in December. They are endeavouring to emulate a British pantomime with some success, but I guess if you have seen London pantos with top comedians, etc. it is difficult to compete. I have been reading the Katherine Kerr Deverry series - have finished the first four and now awaiting two more from the library. The writing appears to be getting better as I read further along. The story is good, but some of the written speech at the beginning was terrible. Drove me bananas. I am presently reading an eBook which is one of the Witch World books by André Norton. I enjoy that series very much although I only discovered them in the last year or so. In fact lots of different authors have written episodes which took place in the Witch World. It's interesting to see the different aspects from another writer's point of view. I watched my favourite Nova Science NOW programme. They had an interesting segment on extinction which is worth watching at Nova Science NOW where they explained about mass extinctions which have happened on earth over the millenia and they have some new theories as to how it happened. If they are right, then it could happen again any time now. Another segment, a scientist has re-created the flu virus of 1918, which killed millions of people world wide, in order to study the possible changes to avian flu which might occur and allow it to pass from human to human which, at present, it cannot do. I see the point, but I worry about such viruses being in existence when they had been disposed of. The third section was to do with reading ancient papyrus remnants which had been stained or damaged. They showed a load of papyrii which came from a city dump in ancient Greece. One section turned out to have been from the New Testament and is therefore one of the earliest known copies. If you want to watch interesting video, you really should check these out. Once again, in keeping with the Olympics in Beijing, I am giving you a Chinese recipe. This one comes from The Joy of Wokking by Martin Yan. Matt has made this recipe many times as it is a prime favourite of ours. Moo Goo Gai Pan 3/4 lb skinless, boneless chicken breast 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 (bouillon) 3 slices ginger, slivered 2/3 tbs cornstach in 3 tbs broth 3 tbs cooking oil. Slice chicken breast to thin bite-sized strips Preheat wok or skelet for 30 seconds, add oil and heat further 30 seconds. Stir-fry chicken with ginger over high heat for 2 mins. 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 a further 1 1/2 minutes. Return cooked chicken to wok. Put in all the seasonings and thicken to serve hot. Other than the canned mushrooms I would certainly use any optional items. For extra mushrooms use some fresh wild mushrooms, whatever you can obtain. picture from http://www.asiangardengrassvalley.com/AGOurCuisine-OurMenu.html Have a great day.