Child of Bliss

Don’t ask why it has taken me sooooooo long to write again. I have been keeping up a weblog at work and that seems to keep me busy enough. Just today I attended a workshop on web 2.0 tools and I realized that I really should do something with my personal blog. 

Today, I was thinking of lots of different things but for some reason I was reminded of the music of my youth. I found this old Cure video which reminds me of how much a goth-head I was. The Cure was one of my favorite bands but they really made the worst videos. Take a look though, they’re so young (and thin) and cute.

Last night while spending time with the lovely Carey Wallace we found a new ramen shop that is gooood!

As the egg says, the restaurant is called Ippudo and it’s a chain in Japan but it’s only been open here for about a month. It’s the most authentic ramen I’ve had in the states. 

Joshua and I are cat people. We like watching them drink or roll on their backs or groom themselves, basically anything. Can a cat do something and not be adorable?  Unfortunately we can’t keep a house cat since we live in a small basement apartment and Joshua is allergic. We try to befriend neighborhood cats but they tend to run away at the sight of us (T_T). That was our experience until last week wednesday; that’s when we met Agnes.

When saw Agnes across the street on our walk back from the train station we called her over and she actually came! She let us pet her and even followed us back to our apartment for some dinner. It seemed like she had chosen us - so we let her decide if she wanted to stay. The picture above is Agnes in the midst of that decision, do I stay or do I go? Well, she finally choose to go but she has been back to visit us almost every night since. Each time we hear her calling for us to come out I imagine she is saying, “tadaima,” which means, “Hi, I’m home!” 

Working at the New York Public Library affords me a variety of experiences. I have the privilege of serving students of all ages, our homeless community, faculty from various academic institutions, researchers of diverse interests and some very curious people. As such, I arrive at the reference desk without any set expectations.

On Wednesday however, a patron asked me something I have never been asked before, “Would you like to go to a Stravinsky concert?” She went on to explain that she and her husband had purchased concert tickets but had to change their plans at the last minute. The tickets were for that evening. Could I say no? 

The concert was part of a Stravinsky Festival produced by the Miller Theatre of Columbia University. It was a real treat! 

I spent time with my sister and brother-in-law. It had been a long time since we were able to spend time together and I was glad to catch up with them.

The place we went to was very popular and we had to wait, a long time. . . But the food was good and they had these little wrapped sugar cubes:

A little wasteful, but cute.

Hey, I’m back again. I wanted to write about a successful new recipe I tried recently. It was inspired by a dish that Joshua and I had at a restaurant called Gaia while visiting his hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Basically it was a combination of mixed veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, etc.) and potatoes covered in shredded cheese and sour cream. It was very tasty and extremely filling for just being a plateful of vegetables.

I had such a craving for it the other day that I thought I would try to recreate it. It is now a new favorite. Sadly, I didn’t get a picture of it before we started eating but here it is, looking not as appealing as it did when just made:

Recipe (serves 2)

1 10 oz bag of frozen veggies (I know I should use fresh but they really taste just as good in this recipe)
1 medium onion sliced
1/2 tsp of cumin seeds
2 small potatoes sliced 1 cm thick (yellow are best)
1 tsp of cumin powder (maybe more, I never measure)
1 dash of paprika (for color)
sea salt to taste
1/2 cup shredded cheese (I think that cheddar works best)
sour cream

Boil the potatoes until tender, drain and set aside. Heat about 1 1/2 tbs of oil in a pan and add cumin seeds. Let them simmer for about 2 minutes on low heat. Raise heat to medium or high and add onions to the pan. Stirfry until they are translucent. Add the frozen veggies and potatoes and heat them until they are the desired temperature. Season with salt, cumin and paprika. Serve on to plates and cover with cheese while it is still warm. Finish with a dollop of sour cream and let me know what you think.

Usually include cooking with my mom. Fun!

A dear and lovely friend gave me a starter batch for an Amish Delight (can the Amish have delights?) called Friendship Bread. It is the best sweet bread I’ve ever had and it’s really fun to make. The recipe calls for 10 days of sitting and mushing. The one difficult thing about this bread is that it multiplies, kind of like a chain letter. When you receive a starter batch you have to add milk, flour and sugar to it and divide it into four different portions. One of those portions you bake with and the other three you give away or keep if you want to continue baking the bread.

Maybe you can see the problem already, if you want to keep making friendship bread, you need to make a lot of friends. Don’t try to give it to someone who’s received it already. By this time they’re trying to give away one of their twelve batches.

Since I liked the recipe so much and I can’t find that many people who will take a ziplock bag of what looks like breast milk and smells like beer (the fermenting) I decided to figure out how to make selfish bread. I tried looking on the internet but couldn’t find anything on how to stop multiplying friendship bread so here’s what I did. If you’d like to follow along I’ll be refering to this recipe. All the instructions I provide below are to be done before you separate the batter into 4 parts.

For 2 batches instead of 4. This means you will always have a batch left to bake later:

On the 6th day instead of adding 1 cup of flour, milk and sugar add only a quarter cup

On the 10th day instead of adding 1.5 cups of flour, milk and sugar add a half-cup

For one batch: add nothing

I have to say, it’s not quite the same texture and you need to watch the baking time. It still beats the waste of throwing out unused batches. If you enjoy this bread, here are some variations on the recipe that I’m looking forward to trying.