2 December, 2007

Thanksgiving 2007

Dear Internet,

I’m ashamed to admit that this is the first year I cooked anything for Thanksgiving. What finally lit the fire under my rump? Well, for the first time in my life I wasn’t going to tuck into a feast prepared by my extended family. This is the first Thanksgiving that I didn’t spend at home, and I will try to make amends for that by both cooking and cleaning when I’m home for Christmas.

I spent this Thanksgiving with Nathan. My second cousins were out of town, and they invited us to cook and celebrate Thanksgiving in their home. Nathan and I considered our drawer-sized camper oven, three burners, and limited counter space, and after much deliberation, three consult calls, and a reading of tea leaves, we took them up on their kind offer. We made a feast:

Nathan made the vegetable roast with rutabaga, butternut squash, red potatoes, zucchini, red onion, and garlic, as well as the cranberry sauce from scratch, the roasted turkey breast, gravy, and whole wheat Stovetop stuffing. I made the brown and seven-grain rice casserole, sautéed collards, and the apple tart for dessert. Next time I’ll put less onion and garlic in the collards, but otherwise I’ll make all of these again excepting the Stovetop stuffing and gravy, which just aren’t for me.

Make some of this meal for yourself!

Brown and Seven-Grain Rice and Mushrooms Casserole

(modified from http://www.tazarat.com/results.asp?id=47)

Ingredients:

¼ lb. mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
½ cup seven-grain rice
½ cup brown rice
½ cup celery, chopped
1 3/4 cup stock or water
½ cup walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
1/8 cup parsley, minced, plus some for garnish
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon each: sage, marjoram, savory, pepper
½ cup chicken stock

Directions:

In a large heavy skillet or stock pot heat ¼ cup of stock over medium heat, and add mushrooms. Cook the mushrooms until they’re tender, for almost 10 minutes. Set aside.

Heat ½ cup of stock over medium heat, and add rices, onion, and celery. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the remaining stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover the pot, and simmer for 30 minutes or until the stock is for the most part absorbed and the rice is tender.

Stir in walnuts and seasonings, and mix thoroughly. Bake about 45 minutes at 350 in a casserole dish, or until all stock is absorbed. The top of the casserole will be somewhat toasted, and if you’d rather it be moist like the interior of the casserole, then cover the casserole as it bakes.

Sauteed Greens

(modified from http://whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=recipe&dbid=93)

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped onion
4 cups chopped collards
¼ cup + 1 tablespoon chicken or vegetable broth
3 medium cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat 1 tablespoon broth over medium heat in a 10-12″ stainless steel skillet. Add onion to broth and cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add some water as necessary until the onion is tender. Add collards, the remaining broth, cover and simmer over low heat for about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Toss with minced garlic, lemon juice, soy sauce, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Apple Tart

(from http://whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=recipe&dbid=67)

Ingredients:

2½ cups walnuts
1½ cups dates
3 green apples, such as Granny Smith
juice of 1 lemon in 2 cups water
¼ tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp ground clove
2 TBS honey
½ cup apple juice
¼ cup raisins

Directions:

Combine walnuts and dates in food processor. Make sure you remove pits if dates have them and cut off end where stem was. Process until well mixed and ground, but not smooth. About 40 seconds. It should be a coarse texture when done. Press evenly into a 9 inch tart pan. Set in refrigerator while making the filling.

Slice apples by cutting into quarters. Cut out core and slice crosswise in ¼ inch thick slices. Put into lemon water while you finish cutting apples. Drain well in colander when done.

Place apples in a large skillet with rest of the ingredients and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently on medium heat.

Remove apples with a slotted spoon from hot pan to a bowl and cool completely.

Reduce liquid to about half the volume and cool separately.

Spread apples evenly over crust. Brush syrup over apples. Can be served right away or will keep in refrigerator until needed. Keep tart covered in refrigerator so it doesn’t pick up moisture. Top with a little vanilla yogurt if desired.

