I Am a Woman of Many Contradictions

Even though I am adamantly against having baby dressed and accessorized in all pink, I myself tend to gravitate towards all things pink. My friends have been quick to point out this fatal flaw in my logic many times now. Perhaps if my mother had fended off all the pink stuff early on in my life...ah, well, too late now.

As hinted, my birthday surprises arrived, and lo and behold, I am now the proud owner of a pink netbook, the Samsung NC10, courtesy of husband, and a hot pink iPod Nano, courtesy of the in-laws. The Nano is a replacement for my "ancient" pink iPod Mini, which Apple does not even make anymore.

(The picture of the netbook was taken my husband at his office, where he was setting it up prior to delivery to me. I like how the Fruit Guys box is so prominently featured in the photo.)

Can I tell you just how much I love the new netbook (and Nano, too, just in case in-laws are reading this)?! It is freaking awesome. So compact, and perfect for its intended use. It isn't meant as some super powerful laptop, but it fits my needs perfectly. Internet surfing, blogging, downloading pictures/videos/audiobooks (more on audiobooks later), keeping our budget spreadsheets, simple word prcessing, organizing my knitting patterns and recipes, etc. Netbooks don't come with Microsoft Office pre-installed like most regular laptops, but it is easy enough to get a copy of Open Office, an open source program, which, again, is perfect for my needs. I can even log into my office remotely using this thing. This means I don't always have to drag out my standard issue corporate peon laptop when I have to work from home. I love my pink netbook, and I highly recommend getting one (doesn't have to be Samsung, and doesn't have to be pink!) if you are looking for either a replacement for an old laptop, or a second/third/whatever computer for the home.

On to audiobooks. Husband and I recently joined the San Francisco Public Library. I don't know why we waited so long to do this. What really prompted me to join was that our local branch hosts sing alongs for babies and new moms, but once I joined, boy oh boy! Public libraries have changed since my school days! Did you know that lots of local libraries let you download audiobooks? There are probably some of you out there saying, uh, yeah, dumbass, that's been around for a while...but, whatever, I was slow to catch on. So, with new netbook and iPod in hand, I downloaded "O Jerusalem" by Laurie R. King, a mystery novel where the protagonist is a strong, young, female detective who works alongside Sherlock Holmes. I have been into the mystery novels lately. I try to avoid the sensationalist ones, but it is kind of hard to tell which ones will be good and which won't. For the most part, I have been sticking to the classics as well, since I just haven't been able to find a good recently published book for me to read. I also avoid all things that would be classified as chicklit, in which the women only seem to care about shopping, money, marrying rich men, and being thin. (Again, I am a woman of many contradictions because I also happen to love shopping, but I digress.) So far, the book I am "reading" is very engaging. The reader, Jenny Sterlin, has a great English accent, and reads very well.

It has been very relaxing to "read" on the couch at night, while mindlessly knitting a new baby blanket in all garter stitch. It is way better than just vegging out in front of the TV, especially since we are entering summer and nothing really great is on anyway. I am using Knit Picks Swish Worsted yarn in Lawn, Gold, Fired Brick and Allspice for my blanket. This blanket calls for so much yarn, I went with Knit Picks, so that the blanket could remain affordable. I hope this yarn works out ok. So far, it is pretty soft and nice to work with. I hear that some people have had problems trying to wash it. Even though it is a superwash merino wool, some people have said it FELTS. Oh well, nothing to do but soldier on and be careful when I do have to wash it.

The only bad thing has been, that for the past three days, poor husband has felt a little left out. He told me sadly this morning, "All you do is listen to your new iPod, now..." Well. This weekend we are finally going to see a movie. In the theater. With popcorn. Can't tell you how long it has been since we have done that!

NOTE: Edited to remove affiliation between Open Office and Microsoft. Don't want the Microsoft police to come get me :)

Yummy, But Without the Calories!

My shipment of Misti International Chunky Baby Alpaca yarn arrived at work today. Of course, my assistant opened the package before she gave it to me, saw the contents and asked "Did you just order a whole bunch of packing material?" Oh well, to the knitting uninitiated, I guess getting a peek at an overstuffed envelope filled with mostly gray yarn looks like that fluffy stuff you find in those manila padded envelopes.

