Welcome to the Last Post in 2021

 I know a lot of people are thinking it, but when did 2020 become 2021...and how did 2021 pass by so quickly?

This will be my last post in 2021. I spent part of the year without a job, started traveling again, and have continued to worry about COVID (despite the vaccine).

This holiday season is a little different than last year. Though COVID is always at the back of my mind, being vaccinated has given me a little freedom. 

Last weekend I went to a local production of the Nutcracker with a friend. Most of the audience was made of the dancers' family and friends. I (being determined to see any production of the ballet live) really enjoyed myself. Some of the dancers were absolutely tiny and positively adorable. All of the dancers were fantastic. 

I am happy to encourage anyone who has a local theater group or community center to check out any productions they may be putting on. Not only are they fun, but they support your area's artists, dancers, actors, and talent. I'm actually kind of sad I missed a local production of the Dracula ballet (there are actually several versions of the Dracula ballet which can be found on YouTube). 

This weekend, I had a couple of friends over for my first holiday bunch! 

It was so much fun and I may have gone a little overboard while cooking (there are tons of leftovers). The Wassail I made was a particularly big hit, as was the pumpkin cake and mocktail I came up with on the spot (a scoop of cranberry relish, some pomegranates, and pomegranate bubbly water in Champaign glasses - the full thing will be in my food blog). Christmas music played in the background (okay it was the Nutcracker) and I had a roaring fire in the fireplace. Lights are strung up all over and my tiny tree is fully trimmed. 

Yesterday, I spent the whole day cooking and cleaning my apartment. I found the cleaning therapeutic and helped me feel like I was sweeping out the old year. I even took time to wrap up all the presents. It's hard to believe Christmas is in less than a week and New Years is in less than two. 

Over the next couple weeks, things will be quiet. The only major event I'll be attending is a driver through light display. I went last year with my dad and it was the only request he had this year to do during the season. Maybe I'll also take a day trip into DC to see the train display at the outdoor botanical gardens and the Congressional ("People's") tree.

2021 was a long year that somehow felt very short. It was eventful and at the same time very boring. My hope is for some peace and stability. Though I hope to travel again soon, I'd much rather know that people are safe and my cat can curl up on my head whenever she feels like it.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season. May you all have a nice rest, a little peace, and lots of fun memories. 

Good bye 2021.

Welcome 2022. 

If you enjoyed this post (or if really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope y'all like hearing from me.

Welcome to the Fall 2021 Experience

 Happy Fall 2021!

To start off your Fall 2021 experience you should start with a quick fall cleaning. Remove dust and clutter, put away summer decorations, and reorganize your kitchen. Trust me, you’ll be spending a lot of time there for your Fall 2021 experience.

Once your living space is clean (or cleaner - I’m not going to judge you), it’s time to put up the Halloween fall decorations. If you’re anything like me, the fall decorations are mixed in with your regular decorations. Now you’ll want to bring them to the forefront - maybe put them on a pedestal - and set candles everywhere. You can’t have enough candles in fall.

Speaking of decor, you’re color palette for the Fall 2021 experience is deep reds, golden wheat yellows, warm oranges, nutty browns, and (of course) black. Some purple accents are acceptable and a dash of neon green is okay the closer you get to Halloween.

Fall 2021is dedicated to peace, transition, and going to farms.

Don’t forget your Covid vaccine and Flu shot.

Visiting farms is a tried and true pastime in American culture. Fall is usually the best time to go as it is the harvest season - when the best fruits and veggies are ready to eat. I recommend looking for farms that feature apple picking, pumpkin patches, and corn mazes.

I’m fairly certain that corn mazes are a uniquely American (northern continental) phenomenon. They can vary in size and might require participants to carry a flag in case they get lost and need help (cell phone service is typically spotty). You shouldn’t fear entering a corn maze. The worst that can happen is you get lost for a few hours. There is nothing stalking the rows of corn…unless the farm and town are run by children and have scarecrows that look suspiciously like corpses.

