Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch
Hi.
I haven’t been cooking this last week. Southern California has been experiencing a “heat wave”¹ and more often than not that translates to “video games and take-out food” in the Anger Burger household. Bloggers; they’re just like you!
My dad picked up a new oven mitt at a yard sale that had this tag on it. I suspect it wasn’t made in the US, because in America we tend to avoid combining the words “Challenger” and “Flame Retardant” and “BBQz”. BBQz?
It cooled down enough last night that I cooked some whitey-ass gai pad krapow made especially inauthentic by the addition of fresh pea shoots.
The pea shoots were a lucky find at the Asian market – they taste like fresh peas, but act like bean sprouts. You don’t want to cook them as much as allow them to get warm in whatever it is you’ve already cooked. In this instance, I turned the heat off on the turkey and then stirred in a few big handfuls. They wilt almost instantly, but the stems stay a little crispy and they taste fresh and vegetal without having much personality of their own. I mean this in a good way. It was delicious and we overate before collapsing into another round of Dragon Age: Origins.
It’s hard out there for a wimp.
¹ Wow, who knew Angelenos were such pussies? First of all, the summer of 2010 has set a record for being the coldest in over a decade. Do you understand? It’s been unusually cool and comfortable here. Then! The temperature slowly ramped up to normal heats, spiking in the 100′s in the usual places where only scorpions and Vietnam Vets live and keeping around 90° here in regular ol’ Los Angeles. THIS IS NORMAL. And 90° in Los Angeles is pretty tolerable — it’s dry and cools the fuck off at night. I never thought I’d say this as a born-and-bred pasty white Pacific Northwestern newt-lady, but if you can’t take the heat then get out of the MOTHERFUCKING DESERT.
” …spiking in the 100′s in the usual places where only scorpions and Vietnam Vets live…”
Ha! Oh man, so true, so true. Those deserts, especially the hilly country of the High Desert Mojave regions, are crawling with disgruntled vets of the ‘Big Muddy’ era. That’s not a flippantly derisive or judgmental statement, I’m glad (as all of you should be) that so many of those PTSD souls have taken to the hills and desolate outback. I (and Sunday) lived in the Mojave for about 4 years and came to know many of these guys as friends. Lemme tell you, in a post-apocalyptic world (when, not if it comes), I want as many of these guys at my back as possible. They will have the best doob around and can show me how to live on lizards, snakes and Cholla cactus. The Milky Way is phenomenal laying on yer back at night on the desert floor, with Mescalito pleasantly humming on the cool Jasmine-scented breeze. Trust.
Word up. I can’t stand it when people pretend like they can’t believe something that happens to them all the time.
Quag–when’s yr memoir being published? BTW this and how you roll on the beach, I kinda wanna knock boots.
I complain about normal weather patterns ALL THE TIME, it’s the Washington way.
But wait! Now I want to see the oven mitt! 15″ (One Count)!