One Bunch of Bok Choy

A Prayer for the ones we love.  It was 24 hours of worry but all is well.  😀 

 

 

When I dragged myself  from the comfort beneath the covers, everyone else was snoozing happily.  Shane doesn’t even get up with me anymore.  He waits for a little cuddle and belly scratch at the top of the stairs before I go down,  then closes his eyes and goes back to sleep until Ted gets up. 

The treadmill looked awfully energetic this morning.  The Elliptical, a tad more relaxed.  But I took the bull by the horns, hopped on the T/M and pumped out 3.25 miles.  My shoulder started hurting HORRIBLY after about 10 minutes. I had to keep adjusting my arm position.  It went away as soon as I stopped running, but that was a good 20 minutes of agony.

The legs heard the morning call. It was 35 minutes of  presses, hack squats, deadlifts, lunges, extensions, curls, and calf raises.   

The temperature gage indicated a cool, crisp 48 degrees when we went out for a 38 minute trek around Valley View Restaurant.   Not a bad workout.  Wednesday should be easy – no early morning rising because we are going to The Fair!  New York State Fair – here we come!

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What about Bok Choy?

I like Bok Choy.

Up until about 2 years ago, I never paid any attention to it in the store because I didn’t know what it was or how it tasted or even how to prepare it.  Since I’ve become much more “daring” with my cooking concoctions, Bok Choy has made several appearances to our dinner table.  

I like the crispy ends.  In order to enjoy them, I cut off the really dirty thickest part of the bok choy “root” and slice the other white part into smaller pieces. 

 I cook those white pieces in boiling water for about 8 minutes just to slightly tenderize.  

The green leafy part, which when all is said and done, there isn’t  much left, is tender and doesn’t need much cooking. I don’t find it as bitter as some of the other leafy vegetables so I don’t boil it, I simply saute it with the tenderized white parts.

After the white roots of the bok choy have boiled for 8 minutes, they are drained and pat dry with a paper towel.  **When I saute a vegetable after boiling, I always try to get as much water from it as possible. If there is water left on it, the item will simply “steam” and not brown when sauteed or fried. **  Heat 1 TBS olive oil in a saute pan and, when hot, add the boiled white root chunks and 1/2 of a chopped onion.  Let them cook for about 5 minutes on medium high.  The chopped green, leafy ends are then added with 1 tsp Chile paste, 1 tsp garlic, 1 tsp soy sauce, a little salt and some fresh ground black pepper.  The mixture is cooked about 10 more minutes and ….Wallah!   A vegetable dish is served!

Enjoy!

 

Do you have a favorite vegetable? How about a favorite way to prepare a not so popular vegetable to make your family enjoy it?

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Missing Links and Bok Choy

Taking a break today and with the intention of checking out some of my favorite blog roll links, I found they were missing.  I couldn’t understand it since I hadn’t been fooling around with the “Appearance” setting.  This sent my heart racing because, when something goes wrong with the site, I naturally assume it was something I did and since I don’t usually know what I do, certainly wouldn’t have a clue how to UNDO!  How was I going to get the blog roll back? 

I went to my “Widgets” and “dragged and dropped” but then a message popped up something about the “Links” not being customized or something.  OH NO!  There was no save button. I clicked on “Visit Site” and luckily, they mysteriously re-appeared just as mysteriously as they had DIS-appeared.   Two more years lost off my life from computer stress.  That means two more years of healthy eating and exercising. Bummer! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s for dinner?  Stove Top Grilled Bok Choy with Sweet and Sour Glaze

Ever feel like NOT chopping everything into little pieces?  Me to. So I washed a head of bok choy but left it together. ..initially, then I chopped.  Here’s the rest…

• 2 TBS Olive Oil
• 1 tsp Peanut oil
• 1 head bok choy, wash well to remove dirt and grit between leaves and stems then pat dry
• 1 red pepper, sliced
• 1 green pepper, sliced
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 /2 TBS molasses
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1/2 TBS soy sauce
• 1 TBS rice vinegar
• 1 TBS vegetable broth/stock
• 1 TBS toasted sesame seeds

Heat a stove top grill on medium high with the oils.  When hot, add the cleaned and dried bok choy and cook 2-3 minutes per side.* If your stove top grill (or outdoor grill if you prefer) is large enough, cook bok choy AND pepper strips all at once to save time.  You will turn the bok choy 4 times. 

Remove to tall sided saute pan and add the pepper strips to the hot grill pan (if you did not cook them with the bok choy). Grill about 8 minutes or until browned.  Remove to the pan holding the bok choy. 

Bok choy should be cool enough to handle, so now you will rough chop, discarding the tough end pieces. Turn the saute pan on medium, put the chopped bok choy back into the pan with the pepper strips, add the red pepper flakes and cook 10 minutes.  Add the molasses, ginger, soy sauce, vinegar and broth to the pan and cook for 3 minutes, coating the bok choy and peppers really well. Top with toasted sesame seeds and serve. 

 

We enjoyed a nice glass of  Ponzi Tavola Pinot Noir. Not overly complex, but a nice red to kick off another long weekend for Joanne and Ted. Why is it another long weekend?….read on friends.

Off to the races….

This weekend we are off to the races. Car races that is.  We are helping out on the “Grid” at the Porsche Clash Club Race this weekend.  Here is a very brief description….

The variety of Porsches that participate in our PCA Club Race runs the gamut–from the Porsche you drive on the road to the Farnbacher-Loles, TRG and Flying Lizard-prepared, nationally-known race cars.

This makes me very nervous because working the Grid involves “proper attire” (Oh NO!), earplugs (double OH NO!), and being on the look out for cars.  You can bet your top hat I’ll be taking pictures and hoping not to get run over in the process.

Ted and I are working Friday from noon to 5pm and Saturday morning until 12pm.  The details, barring any “misfortunes”…vroom, vroom….  will be posted Saturday night.   See you then!

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