which_chick | (no subject)

I had fried zucchini and rice for breakfast this morning. While yellow crooknecks have a low enough moisture content that they brown fairly easily (and this is the point of having fried squash, mind... the browning is tastier than the squash part), zukes are tougher. Frankly, frying something that damn squishy is an exercise in futility. However, if you slice them very thinly and are patient enough to wait for the liquid to boil off, they will eventually brown, enough to be edible, anyway.

Tonight: vegetarian potstickers with ginger dipping sauce. If I make the dough for the wrappers this morning, it won't really take too long when I get home tonight. They were fun the first time I made them and I imagine they'll be just as fun the second time 'round. (For values of "fun" that involve fiddly bits of cookery. Your mileage may vary.)

Mom emailed me pictures of my cousin Beth's kids. Gloria (the older of the two) is starting kindergarten this fall. The marriage imploded a couple of years ago, but the kids remain and are cute. This is the cousin Beth that runs marathons to defeat cancer. (I'm not really sure how that works, the actual mechanism, but anyway, she does run marathons. Against cancer.) My aunt Linda says Beth is displacing her urges for a husband and sex by burying herself in marathon-running. I suspect that Linda thinks the poor fatherless babes need a father figure in the house. I think running marathons is a lot easier than putting up with a husband who can't keep it in his pants. It's probably better for her, too.

My cousin Betsy (Actual name Sarah. We wouldn't really name anyone Betsy.) called for help with her computer the other day. She has three kids, the oldest of whom is getting on toward kindergarten-sized as well. It was nine at night, and the three kids were still running around and screaming in the background. Every so often, the tech support stuff would be paused so that she could fix one or more of the children. In her tired voice, after the third time she'd asked Madison if she'd gone and peed before bed, after Zach had fallen off the bed he was bouncing on and lay on the floor screaming at what sounded like the top of his lungs, after Tyler asked her *again* about a slice of watermelon, Betsy said "And this is my life." I'm hoping I just caught her on a bad day.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood...