From the internet, that is. These are places I have made recipes from and liked.
Allrecipes - my go-to giant recipe site. Not all that great for ethnic cooking, but great for your American standbys.
Joy of Baking - lots of really good (and good looking) desserts
Just Hungry - lots of good things, but I particularly like her Japanese home cooking/bento recipes
Orangette - I had stumbled across her blog before, but did not try anything until I read her book, and now I love her recipes.
Smitten Kitchen - Most of the recipes I've made from here are just OK, but certainly edible, and it's great for ideas.
8.14.2009
summertime
Lots happening, so much I don't really update anymore. I think I just get less introspective when I have less time to think. Summer has been great - not too much hot weather although we still have August to get through, I've gotten to see lots of fun people (even Sarah! :D), I had my birthday, got to go to Noah's Ark and New Glarus, just got my 3-month review back at work and passed with no complaints (yay), and in general life is good.
My parents are moving across town to a new house in September, and I'm going to help them. I figure I owe them for the 8 or 9 times they've moved me in the last 6 years, plus getting to spend time with my brother and playing video games together like the good old days is never EVER a bad time. I am completely looking forward to it. I just hope he plans to be off work for a while too :)
This weekend is going to be busy - Ty has a show tonight (I am staying home because as much as I am still not sick of their shows after attending 95% of them, I am more productive at home than at a bar, AND I spend less money [though I don't have to spend much as it is, haha] and get to bed sooner), we are going curb shopping because it's move-out weekend (hope I find some good shit), then home to visit my parents and go to our friend Emilie's wedding reception, then helping Theresa move into her new apartment and clean it so it's nice for her to live in. She is living by herself this time and it sounds like she's happy about it. I may cook dinner, or we may end up going out - probably going out since I don't know how much cooking I will feel like doing by the time moving and cleaning is over. And Bryan will be there! He is about to go back to Sudan already...
Summer's ending fast.
I have to enjoy it before all the snow comes.
But before winter comes fall, and soon my favorite season will be here!
My parents are moving across town to a new house in September, and I'm going to help them. I figure I owe them for the 8 or 9 times they've moved me in the last 6 years, plus getting to spend time with my brother and playing video games together like the good old days is never EVER a bad time. I am completely looking forward to it. I just hope he plans to be off work for a while too :)
This weekend is going to be busy - Ty has a show tonight (I am staying home because as much as I am still not sick of their shows after attending 95% of them, I am more productive at home than at a bar, AND I spend less money [though I don't have to spend much as it is, haha] and get to bed sooner), we are going curb shopping because it's move-out weekend (hope I find some good shit), then home to visit my parents and go to our friend Emilie's wedding reception, then helping Theresa move into her new apartment and clean it so it's nice for her to live in. She is living by herself this time and it sounds like she's happy about it. I may cook dinner, or we may end up going out - probably going out since I don't know how much cooking I will feel like doing by the time moving and cleaning is over. And Bryan will be there! He is about to go back to Sudan already...
Summer's ending fast.
I have to enjoy it before all the snow comes.
But before winter comes fall, and soon my favorite season will be here!
4.18.2009
springtime for Hitler and Germany
Every time spring comes I think of that song because I love how ridiculous The Producers is. But it is FINALLY spring in Wisconsin! The farmer's market opened this morning and I got some plum-barb (plum & rhubarb) jam because I was curious. I have yet to try it, but it will doubtless have a unique flavor. It was also ridiculously nice out, close to 70 degrees, so I went outside and continued work on the gardens in the backyard. They probably have not been kept in a very long time...everything is really crowded and overgrown from being allowed to divide and spread year after year in the same exact spot. The most exciting thing about watching things pop up is that I get to see all the springtime plants! I moved to my current address last June, and by then everything was already overgrown like crazy, so I never noticed the plants that had already come and gone or were buried under the monstrosity of hostas, wild mint, and orange daylilies.
Some spring plants that I have found growing include snowdrops (they were blooming at the end of March ^^), some plants growing from bulbs that I THINK are tulips (we'll see! assuming they grow in the big pot I put them in, that is...), and as of yesterday, daffodils! I had always wanted some daffodils because I like them. They were growing, of all places, out of the mysterious pile of dirt and debris that appeared in the middle of one of the gardens after a wind storm knocked a giant branch down onto the garage next door and did quite a bit of damage. I think they'd been there before because they were rather choked in mint roots (mint spreads like CRAZY and is REALLY hard to dig through...), but I was very pleasantly surprised when I noticed something bright yellow growing out of the dead plants and garage debris and realized it was the very thing I had wished for. They are now planted right beside the front steps so I can look at them every time I come and go :) The lily-of-the-valley and sundrops that I thought were dead due to my poor transplanting skills are both coming back, too! Maybe I'm not so bad at this. I also planted poppy seeds today. Normally I'm not that great at raising plants from seed, but we'll see how it goes. The last time I planted flower seeds, they did fine until the maintenance guys at T's old apartment took a lawn mower to them :( My next project is to get some bricks and use them to edge the bed next to the driveway because there is no edging and there's really coarse grass growing all over, and it just looks awful. Free bricks, of course. The landlord isn't trying to fix our leaky basement or even partially reimburse us for all the money we spend trying to divert the water every time it floods, so I'm sure there's no way he'd help pay for something as frivolous as landscaping. I bet they'd have no problem charging more rent for the place because of it, though. Jerks.
