No Other ______ The Same: Weather

Today was 57 degrees in Louisiana. Not amazingly warm, you might say. Yet with the temperatures I've been used to lately in Philadelphia, it felt downright balmy. I walked around in just a sweater, brazenly, without a coat. Others, probably Southern Natives, scuttled around, bundled up in winter coats and scarves. 

No Other News The Same: 2 inches

Last week in Philadelphia, 14 inches of snow shut down the city for 1 day. Apparently in Atlanta it takes 2 inches to shut down the city for 3 days. This was completely unnecessary. Yes, the South isn't used to snow, and freezing temperatures are difficult, yet it's irresponsible to not have an emergency plan in place for a city. Due to the fact that Atlanta is a commuter city, when everyone tried to rush home at once upon the beginnings of snow, the city was quickly gridlocked.  Even though Atlanta knew the "storm" was coming, no one thought to salt the roads in advance. Children had to sleep in schools, people died in traffic accidents, flights were cancelled, and the list goes on and on. Yes, some will say that since it never snows in Atlanta, it doesn't make sense to prepare for snow. Yet the one time it did, Atlanta's failure to prepare resulted in the city (as well as anyone trying to get to the city or connect through the city) suffering the consequence.

No Other Dish The Same: Chicken Tortilla Soup

I think I've had a major cooking breakthrough. I decided that instead of trying to force myself to follow recipes to the letter which, let's face it, normally doesn't work out, that instead, I will try to start understanding how to actually cook. Recipes feel a bit mindless to me, and usually when I don't follow them, I don't understand why they haven't worked. From now on, I'm going to pay more attention to simply how the ingredients cook, and why certain ingredients cook differently than others, etc, and use the recipes as my template.

Case in point: Chicken Tortilla Soup. YUM.

I was so excited to use my hand-me-down crock pot that my dear friend gave me, remembering that the last time I used a crock pot, I actually managed to burn chicken stew. Yes, that's right. I am the only person in the history of crock pot users who has ever managed to burn something. Hmmm....

I found this crock pot recipe, and it looked easy and awesome. The only problem was that by the time I got my act together to cook (purchased the ingredients, etc), I only had 3 hours until dinnertime. Normally, crock pot recipes take at least 7 hours. At first, I frantically consulted crock pot FAQ's which are unfortunately only geared towards ladies. Finally, I thought - it's soup. I know how to cook soup. I'm just going to use the ingredients I have, and use another stove top recipe to guide me. I found solace in the Cooks Illustrated version of course, but vowed to not let them box me in too much with their rules.

The most important part of all seemed to be making sure the chicken was cooked. In the crock pot it would have taken 8 hours. On the stove, it took 20 minutes. I'm sure the crock pot version meat would have just fallen off the boneless chicken (heehee), but I didn't have the time.

Oh, Cooks Illustrated told me to take the chicken out once it had cooked (agreed), and then to strain the broth so the chicken bits and onion bits and garlic bits would go away. Disagree! I didn't want purified soup! I left them in.

The true flavor of the chicken tortilla soup seemed to come from the following ingredients: a jalapeno chile, a chile pepper in adobe sauce, garlic, onions, and tomatoes. I blended those right up. Of course, in the crock pot they would have just melded together over time.

Then, I was supposed to simmer the sauce until it darkened.

I found this a bit difficult because the onion was so strong. Has that ever happened to you? All of a sudden I was full on crying because of this one onion!

The crockpot version contained a bell pepper, black beans and corn. Cooks Illustrated said no. I put them in.

So basically I combined the red sauce with my chicken broth full o' good stuff, and I simmered all of that for a while, with the veggies. Oh, the chicken! I had my sous-chef working on pulling the chicken apart.

I simmered all the ingredients together for a while to make sure the flavors really mixed....

And then...presto - done! I was pretty proud of my presentation.

After plenty of failed recipes, I was thrilled this one was a hit. The tortilla soup was amazing!!! I was so proud of myself for thinking through the different ingredients and how to make them work together. Beginnings of a better cooking future?? I think so! Now the trick is, can I make it again?

