La vie est bonne, mangez les bon-bons.

Okay, so the French up there is probably a monstrosity, and I really ought to go check on the rules for using articles before I post this, to avoid embarrassment, but I felt like doing a title in French, and I don't feel like finding a textbook (or using the google), so that's how it's going to be.

Apologies, francophones of the internet.

Today is Saturday, and I go back to Temple on Monday. I'm kind of excited for that (shhh! Don't tell my mother!), but at the same time, I'm trying to cook things in the interim because not having a kitchen really kinda sucks a lot. Beaucoup suckage.

Anyway, yesterday, I made and ate Nutella chocolate cookies, with both dark and white chocolate chips. They were good, although it was super-hard to figure out when they were done. Very rich, as well. I used this recipe from The Kitchen is my Playground, which was good, although I will add that you should take the cookies out of the oven right when the edges are no longer "wet." Mine were still fabulous, but they were a little more "done" than I would have liked. The cookie dough, however, was delectable :)

These are not Nutella chocolate chip cookies, but apple cider caramels. Keep reading, beloved reader.

Today, I made and am waiting to eat apple cider caramels from Not so Humble Pie. By apple cider, I mean American apple cider -- the kind that's basically unfiltered apple juice not from concentrate, which you can warm up with mulling spices and be transported into an October-y heaven with every sip/breath. It didn't take as long as I expected, only about an hour and a half, and it was fairly easy. My only worry is that my candy may have crystallized, and I really hope it didn't. We'll see, once it's finished setting, though I can say that they did smell phenomenal! I got a bit impatient and took the pan with the cooling caramels from the kitchen table and put it into the snow. The recipe is here, and I really recommend perusing Mrs. Humble's blog. It's fun to look through the archives, and if you're at all interested in the science aspect of food, she has many articles about food science. For instance, I didn't realize that the reason that you check a candy's temperature to decide if it's done is because the boiling point rises as the syrup becomes more and more concentrated, leading to higher ratios of sugar to water/fat. The higher boiling temperature, the harder the candy will be when it's finished.

I hope your day was as delicious as mine was!

Au revoir!

Contentment

This morning I woke up at six o'clock so that I could make an over-easy egg for my little brother before school. He agreed with me that eggs with runny yolks were infinitely better than scrambled eggs. It was the first time in his life that he'd ever sat down and eaten an egg, and he did enjoy it. He started wrestling a while ago, and he really enjoys it, and he recently decided that he wants to eat more protein so that he can "get built." Since we're vegetarian, that means quinoa, tofu, eggs, or... drop the vegetarianism. We've promised to amp up the quinoa consumption, and we already eat tofu in everything (although he claims to not like it -- silly child!), and we've tried meat consumption. It makes all three of us sick and none of us like it, so oops, gave it our best shot ;) Since he's purportedly hated eggs his whole life, I convinced him that maybe eggs taste and feel different when they're cooked in different ways, and that he should try a variety of kinds, since protein is now such a priority for him.

The big sister is rarely wrong.

After he went off to school, I retreated back to my couch-bed to listen to some music (but not sleep. We all know that if you go back to sleep after waking up in the morning, the whole day will be exhausting and groggy) and watch as the sky got gradually lighter and lighter until I could see the difference between the lake and the grass. The morning started off cloudy and grey, which beautiful while the light was still pinkish because the rising sun managed to soak everything with a cool pink glow. At this point the clouds have mostly cleared out, though, which is even nicer for someone used to the perpetual grey skies of the mohawk valley.

Once the sun was risen, I did some yoga. I found a website that has 20 minute yoga classes (there are videos and simple audio) for free. I downloaded a bunch, and this morning I did a morning flow routine. The slower pace was in line with the rest of my morning, and the emphasis on backbends has made me feel invigorated and alive this morning.

(You may wish to keep in mind that yesterday I did not get out of bed until one.)

I'm really enjoying my lazy but fulfilling morning today, and I am content.

Happy Monday.

Happy Holidays 2011!

Happy Holidays! I hope that you're all having a beautiful time at home with your family and friends, enjoying the day off of work, or the month or so off of school if you're in uni! I'm having a great time in NY with my family, and I was really excited to see my friends as well. I haven't seen everyone yet, but I am looking forward to spending lots of time with people I love :)

 Like M and R! If you can't tell from the picture, M is a curmudgeonly old grouch, and R is a wonderful beauty of a friend!

Obviously, seeing my family is an upside to the holidays as well. It's been a while since I got to come back, as it's a seven/eight hour trip from Philadelphia to upstate NY, so we're all quite happy to see each other. Hopefully that novelty doesn't quite wear off by the time I leave ;)

 Jennie gave us all elf hats!

Jennie and Pierce were able to come over for Christmas Eve yesterday, and while Pierce was able to come again today after spending the morning at his mother's, Jennie is either en route to or currently in New Orleans, so we did some of our presents yesterday, along with Christmas dinner... hence why I'm typing this "post Christmas" blog on Christmas.