Oh, yes - I have a new job that starts April 27th! I'm working back where I used to work as a student, but in a much different capacity. I am fairly sure that already knowing me played no small part in their decision to hire me, but I knew straight away they weren't going to just hand it to me, and I'd have to prove like anybody that I was the right person for the job. I KNOW I wouldn't have gotten my new job if I hadn't picked up the skills I did at this government agency. My current supervisor was happy for me, and had some really nice things to say when I told him I got a new job. I thanked him for giving me such a wide variety of projects and giving me some really good work and leadership experience. No way in HELL am I letting the crazy manager lady know all those nice things, though - she would take all the credit for it, I'm sure, just because she's a big jerk and because she interviewed me and jointly decided to hire me. I'm not even going to tell her I'm leaving unless she asks. After all, she's the main reason I wanted to leave, what with the way she treats her employees and how she makes her hiring decisions and deals with complaints. My last day at the government agency is next Wednesday, and I decided I'm only telling the people that I want to tell, and quietly making my exit for the rest of them. I have Thursday and Friday off, then I start the new job the following Monday. It'll be my first "real job"...I will actually get things like sick pay and vacation time and health insurance that I don't have to pay for out of pocket. Hooray!!! Also, my mom will not be bugging me about jobs anytime soon. :) She was SO happy when I told her yesterday, and that was on top of the good news that my dad was offered his job back two months or so after his company decided to let a bunch of people go and he took a severance offer. No more shaking in our boots - our family is now completely gainfully employed again :)
To celebrate...sushi dinner, now that I can afford it! And a KitchenAid mixer, because I love to cook and it is the most kickass kitchen appliance you could ever want. I'm having a lot of trouble deciding what features I want, but no matter what color (I would rather have red, black or blue instead of white) or features I get I will probably spend around $250-$300 unless I find a super good deal on one. I'm willing to wait until I find a good deal, too...but maybe I shouldn't worry so much. After all, I was planning to spend that much on a denshi jisho until I found a REALLY nice one for $100.
What with the new job, being able to afford the slightly more expensive things that I want, and T buying an HD flat screen TV last weekend, I feel like I'm moving up in the world. ^^
Speaking of cooking, I have been trying new recipes, as always. This ginger-carrot soup is REALLY good - even T liked it! I couldn't decide whether I wanted to go spicy or sweet, and ended up adding the cinnamon and nutmeg after I threw in some curry powder (because curried ginger carrot soup sounded appealing at the time). I would recommend EITHER curry powder OR cinnamon + nutmeg. :) I also had some white fish I put too much cayenne pepper on and T wouldn't eat, so I wanted to try making fish soup with the leftovers. As weird as it sounded to me, I was curious. I decided on this recipe for whitefish soup mostly because the lady that created the recipe is from Wisconsin (I figured this recipe would taste most like something I was used to), and as a fisherman's wife I figured she is probably good at cooking fish and making it taste good. I made a LOT of adjustments because I had no celery or bay leaves, only 1/3 lb of fish that was already cooked (I made ~1/6 of the recipe), and I diced frozen French fries because it was all I had for potatoes (hey, I was desperate to include some other vegetable besides onion and carrot...) and it STILL tasted good to me. I also took the suggestion and added cream (half-and-half actually) to make chowder. I can't wait to try it when it's made properly. Next on my list: jam thumbprint cookies. They always look and taste so nice with the fruity center, and apricot jam (one of my very favorite flavors of jam) tastes particularly good in them.
More updates when things finally start growing and I start working my new job :)
Some spring plants that I have found growing include snowdrops (they were blooming at the end of March ^^), some plants growing from bulbs that I THINK are tulips (we'll see! assuming they grow in the big pot I put them in, that is...), and as of yesterday, daffodils! I had always wanted some daffodils because I like them. They were growing, of all places, out of the mysterious pile of dirt and debris that appeared in the middle of one of the gardens after a wind storm knocked a giant branch down onto the garage next door and did quite a bit of damage. I think they'd been there before because they were rather choked in mint roots (mint spreads like CRAZY and is REALLY hard to dig through...), but I was very pleasantly surprised when I noticed something bright yellow growing out of the dead plants and garage debris and realized it was the very thing I had wished for. They are now planted right beside the front steps so I can look at them every time I come and go :) The lily-of-the-valley and sundrops that I thought were dead due to my poor transplanting skills are both coming back, too! Maybe I'm not so bad at this. I also planted poppy seeds today. Normally I'm not that great at raising plants from seed, but we'll see how it goes. The last time I planted flower seeds, they did fine until the maintenance guys at T's old apartment took a lawn mower to them :( My next project is to get some bricks and use them to edge the bed next to the driveway because there is no edging and there's really coarse grass growing all over, and it just looks awful. Free bricks, of course. The landlord isn't trying to fix our leaky basement or even partially reimburse us for all the money we spend trying to divert the water every time it floods, so I'm sure there's no way he'd help pay for something as frivolous as landscaping. I bet they'd have no problem charging more rent for the place because of it, though. Jerks.