No Other Tale The Same: Listening is an Act of Love

Listening is an Act of Love is technically by David Isay, however, the stories in this book aren't his. These stories are the stories of everyday citizens, stories of people who wouldn't necessarily write their stories down. These are stories of people who have lived through history, stories of people meeting their husbands and wives, and stories of people surviving all sorts of live obstacles and challenges. 

The stories themselves are amazing, poignant and most of all, real because they are true. Yet the real story of this particular novel is the story behind these stories, the foundation of Storycorps. Storycorps was founded in 2003 to preserve real life stories. Anyone can record a story by going to a Storycorps booth either with a loved one or alone, and asking/answering questions. People have said in the particular environment that Storycorps has created, stories came out that had never been spoken of before.

Each Storycorps participant gets a CD of their story and the copy goes to the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Each week, stories are broadcast on NPR's Morning Edition. People have said that participating in Storycorps made them feel like they mattered, that their lives mattered. What better way to honor the fact that everyone's story is important?

"The essence of America lives not in the headlined heroes....but in the everyday folks who live and die unknown, yet leave their dreams as legacies." - Alan Lomax, 1940

No Other Angle The Same: Sisterly Love

Boston, MA
Saturday, January 26th
1:45 pm

Philadelphia may be the city of Brotherly Love, but whenever I see my camp friends I definitely feel the sisterly love. The friends I lived with for all of those amazing summers have become my adopted sisters. I'm certainly not shy with hugging my friends, yet when I'm with my camp sisters I find myself walking with my arms around them. I just don't ever want to let them go.

No Other ______ The Same: No Other Travel the Same

Since I'm normally a bus-dweller, it's always a treat when I take a plane ride instead. I don't expect the same types of difficulties and challenges. Yet today, I experienced a bus-like moment when I was about to board the plane.

"Boarding will be suspended momentarily....maintenance is currently on the plane," the overhead voice said. Immediately my mind jumped to the vast possibilities. Was it the engine? 

"....Maintenance is currently on the plane, fixing a tray table," the voice continued. 

Clearly fixing a tray table would warrant a delay. Maybe it's time to think about the train. 

It's my birthday and I didn't have time to blog

:)

No Other Dish The Same: Raw Food

Yep, you did in fact hear me correctly. I willingly prepared raw food over the weekend. I believe the definition of "raw" is food that doesn't go above 118 degrees. Some believe that cooking food actually destroys nutritional value. So what can you eat? Mostly fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. I myself am quite the lover of cooking, and I do prefer my food over 118 degrees. In fact, my first introduction to raw food was in that Sex and the City episode where Miranda refers to the soup as "lawn in a bowl", so, as you can imagine, I was fairly skeptical. Yet when your friend invites you and some other ladies over for a "Raw food experimentation day", your curiosity inevitably gets the better of you.

I realized quite quickly that nuts can replace almost anything I would consider "real food". The raw version of Herbes de Provence Alfredo Sauce and Garden Vegetables? Macademia nuts and cashews. I didn't get an amazing picture of just that dish, but the sauce is in that jar, and the "pasta" is actually zucchini with veggies on top. It was actually delicious.

The raw version of Sun-dried Tomato and Corn Chowder? Cashews. I found the soup a bit cold (heehee) ....but tasty nonetheless.

The raw version of Taco Meat? Walnuts. I made this recipe and the spices actually made it taste like taco meat. Until you realized you were eating ground up walnuts and sun-dried tomatoes. Interesting.

The raw version of Pumpkin Crumble? Pecans or walnuts. This took my friend and I almost two hours to make. I'm not entirely sure why....we didn't need to cook anything!

Raw cheese? Yep, this is almost entirely made of almonds. Yet it tasted like ricotta. I didn't make this and am still trying to obtain the recipe for this one. If I had a ton of almonds and a food processor, I would definitely try this in a lasagna.

Also, it's important to have the right kind of equipment. A food processor.

A good blender. This was used to make the Salad with Carrot and Ginger Dressing, one of the few recipes I believe I will make again. I loved the miso in the dressing!

A mandolin. That's how the zucchini got to looking like pasta.

And finally, a sous-chef who actually likes to chop vegetables.

