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.
1.02.2009
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...
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