July 28-31: The View From the Top

So it's been a while, but it's totally not my fault since I've had no internet besides my phone and even that isn't so good when you're on a mountain. I went to LA recently for a conference and went home for a day and realized that going back just feels comfortable, being at home, snuggling with my grandparents. It's becoming weirder and weirder striking out on my own, and seeing all the Milken Babies, I just feel like that stage of my life, when I was a 2008 baby, is slipping away little by little. I'm growing up. Dang it.

Jul 24 - Blogging is Hard, But Wontons Aren't

Blogging is hard. It's hard to judge what people will find interesting and absolutely inane. Often the line between the two is rather thin, and distorted at the edges.

Cooking on the other hand, is relatively simple, in my opinion. There isn't much you can do to render a meal un-salvageable or inedible. At the end, your hard work is generally proportional to how tasty your meal is. It's a nice payoff, and as living organisms that require a daily influx of calories, quite necessary.

A friend shared this quote from The World According to Garp, which says:

'If you are careful,' Garp wrote, 'if you use good ingredients, and you don't take any shortcuts, then you can usually cook something very good. Sometimes it is the only worthwhile product you can salvage from a day: what you make to eat. With writing, I find, you can have all the right ingredients, give plenty of time and care, and still get nothing. Also true of love. Cooking, therefore, can keep a person who tries hard sane.'

It's seldom that you find a quote that well encapsulates so many facets of your present life, but this one works quite well for me. I'm definitely keeping this one handy. Kudos, AH.

July 15 to 18: The British Don't Eat A Lot Of Vegetables

In order to celebrate our childhoods, we continued our Harry Potter Marathon this weekend, truncated by a short trip to the local morning farmer's market to stock up on some fresh produce.

I was really proud of the poached/steamed fish thing I made. As usual, there is no recipe, but it involved sandwiching the whole, cleaned fish between a massive pile of veggies (including spinach, carrot, yellow squash, potato, onion, capers), season liberally, splash some oil onto the fish to help heat conduction get to the meat. For liquid I used half of a beer (neither of us drink beer) and some water just to touch the underside of the fish. Once you get a nice boil on the liquid, cover and steam for 10-15 minutes. This also makes a very rich, delicious broth/sauce.

We're going to see the final Harry Potter sometime this week. After watching these movies again, several years after they've come out, and even longer since the book was published, I have a new perspective on the content of these movies. They're really confusing. For the first 3 or so films, if you haven't read the books, you'll be totally lost. So much is not explained, so many conclusions are jumped to. At times it can be pretty incomprehensible. I think the later movies are little more focused and coherent, but only just. In the end, they are designed as a visual accompaniment to the books, but not stand alone films.

But still, as a child who adored the books, and faced the disappointment on my 11th birthday when my owl didn't come, I get a kick out of these movies. I'm excited to put a wrap on this Harry Potter experience, and bring it to its nice, logical conclusion. But it isn't all over. There is still the Harry Potter theme park, after all.

July 14 - Eat Them Before They Fall Down!

I made something rather precariously assembled in honor of the first day of our Harry Potter movie marathon. In searching for British/Harry Potter themed fare, it seems the only substantial food they eat is Shepherds Pie, that lovely concoction of a meaty stew topped off with a crust of mashed potatoes. I've also come to the conclusion that since J.K. Rowling only ever describes characters in HP eating meat or candy, that there must be special weight management magicking going on at that school.

Anywho, I made a pulled pork stew with onions and carrots. Seasoned with rosemary and thyme (those classic medieval flavors). Standard mashed potatoes. The funky part is that I put the stew in ice cream cones and piped out the mashed potatoes on top like savory soft-serve ice cream. Unfortunately, ice cream cones are not designed to withstand the moisture content of stew, so they slowly began to sink, and we had to eat quickly.

Stay tuned for part 2, where we dine and watch Chamber of Secrets. I'm thinking a good old fashioned English breakfast is in order.

July 10: Let's Go to the Mall! (Today!)

Yeah yeah, we know that Angela is delinquent and uploads things slowly because she's all busy and everything. Angela has long days in lab. Like right now, as I am waiting for an NMR, I am still in lab! Yay!

But here's a video of our adventures on Sunday. After visiting my cousin in her fancy summer program, Kelsey and I went to...THE MALL! Turn your speakers up for this one, because for some reason, the audio is a little on the soft side...



By the way, if you don't watch How I Met Your Mother and don't know Robin Sparkles,

July 11 - Okara, Pad Thai, Watermelon

I have to admit, that I used to hate melons. All melons, indiscriminately. Watermelon, canteloupe, honeydew, the whole lot. However, as Benedict says in Much Ado About Nothing, "A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his old age". I really like watermelon now (and all melons, in fact).

My love of this fruit extends so far that I can easily eat half a watermelon by myself in a single sitting. As such, I have bought many watermelons this summer, which are cheap and tasty this season.

I have also experimented with other applications of watermelons (no, not blowing them up, a la Mail Call with R. Lee Ermey. Hooah!) I tried pickling watermelon rind to great success, but found myself with a lot of it in my fridge. Most recently, I've juiced and frozen some, and made fun blendy drinks with them!

Jolly Rancher Slush:
3 parts ice
2 parts frozen watermelon juice
1 part frozen limeade concentrate
1 part triple sec mixer (or something citrus-y)

Blend it up like nobody's business.

It tastes like a frozen watermelon jolly rancher.

Other recipes from dinner tonight:

Pad Thai (or something like that):
Dried rice noodles
Onion
Bamboo shoot
Soy beans (edamame)
Ginko nut
Minced garlic
Grated ginger
Egg

Seasoning Sauce:
Shoyu (soy sauce)
Oyster sauce (fish sauce would be more authentic)
Ginger Syrup (or some sugar)
Sesame oil
Pepper
Chili pepper sauce (for heat)

Scramble an egg, and set aside. Stir fry onion, garlic, and ginger until onion is translucent. Meanwhile, soak the dried rice noodle in hot water until soft and pliable. Slice gingko nuts in half, add to pan along with soy beans and sliced bamboo shoot. Stir fry until heated through. Add rice noodles, and cut them with kitchen shears so noodles are about 2 inches on average. Season with seasoning sauce (ratios are up to you. Generally listed in order from most abundant to least). Add egg.

Okara:

Okara (or dofu za, as Angela informs me)
Onion
Aburaage (fried tofu)
Bamboo shoot
Shoyu
Honey

Stir fry a diced onion. Add sliced aburaage and bamboo shoot. Season with shoyu and quickly cook for 30 sec. Add okara. Mix and gently stir fry. Add shoyu and a touch of honey to taste. This is kind of a mild dish, in general.

July 8: What Does Stuff Taste Like?

It was a slow news day. As such, here's a lot of footage of my face playing "What does stuff taste like?"