In this month’s entry:

Apocalyptic Fires, Surprising Ice

Staying Warm with International Dishes

The January 2025 Photo/Video Gallery: Bird and Deer Resilience

Apocalyptic Fires, Surprising Ice: Two Sides of the Same Oily Coin

Chris:

It’s certainly common in this blog to talk about very different places and experiences, but this January seems to offer–I say “seems”–a brutally stark divide between the fires in Los Angeles and the snow and ice here in Northern Virginia and now through the Deep South. Sure, there’s a difference between the heat and sudden destructiveness of a fire and the combination of sudden danger and long-term deadening action of ice. But, as Frost’s poem makes clear, the contrasting forces both have the power to destroy the world–when weaponized by human desire and hate. So fire and ice, in their destructive power, have a lot in common.

Indeed, the LA fires and the extreme “cold snap” now surprising the US South–snow fell in Tallahassee, FL, on Jan. 20, for example–both demonstrate the climate change that the unrestrained greed of the oil and gas cartel continues to bring to the planet and its inhabitants. The unprecedented fires in LA are the result of the rare–but increasing–confluence of a record drought afflicting Southern California and unusually strong Santa Ana winds producing gusts as high as 100 miles an hour. Together, the drought and the winds make wildfires in the parched chaparral landscape much more likely. Climate change science predicts that such a confluence of forces will become more common.

And not only in Southern California. The drought that stoked the fires there is stoking them across many states. According to the US Drought Monitor, as this blog reported in October, as much as 80% of the US is rated as from abnormally dry to being in moderate to severe to extreme to exceptional drought, as this December 2024 map shows:

The Onslaught of Ice in the Deep South

Some are calling it a “once-in-a generation” winter storm along the Gulf Coast (CNN, January 22: https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/22/weather/winter-storm-south-wednesday-hnk/ ). So how is this icy, snowy Southern “Surprise” an effect of climate change? The steadily diminishing polar ice cap, perhaps the most dramatic effect of human-caused climate change over recent decades, is producing fluctuations in the “polar vortex” jet stream that are making seasonal weather forecasting more unpredictable across North America. So we shouldn’t be surprised that a sudden surge of very cold air is hitting the Deep South this January.  Again, what has been entirely predictable over the past 100 years or more is that the Earth is slowly heating. 

And so, the gradual heating produces

the polar ice cap melt that spawns

the fluctuations in the upper atmosphere that cause

the unexpected deep freeze and snows in the South.

In other words, it’s all part of a pattern brought about by our addiction to fossil fuels. That Northern Virginia is experiencing temps this week in the single digits (4 degrees Fahrenheit on the morning of 23rd) would not be surprising if Januaries in the past 20 years had been the typically cold winter months of years long past. But in January 2023 and January 2024, this blog described what amounted to early springs of budding trees–not a surprise, because gradual warming has been the trend, as the world and local temperature records demonstrate:

Is there anything we can do about this trend toward ever worsening destruction? Sure, but will U.S. society have the courage and even the awareness to really move steadily with determination away from oil and gas and toward clean energy? We have the technologies and the infrastructure–and the skilled workforce–to do so. But strong-arm politics is the stumbling block.

Just this Monday, January 20, the loudest mouthpiece for the oil and gas cartel was re-inaugurated as the President, and he has already nominated for his Cabinet men who are wedded to the cartel and dedicated to eliminating clean energy alternatives: solar power, wind power, and electric-powered vehicles. These people glory in the fact that the U.S. is already the world’s largest producer of fossil fuels, and they want that destructive leadership to intensify–to their benefit, but not to meet the needs of the people for a safe, productive environment.

The result will be that in the next few years more and more events like the wildfires in California, the worsening hurricanes in Florida and the Gulf Coast, the extinction of fish species in the oceans, extreme drought in Texas, water shortages in more and more states, and many more climate-related disasters will occur. Costs already in the trillions have been racked up to repair and prepare for these events, with Americans paying for them in ever higher prices, in lost insurance, and in fear for their lives and homes. Politicians who don’t want to call these catastrophes what they are–“human caused”–will keep calling them “natural disasters,”  while nature and her creatures will suffer through our abuse.

A beautiful pair of Mallards push their way through the frozen lake, as snow falls, January 6

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Staying Warm with International Dishes

Jean:

As the temperatures have dipped down and stayed down over the past couple of weeks, I have been inspired to serve comfort foods, hot in both temperature and taste.  Furthermore, we’ve been staying inside more than any time since Covid, as ice has built up outside, so reusing and repurposing leftovers and pantry items has been a priority.