Sorry for the bad photo, I only had my Blackberry's crappy camera available...I got a fabulous deal on this yarn at WEBS, and actually got more than one skein in each of the above pictured colors. WEBS is having a huge sale on this stuff because of some Canadian factory overstock - it is almost 50% off the regular WEBS price (which is already actually a little lower than going to a local yarn store). That being said, nothing can replace going to an actual brick and mortar store and feeling the yarn, seeing the colors in person and supporting your local businesses.

The yarn is so smooshy soft, and being as chunky as it is, it should knit up quickly. I am thinking of making this out of the light gray and blue twist for myself. The dark gray and blue twist will end up being something for my husband, probably a 2X2 ribbed manly scarf (we will match!). And the orangey-rust, well, I don't know. I just liked the color (photo does not do it justice). Maybe I will have enough to make this. But, that won't happen until after baby pops out and I am back to some semblance of normal size.

Happy Birthday (to Me)!

Happy birthday to me! Apparently, my birthday surprise from husband is arriving tonight. I pretty much know what it will be, but still very excited to get it...

What To Do With Buttermilk?

I hate when you need to buy an ingredient for a recipe, and that particular ingredient only comes in a size in which you will have a ton leftover after you prepare the recipe. That is always what happens to me with buttermilk. I love cooking with buttermilk because of its unique tangy flavor, and if you use it in baked goods, it can cut down the amount of fat (i.e. butter) you need to use.

I got buttermilk for the Broccoli Slaw dressing that I prepared, and I was left with a majority of the container. This time, instead of just letting it sit in the fridge until it goes bad, then feeling incredible guilt as I pour it out, I decided I would find recipes to try to use it all up.

I went to my trusty cookbook staple, The Joy of Cooking, and came up with:

Buttermilk Pancakes (I also sliced in some ripe bananas I had on hand to make then into Banana Buttermilk Pancakes):

Delicous - fluffy, light, and not too much butter in the recipe. There were too many pancakes for just me and my husband to eat in one sitting, but the good news is that these pancakes freeze beautifully. A few days later, we defrosted the pancakes and warmed them up in a pan with a teensy bit of butter and they were still delicious.

Wheat Quickbread:

You can totally taste the molasses in the recipe, and it makes for a slightly sweet, dense bread.

Peach Blackberry Cobbler:

The actual recipe calls for fresh peaches and frozen or fresh raspberries. It is still a little early for fresh California peaches. The first batch just rolled into our local Whole Foods this past week, but they looked like exactly what they were, the first harvest. I can't wait until the season truly gets into full swing - I love all stone fruits! So, I used three cans of peaches (sacrilege!), and some frozen blackberries I had on hand. I sprinkled way less sugar on the fruit than what the recipe calls for, since I used canned peaches which are already sitting in sweetened juice. It still tasted awesome. The crust was cake-like light and crisp on the outside, tender on the inside.

And in the end, the buttermilk was all used up!

RN74 - San Francisco Restaurant and Wine Bar

So, as a reward for the crazy all nighter we had to pull, our team went to a lunch at the relatively newly opened RN74. It is a new "casual" restaurant opened by the celebrity chef Michael Minna.

The restaurant's theme is that of "train station." There is a large wine board hanging at the back of the narrow restaurant that is modeled after one of those train schedule boards where the numbers and letters flip. Our waitress explained that the board was custom made in Italy for the restaurant and that each wine listed on the board is the restaurant's last bottle of that particular wine. When someone buys one of the listed wines, the board changes, just like at a train station, and makes that clack-clack-clack noise as it flips. I looked at the board and saw quite a selection, with the majority of the prices at $100 or over. The crazy thing is that during our LUNCH, the board started to flip, and I noticed that a bottle listed at $195 was no longer there. Someone bought a $200 bottle of wine for lunch. Let me be the first to say (perhaps, shamefacedly) that I can understand the purchase of a fine bottle of wine, and have been guilty of paying a lot for wine, but somehow in this economy, and at a lunch, it seemed a little excessive...

