Food For Thought

Old Oligarch's analysis of the Matrix: Revolutions movie and, subsequently the whole trilogy: here. Makes one think & ponder...

Weekend

I need to extend a thank you for my household. You see, I was sick as a dog on Sunday--got slightly better today so I could drag my lil' butt to work, but still weak--and they labored for most of the afternoon to make the front yard look SO much better. My hubby removed (with the help of his faithful axe) the worm-ridden hedge and the despicable heavenly bamboo (neither heavenly nor bamboo, I hate the stuff) by the porch, then all three of them (The Bunny and her husband shares their abode with The Lizard Queen and her husband) cleaned the patch of soil and extended the porch area a bit so it's more suitable for sitting and having a tea or iced lemonade during the evenings. With the planned addition of some climbing roses, geraniums and lavender bushes, it shall be rather comfortable for this coming summer. Whee!
Meanwhile, they kept me bundled up and warm, supplied constantly with tea and water and other goodies, and I got a wonderful soul-warming chicken soup from The Lizard Queen, bless her hands!
Thank you all, again--you turned that miserable day to a warm and cozy sick day experience!

Got me thinking...

...what my sweetie said to me yesterday, when I excitedly told him about my Polidori-story idea. He said: 'But, hunny, isn't that ALL your stories are about the hily Grail?" "NO!!! Absolutely...." I started to say, and then I shut up really fast. It's true: all the stories I told him about and snippets of which I read aloud or got published here and there, were this way or that, connected to this much sought after artifact. So: it got me thinking today--what if it is tue? Am I indeed a seeker, and if I am--what is the Grail?

And yes, I am waxed philosophical this afternoon, and no, the story coming won't be this full of pathos. I hope, at least.

Added to blogroll...

...because more and more folks around me take up blogging. See on the right side sidebar, click, read, enjoy. Warning: some of those blogs may contain strong opinions. Take in small doses. Caveat emptor.

So, after the rant below...

...and the reassurance from friends (thanks JPW& Chris!), here is the recipe of the dinner I made on Monday. It was rather fast, as half of my household was due out of the door by 0700pm to martial arts practice, and I did not get home until 0530pm. So:
Asparagus-Ginger Chicken with Jasmine Rice

4-5 fingers of chicken breast tenders (you'll need about 1 lb. of chicken meat for this), cubed
1 bunch of fresh asparagus (try to get the smaller ones, they are faster to stir-fry), cut into 1-1.5 inch-pieces; tough end discarded
1 red bell pepper, seeded, cut into 1.5 inch strips
1/7 of a large yellow onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, minced
1 cup of chicken stock or filtered water
2 TBSP. soy sauce
1 TBSP cornstarch
1tsp. hot red pepper flakes (I used Penzey's Aleppo pepper)
1 TBSP sesame oil
salt and pepper to taste

1. Mix garlic, ginger, soy sauce, cornstarch, stock (water) and hot pepper flakes, and stir in chicken cubes. Refrigerate for 10-15 minutes. (A decent marinade should do the work on tender chicken pieces during this time. Only old/tough meat needs day(s) -long marinating, imho.) After that time, remove chicken pieces, dry on paper towel, set aside. Keep marinade.
2. Heat medium-large wok until water dropped on surface evaporates (The Sizzle Test) . Add oil, swirl to coat. Add chicken pieces, and stir-fry until chicken no longer pink (5-7 minutes). Remove from wok, set aside.
3. Stir-fry onions, asparagus and bell peppers--add extra oil at this step if needed. If wok bottom gets a bit browned, don't worry--scrape up the stuff and continue stir-frying vegetables for 2-3 minutes, until they are still firm, but acquire that nice stir-fred vegetable stage (you know what I am talking about...)
4. Add the reserved marinade and make sure it starts bubbling vigorously to eliminate any potential nasties from the chicken (I know this might be a health concern for some...) Add chicken pieces back to wok, toss and stir-fry together for another 1-2 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Serve over jasmine rice you prepare in the rice cooker while you make the stir-fry.
This is enough for 4 hungry people for dinner, including 2 men.

