A little basil experiment

So it's been a busy weekend! We had some trials with United having a bad weekend, but got to see the lovely wedding of one of my oldest friends (as in, our friendship is old; she isn't).

I'll post more about the weekend later, but for now this is just kind of a test post (posting from my phone!) about a little basil experiment I've been doing!

A couple weeks ago, I bought some fresh basil from the farmer's market. I bought it to make some bolognese sauce, but they never sell just the handful of leaves you need. So I put the remaining stems in little cups of water, hoping that would keep them happy until I could think of something else to make with them. Anyway, they started sprouting roots and new leaves! I kept them in separate cups and decided to see whether fluorescent light could compare to the sun! Over the weekend, I kept one cup on the windowsill in our living room and one in our fluorescent light lit kitchen. Here are the results:

First the photo of the plants together:

Now, which is which?  The one on the right was in the kitchen, growing under fluorescent light.  The one on the right has been growing in the sun, well the partial sun that we get here, with the giant trees outside.

 In case you can't tell, the plant that was growing in the kitchen also has several leaves with brown spots.  It's like they are drying up on the stem, which is weird because they are just in jars of water!  Besides, the plant in the sun is much taller and might have more little, new leaves.

So, in conclusion; natural is better than artificial; sun is better than fluorescent light for growing basil plants at least.

Next post: our quick trip to San Diego!

Summer heat

Most of the country is currently under high heat warnings.  Temperatures into the triple digits have been causing droughts and wildfires.  Here, in the Capitol Area, we haven't suffered too heavily with the exception of the crazy Derecho storm that swept through rather unexpectedly and forcefully a few weeks ago.  It knocked out power and played havoc with all the telecommunications services.  Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), T and I escaped the Derecho by accident and were at the beach that fateful weekend.  We drove out to Bethany and kept just barely ahead of the storm.  We got to see crazy wind and rain; for much of the drive, visibility was terrible because of all of the sand flying around.  It was like being in "Twister" the movie!

Today was another scorcher of a day, and right now it looks like a big storm is brewing.  A few weeks back, we'd found out that we are required to switch over to FIOS, so the guy came today to install it.  As seems typical, he arrived around 12:30pm even though the window (which they called, emailed and texted me about several times) was from 8:00am to noon.  Anyway, I took the opportunity as a day to stay in (out of the incredible heat!) and do some experimenting in the kitchen.

I started the morning by making T's lunch which included bell pepper sticks.  He is still making a good effort to eat healthfully, so I have been trying to come up with new and delicious healthful recipes!  I like to have something to dip pepper sticks into, and T is never one to turn down a sauce, so I concocted a sesame-peanut sauce for him.  We'll find out when he gets home if he liked it or not.  I liked it so much that I decided to make another batch of it for Sneetch and me to enjoy as a snack throughout the day.

Sneetch and Mom stopped at Safeway on their way here to pick up some more summer squashes for me.  Sneetch and I made the yummy summer veggie stir fry again and topped it with a little of the delicious sesame-peanut sauce.  Fantastic combo for a super healthful and delicious summer lunch!

Finally, Mom had some bananas that needed to be made into banana bread, so Sneetch and I mixed up a batter using apple sauce and honey instead of oil/butter and sugar.  We also used whole wheat flour and gluten free flour instead of all purpose.  We got three silicone trays worth of mini muffins out of our batter.  I added swirl chocolate chips and oatmeal (and a little extra apple sauce) to the last batch which are by far my favourite!

Sweet-Hot Sesame-Peanut Sauce

Ingredients:
1T peanut butter (I used creamy, but I suppose crunchy might be good too!)
2T sesame oil
1T water
1/2t agave syrup
1t cayenne pepper powder
1t soy sauce

To Make:

1. Mix together everything except the water and cayenne.
2. Add in the water and mix well, then taste.
3. Add in the cayenne a little at a time to get it up to the heat level you like.

