To brighten up my days!

Last Wednesday, I had a day full of meetings. I was running from room to room for the entire afternoon. It was a long day and I finally got back to my desk around 4pm and found a giant box waiting in my chair.

FI had sent me flowers! He even sent them early (as he told me later) so I could enjoy them for a couple of days since Valentine's Day was over the weekend.

He sent me irises from Proflowers, which according to their website, ship their flowers straight from the suppliers so you get them when they're still in bud form and you can see them bloom over the next few days and enjoy them longer.

They came with a vase and flower food, so I spent some time cutting off the ends of the stems and arranging the irises in the vase with water.

Here's a picture of the flowers after I had arranged them. Still mostly in tight buds.


The 2nd day! Most of the buds were now opened and you can see all the lovely iris colors - white, purple, and yellow. FI said that he got those because purple and yellow are our wedding colors.


The 3rd day. Everything's in full bloom. When I went to switch the water, I rearranged all of the irises so the colors were spread out.


Aerial shot!


I left these at work over the long weekend since it would have been hard to carry them home on the subway. I hope they might still be in good shape on Tuesday!

Another year goes by...

For our anniversary, FI took me to Ushiwakamaru, a fabulously low-key traditional Japanese restaurant in the West Village. It was a surprise, so I all knew was that I had to be at the corner of W. Houston and MacDougall. I actually got there a little early and it was freezing so I ducked into the restaurant on the corner for a glass of wine and to warm up. I hoped it wasn't the place we were having dinner, which it wasn't.

We had 7pm reservations and when we arrived, we saw that FI's name was written along with 7pm on a little placecard at our seats at the counter. This place was recommended by his co-worker who also suggested we sit at the counter so we could see the chefs do their sushi magic.

Our place settings at the counter.


We ordered sake and they brought out a tray of sake cups, all mismatched, for us to choose from. This was fun! I've never done this before, but I'm guessing sake cups are like wine glasses - different shapes for different types of sake.


We decided to go with the chef's menu where they make you plates of sushi based on what they know is fresh and have available and how they want you to enjoy the meal.

What was super cool was that we got to watch him prepare our meal in front of us and watch him do other meals as well.

Here is the sushi board with the different kinds of seafood he picked out and sorting before plating.


We started out with an appetizer - a fried eggplant soup that was very light and warm in our tummies.


First course - sashmi. I ate it from right to left, going darker in color. Each piece of fish was so fresh, there was no fishy taste and it melted in my mouth.


I gasped at the octopus tentacles the chef pulled out and he agreeably posed for a snapshot.


Second course - sushi, plain on rice. We had all of our sushi and sashmi in Japan this way and loved it. The freshness of the fish required no other "weird" ingredients (cream cheese, avocado, veggies, etc.) to mask its taste. We actually didn't go out for sushi for about 3 months after we got back, figuring that any taste would just make us miss the sushi in Japan even more. But these were delicious. I even did the unorthodox method of putting the sushi in my mouth upside-down (as suggested by Barry Nalebuff) so I could taste the fish better.


Third course - different types of sushi. Here we got to try some other kinds of seafood - eel, roe, etc. What was cool about these sushi pieces was the different textures of each piece. The red roe was soft and each bead exploded with salty goodness. The eel tasting a bit tougher than fish so you had something to chew. The yellow roe with lots of little beads that rolled around on your tongue.


Finally we had a red bean dessert with tapioca balls. This was a wonderful way to end the evening. Red bean is one of my favorite dessert ingredients.


It was a great anniversary dinner. I loved the truly authentic sushi they had and it was fun to be surprised by the chef's menu.

Mini-break!

Last November we took a mini-break to eastern Connecticut. It was nice to take a break, but it was mostly so I could go to MGM Foxwoods to see the So You Think You Can Dance tour!

More about that performance in another post, but I've gone every year since they've started having them after the season's over. Last year was the third tour and FI has gone with me to the last two. He is a very patient FI. :)

After the performance, we did a little gambling (blackjack and slots) at MGM Foxwoods and then headed to our hotel outside of Foxwoods. No way we were staying there, given the price of a room.

The next morning we decided to explore some of the local towns and headed to Stonington, which is about 2 hours east of Stamford, almost near Rhode Island, along the coastline.

We drove into town and looked for a place to eat. There was just one main road and we stopped at the first restaurant we saw, Noah's Restaurant.


The inside was packed, which was a good sign. We got great seats right by the window.


FI orderd the Quiche du Jour, which was some sort of veggie quiche.


