Jam Session!

Oh hot damn!
Blueberry Jam!
Keep me eating toast until the AM!

Mira and Raya had a jam-making session today. They bought the blueberries and did all the hard stuff (wash, zest, macerate) last night when I was at my old apartment cleaning it. BUT I’M DONE WITH IT! Hahahaha. Ok. Blueberry jam!

These are the pots and pans used in the jam-making process.

The “surgical” tools. From left to right: magnetic lid-lifter,  jar tightener, funnel, jar-lifter, tongs, thermometer.

Mira sniffing the blueberry mixture of blueberries, sugar and lime zest. So precious!! Don’t you just love Raya’s Paula Deen cookware? “For a smelling picture, this is actually kind of flattering,” Mira said excitedly.

Mira wearing Raya’s apron. Of course, since she’s wearing an apron, she got no blueberry on her...at all. That’s the point of wearing an apron. It causes no spillage :)

 

The blueberries right after they were poured in the pot were soo pretty. They had to simmer for approx. 20 minutes in the reduced blueberry syrup, which was the liquid part of the macerating process.

Initially, Raya had used a shallow serving spoon to put the jam in the jars. However, this had proved difficult since the spoon was not big enough. Mira and I went to the grocery store to pick up a ladle, but when we got back, Raya had already put the jam in the jars!

After capping the jars, boiling them is necessary to create a hermetic seal. Raya used the jar lifter to place them in the boiling water.

During the simmering process, sometimes foam forms on the top. Raya skimmed it off and then we ate bread with the jam-foam. It was pretty tasty.

The Fruits of our Labor! The jam is named “Raya’s Blueberry Lime Jam Aug 2010”

I get a Grishma!

My Grishma came here last-last weekend, and since her birthday was at the beginning of the month, of course I had to get her a present! (And several hundred people asked me what a Grishma is. Grishma is summer!)

The box that the first part of her present came in, smartly wrapped. I got the ribbon from a now-defunct :( flower shop in Ohio City.

I made her name out of a free fridge magnet that I got. The magnet may or may not have originally had LeBron’s face on it…CUT UP!

I quilled the first letter of her first name (g, in case you couldn’t tell) onto a mini board. I gleaned that she likes lowercase letters through a gchat conversation one day :)

We took a trip to the Art Museum, where Grish tried to wake up a sleeping faun. 

Grishma pondered over an American landscape. “But what does it mean?” she kept asking.

There was my knight in shining armor…trying to slay me, as per usual. You already have my heart!

Grishma pondered emulating The Thinker. Fortunately for her, her pondering resulted in emulation.

We stuck our feet in the really warm fountain on Case campus. We weren’t sure if we were allowed to put our feet in, but many a police officer passed by us with nary a word.

For Saturday dinner, we decided on artichoke heart calzones. We made the crust from scratch and the sauce from semi-scratch.

So delicious :) LOVE!

What a wonderful weekend :)

Cleveland at Night

We do touristy things only when our friends come to visit.

I took some pictures of Cleveland at night. Even though I have an amazing view from my current (soon to be old) apartment, I’ve never really “explored” the area at night.

Here are the pictures. Would you believe that they’re untouched? I definitely would.

The old, decrepit, currently-in-need-of-repairs-and-consequently-very-loud-in-the-morning red bridge juxtaposed with the Superior bridge.

Downtown viewed from my Viaduct.

Superior Bridge

The powerhouse. I love the lighting on it at night.

  

Browns stadium as seen from our fabulous parking spot.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

View from the grassy knoll between the Science Center and Rock Hall.

Some gross garbage just sitting around in the Lake.

And thus ends my picture story. I’m leaving downtown for the eastside in 2 days. No more nights gallivanting around downtown Cleveland (not that this happens often…or ever, really).

10 Days in New York, part 4

New York City. Sigh. It has everything. Especially specialty craft stores. Sigh. I found a bunch of craft stores near Fashion Ave. I drooled over the plethora of beads and rows of ribbons. I also unsuccessfully looked for Mood Fabrics. One day, Mood, I will conquer you and succeed in walking through your famous doors! Maybe I’ll even get to buy some fabric. 

