hero in my head

Oh boy - do I have a treat for you! I've been meaning to share it ever since Tim and I made it for dinner last weekend (and I enjoyed for leftovers the next day), and it's so fantastically simple, I can't wait to make it again. The name of the recipe says it all - Tuna Marinated in Soy Sauce and Mirin - and all you need is tuna steak, soy sauce, and mirin. Of course it wasn't the most inexpensive homemade meal, with the searing grade ahi tuna coming in at $23/lb, but that's still cheaper than eating out.



Tim and I served it with white rice, homemade ginger-pickled carrots, and a new recipe from my Jamie Oliver cookbook, braised red cabbage with apple, bacon, and balsamic vinaigrette.



The whole meal was absolutely to die for. I think the pictures do it justice - are you hungry yet?

Work has been crazy crazy this week, and even though it was a four-day week, it felt so much longer. The highlight was getting to go out to dinner with Tim (to an adorable tiny spot in the Dogpatch called Piccino's, which makes awesome pizza) and getting to see Cirque du Soleil's OVO. They really put on an amazing show - check out the trailer here.

But even with that ray of sunshine, it's been a stressful week. My final project got rolled out, and instead of doing a mock project, I'm in charge of REAL costing! It's terrifying, and pretty cool considering they're trusting me to negotiate for the best cost possible on about 300,000 units of girls accessories.

Needless to say, I'm so glad it's the weekend! Last night, Tim's band played at the Red Devil Lounge, and a few of my coworkers came out to check them out. I think they were impressed! Ever since they got a new drummer they've been putting on better and better shows. It's great to see that working out well.

Tonight, I'm going to a dinner party followed by a birthday party, and tomorrow morning is the first day of my writing class! I'm super excited, and slightly nervous. It'll be good to get that part of my brain working again.

I'm off for a run - it was sunny just a few minutes ago!! It's been terribly gross and rainy and I haven't wanted to leave the house at all. So I've got to make hay while the sun thinks about shining.

Reading: Let the Great World Spin. It's good, but slow. Feels more like a short story collection.
Listening: Mass Fiction in my head! Listen along with me on their website :)

gold stars

Starbuck's has recently come out with a new customer loyalty program called Stabruck's Rewards, where you register an account in conjunction with a gift card. After buying one coffee, you get credit for a free drink on your birthday and two hours of free wifi per day. After 5 drinks, you get free drink customization (free flavors or soy milk), free brewed coffee refills, free drink with bean purchase, and free trial offers. And finally, once you hit the GOLD STAR level (30 drinks), you get a free drink with every 15 you buy, a personalized gold card, and personalized coupons.



While I know this is totally a ploy to get people to buy more coffee from Starbuck's, I have to say, I find it pretty compelling. I go out for coffee maybe once a month, but geez, it makes me want to load up a card and start swiping to reach that middle level! I know it's bad, but it feels so good...

Let's see, last night was not one of my best nights. Went out to Cha Cha Cha, a tapas bar, to celebrate some of my RMP coworks' birthdays. 25 people showed up (we were split into two tables - I was with about 10 and 2 birthday girls, the other table had 15 and 1 birthday girl), and one of the birthday girls at my table insisted on ordering five - FIVE - pitchers of alcohol (sangria, mojitos, margaritas) and managed to only order 7 tapas. You can see where this is going.

At the end of the "dinner" (read: snack), the bill comes and someone pipes up that the birthday girls shouldn't have to pay. I have very strong feelings about this - if you organize a birthday party for yourself, you shouldn't expect your friends who show up to pay for you. Also, it puts a burden on people who already got gifts for the birthday girls to pitch in extra. And I was at the table with 2 birthday girls and less overall people, resulting in a FORTY DOLLAR per person tab. Considering I was drunk and hungry, I was not happy.

We went out to a few bars, which I found horrendously hot, crowded, and full of creepy guys leering at me. It didn't help that the first person I ran into at the first bar was an 09 Stanford sigma chi who made my ski trip eviction experience extra miserable last year.

Luckily, Tim came home from Fresno last night at midnight and picked me up. We got a slice of pizza from Pizza Orgasmica on the way home (pesto mushroom! yum!) and played Super Mario Brothers on Wii. It was the highlight of the evening.

