29 September 2006
bones shaking like stones
All I wanted was some freaking carbohydrates. They are my biomolecule of choice, and with the exclusion of vegetables and fruits (because, ahem, we all know that those don't really count) I hadn't had any all day since my innocent bowl of Barbara's Oh-My-God-So-Amazing Shredded Oats (I'm not kidding, go buy them) this morning. So I'm in the village around 4pm and I go to this funny little smoothie place and after standing around for TEN MINUTES AT THE COUNTER PEOPLE COME ON, I order half a hummus and avocado sandwich. It takes fifteen minutes for their machine to work with my campus cash, and then the pen doesn't work, and ten minutes later the girl in the back realizes that they're OUT OF HUMMUS. What? Did I hear you correctly? You have this food splashed up on your fancy menu but you don't actually have any of it, and you made me pay $5 before telling me? WHAT? So I get one piece of dry sourdough bread cut in half, with some lackluster veggies flopped in-between, and my frustration just grows and grows and the whole thing falls apart twice and the dryness makes the roof of my mouth chafe but I inhale the damn thing anyway because my stomach is eating itself and spontaneous combustion is not far off!
I boycott store-bought sandwiches. RESPECT FOR HUMMUS! RESPECT FOR HUMMUS!
24 September 2006
the market
8:30am. I'm lying in bed, noticeably springy unlike the last two weekends, debating whether to continue lying in bed, awake, until brunch, or whether to walk to the Farmers Market in the Village. While both would make me happy, I knew I'd be more satisfied with myself for starting the day with a nice walk and delighting amongst all the produce... and I've been meaning to go every Sunday since I've been here. I pulled on shorts and a sweatshirt, grabbed my now infamous Trader Joes canvas bag full of the necessaries, and plunged out into the cool morning. It was quiet until I got off the campuses, and then people starting popping up here and there until I was on a bustling street and then, wow, there's the market. At least two dozen stands proudly displayed an explosion of colors and shapes. I walked the entire length of it and then worked my way back, stopping to try a sample, squeezing the peaches and pressing the tomatoes, chatting with the merchants, doing mental math. I came away with a small feast, which let me take a break from brunch (where I only eat cereal, fruit and salad anyway).
The Sunday New York Times completed my fantastic morning.
Later in the day, when it was time for lunch, I reveled in actually preparing my entire meal, even if that only required slicing the tomatoes, scooping out avocado, and spreading generous amounts of hummus on pita bread.
It was possibly the best thing I've eaten for lunch since I got here.
I tried eating dairy for a week (mostly so I could test the cookies and frozen yogurt that everyone raved about), but it wasn't worth it for me, so with the exception of organic plain nonfat yogurt, I'm eating pretty much vegan again. I really miss making my own food. The first few weeks of eating here were fine, since there are eight dining halls between the five campuses and having designated vegan entrees was such a novelty. But, as with everything, I'm now tired of eating more or less the same salad (romaine lettuce, cucumber, shredded carrot, chickpeas, peppers, sunflower seeds or walnuts and raisins with balsamic vinegrette) and the same variety of melon every day for lunch, and the vegan entree for dinner. The other night I ended up showing my food photos on this blog to some of my friends, and I remembered all the amazing meals I made last spring and summer, and how much I enjoy food shopping and cooking and savoring and I become very sad about my unchangeable food situation. There's always an overwhelming sense of impatience in the dining hall, and I don't like not knowing how something was prepared, or what exactly is in it. I'm now using my meals mostly just for my daily servings of vegetables (and choosing pieces of fruit to take back to my beloved fruit bowl), and eating whole grains by means of cereal, rice cakes, and bran muffins in my dorm, and protein from soy milk and nuts. I've been to Trader Joes too many times to count, and I've built a small arsenal of food (let's review: Luna Bars, fig bars, dried figs, soup, rice cakes, Zen Bakery muffins, crackers, fruit leathers, yogurt, grapes, strawberries, almonds, walnuts, brazil nuts, dark chocolate, cranberries, raisins, coffee, and tea). Phew!
The market was a beautiful respite and a comforting way to start the day, as hopefully every Sunday will begin from now on.
23 September 2006
alligators live in the air
Phew!
I just spent the last few hours rearranging some things in my third of the room. Ready? I lowered my bed from captain height to a normal height, moved my drawers into my closet, moved my bookshelf to the end of the bed, put a lot of random closet things like suitcases and boxes against the wall under my bed, and moved my food/utensils into appropriate containers under the edge of the bed. I also organized lots of cords and plugs that were tangled together under my desk. What brought about the change? Our beds were all captained, and compared to my friends' triples our room felt a lot smaller. In theirs, two beds are captained and the third bed (in the corner diagonal to the door, flush against one of the windows) is at normal height. When this is the set-up, you walk in and your eyes are drawn downward, which makes the room feel bigger... and there is lots of light able to come through the window on the back wall. I finally decided to do something to relieve the cramped feeling we all have about our room. Here's the difference:
From:
to:
It feels much better. I'm sitting on my bed right now, and I prefer being closer to the ground and to my desk, and just matching the windowsill instead of being above it. It's kind of weird to have a window continue below your pillow. I'd had snacks in a plastic crate, and heavy china utensils and cutlery in stackable plastic drawers, and just opening a drawer to get a bowl required a hard yank, which made all the contents rattle and clank. So I re-allocated my food to the stackable plastic drawers, and put my heavy mugs and bowls in crates turned on their side, facing out into the room. Everything is in a more sensible place now. When my other roommate Kelly gets her bed lofted (hopefully this week!), after waiting a month for maintenance to come around to do it, her current mess of a corner will be fixed and our room with finally feel like a place where three people live, not just two plus a rogue wanderer.
