cupdate!

dear friends,

thanks for all of your cupcake-related support as i've baked six cupcakes for the sweetest kitchen's mystery box challenge and managed to enter five of them in the competition on time. of those five, four received enough of your votes to be entered into the random draw. though i never won that draw, i've learned a lot, made some stunning messes, and eaten far too much batter over the last eight months.

click to make this bigger!

so, thanks for voting for me! i hope to keep the hobby alive and invite you to come up with your own challenges for me in the months ahead!

i am. thirty.

i was born.
a girl.
a daughter.
a granddaughter.
a niece.
a sister.

i started becoming.
a reader.
a rememberer.
an immigrant.
an advocate.
a friend.

some things you made me.
a sister-in-law.
an auntie-to-be.
a girlfriend.
a forgiver.
a better friend.

some things i made myself.
a researcher.
a writer.
a leader.
a follower.
my own friend.

some things i am still becoming.
a law student.
a cook and baker.
a discerner.
a jogger.
a listener.

some things i dream of yet becoming.
a defender.
a treeclimber.
a runner.
a mother.
a whole.

i am thirty.
and i'm becoming more.

the hot team - part i

this week, i have logged 235 minutes of exercise: 60 minutes of advanced step, 20 minutes of jane fonda, 20 minutes of taebo, 45 minutes of body sculpt, 45 minutes of beginner step, and 45 minutes of kickboxing (which i just tried for the first time today!).

so.

a friend of mine playfully alluded to my initiation onto "the hot team," and asked me, "where do you get your motivation?" this isn't an easy question. i mean, i'm a fairly lazy person and, like most people, i run on inertia. there are days and weeks when working out is the bane of my existence. but i've learned that it really is easier to be on your game than to try to catch up when you've fallen behind. to my mind, this is the realization that opens the door to self-discipline in all areas of my life, particularly in academics, relationships, and health. rather than cutting corners, thinking that it's ok to cheat a little, i need to realize that those cheats add up: in all-night writing/cramming sessions, in blow-ups or loneliness because we haven't communicated along the way, in scale-induced guilt, indigestion, or premature exhaustion during a demanding workout. molehills can clump up into mountains if you neglect them too long. take the more expedient route: do it now.

a second crucial realization came in the classroom. i prepare students for a standardized test that i don't administer or set the parameters for. unfortunately, when i finish up the content portion of class early, my students usually take off. they choose not to take advantage of the ten or twenty or even thirty minutes we have left by asking questions or going over homework. they behave as if their potential for growth and test's difficulty are both limited by my agenda for our session. but they're not. there's a gap between where my students are and where they need to be to succeed, and taking full advantage of their resources is the best way for my students to close that gap.

so, that's where i get my motivation: knowing that it's easier to do it now - even if it feels harder - and that i have tools at my disposal to help me. some of them are obvious: a fabulous instructor at my gym, friends who also work out there, sparkpeople.com (where i track my food and exercise religiously and learn more about healthy living), and parents who are also trying to get healthier right now. some are more subtle, but just as essential: how strong i feel when i'm practicing roundhouse kicks and uppercuts, how amazing home-roasted red peppers taste, how affordable produce is, and how much happier i am when i'm hydrated. those things all motivate me. and they're not all.

ween "chocolate and cheese" cupcakes

UPDATE: voting is now open! please support me!

this month, the theme for the sweetest kitchen's mystery box cupcake challenge is "chocolate and..." the base has to be chocolate cake, but from there the sky's the limit!

ween is one of idris' favourite bands, and since they have an album called "chocolate and cheese," i couldn't resist paying tribute to them this month. (i know i've honoured him in cupcake form before, but he's my boyfriend and it's valentine's day and... shut up, i like him, ok?)

ahem.

so, manouri is a semi-soft sheep and goat cheese with a mild flavour and notes of citrus. i crumbled it as finely as i could before folding it into a basic chocolate cake batter. the cupcakes baked up so very moist, and delicious. the manouri taste was quite mild, though, so i knew i'd need to add more somehow.