Banana Nut Mini Muffins with Chocolate Swirl Chips
 based on this recipe, but this is what I did:

Ingredients:
1/3c unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup honey
1t vanilla extract
2 eggs
4 mashed bananas
1c whole wheat flour
3/4c gluten free all purpose flour
1/2t salt
1t baking soda
1/4c hot water
1/2c chopped filberts

And for the third batch with chocolate swirl chips:
1/4c chocolate swirl chips
1/4c unsweetened applesauce
1/4c oats

To Make:

1. In your stand mixer, mix the eggs, honey, applesauce, bananas and vanilla.
2. Mix in both flours and the salt.
3. In a separate little cup, dissolve the baking soda in the hot water, then add it to the batter.
4. Add in the chopped filberts.
5. Bake the first batch and while the second batch is in the oven, and 1/3 of the batter remains, add in the last 3 ingredients (1/4c chocolate swirl chips, 1/4c unsweetened applesauce, and 1/4c oats).  Mix it up thoroughly.
6. I found that filling the muffin cups to the top made a nice little muffin top that didn't overflow too much on the sides.

Back from the beach!

After we got back from Japan, both T and I needed about a week to get back into East Coast time and routine.  Slowly, the jet lag wore off.  Throughout the week, I took my time unpacking and sluggishly went through all of our many omiyage and personal souvenirs.  We brought home a ton of stuff!

This photo is just the stuff we brought home to give away!

By the weekend through, I managed to make it to (and through) my Saturday morning ballet class and the next morning, we picked 10 lbs of blueberries at our favourite local pick your own orchard.

Look at those giant, sweet blueberries!

Since then, we've spent three consecutive weekends at the beach.  I spent a whole week there with my friend Feder and I turned 28!  it's been a comfortable and relaxing mid summer.  Now we're back home.  T's back at work and I'm busy trying to tackle all those "I'll do it later" projects accumulated throughout the year so that I can have a nice, clean slate of a to do list by the time Fall classes begin.

My youngest sister, Sneetch has been helping me get all my inventory photographed so I can stock my Etsy store and I've listed books on Amazon to try to decrease our book collection a little.  So far, so good!

In other news, today Sneetch and I made a variation of a veggie stir-fry type dish Feder taught me to make while we were at the beach.  I've never been a fan of squash/zucchini type veggies, but this dish has made me change my mind!  It's super simple to cook up and nearly zero points on the Weight Watchers program!  Here's the recipe, as I made it, if you can call it a recipe; it's super simple!

Summer veggie stir fry!

Delicious Summer Veggie Stir Fry

Ingredients:
1/2 t olive oil
1/2 t butter
1 yellow squash (long and not too bulbous at the bottom = fewer seeds = better)
1 zucchini squash
1 green bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
1 cob of cooked, fresh, sweet corn

To Make:

1. Wash the squashes and cut off the ends (I cut off about 1/2 an inch from each end).  Cut in half lengthwise and then slice, making half circles about 1/4" thick.
2. Wash and cut up the peppers, removing all the insides and seeds.  Pieces should be bite size.
3. Break the corn cob in half and pick off all the corn  kernels.  If the corn is cooked right, you should be able to easily pick off a row or two of kernels one at a time and then remove entire rows at one go.
4. Time to cook!  In a large frying pan, heat the oil and butter together over med-high heat.  Toss in the squash half circles and allow to cook until slightly soft; but not translucent!  Stir infrequently so that some pieces get a nice golden brown colour.
5. Add in the pepper pieces and cook until slightly soft.  The peppers should add a nice, light crunch.
6. When squashes and peppers are just about done, toss in the corn kernels and turn off heat, leaving the pan on the burner.
7. Enjoy warm or at room temperature!

For the week while I was at the beach, I prepped a pork shoulder for T to make himself some pulled pork.  A concoction of my own imagination, the pork came out pretty well, but there was a whole lot of it and we returned to at least 6 servings of it in the fridge.  So Sneetch and I enjoyed our veggies with a serving of pulled pork on top; yum!

Kindle cover!

I've been neglecting my crafty side for the past several months, focusing mostly on knitting. Well, let's be honest, I have been spending most of what could have been crafting time looking at crafty things other people have made on Pinterest. [That site is amazing for people prone to wasting time...]

Anyway, last night, Flea came over for a night of sisterly crafting. We started the evening off right by making paella from this recipe. However, we made some modifications of our own as we went along. Namely, we remembered that paella usually has saffron at the very end, and then sprinkled in a larger-sized pinch. Also, we cooked the rice separately (in the rice cooker, being the good Asians we are) and forgot that we were supposed to cook it in chicken broth, so we added a Knorr condensed soup thing to it at the end. Anyway, all in all, it was pretty good, definitely edible but not the best thing I've ever had. I suspect the leftovers might be better, now that the flavours have had time to co-mingle. We finished off the paella with a batch of brownies-from-a-box, which we made in little silicone cupcake moulds. Yum.