I also made Chocolate fudge, which I will totally make again. You mix cocoa powder, honey and coconut oil until it becomes fudge. Literally the easiest, most rich and decadent desert ever. I got a bit fancy and tried to roll it into truffle-like formations. Some of them look better than others since a few of them may have double doses of honey in them. Yes, even with only three ingredients I wasn't sure if I had put in honey or not for the last batch....

There was also the moment where I discovered that bringing collard greens and intending to quickly saute them with a bit of garlic wasn't going to fly with that whole raw food thing. It's easy to forget how much we actually use our stoves/ovens/microwaves. Oh, and we totally cheated by bringing chips with our guacamole and salsa. We needed SOME processed sustenance. You can see some of those chips on my plate. They were helpful for scooping up the "taco" meat.

I did feel like I had eaten much cleaner that day, and the food was delicious. I just know that the raw food diet lifestyle isn't for me. I love my chocolate cake way too much.

No Other Tale The Same: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

After finally getting around to reading the first installment of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith, I have mixed reviews. I love several aspects of this first novel (which, by the way, shares the same title as the series - The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency). I love the fact that Mme Ramotswe just up and decides one day she will open up a detective agency, without any background training or credentials, and it works. That's pretty inspirational for anyone thinking of taking on a new profession. All it seems like you need to start a new career is some money saved from your father's goats, an assistant, and some rose bush tea and you're good to go. "There was a teapot, in which Mme Ramostwe - the only lady private detective in Botswana - brewed tea. And three mugs - one for herself, one for her secretary, and one for the client. What else does a detective agency really need?"

I also love how Mme Ramotswe keeps proving the skeptical men wrong when they ask how a woman can be a detective, although I don't love how she keeps referencing Agatha Christie as her only example of a talented lady detective. Mme Ramotswe's observations on life are quite interesting as well. "The problem, of course, was that people did not seem to understand the difference between right and wrong. They needed to be reminded about this, because if you left it to them to work out for themselves, they would never bother. They would just find out what was best for them, and then they would call that the right thing. That's how most people thought."

Yet some of the book was lost on me. I didn't like the rambling, random thought tangents Mme Ramotswe would go on. Some of the cases she would take weren't very exciting, such as when Mme Ramotswe had to follow a teenage girl to see if she had a boyfriend. I guess I've become too cynical due to all of the modern day CSI type stores. The cases Mme Ramotswe solves are pretty fluffy in comparison, therefore I had a bit of trouble investing too much in some of the storylines. While I like the simplistic, straight-forward way Mme Ramotswe operates, part of me resents the fact that a white British man is characterizing an African woman, even though I know he did live in Botswana. 

Still, the book was extremely charming, and Mme Ramotswe is a genuinely graceful character to read. I love how she's so independent and confident. And of course, even though she refused him the first time, I'll probably have to read the second book to see if Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni (yes, he's always referred to by his full name) and Mme Ramotswe actually get married.

No Other Angle The Same: Through the Plastic Box

Philadelphia, PA
Sunday, January 19th
1:33 PM

Sometimes, life is just that much cooler when you view it from the inside of a box that held a toy for your baby sister on her first birthday.

(Isn't my friend's daughter cute??)

No Other ______ The Same: Uhuru is Moving

Walking home tonight, I came across this sign.

To some, this might not seem like a big deal. After all, Uhuru is simply a used furniture store, and a pretty odd used furniture store at that. Exhibit A: the sculpture in the window.

Yet Uhuru for me is synonymous with my introduction to Philadelphia 7 years ago. When I moved into my very first apartment without roommates, in a new city, with no furniture, I would go back and forth from Uhuru practically daily. Everything in there was cheap and definitely had a story. Throwing a dinner party? I'd pick up a new chair for $10. Needed one more wine glass? They had three for $5.00.

Uhuru is a project of the African People's Education and Defense Fund, so all purchases go to a good cause. Yet my relationship with Uhuru got a little bit awkward when I inadvertently got on their mailing list and Ruby, the manager, began calling and emailing me to come to all of their meetings. I said I could come to the meetings, but I didn't have extra money to donate. It turns out that she really wanted the money. I started avoiding Uhuru, a difficult feat since inevitably it would be on my way home.

