Our local library sponsored a guided bird-watching walk through the cemetery across the street. Most people brought binoculars. I brought my camera and a zoom lens. Here are the highlights:
Bird-watching at Wildwood Cemetery
Kung Pao Chicken
This is one of the first spicy things I’ve made that my teenagers actually liked.
Kung Pao Chicken
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
Marinate the Chicken
- Add tamari or soy sauce, wine or sherry, cornstarch, sesame oil, salt, and pepper in a small bowl and whisk until the cornstarch is dissolved. Drizzle 2 tablespoons over chicken and mix.
- Add the vinegar, sugar, and sambal to the remaining marinade and whisk until the sugar is dissolved.NOTE: if you're doubling the recipe because you have a lot of chicken, don't double the sambal or you may make it too spicy.
Stir Fry the Veggies and the Chicken
- Heat pan over medium-high heat. Add tablespoon of oil, followed by the bell peppers and celery. Season with salt and stir fry until crispy-tender and browned in spots (about 4 minutes).Add garlic and ginger and stir fry another 30 seconds.
- Transfer veggies to a plate.
- Add a couple of tablespoons of oil to the pan, followed by the chicken. Spread evenly across the pan and let cook until golden brown and a little seared on the bottom, 3-4 minutes.Stir fry for a couple of minutes, until cooked through.
Combine Everything
- Add vegetables back in, and add peanuts.Give the sauce a quick whisk and pour in. Stir fry until sauce thickens and coats everything, about a minute.Sprinkle in scallions and serve over rice.
Notes
Other veggies you can try: small mushrooms, zucchini, sliced carrots, and/or chopped onions.
We've also made it with tofu instead of chicken:
- use extra-firm tofu;
- squeeze the water out by wrapping in towels or a couple of paper towels, then putting on a plate and leaving something heavy on top for 20-30 minutes;
- cube the tofu into bite-sized chunks
- toss with a little cornstarch, then fry over medium heat until all sides are golden-brown.
- Continue with rest of recipe.
Originally seen on The Kitchn.
Turtles!
Beta made a child-appropriate educational video as part of her senior project. She did a great job. Enjoy!
A Little Empathy
It’s good to take a refresher course in empathy, from time to time. I may need it more often than most.
When someone appears to be having a moment, start by asking:
Do you want to be helped, heard, or hugged?
Follow their decision and go on from there.
For the source of the quote, and for a deeper discussion, see When Someone You Love Is Upset, Ask This One Question.
Battle Road Reenactor Practice Drills
When you pay attention, you get to find out about cool stuff like watching the Minuteman reenactors practice their drills prior to the big day.
The King and The Castle
We’re gonna ignore that it’s been like 6 years and we’re gonna pretend I’ve been posting.
This is a short story I submitted to a contest. I won it, and netted 50 bucks in the process. I also ended up redoing it as a comic, which I may post at a later date. Enjoy!
Walking Through Goldsmith Woodland
Alpha child and I took our cameras on a walk through the Goldsmith Woodlands.
I have a new camera, an Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark IV. (Their new naming scheme is kind of terrible, but the cameras are still good.) The last camera I owned was an Olympus OM-4, so using a digital camera is taking some getting used to.
Over time, Alpha has adopted my old OM-4, a Canon EOS DSLR from 2005, and a small number of truly vintage cameras. Today was a Canon kind of a day.
All of these photos were taken by me on my OM-D.
SCIENCE!
I wanted to see what happened if I poured water off the deck in -7° weather. The result wasn’t an instant steaming cloud, but it was pretty fun!
Remember – this was boiling water. It would have done some damage if it splashed back at me, so I chose my location carefully, and didn’t dump the whole thing at once, but did a slow pour.
Still really cool!
“A coating to an inch,” They Said
The forecast was for “a coating to an inch of snow, over by morning.”
That… isn’t what happened.
Six
We all went to see Six the Musical on Broadway.
We’ve been listening to the album since the spring of 2020, which is when we originally had tickets to see it. (until COVID-19 cancelled everything across the world.)
We did a lightning trip into NYC, driving in mid-day Saturday for a 3 pm show, and leaving the next morning.
I also brought along my newly-purchased camera, my first digital camera that wasn’t part of a smart phone, so I had to take some artsy-fartsy pictures.