Many farms will have some late night haunted attractions. These have become a staple all around the United States and may have an over arcing theme. If you don’t like loud noises, strobe lights, fog machines, or being scared in general - then these events are not for you. Don’t worry, the actors aren’t supposed to touch you. If they do, they aren’t actors. You might have stumbled upon something dangerous and that goes against our Fall 2021 experience guidelines - please run away.

Now that you’ve had your farm experience, it’s time to get to work in the kitchen. The Fall 2021 experience naturally includes a lot of baking, roasting, and cooking. Some of the best recipes are made with fall flavors. These flavors include cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, and anything else associated with pumpkin spice non-sense. Don’t feel basic if you want to try all the pumpkin spiced flavored things - this is normal. And noticed, it’s pumpkin spice flavored - pumpkins aren’t required, though greatly encouraged. They are a very healthy food.

I recommend trying apple or pumpkin scores recipes, baking bread, and a hearty meat strew. I’m looking forward to trying my hand at making a creamy mushroom soup this year. You of course can find ideas on the Internet, but for your Fall 2021 experience I recommend trying to find a local farmers market as they tend to have recipe recommendations with local produce.

Now that you’ve fully emerged yourself in the Fall 2021 experience, you can now start looking at what you can add on to bring this fall up from typical, to extraordinary.

First your movie list.

Horror movies are a staple for this time of year. There are some that just drip the fall aesthetic. I’m fond of House of Wax with Vincent Price, Halloween the original first three, and Sleepy Hollow the Disney animated version and the Tim Burton one (which is about as authentically American as cricket). 

If you aren’t into horror movies, there are plenty of spooky Halloween movies to chose from. I personally recommend Coraline, Halloweentown, Hocus Pocus, Paranorman (I always cry), The Addams Family, and Scooby Doo and the Witch’s Ghost. If you’re wondering why Nightmare Before Christmas isn’t included, that’s because it’s a November movie.

But if Halloween isn’t your thing, there are still plenty of media for you to enjoy. The best being Over the Garden Wall. It’s a series that just drips everything fall.

Finally, you might be interested in adding one final detail to your Fall 2021 experience.

Witchcraft!

Many a young witch (male, female, and non-binary people may all use the term) find their calling during the fall season. It’s a perfect time to learn and experiment. Most of your first spells will probably  to go well at all. I recommend starting small. Learn to combine runes to creat charms, put together sweet dream sleep satchels, or reading tarot. Leave summoning eldritch creatures for when you’ve been practicing for a while - they’ll be less likely to eat you when called.

I hope you enjoy your Fall 2021 experience. May it bring you peace, tranquility, and a brief encounter with the darker things in life (in a safe, controlled setting - naturally). Set up a bond fire, invite nine of your closest friends, and dance naked under the crisp fall moon as leaves fall around you. You might even find yourself flying amongst the stars.

It’s the perfect time for fun.

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope y’all like hearing from me.

Welcome to Cake Pops: The Story of a Hot Mess

I have to give serious props to bakers, especially the ones who go on TV and compete in timed competitions. They make the art of baking and decorating look easy.

I'm here to tell you that they aren't. Not in the slightest.

These turned out the prettiest...until they fell over.

For a couple of holiday parties that I was invited to, I decided to make cake pops. I've sort of made them before, but minus the pop stick and sprinkles. Thus, I wanted to try making them again (with all the trimmings) and feature them in my food blog (it's under a different name and website, but click here) while pairing them with that "special edition" cinnamon coke.

I was not prepared.

Baking the cakes went smoothly, it's when I tried to stick them on the pop sticks and add the chocolate coating that I started running into serious problems. Either the cake pops didn't want to stay on the pop stick, they dangerously leaned to one side in the display I had created, or everything just went all over the place. I probably ended up with more chocolate on me than on the cake pops.

