Weekend Update, February 10,2013

All people share the same passions.

 They are merely manifest differently according to one's culture” 
― Yasuo Kuwahara,

 The riches manifest in cultural diversity? Not my first thought when the man of the house woke up on Saturday morning with a fever and a sore throat.

My first thought was "Did I use the last of the tylenol? I'll bet I did. If I didn't, then where'd I put it?"

My second thought? That the Pork Stir Fry I'd already sliced the pork for could turn into a germ-busting asian noodle soup with one little trip to the grocery shop. 

So, off to the shop then, cold-fighting food list in hand.

And that's where I found myself marveling at the diverse cultural riches available to me.

In my own familiar Kroger- right past the valentine's day chocolates and flowers and helium-filled mylar hearts, I saw this:

 That's right- in this little suburb, where 10 years ago a yen for ethnic food had to be satisfied with either Texmex or pizza,

I now posses the culinary wealth of nations.

As I put soup ingredients and aspirin and ice cream in the shopping cart, I pondered the idea that the day on which one year ends and another begins is flexible; it depends entirely on how a culture measures time. And the mind spin didn't stop at the checkout!  For two days now, several corners of  this crumbling old mental mansion have been occupied with the wonders and wonderful implications of lunar, solar, lunisolar, Gregorian and Julian calendars. I mean, time!! It's just so mindblowingly.....relative.

next up? understanding the international date line.

And though I was persuaded by the pretty displays into bringing home a yummy Asian pear, I'll not be celebrating the year of the snake by cooking snake. Though I'm told by reliable authorities that if you tilt your head and close your eyes....

it tastes (of course)  like chicken.

It's a good thing that even though portions of the mind had skipped themselves off to a holiday in the fields of the time-space continuum, there were enough brain cells left behind to cook something for dinner, or the man would've been left to heal on ice-cream sandwiches alone.

On Friday, I'd sliced most of a pork loin into slices about 1/2  thick for these very nice  Almond crusted pork chops and sliced the rest of the pork paper thin for a stir fry.

Instead of the stir fry though, I heated a box or two of chicken broth and, once it was hot, added the pork and a little cabbage. I cooked some rice noodles separately (so that they wouldn't go all gluggy-gluey in the soup pot) then ladled the soup over the noodles and topped it with basil and cilantro:

Those are frozen potsticker/dumplings by the soup bowl- I used these, and followed the cooking instructions on the back of the bag: 

and  the green sauce next to the dumplings? One of my all time favorite discoveries-  Ginger scallion sauce. 

Really- there's just no way to tell you how fun this is to make, and how great it is to eat-

It's simple- fresh ginger, salt and green onions are pureed, the mixed with heated oil.

But oh! the crazy danger and the lovely sound and the cloud of aromatic steam when that hot oil hits the puree!

" Quickly to the ramparts!
 We'll scald those scoundrel scallions in boiling oil!"

Be sure- very sure- to use an oil that'll take the heat. Olive oil, for example, hits its smoke point long before it hits the high temperature this recipe requires- I chose coconut oil, because it was what I had, but peanut oil would've been an even better choice. This sauce is just as versatile as the recipe claims it is- here are some of the leftovers, spooned onto this morning's poached eggs and potatoes:

Here's a cool thing- that no matter when or where a New Year starts, it's welcomed with symbolic and celebratory food. Oranges, being China's most plentiful fruit, symbolize hopes for prosperity. I kinda loved this- the idea of wishing each other wealth not by serving up that which is scarce, but by serving up the abundance that one already possesses.  I loved it so much that I went looking for a fun way to use oranges for breakfast. I started with a great recipe, replaced about half of the butter with plain greek yogurt and about half of the wheat flour with quinoa flour and ended up with these wonderfully tasty, tender, not horribly unhealthy Orange Muffins. 

Vitamin C Bomb-a-licious

And in other news, while the Olive Chicken and the almond crusted fish were fast and easy keepers, the crock pot roast chicken will not be getting another try. If any of you have had success  roasting  chicken in a slow cooker, let me know- in the meantime, I'm back to relying on the America's test kitchen high temperature oven method.

And a few hopes for the New Year, no matter what combination of solar, lunar, or Gregorian it may be:

I wish you health in body,mind and soul.

I wish you life that is full of life.

Prosperity.

Hope.

Love. 

I wish you lots and lots of love.

Because our common passions and our common needs transcend shifts in time and geography. 

And though this year our clocks, calendars and customs may diverge,

My hope for all of us is that our common humanity holds steady.