that's why i whipped some cheese up with heavy cream, rolled it into a log, and froze it for a while. then i sliced it into rounds and balanced those on top of the milk chocolate frosting. then, because self-control is not my forte, i added another dollop of chocolate frosting.

while i'm a novice at piping chocolate, i managed to create two filigree replicas of the ween logo and tossed - ok, held my breath and gingerly placed - those on the cupcakes as well.

the result is a creamy, chocolaty, and... well, smiley.



when the time comes, if you like these cupcakes you should vote for them! the winner of february’s mystery box cupcake challenge will receive prizes from:

- Angela's Images; a selection of handmade crafts
- Bake It Pretty; a $5 electronic gift card
- Beanilla; 3 Indian, 3 Tahitian & 3 Tonga vanilla beans
- Hello Hanna; a pack of Sweet Stands cupcake stands
- Miss Kitty Creations; a handmade cupcake charm of your choice
- Simply Caked; 600 brown greaseproof cupcake liners
- Sweet Cuppin Cakes; a prize pack worth $25
- Tundra Books; a selection 3 very sweet children's books

thank you to all our prize sponsors!

"we will have these moments to remember..."

go-go-gatchety-kitchen!

more than ten months ago, i listed some of the things i would register for, were i in a position to solicit gifts. well, here's some news: you can buy kitchen stuff yourself! you don't have to wait to get engaged and ask other people to buy it for you! here's some of the progress i've made:


gadgets and tools:
- oil mister - got one in our secret santa random exchange! how lucky am i? so lucky!
- mandoline - bought one last spring and have only suffered one mini-amputation so far!
- good spatulas - bought one yesterday! it's cranberry-coloured!

appliances:
- rice cooker - got one in july for sushi making! have also made mamaliga and quinoa in there.
- i said that if i had a food processor and an immersion blender i wouldn't need a blender qua blender, but then one day at steven and chris they gave all of us kitchenaid blenders! it's not yet clear if this will be mine in the long run, 'cause i'm definitely leaving it here when i go off to law school. but let me just say: i love this thing!

now that i know i'm moving, buying stuff is a bit different. i'm trying to figure out what will be important to take with me. which clothes? which of my elephants? which books? which household things? it's a little early to make decisions, but certainly not too early for my impending move to affect my shopping. my boyfriend lives a very "spartan" life - his words - and took his time to settle into his new place. i put art up on his walls when i came to visit more than a month in. his couch came after i left, and bookshelves later still. i admire how careful he is about investing in his home, but the place was so much warmer once i put some pictures on the wall! maybe there's a happy medium there - a way to achieve practical nesting.

how do you decide whether to buy something?

istanbul (not constantinople)

today i am turkeying and gobbling. this is about the tenth turkey i've ever prepared, and it's always a bit of an adventure. i love the whole process, with the possible exception of the stress over whether the bird will be thawed out in time.

i love dicing apples.
i love mincing celery.
i love plumping raisins.
i love watching the stuffing swell.
i love whipping up butter and sage.
i love using my digital meat thermometer.
i love peeling back the tin foil.
i love wearing an apron.
i love eating the final product.
i love remembering all the thanksgivings, christmases, and easters past for which i made turkey, and thinking of the friends who sat around that feast with me!

i still don't know how to carve the turkey or make a gravy i'm really happy with, but... yay! it's turkey day!

i think i'm going to put on "white christmas" while i wrap a couple of gifts and wait to unveil my masterpiece!

five things

pick five things that you want to achieve this month. they can be related or quite distinct, serious or fun, permanent or temporary. but they should be concrete.

my five things for december are:

1) lose five more pounds.
2) complete the december cupcake challenge with time to spare.
3) read a novel not written by agatha christie.
4) blog twice a week.
5) talk to new people at the holiday parties i'm attending.

what are you doing this month?

joy! joy! joy!

after a long wait, good news at last: i've received acceptances from five law schools so far, two of them in the top tier!

