10 posts tagged “friends”
Yesterday (which was just an hour ago) was my 23rd birthday - the beginning of the age when we are expected to suddenly go from college students to being grownups. How intimidating! Things have been going quite smoothly in my work life, and in the next few weeks I will make my final decision about which medical school I will be going to this fall. Maybe the continued schooling will give me an excuse to be a "student" for another few years :)
I had a chance to celebrate my birthday early with my family this week. We had a cake freshly decorated for us from the only Chinatown bakery that was still open at 8pm on a Sunday night, so I'm quite grateful that I got a cake at all haha. The decorator made me a bull out of whipped cream on top of the cake, since I was born in the year of the Ox. It was done quite well if I do say so myself - I really liked the cute chocolate accents :) I was originally tempted to make my own cake, but you never make your own birthday cake heh. The cake had a mixed fruit filling, and the sponge cake layers were soft. I wasn't terribly fond of the whipped topping, as it was more fluffy and marshmallow-y than I would have liked, but the flavors came together pretty well. My family and I enjoyed the cake with some freshly brewed aromatic white tea that my dad brought back from China this past week, mmm.
That said, the meal I had tonight was still as amazing as Shino's has always been. I didn't really notice the flavor of the brown rice. It might have been slightly more chewy, but it definitely was a subtle difference (grr, not one I'd want to pay for), which is good because I was so worried that brown rice would ruin the sushi experience. I had a regular salmon roll, a crispy eel roll (eel, avocado, cucumbers, flying fish roe, and topped with mayo and crispy tempura bits drizzled in unagi bbq sauce), and one of their specials, the Boston lobster roll (avocado cucumber roll topped with warm baked lobster mixed with chopped raw red onions in a wasabi butter sauce). The rolls were all amazing, with fresh and fatty fish that melted in my mouth. The lobster roll is one of my favorites because it has such a unique flavor - the wasabi butter sauce really brings together everything in that roll, and it really is a monster to behold with all that lobster! My boyfriend also got a shrimp tempura roll which he said was really good too. Mmm I really wish I could go back to the days when Shino's was cheaper...
After dinner we went to Cheesecake Factory for some dessert - the Godiva chocolate brownie sundae :) Deliciously rich and a perfect end to a wonderful birthday dinner. I never knew this, but apparently Edy's makes a special vanilla ice cream specifically for Cheesecake Factory to use in their desserts. I wonder what exactly is different about it...
Thanks for a nice birthday dinner Greg! Gosh, I still can't believe I'm 23 already... time just passes so fast. There are so many things I'm looking forward to this year, and I'm also sad to be leaving Boston in just a few months. It really is a wonderful city filled with an endless array of amazing places for every taste. I am certain that the years I have spent here will be fond memories I carry with me forever.
It's not often that you see any posts on my Vox about breakfast, considering that I go to work at about 10am each morning, which means that I wake up at 9:30 and basically roll out the door haha. But every now and then, I like to enjoy the pleasures of a hot breakfast or brunch. There's just something so sinfully joyful about waking up on a lazy Sunday morning to a plate of fluffy pancakes and eggs and a mug of hot coffee. I have woken up on weekends to make breakfast before, but it's a lot of work early in the morning, and I always seem to have the problem where by the time I finish one item, another item has already gotten cold, and microwaving breakfast is just wrong. So when I really want fresh, hot breakfast, I look to the small mom & pop diners around Boston that offer no-frills cheap breakfast options (I have always felt that breakfast at chain restaurants like IHOP lack something, that homemade touch and flavor that little diners have).
One of my favorite hole in the wall diners is Sunny's Diner in Cambridge, just a few blocks outside of MIT's campus. It's no glamorous cafe, and I used to walk past this place without paying much attention, until I heard from some friends who came here religiously. This tiny little diner is so popular among MIT students that it is almost always packed in the mornings, especially since it only stays open until 2pm each day. The food is your traditional diner breakfast and lunch fare, and the prices are very reasonable for the amount of food you get (most breakfast plates are about $5-6 each). Anyway, my friend Zheng came up to visit from NYC this weekend, and when he mentioned that he wanted to grab a good brunch, I told him that I simply had to show him this little gem. So today, a terribly cold and windy Sunday morning, we braved the elements and made our way to the cozy inside of Sunny's Diner.