Went shopping today with Alison and Molly but didn't buy anything. I have, however, been scoping out a new purse from Nordstrom's which may blow a small hole in my bank account... see below:


So cute. So expensive...

Reading: Let The Great World Spin
Listening: Vampire Weekend, Contra. Totally obsessed!! Listen here: http://www.myspace.com/vampireweekend

gott nytt år

Ahh, Friday night and I am doing delightfully nothing. Well, except for finishing my book - The Girl Who Played With Fire - which is almost as glue-you-to-your-seat now as its predecessor. It's honestly a little too heavy-handed with the sexual violence for me to buy into 100% (is every man in Sweden a closet sadomasochist waiting to assault young women??), but I'm still trying to relish these last 50 pages!

Busy week. Long week. The transition back to work was a little rough - it felt like I'd been gone forever, but luckily things at the office wasn't too crazy. I had a rotten cold that I've finally gotten the best of, thanks to Cold-Eeze zinc lozenges, copious quantities of green tea, and a gigantic batch of Mom's best Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup - which might have lasted a lot longer if Tim hadn't eaten 2/3 of it in one sitting. I think he liked it :)

On Wednesday, I headed down to Palo Alto to have dinner with Becca and BRIA, who was in town until this morning. We ate at Cafe Borrone, near Kepler's and conveniently close to the Menlo Park Caltrain station. Our dinner was unfortunately too short, but it was great to see Bria in all her Parisian glory and catch up for a short while. I also bought a new book to start on the Caltrain ride home (I'd forgotten Girl Who Played With Fire at home!) called Let The Great World Spin, and it's extremely good. Something to look forward to next!

Tonight I made one of my favorite new easy recipes, called Japanese Pizza (from 101 Cookbooks). The recipe Heidi gives isn't much of a meal, so Kati and I tweaked it to make it a little tastier, more filling, and less vegetarian. See recipe and photos below:

Japanese Pizza (a la Kati and Kelly)

Combine in a bowl:
2 cups shredded cabbage
1 cup leeks (rinsed well after chopping)
1/2 potato, shredded (I used sweet potato)
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
Salt to taste



Mix in 2-3 eggs until your mixture sticks together.

(I probably didn't chop my cabbage finely enough, but I was impatient)

Divide in half. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add a generous splash of olive oil. Scoop 1/2 of the the cabbage mixture into the pan, and using a metal spatula press it into a round pancake shape, flat as you can get it. Cook for 4-5 minutes, or until the bottom is golden. To flip the okonomiyaki, slide it out of the skillet onto a plate. Place another plate on top and flip both (together) over. Continue cooking on the other side until golden - about another 3 minutes.



Top with sauteed mushrooms, crispy bacon (yum!), and salt and pepper.

In my opinion, it needs some sort of sauce to make it all come together. Kati and I like it with hoisin sauce well enough, but I think it would be really great with a spicy aioli, or another mayo-based sauce (maybe lemon mayo?). Let me know what you think!!


Finally, as promised, a few New Years lists for you all to disagree with:

Favorite Books of 2009:
1. The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoyevsky
2. War and Peace, Tolstoy
3. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver

Honorable Mentions:
- How To Breathe Underwater, Julie Orringer
- Twilight, Stephenie Meyer
- The Road, Cormac McCarthy
- Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson

Favorite Movies of 2009:
- Away We Go
- Avatar
- The Hangover
- Up In The Air

Recipes I look forward to tackling in 2010:
- Butternut Squash Ravioli, made from homemade pasta (Becca and I will be taking this on in the next couple weeks... at her house)
- Garlic Soup, from 101 Cookbooks
- A Japanese Hot Pot recipe - not sure which one yet
- Anything from my new cookbooks
- Homemade sushi
- A dessert Tim and I can agree on (wishful thinking...)

Reading: Girl Who Played With Fire, Let The Great World Spin
Listening: Dirty Projectors, Bitte Orca

up in the air

Ahh, the feeling of well-restedness. I had an amazing time at home – and I’m not just saying that because I know my parents will read my blog J It felt great to totally recharge my batteries in KY with the family, even if my room is no longer “my room” (rather, it’s Guest Room #1, totally remodeled!)