Click for more photos

Getting on to the crafty part of the night, Flea was set on making a case for her new computer. She had her tutorial all printed and even brought some nicely washed fabric for the project. As she got her supplies together and got started on her case, I cleaned up the poor, neglected craft room which has been languishing in its untidied, slowly pile-accumulating state since the big costume project of October 2011. By the time I finished putting 90% of the random things away that had accumulated in there, Flea was nearly done with her case and it was 11:00. I was determined to accomplish something equally crafty though, so I started work on my Kindle case! I followed the general guidelines from this blog, but given that she used a kit with templates and all, I was kind of on my own. Instead of using fusible fleece and stabilizers, I just cut pieces of peltex to fit each side, slid them in and ironed them. Then I topstitched the whole thing and called it a night!

New year, new ideas

Well I thought this would be a place for me to journal about my random life musings and other such interesting bits. But apparently even fulfilling one of my life's most outlandish dreams - getting married in Disney World - wasn't enough to encourage me to blog regularly. Oh well. New year, new ideas and a new take on blogging.

In the past few months, I've become quite hooked on a new (-ish) site called Pinterest. Those of you net-savvy folks (assuming anyone is still reading this thing) will know what I'm talking about. It's a great site where you create your own virtual pin boards. You can pin any website with an image thereby keeping a little reminder for yourself to go back and look at something cool you saw before. I have found it particularly useful in my quest for quick, delicious and nutritious meals to feed myself and T. I also think it will be useful to get me back into blogging. When all else fails (basically when I have nothing interesting going on) I will be making food. So in between gems of genius brilliance (do I still have any?), you'll be introduced to the variety of recipes I'm trying.

To start things off, we have a heavily modified Indian recipe. I originally had something like this at work. One of the perks of working in a place where someone lives is that you sometimes get to try their food. :) Turning to Google for some variations on this dish, I found that it is called by a wide variety of names in addition to being prepared very differently depending on the origins of the cook.

The noodles used are very similar to the Chinese feng-si or bean floss noodles. They are also sometimes called bean or rice vermicelli. So we'll call this dish

Veggie Vermicelli

Ingredients:
1T butter or ghee (you can use canola oil too)
1t mustard seeds
1.5t cumin seeds
1t ground ginger
1t minced garlic
1/4t turmeric
2t salt
1.5c roasted vermicelli noodles (the Indian variety which are cut to 1" lengths)
2.5 c hot water
1c finely chopped veggies (I used sweet baby peas and baby carrots)

To Make:
1) Heat the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, ginger and garlic.
2) When the mustard seeds begin to pop, add in the turmeric and salt. Saute for about a minute, stirring to make sure the turmeric is evenly distributed.
3) Add in the roasted vermicelli noodles (if you have the non-roasted type, you will need to add in a separate step of roasting them here - basically you will just stir them around in the pot until they turn golden before adding water)
4) Pour in the hot water. Some recipes insisted that the water be boiling, but I haven't found that it makes much of a difference except that it takes a little longer.
5) Stirring occasionally, cook over high or medium high heat until the noodles absorb all the water. When just over half the water is absorbed, add in the veggies - this prevents them getting too soggy and releasing too many of their sugars into the noodles.

Serve at whatever temperature you like. The flavours come together most after the noodles have cooled down, but you could heat them up again if you prefer. I have thought about adding some dry toasted tofu bits or peanuts just for some protein. I'll let you know if I try either.

Rainy days = yummy soup!

The weather around here has been kind of funky. The old "April showers bring May flowers" seems to have extended a week beyond. Besides the weather, we've had a few cases of closed up, sore throat, sniffly nosed blahs. In an attempt to remedy both of these, I decided to make T and myself some French Onion Soup. I read numerous recipes before deciding on my own mash-up way to go about concocting some soup. Fortunately, my research paid off and T even commented that my version was "just like you get in restaurants!"

