当腊八粥变成了红豆沙

昨天晚上和老妈网聊的时候听她说熬的腊八粥如何如何好. 于是心向外之. 今天就打算自己也煮上一锅.

好多的红豆, 一点儿糙米, 一点儿小米, 一点儿荞麦, 一点儿燕麦, 加水, 大火煮开, 再转小火,徐徐图之. 然后再加红枣, 莲子, 银耳之类的.

想法是好地, 但一小时后, 发现计划是赶不上变化地. 我的无水锅动静小了一点儿, 我看小说太投入了一点儿, 时间过的太快了一点儿, 最重要的是, 呵呵, 水加的少了一点儿.

我心心向往的腊八粥变成了一锅红豆沙?!

好在我还没准备红枣, 莲子, 银耳之类的 (laziness has its own virtue), 好在我发了面准备蒸馒头, 好在我有一个品种齐全的储物柜, 最重要的是, 呵呵,  我有一颗灵活善变的心.

于是, 计划中的6个馒头变成了12个豆沙包!

虽然没有红枣, 莲子和银耳, 但是我放了葡萄干,桂花, 又在某只豆沙包里放了榛仁巧克力(my idea was that whoever lucky would bump into it, but it turned out to be me of course--Mr Hippo wasn't very into my sweet improvisation). 

于是, 腊八粥变成了八宝豆沙包 ;)

Quick Caprese pizza, Chinese edition

Ms Hippo loves to test new ideas when cooking.  For instance, she enjoys tossing together ingredients from different cuisines and integrating them in her dishes.  Here is an example where she used Chinese flat bread (bing, 饼) to fix a Caprese pizza lunch for Mr Hippo.

Top freshly-made and halved bread with mozzarella cheese and grill until the cheese melts.  Snip 8 basil leaves, wash and dry.  Slice a tomato and a bit of onion.  Assemble everything as shown in the picture, grind salt and pepper and add 4 olives for the center piece.  Last, spray some extra-virgin olive oil and serve!

Mr Hippo's testimony: "Pretty good, very crunchy!"

Why Flying Hippo?

The idea of starting a blog called 'Flying hippo' jumped to me during a post-midnight conversation with Mr Hippo. It was late, so it is hard to remember, even in the next morning, what exactly triggered the idea. Having been reading Daniel Kahneman's 'Thinking, fast and slow', I guess the idea must have been originated from my intuitive System 1.

My (slightly more) rational System 2 did embrace it. I found myself hitting "Creating a blog" the first thing next morning, and five minutes later, here I am, writing my first blog, and as curious as you are about the name.

According to Kahneman, System 1 has an amazing capability of connecting dots, even before the logical side of us is aware of any connection. So my passion towards the name could be explained by a bunch of interactive factors, including the fact that I am mostly herbivorous myself, that I like the way of the word hippo pronounced , that I am a big fan of a Finnish character who looks very much like but hates being called a hippo, and last, but not the least, I had decided to loose weight in 2012.

But here comes the ultimate explanation: I am somewhat schizophrenic. On one hand, I enjoy a quite and peaceful life more than anything else. My favorite time of being a scientist is not to interview my stakeholders or facilitate my deliberative workshops but to ponder what is new next. On my own that is, of course. My No. 1 hobby is also a solo activity--reading while sunbathing. On the other hand, from time to time, I do desire a wild style of life, for instance, flying to Africa and pat hippos in their native habitat (not recommended because hippos have an aggressive nature).

So, this blog is primarily to record my sedentary and peaceful hippo-like life. But, hey, don't be surprised if you read me flying wild once in a while!