The new job promises tribe very interesting and challenging, but the training right now is taking most of my mental energy, unfortunately. Goals this week are limited.
-Lose 0.6 pounds.
-Walk at least 12,000 steps/day.
-Deep clean our bedroom.
-Read a book.
-Knit 1 skein on Nuvem.
-Eat out no more than 18 meals this week.
The Lantern Festival ended tonight, and there was a really awesome fireworks display here. Then we ate Shanghainese food. I finished a pair of socks and started another. A good day.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Goals In Review
Today was a rough week. There was stress at work and I'm still trying to kick this blasted cold. Being up with a hacking cough for several hours a night is not helping anything, and means I'm exhausted. Not productive.
Fitness
1. Reach 15,000 steps/day on the pedometer. Pretty sure I managed this four days this week, but I can't be positive, as I forgot my pedometer several days.
2. Take the stairs up to the apartment unless towing the grocery cart. Managed this about half the time. I tended to forget.
Food
1. Eat no more than 18 of 42 meals out this week. Total fail. Didn't even keep score.
2. Make and freeze 8 quarts of chicken stock. I did make this much stock. We just ate it all. I never going to get ahead of our soup consumption around here, it seems.
3. Lose a pound. Lost 0.6 pounds.
Mind
1. Finish 2 Chinese lessons. I didn't never start one. Fail.
2. Read a book. I did! Girls of Riyadh.
3. Attend a social event. I did! And I attempted to go to a second.
Needlework
1. Finish Macaroon striped socks. I got halfway up the gusset on the second sock.
2. Finish 1 skein of Nuvem. Nope. I need to get cracking if I'm to finish a dozen shawls this year.
Financial
1. Sort out insurance billing issue.
2. Return purchases.
1. Reach 15,000 steps/day on the pedometer. Pretty sure I managed this four days this week, but I can't be positive, as I forgot my pedometer several days.
2. Take the stairs up to the apartment unless towing the grocery cart. Managed this about half the time. I tended to forget.
Food
1. Eat no more than 18 of 42 meals out this week. Total fail. Didn't even keep score.
2. Make and freeze 8 quarts of chicken stock. I did make this much stock. We just ate it all. I never going to get ahead of our soup consumption around here, it seems.
3. Lose a pound. Lost 0.6 pounds.
Mind
1. Finish 2 Chinese lessons. I didn't never start one. Fail.
2. Read a book. I did! Girls of Riyadh.
3. Attend a social event. I did! And I attempted to go to a second.
Needlework
1. Finish Macaroon striped socks. I got halfway up the gusset on the second sock.
2. Finish 1 skein of Nuvem. Nope. I need to get cracking if I'm to finish a dozen shawls this year.
Financial
1. Sort out insurance billing issue.
2. Return purchases.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
I Made Indian Food!
I got out of work at 3:30 today, so I decided to go a bit nuts in the kitchen and take a crack at Indian cooking.
Chicken with Masala Simmer Sauce: I picked up a bottle of this on impulse from Trader Joe's and I simmered chicken breasts in it. I felt this was nowhere near as the good as the rest of the meal, but I might experiment with it again.
Whole Wheat Parathas: I felt these were too dry. Next time I'll get (maybe make?) naan from delicious, carby white flour.
Garam Masala Cauliflower: This was really easy and really tasty. I chopped a head of cauliflower and tossed it with olive oil, salt, and some garam masala. Roasted it in a 420 degree over for 25(ish) minutes, until browned and kind of crunchy. Delicious.
Palak Paneer: Who knew green vegetables could be this yummy! I chopped three onions for deeply browned onions. Near the end of the cooking process, I added a tablespoon of chopped ginger and 4 cloves of chopped garlic. At the same time, I chopped 7 oz. of paneer (I used Nanak brand, as recommended by Tigers and Strawberries) and fried it in a cast iron skillet until crunchy. I added a packet of Rasoi Magic Palak Paneer spices diluted in a cup of milk, per the instructions to the onion mixture and then stirred in a pound of frozen spinach, the fried paneer and a half cup of water. I covered the pan and reduced the heat to low for 15 minutes to let the flavors meld. So, so good. I can't wait to have this for lunch tomorrow. Maybe breakfast.
