Sesame Noodles

To me the smell of sesame is warm and inviting and makes me smile, but David likes it even more than me! So, while "Spring" continues to toy with my emotions (come on warm weather!), I felt like this would be a perfect meal. I didn't have a specific recipe, but I read a bunch online, so I decided to combine a few  and I was so happy that it turned out so tasty :) Also having everything for it already that had its perks too. Here's the recipe to try if you're interested.

Peanut Sesame Noodles

Adapted from Gourmet, June 2002

Makes 6 side-dish or 4 vegetarian main-course servings

For peanut dressing

·         1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

·         1/4 cup soy sauce

·         1/3 cup warm water

·         1 tablespoon chopped peeled fresh ginger

·         1 medium garlic clove, chopped

·         2 tablespoons rice vinegar

·         1 1/2 tablespoons Asian toasted sesame oil

·         1 tablespoon honey

·         1 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes or a splash of the hot sauce or chili paste of your choice

For noodles

·         3/4 lb dried soba noodles (dried linguine fini or spaghetti will work in a pinch)

·         4 scallions, thinly sliced

·         1 red bell pepper, cut into 1/8-inch-thick strips

·         1 yellow bell pepper, cut into 1/8-inch-thick strips

·         Half a seedless cucumber, thinly sliced

·         1 cup firm or extra-firm tofu, cubed - optional

·         3 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted

1.      Puree dressing ingredients in a blender until smooth, about 2 minutes, then transfer to a large bowl.

2.      Cook pasta in a 6- to 8-quart pot of boiling salted water until tender. Drain in a colander, then rinse well under cold water.

 

3. Add pasta, scallions, bell peppers, cucumber and tofu to dressing (I skipped the tofu!), tossing to combine. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds and serve immediately.

 

**On a very different note, I have been dipping my toe carefully in the pool of Indian cooking as of late. I am really enjoying it, unfortunately David can only take so much, so I am slowly working through the recipes I've gathered. Some he has agreed are "keepers" so I am aiming for producing more of those so we can eat it more often! :D

 

My Winter Blues

With winter in full swing (most of the time) here and me being half frozen during it, I of course started thinking about fun winter gear. Then I stumbled across this fantastically entertaining craft. The tutorial seemed easy enough so I decided to go for it. While out shopping David and I picked up the fleece and I set to work. Since I'm no expert with sewing (is there anything below amateur? That's me.) I didn't expect much on my first attempt. So, armed with my handy dandy seam ripper (aka my best friend) I started cutting the pieces out, pinning them and sitting down to try and figure out how my sewing machine works. Once again. After two hours Soon I had the machine set and ready to go and for the most part it was super easy. I got the 'extra' pieces to embellish it with ready and the sides all sewn up. All I had left was closing the top. Here, here is where I met my arch nemesis.

I think I ripped the seam about 3 times before I got it right. First I misunderstood the instructions and thought I was fixing it, but then I realized that it was wrong the second time too. Finally I did what I should have done in the first place. I sat and looked at it and then thought about what made sense. Then I had it!

Now did a happy dance because I had an adorable finished hat :D

 

Valhalla!

I just thought this was the cutest thing EVER. So cute in fact I couldn't resist making a couple more haha.

(I like to imagine the bear saying "Wassup?" all gangster like)

David especially appreciated this one. This little dude is a stylin' dinosaur!

 

Yes. I know. A bear wearing a bear hat? Redundant maybe, but still adorable.

 

And here's a polar bear one!

 

OK OK. Maybe this craft got a little out of hand...maybe. :)

And since several of our friends are having/have new babies I have people I can give these hats to and that way I won't be that weird lady that makes little hats for no reason and hordes them. Yay! for not being that lady.

The Mortal Instruments Movie Trailer

This is one book series I've read, enjoyed and re-read. Now I find out there's a movie coming out in August 2013! Yes - it is a series found in the teen fiction section in the library, however, I do not care. I'm a suck and I enjoyed every moment while reading each book. The plot twist may be weird, even creepy if you really try to put yourself in the characters place,  but just don't think about it that closely. It fixes itself in the end anyways. Sit back and relax and enjoy this treat!

...AND We're Back

It's the start of a new year, and the cycle has begun again with new resolutions and new projects in store for me. One major undertaking that I am participating in with several friends is the Pittsburgh Marathon Relay! So, our winter/early spring will be filled with running and practicing. David has already started telling me "DON'T DROP THE BATON!" So supportive :D
Go Running Gels!

Another project I've been entirely engrossed in is card making. Before Christmas I mentioned that I had gotten interested in quilling, or paper filigree, and I was lucky enough to receive several gifts that would aid my card making hobby. I've already begun making several birthday cards that I'm quite pleased with.

Yesterday David and I decided we wanted to take the day and put off work and chores, and instead spend it doing enjoyable things and relaxing. So, I spent most the day working diligently on them and was able to make 3 beautiful cards. Yes, I know. Nearly a days work spent only making 3 cards doesn't seem very productive, but I'm willing to sacrifice quantity for quality. They're really cute for some of my first quilled cards if I do say so myself.