I arrived on Wednesday evening, just in time to participate in the full Christmas Eve preparations. Because Dad wanted to make “something different” for Christmas dinner, we worked on a Crown Roast of Pork with a new stuffing recipe – which turned out quite beautifully, although I can’t say it was my favorite holiday protein ever. Next year I think we’ll go back to turkey, but it was fun to try something different. Au gratin potatoes, curried fruit, cranberry jello salad, and garlic green beans completed the meal – with frozen mocha cheesecake for dessert! I have no pictures to show off yet, but once I get them from my parents, I’ll be sure to post them.

Christmas brought me FOUR new cookbooks – I’m totally thrilled!! The new selection includes: Cook with Jamie, by Jamie Oliver (the Naked Chef), Cooking, by James Peterson, Super Natural Cooking, by Heidi Swanson (of 101 Cookbooks – love!), and The Best of the Best, a selection by the editors of Food and Wine of the best recipes from the best cookbooks of the year. We already put the cookbooks to good use earlier this week, making Jamie’s Bacon-Wrapped Halibut, coated with fresh sage and pepper, served with roasted asparagus and a lemon mayonnaise made from scratch.

We also watched a healthy dose of movies over the weekend. In descending order of preference:
- Avatar in 3D: amazing! The 3D is used as a way to enhance the experience, not as a gimmick. The film was absolutely stunning, and I enjoyed the story. Highly recommended.
- Up in the Air: even though this has gotten a lot of awards buzz (with the greatest number of Golden Globes nominations of any film this year), I was a little hesitant about seeing it. It’s about a man whose job is to fly around the country firing people. I was worried about it being depressing, or blah, but I found it surprisingly uplifting. Of course, what’s not to like about George Clooney?
- Sherlock Holmes: Robert Downey Jr. is so devilishly good at being the intelligent good guy. This made me all the more excited for the Iron Man sequel. I also liked Jude Law, and Rachel McAdams was cute as always. This movie was a little too heavy on the weird cult mysticism for me, a fun ride.
- Invictus: How could an Eastwood film starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon possibly make the bottom of the list? Though Freeman makes a more convincing Mandela than Mandela himself, I felt the film was shallow on a personal level and boring from a sports perspective. I didn’t really care about the characters, and couldn’t shake the sense of inevitability that the national rugby team was going to win the World Cup. Where’s the excitement?

In contrast to my experience watching Invictus, reading The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, was an emotional rollercoaster. Totally awesome book – extremely well-written, absorbing, and powerful. I’ve just started The Girl Who Played With Fire (sequel to Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), and it’s quite good, though I’m not sure if I’m going to like where it’s headed. I’m only 70 pages in, though, and my mom and aunt both loved it, so I’m sure it’ll hook me any minute now. I’m bringing Tim’s sister Twilight – much to his chagrin – as a mental vacation, popcorn for the brain, belated Christmas present.

My Christmas present to myself was a writing workshop class at a studio called The Writing Salon – very well-rated in San Francisco. The class is called Daily Round Robin, which is moderated by The Writing Salon’s founder, and takes place mostly online (with only 2 in-person meetings). I’ll be writing something every day in February and March, responding to a daily prompt from the moderator, and emailing out my writings to the other participants in the class (who will be reading my work and responding, and vice-versa). The goal is to get into the habit of writing and stretching your imagination without getting bogged down by revisions or the pressure to finish anything. Basically, it’ll give me a lot of raw material I can return to at a later date (if I want to). I miss having a creative outlet, but have trouble motivating myself to sit down and write. Since I’ve already sunk my money into the class, I think that’ll be motivating enough! Plus, I spend about an hour and a half on the bus everyday, which would be a perfect time to write. The class starts on January 29th – I hope it works out!

I guess I never mentioned that I’m currently writing this on the plane to LA, where I’ll be spending my New Years with Tim. It’s been a pleasantly smooth flight so far, and I’m sitting next to a really nice couple from Louisville who are going on vacation in Las Vegas. Maybe I’ll play some slot machines while I’m at the airport?

