Delicious, Delicious Mashed Potatoes

Mashed potatoes is one of my favorite comfort foods. Okay, anything with potatoes, because when you combine them with fat (in the form of real butter), you get the perfect triage of starch, salt, and fat that makes for supreme bad-for-you deliciousness.

Francis Lam (who is fast becoming my favorite food author) just wrote an article on Salon covering the mashed potato, and his technique of preparing them.

I like to make mine by hand with a masher, and I leave the skins on. I use real butter (but some of the comments suggest olive oil, which I will definitely try) and milk. I usually cook a clove of garlic with the potatoes, and now that I have fresh chives from my garden I can add those in too.

Some of the other comments suggest a dash of nutmeg, which sounds interesting and I'd like to try that too, but I'm not so sure how well that will go with garlic.

Garden Update

I transplanted the Peace rose today, as well as a pepper plant from Home Depot and a rose my parents sent me for my birthday. I also fertilized all the plants that I didn't transplant today, using Miracle Gro's Shake 'n' Feed plant food. It comes in a smaller shaker jar than the one in the link. I just read the FAQ on the product and it says not to use it for container plants. Oops. If anyone has any helpful gardening feedback they can give to me, I'd sure appreciate it!

On the left is the rose; I planted Lobelia seeds around the edge of the container. On the top right is the Early Girl and on the bottom right are Better Boys I planted from seed. I need to get tomato cages for these soon. These are all 7 gallon containers. You can get them at Home Depot for around $10.

The Early Girl tomato and the California Pepper I bought from Home Depot both have flowers on them. The strawberries have lots of flowers on them and I'm hoping I'll get to eat some fresh strawberries in May!

Movie Review - Clash of the Titans (2010)

This update of the 1981 cult classic isn't bad when taken at face value. I'm honestly not sure exactly what all the critic hate is about. The original isn't exactly a gem, and already runs fast-and-loose with Greek myth.

I did take the critics' warning and shyed away from the 3-D theaters, since that seems where the bulk of the hate is centered. The film was intended as a 2-D picture, and the rushed up-conversion probably won't be worth your extra $5.

In all, I really enjoyed Clash of the Titans, which goes into the same campy/cheesy guilty pleasure bucket that films such as 300 belong to. Outside of the Kraken, I really liked all of the CGI character designs, my favorites being the Pegasus and Medusa. They really made horses fly, and it's absolutely fantastic. (I want one! My birthday is next week - can I have one for my birthday please?) The animators and character designers for Medusa really took the essence of her myth and brought it to the screen. She is both beautiful and hideous.

The throne room at Olympus is updated in several ways; the Greek stage human clay figurines "play" on has been converted into a satellite's view of the ground in the middle of the throne room, complete with cloud cover and water features. The clay figurines remain, but I didn't feel it was as hokey in this incarnation.

As much as people like to give Sam Worthington a hard time, I like his Perseus better. He's not nearly as silly Harry Hamlin's insipid version. I am both intrigued and annoyed with Gemma Arterton's Io. She's beautiful, we get that already. Using her as an expositionary device just makes her acting grating to watch (I can't imagine she'll be any better in Prince of Persia, where she plays a similar role). She does have the cheesiest line in the film, for whatever that's worth.

For fans of the original, Bebo is in the new film.

If you want to go see something fun and a bit mindless, I'd say this is a good film for that. It's definitely enjoyable if you don't expect it to be the next best thing to come out of Hollywood. Remember it's a remake of a cheesy flick, and it runs fast and loose with Greek myth. But then again, myths have changed to suit the teller's needs (one of the reasons so many versions of the "canon" myths exist). Buy popcorn and watch this from the back of the theater. And go see it in 2-D.

Container Garden

I've decided to start a container garden this year, as my patio gets just enough light to get "stuff" to grow. I had started some stuff from seed, but only the tomatoes and peppers made it.

