3-2-1...Cast-Off!

Well, hello there.

If this is your first time visiting, you might want to catch up before you continue reading. I fractured both of the arm bones in my right forearm while ice skating in January, which curtailed some of my adventurous living for a few weeks, but now I am back.

The date for the Cast-Off, as I liked to call it, was Valentine's Day, and it was as good a distraction as any... plus a big positive step in the right direction! Now I've got a removable brace and physical therapy exercises, which aren't too bad at all.

This being my first time with a broken bone, it was pretty cool seeing how the process went. It was painfully obvious that the technician did a dozen of these a week, but it was new to me, and fascinating. So of course I took pictures. Cackhanded.

 First he used this mini-circular saw, powered by what looked like a shop-vac (see top picture) to cut through the fiberglass part. It tickled a bit, and gave off some heat. Me? Worried?

 

Then he used a pair of surgical tongs to widen the strip, and then surgical scissors to cut through the under-layer of gauze. I had been wondering what kind of super-sensing machine could saw through it all without nicking your skin for 4 weeks, so I was somewhat relieved that there were graduated steps to this process.

 When the cast came off, my skin felt weird. Old. And that makes sense, when you think that skin under a cast doesn't have a chance to slough off in its natural course, so I needed to exfoliate it. Ick.

What was surprisingly painful was the range of motion. I was kind of assuming that when the cast came off, I would be able to move my arm normally again, if carefully and with caution. Nope. What you see here is as far as my wrist would go backward and forward, on its own. Whoa. They said it would feel 'stiff,' but this was nuts! It got much better after 24 hours though, and now I'm chipping away at it with the PT. I'm very grateful it was a clean break and I didn't need surgery. Whew!
Now I am pretty much back to my old tricks...

Yaki Soba noodles and spice packet, but with pre-chopped vegetable mix from Trader Joe's (new item, and not something I would buy with two good hands)

Linguine with Smoked Trout, with fennel and onion broth (using up leftovers, frugal foodies can rejoice!)

Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies

What's not to love? I was having fun with the microwave reflection in this as well. Because if you can't have fun with your peppermint chocolate chip cookies, what can you have fun with??

More to come on those action steps from the Tea Klatsch, including social connections, skill cultivation, and balance. Do any of those jump out at you as something you're working on, or might need to focus on? Leave a comment and join the group!

The World Comes to Me

I am now caught up to November! Let's see, what happened in November...

Well, a friend of mine had a rockin' feast of Pakistani delights, which I felt compelled to catalog.

The country's tastes, and Jessica's, trend a bit spicier than mine, but knowing that ahead of time was enough to make sure the top of my head didn't get get blown off. Slow and steady...

Here's the head chef in the preparatory stages, in front of the stove in her spotless kitchen ...

Here's the special jasmine rice (I think- I'm not very fluent in rice) being mixed in with the tomatoes, herbs, and spices.

Here's the slightly tweaked version of what I know as palak paneer, with tofu instead of paneer- delicious!

A surprise hit of the night- durian chips!

The Spread- the mind boggles. And so pretty!

And the Spread that found its way onto My Plate: that's baked salmon in tomato sauce, spiced chickpeas, the rice with vegetables, and the tofu-palak creation. Mmm, it's enough to prompt a food coma in remembrance! I love times like these, when the food of the world somehow finds its way to me, and gives me a new experience (without the stress of going to Pakistan).

Here's to as many tasty foodie nights as possible before this gal ships off to the Far East!

Good Chinese

October 28th.

Friends assembled for a fun foodie night out.

In Rockville, MD.

At A&J.

Much to my surprise, not 1 of our group, but 3 of our 4 knew some Chinese (yes, I was the neanderthal here), which made for some hilarity taking turns asking the waitress things....like: how do you say "to go" ?

It was a rockin' restaurant, with great variety, great flavor, and the decor was... well, the food was awesome.
To the left we have for appetizers Spicy Cucumbers and a dish with soybeans, greens, and bamboo shoots- a table favorite.
Below we have spicy beef soup on the left and congee on the right ('jook' for Koreans, and my first time tasting either). The Spicy Beef was too spicy for me, even with plenty of congee. The congee helped my mouth calm down, but on its own was plain to the point of paper paste. Not my favorite, but I'm sure it's best when paired with the right fiery dish (for someone who could handle it, that is!)

