Almond milk at Raleigh cafe

Back in the spring I posted about making almond milk lattes at home since no major coffee shops or even local cafes seem to carry almond milk. At least in downtown Raleigh this problem now has a solution: Cafe Benelux at City Market. Yesterday I met a friend for coffee, ordered an iced chai latte, prepared to drink it with regular milk if I had to, and just as I finished paying and looked up at the shelf I saw it: Silk almond milk. I immediately asked that my drink be made with it instead. Back in April I visited Cafe Benelux for the first time with my best twin friends visiting from Berlin. At that time I asked whether they would consider carrying almond milk, but they weren't sure. I guess I'm not the only person who asked. I'm so glad there is a local business offering more than the large chains - in so many ways. At least now I know where to go in downtown Raleigh for cafe beverages made with almond milk. Thanks Cafe Benelux!

Some more yummy summer salads!

Since it's been so hot, I've been making lots of yummy summer salads to keep cool. Some of the recipes are familiar, others made up, others borrowed from online sources.

Here's what I've been up to:

This picture features a medley four of my recent salads: tortellini salad, pesto roasted vegetable quinoa salad, green and bean potato salad and my tuna salad.

The tuna salad has appeared on here before - just click the link above. I found the recipe for a delicious, mayo-free green bean and potato salad on allrecipes.com and made it exactly according to the recipe.

The other two recipes are my own creations.




Tortellini Salad:

2 packages of tortellini - 4 cheese and spinach and 4 cheese
Olive oil
1 small head of broccoli - steam for 2 minutes until bright green
Chopped sun dried tomatoes
Sun dried tomato pesto
Red onion chopped
Grated carrots
Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
Julienned red pepper
Chopped spring onions
Fresh mozzarella, diced into 1 cm cubes
Grated Parmesan
Freshly ground salt and pepper
Fresh baby spinach leaves

Cook tortellini according to package instructions. Drain and drizzle with a little bit of olive oil. Steam broccoli for 2 minutes until bright green. Add to tortellini in large bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients, mix well and serve over fresh baby spinach leaves (or fold in with the rest of the ingredients). Store in refrigerator and serve cool.

Pesto Roasted Veggie Quinoa Salad

Red and Regular Quinoa - For a larger salad use 2 cups of quinoa (1 c. red/1 c. regular), for a smaller salad, use only 1 cup of quinoa.
Squash, zucchini, cherry tomatoes (heirloom blend), mushrooms, red onion, carrots, garlic, yellow/orange/red bell pepper
Green pesto
Olive oil
Parsley
Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
Juice of 1 lime

Cook quinoa according to package instructions. Add all chopped veggies to a large bowl. Add a couple splashes of olive oil, stir in a generous amount of green pesto and broil on high for about 15 minutes. Add broiled veggies to the cooked quinoa. Add chopped parsley and olives and the juice of one lime. Store in refrigerator and serve cool.

This last salad is a Moroccan eggplant salad, which turned out to be incredibly delicious. I had so much eggplant in my produce box a couple of weeks ago that I simply had to find something to do with it. Most of the ingredients in this salad are local: squash from my parents' garden, local eggplant, local zucchini local heirloom cherry tomatoes, local red peppers (all from the Produce Box). I altered the recipe a bit to include a few more veggies and substituted sesame seeds for pine nuts since I didn't have any on hand. Original recipe courtesy of myrecipes.com, but I made my own adjustments.

1) Make marinade:

Marinade:
3/4 c. olive oil and red wine vinegar (total - half of each)
1 tablespoon of fresh ginger
1/2 tablespoon of minced garlic (fresh, pressed)
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. ground cumin (I might have used a tad more)
1/4 tsp. ground pepper (I ground it fresh, so not sure how much I used)
Dash of cayenne pepper or freshly ground red chili flakes (I used ground red chili flakes)

Mix all together.

Ingredients for the eggplant salad:

2 large bell peppers (I used red and purple, but you can use red, orange and/or yellow as well) rinsed, seeded and chopped into chunks
1 zucchini and 1 squash, chopped into chunks
1 large eggplant, chopped into chunks (I used several eggplant varieties, Japanese, white and regular)
1/2 large sweet onion, chopped into chunks
1/2 purple onion, chopped into chunks

-----
Later: 1/2 c. toasted pine nuts (or substitute with a few dashes of sesame seeds if you don't have pine nuts)
1/4 c. chopped fresh mint leaves

Mix all the veggies together in a bowl and add the marinade. Coat veggies, spread onto baking sheet and broil on high for about 15 minutes.

When the veggies come out of the oven, allow to cool for a bit, then put back in the bowl. Add pine nuts and fresh mint leaves. Add a bit of red wine vinegar and freshly ground salad and pepper to taste, if desired (I didn't and it was fine). Store in refrigerator and serve cool. Can also be served warm if preferred.

This week's Produce Box, 21 July 2011

This week's produce box was packed full of local goodness - peaches, tomatoes, corn, peppers, cabbage and 2 kinds of melons (sprite and Korean). For an extra $10 I got 4 extra quarts of peaches and have already shared some with my parents and plan to make some peach salsa and other goodies with the rest.

This week's Produce Box, 14 July 2011

Sorry for skipping a couple of weeks - I actually did skip on getting a box 2 weeks ago and last week I just got a fruit box. This week's box was filled with all kinds of goodies and I already have lots of ideas of what to do with them. I have a picnic date Saturday night so I'm thinking I can put a lot of these items to good use! Potential menu items: corn salad, eggplant and bell pepper salad, a veggie pasta salad, peach (blueberry) pie... So many choices!

