January 2012
To 2011.
It’s been quite a year - it’d be impossible to recount, but highlights include -
A california visit from my sisters, a new class of puddles, another successful Wenchuan, an incredible summer in Istanbul (and a visit from S), a wonderful trip to Oregon with my family, a unseasonably warm fall, a semester of finally loving my classes (plant labs, dissections, immunology research and...
December 2011
Walnut cake with fig apple compote.
The cake (adapted from Gourmet)
1 1/4 cups walnuts (4 1/2 oz), toasted (see Tips) and cooled 2/3 cup sugar 1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces 4 large eggs 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour an 8-inch round cake pan.
Combine flour, baking powder, and...
Baking with J
A perfect reminder of what evenings with good friends feel like - comfortable silence, comfortable catching up, puzzling, baking, laughing, all still perfectly in sync, despite the time that has elapsed.
Devils food cake with caramel frosting. No food coloring.
To old friends and good friends.
Christmas.
Somewhere between all of the Christmases away from home, in foreign countries, away from family, or in silence in monasteries, Christmas has lost a bit of its magic to me. Perhaps my childhood Christmases are too perfect, perhaps I’ve grown to be less forgiving, perhaps I’m just not as sentimental. Decorating the tree without my sister becomes something I need to be told to do, and...
Yesterday was my parents anniversary. They continue to be my inspiration and the model from which I learn.
old.
the past two last-night-of-fall-semesters have set precedents for late nights of general college insanity, of the “I have a month to regret this” sort.
tonight, a nice three course meal with friends who mock me for my dearth of popular culture knowledge, some house keeping, and really all I want is to cuddle up and sleep before midnight.
6 am departure times used to mean...
“Raaka chocolate bars. The chocolate is delicious (vanilla roobios is my...”
– Artisan Food Gifts for People You May or May Not Have in Your Life | Serious Eats : New York
Kim Jong Il Dead | BBC →
Population Control, Marauder Style | NYT →
NYT graphics are incredible. Mao Zedong killed a lot of people. So did Genghis Khan. WWII, of course, #1.
I refuse.
OEB59 Final: Blah blah blah listed below are 32 plants. For each one, identify a continent or country that could be its possible center of origin.
Me: No.
this is exactly my reaction.
Today I'm craving:
a fresh crusty baguette with some pesto
fresh squeezed orange juice
focus
“This is the only time in your lives when your only real responsibility is to...”
– 50 Things | MIT Admissions
Even while studying for finals (or maybe especially), this really rings true.
a quiet place. →
"If you could rape anyone who would it be?"
Sigma Phi Epsilon at UVM ended a questionnaire to its brothers with the question: “If you could rape anyone who would it be?”
The feminists at UVM have started a petition to shut the fraternity down. Sign the petition here and circulate it / re-blog this.
See the story here for details.
Alternate futures.
Sometimes chats with high school best friends regress to coming up with alternative futures we can send our alumni bulletin for post-graduate plans.
The best lies, as always, are founded on (multiple) grain(s) of truth.
House-dreaming.
I know my future home, wherever it may be, will have these things. I’m promising to myself that I won’t skimp on things that so clearly make me happy.
Framed prints.
An open kitchen with so much natural light. Light color walls.
A fireplace. It’ll probably be fully illegal by then, but I can’t imagine life without one.
Hardwood floors.
A french window for reading.
15 Indications That You’re on Your... →