Where to start?!? The eggs, I asked for over easy, and they were done perfectly, with the yolks still runny and both sides cooked to tenderness. The home fries, they were amazing. I usually am not a big fan of home fries, because other places tend to make them too greasy, too soft, too heavily seasoned, too potato-y. But these were great, because they had that satisfying crunch on the outside that yielded to the soft fluffy potato inside, just like a big delicious french fry. They didn't need any extra salt either, and was not overly herb-y, which I really liked. And the sausage, it was one big link sliced in half and seared with a light crust on the flat side, juicy and savory without being too fatty or too processed. Yummm. And finally, the pancakes. I was sitting at the bar, so I got to watch them make all my food right in front of me on a big griddle, and what I love about Sunny's Diner is how everything is done as if it was done at home. They make small batches of batter at a time, and the cooks and waitresses have time to chat about anything while you wait at the bar. My chocolate chip pancakes came to me piping hot and fluffy, dusted with powdered sugar and with the butter melting on top as I eagerly reached for my fork. They were delicious, fresh, and simple... IHOP has nothing on these pancakes!
Admittedly, by the time I was done with that gentle giant, I was pretty much unable to get up from my seat. But it was such a satisfying meal I really wouldn't have changed a thing. It was definitely worth the massive food coma that followed and the blast of cold air that greeted me as I regretfully left the diner. Besides, I really can't think of any better way to catch up with an old friend than casually chatting over a hot plate of breakfast. Mmmm....
Last night my boyfriend and I went to Dali, a tapas bar located near Boston, to celebrate four years together. I had been dying to try a real tapas meal for the first time (aside from the appetizer I had with Reid at Bocado), and after reading all the stellar reviews for Dali, I was sold. Everyone mentioned how wonderful of a date place it was and how amazing the food was, so it sounded like the perfect restaurant for celebrating a special occasion. So during the day yesterday, I was browsing through Dali's online menu, trying to think about which dishes I wanted to try, and by the end of the day I have to say my mouth was watering with anticipation. Since tapas tend to be pricey ($5-10 for a small portion), we decided to limit our meal to 6 dishes. After comparing notes, we decided on 6 dishes that we were both interested in trying, and off we went towards Dali!
(disclaimer: I was unable to take any pictures at Dali, but just to give a little flavor of the night I have included a couple of pictures that I did not take)
I was able to get to Dali via public transportation, as there was a bus line that had a stop literally right outside Dali's front door. How convenient! The exterior of the restaurant was not very lavish, and actually made the place look very small (albeit quaint). I thought it was interesting that the entrance to the place was located at one corner of the restaurant, which made it a tight squeeze for patrons to get in and out of the place.
We started off with a glass of Sangria each, which was nice and fruity, although I'm not terribly fond of red wine, which is the dominant flavor in Sangria. I think I liked white wine Sangria better. Next time I might try the Cava Sangria that Dali offers (I believe it's champagne-based). A small bread basket came soon after, with a bit of garlic hummus for spreading. I'm not that big on hummus myself, but I thought it went well with the bread, which was crusty on the outside, but soft and chewy on the inside (it would have made for great fondue-dipping bread).
Next came our first tapas dish: tortilla espanola, which is a cold tapas described as an egg/potato/onion omelette. In actuality, it was much more like a slice of a crust-less quiche, but with an equal ratio of eggs to potato to onion, and without cheese. I was really fond of this dish, as it reminded me of a Chinese breakfast item that I've eaten before. In any case, it was not cold, but rather just mildly warmed, and came topped with some soft tomatoes and red peppers, which went perfectly with the omelette, whose flavor was lightly salty... quite savory for something that only has eggs, potatoes, and onions in it. I also really liked the thin skin surrounding the slice, which was nicely browned and slightly crispy egg.
The second dish that came was costillas de vaca, which is beef short ribs in a Rioja wine sauce. This hot tapas is normally on the late night tapas menu, but we were surprised to find it available for dinner, and so we were definitely excited to try it. We got two big meaty pieces attached to 2 segments of rib bone, sitting in a lovely brown sauce with stewed vegetables. The beef itself was completely tender and falling off the bone, and well-marinated with a mixture whose wine flavor I could taste quite prominently. It was a great balance of salty, sweet, and tart. We also dipped our bread pieces into the wine sauce, and concluded that the sauce plus the stewed vegetables tasted kind of like beef stew, but the beef itself had that different flavor from being marinated.
