The Morning After the Rain

Apparently there were heavy thunderstorms last night. I woke up several times due to large amounts of rolling thunder. I love rain. Today morning’s lack of sunshine and not-so-hot weather made me want something hearty for today’s fooding. I decided on vegetarian shepherd’s pie. 

I started out by sautéing celery, onions, carrots (the mirepoix) as well as red and green bell peppers. 

 
While these were simmering, I thawed three Boca patties for the “meat”. I ran them through my itty bitty food processor to give them a crumbly consistency.

I also chopped up a couple of Roma tomatoes and then mixed the veggies, patties, and tomatoes together – I spread this mixture at the bottom of a Pyrex dish.

On top of this, I spread the lazy girl’s mashed potatoes…INSTANT! I made the instant mashed potatoes with a little bit of Italian seasoning and garlic powder. I baked the pie for approximately 30 minutes at 400 degrees.

I may or may not have had two servings! :) Shepherd’s pie is just so filling and hearty.

A mini-project I did today was a thank you card. It was my first attempt at quilling, and I have to say that it went splendidly! It was way easier than I thought.

I think sometimes I dress like I’m in a Bollywood movie

But that’s why they call me the brown Martha Stewart (minus the criminal-mind!)

Okeee. Bananas? Biscotti? Not only is it alliterative, it’s REAL! And if only chocolate started with a B, we’d be set. Banana-Choco-late-Biscotti! My first time making biscotti.

I double-baked the banana biscotti, then I double-boiled chocolate with a splash of milk using another version of a double boiler: a metal measuring cup in a pot of boiling water. The splash of milk was to make the chocolate drizzly.

And some non-foodie made stuff!

As people who regularly hang out with me know, my mainstay camera case has been a rainbow colored ankle sock (never used, of course). I decided I needed a new one, so I made a felt maize and blue one! Cameras in cameras?! I totally stole this idea from a picture I found online. I wish I could have been so creative. SO CUTE.

Aaaaaand I painted some lovebirds for a 25th anniversary this past weekend. I’m not a very good painter! But I’m trying something new…

I’m such a hopeless romantic :)

The Greek financial crisis has no effect on food tastiness…

My good friend and psuedotwin Grishma decided to take on an “Olympic-sized” endeavor for her mother’s birthday. (I’m full of puns today. It’s probably good that I didn’t write this post.)

She wrote a guest blog post for me!

----------------------------------------

Because we’re twins, Nidhi decided I should write a guest blog post. So, to all her regular followers, here goes nothing…

It was my mom’s birthday today, so my brother and I decided to be all worldly and cook her a Greek dinner.

Issue #1: I’m not sure my mom even knows exactly what constitutes Greek cuisine.

Issue #2: I’m not sure I can cook Greek food without messing it up.

But, since it was rainy and frigid in Michigan (in the middle of MAY!), and I had nothing to do, I experimented in the kitchen… I think the dishes turned out decently.

Greek Salad (crap, I forgot the olives!)

Fried Zucchini (courtesy of Shlok, my brother… also, sorry for the blurry picture.)

Tzatziki dip with pita crisps (tasty, albeit slightly burnt…)

Spanakopita (what’s with the blurry pictures?!)

…and, for dessert, baklava! (I halved the amount of honey and sugar in the recipe and it was STILL too sweet!)

And, that’s about it. That’s my guest blog post, because that’s what twins do. Thanks for bearing with my writing (I’m a science student for a reason). Nidhi’s posts are way more interesting.

--------

Doesn’t that dinner look blurrily yummy? I already ate dinner but now I’m salivating…Thanks a lot, twinny!!

Adventures in Breadmaking

I made bread this weekend. From scratch. SO GOOD.

I experimented with breadmaking on Saturday by making a tiny loaf with Italian seasonings and pepper on top.

So simple. You mix flour, water, yeast, salt and sugar and basically let it rise for as long as you like. Then you bake it!

Because of the success of my first loaf, I decided to bake a second larger loaf on Sunday for sandwiches and stuff.

And I guess I need to find out a better way to cut bread because the slices are very thick. Fresh bread is the best! Maybe I should try sourdough next? Apparently that takes two or more weeks.

Sidenote: I also made bruschetta (and realized it is pronounced broos-ketta because I am attempting to teach myself Italian or something) The bread-toast is made from Jimmy John’s bread (SO good!) and the topping is tomatoes, cilantro, onion, rice vinegar, and salt&pepper.

And this brings us to the Quote of the Day: “You can’t substitute starch for men.”

But you can substitute the Brownie Husband...

Obamarama

The University of Michigan commencement ceremonies occurred last weekend in Ann Arbor, MI. The commencement speaker was none other than the PotUS himself, Barack Obama!

The weather that day was mildly interesting. Between 6:15am and 11:00 am, my moistness catapulted between slightly damp and soaking wet. Thank you, rain! From 11-12:45, it was very cloudy and not raining. Then, as soon as the ceremony ended, it got sunny. Here are some pictures.

Can you see him??

That’s better.

I like the two previous pictures mostly for the closed captioning. Someone, I do not remember who said it, told Obama, “Thank you for not going to That School down south.” :)

In other commencement related news, I graduated in December 2008. But I walked at the engineering graduation in May 2009 because at December grad, they didn’t have a separate graduation for engineering (and partly because some of my friends made me).