This was really exciting, and I'm hoping to make more Indian recipes in the future. I'd held off on investing in a collection of spices for a cuisine I don't make often, but I may reconsider.
Chicken with Masala Simmer Sauce: I picked up a bottle of this on impulse from Trader Joe's and I simmered chicken breasts in it. I felt this was nowhere near as the good as the rest of the meal, but I might experiment with it again.
Whole Wheat Parathas: I felt these were too dry. Next time I'll get (maybe make?) naan from delicious, carby white flour.
Garam Masala Cauliflower: This was really easy and really tasty. I chopped a head of cauliflower and tossed it with olive oil, salt, and some garam masala. Roasted it in a 420 degree over for 25(ish) minutes, until browned and kind of crunchy. Delicious.
Palak Paneer: Who knew green vegetables could be this yummy! I chopped three onions for deeply browned onions. Near the end of the cooking process, I added a tablespoon of chopped ginger and 4 cloves of chopped garlic. At the same time, I chopped 7 oz. of paneer (I used Nanak brand, as recommended by Tigers and Strawberries) and fried it in a cast iron skillet until crunchy. I added a packet of Rasoi Magic Palak Paneer spices diluted in a cup of milk, per the instructions to the onion mixture and then stirred in a pound of frozen spinach, the fried paneer and a half cup of water. I covered the pan and reduced the heat to low for 15 minutes to let the flavors meld. So, so good. I can't wait to have this for lunch tomorrow. Maybe breakfast.
This was really exciting, and I'm hoping to make more Indian recipes in the future. I'd held off on investing in a collection of spices for a cuisine I don't make often, but I may reconsider.
Baffling Advertisement
I keep seeing this ad on the 7 train. Is it a political statement? An advertisement? What does gun control have to do with self storage units? (I submit that if one needs an entire storage unit dedicated to one's guns, perhaps some personal gun control, at the very least, would be wise.)
Any ideas?
Any ideas?
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Biang Biang Mian
CodeMonkey and I decided to make biang biang mian for dinner tonight. At his suggestion, we put them in old* chicken soup.
The soup is a long time hit around here, but we need more practice on the noodles. Despite my best efforts, I couldn't get them thin enough to rival Xian Famous Foods'. More practice is clearly necessary. Next time, I'm going to let the dough rest in between repeated stretchings; that's always how I get my pizza crusts thin.
I ran a long and aggravating errand on Tuesday, but I managed to meet my weekly goal of reading a book this week. The Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsaneah was a great book for an aggravating 3 hours of the subway. It follows 4 upper class Saudi young women in their lives after high school as they navigate love, arranged marriages, education, and foreign cultures. It's formatted as a series of e-mails sent by an anonymous woman. They become the scandalous talk of the whole country for their frank discussions of love and sex amount Saudi women (the actual book was also controversial for the same reasons). Some reviews have compared it to a Saudi Sex and the City, but I thought that was very off base. It really reminded me of Mary McCarthy's classic The Group, which follows a group of Vassar graduates from 1933 as they embark of adult life and romantic misadventures in th cintextof a (much less) controlling and male dominated cultu. I enjoyed the book, but not enough to keep it for rereading. I'll donate it to the library next time they're collecting books. 3/5
*Old chickens are worn out laying hens, sold in Chinese grocery stores. The meat is tough, but very flavorful, and they make the best soup. The soup was freshly made and the bird was fresh meat.
The soup is a long time hit around here, but we need more practice on the noodles. Despite my best efforts, I couldn't get them thin enough to rival Xian Famous Foods'. More practice is clearly necessary. Next time, I'm going to let the dough rest in between repeated stretchings; that's always how I get my pizza crusts thin.
