Week of business pursuits, mixed with pleasure, of course. Spending time in classes for budding entrepreneurs and meeting with potential business partners. Using the Sports Club LA/San Francisco as my base in the city. Even getting in a few workouts along the way. Enjoying some meals with friends... had breakfast with Paul at the Rain Tree Cafe, lunch with Carl in the city.
Happy Endings for Dad. Was wonderful to see Dad looking so perky having all good news about his cancer remission. He packed up and I took him back to his Sonoma living space this afternoon. I enjoyed lunch with Carolyn at E&O Trading in Larkspur. It really does a good job of fusion food.
Sunday at the Napa Valley Symphony. Yalda treated us with tickets to the symphony today, and it was lovely. Linda, Jan & I enjoyed the program featuring Alan Feinberg.Classical Concert V: Early American
Sunday April 23, 2006 3:00 PM
Tuesday April 25, 2006 8:00 PM
| Buck Festival Overture on the American National Air Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue
Gottschalk Grande Tarantelle for piano and orchestra
Chadwick Symphonic Sketches
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Sakura on Saturday. It is Cherry Blossom Festival time again in Japantown, and the 100th anniversary of Japantown. Linda, Michael & I attended a wonderful Taiko and Kitaro concert this evening, after a delicious dinner of fresh handmade ramen (miso-ramen soup, and yakisoba) at Sapporo-ya.
An unusual recipe from the World Museum, Liverpool.1 bowlful of honeypot ants Melophorus bagoti
Hold an ant by the head and simply bite off the honey sack, letting the nectar slide down your throat. This is the best way to eat the honey.
Other ways are to squeeze it into a glass and drink it, or to fill a chocolate cup half full of honey, top with whipped cream and decorate with a frozen honeypot ant.
Honeypot ants are special worker ants that store the nectar gathered by their nest-mates. They are too full to move so they hang upside down in the nest.
These ants are considered a delicacy by the Aborigines and have been
incorporated into many recipes that are popular across Australia.
And you thought loofahs were just for bathing. Accompaniment: cooked white rice
Special equipment: a deep-fat thermometer
Stir together chicken, cornstarch, and 1 teaspoon sesame oil in a small bowl.
Stir together oyster sauce, soy sauce, sugar, and stock in another bowl until sugar is dissolved.
Remove ridges from loofah with a vegetable peeler, then scrape skin lightly with a sharp small knife (a little green skin should remain). Cut loofah lengthwise into 2- by 1/2-inch sticks.
Heat peanut oil in a wok over moderate heat until it registers 350°F on thermometer, then cook chicken, stirring, just until no longer pink, about 11/2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl with a slotted spoon, then pour oil into a heatproof container and reserve.
Heat wok over high heat until a bead of water dropped onto cooking surface evaporates immediately. Add 3 tablespoons reserved peanut oil, swirling wok to coat evenly, and heat until it just begins to smoke. Stir-fry mushrooms until lightly browned and tender, 1 to 2 minutes. Add beans, chiles, garlic, and ginger and stir-fry until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
Add loofah and toss until well coated.
Add stock mixture and bring to a boil. Add chicken and return sauce to a boil. Stir cornstarch mixture and add to sauce, then boil, stirring, until sauce thickens slightly and becomes translucent.
Serve drizzled with remaining 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil.
* Also known as "ridged gourd" and "Chinese okra."
Google cooking. Found a new an interesting service on Google this morning -- a place to search recipes in specific! It's part of Google Base a beta product for collecting useful user fed data.
Easter at Anna's. There was an Easter celebration and dinner at my place. Dad, Linda, Yalda, Olivia, Jonathon, Jo-Ann, Toran & Aurelia were the all there.
Some Easter Superstitions
At the pagan feast of Eostre an ox was sacrificed. The ox’s horns became a symbol for the feast. They were carved into the ritual bread which is where "hot cross buns" originated. The word "buns" is derived from the Saxon word "boun" which means sacred ox. Nowadays the symbol of a cross is used to decorate buns. Hot cross buns are thought to act as a charm against evil. Sailors believed that the buns would protect them against shipwreck if taken to sea. Farmers in many parts of
The goddess Eostre was worshipped by the Anglo-Saxons and her symbols were the egg and the hare so from that we still have the egg and the rabbit or Easter Bunny. Eggs have always been associated with rebirth and continuity.
Mary Magdalene is supposed to have visited the roman Emperor Tiberias and she gave him a red egg as a symbol of the Resurrection - the symbol of new life. It is believed that the Christian tradition of giving eggs to each other at Easter came from this event. For a long time Eggs have been painted in bright colours to celebrate the Spring. Hard-boiled egg rolling contests still take place in some parts of
People would not use nails or iron tools during Easter time. This was because of the nails hammered into Christ’s feet and hands. The planting of crops was never done at Easter because it would mean that metal would enter the ground in the form of a spade or fork.
It was generally believed that it was very unlucky to sweep your house or yard on a Good Friday. Likewise it was also unlucky to sweep dust directly out of the house as you may sweep your good luck out with it. It was considered better to sweep all the dust into the centre of the room and then pick it up and dispose of it from there.
Another unlucky thing was to wash clothes on a Good Friday as nothing good would come of it. This is associated with a story about Christ, who whilst carrying his cross to
On the other hand, it was very lucky to wear new clothes at Easter. It was "deemed essential by many people to wear some new article of dress, if only a pair of gloves or a ribbon, for not to do so is considered unlucky and the birds will be angry with you."
Touching wood is thought by some to be the result of the Christian belief in the Crucifixion. As Christ was sacrificed on a cross of wood touching wood was a sign of deep compassion and reverence for Christ’s resurrection.
The Hawthorn tree is either lucky or unlucky. Some considered it a tree destined to bring bad fortune to the owner as it is thought that this is the tree from which the crown of thorns was made. However, some people believe that the Hawthorn is a very holy plant for exactly the same reason and that cutting down or attacking a Hawthorn will result in terrible misfortune.
A very widespread belief was that when the sun rose on Easter Sunday it danced "for joy". People at Castleton, Derbyshire used to climb the hill on which the castle is built at six o'clock in the morning to see the sun rise. "On this day the sun is said to dance for joy at His rising." Some people would put out pails of water or gathered at rivers or ponds to see the sun dance's reflection. When the sun set on Easter Sunday it was supposed to spin around and people also used to gather to see it turning.
Easter Dinner Menu:2004 Hiedler Loess Kamptal Gruner Veltliner
A juicy mandarin orange and lemon-zest palate and complexity from notes of fresh herb, pepper and wet stone -- quite refreshing
1999 Ridge Monte
The Solio portable solar charger - green, cool and very handy.
