We Must Always Remember

I can't believe it has been twenty years since the shooting of 14 young women at the Ecole Polytechnique. I wish I could feel that things were better; I'm not sure they are. We must continue to be vigilant and mindful while there is still violence of any kind directed at any targetted group, whether it be women, Jews, Arabs, Christians, queers, or anyone, and while there is still fear and suspicion of an "other." That unspeakable crime twenty years ago grew, in some part, from someone feeling that his entitlement had been usurped, that power had been taken from him and given to others whom he believed had no business in "his" place. Until we recognize that no human being has any more right to power, choice, success, or simply life, than any other, we cannot hope that such a crime will not happen again.

Happy Birthday!

And after that somewhat sombre post, I want to wish the happiest of birthdays to one of my oldest and dearest LJ friends, the wonderful gillo!!

I had the pleasure of meeting her in RL for the SECOND time this past summer, and have hopes that we'll meet again before too many years go by.

A Pot o' Pho

I roasted a chicken for supper last Sunday, and had the bones and just enough meat left for one meal, so I decided to make an Asian-y noodle soup last night. It was delicious, so should you wish to try it, here's what I did.

Remove the remaining meat from the bones of a leftover roast chicken. Chop a large carrot, an onion, and two celery sticks. Heat some oil in the bottom of a large pot, and swirl a crushed clove of garlic and a good chunk of thinly sliced ginger in it, then add the chopped veg and toss them all around in the oil for a few minutes. Then throw the chicken bones on top and cover the lot with water. Add some peppercorns and bring to the boil, then simmer, covered, for an hour.

Strain the resulting stock into another fairly large saucepan and return to the boil. Throw in some noodles - I used a package of fresh Udon noodles. Cook them for however long it takes (depending on whether you're using fresh or dried or instant). Add some shredded carrot (I had some on hand, because I buy those handy bags of it for salads). At the end of the cooking time for the noodles, add some snap peas, the chicken and some spinach. At the last minute, I swirled in a little bit of chili-garlic sauce (I have a low tolerance for chilies, but you might like more), one tablespoon of Thai fish sauce, two tablespoons of tamarind sauce, and some chopped cilantro.

It was very good. Yum. And it made enough that I have a whole 'nother meal of it left over!