when i opened the first exciting envelope (the fourth envelope of the five), i blinked. it starts with "congratulations"... does it go on to say "no, thanks"? it didn't! looks like i'll be a law student after all! look out world!

as i told my parents, drank champagne, made my phone calls, sent text messages, and eagerly awaited a skype conversation, i felt a little like jane bennet.

it's been over a year now of preparing and writing and rewriting and rewriting and hoping and receiving devastating news and crying and regrouping... and finding so much love and support and faith around me. my family, my friends, my professors and employers who wrote recommendations for me... they shared in my low times with me and pushed me to keep at it. i am so happy to be able to bring you all joy by sharing my very good news.

i can't even begin to express how grateful i am.

please vote!

if you liked my ode to ginger(s) cupcakes, or even if you just like me, please vote for them!

merci!

an ode to ginger(s)!

after watching with interest for quite some time, i've taken myself off the bench (and dared a few friends to join me) by participating in the sweetest kitchen's mystery box cupcake challenge! this month's featured ingredient is... ginger!


to be honest, i was very tempted to recreate my ginger-matcha sushi cake from birthday 2009. it was delicious, innovative, and fun to look at. besides, the wasabi icing blew my mind! but as i wandered around bulk barn, looking for cupcake-sized sushi ingredients, i was conscience-striken. the whole point of this was to try something new!


so i thought about ginger. and then i thought of gingers! having decided that my cupcakes would be an edible tribute to redheads both real and fictional, the perfect ingredient with which to pair the ginger instantly sprang to mind: carrots!

i scoured the underworld of the internets, bravely seeking a carrot-based cupcake that would defy expectations of carrot-cakey-ness! to no avail! in the end, i had to resort to adapting and tweaking to make these cupcakes masterpieces!

get these dry things:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour OR 2 1/4 cup cake flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp crushed cloves (ask your mom to mortar & pestle these for you. she's prolly tops!)

get these wet things:
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/3 cups sugar
- 1 cup melted butter
- 1 large carrot, chopped, steamed, and then pureed with 1/4 cup buttermilk

la piece de resistance: ginger chunks in cane sugar syrup chopped up into minichunks!

do this:
- preheat oven to 350
- combine dry ingredients and whisk
- in another bowl, combine wet ingredients and whisk
- pour the wet combo into the dry combo (i'm still not sure why) and stir ten times
- toss in ginger chunks and stir a few more times
- fill cupcake liners 2/3 of the way up
- bake for 20-25 minutes, turning halfway through
- cool
- frost!
- decorate!!
- serve!!!

here i am with my favourite ginger:

and that was my tribute not only the delicious and versatile ingredient that is the ginger root, but also to the carrot-haired among us, from conan to ariel, from archie to anne of green gables, from my older sister to my younger brother-in-law, from pippi longstocking to my boyfriend.

if you like what you see, please vote for my entry in the sweetest kitchen's contest!
the winner of november’s mystery box cupcake challenge will receive prizes from:

• Bake It Pretty; a $5 electronic gift card
• Beanilla; Tahitian ground vanilla & 3 Mexican vanilla beans
• Hello Hanna; a pack of Sweet Stands cupcake stands
• Miss Kitty Creations; a handmade cupcake charm of your choice
• Simply Caked; 600 brown greaseproof cupcake liners
• Sweet Cuppin Cakes; a prize pack worth $25
• Tundra Books; a selection 3 very sweet children's books

merci beaucoup to all our prize sponsors!

i got you, rusch!

i recently got crafty and revamped a rusch clock from ikea. this simple, cheap plastic clock is easy to personalize, as has often been mentioned on ikea hacker.

all you have to do is pop off the clear plastic front-piece, pull off the hands, and decorate your blank canvas: the clock face.

because the clock was for idris, and because we watched "groundhog day" on groundhog day when we'd just been dating for two weeks, this is what i went with:

i actually came across the picture while brainstorming ideas, and it was too perfect for words! all i had to do was print it to size, cut it out, and make sure the numbers corresponded to the appropriate time.

