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Flaming Gods Get Tired, Too
• Wednesday, February 28, 2007 • 11:56 PM
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It's hard to believe Wednesday is already over. This week has been a busy blur for me.
Monday night, it was off to yoga class, where I unexpectedly got to pretend to be Siva, complete with fire. (!) After class, some of my fellow yoga students were talking about the dancing Siva pose, which apparently it seems I'm quite good at. Someone commented that all I needed was a ring of fire, to which the yoga instructor enthusiastically replied "I have matches!". So, I did the dancing Siva pose with five people holding matches all around me. Yay, no one caught on fire!*
{This is what the dancing Siva pose looks like -- if I had four arms. My mere two arms posed like Siva's center pair of arms. The ring surrounding Siva in the sculpture represents an arc of flames. Hot! This sculpture is called "Shiva Nataraja". It is part of the Dallas Museum of Art collection; this picture is from their site.}
I spent all of yesterday evening reading about HTML and then ended up dreaming about tags and writing code. Akk! It was disappointing to wake up to discover that I didn't really have a new webpage. All of that sleep-writing must have really kept me busy, because Keith said this morning that there was very loud thunderstorm last night, but I had no idea.
This evening, I got home, fell asleep (for much longer than I intended), and then got up a little after 8 to go to roller derby practice. I was actually feeling like just sleeping and not getting back up again, but I'm glad that I didn't stay in bed - I actually feel a lot better now. Practice was a lot of fun. We practiced checking each other into the wall, and played a crazy confusing (but fun) version of freeze tag. The team captain told me that I've really been improving, and several other skater gals commented that I'm really fast! Whoo hoo! I also think I might get to take some private lessons with just a few of the other girls soon as well. I have a few specific skills that I would like to improve on, er, especially stopping quickly. Going fast is good and all, but stopping would be nice.
It's supposed to storm again tonight. My mom called to say that hail and heavy rain has already hit Kansas City. Somehow I doubt I'll be aware of it - I'm pretty tired.
*It's good that I was doing the pose, and wasn't holding a match. It kind of reminded me of the time I accidentally caught my hair on fire when it brushed against the stove element. Also, a couple of months ago, I burnt a perfectly round hole in a report that I had just completed at work... I still get teased about that.
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New Photos
• Wednesday, February 21, 2007 • 10:26 AM
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Happy Year of the Pig!
• Sunday, February 18, 2007 • 12:24 PM
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We had a party last night in celebration of Chinese New Year. It was so much fun! I put up lots of decorations and made a ton of food. Unfortunately, much like last year, I didn't get too many pictures. I even put my camera out on the table, but I still forgot to take pictures before all of the food was eaten. I made sweet potato sesame balls with red bean paste filling, Chinese custard tarts, fried rice, pepper and mushroom stir fry (with lots of garlic), and I steamed some store bought rice buns. Keith did the frying for me, he's very good at it. He fried the sesame balls, as well as a few spring rolls I rolled up at the last minute, and some dumplings stuffed with tofu and veggies. Yum! Neil brought a very good "Buddha's Delight" Chinese soup that he made. It tasted really good with the dumplings.
{The custard tarts turned out very well. I grated fresh nutmeg for the tops.}
It snowed quite a bit on Friday night, so I'm guessing that contributed to a smaller turnout on Saturday. More than half of the people that said they were coming didn't show. But those of us that were there ate soooo much food. I don't have nearly the leftovers that I expected, which is good! I don't think I could eat all of it in time. The snow also delayed by plans to go to the grocery store. I was going to go Friday, but had to go Saturday afternoon instead. I was a little nervous that I wouldn't have enough time make everything, but it turned out to be the perfect amount of time. Everything got made, and on time, too. Yay!
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Love Gorged
• Friday, February 16, 2007 • 3:13 PM
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My Valentine's day was brimming with food. Here's the delicious report:
We had a mini Valentine celebration at work. I was initially recruited to make a cake, but to my delight I found out Tuesday afternoon that someone else was going to make it instead. While I like making cakes, I wasn't really looking forward to making icing or scouting the baking isle - it has been super cold and it makes me feel like cuddling up and staying at home*. So, I improvised little savory polenta snacks instead, which turned out to be a hit. I think it was a good contrast with all of the super sugary standard Valentine treats.
{I cut the polenta slices into hearts using a little heart cookie cutter. I wrote out the super easy recipe, it's included at the end of this post.}
{I put Hello Kitty valentines and tattoos in everyone's mailbox at work. Graham delivered this very cute handmade valentine from Natalie.}
Valentine's evening, I whipped up a valentine dinner for two. Keith's loves pesto, so I decided to make a simple pasta with *lots* of pesto. The pasta included (aside from lots of pesto)sun-dried tomatoes, Kalamata olives, giant garlic stuffed green olives, fresh oregano, feta cheese, and a little sauteed red pepper and garlic. We ate some great bread with it that I picked up at the store.
