Kemptville Street Piano

Nick Di Gaetano’s Comedy Rock Show

submitted by Lisa Poushinsky

If you’re up for absurd adventure and musical mayhem, this all-ages comedy rock show is for you! Take a trip with Captain Nick Di Gaetano into Unbridled Futurism, a theatrical 3D experi -

The Food Corner

By Paul Cormier, Salamanders of Kemptville

ence you don’t want to miss. Did I mention the silver unitard? Video and a Telecaster guitar? Or was it a Strat? Like any mysterious space object, I may be hard pressed to explain what it is or how it got here, but there’s no doubt in my mind about how much you’ll enjoy your encounter. Whether he’s clowning, puppeting, improvising, or singing for his supper, Nick’s performances are sure to astonish.

What? The Kempt - ville Street Piano Concert Series presents

Who? Comdey Rock with Nick Di Gaetano

When? Saturday, July 8, 2pm

Where? North Grenville Public Library terrace

How much? Free! (Cash donations welcome, or see the featured section on our FB page for the link to our GoFundMe campaign.)

Learn more about Nick Di Gaetano at https:// www.nickdigaetano.com/

Theatre Night in Merrickville comes up a winner at the Eastern Ontario Drama League’s Full-length Festival. The Company entered Deathtrap by Ira Levin in the 2023 EODL travelling festival. Adjudicator Caroline Smith drove the roads last fall through to this spring, attending seven plays in six different communities. She then had the unenviable task of selecting nominees and winners in seventeen categories. The small but mighty TNIM faced stiff competition against theatre groups from Brockville, Belleville, Cobourg, Kingston and OLT from Ottawa. These groups all have their own theatre space. They certainly don’t have the special challenges that TNIM faces, where they have a week to build a stage, set and audience seating, hang lights and put on four shows in the Community Centre before tearing it all down in three hours to store back in a box car for another six months.

Andrea Howard was awarded Best Cameo Performance for her hilarious portrayal of the psychic Helga Ten Dorp. Lorraine Smith was awarded Best Costuming. Vicki Graham, Omar Simonyi, Martin Smith and Keith Stanton were acknowledged for Best Set Decor and Props. TNIM was also honoured with nominations for Technical Contribution: Stage Management (Bronwen McKnight and Omar Simonyi), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Keith Stanton), Best Actor in a Major Role (both Al Billiald and Michael Phillips), and Best Director (Vicki Graham).

Theatre Night in Merrickville has been producing award winning performances for almost 50 years. In a David versus Goliath theatrical showdown at festivals, TNIM can hold its own. We gratefully acknowledge the support of our audiences and welcome anyone interested in working behind the scenes or on the stage. It takes a village to raise a curtain!

• 2 eggs, beaten with a couple of tablespoons of milk

• A couple of shakes of Worcestershire sauce

This is Part 2 of: “We love leftovers”. Why? Because: 1) leftovers give you the opportunity to develop and play around with tasty recipes; and 2) Working with leftovers is great for your budget. The Cormier family is a huge fan of leftovers and often, we plan meals so that we can make use of what is left for take-away lunches or simply another full meal. For example, last week’s Boiled Ham recipe yielded a very tasty Split Pea Soup. Last night, we had a roasted chicken and the leftovers will provide a great treat of Chicken Fried Rice, today’s recipe, which our family has been enjoying forever…

Chicken Fried Rice

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter

• Whatever cooked chicken you have left from a previous meal, cut into small pieces, bones removed

• Or, 2 large chicken breasts, roasted in the oven till (lightly) done and cut up into small pieces

• 1 large or 2 medium size onions (e.g. Vidalia) and any leftover green onions, all finely sliced and diced

• 3 cloves of garlic or the equivalent, crushed

• 2 teaspoons white granulated sugar

• 2 cups of fresh mushrooms sliced or 2 cans of pieces and stems mushrooms

• Any leftover red or green peppers you might have hanging around in the fridge

• 4 cups of plain white or brown rice, cooked ahead of time

• 3 tablespoons sesame oil

• A couple of shakes of Tabasco sauce

• 1 teaspoon black pepper

• Soya sauce to taste

Preparation

• Melt the butter in a large pan and sweat the onions and garlic on medium heat

• Once sweated, sprinkle the onions and garlic with the sugar to caramelize

• Add the peppers and mushrooms and sweat them as well

• Next, add the chicken chunks, pour in the sesame oil and stir to coat everything

• Fold in all of the cooked rice, one cup at a time

• Stir in your beaten egg and let it poach

• Stir in some Worcestershire and Tabasco sauces

• Sprinkle with black pepper

• Fold in some soya sauce (be careful; it’s very salty, so taste as you go)

• Add a bit of water, stir, cover your pan with a lid and let your Chicken Fried Rice rest a bit

Just serve up in bowls. To accompany and enhance your Chicken Fried Rice, you may wish to try Grahame’s Brown Oatmeal Bread, newly available and very delicious. You may not want to get it sliced but just tear the loaf apart: we demolished a couple of loaves last week. We are fans!

By the way, our grandson Ayden likes plum sauce as a condiment for his Chicken Fried Rice; I like Hoisin sauce myself. Green Tea is also nice to have, either hot or iced. Have a great summer preferably without smoke! Best from pcormier@ranaprocess.com.