The new specialist sketches subdomain is coming along, I think. At least I think I've done everything I can do for it at the moment. I was assured that it was all so simple, even I couldn't completely mess it up, and then reassured that I wouldn't have to do too much beyond producing the images and text. So with the thought that after sending that to the powers that be I'd have a pretty looking subdomain up and running in a week or so I sat on my laurels. It sure is nice to have friends who will help out with these sorts of things.
Well that was over a month ago now. I'm getting vague visions of myself pouring over PHP textbooks long into the winter.
It feels like ages since I was doing substantial work, I've not really had too much inspiration for the old creative writing recently. Just idling along and occasionally spending two hours trying to add something, anything, to some old unfinished piece, and then scrapping it almost immediately afterwards. And writing the same work experience (or lack thereof) on application forms is getting really dull. So in order to get in a bit of practice I'm going to try and update this blog a little more often. Probably not as many heavy Critical Theory entries, though I won't count them out. And since this is being typed first instead of hand written, which is what I normally do, I'm getting back into thinking stuff up while looking at a screen again. Hard memories of late nights, early mornings and then late mornings and early afternoons on essay deadline days are coming back already, but no! I shall think of those only as pleasant occasions and persevere!
But yes, happy days and things to type about. I decided to get a wok a few days ago. There allegedly is one somewhere in the house, hidden very well, or perhaps being used as a flowerpot. So, being fed up of cramming the skillet full of noodles every time I wanted a stir fry, a new one was the way to go.
I spent a whole day thinking about what amazing dish would christen the new wok, and eventually decided upon a fairly basic chicken stir fry, with noodles. Probably because it didn't require another shopping trip to get more ingredients since I'd made one the day before getting the wok. I used:
Dished up and ready to eat.
3 chicken breasts,
2 peppers, one green, one red,
1 clove of garlic,
lots of green onions (about 8?),
lots of bean sprouts (though not enough),
noodles,
some Chinese 5-Spice, a dash of coriander, and a packet of Roasted Peanut satay stir fry straight-to-wok sauce.
No Shiitake mushrooms! I ate them all in the last stir fry. Everything got chopped quite small, and the peppers and garlic almost liquified. I'm not a fan of the texture of peppers so I tend to do this a lot, but I always leave the onions quite large and the bean sprouts untouched because I really like their little mild bite. Lightly fried the chicken while the water boiled. Added the regular vegetables but not the bean sprouts while noodles cooked. Put in the seasoning and made sure it tasted good. Chucked the noodles and bean sprouts in and tossed it all around.
I really like having the high walls on the dish because I take a great deal of pleasure from throwing things over in the air, but with a skillet I only ever do that with things like pancakes and eggs since they end up nice and flat and easy to catch. The wok has the sides to throw whatever I want around in it without spilling too much.
I think it tasted really nice, but then again I eat crazy things like Frosties Tacos (future post!). It needed more bean sprouts than I used and possibly slightly smaller (or at least thinner) pieces of chicken. Everyone said it was really good, and all of it got eaten. It was so filling and really good at the end of the day when there was nothing else to do so you could just sit and absorb it.
- Oh, wait.