After the first two dishes, the next 4 came out together, and we were tempted to try a little bit of each thing. Our second and last cold tapas dish was a patatas ali-oli, which is cubed potatoes in a homemade garlic/caper mayonnaise. The potatoes were boiled and cubed, then tossed in the described mayo dressing, then sprinkled with a lot of a green herb, which may have been dill, but I couldn't tell. The flavor of garlic was very strong in this dish, as it was a raw garlic flavor. Greg really liked it, because he found the potatoes and garlic to be refreshing. I would say this was my least favorite dish of the night (though it was by no means bad), just that it reminded me exactly of the potato salads that my mom likes to make, so it wasn't that exciting or new of a flavor to me.
Next we had vieiras al azafran, which is scallops in saffron cream. This was a simply fabulous dish, where we got 7 large scallops smothered in a fragrant seafood cream sauce that was lightly charred by a torch prior to serving. The scallops were deliciously tender, and the sauce was what made the dish so amazing. It was infused with a rich flavor that reminded me of lobster (in fact, I felt like the sauce was a thicker version of lobster bisque), but at the end of each spoonful you could taste the lovely aromatic contribution from the saffron. Just absolutely wonderful. We ate the scallops slowly, and dipped our bread into the sauce until it was all gone. Mmmm....
For our poultry dish, we ordered codorniz de castilla, which is broiled herb and garlic quail stuffed with bacon. The stuffed quail was rather small, about the size of my fist, with small legs and wings extending from it. It was de-boned except for the legs and wings, so it was easy to split up. There was bacon rolled up inside the cavity of the quail. Quail meat has a really nice smoky flavor that was definitely different from chicken but not gamey in any way. Its savory and smoky flavor made it a great pairing with the bacon, and the dish came the drippings from bird, which were great as well. And it was certainly interesting eating a tiny little quail drumstick haha.
Finally, and I saved the best for last, we got queso rebozado con miel, which was a dish of fried Spanish cheese with honey and sweet onions. This dish was amazing. You got three small round cheese nuggets about one inch in diameter each, and they were lightly breaded and fried so that the outside was crispy, yielding to a soft and smooth cheese interior. I'm not sure exactly what kind of cheese it was, but it had a flavor that was similar to goat's milk cheese, except not as strong, and it was quite creamy. But it was exactly this tart similarity to goat's milk cheese that made the cheese pair so perfectly with the sweetness of the honey and the delicate softness of the sweet caramelized onions. I was absolutely in heaven eating this dish, and I only wish I could have had a second plate of it haha. It was a great dish to finish off the meal with as well, since it serves so well as a dessert dish.
Whenever I come home for breaks, I make it a point to meet up with old friends from high school, since most of us have traveled to various corners of the country for college and rarely get to see one another except for during breaks when we are all back in town. My friend Reid and I have kept up this tradition for five years now, getting together a few times a year, catching up, enjoying each other's company when there's nothing else to do in my hometown, and sharing some good times of course. As I look back fondly on our times in high school, we have certainly grown and changed a great deal since going to and finishing college. But there are aspects of ourselves that never change, and then there are those aspects of us that grow together. I'm glad to have the chance still to continue to nurture this friendship and watch us step out into the real world and fend for ourselves.
Last night, Reid and I went out for the night, stopping first at pretty much the only Thai restaurant in my hometown for dinner. The pad thai there was flavored just right, but the noodles were much too mushy for my preference. I enjoy a little chew to my noodles. I tried to order duck pad thai, but the waitress insisted that it wouldn't taste good (um... that must be why I love getting duck pad thai elsewhere...), so I stuck with chicken. After spending nearly 2 hours in the restaurant chatting away, we headed out for dessert at Friendly's. It's a pretty popular haunt in my hometown, because it's located everywhere, and has both food and dessert at a very reasonable price. Surprisingly, there are no Friendly's in Boston, which made me a little sad. Anyway, I was craving a brownie sundae, so I ordered their fudge brownie sundae, which came with chunks of dense brownies that were not heated up, layered between scoops of chocolate ice cream and hot fudge. I think that was a bit too much chocolate, as I was completely chocolated-out by the time I finished it haha.