Many thanks to my second cousins for letting us use their kitchen, cookware, dishes, dining room, and dishwasher. To my family for inviting me home for Christmas, even though I didn’t make it to Thanksgiving. To Nathan for a great Thanksgiving. To http://whfoods.com/ and http://www.tazarat.com/recipe.asp for sharing the great recipes.

1 Comment

Filed under Holiday

1 November, 2007

Creepy Freaks, a Hard Rocking Rock Show, and Halloween ‘07

My friend Eileen and I packed low-key, portable Halloween costumes and headed into “the city” the Saturday before Halloween. Eileen and I had a nice chat on the train ride in. We both enjoy puns, and once in Manhattan, Eileen pointed out a funny-punny joke in the image below. Do you get it?

We swung by Times Square for a look-see, and I visited the popular American Girl Store for the first time. The store features a salon, cafe, and theater in which customers can play and shop with their dolls. I was surprised to find that the new “historical” doll is from the 1970s. I remember in the early ’90s when there were only three dolls in the collection: Kirsten from the 1850s, Samantha from the early 1900s, and Molly from the 1940s. Here are photos of the store and some of the customizable dolls available today.

We took the subway to Coney Island and arrived in the dark just before 7pm. The park is closed from October to April, but they open the Freak Show for Halloween and call it “Creep Show at the Freak Show.” We didn’t see any signs from the train station to the Creep Show, and none of the handful of people out on the streets knew where it was. In fact, ~50% of those asked for some reason thought we were looking for the hospital. We cautiously walked through that dark, fairly deserted bit of Brooklyn until we came to a bustling arcade where an employee pointed us in the right direction. A dozen 9-12 year-olds in costume stood outside the entrance with a few young adult supervisors. Seeing the show with those ankle-biters would be undoubtedly lame-o, so we went exploring. In my mind, Coney Island is an old-fashioned park with a colorful history for the working-man’s family, and I wanted to see how the real McCoy compared. We walked to the chain link fence that runs the park’s perimeter and were met with throaty growls, alarming barks, and intense snarls from two 150-lb.-of-pure-muscle rotweilers. After stepping back into our skins, we stole a few glances back at the ferris wheel–the “Wonder Wheel”–and the other rides. There was a full moon the night before, and a harvest moon that evening as we walked out on the beach. Perhaps things would have been too spooky for us if we hadn’t discovered a surprisingly large number of seemingly normal people out walking and running along the beach behind the park. The best things about the Creep Show were the fire-eating Dumbledore and talking with the woman behind the counter about how Coney Island’s changed and changing and she wants to snuggle up in the Winter with the scary rotweilers. Below are some of my photos. All told, Coney Island was just as I imagined it: fabulous, frightening, and somehow sorta familiar.

Then we took the subway to the East Village’s Little India for dinner. Some of the people out on the streets were in their costumes. After dinner was the big concert: Lesion’s Halloween show, “Ten Years Undead.” Dr. Gustave Hurtz, Venison, Piss Promise, and their latest addition, Benjamin Franklin, put on the Halloween show of the year. The evening began with the touching premiere of their latest film which explored Mr. Pod’s passing and transcendental return and also how Benjamin Franklin joined up with the rest of that hard rocking German band we all know and love. The Doctor ripped through the film screen as the band tore into their first song. Eileen gave me a glow stick and I waved it with the infectious rhythm. Go to Lesion’s site for photos from the night. Venison was characteristically mute, Piss Promise was of course shirtless, the Doctor as charming as ever, and Benjamin Franklin sported some of the freshest fashions I’ve seen yet in NYC.

After all that excitement, I took it easy on Halloween proper. Nathan and I walked around our quaint town’s center. We encountered black-lit Christian puppets, loads of pirates, an old woman hanging from a tree in a net, frighteningly distasteful windows of Mr. Kool-Aid faces in black-face, and a huge spider hatched at the haunted house and SpongeBob was riding its back. OMG, pix below.

1 Comment

Filed under Holiday, NYC

28 May, 2007

The 2007 Memorial Day Duck Race.

