Potsticker Soup

January 28th, 2010 by Li

I promised this recipe to my awesome massage therapist (if you’re local to the Indy area and need a good massage therapist, let me know—this lady must’ve been on the honor role at massage therapy school), and it only seemed fair to share it with the rest of the Reading Public. As usual, my quantities are kind of sketchy, and I bought my ingredients at Trader Joe’s, so you may have to get creative about substituting…but I have faith in you.

1 package frozen potstickers, any kind, no need to thaw
3-4 C chicken, or vegetable broth
1 package shredded cabbage
1 package broccoli slaw mix (or shredded carrots)
8-12 ounces of the protein of your choice (chicken, shrimp, tofu, etc.)
Rice noodles or bean thread noodles
Thai fish sauce
Crushed garlic
Ginger powder
Toasted sesame oil

Pour the chicken broth into a large pot and bring it to a low boil. Drop in your potstickers (carefully, with minimal splashing), and let the heat come back up, stirring occasionally. Stir in as much fish sauce, garlic and ginger as you like; it’s very much a matter of personal taste. When the broth is seasoned to your exacting specifications, add in a couple of handfuls each of the shredded cabbage and slaw mix/carrots. Stir for a bit. If your protein is already cooked, add it and the noodles together. If not, let the protein cook about halfway, then add noodles. Stir in the toasted sesame oil right before you remove the soup from the pot.

Personally, I have never made it with beef and beef broth, but I can’t think of a reason it wouldn’t work. Also, feel free to play around with the vegetables. I’ve used a combination of green onions, broccoli, frozen chopped spinach, edamame, shredded carrots, and asparagus with excellent results. On various occasions, I’ve also added shallots or mushrooms, depending on mood and what was to hand at the time. Last night, I added some powdered saffron at the same time as the garlic to excellent effect.

Protected: If/Then

January 22nd, 2010 by Li

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Neither Created nor Destroyed

January 7th, 2010 by Li

I wish I had bothered to study the rules of physics. Or magic. Or, preferably, both.

I was minding my own business in the palace garden, when a frog hopped up to me and spoke.

I’m no genius, but like every princess, I thought I knew what that meant. So, yes, I kissed the frog, and yes, just as advertised, he turned into a handsome prince. Better yet, an unmarried, handsome prince. Everything a princess hopes for.

Correction: almost everything.

You can imagine my dismay at his lack of charm when I woke on a lily pad this morning.

Alone.

Sherlock Holmes (The Movie)

January 1st, 2010 by Li

Despite myself, I seem to find that I am enjoying Robert Downey Jr.’s recent work. Sherlock Holmes is a good example.

Don’t get me wrong, the film is definitely outside the Conan-Doyle canon, but it’s not so far out as to be unrecognizable, and I thought that the premise was sound. If you’re a Holmes purist, skip it, because you will be annoyed beyond the telling of it. If you’re a bit more tolerant of a diversion, you’ll probably conclude that Jude Law is too young for a strict interpretation of Dr. Watson, and not unreasonably, but he’s perfect for the way that the character is written in the film. Any actress playing Irene Adler would have a lot to live up to, and Rachel McAdams is sufficient, if not brilliant, in the role. I do wish we’d seen more of Moriarty, but the production company is obviously saving him up for a sequel. In fact, the Moriarty plotline is decidedly secondary, and I wish we’d gotten a little bit more of it.

Admittedly, I’m biased, as I am an unabashed fan of steampunk and there’s a good taste of it in the film. But the action sequences are excellent, the plot moves at a good pace, and the characters are engaging. If only League of Extraordinary Gentlemen had been half as good, it wouldn’t have sucked. Guy Ritchie’s directing style is distinctive, and the parallels to Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels were understated, but not unnoticed. For example, casting; I’m sure I’ve seen the French-speaking thug in at least one other Guy Ritchie film—and he was a great supporting character in this one.

This film is unlikely to win awards, and has the distinct disadvantage of direct competition from Dances with Aliens Avatar. Unlike the competition, it has more than special effects to hold the viewer’s interest.

