Just deleted my Skype and Twitter accounts. Don't really need them anyway, since most of the people whom I was associated with on Skype and Twitter...well, let's just say I fell out of touch with a lot of them, to put it nicely. Furthermore, I don't feel the need to pander to certain Twitter followers whom I collected in a previous phase of my life. I don't know how that helps me, except for the fact that I can freely view my thoughts about K-Pop now, but it's definitely a weight lifted.
I shall say that some of the people I talked to through these mediums were cool though. Hopefully I'll be able to cross paths with them in another way.
Now off to biochem. And cleaning the apartment...hopefully.
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Another Kitchen Success
Somehow this is turning into a food blog. Hmm.
I had a box of pre-washed kale in the fridge that had to be used up, and since it seemed to be too much for me to finish it all at once raw, I went to trusty old foodnetwork.com and found a recipe for it sauteed. I haven't had the best luck cooking with oil though; I'm a clean-freak, but when I've sauteed with oil in the past, especially in a shallow frying pan, the oil seems to splatter after I add whatever I'm cooking in and stink up the entire apartment. I've also had trouble burning garlic.
Instead, I thought I'd try a suggestion from my mom to saute with vegetable broth. I basically switched the vegetable broth and the olive oil, starting with a base of vegetable broth, garlic, and red chili flakes, adding the baby kale, and finishing with salt and olive oil. I must say the vegetable broth is quite flavorful, and the sauteed kale kind of reminds me of the sauteed bean sprouts I used to have at Chinese restaurants, except not as oily or salty, and with a fresh kale flavor added.
So Mom, if you're reading this, you can't blame me for not eating my vegetables.
Yes, pictures will be up...as soon as I decide to put them up.
Now on to my learning objective about Tums for tomorrow. How fitting...
I had a box of pre-washed kale in the fridge that had to be used up, and since it seemed to be too much for me to finish it all at once raw, I went to trusty old foodnetwork.com and found a recipe for it sauteed. I haven't had the best luck cooking with oil though; I'm a clean-freak, but when I've sauteed with oil in the past, especially in a shallow frying pan, the oil seems to splatter after I add whatever I'm cooking in and stink up the entire apartment. I've also had trouble burning garlic.
Instead, I thought I'd try a suggestion from my mom to saute with vegetable broth. I basically switched the vegetable broth and the olive oil, starting with a base of vegetable broth, garlic, and red chili flakes, adding the baby kale, and finishing with salt and olive oil. I must say the vegetable broth is quite flavorful, and the sauteed kale kind of reminds me of the sauteed bean sprouts I used to have at Chinese restaurants, except not as oily or salty, and with a fresh kale flavor added.
So Mom, if you're reading this, you can't blame me for not eating my vegetables.
Yes, pictures will be up...as soon as I decide to put them up.
Now on to my learning objective about Tums for tomorrow. How fitting...
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Cooking in Med School
So I started med school this past week. The week before that was one long week of orientation, which was a long day of sitting in lecture and getting to know what the next year or two would be like, and then in the evenings there were a lot of social events, so I didn't cook much, if at all, since breakfast and lunch were provided, and I just had dinner at the places where the events were taking place.
But after orientation was over and we were on our own, I had to start cooking for myself. Now supermarkets are not catered to the bachelor; the stuff they sell, even the fresh produce, isn't packaged for one meal deals. I hate letting things go to waste, so I would dump the whole bunch of kale (or what I thought was kale) into the pot of canned tomatoes, and I had lunch and dinner for a week (well, mostly dinner, since a lot of student groups provided pizza for lunch as a way to entice us first-years).
Fast-forward to just now, when all week I thought I had a bunch of collard greens from last week left that I needed to use. I go to the supermarket to get ingredients for this "southern-style collard greens" recipe I found on the Food Network website, and I come back home and start prepping the onions, chili flakes, and garlic. I open the fridge, and I find kale. Apparently I used up the collard greens last week in that tomato stew. It's a little perplexing how I didn't notice that it was not kale I used up, since I used to have kale all the time back home, especially the kale salad from Whole Foods.
