Tragedies...

I live a mere twenty minutes near Newtown, CT.  The Sandy Hook incident unraveled while I was at work when our hospital was contacted for possible assistance.  Luckily? or unluckily they did not need our assistance.  Gun control. Mental health.  School safety. Simply put. I won't pontificate but will just express my sincerest prayers and thoughts to the victims and their family members. 

Dinner parties...

Dinner Menu

Appetizers: cheese, crackers, nuts, dried fruit

Salad:  grapes, green apple, dried apricot, chopped red onion, finely chopped fresh rosemary, lemon juice mixed together and served with mixed greens

Sauteed green beans with garlic, rice vinegar, and olive oil

Sauteed eggplant with tomato, olive oil and rice vinegar

Herbs de provence roasted potatoes

Rosemary rubbed rack of lamb 

It's been many moons since I last had a dinner party.  A friend guilt tripped me into hosting a gathering.  It was good times with friends. This event may be the start of something new.

Snap, crackle and pop!

Well not exactly...one recent morning I had Rice Krispies for breakfast in our breakfast nook at work.  It used to be all pastries:  scones, muffins, donuts.  Then someone complained and now we get single serve cereal, granola bars/nutrigrain bars (bleh!), scones, supposedly bagels and Yoplait yogurt.  The mix includes Rice Krispies, Cheerios (original and honey nut) and cornflakes. So why the picture of Chocolate Cheerios and Kashi Heart to Heart blueberry clusters?

Cuz Cheerios has always been a favorite of mine, especially after I rediscovered the simple nutty taste of cheerios years ago while running in Central Park with some friends.  Picture a 3 or 4 yo in a jogging stroller.  This little guy was happy as can be with his bag of cheerios even though he was being jostled around the park while his healthy parent squeezed in a weekend 6-mile run.  Then it got better when General Mills finally broadened their offerings to include chocolate, banana nut, peanut butter,  multigrain, fruity, etc...the list goes on.  My guilty pleasure is getting the chocolate flavor.

Then there's the opposite end of the spectrum with the Kashi brand of healthy cereals.  I'll be honest, some of them taste like cardboard to me but the Blueberry Clusters is a bowl full of fresh blueberries.  Probably the most aromatic of any blueberry cluster cereal that I have ever had. 

The story goes on that a few weeks ago I was in Boston for work and staying with my friends Rebecca and Brian.  I spent an afternoon with them grocery shopping (you know weekend errands).  They've been on a Paul Newman French Vanilla Clusters kick and it is yummy!  But I almost got them to get the above two cereals.  Rebecca's voice of reason prevailed and she opted just to go with Blueberry Clusters.

I think it is now time for a bowl myself.  Thanks for reading.

Giving thanks...

Thanksgiving weekend is coming to an end and everyone is now focused on gift shopping.  This thanksgiving had me thinking about the various ways I've partaken in this American tradition. As a child, my Chinese family was a little slow in catching on with the whole turkey day festival.  I do remember though going to some family friend's home and eating cranberry sauce.  By the time I was in high school and my brothers were in grade school, my mom began to entertain the thought of turkey day feast.  In reality, my brothers asked my mom why we didn't celebrate thanksgiving at home like all their friends did.

So began the week long food prep that involved ordering our turkey from various places that included Balducci's, the local butcher, farmer's markets, and good ole Pathmark.  We try all sorts of prep for the turkey:  instilling white wine into the meat with a hypodermic needle, brining overnight, dry rubs, etc.  We never baked the turkey with the stuffing.  Instead, we made a pretty yummy but labor intensive chinese influenced stuffing with chinese sausages, chestnuts, sticky rice and chopped veggies.  For a few of these dinners, we also had a fresh frutti di mari.  More labor that my mom utilized with four kids who knew how to chop.  The same process for our various breads and desserts.  Everything from scratch. 

This tradition went on for years until one year my mom put away her apron and decided we would go out for Thanksgiving.  Every year we went somewhere new until we found our favorite meal and setting at Prune.  I have been able to partake in one of those repasts.  My lucky family have had at least four turkey dinners there.  My silly nephew, the meek one at 3 years of age, turned down Gabrielle Hamilton's offer to bring him into the back kitchen to see a thousand eggs piled up. 

Somewhere in between all this, I went to through an amusing period when I usually had three dinners to attend.  First it was a tradition of going to Aunt Carolyn Chow's in Windsor Terrace.  I would show up at noon and help with her cooking.  Then scoot out by 3pm to go to my friend Michelle's for her meal.  Finally end up at my mom's restaurant dinner.  That eventually transitioned to Michelle's, Mom's and ended with Juanita & Alberto's.

