Pushing water uphill?

I just stumbled across this video, and it’s amazing! It may be physics, but most home cooks will recognize this weird phenomenon. 😀

cheers,
Meeks

How many writers/poets also love creating visual art?

The idea for this question arose from a conversation I had with Chuck Litka, about typos.

I find typos very distracting when I’m reading as they seem to leap off the page at me. And I can’t ‘not see them’.

I hypothesized that the reason might be because I do digital graphics where I’m used to working at the pixel level. The more I thought about those typos though, the more I saw a pattern emerging. And it had nothing to do with typos.

See what you think:

Chuck Litka is a writer and painter.

I love words and digital graphics.

Diana Peach loves digital graphics too.

So does Audrey Driscoll.

Chris James is a writer and photographer.

Frank Prem is a poet and photographer.

Yorgos writes and draws.

Candy Korman is a writer, lover of art, and dances the tango.

Robbie Cheadle is a writer and creator of art with fondant.

And my crafty friend Anne is a botanical artist who paints and embroiders whilst also writing interesting posts on her blog…

And those are just the creatives I can think of off the top of my head. Apart from Anne and Candy, I believe we all create our own book covers, so there is an element of functionality about our art, but I suspect we’d want to be involved even if we weren’t DIY Indies.

So I’m throwing the question out there:

Is it possible that wordsmiths need to create some form of visual beauty in order to recreate it with words?

Or is there something even more fundamental going on?

Is it possible that wordsmiths are also into music? Or dance? Or food?

Food is such an elemental part of life. Do you have to be a good cook in order to write convincingly about food?

Lots of questions and not a single answer, so I’d really like you to share your thoughts in comments. And by ‘you’ I mean Indies, traditionally published writers, photographers, painters, graphic artists, musicians and cooks. If I’ve missed anyone please share that too.

-hugs-
Meeks

Covid-19: Dr John update

A couple of interesting videos from Dr John Campbell. The first is the most recent Covid-19 update, the second is a short video about what drugs not to use when/if you do get Covid-19.

An important take-home-fact from the second video is that paracetamol will bring down the fever, and it won’t make the disease worse. So even if the evidence is still largely anecdotal, it won’t hurt you to give the NSAIDs a miss. Why play Russian roulette with your life if you don’t have to?

On the prevention side of things, the Offspring and I started taking Olive Leaf Extract and Sellenium supplements last night. Also eating fresh capsicum [well washed] because it contains more vitamin C than an orange. Stood outside in the sun this morning for some vitamin D. Didn’t have much skin exposed as it was a bit chilly so I’ll put on a t-shirt and get a better dose once it warms up.

If there’s sun where you are, why not go outside and get some free vitamin D? You will need to expose some skin. Streaking, however, is not recommended. lol lol lol Ahem…

And finally, I’ve been thinking a lot about how we will cope in isolation for the next who-knows-how-many months. From there, I started wondering about the generational gap between those of us who cook, and those who don’t. If all these people are stuck at home, how are they going to eat if they don’t know how to cook?

In the next few days I’m going to search through my recipes for very simple meals that can be prepared by people who don’t normally do much cooking. As the availability of ingredients will be different in other countries, perhaps you could post simple recipes as well.

It’s not a big thing, but we’re fast reaching a point where every single one of us has to start thinking about the wider community. We have to support each other in whatever way we can.

Let’s use this pandemic as an opportunity to do good. There are so many ways we can help our communities. All we need to do is think outside the box.

Much love,

Meeks

Fried Rice, from leftovers

I’m sitting here shoveling down the leftover fried rice from last night, but the leftovers began the night before. If you like fried rice and never know what to do with leftover roast chicken, read on.

Recipe – Fried Rice à la Meeka

Ingredients*

Leftover roast or braised chicken, meat removed from bones

Leftover cooked rice [boiled or via the absorption method]

1 – 2 rashers of middle bacon [or ham]

1 – 2 eggs

Capsicum, red [diced]

Spring onion [the white part, cleaned and chopped into small pieces] 

Leftover corn on the cob if available [kernels cut off the cob]

Sesame oil [a drop or two]

Soy Sauce [Light or dark]

Peanut oil for frying [it has a light, clean flavour that’s perfect for Chinese dishes, but I use it for everything]

A large wok

An egg slice or some other tool for stir frying the rice

*quantities will depend upon how many people are to be served and how much they like certain ingredients. As a rule of thumb, you’ll need approx. 1.5 – 2 cups of cooked rice for two medium sized people.

Method

Heat a couple of tablespoons of peanut oil in the wok until you can see a ‘heat haze’ rising from the oil.

While the oil is heating:

• beat the egg[s]
• cut the rind off the bacon and cut the meat and fat into small cubes/squares.
• wash and cut the capsicum into small squares.

When the oil is hot, pour the beaten egg into the hot wok and swirl it around to spread it as much as possible [a bit like making a pancake].

When one side of the egg pancake is done, flip it over and cook the other side until it too is golden. Remove from wok and place on a cutting board. Cut into bite sized pieces and set aside.

Next, place the bacon pieces into the remaining oil along with the capsicum. Lower the heat and allow to cook gently until the bacon is nicely coloured but not quite crisp.

If using, add the corn kernels to the bacon and capsicum. Allow to cook gently for a few minutes more. [This is just to heat the corn through as it’s already cooked].

Remove the bacon, capsicum and corn from the oil. You can add it to the cooked egg.

Add a drop or two of sesame oil to the oil remaining in the wok. Don’t throw this oil out as it contains all the lovely flavours of the bacon etc!

Add the cooked rice to the wok and break up the lumps, tossing the rice almost constantly until the grains are nice and loose.

Return the egg, bacon, capsicum and corn to the wok and toss through the rice.

Add the pieces of cooked chicken.

Keep tossing until all the ingredients are heated through again, and the flavour has had a chance to spread through the rice.

Finally, add the chopped spring onions and a slosh of soy sauce to the rice. Do NOT overdo the soy sauce. 1/2 a tablespoon is more than enough at this stage. People can add more later, to suit their own tastes.

Toss the soy and the spring onions for a minute or two until the rice is slightly…beige? It will get a little colour from the soy, but it shouldn’t be brown. That means there’s too much soy!

Serve as is or braise some Chinese vegetables to serve with the rice.

To reheat the next day, place the leftover fried rice in a pot and add 1 tablespoon of water [the water will steam the rice and stop it from burning]. Cover and heat on a very low flame until it’s hot enough.

Bon appetit!

Meeks

 

#Facebook #groups – looking for suggestions

I know this sounds odd, but are there any good Facebook groups dedicated to:

• gardening
• cooking
• games
• technology
• other?

And if so, what’s the easiest way of finding them?

The reason I ask is because I have to teach a class on social media soon, and for the moment at least, Facebook is synonymous with social media for most people. Except me. I do have a Facebook account and an author page, and I can teach my students how to create their own accounts and use them, but I can’t honestly give them reasons for why they might want to. I’ve heard that Facebook has groups so I thought this might be something my students could enjoy.

Any suggestions? Anything that works for you? I’m all ears. 🙂

Meeks