This week's produce box, 23 June 2011

I ordered the organic box for this week which contained broccoli, leeks, green beans, 5 ears of corn, a honeydew melon and blueberries. Things have been so busy lately that I haven't had time to cook as much as I like. To help me clear out my fridge a bit, I invited my family over last night for dinner. On the menu: broccoli salad, cabbage salad, ratatouille with brown rice, corn on the cob and a blueberry, peach and cherry cobbler. To be hones, the cobbler would have been better as a crisp as the gluten-free version ended up being rather gooey and not terribly flavorful. It was edible though. I think I'll stick to crisps from now on. Everything else turned out quite nicely and I now have some leftovers and more space in my tiny Euro fridge.

This week's produce box, 16 June 2011

Today I've laid out the contents of this week's produce box because everything was transferred into my cooler instead of leaving a box. 1 huge savoy cabbage, 6 ears of corn, 1 pt. of blueberries, precious baby eggplants, 3 cucumbers, a huge head of garlic, large cherry tomatoes. This week's newsletter had lots of good ideas for things to do with the cabbage. It's my birthday weekend (30!) and I probably won't get around to cooking much until next week. Good thing everything's so fresh that it will last!

This week's produce box, 9 June 2011

This week's Produce Box: blueberries, 6 ears of white corn (hopefully super sweet), 3 zucchini (one is hiding behind the corn), 2 cucumbers, fingerling potatoes and amazingly sweet and delicious cherries. I'm tempted to make a blueberry/cherry cobbler, but on the other hand am certain that could easily just eat up all the cherries in one sitting. They are soooo good!

Blueberry Sunday

An O'Neal bush at Creekside Farm
loaded with berries.

Just about 10 minutes from my house is a blueberry paradise - Creekside Farm is bursting with blueberry bliss from May through August - acres and acres of multiple varieties starting with the early sweet O'Neals to the amazing gumball sized, super sweet Powder Blue in late summer. I discovered the farm at the Clayton Farm and Community market last year, picked twice last summer and am absolutely hooked on these berries.

Washing the berries

Washed and ready to eat

Yesterday I drove over for my first pick of the season - O'Neals are in season right now - a sweet, average size berry that the farm owner says is a real challenge to grow because the bushes will die for no reason at all. More than other varieties, this bush is very sensitive to soil conditions, temperature, weather. Fortunately Creekside Farm seems to be doing it right as they have managed to keep several rows of the O'Neal variety alive - and they are loaded with sweet berries. I picked for about 45 minutes yesterday - naturally testing each bush before I picked - and got about 3.6 lbs of berries.

When I got home I washed and de-stemmed the berries and put them in the refrigerator to munch on at my convenience. Blueberries make for the perfect summer snack!

I had 1.5 pints of blueberries left from my Produce Box. They are good, but they can't beat the ones from Creekside Farm. I already had a plan in mind for my Produce Box blueberries - a delicious blueberry crisp! I got the recipe from Yankee Magazine (and halved it for 1.5 pints). The lemon juice and lemon zest along with the oats and cinnamon really give this crisp a great flavor. I used Bella Gluten-Free All-Purpose Mix instead of flour. Those sensitive to oats can substitute certified GF oats, but I just used regular ones. Needless to say, my Sunday started and ended with blueberries - delicious from start to finish!

**I should add that blueberry picking makes for a pretty good thigh workout - my thighs are so sore today from all the berry-picking squatting and knee-bending!**

Fresh out of the oven, blueberries still bubblin'.

A nice portion!

Bowl-cleanin' good!

Cool summer salads (vegan and gluten-free)

Napa Cabbage Salad and Shoepeg Corn Salad - both vegan and gluten-free

I met up with friend Andrew for a potluck picnic on the lawn while we watched the Béla Fleck concert at the NC Museum of Art last night. My contributions to the potluck were two cool summer salads: Napa Cabbage Salad and Shoepeg Corn Salad - delicious separately, but somehow they complement each other so well that they are even better when eaten together.

I got the basic recipe for Napa Cabbage Salad online (http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/napa-cabbage-salad) - the Napa cabbage courtesy of the Produce Box - and embellished it with shredded yellow squash, shredded carrots and diced cucumber. I also added the juice of 1 lime to the sauce. Other than that I followed the directions. It was delicious!

The Shoepeg Corn Salad comes courtesy of my friend Brandi - who got it from her mother-in-law. This salad is to die for and I didn't change a thing about the recipe! The only thing I changed in the recipe was that I cut the sugar in half - the canned shoepeg corn already had sugar in it, so I figured it would be fine to cut back on the sugar for the sauce. I also highly suggest nibbling on it to check the taste before the recommended "overnight" period is up, because it is irresistible! I doubled the recipe.

2 cans of shoepeg corn
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion (I used sweet Vidalia onion)
3 stalks of celery (chopped)
2 oz. of pimento (drained)
Marninate overnight in:
1/4 cup vinegar (apple cider)
1/4 cup oil (I used canola)
1/2 cup sugar (I used half this amount)
1/2 teaspoon of salt (I used freshly ground sea salt)
1/4 teaspoon of pepper (I used freshly ground pepper)

This week's produce box, 2 June 2011

This week's produce box contained Napa cabbage, tomatoes, strawberries, blueberries, red potatoes and yellow squash. The cabbage is so big that it is almost covering up the squash and tomatoes, but I think they are visible enough. This weekend I'm going to an outdoor concert with friends and can't wait to make up some cold salads to take to our potluck picnic. Definitely will be making a Napa cabbage salad, a shoepeg corn salad and maybe a sweet potato/potato salad. Great weekend plans ahead (getting a head start tonight). Can't wait!