Then we went to a movie theater to watch Charlie Wilson's War, which was actually pretty entertaining. I was little bit lost at first, as the film moves fast with brisk dialog and lots of history and politics spun in, but I found the movie to be quite witty and as always, I loved Tom Hanks. You almost start to forget that this was based on a true story, and it's not until the end of the movie that you realize how relevant the content of this movie is to the present state of the world, and then you feel a little sad that so much has resulted from one political mistake at the end of the Cold War.
We didn't quite want to call it a night, so Reid took me to a tapas bar in town that he really liked, called Bocado. It was a trendy, semi-upscale lounge type of bar, and I really liked the atmosphere inside: ambient, busy but not too noisy, roomy, with an air of sophistication but not snootiness. I had never had tapas before, since they tend to run on the expensive side, but we just got an appetizer, which was a roasted garlic, spinach, and feta dip served with warmed pita wedges. I got a sparkling mojito and he got a mango flavored Sangria, both of which were delicious.
The appetizer was also great, although I wish they had given us more pita wedges to go with all the dip we got. It was definitely a nice place to go and relax, and probably also a great first date place as well, which is surprisingly difficult to come upon in my hometown.
Finally, in noting that my glass is empty in the picture below, I would just like to add that I have the rare but coveted resistance to Asian glow :) I have no idea how, as both my parents tend to turn red, but I'm certainly not complaining haha.
So the past few days I've been visiting California to interview at Stanford and to see some college friends. The weather was amazing, it felt like Boston's spring. The sunshine was warm, there were palm trees, and dusty mountains in the distance everywhere I went. Stanford itself was the most extravagant campus I have ever seen. They really spend a lot of money spoiling their kids lol (maybe me one day?). The sunny happiness of the students being in a country club-like campus and a relaxing curriculum was really infectious. They were literally all smiles, and every student I met couldn't seem to shower the school with enough praise. I have yet to see a school where the students were this much in love with their school (Rochester and Dartmouth are distant seconds).
After seeing Stanford, I had time grab dinner with my friend Tony near the school. We walked up and down the main street with restaurants, and finally decided to stop in at a place called University Cafe, which served American food at a moderate price. First came a bread plate with a tomato-based dipping sauce (I couldn't figure out why it was orange, but it was similar to a marinara I guess). The bread itself was too hard on the outside, and a little soggy in the middle, but it still tasted fine because we were both starving lol.
So today is the day that I walk with my classmates of the past four years down the aisle in Killian Court and receive our hard-earned bachelors diplomas. We had to get up really early to assemble for our procession into the ceremony area, and I was up late the night before playing Starcraft with my friend Tony haha. Naturally when I got up with only 4 hours of sleep on my graduation day I was cursing myself for making such a dumb decision the night before. The day was a bit of a blur as friends weaved in and out of my day, and I tried to capture as many pictures with as many of them as I could. My family came to the ceremony also, and I think it was as much of a proud day for them as it was for me. I originally thought that I'd get bored during the 4 hour ceremony, 3/4 of which consisted of handing out diplomas to the 2000+ people that graduated that day, but it actually flew by surprisingly quickly. My heart was pounding as my classmates and I lined up row by row to go up to the podium and accept our diplomas, and it was truly exhilarating, despite knowing that I'd be staying next year for a year of grad school. As I write this entry weeks later, I'm already feeling terribly nostalgic, and really missing the presence of all the familiar faces. Sure, it's summer and many students are gone, but the campus suddenly feels empty and lonely. Even though I get to talk to my friends online, I can feel how far away they really are. And the thought didn't hit me until my graduation day, the fact that these amazing people I've met are really and truly leaving here. Some of them may never come back. Many of them I will never hear of or see again in my life. Faced with this truth I feel terribly sad (I am a sentimental soul), and I can only hope that one day I will see many of them again at our class reunions... How far away it all seems!