I'm not sure what will replace it, but I doubt the new store will have the panache of Uhuru. Maybe I'll stop on in during the next couple of weeks, brave the chance of seeing Ruby, and pick up one more weird lamp to add to my unique furniture collection. 

No Other News The Same: Women and Weight

Earlier this week, my friend called me in tears because her yoga teacher told her she had to lose weight. The teacher told her that unless she modified her diet, she wouldn't be able to progress in her yoga practice. My friend is a size 4. Most women dream of being a size 4.

If even the most supposedly forgiving and spiritual type of physical activity, yoga, is starting to shame already fit women into thinking they need to slim down in order to be healthy, we are in big trouble. We should know now as a society that being a size 0 doesn't equal perfect health. The more we prioritize size over wellness, the harder it will be for individuals to actually be healthy.

Recently Elle Magazine ran a cover of four women in comedy featuring Mindy Kaling, Zooey Deschanel, Amy Poehler and Allison Williams. The pictures of Deschanel, Poehler and Williams were full-body shots. The picture of Kaling was cropped, just showing the actress' face and torso. Immediately the public started to wonder why. Was Kaling too large to show her whole body on a magazine cover? Keep in mind Kaling is a size 8.

Yet Kaling herself said in a talk show interview that the public outcry deflated her sense of accomplishment at making the cover of Elle. "The implication was, 'What, Elle, you can't put her big, fat body on the magazine?'" she said, slightly joking. "'Why? 'Cause she's just fat and gruesome? Why can't we look at her beautiful fat body?'" (Reported by the New York Daily News). Kaling is funny, innovative and extremely successful. Yet when I google "Mindy Kaling", the first item that comes up on my search engine is "Mindy Kaling weight".

Being thin doesn't necessarily equate being healthy. Some believe that exercising rather than dieting is the important part, and that thin people can, in fact, be extremely unhealthy. In an article entitled The Truth About Size Zero, a former Vogue editor quotes a Russian model refusing a snack in one of the only English phrases she knows, "It is my job not to eat."

Marilyn Wann writes about weight bias; "A highly accurate way to predict a person's risk of dying is to see how easily they can get up from the floor. I'm trying to imagine how different our health care system would be if, instead of focusing on weight and weight loss, caregivers did the sitting-rising test instead. How much healthier would we be? How much more would we actually enjoy healthy living, free from weight judgment?" One yoga teacher writes about learning to be at peace with being the biggest person in all of her classes as a size 10. She realized she went up a size from doing so much yoga and cross-fit, yet she was stronger, more muscular, and more fit than ever.

I'm not for one second saying that gaining an excessive amount of weight is healthy. According to the Center for Disease Control, more than one-third of American adults are obese, and approximately 17% of children and adolescents are obese. Extreme weight gain is a health problem. Being a fit, healthy size 10 is not.

Yet there is hope (and despair for the weight loss corporations). Currently, the amount of dieters is at an all-time low, which is surprising considering the fact that it's still prime New Year's Resolutions time. Instead of dieting, some Americans are simply eating healthier. Some are also becoming more tolerant of a couple of extra pounds.

What if, instead of worrying about size and weight, people (and women in particular) just worried about wellness? The organization I work at teaches young people that health can come in all shapes and sizes.

One young woman, after a summer with us declared, proudly, "I'm big and healthy. I'm blealthy." 

No Other Dish The Same: Granny's Oatmeal Bread - Baking Fail

I was sort of stumped as to what to make this week, since I wasn't making a dish for a certain occasion. Then, passing by my coffee table, I noticed my cookbooks. Remember cookbooks? Those precursors to the internet? Frequently I forget that I actually have a decent set of cookbooks, and instead I default to cooking blogs. My cookbooks are delightfully weathered with post-it notes inside them and somewhat disheveled pages.

This one is called Vegetarian Planet by Didi Emmons. My very good friend gave me this book six years ago (isn't it crazy that 2008 was six years ago??). I'm not a vegetarian, contrary to popular belief, but I don't particularly enjoy cooking meat. Choosing the right kind, making sure it doesn't go bad, and ensuring it's cooked for me is pretty stressful. Cooking meat will be a challenge later this year.

