I'VE MOVED

Hey Y'all!

So I've moved everything over to Wordpress. You can now find things over here.
Mostly the same address, just interchange wordpress for blogspot and you're there.
See you after the jump.

Pad See Eiw on a Sick Day

The cold I mentioned earlier finally took me down by the time I woke up today. Felt so tired and generally icky I called in to work that I wasn't coming in. I went back to sleep and didn't wake up until NOON.

Later I got hungry and ever the food nerd, I still felt the urge to make something even though I didn't go to work (for any lurkers out there I work as a food scientist). So, inspired by J.R., Michelle's cuz, I decided to make pad see eiw from scratch. Made my way over to Argyle and picked up flat pan noodles and other essentials at Tai Nam and then walked over to Ban Le for a banh mi sandwich. So good and so cheap! All the sandwiches are less than $3! At the last minute I also got a Thai iced tea and I swear it's the best I've ever had - it had the perfect balance of sweetness, milkiness and tea flavor. Yum!

Now if you want to make pad see eiw, this is the recipe (found here) that I used as a loose guideline. I say loose b/c I tend to go with my tastes rather than a by-the-book recipe.

1 Cup Rice Noodles (soaked in water)
½ Pound Boneless chicken breast
1 Cup Sliced broccoli or Chinese broccoli
1 Teaspoons Oyster sauce
1 Teaspoons Black Soy sauce
1 Teaspoon Light Soy sauce
1 Teaspoons Fish sauce
1½Teaspoon Sugar
1 Teaspoons Minced garlic
4 Tablespoon Vegetable oil

It's sooo easy and it's a cheap meal! I made about three times the recipe and did the sauce ahead of time, adding all the liquids and sugar together except the oil. Start with lightly browning the garlic with the oil and then add your meat. Let it cook about half-way through (if you let it cook too long the meat will get hard before the whole dish is put together) and then add the broccoli. Let the veggies cook down a little bit and then add your noodles and sauce. Toss thoroughly and when the noodles look light brown you are good to go.
Give it a try! It's just as good as any restuarant will give you and for less money :)

It's only 8:30 and I'm ready to call it a night. I'm soooo very very tired. I have a bad cold again. Who gets colds in the middle of summer? And I've managed to do it twice in the past couple months. The nose is running and I have an old smoker cough. Yuck.
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I realized today that I have gotten way too used to working in the 'burbs. Downers Grove is full of perfectly manicured lawns and soccer moms with squeaky clean kids. Everything is so...homogenous. But today I had to go downtown for work and for the first time in a long time I took the train into the city. It sounds so cheesy to say, but I really missed the whole El/city experience.

I was soaking up the scenery today like I was a tourist. The grit of old dilapidated buildings, the hipsters mixed in with blue collared peeps, all standing in silence with iPods plugged in and newspapers in hand as the train wound its way through the neighborhoods. No straight leg, pleated khakis in sight. I was definitely not in DG anymore!

I do love living in the city. Last time I felt the way I did today I was in Lincoln Square meeting up with a friend at Cafe Selmarie. It was a spring night and there was a soft but steady rain falling. All the restaurants were cozily full of people. The trains were roaring in the background and there was a hint of music coming from the Old Town School up the street. I pullled my trench coat closer to me and slowly walked to my car taking it all in...

I'm hoping to have more of these moments sorta soon...the search for The Perfect Place has started in earnest. I'm focusing on Edgewater, Lincoln Square, Roscoe Village and Lakeview so if you run across anything nice let me know!
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P.S. All the pics from two Saturdays ago at Samantha's house are finally posted at the ole flickr page. :)

Oops!

Whoa looks like I neglected this bloggie for a very.long.time.

How to catch up? You know how when you run into an old acquaintance, you don't know quite what to say b/c it's not like you can summarize months, years, whatever, into one neat sentence? Well I haven't exactly gone years w/o posting but yeah, that sentiment pretty much sums it up for me. So I'll say now what I usually say when someone asks me "Hey how you been?"