Why am I Not Writing about Serious Stuff?

I was browsing through my usual blogroll this morning, when it struck me: a lot of my friends (some of whom I actually never met in life, how weird)...are writing about heart-wrenchingly serious stuff, some of which I cannot even fathom (either not having experienced the type of situation, or simply not having the upbringing/education to get it)--and here is the little green blog of The Bunny, writing about shopping trips to Vienna, tisane recipes and the tragedy of losing a cat...In retrospect, this is rather pitiful. So here I am, working in an office as a secretary with my two MAs and a PhD, living the suburban middle-class American lifestyle I've so often seen in movies (two cars on the driveway, chatting with the postman, working in the yard on weekends, carrying groceries through the garage door into the kitchen with the oversize fridge etc.)... but what is it really all about? How come my husband is writing these incredibly long and involved essays on his blog about politics, martial arts, science AND love poems, and all I can sqeeze out of myself is a stew recipe? And why the hell this guy is hanging out with me?

It might be because I am just much more shy about expressing myself naturally--in that case, blogging is actually not very good for me. I never was much of a diary-writer either--I had one while my husband (at that time fiance) was back Stateside and I was still in Hungary, to record stuff and to keep me sane in a difficult family situation...but I abandoned it at the end, because even there I could not really express my deepest felings, which, after all, would have been the main reason to keep it anyway. It became the chronicle of little events through the day-which is what this blog is rapidly becoming here...
I don't know. I might be too introverted for this whole thing--in which case I either stop blogging, or make the effort of doing something about it. I would rather choose to stay and fight...which is why this post was born, I guess. I learned some important things while in the US: you either whine or do something about it...but the sharp difference between the situation of my country and the US is that we are whiners, the American are doers. Sometimes, it would be nice to exchange ideas between the two, though--hey, maybe that's why my marriage works so well? Need to write a Modest Proposal to the two governments. Americans, learn to express/ and whine--Hungarians, for pity's sake, learn to do something about the thorn in your side!

Back in business...

Yes, we are back...loaded with clothes, old family photos, chocolate and good wine and spirits (in both sense of the word). We had a great vacation, seeing family and old friends, walking on the streets of my childhood, siping tea in dark teahouses and having really strong ristrettos and rich chocolate cakes in small pastry shops...Budapst seemed to be cleaner and more relaxed this time, and as the hubby hasn't seen the city in two years, he definiely had to state that it's heading in the right direction development-wise. A city to visit, a city to enjoy--just hold on to your purse, because pickpocketing is still a favorite pastime on the underground.
Hopefully I will be over the jetlag as well, and soon--this tme it hit me rather hard for some reason.
In other news:





which art movement are you?

this quiz was made by Caitlin


Hm...

Off to Budapest

Well, The Bunny and her husband will be off line for a week, flying to Budapest to visit family and enjoy the winter weather over there (30-some degrees and snow/sleet, yum). We leave tomorrow--a long and hopefully uneventful flight awaits us. When back, will try to give some impressions--my dad already planned out our itinerary, including a Saturday shopping spree in Vienna. I feel soooo cosmopolitan saying that... (imagine some Austro-Hungarian aristocrat whit heavily nasal accent uttering above words...) wheee!
The Bunny out.

Spring...

Well-drat. I just lost a very poetic post about how spring crept up on the metroplex overnight, after the past days's storms and all--and here, Blogger lost it.
Grrr. That's what you get when you try to be poetic during work hoours. Stick to numbers and spreadsheets, girl!

Anyways--I hope to get to the nursery this weekend to get some new plants and some organic soil amendments, and to soak up sunshine before we set out for Hungary on Wednesday. It snowed there massively over the past few days, and the forecast promises cold all over the next two weeks. Global warming, riight.