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| From Blogger Pictures |
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Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Lunch time!
lunch salad with quinoa, roast chicken, fried egg, cornichons, nuts, craisins!
Apple Butter in Washington
Oh Washington State! Apples are one of Washington's most well-known produce (also up there with Washington cherries!). And tis the season for some applicious recipes.
I had a bunch of local heirloom apples (Pinova, Sweet Orin, and Liberty). One of my favorite easy apple recipes is slow cooker apple butter. I absolutely LOVE the way it makes my house smell while cooking! Plus, it's so fabulous to spread on some toast or some warm home made pan dulce (another recipe I've become quite fond of).
To make my apple butter, I started out with 7 apples. I'm a lazy kind of gal, so any time I deal with apples, I pull out my trusty apple peeler/corer/slicer (like this one). I first discovered this tool in middle school during a winter bake sale event. Racing to see who can spin their apple through the peeling/slicing/coring contraption is pretty fun - and it's a great task for kids!
After getting all the sliced apples, I plop them in the slow cooker. Some people add sugar now (if you like your apple butter sweeter, you can add up to four cups! But take into account the sweetness of your apples).
But, I have a honey problem. I mean I can't stop buying honey. Especially when I travel, or go to farmer's markets, or um, grocery stores...
So I put in about 3/4 to a cup of honey (eyeballing the amount) in with my apples.
Then you put in your spices. This is really up to you... what are your favorite spices? I can't resist cardamom (it's my favorite spice!), but no apple dish is complete without cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. This mix of spices will definitely make your house smell like an apple pie... and who wouldn't love that smell? I used about 1 tsp cardamom, 3 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp cloves, and 1/2 tsp salt.
Stir everything together, and cook on high in your covered slow cooker for an hour. Then, turn your cooker down to low and cook for another 9-11 hours or over night. To get that thick butter, you may want to take off the cover and cook for another hour or so after that.
If you want a nice smooth butter, you can put the resulting mixture through a food mill. If you don't have a food mill, try using an immersion blender.
Don't forget to share with friends and coworkers!
I had a bunch of local heirloom apples (Pinova, Sweet Orin, and Liberty). One of my favorite easy apple recipes is slow cooker apple butter. I absolutely LOVE the way it makes my house smell while cooking! Plus, it's so fabulous to spread on some toast or some warm home made pan dulce (another recipe I've become quite fond of).
To make my apple butter, I started out with 7 apples. I'm a lazy kind of gal, so any time I deal with apples, I pull out my trusty apple peeler/corer/slicer (like this one). I first discovered this tool in middle school during a winter bake sale event. Racing to see who can spin their apple through the peeling/slicing/coring contraption is pretty fun - and it's a great task for kids!
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| From apple butter |
After getting all the sliced apples, I plop them in the slow cooker. Some people add sugar now (if you like your apple butter sweeter, you can add up to four cups! But take into account the sweetness of your apples).
But, I have a honey problem. I mean I can't stop buying honey. Especially when I travel, or go to farmer's markets, or um, grocery stores...
 |
| From apple butter |
So I put in about 3/4 to a cup of honey (eyeballing the amount) in with my apples.
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| From apple butter |
Then you put in your spices. This is really up to you... what are your favorite spices? I can't resist cardamom (it's my favorite spice!), but no apple dish is complete without cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. This mix of spices will definitely make your house smell like an apple pie... and who wouldn't love that smell? I used about 1 tsp cardamom, 3 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp cloves, and 1/2 tsp salt.
 |
| From apple butter |
Stir everything together, and cook on high in your covered slow cooker for an hour. Then, turn your cooker down to low and cook for another 9-11 hours or over night. To get that thick butter, you may want to take off the cover and cook for another hour or so after that.
 |
| From apple butter |
If you want a nice smooth butter, you can put the resulting mixture through a food mill. If you don't have a food mill, try using an immersion blender.
Don't forget to share with friends and coworkers!
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
worth it?
Inspired by some other DIYers revamping chairs like this, and this, and this, and especially this, I've been keeping my eyes peeled for cheap chairs to revamp as a fun project.
