Indian Chicken Curry

Indian Chicken Curry

Ingredients (Legend: tsp= teaspoon, tbsp= tablespoon)

2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into bite-size pieces

3 Tbsps Oil (olive or vegetable blend)

1 onion (medium to small) chopped to small pieces

2 garlic cloves, diced or minced

1 inch fresh ginger root, peeled and grated (~ 1 tsp)

½ tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp cinnamon ground

1 bay leaf

3 tsp curry powder or garam masala powder

1 tsp red chili powder or 2 fresh green chillies (minced) (optional)

1/2 teaspoon white sugar  (optional)

1 /2 teaspoon black pepper powder

Salt to taste

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 cup plain yogurt

3/4 cup vegetable stock or coconut milk (coconut milk increases the calories and fat but is creamy and delicious)

½ lime or 1/2 lemon, juiced or keep other half kept as small chunks to garnish (optional)

Preparation

Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat.
Add cumin seeds and once the they turn dark brown, add the onions and saute onion until lightly browned. Stir in the diced garlic, cinnamon, bay leaf, ginger, sugar and salt.
Continue stirring for 1 minutes.
Add the masala (curry powder and chili powder and continue stirring for another minute.
Add chicken pieces, tomato paste, yogurt, and stock. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.

Remove bay leaf, and stir in black pepper. Simmer 5 more minutes. (Optional: add chopped cilantro leaves). Stir in lime juice and serve with rice or Naan or Warm corn/wheat tortillas.

Recipe prepared by: Nari Call 814 753 4459 for cooking demos/classes; Email: psusaver@gmail.com

A Critical Moment at Penn State

We heard in latest news (CNN.com) that Penn State's accreditation status has been placed on review and the University has been served a warning by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

Excerpt from the CNN article: "The commission also said it had insufficient evidence that Penn State officials had followed commission rules about how schools are to be governed and whether it had provided "accurate, fair and complete information" about what was happening at the school, according to the letter.

The commission asked Penn State to report by September 30 on the steps it is taking to ensure full compliance with accreditation requirements, as well as information about the school's financial capacity to meet ongoing obligations considering the potential fallout from civil lawsuits expected over the scandal. " 

Some things have be be taken into account as we delve into this. 

1. this is a warning prompting the University to ongoing as well future steps that establish integrity and accountability.

2. The University already took some actions to dig deep into the cover up by hiring an independent commission headed by Mr. Freeh and co. 

Some of the discussions on online message boards and facebook state that:

 "People in the highest office SHOULD be punished" but also that " current students and alumni just have to deal with the unfortunate situation of going to school at a place where this happened."

When people say that "those responsible for cover up should be punished".

That should mean people in those offices when the crimes and cover up occurred, not any new higher ups who are here to clean the house. Based on my understanding of the US legal system, unless specific actions of those individuals could be proven (the perjury to grand jury trials are going to be held soon) the blame falls on the University overall. 

However, attacking individual students and alums (verbally or god forbid physically) is the equivalent of US tourists being harassed?attacked elsewhere for some (wrong) foreign policy decisions of the Congress or the President. At least, citizens have a say in selecting the Congress every few years. Students have no say in selection of the Upper Mgmt or Board of trustees. The alumni have a small amount of control over selection of some board of trustees..

That is the only way things can change. Also, regarding accreditation being revoked, I find a huge disconnect in that punishment. I would agree if just punishment is handed to the officials who were in charge, after culpability is established. Otherwise, it just affects new students - who are 10 years removed from the crimes and at least 1-2 years removed from the final of the cover ups. 

So if the 43k (actually it is 96k over all campuses) want to save their a$$, they need to ensure accountability at the top level. however, it has to be team work with the management respecting the students' voices all the more and the students should rally to provide useful contributions, than just a few thousand rioting to voice displeasure.

For too long, at Penn State the students were afraid or too reverential of their higher ups. Now, the higher ups have to be afraid of the students and be more accountable. 

Garden Bounty: Tomatoes and Zucchini

I manage a community garden plot near the Windmill on Penn State campus. The plot is my friend's plot but there was some open space, so I planted some Italian zucchini. I planted the seeds in early July and a little sapling came out around July 20th.

Zucchini plant emerging ~ July 20-22nd.

I watered this regularly during the dry spell in late July and plant grew to have much larger leaves and looked healthy.. However, I moved apts early August and also there were some good rains every other day, I did not go to the garden for a week or so. When I went today to check it out, I had a BIG surprise. I found a massive zucchini, which I harvested, then weighed it on a scale (2.11 kg ~ 4.6 lb) and then "hauled" it home.

The cellphone gives a sense of how long the zucchini is! That's about how wide the whole plant was 20 days back!!

Cherry tomatoes that had grown wildly all over the plot, and they occupy the background. Who wants some?

Any recipe ideas? I already made fried zucchini flowers earlier today!