i love how it turned out (and so does idris!), and am planning on making one for myself! that way whenever i check the time i can be reminded to make each day matter.

a letter

dear luck,

you may remember that i invoked you in a brief message to idris, dated 13 may 2010. it's attached below, but basically in that missive i articulated my anticipation of your impending successful navigation to his doorstep.

and, within a week, he had both a job offer and an interview for another job! now, that's some kind of successful navigation! well done, you! your orienteering skills are second to none!

in recent weeks, you have also taken the time to visit both of my brothers-in-law and my younger sister. you've been very busy and even on two continents your knack for finding folks has proven itself flawless. i certainly appreciate your timely arrival at the doorsteps of people about whom i care so deeply. as you well know, i'm a big fan of yours and these particular people deserve all the you in the world.

but, dear luck, i occasionally worry that you have lost your way en route to me. i feel i've completed all the necessary preparations for your arrival - laid out all your favourite fingerfoods, put fresh linens in the guestroom, and all that - but, alas, i have yet to be honoured by your presence.

are you lost? because if you're using mapquest that could be the problem right there. sometimes that site is a little misleading. maybe you should try googlemaps. and turn the gps on, just to be on the safe side. please?

was it something i did? 'cause whatever it was, i'm sorry. i hope you can forgive me and we can move past this soon. to be honest, hard work, perseverance, and wit have done all they can, and it's really starting to look like it's sort of up to you now.

somewhat-patiently, ever-hopefully, a-little-bit-desperately,
~m


----------
to: idris
from: ~m
sent: 13.05.2010, 9:45 p.m.

luck will find you.

di: id

this is my boyfriend.

in addition to being awesome in countless ways that matter to me, idris is awesome in ways that are relevant to and have come to the attention of a mathematics department at a university in the mid-atlantic. i bought him the flowers to celebrate the long-awaited job offer - they're tiger lilies, 'cause he's a fan of cats. so much a fan is he that he just happened to be wearing the tiger beer shirt at the time!

this is my boyfriend and a delicious trio of chocolate desserts we shared just before we took turns crying a little.

he's been waiting for a career opportunity like this one for a long time, but the mid-atlantic is a bit farther away from me than we're used to. so, that's tough... but it's only tough because he's special. and having someone special is very, very good.

2421 sunrises and sunsets

welcome to my 500th post! this milestone will be commemorated with a nod to the main genres of blogpost we have seen here at "can you hear the sound of laughter..."

the mundane (yet somehow bizarre):
i was just stung by a bee in my basement. at just after midnight. while i was trying to iron my shirt. on my left ring toe. no - i wasn't trying to iron my shirt on my toe... that's just where the bee stung me. this probably means i'm in for a feverish dream.

the momentous:
today i graduate for the fourth time in my life, and officially add the letters "m.a." to the end of my name - instead of just the beginning. there's an awful lot of hard work buried in those two little letters! finishing things is so good!

the miraculous:
michelle and idris are joining my parents in the audience at the convocation ceremony, and all four of them are making significant sacrifices to be there. i am loved, and i know it.

the mmmm:
there will be caramel crunch cake and champagne when we come home tonight! yum and sigh.

the musing:
what's next?

:)

from way across the ocean, my little sissy asked me why i was smiling. in response, i offer this partial list of my reasons for glee:

- haircuts
- sushi
- defenses and convocations
- job postings and auditions
- pub trivia successes
- a mom who takes care of me when i sacrifice part of my finger to the mandolin* gods
- a boyfriend who listens and is teaching me when to stop talking
- friends who have big! changes! going on in their lives
- the impending return of little sissy and her husband!
- seeing nyc for the first time soon
- big sissy's wedding in june!
- cats
- diet coke
- phone calls with michelle
- apples and peanut butter
- a pink sweater
- dibs

oooh... dibs! see ya!