Oh, yes - I have a new job that starts April 27th! I'm working back where I used to work as a student, but in a much different capacity. I am fairly sure that already knowing me played no small part in their decision to hire me, but I knew straight away they weren't going to just hand it to me, and I'd have to prove like anybody that I was the right person for the job. I KNOW I wouldn't have gotten my new job if I hadn't picked up the skills I did at this government agency. My current supervisor was happy for me, and had some really nice things to say when I told him I got a new job. I thanked him for giving me such a wide variety of projects and giving me some really good work and leadership experience. No way in HELL am I letting the crazy manager lady know all those nice things, though - she would take all the credit for it, I'm sure, just because she's a big jerk and because she interviewed me and jointly decided to hire me. I'm not even going to tell her I'm leaving unless she asks. After all, she's the main reason I wanted to leave, what with the way she treats her employees and how she makes her hiring decisions and deals with complaints. My last day at the government agency is next Wednesday, and I decided I'm only telling the people that I want to tell, and quietly making my exit for the rest of them. I have Thursday and Friday off, then I start the new job the following Monday. It'll be my first "real job"...I will actually get things like sick pay and vacation time and health insurance that I don't have to pay for out of pocket. Hooray!!! Also, my mom will not be bugging me about jobs anytime soon. :) She was SO happy when I told her yesterday, and that was on top of the good news that my dad was offered his job back two months or so after his company decided to let a bunch of people go and he took a severance offer. No more shaking in our boots - our family is now completely gainfully employed again :)
To celebrate...sushi dinner, now that I can afford it! And a KitchenAid mixer, because I love to cook and it is the most kickass kitchen appliance you could ever want. I'm having a lot of trouble deciding what features I want, but no matter what color (I would rather have red, black or blue instead of white) or features I get I will probably spend around $250-$300 unless I find a super good deal on one. I'm willing to wait until I find a good deal, too...but maybe I shouldn't worry so much. After all, I was planning to spend that much on a denshi jisho until I found a REALLY nice one for $100.
What with the new job, being able to afford the slightly more expensive things that I want, and T buying an HD flat screen TV last weekend, I feel like I'm moving up in the world. ^^
Speaking of cooking, I have been trying new recipes, as always. This ginger-carrot soup is REALLY good - even T liked it! I couldn't decide whether I wanted to go spicy or sweet, and ended up adding the cinnamon and nutmeg after I threw in some curry powder (because curried ginger carrot soup sounded appealing at the time). I would recommend EITHER curry powder OR cinnamon + nutmeg. :) I also had some white fish I put too much cayenne pepper on and T wouldn't eat, so I wanted to try making fish soup with the leftovers. As weird as it sounded to me, I was curious. I decided on this recipe for whitefish soup mostly because the lady that created the recipe is from Wisconsin (I figured this recipe would taste most like something I was used to), and as a fisherman's wife I figured she is probably good at cooking fish and making it taste good. I made a LOT of adjustments because I had no celery or bay leaves, only 1/3 lb of fish that was already cooked (I made ~1/6 of the recipe), and I diced frozen French fries because it was all I had for potatoes (hey, I was desperate to include some other vegetable besides onion and carrot...) and it STILL tasted good to me. I also took the suggestion and added cream (half-and-half actually) to make chowder. I can't wait to try it when it's made properly. Next on my list: jam thumbprint cookies. They always look and taste so nice with the fruity center, and apricot jam (one of my very favorite flavors of jam) tastes particularly good in them.
More updates when things finally start growing and I start working my new job :)
2.21.2009
dreaming about coffee and bananas
Another month has gone by! Quite scary if you really think about how time gets away from you. And now for some more random things that have been going on or that I have been thinking about.
1) I don't wear makeup very much at all but I want an excuse to wear this stuff. I love looking at all the bright colors, and will have to decide what would look best on me, and maybe plan next Halloween around it. XD
2) My parents finally met Ty's mom a couple of weekends ago when she was in my hometown for a seminar she was teaching. Unfortunately, she got a less than friendly welcome from my dog. Cooper thinks he owns the place, and is very protective of it, so he jumped all over her and tried to bite her a few times. It didn't help that she's afraid of dogs to begin with...sigh. She was perfectly happy to spend time with us anywhere but the house, and we'll have to put him away if she comes back. Had I known she was going to try to come in the house when she did, I definitely would have put him on a leash. Dinner was really nice! We went to a Mongolian-style barbecue much like the Flat Top Grill here, but it was a lot more casual (and less expensive). I want to know where they get yakisoba noodles in this neck of the woods.
3) Tristan and Reese got different jobs. I miss them, but I know they're doing great in their new places. Guess I'll just have to eat at the Great Dane sometime soon. I figured out exactly how much time I have left there (8 weeks + a few hours), and that's only if they can find enough work for me to do. There's usually something, though. Yay. I got recruited for a state job at the university, and there's one that opened up where I used to work! Surprise! I am definitely applying. I have super awesome references for that one, too.