I did not attend this year’s engineering commencement ceremony because it is both boring and long (bad combination). But as soon as the ceremony started, I started receiving picture messages of the same thing…ME.

That’s right. The front cover of the graduation booklet has a picture of me and my friend Prakit. And that’s not all…

As soon as you open the booklet, there’s a picture of me chest-bumping the dean of Engineering (the picture on the left). Last year around graduation, the “Swine Flu” scare was changing habits everywhere. Instead of shaking the dean’s hand, you could do-si-do, bow, or do whatever you wanted. I ended up chest-bumping, and since he’s about twice my height, it is an awkward picture.

I also saw this picture in the Michigan engineering booklet that they hand out to recruiters when they go back to recruit. I was one of those recruiters…and this picture of me is in that booklet. It’s EVERYWHERE.

Why?

Lady Gaga wants YOU to have a bad romance with a zombie

There was a “Zombie Walk” for charity in Lakewood yesterday, so I went to there. And then I had a fantastic thought. What if I could combine being a zombie with one of my 24 before 24 items?

Lady Gaga. That’s right. Undead and glamorous.I dressed up as Zombie Lady Gaga. I had a hair bowtie which took me approximately 20 minutes to figure out how to make, a silver-sequined bra (onto which I essentially just glued/sewed silver sequins), and blood wounds on my décolletage and cheek.

A nice zombie lady was offering people some fresh brains.

A car got attacked by zombies!

The bar where the walk started, and the amazing awesomeness of my camera skills.

Also, unrelated to zombies, there was some guy wearing sweatpants and cowboy boots!! HOT.

Sunday always invariably turns into the day I eat half my kitchen

So I thought I would commemorate today with a posting of some cute little foodstuffs I’ve made recently.

At the WestSide Market in Ohio City, I bought a bunch of asparagus yesterday. I always get asparagus because I love, love, love asparagus soup. It’s one of my favorite soups to make (and eat) along with roasted red pepper soup, but that’s a story for another day. Basically, this soup involves boiling a small onion, a bunch of asparagus, and a medium potato in approximately 4 cups of water and a cube of bouillon (veggie bouillon, of course) until all the vegetables are a soggy mess. Then blend it with a couple of spoonfuls of plain yogurt and pepper. Then, strain it (I got a brand new strainer last week that I was so excited to try out!) and slurp it up. I garnished it with a little too much cilantro, but it looks pretty :)

Since I’m into this new fad of making my food look yummy, I decided to make this. I sliced up a zucchini, put a dollop of plain yogurt on top, and sprinkled salt and “Italian seasoning” on the yogurt. It ended up looking really cute and tasting delicious. I love-love-love using yogurt as a starter for dip – much healthier than sour cream (and plain yogurt tastes so good).

Another thing about this Sunday: I spent approximately 4 hours today reading Black Heels to Tractor Wheels, the love story of the Pioneer Woman. Oh gosh. So romantic. Much better than a Harlequin romance (not that I've ever read one...)

Where is my Marlboro man?
Where is his shiny gun?
Where is my lone ranger?
Where have all the cowboys gone?

An Olympic-Sized Post

So about a month and a half ago, I completed one of the items on my "24 before 24" list.

I went to the 2010 Winter Olympics, in Vancouver, BC!

I flew from CLE to SEA and then drove to the V (that was my cute little rhyme for the trip). I saw a hockey game in-person (Russia vs. Czech Republic, but the woman guiding people into the stadium called it Russia vs. Czechoslovakia) and a hockey game on a big screen (USA vs. Canada, the real game that TEAM AMERICA won).

Here are the highlights.

The Olympic lane was apparently a necessity in Vancouver...

Our first view of Vancouver, SeaBussing into the City.

The GE Ice Plaza...I got really excited by it, haha.

The Cauldron! This one had four torches so you KNOW it couldn't have been the one that they showed on national television.

I saw a sewing shop in Vancouver also, and there were a bunch of sewing machines and once again, I got really excited. See inset for lots and lots of thread.

The hockey arena was pretty sweet.

The hockey players warming up with lots and lots of pucks that you can't see in this picture.

The Olympic Zamboni. I love the mascots for the Olympics!

"Good game, good game, good game, good game..."

We saw a toddler wearing a diaper, hockey jersey, hockey mask, and a little hockey stick. So did a Mountie. She wanted to take a picture with it. Hockey baby!

Oh, the mascots...

And I'll leave you with a picture of me, a torch, and a fake flame.

USA! USA! USA!

Secret Tofu

I'm a vegetarian. I often get asked, "What do you eat?!" by many an incredulous bystander. The simple answer to that is that I generally eat FOOD.

I love cooking. I often get asked, "What do you make?" by many an incredulous bystander. The simple answer to that is that I generally make FOOD.

That being said, I am going to show you what I eat and what I cook. I use really simple ingredients that are (generally) healthy and (generally) really, really tasty.

Today I made a spinach salad with a dressing of lime, pepper and salt. To top it off, I added tofu!

Tofu is really easy to cook. I marinated the tofu in oil, salt and "Italian Herbs" (haha) and then I sauteed it on medium heat for about 10 minutes till it was browning.

YUM.

Also, those damn vegetarians...eating the rainforest!