I celebrated Christmas!! .... sort of

Yesterday was super exciting because for once in my life, I celebrated Christmas... in the sense that I went to a Christmas dinner hosted by the same neighbors we had over two nights ago. What nice people... their relatives and family friends were there and I ended up having a great time.
HOWEVER... It was a very weird day food-wise. I'm not used to eating at irregular intervals, and I think all that really wreaked havoc on my sensitive-ish stomach. I was supposed to head over to my neighbors' around 3:00 and we would be eating at 4:00 ish even though it was dinner (apparently a lot of people do this on Christmas). Therefore, I didn't want to eat lunch. But I was also really tired when I woke up and didn't feel like working out, so I ate a light breakfast.
I had 2/3 of a cup of GoLean Crunch, 1/3 of a cup cinnamon Puffins, soy milk, a sliced banana, some blackberries and blueberries, and a sprinkle of almonds and pecans. I also had a blood orange.
A while after breakfast my parents and I decided to go on a very long walk in Jackson Park, where there's a little Japanese garden. Everything was COVERED with snow and caked in ice... I stupidly forgot my camera, but my mom took some photos that I'll post later. It was a strange feeling, not actually knowing where we were, since everything looked homogeneous. We actually walked for a long time, and my toes were getting numb by the end. The sound your shoes make when they crush the slightly hardened snow is even more satisfying than cracking the top of the creme brulee (yes, I know that's in Amelie). Anyways, we walked for a good 45 minutes, or maybe even an hour. We were nice and flushed when we got back.
This was a perfect opportunity for hot chocolate if there ever was one. I love making hot chocolate in big batches because you can use more and feel like you're not the only one drinking it :)
I used the special Spanish hot chocolate from Zingerman's that my mom got me for my birthday last year. Here are our Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear mugs (the only difference is that I have a bigger mug than my mom).
Along with my hot chocolate I had a tiny little gingerbread cookie that I made... verdict: it was actually delicious! I suppose this was my lunch.

Meanwhile, my parents made what looked like the most wonderful lunch: a sort of zhou (rice porridge) of leftover chicken and vegetables. Think chicken soup and rice. I seriously have never wanted to have a meat dish so much... and I don't think there's anything that should hold me back. I didn't want to eat the actual chicken, just the broth, and God knows how many times I've probably had chicken broth accidentally. Yes, I know it's not the same, but maybe my body was trying to tell me something... If I hadn't been saving my appetite for dinner, I really might have had some. I just don't like always having a label: "vegetarian," "pescetarian," whatever. How about just eating according to my preferences, which usually favor vegetables over meat?

At my neighbors', they had a spread of cheese, crackers, and various dips. The photos didn't come out well, but I had one cracker and a few tastes of dips: artichoke, roasted vegetable, cheddar horseradish, and a little cranberry goat cheese.
The table was so nicely set: even a little place card for me!

"Dinner": pork tenderloin, lasagna, asparagus, and coleslaw.

The difference between this lasagna and the one they brought over to our place was like night and day. This one was melty and not too chewy.


I didn't have seconds because this lasagna is probably 2 parts cheese to 1 part noodles and sauce. I could feel my stomach churning a little. I'm not lactose intolerant or anything, but when ever I eat a lot of cheese, which is rare, I can feel it.
Because of this, I decided to pass on dessert, even though I hadn't eaten that much by my standards.
For dessert, there was homemade mandelbrot (half the people there were Jewish, despite the pork tenderloin), some kind of toffee, cookies, and vanilla cake.
When I got home around 7:20, it was almost time to leave for our movie, Slumdog Millionaire. I was a little hungry but my stomach felt weird, so I just had some applesauce.

The movie was amazing, but a bit of a shock. My parents thought it was a comedy, and it turned out to be super violent, disturbing, and depressing. I was sobbing by the end and that rarely happens.. BUT, I seriously recommend it.
We got home after 11, and I was starving. I rarely eat so late at night, but my schedule was so out of wack yesterday that I had a very strange "dinner": a piece of toast with 1 scrambled egg, 2 pieces of smoked salmon, some leftover squash, and a blob of hummus.
Plus a tangerine.




