热干面和辣子鸡丁

最近请Grayson教授夫妇吃饭。他们喜欢辣味中国美食，主要是蔬菜，Carol还喜欢吃鸡肉。
我的Menu是：
主食：热干面
主菜：辣子鸡丁，清蒸桂花鱼，鱼香茄子，干煸四季豆，梅菜扣肉
汤：青菜豆泡嵌肉汤
甜点：西米露

我最喜欢富有挑战性的热干面和辣子鸡丁，最后出来后都挺成功。在餐桌上，还跟他们讲了辣子鸡丁的别名“红灯区找鸡”的缘由。
Recipe:

热干面 Hot Dry Noodle:
我用的是精面粉和盐做成的面条，最简单那种，煮一次就可以。如果是鸡蛋面，可以煮两次，第一次断生，拌上麻油搁置一晚，要吃时再煮一下。
原料：榨菜、肉馅、花生酱、辣酱、豆瓣酱\麻酱、芝麻、酱油、鸡精、盐、香油、葱花、蒜蓉、白醋、花生碎（我用了BBQ花生，压碎）
Ingredients: Chinese noodle, chopped Sichuan preserved pickle, minced pork, peanut sauce, spicy sauce, sesame, soybean sauce, chicken powder, salt, sesame oil, minced scallion, minced garlic, vinegar, minced peanut

1、开始煮面。煮熟后捞起，不要带水。
Cook the noodle in boiled water and then take it out without water. Keep the noodle dry.
2、在面里加入麻油拌匀，把面放凉。
Put some vegetable oil and sesame oil in the noodle, stur it.
3、做调料。热锅加油，油热后放入榨菜、肉馅、葱花、芝麻、花生酱、辣酱、豆瓣酱一同煸炒熟，加入适量盐，鸡精。
Put some oil in the pan. Then fry chopped Sichuan preserved pickle, minced pork, peanut sauce, spicy sauce, sesame, soybean sauce, chicken powder and salt in it. It will become a kind of delicious sauce.
3. 将面条盛入盘中，淋上调料，撒上少许蒜蓉、白醋和花生碎即可。
Put the sauce, garlic, vinegar and peanut in noodle and stur.


辣子鸡丁 Hot Fried Chicken
原料: 整鸡一只或鸡腿一盒, 花椒和干辣椒(1:4), 葱, 熟芝麻, 盐, 味精, 料酒, 食用油, 姜, 蒜, 黑胡椒白糖

1. 将鸡切成小块，不需要鸡翅和鸡腿（可以留着煮别的）。鸡块先煮熟，洗净，沥干。鸡块上搓上盐，这步一定要细致，因为以后就不再放盐了。然后放入料酒、葱花、味精、姜、蒜、黑胡椒。
这里的鸡不放血所以有味道。我和劳公想了个办法，使得那味道消失无踪。秘诀就在这鸡块要在冰箱里冷藏一晚。第二天你再端出来就只有调料的香味了。

2、第二天就可以炸了，先把鸡块弄干。放入热油锅里将鸡块炸至外表变干成深黄色后捞起待用。油锅一定要热，不然鸡块容易炸老。

2. 锅里放油, 倒入姜蒜炒出香味后倒入干辣椒和花椒。干辣椒一定要足够多。翻炒至气味开始呛鼻后倒入炸好的鸡块, 稍微翻炒后撒入葱段, 味精, 白糖, 熟芝麻, 炒匀后起锅即可。

漫步

漫步

在初夏时分
不知名的小鸟在嘴贫
芳草茵茵
你说下次要带上透明席子
那就可以躺在草地树荫
但它必须是ultra-thin

我忍不住笑吟吟
别人都不会相信
你的腼腆中藏着这样一颗坏坏的心
但我喜欢这独一无二的礼品
只有我才见识得到的机敏
管那世外的猛禽
还是时光的入侵
你永远是唯一的麒麟
让风儿稍个音信
到云端，诉说这相爱相亲



无题
为得君欢心
一生力气尽拼
一片真心
不必比金
不必比银

樽前美酒共饮
浅唱低吟
换你一笑一颦
还恐晴转阴
愁入两鬓

恋恋一生

恋恋一生

又是一场风暴
谁的错不知道
有多少夫妻一生相好？
生活的琐事连绵萦绕
抛在了脑后
把那份逍遥

正年少
故宫一朝
心儿跳
殿宇阁楼
无心瞄
花花草草
竟见老
一管凤箫
我为君
君为我
多少个良宵煎熬?

