A week or so ago, Owl and her family graciously invited me to attend a performace of the Bolshoi Ballet in La Bayadere. This was a rare treat indeed. The Bolshoi are one of the top two companies in Russia, and one of the best in the world. La Bayadere, which follows the life, and ultimate demise, of a beautiful and sweet bayadere (temple dancer), is full of all sorts of drama from the standard love and betrayal, to fantastical, opium induced visions. La Bayadere also contains one of my all-time favorite female solos. Nikia (the bayadere), is forced to dance at the wedding of her sworn beloved to the fakir’s daughter, Gamzatti. Nikia is, of course, devastated, and proceeds to dance an exceedingly mournful solo, and it all only goes downhill from there. Below, is video of Altynai Asylmuratova dancing Nikia with absoultely wonderful dramatic conviction.
mm delicious…Owl was coming over for dinner, and I decided on a whim to make us lettuce wraps.
First the filling. I had no recipe, so I just made up my own. Onion combined with tomatoes always makes a good base for stir-frys. The onions become super soft, sweet, and just generally delicious, the tomatoes release alot of juice when cooked (especially on lower temperatures – I usually start out low and raise the temp toward the end), meaning that one really doesn’t need to use any oil at all when cooking the vegetables. Note: oil, especially olive oil, has been shown to be extremely healthy in many many ways. I tend to avoid it because it does add calories, but if you’re not overly concerned about this, I strongly suggest using olive oil (it’ll make the whole thing taste better too).
For the filling I used,
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approx. 1/2 head green cabbage
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approx 15 pices okra
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1 onion
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1 package baked tofu
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approx 2 cups cherry tomatos
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tamari/soy sauce to taste
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handful shittake mushrooms
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one bell pepper
All this I sauted together, and wrapped in fresh lettuce leaves and corn tortillas with a bit of eggplant pesto sauce to taste.
Total: approx 610 calories/whole filling recipe (it makes ALOT of servings!)
Owl! In the middle of the day, the high sun making the graceful owl look rather like a gnome!
A hiddious and terrifying monster
A wistful tree
The real thing
And myself, in an earlier part of the day
