tribute to bacon

i consider myself a foodie. the boy has even taken to calling me BE for "big eats" because the majority of my social activities revolve around food and/or eating out. i am more than happy to spend a pretty penny and a while away a day going from store to store getting the right ingredients and cooking.

however this is a level of foodie that is simply beyond me.

standup economist

i'm not sure if i would have thought this was funny had i not spent 7 years studying economics. . but i did and there you go.

enjoy!

thanks for the tip theng.

all a buzz

you can feel it in the air and the words are on everyone's lips.

change.

today is a special day. this inauguration holds the promise of a better america lead by a man who has captured the public's imagination and inspired citizens worldwide in the belief that we can make the world a better place. it's a great start. . . .

disconnecting => reconnecting

in need of cleaning up and maintenance, my lappy has been out of commission for the past week and change.

i felt somewhat lost without my main modes of staying connected- email, facebook, blogs and gchat. i missed the convenience of looking up movie times, restaurants, and directions instanteously. i missed my nightly gchats with the boy. i missed catching up with the day's news while eating dinner in front of the puter.

what i gained, was long stretches of time which i found to be incredibly productive and therapeutic. after an exhausting day of work, instead of whiling away the time and decompressing online i cleaned my apartment, wrote letters, went to the gym, cooked dinner, and read. i could be quiet and at peace. without the opportunity to catch up over email and chat, i found myself enjoying phone conversations and outings with friends.

now that my lappy is back in working order, i feel slightly apprehensive. i suppose only time will tell whether my routine will continue as before or if i will succeed in finding a new equilibrium.

to all the fobs out there

an interesting take on the old your momma joke. . but this feels somehow endearing and definately laugh inducing! and my fellow children of immigrants can most assuredly relate.

breaking with tradition

after some thought, i've decided to break with new year's tradition and not make any resolutions. . . partially because i have the tendency to be over zealous in my goals and then find myself at year end feeling depressed for maintaining zero of said resolutions.

while some things are easy to change- where you live, your job and who you choose to spend- truly changing oneself is quite difficult. it requires constant attention, dedication, and getting back on the horse after you inevitably fall off. don't get me wrong- i'm all for the quest of self-improvement, believing that even when change does not happen in the way we want- there is something good that transpires from that effort.

so where does that leave me?

feeling fortunate for the life i live and open to new challenges, experiences and friends that 2009 will bring.

to the test

not too long ago, i came across an article in the times about making the perfect chocolate chip cookie. i've never had a great love for baking and have always much preferred cooking. however, i was a bit intrigued. supposedly, the trick to making the perfect cookie is to let the batter rest for not 12 or 24, but 36 hours. only then, does the cookie take on an interesting complexity of flavors.

having an unusual abundance of free time this week, i decided to give it a try. after dinner with celestial on monday night, i came home and whipped up the cookie batter making some of the usual tweaks (kicking up the chocolateyness by adding a bar of lindt chocolate truffle) and not so usual changes (coconut extract vs vanilla). like every instance while mixing dough, i cursed the fact that i don't have a handmixer and that brown sugar always seems to harden too much. after i beat out all the lumps, i layed out a sheet of wax paper and shaped the batter into a cylinder that would faciliate refrigeration and cutting at a later date.

wed afternoon, i brought out the batter and baked the cookies. the differences that i noticed were batter that tasted more like shortbread- richer and more butter. beyond that, they were just as chocolate chip cookies should be . . . crunchy, chocolatey, and tasty. hmm. maybe i'll have to try again and do a blind taste testing. . .