Things I've Learned Since I Started Cooking Again

• My new necessary utensil when making a stir-fry or sauteing vegetables is a salad spinner.  I bought one a while ago in the hopes that by making it easier to wash salad, I'd eat more of it.  That didn't happen.  But, after seeing a tip on Serious Eats about sending stir-fry veggies through a salad spinner before cooking them, I tried it last night.  And you know what?  That was probably the best stir fry I ever made.  And I threw some mushrooms in the spinner before sauteing them to put in a spaghetti sauce, and they cooked up beautifully.
• Panko breadcrumbs are a good thing to have in the pantry.  I had most of a bag of Italian seasoned ones leftover from when I made chicken parmesan a couple of weeks ago.  Now I toss them on a lot of my pasta dishes for flavor and texture.
• To extend the life of ginger: wrap in a paper towel, then put in a plastic bag.  No more shriveled ginger root.
• Getting a bunch of fruit, cutting it up, and putting it into separate bowls in the fridge makes getting lunch together a bit easier.  Grab leftovers, grab a bowl of fruit, and get the hell out of there.  Too bad the fruit usually didn't last till lunchtime.

Things I've Learned in the Last Two Weeks

• Time alone is good for me.  I decided not too long after the 4th to take something of a sabbatical from my social life and focus on myself for a change.  I'm now the happiest I've been for a while.
• If you eat home-cooked meals for long enough, fast food just doesn't taste good (with a few exceptions).  Last week, I was running short on money, so I threw the last of it into the ingredients for a batch of chicken parmesan.  After a week of having that for lunch and dinner, when I had money (and no more chicken parm), the fast food I got was completely unappetizing and almost made me sick.  I went out that night and got the ingredients for more home-cooked meals.  The only time I broke this was when a chocolate shake from Don & Millies was too good to pass up (mostly because I've had some sort of head/upper sinus crap this last week that came with a headache and sore throat).
• My brother makes prettier potstickers than me.  He also can't stand as much chile oil in the dipping sauce as me.
• I do feel better with exercise.  I joined Curves last week and have been dragging my mom and brother to the gym at my brother's apartment complex as often as I can.  Unfortunately, with the previously-mentioned headaches, I haven't gone the last few days.  The bad "Give me Excedrin now" body aches are coming back, having been banished for the last few weeks.
• I need to bring my camera everywhere.  I've missed a lot of potential awesome photos because I've left it sitting on the coffee table at home recently.

Back To Your Regularly Scheduled Program

I’m done with working the entirety of the weekend.  I thought I could handle working two Sundays.  I found out that wasn’t the case.  Especially when I ended up with a one-day weekend at the end of it.  Going back to my usual schedule is a breath of air.

I’m finally getting tired with how mopey and depressed I’ve been.  So, I’m trying my best to make myself look good, on the hopes that it will affect the inside.  I’ve already tried on a few new types of clothing, started wearing contacts/makeup, and got a fancy new haircut.  Tonight, I’m going to a gym for the first time.  I’ve cut back on the alcohol, I’ve added in a daily multivitamin, and have been drinking more water at home.  I actually flirted with a boy the other day.  But I still haven’t figured out that whole “bring a lunch to work” thing.  Stupid fast food, being so convenient, addicting, and expensive!  And stupid me for forgetting that I have lemon spaghetti sitting in the fridge.  There are still a few things (mostly people) that will set me into an irate state.  I still haven’t figured out how to get past that either.

The fourth was spent waiting for rain to pass by, going to a quiet farmers market where I picked up some new potatoes and basil (now to figure out what to do with them), then heading out to watch my friends try to blow themselves up.  I haven’t downloaded the fireworks pictures off my camera yet.  I think I had a couple of good ones though.  The drive home was scary: it was three in the morning when we finally grew tired of Werewolf (where I kept with my unintentional strategy of helping the werewolves no matter what unless I’m killed early), and I was tasked with driving Eric back to his home, just a few miles north of the explosion zone.  At first, we thought the air was still heavy with the smoke of the fireworks, but when we drove a little further, we realized that it was fog, so thick that I couldn’t see ten feet in front of my car.  Add to that the exhaustion, unfamiliar roads, and lack of streetlights, and it was the most harrowing twenty minutes of driving I’ve experienced.  I ended up taking a nap there for a couple of hours until the fog cleared enough for me to go home.

