ASIAN PERSUASION: Last Saturday night was our monthly Teen Feed gig. For this month's menu, we asked the team to contribute Asian-inspired food and drink items.
We had four different choices for diners' main entrée: There was yummy sesame beef from Kennedy, my friend Thy brought some terrific teriyaki chicken, a mother-son team cooked up tangy Thai sweet chili tofu, and the Birds sponsored spicy BBQ Korean pork, which CJ, Annabelle and I prepped. The filling stir fry came with a mound of aromatic rice. I think I made about 100 cups of cooked basmati. There were also tons of super colorful, nutritious veggies thanks to other sponsors.
Spring rolls were cooked up as side offerings. Each diner also received a brown lunch sack packed by CJ and Annabelle.
Those were filled with tasty treats, including packets of savory seaweed, homemade matcha and white chocolate chip cookies or fresh-baked vegan matcha donuts that Annabelle and I baked.
The bags also included soy sauce and chopsticks, a fortune cookie, and bubble tea.
No less than three Teen Feed workers reported that the bubble tea was a Teen Feed first and a HUGE hit with the guests. In fact, employee Austin reported that one teen called in to see what was for dinner, and when he heard there was bubble tea, he made it a point to be there. It just happened to be that teen's birthday, and he said the bubble tea was the highlight of his day. It just goes to show you, sometimes the smallest thing can mean so much.
SEATING ARRANGEMENT: One of our passing away the pandemic time activities is sitting at a picnic table outside a convenience store in West Seattle. Doesn't that sound like fun?
It gets us out of the house, we get some fresh air, visit with other regular customers and get to pet lots of cute dogs.
Of course, it does get a little bit cold this time of year, so we have lap blankets and a little propane heater.
However, we've recently done that set up one better by creating a pseudo kotatsu.
According to the website Japanobjects.com, these heated tables are believed to have originated in the 14th-century Muromachi era. "Charcoal was once used to heat a hearth set into the ground known as an irori. Later a seating platform was added which separated the cooking function from the heating and finally, to stop the heat disappearing too quickly, a quilt was placed on top to localize the heat. This early style was called the hori-gotatsu meaning a ditch foot warmer," per the site.
Today, the tables have evolved into functional, comfortable, efficient living room tables in many Japanese homes and restaurants.
Below is an 'action' photo of CJ and Annabelle filling our little propane tank.
We bought an inexpensive, allegedly king-sized weighted blanket off Amazon to help create our kotatsu. The amount of heat it retains under the table is a dramatically marked improvement over our previous set up!
WAITING ON WEBB: It seems like it has been decades since NASA announced its plans to build the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). It feels that way because it has been decades. JWST originated in 1996, initially called the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST). According to Wikipedia, the telescope was renamed in 2002, after NASA's second administrator James E. Webb (1906–1992). JWST is a collaborative project between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.
The "origami" telescope, with its unfolding arrays, is finally set to launch on December 22 from Arianespace's ELA-3 launch complex at European Spaceport located near Kourou, French Guiana. During its 1,000,000 or so mile journey, Webb will 'unfold' through a number of deployments to reach its operational configuration.
The public is invited to be NASA's virtual guests for the launch of the launch of the largest, most powerful and complex space telescope ever built. Registering for the event will give people access to launch information, news about about post-launch milestones, and you'll be notified when the first JWST images are available.
All resources, participation, and registration are free. You can sign up at this link:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/james-webb-space-telescope-registration-167215593341?aff=invite
More info about JWST is available on NASA's site: https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/index.html
ROCK ON: An email from a homeschool group recently contained, of all things, a link to a rock stacking game. It is alternately relaxing and totally vexing.
https://neal.fun/rocks/