It just occurred to me that this will be my last entry of 2009! I feel the need to do some sort of top-ten list. Top Ten Books, or Top Ten Movies, or Top Ten Recipes. I’ll work on that for next time…

Reading: Girl Who Played With Fire, p. 70.
Listening: Manu Chao, inspired by Bria’s Blip.fm playlist J

tipsy pig

I know! I know! I've been so bad. I haven't posted since Thanksgiving. Part of the problem, though, is that I don't have documentation of my adventures - I haven't been a good picture-taker lately, so I'm waiting for everyone else to send me pictures. But perhaps a quick recap of my happenings since Thanksgiving:

- My first trip to Carmel was delightful. Becca, Christian, and I drove down in the morning and had lunch in Monterey (featuring one of the most cheesy, buttery, delicious french grilled cheese sandwiches I've ever eaten), wandered around on the beach, and then headed down the rest of the way to Carmel, and wandered around on the beach some more. It wasn't the prettiest of days, as you can see (picture below), but it was the perfect day trip.


- I started my new job in Old Navy Production and really enjoy it! My new team is amazing - very organized, really fun, and they've been keeping me extremely busy. I get in around 9 and leave at 6, which would be ideal if it didn't take an hour for me to get to and from work. It's frustrating because it wouldn't be nearly so bad - it would only take 35 minutes - if the buses came on time. There's nothing more annoying than waiting for the transfer bus that was supposed to arrive 10 minutes ago, or getting stuck in the tunnel on the lightrail for half an hour (true story).

Old Navy certainly has its perks though. Today, for example, we got a free lunch catered from Bi-Rite Market (delicious local deli market) because we achieved positive comps last month. And it looks like the positive comp train will be chugging along well into February, so I look forward to more free lunches :)

- I've been triple-booked for holiday parties for the past two weeks, and will continue to be triple-booked until I head home. Everyone wants to show of their first apartment and decided to throw parties on the same nights. It's fun, but it leads to eating and drinking too much, and that doesn't feel so good. I'm looking forward to going home (one week!!!) and chilling out with the family for a while. Plus, I still have room in my dessert stomach for fudge and pretzel cookies...

One of the notable holiday parties was the Bain Holiday Party, which Tim and I attended for our third year in a row. One of his coworkers hosted a catered preparty at their apartment, then we headed over to the Intercontinental Hotel for dancing and mingling. I had a great time - and it was the perfect occasion to wear my Rag and Bone dress! Photos to come.

- Baking. Loads of baking. I baked double-fudge brownies (tweaked Martha's Super Fudgy Brownie recipe to my liking) and Coconut Oatmeal Lace Cookies for a holiday party bake-off with the production team. I didn't win (I thought it was a *cookie* contest, when in fact it was a bake-off. Of course, my delicious but wimpy-looking cookies lost to a marbled cheesecake and kahlua cream pie and gorgeous fruit tart.

Coconut Oatmeal Lace Cookies (perhaps mine weren't quite so pretty)


What else has been happening in the kitchen lately? Trader Joe's and tempeh, mostly. I look at 101 Cookbooks all the time but haven't made anything. Her sugar-coated cranberries look pretty good though - maybe over Christmas at home :)

To explain my title - the girls and i ate out at a restaurant lately called the Tipsy Pig, which was surprisingly pork-light and healthy food. But I've been feeling like more of a true tipsy pig lately, so why not call it like it is...

My brownie recipe (perfectly fudgy, moist, and chocolatey! I used an 8x8 pan and baked for 40 minutes, but I would have preferred a bigger pan - maybe 7x10 or something like that - for less gigantic brownies):

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup Hersheys syrup
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon instant coffee

Preheat oven to 350F.

Place butter and chocolate in large bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Heat until smooth, stirring occasionally, 2-3 minutes. Remove bowl from pan. In steps, add sugar, eggs, coffee, and flour, mixing to combine after each ingredient. Transfer batter to 8x8 pan lined with greased aluminum foil or parchment paper. Cook 30-45 minutes, until toothpick comes out almost clean. Let cool before frosting.