 Some of us were happier to wear them than others

Notice the male family members' inability to pull off the 'look' quite as well as their female counterparts. They're quite jealous, as you can see. Don't worry, though -- they were re-gruntled when we gave them a bunch of books each!

Merry Christmas from the M-L ladies!

It's not our fault we're glamorous! I hope your Christmas/time with loved ones is grand, and I certainly hope you got a day to lounge around the house, eating mashed potatoes and wearing bright pink chinese silk pajamas (that's the only way to spend Christmas, after all)! Merry Christmas!

This is Philadelphia, the city in which I currently reside and study. It's pretty fabulous. In case you can't tell from the green tree in the bottom left corner next to City Hall, this picture is actually from October, not December. Whoops! I'd left dead batteries in my camera now for two months' time!

This is my boyfriend and I, standing on the third floor of Macy's in front of the Christmas tree (which is enormous and prettiful, and pictures do it, obviously, no justice. I'm fairly confident that some God of festivities mandated that pictures of things like parties and Christmas trees can never look nearly as cool as the real things were), having a great time listening to the daily Christmas-time organ concert at noon.

Is your country dirty? Don't worry, the British Empire will clean it up! I don't remember where this place is, but I found it highly amusing, hence, it is being shared.

Happy Holidays!

Christmas time city life!

It's getting to be Christmas time, and I now have only one person left on my shopping list. Trouble maker, I know. What business do they have needing presents at Christmas? ugh.

This is what people turn into when they want Christmas presents. Yeah, that is supposed to be a child.

But it does mean that I got to go downtown today to try to cross them off the list (and I did get it down from two people to only one!). I went with Beth, and we had a wonderful time of marvelousness. Before shopping, we stopped at Macy's and visited Dicken's village.

Macy's does Christmas. They do Christmas with lights and toys and an organ, like a boss.

It was kind of awesome, even though it was full of moving dolls and they were all incredibly creepy.

SEE??

We had a fantastic photo taken with Santa, which I believe is the first picture of myself with Santa ever, but... for seventeen dollars for a single print, we did not walk away with a copy. It was a great picture, though, and when Beth told Santa that she wanted to do well on her exams, he told her he could come up with some Ritalin for her. Coolest Santa ever.

Instead, here's a picture of us in front of a house in Dicken's Village, taken by a random kind soul, with creeper moving doll in the background.

By the way, the lights show and organ concert at Macy's are both cool and also rather well-attended. I really liked the couples laying on the ground.

This picture is actually from yesterday, when I saw the lights and heard the concert with Gabe.

Of course, we may have gotten deterred by pretty dresses on the way down the escalators... yeah. We really, really did. And also by soft sweaters. But those were about $140 a pop, so... And really, trying on sweaters is not nearly as fabulous as trying on dresses. This dress was over the one hundred dollar mark, and taking a picture of it gave me an excuse to terrorize Beth.

A nicer room mate would not be nearly as much fun.

Then, we actually went shopping for other people, and beth got her finger all pastel-y... and, of course, got my face all pastel'd as well.

Either I got roughed up living in the bad part of town, or my room mate can't avoid touching colored things.

And theeeen, we went to the Christmas Village. Potato latkes are really good, and so are broccoli-cheese puffs, and apple cider. Yum :)

See? We love/are capable of standing next to each other!

The Christmas Village is a really cool place, full of expensive ornaments and scarves and jewelry. And also they have lots of German people running food booths (or selling ornaments. I don't think I realized until visiting the Christmas Village how perfectly "Christmas" and "German" fit together. I never really thought about how many Christmas traditions are German in origin, I suppose.)

I don't know if we can blame this one on the Germans, though...

On our way back to the subway, we passed a hotel, where there was a guy roasting chestnuts! Whoa! On an open fire! I've never seen such madness!

And that's what's really, really cool about living in a city.

Reading Terminal Market

Beth and I went to Reading Terminal Market today!

I also went to a football game, which was fantastic -- apparently we won, but, let's face it. After you see the marching band at half time, there's really no point in staying much longer. I'm only joking, of course, but I'd almost forgotten how much I absolutely adore marching bands.

It's a lot.

Anyway, after the game, I met Beth to have lunch at Reading Terminal Market. If you've never been there, it's enormous and beautiful. It was like those markets that Andrew Zimmern always goes to whenever he's in a city. It was absolutely amazing. Indian, Chinese, Italian... Produce, cookies, cheese, bread, whatever it was you could possibly want you could get there (including the largest shrimp(s?) I've seen, ever). We wandered around for a really long time just looking at absolutely everything. In the end, we shared a fried macaroni and cheese ball, we both had smoothie/juice things, and I had goat cheese and good bread.

