Sunday, August 11, 2024

Three Beautiful Things 08-10-2024: Copper and Gibbs Are Content, War Warps Everything, Air Fry/Stir Fry

1. With Debbie visiting Adrienne and Molly's families in New York and Virginia, my main concern here at home is keeping both Gibbs and Copper company. Mostly I've hoped that if I spend time in the living room with Gibbs, Copper will be all right by himself in the two rooms he goes back and forth between. 

If Copper were discontented, he'd show it in two ways: howl meowing and crapping outside his litter pan. 

Instead, during the times I left him alone, he was relaxed, content, and well behaved. 

What a relief! 

And, in addition, what a relief that Gibbs spent Saturday night in the living room and was quiet and mostly restful throughout the night. 

2.  All the Light We Cannot See continues to grip me, especially as a war novel. War warps everything. It's arresting to me, after about 200 pages or so, how Anthony Doerr explores war's distortions and soul crushing destruction mostly through the experiences of two young characters, a girl growing up in France and a boy in Germany and through the experiences of the adults in their lives. 

3. I sliced half an onion and air fried the slices. I then air fried slices of polenta. At the same time, I cooked a small pot of brown rice. Then I stir fried slices of mushroom and added the onion and polenta to the pan to keep them all warm. As the rice finished cooking, I made a sauce of Hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar, water, garlic, and ginger. I poured some of the sauce over the polenta, mushrooms, and onion and then added a good portion of the brown rice to the pan and poured the remaining sauce over it all. 

I was especially happy with how the onion and polenta air fried and it was fun having such a flavorful sauce to enhance the rice dish. 

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