That's all for now... the eyelids are drooping.

Reading: The Poisonwood Bible, just started today. I finished Middlesex and loved it!

gobblepalooza

Home already :)
I thought Black Friday might be a pretty hectic day for HQ - but really, it's only hectic for people who work in functions like Site Productions, who have to deal with errors on the website. Only one other person on my team was in the office, and she got in at 10 and left at 1. I spent my morning surfing the internet for gift ideas, and answered one work-related email. Hey though - this beats taking the day off for PTO, and *certainly* beats working in the stores!


I think this photo sums up my Thanksgiving best (click on photos to enlarge):

Too. Much. Food. But oh so good!

I have to admit, while nothing beats going home for Thanksgiving, I think we did a pretty amazing job on our own. I think we went about it in just the right way: assigning everyone a couple dishes they were excited about making, coming together in the afternoon, helping out with the turkey, and eating stress-free. Luckily there was no pressure to impress anyone, low expectations, and a Trader Joe's around the corner just in case - not that we needed it.

I started out the morning heading to Calafoods to buy the necessary stuff for pumpkin pie v. 2.1 and cranberry relish. (One thing I had forgotten to mention in the last blog entry was that the pie I made was only 50% from scratch - I used 1/2 roasted acorn squash puree, 1/2 canned pumpkin - because the farmer's market was completely out of sugar pie pumpkins. Hence, when I had to make the second pie, there was still just enough of both to get by - I didn't have to re-roast a pumpkin, thank goodness.)

The pie turned out BEAUTIFULLY if I do say so myself. I was also particularly proud of the crust - I used Martha's pate brisee recipe and added cinnamon, clove, and brown sugar to spice it up a little. Also, I used Heidi's Spice-Kissed Pumpkin Pie recipe, but added extra cinnamon (about 1/2 tbsp), ginger, and allspice. I was also inspired by Top Chef to make the crust prettier.

Preparation:


Execution :)


I also made 2 kinds of cranberry sauce: one relish, Mom's classic, and another saucepan style, which was also REALLY good (recipe here - talk to me about all the changes I made). There were NO leftovers of either cranberry sauce - I was really shocked that everyone ate the real stuff and loved it.

I got to Julie's (the hostess, who lives in North Beach) around 3, and the turkey was already well under way. The butcher at Trader Joe's gave her a 30-minute rundown of exactly how to cook the turkey, and she seemed very confident that it was going to turn out perfectly. And believe it or not, it did!

In the oven:


And out, on-time, with a happy Julie:


Rachel brought mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and cornbread stuffing - here she is with her boyfriend, Bennett:


Tenley brought sourdough stuffing, and Jared brought brussel sprouts (yum) and Paula Deen's Green Bean Casserole, which was to-DIE for delicious.

The girls and the turkey (from left to right: Rachel, Julie, me, Tenley)


Jared admiring the spread:


And other miscellaneous photos of food, dinner, and the resulting food coma:






Everyone said that the pumpkin pie was the best they'd ever had (I agreed) - and the best part about the dinner is that I have enough leftovers to last for at least 2 more meals :)

After dinner, we watched Love, Actually, which is one of my favorite Christmas movies ever - I've seen it at least 5 times.

No plans yet this weekend - though i am supposed to go shopping for my adopt-a-family kid sometime soon. I'm going to be working in the stores again all next week though, so I better rest up!

Reading: Middlesex
Listening: All I Want For Christmas Is You, Mariah Carey

sugar sugar

I'm sorry I haven't written in a while - I've been busy baking. Baking, baking, baking. After my final project presentation last week (which went super well! more on that later), I baked the Orange and Oat Scones from 101 Cookbooks for my team, which were extremely tasty. I was licking the batter all along the way, and didn't even have to feel guilty about it because there were no eggs! Only copious amounts of butter...

(Picture stolen from 101 Cookbooks - mine weren't nearly so pretty)


Then, a couple days ago, I got inspired by a new issue of Bon Appetit and made Triple Ginger Cookies. The batter was SUPER tasty, but the cookie consistency was disappointing - they were soft and fluffy, and I think I was hoping for something denser and chewier. The recipe calls for butter, so I might try substituting margarine or shortening next time, or adding baking powder to the recipe. I also wanted about 3 times as much chopped crystallized ginger in there.