Anyway, I roll with it and replace the collard greens in the recipe with the kale. Kale stems are a little tougher (a lot of recipes call for kale stems to be discarded), so I thought I'd add the whole box of vegetable stock instead of just three cups so that the kale stems would have more liquid to simmer in. Hey, I've already gone away from the recipe, considering I had the wrong main ingredient, so why not? I add tomatoes and some lemon juice as well, and somehow I end up with a weird hybrid of American hot-and-sour soup--the kale, sauteed onions, and leftover quinoa I used as a base to ladle the soup over, makes it American. The tomatoes in the vegetable broth also reminds me of a light soup my mom makes from time to time, so I unintentionally end up with a touch of home as well.
I'd take a picture, but it doesn't look as pretty with the bowl already half-eaten. Maybe tomorrow when I spoon a new bowl.
But after orientation was over and we were on our own, I had to start cooking for myself. Now supermarkets are not catered to the bachelor; the stuff they sell, even the fresh produce, isn't packaged for one meal deals. I hate letting things go to waste, so I would dump the whole bunch of kale (or what I thought was kale) into the pot of canned tomatoes, and I had lunch and dinner for a week (well, mostly dinner, since a lot of student groups provided pizza for lunch as a way to entice us first-years).
Fast-forward to just now, when all week I thought I had a bunch of collard greens from last week left that I needed to use. I go to the supermarket to get ingredients for this "southern-style collard greens" recipe I found on the Food Network website, and I come back home and start prepping the onions, chili flakes, and garlic. I open the fridge, and I find kale. Apparently I used up the collard greens last week in that tomato stew. It's a little perplexing how I didn't notice that it was not kale I used up, since I used to have kale all the time back home, especially the kale salad from Whole Foods.
Anyway, I roll with it and replace the collard greens in the recipe with the kale. Kale stems are a little tougher (a lot of recipes call for kale stems to be discarded), so I thought I'd add the whole box of vegetable stock instead of just three cups so that the kale stems would have more liquid to simmer in. Hey, I've already gone away from the recipe, considering I had the wrong main ingredient, so why not? I add tomatoes and some lemon juice as well, and somehow I end up with a weird hybrid of American hot-and-sour soup--the kale, sauteed onions, and leftover quinoa I used as a base to ladle the soup over, makes it American. The tomatoes in the vegetable broth also reminds me of a light soup my mom makes from time to time, so I unintentionally end up with a touch of home as well.
I'd take a picture, but it doesn't look as pretty with the bowl already half-eaten. Maybe tomorrow when I spoon a new bowl.
Friday, March 8, 2013
New Blog to Follow
A couple of my friends are hiking the Applachian Trail (something I've thought would be cool to do after reading Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods") and will document it here: http://www.jandcat.com/. They're just starting, but feel free to check it out to see their progress.
In other news, if you didn't happen upon my Twitter post, I finally got into medical school. I'll have more to say on this entire process in the future.
In other news, if you didn't happen upon my Twitter post, I finally got into medical school. I'll have more to say on this entire process in the future.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Happy New Year
In a few minutes or so, the new year will start to be ushered into the United States. Those of you outside the United States, especially in countries with only one time zone, may not understand this next part. But it's something I've always wondered about.
At the end of every year, a crystal ball drops in Times Square in New York City to help count down to the new year. It's fun, and it's a festive atmosphere. It's a time of celebration and a time to look forward to new opportunities and experiences.