I started with chili, of course—a staple of cold weather comfort food.  I never make chili the same way twice, but this time I was inspired by a recipe by Molly Yeh on the Food Network, except I left out the cinnamon because Chris doesn’t like the taste of Cincinnati chili (but I do).  That chili had no beans, so on another day I added chunky tomatoes and pinto beans for a different look and taste.

Green Pepper Enchiladas

My next inspiration came from watching “Moira Rose” make enchiladas on Schitt’s Creek.  (Yes, there’s a lot of TV watching involved when holed up inside by the weather.)  I don’t know her recipe, so I just pulled something together with leftover bean and corn chili as the filling, spinach tortillas for color, sliced green peppers for crunch, and a canned cheese sauce. They turned out perfectly and were photogenic, too!

West African Peanut Stew

Because Black History month is upcoming in February and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday is this week, I also made a West African peanut stew, which combined chard, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and chicken with the peanuts in a savory sauce with peanut butter, cumin, garlic, ginger, and onion. The plentiful, colorful stew was good for several days of leftovers. Chris particularly liked the chopped chard and tomato flavors, and peanuts are favorites of ours in any form. (The peanut stew was also a tribute to my late older sister, whose birthday was the same as MLK’s.  She worked in Africa with the Peace Corps in her youth.)

Orange Chicken and Tempura Green Beans for Lunar New Year

For Lunar New Year, I also checked out Molly Yeh and came up with her orange chicken recipe.  I decided to opt for our favorite cut, whole chicken thighs, rather than go to the expense and trouble of using chunks of chicken breast.  The point of this recipe for me is the delicious orange sauce, although you can buy a similar preparation in the Asian food aisles at many grocery stores.  Here is her recipe:  https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/orange-chicken-12245113.  I substituted whole seared chicken thighs that I then baked for 45 minutes in the sauce.

The coating on her chicken nuggets, although I didn’t use it, inspired me to try tempura green beans as a side dish. I checked around on the Internet and looked at various recipes for the tempura batter and ended up using something that was half rice flour, half all-purpose flour, a little baking powder and salt, plus enough sparkling water to make a batter that was neither runny nor too thick but just the right consistency to adhere to green beans dipped in it.  Then about 4 minutes in piping hot oil and a sprinkle of salt when they come out to drain on paper towels.  Great when hot, but a fine snack when cooled or rewarmed briefly as well.

The key to tempura really is the batter, and there are lots of ways to make a good one. You just have to experiment. I remember eating tempura shrimp one time in the kitchen of a Japanese neighbor who said she used some pancake batter mix for a coating that was a little thicker, puffier and browner than the typical tempura batter.  That was so delicious I think we ate the family’s entire week’s supply of shrimp; I just kept asking for more.

And for dessert: Japanese Mochi Bars

I decided to turn part of the rice flour mixture into mochi bars for dessert as well, since this mixture is the starch that is used to create the dense texture of mochi. I chose bar form because it’s easier than making the batter into balls: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1022347-butter-mochi

I made these the afternoon after I made the tempura green beans, and they emerged from the oven just in time for an impromptu afternoon tea. Chris joined me after editing his new batch of bird photos. On a fifteen-degree January day, inside or outside activities can both be good choices. But tea and mochi bars back inside always work.

What can I say? If cold weather keeps me indoors, I turn to cooking. Let Chris go outside to commune with the birds. We both think I made the right choice.

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The January 2025 Photo/Video Gallery: The Resilience of Birds and Our Other Citizens

Male Cardinal calls and listens in a Cherry tree in the Southeast cove, as a Tufted Titmouse and a Downy Woodpecker also call from the nearby woods, on a cold, windy morning, January 7

Chris: They are hanging in there, marvelous creatures that they are. This blog continues to celebrate avian courage, as we note that H5N1 “bird flu” is now making its presence felt in Virginia, at poultry farms (so far 7 of them) in the Delmarva (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia) region. And cranes have now died of the disease at the Richmond (VA) Zoo (Dana Hedgepeth, Washington Post, January 22). We are constantly inspired by these small bundles of energy as we hear them calling and watch them surviving and building lives amid the snow and ice this month.

The White-tailed Buck ambles toward the woods west of the field, eyes me, then moves on, January 17

Panorama toward the west bank of the lake from the southeast side in snow and ice fall, January 19, afternoon

Amid a chorus of other birds, House Sparrow flits in dry Blackberry canes by the frozen lake, along north shore, January 19

Mockingbird dances in the Greenbriar on the Southeast bank of the frozen lake, January 16

Female Cardinal calls, listens, flits in Cherry tree, Southeast side, January 19

Pair of Mourning Doves in a Tulip Tree, North end woods as snow falls, January 6

Our large flock of Canada Geese all along the North shore of the lake, January 7

And on to the month of Valentines with hopes for our own resilience among challenges!