But somehow, Tim said that these were the "best cookies I've ever made." Best. Ever? Let's look back on my baking history here: I've made him chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, raggedy robins, iced oatmeal lemon cookies - all of which are way better than these cookies. We don't tend to agree on desserts anyway, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but maybe we'll be able to work through our differences somehow...

And then tonight I baked another pumpkin pie - the real thing! - for tomorrow's Thanksgiving dinner with the RMPs. It didn't turn out as beautifully as the first one - I think there were air bubbles under the crust that burst and cracked the surface of the pie, but I think it will taste even better. For those of you who don't know my thanksgiving plans, I'm going to an RMP "strays" potluck party. Though I didn't have high expectations for the dinner, I actually think it's going to be quite good. Currently on the menu:

Turkey
Stuffing (cornbread and regular)
Sweet potatoes
Mashed potatoes
Green beans
Brussel sprouts
Cranberry relish (fresh! mom's recipe)
Pumpkin pie
Ice cream

I'll be missing out on curried fruit, so Mom will have to add that to the list of things to make for Christmas dinner. I couldn't bring any because i don't have any corningware/similar bakeware. Not that we have space in the kitchen for that... but I miss it for the express purpose of making curried fruit, chicken diable, and chicken and rice.

So let's see, what has happened this week. Sara came in town! Yay!!! We met up with a few Stanford alums for dinner at Darbar on Friday night (amazing), then Saturday, met at Mayfield Bakery with Becca for brunch before heading over to Big Game :)



Big Game was very fun, mildly debaucherous. We hung out at the Sigma Nu alumni tailgate for a while, and ran into a lot of current tridelts who caught me up on all the gossip. It's particularly interesting to me to see where the seniors are going to be working next year - Cordova will be at Google, Snorm at Bain, Kyla with TFA, etc etc. Sara and I got tickets to the game, but got distracted in actually going TO the game, and ended up selling them to Melissa and Jess Lu who wanted them much more desperately than we did (though I'm not sure they made it to the actual game either...)

In the end, Stanford lost the game, and I'm pretty sure it's because I didn't watch it. Instead, I went to Thai City, and had some fabulous thai food with Tim, Tom, Lauren, and Sara. Sara and I barely survived the caltrain ride before coming home and passing out at 11:30.

Sunday was my day of accomplishments! I wrote thank you notes, picked up the tv stand, bought a microwave, went grocery shopping, and worked out. Of course, the microwave hasn't been taken out of the box, and the TV stand hasn't been set up, but that's what this weekend is for :)

Oh yes, I meant to tell you about my final project/the final week of my rotation. The presentation went so much more smoothly than either of our practice rounds, and we managed to get through the whole thing in our timeline. I was commended on my presentation style, which is so amazing for me because I usually get tripped up on nerves! And Kate, my partner, did really well too.

I'm sad to be leaving the Women's Plus team, but I'm excited to be moving on to a new function: Old Navy Production, Girls Woven Tops & Accessories. Old Navy again... sort of bummed about that, but hey - I'll know the business *very* well at the end of this one.

Bring on the sparkles/sequins/sassy slogans!!





STOP THE PRESSES.

I just wrapped up the pumpkin pie that I made, and realized.



...


I forgot the sugar in the pie.

Dammit.

Kati and I just tasted it... it's bad. Bad. AUGHSKDJ. Well, it would be really good if there were sugar in it. It was seasoned well - I especially like the coconut milk instead of sweetened condensed, though it could have used more cinnamon. It's also missing bourbon, too, though I don't have any on hand. Maybe I can break in to Tim's apartment and steal some...

Well, tomorrow will include more baking than I had planned. That's ok - I'll just be so sick of pumpkin pie I won't want to make another for at least a year!

Reading: Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides. It's awesome.

A quote to leave you with, from a Vanity Fair interview with Andre Agassi:
VF: "Whose talents do you most admire?"
AA: "Roger Federer."

Ballsy.