I planted a strawberry pot with lots of herbs, and another strawberry pot with strawberries. I have an Early Girl tomato that I bought from Home Depot, as I don't have faith in my tomatoes that I planted. I also bought another pepper plant, so I think I'll be making a lot of fajitas, chili, sloppy joes, and stuffed peppers with all the peppers I'll be harvesting.

My favorite roses are the Peace rose, and I bought one to plant. My track record with miniature roses is an across-the-board failure though, so we'll see what happens. I also bought a packet of Crystal Palace Lobelia to plant under the rose; I think it will make it look really nice.

I hope this experiment turns out well. If the strawberries don't last through the year I'll probably try alpine strawberries next year in the strawberry pot. I tried some years ago when I was in Amsterdam and thought they were delightful.

Here are some container garden resources:

Container Vegetable Gardening - from Ohio State University
Vegetable Gardening in Containers - from Texas A&M (pdf)

Texting While Socializing

I saw this article on Slate and thought it would be interesting for discussion. (Is it just me, or are Slate and Salon hit-or-miss these days? Then again, I feel my blog is sometimes hit-or-miss, so I guess I shouldn't complain)

I was on a 2nd date once in an outdoor concert. My date seemed like a nice guy but I was bored to tears by him. I had a comrade text me several times about the date, and when I mentioned how awful it was turning out my comrade offered to call me with an "emergency" so I could leave. I didn't want to do that so I grit my teeth and waited the date out.

If I was genuinely interested in the guy I wouldn't have been texting my buddy. Then again, someone told me afterwards that if I was bored to tears then the guy deserved to have the girl be distracted/pulled away by other things. I'm not so sure I agree with that.

When I'm casually with someone I will answer phone calls and texts unless we are actively in the middle of a conversation. But if I'm just getting to know someone I like to give them my full attention.

It's Not Supposed to Be a Race. . . . .

This whole Life thing isn't supposed to be a race, right? We're supposed to muddle through this whole thing and hopefully we come out at the end with whatever we put into our lives.

Yet I feel simultaneously ahead and behind. More behind than ahead.

The person I think of as my ex from college is getting married in May. The relationship didn't work out for a lot of reasons; mainly I think we were just young and ultimately had incompatible world views. We both did a lot of ugly stuff to each other. So it goes.

He bought a house and has a dog. He's getting married already. I didn't "lose" because he wasn't right for me but I feel like he's "winning".

It's easy to focus on all the stuff that I don't have. I don't have a house of my own. I don't have a dog. I don't have enough time to do all of the things I want to get done in the day.

I try to tell myself that it's better that things worked out the way they did. I'm too young to get married anyway; I'm working on a higher degree and don't have the time to put into a live-in relationship. I try to tell myself that I think I'm prettier than the other girl, although in the grand scheme of things it really doesn't matter. At. All. I try to tell myself that neither of them has completed a marathon and neither of them works for The Man I work for. (Even if The Man gets me down some days, I think the deal I have with The Man is pretty good.) I'm fairly certain that I make more money than he does, or that I at least started out making more money than he does. I try to tell myself that it's hard to make it in L.A. and that if I was living in Sacramento making the money I do here I could easily afford to buy a house of my own.

Yet all of that feels hollow. It feels the weight of what I've gained since we parted is less than the weight of what he's gained. I feel like it should be even. It should be fair.

I try to tell myself that most married people are miserable, that many first marriages end in divorce. On the other hand I tell myself it's a good thing he found someone who is compatible with him. Someone who is a little older and has the compatible brokenness to deal with his mother issues I could never handle. It's a good thing they look happy together.

He told me once that he thought I'd never marry. He blamed our relationship's failure on me.

This whole mess was so long ago and yet I still feel "stuff" about it. I don't want to be the woman marrying him but I wish there was someone out there who wanted to marry me.

It's not supposed to be a race but I still feel like he won. Shit. I hopefully have at least 3/4 of my life to live and already feel like he won.