I've been in a small funk recently, which is to be expected every so often, but the arrival of the weekend and beautiful weather has perked us all up a bit. Yesterday I was done with class at 9am, and spent the day in coffee shops (first at our campus one, and then after lunch at Starbucks) reading quite a bit of Incidents In The Life of A Slave Girl, an autobiography written in the 1860s by Harriet James, a slave who escaped from the South and became a pretty famous abolitionist. Oddly, I'm enthralled with it which is a good thing since it's due on Tuesday. Catherine, Keri and I went out to dinner at a cute restaurant in the Village and then walked around since it was Welcome Back Students Night with stores open late, free samples, and jazz music. I went on a short run with Catherine at 9pm, watched an episode of Sex and the City in their suite and then hung out with Alissa and Julia in our room. This morning I got up at 8:30 (which was pretty difficult, even with light pouring in) and went on a 4-mile run with Catherine and Denise. It was hard - I busted my ass up a hill and kept a pretty fast pace for most of the run. Denise suggested that we walk to the Village to buy coffee, which was the first thing I'd consumed since getting up and therefore tasted absolutely amazing. We met up with some other people and went to brunch. Afterwards, I drove with Alissa to Trader Joe's and picked up a few things, and got my car washed at a dorm fundraiser at Harvey Mudd. It was filthy since there was a big storm one night a while ago, and my conscience can only rest when it knows my car is clean. And then came the big re-organization. My body is feeling so good, but so tired! I have a lot of schoolwork to do in the next few days, so I'm not "going out" at all this weekend; instead I'm going to hang out with Alissa and Julia, with whom I haven't spent much time on previous weekends since I've been busy getting intoxicated, and I couldn't be more happy with that dealio. The party scene here is pretty repetitive, and after immersing myself in it for two weekends I don't need to go there again for a while.
I dropped Chemistry this week, since my gut instincts prevailed after four weeks of pretending to be pre-med. So I only have three classes now (Bio, Psych, and Core) which is luckily still considered full-time. A few AP credits have me well into sophomore standing, plus I'll take five classes another semester. It's nice to now have only one three-hour lab a week and lots of free time on Mondays and Fridays. Right now I think I'm going to be an Economics major (I've eliminated almost every other option) but I'll confirm this in November when we choose classes for spring.
I can't wait to take a shower now!
21 September 2006
blabber
It's quite fitting that today is the autumn solstice.
Something's up. And I'm not the only one aware of it.
I'm in the fourth-week slump, and everything has frozen as I pedal furiously off somewhere.
Attending a lecture about the end of cheap petroleum, and seeing An Inconvenient Truth (again) both in one week have me feeling pretty uncertain about the future of... the world.
I've changed majors about five times since I got here, but now that I'm certain I don't want to do pre-med (no flexibility, no study abroad, and summer classes), I dropped Chemistry yesterday, and I'm feeling a lot more optimistic about the next three years classes-wise.
This weekend is going to be very low-key since next week is absolutely insane for me - two big exams, a formal lab report and a really long book due in the span of three days. No wine for me this weekend... but really, I'm over the party scene. It's not fun after the second time.
Doom and gloom, what to do? Some things are good! I'm going outside a lot, walking, running. I went on a walk the other day around 5:30pm, as the sun was making its last spectacular razzle-dazzle. The temperature that day is under the definition of perfect, the trees whispered, rooted majestically, the breeze danced on my face and it was quiet, a shimmering ecstasy. I actually stopped suddenly to try to catch the moment, intangible, desperate. It was heartbreakingly beautiful, and the day had been such that the magnificence outside almost made me cry. It was a weird, disturbingly personal experience which I'd like to duplicate, although I have my doubts that it will ever be like that again. I'm also writing (as opposed to typing) often, and I have friends.
There are things which I'm just going to have to deal with for the next two-and-a-half years, that are part of this.
Time here is so strange. My days are so long, the weeks stretch out far ahead, but Sunday appears out of the blue and time slips between my fingers like grains of rice. Relatively speaking, this is a pixel.
What is the human experience? When I try to wrap my mind around these things I feel like I could explode.
It's times like these when I want to run away and be six years old again in England.
17 September 2006
friday
14 September 2006
what is this song because i love it and want it
I'm in my school's amazing coffeehouse, sitting on a sofa in the corner with a white hoodie on my head, tapping my toes to the soul music that's piping from the ceiling, hearing calls for nonfat chais and soy mochas, being totally cozy and wallflower-esque while observing people. I've been here since 8 this morning to edit and re-draft a paper, and now I can breathe and smile because it's done, and I love this place. If you pretend hard enough, you might think this place is in a huge, bustling city (where I occasionally wish I was). I have a lot going on in my head (don't we all?) about classes, my major, study abroad (please God let me be able to go), goals and hopes and dreams and typical things that we liberal-artsy kids have time to ponder between our coffee cups and laptops. Gotta go, more later?
1:51 p.m.