日子过得悄悄
爱不再尖叫
它流进了饭碗汤瓢
却不再抵达神经末梢
寻找，寻找
我们在公园奔跑
萤火虫飞上了树梢
和星星一起闪耀
天空再高
月亮也够得到
我们再老
爱情也不要
跑了味道

影子 Shadow

看最近的流行歌曲，很喜欢《你叫什么名字》中的一句歌词：对抗现实想要把日子都过成诗。这句话提点了我，不仅因我没有将自己的生活诗化，也因为我本身也很久不再尝试牙牙学语地写一些句子，一些有意思的句子，哪怕在别人眼中分文不值。
心里有诗，笔下有诗，眼中有诗，生活才是一首诗。

影子

我们之间的过去
谁曾经厘清每一缕
那些流言蜚语
有个影子一直没变虚
你说不足以挂齿
但我并不是与世隔绝的金鱼

有一种说法在此地盘踞
我以为爱情绽放如雏菊
谁知道它败谢成一段俗套的乐曲
他人眼中的怜悯种种
女人心里的故事句句
原来都隔着一层你编织的蒙蒙细雨

Nocturnal Channel

My husband and I like to watch TV series or movies when we have dinner.
Now we are watching a Chinese TV series called "The Chinese Style Divorce". You can guess the content from the title. It is really interesting. Coz once a couple watch such kind of TV, it will remind you what and how you should do or not to do in order to maintain a perfect relationship with your lover.
The first important thing is to be honest and keep your relationship as transparent as it could be. Once there is a betrayal behavior or you did something inadvertently like you kiss another opposite sex after drunk, you should immediately confess and explain it to your lover.
If you just let it go, someday your lover may hear of this silly thing you did and have a deep misunderstanding with you. Further more, this misunderstanding will lead to deep and irradicable suspicion.
No matter what you did, once the trust is gone,your relationship is also over.
When you cannot build the trust by all means, it means he or she is not the right person for you. In China, it is said that 'a short pain is far better than a lasting one'. In that case, you should say bye to your lover rationally.

Turning Plants into Plastic

Ubiquity
Chemist Conrad Zhang and colleagues at PNNL tested a variety of metal catalysts—compounds that speed chemical reactions—in their search for an efficient method of transforming glucose and other natural sugars into hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), a molecule that can easily be manipulated into a variety of chemicals and plastics.
The research could become the basis of a process that turns biomass such as trees, cornstalks and algae into feedstock for chemicals, plastics and fuels at roughly 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit), which is a lot cooler than the 600 degrees C (1,112 degrees F) needed for oil refining or the high temperatures (as well as pressure) such oil must undergo when it is formed naturally.

"A number of steps, including process development and optimization, have to take place before full-scale commercialization," Zhang notes. "It may take several years to reach that stage."

Ultimately, the plastic in a fork used at a backyard barbeque may be as directly plant-based as charcoal in the grill and the chef's polyester apron. "Direct utilization of cellulosic biomass for chemicals and fuel production is a challenging goal," Zhang adds. "Our results point to a potential process for the production of HMF from the most abundant renewable sources."

Also: Antibacterial Products May Do More Harm Than Good

Arctic plants

permafrost
Hence, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault that the Norwegian government is building deep in the permafrost as a last refuge for millions of seeds in case of global catastrophe—natural or man-made. The icy archipelago may prove to be a last resting place for many species beyond its native Arctic flora.
"Colonization by shrubs, for example willows, would have a cascade effect on the ecosystems in Svalbard as there are only very fragmented populations of shrubs [there] today," Alsos says.

流萤

在这个小镇上，每一个小房子都被树木掩映。到了夏天，屋前的草坪流萤飞渡。
我和老公一时童心再起，在家门口抓了六只萤火虫。把这虫子放到塑料瓶里。塑料瓶周身都用针戳了孔。但是，虫子们却再不肯发亮，估计是不高兴了。
为了哄他们开心，我采了些青草放进去。萤火虫就顺着青草拼命往上爬，爬到瓶盖下面，估计以为是到天顶了，就开心地亮一亮屁股。还挺好骗。
其实在这里，抓野生动物是犯法的。据说有个家伙就因为偷偷抓了个野兔烤了吃，结果就被遣送回国了。
这萤火虫很小，还算不上真正的野生动物，但我一则担心违法，二则担心他们过一晚上就死菜，就嘱咐老公一会就放了他们。谁知老公专心学业，临睡前竟然忘了。
第二天早上，老公奉命前去勘查状况。谁知，那虫子生命力顽强，竟然还好好活着，只是到了白天，他们就成了懒蛋，只是偶尔在叶子上爬一爬，再不飞了。老公于是放飞了他们。当天晚上，我们看到窗外似乎有很多绿光在飘移 ，估计萤火虫还挺喜欢偶尔进屋小憩一晚。