I'm enjoying the time spent making these little butters immensely, the only problem is now I have 3 boxes of craft items instead of 1! We may have to move into a bigger place for more reasons than one...

OH! On a side note (I know I've been all over the place in this post, but I have a lot to catch up on with you ) David and I have discovered steel cut oats and oh my goodness we have oats coming out our ears! I've begun making breakfasts on Sunday night for the past few weeks and every time I ask David what he wants me to make, his reply is OATS! While I am a fan of them because they have more texture (or chew like David says), as opposed to rolled oats, I'm more looking forward to incorporating them into savory dishes. I googled several recipes online and came up with suggestions like adding them to breads, muffins, and even frittatas. But I also have a recipe for a steel cut oat polenta dish. VERY intriguing! I think they're wonderful because the texture they lend to the dish reminds me of Koljavo (whole wheat pudding) which is served at his family's Slava celebration. Which reminds me - I need to learn how to make this from his aunt....

A Rafter of...Turkeys?

My sister, Sara recently visited me for a long weekend and she brought me a very festive surprise for November - a rafter of turkeys!! You may be wondering what the heck a rafter of turkeys is, and I'm not being weird. A group of turkeys is technically a rafter, like a herd of sheep or a gaggle of geese. Here's my cute rafter:

They were so cute I almost couldn't eat them. HAHA. Like that could happen, of COURSE I ate them. My people would be proud. Our learning what a rafter was took place while we were all out to dinner and it involved some adult bev's, an i-phone and lots of laughter.

I thought this thoughtful gift was very apt with Thanksgiving fast approaching. Liang and I are planning a joint effort on a non-traditional Thanksgiving meal, which I'm sure will be posted whether on here or on our joint blog, Nerds with Aprons.
Well, with that big meal soon to occur I have been trying to scurry and get all my other little things done so I don't feel SO overwhelmed :) This included making a shopping trip to Costco to get items to make a trail mix for snacks and lunches. Yes, I know I could buy a bunch of pre-mixed stuff. And yes, I know they're just as available at Costco as the individual ingredients. However, I actually have a great time putting my own mix together and changing it up. I doubt whether it's healthier (except maybe lower in sodium depending on what I add into it) but it makes me feel good. So I do it. This time I made 4 batches of my homemade granola, which I have put in earlier posts. I did omit the nuts in the recipe since I'd be adding lots of them into the trail mix. After shopping for almost, peanuts, M&Ms (everyone needs a little chocolate in their lives), and raisins I set up my assembly line. I lined up the nuts with a 1 oz serving scoop (aka shot glass), a spoon for the granola, digital scale, and a small scoop for the candy. I grabbed my snack bags and I was ready to start the magic. With each snack bag of trail mix I created with 1 serving of each ingredient, and ended up with 4 3/4 oz trail mix bags. Since I was using a scale to be consistent I could rely on my math and was able to calculate that with the total cost of the ingredients and the 44 trail mix bags I ended up with, each only cost 76 cents! David kept commenting on how happy I looked, and I had to then explain how much FUN I find putting things like this together and figuring out the breakdown. I know, I'm odd. I'm okay with it :)

Top Restaurant Picks

Spice Island – Burmese fare, Oakland area

·         Liang and I were walking around the Oakland area a little while ago and decided that it was time to introduce me to Spice Island. I had never been there but she had told me a lot about it. I was intrigued to try some new things, but we couldn’t decide on one dish to order. So, instead we ordered lunch size dishes of multiple things. One I want to make note of is the Mango Pork – WOW that was delicious. The Mahinga soup (fish soup)  was good, and we also got some samosas and a garden salad. Everything was tasty, serving sizes were nice. This was a neat little place to eat at and I definitely recommend them.

The Porch – Bistro style place, Oakland

·         David and I came to first eat at this place a while ago when after church we had an hour to kill before the library opened and it was really cold out. Seeing this new place we thought it was a fancy coffee shop so we figured it’d be nice to go get some hot chocolate while we wait. We walked in and it was so homey and the waitstaff so friendly we just couldn’t leave once we realized it was a restaurant. Their crispy taters and curried ketchup was delicious. Normally I hate ketchup, but this was new and very different. While it’s a little pricey for brunch, the dinner prices are good for dinner sized entrees that you get. If you’re looking for a nice night out I recommend this place for sure, and if you just want to do brunch it’s still good but it’s a little more expensive.