* the vegetable slicer, not the musical instrument

how to succeed at pub trivia - an introduction

i need feedback on this lesson, please!
----------------------------------------

before you can hope to succeed at pub trivia, you must first understand what success means in a pub trivia context. now, there may be some people who show up to a bar on a weeknight with no intention of answering any questions correctly. and there may well be others who will refuse to accept "gangster's paradise" as the title of coolio's song from "dangerous minds" because, actually, it's "gangsta's paradise." but the vast majority of attendees strive for an evening that is filled with lots of check marks in their answer booklets and plenty of fun with friends.

in short, success at pub trivia means having fun and getting questions right.

1) your team: you will be spending about two hours huddled over an answer booklet with two or three teammates. remember: the more well-rounded your team is, the more likely it is that you'll be able to handle questions on such diverse subjects as history, sports, pop culture, language, geography, and religion. on the other hand, you will be spending two hours with these people! recruit a team that is defined by camaraderie, diversity, and an ability to resolve conflict quickly.

speaking of teams, which north american cities have more that one major league baseball team?

2) your prep: read the newspaper, browse wikipedia, play sporcle, and watch "the simpsons," if you enjoy doing those things already, but remember that the point of pub trivia is to make use of the seemingly useless - hence trivial - facts your brain has clung onto. ideally, playing the game makes you more curious and more present to the mundane details of everyday life. it does not require you to pursue an additional degree.

speaking of research, the library in alexandria is the oldest in the world, but it is no longer active. in which country would you find the oldest active library in the world?

3) your answers: talk it out with your team, but err on the side of going with your gut instinct. if you get it wrong, you get it wrong. but if you ignore your instinct and it turns out that instinct was right, it may ruin your evening.

speaking of your gut, crohn's disease was first documented not by the american gastroenterologist from whom it takes its name but in 1904 by a surgeon from which european country?

4) your guesses: there will often come a time when neither your collective knowledge bank nor deductive reasoning produces an answer in which your team is confident. usually, there's no penalty for guessing, so here are my tips for that. mara-approved guesses come in two species: a) wild and b) tame.

a) the wild guess is so crazy that whoever is marking your booklet might think you were joking. on the other hand, if it turns out you are randomly right, your grader will be very impressed
b) the tame guess, while possibly wrong, will never inspire anyone to judge you or assume you are an ill-informed twit. if it's about a female american poet, and you have no idea, you might as well guess emily dickinson.

speaking of questions requiring a guess, what is halle berry's middle name?

my third and fourth points demonstrate that there's a close relationship between the two prongs of the pub trivia fork: it's hard to have fun when you keep kicking yourself for not going with your gut or when your ego is bruised. follow my tips and you'll prevent those catastrophes.

what you must remember, however, is that it is possible to have fun even when you don't win. in the final analysis, there are no tricks to getting every answer right. as my mentor in pub trivia once said, "there's no such thing as easy questions or hard questions - there are only answers you know and answers you don't." succeeding at pub trivia means allowing yourself to celebrate the answers you knew and the answers you pulled out of the air... and being surrounded by people who won't dwell on the answers you missed.

highlight the following to find out the answers to the trivia questions!

1) there are three such cities: the los angeles angels of anaheim and dodgers, the new york mets and yankees, and the chicago cubs and white sox.

2) egypt - st. catherine’s monastery in the sinai is home to the oldest active library in the world!

3) poland - his name was antoni lesniowski

4) halle - her first name is maria.

the great cola challenge of 2010: yes, we can or bottle!

what do you get when you combine eight types of cola with two nerds? a homemade cola taste test, patterned after the pepsi challenge!

idris and i are both loyal fans of coca-cola products: he's committed to the classic variety, while i have a mild addiction to diet coke. but would these preferences hold true in a double-blind taste test?!

we acquired a bottle or can of each of the following: pepsi, diet pepsi, diet caffeine-free pepsi, cocacola, diet coke, coke zero, compliments cola, and life brand diet cola.

using eight identical glasses and twice as many post-its, we achieved this:

i numbered the glasses and then, in private, wrote down which type of cola each number represented. i then left the area while idris rearranged the glasses and labeled them with letters. he also kept his code-key to himself.