Mark Your Calendars

January 1st, 2010 by Li

It seems that the Wii favors intuitive thinkers, of which I am one. Spouse, not quite so much. As a result, I have outscored him in Wii tennis, Wii golf, and Wii bowling. He’s ahead in Wii baseball by a single game score of 1-0; both of us are better at pitching than hitting. We have not tried the boxing; there are certain things that married couples ought not to do together, and this is on my list.

I expect that as soon as Spouse figures out the mechanics, I will very shortly be losing to his outstanding reflexes and analytical skills. Fortunately, I am not terribly attached to results beyond the fact that we’re moving more (Wii tennis is a great warm-up) and interacting more (we figured out how to play as a doubles team against the machine).

Wii Have Been Assimilated

December 31st, 2009 by Li

After playing Wii sports at a friends’ house and at my in-laws, not to mention several rounds of discussion over the last six months or so, Spouse and I caved in and bought our first (and probably only) game console.

So, those of you In the Know, which are the good games? I’ve tried the bowling and tennis, so far, and like both.

Kentucky’s Got Talent

December 31st, 2009 by Li

I am a triple threat. I cannot sing or play any musical instruments, I cannot dance, I cannot act. And every single one of you out there should thank your lucky stars that I am too old to be the next Hannah Montana. (I certainly do.)

My Spouse and In-Laws, on the other hand, are fairly dripping with musical talent.

To give you an idea, this is the first thing you see when you walk through Spouse’s Parents’ front door.

Great Wall of Instruments

Great Wall of Instruments

When they were up at our house for Thanksgiving, Spouse’s parents brought their instruments, and we had quite a good time with the playing and (in my case) the listening. Sheet music was exchanged, and when we had our after-Christmas get-together in Louisville, they reconvened and added in Spouse’s Aunt, Brother, and Sister-in-law. Even without having practiced together (or in some cases, at all), they were sounding darned fine, if I may say so, particularly on “Silent Night” and “Scarborough Fair.”

If I didn’t know that at least one of the parties involved would probably have my head for posting their picture on the internet, I’d upload the videos. But I wish to live a long and happy life, so you’ll have to make do without.

Mother-in-law played both the mountain dulcimer, and a teensy bit of autoharp (just long enough for me to get a couple of pictures).

Mountain Dulcimer

Mountain Dulcimer

Autoharp

Autoharp

Father-in-law can play anything he picks up, but last night alternated between hammered dulcimer and what I think is a tin whistle, but I’m so musically ignorant that I’m lucky to have identified the other instruments correctly.

Hammered Dulcimer

Hammered Dulcimer

Whistle?

Whistle?

Spouse’s Aunt brought her bowed psaltery, an instrument that I had not only never seen before but had never even heard of until Thanksgiving, when she mentioned that she’d forgotten hers.

Bowed Psaltery

Bowed Psaltery

Spouse brought his harp, and Brother-in-law took a break from his three-day stretch of making Julia Child’s cassoulet—

The Art of French Cooking, as Mastered by Brother-in-Law

The Art of French Cooking, as Mastered by Brother-in-Law

(for Christmas, he and I both got copies of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1 from Mother-in-law) and borrowed a guitar.

Harp & Guitar

Harp & Guitar

I’m particularly fond of this picture, because autofocus is a bitch.

Brother-in-law’s wife sang, because she mostly plays woodwinds, her instruments are all on the West Coast, and nobody had any loaners. The pair of them did a great duet on “Folsom Prison Blues”. (Sometimes, you have to go with the songs to which you know the words.)

And the cassoulet rocked, even though I skipped the many and various kinds of red meat and only ate the beans. Definitely worth three days of work…especially when someone else is doing the work.

We also played Wii bowling, of which I have no pictures because discretion is by far the better part of valor. Normally, I don’t like video games, and I’ve never bowled in real life (rental shoes—need I say more?), but it was fun and the company was very, very good.

Catching Up. Again.

