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 :)

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the fatherly men out there ^_^

We had a nice Sunday dinner of mashed potatoes, burgers, and green beans. I was fairly proud of the mashed potatoes -- I put gruyere in them, and they were fantastic. Yum yum.

For desert, I took store-bought pound cake, I food-processed some blueberries and strawberries, and spread it on the pound cake slices. I spread unsweetened whipped cream on top of that, and stuck some more berries on top. It was very yummy, and not overly sweet.

Jenny came over, as well. She thought that the cake-trifle-thing was very patriotic. I thought it was yummy :D

Also, we had a fabulous time in the park. We only stayed there a short while, but Rick skipped many rocks, and we all (except Jason, spoil-sport that he is) wandered around shoe-less. In the picture, by the way, is Jenny, not me. She got in and went, "oh! It's cold it's cold!"

I hope you're all having a beautiful time with your families this Sunday.

Mom's Wedding

Well, my mom got married in April, and as it's now June, I've really not been expedient with getting pictures up.

But, still, here they are.

Oh, and good news -- She did, indeed, not wear a suit!

The wedding was a lot of fun, it was the first time in ages that my whole maternal family had been gathered -- I think it's been six years, since Uncle Art's wedding to Aunt Shannon. As such, it was the first time I'd ever met little Jillian. She's adorable, and possibly more mature at three than Rick was at twelve (now thirteen). I also got to see my cousins Luke and Logan. Logan is now about ten feet taller than I am, and Luke has gotten enormous as well :D

This is Jason's mother, Grammy (not her real name, obviously, just what we call her). She's as sweet as anything, and a lot of fun besides. She lives in a DC suburb, and we like her a lot. She likes the victorians like I do. Also in the picture (duh): Mom and Jason.

I like this picture because Rick and Jennie are glaring at each other.

I like this one because you can see Rick's shiny little dress shoes, and my whole dress. I'd only finished it that morning ^^; Also, isn't Mom's dress nice?

Of course, no collection of wedding photos would be complete without a shot of the newlyweds traipsing down the aisle. As such:

Congratulations to Mom and Jason, even though they've been married for quite a while.

Also, because I said I would blog about it: Today for dinner, Jason made the Dinosaur Barbecue's recipe for Macaroni and Cheese Shepherd's Pie. I had two helpings -- INCLUDING THE BEEF. This is huge because I have been alive for eighteen years, and I have also been a vegetarian for that long, and as such I generally don't like meat and it makes me sick. However, I actually preferred the meat version of tonight's dish to the vegetarian version. I am proud of myself.

And proud of J&J, of course. Yes. Very nice job they did, getting married and all :D

Post-Apocalyptic Bread

This weekend, the Rapture wasn't, and I tried out making yeast bread. My experience with yeast consisted of once making home-made pizza, but I now have a half-eaten cinnamon swirl loaf in my kitchen, and three loaves of bread (two white, one cinnamon) in my freezer. I didn't try the white bread, because we have a loaf of store-bought bread already open, and I didn't want to waste it, so we'll probably thaw that out sometime around Wednesday. The cinnamon-swirl bread was really good, though, and simple (though time-consuming) to make. I used the recipe from The Good Book (also known as FIELDNAME, which I only wish that I were being paid to promote, and I do recommend it because it is the best cookbook ever), and it was perfect. If you ever make cinnamon swirl-bread, make sure that you use as much of the cinnamon-swirl mixture as you think you can possible cram into that bread. I thought mine would turn out overdone, but after tasting it, I think I could have put more in there.

While I was working on the cinnamon-swirl bread, which I made Saturday, I kept joking with my family that I really shouldn't have doubled the recipe, because there would be no way that we'd be able to eat both loaves before the world ended at six.

Then, of course, the clock struck six, and we realized that, obviously, we were just all awful people, and that was why we hadn't been raptured. That's the truth, you know, because obviously it's been long enough since Jonah's flood that the rapture couldn't be any time BUT now.

Duh.

All jokes aside, I do wonder how the people that really believed in the whole thing are feeling today. Betrayed? Confused? Scared? Really wishing they hadn't quit their job, sold the house, and stopped contributing to their children's college fund? Probably. I really feel for those people. Their faith is the most important aspect of many of their lives, I'd wager, and to have that faith crushed in an instant would be mentally and emotionally devastating. I read about one church that had been actively trying to make sure that the Camping's followers would go to them afterwards, as an attempt to help them recover from the emotional trauma that I'm sure many of them are suffering right now. It's sad though... You wonder how somebody could possibly believe something like that, but we all have our little unreasonable beliefs. I'm just lucky that I'm stupidly terrified of small dead rodents, instead of buying into end-of-the-world movements.