I am good.

And we'll leave it at that :)

(Yes that was lame. But stay tuned kiddies.)

Homework

So I decided to take a short photo class. I figured why not? Salsa class proved to be super fun (so much fun we're thinking of taking level 2 salsa!) so why shouldn't I dive into something else I like? Results of the first class are below. Topic: night/low light photos. Weather: mother friggin cold. As a result I wasn't too picky with comp. I just wanted to take the shot and get the heck out of there!

On another note, in THREE short months, we are on our way to GREECE!!!!
Yay vacation!!!!

Sunday Night Insomnia

For some ungodly reason, I can never manage to get any sleep on Sunday nights. Even if I am extremely tired, without fail I toss and turn in bed and watch in defeat as the clock changes from 12am, to 1, then to 2. This inevitably screws me over Monday and so for the rest of the week I go sleep deprived. Ugh, I hate that!

So with my trusty new laptop in tow, I surfed the hell out of the internet. Here's some sites where I wasted my life tonite. I'm sure y'all will find good use for them when you're having a bored moment as well.

1. www.myspace.com/lanetech97
Egads! 10 year high school reunion! Where has the time flown? After Court mentioned the site when we were at Hooters on Friday, I had to take a peek. Duuuude, I haven't seen most of those faces since we graduated. A good portion of them don't look even remotely familiar. And a lot of peeps have like, 3 kids already. Crazy! Most interesting find: apparently Trey the Chocolate Jock from Power 92.3 graduated with us!

2. Buzzfeed's compilation of Gates vs. Jobs articles. With the purchase of my MacBook Pro last month, in my opinion Jobs wins HANDS DOWN, but it's nice to see all the reasons why he's so great in print. If tech news isn't for you, then you can peruse Buzzfeed's articles on Britney's Lumpy Ass.

3. In another Jobs/Mac related item, if you google "i don't know what to do with my life" (and yes I really did that), Jobs' commencement address to Stanford in 2005 is the first hit. Definitely worth reading.

4. Free Banksy art! Grab some cool wallpapers or print them out.

5. Misc. Chicago food discussion threads. Favorite Tea Cafes, LTHForum's Great Neighborhood Restaurant Awards, and NewCity Chicago's listing of top taco joints. Or check out the 12 restaurants with the most health code violations. Two of them are close to my house!

6. Last but not least, Girlshop is having a huge sale. Girls, have fun going through all the online boutiques.

And even after doing all this I am still not one bit sleepy. It's 3am. Mother f.

It's 10:30 in the morning.

I'm in my pajamas, watching tv in bed with a hot chocolate on my nightstand.

And it's Friday - no work to be had!

The beauty of a SNOW DAY...

I think I'm going to take a nap now :)

A bit late-ish, but let’s put it down for posterity.

T-Day Highlights and Lowlights in no particular order.

Highlights:
Having the kid sis home. Hanging with Emerson and his little bros Friday (we watched WAY too much Borat on YouTube after getting our shop on in Woodfield). The Romanian food at Ella’s cutie pie of a daughter, Allisia’s, 1st b-day party. Hershey Candy Cane Kisses. Purchasing my mom’s Christmas present for 50% off with an additional 20%, then 10% taken off at Macy’s. Successfully resisting the MBP purchase again. Strawberry whipped cream cake from Lutz. Coming back to work with no boss today. Two for $5 deal at Target for a mini Christmas tree and ornaments.

Lowlights:
Making a purchase off of Bluefly only to find it marked 20% down the next friggin’ day. Shopping at Woodfield for almost 5 hours and walking away with only 2 things. Three pairs of shoes in 1 week (!!! Well it’s not really a lowlight but this addiction is a disease I tell ya’). Tighter pants after a weekend of gluttony. Tighter pants after a weekend of gluttony. And...tighter pants after a weekend of gluttony.