This recipe is called "Granny's Oatmeal Bread". Why, you might ask, did I actually try and bake again, given my record? Well, at a time in my life when I was an Outdoor Education Instructor living in a commune in Vermont I did manage to bake a few successful loaves of bread. I also had all but two of the ingredients. Finally, I thought it if turned out somewhat decently I would have breakfast for a couple of weeks. Breakfast is one of those meals that I simply haven't gotten down yet. What do you all eat for breakfast?

Here's the recipe:

It seemed simple enough. Yet, after an unexpected happy hour complete with mojitos, I wasn't entirely with it. Trying to keep juggling all the ingredients at one time proved to be too much.

This is me, wondering why on earth I even try to bake??

Then, I realized something. It was 9:45 pm, the dough had to rise for an hour and a half, and then the bread had to bake for an hour. So....I gave up.

I'm going to let the dough rise, try to set an alarm to get it into the refrigerator, and try to bake it tomorrow. I'll keep you posted. Needless to say, I won't be enjoying Granny's Oatmeal Bread for breakfast in the morning.

UPDATE

 

This morning, I got up an hour early, put the loaves into the oven, and went back to sleep. An hour later, the loaves were, as I had suspected, hard as bricks on the outside and still a bit gummy on the inside. Turns out that after the dough rose the first time, I was supposed to let it rise a second time. Whoops.

 



No Other Tale The Same: How My Parents Learned to Eat

How My Parents Learned to Eat by Ina R. Friedman and illustrated by Allen Say conveys the universal message of appreciating other cultures in a very simple, straightforward and charming manner. Everyone can appreciate and learn from this story, despite the fact that it is written for ages five to eight.

A young girl tells the tale of how her parents first learned how to eat - or really, learned to eat in a different way than they were used to growing up. Her mother is Japanese and her father is American, so when they first meet in Yokohama (he is stationed there as a solider), they are afraid to dine together. John is nervous because he doesn't know how to eat with chopsticks. Aiko is apprehensive because she doesn't know how to eat with a fork and knife. They secretly practice the other one's customs, and of course, when they go on their first dinner date, John is prepared to eat at a Japanese restaurant and Aiko is prepared to eat at an American restaurant. They resolve to alternate in the future, and the rest is history. The book ends with the little girl saying that some nights her family eats with chopsticks, and some nights her family eats with a knife and fork. Amazing.

Without sounding preachy, Friedman shows an example of two individuals who, instead of judging one another, strived to understand one another instead. There wasn't the least bit of disgust on either end. Both John and Aiko, with open minds and curiosity, strive to simply understand each other. Yes, it's a simplistic thought, yet what if everyone really took this concept to heart?

Sasha Martin cooked at least one dish from every country in the world in her Global Table Adventure experiment with the goal of creating more peace through understanding culture, one bite at a time. Food connects all of us no matter how differently we eat, and of course, we all know that food is about more than simply nourishment. As John thinks to himself when he finally gets up the courage to ask Aiko to dinner, "It's hard to be happy if you're hungry."

 

No Other Angle The Same: Fresh Lettuce

MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) Museum
Giovanni Anselmo
Senza titolo (Struttura che mangia)
Untitled (Eating Structure)
New York, NY
Saturday, January 11th
4:31 PM

I tend to get kind of snarky when I look at modern art. Call me old-fashioned, but when I go into an art gallery I like to see work one of my former 3rd grade students couldn't have crafted. You can imagine my comments when I saw this. (So now lettuce, sawdust and granite are considered art??? Really?? Come on!)

Yet, as is the case usually with modern art (for me), it's all in the description. I realized that the lettuce has to be changed every few days or the granite stone will fall when the lettuce wilts. The idea that lettuce can hold up a stone is kind of cool. I also read more about why this artist chose these elements. It's pretty interesting.

Still, though, I have to admit that I would take Van Gogh's Starry Night over Senza titolo any day.

