little buddies

just too much.

Pomegranate Time

Yesssssss! Its officially pomegranate season and here is a recipe I am going to make tonight. It is a simple chicken and rice dish from Iran that celebrates pomegranates and delicious winter food. Here is the recipe...I found it on an elementary school's recipe submission page.




Khoreshteh Fesenjãn
Chicken with Rice & Pomegranate
(from Persia)
submitted by Manoushan

INGREDIENTS

Chicken
500 grams of chicken breast

Rice
1 cup Basmati rice
1 cup water
pinch of salt

Sauce
1 cup of almonds
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tab olive oil
1/2 cup of water
200 ml concentrated pomegranate juice
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
METHOD

Chicken
Place chicken pieces in casserole dish.
Place dish in a preheated 180° C oven for 20 minutes.

Rice
Place rice and water in saucepan.
Add salt and bring to boil.
Reduce temperature and simmer for a further 20 minutes.

Sauce
Heat oil in pan.
Add finely chopped onion and spices and cook until onion is soft.
Add coarsely chopped almonds and cook for 2 - 3 minutes while stirring.
Add pomegranate juice and brown sugar and stir.
Add water and bring to boil.
Reduce temperature and simmer for a further 15 minutes.

Add sauce to chicken and cook in oven for another 30 minutes, then pour onto rice and your meal is complete.

I'm going to add pomegranate seeds instead of just the juice, but other than that it sounds lovely.



Pomegranates are so pretty, I love cooking with them. There are lots of health benefits too, but I just read that Vitamin C doesn't help to prevent or cure colds, which is either ridiculous or true, but just goes to show that you can't beleive an any one health benefit too much! Eat Pomegranates though, they are delicious!

rad with a capital R

falling sand game.

have fun.

Nice NYT article with Lin

Artist Maya Lin talks about relationships between past works, ways of working, environmentalism etc. Interesting.

Wave Field at the Storm King Art Center

creature feature

Looky Look!


This slideshow of new creatures found off the coast of places like Lizard Island in Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Japan is absolutely beautiful! My favorite is the cuttlefish, very cool. So, lets all hope we keep our waters clean so we can keep finding all of these crazy treasures.

Ingrid Michaelson - Be OK

perfect toe tapping

Baby You can Drive My Car

Read this article about green RV's. If I could live in a green RV and travel around the country each summer I would be pretty happy. The Verdier Volkswagon is the best, since its most like a regular van with a few key amenities. (GPS controlled solar panles).

You can also read this blog by the Live Lightly people. Looks like an awesome adventure, what a cool lifestyle.

Venice Biennale of Architecture

"Ishigami’s greenhouses are not equipped with air control systems and are not sealed off from the outside by a strong barrier, so they do not create a perfect artificial environment. The weakness of the barrier results in an ambiguous mixing of elements from the internal and external environment. With the help of botanist Hideaki Ohba, Ishigami aims at presenting a variety of plant life that creates a slight disturbance in the landscape of the park. At first glance, the resulting landscape seems to be ordinary, but we believe this is an extremely progressive approach to the natural environment." Taro Igarashi

So rad... get more photos and info at We Make Money Not Art. or Japan Foundation

Roooar!

One of my favorite authors, Mr. Michael Crichton, past away last night. I can't imagine anything better than Jurassic Park and I will always be grateful for such an imaginative writer. Rooar! Although Crichton was a skeptic of climate change, he offered exciting and entertaining answers to some of science's most pondered topics. He might not have been right on global warming, but he was right in viewing science as something that is ever changing and malleable, a way of seeing the world as a solution to our problems. He thought that science would both aid and challenge our species and he wrote truthfully about his fears and fantasies.

Here's to an author who will be dearly missed.

Seattlites Celebrate

Thousands of people rushed the streets of downtown Seattle last night after news of Obama's election victory. I stood in line for two hours waiting to punch a hole or push a button, but despite having registered two months ago I was not on the list. They let me fill out a sympathetic ballot. They said it would count and then handed me a little card with a number I could call in three weeks to see if indeed it did count. It didn’t matter. There was almost a quiet understanding at the polls yesterday that this was going to happen, although lets face it, that’s not too surprising in Seattle. I have to say that McCain's concession speech was very touching and insightful. He is a smart man. I think we will see McCain as an important figure in the future, and someone who will very likely contribute to Obama's accomplishments as president. Of course, Obama's speech was historical, moving and presidential. That a black President elect stood in front of the United States last night and received respect, authority and praise was due and deserved. And fun to watch. I wonder if this is the most historical moment I will be a part of like my parents remembering the Berlin wall tumbling down or my grandparents on D-day. Obama brings hope to many people, he will bring challenges too, and I hope Americans are ready and willing to stand beside him. I know that this country has been through a lot in the last eight years, 9/11 brought us all much closer together and also divided us. The war in Iraq has touched us all. I sometimes think people forget that we are in fact supposed to be united states. We like to dwell in our own microcosms and coddle our prejudices, but we are certainly more alike than not. I hope that the elation and excitement of Obama's victory does not fade with time. I mean, I hope all those people who were so eager to proclaim change actually want to take part in it. I believe that the most important thing about this election, is not how we fix the economy, how to bring home the troops, how to begin to deal with our relations in the middle east or how to save the environment, I think we already know how to do those things, but what this election did was push us to act. It led us to a starting point. We don’t have any good excuses now not to act. It also gave the world a reason to believe in democracy, to see it first hand and that is pretty cool. Switching things up will be good for everyone I think. I can’t wait to see the puppy.