{Here's the uber-Valentine table! Lots of food and lots of candles. And of course, Keith's super-pesto pasta.}
I was really excited to give Keith his valentine present. I got him a pair of herringbone patterned Vans. Unfortunately, his feet are wide and they don't fit quite right. But, luckily, I got them at Zappos.com and they make exchanging for another size very easy.
{Here's what they look like. Pictures from Zappos.com.}
Keith gave me some things that I had been ogling over, which were on sale even, but I still couldn't seem to bring myself to buy. I also received two manga books.
* I did have to brave the cold to get to the grocery store, but it was surprisingly fun. Keith was kind enough to go with me. They were playing ridiculous "oldies" in the nearly empty grocery store. It's so much better to have someone to laugh at you while you dance in the isles. I also bought tofutti cuties, non-dairy ice cream sandwiches. Oh, yes. And my favorite soup, as well as my favorite vegetarian maple and onion baked beans were on sale! Yay!
Red Pepper and Garlic Polenta Snacks
By Kristin
Preparation time: Approx. 45 minutes
Yield: About 15 (depending on how thickly you slice the polenta)
1 package prepared polenta (though if you are ambitious and not in a hurry, it's not very hard to make yourself)
About 1 Tbs. olive oil
1 red bell pepper
About 1/4 cup Kalamata olives, pitted
About 1/4 cup feta cheese
About 2 Tbs. minced garlic (more or less depending on your tastes; I used pre-chopped garlic, packed in water, for convenience)
Pinch of fresh coarsely ground black pepper (optional, but highly recommended)
Fresh oregano (optional)
About the polenta: You can buy polenta already made in a plastic sleeve; it's kind of a tube or sausage-like shape. You can find it in the produce section of the grocery store, it is always kept refrigerated.
To make:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Add about a tablespoon of olive oil to a skillet or saute pan, over medium high heat. While the oil heats, wash the red pepper and dice it, removing the seeds and ribs. Once the oil is heated, add a couple of tablespoons of minced garlic. Just before the garlic begins to brown, add the red pepper. Cook the mixture until the liquid from the peppers evaporates, and they begin to brown. (The pan must be fairly hot for them to cook fast enough without losing their color and becoming too soft. Stir them frequently so that the red pepper will cook evenly, without burning. After cooking, the peppers should be fairly dry and have an intense red color, with some browning.) Set the peppers aside, to cool a bit.
Open the end of the polenta package (Over the sink! It might squirt!) and slide it out of the sleeve. Gently drain the liquid; pat polenta dry with a paper towel. Slice the polenta, about 1/8 of an inch thick, or you can make it thicker if you like, up to about1/4 of an inch. Place the polenta on a lined baking sheet (I like to use my silicon baking mat for this. Or you can use foil.). You may very lightly brush the polenta with olive oil if desired (they brown a little more), but it is not necessary. Bake the polenta for about 12 minutes to permit it to warm and to evaporate some of the liquid in the polenta, but do not allow the polenta to shrink too much or completely dry out (you don't want it to become hard). Variation: You can grill or saute the polenta. This is especially good if you:
1. Have more time
2. Are serving these immediately (i.e. hot)
Baking them does reduce the amount of oil used and the preparation time. Additionally, I personally think they taste better baked if you plan to refrigerate these and serve them later.
While the polenta is baking and the red peppers are still cooling, slice the olives and crumble the feta cheese into small pieces. I have found that it is not uncommon for "pitted" olives to still have a few pits left. I think that the smaller slices are more appropriately sized, but if you like larger olive chunks, I would at least cut them in half to avoid an unpleasant surprise.
Once the polenta has finished baking, remove it from the baking sheet with a spatula and place it on the plate you plan to serve it on. The pepper mixture should be cool enough now to handle. Scoop a teaspoon or so of the red pepper and garlic mixture onto the tops of the polenta rounds. Then, put a few olive slices on, and a sprinkling of feta and fresh coarsely ground black pepper. Place a single, tiny oregano leaf on the top of each polenta.
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Oops.
• Wednesday, February 07, 2007 • 10:37 PM
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My skates arrived today! But, there was something important missing...
So, they have no wheels. You can imagine my surprise when I opened the box, to find my roller skates are not very rolly. My next move was of course to call "lowpriceskates.com" to ask where my wheels are. They seemed rather confused as well (thanks, guys). They are now sending my wheels, however, they no longer have the wheels that I had ordered with my skates. Sigh. But, I did try on the skates sans wheels and I believe that they fit very well. They are very nicely made, with great details, such as the grippy rubbery material that lines the tongue of of the boot. This will be great in keeping the tongue in place while skating. I can hardly wait to get the wheels so that I can try them out! Yay!
Mao mao, however, hopes that the wheels never get here. She looooves the skate boots. I had a hard time taking photos, because Mao wouldn't stop rubbing her head on them. She rubs them and purrs and purrs and rubs oh yeah.
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