I know that the original idea was to be a wine bar with small tapas-like plates of food, but apparently, that idea did not work. RN74 has already had to undergo a menu change because people were complaining about the tiny portion sizes. Even when it was supposed to be "small plates" the people complained about the tiny portions!

In the end, all I can say is that I was glad I was not paying the bill. For a LUNCH for 4 people, I think the bill was over $200 bucks (without tax and tip), the portions were still tiny, and none of the food blew me away. Maybe we were there on an off day. I know that when we go to places like these in San Francisco, you can't expect huge portions, that you are paying for the atmosphere, the experience, etc., and we did not order any wine, which is supposedly the whole raison d'etre for the place. And, again, let me be the first to admit (shamefacedly, again), that my husband and I have paid what many people would think is an excessive amount for food and fancy dinners, but honestly, I don't think I would go back again. I can think of many other places I would rather go to for that price.

Vegan Lentil Dahl

One day, while I was cleaning out the pantry, I came across a random bag of lentils. I pondered, why do I have this, and what should I do with this? I didn't want to do the old standby of lentil soup, so I dug around on the internet and found this very simple vegan recipe for spicy lentil dhaal. I like that it is vegan (I am definitely not vegan, but I can appreciate the healthfulness of vegan cuisine) and doesn't use ghee, the clarified butter sometimes used in Indian cooking. I have now made this dish several times, and not always with red lentils, but with whatever color lentils I have on hand.

Admittedly, the red lentils seems to come out the creamiest, but a version using the plain old brown lentils you find in any old grocery store is still pretty good.

Yum - red lentils. (Yes, I have a pastel pink mini colander.)

Chop up some garlic, ginger and onions, and saute the aromatics in sesame oil. Trust the recipe, don't substitute in regular vegetable oil - the sesame oil is much more fragrant and has a nuttier flavor.

While it might seem like a pain in the ass to gather all the spices, once you have them in your pantry, you can explore all sorts of different uses for them and make interesting new recipes! Here's a little cardamom pod about to be squashed in my mini-mortar and pestle set. Note the looming pestle of death, ready to extract the seeds.

Once you take out the little black seeds and grind them up, the smell is amazing.

A bunch of spices, being prepared to be dumped into the pot with the lentils: cumin, cinnamon, coriander, tumeric, cayenne...

If you don't like spicy foods, go easy on the cayenne. Me, I love spicy food, so I even add a little extra sometimes.

Everyone into the pool with the sauteed onions, ginger and garlic! Uh, no camera shots of this step - did I mention it is a little hard to hold ingredients, heavy camera with lens and stir all at the same time?

Then at the very end, add your tomato paste. Gives the dahl even more of a lovely color!

I love getting the tomato paste that comes in a tube. It is a little pricier than getting the little cans of tomato paste, but I often find that if I use the little can, I have a lot of the paste leftover and it just ends up going to waste because I don't use it in time before grossness sets in. With the tube, I use what I need, cap it and put it away for next time.

We usually eat this dahl with warm naan bread that we get a Trader Joe's. Now, there's another West Coast thing that I love. TJ's has made it out to the East Coast now, so for those East Coasters, get thee to TJ's. They have all sorts of interesting healthy items, all at very reasonable prices.

WTF! Thieves!

Update post - WTF!!!!! We got up a little late this morning, because we have been working a lot. Soon after I posted my first post today, husband went to the front door to pick up our Sunday copy of the New York Times, and came across this:

Thieves! Some jerk went through our paper, read it, stole the front page and other sections, and as a kicker, LEFT HIS/HER DIRTY NAPKIN on our stoop - note close up picture. WTF.

Husband has commented that this person is obviously an idiot because he/she left the Business and Sports section untouched, but took the Style section.

We figure this crime is due to Bay to Breakers, which is happening today. Not that everyone who participates in that race is an idiot, but there does seem to be a disproportionate amount. And since our place is along the route, our theory seems like it fits.