French Onion Soup Recipe:

You'll need:
1 32oz box beef broth (low sodium is fine)
1 package shredded mozzarella cheese
1 baguette (day old is fine)
1.5-2 cups chopped onions
1/2 cup red wine
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 T dried thyme
Worcestershire sauce (phewf that was fun to spell!)
4 oven-safe bowls for serving

How to make it:
1) Chop the onions into 1/4" strips. We bought some great little ones at the Farmer's Market 5 in a ziplock bag for $1.
2) In a medium sized pot, melt the butter and add the thyme to season it as it melts.
3) Set your oven shelf to the lower/middle level and preheat the broiler to low.
4) Add the onion pieces to the pot, stirring regularly until the onions are just about translucent. Meanwhile, slice the baguette into 1/2" slices.
5) Pour in the red wine, a splash of the Worcestershire sauce and the crumbs from the baguette.
6) Add the entire box of beef broth to the onions and let simmer for 20 minutes (a little longer is ok), stir regularly to keep the onions from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
7) Cover a cookie sheet with a SilPat or tinfoil and arrange your four bowls on top.
8) Evenly ladle soup into the bowls. Arrange slices of baguette on top, in one layer. Do not push the slices into the soup to soak them; this will happen in the oven.
9) Sprinkle mozzarella over the bread (and off the sides of the bowls, if you like).
10) Place the whole cookie sheet with bowls on top in the oven for about 10 minutes, until the cheese is bubbly and the pieces on the bowl edges are browned.
11) Serve and enjoy - but be careful - the bowls are super hot!

*Photo from: http://www.displayit-info.com/food/dinner2.html

Rain, rain, wash the pollen away!

Our summer days have been temporarily replaced by rainy, somewhat drear-some weather. The silver lining is a great one; the rain is going to relieve us of the 1600+ ppi pollen count. Phewf! In celebration of the hot weather yesterday (and knowing the forecast for today), T and I decided to have our old favourite summery dinner. We came up with the recipe for this delicious and nutritious tuna pasta in college. It's the perfect, light, cool summer meal; especially when followed by some slices of yummy watermelon. Here's the recipe:

Tuna Pasta (college style)
Makes 6 large servings

Ingredients:
1 box whole wheat twirly pasta (or some other shape that will hold the sauce well)
2 cans tuna, drained and rinsed
1 large bell pepper (any colour) diced
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
2 T dijon mustard
3 T French mustard (the kind that comes in the yellow squeeze bottles)
1/4 c Italian dressing

To Make:
1) Cook the pasta according to box instructions.
2) Meanwhile, drain and rinse the tuna, and dice the pepper.
3) In a large bowl (enough to hold all the ingredientes), mix the 2 mustards with the dressing.
4) Drain and rinse the pasta in cold water, then add all of it to the dressing bowl.
5) Toss to coat and then add the pepper pieces and peas.
6) Serve at room temperature, or chilled. Enjoy!

Sunshine and earthworms

The weather has been quite kind these first couple days back to school. Nice weather always puts the children in a better mood. The big thing on the playground is earthworms. We received a lovely new layer of mulch over the break which holds moisture in its lower layers well; the perfect digging grounds for small hands in search of fat worms. One of our little friends even brought in a tub of worms he'd found at home. I tried to get a picture of a worm in a little hand, but the camera card is still full of Disney photos!

I'm uploading them as we speak, so there will be a nice link to an album full of photos for you at the bottom of the post. In the meantime, tomorrow is already hump day, and I have decided to go back to my Hump Day Goodies making ways. Tomorrow's goody is kettle corn. Ever since I first smelled the delicious salty, buttery popcorn in Disney World, I've been itching to make kettle corn. In fact, I had even planned to make some before our trip for snacking on the plane. Anyway, a nice big bowl is already made and cooling for tomorrow. Tuzi, who seems to dislike the smell of oil and the sound of corn popping is not impressed and even carried his carrot (an offering from the offending MamaTuzi) away to his room. The photo is from before we left. He has taken to napping in a little towel tent on T's office chair, and I managed to capture a few photos. Such the inventive little bun!

Big Apple

We spent a long weekend up in NYC for T to compete in a Moot Court. The weather was great, considering it's early February. It was a little chilly on Friday, but much nicer than our last visit when it rained (poured) and T bought a faulty umbrella. [Longish funny story, email or comment if you're interested.] I was not allowed to attend the Moot Court proceedings, so I had quite a bit of time to myself. Though I'd had my doubts about our travel and hotel arrangements, things turned out reasonably. Our bus was about an hour late leaving DC, which left us standing in the cold, but such things happen I suppose. The hotel made up for it; the Sheraton Manhattan. It's on the very edge of Times Square as you'd picture it in your head. The rooms were a decent size, check in was painless and prompt and best of all, it was clean; no mildewy bathrooms (like at the W we stayed in last trip)!