Sesame noodles, very tasty, being expertly tossed by Sabina.

We also sampled Ground Pork and Noodle, Potstickers (a different, fat-cigar shape), Thousand-Layer Pancake, Scallion Pancake, and copious amounts of fresh green tea, poured by each other as kind friends do. The Thousand-Layer Pancake lived up to its intriguing taste reputation- not sweet but not just grease, either- and stole my heart.

And there was no chance for dessert, we barely rolled ourselves out of there in time for making it to this pool hall/bar on Connecticut Ave for a scant hour before we were spent. Or at least I was!

So many good memories over Good Chinese.

A Known, An Unknown

I return to cooking and baking. The baked good, I have already mentioned: the Lemon Rosemary Zucchini Bread from Simply Recipes. The cooked good involves famous Heidi's Magic Sauce, but more on that later.

For now, Zucchini Bread. Having failed in acquiring a good used grater, I had to resort to using my Microplane grater to shred the zucchini, which is really supposed to be used for grating, you know, nutmeg, not sawing off whole zucchinis. But, the recipe was on my list; its number was up, come hell or no grater.
What I learned was that repetitive motion of the tricep variety is very tiring. WOW. After 13 minutes of intense concentrated grating, it didn't look like I had enough for 3 cups, so I scoured the fridge and... parsnip? Why not. Sweet enough for the sweet quick bread, and also an oblong-ish vegetable. I did the zucchini the night before, the parsnip the [early] morning of. My triceps needed to sleep on it. This is what the end result looked like going into the eggs and sugar mix:

Yeah. It reminded me of Spinach Souffle, Stouffer-style, which used to be one of my incongruent favorites growing up. Go. Figure.

Anyway, don't worry about that. It blended in. What you do want to turn your attention to (and why you should make this recipe on a nice, gloomy, rainy day) is the SMELL.
Think about it: Lemon. Rosemary. Sugar. Baking.
Yum.
Dry ingredients above (herbs just crushed with mortar and pestle), fragrantly beaming.
All of it blended together below, looking like a spinach-ricotta singalong, but never fear...

We're in the clear! They baked up quicker than Elyse's did, but that's usual for my oven- I have to check everything about 2/3 of the way through to ensure no burning, drying out, or collapsing. I took one in to work that day and it was fell apart a little, but not in a dry way. Not sure what's behind that. Flavor was good, subtle and pleasant. Also, I noted that contrary to common sense, the metal pan appeared to have cooked the bread faster than the glass (they were taken out at the same time). Isn't it supposed to be the reverse?

Now for the unknown. You didn't know that I had cooked up Heidi Swanson's Magic Sauce to stow away until the right occasion. But I did. It was lying in wait for the right occasion, as I said, so of course the right occasion came along. It's called Oven-Minor-Explosion-Wiring-Mess-Landlady-in-Europe-Handyman-Slow-to-respond-I-Can't-Use-My-Oven-Until-Further-Notice. See? Perfect!

I decided to use a third of the stowed-away sauce to punch up a barely-there meal. Bottom of a package of supermarket Broccoli Slaw for precut vegetables, frozen yaki soba noodles for Asian grocery, and Magic Sauce. Plus I used a little bit of the yaki soba flavoring packet instead of adding salt. It was great! I though I'd get 2 servings out of the effort, but no, it was too good. I wolfed it down. Ya gotta move fast in my house.

The Infamous...

My party, as promised :-)

So. I floated along in a glow-haze for the whole week, but I guess it's time for documentation. Proof that so much fun could, in fact, be had. Well, here it is, folks. My very own pinata party, out on the green.

(This is me being cheeky and pointing out over right field where my homerun would go, hehe.)

Here's Rachel, giving it a go (left). So what else did we do, besides swing away? You're right, it wasn't all violence; we don't roll like that. Since it was actually a dual celebration for my friend April (born 4/19/someyear) and me, we had two mostly-not-overlapping groups of friends, so people got to meet and talk and bascially just loll about in the perfect California-weather day. It was awesome- felt very Chosen People-ish (but more on that below with the bowling).