Sweetheart 心太软

这个小甜点名字好，好吃又好做。做成后，晶莹剔透，亮晶晶，色味俱全。
Recipe 菜谱：
1、取30颗红枣。每颗红枣在一侧用刀拉开，如果有核，去核。
Get 30 red dates. Split each red date by cutting, and remove the cores.
2、一个量杯的糯米粉，加水揉成面团。搓成细长条。按红枣的长度将面条切成小段。
Put water in one level cup of glutinous rice powder and make into dough. Roll the dough into long thin sticks, as thin as it can be put into the red dates. According to the red dates' length, cut the stick into short sects.
3、每个红枣内塞入一段糯米粉。
Stuff one sect in each red date.
4、锅内加水，放入红枣和白糖，煮半小时即可，直到红枣表面皱褶消失。
Put some water, the stuffed red dates and sugar in the pot. Cook for about half an hour till the surface of red date becomes smooth.

Bipedalism

The researchers "present a plausible and elegant argument in favor of the emergence of bipedalism in an arboreal rather than terrestrial context," according to an accompanying commentary by researchers Paul O'Higgins and Sarah Elton, both of the Hull York Medical School in England.
It "reopens the debate," they write, "about the origins of our own peculiar commitment to bipedal locomotion."
Pliable Paleoanthropologist Chimp Bolster Trampoline Knuckle Flakey Lavender Aubergine
Plateau Amphibian Reptile perjury profane Bauxite

Fly

Fly:n.A fold of cloth that covers a fastening of a garment, especially one on the front of trousers.
Huechero:looter. Name derived from the Maya word huech or armadillo, an animal who opens holes in the ground, according to popular knowledge. The name, however, emphasizes the act of excavating. The rest of the process is known as huechería.
The modern world has made the sacking (=looting)of archaeological sites even easier.
War and civil conflict leave ancient sites and museums unprotected. In the most vivid example, 14,000 pieces were ransacked from the Iraq Museum.
In recent years, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the J. Paul Getty Museum of Art in Los Angeles agreed to return artworks believed stolen from Italian soil.
It has diverted the spoils of tomb raiding from the United States to markets in Europe and Japan, where enforcement is more lax.
Gangsta ceramics Gringo Slouch Gobble Curtail repatriate provenance excavate

后来与Future

I am teaching Prof. Grayson Chinese. Once when we discuss how to say future in Chinese, he got confused.
English-speakers think that ' the future is ahead and the past is behind of us'. But in Chinese we sometimes use 以后,meaning 'time afterward', to represent future, and "以前"，meaning 'time forward', to represent past.
It is really an interesting difference. From this tiny differ, you can infer further-more interesting things.
First,why does it exist? Well, I think it shows the different philosophies behind different language users. Or, more properly, the different philosophies give the different, sometimes even contrary usages of the counterpart words in different languages.
Here,Chinese philosophy believes that man will always stay and wait the time to come near,go through and leave away, while English philosophy believes that man can chase the time and move together with the time.
This could lead to the second topic I'd like to discuss.
In China,there is a rooted superstitious concept. We think that man could be immortal. The same man's spirit can live and die for thousands of times. There is no beginnings, and no endings. You can see in this situation, time does not matter at all. The poor or the rich, the comely or the ugly, the king or the slave, all of us never really die. But if you live as a better man in this life, you will get a better fate in the next one. Vice versa.
This concept could lead to extremes. The typical representative of the extreme is Taoism, which thinks that the less the man does, the higher he achieves, and the better the world will be.In his life, Man just have to stay quietly and passively. He does not need to do anything to change the outside world. Because the inner world is the endless origin of one's spirit, the only thing he should do is to make his heart more strong and complete. .
Because of this, Chinese maybe are not as positive as Americans.But I think Chinese philosophy about time can lead to tranquility of man's mind. No matter you achieve something or not, time will never betray you. It will always come and leave.