This morning I woke up and forced myself downstairs to the weight room. I was really sick of the elliptical, so I ran 3 miles on the treadmill and then cooled down, so about 3.4 miles total. I really hate the treadmill, but you can get more of a workout in a shorter amount of time. I was also sweating way more than I usually do on the elliptical. I should probably ice my knee, though.
Breakfast was really more like dessert. Seems like other bloggers are "recovering" from the holiday season, but I never really ate any dessert during the season to begin with, so why not use up some of those delicious cookies?
Today's oatmeal was (partly inspired by Kath):
1/3 cup oats, 1/3 cup soy milk, 1/3 cup water, 1 small banana, cinnamon, vanilla. Toppings: a sprinkle of gingerbread, peanut brittle, toffee, and a mandelbrot. PLUS: my new chocolate banana peanut butter!

This was very, VERY sweet. I ended up ignoring the peanut brittle because it was too chewy. The toffee basically melted in, so I didn't have to chew it. The peanut butter wasn't too strong-tasting, but the banana chocolate flavor was definitely there.
I also had a glass of milk and a tangerine.
Today's agenda (feels REALLY weird to be blogging in the morning, but I might start to): cousins and aunt coming for lunch, then tonight we're going to an awesome colleague of my parents' birthday! She's a total foodie, has a black belt in karate, and is from Malaysia.
Happy day-after Christmas!

Go Crazy with Kimchi

Lake shot of the day

I woke up pretty sore from these last few days of running. I looked out the window, realized that I really didn't feel like going outside today (good thing I didn't, because it turned out to be really windy), so I went down to the weight room and did my usual 40 minutes on the elliptical while looking at some stupid book on colleges... I need big books that will stay open. Boring, but at least I got to sweat some.
Breakfast was amazing, if I do say so myself. I plan on eating this amazing gingerbread until it's gone, so I need to get creative here.
Gingerbread Parfait with Caramelized Apple Chutney, Greek Yogurt, and Cashew Butter
Sounds gourmet, no?
Basically, I just layered the ingredients with a drizzle of Whole Foods raw fresh cashew butter, which I'd never had before. Very mild, but refined. Delicious, in fact, but a completely different creature from peanut butter, which is attention-seeking and hogs the spotlight.
I heated the gingerbread first. It went great with my chutney, which has proven to be versatile! My dad ate it with chicken for lunch, and, just as I predicted, it makes a nice accompaniment to meat.
Lunch: leftovers! We must clean out that fridge! More of that seitan pie (now that I think about it, it really isn't a pot pie, because the crust isn't puff pastry and there's a bottom crust), spinach and more vegetables.

And a pear.

I went to the bookstore and bought:
-A better edition of Anna Karenina
-TALES OF BEETLE THE BARD, which I've already read. And all the proceeds are going to charity! Go Rowling!
-There was a 20% off cook book sale, but I couldn't find anything I wanted! I have more than enough cookbooks, but what I really want are some good Japanese, Korean, and African (not just North African) cookbooks.

I was a little hungry later on and had a bowl of Amy's chocolate vanilla bunnies with a little GoLean Crunch, half a banana, blackberries, and soymilk.

Therefore, I wasn't too hungry for dinner, but my dad and I cooked, and I'm really glad we did. We were thinking of just having more leftovers, but we ended up incorporating leftovers into what I made, which was bibimbap! I've never made Korean food at home, but it really wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. The only difficulty was stir-frying EVERY single topping separately. (Check out the awesome peanut oil-pouring shot!)


Toppings we used:
-Carrots
-Burdock (also known as mountain yam... it looks like an extra thick, hairy, brown carrot)
-Cucumber (But only the skins, which is interesting)
-Watercress
-Instead of beef, I used some "soy chicken" from Chinatown, which is basically just tofu rolled up to look like chicken... no TVP here. I seasoned it with sesame oil, soy sauce, sesame seeds, ginger, garlic, and a little sugar.
-Leftover mung bean sprouts
-Leftover Korean zucchini seafood-pancake (literally a tiny piece)-- we used this instead of a sunny side up egg
-MUSHROOMS
-and of course, kimchi.
-AND some pear-- this really evened out the spiciness


(All mixed together)
We microwaved leftover brown rice and mixed it with chili paste and sesame oil, then topped it with the vegetables... and more chili paste.
I ate the entire bowl, minus some of the soy chicken. The carrots and burdock were the best part-- they were a little burned, almost like shoestring potatoes or something!
Mm, this is one of those meals where I just don't want a dessert because I want to remember it. To get rid of that garlicky kimchi taste, I had a tangerine.

I finished Interview with the Vampire. How come nobody told me it was so philosophical and depressing? Any slightly more cheerful vampire stories? Or just good books in general?