No Other ______ The Same: The Piano Bar

All the newbies hang at the bar, being shoved constantly to the side by the people coming in and heading out. The regulars sit at the round tables closest to the piano, clearly well past their 2 drink minimum. The piano singer is on fire, belting out everything from Katy Perry to Queen to Lisa Loeb to Broadway showtunes. A rather large, macho bartender sings a surprisingly sassy version of "Part of your world" from The Little Mermaid. A customer sings a way too serious version of "Moondance" by Van Morrison, all the while pulling up his pants that keep falling down. The server blows everyone away as she belts out the high parts of "Seasons of Love" from Rent. As the patrons continue to drink, their voices get louder and more off-key as they sing along to all their favorite tunes.

No Other News The Same: Re-use?

What do you do when your umbrella breaks? If you're anything like myself, you probably just go out and buy another one. Another cheap one that will inevitably break in about a week or so. At this point, if I really forced myself to count, I could probably find about 11 bargain umbrellas in my apartment. About half of them are broken.

NPR Morning Edition ran a story today entitled No Rain on His Parade: Parisian Preserves Art of Umbrella Repair about Thierry Millet, the last umbrella repairman in Paris. Listening, I became uncomfortably aware of some bigger issues behind mindlessly buying one umbrella when another one breaks; monetary, environmental, and nostalgic. Society is willing to buy and buy and buy as if there are unlimited resources, and for now, there appear to be. What would happen, instead, if we restored our treasured possessions by fixing them when they broke, rather than buying new ones?

We would inevitably end up saving money. This year I re-soled both of my pairs of boots, and it cost much less than buying new ones. Millet typically repairs umbrellas for less than the purchase of a new one. This website lists various ways how re-using does save money.

We would be doing the environment a service. In France, an estimated number of 15 million umbrellas are thrown away in France each year. I couldn't find the comparison for the United States, yet I would wager the number would be comparable or higher. According to the Duke University Center for Sustainability and Commerce, the average US citizen generates 4.3 pounds of waste per day.

We would treat all of our possessions as if they were irreplaceable. Millet has other reasons for fixing umbrellas in addition to the environment. He considers repairing umbrellas to be a lost art. "People who come to me are attached to their umbrellas for sentimental reasons. Many times they have beautiful stories about them. So I feel obliged to restore them," he says. Everyone must have a few items they feel sentimentally attached to. For me, it's an old purse from my mother, a bureau my grandfather made himself, and a miniature wooden desk my great-great aunt gave me to remind me always to study. The old purse has a tire mark on it from when a car literally ran over it, the wooden bureau is worn, and the miniature desk is in pretty bad shape, yet I would never throw them away. Of course, I haven't really restored them either.

Now, there are extreme examples of re-using. Bea Johnson of Zero Waste Home nearly lost me as a reader when she wrote an extremely passionate argument detailing how she had tried to re-use a ponytail holder when it snapped, re-tying it and re-tying it until it was finally unfixable - and then refused to buy a new ponytail holder because she couldn't purchase just the one she needed. That lifestyle is not for me.

This simple and beautiful story about Millet's repair shop has made me want to go and reevaluate how I choose what I own. My ultimate goal is to own a few simple possessions that, with some simple repairs, will stand the test of time. Unfortunately, I can't seem to locate an umbrella repair shop in Philadelphia. 

No Other Dish The Same: Sesame Noodles with Sweet Peppers and Cucumbers

This polar vortex business has been no joke in my apartment. Yesterday morning I woke up to my windows looking like this.

From the INSIDE. Needless to say, I haven't been wanting to cook, much less set foot in my apartment
(unless I've been wrapped up in my bed under three blankets). Yet I had a mission today - to make a dish for book club. I cooked in my kitchen with a space heater right nearby.

I settled on Cook's Illustrated Sesame Noodles with Sweet Peppers and Cucumbers. I can't actually link to the website since it's members only, but if you like the sound of this recipe, let me know if you want to read the whole thing and I'll send it to ya.

I really like Cook's Illustrated because they always tackle recipes like they are detectives on a case they're ready to crack. They always start with the problem ("The problem with noodles is usually that they're gummy and pasty...") and then they explain, step by step, the solution. As long as you follow each direction exactly, there's no way you can screw up a Cook's Illustrated Recipe. If you know me at all, you'll see where I'm going here.

Anyways, the recipe is fairly straightforward. You take sesame seeds, garlic, chunky peanut butter, rice vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger and water and blend them all together to make a sauce.