There was also a fair amount of food. It was hard to stand it, but I managed to sample a few things here and there. I brought Nora's red pepper spread recipe, Molly's Banana Bread, and some cranberry bread with no chocolate, since it was not yet Easter and I knew at least one person would be abstaining from chocolate for Lent (that is one old habit that should die a fabulous death).

And here is April of the 4/19 bday, in a great Action Shot (right)! Her mom was in town too, and so helped with the logistics- I think the older Filipina woman did a great job blending in and having fun with all us young'uns!

But the pinata party wasn't the only event. Nay, there were pre-party rumblings heard as early as Sunday. Rumblings that took the form of... a Korean Triple Play !

Lovely beef and noodle dish at Palace Restaurant

 Me, Nina, Nora at the Lanes

Jess, Nora, Marc focused on the 'pan-chan' (terrible anglicism)

The Korean Triple Play was born of my desire to continue field tripping into adulthood. If we're going to go into Virginia, we might as well make hay, right? Or something like that. So especially for people who couldn't make it to the pinata party, it was a nice outing. Consisting of:

1) 'Palacial' dinner at Palace Restaurant, a Korean BBQ/ Grill place of tasty food and wonderful service

2) Burning off a few of those calories at AMF Annandale Lanes, just down the road

3) Burning off some more (and losing our voices) as we choke through an hour of karaoke at a Korean private-room karaoke lounge

It was a great idea, let me tell you. PLUS, we had a great time bowling- we went Jews v. Gentiles; each team had an N, a J, and an M (isn't that crazy? natural selection or something?), and each team won once. That's all we had strength for!

Ahh, 30. I am embarking on this year with a powerful feeling of self-possession, balance, and drive. TOward what? Well, we'll see. ;-)

Wedding favors; returning with joy

Before I get into more baking bliss, I am giving credit where credit is (partially) due. For a weekend in February, I was in a friend's wedding in Mississippi, and it was a happy, happy affair. I was glad to leave the funk of bad eating habits and avoidance for a bit, and happy to let the new attitude stick on me if it could. I had some small worries on the trip, but mostly I came back with a heart full of happy.

Sushi, sweet wings, cinnamon-spiced potstickers

 Since this is a food-centric blog, I will highlight that aspect of the trip, but as usual, use food as a vehicle for explaining what's going on with me. To the right here is Plate #1 of Rehearsal Dinner food at Pan-Asia- a wonderful restaurant, very atmospheric and modern, nevermind delicious.

Delicious cucumber-vinegar salad, tasty scallop stirfry, beef chow mein

 

And to the left is Plate #2 of food that I was determined to enjoy and sample, but not overdose on. I didn't. I love being able to sample and enjoy without filling up on one or two things; thankfully, so does the bride! 

Below, my 'artsy' photo of wedding 'schtuff' I had accumulated by the reception: wedding program, scarf, lei, bouquet, and clutch.

 And lastly, here is me seeing things through rose-colored glasses. I saw this lone red-boa feather on the sidewalk outside work a couple days after returning to DC, and it reminded me of the great time all the guests had playing with the costumes and photo booth at the wedding reception.

 

 Conclusions:

1) What one chooses to see in life is one's life.

2) When one selects good people to surround oneself, one is encouraged to be a good person.

Also, with Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday following quickly on the heels of the wedding, I was encouraged to reflect on how not to return to the previous destructive behaviors. I came up with the Conclusions above. And songs like this help.

Unbelievable flavor!

So I was crowing about this one for a while. I had a dinner party, where my little apartment was flooded with like, 5 people besides me. I made some pasta and whatever else, but the star of the meal was this experiment that looked SOOOO interesting. I was initially attracted by this most entertaining article I found online while looking for different uses for the sweet potato. It involves a roasted sweet potato, ground pork, miso paste, and some green vegetable such as broccoli rabe or green onions, which is what I used, not wanting to shell out for broccoli rabe. Voila:Ok, this is the magazine's photo, but mine came out pretty close, and oh-so-scumptious! I can not well describe the interplay of salty, sweet, tangy-- plus the textures-- that made for such good play on the tongue! Sufice to say you should try it yourself.
Actually, it looks like I only have the leftover picture- noooooo! The original at the party was much more elegant. Oh well. O Hell. Guess I'l have to make it again. Won't you come over to sample? :-) Happy Cherry Blossom Season!