I ran a long and aggravating errand on Tuesday, but I managed to meet my weekly goal of reading a book this week. The Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsaneah was a great book for an aggravating 3 hours of the subway. It follows 4 upper class Saudi young women in their lives after high school as they navigate love, arranged marriages, education, and foreign cultures. It's formatted as a series of e-mails sent by an anonymous woman. They become the scandalous talk of the whole country for their frank discussions of love and sex amount Saudi women (the actual book was also controversial for the same reasons). Some reviews have compared it to a Saudi Sex and the City, but I thought that was very off base. It really reminded me of Mary McCarthy's classic The Group, which follows a group of Vassar graduates from 1933 as they embark of adult life and romantic misadventures in th cintextof a (much less) controlling and male dominated cultu. I enjoyed the book, but not enough to keep it for rereading. I'll donate it to the library next time they're collecting books. 3/5
*Old chickens are worn out laying hens, sold in Chinese grocery stores. The meat is tough, but very flavorful, and they make the best soup. The soup was freshly made and the bird was fresh meat.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Sock Postmortem
I finished these socks on the flight to Malaysia. I wasn't paying attention when I started the heel on the first one and I began it too late (and then I had to make the second sock match the first), so they're a bit too long in the foot for me.
The yarn is Knitpicks' Felici Sport. Colorway is Depths. Needles are a size 0 47" Knitpicks Nickel circular. Cast on 8 stitches using Judy's Magic Cast On. Increase in a star toe pattern to 64 stitches. Fleegle Heel (It is very, very important that you start the setup for this heel as soon as your foot start sloping up to your ankle. Otherwise, it will be too long). 15 rounds of 2x2 ribbing before Jenny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bindoff.
See that bunching at the back of the heel? That's extra length. These are probably better suited to someone with size 10 feet. But they'll do for slipper socks, or I might dry them to shrink them up.
Taking pictures of one's own feet is surprisingly difficult.
The yarn is Knitpicks' Felici Sport. Colorway is Depths. Needles are a size 0 47" Knitpicks Nickel circular. Cast on 8 stitches using Judy's Magic Cast On. Increase in a star toe pattern to 64 stitches. Fleegle Heel (It is very, very important that you start the setup for this heel as soon as your foot start sloping up to your ankle. Otherwise, it will be too long). 15 rounds of 2x2 ribbing before Jenny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bindoff.
See that bunching at the back of the heel? That's extra length. These are probably better suited to someone with size 10 feet. But they'll do for slipper socks, or I might dry them to shrink them up.
Taking pictures of one's own feet is surprisingly difficult.
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Goals
CodeMonkey and I went to IKEA yesterday. Pro: I think we came to an agreement on where we want to go with the apartment, furniture-wise. Cons: I do not have enough money to buy all it. We'll have it prioritize. We ate at Johnny Rocket's. I was underwhelmed, but the view from the Seaport was gorgeous. Werther's Original was doing some kind of promotional event, handing out free candy. They had a photo booth and we took an awful picture.
I'm trying to get back into the swing of goal setting. So, for this week:
Fitness
1. Reach 15,000 steps/day on the pedometer.
2. Take the stairs up to the apartment unless towing the grocery cart.
Food
1. Eat no more than 18 of 42 meals out this week.
2. Make and freeze 8 quarts of chicken stock.
3. Lose a pound.
Mind
1. Finish 2 Chinese lessons.
2. Read a book.
3. Attend a social event.
Needlework
1. Finish Macaroon striped socks.
2. Finish 1 skein of Nuvem.
Financial
1. Sort out insurance billing issue.
2. Return purchases.
I'm trying to get back into the swing of goal setting. So, for this week:
Fitness
1. Reach 15,000 steps/day on the pedometer.
2. Take the stairs up to the apartment unless towing the grocery cart.
Food
1. Eat no more than 18 of 42 meals out this week.
2. Make and freeze 8 quarts of chicken stock.
3. Lose a pound.
Mind
1. Finish 2 Chinese lessons.
2. Read a book.
3. Attend a social event.
Needlework
1. Finish Macaroon striped socks.
2. Finish 1 skein of Nuvem.
Financial
1. Sort out insurance billing issue.
2. Return purchases.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)