4) We had an unconventionally romantic Valentine's Day :) We went out on a date earlier in the week and I got surprised with anemone flowers (MY FAVORITE ♥) when I came home from work, and then went out for pizza, and it was the most delicious I've had in a LONG time. I also finally got to try Schlitz beer...it's pretty smooth but bites you at the end with the aftertaste, like PBR (the best shitty beer there is). On Valentine's Day we went rollerskating at this rink with really retro lamps on the ceiling that looked cool, but otherwise was kind of run down and shitty (but that's part of the charm and nostalgia) and the driveway was practically impossible to find. On the way in, I was laughing at these two ladies that were sloooooooowly making their way around the rink, hanging onto the side for dear life, but when I put on my roller skates and began stumbling around I felt bad about it. Then I cautiously entered the rink, got more and more comfortable with going normal speed while keeping balance, and in about five minutes I was laughing at them again. There was also a creepy guy with a Hawaiian shirt that was in the middle skating backwards and dancing to every song all by himself and looking at all the ladies who went by...we're pretty sure he's a 'regular.' XD We went to the mall and bought a Classic controller for the Wii, then went home and bought Super Mario RPG from the Wii Shop Channel. I made some pasta dough for homemade bowtie noodles, and played while it rested. Man, fresh pasta is such a lot of work, but still pretty tasty. If I had a pasta roller I would definitely make it again. I made this sauce to go with it, and it was soooooo good. ^^ Then we played some more video games, and called it a night.
5) I am WAY too excited for it to get warm again so I can start growing plants, especially herbs for cooking. I also want to see if the sundrops will recover from my planting them too deep last year. Apparently they spread really quickly.
6) We hosted a potluck last weekend for Ty's tae kwon do club, and had some friends over for dinner last night. We had enough food from the potluck for a whole week of lunches. But only for me, because Ty doesn't like beans or chili. XD I made chicken cordon bleu and these potatoes and an apple-toasted walnut-blue cheese spinach salad for the dinner party and I loved every bite of it, except for when I forgot to take the toothpicks out of the chicken and chomped down on one. Also, Whole Foods has the most delicious (and cute) cakes, and they brought a flourless chocolate one for dessert. mmm ♥ I have been trying a LOT of new recipes lately. Next on my list is pumpkin muffins and toasted coconut shortbread cookies, once the chocolate mint ones I made are gone. I'm surprised I'm not gaining any more weight with how much I've been dealing with food these days and not exercising. Since we moved to a new work building, my access card to the old one that had an exercise room in it got taken away. The day after we moved, someone was bugging my supervisor for the card because it's technically his, so I had to give it back. :(
The last couple of days I have been thinking about the coffee smoothie Molly and I concocted one rainy day with a banana in it, and finally made one for breakfast today, but it wasn't quite as good. I need to have her over again so we can make the good ones.
1) I don't wear makeup very much at all but I want an excuse to wear this stuff. I love looking at all the bright colors, and will have to decide what would look best on me, and maybe plan next Halloween around it. XD
2) My parents finally met Ty's mom a couple of weekends ago when she was in my hometown for a seminar she was teaching. Unfortunately, she got a less than friendly welcome from my dog. Cooper thinks he owns the place, and is very protective of it, so he jumped all over her and tried to bite her a few times. It didn't help that she's afraid of dogs to begin with...sigh. She was perfectly happy to spend time with us anywhere but the house, and we'll have to put him away if she comes back. Had I known she was going to try to come in the house when she did, I definitely would have put him on a leash. Dinner was really nice! We went to a Mongolian-style barbecue much like the Flat Top Grill here, but it was a lot more casual (and less expensive). I want to know where they get yakisoba noodles in this neck of the woods.
3) Tristan and Reese got different jobs. I miss them, but I know they're doing great in their new places. Guess I'll just have to eat at the Great Dane sometime soon. I figured out exactly how much time I have left there (8 weeks + a few hours), and that's only if they can find enough work for me to do. There's usually something, though. Yay. I got recruited for a state job at the university, and there's one that opened up where I used to work! Surprise! I am definitely applying. I have super awesome references for that one, too.
4) We had an unconventionally romantic Valentine's Day :) We went out on a date earlier in the week and I got surprised with anemone flowers (MY FAVORITE ♥) when I came home from work, and then went out for pizza, and it was the most delicious I've had in a LONG time. I also finally got to try Schlitz beer...it's pretty smooth but bites you at the end with the aftertaste, like PBR (the best shitty beer there is). On Valentine's Day we went rollerskating at this rink with really retro lamps on the ceiling that looked cool, but otherwise was kind of run down and shitty (but that's part of the charm and nostalgia) and the driveway was practically impossible to find. On the way in, I was laughing at these two ladies that were sloooooooowly making their way around the rink, hanging onto the side for dear life, but when I put on my roller skates and began stumbling around I felt bad about it. Then I cautiously entered the rink, got more and more comfortable with going normal speed while keeping balance, and in about five minutes I was laughing at them again. There was also a creepy guy with a Hawaiian shirt that was in the middle skating backwards and dancing to every song all by himself and looking at all the ladies who went by...we're pretty sure he's a 'regular.' XD We went to the mall and bought a Classic controller for the Wii, then went home and bought Super Mario RPG from the Wii Shop Channel. I made some pasta dough for homemade bowtie noodles, and played while it rested. Man, fresh pasta is such a lot of work, but still pretty tasty. If I had a pasta roller I would definitely make it again. I made this sauce to go with it, and it was soooooo good. ^^ Then we played some more video games, and called it a night.
