esa lengua celestial

I’m restarting a blog, but it’s over here now. Hope to see you over there, my faithful and mostly anonymous readers :P

So it turns out I love to cook. Maybe this is just me reacting as always to the people around me and wanting to be different. Currently I’ve been thrown back into a pile of people, most of whom can’t cook to save their lives, or think that cooking is limited to heating up a frozen dinner. And so I cook. Kinda wish I had my own kitchen, but the upside of being in a dorm means that housekeeping cleans said kitchen for me :)

This week I plan to make chicken curry, which I love, is easy to make, and is cheap. Also, I think I might try my hand at mking curry puffs and -wait for it- ondeh ondeh, because I just discovered gula jawa in a local grocery store. Now if only I had fellow Singaporeans to share the joy with out here in the midwest.

Also, I found the white radish stuff that goes into  chye tow kueh, so that is definitely on the menu for sometime this week, especially since I ALSO found bamboo steamers :) to top it off, the store had tahini and chick peas, AND i had lemons to use up, so that made a quick tupperware of hummus :)

Can you tell I’m in a good mood? Already in the last week I made a monstrous pot of spaghetti and meatballs AND mushroom/spinach/onion pastry thingies so that I wouldn’t have to waste money in the cafeteria for lunch everyday. I swear, cooking and knitting are the only things keeping me from going insane around here :P

Yes little faithful readers, I'm still alive. Still typing rather slowly, but I've made it to an intermediate level of slowness that is just enough shy of frustrating to render me able to blog again. or at least write the occasional long update.

So. Recent accomplishments and adventures include:

perfecting a very yummy beef stew — at Ansel's request we finally threw a quarter af a head of cabbage into some leftover stew, and amazingly, it made it phenomenally better. This is definitely going to be a staple in years to come and has already wormed its way onto my foods-to-make-friends-with list. Yes indeed, my plan is to feed people into liking me when I get to school in the fall. Hopefully it works before I run out of tasty dishes (the list isn't very long yet).

learning to cable-cast on — it's a knitting thing. Yknow recently I told someone that I would be back later, was gonna go sit on the roof while the sun was still out… and I was informed that that going to watch the sun set was a particularly grandmothery thing to do. I imagine letting on that I like to knit, bake, and cook, and that last year i both lived with cats AND owned a tomato plant probably didn't make me seem any less grandmothery either. I'm not sure if I should be sad that people are so limited in their perceptions or glad that I don't have to have kids with kids in order to enjoy these things :P

reading three books — Something about the biochemical landscape of addictive behaviour, something about our brains being Darwin machines (that is, that neural patterns are selected via replication, competition and survival) and something about the shattering of our concept of individual selves…… all af which had interesting themes but were all far too longwinded.

scaling and eviscerating fish — this really gave me a sense of accomplishment (is that sad?) even though it only happened because I forgot to ask the fish guy to do it for me…. but there I was, with no idea how to clean fish…. and then there I was with very yummy crispy fried fish. :) for the uninitiated, a vegetable peeler works very well for remaving scales, and doing it under running water really helps prevent the scales from going every which way.

making apple pie — now if only I could make myself wait instead of trying to eat it while it's still hot and runny.

making chye tow kueh (dim sum style!) — I need to somehow work this into conversation with my grandmother. :P

going swing dancing — there is nothing quite like breaking out into dance under the stars in the courtyard (where the music is just as loud) after having left the dance hall and having people stare at you like you're crazy :P

finalizing kilimanjaro plans — gotta love the looks on people's faces when they ask about my summer plans :)

biking, biking, biking — yep, it's that time of year…. the trees are back in leaf and the sky is blue … and the river is just gorgeous. Still toxic and filthy, to be sure, but as long as it's reflective enough to look like the sky, and no one pushes me in, I'm not complaining! Ah and btw, people who open their car doors into bike lanes without looking are imbeciles. IMBECILES.

making eclairs — this one definitely counts under adventures and not accomplishments… I think I somehow curdled the custard filling. :(

renting the phillycarshare VW beetle convertible on an impulse — while the convertible is lovely, let's just say that trying to cross town at rush hour in order to get some water ice (sorbet-like stuff for the uninitiated) was not one of my brighter ideas. neither was making a left turn into a parking lot while going west on Kelly Drive. Oh and also, if you plan on driving after dark, it's probably best to check if your car has unusual light settings BEFORE getting on an expressway. ah well! still alive, still alive…

playing the clarinet again (on the roof!)— hopefully by the time i get home this summer I might actually be able to show up to a band practice and not embarass myself TOO badly.

listening to Code Monkey on loop — Nat, I hate you. :P

giving haircuts — how domestic, I know :)

…………………

hm. I lead a rather quiet life, huh.

hello hello again… and hoping we'll meet again (and three thousand points to whoever figures out what song i'm thinking of there…)

apologies for not writing for so long. yes, i'm still alive.

so! updates are in order. first off, as you can tell by the title i've started to learn dvorak… which also explains the stark lack of capitalization and the brevity of this post.

in other news i've also started listening to Pandora…when i remember to put music on that is. also, am definitely going to wash u this fall. was out there last weekend and surprsingly, had a fantastic time, my antisocial personality notwithstanding. ALSO, i'll be home this summer after i go climb kilimanjaro…

rrgh. ok i'm gonna save the longer update for when i can type faster.

found my darning needles! invisible seams rock :) Of course, after painstakingly sewing the damn side seams I decided I was tired of being good and proceeded to cheat like hell with sewing in the 3 billion loose yarn tails. but it’s done! it’s wearable! it fits! (well enough at least ;) and I MADE IT.

(yes, I’m a dork. yes, handknitting a vest just made my day. hush now.)