Cover

Clock is Ticking

Travelers, it is late.
Life’s sun is going to set.
During these brief days that you have strength,
be quick and spare no effort of your wings.

Chicken Pot Pie

  • 4 Tablespoons Butter
  • 1/2 cup Finely Diced Onion
  • 1/2 cup Finely Diced Carrot
  • 1/2 cup Finely Diced Celery
  • 3 cups Shredded Cooked Chicken
  • 1/4 cup Flour
  • 3 cups Chicken Broth
  • Splash Of White Wine
  • 1/4 teaspoon Turmeric
  • Salt And Pepper
  • Chopped Fresh Thyme
  • 1/4 cup Cream
  • 1 whole Unbaked Pie Crust
  • 1 whole Egg
  • 2 Tablespoons Water

Saute the vegetables in butter until starting to soften. Add the chicken to warm up.

Slowly stir in flour to make a roux. When light brown add wine and a little broth at a time. Stir as you add until your gravy is at the desired thickness.

Add seasonings and simmer a bit, then add the cream.

Cover the pan with the pie crust, the brush with the beaten egg.

Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes or when crust is nice and brown.

For more details go to the Pioneer Woman.

Chow Mein

Ingredients

  • Two chicken breasts, diced
  • Two stalks celery, sliced
  • One onion, minced
  • Two cloves garlic, minced
  • Two tbl oyster sauce
  • Three tbl soy sauce
  • Two tbl cornstarch
  • One cup chicken stock

Saute the vegetables in oil until onions are clear, remove from pan and set aside. Cook chicken until nearly done, add garlic and cook another minute or two.

Add soy sauce and oyster sauce to chicken. Add a few tablespoons of chicken stock to cornstarch and the rest to the chicken. Shake up the cornstarch mixture in a water-tight container, then slowly whisk in to chicken. Adjust sauce to desired thickness, then add vegetables and simmer a few more minutes.

Serve with white rice.

Duvek Rice

This is a Yugoslavian dish that I am trying to recreate.

  • One onion, minced
  • Half of a red or green pepper, minced
  • One cup uncooked rice
  • Two cups beef or chicken stock
  • Two knobs of butter
  • Two tbl. of tomato paste
  • A dash of cayenne pepper
  • One half tsp. of salt

Saute the onions and peppers until the onions become clear. Add the tomato paste, salt and pepper and saute another minute or two.

Add this mixture to the rice and stock, cook on low as you would normally cook rice. When you can no longer see the liquid above the rice turn off the heat and leave covered until it is time to serve.

This goes well with pork loin steaks.

Chicken Soup with Rice

  • Two chicken breasts
  • Two quarts of chicken stock
  • 1/4 cup chopped carrots
  • 1/4 cup chopped celery
  • 1/4 cup chopped onions
  • 1/4 cup chopped green pepper
  • 6 tbsp butter
  • 4 tbsp flour
  • 1 cup uncooked rice
  • Baguette or crackers

Add two cups of water and cook the rice.

Cook the chicken on medium in the chicken stock for ten minutes. It doesn’t have to be fully cooked through. Remove the chicken to cool, then dice.

Make a rouge with four tablespoons of butter and four tablespoons of flour. When it is medium brown transfer to the chicken while whisking in. Let it simmer while you cook the vegetables.

Saute the vegetables in butter without browning for ten minutes. Add the chicken and cook another five minutes.

Add the vegetables and chicken to the stock along with the rice.

Bake the baguette, then serve.

Take Me to the Edge

Out here there are no hearthstones,
Hot grains, simply. It is dry, dry.
And the air dangerous. Noonday acts queerly
On the mind’s eye, erecting a line
Of poplars in the middle distance, the only
Object beside the mad, straight road
One can remember men and houses by.
A cool wind should inhabit those leaves
And a dew collect on them, dearer than money,
In the blue hour before sunup.
Yet they recede, untouchable as tomorrow,
Or those glittery fictions of spilt water
That glide ahead of the very thirsty.

I think of the lizards airing their tongues
In the crevice of an extremely small shadow
And the toad guarding his heart’s droplet.
The desert is white as a blind man’s eye,
Comfortless as salt. Snake and bird
Doze behind the old masks of fury.
We swelter like firedogs in the wind.
The sun puts its cinder out. Where we lie
The heat-cracked crickets congregate
In their black armorplate and cry.
The day-moon lights up like a sorry mother,
And the crickets come creeping into our hair
To fiddle the short night away.

The Fountain of Youth

The Spirit of the Fountain dies not.
It is called the Mysterious Feminine.
The Doorway of the Mysterious Feminine
Is called the Root of Heaven-and-Earth

Lingering like gossamer, it has only a hint of existence;
And yet when you draw upon it, it is inexhaustible.

It Is Not Ours to Play With

Does anyone want to take the world and do what he wants with it?
I do not see how he can succeed.
The world is a sacred vessel, which must not be tampered with or grabbed after.
To tamper with it is to spoil it, and to grasp it is to lose it.
In fact, for all things there is a time for going ahead, and a time for following behind;
A time for slow-breathing and a time for fast-breathing;
A time to grow in strength and a time to decay;
A time to be up and a time to be down.
Therefore, the Sage avoids all extremes, excesses and extravagances.