Chipotle-inspired rice salad (vegan, gluten-free)

As I was driving back from my writing class tonight I had the urge to stop by Chipotle to grab a salad for dinner. I could almost taste their honey lime dressing in my mouth, but just as I envisioned my salad before me, my thoughts blurred and I missed the turn I would have had to make to head to the nearest Chipotle. Going back or trying to swing by the other location would have been out of my way and put me home later than I would have liked. Instead I decided to see what I had at home and whip up a quick dinner. As I drove home I could see the basic foundation of my salad coming together: brown rice, corn, black beans and chili powder. When I got home, it took less than 15 minutes to whip up what turned out to be an absolutely delicious meal. Thanks to Trader Joe's frozen brown rice, the rice was cooked in 3 minutes. To the rice I added half a can of corn and half a can of black beans. For fresh veggie crispness I chopped up some of the cabbage I had from my produce box, a spring onion, a third of a cucumber and a handful of grape tomatoes. I added half a chopped avocado and stirred everything together. To recreate the honey lime dressing, I squeezed the juice from one lime, added a spoonful of honey and a slosh of canola oil, whisked everything together and stirred it into the salad. For seasonings I used a couple dashes of organic chili powder, ground sea salt and Penzey's Mural of Flavor spice blend. I stirred everything together and had a delicious, filling meal in under 15 minutes.

The delicious and colorful result! Sooo yummy!

Squash-filled cabbage rolls (vegan and gluten-free)

So I came up with something yummy to make out of some of the items in this week's Produce Box: cabbage rolls stuffed with a medley of squash, tomatoes, onions, garlic, red bell pepper, grape tomatoes, shiitake and brown button mushrooms and spiced with German herbal salt and Penzey's Mural of Flavor salt-free spice blend.

I took leaves from the pointed cabbage and steamed them to soften them up. In the meantime I worked on the filling and the sauce.

For the filling: Chop half of one large sweet onion and 1 scallion. Add approx. 1 Tbs. of olive oil to pan, add onion/scallion and press 2 cloves of garlic. Chop several yellow squash and add to onions. Chop red bell pepper, grape tomatoes, shiitake and button mushrooms into small cubes and add to pan. Saute until squash softens. Flavor with herbal salt and Penzey's Mural of Flavor spice blend or other preferred spices.

Filling

Spices

Filling up close

The sauce

For the sauce I put a little bit of olive oil in a saucepan, added 3 diced tomatoes, half a chopped sweet onion, 1 pressed clove of garlic, some herbal salt and ground in some of the "Pizza and Pasta" spice from Aldi. I let the sauce simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally until the tomatoes were no longer solid and the onions   were soft.

To make the rolls, I put a couple spoonfuls of the filling onto the cabbage leaf and then rolled it up. Once all the rolls were made I covered them in the homemade tomato sauce, then baked at 350 F (175 C) for about 15 minutes. Before serving, drizzle with crema di balsamico for a nice presentation. The entire recipe including preparation took about 40 minutes. 

Making the rolls:

Produce Box: 26 May 2011

This week's Produce Box came this morning with lots of yummy goodies to enjoy over the next few days:

- Tomatoes
- Yellow squash
- A cucumber
- Blueberries
- Pointed cabbage (Spitzkohl)
- Sweet potatoes
- Spring onions

I already have some ideas of what to do with this week's bounty. Maybe some squash fritters and gluten-free blueberry cobbler! We'll see :-)

Positivity

I want to get out of this rut I'm in of seeing the glass half empty,

I want to toss out this attitude and replace it with positivity.

Time to stop blaming INTJ and Wednesday's child for my state of mind.

Personality only goes so far, 

    happiness and satisfaction certainly can't be that hard to find.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's to trying to focus more on the positive from now on. They say positive thinking is a powerful thing; let's see if I can manage to get it to work for me.

Der Lenz ist da! (Spring is here!)

In case you haven't noticed, spring is here! A German song from the 1920s made famous by the Berlin sextet the Comedian Harmonists playfully associates the coming of spring with the growth of asparagus - though it seems this was actually metaphor implying something entirely different! Nevertheless, in Germany this time of year is synonymous with "Spargelzeit" - the short season between May and June when white asparagus is harvested in the various growing regions across the country - including Baden and Lake Constance/Bodensee in Baden Württemberg and Beelitz not too far from Berlin. In the United States we are much more familiar with green asparagus, yet white and green asparagus are actually the same species. The difference in color and taste simply comes from an entirely different way of growing this gourmet vegetable. In order to prevent photosynthesis, which causes the vegetable to turn green, white asparagus is grown under mounds of sandy dirt. The shoots are then harvested individually by hand using a special asparagus picking knife and a trowel.

I had my first taste of white asparagus as an exchange student my senior year of high school. Before that I had only ever had green asparagus and didn't know that any other kind existed. I was a bit skeptical of the white vegetable and couldn't understand why asparagus had to be peeled. Unlike green asparagus, white asparagus has a much thicker skin and must be peeled before cooking in order to be tender. Once I tried it, I was hooked. After that, I always made a point to have asparagus whenever it was available. When I worked at Siemens in Berlin the company cafeteria served local Beelitzer white asparagus almost every day during "Spargelzeit" - traditionally with potatoes, ham (optional) and hollandaise sauce. Since I am not a big fan of the peeling aspect of preparation, I used to eat it almost every day that it was available.