The problem is that, as many of you know, I live in St. Louis, which is one hour later than the East Coast of the United States. I remember in 1999-2000 because people were celebrating the new millennium, and then again in 2001-2002, because people were trying to move past 9/11, New Year's celebrations were televised live for each time zone in the United States. However, the usual practice of most television networks is that they broadcast the ball drop live on the East Coast, and then rebroadcast it in each time zone when midnight strikes. Here's the main issue: watching it here in the Midwest takes away from the excitement, knowing that the ball drop is not live, and that we're getting the retreads from New York. It's a little anti-climactic, when 12:00 AM on New Year's Day is supposed to be, again, fun and festive. That's why you see everybody with their friends, hanging out, kissing...
Actually, now that I've brought that up, I've spent more years at home watching the ball drop by myself. It's kind of lonely. And I've never had a New Year's kiss either, so those shots of couples kissing at midnight kind of rubs it in. Thing is I can never find a group to hang out with for some reason. As to why, well, that topic is for another day.
I'm sure the lonesomeness adds to the lack of excitement for me (my ex-girlfriend decided to ditch me for her friends one year and said I wasn't invited to the party, for example, when we were dating). Anyway, I've always been curious as to why networks can't just show a New Year's celebration live for each time zone. It would be cool to see something different every hour instead of the same old ball drop every year.
Update (12:03 AM CST): So this year in St. Louis, the Fox station broadcast the New York celebrations on tape delay to coincide with midnight here. The ABC station broadcast live programming, but doesn't mention New Year's CST. All other stations broadcast programming that doesn't even mention New Year's. I feel so insignificant. The Midwest is definitely flyover country, unfortunately.
At the end of every year, a crystal ball drops in Times Square in New York City to help count down to the new year. It's fun, and it's a festive atmosphere. It's a time of celebration and a time to look forward to new opportunities and experiences.
The problem is that, as many of you know, I live in St. Louis, which is one hour later than the East Coast of the United States. I remember in 1999-2000 because people were celebrating the new millennium, and then again in 2001-2002, because people were trying to move past 9/11, New Year's celebrations were televised live for each time zone in the United States. However, the usual practice of most television networks is that they broadcast the ball drop live on the East Coast, and then rebroadcast it in each time zone when midnight strikes. Here's the main issue: watching it here in the Midwest takes away from the excitement, knowing that the ball drop is not live, and that we're getting the retreads from New York. It's a little anti-climactic, when 12:00 AM on New Year's Day is supposed to be, again, fun and festive. That's why you see everybody with their friends, hanging out, kissing...
Actually, now that I've brought that up, I've spent more years at home watching the ball drop by myself. It's kind of lonely. And I've never had a New Year's kiss either, so those shots of couples kissing at midnight kind of rubs it in. Thing is I can never find a group to hang out with for some reason. As to why, well, that topic is for another day.
I'm sure the lonesomeness adds to the lack of excitement for me (my ex-girlfriend decided to ditch me for her friends one year and said I wasn't invited to the party, for example, when we were dating). Anyway, I've always been curious as to why networks can't just show a New Year's celebration live for each time zone. It would be cool to see something different every hour instead of the same old ball drop every year.
Update (12:03 AM CST): So this year in St. Louis, the Fox station broadcast the New York celebrations on tape delay to coincide with midnight here. The ABC station broadcast live programming, but doesn't mention New Year's CST. All other stations broadcast programming that doesn't even mention New Year's. I feel so insignificant. The Midwest is definitely flyover country, unfortunately.
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Merry Christmas Already? It Feels Different Each Year
Christmas was never the biggest deal at our house. It was just another holiday that everybody else celebrated, and since we happened to get the day off as well and it was the thing to do here in America, we went along with it. We rarely made the big production of having everybody over for dinner, singing carols, roasting chestnuts on an open fire, having a huge pile of gifts under the tree. In Taiwan, when my parents were back there, Christmas was only a day off. The big break came in a couple months for Chinese New Year. Plus, it's kind of hard to have a big, raucous family gathering and whatnot when the rest of the family is half a continent and the Pacific Ocean away. But I still got gifts, and we still had a tree, albeit a tiny artificial one initially before we finally got a big artificial one because I was adamant about not wasting a tree each year.
