Girl Boys

Making tea doesn’t require a sharp mind, but it does require a few things. Attention to the quality of ingredients, water, fire to heat it up to the right temperature, choosing the brewing time you prefer, balancing the quantities of tea and water, and then drinking it in the short time before it gets cold.
http://www.rorfeeds.org 9 p
http://www.sheaho.com
That requires you to be in the present moment. Ready to drink and receptive to the tea’s poetry. You sip, you meditate and look out the window at the mist rising off the sea beyond, or chat with your companion about the flavour, whether you want sugar, milk, or lemon, small talk about food, or the garden, things you see around the room. This is the time to talk about the pattern of the wallpaper, not about the mortgage, this relaxing time after the work of eating is done.

Of course you can do a lot more. Japan has made a science and art of the tea ceremony. If you live here awhile, you realize that the tea ceremony is more about “oughts” and the ritual of the dance of tea rather than merely about the quality of the drink. The flowers are as important as the tea. The decoration and choice of vessels is as important. Comportment and ability to turn the bowl so that the front faces away from the server, and then back again after drinking are important. The choice of guests, and the order of serving them is important. Measuring the tea on its tiny bboo stick, and even the direction of stirring it are of considerable importance. Even the slight snobbery of the idea of “look at us all being cultural” with its undertones of mutual congratulation is a factor. Yet.

Recently Veggie Friendly has been featuring the foods of India, with pictures that have been making my mouth water. KPounder, the writer, you may remember from a previous mention of her website, is an Australian woman on a world tour in the happy company of her husband. I’ve been following her Indian food adventures for the past week, and Sunday, with a day available for cooking, I just had to pull out my Madhur Jaffrey cookbook and see what new tastes I could find. Though I have another Indian cookbook or two and there are plenty of recipes now on blogs online, still the shortest way to get guaranteed good food is to try something from Madhur Jaffrey’s Home Cookery. I haven’t tried everything in there yet, but I’ve tried enough to know that every recipe is going to be delicious, and she’s put enough thought into them to make the preparation foolproof. Good enough for me.

I chose two dishes to eat with my cooked orga
Chop the washed spinach crosswise into about 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) pieces

Wash and slice individual florettes of a small head of broccoli into about 1/2 inch ( 1.25 cm) slices
http://www.towingavehicle.com 9
http://www.tumewarnercable.com
Put the oil into a large frying pan on to heat and put in the onions. Stir and fry for about 3 minutes until they are brown. Add the chopped spinach, chopped chilis, ginger, salt and sugar. Stir and cook the spinach for about 5 minutes until wilted. Add the water and simmer. Cover and turn the heat to low and cook about 8 minutes. Uncover and add the broccoli, re-cover and cook a further few minutes or until the broccoli becomes bright green and is tender. The liquid should be almost boiled away, but if it becomes too dry when you add the broccoli you can add a small drizzle of water (a few tablespoons). Sprinkle the gar masala on top and mix through. Taste and adjust the seasoning. (Add more salt and pepper as necessary.)
nic brown rice. Mughlai Saag, Spinach with Onions (and broccoli) and a version of the English Teacher’s Vegetable Curry (adapted from a chicken curry) which was one of the first recipes I ever . I like it because it’s delicious and it uses whole spices, which take much less time to make than if I have to grind them. Better for when it’s already past supper time and you want to eat. I’m calling this version featuring eggplant, fresh tomatoes, cardom and root vegetables, Bollywood Curry in honour of those lively dancers.

Apparently, ignoring plants is one of the best things you can do for them. This orchid was handed to me after it had given its flowers to a wedding bouquet. (It had also been daged when a closing door snapped both the stems and the sticks supporting them.) I stuck it in my east window along with all of my happy African Violets and basically forgot about it, except for weekly waterings of course. http://www.proteomicists.com 7
http://www.rorfeeds.biz 8
x http://www.thedeathcampaign.com
It spent all summer growing a new leaf, and I periodically wondered if it should be repotted, if the stems should be trimmed off, or if I should move it to a new location. But I never bothered to do anything.
And now, if you look at the stem on the left you’ll see that it’s growing a new stem. It looks like I may actually get blooms! And the cats must find the taste horrible, since the orchis has no nibble marks, unlike the snake plants that are contantly ragged and stringy from chewing.