If no one has ever told you, making cake pops is a long process. You’ve got to bake the cake, then add some frosting, let them harden in the fridge or freezer (your mileage on this step may vary), put them on pop sticks, add your chocolate (it’s messy), and finally the sprinkles. Then you’ve got to hope to the universe that they don’t fall over in your display. Oh yes, they will fall. This whole thing took me two days to do (mostly because of trial and error). It was a long two days.

Early yesterday, I wrote on Facebook that I thought that making cake pops would be the end of me - mainly because dipping each pop into chocolate has been the bane of my existence. One of my cousins pointed out that the best way to do this was to drizzle the chocolate onto the cake pops instead. So I ran out to pick up some Styrofoam (not something I like buying, but it worked) to hold the cake pops up and drizzled a ton of chocolate on top of the few remaining un-decorated pops. Candy and chocolate still went flying everywhere.

Other people commented on my Facebook post either to give suggestions or to agree with my frustration. Some of the comments were pretty funny.

It was frustrating, taking a lot longer than I thought it would, and turned out hilarious. If I eat another cake pop before next winter, it'll be too soon. I will say they taste really good, but in the looks department, I've seen prettier fails on the Nailed It subreddit. I might have even baked one of the eggs instead of properly adding it into the cake.

I honestly had to laugh. The whole thing felt like an allegory to my current life situation. It's not pretty, has lots of problems, but there are still reasons to laugh and smile. I think a lot of us feel like we should have everything put together by our mid to late twenties. We won’t and I certainly don’t.

Two days of working on these cake pops and at least they taste good, but my kitchen is a disaster zone and I'm not looking forward to cleaning it up. Thankfully they made it to their destinations in one piece. I hope the same happens to me once I make my next big decision.

I also might be on the verge of hysterically crying. The sheer absurdity of making these cake pop has broken my brain for a few days. And why try challenging myself this way? What's the point? Half of the cake pops ended up on the floor anyway.

Maybe it was because I saw a few pictures online, read a few different recipes, and wanted to make something just as pretty. It looked easy. They looked yummy. It looked fun.

Well, one and a half out of three ain't bad.

This attempt at cake pops might not have turned out my best, but that's how these things go sometimes. I'll keep trying different ways to make them and maybe one day I'll get the technique down right. I’ll hopefully not make as much of a mess either.

Just like in life.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off), please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope y'all like hearing from me.

Until next week.

Welcome to Food World Building Part 1: An Introduction

When I started writing this, I honestly thought that it would be one post. Then it started to get longer and longer. I quickly realized there were a lot more topics I wanted to talk about and things I wanted to expand on. So, here's to my latest blog series, food.

I haven't recently talked about food on this blog. Probably because I have another blog where I can talk endlessly about my latest kitchen experiment (click here to see Cooking with Spirits - updates Mondays at 13:00).

Crock pots for the win!

We all have some type of relationship with food. The act of eating give us the energy we need to live. Food gives us the nutrients to live healthy lives. The kinds of foods we eat often help to identify our cultural background. Experimenting with different recipes shows our creative and adventurous side (especially if it involves whatever I find at the back of my pantry).

Food has a big social impact on our lives. It's recommended that families sit down and eat dinner together to help with child development. Friends go out for lunch to catch up with each other. A romantic date likely starts off with a fancy dinner. Parents pass down family recipes to their children.

There are entire industries built around food. There are dozens of cooking shows and at least two networks I know of in the US that are totally dedicated to food. Celebrity chiefs have created empires around their cooking. There are travel shows dedicated to showing off a new city or country's best places or most unusual places to find a bite to eat.

Many communities have distinct foods that they identify with.

Roasted marshmallows - a summer time staple

The United States has a lot of these subcultures entirely based around food, occasionally leading to food wars. New Jersey, New York, and Chicago all claim to have the best pizza. The city of Chicago once sent the comedian Jon Stewart a Chicago Deep Dish Pizza after he insulted it on his show to prove that their pizza was truly the best. The southern part of the United States will never agree on who has the best BBQ. An argument that I won't touch with a ten foot pole (but I'm partial to Eastern North Carolina's style). And Old Bay seasoning and blue crabs is probably it's own food group in Maryland.