It's cloudy today, and a tad chilly, which means I'm rocking the clogs. It kind of looks like it did when I woke up at 7am, just a bit lighter... which I love. I live for these days. (I'm going to go for a run after my next class, and it's going to look and feel just like it does now and it will be wonderful.) I've already seen two scarves, though, which is a bit much. People, it's 65 degrees in California! I love my Tuesdays and Thursdays because I have the morning free and two fascinating classes (Psych and Autobiography) in the afternoon.
I need to kind of start figuring out my life a bit. Catherine and I were talking about that today.
I'm feeling so good! My crazy week is over, I have a paper finished, tonight I have no dire work to do, I love my friends, I got Ali's box of goodies today (holy crap I love that girl), it's cloudy today, I'm going to the beach tomorrow, and tomorrow means it's the weekend. "Let's have a bizarre celebration..."!
10 September 2006
superfreak
The night started with a birthday... someone's 22nd, in fact. Eight of us piled into two cars, zipped down to a sushi restaurant, and settled into a cozy corner. One legit ID was all that was needed to get us countless bottles of Kirin Light beer and saki, and while waiting for plates of sushi to arrive, we made saki bombs and giggled. For the saki bomb virgins, you balance a shot of saki on chopsticks on top of a glass of beer. Everyone pounds their fists on the table with each word as you chant "Saki saki saki bomb!" The saki (and its little cup) fall into the beer, and you drink the whole thing in one go. But I actually like saki by itself! (And I can't believe I lived for eighteen years without sushi! I love it!) We all left happy and full.
We swung by a liquor store to pick up an enormous bottle of excellent red wine, and back in the dorm it flowed like water. I was with both friends and alcohol that I trusted... so why not? Down to six girls, we tried hard not to spill our goblets of wine while we danced to music, took silly photos, ate birthday cake, sat on the floor and delved into conversation, and eventually found out our blood alcohol concentrations with a handy little breathalyzer... and no one was legally drunk!
Feeling very happy, five of us made our way to a party of a friend's off-campus, where we were absorbed into house crammed with people. The beat of music was deep and infectious, and the air was thick with noise and alcohol. Like ducklings, we followed the leader and made our way slowly up the stairs to the bar, each obtaining the infamous cup filled with a screwdriver. Everyone there knew each other, and we didn't know anyone, so we danced and floated around, liquor in one hand and a bottle of water in the other. When everyone had had enough, we spilled out into the cool night and inhaled fresh air. We sauntered goofily down the street with arms wrapped around each other's backs. In the dorm we guzzled more water, sighed sighs of contentment and exhuastion, and collapsed into bed for ten hours. I didn't get drunk and I feel fine today... it was such a fun night. I love these girls.
06 September 2006
for a moment your eyes open and you know
My school is so cool that we can cut roses from the rose garden whenever we feel like it. So when I'm tired of gasping at how... oh, PSYCHO Facebook has become, I just glance to my right.
02 September 2006
sway, flavor, prelude
The feel of a Friday afternoon is one of my favorite experiences. The air is just different, the sun is happy and sets lazily, a breeze plays with your hair, there is thirty-six hours of freedom ahead of you and fun things are going to happen. We all took a breath, shook off the weight of the first week of classes, add/drop slips, bookstore runs and alarm jingles, and fell into a day devoid of expectations.
Here's my room... or, at least, my quarter. One of my roommates is slowly taking over half, while my other wonderful roommate and I note each day's advancements and share impeding worry that soon there will be no room for either of us! Nah, it's not that bad. I love my corner.
Life is still so good. Keep the good times coming, please. Was it possible that I might have missed all of this?
01 September 2006
remember the day i set you free?
It's the first of September, so I have to write something since I love September. It means the coming of fall and cooler temperatures and getting into a rhythm and everything that is summer is not. What will the next few months bring?
I just had Biology and Chemistry so I'm done for the week and now it's the weekend! This only means that I have lots of work to do, however, and hopefully stay optimistic about weekends in Claremont amongst a student body of alcoholics. I did use my coffeemaker for the first time this morning since I don't have time to go to the dining hall for breakfast before my 8am... and the coffee was so good! The guy at Starbucks (where I bought coffee beans) coerced me into buying a coffee grinder right then and there, which would have been quite a lot cheaper from Target... but the Starbucks grinder metallic blue and insanely quiet/fast, so I suppose it's worth it. The only thing we don't have is a microwave, which would be useful for heating up soymilk so my coffee doesn't immediately lose twenty-five percent of its heat. You're not supposed to have a microwave unless they're attached to a school-rental microfridge, (a stupid rule), so if I start missing having one.... (birthday present? I'm serious). The campus coffee shop opens in a week, so until then I'm relying on my own stuff, the weak dining hall coffee, and frequent trips to the Village with Keri and Catherine.
Before my parents left last week, my mom bought me a beautiful robin-egg-blue bowl for cereal from a cute boutique in the Village, and it is seriously my favorite thing ever. It's very deep so I have to be careful not to fill it entirely with cereal (or else that's like three cups!) but now that I've got my schedule cemented, I'll be using it three times a week for breakfast and I'm definitely excited.
Oh, and having a car = the best thing ever. AND my cell phone is frequently not working, so for now, email me before calling me.