It's not supposed to be a race. Why do I feel like I lost?

Recipe: Szechuan Chicken & Potatoes

I honestly have no idea what this recipe is really called.

When I was in college, my favorite math professor married a woman from Chengdu, in China. Wow that lady can cook. She is also very sweet and kind. My professor picked good. :)

When I was fortunate enough to be invited over for dinner, she would make the most fantastic dishes. I saw her cook once and tried to pay attention so I could replicate the dishes later. This was one of the most delicious she made. Warning: this totally clears your sinuses.

Skinless, boneless chicken, cubed (I use about 1/2 - 1 chicken breast per serving)
Potato, cubed (about a 1:1 ratio of potato to chicken)
Salt to taste
Szechuan red pepper to taste
Chopped green onion (just the greens, and I don't know how much. Maybe 1/2 stalk per serving)
Chopped cilantro (I have no idea exactly how much, but it's a lot. Maybe a half bunch for two servings.)

Boil a small amount of water and boil the potato cubes until they are cooked, about 5 to 10 minutes. Drain.
Heat up a wok and put some oil in it.
Stir fry the chicken until cooked, then add the cooked potato, salt and red pepper.
Stir fry a minute or two to get the flavors to mingle, then add the chopped green onion and cilantro and stir fry some more. The cilantro will wilt a bit, and then you will know it's done.

Eat with rice.

Here is a hint; if you have kitchen shears you can just hold the stalks of cilantro over the wok and snip away.

Restaurant Review: Bonjour French Pastry

This is a "Japanese French" -style bakery, so they have lots of delicious pastries in traditional and traditionally Asian flavors (like green tea and red bean).

The servers there were really nice, and the decor is very "Asian cute" in a French style. If you have some better term for Asian-French fusion please let me know.

The cakes are pretty yummy and normally sized (as opposed to the steroid-sized anything you might find at an American bakery), and the ingredients tasted fresh.

They don't accept credit cards here, so make sure to bring cash.

Bonjour French Pastry
18222 S. Western Ave.
Gardena, CA 90248
(310) 323-1468

The Women Men Don't See

I have a deep love for really good science fiction. The kind that makes you look at our world in a new perspective and say, "huh." (As opposed to "huh?") I have a deep love for the spirit of Star Trek because of this (which is now a mere shade of what it once was).

I read Slashdot fairly regularly. One story posted quite a while ago was a question asking the Slashdot readers what would be appropriate and belong in a high school-level science fiction literature class. I can't seem to find the link now, but someone posted a link to a syllabus of a college-level course which included the James Tiptree short story "The Women Men Don't See". The title alone fascinated me and I was compelled to search it out. You can buy a James Tiptree anthology on B&N here or read the story online here. (If you get the anthology I recommend looking up "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?")

Go read it. It's not long. I could spoil the pivotal scene for you, as several bloggers have done, but you should have the joy and delight of reading it yourself.

I've asked several men if they would go on a one-way mission to colonize Mars, to be a part of history. Almost all of them have said no. The one exception that I can remember said that if the mission was something like Total Recall he would go. Why not? Men are happy here. Comfy. There's nothing to compel most men to find a new life.

And women? If I could go to Mars to start life on a new world why not? Why not try for something better than what we have today, and have a pivotal role in building it? Why not give the world a reason to remember my name (3:15 in this clip)?

Rose Parade Preview

Happy New Year!

Tonight my boyfriend and I wandered around the staging area for the Rose Parade floats.

My favorite floats were sponsored by the city of Torrance and the Ronald McDonald house.

The Ronald McDonald House float was space-themed.

City of Torrance float. I really liked it because of all the birds and the "greenhouse look" to it.

I can't remember who sponsored this float, but it's a tribute to the Tuskegee Airmen of WWII.

Honda float. It's a ship piloted by their Asimov robot.

Taiwan's float, sponsored by China Airlines

Here's a start to a brand new year!