Food is also how we connect with cultural heritage. In many cities in the US you'll find a Little Italy, Chinatown, or Latin Quarter. These neighborhoods were where newly arrived immigrants from one country could live and be close to other people who were from the same country. People brought their favorite foods with them and would open restaurants.

I grew up eating a lot of different types of food. Between my family and my friends' parents, there were tons of home cooked dishes I got to try from many different cultures. I had friends whose mother's cook make samosas from scratch. I grew up eating a lot of traditional Japanese and Guyanese food (that I rarely find in restaurants). And I swear that nothing beats my mom's goulash or her homemade humus and tabbouleh.

One of the strangest back handed compliments I ever received was that I grew up eating "a lot of weird food". The person I was with claimed to have grown up eating "normal food"- whatever that means. Needless to say that relationship didn't last. As far as I'm concerned, there's no such thing as "normal food". There's just food.

So it stands to reason that with food being such an important part of everyone's culture, it would be easy to write about. Right?

Well, sort of. Much like portraying food visually is an art (one that usually involves a lot of fake food), writing about food can be equally challenging. There are only so many times I can write the word delicious in my blog and not think I'm just being overly dramatic about my own cooking.

There's an entire vocabulary around food, one that is as vast and rich as any delicacy.

Not only does a writer have to think about the vocabulary, but the culture surrounding that food. What kind of food does a dessert community have that would be very different than a community on a tropical island? What goes into preserving food when there isn't a fridge to be found? There's a lot of research that needs to go into writing about food.

As this introduction has concluded: FOOD IS IMPORTANT.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Welcome To Chopped

I'm sensing a theme in my latest blog posts. Last week, I had just watched Star Trek Beyond. This week I am basing my title (and theme) off of the fact that I've been watching a lot of Chopped on Netflix. I'm actually watching Chopped as I type up this post (seated in my kitchen).

If you aren't familiar with the show, it's basically four chefs compete in three course rounds where at the end of each round, one person is "chopped" (does not advance to the next round). On top of that, they are given four mystery ingredients that they have to use for that round and only a limited amount of time to create their dishes. There have been many ingredients that popped up that I have no idea what they are.

It's amazing what these competitors can do.

It's so much fun to watch and I get a lot of great ideas to make my own dishes. Between Chopped and my local farmer's market, I've been introduced to a lot of new things to eat. Not just the types of food, but also the colors and shapes the food I'm used to can take.

Orange cauliflower anyone?

I think it takes a lot of guts to work with anything (be it food, technology, or crafting items) that someone might not be familiar with. It might work out, but at least the effort was made and a new experience learned.

Back in January (right before I started my current job), I started a food blog. I did this in an effort to get out of my comfort zone, learn to cook new things, and continue to practice writing (along with this blog, my webcomic, fanfiction, and my own original fiction - yes this is a lot of writing).

For the most part, I've had a lot of success with my cooking experiments (I don't always follow a recipe). However, I have had a few things blow up in my face. When that happens, I sometimes have to make changes to my lunch/dinner plans. (S/N pan frying is a lot harder than it looks).

I can't always plan for when one of my cooking experiments blows up in my face (that only happened once by the way). Experimenting allows me to find out what works and what I definitely will not do ever again. It's fun and keeps me on my toes.

Leftover BBQ Pork Rice Bowl

I doubt I'd ever compete on Chopped (I don't really like the idea of being on camera), but I do respect the people who do compete. Experimenting is key to innovation and it can be a surprise as to what works and what doesn't.

Now, I'm going to try making chocolate covered potato chips. It can't bee too hard right?

If you enjoyed this post (or if really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me. Until next week!

