Cheese!

Eating has sometimes carried to me new heights of what most would consider good or interesting. My diet certainly doesn't appeal to my 15-year-old sister who survives on a strict diet of mustard sandwiches, fried chicken, and french fries with the occasional steak or milkshake thrown in for good measure. Mathematics graduate student that I am, it's important that I eat a healthy diet to keep my brain juices juicy. So I eat a lot of fruits, yogurt, vegetables, nuts, cheese and the occasional beans, lentils, or tofu.

One night I went to the grocery store hungry. I hadn't had lunch, and it was almost dinner time. Drooling over nearly every food, condiment, even spice (mmm cinnamon . . . just think what I could make with that), I could hardly bring myself to make a good decision, let alone dream up new recipes. And so it was that I spotted a spicy orange sauce and immediately felt an urge for orange-glazed chicken. Then I remembered a recipe I'd made a few times before with great success: Pomegranate-glazed tofu.

Doesn't sound too appetizing, but trust me. I once fed this tofu to a guy who thought it would taste like steak because of the color and texture. He loves steak, and was understandably disturbed by the gap between his expectation and the taste of the tofu. But after the first few bites, he couldn't help himself and ate nearly all of the two blocks I made that night. A couple days later, he asked me if I wanted to do dinner again. And that, my friends, is the story of how pomegranate-glazed tofu scored me a date.

But this is not the story of pomegranate-glazed tofu. This is supposed to be the story of a rather different, yet, just as special sort of tofu: Clementine-glazed. Inspired by the hit pomegranate tofu, I was sure clementine-glazed tofu would be a great success and would quench my craving for orange chicken. Boy was I wrong.

Clementine-glazed tofu was the nastiest tofu creature I had ever encountered. Bitter and cough-syrupy, it was reminiscent of those flavored flouride treatments that you receive as a kid--the ones that are so nasty that they give you a cone which you then hang your head over and drool into while praying, "Please don't touch my tongue. Please don't touch my tongue." But that's what you get when you see spicy orange sauce at the grocery store while you're hungry and you quickly recall that you have a big ol' box of clementines at home that you need to use. Thank goodness I didn't have a date that night.

The accompaniment to the tofu was just as imaginative, though less of a blazing failure as it was just blazing. Spicy hot chocolate stir fry was, in my mind, the perfect pairing to a delicately orange-glazed tofu. What better way to round off some sweet clementine tofu than with some spicy stir fry with a hint of chocolate? It would be like those chocolate-orange desserts, only not desserty.

With lots of red chili powder and a few dried red chilies, this dish had a great kick to it, but was still a little too sweet from the addition of the hot chocolate. Overnight, the flavors balanced more as the dish became spicier, and I enjoyed it much more the next day. Of course, that was probably also because I'd had a break from the tofu which, quite frankly, nearly made me vomit. Nothing appealed to me after the clementine tofu that night. However, there was still one happy event that evening; I managed to salvage the tofu. Here's how I did it.

First I rinsed off the tofu. Might I add, I rinsed it off VERY well. Then I fried that shit. I fried it with a vengeance until it partially blackened. Toward the end, I added cumin seeds and kalongi (black seed-like spice used in Indian cooking that has a smoky flavor), then finally some tomato sauce and paste. Success! And a new recipe. And redemption. Well, sort of. At least now I can say that I have boldly gone where no man should ever have gone before. And I was reminded of a valuable lesson in cooking: Frying and spices makes everything better!

Aside: For those shocked by the idea of a spicy hot chocolate stir fry, please note that the idea was not inspired so much by the orange pairing but rather a spicy Oaxacan hot chocolate recipe which I saw in a magazine many years ago. Here's a sample recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/easy-mexican-hot-chocolate/

Tonight my GPS windshield mount fell off. I spat on the suction cup to remount it, and the spittle froze immediately. Gotta love it when a lady tries to do a stealthy spit job and instead it gets preserved and, as a result, rendered useless.

Winter is here!

"Scientists do it repeatedly."

LOL

A friend saw this on a license plate on her way home from work.

On the highway on my way to the gym, a man dashed in front of my car carrying a package, and I noticed his van on the other side of the median--stopped with door wide open and blinker on. He set down the package on the side of the road, turned around, and threw up his arms as if to say, "Victorious!" That package turned out to be an enormous turtle which he had just saved from being run over on the highway.