I ordered Portuguese Baked Eggs which was Portugueses spicy sausage and tomatoes laid out in a ramekin and then eggs were cracked over it and a salsa was poured on and the whole thing was baked. There was great contrasts of flavors, between the eggs and the spicy salsa and sausage, and textures, with the chewy sausage and soft runny eggs. I tried to make sure I had a bit of everything in each bite.


FSIL has a tomato and spinach omelet, which was hearty and yummy.


We then took a car tour of town. We drove through Main Street to the coast and got out to take some pictures. Stonington is basically a point of land that sticks south into the water. I'm sure there's a proper name for it, and I'm picturing my 5th grade geography lessons, but for the life of me I can't remember what it's called.

Along the coastline, facing east, looking north.


FI and I enjoying the balmy November weather.


A picture south onto the water. I'm assuming you might see the edges of Long Island in the distance.

It was a relaxing weekend and Stonington is a beautiful little town. There were some gorgeous homes and condos. We debated whether this would be a good place for retirement. Or at least an artist's retreat. Well if any of us were actually artists...

Homemade cupcakes!

Ever since the kitchen has been remodeled, we have been getting great use out of our new oven and counter space.

I got to start baking again on a regular basis and one of the first things I made was yummy vanilla cupcakes from Nigella Lawson. For some reason, I can't find it on her site anymore, but here is my handwritten version.


Although this version usually ends up with 20 cupcakes and I don't use the extra tablespoons of butter or sugar.


First things first, assembling the cupcake cups. I use paper liners inside silicon baking cups. Cheaper than a muffin tin and the paper liners make convenient holders.


All lined up and ready for batter!


I always try to do "mise en place" and set out all my ingredients first. It's the secret of all great tv chefs (according to my game theory professor in business school) and it does make things go a lot faster.


First goes the sugar.


Here's the melted butter. I stuck the whole stick in the microwave and zapped it until it melted. The first time I made cupcakes, I didn't let the butter melt and I didn't have an electric mixer and my cupcakes came out flat and dry, so now I always use melted butter and the hand mixer.


Two eggs, sitting out so they warm up to room temperature.


In goes the flour, butter and the eggs.


Now the two ingredients you need if you don't have self-rising flour... baking soda...

and baking powder...


Some vanilla extract, which with the sugar, give all the flavor. (I need to learn to make my own and use real vanilla beans.)


Then a little milk. The original recipe called for 2-3 tablespoons of milk. I find 4 works a lot better.


The hand mixer! I love this little guy. I got it from Target and it works pretty well, except all of its speeds are Fast and Super Fast. I always get flour all over me if I'm trying to work dry ingredients in to a not-so-wet batter.


Filling the cupcakes. I find for an average sized cupcake, a Chinese soup spoon of batter is the perfect amount.


Generally you don't need to fill the cup more than half-way or two-thirds because the cake is going to rise as it bakes.


I also made some mini cupcakes, using little paper liners I had bought at Mitsuwa. For these, a regular spoonful of batter worked well.


Another cooking tip I've picked up is the trash bowl from Rachel Ray. As you cook, you have a bowl set aside for all scraps and trash. It saves the time and trouble of having to walk back and forth to the trash can and then you can dump everything at the end.


This is such a time-saver and efficiency hint, even FI uses one when he's cooking!

The finished products!


Yeah, I know they came out a little weird shaped. I think it's due to the organic pastry flour I have. It just doesn't take to baking well. I tried them out in cookies and it's not so great looking either.

But regardless, they are super yummy!

Pretty, pretty flowers...

I enjoy arts and crafts. I like scrapbooking, jewelry-making, cross-stitching, and especially origami. I started learning origami from my Nai-nai (my paternal grandmother) and then from lots of books. I've missed crafting since being in NYC. Our little studio apartment doesn't leave much room for lots of crafts.

As we've been planning this wedding, I've been trying to think of ways to personalize the event and incorporate origami. My Nai-nai, who is a ripe old 90, also wanted to help out. Which means finding something cool with origami.

I was surfing the web (as I do) and came across a link to a tutorial on how to make Kusudama Balls - Japanese flower balls. It looked relatively easy (Part I and Part II) so I decided to try it out.

I used some random 3 inch origami paper that I had purchased in Chinatown a couple years ago and sorted out a bunch of colors. You have to make each petal separately and then glue each petal together and then glue 5 petals to make 1 flower. Then you glue 12 flowers together to make one ball. Turns out it was pretty easy, it just takes a while.

I started out by folding 5 petals at a time.