Welcome To Down Time

I didn't realize until yesterday just how busy I've been. Work has been crazy. Typically I have some energy when I get home from work, but lately I've come home and just crashed on my couch. I  still try to go to the pool when the weather is nice and get a quick swim in, but that's all I really do. Making dinner has even been a chore. I've also had pretty full weekends with Bronycon, my family reunion and visiting my parents (cough* doing laundry *cough) and a few friends.

On Friday I was very stressed out and tense. I also had nothing to distract me. It was not the best way to start out the weekend.

Then, yesterday I woke up and realized I didn't have any plans. Well I had had plans with my anime club, but they were canceled because of the rain. I spent the morning watching cartoon (seriously who didn't see that coming), until a humongous spider crept out on to my living room floor. If you didn't  see my Facebook post, I somehow got myself to kill the unfortunate guy. It was terrifying.

I was so traumatized I went on a huge cleaning spree, though if my sister walked in right now she'd complain about how messy my place is. I have a few places I still need to dist and disinfect, but overall I think my place is pretty nice looking. That will probably change tomorrow. It was kind of nice not having any plans. I divided half way through cleaning that I wanted Mac and Cheese, so I went out in the pouring rain to Noodles and Company and then the library for some more manga.

Today I went to church, which was nice. I went shopping for a few things I needed. Spent a ton of time by the pool. It was finally bright, sunny and warm (good bye polar vortex, hello fall). I also made chicken surprise soup. Cooking is a wonderful thing to do when you have free time.

The best part is I feel great. I'm not feeling anxious or stressed out anymore. I fell like I've accomplished something without doinig all that much. Heck I even brought the first Season of Duck Tails (I blame the Nostalgia Critic). I think I really needed to do well nothing. It allowed for me to recharge like I haven't in a while.

If you enjoyed this post, please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers. I hope you guys enjoy reading.

Also here's a random picture for Facebook.

Welcome To Vacations

Happy year of the horse! Yep it’s the year of the horse! I spent New Year’s with my Japanese family in North Carolina. It was pretty awesome. They have a lot of different traditions that I don’t get to experience every year. My favorite part is the food. On New Year’s Eve we all eat soba noodles (buckwheat noodles) for longevity. There are also tons of other foods you eat on New Year’s Day. Unfortunately I had to leave on the 1^st of January to be back at work on the 2^nd. I ate a traditional New Year’s breakfast and then hit the road with a bento box of food you were supposed to eat during the day. It was a wonderful vacation and celebration. 

In fact, this was my first vacation since I had started work and it was the first vacation that I drove by myself further than two hours. The trip is roughly six and a half hours for me to do. This is including any pit stops I might make (except if I stop at my parent’s house for an hour that time is omitted). To be honest I was a little worried about pulling it off. There are lots of horror stories about young women disappearing while driving by themselves (alright I exaggerate, but you always hear about them). So I armed myself with my Kenyan war club (got it from my dad when I was sixteen, it is solid hard wood) and a GPS incase I take a wrong turn. For the most part I felt safe. 

My mom also made sure that I knew the facts of highway driving by myself. She said that if anyone (particularly an older male) starts madly signaling you and pointing at your car, it can mean that there is something wrong that you can’t see. If this happens you put on your hazards and either call Triple A (if you have it) or the local cops. If the person signaling you also tries to pull over and help, don’t get out of your car. Instead tell them you are calling the local dispatch for assistance and that they should leave. Never ever leave your car or unlock it if you think the person is a threat. I would also add to check to make sure that it is a cop approaching you and if you have any bad feelings to ask to call and verify who they are. It is sometimes worth it to be paranoid. 

My trip went smoothly. I made good time and was only startled once by a cop zooming past me to catch someone seriously speeding (or drunk driving I couldn’t really tell). My time in North Carolina was fun. I learned to do a lot more Japanese cooking and where to buy the ingredients I need. I was able to work on my (barely passable) Japanese. My family is trying to teach my baby cousin to be bilingual, so far it is working. I got to see family that I hadn’t in a very long time and I watched so much NHK (the Tokyo public TV station) that I already miss it. 