I ran by UW surplus today and found this guy for $15
Great! I figure this will be a perfect place to start.
Problem... I couldn't get the darned thing in my car. My car door frame was just too frickin' small! I had 8 different people walk by and tell me what a great chair I had as I was trying to shove the piece at different angles into my vehicle. All I kept thinking was that I was going to have to leave this 'great chair' on the street if I couldn't figure out a way to get it home!
Finally, I decided to bungee it into my trunk. Of course, I never added more bungees to my car, so I only have one old bungee! Luckily, I have my dog's car hammock which has loops that go over my car's head rests. I connected three of these loops to each other and used these as another strap to hold the chair in my trunk. As I was re-jiggering everything, it started raining. of course. Sigh!
I spent the whole car ride home worrying that the old bungee I had was going to snap and I would cause a crazy traffic jam over a $15 chair. blargh. Hopefully, this will be a fun project. I hope it's worth it!
I ran by UW surplus today and found this guy for $15
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| From lorispeak |
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| From lorispeak |
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| From lorispeak |
Great! I figure this will be a perfect place to start.
Problem... I couldn't get the darned thing in my car. My car door frame was just too frickin' small! I had 8 different people walk by and tell me what a great chair I had as I was trying to shove the piece at different angles into my vehicle. All I kept thinking was that I was going to have to leave this 'great chair' on the street if I couldn't figure out a way to get it home!
Finally, I decided to bungee it into my trunk. Of course, I never added more bungees to my car, so I only have one old bungee! Luckily, I have my dog's car hammock which has loops that go over my car's head rests. I connected three of these loops to each other and used these as another strap to hold the chair in my trunk. As I was re-jiggering everything, it started raining. of course. Sigh!
I spent the whole car ride home worrying that the old bungee I had was going to snap and I would cause a crazy traffic jam over a $15 chair. blargh. Hopefully, this will be a fun project. I hope it's worth it!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Exercise
I've repeatedly found that it takes three continuous days without
exercise for me to start losing control, freaking out & getting
restless.
exercise for me to start losing control, freaking out & getting
restless.
I'm not a control freak, but I find it freaky when I have NO control
over my body. When the restlessness hits, wherever I am (often asleep
in bed, sometimes while I'm in meetings or whenever) I start
twitching. I suddenly have irrepressable urges to start cracking
joints and stretch muscles out. It never helps,and I end up doing
weird twitching or spastic movements for a few hours (it's esp bad if
I'm supposed to be sitting still - like in a meeting).
It normally ends with me trying to appease the restlessness with a
little bit of exercise. Last week, I left my group meeting and did
jumping jacks in the bathroom. I've gotten up in the middle of the
night to do push ups and sit ups. The worst was when we went to
Houston before evan's mom's surgery. I ended up running around the
bedroom (with intermittent jumping jacks) in the garage apartment that
night for three hours straight.
I can only imagine that this is akin to what it feels like to do drugs
and experience cravings. It's freaky.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
im so old schoolz
NYMag's The Cut cracks me up. I don't know why I forget about it all the time. A recent gem:
"God bless Justin Timberlake. Though every celebrity and their unborn child is tweeting, he still enjoys the vintage thrills of blogging. "
I'm feeling all old-school as I write this post.
"God bless Justin Timberlake. Though every celebrity and their unborn child is tweeting, he still enjoys the vintage thrills of blogging. "
I'm feeling all old-school as I write this post.
Monday, June 08, 2009
When the Thrill of Blogging Is Gone ... - NYTimes.com
Omg i think this might be me oh wait scratch that. LOL
Thursday, May 21, 2009
The beautiful weather in Seattle right now
Saturday, May 02, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Public attitudes toward Chinese and Asian Americans
My mom sent me this. It's the report released a week ago from a survey on public attitudes toward Chinese and Asian Americans among the general US population. This report follows up on a similar survey by the same group (http://www.committee100.org) that was done in 2001.
You can find the whole report here.
A few results listed in the beginning of the report:
Among the general population, 45% believe Asian Americans are more loyal to their countries of ancestry than to the U.S., up from 37% in the 2001 survey.