On a more positive note, we played Frisbee yesterday, which was fun. Frisbee is cool because I can throw Frisbees reasonably well when I try, and I can occasionally catch them, too, which is not the case in most games of catch. In any case, it's been a beautiful weekend, contrary to the weather reports from even as late as Thursday.

Sundaes

Today is a very special day. Today is a day to celebrate. Today is a day for feasting and good cheer. Today is the birthday of the ice cream sundae.

(This sundae made by JL. Wild congratulations should not be given to me for anything accomplished by his obsessive drive.)

So.

Forgo that diet and grab some ice cream and sauce. Combine, and eat.

But eat with good cheer, and with good friends and family! Eat with twelve-year olds in muscle shirts

Eat with soon-to-be stepsisters

Eat and rejoice at the wonder that is the ice-cream sundae (allegedly invented in 1892 in Ithaca, NY)!

And that’s what I did today.

Please note that with the exception of the picture of the sundae at the top, my mom took all pictures in this post. However, they are still "mine," so please don't take them. Especially the sundae at the top. JL would be displeased.

Una Tortilla de Patatas

According to Avancemos 3, the textbook used for my Spanish III class, a “tortilla” in Spain, is not a burrito wrapper. It is, claims the book (and my teacher), an omelet. On our food vocabulary sheet was “Una tortilla de patatas,” a potato omelet, and several of our homework exercises have been using our new cooking vocabulary to describe (or read about) how to make una tortilla de patatas.

It must be true, I learned it in high school.

You’ll need eggs (los huevos) and potatoes (las patatas), of course, and also onions (las cebollas) and peppers (los pimientos).

To make a potato omelet, first put on a pot of water to boil. You’ll want to boil your potatoes before you fry them so that they won’t turn out raw. If you wish, you could microwave them instead.

While the water is heating up, scrub and chop your potatoes. I chopped them into pieces a little less than a square inch each (wedges). Also start to chop up your other ingredients.

I used one red pepper...

And one yellow onion. The bag I'm wearing on my hand, by the way, is so that my hands don't stink to high heaven afterwards. It's just a ziploc bag, but it's so much more than that.

If you’d like to omit the pepper, Avancemos claims that one needs only onion and potato (in addition to eggs, of course) for a genuine tortilla de patatas.

Boil the potatoes until they’re just shy of ready (Ten minutes? Maybe more, maybe less. Depends on the size of your chunks. Also I over-boiled mine, so I really can't do much more than estimate.).

Warm some oil (el aceite) (I used a splash of canola) in a frying pan. When it’s hot enough that the oil spatters when you flick water into it, add the onions, peppers, and potatoes.

Cook the vegetables until the potatoes are browned -- basically, until they look like breakfast potatoes. If you have anyone in your household that dislikes eggs (read: the resident twelve-year old), you’ll be able to serve some breakfast potatoes outside of the omelet.

While you’re cooking the vegetables, beat the eggs well. I added milk because milk adds to the fluffiness of the scrambled eggs.

Plus, ya know, it’s prettier that way. (Beat the eggs better than that, though!)

When the vegetables are fried to your taste, pour the eggs right on top of them. This is where las tortillas de patatas are different from standard omelets – you don’t cook the eggs, and then put the vegetables in on top of the eggs, but you pour the eggs on top of the vegetables. After that, however, cook like you would any other omelet. I found it awkard because the potatoes wanted to turn the omelet into a scramble. It would, I think, have been easier in a larger pan, but I used a single-egg pan because I was the only one who was going to eat the omelet.

If you’ve never made an omelet, make sure that you lift the sides from time to time so that the uncooked egg on top runs to the bottom. Cover the pan when you’re not actively doing something to keep the heat inside. When the top is still uncooked but no longer watery, flip the whole omelet. If you're making a large omelet, you can cut the omelet in half with your spatula, and flip one half at a time (trust me -- this makes flipping much easier). With this omelet, flipping was harder than usual because the lack of a pure egg bottom made the dish want to fall apart. This would have been fine, but I wanted the presentation of an omelet, darnit!

