Filed under: food, miscellany | Tags: elaine, korea, loris, patbingsu, puzzle
once upon a time, we were all going about our lives as usual when a strange little envelope arrived in the mail. or, in my case, arrived in my brother’s mail and had to be forwarded on to me. anyway, the envelope came, and in it were cryptic instructions and puzzle pieces. they were from this girl. or was it this girl? each set of instructions was slightly different, but mostly the same.
so we gathered, on a rainy night in west philly, to assemble puzzles and crush ice.
the puzzle was a wee bit challenging…
but we prevailed in the end.
after a bit of a flipping-over-fiasco, we were able to decode the message on the back:
(we thought that e had kept three of the pieces for herself, to remind us all of her absence, but it turned out that we had left them in kara’s envelope the whole time. oops.)
kara tackled the lock…
and liberated the prize:
which was dried squid.
even the cat was sketched out…
in addition to the dried squid, there were cute little gifts, like keychains and tassles and funny shirts, as well as instructions to navigate ourselves to a website, where we were given instructions as to how to concoct a most delicious korean dessert known as patbingsu.
never ones to turn down a challenge, we headed to the kitchen, unpacked our previously-purchased grocery items, and got to work.
i’m not sure our patbingsu turned out exactly as it should have, but it sure was delicious.
then we watched this:
all in all, a most excellent night.
one day, jonny had a birthday. so he planned (planned?) a delicious menu, then ordered us around as we prepared it in his honor. and i must say, he looked quite dashing as he did it.
appetizers consisted of grilled, peanut butter-marinated chicken (yes, that’s right) with a creamy avocado cilantro dip. mmmmmm. really, it was delicious. no joke.
then came pizzas. toppings galore!
that’s just how we roll.
of course, a party with my friends isn’t a party unless there’s fire.
so jon requested a creme brulee, which he brulee’d himself.
deliciousness. of which i did not partake, because i had to catch a train back home in order to lie in bed awake and be nervous about my first day of student teaching.
on a final note, some pre-party shots:
as july 1st marked my return to grownuphood through independent living, i decided to host a housewarming barbecue, july 4th style.
honored guests included high school friends, college friends, nicaragua friends, cherished family members, their friends, and this guy:
when this picture was taken, he had just received a firm yet gentle massage with a tandoori rub. he was feeling good: relaxed yet alert, eager to see where the night’s festivities would lead.
little did he know he was about to get thrown on the grill with a beer can shoved up his boy-badonkadonk. ouch.
here’s what he looked like when he came out:
here’s what the beer looked like:
that’s grease floating on top. chicken butt grease. for a minute it looked as if colin might actually drink the chicken beer, because that’s just how much he likes beer, and just how much more of a man he is than you. certainly more of a man than greg, anyway. but, in the end, he sniffed the beer and made a wise choice not to drink it. a shame, perhaps, but probably better for everyone in the end.
so, to lighten the mood, we ate firecracker cake!
trevor was the genius behind this one, with a little help from mom, and the sheer brilliance of the cake made us highly impatient to get some real firecrackers going. atraeu, however, was of the opinion that firecrackers were a bad idea. to let us know just how opposed he was, he spent the entire afternoon and evening hiding in my shower, to the surprise (and chagrin) of my guests when they tried to use the bathroom.
when it finally got dark enough, we initiated fun with sparklers, which of course led to many boyish spark-related feats of whimsy and immaturity. i’ll allow the video to speak for itself.
on that note, a few more pretty pictures of sparklers in the night:
yeah, that one’s my favorite too.
when the sparklers ran out, there was fun with candles to be had.
leave it to jon to spend long periods of time dipping things into flames and measuring the rate at which they melt. but don’t think he’s the only one:
with liberty, and justice for all.
the candle never saw it coming.
it’s been a really long time. color me ashamed.
the sad truth is that there has been little crafting going on lately. plenty of reading, and apartment searching, and trips with friends, but precious little sewing and knitting. weighing it all out, i can’t say i’m all that upset.
recently, however, my crafting has experienced a rebirth. this is partly due to the fact that my sister-in-law is out of work for the summer, and horribly bored. even more exciting, however, is the fact that i’m moving into my new apartment in approximately 40 hours, and things like placemats and curtains don’t just make themselves anymore.