Among the general population, 44% believe Asian Americans should think in more American ways, and 20% believe Asian Americans do not care what happens to anyone but their own kind.
By using the split sample,the survey shows the majority of the general population cannot make meaningful distinctions between Chinese Americans and Asian Americans in general. This “lumping effect”is the same result as in the 2001 survey. Asian Americans are still seen as one generic ethnic group.
You can find the whole report here.
A few results listed in the beginning of the report:
Among the general population, 45% believe Asian Americans are more loyal to their countries of ancestry than to the U.S., up from 37% in the 2001 survey.
Among the general population, 44% believe Asian Americans should think in more American ways, and 20% believe Asian Americans do not care what happens to anyone but their own kind.
By using the split sample,the survey shows the majority of the general population cannot make meaningful distinctions between Chinese Americans and Asian Americans in general. This “lumping effect”is the same result as in the 2001 survey. Asian Americans are still seen as one generic ethnic group.
Monday, April 27, 2009
omg my bro has a pic with RPattz
He doesn't even know who RPattz IS! He didn't even know Twilight was a MOVIE! He also saw Seth Green, and apparently he has Chris Brown's vest from a concert before the Rihanna bashing.
I love that Rob is sticking his tongue out. It is amusing, and goes with the silliness and light-heartedness of the photo.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Twilight obsessed
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| From random |
When you get a sick sleepy psych student obsessed with the Twilight series, you get dreams where she wakes up having categorized the main characters' romantic attachment style as anxious/ambivalent. Then she starts wondering (in a literally feverish state brought on by her sickness) if all the fans who identify with their love story are also characterized by an anxious/ambivalent romantic attachment style.
Romantic attachment styles from Hazan and Shaver (1987)
Secure: I find it relatively easy to get close to others and am comfortable depending on them and having them depend on me. I don’t often worry about being abandoned or about someone getting too close to me
Avoidant: I am somewhat uncomfortable being close to others; I find it difficult to trust them completely, difficult to allow myself to depend on them. I am nervous when anyone gets too close and often, love partners want me to be more intimate than I feel comfortable being.
Anxious/Ambivalent: I find that others are reluctant to get as close as I would like. I often worry that my partner doesn’t really love me or won’t want to stay with me. I want to merge completely with another person, and this desire sometimes scares people away.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Yeah it was a rough day yesterday
arguments to a paper I've been writing the last few months. C'est la
vie.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
Saturday, February 07, 2009
I'm surrounded by pirates!
pirate extravaganza - the Gasparilla festival. After this picture, I
received beads from the pirate next to me. Yay!
Friday, January 30, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Such fast friends!
begun grooming him, and they can nap near each other!
Friday, January 23, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
He's moving in!
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| From lorispeak |
Tungsten keeps inching closer to Asha. She doesn't seem to mind too much. It makes me hopeful that they're gonna get close sooner than we thought!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Introducing Tungsten
Our newest little guy. We got him from animal talk rescue in Seattle. His weird little square moustache and his constant attempt to "make muffins" out of air won our hearts. I only teared up twice when we went looking for kitties. I feel bad for the kitty volunteers. One of them asked me if my current kitty was good with other kitties. I started talking about Nikko, and almost started crying. The poor volunteer felt soo bad! Luckily, despite being a bit over emotional, we walked out with a sweetie! We named him Tungsten (runner up names were Zoji (like our rice cooker), Epsilon, Titus, and Achilles). He's the first kitty we have with amber eyes. I found them quite odd/startling to look at initially, but I've gotten used to them. He just looks so serious all the time! I think he kinda looks like a stuffy old professor - but in a cute way.
He's already met Buddie, and they get along. Asha and he have seen each other a few times, but she mostly has kept away from him. He's such a sweetie, and will just lie on his back snuggling with us when he's tuckered out.
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| From lorispeak |
He's already met Buddie, and they get along. Asha and he have seen each other a few times, but she mostly has kept away from him. He's such a sweetie, and will just lie on his back snuggling with us when he's tuckered out.
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