Running for My Life - Well That's What It Feels Like

New Years is the time for people to make resolutions for the next 12 months. For the most part I don’t make them, but this year my mom decided what our family needed was some bonding. How she put together bonding and a half marathon I will never figure out. In my mind I couldn’t reconcile 13.1 miles to family togetherness. The image that was occupying my mind was me dying and then being trampled to death by a horde of strangers. I felt like this was the more likely outcome. However, I had to admit I could use some positive changes in regards to my workout schedule (which was non-existent) and my physique, so I committed to the race. 13.1 miles – it takes me forever to drive that in my car around the city. I knew I wasn’t a Spring chicken anymore; long gone were the days where I could run forever and not feel a thing. This was going to be painful, but I kept my goals in the forefront of my mind. I signed myself and Sara up for a 5K race for the end of April just to prepare so we knew what a race day was like. I diligently followed a prescribed workout for a beginner that I found online. I never could have gotten through it if Liang hadn’t signed up for the Pittsburgh half marathon and made it possible for us to train together. She got me to run with her out in the snow and freezing temperatures, other nights I had to force myself down to our buildings workout room and put myself at the mercy of an unforgiving treadmill. I sweat a lot. Three months went by and my practice 5K race was before me. I was excited and nervous, but David and Sara were good sports and got up early to go. I thought it was going well until I thought I was on the last stretch and I put everything I had into crossing what I thought was the finish line. I wasn’t the only one to do so, but an entirely too entertained volunteer waved us on to show us we had some pavement to pound yet. Eventually we crossed that line, but I was much more cross by time I did than if it had ended where I thought it should have. Poor David tried so hard to get a picture of me, but as I was surrounded by some teenage boys when I ran by he just couldn’t get a good shot. Sara looked good though.
I finished and was content with my time, but I definitely wanted to improve before the half marathon. Liang and I increased our run lengths steadily, but due to schedule conflicts we never got past doing 11 miles. Somewhere along this journey I noticed a very pleasant side effect of all this hard work and dedication – I was finally losing weight!
 
By time the half marathon snuck up on me I had managed to shed a whopping 14 lbs. It goes without saying that I was pretty happy with myself. However, when race day did appear I found myself facing a challenge I wasn’t sure I was up to. It didn’t matter though, I was going to finish that race without walking if it killed me. I didn’t care about time or who I could beat. At this point the race had become an opponent in and of itself – I was going to finish. I started off with that mindset and it worked well – I had the sun shining down on me, the morning was beautiful aside from the fact I was in the middle of a mob of people that if startled could easily trample me to death. I tried to ignore that thought. Around mile 8 I felt my mind and body shift into a sort of autopilot and my mind was able to wander. Then around mile 11 I hit a wall. Not a literal wall, but it may as well have been. Every step further I took my body began to slow down a bit and made it that much more difficult to continue forward. Little by little I felt my body protest against what I was aiming to complete. So, again when I thought I was coming up to the finish line I got happy and excited and picked up my pace as much as I could. Then it seemed as if this chute to the finish line would last forever I realized I again fell for the illusion that the race was over before it actually ended. Well, I couldn’t slow down at this point so by time I reached the ACTUAL finish line I literally felt like my legs had no bones. But I had done it! 2 hours and 20 minutes after the start I found myself awkwardly trying to keep walking to keep from being run over by other runners who were coming across the finish line.
To the best of my knowledge never in my sports playing career had I ever sweat so much that my entire body was crusted in a layer of salt. That day I was. But I do have to admit it was humbling to realize that in the time it took me to run my 13 miles there were marathoners who did twice the distance in the same time. Those people are amazing! I was proud to have finished no matter the comparison, but not too proud to ask my dad to drive me back to their house since it didn’t seem like I was going to regain the normal use of my legs or feet for a while. David was proud of my accomplishment, but sadly he couldn’t join me so I headed back to my parents house to recover and celebrate with them.

It took me over a month to truly recover, and I honestly think it was even more like nearly 2 months. I had also signed up for a 5K in June as a sort of wind down race, and I even got Liang and my friend Serah to run in it as well. It was a fun race for a good cause, but I was disappointed that I ended up with about the same time as my first 5K race. It was probably since I didn’t do much training while I was recovering, but still! Ha ha I’m ridiculous, I know. But now I was really starting to see some physical change that I liked and I was feeling good. Then Liang suggested The Great Race 10K in Pittsburgh, and of course I was in for it. We kept running together when we could on weekends and during the week days I would either get up before work and run a 2.5 mile route or do it at night after work. We didn’t actually get in too many longer runs, in fact I don’t think we peaked over 4 miles at a time, but I was happy doing what we were doing so I didn’t change anything. It was fun and I was happy with my time J and I even managed NOT to get tricked into thinking we were finishing before we actually were. I had no idea how far we had gone at any point in the race so towards the end I just ignored when everyone started running faster until the crowds started getting bigger and bigger. Either way I finished and was happily done with my 6.25 miles in 54 minutes and 24 seconds. Certainly not a marathoner’s time, but I am completely okay with that! Liang excelled as well and we both are happy with our accomplishment. She was able to beat her last 10K race time so I tip my cap to her. She actually wrote a very nice post about this race if you are interested at The Great Race
In all I’ve been able to lose weight I wanted to and got to spend a lot of time with my best friend! Winning!

After the race I was talking with my mom and she thought it would be a blast to maybe try a Zombie 5k obstacle course next year, then I would truly be running for my life!...