Well, enough soul-baring. Here are some pictures from my big day (graduation hats look really unflattering on my face for some reason):
We arrived early to line up our appropriate procession order, so I was mostly with my fellow biology majors and having some great times talking about how excited we were and how we've come so far.
It was a beautiful sunny day for our graduation, and for that I am grateful. Graduation gowns are unfortunately really hot and uncomfortable, so everyone was complaining most of the day from the heat. Here we are walking towards Killian Court, with a few random stops along the way. During the stops my friends and I played a word called called Contact, which is basically a super hard version of 20 Questions. Our procession was quite a sight to behold though, so many people dressed in various colored gowns representing different degree types, and so many bodies all walking in the same direction! Heh I refer to the procession fondly as the "march of the penguins" :)
This is where our ceremony takes place each year. My parents got a picture of it while the seats were all still empty. There are well over 5000 people that come for the ceremony, so many seats!
It kind of sucked that this year our graduation speaker was our previous MIT president! I know a lot of people were upset that we didn't get a speech from someone more famous, who could bring a different perspective. Charles Vest hasn't done anything since he left MIT a few years ago, and even though he's ABOUT to start a new position, he still has nothing new to share with us. Sure, his speech was motivational, as they all are. But I do hope for someone more interesting to learn from next year.
I spent the weekend after graduation at home, so we'll get back to the food entries next :) Well, that's it, I've graduated!
(6/06) Lunch cruise in Boston harbor! Our class rented out half of the well known Spirit of Boston cruise ship for a lunch cruise in Boston Harbor today. It was to be casual dress, and parents were invited to come along with the seniors if they so choose. I was excited to finally be on that cruise ship again during the daytime, so I could actually SEE the harbor (the last time I was on this same cruise ship for a nighttime cruise on Halloween, called Boo's Cruise). This lunch cruise was to last 2 hours, and would be serving a buffet style lunch with various entrees, as well as dessert afterwards.
Being the food lovers that we are, Greg and I made a beeline for one of the tables closest to the buffet area to be seated as we entered the ship (I'm not even kidding, we passed up tables next to the windows with great views just to sit near the food in the center of the room). Hahaha. The big shiny lids of the food trays were tempting us with their secrets beneath, we could barely wait to see what was inside.
(6/07) It's the day before graduation, but I wasn't interested in going on the senior week events for today, which were Boston's famous duck tours (really just a tourist gimmick) and a Boston Pops concert. Well, I would have loved to see the Pops concert, but the tickets were extravagant despite being a class event. So I spent the day relaxing, mentally preparing for the long graduation day ahead and just enjoying my last day as a carefree undergraduate.
For dinner I went out with Greg to one of our favorite cheap eats place, Pho Pasteur in Harvard Square. It's a semi-trendy Vietnamese restaurant that caters to the American crowd while maintaining the authentic flavor of good Vietnamese food. Recently Pho Pasteur changed its name to Le's, which I find to be an annoying and unattractive name for a place that I am so fond of. So don't be alarmed that I continue to refer to it by its former name. Pho Pasteur is a quick bus ride down the street from MIT, and is located in the heart of Harvard Square in a cluster of stores called the Garage. The food is amazingly cheap for the quality and quantity, as long as you enjoy Vietnamese cuisine. A bowl of pho that is enough for me to eat costs only $5.25. Last time I went with Zheng I showed you the pho and summer rolls that I got. This time I decided to get something different for the sake of variety. Greg and I started off with an appetizer of Vietnamese spring rolls, which have a ground pork mixture inside, served with a side of fish sauce. These are delectable to start with, because they are fresh and crispy, and their small size (similar to a cigar) makes them easy to eat. Unfortunately the waitress misheard our order and brought us both the spring rolls as well as an order of summer rolls. Oops. At least they were both appetizers we liked haha.
