Wednesday, July 1, 2020

Three Beautiful Things 06/30/20: Recipe Project, Green Curry, Tree House #12 BONUS A Limerick by Stu

1.  I finished my email recipe project today. Several of my separate Pinterest boards which are focused on eggplant, Asian, chicken, salad, and other recipes are bursting at the seams with new recipes.  I have greatly increased the possibilities for what food to prepare in our kitchen. It was fun and stimulating to go through all those emails and file the recipes I thought I'd like to have around.

2. Debbie asked me to fix curry for dinner and I happily complied. About mid-afternoon, I fixed a marinade of sesame oil, garlic, ginger, fish sauce, soy sauce, honey, and green paste. I cut the tofu I'd begun draining since just after noon into cubes. I combined the marinade and tofu in a bowl, sealed it, and let it sit in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.

Later, I heated a plug of green curry paste in the cast iron pan. In a bowl, I added the paste to a mixture of coconut milk, soy sauce, fish sauce, fresh ginger, and brown sugar. I had already chopped an onion and half of a sweet red pepper and opened a bag of frozen green beans. I combined the curry sauce and the vegetables in the Dutch oven, brought it to a low boil, put the lid on, and let this all cook slowly until the onion and red peppers were tender.

At the same time, I made a pot of jasmine rice and I baked the marinated tofu cubes for about forty minutes or so.  I added the tofu to the curry sauce and let it all simmer for a while longer.

Debbie and I each took a bowl out of the cupboard and served ourselves green curry sauce over rice and enjoyed our meal a lot -- and, as a bonus, we have enough left over for another meal some time.

3. Tonight, Bill Davie performed his 12th weekly live concert online from his and Diane's townhouse, The Tree House. I poured myself a rum and coke, a great digestive aid after our green curry dinner, and settled in for an hour of both fun and moving songs and a wide selection of meditative poetry by William Stafford. As he does every week, Bill treated us to a selection of songs he first performed many years ago, like "Walk on the Day Before" and "Go" as well as more recent songs like "Stump Town" and "Couples' Hymn".

Others who tune in to Bill's weekly concerts and I are having a similar experience. It's a highlight of our week. Bill's music and the poetry he reads infuse our lives with beauty, buoyancy, and good humor. Bill is feeding our souls. Rather than grouse and complain about not being able to get out and perform live in front of audiences, Bill is bringing his music to us, live, in our homes. I'm not by any stretch of the imagination grateful for the pandemic; I am grateful, though, that Bill turned what could have been a performing drought into a weekly oasis; consequently, I have heard him perform as much or more in the last twelve weeks than I had in the previous thirty years.

I never imagined such a blessing.



Today's revelation:  the subject of yesterday's limerick by Stu was Mike Tyson.

If you are frustrated that you didn't know the answer to that limerick riddle and need a word or phrase to express your vexation, today's limerick by Stu might help you out:


There are phrases which go with an age.
Like “Good Gracious” has since turned its page.
“Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat!”,
Or he’s such a “Hip Cat”!
Sadly, cussing’s now used at this stage!

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