Now that I live back in the United States, it can be much harder to find white asparagus, much less a restaurant that will serve it. However, the German American Chamber of Commerce usually sponsors dinners in the chapter cities, but this would mean traveling to Charlotte or Atlanta.

How excited I was when I saw that a local restaurant here in Raleigh - Capital Club 16 - would be serving a "Spargelzeit" dinner paired with delicious Austrian wines. I simply had to go! The dinner was held this past Thursday and I invited my dear German friend Mea (81 years young!) to come along with me. The chef had spent time training in Germany and was excited to bring the Spargel tradition to Raleigh. He found a farm in Ohio that grows asparagus in the traditional German style - complementing the white asparagus with locally grown North Carolina green and purple asparagus. Mea and I had a wonderful time treating our palates to delightful dishes featuring the ultimate vegetable of spring, perfectly paired with superb Austrian wines. Even though I had lived in Vienna for a summer in 2004 and certainly tried a good bit of Austrian wine, I really was not familiar with it beyond that. It was wonderful to become reacquainted with wines that pair so marvelously with foods - in a dinner in which this was precisely the intention! The wines are available locally through Seaboard Wine or through importer Klaus Wittauer, who was at the dinner to explain each of the wines with ardent enthusiasm. Mea and I had a wonderful evening this past Thursday! I'm already looking forward to the next wine and German-themed dinner - hopefully soon!


Thursday's menu (copied from the e-mail sent out by Capital Club 16)

Reception:
White Asparagus "Reiberdatschi"
Bavarian Style white asparagus and potato pancake with goat cheese and chervil

Lump Crab Cake Bites with slivered pickled asparagus and Gruner tartar sauce

Tegernseerhof Grüner Veltliner

First Course:"Spargelcremesuppe"Traditional cream of white asparagus soup with nutmeg, spring chives and Morel mushroom saute

Steininger Loisium Grüner Veltliner

Second Course:
Marinated White Asparagus Salad  Basted quail egg, planed reggiano, grape tomatoes, frisee and tarragon vinaigrette

Anton Bauer Rosenberg Grüner Veltliner

Third Course:
"Spargelessen auf Lazarus-Stube art"
*This is the preparation found in most taverns, beer gardens and homes during the harvest season.

Simmered white asparagus, NC Country Ham, dill new potatoes, blood orange hollandaise
(Veggie option: Simmered white asparagus, spring vegetable florentine, dill new potatoes, blood orange hollandaise)

Steininger Grand Grüner Veltliner

Dessert Course:
White Asparagus and Rhubarb Crisp with oatmeal crust and white asparagus lemon cream

Anton Bauer Frizzante Grüner Veltliner

An awkward encounter

Before having my gallbladder removed in March, I had been going rock climbing with my friend Andrew almost every Tuesday since last November. It had been nearly three months since my last climb. Since next week I start taking a writing class on Tuesday nights, I decided to go climbing again with Andrew last night. It had also been nearly three months since I had last seen the guy (J.) I had been dating in December/January. Rock climbing had actually been one of the things we used to do together. When he found out that I went regularly, he wanted to join me. I wouldn't say that things between us ended on bad terms - he had even wanted to try to stay friends, but I really wasn't ready for that when he suggested it. Nevertheless, I certainly thought it would be possible to be amicable to one another should we ever run into each other again. Apparently he saw that differently - or maybe it was yet another misunderstanding. At any rate, J. happened to be at rock climbing last night with one of his friends who also used to go when we went together. In the nearly 2 hours that we were there - at times standing just a couple feet away from each other - he not once said anything to me or even acknowledged my existence. Maybe the situation was too awkward - after all, I never attempted to say anything to him either. But then again, I really didn't think it was my place to be the one to speak first. I somehow thought he would have the decency and common courtesy to at least say, "Hello, hope you're well." I guess not.

Weekend highlights

First of all, Happy Mother's Day to all those who have the privilege to be mothers - either to actual human children or animals of any species. My mother was out of town this weekend so I'll be taking her out for lunch tomorrow to make up for it.

Gilded cranes

The weekend turned out to be better than I ever could have imagined. As a result, I'm quite tired so I might just have to mention a few highlights and come back and elaborate later on. First Friday was fantastic - beautiful gilded cranesat Flanders, first visit to the brand new Contemporary Art Museum, art auction at Centerline (the highlight there was actually the company's office itself), PBR-themed art at Design Box, student textiles at the Fish Market... but my personal favorite was the work by Rob Logic on display at Morning Times.

Gilded cranes with "Gaga" glitter glam

Saturday was beautiful - long walk with the dogs in the morning, resting then a crazy 3 mile Kangoo Jump run (my muscles are crying out in agony today), out to dinner (Ethiopian) and an album release concert (Birds and Arrows) with my new friend Cheryl.

Today I've mostly been working all day, but still managed to get in a little walk - even if it was very slowly since every muscle - even muscles I didn't know existed - aches from my Kangoo Jump escapade yesterday.

One of the many beautiful works by
Rob Logic on display at Morning Times.

Although I was heading into the weekend feeling a bit down about some things, I managed to bounce back see things from a new perspective - great art, music and company have a way of inspiring a change in attitude.

I'll have to go into more later - for now I need to hit the sheets (except that I still have to put sheets on the bed before I can go to bed, I hate when that happens!)