In other news:

• I could have told you this ten years ago.
• This also explains a lot about the last couple of years.
• I like the new board game we’ve been playing called Mission: Red Planet.  It’s something of a cross between Small World and Race for the Galaxy, two other favorites.
• Man, zoos are weird.

On Artistic Geekery

This may just be the best photo I've ever taken.  Somehow everything just worked right.  I can still nitpick about the depth of the focus, but I'm still absurdly happy about the shot.  I can also get a few decent pictures out of the aquarium now as well, even if they are just a small fraction of the number of pictures I take there.

I'm considering buying/making a lightbox for taking food photos.  The light in the kitchen just doesn't cut it.  But, like a DSLR camera, is it worth the investment?  Would I actually use it or will it just take up space?

The arts festival was this weekend.  I managed to get out there after work on Friday and Saturday: Friday to scope it out, and Saturday remembering to actually bring my checkbook.  I was on the prowl for a new chess board since I broke my old glass one about a year ago by accidentally stepping on it.  Out of all the woodworkers that set up shop, only one had chess boards.  But man, are they shiny.  I got the smallest one and discovered that I'm still only missing the one piece in my glass set, the white king (I thought I had lost more).  I'm considering what kind of pieces I'd like to get, since that one missing does bother me for whatever reason.  I thought wood, but I kinda like the mixed media of the wood and glass.  So glass or maybe a metal set for me.  I'll just have to look around for something interesting.  Other things that were interesting at the arts festival: flowers made from Lunaclay, 6-foot steel sculptures of lilies that were hollow so they could be wired as lamps, and Chinese paper cutting.

Dear Reader-

I had Chinese food the other day for lunch.  Lemon chicken, done cutlet style as it seems every Chinese restaurant around here is doing, and, for the unique little twist this particular restaurant does with its dishes, topped with cashews.  It was tasty, and I ate too much.

The reason this is important?  The fortune in the cookie after this particular meal read, “You have a charming way with words.  Write a letter this week.”  Now, as dear Jillian in New York can attest, I don’t mail out letters.  I don’t really e-mail missives to friends and family detailing the current news on my life, nor do I call other people unless there’s an emotion that will make me explode into pieces of Sarah if it doesn’t escape.  So in order to fulfill the fortune cookie's request, the letter is taking on the form of a blog post.

My obsession with potstickers has continued.  Last night I made another batch, this time making the skins from scratch.  My little food processor is just big enough for a batch of dough according to the cookbook.  I froze 3/4 of what I made, and fried up the last fourth as a testament to my culinary victory.  And they were the best potstickers I have ever had.  Normally I’d post the full recipe, but since there are many steps, and some of them take quite a bit of explaining along with several diagrams, I’ll just point you to the Pork and Napa Cabbage Water Dumplings (pg. 31) in Asian Dumplings, and it’s companion site, Asian Dumpling Tips.  I’d suggest getting help when it comes to rolling and filling the wrappers.  That was the most time-consuming of the steps, and some of the wrappers/dumplings were getting a little dry along the edges as I had to take everything in stages.

There's a lot of thoughts that have been racing through my brain these last few months.  Unfortunately, they're not thoughts that I'd care to share with everyone.  This preoccupation is part of why I've been absent in both physical and/or mental presence at so many of my common events, like swing dancing.  I've been trying to get out more, or at least find something to do at home that will occupy my mind, but damn, if my mind isn't a tricky little bastard.  The upside is, it's been a while since my apartment has been this clean for this long.  The small victory against the entropy of junk makes my mood a little more pleasant.

I've found that I'm strangely consistent with my flower preferences.  I already knew I loved daylilies and royal lilies, but today at Whole Foods, when I was looking for flowers for my apartment, I saw alstroemerias for sale, two bouquets for $1 more than one bouquet of royal lilies.  Normally I don't really care about the price, but I found the alstroemerias to be pretty as well, especially the orange ones.  Upon searching for more information about them, I found a hint as to why I like them: they are also known as Peruvian lilies or Lily of the Incas.  Sometimes I amaze even myself.

And now I have fulfilled the fortune cookie's request.  I guess this is the end.