30 August 2006
hip hip horray
I'm alive! And kicking too. I'm so happy. I have transfer friends! We hang out every day! I love my classes! (Comparative Politics, Chemistry, Biology and Core). My professors are great. The campus is so beautiful. My room, albeit a bit small, is cozy and I like my roommates. They care so much about the students here. You can find chai-flavored soy milk and soy ice cream in the dining hall... AND get takeout boxes! It's about 100 degrees right now, but once it cools off to paradisical temperatures I will be bursting with glee. My friends and I say we didn't know you could actually be this happy in college! Is this normal? I'm enjoying the high while it lasts. Things are great. My silence here is a good thing.
24 August 2006
the first twelve hours
I'm at college. I'm tired and trying to remember to take deep breaths when I'm feeling overwhelmed. Moving in this morning felt "much better than last time", to quote my dad. My parents said goodbye a little bit ago, and as I walked back into my dorm I thought, "I'm on my own...!"
19 August 2006
let's try this again
I've been running around, but with a skip in my step for the most part. I think I've fully exhuasted my To Do list plus checking off things I didn't write down but have been imprinted in my head. I'm excited! It's always sad to leave family, and the last day or two make that very real. But summer's not over; I still have a few days of fun with Tyler in LA before orientation begins next week.
It's time for my plunge into the pool, for real.
17 August 2006
whipped
I've spent most of today at home with clingfilm wrapped around my hair. I'm due for another "cut and all-over color" appointment at the salon my family frequents. Since taking the hair dye plunge two-and-a-half years ago (turning my nascent dirty blonde into a vivacious auburn red), I've spent a few hours - and $100 - every eight weeks inhaling chemicals that bring tears to my eyes and enduring intense heat from those funny cone-shaped hair dryers. From auburn red to eggplant brown to black brown and back again, I've pretty much covered all the color combinations south of red. But along with veganism, yoga and cruelty-free toiletries, my current au natural lifestyle just cannot continue to rely on expensive, toxic chemical processes. While one day I'll return to my natural color, right now I really prefer my hair to be brown. With ashy dirty blonde hair and pale English skin, I look and feel washed out and colorless. A natural solution? I've been thinking about using henna for a few months. Henna is made by drying and then grinding the leaves of the henna plant into a powder. Lush makes kickass natural but sexy products and sells red, brown and black henna for a reasonable price. After amassing tips from their boards and other henna websites, I patiently waited for a day when I had absolutely nothing to do and could spend four to six hours at home. Today was that day. First, I did a strand test to make sure it wouldn't react with any lingering chemicals from my last dye job. I knew I was cutting it close since I leave home in three days and would need a drastic and immediate intervention if my hair did turn a shade of green. Luckily, it looked basically the same as the rest of my hair, so I grated half the block of henna (three squares) into a ceramic bowl (don't use any metal!), poured in boiling water and two tablespoons of olive oil (to help with rinsing out) and stirred it all together with a wooden spoon until it had the thickness of whipped double cream. It turned from green to dark green, and thickened slightly, giving off an earthy smell that caused my brother and sister to groan in horror. I didn't mind it. Kneeling over the bathtub wearing rubber gloves, I spooned the henna onto my upside-down head and kind of just mashed it all together until my hair was completely saturated. It is a mess to put on; the bathtub, sink, floor and my skin were flecked with green goo. My sister held her nose long enough to come into the bathroom and point out a few places I'd missed, and when it was all done I pushed my hair into a mound on top of my head and wrapped clingfilm around it a few times. (The wrapping of the clingfilm was my favorite part.) The next two-and-a-half hours were pretty boring - I made lunch (an awesome stir-fry of tempeh and vegetables in orange sauce), dropped sister off at the dentist, read the paper. Finally I undressed, unwrapped the clingfilm, hopped into the shower and let the dry, crumbly henna wash down the drain. This is even messier than the application but it's fun; green foam (from shampooing) will splatter on the walls and curtain, and the floor will take on a light shade of mint. It takes a while for the henna to get out so I washed and conditioned and rinsed for longer than usual, until my hair once again felt the way it usually does after a shower. And it's now a gorgeous dark chocolate brown! The henna stain will oxidize over the next few days, darkening the color slightly. It's fascinating! Nine bucks and three hours... beats the salon any day.
16 August 2006
what the fuck
I cannot believe that Alison just got kicked off Project Runway. Literally, I'm furious. PR used to be about art, not drama. Now they are keeping personalities with no talent while penalizing stellar designers. It was Alison's first poor dress. I've loved everything else she's made, and really, her dress wasn't that bad. (And what's with their obsession with weight and size? Like we need America to get more obsessed. God, Heidi, shut up.) Vincent's dress was complete crap, but was I surprised? No. Every week he makes crap. But because he's a weird insane (talentless) oddball, which is what reality TV thrives on, Vincent stays and Alison, who is sweet, thoughtful and doesn't muster up controversy, is kicked off. I never get emotional over television. I don't watch television, except for PR every Wednesday night. It was so refreshing to find a fun reality show that wasn't focused on catfights and hookups and unstable characters, and instead on creativity and imagination. Until this season. Among a cast of mostly forgettable people, Alison was my favorite designer this season and I definitely thought she'd make it to the final three. She was always beautiful; timeless, simple, fresh. Wise beyond her years. And personally, she's the designer I most closely relate to, being a young woman, and she just seems like someone I'd be best friends with. The judges' (i.e. producers') decisions this season have been consistently disappointing and bizarre. Kicking off Malan? Yeah, he was odd, but he would have made some kickass designs. Keeping Angela this far into the show? It cannot be explained by her designs but by her bitchy, immature attitude. And now Alison is gone? My beacon of hope? It's the last straw for me. While I know that Alison will succeed despite not making it further on the show (which makes me feel a bit better), I also know that Vincent will never design clothes that the majority of people find beautiful which should logically lead to his dismissal, regardless of whether or not another designer had a bad day. PR's just lost another fan (and there are many others who feel the same way - see here). I refuse to waste my time watching a show that now cares more about drama than true talent.