so, in an attempt to make up for months of not posting, i will be posting several projects at once. be forewarned.
first of all, jam. what can i say about jam? not much, really. i don’t eat that much of it, nor had i ever been super inspired to make it myself. but alli needed some company, and i bought all of those cute jars in canada, so i figured, what the hell. let’s make some jam. so on wednesday alli and i headed out to new jersey, to a farm much praised by local canners, only to find that their berry season was long over. blerg. so we bought some corn and peaches, and headed to linvilla orchards. i think the last time i went there i was 12 and picking pumpkins with a friend’s family, so it was a little weird, but fun to return. we spent an hour and a half in the beautiful june sunshine, picking strawberries and rhubarb, trying not to think of the pesticides as we popped a few choice berries into our mouths. live a little.
with two full boxes of strawberries and rhubarb, and after checking out the farm store, of course, we headed back to philly for the jammin’ action. i don’t have the patience to go into all of the details here, so enjoy this short summary:
- we washed and cut over 8 pounds of strawberries, preparing some of them with sugar and vanilla to be stored, and leaving the rest out to make jam the next day.
- on thursday, the jamming commenced. we decided to start out with the rhubarb, because neither of us had any real idea what we were doing, and we figured that we’d rather waste rhubarb than berries.
- the rhubarb was cooked down, pectin was added, and we ended up with some delicious, yet quite sweet, rhubarb vanilla jam. too sugary for me, but a beautiful purply-red color.
- rhubarb was combined with strawberries to make a strawberry-rhubarb compote, which will no doubt be sinfully delicious on ice cream or pancakes.
- strawberries were cooked down into strawberry jam, which is delicious but also too sweet for me. i’ve been giving away jars of it as ice cream topping.
in the end, it only took us about 3 hours to make 3 separate batches of goodies, and there was only one significant skin burn (mine) and one significant stove explosion (see pics). and, despite my general lack of love for jam, i’m totally sold on canning now, and want to can anything and everything i see. the jars are just so damn cute.
here are the pictures:
alli always knows how to dress for the occasion
how tart is your rhubarb?
rhubarb vanilla jam in the making
luscious berry murder
balls to the wall
the final products
you better like it
big black dog seal of approval
ethyl loves to jam
so that’s the story of the “no, we’re not sisters” jam company’s debut line of jams. more pics are available here.
in less exciting crafting news, but way more exciting personal news, i’m moving into my new apartment on wednesday, and there are many many things to be done. instead of doing those things, i’ve been making placemats.
the fabric is from ikea, and i added some fun little kicks of color.
if i have time tomorrow, bird-themed napkins will follow. who am i kidding? i’ll totally make time.
finally, since i am at long last moving out of the family domicile and into my own place, it occurs to me that i’ll need a new theme for this blog. i’ll stick with apt2b, but the whole “just mom and pops and me” doesn’t work anymore. not that i ever wrote about living with them. you didn’t want to hear it anyway. but if you have any ideas for a new tagline, send ‘em my way.
angry chicken’s most recent post has alerted me to the fact that my birthday flower, i.e. the flower associated with my specific date of birth, is amaranth. so of course i checked it out, because i had only heard of amaranth as a crazy healthy grain, and i had not encountered it since my days in the co-op. the first thing i learned, unfortunately, is that amaranth is commonly known as pigweed. blerg. however, further reading left me enlightened and quite pleased with my little flower:
-in greek, “amaranth” means the “one that does not wither,” or the never-fading (flower).
- a traditional food plant in africa, this vegetable has potential to improve nutrition, boost food security, foster rural development and support sustainable landcare. it is often referred to as “the crop of the future.” (as it turns out, i also have that potential. boo yah.)
-amaranth seeds, like buckwheat and quinoa, contain protein that is unusually complete for plant sources; regular consumption reduces blood pressure and cholesterol levels, while improving antioxidant status and some immune parameters. (also true of me)
-enya refers to the everlasting amaranth in her song “amarantine“.
yeah, that last one is my favorite, too.