See you soon,
Sarah

Obsession, the E3 Edition

• I think the only people really excited about the Playstation Move and XBox Kinect are Sony, Microsoft, and Ubisoft.  Sony and Microsoft because of the money coming in off these peripherals, and Ubisoft for the new markets opened up for their shovelware that they’ve been releasing ad nauseam for the Nintendo Wii.  Hopefully the other third parties will finally sit up and take notice and regain control of the motion-control market that is filled with utter crap.
• The first few screens I saw of the new Zelda game for Wii made me think of Link to the Past, the best game in the entire series, but then it went down from there.  It’s going back to Wind Waker, which didn’t redeem itself until the very end of the game.  But I’ll still probably dust off the Wii and play it anyways.
• But the exciting news out of E3 came out of the Playstation camp.  They’re not removing what’s currently available to free members to make way for paid members.  Portal 2 is coming to the console.  And Steam is going to be a part of the Playstation Network.  Hopefully not behind the paid wall though.  I can’t see it being so, but I’m still afraid.
• Okay, enough video game geekery.  My obsession with potstickers has gotten unnatural.  I went out yesterday and bought a book called Asian Dumplings that I had seen on several of my favorite food blogs.  Today, I bought the ingredients for pork potstickers.  I bought won ton wrappers instead of making the potsticker dough (later I realized that the two really aren’t the same.  Whoops).  I made them for my brother while I did laundry at his place.  Despite the wrong wrappers, they still ended up pretty tasty.  I have some pictures, but none of the finished potstickers, unfortunately.  We scarfed those down pretty quickly.
• More dance classes, more reminders that my body control = 0.  I have the workouts that I should be doing down to two: pilates and tai chi.  Now to only find affordable classes.
• On a whim, I painted my toenails a couple of nights ago.  On another whim, I bought a pair of flip flops to show off my pretty paint.  After two days of wearing them, I don't understand how anyone can wear flip flops.  Maybe it's because I bought a $2 pair of Walmart sandals (after refusing to pay $12 for a piece of foam with a rubber or cloth string on the top), but my feet hurt, they fall off at inopportune times, my feet are filthy afterwards, they affect my driving, and they make an annoying thwack noise against my feet as I'm walking around.  They are useful around the house though, especially when I haven't swept my kitchen floor in a while, and they show off my feet well.  But that's about it for the nice things I have to say about them.

Blah

• I'm getting annoyed by how I crash after work on Fridays and Saturdays.  Being in bed around 7:30 PM on Friday and Saturday is something a twentysomething shouldn't do.
• ZOMG double rainbows!  It was pretty awesome, walking out of my apartment Sunday night to see that.
• And more cool pictures on my (renewed for two more years!) Flickr account. 
• I'm still eyeing DSLRs.  Sometimes I wish I had just spent another $100 or so and gotten an entry-level Nikon or Canon, especially since they have such shiny accessories.  Though point-and-shoots have the cuter ones.
• My current iPod playlist has been nothing but Muse and The Black Keys for the last week.  I'm still far too excited about The Black Keys coming to town in two months than I should be.
• My Facebook account has been officially deleted.  Or will be in 10 more days or so.  I haven't really considered using it since I deactivated it at the end of February, and with all the crazy privacy worries (mainly Facebook's annoying habit of opting out instead of opting in), it's safer deleted.  Maybe.  :D

Delicious Experiment

So, last night, coming home from work, I had a craving for onigiri.  I had just bought some seasoned rice vinegar the night before, so sushi rice was on my mind.  After considering then discarding the idea of using the ume plums in the bottom of my bottle of umeshu (those things are boozy, and since I was considering taking these to work, that wasn't going to happen.  But I do want to try it at some point).  So, to the grocery store it was, picking up some chicken, fresh ginger, and sliced baby portabello mushrooms, cursing all the while that I hadn't picked up any of the umeboshi paste at Whole Foods last night.

I had some teriyaki sauce in the fridge from previous meals, and as I looked at it all, an idea for a delicious meal came to mind...

Teriyaki Chicken with Seasoned Sushi Rice and Sauteed Ginger Teriyaki Mushrooms

Ingredients:

• Good teriyaki sauce (something without high fructose corn syrup is a good start)
• Baby portabello mushrooms
• Chicken breasts
• Sesame oil
• Sushi rice (A.K.A. short grain rice)
• Seasoned rice vinegar
• Fresh ginger, chopped