Almond milk latte

I'm admittedly not much of a coffee drinker, particularly because I try to avoid caffeine. However, from time to time I really enjoy a good latté, as long as it's made with almond milk. The problem is that most coffee shops - including the major chains like Starbucks - have failed to accommodate the needs of non-dairy, non-soy consuming customers - i.e. people like me. I would love to order a latté in a café, but until such places "wake up and smell the coffee" and realize that there is untapped potential to sell to this target group, my coffee beverages of choice will be consumed in the comfort of my home café.
I make my decaf almond milk lattés usually using a flavored decaf coffee and unsweetened Almond Breeze almond milk. Powdered stevia is my sweetener of choice (also yet to be offered in most coffee shops). I use the eco-pods in my Senseo machine, which is a nice alternative to an actual espresso machine.

Almond milk froths up thick and foamy - you can't even
tell it's not real milk!

Homemade Mango-Pineapple Salsa

Here's one of my most recent creations that I simply had to share: Homemade Mango Pineapple Salsa. I got the idea while shopping at Whole Foods for my Good Friday meal. At the fish counter I asked the clerk how he might prepare swordfish steaks and he suggested marinating them in mango teriyaki sauce and then either grilling or baking them and topping them off with fresh mango. While fresh mango in itself is certainly delicious, I thought a mango pineapple salsa might be even better. I looked up a recipe for mango salsa on allrecipes.com and then improvised.

Here's what I came up with:

2 ripe organic Mexican mangos, fresh cilantro, sweet and red onion,
scallions, red pepper, jalapeno, avocado, pineapple, cherry tomatoes,
juice of a lemon and a lime

 

 

 

 

Dice mangos, pineapple (about a quarter half a can if using a can - I normally would use fresh pineapple, but Trader Joe's has the best canned pineapple in natural juice, tastes like a fresh pineapple), half to 1 whole avocado, red bell peppers, cherry tomatoes (basically cut them into eighths), half of a sweet onion and half of a red onion into fine cubes and stir together in a bowl. Chop 2-3 scallions into thin slices and add to bowl. Chop a good handful of fresh cilantro and add to bowl. Squeeze the juice of 1 lemon and 2 limes and add some of the pineapple juice to the bowl. Stir well and let the flavors blend together for a couple of hours before serving.

The beautiful result!

The Good Friday meal: mango teriyaki marinated swordfish steak
topped with the mango-pineapple salsa, oven grilled garlic herb
asparagus, oven roasted medley of purple and orange sweet potatoes
and baby red, purple and yellow potatoes tossed in
Arabian spices.

The salsa on a picnic - best with Target's black bean
jalapeno tortilla chips. (Oh and the sandwiches
are tomato avocado sandwiches on Udi's gluten-free
multigrain bread with local tomatoes from the Produce Box,
herbal salt and Trader Joe's garlic aioli spread).

Catching up (Part 1)

It's been a little over three months since I last posted anything to the blog. It wasn't that I couldn't find 15 minutes to write each day or even that I didn't have anything to say, but more of a matter of not really knowing exactly what I wanted to say or even if I wanted to say it. I've been wondering how much of my personal life I really want to write about because it seems that in some personal matters as soon as I get excited about something and start to be hopeful, the verbalization itself seems to jinx it and everything quickly falls apart. Back in January I was excited about what seemed to be the start of a new relationship with someone I met in December. He was all too eager to use the word "relationship" like it meant something, but words require action to have meaning. When it came to following through on basic things that one might expect of a "relationship", he just wasn't ready, having not yet gotten over his last relationship, which ended last fall. My heart was broken temporarily - after all, we seemed to have a good connection on many levels, I had actually felt inspired, he spoke German... he seemed to match up with so many things on my "wish list". I guess I just wish he hadn't started off by doing everything right, only to disappoint me when he wasn't really ready to commit. I've since recovered and have been seeing someone else for a little over two months. This time I've decided to set aside my wish list and just go with things, which seems to be working so far. I think the problem is that my idea of love is based on feelings I've only ever had about people who never truly cared about me, i.e. in the past I've "fallen in love" with someone, but it was never reciprocated, so what I think falling in love is actually is just a false perception because it was never completely real. I don't actually know how it is to love and be loved in return. Maybe my idea of love needs to be tossed out and replaced with a different version. Sometimes I almost think the idea of arranged marriage and learning to love someone out of mutual respect might be more practical.

Vegetarian ginger curry

It's been a while since I did a food post, so here's what I had for dinner tonight: homemade ginger curry (vegan and gluten-free).


Heat about 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a wok, add chunks of chopped onion and pressed garlic, then stir fry. Add sliced carrots, pieces of bell pepper (I used red), slices of yellow squash and zucchini, chopped shiitake and brown button mushrooms, about 1 tsp. of grated fresh ginger, baby spinach leaves, and pineapple chunks. These happened to be the vegetables I had on hand, but you can add or leave out whatever you like. Stir fry everything for about 10 minutes, add ginger curry powder or another curry powder of choice (mine is from 1001 Gewürze), coconut milk and some pineapple juice. If you don't have ginger curry powder and still want a ginger flavor, just add ginger powder to taste. Add a sprinkle of freshly ground sea salt. Make sure everything is well blended. Do not overcook, but make sure the carrots are still a little crunchy. Serve over rice (I used Trader Joe's frozen brown rice, which is ready to eat after microwaving for 3 minutes). Enjoy!

