Thursday, August 14, 2008

Theatre, Books, Nova Science Now

Today I am off to Grand Bend again to the Huron County Playhouse. We (friend and I) are going to see 'I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change', which is, presumably a farce. We are hoping to have a picnic lunch outside the theatre, but at the moment it is threatening storms, so we may end up eating in the car. This is the same theatre I went to a few weeks ago to see My Fair Lady. I have one more theatre visit, next week, and that's it for the summer for me. We have booked for the Pantomime in December. They are endeavouring to emulate a British pantomime with some success, but I guess if you have seen London pantos with top comedians, etc. it is difficult to compete. I have been reading the Katherine Kerr Deverry series - have finished the first four and now awaiting two more from the library. The writing appears to be getting better as I read further along. The story is good, but some of the written speech at the beginning was terrible. Drove me bananas. I am presently reading an eBook which is one of the Witch World books by André Norton. I enjoy that series very much although I only discovered them in the last year or so. In fact lots of different authors have written episodes which took place in the Witch World. It's interesting to see the different aspects from another writer's point of view. I watched my favourite Nova Science NOW programme. They had an interesting segment on extinction which is worth watching at Nova Science NOW where they explained about mass extinctions which have happened on earth over the millenia and they have some new theories as to how it happened. If they are right, then it could happen again any time now. Another segment, a scientist has re-created the flu virus of 1918, which killed millions of people world wide, in order to study the possible changes to avian flu which might occur and allow it to pass from human to human which, at present, it cannot do. I see the point, but I worry about such viruses being in existence when they had been disposed of. The third section was to do with reading ancient papyrus remnants which had been stained or damaged. They showed a load of papyrii which came from a city dump in ancient Greece. One section turned out to have been from the New Testament and is therefore one of the earliest known copies. If you want to watch interesting video, you really should check these out. Once again, in keeping with the Olympics in Beijing, I am giving you a Chinese recipe. This one comes from The Joy of Wokking by Martin Yan. Matt has made this recipe many times as it is a prime favourite of ours. Moo Goo Gai Pan 3/4 lb skinless, boneless chicken breast 1 Cup button mushrooms 4-6 dry black mushrooms soaked til soft (optional) 1/4 Cup canned button mushrooms (optional) 1/3 Cup fresh snow peas (optional) 1 1/2 tsp dry sherry 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tbs dark soy sauce 1 tbs oyster sauce 1/4 Cup broth (bouillon) 3 slices ginger, slivered 2/3 tbs cornstach in 3 tbs broth 3 tbs cooking oil. Slice chicken breast to thin bite-sized strips Preheat wok or skelet for 30 seconds, add oil and heat further 30 seconds. Stir-fry chicken with ginger over high heat for 2 mins. remove and set aside. Add softened black mushrooms into wok and cook for 3 minutes with chicken broth over medium high heat, add snow peas, fresh and canned mushrooms and cook for a further 1 1/2 minutes. Return cooked chicken to wok. Put in all the seasonings and thicken to serve hot. Other than the canned mushrooms I would certainly use any optional items. For extra mushrooms use some fresh wild mushrooms, whatever you can obtain. picture from http://www.asiangardengrassvalley.com/AGOurCuisine-OurMenu.html Have a great day.

2 comments:

  1. Ooh, ooh, I saw that show here a few years ago! At least, I saw a show with the same name ... that wasn't a farce though, it was a series of short sketches (using a handful of actors in different combinations) exploring various characters and the ups-downs-and-sideways that occur in human romantic relationships. I remember enjoying it at the time.

    For no particular reason the title The Joy of Wokking makes me laugh. It just sounds funny. I'm a silly man. :D

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  2. As you will see from today's blog Ru, you were quite right about the play, it was obviously the same as you saw. It was very good.

    They had a programme of the same name and I don't think Martin Yan would have minded you laughing one bit, he was a very funny man himself.

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