I wonder if this restaurant participated in restaurant week. With a multitude of gastronomies, how could I go here and not find something that I wanted? Alas, I went here and didn’t find anything I wanted. Oh well, maybe next time.

 

On Fashion Ave (I thin it’s 7th), I played with the notion…er, played with the notions! Large needle and button! So cute!

 

Oh, Mr. Sewing Machine Man, do you need an apprentice? I will be more than willing to help you out. 2 weeks till I get my sewing machine! I’m so excited. Let me tell you, it’s been hell without it. I’ve had to devote myself to learning other types of crafts that don’t involve my sewing machine.

 

If you have been to the University of Michigan’s Museum of Art (or walked down State St. in Ann Arbor), you would have seen some large red art piece in front of the museum. I found one extrodinarily similar to it in down-downtown NYC. It always makes me happy to find these. There was one in Austin, TX on UT’s campus and I hear that there is one in Boston, too!

 

I made Happy take this picture of me. I thought it would look super cosmopolitan but I just look kind of silly with a stupid grin on my face. Some might even say I look…presh?

Happy and I are being awesome and sitting on the steps of the Met. The Met is an awesome museum. Many a woman find what they are looking for in that museum…

And this is who women find. This is a sculpture of Hercules (with fantastic natural lighting, I might add) that is approximately twice the size of a normal-sized human. I don’t know if he was actually this large, but it doesn’t really matter. I saw several women take pictures with their hands cupping his cash and prizes. Several older women. I kid you not. At the Met. Way to show maturity.

Cupid and Psyche. The story of Cupid and Psyche is my favorite myth. Generally, it’s also my favorite depiction in art.

Anyway, on to the merriment. For the fireworks, I met up with some friends etc. that went to Michigan. On the way to the Westside, we encountered some finger puppets…This is the pregame. (But seriously, what kind of puppet pregames fireworks? I think it may have a problem.)

Two more finger puppets were taking a nice little coffee table boat ride in their paper boat with their paper umbrella. When I got back to Ohio, I somehow managed to smuggle Wolfy in my purse. (Wolfy is the one in the back of the boat.)

I got to watch the Macy’s fireworks over the Hudson river. They were spectacular! Someone needs to tell me that my camera does not do a very good job of taking pictures of fireworks.

My trip to New York was lovely. Yes, I did find labels and love in New York. But love, like fashion (and even time), is fleeting.

10 Days in New York, part 3

And now for the final weekend in New York…City!

Friday started out at MoMA. It’s pretty sweet. Some large company with a bull’s eye as their symbol sponsors free Friday nights, so it was more crowded than I would have liked (crowds? In New York City? Never!)

This was an art piece that I took pictures of from both ends. This way, all the blocks look like they’re the same size…

 

But on they other size, they are comically shrinking!

 

In the architecture exhibit in the MoMA, there was a really neat chandelier made out of broken dishes. Since I’m moving in 8 days, this is definitely something that I want to have in my new apartment.

Of course I had to take a picture of the globe thingy at Rockefeller Center. I saw this and I immediately thought of the television show 30 Rock (which stands for 30 Rockefeller Center).

 

Elmo?

 

At Broadway! I saw a billboard for In the Heights with Corbin Bleu! And since I’m 10 years old, I have seen all three High School Musicals several times and I got really excited that Corbin Bleu was on a billboard. Anyone else think that Corbin Bleu sounds suspiciously like Cordon Bleu?

At the Toys R Us in Times Square, they had this weird advert in the window. Why, oh why, would a baby need mock-denim diapers? Babies do not know the difference between denim and plastic.

Happy and I make really good models. Why aren’t we wearing these fancy fashionable dresses with our hips thrust forward standing in the middle of the street? Oh, the injustices plague me every single day of my life. (It’s the pelvic thrust that really drives you insa-a-a-a-a-ane!)

I saw my first play on Broadway – Green Day’s American Idiot. It was very interesting, though slightly disheartening. The music was awesome (especially if you like Green Day and aren’t turned off by their newer stuff, claiming it’s too “political”).

Stay tuned to find out if I found “labels and love” in New York…