For entrees, Greg got a big face bowl of pho (the bowl being bigger than his whole head), and I got a traditional Vietnamese rice dish whose name is "Com Suon, Bi, Cha" (I'm sure that is just a description of the dish rather than a real name). It is a plate with steamed white rice, a honey-grilled pork chop, julienned pork skin, and tomatoes, cucumber and lettuce. The plate comes with a side of fish sauce as well, which goes really well with everything on the plate. I know julienned pork skin sounds pretty weird, but it's a Vietnamese thing and it's really good. It's not strips of fat, it's the actual skin, which has a lot of collagen, so it's a little bit like eating small strips of tendon dusted with some sort of powdery seasoning. The pork chops are delicious too. They are thin and juicy, with lots of sweetness from the honey. I generally dislike American steak-house style pork chops, but these are so fantastic I pick up the bone and try to get off all the meat at the end haha. This dish usually also comes with a steamed ground pork, egg, and vermicelli meatloaf square, but sometimes it doesn't get served, and no explanation is given. Why???
As with many other colleges in the US, MIT has "Senior Week" the week before graduation, and it's a week of events for the seniors to enjoy each other's company one last time at. We had to sign up for most of these events in advance, and it was a mad rush to nab the spots for some of them. Leave it to our class council to plan events where it's supposed to be for our whole class of about 1000 people, yet each event only had about 200 available spots. I've missed out on many an event in the past 4 years due to tickets selling out ridiculously early. Somehow the people that are all friends with the student council members were always able to go... Anyway without further ado, here are some memories from my senior week.
Friday 6/1 The first day of senior week was a wine tasting event, which I didn't attend because I was at home eating lobster with guests lol. I'm also not big on alcoholic drinks because I still haven't learned to enjoy the strong and bitter taste of alcohol. I guess eventually I should learn to be more refined and enjoy wine for what it is, but that can wait heh.
Saturday 6/2 I came back to MIT on this day for the Cape Cod dinner train event (I paid $25 for a ticket). It's a train that serves a 5 course dinner while taking you down around Cape Cod to see some scenery. It sounded like a beautiful train ride, and while the food was great, the view was less than spectacular and certainly not what I imagined it to be. In my mind the train ride would be a glorious 3 hour excursion around the tip of Cape Cod, following the ocean. Instead, the train started out in the woods and spent 4/5 of its time surrounded by trees that not only prevented us from seeing anything but also prevented good picture taking opportunities. I felt like I was traveling through a random rural part of Massachusetts, with all the trees and houses that lined the railroad. The only sights worthy of seeing were some of the cute farms, expansive salt marshes, and a short-lived view of the bay area at the midpoint of the ride. Here are some pictures from the day:
It happened to be a dreadfully hot day out (with temps rising up into the 80s), and very humid as it usually is up here in MA over the summers. Greg and I were waiting outside for our buses to arrive to take us down to Cape Cod to board the train. Everyone was hot and sweaty, and imagine our horror when we realized that the buses we had to ride for the 2.5 hr ride down to Cape Cod were big yellow school buses. Yes, and that was just miserable. But at least I got to be with my friends and had a fun train ride to look forward to. I had a Kashi cereal bar for lunch and that had to tide me over until dinner on the train haha.
To recreate the dinner train experience, I'll post some highlights in the order that I took them, and the food courses that came in the process :) Some of the pictures are blurry because of course the train is in motion the whole time I'm trying to snap pictures, and I'm doing it through a glass window.
After we got back to campus, Greg, Tony, Jacqueline and I went back to my dorm and we played a board game called Blokus. It's a little bit like Tetris, except you place the blocks on a flat board and try to compete with other people for space. The rules are a little weird and the game is tough to beat when there are 4 people playing, but it's a fun little spatial brainteaser. My friends and I like the weird name... "Blokus"... we named ourselves that for a team name for one of our school events this past year. Yeah... we're dorky like that haha.
I apologize for having disappeared for a while, I was a busy bee studying for my MCAT retake, then with MIT's senior week, and finally with graduation this past Friday. The good news though is that I accrued many pictures of food, friends, and sights during the past few weeks. So enjoy while I slowly update highlights from where I left off. I would like to get everything up to speed before I become more backed up. I will try and group things together into certain periods of time.
