Three unexpected things among others

Knowing I'd be here for four months, mostly wintry, I brought more clothes than I have for my 2009 travels. But it's still just a fraction of my entire wardrobe. So it amused my friend Nancy greatly that I chose to pack my (1) ice skates. I bought them back in 2006 when I frequented Kate Wollman rink in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. (I have lifetime sharpening from Paragon.) Well, I put my skates to use on Martin Luther King Jr. Monday and it was worth the cargo allotment. At City Ice Pavilion in Queens, I ran into an acquaintance of mine from church. We spent the rest of the day together skating, going to see True Grit at the Ziegfeld, finishing off the evening at Five Napkin Burger.

(2) Jar of canned peaches from Stacey. I finished them off this week with my new favorite breakfast: yogurt, granola and peaches. The washed jar sits on my shelf. Overall, I've been cooking more. In fact, my roommate asked me the other day, "Do you always pack your lunch?" To which, after I stopped laughing, told her, "No." This is new for me. But indeed, I can see why she was misled: I've grocery shopped every Saturday with a list and reusable cloth bags and the whole shebang. Lots of fun salads: black beans, goat cheese, avocado, tuna. My mother was so proud when I told her. Tonight I made a little stir-fry (ala mom) and vegetable curry couscous from Shana's Mayo Clinic cookbook.

So it's been snowing about every fourth day here. The most recent one was 'how silently, how silently' and debilitating to the city. Several of my colleagues worked from home. My 'M' train is so perfect, I arrived on time. I joined a gym around the block that has a 20 yard swimming pool. I've gone three times so far and weighed one pound less every time. Must be a fluke. But it is amazing the caloric burn swimming is. For me, it's more than running, that's cuz I run so slow. ;)

(3) Is the place mats and cloth napkins. I was thinking of hosting another dinner party this coming weekend but I haven't been organized enough. The place mats I got in Bangladesh and I've been looking forward to using them. They're made from recycled foil wrappers.

Snowy funny

For the past two days, on my way from the train to the office, I've crossed paths with a man in a fedora playing the ukelele. Very Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Today, I didn't see him. Maybe because there was a car being towed and traffic was all backed up and the honking cars made him choose another route. I have to say I missed him. The first day I smiled. The second day I said, "Every day?" And of course today I didn't say anything because I didn't see him. Maybe our relationship will be like the one I have with Clyde--the long-haired retiree who bikes all over Richlandia. I'll see him once in a while. Or maybe only on snowy days. I wear a big red puffy coat on especially cold days: read below 40. If I pass [whoa, the carbon monoxide alarm just went off--smart that the noise is so piercing as to wake one from artificial slumber] Mr. Ukulele on a warmer day, chances are he won't recognize me outside of my large tomato sleeping bag.

Tonight I'm eating rice porridge Chinese style, ie savory with chicken, ginger, and I threw in some daikon radish for good measure. It is a sort of Dad meets Mom method as she's the chicken rice maker and dad swears by daikon during the colder months to stave off sickness. Again, no pictures, it's yummy but not pretty.

Ok. I'm still awake. Hopefully the CO monitor will keep me from any real danger but I've opened both windows for cross ventilation in my room even though it's below freezing tonight.

Shout out to Windy!

Pt. 2 & The Conclusion

It was a success, Juanita's Birthday Dinner. Here's Friday night's activity: Butternut Squash Soup (recipe). My reco is to take the time and effort to buy the squash, gut, peel, and chop it, yourself. Way better color and fragrance than a box of ready-to-go pieces.

And it really doesn't take too much extra time and effort. And it's pretty. Sculptural, in fact. Kind of Henry Moore.

Two of Juanita's friends with the finished soup and you can get a little idea of the place setting.

I'm skipping the main course (chicken lo mein--not photogenic enough) to reveal the hit of the evening: the finished panna cotta with persimmon and blueberries. This is actually a re-creation as I forgot to take photos on the night of the event. Juanita came over for leftovers tonight and so I took the opportunity to re-plate. I was rather pleased. And, to quote my father, when people like the food they don't have to say anything--the empty plate speaks all.

Happy Birthday, Juany!

Prepping for Juanita's Birthday Dinner Party, Pt 1

My dear friend Juanita is coming over Saturday and we're hosting her friends for a dinner party in her honor. Gleaning from what I learned helping Debbie at the last dinner party, I planned the menu several weeks ago, sent out invitations (ok, not hand-written this time), ordered groceries for delivery, and drafted an action schedule for Saturday. Part of my plan was to make dessert tonight, which I did! Tomorrow is soup--hopefully. And Saturday will be the majority of the cleaning, cooking, and decorating (again, hopefully--I was going to abuse my freelance job and design some pictures of Juany as place cards).

Panna cotta. It will chill over the next two days. Got the recipe from here. The ramekins are going to be the party favors.

More pictures from Maui

 I totally screwed up the formatting. Anyway, these are, indeed, more pictures from Hawaii. It was pretty.

Hibiscus

Joe and Laura with their baby and Jan among the lava rocks.

Dad posing as a teenager

Me with big leaves

Delphine and baby waiting 
on the golf course outside the 
restaurant of her birthday dinner party

my niece with salami sushi

beautiful small plants

my parents and baby granddaughter

Like a place on W 49th St

My breakfast today. Picked up a package of Shoyu ramen from Uwajimaya in Seattle before returning to Richlandia. Most my NYC church friends will recognize what I am trying to re-create here.

Ramen, baby bok choy, fried egg, duck meat.

I really really should be working on the play so let me keep this short and go do that. :) This is the start of my sixth day here. I have applied to a couple places but no bites yet. And have taken up the quasi-urban hobby of riding the public bus around town. Aw yeah. Volleyball was fun last night, though, and so has been catching up with friends.