While T was away, I pounded the pavement around the hotel. I probably walked a good 5 miles, we suspect. I think I saw everything on Madison, Lex, 5th and Ave. of the Americas, plus a lot of the in between streets from 41st all the way up to 68th. I plotted a course to hit Japanese book stores (searching for crafting books) and Japanese groceries which are quite plentiful actually. It was very fun to see all the "real" Japanese goodies as compared to the primarily Korean and Chinese stuff around DC.

I ended up spending a lot on crafting books, as is to be expected. I found a really cool one for Mom with charts for all kinds of different, very intricate and complicated looking knitted patterns. I also found a "find the differences" book for Sneetch which is comprised of pretty difficult pictures in all kinds of illustration styles. I ended up getting 5 for myself. I will get some pictures when my camera is recharged. I think my favourite is one called Make a Box which comes with a CD of .eps files so you can put your own designs and logo on all sorts of printable packaging templates! I have dreams of making something supercute for the babies, since Valentine's Day is upon us. I'll get photos of that too, if it happens.

Sorry about the blurry photo, my camera seems to dislike me more and more each day. T and I have been contemplating splurging on a nice SLR (I still don't know what that means, and haven't had a chance to research it properly). The idea is that if we had a good camera, we would take more photos. At all the craft fairs we go to, we both see photos and other 2D art we like all the time. But, one of us (ok, me) always points out that we could make it ourselves and it wouldn't cost $x00000.00. So, we don't buy the art, but we also don't make the art and our walls are still bare.


Speaking of art, I come to the only other photo I took that came out well; a giant statue of Miffy. She was standing with some other notable kawaii friends; Hello Kitty, Pochacco, Keroppi, amongst a group of skateboarders doing tricks on their pedestals. An interesting joining of cultures.

Sick day

I'm back in Blogland! Yep, sick again. The same thing I had before, but I went to the doctor earlier this time. Hopefully, that means that I'll get better sooner! Actually, it better mean that I am healthier sooner, because now is not the time to be sick!

I've got 2 parties at work this week, (one of which I am helping to organize), the Downtown Holiday Market and Celebration of Mrs. Wiechelt's Life this weekend. Then next week is the home stretch to Winter Break which means I have to get cracking on the babies' presents! At least I think I have finally decided on what to make for them.

I have had a hard time concentrating recently. I think it has been the excitement for Thanksgiving and now the winter holidays coupled with the overwhelming sadness and unfortunate surprise of Karen's death. It was really a reality check for me; things don't just keep going so that you can go to bed and wake up tomorrow. She always encouraged everyone to enjoy life the way it is and savor every moment (and every bite of chocolate). I need to work on that.

In the meantime, I'll share a recipe I made up all on my own! This dashi based soup is great for the freezing cold days we've been having. It's filling, warm, healthy and delicious! Even T agrees and is willing to have it for lunch the next day. :)

Ingredients:
3 T Dashi soup base (available in most Asian food stores; look for one with no MSG or where MSG is at least towards the end of the ingredient list; this can be substituted with chicken broth)
4-5 cups water (depends on how much soup you want, you can always add more)
1 lb. pea shoots (tou-miao in Mandarin Chinese)
1 cup diced celery
1 cup sliced kamoboko fish cake
1 cup firm tofu
1 lb. somen noodles

1. Wash the pea shoots very throroughly (there are often little teeny bugs). Peel off the leaves and discard the stems.
2. Heat the water on medium high heat, it doesn't need to be boiling and stir in the dashi to dissolve. It will look like miso soup broth.
3. When the water is hot, add the noodles and pea shoot leaves.
4. While the noodles and leaves are softening, slice the tofu and fish cake. I like to cut them small, but still arge enough to be picked up easily with chopsticks.
5. Add the celery, fish cake and tofu.
6. When everything is heated through, serve and enjoy!

For extra deliciousity, T and I enjoyed this "fruit salad" as our dessert after our soup for lunch today:

1 apple, diced
1 pear, diced
1/2 a pomegranate's worth of seeds