Today was such a day. The Windy City was living up to its name so I decided to walk at my favorite indoor exercise place, Weber Park’s indoor walking track. While changing into my gym shoes, a man and a woman sitting across from me were discussing the proposal to build a Mosque at Ground Zero. “No,” I chimed in. “It’s two blocks from ground Zero, not in it.”
We talked about the Mosque controversy and other issues and how they were affecting people. Did people living near Ground Zero have a right to be frightened? The discussion drifted, as conversations will, to head coverings. The woman commented about the law in France banning women from wearing burqhas. As we began to discuss our misconceptions -or not -about various Muslim head coverings, the woman sitting in a seat across from me said, “Excuse me. I’m a Muslim woman from Pakistan and I’m not wearing any head covering. We don’t all wear them. It depends on the person.”
I could see where this was going. It was going toward my postponing my exercising yet again. C’est la vie. The discussion about Muslims and Jews and the diversity of practices seemed more interesting than walking around in circles anyway. It’s always a better world when people can talk to each other and reach a new understanding. I could always walk later.
“I feel really comfortable in America,” the Muslim woman said. “Everyone is from somewhere else.”
Alas, she left in a hurry before I could get any recipes from her.
By the time I finished walking, the only people sitting outside of the walking track were Filipinos speaking to each other in Tagalog. Since I don’t speak that language, there was no temptation to join their conversation. That gave me plenty of time to go home and cook Pineapple Chicken, another Peace de Resistance recipe. This recipe serves 4 people and takes about 10 minutes to prepare. It takes an hour to cook. While dinner is cooking, you can read the newspaper, watch the evening news, or listen to the news on NPR and be better informed when you go to vote on Tuesday. During the commercials, about a half hour before the chicken is ready, put up some rice to eat with it. At the next set of commercials, cut up and heat a green vegetable.
Pineapple Chicken
Ingredients
1 chicken cut up
Soy sauce, pepper, and garlic powder to taste
1 can of frozen pineapple juice
1 can water
1/8 of a cup of brown sugar
1 can pineapple chunks
1 green onion diced
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Place the chicken in a flat baking pan skin side up.
Cover chicken lightly with brown sugar. Sprinkle the garlic powder and pour soy sauce over the chicken.
Defrost the pineapple juice until it is soft enough to pour, mix with water and pour over the chicken.
Sprinkle the green onion pieces over the chicken pieces.
Bake in oven until glazed and dark brown (40 – 60 minutes)
Ten minutes before serving, add drained pineapple chunks.
It came out quite tasty. Since there were only two of us to eat it, I even had leftovers for another dinner. For best reheating results, freeze the leftover chicken in a plastic container with all the juices and the pineapple chunks. Reheat the chicken with the juices and pineapple in a pot on a low to medium heat.
And don’t forget to vote.
4 comments:
It's not about cooking (or the election), but Michael Totten, a favorite blogger of mine, picked up an interesting quote Sunday from NPR:
"What I believe Juan Williams did was express, unfortunately, the position of many Americans in their distrust of Muslims. I am Muslim. My father’s name has Muhammad in it. We would be profiled if we go through airports because, you know, I buy tickets at the last minute and I fall into the classic profile that you have.
"But I got to tell you, when I went to Great Falls Park the other day, and I saw a woman in a full-face veil and her husband had a little leather bag that wasn’t looking like a picnic basket, I felt a little nervous. And there was a park ranger behind me who clearly was on their tail.
"What Juan Williams expressed, I believe, is the sentiment of many people and including Muslims. Muslims profile each other all the time. When you walk into a mosque and you see other Muslims, you say, oh look, he looks like a Jihadi."
Asra Nomani, author of Standing Alone: An American Woman’s Struggle for the Soul of Islam.
Thanks Martha. It's always great to get someone else's point of view. I have to say that it's not unusual for minorities to pick up the majority view about themselves. Hence the humor of Margaret Cho (Korean), African-Americans calling each other the 'N word, and the self-deprecating humor of earlier women comedians. Have a great day, Martha.
Lisa,
Are you aware of how Muslims feel about Jews? Are you aware that the 9/11 families suffer greatly still today. Do you know what is happening in Europe? About what Obama is trying secretly to get Israel to do? It is not pretty.
All through history Islam has built mosques at sites of conquest. The World Trade Center was a conquest in their minds. Do you know that the Iman for the mosque wants to bring in Sharia Law? It is not good. He says it's compliant with our constitution. It is not. Are you aware that Oklahoma has a referendum on the ballot on Tuesday to ban Sharia Law?
I was there on 9/11. And I saw videos of Muslims dancing. I hear quacks blaming it on the Jews. Diversity is one thing...but anyone who seeks to displace our Constitution with barbaric, 7th Century law is not to be tolerated.
Are you aware that the Nazis were in cahoots with Islam in WWII?
Tolerance is a crime when applied to evil....Thomas Mann.
Yes, I am aware of this. Nevertheless, I don't think that every Muslim in America shares that and that what happened at Ground Zero should be blamed on them.
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