I am so inspired by this entry about addiction! It's short, and easy to read. You won't regret:


http://buddhists.livejournal.com/888766.html

Attended my favorite wedding ever this weekend. It was the wedding of two of my mathematical siblings (students of my Ph.D. advisor), and out of the 5 weddings I've attended in my entire life, this one was without a doubt the best. But the way it began was pretty terrible. At least for me. The previous evening, I was up all night, wallowing in emotional turmoil rather than sleeping. My boyfriend of 4 years and I had broken up that night, and it seemed like it was finally the real deal this time. He said he would not go to the wedding with me as planned, and I just hated the thought of showing up to a wedding with break-up all over my face.

Pretty terrible time to attend a celebration of love, but I was very fortunate that the wedding was well put-together and attended by so many awesome people. I was sad, of course, heart-broken really, but it was impossible to remain bitter under the given circumstances. In many respects, it was perhaps the best situation possible--being among friends and others celebrating their love and happiness, and all of it having nothing to do with me whatsoever.

It was outside in a shaded gazebo in rural PA. The gazebo was out back of the place the couple was living, which was an old barn that had been renovated and converted into a very cushy place to live (think beautiful brown barn outside with lots of polished medium-colored wood inside, immensely high ceilings, and cottage feel). The ceremony was a quaker ceremony. Never really knew anything about that, but when they said 45 minutes of silent worship would follow the vows, ring exchange, and music, I thought I had a great test of meditation in mid-day heat ahead of me. However, people were encouraged to speak as the Spirit moves them, and I thanked my lucky stars that the dang Spirit moved. There was relatively little silence as people were standing up and talking, giving Candace and Matt advice about married life, telling them how happy they were they were together, etc. Many included interesting jokes and touching moments. Some people were moved by the Spirit days before this announcement, as they delivered impressive speeches they had prepared in advance. I almost cried a couple of times; first time for that to happen to me at a wedding besides the time when I was asked to give a toast. (Words of advice: DO NOT ask me to give a speech at your wedding unless you want a tear fest.) Initially, I nearly cried when I saw the bride. She was so stunning. The next couple times were in reaction to people's speeches during the "silent" worship.

The music was medievalish, and not that great IMHO, but it was an interesting touch for sure.

After the ceremony, there was a wonderful reception complete with contradancing and all the garnacha one could wish for. Turns out, I love contradancing, and I was thankful that my friends Jackie and Simon indulged me in that. The reception area was beautifully and elaborately decorated. One touch that I loved was each table had many colorful origami cranes sprinkled over the white tablecloth.

As it was in a rural location, the stars were out fierce that night. Lovely, lovely time.

My colleagues and I had planned to stay overnight, so there would be no rush to leave. Therefore, we stayed until end of the reception. I slept exceptionally well that night since I had zero hours of sleep the night before. The next day I felt so nice and refreshed as we went to a brunch thrown for the wedding guests at a cottage on the nearby lake. The brunch was also nothing short of spectacular. There were two types of strata, four types of minimuffins, minibiscuits, a bangin' fruit salad, and some fish and things that I didn't pay much attention to. I ate my heart out, and then had a pleasant drive home with friends Mike and Andrea.

In hindsight, my ex-boyfriend did a wonderful thing for me by not attending the wedding. Not only did it save me the pain of people slowly finding out we had broken up and asking all kinds of uncomfortable personal questions (people hate prying about these sorts of things while at a wedding . . . and what better way to announce a break-up than being absent at an important event), but it also took my mind off things and refocused it on sharing a very special day with friends. Thanks, Slobodan, for making that final tough decision and for doing it so well, especially given that I disagreed with you at the time.

As for this weeks fun adventure: It's blueberry picking!

(Edited Jan 16, 2011)

http://www.videobash.com/video_show/funny-dumy-3799?utm_source=2leep&utm_medium=PT&utm_campaign=2leep


To donate $10 to the Red Cross for the relief efforts in response to the earthquake in Japan and the tsunami in the Pacific, text REDCROSS to 90999, or go to redcross.org.

There are some funny ones hidden in here.

On my way back from Nebraska, I managed to get on my Chicago-Philly flight after the doors for boarding were closed. How did I do it, you ask? The person in the boarding area somehow thought I was a flight attendant.