Bill & Jody's Deep Fried and Traditional Turkey 2008

Now I get to the point of this post.  I am very thankful for my family (despite all the fights that can happen) and my friends and the time I have had to spend with each and everyone around me.  This year I was scheduled to be oncall which means 28 hrs on Thanksgiving day starting at 5am.  Yet, I managed to experience three different meals and more and this reminded me of my past thanksgivings.  Like recent years, I somehow found myself fed three times.  First with the oncall OR staff, I had my turkey lunch.  Thanks P.P. for bringing the turkey and everyone else for bringing sides.  Fell in love with Wendy's corn pudding.  Later dinner came at the perfect time for my colleague Nathan and me when Linda brought in two plates for us.  I was stuffed beyond belief when another co-worker brought in plates from the party he went to.

That was just the beginning, I had two more invitations on Black Friday and regular? Saturday.  

Post Turkey Day Dinner 2012

Let's get into crow!

Yesterday I left work at 9am to get to my yoga class at Sanctuary Power Yoga.  It's been a journey getting to this point where yoga has become a fixture in my life.  I remember when yoga was simply about breathing and stretching.  I tried it on and off for the last twenty years.   My first real experience with it was at a yoga & pilates studio on 110th St & Broadway.  I had no idea how serious these folks were about their yoga.  I did not understand that chatturanga was not simply a push up.  I would go to the 8pm classes after a full day at work and studying for my present future.  It was simply a work out then.

Fast forward a few years, I'm in the midst of professional school going to a local gym and checked out one of the saturday am yoga class.  I thought it would be a good way to stretch which I rarely did to help with my running.  I had no idea what hit me me.  This instructor talked about Ashtanga Power Yoga.  It was tough and I came out of that class worn out.  I went to a few more classes at this local gym chain.  The giant gym corporation started to move his classes around to various locations around town.  Eventually his ashtanga yoga class was cancelled.  I don't know why.  His classes were always packed.  Then I heard he was teaching at East Meets West Yoga, a studio in my neighborhood.  I went there and did not find him on the schedule.  I took a class and it didn't matter that he wasn't one of the instructors.  It just all clicked with EMW.  My appreciation for the practice of yoga developed and I went more frequently.  Once I managed to go almost everyday for 2 months.  Then I noticed how much stronger my core had become when I ran a summer 5K and ran faster than my using pace.

But work and life gets in the way and I stopped going to yoga for a period of 3 years.  I went to Miami in February for a few days off.  Each morning I got up and went for long runs along the beach except for one day.  I started off that morning with a sunrise yoga class at the Standard Hotel by the bay.  I can still hear the dolphins that were playing the water. After landing back in my winter wonderland, I decided to find a local yoga studio that clicked for me like EMW did when I was in Buffalo.

And here I am, nine months later a regular at Sanctuary Power Yoga and thankful for finding Heather's studio.  It's a little different from the Ashtanga and Vinyasa studios that I've been too but the spirit is the same.  Now my friend Wendy and I get each other there as often a possible.  For those reading who are considering yoga anew or again.  Please get into your downward dog, chatturanga or better yet, try a headstand!  Namaste. 

Back to the bread...

The No-Knead Bread fad was huge a few years back.  I was first introduced to it by my friend Bill T. when we had our usual gathering at his partner's house for dinner. Soon enough I was making my own bread using the this recipe.  It's been a year since I last made bread.  I've thought about making a loaf all year long but never got around to it.  Then this week at work, one of my favorite co-workers suggested I bring in yams/sweet potato (can someone explain the difference to me?) for our pot-luck oncall team dinner.  I offered up bread instead.

Jalapeno Cheddar Cheese Bread

Voila!  Let's hope I can keep this untouched until tomorrow's potluck at work. 

Procrastination...

It's amazing to me always how fast time flies by.  I first signed on to start a blog in 2007 as a way to share my thoughts and to get myself to just write more.  My professional life has a tendency to frown on creativity.  Now it is five years later and I find that I still have this blog page but have yet to do anything with it.  I am obviously avoiding work right now and started a post.  I was amused to see that there have been some viewing of this blog.  I apologize that there were no posts.  Hopefully this will all change for me.  Thanks for reading if you made it this far.  More to come.  Happy Thanksgiving friends!

Deep fried turkey from 2008