When our daughter Angelica was small, I took her with me to pick up our babysitter. As I approached the house, I noticed that her dog, usually penned in the backyard, was lying on the front porch. At first glance, the dog looked benign. But to my alarm he sprang to his feet and attacked Angelica, who leaped for my leg, shinned to my waist, and somehow ended up wrapped around my neck and shoulders.
While flying from Europe back to the US, I found myself sitting next to a little girl who never stopped talking from the moment she sat down. She told me the history of her family and all about her puppy, who was in the hold of the plane. She pointed excitedly to everything around us, “Look at this! Look at that!” I couldn’t help but think that 8 hours of this could make for a very long flight!
We chatted for a while until she suddenly got quiet. She pulled her blanket up around her, so I thought maybe she was going to doze off. I quickly took advantage of the break and reached for the nearest magazine. But before I could open it, I felt a little elbow in my side. I looked down at her and she threw out her little hand and said, “Hey, Joe, wanna be friends?”
Our house in Boise , Idaho , backs up to a park with a walking track. You can see most of the path from our kitchen window, and because of that I’ve learned to recognize people by their walk.
There’s a lawyer from down the street who’s always in a hurry, an elderly man who trudges slowly by, a woman who strides with purposeful steps. Each has a characteristic gait.
In a big pan or wok sauté 5 cloves of diced garlic and 2 sliced onions, then add ¼ kilo pork sliced into small pieces, ¼ kilo chicken liver and gizzard sliced into small pieces. Add 1 cup of chicken stock and a pinch of salt and simmer for 15 minutes or until pork and chicken giblets are cooked. Then add ¼ kilo shrimps shelled, deveined and cut into half and the vegetables as ¼ kilo cauliflower broken into bite sizes, ¼ kilo string beans, 111/4 kilo snow peas or sitsaro, ¼ kilo cabbage cut into squares, 3 stalks of celery cut into 2 long pieces, 1 carrot sliced thinly and 1 each of red and green bell peppers cut into strips. Add 1 cup of chicken stock, 3 tablespoons of fish sauce or patis and 2 tablespoons of cornstarch dissolved in ¼ cup water. Cook for about 10 minutes and add 3 tablespoons on sesame oil Add salt and pepper to taste.