Week I was at Home Studying for MCATs
(5/26) Continuing from where we last left off... at our dinner party that my mom cooked up tons of food for, one of the guests brought us a box of mini desserts from the local wholesale club. There were four different dessert types in the box: chocolate swiss rolls, white chocolate mini eclairs, chocolate hazelnut cream puffs, and strawberry vanilla napoleons. I of course had to try some of them that very night... :) I think my favorite was the white chocolate eclair, which doesn't look too impressive but tastes dreamy (it's the upper right dessert). White chocolate is actually one of my favorite flavors, and the eclair was topped with white chocolate, filled with bavarian cream, so the combination was very elegant and pleasing. I prefer it very much over regular chocolate topped eclairs that are filled with Boston cream. The chocolate hazelnut cream puffs were also quite interesting. The outer surface is covered with a layer of chocolate studded with toffee bits (oh yum!), and inside the puff itself was a light chocolate mousse.
(5/28) Several days later while I was taking one full length practice MCAT after another, I decided that I really needed a break. My comfort activity whenever I come home is to bake or to cook. But I didn't have the time or the energy to go in search of an interesting recipe to try, nor did I want to spend a whole afternoon in the kitchen. I was digging around in our pantry when I found an oven mitt with a package of brownie mix stuffed inside of it and a ribbon tied around the whole thing. It was one of those gift items that you can give to your friends. I asked my mom if she was keeping it for a gift later, and she said she bought it because it looked cute and told me I was free to use the brownie mix.
So off I went, and it was a rather interesting brownie mix compared to the others I've made before from Duncan Hines and Betty Crocker types. All I needed to add was an egg, a stick of butter, and a few tablespoons of water. But due to the utter lack of liquid called for, the batter became a big doughy mass, very stick and very heavy. The directions then said to spread the batter out into a square pan, which I did with much trouble. It didn't pour out like other brownie batters. I literally was pressing it into the pan as if it were semi-hardened playdough. Finally though, I stuck it in the oven, and they came out as thin, fudgey, chewy brownies that my whole family adored. There was a lovely vanilla flavor that really stood out, which I preferred over the heavy and forced chocolate flavor that some other brand name boxed mixes offer. Now I only wish I knew the ingredients in the mix that made such a unique brownie!
I was initially worried that the brownies would be too sweet on their own, since my family is not big on sweet desserts. So I wanted to make some whipped cream that could go on the side to lighten things up. Unfortunately, we never have heavy cream waiting for me in the fridge when I come home, because my family doesn't use it for anything. I did however, discover that our big container of non-dairy coffee creamer claimed to be "so rich that it whips!", and it even included a recipe for how to make whipped cream from the coffee creamer. All it needed was 2 parts coffee creamer powder to 1 part cold milk, with sugar and vanilla to taste, then beaten for 5-7 minutes. It was easy to blend the cold milk and creamer powder, but once I had it going, it was quite difficult to get a firmer consistency in the cream, which was never quite like the whipped cream I could make with heavy cream. I also had to keep setting it in the fridge to cool down before continuing to beat, since 5-7 minutes on the counter really heated things up more than I would have liked. The end result tasted rich and creamy (but not refreshing like the real thing), and lacked the ability to hold any shape of its own because it was too soft. It went well with the brownies though, even though I'm sure everyone thought it was weird that I was serving brownies with whipped cream haha.
(5/29) I was getting bored of making breakfasts out of oatmeal and milk, so I decided to have some jazzed up toast. I lightly toasted the whole grain bread in the house, and for a few days I tried spreading peanut butter on it and topping with various fruits, all of which I enjoyed. I started off with banana slices, then moved onto strawberries, and finally kiwis. I must say they were all amazing, and the different flavors made breakfast so much more interesting. It was also a healthy and hearty breakfast that kept me full until lunchtime, and I'm sure it was great food for keeping me energetic while studying for my MCATs.
(5/30) The night before my MCAT, my mom tried to make some dishes that she knew I would like for dinner. There was a lovely dish of two whole tilapia, cooked red braise style. I absolutely adore red braised whole fish, especially when my mom makes it. The fish meat is tender, and the red braise sauce gives it a lot of flavor, since fish tends to be one of the less flavorful meats. Most of the time I still enjoy fish as it is, for its light and clean flavor. But when you give me red braised fish, it is just so much more exciting to eat fish :)
(6/01) The day after my MCAT I finally had time to meet up with an old friend from high school, Reid. He and I are really close, and I love him so much. We met in my junior year of high school, when I switched to a magnet high school, and we became very close. After we parted ways for college, we rarely talked during semesters, but every time we were both back in town for the holidays and on break, we would always find time to see each other, and we always had a lot to talk about. It is so comfortable being with him, no matter how long we've been apart. There is never any awkwardness between us, and we share everything with one another. On this particular day, he had a lot to get off his chest about his recent breakup with his boyfriend of two years, and I really felt bad that he was so hurt by the breakup. I hope that our time together helped make him feel a little better. We went to Piccadilly Pub for lunch, where I got their Arizona egg rolls appetizer, which is like the firecracker chicken rolls I got before from Longhorn steakhouse, except these were filled with black beans, corn, some chicken, and other Tex-Mex-y items that I can't recall anymore. It came with a salsa ranch dip.
