I Have Been Quiet in The Last Few Months...

It's odd how I used to blog quite regularly, but it seems to have just fallen out of my regular routine. I'm keeping quite busy as always. I did go out this afternoon, and went to see Definitely, Maybe, which I enjoyed even more than I thought I would. It's a very cute movie for a Saturday afternoon. :)

I've tried to pick back up my cooking of late, and I've made ratatouille and many other delicious dishes. I can't wait to buy myself a digital camera (which should be soon enough) to keep a visual diary of my culinary attempts.

Oh, and I finally, I've started watching Frasier reruns recently, and I had forgotten how much that sitcom made me laugh. David Hyde Pierce as Niles is particularly brilliant.



While I love shows like The Office, 30 Rock, and Pushing Daisies, I wish there were some good sitcoms in the vein of Frasier and Cheers still around.

DVDs and Cooking

I love cooking. I love TV. When I do both at the same time, it is like heaven. I was watching some episodes of the Office from my Season 2 DVDs as I cooked tonight (made an awesome dinner, by the by). Could I love my Office DVDs more? I don't think so, because it would then be very unhealthy. There are about 2 and a half hours of deleted scenes, and they are pretty much all extra awesome. It is too bad the shows aren't longer because so much good stuff ends up on the cutting room floor clearly just because they can't fit them in timewise! The episode "Sexual Harassment" has some delightful deleted scenes. There is one in which Michael Scott compares the HR rep Toby to the devil. Hee. Michael has a irrational hatred of Toby, who is calm, sensible, and low-key. Basically, everything Michael isn't.

There is another scene where Michael suggests fictional harassment scenarios and one of them involves dating Pam, and she says she'd drown herself rather than date him. Hee. The funniest deleted scene though is between Pam and Jim; I couldn't stop giggling for 2 minutes:

Pam: I know we’re having that harassment thing this afternoon...

Jim: Yeah?

Pam: Sometimes when we IM, I send you that little winking face with the lipstick... *She mimics the face.* I realized that might be harassment.

Jim: Yes, it is harassment, and I’m going to be suing the winking face. I’ve hired the angry face as my lawyer, and you should be hearing from him pretty soon.

Pam: Okay.

Jim: Okay. *Jim dings her on IM.*

I Want A Chef's Knife!

Most of you know my love of kitchen utensils and appliances. I'm getting really frustrated with my crappy knives. Really, really frustrated. I was trying to cut some fish last night, and it was an exercise in patience. I have been looking at chef's knives, but today, I decided to go investigate a bit further in stores. It turns out that the kind of 8" chef's knife that I'd like is priced for at least 130$. Hard to justify such a purchase. So I decided that to justify spending 130$ on a knife, I would use it as a reward to myself to help move along the thesis. LOL Hence, I shall buy myself a chef's knife only when I have completed a full first draft of my thesis. That should get me writing fast. LOL After successfully defending my thesis, even if I'm broke, I'm getting a Cusinart! Kitchen stuff= good bribery for me.

In other news, I got to see a swarm of police cars close the intersection I was crossing on Thursday. The policemen were saying a man in a car said he had a bomb strapped to him. Lovely. It turned out not to be the case, thank God.

Besides that, I started my clinical internship yesterday. Very exciting stuff. It is going to be so much fun. :)

Science and Food

Yeah baby. Two of my favourite things to talk about.

I'm reading an article in June edition of Scientific American called "The Science Behind Sudoku". It's fascinating to learn the history of it. It takes its roots from what used to be called Latin squares that date back to the Middle Ages, but Sudoku grids were created in their current form in 1979 by a man called Howard Garns. The article also explains some of the strategies to solve the problems, and the mathematical problems that have been posed by this game. Just fascinating. I highly recommend it.

Besides that, I did a bit of cooking over the weekend. Since my mom and dad were coming over on Saturday, I cleaned and scrubbed but I also made my blueberry-peach crisp, which all my roommates have loved over the years. My mom asked for a second serving so that's a good sign. I also made my tofu salad, which I just love to eat in the summer. It's easy to make, and very healthy. Here is the recipe for that:

Tofu Salad (from the Essential Vegetarian Cookbook)

Preparation time: 20 minutes plus 1 hour marinating

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

- 2 teaspoons of Thai sweet chilli sauce
- ½ teaspoon grated fresh ginger
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 250 g (8 oz) firm tofu
- 105 g (3½ oz) snow peas, cut into 3 cm (1¼ inch) lengths
- 2 small carrots, cut into matchsticks
- 105 g (3½ oz) red cabbage, finely shredded
- 2 tablespoons crushed peanuts

Instructions:

1. Place the chilli sauce, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, and oil in a small screw-top jar and shake well. Cut tofu in 2 cm (3/4 inch) cubes. Place the tofu in a medium bowl, pour the marinade over and stir. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

2. Place the snow peas in a small pan, pour boiling water over and leave to stand for 1 minute, then drain and plunge into iced water. Drain well.

3. Add snow peas, carrots, and cabbage to tofu and toss lightly to combine. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts, and serve immediately.

Finally, I wanted to praise a cookbook called Off The Shelf: Cooking from the Pantry by Donna Hay. It is a brilliant cookbook for quick recipes using what you have lying around the kitchen. I made this Shredded Chicken and Mint Noodle Salad a few weeks ago, which was just brilliant. I'll have to post the recipe too.

Chocolate Classes

There is this lovely small chocolate shop not too far from where I live, and I just discovered they offer classes on different topics pertaining to chocolate. How cool is that? I would love to learn how to make truffles and chocolate decorations. Plus, they have a chocolate and wine pairing seminar. Awesome. I would love to give that a try. I'm putting it on my blog so I don't forget about it. I'll have to try that some time next year.