You chop up the pepper, cucumber, scallions and carrots. See all my little bowls of pre-prepared veggies? Very chef-like, don't ya think? The lack of counter space means my stove doubles as a counter.

You then cook the noodles. You can just use plain old spaghetti, which is what I did. I got kind of impatient waiting for them to cook. A watched pot never boils...

Next came the one step that I ultimately forgot. Cook's Illustrated says to rinse the noodles in cold water so they aren't gummy and stuck together. I was so fixated at that point on the fact that I didn't have sesame oil (a major ingredient in sesame noodles) that I totally ignored that step. I settled for olive oil instead. Major Cook's Illustrated fail.

The result? Kind of exactly what Cook's Illustrated warned me about. The pasta stuck together in one big chunk. However, once I got to book club, I borrowed some of my friend's sesame oil, drizzled it on top, managed to divvy the dish amongst my friends, and it was ultimately tasty.

No Other Tale The Same: The Buddha in the Attic

Julie Otsuka's style in The Buddha in the Attic feels like a breath of fresh air. Otsuka has chosen to depict Japanese women coming to San Francisco as mail order brides in the early 1900's and then being accused of being traitors to America not as one single tale, but as several first-person voices.

It's an adjustment as a reader. On the one hand, it's amazing that in a short 129 pages, Otsuka manages to share so many stories. It also makes an already sad story very chilling. Yet there's no central character to hold onto. As soon as one name is mentioned, it's never mentioned again. There's also no central plot. The story is instead broken up into different phases of life these women experienced. Otsuka writes about the boat ride over, the women's first nights with their husbands, encounters with white Americans, having babies, watching their babies grow up, and eventually being taken away from their homes. A spare few stories are happy, yet the majority are devastating.

Since there is no central plot, Otsuka's book reminds me of one long poem, lyrical, haunting and evocative. After hearing all these voices in my head I want to find a historical fiction novel about this subject and time period so I can hang onto onto one voice and one story. Does anyone have any suggestions?

No Other Angle The Same: Before 6 AM

City Hall

Philadelphia, PA

5:49 AM

A mentor of mine used to say that the whole world looks different before 6 AM. We were on canoeing trips in Northern Maine, and I had to agree that every time I managed to wake up before 6 AM I was astounded at the sheer beauty of the wilderness. Even though I'm living this city life, now, there is still a beauty to the 5 AM hour that, when forced to be awake, I can still appreciate.

No Other _____ The Same: Perspective

Today, as was the case of countless thankful teachers in the Philadelphia area, my workplace was closed, and I did not go in. When I first looked at my phone in the morning, my friend was already trying to contact me to urge me to get going so we could indulge in our favorite snow day ritual - brunch. On weekends, it's impossible to get into this place without waiting. The irony is that it has just a few tables inside and a huge waiting area outside where no one ever eats. Today, we sailed right in without a problem and sat down. We were in high spirits.

"Happy Snow Day!" we said cheerfully to our waitress. She smiled ruefully at us, and we thanked her for being open. "Yeah, no snow day for me!" she said. "At 5 AM when I was walking to work and the wind was howling and I was freezing, I thought - this is hell. This is actually, hell." We apologized and thanked her again for being open.

Snow days are heaven for some, and hell for others. Perspective...

No Other News The Same: New Year's Resolutions

It’s now 2014, and everyone is talking about New Year's Resolutions. The gyms are packed. People are buying fruit and kale in bulk for their healthy smoothies. Facebook and Twitter posts describe Resolutions in detail.

The age-old joke is that New Year's Resolutions only last until February, when that "clean slate" feeling wears off and people start to settle back into their routines. Yet most news outlets are running at least one New Year's Resolution story, whether it's to provide insight into the religious and cross culture nature of New Year's Resolutions, advise against New Year's Resolutions or even to dictate New Year's Resolutions for the individual who doesn't feel like making his or her own. 

Whether cynical or hopeful, our society is forever fixated on New Year's Resolutions. New Year's Resolutions make society feel hopeful, give people a sense of purpose, and add a sense of magic into our lives.