16 August 2006
crossed
My comments disappeared, but I'm not too bothered about figuring out where they went.
In preparation for my impending journey, I did a thorough summer-cleaning of my room. I thrive on orderliness and can't let the state of bedroom affairs get too neglected before I just start manically organizing everything. I'm being quite relaxed about packing, but in my head I know exactly where things are and what needs to be gathered together, which isn't much since I'm taking 50% less stuff with me this year. I have a sexy To Do list on my dresser and I get immense pleasure from drawing a straight line through the words once they've been covered, so each day I tackle a few of the things.
Whenever I look at my Europe pictures, I miss everything; I miss traveling. But I'm excited for the end of this summer limbo, and the start of school again.
I made a sweet curry last night. I had to do it quickly, and I made it up as I went. Curries don't really photograph well, especially those with wilted spinach, and it was steaming up the camera lens. I hate that the photo is blurry, but I can't fix that. This whole meal was ready in 20 minutes.
Put 1/2 cup of Thai Jasmine Rice in a small saucepan along with 3/4 cup water. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, in a wide pan over medium heat, saute half an onion in extra-virgin olive oil. When it starts to brown, mince into the pan two cloves of garlic. Add a teaspoon of garum masala, 1/4 teaspoon of paprika, 1/2 teaspoon of cloves, and salt and pepper to taste. Let the spices mingle for a minute, and just as the onions start to blacken, add one can of whole peeled tomatoes. Do this by taking each tomato in your hand and gently squeezing it over the pan so it separates, and then add some of the remaining juice in the can. Let the tomatoes heat up, then tear up handfuls of spinach into small pieces and sprinkle them into the pan. Stir and let the spinach wilt before adding more. A few minutes before taking the curry off the heat, throw in some frozen peas. Serve over rice.
13 August 2006
decompress
Cold Mountain is absolutely heartbreaking and is the most beautiful film I've ever seen. More sorrow was condensed into tonight than I've felt in years. This was my third time seeing it and warm salty tears still rolled down my cheeks at the end. [spoiler] I don't know which is worse: never falling in love, or finding your soulmate, immediately losing him to a war and subsequently numbing your heart for three years, finding him once more for a day and then losing him forever. Actually, yes I do.
In a way, it's relieving to feel intense emotion. It reminds me that I'm a sentient human being. Sometimes it seems that for most of my life I live only on the surface, so rarely experiencing true exhilaration, jubilation, fear, angst, or misery... the times when your heart physically heaves; your body is paralyzed, saturated. Perhaps that is normal. But it shouldn't be! Life is worth so many more of these moments. I think that living in today's world we are numb to many things and shielded from those emotions. Life is enchanted, but terrifyingly fragile and unpredictable too. Sometimes, like the other night, I'm completely overwhelmed with the idea of being alive right now. But people are just incredible, and there is so much hope. I have hope.
12 August 2006
calciyum
I went to a fab South Indian restaurant with Andrea on Wednesday, called Udupi (OO-doo-pee) Cafe, in Tempe. It's completely vegetarian and about 80% vegan with the vegan items clearly marked on the menu. I had a samosa to start, which, apart from being fried and crispy, was quite good. I just have no desire for anything fried, but our waiter was vehement about us ordering it instead of iddly (rice-lentil cakes.) For my main meal I had a dosai (I think that's what it was called), which is a thin savory crepe filled with a vegetable curry. The crepe was quite oily, but the filling was very good. Next time, I'll avoid fried carbohydrates and get lentil soup, salad or a curry instead. Also, most of the customers there were Indian which is always a good sign. And it's nice to to have to ask if there's cream or butter in everything you want to order. Thumbs up for Udupi.
I have no pictures, but I've made a few noteworthy meals lately. Yesterday I could not get the idea of steamed broccoli out of my head, so after some soul-searching I cooked riccioli (a fancy shape of pasta), steamed broccoli and simmered store-bought (gasp!) marinara for an easy meal that hit the spot. Today I made an awesome pita pocket - I sauteed garlic and ground coriander in olive oil, and then added two slices of tempeh and a tablespoon of soy sauce. Ten minutes later, I spread Garlic-Dill Miso Mayo in a toasted pita, and in went the tempeh plus Lentil Fatoosh Salad, leftovers from Pita Jungle. It would have been an ordinary, boring pita if not for the Miso Mayo and tempeh. I seriously love both of these things a lot. Oh, and I did make baked pita chips the other day! Cut up or tear up a pita, lightly brush or spray with oil, sprinkle a bit of salt (and herbs or spices if you'd like), and bake at 400 degrees for fifteen minutes! The result is crunchy tasty baked pita chips that are amazing with hummus.