5) I am WAY too excited for it to get warm again so I can start growing plants, especially herbs for cooking. I also want to see if the sundrops will recover from my planting them too deep last year. Apparently they spread really quickly.
6) We hosted a potluck last weekend for Ty's tae kwon do club, and had some friends over for dinner last night. We had enough food from the potluck for a whole week of lunches. But only for me, because Ty doesn't like beans or chili. XD I made chicken cordon bleu and these potatoes and an apple-toasted walnut-blue cheese spinach salad for the dinner party and I loved every bite of it, except for when I forgot to take the toothpicks out of the chicken and chomped down on one. Also, Whole Foods has the most delicious (and cute) cakes, and they brought a flourless chocolate one for dessert. mmm ♥ I have been trying a LOT of new recipes lately. Next on my list is pumpkin muffins and toasted coconut shortbread cookies, once the chocolate mint ones I made are gone. I'm surprised I'm not gaining any more weight with how much I've been dealing with food these days and not exercising. Since we moved to a new work building, my access card to the old one that had an exercise room in it got taken away. The day after we moved, someone was bugging my supervisor for the card because it's technically his, so I had to give it back. :(
The last couple of days I have been thinking about the coffee smoothie Molly and I concocted one rainy day with a banana in it, and finally made one for breakfast today, but it wasn't quite as good. I need to have her over again so we can make the good ones.
1.26.2009
things on my mind - that's what blogs are about, right?
Hello there. Just a few things I wanted to share with the world:
1) I finally bought a copy of Let's Make Japanese Food. I decided after two more successful and awesome tasting recipes that I tried from it that I will finally return the library's copy and get my own because I want to keep it that badly. And for nine dollars, it's well worth it, considering the suggested price is thirty dollars or so.
2) I bought a giant bag-o-fabric-and-ribbons from a lady on Craigslist yesterday, and after I agreed to buy it, I was worried because I hadn't asked about fabric colors or anything. Buying fabric without seeing it first is not really a good thing to do - after all, it is made to be seen. It might be really low quality and uncomfortable to wear, or a type or color that you would never consider using, and for what I was paying I was worried about getting my money's worth. Fortunately I just happened to hit the jackpot with suitable decent quality materials for what I wanted to make, plus a bunch of other stuff that I don't have a use for but certainly could figure one out. The wildest color was a pumpkiny neon yellow-orange, but at least it's a solid color (and thankfully so are most of the rest of the fabric pieces). For buying without seeing it first, I did well.
3) I am excited to go home and see my parents and brother and dog this weekend. It's always comforting to go home.
4) After finishing packing up all the files at Ethics for the move, I am pleased that I don't have to work on the day that it is actually being moved. The government agency I work for was created by merging two smaller agencies a year ago, probably due to budget cuts. Everyone in it was split among three separate buildings until today, when they will all be moved together into a much larger fourth building, physically completing the merge. There appears to be a lot of drama between the three offices that I did not know about that I'm glad I'm not there for. I was just happy to be packing for people that actually know that I work for them, know my name and appreciate what I'm doing. I was not at a place like that on the first day of packing, and it frustrated me quite a bit. If I move over half a ton of your paper files 10-15 pounds at a time with one 30-minute break in eight hours for no more pay than I get sitting in front of a computer all day, and you can't even come over and say "thank you for helping me out," you are an ass. It will be interesting to see how the cultures of the three offices will clash. I'm just glad my supervisor (the guy who planned and facilitated the whole move) has his office as far away from these ungrateful out-of-touch bosses as possible. They originally FORGOT to assign him a cube when everyone else was picking theirs out and they plopped him right across the hall from his boss, who appreciates very little of the hard work the guy does for him. How do you forget someone that's doing all your shit work for you?! Fortunately my supervisor complained and got himself out of that mess.
5) I am typing this mostly because I need to see it in writing:
I ESTIMATE THAT I HAVE ROUGHLY SIX WEEKS LEFT AT MY JOB.
1) I finally bought a copy of Let's Make Japanese Food. I decided after two more successful and awesome tasting recipes that I tried from it that I will finally return the library's copy and get my own because I want to keep it that badly. And for nine dollars, it's well worth it, considering the suggested price is thirty dollars or so.
2) I bought a giant bag-o-fabric-and-ribbons from a lady on Craigslist yesterday, and after I agreed to buy it, I was worried because I hadn't asked about fabric colors or anything. Buying fabric without seeing it first is not really a good thing to do - after all, it is made to be seen. It might be really low quality and uncomfortable to wear, or a type or color that you would never consider using, and for what I was paying I was worried about getting my money's worth. Fortunately I just happened to hit the jackpot with suitable decent quality materials for what I wanted to make, plus a bunch of other stuff that I don't have a use for but certainly could figure one out. The wildest color was a pumpkiny neon yellow-orange, but at least it's a solid color (and thankfully so are most of the rest of the fabric pieces). For buying without seeing it first, I did well.
3) I am excited to go home and see my parents and brother and dog this weekend. It's always comforting to go home.