Translator networking

While I was at the ATA Conference in Denver last October, I got to know several people from my local translators' association and promptly became a member. Tonight was the first of their quarterly networking events and of course I had to go. We met at a bakery/cafe in Durham where many of us had dinner (I had a wasabi salmon wrap, which was very reminiscent of a jumbo sushi roll) and got to know each other better. I was pleased to see such a large turnout with multiple languages represented. There were three other German to English translators, all of whom also do other languages into English, particularly Dutch, Russian, and other Slavic languages. The other languages pairs were Spanish <> English, English > Chinese, and Portuguese > English. Overall there were about 15 of us in attendance. It was great hearing about other people's experiences - especially stories about the days of translation before the Internet (and even fax!) when source texts made a long journey around the world by postal mail and translations were hammered out on manual typewriters. Believe it or not - that was only about 30 years ago! How exponentially things change! I am so fortunate to live in such a multicultural area where it is possible to get together with other people in my line of work. In a profession that can, at times, be rather isolated with communication being done almost completely online, it is so important to get together with other translators (where possible) and share our experiences more frequently than just once a year at the annual conference. I had a great time and am already looking forward to the next get-together! For now it's time to call it a night. Gute Nacht!

A potpourri of things going on lately

After over a month off the ice, I finally laced up my skates again yesterday morning and hit the rink for an hour workout with my skating buddy. We caught up on things going on in our lives and did several practice routines. Thanks to muscle memory, I hadn't forgotten any of my moves and I didn't fall once. I'm looking forward to going again on a Friday morning when I can enjoy the absolute freedom of skating to my heart's content on a virtually empty rink that seems to be there just for me. No other feeling in the world compares to having an entire rink to yourself where you can blast your music of choice over the loudspeakers and just skate!

Speaking of music, I've been listening to quite a lot of new music lately - and not just listening but also singing. I recently discovered Kate Nash and created a Pandora station with her tunes. The songs by Kate and other female artists on the station are great to sing along to, which I did quite a bit of over the weekend and now still have a bit of a hoarse voice. Sunday night my next-door neighbor came over for an art and wine night where we talked about our lives and drew pictures of our "perfect planets" over a delicious bottle of red zinfandel. The Kate Nash Pandora station was on in the background and we frequently found ourselves singing along.

Last Saturday night my other neighbor and I went out to a bluegrass concert by an awesome local band (Kickin Grass) that I had heard about the night before on the Local Beat segment on a local radio station. I particularly love the song "Run Away", which can be heard on the website. It was great being out downtown for the first time in a few months as I haven't gone out a whole lot since colder weather set in. But this weekend was actually quite mild, with temps on Sunday reaching near 70 F (20 C). After the concert we weren't quite ready to head back home, so we decided to go dancing. The club we went to had no cover and featured an awesome blend of very danceable world music and jazzy beats. Towards the end of the evening the two guys who had been keeping a casual eye on our coats let us know they were about to leave, but then started dancing instead. The one guy was quite possibly the most amazing and entertaining dance partner I have ever danced with! He had the best moves and really knew how to spin me around the dance floor. It was a blast! My new dancing friend and I exchanged business cards and agreed to meet up at the same place with our friends on Friday for another round of dancing. Since it will be First Friday, there should be a lot of people out and about. I can't wait!

Last night a friend invited me to go to an all-girls Wednesday night small group and I decided to go. All of the girls were around my age and extremely nice. Since I've been looking to fill my life with more quality, genuinely nice people, this seemed like a good place to find them. The group is currently working through lessons that examine the sources of problems in our interpersonal relationships and how we can resolve them. I really enjoyed last night's discussion and getting to know the girls. Next week we are planning to go somewhere to watch the big match between arch-rivals UNC and Duke.

I've also got some great follow-up news to add to last week's shopping experience. Last night before small group I went back to the Express to see if I could return two unworn items and repurchase them using one of the $25 off coupons I got with last week's purchase. The girl at the register said it wouldn't be a problem at all. Instead of just giving me the discount on the two items, she did something amazing: she returned everything on the receipt and rung it all up again since almost everything had gone on sale. I ended up getting back nearly half of the money I had spent! Sometimes when you ask you end up getting even more than you ever could have expected!

Time to go back to sleep for an hour, then hit the gym, have some breakfast and start on the day's work. I'm really excited about a networking event tonight to meet other local translators and interpreters. Oddly enough I've never met another translator from around here, so hopefully tonight some other linguists will come out of the woodwork. As diverse as this area is, I'm sure there must be a good number of us. Should be a good night!

Out of the ordinary

This week would have been an almost normal week except for an act of near spontaneity - near only because I had been planning to do what I ended up doing before dropping the idea and then deciding to actually go through with it at the last minute. On Tuesday afternoon I jetted down to Atlanta to attend the German American Chamber of Commerce New Year's Reception, an event that provided ample opportunity to network with German businesspeople from the Atlanta area as well as people who have some sort of personal or professional connection to Germany. I ended up getting the ticket for $5.00 with my Skymiles and was able to stay downtown with a friend, whom I had met in 2008 when I first attended the event. The only problem I had was that my wardrobe was void of anything even close to resembling business attire. I have several cute, fun, summery dresses and at least one formal cocktail dress, but none were really up for the occasion. The rest of my wardrobe basically consists of casualwear - and when I say casual I mean sweatpants-t-shirt-and-a-fleece kind of casual. I often joke that wearing jeans is getting dressed up. After all, I work from home. I take naps when I feel the need and thus I feel no need to wear anything other than things that make me feel comfortable. I'll admit that I do have a couple of pairs of slacks, but nothing that I could magically turn into a professional looking outfit. On Monday night, after ransacking my closet in a last effort to somehow find something suitable to wear, I came to the dreaded conclusion that yes, I would in fact have to make a trip to the mall in search of something to wear Tuesday morning before leaving for Atlanta.