I've also been drinking a lot of fresh orange juice. Another thing I've been missing lately is plain yogurt, so I bought a large container of Plain Silk Soy Yogurt, scooped out a few spoonfuls and then sprinkled in some blueberries. One of the most perfect things ever. Soy yogurt tastes different than regular yogurt, I'm not going to lie. For some reason I thought soy yogurt was a heavily-processed soy product and therefore avoided it. However, I've learned that soy yogurt is just soy milk that has been fermented with good bacteria cultures (the same process that makes dairy yogurt). I don't like sweetened, flavored yogurts and when I was eating dairy I really enjoyed the unique tart flavor of plain dairy yogurt. Plain soy yogurt is not very tart, and it's not milky white (it's yellow white), but it has the same consistency and it's own unique soymilky taste and with enough imagination, it works. Plus, with a bit of fruit it's a nice substitute for sherbet or something. So I've been craving broccoli, orange juice and yogurt. Perhaps I need more calcium?
11 August 2006
accept
I wrote this this morning.
Usually, I live my life, numb to the war and oppression and violence around the world. It doesn't directly affect me and I am unbelievably lucky to live in a free country. I take for granted my computer, the internet, electricity, the dishwasher and refrigerator, telephones, cars, paved roads, air conditioning, stop lights and the plethora of other modern-day conveniences without which we cannot imagine living. But when things like yesterday's "terror attack foiled" occur and then are endlessly discussed in the newspaper, on the radio and on the televisions at the gym, I just get very tired of living in 2006. It is frustrating to live in a world where people can harbor such intensely violent thoughts and then spend their lives trying to successfully act them out. It is frustrating to live in a country where the president is relentless in his pursuit of cookie-cutter democracy in every country in the world, where he refuses to listen to others, where he ploughs down a path of self-righteousness that has made Americans feel less safe, not more, as he claims is now the case. It is frustrating to live in a world where the future of air travel will surely one day be reduced to being strapped in chairs with no belongings because now it has been realized that anything brought onto an airplane can be turned into a weapon. (Have people only just figured this out?) It is frustrating that I won't be able to visit some places in the world I'd like to see because of the threat of being murdered there. It is times like today, when the media is saturated with terror and madness that the numbness is shattered and the realities of the world are thrust upon us, when I truly wish I lived in an earlier time. On days like today I'd prefer a more simple world. And I'm young. I can't even imagine the atrocities which will occur in my lifetime.
Girl Before A Mirror by Pablo Picasso, 1932.
Unrelated: In the US in the first-half of the 20th century, it was generally expected that a woman would finish high school, go to college if her family could afford it, meet a suitable man and marry him, and then spend the rest of her life doting on him and their children. Personally, this would be extremely suffocating; I could not simply be a housewife for fifty years. I'd go crazy; I'm independent and flighty. But do I feel that way now because that is just who I am, or of how I was raised, or because of the culture in which I live? If I were born in 1930, would I have grown up to be an American housewife and truly be happy? Or would I have been "that woman" who drinks and paints and writes books and travels and tells dirty jokes and stays out late? I like to think I'd have been the latter. Why are we the way we are?
08 August 2006
expansion
So Ned Lamont won the Connecticut Democratic Primary. I don't really know why I followed this campaign - probably because it was plastered all over the front page of the New York Times for the last few days - but I did have a feeling old Lieberman would lose, and it's good to mix things up once in a while. Liebs had been senator for like twenty years.
I feel like it's been really, really hot here recently. When you live in the desert, low 100s are actually pretty manageable and I personally only start to get miffed when it's above 107 or 108. I felt that last week was a breeze since our temperatures were lower than the rest of the country caught in the grips of that intense heat wave. I don't think the temperature increased dramatically since last week but I feel like it did. It's probably my hormones or some other inexplicable internal gauge. I've been barricading myself inside for most of the day and only venture out to go to the gym or get groceries after the sun goes down. I'm also happy that the sun sets earlier and earlier now... that means it's getting closer to fall and winter! Summer is my least favorite season.
I've been voraciously reading the blog of Sarah, a girl (a junior at CC who I knew casually through Tyler) who is studying abroad in Pune, India this semester. Not only is it fascinating, but as I realize that my decision about where to study abroad will affect my course schedule this very semester, I've been thinking a lot about my priorities and goals in studying abroad and have started to kind of research a few different places. Depending on where I want to go, I might have to take two or more semesters of a language and that means I'll need to take Elementary X this fall. I choose fall classes in only a few weeks. Also, you have to apply about a year in advance of when you want to go, so that means I need to be ready to apply this coming spring. Part of me is encouraging my soul to go somewhere completely different, somewhere in which I'll most likely never have the chance to live. I can always live in Europe. I'm a British citizen and member of the EU; it is easy (in regards to government regulations) for me to live and work anywhere in Europe at anytime in my life. And I've been to many countries there, and not to marginalize it, but Europe is Europe is Europe. More "exotic" places on this ethereal list include Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul, and India. But another part of me is dying to be fluent in a second language (the first of several, I hope). The benefit and challenge of studying abroad in a good program in France or Germany or Spain is that I must be serious about becoming near-fluent in the spoken language since a) you need to have taken classes in the language for about two years to be eligible and b) the majority of my classes abroad would be taught in that language. My language skills are scattered - I have a bit of Spanish left from high school, a year of Latin which has proved to be a great asset in learning Romance languages, and one semester of French still fresh in my mind from this spring, but whatever I decide to do will require practice and commitment. So it boils down to deciding whether my main goal of studying abroad is to become completely fluent in a language or to experience a completely different country and culture. Taking a year of Japanese or Mandarin would be really interesting and challenging and I'm totally up for it, but it is to help me get around daily life in Japan, not to serve as the language of my life for four months since classes are taught in English. It's less crucial that I master everything. If I decide to go to Europe (Paris, for example) I'll need to take French for the next three semesters plus continuing summer classes, and be close to fluent fifteen months from now, or else I will fail all my classes when I'm abroad. Also, if I do become fluent in a second language, that language will affect job opportunities and the places in which I'll live after college (assuming I want to utilize it). Finally, regardless of the language aspect, I need to find a program that fits my major and interests. Basically I need to organize my priorities and then just take action, of which the "just" in the latter part is a challenge for me. I always research, mull over and weigh options before making a big decision, and now I need to do all of this right now. I also bet that my advisor will have some good ideas. But in the end, I'll make a choice and stick with it and it won't really matter because I'll have an incredible time regardless. Oranges and apples, love.