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.  Rinse and soak the sushi rice while the oven is preheating.  Also, rinse and slice the portabello mushrooms.  In separate dishes, marinate the mushrooms and the chicken in the teriyaki sauce.  Make sure to stir up the mushrooms and chicken with the teriyaki sauce.
2. When the oven is finished preheating, start the rice cooking (I use a rice cooker, because I fail at cooking it on a stovetop.  It's sad).  Remember, sushi rice takes less water than regular rice.  Line a baking tray with aluminum foil, put the chicken in it, and bake it for 30-40 minutes, until done.
3. When there's about 10 minutes left for the chicken, peel and chop the ginger, then saute it in about a tablespoon of sesame oil (probably closer to a teaspoon of oil.  I just eyed it) until you can smell the ginger.  Then, lower the heat and add in the mushrooms.  Saute those on low heat until tender.
4. By now, the sushi rice should be done cooking.  Spread it into a clean non-metal bowl or dish.  Sprinkle the seasoned rice vinegar and fold it into the rice.  Don't be shy with the vinegar, but don't soak the rice either.
5. Optional: Make onigiri with the finished sushi rice and mushroom/ginger mix.
6. Top the rice with the mushroom and ginger teriyaki combo and serve with the teriyaki chicken.

This is one of the tastiest meals I have ever made, with the added bonus of being something I created all on my own. :D  The seasoned rice vinegar may be off-putting if you're used to plain steamed rice, but paired with the ginger, it's amazing.  I think I'm a little heavy-handed with the vinegar, but I like it that way.

I was able to get three small plain onigiri and two large onigiri filled with the mushroom/ginger combo and still had enough rice left over.  You could also put a little bit of the cooked chicken inside, if mushroom isn't your thing.  Onigiri is a great food to experiment with.  I would have done yaki-onigiri if I still had access to a grill (because they just aren't the same when done on a stovetop, unfortunately).

Because I’m Too Lazy to Really Post

The last few times I tried to write a themed post, it’s ended up being saved to draft and never worked on again.  So, bulletpoints.

• Video of me failing at Midwest Lindy Fest: parts 1, 2, and 3.  The light blue shirt and khaki skirt.  I didn’t look as bad during the second song as I feared.  And at least I didn’t hurt my partners’ chances of going on to the finals (all three made it).
• Lindy in the Park started last Sunday.  It made me happy.  :D  I finally wore that dress from ModCloth (which I just found a green version of it at the original brand’s site).  It moves better than I anticipated.
• Back to analyzing my dancing, armed with this new information.  Part 1) I fail at the social part of “social dancing.”  Ended up sitting around more than dancing at MWLF because of it.  Part 2) I have no real body control.  I started noticing it in the videos, and the aerials class I took at MWLF (my first one!) really showed the weakness in my body.  Hopefully I’ll actually follow through and do something about it.  Too bad gym memberships are out of my range.
• With all the controversy surrounding Facebook, I’m wondering if it’s something of a risk to leave my account only deactivated instead of deleted (and whether it would make a difference anyways; there’s some question of if your data’s truly removed after your account’s deleted).
• April wore me out, far more than I ever thought I could be worn out.  I was done with everything before the month was half-over.  I’m only just now getting out of the slump I’ve been in.  Here’s to hoping the upwards trend continues.

I'm Doing Science and I'm Still Alive

I'm noticing a trend that my more memorable fortune cookies come from HyVee. I'm trying to think of a position where my particular people skills would be necessary.  Right now, taking over Simon Cowell's spot on American Idol seems to be the best fit.  Any other suggestions?  :P

I managed to come down with a plague last Thursday that completely knocked me out Friday and made me miss a high school choir reunion on Saturday. I managed to lose my voice by Saturday morning and had worked it back to boy-entering-puberty stage by that evening. Unless it's one of those bugs that lays dormant for a week both before and after the actual being sick phase, I have no idea who I got it from, since no one I know has been deathly ill recently around me.

In a rare stroke of luck (courtesy of Jillian), there is now video of me dancing with Nate, the head of the Jitterbugs that I dance with maybe once in a blue moon, usually during a birthday jam. It's been a long time since I've seen actual video of me dancing. (Mostly, it's because for a few years I avoided it after seeing the first video of me dancing and looking like an ugly idiot.) Now, I almost look cool dancing. I still don't know what the hell to do with my left arm, and sometimes when the lead does a little spin or something, I'm pretty much standing still, but it's weird to see me moving my hips and gliding across the floor like I actually know what I'm doing. So, things I need to work on: what the hell to do with my left arm and smoothing and stretching out my movements, especially when the lead is doing something on his own.