It was always my job to set up the Christmas tree and decorate it. It was fun, but it was more hard work than fun, having to figure out which pieces go where, having to spread the branches out to make it look like a real tree. So one year, I set up the tree halfway and never get around to finishing it. I went off to Los Angeles for a conference, and when I returned the tree was gone, back into its box and never to come out of the basement again. So far anyway.
It's difficult sometimes to be part of an immigrant family. I was born in the United States, and I went to school and work here, so I identify myself as American. I speak Chinese at home, and with the black hair and the yellow skin and other habits I've learned from being a part of my family I identify myself as Chinese. But these holidays that are celebrated in America are not necessarily ones that are big in Asia, and likewise the Chinese holidays are not known here. So we forget a lot of holidays are coming up until they're here, whether it's Eastern ones like the Mid-Autumn Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, or even Chinese New Year, or Western ones like Thanksgiving or Christmas. When we realize that they've come, we're like, "Oh, it was this holiday. Oops." And for the Western ones, we add, "Well, at least we get a day off."
And that's how Christmas feels like now. I love the idea of the Christmas spirit, the build-up, the atmosphere, the romanticism, the religious aspect. Being with friends and family, giving and receiving gifts, playing in the snow and then snuggling by the fire. But now that we don't celebrate it anymore Christmas Day seems anti-climactic, especially after all the commercial build-up. As each year comes and I get more removed from when we celebrated Christmas, however little the celebration was, it feels like a distant memory that cannot be recreated; otherwise it would not be genuine. And I'm okay with that. I don't need gifts to feel good. I don't need for the reason to be a specific holiday to spend time with my family. I don't need to put up decorations that will only be taken down a month later and isn't going to be seen by anybody anyway.
But that's not to say other people shouldn't do it, because if that's their tradition and it makes them happy, by all means, please be happy. To all of you who are lucky enough to do these things, I hope you have a wonderful holiday. Enjoy it, because you are fortunate to be able to create this magic.
It was always my job to set up the Christmas tree and decorate it. It was fun, but it was more hard work than fun, having to figure out which pieces go where, having to spread the branches out to make it look like a real tree. So one year, I set up the tree halfway and never get around to finishing it. I went off to Los Angeles for a conference, and when I returned the tree was gone, back into its box and never to come out of the basement again. So far anyway.
It's difficult sometimes to be part of an immigrant family. I was born in the United States, and I went to school and work here, so I identify myself as American. I speak Chinese at home, and with the black hair and the yellow skin and other habits I've learned from being a part of my family I identify myself as Chinese. But these holidays that are celebrated in America are not necessarily ones that are big in Asia, and likewise the Chinese holidays are not known here. So we forget a lot of holidays are coming up until they're here, whether it's Eastern ones like the Mid-Autumn Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, or even Chinese New Year, or Western ones like Thanksgiving or Christmas. When we realize that they've come, we're like, "Oh, it was this holiday. Oops." And for the Western ones, we add, "Well, at least we get a day off."
And that's how Christmas feels like now. I love the idea of the Christmas spirit, the build-up, the atmosphere, the romanticism, the religious aspect. Being with friends and family, giving and receiving gifts, playing in the snow and then snuggling by the fire. But now that we don't celebrate it anymore Christmas Day seems anti-climactic, especially after all the commercial build-up. As each year comes and I get more removed from when we celebrated Christmas, however little the celebration was, it feels like a distant memory that cannot be recreated; otherwise it would not be genuine. And I'm okay with that. I don't need gifts to feel good. I don't need for the reason to be a specific holiday to spend time with my family. I don't need to put up decorations that will only be taken down a month later and isn't going to be seen by anybody anyway.
But that's not to say other people shouldn't do it, because if that's their tradition and it makes them happy, by all means, please be happy. To all of you who are lucky enough to do these things, I hope you have a wonderful holiday. Enjoy it, because you are fortunate to be able to create this magic.
Monday, December 24, 2012
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