I'm reading The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century by Thomas Friedman. I thought it would be mostly about public policy concerning terrorism after 9/11 but it's even more fascinating than that: it's about the flattening of the world due to technology and the future of the US and the world in a much more competitive and collaborative market economy. That is basically one of my biggest interests involving Politics and International Relations (my major), so I've been devouring the book since I pulled it from the New Books shelf few days ago at the library. It's been on my "To Read" list for a while and it's a good time to ease back into relevant college-level stuff. I also read half of The Economist today, and there's another issue on the table. So I've got study abroad stuff swirling around my head plus continually absorbing and filtering Thomas Friedman's ideas about globalization plus current events plus Sarah's awesome blog... my mind is out in the world right now.
I also received dorm and roommate information, finally, so I've revived my facebook profile in anticipation of being an enthusiastic, involved college student again after an arguably-lengthy mental hiatus. I'm getting really excited to be back in my kind of college. I haven't had an intellectually-stimulating and completely residential college experience since last December, and now I'm itching to immerse myself in it again. Two weeks!
So in deference to the country of the day, I cooked up a long-overdue spicy Indian vegan spread for lunch, with all three recipes coming from The Yoga Cookbook, an odd but great cookbook that I don't use enough.
I made everything simultaneously, and at one point jars of spices and their lids were scattered over the counter, hot oily mustards seeds were popping out of the pan and pinging against my fair English skin, there was frantic stirring of different pans to make sure there was no burning or drying out taking place, and for a period of time it was just a bit chaotic. But everything worked out very well. I made Lentil Dal (bottom center) which doesn't photograph well but it's a delicious, simple meal of lentils, spices, seeds and a tomato. Far left is curried vegetables (green bell pepper, tomato, yellow zucchini and carrot) made extremely easily by steaming with spices and a few tablespoons of water. At the center top is my attempt at making chapatis, the traditional flat bread of northern India. I made these once before in April and while I'm sure they're pretty incomparable to real chapati, they tasted good. Kind of like whole wheat pita bread but flat. I used it as a utensil too.
Finally, I spread a bit of spicy mango chutney on the chapati before scooping up the dahl and vegetables, and the spicy sweetness of the chutney went perfectly with the rest of the meal. Delicious. Now I should make some chai, and the day will be complete.
07 August 2006
wink
I'm enjoying the calm that comes after a storm of cooking and baking. I ate out at Green with Ali the other night, which is now definitely my favorite restaurant in Phoenix. I ordered a vegan pizza for the first time and holy crap, everyone, it was incredible. Lots of grilled veggies with a sprinkling of soy mozzerella cheese (which I generally avoid like the plague since I've had bad experiences with soy cheese) and tomato sauce all on crispy flatbread... and since it was large enough for two I saved half for the next day's lunch, cold and just as yummy.
I guess today I made a pretty cool sandwich:
Kind of the same as last time, except on Whole Grain Ezekial bread and I opened a new squeezy bottle of Garlic-Dill Miso Mayo, which was an impulse buy. Other than hummus I don't really have any other spreads for sandwiches and hummus can get pretty mundane. Soy dairy replacements other than soy milk kind of freak me out so I don't buy soy mayonnaise or soy cheese, but this looked relatively normal and interesting. It's really good. The garlic-dill flavor is nice since I'm not sure I'm ready for just miso. Yum, it's good stuff. I baked tempeh in a soy sauce/olive oil/garlic mixture for fifteen minutes, and made a little sammie with the tempeh and lettuce, tomato slices, and cucumbers. In unrelated-to-this-sandwich news, I finally cut up a honeydew melon that's been ripening on our kitchen counter for days and it is perfect. I love fresh, sweet, ripe, summer melons.
I've bought Zen Bakery's vegan muffins before but I didn't know that Trader Joe's carries their cookies too!
They're soft and chewy, exploding with cranberry and oatmeal flavor, and "white grape" is the only sweetener. How come my healthy cookies never taste like these? In order to stop me from gobbling up these 200-calorie treats, I'm freezing them to keep them at arm's length. I've found that I'm less likely to eat something I impusively want if I can't just grab it from the counter.