Then I glued each one together. I would put glue on one side, roll it together, and pinch it tight as I counted "one Mississippi, two Mississippi..."


Then I would let the petals dry as I folded the next 5 petals.


Then I would have an assembly line started. Fold 5. Glue 5 petals together. Glue 1 flower together. I got into a pretty good rhythm and it was something to do as I watched through a week's worth of the Daily Show and Colbert Report.


After finishing all 12 flowers, I glued 6 together to make the 2 halves. I tried to figure out a way to organize it so none of the same colored flowers touched each other. I don't think my visualization skills were advanced enough.


Look how pretty it is! To finish it off, I would glue a loop of ribbon to one half and then glue them together.


I showed the kusudama ball to my mom over Thanksgiving and she thought they were beautiful and would be something my Nai-nai could help with. Over Christmas, I showed my Nai-nai the ball and how to fold the petals. (We used napkins to practice.) She was very excited about helping out and talked about how she'd be able to fold all of the flowers. She even thought about asking her senior citizen center friends to help but decided against it because "they wouldn't be neat enough." :P

I found some jumbo value pack wrapping paper that should work pretty well. We'll use the balls as aisle decorations for the ceremony (hang them on the chairs right next to the aisle on every other row) and then for the reception (move them to the cocktail tables, place card table, gift table, etc.).

A Historic Day!

This is a retro blog post... I started this Election Day, but never had a chance to finish. Given that the Inauguration has already come and gone and the pundits are counting down Obama's first 100 days, I think I should finish it...


I love election day! I've voted every time since I turned 18, be it in person or via absentee ballot. There's something so exciting about making your choices and then pressing the button (or pulling the lever) to VOTE!

I don't remember where I read this, but it's always stuck with me - of all the principles of a democracy, the most basic and simple one is the ability to cast a vote. If you can't even do that, what's the point of a democracy? And given all of the people around the world (I don't have a percentage, but it seems like a significant number) who don't get a chance to ever a cast a vote or cast one without fear of violence - it's a pretty amazing opportunity.

I've never voted in NYC before so I wasn't sure what to expect. I've only ever voted in suburban Virginia at the local middle school. There were never any lines and you just drive up, walk in, check your name off and go vote.

New York City ("New York City!") was definitely overwhelming. I walked up 2 blocks to our voting center (the local high school) , turned the corner toward the entrance, and saw this...



Well, technically not this exact view since I took the picture after I got in line, but basically the line stretched across one city block (east to west) and was turning the corner down the next avenue right after I got in line.


Another shot of everyone waiting in line. No one was stressed out about the wait. People were chatting with each other and I listened to a mom behind me explain voting to her little 3/4 year daughter. At one point we passed the "No campaigning beyond this point" sign and sure enough, in front of the sign were a couple of candidates, talking to people.

Inside the voting booth. It's one of the old school versions where you flick the switch of everyone you want to vote for and then there's a long lever at the bottom that you pull to count your vote. The nice old gentleman who was volunteering outside my booth kept asking me if everything was okay. It was, it just took a bit to get my camera out to take the picture!


After getting to work, my co-workers and I organized a betting pool for the election. Our boss, who is Australian, can't vote, but was following the election closely, and wanted to do something involved with the election.

We decided to do a series of bets based on the swing states. Everyone had to call each swing state for McCain or Obama and the tie breaker would be the percentage (at first, just the whole number, but too many of us put the same number, so everyone had to go back and add a decimal guess) of the popular vote that Obama would win. We set the pool up this way so it wouldn't be about political views, but just how good everyone would be at guessing the stats.


Here's my sheet... Note we took 10 swing states and threw in a couple of extra ones, just to mix things up.


The night was a long one watching results come in. I was at FI's family's home and hanging out with his nephew, but also trying to watch CNN. I love those touchscreens!

Finally, around midnight, I got to hear McCain's concession speech and see Obama speak, which was pretty moving. I wanted to stay up longer to see more results, but I was too tired. Plus they were then onto Obama's potential Cabinet picks and I wasn't going to stay up for that. Besides, I wonder how accurate the list is now?


The next morning we went over the results of the bet, using the numbers from CNN. It got a little complicated trying to figure out the popular vote percentage because CNN wasn't counting 3rd-party results and we needed it to the tenth of a decimal point. But we managed to track down the latest vote counts and did some math to figure it out.

Turns out my friend who set up the pool won. And there was a tie for 2nd. So we split the cash for the 3 of them and then took the extra to buy bagels for everyone. A fun way to end Election Day!