Unlike most women, I absolutely hate shopping. The thought of it almost sends my stomach into knots. If I could have it my way, I'd have a personal fashion assistant come along with me, or, better yet, do the shopping for me and always get it right because they know how to dress me. Since that isn't and likely never will be my reality, I instead have to ask a salesperson in the respective store for assistance. Although I'm not a shopper, I was disturbed to find out that the stores in nearest mall don't open until 10 AM - wouldn't it make more sense for them to open early, or do real shoppers sleep in? I killed some time at Target picking up some last-minute items before heading to the mall across the street. I circled around the mall - upstairs and downstairs - for about 10 minutes until the first gates to the stores started to go up. I was the first person in LOFT and was slightly perturbed that the saleswomen neither greeted me nor asked me if I wanted assistance. Did I really look that frumpy? Isn't every person who comes through the door a potential customer in need of assistance - even more so the one who really looks like she needs a completely new wardrobe, like me? In the past I have been known to be annoyed by such greetings, but on Tuesday I actually needed to be asked. I browsed around the store for a little while, not particularly enthusiastic about anything on the racks. After about 15 minutes I finally had to ask for some assistance - yet she still didn't seem particularly excited about helping me. It turned out that everything the two of us picked out was a disaster - the colors and styles made me want to scream in horror as I began to look like some sort of a clown from a frilly floral freak show. I hated the collars, I hated the cardigans (I can't stand button-up sweaters in general), I really hated the striped "bag" shirt (I prefer more form fitting attire if I have to dress up) - basically I hated pretty much everything. After wasting a good portion of the very little time that I had allotted for shopping, I quickly hurried into the next store - Benneton - where everything was on sale. That quickly proved to be a major miss as well, with my sizes being gone in everything I liked and the Italian sizes proving to be more than just a little confusing (no they are nothing like German sizes - those I have long figured out!). With about 45 minutes left to find something, I knew that Express was probably going to be my best bet. Within moments of entering the store, I knew I should have gone there first. Not only did they have business attire, they had it in my size (most importantly in my size and petite) and in multiple options. The sales girls were more than helpful and I ended up getting a black jacket with matching pants, a matching skirt, and two blouses. I actually looked like a business professional and was quite certain that I wouldn't be mistaken for a high school student (as I was the night before in art class). I quickly hurried home, changed into the pant suit with the sharp and shiny royal blue blouse, and hurried off to the airport - my brother volunteering to drive me as well as stay at my house for the night to watch the dogs.

Once I got to Atlanta, I took MARTA straight downtown to my friend's condo, quickly freshened up, hailed a taxi, and headed to the event. Although I had been to the same event twice before - in 2008 and 2009 - I was only certain of knowing one familiar face. I got there about an hour after everything had started, which might have been to my disadvantage in retrospect. I find it extremely difficult to engage in smalltalk and "naturally" socialize.I don't think there's anything natural about it. Nevertheless, I tried my best, but soon found myself in the very awkward situation of trying to hold a champagne glass and a plate of food, all while trying to eat what is on the plate with only a fork. The stuffed mushrooms clearly needed to be cut with a knife to avoid the embarrassment of looking like a chipmunk with stuffed cheeks. However, a frantic mishap resulting from an attempt to cut the mushroom with the fork and having it fly into someone's face would have been even worse. Thankfully that didn't happen, but that vision was in the back of my mind. It would have been better had I not needed to eat at all, but since I had only had some fruit, an egg, and gluten-free toast for "breakfast" at 12:30, I was starving and had to eat something. Despite these initial difficulties, I did actually manage to engage in a few conversations (mostly in German) and exchange a few business cards. I of course enjoyed astonishing native German speakers by the fact that I'm not actually German (one of my favorite things to do!), which actually led to a couple of conversations with GACC staff who may need translations. I met one person whom I ended up hanging out with the most, who introduced me to another language services provider (the owner of a translation agency) and who also gave me a book tip to perhaps help with such networking situations in the future. I'll definitely have to give it a read.

While I certainly didn't become a networking expert in one evening, I definitely think it was good to put myself out there, get away from my everyday life for an evening and - most importantly - step outside of my comfort zone. I certainly had nothing to lose - who knows, I might have even gained something more than just a new, professional look!

The outfit I wore Tuesday night

Jacket with skirt

The two new blouses

Playing with paint

Last week I decided to sign up for a new activity, which started tonight. The title: "Exploring your Creativity". I haven't taken art classes since I was in middle school so it's been quite a long time. Any artistic endeavors I've attempted in past years have usually been quite intentional - when I set my mind to do something I can usually do it. But simply doodling and drawing for fun or to take my mind off of things that might be bothering has never really been my outlet. The problem is that I don't really have an outlet - my brain is usually in overdrive, worrying about things that are beyond my control. I figured I needed an activity that would take my mind to another place and use parts of the brain that are understimulated. Tonight did just the trick. There has definitely been a lot on my mind lately and it was good to simply allow myself to be an "anti-perfectionist", to draw squiggly lines, and play with finger paint. Dabbing my fingers into primary colors I wiped them in various patterns across half of a blank sheet of paper, then folded it in half to create a mirror image of my paint splatter. The results looked a lot like the ink splotch images psychiatrists use, and in away the activity sort of felt like therapy. The realist, INTJ that I am sometimes struggles with non-realistic things, but this activity helped me release some of that for two hours. Hopefully as I continue taking classes some of that artistic creativity will splash into other areas of my life. I'm looking forward to it!

