Three Beautiful Things 04/30/15: Come Sit by the Lake, Sube Success, Eggplant Challenge

1.  I hadn't taken any "Come Have a Sit" pictures for quite a while, so today I decided to take my camera with me to Greenbelt Lake, get a walk in, and take some pictures.  I like low exposure black and whites, so I kept adjusting my aperture and shutter speed accordingly and here are some of the results:

First, a picture of the a section of the trail that goes around the lake:

Here are a handful of the numerous places to come have a sit around the lake:

When I saw how this reflection on the lake, I couldn't resist taking one shot in color:

2.  I just like it when stuff works out.  The dent I caused in the Subaru is repaired and the bumper liner replaced and our car looks like its eleven year old self again!  To add to my happiness, everything worked out great at Enterprise rental, too, and, once again, Alicia provided top-notch customer service.

3.  Molly and Olivia and David came up to Alexandria for a visit and I know Molly loves Chinese food and I know she is a somewhat recent convert to, well, to eggplant AND the Deke dropped a comment not long ago that she finds take out Chinese food not that tasty, so I challenged myself to cook a Chinese dish Molly would enjoy and that the Deke would find tasty.

In peanut and sesame oil I stir fried chunks cut from two eggplants.  I took them off the electric frying pan and the stir fried garlic, ginger, green onion, and red chili paste.  In a small bowl, I combined chicken broth, rice vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar, and corn starch.  I poured the broth into the pan.  It thickened. Then I returned the eggplant to the pan, mixed it up with the garlic, ginger, and green onion.  I let the mixture heat up until the eggplant absorbed most of the broth.  I roasted sesame seeds with my cast iron pan, poured them over the eggplant, and topped the whole dish off with fresh basil.

I served this mixture with brown basmati rice.

Success!  Molly and the Deke loved it.