One of my resolutions for this year was to learn how to pare down the clothes and stuff. Stuff as in shoes and stuff. And bags. And whatever. Anyway, aside from some household items which were necessary, I’ve been doing a pretty good job. I guess it helps that my bank account is bare so it’s not like I have a lot to work with anyway. But that’s another sob story. Now with a trip coming up, it’s hard to control myself. I need dresses to wear! I need to make sure my tourist-look includes some cute outfits. So I went shopping last night. Nothing looked good! I wandered the store aisles up and down and over again and nothing caught my eyes. Maybe they’re waiting for their next shipment of goods to come in or I am just plain out of clothes-shopping practice! I walked out with a chocolate bar.
Monthly Archives: April 2010
Group Reunion
By my limited potlucking experience, there’s almost always too much food at potlucks because the guests bring enough to feed everyone and then some. For example, last night, our party of 8 people wound up with 64 portions of food at least. That’s a lot of food.
It was a small classmate reunion with a potluck at Crotchety Bichon’s house. Sheru is still crotchety by the way. We just leave him alone and he learns to put up with us.
I didn’t notice last night but just mentally trying to count how many people were there, I realized we were all Asians, all immigrants, except one guy. No wonder conversation steered to why-the-single-people-aren’t-married-yet. How kids back in the old country don’t have manners anymore and it’s the emigrants who retained the old-world customs in the new country. And only one of us remembered to bring wine! Our trusty young partier brought in one bottle of wine and said there was another bottle in her car if we wanted more. 5 minutes later, she offered that there were 2 more bottles in her car. We all know she probably drives around with a case of wine in her car, prepared at any moment to throw a party. Namaste!
Don’t be fooled by his lazy daisy, I-have-big-cute-eyes demeanor. He’s an attack dog.
Balcony Gardening
The new batch of sage seeds sprouted in a week. These have grown for a week since sprouting and I’ll probably transfer them outside in another week or two. I’m growing sage indoors and outdoors to see which environment is better. I’m also experimenting with the thyme to see which fares better. So far, the thyme seems to prefer the outdoors, even with the unpredictable temperatures ranging from 80s to 40s this month.
As for the old sage seeds, I dumped them all in the pot and nothing sprouted. I think they were just expired. I have no idea about the chili pepper seeds though. I didn’t know chili plants were so challenging to sprout from seed.
The weekend starts on Thursday!
Ugh! Ate way muy mucho. Belly-clutching, floor-rolling full. I went to Cici’s Pizza tonight. My first time dining at this pizza buffet. Yes, me and buffets are just bad news. The pizza isn’t great but its crispy crust and greasy pizza was just what I wanted. Not that frou frou Neopolitan-style stuff. I don’t know why but I’ve had a craving for junky pizza for a couple of weeks. Anyway, I lost count at how many slices I ate so you can imagine it was a good amount, maybe 9 slices. Some better than others, but the nice thing about this place is, you can try a slew of them. They just keep on coming. It hit the spot but uh… I probably won’t be having pizza again any time soon.
Went shopping afterward and turned this Thursday night into a Friday night. Home Goods for a lamp shade. Came out with a kitchen sink drain strainer. Then TJ Maxx for the lamp shade. Came out with nothing (yay!). Then Target. Came out with handsoap (non-antibacterial) and the lampshade (double-yay!)!! I stayed on task tonight. It’s 11PM and I’m still up (thanks to the 2 cups of Starbucks I had this afternoon, what was I thinking?!).
Currygate
Two weekends ago, I made chicken curry. For the rest of the week, our place had the wonderful aroma of delicious curry even after it was all eaten. We’d become the bad neighbors who cooked pungent foods for our selfish taste bud pleasure! Definitely a negative externality. So every night after work, we’d open the windows to air out the place. I even boiled a bar of soap in water. Then this past weekend, I went to Costco for an industrial-sized bag of baking soda. I’ve placed glasses of it all around the place. The curry scent should be gone now, though I’m not sure because I have a cold and my nose is stuffed.
I love curry anything. This chicken curry dish was wonderful and even better the next day and the day after that. But given that whole episode, I might take a break from it, at least until the neighbors have forgotten about that incident. So you’ve been warned. Make this on a nice day where you can keep the windows open. Incidentally, I did have the windows open as I made this, but curry is all powerful.
- Chicken pieces (whatever you like)
- 1 Tomato
- 1 onion
- black pepper
- 3 Tablespoons curry powder
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 1 lemongrass stalk
- 10 sprigs of cilantro
- 1 teaspoon mustard powder
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon cayenne powder
- 4 tablespoons cooking oil
In a food processor, blend the garlic, lemongrass, tomato, half an onion, mustard powder, salt, pepper, cilantro, 2 tablespoons curry powder into a fine sauce. Pour it into a bowl and marinade the chicken pieces in there for at least 2 hours.
When you’re ready to cook the chicken, use the 1 or 2 tablespoons of reserved curry powder, mix it with a little bit of water. Heat oil in a pan and pour in the curry slurry. Stir it around until the curry flavors get all over your walls and you can’t get the smell out for a week!
Slice up the other half of the onion and add it to the pan. Then add the marinaded chicken, sauce and all. If you need, add some water and let the chicken cook.
In a separate pot, add whatever vegetables you want. I had leftover celery so I tossed that in. I also added bamboo and carrots. Start cooking it for a few minutes. Don’t add water yet, the vegetables will sweat.