in order to ensure that the test results were untainted, we did the taste-testing separately.

as we sipped from each of the glasses we tried to answer the following questionnaire:

a) which was your favourite?
b) which was your least favourite?
c) which was sweetest?
d) which tasted most like chemicals?
e) which ones were diet/zero? (5)
f) which one was caffeine-free?
g) which ones were coca-cola products? (3)
h) which ones were pepsi products? (3)
i) which ones were store brand? (2)

our answers were all over the map. we both correctly identified three of the five diet drinks, and i picked out the diet caffeine-free pepsi. diet pepsi fooled idris, while coke zero fooled me!

(i also knew which one was the store-brand cola, but that was a cheat: it was purchased last and was noticeably warmer than the others. by the time idris drank, the difference in temperature was probably negligible.)

while neither of us did a bang-up job of figuring out which drink was which, we did eventually each choose a favourite. the results, after this drumroll....



idris chose coke and i chose diet coke!

tada! sweet vindication!

word to the wise: if you want to recreate this, i'd suggest sticking with fewer options. the tastes are actually quite similar from cola to cola, so eight is, well, more than enough.

also, if you can swing this, buy cans and keep them all in the fridge for 24 hours before embarking on this adventure. that way, you can't cheat and when you're done you won't be swimming in quite so much pop you never intend to drink.

plans for the future: this might be worth repeating with other combinations. for instance, i arranged a quick follow-up test with just the colas, and idris was then able to distinguish between the coca-cola, the pepsi, and the store brand cola. you could also do one with kosher coke and regular, the former of which uses cane sugar while the latter uses high fructose corn syrup. or coke, diet coke, and coke zero. but, i repeat: the fewer samples, the better read you'll get on the differences between them.

regisdream?

isn't it a little sad that unless you're getting married it's not normal to register for gifts? maybe if i'm still not married by the time i become a lawyer and have my first real "permanent home," i'll just have an "i'm a grown-up" party and register for that. like a "housewarming plus."

here are some of the kitcheny things i would put on my registry. i was inspired to write this list down while reading "back issues" of alison's blog. she mentioned the first item a while ago. without further ado, my kitchen dreams:

gadgets and tools:
- oil mister (instead of using pam, you fill the spray bottle with your preferred oil)
- mandoline (for pretty slices)
- good spatulas (safe for good pots/pans, won't leech/melt into the food. yay!)
- pepper mill
- food mill (mashed potatoes made any other way are just wrong for me)

cookware:
- pots with glass lids with adjustable vents and a steamer insert
- dutch oven
- tart pan (with the separate bottom, so you can remove the tart/pie from the pan easily)
- springform pan (vital, no?)
- pizza stone

appliances:
- slowcookers in large and small
- rice cooker
- food processor
- high quality immersion blender (i figure if i have this and the above, i don't need a blender)
- obviously, a kitchenaid tilt-head stand mixer, without which no woman is complete

other:
- a sign that says "i only have a house because it came with the kitchen"
- a real fireplace in the kitchen - i know i can't register for that, but it's my dream. sigh.

options

a friend of a friend, on facebook: pro-choice has ALWAYS been code for pro-abortion. They use those words to make what is absolutely horrifically murder, a more palatable swallow.

me: friendofafriend, respectfully, along with being unfair and untrue, your statement is quite offensive.

the right of a mother to make medical decisions about her own body and that of her unborn child, in consultation with a doctor, is much more complicated than you make it seem.

while i don't advocate abortion, i'm humble enough to admit that i can't possibly imagine the painful burden of hearing that my baby will suffer tremendously if carried to term. or of being a pregnant fifteen-year-old living in a broken, abusive home. or being diagnosed with cancer the same month i find out i'm pregnant.

that's why i'm pro-choice.

if we were sitting across from each other over coffee right now, could you honestly tell me to my face that you suspect i'm just a really big fan of murder?

way too many abortions happen every day. demonizing people like me won't actually solve that devastating problem.