One of my favorite recipes is a version of Szechuan green beans. Fresh, plump green beans straight from the farmer's market, tossed into a hot cast iron pan slicked with sesame oil. After about half the beans show some sear marks, add a good bunch of chopped garlic. Salt to taste and finish searing. I like the fact that "burnt" means "pretty darn good" in this version -- I can be my usual distracted self and still have a dish fit to yum down.
Good hot, cold, and in-between. Once I took a bag of these to a movie for my snack and the folks around me seemed to think I was teasing them with the good garlicky smell. Or else they were annoyed that it was competing with their popcorn. I didn't ask, but I haven't done that again.
Oh, I feel as though I need to explain. The chicken I slaughtered wasn't done for any random reason. One of the new "hens" we got for laying purposes developed quite a set of wattles and an impressive crow, which he exercised all day long, from 5:30 or so in the morning until the sun went down.
No matter what my back yard looks like, I live in a pretty regulated city, so a rooster is Not Okay. I did try to find him another home, in a nearby, less-uptight city. Also I had folks who called sanctuaries and other things to see if they could place him. Alas, no one could or did in the time allotted, and I was seriously concerned that if we had a complaint called in, I might have to do some fancy explaining about the beehives and the other fowl. So his fate was sealed. I didn't enjoy it, as I said, but I did think it was part of being responsible.
Whew.
In more-pleasant topics, this is what is on my wheel now, in "Lavender Frost" from Girlontherocks. I had thought "socks" when I saw this, but as I'm spinning it seems to want to be a laceweight two-ply. Can something lacey be in my future?
Heh. Probably not if I'm responsible for knitting it. I just got another class for next term. The bank account's going to be happy, but I bet I don't get quite as much time with the needles as I might otherwise. And you know, with all of the other things in my head, I'm probably not going to be all that composed and knitterly for a while. I'll stick to nice, stockinetty-type projects.
After I finish my sister's Cobblestone and the other snail mitten, of course.
5 comments:
Ooh, I always forget green beans when it comes to stirfry. I get stuck in a broccoli-carrot kind of rut. Thank you for the directions. Yum!
The new spinning is so lovely, like a cloud.
I feel indignant on your behalf, but I can't say I'd be thrilled to have a rooster living next door. We get little enough sleep :)
Beautiful! (the yarn, I mean) Wow.
I love beans like that. It has not ever occurred to me to take them to the movies, but it would be better than movie popcorn, huh? And no explanations necessary: I eat chicken, so I can't complain about you...um...eating yours? Sorry you had to do it though. Damn cities. I'd love a few chickens, but we can't even paint our own fence.
OK, did I ever mention on my blog that at one point my next door neighbor decided to add a rooster to his menagerie?? I live in a highly regulated city (more like village) myself and it's in the Chicago metro area, where people don't generally have roosters in their back yards. However, we have a decent sized lot, as do our neighbors, and this particular neighbor takes this as a green light to collect all kinds of animals, ordinances be damned.
The cock's (the bird, not the next door neighbor, although it can equally apply) lung exercise was definitely not limited to a paltry morning "cock-a-doodle-doo". OH NO. This guy crowed all.day.long. Jim said he was going to go out there with a shotgun himself and take care of the problem, so the neighbor found somewhere to take the bird after being strongly urged to do so.
Next time I'll tell you about the time he was keeping a turkey in the back yard.
And just to clarify, I don't have any problem per se with my neighbor keeping so many animals. But I do have a problem with him letting them run into our yard, leave various "calling cards" and make a lot of noise. He's just a bad neighbor in general, and keeping unruly animals is only one of our issues.
We had to update the coop because the turkeys were running wild, and me offing the rooster (who is currently in the crock pot) was definitely the way to be a good neighbor, versus letting him go on and on and on.
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