Continue cooking until both sides are lightly browned, and the eggs are cooked all the way through. I blackened mine a bit, because that’s what I felt like having this morning.

Serve, and enjoy. I had the omelet as pictured, with a little salt and pepper on top. It was tasty (sabrosa). It would be good with salsa, too, I think.

All pictures were taken by me, and all content is mine. Please don't take or use without my permission and without giving me credit. Thank you.

Irish Food

St. Patrick's Day is, I believe, Thursday, which also happens to be opening night for Footloose. I shan't be doing anything not-musical related for the next week, until Monday night, when I'll be allowed to start doing things like my homework again. Yay.

However, I always get kind of excited about St. Patrick's Day, because I like culture study, and St. Patrick's Day is kind of a celebration of a culture that is not our own. Yes, I know, it's devolved into a booze fest, a green spree, and a green booze monstrosity, but despite the full-blooded Italian-Americans wearing "Kiss Me, I'm Irish" T-shirts, the root of the holiday is still acknowledging a foreign culture. That's what I get excited about.

So, today, while pretending to "Describe the status of private property under Mao [and] identify and explain TWO [2] policies undertaken by the Chinese government since 1976 that contradict Mao's policy," I looked up Irish food, because if I made some Irish dish and froze it, I could still feel like I was celebrating St. Patrick's Day in the spirit it should be celebrated (as opposed to wearing a wee spot of green, to avoid being pinched).

Oh my goodness.

First of all, let's talk about recipes. "HOW TO MAKE GREEN BEER" is not a recipe.

Secondly, let's talk about what Irish is. Irish is Irish, not British, and not Scottish. Irish is definitely not Indian. Haggis is a prime example of a not-Irish dish. Muligatawny is an ideal example of a not-Irish soup/stew. Scones may be Irish, but only if you don't dump nearly equal parts of sugar and flour into them.

Of course, I'm Scottish, not Irish, and I'm a generation away from Scotland, so I'm much better at calling the internet's bluff when someone pulls something out of their ears when talking about England than Ireland (or Scotland, though I'm loathe to admit it). However, I do know that only Americans would consider making what really looks like a Christmas Pudding for their "genuine Irish desert" on St. Patrick's Day.

On a more positive note, though, I am considering making "Traditional Irish Stew", not because I think it's any more genuine than anything else out there, but because layering the vegetables sounds fun, and it seems meant for the slow cooker.

Additionally, and I'll have to consult my family on this one, but I think perhaps trying to eat a meat in a stew like this, where the juices matter as much as the meat itself, might be more successful than our previous attempts... then again, I might just ruin a whole pot of stew for us if we put meat in it.

I just would really like to be able to eat meat, and it's so difficult because I genuinely don't like it. If you google search, "from vegetarian to meat," you'll find a zillion and two methods for becoming vegetarian. You'll find three or four about how if you offer free-range meat to a vegetarian, they'll instantly leave their meatless days behind. You won't find anything about the texture of chicken is just awful, or the fact that the strange protein makes said vegetarians sick. You really won't find anything about how to conquer such issues, so that if you travel anywhere, you can have local dishes, or even just eat at a friend's house, without putting them in a dither, trying to find something other than a plate of boiled broccoli to put in front of you. (Heck, something most omnivores don't realize is how often we veggies have to eat fettucine alfredo at restaurants. When I was a kid, I really didn't mind... a plate full of garlicky carbs and fat sounded great to me, any day! Now that I'm [somewhat] out of that picky-eater stage, though...)

On another rather unrelated note, my mother and I decided what she's doing about her wedding dress. We went shopping today at our fabulous 1.5-hour's-drive-away-mall, and she said that she compared everything to the dress she has at home -- it's "The Dress." Therefore, we'll be getting it tailored. I'm so excited, she's going to be gorgeous!

My dress, on the other hand, was heavily inspired by this gorgeous

little fey. I found her on Elfwood, by Stephanie N. Payne. Originally, I liked the playful, fantasy-but-reminiscent-of-anime style of this picture, and made it my desktop for a while. I kept coming back to it because I thought that the dress she's wearing would be a lot of fun! So... I'll be wearing it to the upcoming nuptials! However, I thought the colors were too similar to my prom dress, so my wingless, leafless version will be pink, with an overdress of darker red. Don't worry, I'll post pictures of my dress and my mother's dress, once the wedding rolls around. Wouldn't want anyone to accidentally see someone's dress early, you know.