Following a suggestion from a friend (she made this suggestion about two years ago), I made some Hainanese chicken rice.
By cheating, of course. We have a jar of chicken rice paste (brand: Woh Hup) that I added to the rice as it went into the rice cooker. Then the other cheaty part — stick two chicken thigh fillets in the rice cooker, too, and smear on a little extra paste. Set it to cook as per normal, and go surf the Internet while it does its thing.
Once it’s done, peel and slice some cucumber and roughly chop some coriander. Remove your chicken thighs and slice. Arrange it all in an artistic fashion. Mix up some sesame oil and dark soy sauce and drizzle it all over. Be slightly concerned at how much food there is on the plate (enough for two helpings). Eat the whole damn thing.
There’ve been quite a few stories about payday loans in the press these last 24 hours. Don’t do it! Nothing’s worth paying over 1000% APR for. It makes more sense to try and negotiate directly with your creditors — and definitely cut up your credit cards.
Not only did we not wimp out, we stayed till the end.
The other oldies (some looking mature enough to be granddads) mostly stayed at the back as we did, but they were dancing like it was 1990. I believe the correct term is cheesy quaver.
The fact that my sister was able to cook (well, make soup) for us while keeping an eye on Mila makes me look bad. My main consolation is I have never, ever cooked for pleasure, relaxation — any of that stuff. I dislike cooking. It requires too much time and effort and planning and knives.
(In fact, I dislike all housework. But I detest cooking much more than washing the dishes.)
My sister made a creamy squash soup. It wasn’t creamy enough for her, but it was perfect for me. It had a delicate flavour and was incredibly orange. I didn’t expect to like it — I’ve never been a big fan of the pumpkin / squash family — but I did. Which got me thinking about making more soups, since I love eating soup and too many cans of Heinz or Baxters isn’t going to be good for my blood pressure.
(Campbell’s New England Clam Chowder, on the other hand, stole my heart such a long time ago I’ll never get it back.)
This is my first attempt at making a creamy soup* — it’s chicken and mushroom. I know it doesn’t look like much, but it tasted all right. I boiled up a chicken thigh and drumstick (along with a small clove of garlic and a stock cube) to make a stock**, then removed the chicken and added the mushrooms (a mix of fresh and soaked, dried stuff, plus the mushroom-y water). I turned the flame down and let it simmer, then when I figured it was ready, poured in a bunch of single cream, turned the flame down even lower, and attacked it with a hand blender.
I also shredded the chicken meat and added it to the soup once I was done blending. Then I ate it while watching silly music videos, but eventually had to turn it off when the Jennifer Lopez Ah Lian song came on because it makes me want to spew.
(This is the first time I’ve used the hand blender. We bought it in 2008. Go figure.)
All in all, I would say my cream of chicken and mushroom soup was a qualified success*** and I hope to attempt another soup I really like pretty soon.
* I usually make a vegetable soup, which consists of what I have available and stock. Not the tastiest or most attractive, but it sure keeps me regular.
** I know there are better ways to make stock, but I hate cooking, remember?
*** ‘Qualified’ because it would be a complete success if I could get someone else to come and cook for me.
Now I know where ‘grok’ comes from. Valentine Michael Smith is a human who was raised as a Martian, and he’s been ‘returned’ to Earth. His naïveté and deep wisdom bring confusion, chaos, and ecstasy to those around him.
Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land was an interesting read, mainly because it was so anachronistic. I did not find the plainly misogynistic bits offensive — they were pretty funny because they are so out of chime with what’s acceptable these days. I don’t know this, but was Heinlein an early Flower Power dude? He should’ve been.
I can see why this has been considered a science fiction classic. It’s got aliens, space travel, and a different moral system. It was published at a time of great change (I’m presuming, since I wasn’t there), and the best science fiction puts ideas and belief systems into different contexts to show them for what they really are (sort of), all the while telling a really good yarn.
In early December 2001, I went to see Fatboy Slim at Fort Canning Park with Mark, Kristen, and Derek. There I met a drunk Scottish guy in a kilt.
Turns out the drunk Scottish guy (in a kilt) and I got on famously and we’ve been together ever since. In an amazing coincidence, Fatboy Slim is playing in Swindon tonight, almost exactly ten years on (give or take a few days). There’s no way we can pass this up, even though we’re much too old to be going to a duk-duk night.
I thought it was brilliant when Ben Folds played in Glasgow on my birthday in 2007, but this is quite unbelievable timing. Other couples may go out for a nice meal and buy each other presents on anniversaries — we’re, er, lucky enough to relive our youth. Heh.
Bad timing, but mass strike was ‘big society’ in action: or, You say reforming your pensions isn’t fair. Well, life isn’t fair. If you’re so pissed off about how the rich are being protected, join the Occupy protests. You bet the government will pay attention if two million camp out.
The data’s not looking good for minimising income inequality. While this is for the US, most active economies suck at the same teat, so I reckon it’s an indication of what’s happening elsewhere.