Wow Wow Wee Waa!!!

I like Cadbury Creme Eggs but not this much!

The making of this behemoth was found on Pimp That Snack via Slashfood. Impressive 'eh? It's 56 times bigger than the original! Here's the stats-

Standard creme egg - Height: 2" Girth: 4" Weight: 40 g Calories: 175
Creme de la creme egg - Height: 8" Girth: 16.5" Weight: 2.25 kg! Calories: Approx. 10000!

Hehe, just wanted to share with y'all. Happy Friday!

More Lens Lust

It's been a while since I picked up some camera gear, and with Christmas around the corner I've got my eye on some goodies. The one big thing on my wish list is a Lensbaby. Here's a snippet of info from their site:

The Original Lensbaby lens is the hybrid love child of an old-fashioned bellows camera and an up-tight tilt-shift lens. The Original Lensbaby captures images with glowing highlights, subtle prismatic color shifts and the trademark Lensbaby graduated blur. The Original Lensbaby features a single, uncoated optical glass element which is quite sharp at f/5.6 and f/8 but becomes softer and slightly diffused at f/4 and more diffused and impressionistic at f/2.8.

The Original Lensbaby is a favorite among artists, students, and toy camera lovers who enjoy raw, imperfect, and soft images. Portrait and wedding photographers who want to soften features appreciate the Original Lensbaby's romantic possibilities.

It's ironic that in an age of perfectly crisp digital images, lo-fi cameras and their pics are as popular as they are. And while I love the kind of images that Holga's and Diana's produce, I have no patience for film. I've gotten way too accustomed to the instant gratification that digital gives that going back to film is not something I want to do right now. Enter the Lensbaby and voila! Holga-ish images with the convenience of digital. Check out the flickr Lensbaby group here to see some images.

Ever since I switched into developing coffee and tea drinks, I often get the question “So do you like it more than sauces?” In all honesty, both products have really different ingredients and processing that it’s hard to compare. With dressings and sauces I got pretty comfortable playing around with oils, vinegars, and spices to get a certain flavor profile and consistency, so I figured coffee products should be easier right? Isn’t it all about coffee, chocolate and milk? Ummm yes and no.

This is what my first cupping sessions sounded like (cupping = the formal evaluation of the coffee/cocoa/tea product with the customer or marketing peoples):

Panelist 1: Sample A had more creamy notes, with the vanilla upfront and the cocoa pleasantly mild.
Panelist 2: Yes, I agree, in Sample B the coffee was too strong. It’s that god-awful robusta isn’t it? You can’t taste the cocoa at all! And it had no body!
Panelist 3: Ugh B… it tastes so earthy, almost like dirt. I’m tasting coffee first, then the milk, then that offensive finish at the end. Maybe we should try a different blend of Mexican and Colombian. What do you think Joy?
Me: Ummmm…I think I don’t like B either. It ummm, tastes different… Yeah, it doesn’t taste good…

That is the problem with being a newbie in a field where you’re working with people with seriously honed taste buds. At first everything tastes the same! Either that or I get tongue tied trying to find a way to describe what I’m tasting. And heaven forbid if I prepare a cup of coffee wrong. One time I (gasp!) used warm water to prepare a cup (it should be cold going into the brewer). And today I got strange, “you crazy lady” looks after assuming we taste the coffee out of our standard insulated disposable cups (you MUST use ceramic or porcelain).

However I never get tired of observing one thing. Sooo, when you taste straight up coffee you have to slurp it. It’s loud and sounds gross to people passing by but it’s a funny sight when you see a room full of people doing it. After slurping you spit it out. Usually there is a spittoon but a lot of times the tasters resort to using a regular old cup since that’s the most handy. Inevitably the sample cups and make-shift spittoons get mixed up and people end up sampling other people's...well you can guess the rest...