11:30AM Campus - en route to Kendall Square
1 strawberry flavored Special K bar with a big gulp of water.
I went to bed at 7am this morning because I was up late writing a paper for a humanities class. I only got about 4 hours of sleep, and woke up at 11am. No time for breakfast/lunch! This is the last minute of the last minute prep work I needed to do for senior ball. I had to go to the Cambridgeside Galleria to buy jewelry and some miscellaneous senior ball supplies:
Appointment to get my hair done in an updo with my friend Karen. The stylists were really nice, and even brought me a cup of tea with honey while I was in the middle of getting my hair done. I brought in pictures of the hairstyles that I was interested in, but the stylist kind of went off and started doing her own thing. Oh well haha. It took an hour and a half to do the whole updo, but I liked how it turned out. It was a non-symmetrical updo, with a mixture of curls, pinned up sections, and even a mini-braid added for variety, and the stylist left my shorter hair in front as a soft side-swept piece to frame my face.
Painting my fingernails and toenails (two different shades of pink), then eating part of a salad topped with grilled sha cha (Chinese satay) seasoned chicken while waiting for the polish to dry. I didn't want to go to senior ball starving, but I also wanted to save room for the dinner which was in about 3 hours, so I ate about 3 oz. of the chicken and 1/3 of the salad greens dipped in a vinaigrette dressing made with sha cha seasoning, sesame oil, vinegar, and scallions. According to Wikipedia, sha cha sauce/paste is made with soybean oil, garlic, shallots, chilis, brill fish, and dried shrimp. Interesting, I couldn't tell from the flavor.
7:30PM The Sheraton in Copley Square
I met my boyfriend at about 6pm and he gave me my corsage. It was so pretty! We went to the florist to order the corsage and the boutonniere together so that they'd match. I got light pink roses of different sizes for my corsage, decorated with purple accent flowers and a white satin ribbon. I didn't know which dress I was wearing when I chose the corsage, so I tried to get one that would match most colors lol.
Dinner started off at the Sheraton with a basket of rolls and a plate of little balls of butter. The bread was okay, but I was slightly weirded out by the butter balls. I prefer other butter designs much more. The little balls just seemed odd.
Next came a salad of baby greens, baby yellow beets, sunflower seeds, dried cherries, and a slice of goat cheese, all drizzled with champagne vinaigrette dressing. The salad was actually pretty good, I really liked the combination of sunflower seeds with the sweetness of dried cherries. The goat cheese was soft and mild, which gave the salad some creaminess to balance the vinaigrette. Even the baby beets were good, they were subtle, and reminded me of squash.
1:00AM Baker Dorm 4th Floor Lounge - Senior ball afterparty, a.k.a. watching a movie, munching, playing foozball
2 drinks of peach Schnapps mixed with Mountain Dew, 1.5 powdered sugar covered crunchy round things that looked like donut holes, and a small handful of pretzels.
All in all I had a fun night, and a lot of fun prepping for the ball this past week. It was like re-living the excitement of prom all over again, except this time I didn't have parents to fuss over what I wore, who I went with, what I did, etc. I also loved seeing all my friends and classmates dressed up really nice, you don't get a chance to see that during the rest of the time at college because our formals are never quite that formal. All the ladies had such beautiful dresses in all these pretty colors! And men in tuxes make me weak in the knees :) Here are a few pictures from the ball:
My Groups
-
Foodies Updated: 37 minutes ago
-
Food Photography Updated: 44 minutes ago
-
What's For Dinner? Updated: 9 hours ago