Check out this crazy pepper!
I love finding peppers in odd shapes, and I always look out for them at the grocery store but so often they are all completely uniform and very boring. I look at this and see a Mr Grouch face, but my mom sees a stretched smile. Isn't perception interesting?
06 August 2006
piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiita
I made pita bread!
With whole wheat flour instead of bread flour. In less than an hour! [recipe].
02 August 2006
inexplicable
Somehow I keep amassing pictures of food even though I don't feel like much is going on around here. Also, I want to say that I'm not eating every muffin or cookie I make, or else I'd be three-hundred pounds! I have one, and donate the rest to my (omnivore) family.
I was sick of risotto, so last night I made this easy meal: Whole Wheat Fusilli with Steamed Vegetables and Zesty Tomato Pesto Sauce. The tomato pesto sauce recipe is from How It All Vegan! and consisted of blending tomatoes, garlic, green onions, olive oil, basil and spinach in a food processor. Next time I will roast the tomatoes because the sauce was a little watery, and roasting always brings out such a beautiful flavor. I steamed broccoli, asparagus, green beans and red bell pepper in our basket steamer for four minutes - mmmm, steamed broccoli might be in my top ten all time.
This morning I made lemon-blueberry pancakes. While this sounds fancy, I just followed a basic pancake recipe, added the zest of half a lemon, and sprinkled blueberries onto each pancake after I poured batter into the pan. I have a pathetic problem in getting from the batter stage to the finished pancake stage, and it took me three different pans and four burned pancakes this morning to finally understand that I need to use oil spray on a non-stick teflon frying pan. I don't use teflon or oil spray ever, and together they seem redundant, but it's the only way that has produced good pancakes for me. It is so nice to have the pancake just... ta da, slip off the pan. These were yummy, and I liked the little caves that the blueberries made.
I've been on this baking binge (not an eating binge) recently, and the Real Food Daily Cookbook (which I borrowed from the library the other day because the copy I ordered on Amazon is taking a ridiculous amount of time to get here; I ate at this restaurant in Hollywood the other week) has a healthy-but-doesn't-feel-like-it chocolate chip cookie recipe. It called for several kinds of flours, none of which I have, so I used whole wheat pastry which affected the taste somewhat. They're very light, but quite chocolatey since I poured basically the rest of the bag in the bowl. You can't go wrong with CCC.
I loved watching this mango ripen in the kitchen. At first it was firm, only slightly giving to pressure. Then it was at its perfect stage, in it's prime, when it was dying to be cut open. I missed that day (yesterday) because I wasn't really feeling like mango. Today, however, it didn't matter that I wasn't feeling like mango because the poor thing was in it's final hours. The skin was raised and wrinkley, it's scent was powerful, and it completely succumbed when you pressed it.
I love cutting really ripe fruit. The skin glides off under the knife's blade and juice starts running down your hands to your elbow. The flesh basically falls off the pit and could be sliced with the a fork. Over-ripe fruit is too sweet for me and mangos just become one huge mass of sugar. But balanced out with bites of peach and banana, it's all okay.
01 August 2006
phew
Cooking-wise I've been very boring economical and have been eating a lot of risotto. So nothing very exciting to show for now.
Today I did bake more whole-grain bread rolls/scones using the same recipe from the weekend. They're versatile and work with any meal, so why not?
And those banana chocolate chip muffin cupcakes? Excellent. The chocolate chips are so key; they give them extra moisture because the chips are half-melted inside, and of course, they add sweet chocolatey goodness. I'd like to try the recipe again without banana and with some appropriate substitute. While I love banana, it does give things a certain flavor and it's been banana-crazy around here lately. But the muffins tasted way better than I thought, considering how low-fat they were. I'm so proud that my prolific and unmeasured substitutions actually worked!
I impulsively bought a bar of Green & Black's Maya Gold Chocolate at Henry's the other day. (Henry's is becoming my favorite HFS and it's a bit cheaper than Sprouts too.) It's full description is "organic bittersweet dark chocolate with orange and spices" and it's as good as it sounds. I only eat a piece or two, so a bar lasts me for a few months. Chocolate and orange... mmmmamazing. Speaking of other things I've bought lately, I couldn't resist going back to Fry's and getting eight more pints of blueberries (for ten dollars). I immediately froze half of them, and a similar fate is charted for the other four containers if I don't find anything suitable to make with blueberries in the next few days. For conventional blueberries, they taste really good probably because they're finally in-season (but not for long). My fourteen-year old sister came with me to the supermarket and stared at me as I excitedly filled our basket with blueberries. "What? They're on sale. Do you know how rare that is?" I said. "I like shopping for clothes, you like shopping for... food," she replies. "I'm going to get a chicken." And for the entire ride home she alternated between declaring her love for the hot rotisserie chicken and waving the bag by my head to try to get me to inhale its aroma. Thank God I had blueberries to look forward to.
It's finally August! July seemed to go on forever... the last ten dates of the month are so similar and stifling. August means the end of my summer job, driving to California in my new car, seeing Tyler for a few days and going to a new college (for the last time)... all good things, although the one downside is that I won't be able to cook my own food since I have to be on a meal plan. Thankfully, their dining services rank in the top ten nationwide and there are many vegan options. It's going to be an exciting month.