4) After finishing packing up all the files at Ethics for the move, I am pleased that I don't have to work on the day that it is actually being moved. The government agency I work for was created by merging two smaller agencies a year ago, probably due to budget cuts. Everyone in it was split among three separate buildings until today, when they will all be moved together into a much larger fourth building, physically completing the merge. There appears to be a lot of drama between the three offices that I did not know about that I'm glad I'm not there for. I was just happy to be packing for people that actually know that I work for them, know my name and appreciate what I'm doing. I was not at a place like that on the first day of packing, and it frustrated me quite a bit. If I move over half a ton of your paper files 10-15 pounds at a time with one 30-minute break in eight hours for no more pay than I get sitting in front of a computer all day, and you can't even come over and say "thank you for helping me out," you are an ass. It will be interesting to see how the cultures of the three offices will clash. I'm just glad my supervisor (the guy who planned and facilitated the whole move) has his office as far away from these ungrateful out-of-touch bosses as possible. They originally FORGOT to assign him a cube when everyone else was picking theirs out and they plopped him right across the hall from his boss, who appreciates very little of the hard work the guy does for him. How do you forget someone that's doing all your shit work for you?! Fortunately my supervisor complained and got himself out of that mess.
5) I am typing this mostly because I need to see it in writing:
I ESTIMATE THAT I HAVE ROUGHLY SIX WEEKS LEFT AT MY JOB.
1.02.2009
デンガクだいすき
Usually when I try to make Asian food, and Japanese food in particular, I can never seem to make it correctly if I have not already eaten it before because I don't know what it is supposed to taste like, but I make it anyway, and feel that my version somehow does not quite taste how it should.
And now for something that completely broke that trend: dengaku. I had borrowed this cookbook from the library and was looking through it for things that sounded good (I will most likely end up buying a copy because just about everything in it sounds tasty and easy enough to attempt), and came across eggplant dengaku = grilled eggplant with a caramelized sweet miso sauce baked on. Traditionally tofu is used instead of eggplant (see the picture - the one on the right is your most basic kind), and it's grilled on skewers. I had only had the dengaku sauce before, made by my dear host mother at home, and we had it on boiled tofu and vegetables. Normally dengaku is something you'd find at a street food stall or alongside yakitori. I had eggplant in the fridge and a hankering for miso so I decided to give the recipe a whirl, and I have rarely been so satisfied with a first try at a Japanese recipe. I also had some tofu that was getting old so I squeezed the water out, browned it with the eggplant, and while both were really really good, I liked the tofu better. It's a hell of a lot of soy at once, but at least it's good for you (minus the shit tons of salt).
Bonus: Ty loves it. I always feel great when I try a new recipe he's skeptical about and he ends up liking it. I feel even better when I like it too.
I also cooked a lot of things for the "Classy New Year party" we had at our house on Wednesday night: Salt and Pepper Cheese Puffs (very easy, very tasty and pretty fatty), Double Chocolate Pecan Brownies (I love exploring Maki's blog entries and this recipe of hers is AMAZING), hummus with sun-dried tomatoes (which are tasty but have the texture of shoe leather...I eventually let the blender chop them up instead of trying to cut them with a knife), fresh fruit, and I was going to attempt calamari but ran out of time and I'd had enough of cooking by then. Instead I washed all the dishes, changed into my dress and had fun the rest of the night, and woke up to a clean kitchen. Perhaps my favorite part of the preparation was going to Dig & Save, the last-chance store for items that didn't sell in this particular organization's thrift stores, where you pay for everything by the pound, for some supplies. We couldn't have a CLASSY party if people drank wine out of pint glasses and plastic cups, after all. We found some mostly ridiculous wine glasses (25th Anniversary ones and the like), two heavy glass bar-style shooter glasses, two brown and green Chinese tea cups that remind me of the kind Dianne had when I lived with her, and two Asian-styled black plates that exactly match Ty's rice bowl, in immaculate condition. (We were lucky that day! Many things at the Dig & Save are chipped, cracked, scratched, broken, dirty and/or ugly.) We paid less than $3 for everything :) The party itself ended up rather low-key, but raging parties are not all that classy. It was nice to be able to sit and chat with everyone for a while - there were few enough people so that you could spend a decent amount of time with each person. Most of those that said they would definitely show up did not, but the people who showed up in their place were just as awesome. We also had a few more crashers than planned, but with a whole house to share, it was comfy :) The least classy we got was listening to a couple of Wesley Willis songs because someone there had no idea who he was and we needed to give him one...haha.
And now I'm going to enjoy two MORE days off (for the last two weeks I have been off Wednesday and Thursday from work due to the office being closed for holidays) after working today. Other than how much money I'm not making, I really could get used to this schedule...
And now for something that completely broke that trend: dengaku. I had borrowed this cookbook from the library and was looking through it for things that sounded good (I will most likely end up buying a copy because just about everything in it sounds tasty and easy enough to attempt), and came across eggplant dengaku = grilled eggplant with a caramelized sweet miso sauce baked on. Traditionally tofu is used instead of eggplant (see the picture - the one on the right is your most basic kind), and it's grilled on skewers. I had only had the dengaku sauce before, made by my dear host mother at home, and we had it on boiled tofu and vegetables. Normally dengaku is something you'd find at a street food stall or alongside yakitori. I had eggplant in the fridge and a hankering for miso so I decided to give the recipe a whirl, and I have rarely been so satisfied with a first try at a Japanese recipe. I also had some tofu that was getting old so I squeezed the water out, browned it with the eggplant, and while both were really really good, I liked the tofu better. It's a hell of a lot of soy at once, but at least it's good for you (minus the shit tons of salt).Bonus: Ty loves it. I always feel great when I try a new recipe he's skeptical about and he ends up liking it. I feel even better when I like it too.