Hello peoples – long time no blog! So let’s catch up... Gosh what hasn’t changed in the state of the world within the past month? Within the groupie circle we’ve gotten new engagements, new jobs, new pads, new cars, and even a new majority in Congress! Now that is one productive month! As for me I have my new RED iPod and I think that is pretty nifty in itself. :)

No complaints about the weekend. X & N’s b-day celebration on Friday was fun with Borat being the perpetual icing on the cake. You must watch this movie! OMG I COULD NOT STOP LAUGHING!!! Saturday’s mission was accomplished with the discovery of THE DRESS for Samantha’s wedding (she looked gorgeous!) and the night finished off with a performance from the Luna Negra Dance Company. I had the perfect seats – Row N dead center. And no tall people in front of me either! Yay! Sunday’s highlights included finding the Gilmore Girls Seasons 1 and 2 on sale for $14.99 at Target. Oh the little things...

But what is it about waking up to rain on a Monday that can put you in a crabby funk? Well I was ok... as good as can be expected after having to be in Elgin at frickin 7 in the morning for a test run. But once I came back to the office everyone at work had these apathetic expressions on their faces. It was shaping up to be "one of those days”...

Eh, whatever. Monday is over and we're one day closer to the weekend. And you are now caught up :)

Cutie Pie

I couldn't resist posting this pic of little Miss Alexandra. Isn't she cute? She had her face painted at the Apple Fest in Long Grove this past weekend where I waited an insane amount of time for apple doughnuts. (Random side note: I really should have bought the apple cider. Omg. So good. Liquid apple dude. Liquid apple. I love the autumn season. But I digress.) The things I will do to satisfy cravings...

So what do we do after spending a good part of the afternoon waiting in line to purchase food? We spend a good part of the evening waiting in line to buy one last ice cream cone from Toot's on Central and Montrose since, as it turned out, everyone and their mama was out to get one last thing from Toots before they move locations. However when I step up to place my usual 'Small Vanilla Twinkle Coat' order the guy says 'No more Twinkle Coat. Gone forever.' Whaaaa??!! Porque? But the sign next to the window said 'Same exact stuff' at their new location...we'll see... I was denied my final twinkle coat and had to make due with a Dipped Top. Oh well, still the best soft serve ice cream around anyways. The perfect cone to get on summer days.

Biggest regret of the night: Not winning the "Lick Me" sign. I would've been the coolest girl in school if I hung that sucker in my cube at work :p

The Weekend Josh Will Never Live Down

Hey y'all! Halleluia this week is half over! This week has been...busy. The work office and lab have officially moved to Downers Grove and I now drive about 50 miles A DAY to get to and from work. Ugh. On the plus side, I've got a nifty new cube, I've met some really interesting people and best of all I've gotten sneak peeks and tastes of what you guys will see early next year. I am liking sharing the same facility with the meat and bakery depts of SL so far. :) Now if only we can get this rain to stop...
Here's some of the pics from the weekend (me and the groupies left Chicago behind for a few days for the quiet of Lake Wisconsin). I will never look at a pontoon or Josh in the same light. :)

Random Family Notes

-Summer is flyin' by again...The little sis was dropped off again at college this past weekend. Doesn't the little bugger look so darn happy? I miss her already. :( (Btw, gas in Indiana was friggin $2.74!!! So cheap!!!)

-This picture of my dad cracks me up every time I see it. My dad falls asleep at the drop of a hat and he always ends up in funny positions or holding random objects. In this case it was both. I tried prying the remote from him but damn he was holding on tight!


-My mother LOVES her some Oprah. However she is in denial. Last year for Christmas, she gave me an Oprah magazine subscription. Among my family members, we all knew it was really a Christmas present for her under the innocent guise as a gift for me. Now for my birthday on Friday, she happily hands me a pink gift bag. I reach in and lo and behold, I am now the proud owner the Oprah 20th anniversary 6 DVD set! Just what she, I mean I, wanted!

This is why I love my family...