It feels weird to be home. I went to work on the 2^nd and then got snowed in on the 3^rd which only means that I work from my house instead of driving to my office. I finally figured out how to program my thermostat. That was important since my energy bill nearly doubled this past month (that was sticker shock if there ever was). 

I hope everyone else had lovely vacations if they were able to. It was nice to not have to worry about anything for a few days. I can’t wait to get back into the swing of work. I honestly do not do well with nothing to do (hence the cooking). Good luck to all my readers in the Year of the Horse!

If you enjoyed this post or it really pissed you off, please leave a comment or share the link. I always love hearing back from my readers and I hope they at least like reading what I write.

Welcome To The Kitchen

Mom Is No Longer There To Cook For You...

I think my favorite part of my new place is my kitchen. At my college all of the dorms had at least one kitchen (though my freshmen one was the size of a closet and fridge did not even fit in it). The last place I lived was a house on campus called a lodge and I shared it with six other people. It was great, except the kitchen was the size of a closet and we tended to blow the fuse that knocked out all of the power on that side of the lodge at least once a month. It also did not have a dish washer. If people did not do their dishes, they sat in the sink. It was tough at times, but totally worth it to have a reduced meal plan and cook some of my own meals.

My new kitchen is a lot bigger and has a dish washer and a garbage disposal (also not featured in the lodge). I love it! I run the dishwasher a few times a week and do hand washing in between. It makes my life a lot easier. I also now have a gas stove. I grew up with gas in the kitchen instead of electric, but in college all they had was electric. I defiantly prefer gas stoves. I also do not have to worry about someone drunk baking in the middle of the night and setting off the fire alarms (this happened multiple times in one of my dorms).

A fun fact about my kitchen, I currently do not own a microwave. I’ve learned to live without one, but at first I was a little skeptical about not having one. However a stove, toaster oven and hot water maker have, so far, been good substitutes. I eat a lot of frozen vegetables and it’s easy to just heat them up on the stove and add spices to them. I also have a crock pot. I think every kitchen should have at least one crock pot. I have a great three bean chili recipe that is really easy and has leftovers for almost a week that I make in it. I would also like to give a shout out to one of my aunts who sent me a magic bullet. I can make smoothies whenever it suites my fancy.

I love food. I enjoy finding simple recipes and making them my own with a few changes. I have a number of meals that I have found online and in cookbooks that I have changed to make them either more affordable or spicier (I love spicy foods, but have learned the hard way that I need to be careful how much spice I add). A few things that I almost always have lying around my kitchen:

·         Peanut Butter – Spicy peanut noodles, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, apples and peanut butter and many other peanut butter related foods are a main staple in my diet. I love peanut butter. I feel bad for people who cannot have it because of allergies or other health reasons because it is so good.

·         Soy Sauce – I eat a lot of Asian food, I grew up with it. It can add great flavor.

·         Sesame Oil – See Soy Sauce.

·         Cayenne Pepper – or other spicy flavoring. I love spicy foods and cayenne pepper can add a little kick to any ordinary meal.

·         Frozen Vegetables – They are super easy to add to any meal. I tend to add whatever I find in the freezer to pasta, noodle dishes and most crock pot recipes.

·         Onions – I love onions, don’t know why, but I do.

·         Frozen fruit – I can’t eat ice cream and fresh fruit can go back quickly. Frozen fruit allows for smoothies and a quick dessert.

·         Carrots – They last forever in the fridge, end of story.

·         Frozen Snacks, Pizzas, and Meals – Although not always healthy sometimes it is just too hard or I am motivated to make my own food. Thus to make my life easier I have a few frozen treats in the freezer. Just add the veggies and wham food!

Cooking is a lot of fun and I will probably write about it quite a bit. If anyone has any suggestions about simple recipes let me know. Now I’m going to go eat my chicken curry with toast.