December 28th, 2009 by Li

It’s been brought to my attention that I haven’t posted for a while. So here it is.

Recovery from surgery went fine. I was more tired, and tired more easily, than usual, but other than having the mother of all migraines the following Wednesday, it went as expected with no problems. Also, all the labs came back fine, which is good to know. The bill has not arrived yet, although an unrelated letter from the IRS has. And I will need to deal with that soon. But not today.

Work was very busy through the 24th. At my client site, people start trying to use up vacation right after Thanksgiving and it’s not uncommon for people who have been there for a while (like, say, the ones who review and sign our documents) to be gone for most of December. I have said before, and will probably continue to say that, after Thanksgiving, it’s like an Agatha Christie novel—fewer people each day. Plus, a lot of projects were careening towards an end-of-year finish, so instead of coasting, we were all hands on deck this year.

Then, two weeks before Christmas, Spouse had seven hearings in three days, which threw off our schedule for most of that week. Necessity, and all that. He followed it up with a bout with a nasty, nasty digestive bug the Sunday before Christmas, and didn’t make it into work at all last week. Not that he wasn’t motivated, but I tend to think that if you can’t keep down solid food, you probably shouldn’t be sharing your germs with the court staff. And I took advantage of his weakened condition to enforce that, because I’m mean, nasty, rotten, and not very nice.

I have avoided getting sick. In fact, I have insisted upon it. Tired, however, is another matter entirely. I could sleep like a cat for a month, I think, and probably get to the point where I had begun to feel a bit rested.

After a delightfully quiet Christmas day highlighted by Chinese food with friends, we spent the next couple of days driving up and down I-65 to visit Spouse’s sister’s place, where the extended family had gathered for December holidays and Youngest Niece’s birthday. Spouse’s Sister is quite the candy-maker, and she sent us home with a far-too-large-for-two-people platter with eight or nine kinds of cookies and candy.  No reindeer logs, but I’ll have to send her the recipe.

Today, I took Youngest Niece, who just turned 18, for lunch, shopping, a manicure, and homemade hot chocolate (Spouse is turning out to be quite the barista, since we splurged on the espresso machine).

Coming up, we’ll be putting in more time on I-65, only going south rather than north, later this week. Also possible catching up with my Illinois relative. In between, I plan to do a little lot of laundry, some light housekeeping, enjoy my present from Spouse (all things AbFab on DVD!!) and not a hell of a lot else. Including blogging, so don’t worry if I’m quiet for a little while yet.

In the mean time, head over to your local library and get a copy of the book I just finished, Nancy Kress’s Steal Across the Sky, which is nifty novel about the ultimate double-blind experiment. (It’s given me an idea for a screenplay that I just might be able to finish. As opposed to some ideas that have been kicking around and mutating for ten or twelve years now, but never seem to come together. But I digress.) And if you haven’t read her Beggars in Spain either, get that while you’re at it.

Have a happy and safe New Year’s, all.

Tithe

December 12th, 2009 by Li

The faerie knight blinked in the late October sunshine spilling through the door under the hill.

“Mr. Tam Lin?” asked the lovely young lady standing there.

He smiled winningly at the maiden. “I see my reputation has preceded me.”

She smiled back. “You might say that, sir.” She reached under her cloak and handed him a sheaf of papers fixed with an unfamiliar seal. “Tam Lin, you are hereby ordered to appear in court on a matter of paternity one week hence, November first. Have a happy Halloween, sir.”

He heard footsteps behind him.

“Who is this?” asked the Queen.

All Is Well

December 11th, 2009 by Li

For those who didn’t already know, I had a *very* minor surgical procedure on Wednesday. Everything went fine. No incision required, all done in (I’m told) about 30 minutes. No problems from the anesthetic, didn’t even need the pain meds after. Spent much of Thursday very tired, but slept a lot and Spouse took excellent care of me. No trouble at all at the facility; the staff was very nice and very competent. And I am glad to have it behind me; the anticipation and buildup was far worse than the reality.

Now, it’s all over but the billing.