The long, low hound gang

As I hinted in my last post, there is now a new certain someone special in my life who happens to come along with a great dog - a beagle-basset mix named Toby. When I had J. over for dinner a couple of weeks ago, it was great to see how great he got along with Quintin and Jewel and how much they liked him. I've since had the opportunity to hang out with Toby a few times and he is really sweet - unbelievably he never barks! My dogs, on the other hand, can be barkaholics and are not exactly known for their fondness of other canines (just remember how they were when I rescued the boxer back in November). I sometimes call them little breedists, but they have even lashed out at other dachshunds for no reason at all. The thought of a meeting between our dogs terrified me - but how is a relationship supposed to work if we can't bring our dogs together? Obviously this is a hurdle that has to be overcome, so today we took our first step towards facing this challenge (4 miles worth of steps to be exact).

I have to admit that I was a bit nervous about today's canine encounter. We decided to meet at a local walking path around a lake and walk our dogs together. Usually when my dogs encounter other dogs on our usual walks they go nuts, barking aggressively at any canine they see. I tried to put my negative thoughts behind me - in particular that image in the back of my head of Quintin attacking Toby - and focused on positive energy. When our dogs first met my two barked a bit, but with some mild correction were eventually quite well behaved. At Quintin's first attempt to lunge at Toby, J. promptly scolded Quintin and made sure he knew that such behavior was unacceptable. Before anything else could happen, we set off on our walk around the lake. J. has done such a great job with Toby and has clearly taken Cesar Milan's tips to heart; J.'s calmness and composure seemed to be positively transferred to my dogs. Of course it also helped that he had come prepared with plenty of reward treats! It didn't take too long before all three of our dogs were walking together as a gang of long, low hounds. Quintin only acted up a couple of times, but the correction seemed to work. What was even more amazing was that my dogs not only walked together with Toby (who often took the lead), but that they were even quite calm as we passed other dogs of all shapes and sizes. In fact, as I was leaving the park I ran into my former dog trainer who was impressed to see how well my dogs behaved around other dogs. Definitely confirmation that something is going right!

While there is certainly a long way to go, I think we are headed in the right direction. Hopefully the day when all three dogs can calmly hang out together in the same room isn't too far away!

(I didn't manage to get a picture of the three hounds today, but I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities.)

A new month and a new year

Greetings readers - I can't believe I only managed to write 3 posts in December - all of which had to do with Christmas baking (no wonder!) There were a lot of other things keeping me away from writing such as: work (particularly tons of translations for the Oriental rug industry, just like in November), getting out and being more active, a certain special someone I started communicating with before Thanksgiving and finally met on December 9th, a Christmas cruise to Cozumel (Mexico), as well as relaxing and recuperating after the cruise and into the first couple of days of the new year.

The Christmas cruise was a lot of fun, especially our white Christmas in Cozumel (by that I mean white sand). Unfortunately on the way back from Mexico a cold front hit the Gulf at around 1 AM on December 26th and the entire rest of the ride back was accompanied by really rough waters. Despite all prevention aids, my mom got extremely seasick and had to get IV fluids in the infirmary. I didn't get sick but found the only way to prevent the possibility of seasickness was to lie down, so I stayed in bed for almost the remainder of the cruise. But up until then we really had a great time. I'm not sure I've become a cruising person. I think now I can say I've done it, but don't really have to do it again. I think I prefer more privacy and more opportunities for real relaxation. I also didn't really enjoy being really dizzy for days after the cruise, which only started to wear off a week later.

After getting back from the cruise I stayed at my mom's until this past Tuesday, where I was really able to read and relax. That was more of a vacation for me. I did a little bit of work here and there, but I mostly enjoyed sleeping and reading to my heart's content. I read "Welcome to the World, Baby Girl" by Fannie Flagg (author of Fried Green Tomatoes) and have started "Blue Like Jazz" and just finished "The 5 Love Languages". On the professional front I'll be reading more books on writing and style, but I want to make sure I manage to find more time to read for pleasure.

New Year's Eve I was supposed to go to a New Year's Eve party with a certain special someone, but he was sick and those plans fell through. Thankfully I had a backup plan - aka Raclette with the family. I brought this tradition back from Germany and we absolutely love it. For those of you not familiar with raclette, it is a cousin of fondue. Instead of a pot, raclette has a grill that is set in the middle of the table. You can grill on the top and below there are small individual pans for people to cook in. You can put pretty much anything you want in the pan and then you top it off with a slice of cheese that melts. The word raclette means to scrape - i.e. scrape the cheese and all the stuff out of the little pan. When your little portion is done you put it onto your plate and eat it with potatoes. You keep making individual portions until you are full. This is a social meal that can last for hours. I've yet to meet anyone who doesn't like it. This year's raclette featured: tomatoes, pears, mushrooms (shiitake and baby bellas) asparagus, onion, pineapple, scallops, corn, bell peppers, shrimp, walnuts, steak, grape tomatoes, zucchini and squash, raclette cheese, cheddar cheese, colby jack cheese. brie and gorgonzola. As sides at the table we had homemade bread and butter pickles from my stepdad's daughter and pickled beets. As sauces we had aioli from Trader Joe's, honey mustard dressing, A1. I also used curry powder and an Middle Eastern spice blend to season my food.

As for New Year's resolutions, I wrote down a few little things: achieve a better work/life balance, read more, cook more (I'd like to try one new recipe per week), achieve my target weight (i.e. lose 6-7 lbs) and maintain it, pay off the car (scheduled to be paid off in May - 1.5 years ahead of schedule) and save more. I'm also hoping to do some traveling this year - at least one trip to Germany, hopefully a trip to China in September/October to visit a friend, and who knows what else I might come up with.

I'm sure some of you might be curious about my mentions of a special someone. I'll get to that in another post, just be patient.