Memorial Day Weekend and Soccer

WE ACTUALLY WON! What a great feeling, winning the last game in the regular season. And I almost scored a goal too...if only my foot would actually connect with the ball. SIGH! So instead of playing the first place team in the finals, we're playing the second place team! Maybe we have a chance...

Memorial Day weekend is upon us and thus starts the Great 2011 Road Trip filled with back roads, forests, crabs...mmmm crabs. Final destination crabs. Also those crafty Amish are going to be involved, along with a quick stop at Hershey's! To round out the trip I'm going to the HIGH GROUND, Gettysburg, to see eighth grade social studies come to life (or not).

Way too tired to be at all witty and must wake up in 5 hours. Time to shower and sleep. Pictures to come after the weekend.

Tuesday Night Dinner

Ever since I heard the partners of my company were going to Istanbul, I've been dreaming about the tavuk (chicken) kabobs and tomato 'salad' with bread I ate in a little alley way restaurant near the New Mosque. I literally search this place out when I found myself back in Istanbul for the day after a experiencing a travel detour between Egypt and Italy (but that is another story).

Today that craving intensified after hearing all about the Istanbul trip this morning, and coming home I decided to bust out the Turkish chilis I purchased from the Spice Market in 2009 (oops). End results:

Chicken: I regret not using these chilis before. They're freaking good now, and I'm sure they were much better two years ago. I usually like chicken thighs, but realized a while back that the consistency of thigh meat just doesn't do it for this style of cooking. This time around, I used skinless, boneless chicken breast cubed in large 1 1/2 inch sections. I let that marinate in the chilis, olive oil, ground coriander and salt for awhile, and then seared the meat on both sides in the skillet. I actually ended up semi steaming them since I put the lid on the pan in an attempt 'lock in the moisture'. I then finished the chicken off in the oven for five minutes and let rest.

Sauce: What a freaking epiphany I had in making this yogurt sauce. It was a perfect complement to the chicken and really simple: yogurt, thinly sliced red onion, salt, cumin, and maybe cayenne pepper. Refrigerate and done! I forgot lemon, which I was going to put either in the sauce or on the chicken to give the dish a little acid, but oh well.

Bread: I've become a master at making dough. I'm way too impatient to ever become a great baker, but I've learned my lesson and now I 'proof' my yeast (or is it 'proof my dough'?) in a 1/3 cup of hot water instead of the full cup. My dough actually rises every time! And is so damn good. I just use a conventional dough/bread/pizza dough recipe and cook it in a hot pan on the stove. MMM oh and don't forget salt or else the dough tastes like crap.

Now if I can only figure out how to make that spicy tomato puree that should go with the chicken...

New Years 2011

Did I ever tell you about my New Years? The following photos explains it all. Actually, they don't, but unless you want to listen to one of my 15 minute monologues about random events in my life, then be satisfied with the pictures.

Retrospective: India Auto-Rickshawing

Ah India. After literally four months to the date since I've returned from India, I'm finally ready to share (or maybe I finally downloaded my pictures from my camera :) ).

And one of the most distinct memories I have of India are of the auto-rickshaws. In every city, there is a different etiquette: Mumbai and Pune (I believe) is by the meter, Hampi it's half as much to Hampi than it is from Hampi because the driver gets another 100 rs. from the guest house owner. If the owner doesn't pay up, then according to the driver the guest house is 'out of business'. What a racket! 'Okay please horn" "Okay please sound" painted on the back, the yellows and greens, and painted flowers. And of course the crazy driving that makes so much sense.

What I realized while in India is that if a foreigner ever attempted to drive, they'd probably cause a 50 auto-rickshaw pile up; there are local traffic laws that they just don't teach you in driving school. For instance: when faced with oncoming traffic at night, stick one arm out of the auto-rickshaw on the side the car is passing. This is because these little putt-putts only have one headlight, like motobikes, but are a lot wider. One becomes appreciative of these little rules, and how surprisingly well they work, after riding around India this way...

#6 - 10 of series 28 Hope

the rest...

The Vagabond is Back

Phew okay I know it's been a long, long time, but what can I say, life gets in the way of writing, as it does for many other things too: reading, apartment cleaning, laundry doing...

But I've officially completed (successfully) my second course at FIT. This time a photography course (film, what else) with darkroom instruction.

After a verbal spar with the photo guy, some wheeling and dealing, I managed to get my photos printed in time, albeit a bit purple. My prof said they printed my black and white photos on colored paper. How dare they. But at least I got a CD of my photos too.

Below #1-5 of my series "28 Hope" (all right reserved © Kiyomi Hayashida)