Sorry guys! BUT I GOT TO MEET ARUN!

Sorry about the delayed post. Even though swim season is over and this lack of torturous exercise is making me feel incomplete, I don't actually have much time to talk about this, since I also have to blog today. So, yesterday:
Breakfast-- felt like cold cereal for a change. This bowl was OVERFLOWING:
Combination of Puffins, GoLean Crunch, grapenuts, and Mighty Bites (don't really love these, although the shape is awesome... trying to get rid of them).
1 banana, blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries
soy milk
wheat germ
sprinkle of almonds
On the side: applesauce with a little Greek yogurt.
This was probably a little overkill: all the fiber was pretty much sitting in my stomach. We were supposed to leave for Arun's Michigan house at around 11:30, but I figured it would take us a while to get there and I didn't know how long it would be till I ate. I figured I was safer with a snack:
A sliced pear, a few walnuts and some cottage cheese.
I WAS SO EXCITED TO MEET ARUN! It also felt great to get out of the city, although being in the car gave me a killer sinus ache. We ended up being later than expected, but I still got lots of buffet photos. Arun was really friendly-- in his 60's, wearing a kind of Asian-looking silk jacket, and he shook my hand and kept addressing me by name and everything! It would have seemed like almost a family gathering (lots of Chicago's Thai community) if it weren't for the camera people from the CANADIAN FOOD NETWORK circling around us with those tubular microphones. It was actually pretty funny, because a ton of people started gambling in the other room, and the TV people said, "we won't film that."
There were people there working for the mayor (there was a big Thai Fest in 2005 to fundraise for the tsunami, and my neighbor Marion wrote the book). There was free Thai massage, and there were photographers and the like. Basically, it felt like a really friendly gathering, except, once again, for the cameras.
As for the food, it was excellent! Not exactly "home cooking style," and judging by the size of the kitchen in this vacation house, I'm guessing they brought it over from the restaurant. But still, it was delicious. Of course, as Marion put it, "this is only a picnic for him." Can't wait to see what his restaurant is like! Oh! Forgot to mention that there were framed restaurant reviews all over the walls, including the JAMES BEARD AWARD.









That roasted pig reminded me of Lord of the Flies... other than that, there were great coconut noodles with shrimp, tofu and peanut sauce, vegetarian rolls, fish cakes, pickled eggplant, stir-fried cabbage, eggs boiled in soy sauce, and many more delicacies.
And dessert: Asian cookies and cakes, which I didn't have. I did have this amazing tapioca soup-ish dish... I don't know how to describe it except that it's one of those extremely sweet, condensed milk Asian desserts that I'm usually not a fan of. This, on the other hand, was probably the best thing I ate there! It was called "floating" something (not floating island), but I don't remember. Either way, the "soup" had coconut, taro, and was really sweet, and the tapioca balls floating in it were lichee, taro, and KABOCHA SQUASH. Sold.
Actually, it was Marion's birthday on the 6th (wish she'd told me), and because she's basically Arun's best friend, about 4 or 5 different cakes were brought out! But I was stuffed and stuck to the Thai stuff.
Anything else of note? Just as I suspected, Arun didn't really eat anything, but I did catch him nibbling on a piece of honeydew that somebody else had left out. Poor chefs!
The photographer there told me I should be a model! Not even kidding! I was kind of shocked. She asked if I was part Asian and I said yes. She said she was looking for more Asian models, and that she doesn't have any upcoming projects, but she took down my contact info and said she would let me know. And if that weren't strange enough, the two masseuses also came up to me and said I should be a model! They said "you have a certain grace to your posture. You hold yourself very well and you have an interesting look." I don't think I've ever felt so flattered!!
I had a headache after all the food, so we walked around the house, where there was a beautiful stream. It even started snowing a little! Sadly, we had to drive back.
ARUN HUGGED ME!
By the time I got home, it was almost dinnertime, and I didn't even want to think about food! But eventually, I did start getting a little hungry, and I basically had a "lunch for dinner" kind of thing:
A whole wheat bagel with a Laughing Cow and 2 kinds of smoked salmon (one was gravlax) and pickles
Some leftover pumpkin lentil stew
and later, an apple.
I brought my parents Arun's food.
I am so excited for Friday... Arun's Arun's Arun's...
By the way, the show that they were filming, which I don't think is usually aired on the American Food Network is called "At the Table With," if anyone's heard of it.