I also cooked a lot of things for the "Classy New Year party" we had at our house on Wednesday night: Salt and Pepper Cheese Puffs (very easy, very tasty and pretty fatty), Double Chocolate Pecan Brownies (I love exploring Maki's blog entries and this recipe of hers is AMAZING), hummus with sun-dried tomatoes (which are tasty but have the texture of shoe leather...I eventually let the blender chop them up instead of trying to cut them with a knife), fresh fruit, and I was going to attempt calamari but ran out of time and I'd had enough of cooking by then. Instead I washed all the dishes, changed into my dress and had fun the rest of the night, and woke up to a clean kitchen. Perhaps my favorite part of the preparation was going to Dig & Save, the last-chance store for items that didn't sell in this particular organization's thrift stores, where you pay for everything by the pound, for some supplies. We couldn't have a CLASSY party if people drank wine out of pint glasses and plastic cups, after all. We found some mostly ridiculous wine glasses (25th Anniversary ones and the like), two heavy glass bar-style shooter glasses, two brown and green Chinese tea cups that remind me of the kind Dianne had when I lived with her, and two Asian-styled black plates that exactly match Ty's rice bowl, in immaculate condition. (We were lucky that day! Many things at the Dig & Save are chipped, cracked, scratched, broken, dirty and/or ugly.) We paid less than $3 for everything :) The party itself ended up rather low-key, but raging parties are not all that classy. It was nice to be able to sit and chat with everyone for a while - there were few enough people so that you could spend a decent amount of time with each person. Most of those that said they would definitely show up did not, but the people who showed up in their place were just as awesome. We also had a few more crashers than planned, but with a whole house to share, it was comfy :) The least classy we got was listening to a couple of Wesley Willis songs because someone there had no idea who he was and we needed to give him one...haha.
And now I'm going to enjoy two MORE days off (for the last two weeks I have been off Wednesday and Thursday from work due to the office being closed for holidays) after working today. Other than how much money I'm not making, I really could get used to this schedule...
12.28.2008
Christmas!
Christmas just kind of sneaked up on me this year, to be honest. I organized a family gift exchange again this year, and I didn't buy gifts until a week before. They didn't get to my brother on time. Well, one did, but his 9 pound cast iron skillet didn't - it's supposed to get there tomorrow. I'm still working on presents! My dad came to get me on very short notice due to weather conditions, and I went back to my parents' house. I cooked and baked for three straight days with my mom - I love cooking, but it was REALLY tiring. My dad was being kind of immature about things on Christmas Eve and so we ended up opening presents the morning of the 25th at his request, and after that he got better. I got an external hard drive from the gift exchange (yay I can back up my stuff!), a pink, brown and white plaid cashmere scarf (from when my brother and sister-in-law honeymooned in Italy), two pairs of much needed pajama pants from my other brother, money from my parents (it's going toward new clothes), and a DVD of Base Ball Bear's music videos from Ty (with an unreleased song on the credits!!), plus a few more surprise presents he's bringing home for me today. He also said he found me raspberry ginger ale, which I have fond memories of drinking when I was a little girl, and which I have not been able to find in any grocery store (but he did when he went home)!
Best part: Nobody made me go to church. I did hear about how my parents don't like that none of their kids buy into being religious despite their best efforts. My dad doesn't understand, though...he thinks "all those liberals" are out to "destroy Christmas" by calling it "the holidays" instead. I asked him if that was more Fox News brainwashing. I think my dad feels like he can unload all his political baggage on me because of who I work for. Just because I work for government doesn't mean I'm interested in hearing you talk about your political beliefs, especially when you don't let me explain why I believe what I do (which is very different from what you believe). I want to tell him that I don't subscribe to religion because it kills people - people do horrible things to each other in the name of beings that probably do not exist and that we have no way of proving the existence of. Everyone thinks their belief system is the best, and especially in the case of Christians, many try to push it onto everyone they know. Religion does not instill morality or control in society. People are dumb, but nonetheless smart enough to know that the wrath of an invisible man in the sky will not be wrought upon them the second they violate rules people have made up for themselves - and those who do believe it are scared. Take a family I know: the daughter is by far the most religious, and also the most disagreeable, maladjusted, and angry. My older brothers have proven to me that you do not need religion to be morally sound, have healthy and meaningful relationships, and enjoy life.
I read the majority of Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood over the break - a typically sort of depressing Japanese novel, but I couldn't put it down. Now I get to start on Mother Tongue! I've always liked Özdamar's writing since a professor translated part of one of her books from German and read it to us in his class. Her writing includes a lot of the mundane but cute and happy things - the happiness of living in the moment, even in foreign surroundings. I think another reason I like her writing is that she writes about the experience of being foreign and exploring and adapting to a place new to her (she's Turkish but permanently moved to Germany when she was young).
