BLT

felt adventurous in the kitchen today.

BLT
romaine lettuce
hot house tomato
premium cut hickory smoked bacon (4 slices)
chipotle mayo
on a
jalapeno cheddar loaf.

All I Ever Wanted - Basshunter

Hoodies On, Hats Low - FreeSol

oh crap, what's a clove

so i tried to make jap chae (korean glass noodles) today. it was the first time i tried to cook anything with more than 3 ingredients unassisted. i got the recipe from "the steamy kitchen" http://steamykitchen.com/180-korean-glass-noodles-jap-chae.html via the shi's.

Korean Glass Noodles – Jap Chae/Chap Chae Recipe
Serves 4-6 as part of multicourse meal

1/2 pound dried Korean sweet potato noodles
2 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil, divided
1 tablespoon cooking oil
3/4 cup thinly sliced onions
2 carrots, cut into matchsticks
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
3 stalks green onions, cut into 1″ lengths
1/2 cup mushrooms, thinly sliced (shitake, wood ear)
1/2 lb spinach, washed well and drained
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon sesame seeds

this is the running commentary i had in my head...

- ok, i can boil water. how come the burner isn't lighting? oh...turning the knob for the wrong burner. ok, i can boil water.

- do you have to cut the top and bottom off the onion first? how many layers do you have to discard? how can i slice this without cutting myself? should i be crying? how much is 3/4 a cup? i should measure it with my measuring cup. it's one large onion. it should be ok if it's not thinly sliced right?

-2 carrots huh? these are small carrots, i'll use 4. how do you make matchstick sliced carrots? there's no way i can do this with this knife. i like my fingers. there has to be a tool for this. i'm just going to cut each carrot into fourths. actually, i don't like carrots that much. screw it, i'm only going to use two.

- garlic. dangit, you have to peel each piece. there has to be a tool for this. finely minced huh. wait, how much is two cloves? is that two whole garlic or two pieces of garlic? i've already peeled a whole garlic bulb and that was a pain so let's go with one for now. garlic is getting everywhere.

- oh geez, the water is boiling. the recipe says half a pound of noodles, but the bag is 12 oz. i'm just going to put all of it in the pot. the bag says boil for 10 minutes, but the recipe says boil for 5. is that because you stir-fry the noodles again later? i don't want the noodles to be undercooked though. i'm going to trust the bag and boil for 10.

- damn, it is getting hot in here. i should've made cold noodles instead considering it's 90 degrees outside. i should probably turn on my ac, but i'm gonna see how long into the summer i can hold off. if i'm sweating this much that should count as a workout right? more like a wokout. ha.

- dangit, what counts as stalks for green onion? each individual leaf thing or a whole bulb thing? i like green onion. i'll use three bulbs. you don't eat the white part right? just the green? that was easy enough.

- drain the noodles. they seem like they're done. there are a lot more noodles than i expected. maybe i shouldn't have used the whole bag. i think cooking is more trouble than it's worth. i'm going to have to wash all the dishes after i'm done.

- good thing i bought pre-washed bagged spinach. just cut and pour. yup, definitely have too many noodles. this is going to take some arm strength to stir-fry these noodles.

- hmm, it didn't turn out as bad as it could've. definitely under-seasoned. could've used more soy sauce and sugar, and onions, and carrots, and green onions, and a meat of some sort. and some hot sauce. but overall, not bad. edible. i'm satisfied.

it actually looks a lot better... A LOT... better than how it tasted.

ok, so my cooking IQ is borderline deficient "cannot cook independently and needs constant supervision". definitely no dinner parties at my house for awhile...unless it's a potluck.

1 cup, 2 cup, red cup, blue cup

since i have moved out of the apartments and into a house there have been a lot more bugs around. especially crickets and cockroaches. oh my goodness, i hate bugs with a passion. the house is carpeted so i don't want to smash the bugs on the carpet and i don't want to crush them in a paper towel or newspaper because those things CRUNCH. so i bought a whole bunch of those plastic red cups from costco and placed a couple in each room of the house. anytime i see a bug on the floor i just "cup" it, as in, i just place a cup over it and let it be/die. Then i pay the middle schooler who lives next door to come over and get rid of all the bugs for me. i pay a dollar a bug. generous i know, but worth it. it's funny when visitors come over and are like, why are there red cups all over the floor? i tell them why, and then they look at me incredulously, like seriously? you can't just kill the dang bug? NO, I CAN'T, OK. everyone has their quirks and this is one of mine. and then they ask me why i don't use clear cups? the reason i use red cups is so that 1) i won't have to look at the bugs, 2) i won't have to watch them die, and 3) they won't be able to see me.

15 minutes

i started actually going to a gym and working out. i'm not sure how people can run on treadmills or be on the elliptical for like hours at a time. after ten minutes (on the easiest resistance), i'm beat and i want to quit, but i'm embarrassed to step off so soon after i started cause everyone else around me seems like they could go on forever. so i make myself go at least 15 minutes. that 5 minutes sure makes a difference...not. but i feel better about myself and that's what counts.

bend, or

i left this to go to grad school. what was i thinking?



shoot. snowboard season too. and one of my favorite restaurants of all time - the deschutes brewery. probably went there at least once a week.

the last picture is the view from my backyard. :)

the pnw

missing the pacific northwest. rain and all.
northface jackets. clean air. fresh seafood. potholes. lake washington. my piano. good friends. hanging out. dominoes. bbqs. frisbee. ecc kids. watching csl. applebees. pranks. laughing until my stomach hurts. late night bowling. fun times.

i was good at something

http://www.mathleague.com/reports/1996_97/grade678/ml_6.htm
http://www.mathleague.com/reports/1997_98/grade678/ML_7.HTM

i thought we were just doing random math tests in class. i did not know, until just now (13 years later), that i placed in the top ten. thanks teach for letting me know. a gold star would've been nice.

hanging rock

just me and the world.

tammy tv

all the furniture i own now fits in one bedroom. i built it all and i'd like to share a little bit of that experience with you.

sounders game

we watched the United States lose to Brazil during the game. had such high hopes...



















more updates from nc later.