Broccoli-Shrimp Potstickers

6 oz chopped shrimp / 1 c chopped broccoli
1 T minced ginger / 1/2 t salt / potsticker wrappers / 2 T oil

Mix shrimp, broccoli, ginger, and salt, and using 1/2 t at a time, make potstickers using a potsticker sealer contraption. Fry them upright over medium heat, then pour in 1/3 c water and cover, steaming them until all the water is absorbed.

Source: an ancient potsticker wrapper package

Reason for posting: potential loss of said source, which has fallen off the refrigerator from time to time

Those soothing fractals...

Yesterday's Register-Guard described the research of UO physics professor Richard Taylor, who's discovered that having fractals of dimensionality 1.3 to 1.5 in the background lowers people's physical stress levels, in experiments. The article notes that 1.3 to 1.5 is the dimensionality most often seen in nature (e.g., trees, clouds), and also curiously happens to show up in those drip paintings by Jackson Pollack! As a practical application, he suggests that office workers who can't gaze at nature out a window should have something equivalent to look at. (Full article)

Two cartoons I want to share:
"Riddles of the Paycheck" in El Goonish Shive
"Creative Visualization" in Alice! (on B's birthday)

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Our belated Mother's Day dinner

R: “Gnocchi di Parrano” -- potato dumplings in cheese sauce (appetizer); “Camerones Festival” -- extra-large tiger shrimp brochette marinated & broiled, with fresh mango salsa, quesadilla, beans & rice

L: “Scallops Chinoise” -- seared ocean scallops over steamed jasmine rice with quince ginger lime cilantro sauce (and one of R's shrimp and a few spoonfuls of his beans)

D: “Scooby-Doo Macaroni & Cheese”

On Mother's Day, in the first place I hadn't recovered from a virus and really didn't want much more than bland pasta, and in the second place, no one would answer the phone at the restaurant we've been getting about a third of our special dinners from for years and years. Out of business? So tonight we called Chef's Kitchen (not open Sundays) and ordered the above. Except D's, which came out of a box.

A creative highlight of the day was trying to think of a whole variety of "swashbuckling" characters from legend and literature for a project of J's.

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