It definitely felt like Christmas outside, with a foot and a half of snow on the ground and arm aches from shoveling the driveway. Ours is long and narrow, so we really don't have anywhere to go with it except the sides, which I realized yesterday is not even a good idea because I came back from my parents' house and found some of the musical equipment sitting in 1/2" of water in a pretty unlikely place. Thankfully nothing was powered on and the important parts were not wet, so I just got them up off the floor, cleaned up the cold water and hung up the rug. That's the nice thing about electronics - if they aren't powered on when they get filled with water, most of the time they will be just fine if you let them COMPLETELY dry out before powering on again.
I have been fascinated with Perfume lately, and am really glad they'll be on Kouhaku Utagassen this year (along with Mr.Children and a surprisingly large number of artists I like)! I may actually download and watch it this time! I do wish they'd picked a different song to perform, though. I think that I will always like Electro World. What I like about them so much is that they went through a LOT of hard work to get famous (as opposed to being entirely manufactured), and happened to catch some really good luck just as they were seriously considering throwing in the towel. I also like that they're pop stars who do their own dances for everything, unlike so many others that should dance and don't. I can sort of understand if you don't dance for live performances because very few people can breathe hard and sing well at the same time, but come on! You don't even have to sing well (if at all) for a video and you can't be more entertaining than standing still and doing those horribly contrived hand movements? In short, I believe Perfume has a lot more genuine credibility and talent than most singing groups out there, and they're a lot more deserving of attention, which I am glad they got before they decided to give up. In any case, you have to be decently tough to dance like that in heels for an entire evening. I'm glad they got some fashion direction (90% of their earlier outfits and costumes were crazy in a bad way), and they have one hell of a guy writing their songs. Now if only they would get their hands into writing some of their music or lyrics...
I will leave you with some pictures from Thanksgiving and Christmas at my parents' house.
Best part: Nobody made me go to church. I did hear about how my parents don't like that none of their kids buy into being religious despite their best efforts. My dad doesn't understand, though...he thinks "all those liberals" are out to "destroy Christmas" by calling it "the holidays" instead. I asked him if that was more Fox News brainwashing. I think my dad feels like he can unload all his political baggage on me because of who I work for. Just because I work for government doesn't mean I'm interested in hearing you talk about your political beliefs, especially when you don't let me explain why I believe what I do (which is very different from what you believe). I want to tell him that I don't subscribe to religion because it kills people - people do horrible things to each other in the name of beings that probably do not exist and that we have no way of proving the existence of. Everyone thinks their belief system is the best, and especially in the case of Christians, many try to push it onto everyone they know. Religion does not instill morality or control in society. People are dumb, but nonetheless smart enough to know that the wrath of an invisible man in the sky will not be wrought upon them the second they violate rules people have made up for themselves - and those who do believe it are scared. Take a family I know: the daughter is by far the most religious, and also the most disagreeable, maladjusted, and angry. My older brothers have proven to me that you do not need religion to be morally sound, have healthy and meaningful relationships, and enjoy life.
I read the majority of Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood over the break - a typically sort of depressing Japanese novel, but I couldn't put it down. Now I get to start on Mother Tongue! I've always liked Özdamar's writing since a professor translated part of one of her books from German and read it to us in his class. Her writing includes a lot of the mundane but cute and happy things - the happiness of living in the moment, even in foreign surroundings. I think another reason I like her writing is that she writes about the experience of being foreign and exploring and adapting to a place new to her (she's Turkish but permanently moved to Germany when she was young).
It definitely felt like Christmas outside, with a foot and a half of snow on the ground and arm aches from shoveling the driveway. Ours is long and narrow, so we really don't have anywhere to go with it except the sides, which I realized yesterday is not even a good idea because I came back from my parents' house and found some of the musical equipment sitting in 1/2" of water in a pretty unlikely place. Thankfully nothing was powered on and the important parts were not wet, so I just got them up off the floor, cleaned up the cold water and hung up the rug. That's the nice thing about electronics - if they aren't powered on when they get filled with water, most of the time they will be just fine if you let them COMPLETELY dry out before powering on again.
I have been fascinated with Perfume lately, and am really glad they'll be on Kouhaku Utagassen this year (along with Mr.Children and a surprisingly large number of artists I like)! I may actually download and watch it this time! I do wish they'd picked a different song to perform, though. I think that I will always like Electro World. What I like about them so much is that they went through a LOT of hard work to get famous (as opposed to being entirely manufactured), and happened to catch some really good luck just as they were seriously considering throwing in the towel. I also like that they're pop stars who do their own dances for everything, unlike so many others that should dance and don't. I can sort of understand if you don't dance for live performances because very few people can breathe hard and sing well at the same time, but come on! You don't even have to sing well (if at all) for a video and you can't be more entertaining than standing still and doing those horribly contrived hand movements? In short, I believe Perfume has a lot more genuine credibility and talent than most singing groups out there, and they're a lot more deserving of attention, which I am glad they got before they decided to give up. In any case, you have to be decently tough to dance like that in heels for an entire evening. I'm glad they got some fashion direction (90% of their earlier outfits and costumes were crazy in a bad way), and they have one hell of a guy writing their songs. Now if only they would get their hands into writing some of their music or lyrics...
I will leave you with some pictures from Thanksgiving and Christmas at my parents' house.
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