Even though December 31st isn't in reality that different from January 1st, the New Year can be a very hopeful time for people who feel disappointed in the previous year. In that ten second countdown, it can feel as if that previous year never existed.

It's true that goals can be set any time during the year. Yet, knowing that several others are also setting New Year's Resolutions can be extremely motivating. That peer pressure can create an urgent sense of purpose.

Adding a sense of ceremony and magic into New Year's can save people from the doldrums of the after Christmas blues. The Christmas tree will be recycled and Starbucks will stop selling their peppermint mocha. People must have something else on which to focus their attentions.

In reality, the whole concept of a New Year's Resolution is a complete illusion. Perhaps, like the Romans who supposedly started this tradition, we all need the myth of the New Year's Resolution. By the time February hits, the gyms will clear out, people will start preparing their feasts of wings for the Superbowl and the Facebook and Twitter posts will ramble on about some other new fad.

No Other Dish The Same: Goat Cheese Cheesecake

New Year's Eve seems hardly the time to explore a new recipe. Especially when you've offered to host a potluck dinner party for 10 at the last minute. And...when you actually start the recipe about 30 minutes before your guests arrive. Yet I simply had to try this recipe.

It started out with my mother giving me these tiny muffin tins for Christmas. They are so cute, and I immediately had visions of just making mini everything from now on - mini muffins, mini cakes, mini quiches, mini cheesecakes...

I've also been obsessed with finding a non-cow's milk cheesecake option for months. Cheesecake is L's favorite desert, even though he is lactose-intolerant (with the exception of goat cheese), and frequently he will choose to indulge anyway, suffering the consequences. I've been determined to find another option. For his birthday this past year, I made him a tofu cheesecake. It wasn't amazing. It seems that when you look up "lactose free" you automatically get vegan recipes.

That's why I was so excited when I first encountered goat cheese cheesecake at my friend's new restaurant in DC, Beuchert's Saloon. It was fantastic. You should absolutely go there if you have the chance.

I found the goat cheese cheesecake recipe I made through random Google searching on frijolita. Check out her original recipe. She seems to have a lot of cool recipes. Her cooking photos are also beautiful.

So my visions of mini cheesecakes went out the window temporarily. Being that I made this cooking decision hours before my guests arrived, I bought a pre-made graham cracker crust. Some day I will be brave enough to try that part on my own. I set out to start trying to follow the directions for the filling.

This recipe is fairly simple in terms of ingredients: goat cheese, sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, vanilla, eggs and flour. It seems healthier than most cheesecakes - at least to me. Am I right??

First, I combined the goat cheese with sugar. It said to use granulated sugar, but all I had was this raw turbinando sugar from my adventures in vegan baking for my co-workers. Eh, same same.

Next, I added in all the vanilla I had. The recipe dictates a teaspoon of vanilla, yet I only had about a half a teaspoon left in my makeshift pantry. In it went.

This cheesecake is very lemony. I squeezed half a lemon and added the juice, and then added lemon zest. My mom got me this zester and I love it! I also use it for grating cheese. Tiny kitchens call for multi-use gadgets.

For this next step, I had to beat the ingredients together. I'm sure the author of this recipe probably meant for the chef to possess actual beaters. The "magic wand" did a pretty good job. I then added in the egg yolks...

And then beat the egg whites....they were supposed to be firm, but not stiff. What does that mean?

After I had "folded" everything together (a cooking term I will never fully understand) I was so excited when I had my final product ready to bake. So excited that I went to photograph it in the living room/dining room/everything room that I spilled some of it along the way...

I also realized that I had more than enough filling - enough to make mini-cheesecakes as well! 

Although the mini-cheesecakes were missing little graham cracker crusts, they turned out just fine. If only this recipe didn't have flour in it, it would be a great gluten-free option.

Here is my final product. I tried to peel a lemon peel all curly like the pretty picture on the cooking blog, but it didn't look quite the same. 

Both the mini cheesecakes and the big cheesecake only took about 25 minutes due to my extremely temperamental, hot oven (the recipe said 50 minutes). They both tasted great! The cheesecake texture was light, fluffy, and lemony. It did, however have some stiff competition from the cookies and cream mini cupcakes my friend contributed to the meal. 

Eh, more for me. Happy New Year!