Pour in the pan cooked chicken over the vegetables. Cover it and let it simmer. If there’s not enough water at this point, go ahead and add it, but keep in mind it’s not supposed to be too soupy.
And tadaa!! So delicious.
Mugging on the Metro!
Today, on my way home from work, I witnessed 4 young (15-16 year old) black guys about 5-5.5 feet tall mug a guy for his phone. The man was standing there waiting for the train and they ran up to him to snatch it and he instantly fought back and they in turn jumped on him, punching him in the face. It was surreal. Right in front of me!! I immediately thought, Kitty Genovese!! I should do something!! Kick? Punch? OMG!! My heart was racing and as they ran off with his iPhone, with the victim in pursuit, I called 911. They transferred me to transit police and the victim came back and I handed him my phone to tell them what happened. I think he managed to wrangle his phone back but he had a cut lip. Another guy there said he thought of fighting them but with 4 or maybe even more of them, it was a planned, organized group. Crazy. And unfortunate. I wish I had my camera but I’m sure the metro stations have cameras everywhere.
Signing up for the 21st Century
While every one was onto broadband, I was stubbornly, frugally clinging to $5/month dial-up. “I hardly ever use the Internet!” “I’m on the computer plenty enough at work all day!” One day, after much convincing and peer pressure from the sister, I finally gave in and got DSL. I got the low end (768 Kilobits per second upload, 1 mbps download). It was wonderful. I could even talk on the phone and be online at the same time! Years later, to last year, I was again hearing it from my sis about how unacceptably, inhumanly slow my Internet was. I told her to can it. Then Verizon started to bill my Internet and phone funny. $40 became $60 and I called to ask about it. That’s when the sales pitch started. After all was said and done, I became a convert to FIOS. After the Verizon guy left this past Saturday to install the FIOS, I tested the Internet. It’s amazingly fast. Here all along I was blaming my 5-year old slow computer when really it was the connection speed. I love it love it! Every saved minute is worth what I pay for it.
This past weekend I went to a couple of hardware stores looking for new sage seeds and a third rosemary plant to kill. The one we went to Saturday had sage seeds. After battling weekend traffic in the shopping centers, I got one packet of seeds. Sunday, we went to another hardware store and finally found rosemary plants. I also got new chili pepper plant seeds. Serrano this time. And on a whim, brussels sprouts. Yes, I am attempting one vegetable in a pot on the balcony. I got a big pot planter to go with it. I will find out exactly how big this plant gets and how many brussels it’ll yield. Experiment!
Cartoon Nostalgia
My new favorite pastime is watching old cartoons. Ever since my friend came over with her two boys and they shared this Boomerang channel with me, I’ve been recording the Smurfs, Jetsons, and the Powerpuff Girls. Every morning before work and every evening after work, I watch an episode or two. And they’re still good cartoons. They stand the test of time for me. Though newer, the Powerpuff Girls and Spongebob Squarepants are also good and I imagine 20 years from now, they’ll still be good.
One thing that struck me as I watched the Jetsons for the first time in a long time, is they use a laugh track. It’s so unusual for a toon to have that and I can’t believe I never even noticed it as a kid. I must’ve been very engrossed in the show or maybe I laughed too loud at all the right times and covered up the laugh track. It’s very back-in-the-days.
Scooby Doo is also a fun one to watch too. The chase scenes and the midnight sandwich scenes are my favorite parts.
I hope eventually they can bring back Highlander, He-Man, Voltron, She-Ra, and Thundercats.
Are there still after school cartoons on local network television these days?
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
… or maybe just thyme.
In anticipation of rain on Thursday, I finally transferred some plants from the windowsill to the large pots on the balcony. I figured the rain would help the plants along as they acclimated to the transfer. I ordered this set of small trowels and spades specially made for indoor or container gardening. They work perfectly. Now, I just wait and let everything grow. I suppose that’s the hard part. The waiting. I haven’t the patience! The mint that’s been outside since March hasn’t really grown much since it’s been potted but at least it’s still alive. Look really close, smack dab in the middle is the midgety mint plantling. One day it will grow into an indestructible weed. Until then, I’ll just have to buy mint from the store.
I got the basil from the grocery store. See how hardy it looks? They did a good job.
The lemongrass I got from an Asian market. You just put it in water and it roots. Imagine that. I actually still have a stalk in the fridge. I thought I’d cook with that one. Make a curry or something.
The thyme is still inside, I’ll keep it inside until it grows a bit sturdier. Right now they’re about a centimeter tall. I might even just leave it as a windowsill plant.
My chili pepper seeds never sprouted even though I’ve tried planting them three times now. I guess they weren’t viable. The sage seeds didn’t sprout either, I’ve also tried those three times now. If I see a rosemary plant, I’ll definitely want to try to grow that again too. I love the flavor of rosemary. I’ve killed 2 rosemary plants already though. Maybe the third time’s the charm.
The trees are attacking!
This year, I got generic Zyrtec instead of Claritin because last year, Claritin barely worked. I think our bodies get used to one drug if we keep using it so it’s good to switch it up. I definitely sneeze less but my eyeballs are still so itchy and they feel swollen. Ugh, I’ve already blown through a box of tissues. How did this happen?!? I was never like this up until college.
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