Silly Me

The weekend was pretty quiet; I spent most of it cooking (more on that later). But the highlight of the weekend was watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on DVD Saturday night. For some reason, we missed seeing it in the theatre when it was released. Tom got everything set up for an 8:00 showtime and I wandered in, sock knitting in hand. Tom was incredulous. "You're going to knit while watching Harry Potter?!" "Sure," said I, "I can knit and watch a movie at the same time."

Silly me. I knit not one stitch on that sock. The movie was so engrossing and, as always, so visually rich that I didn't want to miss one little bit of it.

The Loudoun Road Runners' annual picnic was scheduled for Sunday. Given that all of the runs would be finished by about 10:30, I figured some kind of brunch food would be appropriate. So I spent Saturday making homemade cinnamon rolls and a quiche. We showed up at Market Station at 7:00 (that's AM) on Sunday and only one person was there. Eventually, another person wandered in, but certainly not nearly enough people to have a picnic. Tom, Mike, and Sarah headed off for their run. They run a lot faster than I do (even more so now that my running is mostly not happening), so I opted to not run. I invited them back to the house for a post-run snack of the picnic fare, cached water for Tom, and scurried back to the house to do a little straightening. Of course, no one came. But the cinnamon rolls and quiche were quite tasty.

If you like spicy Thai food, here's a recipe that I developed that you might enjoy. I used grilled catfish, but it would work equally well with other white fish, chicken, shrimp, or even tofu.

Catfish Thai Red Curry
2 catfish fillets (more if you are serving more than 2 people)
1-2 Tablespoons of canola oil
1 onion, chopped
1 Tablespoon Thai red curry paste (I use A Taste of Thai brand)
1 Tablespoon brown sugar (or to taste)
3/4 Cup unsweetened coconut milk (approximately)
juice of one-half to one lime (or to taste)
chopped cilantro or basil
sliced or chopped mango
steamed rice

Rinse and pat dry the catfish fillets. Season with salt and pepper. Grill over a medium hot fire until done (about 6 minutes per side). Remove and set aside. Alternatively, you can pan fry the catfish (or chicken) before sauteeing the onions.

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. When hot, add the onions and sautee until soft and translucent. Add the red curry paste and blend with the onions, then add the brown sugar and coconut milk. Blend thoroughly. (You may need to lower the heat at this point; I've found that if coconut milk gets too hot, it has a tendency to "splurp" up like molten lava.) Add the lime juice. Cut the catfish into bite-size chunks and add to the curry sauce. If you are using shrimp or tofu, add them now. Heat thoroughly. Serve over hot steamed rice and sprinkle chopped cilantro or basil over top with a side of mango.

Note that this dish is very spicy hot. You might want to decrease the amount of red curry paste. The mango makes nice accompaniment and helps cool the heat.

Knitting Content
Thanks to everyone who offered advice to improve my counting skills. Believe it or not, I do use stitch markers to mark the lace repeats. But the shawl is triangular; how do you account for a two-stitch increase every other row if you place stitch markers every 10 stitches? Wouldn't the number of stitches between the stitch markers be greater than or less than 10? (Of course, I could try it myself and see what happens...duh!). I do use stitch markers when casting on a large number of stitches. It definitely keeps me honest.

I managed to knit about four rows on Fern Leaf yesterday. And characteristically, I had to tink part of the two pattern rows that I knit. I missed a yarn over on one row and had an extra yarn over on another row. After a bit of reflecting, I realized that this is probably an exercise assigned by the Universe to help me become more mindful. When my mind wanders, I make mistakes.

Parting Shot

I snapped a quick picture of this little guy, hanging out on our deck:



Other than the great pose, I found this squirrel to be very interesting. If you look closely, you'll see that fur on his jaw and front paws is a deep brown, which is not characteristic of the grey squirrel. At first I thought he might be diseased, but after looking at him through binoculars, determined that, yes indeed, that's the color of his fur. But then I noticed a black walnut on the deck, still in the hull. The squirrel has been eating walnuts, which dyed his fur a nice brown. Unfortunately, I don't think we get enough walnuts from our tree for dyeing wool.

And finally, I should find out today whether or not I get the job in Rockville. I don't know anything about the other candidate's background, so I have no sense of which way the decision will go. Oh, the suspense!