Celebrating Nice People - Friendly Feature

Thanks to the medium of blogging, nice people have been added to my life. In the recent look back at my blogging journey, I was convinced that we should celebrate these nice people, and how our paths crossed, virtually and in the flesh.

I would like to introduce you to these nice folks, in a small interview series, on this blog. Look out for my 'Friendly Feature' posts, where these dear friends share a bit about themselves with us.

Vegetable Query: Dandelion Greens

Dandelion Greens

Dandelion pesto

Dandelion with carrots and spaghetti

Filing this under 'Weird'. It has been a long while since I tried something new in the veggie world, so when dandelion greens starting showing up in the supermarket this Spring, I knew I had to get a bundle.

I enjoy dandelion tea, which I assume are made out of blossoms. Perhaps I'd enjoy the greens as well. Seeking cooking ideas, I landed my search on dandelion pesto by David Lebowitz.

With half the bundle, I had a yield of about 2 cups of pesto. Used the first cup for pasta, the other half cooked with basmati rice. As I was through with looking at pesto, for the remaining half-bundle, I chopped them up to saute with carrots to have it with spaghetti. Nothing too creative there.

The Dandelion greens are bitter. For someone who likes arugula and bitter gourd, it took a few bites to get used to its bitterness. My favourite method -- should I pick up a bundle of dandelion greens again -- would be cooking it as a sauce with rice. Cooking it does mellow the bitterness.

US Diary 15: Landlady

Week 15 may seem a little uneventful...

+ The Hubs was away for the entire week, giving me solid days of uninterrupted computer time for the blog overhaul. (No need to break for lunch or dinner!)

+ The Landlady coincidentally stayed over through the week. When she visits, she stays in the upstairs apartment, which she is currently trying to spruce up to rent out. When not over in New Jersey, she resides and works in New York. Delilah and Redford (her cat and dog, respectively), get to commute with her each time, and I find it amusing to hear Redford stomping along my ceiling. Delilah is extremely shy though, but I saw her one day while taking out the garbage :D She should recognise me; I popped in to "cat sit" many times.

It was Friday night where I had a movie date with The Landlady. 9pm and undecided over which movie to watch, I drove us to our nearby cinema. ("I want to ride in a Jeep," she said.) Thankfully, it is a route I know.

We had the choice of The Great Gatsby, Kon-tiki, and Mud. I was fine with any; The Landlady had seen the Great Gatsby with Robert Redford in it. ("I watch anything with Robert Redford.")

Mud, it was. We bought our tickets and as we headed for the theatre, in front of us stood a large poster for Kon-tiki. We turned back to the young ticket counter girls -- who were half asleep -- and asked if we could switch movies. "Yeah, Hall 4," one said without expression.

There was just the two of us for Kon-tiki. In front of the screen were large rolls of new carpeting that were black with vibrant splashes. The Landlady didn't approve of the colour scheme.

Kon-tiki was an entertaining movie. One unusual experience for me, though: The Landlady would share her comments along the way -- "Isn't he handsome?"; "I'm a sailor and they should have kept the sail before the storm"; "Those wires are going to cut through the wood!" -- to which I replied with a grunt.

P.S. Here's Redford!

Bashing his snout and head through the mesh, as always...

US Diary 14: Fashion District with Trees

Trees and I, we:

- met outside the Penn Station in a Monday morning;

- went to Paris Baguette in Korea Way;

- walked the blocks of Fashion / Garment District, after a long detour;

- were not too impressed by the prices in the fabric stores;
- avoided the Subway;

- walked the blocks to the Museum of Modern Art, after a long detour;

- saw (non-)performing guinea pigs - that remained completely still! - and cats and a dog;

- had tea at Bryant Park;

- walked through crazy town back to Penn Station again!

Thanks, Teresa, for the fun day in my 14th week in the US. I'm happy to have been a small part of your big American holiday.

P.S. I went home with a 5-yard cotton fabric for $10, and 2 2-yard acetate-polyester fabrics to serve as lining practice. That was a surprisingly small haul.

You, Me and Awesome

I put the radio on one morning and Smooth (Santana featuring Rob Thomas) came on. Man it's a hot one -- 'Great collaboration,' I said to myself. The day was going to be a good one.

Then came another thought: I should collaborate with someone. Someone with a different skill-set. We could come up with something as kick-ass as Smooth. It doesn't have to be a tangible item... What are your thoughts? Let's chat over email.

Gimme your heart -- make it real, or else forget about it.

US Diary 14: Cape May, May.03.2013

We began Week 14 by stealing the Friday off to drive to the southern coast of New Jersey, otherwise known as Cape May. It is about 2.5 hours away. The Hubs was lured by the prospect of seafood; I was just happy to be out on the road and seeing a new place.

Sounding repetitive: it is off-season and the resort was quiet. We did have the obligatory overeating of seafood, but I was quite disappointed with my cold mayonnaise crab salad. Also, The Hubs didn't feel too well after his battered oysters.

I say it is enough with the seafood and cold windy beaches, for now. Onward to other sights! If you have New Jersey pretty landscapes to recommend, I'm all ears.

This Blog Lost Some Weight - Spring Clean 2013

Recently, there was a mass disappearance of photo images on my old blog posts; old images have ceased to exist. There were two choices to make: delete such posts or re-install images. Deleting was effortless; re-installing images meant being sentimental and having to excavate old digital folders, and reliving memories.

I started working from the back, way back to my 840-something-th post dated in 2007, accompanied by the movie, Broken Flowers. This was my second time watching it. As Don Johnston re-visits his old flames, I was re-visiting the old me responsible for all this jibber-jabber. There was much editing to be done.

One movie did not suffice -- this blog overhaul took 5 full days. A couple of old blog posts might have resurfaced. Sorry about that; it was by accident, since my hand and eyes lacked coordination after staring at the screen for hours. All is well now; we are now shipshape with 615 blog posts. (And counting.)

Going through old photo albums made me realise how the years have whizzed by, and there were things that would have been fun to share. It also allowed me to sort my blogging content.

This blog is my online scrapbook -- a scrapbook of my daily life as a Domestic Engineer, Trailing Spouse, Cat Mom (very important), as well as Maker and Etsy Seller. I am happy - and very surprised - that you take the time to be here. Thank you.