Stir-Fry (And Stir, And Stir, And Fry, And Fry)

     This weekend was the annual campout at our friend's cabin on Mt. Hood.  Every year, the kids will tromp through the woods on massive games of capture the flag, hide and seek and tag, and the parents sit around the campfire and drink.  They are so wrapped up in their own conversations that when, after a particularly intense game of capture-the-flag, a kid can stumble past the fire, blood dripping down one leg, hair matted with sticks and twigs, a dish towel clutched in their hand.  The parents reaction?  What reaction?  In other words, just like every year.  So, after I drove, and Dad biked home (50 miles), we knew we didn't have the energy for an elaborate tonight.  So we picked out something relatively simple, and good.
     While the beef for this stir-fry marinaded, Dad and I prepped the rest of the stir-fry, blanching broccoli, and chopping up red bell peppers.  Once the beef finished it's marinade, we cooked it in peanut oil, stirring and flinching a lot, the oil spitting it's small painful darts at us.  As with any stir fry, we had to make a mis en place, cook each item, then recreate our mis en place and put everything together and cook it again.  Ultimately though, the work was worth it.

     Like a good stir-fry, this one had more flavors than can be catalogued in a single bite, or many bites for that manner.  Unlike most stir-fries though, this one was
 followed by blueberry pie.  Even though today has been
rather gray, it was a good reminder that it IS summer.