I attended my first duck race on Memorial Day of 2007 with the family of my first cousin once removed. There was a small festival setup at the race site. I petted a miniature horse and my second cousin pet a little goat that he was taken with. A traveling magician milled through the crowd and gave impromptu performances.

A dump truck delivered the rubber ducks and we watched excitedly as the ducks dropped and began maneuvering the river’s rapids. Here’s a sampling of things one might overhear at a duck race:
“That’s our duck right there.”
“How can you tell?”
“Your duck’s that one stuck between those two rocks.”
“Can you read the number on that upside down duck?”

0 Comments

Filed under Connecticut, Holiday

13 May, 2007

Checking out downtown New Haven.

Lauren called today as I walked past one of the Yale art buildings in downtown New Haven. A din of male screams greeted her. Eager to relieve our disorientation, I walked away and glanced back over my shoulder to find that the racket was coming from the building’s basement. A sign or two indicated that it might be linked to a photography exhibit. Lauren and I played long-distance-friend catch-up, I spotted a mailbox masquerading as R2-D2, bought a long-sleeved top, and then met up with a Connecticut native, Frank. We walked about, and Frank pointed out places of interest like Louis’ Lunch, home of the first hamburger, good venues for live, local music, and the single restroom that was open to the public at the last St. Patty’s Day parade. We found a comic book store, and I found a new favorite book: Don’t Go Where I Can’t Follow by Anders Nilsen.

I asked Frank if he’d like to check out the photography exhibit. He consented, and I heard the screams again as we approached. A video piece was the source of the clamor. Six individually recorded men were displayed on a partitioned video screen. They screamed at varying lengths and that created a sustained sound of variable intensity. Beyond this video was an MFA thesis exhibit of photgraphy and graphic design work. Frank and I enjoyed the photos, books, video work, and wall pieces. The exhibits were reminiscent of the student exhibits I participated in or viewed while attending NCSU’s College of Design.

A delightful day about New Haven was wrapped up with falafel and bubble tea with Frank. Here we are in front of one of the windows when walking around.

0 Comments

Filed under Connecticut

13 March, 2007

Conceptualizing Really Big and Really Tiny Things at the American Museum of Natural History.

Amber and I met up with a few friends and a few of their family and friends at The American Museum of Natural History. Andrew set the timer on his shutter and got the group photo below.

I particularly enjoyed the clock pictured above. It represents Earth’s history compressed into 24 hours. Earth formed 4.5 billion years ago, and the “day” on the clock starts with the formation of Earth. At 5:00 a.m., life begins, in the Precambrian Era. At 8:00 p.m., the first vertebrates evolve in the Paleozoic Era. At 10:00 p.m., the first dinosaurs evolve in the Mesozoic Era. Humans evolve late in the Cenozoic Era, just a fraction of a second before midnight. I imagined the Earth 65–230 million years ago as we perused the dinosaur exhibit. Lucy pointed out Tyrannosaurus’ short arms. They’re too short to reach the mouth and have only two fingers. How were they used?

The Hayden Sphere is a planetarium in the museum. It also serves as a point of reference at the center of an exhibit about scaling the universe. Here’s a listing of the scales represented in the exhibit:

Universal Scale > Galactic Scale > Stellar Scale > Planetary Scale > Human Scale > Atomic Scale

Here’s one of my favorite lines from the exhibit: “The observable universe is 100 million billion billion times bigger than a human, while humans are a million billion times larger than a proton in the nucleus of an atom.” Below is a photo of part of the exhibit in which the Hayden Sphere on the left represents the Sun and scaled models of the Solar System’s planets are to its right.

I learned that Earth orbits the Sun at an average distance of 150 million kilometers and that distance is called an “astronomical unit” and is used to measure distances within the solar system. I was entertained to see that the plaque below was placed to cover Pluto in a part of the exhibit, since the International Astronomical Union recently decided Pluto is not a planet.

In the photo below, Matt stands in the museum’s main entrance reading some of the quotes inscribed in the walls. I appreciated this quote on one of the walls about Manhood by Teddy Roosevelt.

0 Comments

Filed under NYC, science