Fried mac and cheese: In case you don't know, fried mac and cheese is one of the best unhealthy substances ever. As Beth said (having given me the most judging look when I ordered some), "I don't know why I doubted it. Deep-frying makes everything better, and mac and cheese is already pretty dang good." The fried mac and cheese that we bought at a cajun food stand today were enormous, so there was a very nice ratio of crispy, fried bits to melty-cheesy bits. The cheese was also spiced, in what I assume was a cajun-esque manner, so that added a whole 'nother delicious dimension.

Goat cheese: I bought my goat cheese at a cheese stand (duh) which mostly sold imported cheeses. It was called, "Enrobé," and it was a small lump of soft goat cheese covered in cranberry bits. I had a choice between apricot-encrusted cheese and cranberry-encrusted cheese, and as the rather flirtatious salesman said, "You're going for the cranberry because it's close to Thanksgiving, aren't you?" The cheese was light tasting and beautifully textured. The sweetness of the cranberries was a bit strong, but with a savory bread, it was absolutely perfect.

Bread: I bought two 65 cent dinner rolls from a stand which I can't remember the name of, but which was near a Chinese food place, and also very close to a "Southern Cooking" place which appeared to specialize in fried meats. The sourdough bread, I thought, could have had more flavour in it (I enjoy a very sour sourdough), but the olive roll had lots of little chunks of olive all throughout it, and a nice savory taste throughout. The olive roll was by far superior to anything from a supermarket, and certainly much better than anything I could get at the school dining hall. Both breads were textured nicely -- they weren't dense, but neither were they tough with large holes, the way many supermarket breads. I absolutely adored the flavour combination of the olive bread and the cranberry goat cheese.

Smoothie/Juice: The juice/smoothie came from a middle-eastern stand that also serves falafel and baba ganoush, but having already had my fill of delicious bread and cheese, all I wanted was a bit of sweetness and liquid. The stuff was not heavy, but also not sugary-tasting. It was like a smoothie, but also like juice. I had pineapple-coconut-banana, and it was superb.

At the market, for those who've never been, there are plenty of stalls that have ingredients instead of food, and even places that sell things like hats or shawls. Many stores sold teas, and I saw little jars of marmite for over eight dollars each. I also passed a shop that had dark chocolate hearts in the window -- anatomically correct hearts, that is. There was also a crepe place that I wanted to try, but was really too full for by the time I'd eaten my other food.

After Reading Terminal Market, we did wander down to Chinatown and peek inside a couple of shops. I bought a pack of White Rabbit Candies, which are basically cream-flavored tootsie rolls, and oh-so-delicious. I think I've had probably three "servings" of them already, since there's six servings per bag. Whenever I go to Chinatown, I'm always tempted to buy one of their eye-catching rings, but I'm always afraid that it will break. Many of them are surprisingly pretty, but they all look so flimsy. Besides, why would you want to spend three dollars or so on a ring, when, for just fifty cents or so more, you could go to Reading Terminal Market and have a smoothie? Yum :)

So what have I been up to?

In college, I've been doing some pretty fun stuff. Don't worry -- I've been drinking milk, not alcohol (as recommended by that bookmark they handed out during Welcome Week), but I've been having an absolutely splendid time regardless (or perhaps because of it!)

What have I been doing, then?

Well... I live in Philadelphia, so there's lots to do. Beth and I went to Magic Gardens, which we got in for free with our student PEX passes.

I had lots of fun trying to take pictures with the mirror fragments in the walls.

There were also a ton of bottles that people had put notes in, and we spent probably an hour sticking pencils into the bottles to try to get the notes out to read them. I was looking for a love note, and it took me a surprisingly long time to find one! Finally I did :)

This picture has little to do with the bottles and notes. However, I have nowhere else to put it, so it's going here.

If you've never heard of the Magic Gardens, it's basically an enormous, tumultuous collage of stuff in the form of a house and maze-garden. There are bottles galore, there are pottery fragments, tiles, lines of text... no matter where you look, there's more and more stuff. I would have loved it as a kid, it was amazing. And, since it's all stuck in with concrete, everything is completely touchable!

Beth and I lucked out getting each other as room mates. Yeah, one of us stays up later than the other, and we like different music, and one of us is less messy than the other... but we get along so well that we're best friends anyway. It's wonderful.

This, by the way, is Beth and I both very sad a few weeks ago when we lost to Penn State in the last four minutes and forty two seconds of the game. We had been winning for the entire game until the last FOUR minutes. I hope you realize how emotionally devastating it was for us.

Other than the Magic Gardens, I've been to the Franklin Institute -- Gabe and I (he's my boyfriend -- we met in Linguistics class) went to see the mummy exhibit there. Which was interesting and really, really creepy. There's this one peruvian mummy who's cradling this child mummy and is resting her head on top of another child mummy... who happens to have neither feet nor hands nor HEAD. Creepy.

By the way, out my dorm window we have a fantastic view of the city.

Other than that, really what's been going on is.... Shenanigans. Lots and lots of shenanigans.

This is Gabe, indulging my mischievous shenanigans. See what wild college students we are?