可艾小廚房 Claire’s Kitchen - Making Granola Bilingual Instructional Video

Our friends from church came over and we taught them how to make granola. We made a video for Claire's cooking show youtube channel. Claire would very much appreciate if you would open the video in youtube and hit the like button! 請按讚！Thank you!

Art in the Park

 As a matter of sanity, it's my habit to pick up the mandolin a few times a week and play through some old familiar tunes.  This week I've been reviewing music by one of my early inspirations, Peter Ostroushko. I was fortunate to hear him play live a few times with his Duo partner, Dean Macgraw, when I was at Macalester College in the late 1980s.  Both of them were local Twin Cities musicians who were frequently featured on A Prairie Home Companion.  My friends and I loved to emulate the humor and music that we heard on that show, so seeing them live and laughing at their antics remains planted deep in my grey matter.

I'm also lucky to be part of a duo here in Taiwan.  Not my lifelong duet singer, Jenny Huang, but a local misfit who keeps his guitar handy too.  Van grew up in Tennessee having played many genres of rock music, but could never escape his bluegrass and country roots.  So Van and I occasionally text each other "Up for some tunes in the park?" and "How about we meet to play at the Duck Park before it gets dark?"  It's a weather dependent habit, but the spontaneity of it makes it all the more enticing.  Late in the afternoon after a day of teaching, it's a great way for me to switch gears and get out of my rut.  A grey day that turned sunny and warm in the afternoon is one of the best times.

We have a small but expanding repertoire of favorites we run through each evening.  Certainly not all bluegrass, but the mando-guitar combo along with simple vocal harmonies lend themselves to bluesy folksy songs and old-timey fiddle tunes.  The park is not particularly known for buskers, so passers-by sometimes glance our way but rarely stop to listen.  That is, adults.  They are cautiously polite about giving us too much attention when we're clearly just enjoying our own company albeit loudly, and in a public space.  Forgivable for foreigners.  But kids can't help but look and listen and move.

Just the other day as we ran through our version of  Lady Madonna a kid no older than 2 with his grandpa in tow started bouncing at the knees and waving his arms to the beat.  In spite of his grandpa's coaxing he could not be redirected.  The music had caught hold and like a preacher at a Pentecostal church he was wild with joy.  When we finished he climbed up on the stone stool in front of me and reached out to start my mandolin again.  I leaned back and started chunking on Freight Train, the old Elizabeth Cotton favorite, then segued into CCR's Down on the Corner.  Other kids came to listen and I sang out loudly with smiling parents in the background, "You don't need a penny, just to hang around..."

Just another walk in the park, ya never know what you might see or hear.

Stone, Wind and Water on the North Coast

 As Spring Festival 春節 (Lunar New Year) approached we were left without a "family home" to return to so we made plans to visit the beautiful natural earth that is our planetary home.  One spot that stands out on the island of Taiwan is its sandstone northern coast with calcium carbonate formations that look like a moonscape, or to an Iowa forager, giant morels.  Here's a sample as you enter the park, enough to feed 500, I'd say.  

and here they are in their more natural context.  

This "geopark", recognized as a unique and protected world heritage site by UNESCO (UN Education Science and Cultural Organization), is actually a peninsula jutting out on the northern most coast of Taiwan, an hour ride by bus from the center of Taipei, the capital city.

  

The piece de resistance is the Queen's Head which not only appears on every promotion for the park (and nearby village) has it's very own boardwalk approach and photo shoot queue!

But, on this visit the Princess won Miss Photogenic. 

Many of you are familiar with the term Fengshui (風水) which refers to a balance of design in art and architecture rooted in natural shapes and structures.  In this place formed by wind (風) and salt water (水) the emergence of unimaginable stone forms gave us a feeling of wonder and awe as we walked among these sculptures, alien and extraterrestrial, and yet a place we still find ourselves.

Hiking the Hills of New Bamboo

While most of the Taiwan we see on a daily basis is city, we do manage to get out into nearby rice / vegetable fields on our bikes regularly and enjoy the feeling of our typical rural lives in the US.  This winter holiday however afforded us time and energy to venture further afield into the nearby hills to the east.  We had to take a bus to the trailhead / visitor center and then enjoyed a rigorous walk along a mostly paved path up one of the sacred mountains of the island, Lion's Head Mountain.

 

Hamming it up as Hakka farmers at the LHM visitor center.

 Jenny peering out from a shallow cave called the "lion's tail" which had greenery hanging over the edge like hair.

 

Soleil and Jenny reach the height of land after a steep climb and enjoy an "us"ie at a tall stand of bamboo.

Soleil had her eye on blooming plants throughout the hike and we kept reminding ourselves that it was February!

We took a shorter circle hike on a Friday afternoon but noticed that the trail map offered longer hikes up and over the top to a temple village.  So on Monday morning we returned for the full trip up and over.  We were delighted by the sights from the other side looking down into the next county south of Hsinchu (New Bamboo) called Miaoli (Chestnut Sprouts).

The temple pillars are carved from a seeming singular stone.

  Life sized cranes bathed in a waterfall surrounded by trees, both real and sculpted.

The views alone were worth the 3 mile walk, but of course there was much more to be enjoyed.  As you may have read in a previous post, kumquats from our friend Joyce have been our winter food challenge. Here was the final kumquat bite and we are converts.  Try one!

Finally the Huangs were over the mountain and celebrating with the lions at the gate.  A bus from a tiny village at the foot of the mountain took us back to a station where we caught the local train back to Hsinchu and our neighborhood where our bikes were waiting to take us home again.

 

Jenny spun the prayer wheels for good luck and we headed home.

Kumquats

Soleil and I are half way through a Ten-day Kumquat Challenge. We were recently gifted a generous supply of these cute little orange fruits. I'd tried them before but never enjoyed them. They are bitter, sour, and sweet all at once. Day one, according to Soleil, "Weird. It's weird eating the peel. The inside has too much fiber. Sometimes they taste like lemons."

So as I wondered what to do with our new piles of kumquat gold I searched the web for ideas and read that they are an acquired taste and that if you eat one a day for ten days you'll end up loving them. Apparently they are good for your health with vitamin C and antioxidants and all. Some days I have two in a day, so I can call myself an overachiever. 

I'm not addicted yet but Soleil is already worrying about how she'll survive when we run out.

I made some muffins with kumquats, yogurt and tiny chocolate chips. Eater one said, "Sensational!" Another eater said, "You could sell these at a café." The third eater said, "I'll have to make these again." There was no fourth eater. The muffins were all gone in a flash. 

So the muffins were a grand success. But the best I can say for the fruit itself (without added sugar and chocolate) is, "I don't hate them anymore." Five days to go.

Jenny

Kumquat Update

We ran out of kumquats around day eight. Blame that second batch of muffins, with ginger instead of chocolate. So we didn't get in the full ten days. But after a week without a single kumquat we bought some at the fruit store and are back on track. It's also pineapple season and we've consumed at least three of those recently. Tonight we had homemade carrot pineapple cake to celebrate Greg's birthday. Taiwan is a great place if you like fruit.