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!

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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.

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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?