[Heart] Note...to Cold Sesame Noodles

After abandoning my lofty and sophomoric goal to cure cancer, which I was puerile enough to put in print in my high school yearbook under my senior portrait, I have been involved in pursuits less grandiose, more gastronomic. I am in search of memorable Caesar salads (I know where to order them and where not to bother), the juiciest burger within a 50 mile radius (Ted’s, hands down), and perfect sesame noodles—that I can make at home. Inspired by the sesame cold noodles on the appetizer menu at Char Koon, which I can eat in two sittings and which therefore I try to avoid, I started my search for a recipe I can make at home, which does not require leaving the house (and where portion control is a bit easier).

For a few years I stuck with the first recipe I found in a magazine, which was good. Very good, in fact. But not quite right. So I tried Ming Tsai’s recipe. And Tyler Florence’s. And I melded the two. Nope. And I tried others. Then last year Amy gave me a Trader Joe’s cookbook and in it there was what I consider a cheater recipe—equal parts TJs Soyaki, water, and peanut butter, with a dash of dark sesame oil. I add red pepper flakes for heat and whenever possible, I garnish with cucumbers, shredded carrots, green onions, and sesame seeds. When I have more than fifteen minutes and protein on hand (or the foresight to have taken some out of the freezer) I might also make pork tenderloin medallions, or chicken, marinated in aforementioned TJs Soyaki . ( I know, Trader Joes needs a [heart] note, although it did get its own post). Sometimes I’ll quickly sauté some shrimp.

But any and every way, they are easy to make and always come out the same: delicious. Spicy and satisfying, they are my Asian comfort food fix, which is why I [heart] cold sesame noodles.

Cleared for Take-Down

I don't decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving, and I don't take my tree down the day after Christmas. Growing up we waited to take down the tree until after January 6, The Epiphany,Three Kings Day, which was also the day my mother would write lightly in chalk along the top of the dining room door "K+M+B=[year]". It took me years to bother to ask what it meant, assuming it had something to do with my parents and their first born/my oldest sister, since all three initials corresponded, but that's another post. (Caspar is spelled with a K in Polish.) In any case, the three kings got to the manger yesterday, and now it's okay for me to take down my decorations. [radio static] Catholics, you are cleared for take-down.

Ugh.

In recent years I usually tackle the task on the first weekend or the first snow day following Three Kings. There is snow in the forecast for the overnight, but it looks we are only going to get a dusting, so I'm not hopeful. That doesn't mean I won't be touching my lucky snowman today, however it looks more likely that my plans this weekend include multiple trips to the basement. Which, I suppose I can't complain about. It's clearly a lot easier than following a star and walking through desert, with gifts no less, for 12 days. Un-decorating I can do guess. With or without a snow day.

It's just that I've gotten used to having my angel collection around. And I just put up the sparkly star I bought on clearance last week at Pier 1 and haven't had a chance to go back for more. (I [heart] Pier 1.) And I love to sit by the light of the Christmas tree at night. It's so relaxing. But now it's time to take it all down, and put it all away until next year, which makes me wonder...

What will vodka with cranberry juice taste like if not from my Joyeux Noel glasses?

Newbies

I’m not one for New Year’s resolutions. I do spend a little time reflecting, maybe more than on some given days, but I’d like to think I keep current with self-reflection and evaluation and set goals when I recognize I need to. Take my decision to join the gym when I had to step away from the pool and into some real clothes and go back to work in them. I knew it was time; I had put it off long enough. And now, as I start the New Year I am happy to have 3 months under my belt.

But it appears that most people in my vicinity wait until the New Year to begin fitness as overnight it appears that the MEMBERSHIP AT MY GYM HAS DOUBLED. And all the new members have looked at the traffic pattern handout, which I got too, and decided to beat the rush, as I like to do, so now the rush begins earlier. So now I can’t beat the rush. Speaking of that, don’t most people work 9-5? So why the hell are they there at 3? We can't all be teachers.

On New Year’s Day I was one of 5 people in the gym that morning. Yesterday, after school, every single treadmill was taken in the cardiovascular room. Thank God one was taken by me. Because if I couldn’t get on a machine, I might have gone postal.

So, I’m wondering—since I don’t make resolutions—how long it takes before people break them? Now that I mean to wish failure upon people, but I kind of liked going to the gym and not being one of millions. (Okay, maybe not millions, but it’s definitely a full house.) I have even gotten used to seeing students on occasion. I will not, however, get used to not having a machine in front of Ellen and/or Oprah when I go after school.

So what do you think? Will people give up when they supersize their nachos on Superbowl Sunday and rediscover their love of pizza? Do I have to wait for the Valentine's Day chocolate binge for people to fall off the fitness wagon? When does the do-gooder, legal crack come out? Maybe they will they just sort of start dropping like flies?...I'll keep you posted.

My New Toy

I was pleasantly surprised over the weekend by an unexpected gift: an MP3 player. Yay! Fun! Now I can listen to music when there’s nothing good on TV at the gym.

Okay. Before you get all OhMyGod I Can’t Believe You Didn’t Already Have One! on me let me assure you that I was not walking around embarrassing myself with a Discman. Or an even more archaic Walkman. Although I understand Sony is using that name again with MP3 players, I mean the brick-size cassette player radio that came with a belt clip, which is the Walkman I remember. Can you even imagine what my students would do if they ever saw one? But I remember well, back when I used to run in Boston, holding mine in my hand (because it didn’t attach well to spandex), cranking my Pat Benatar tape to pick up the pace. ([begin head bobs here] “People walking ‘round all lost and confused, trying to get their lives out of the gutter!...” [guitar riffs here])

It took me a couple of tries to figure out what I was doing, how to get music from my CDs to my computer to my fuchsia MP3 player. I still don’t know if I was ripping or burning or downloading or some combination of the three but I’m pretty much a pro at it now. (Why can’t it just be downloading? Or is it uploading?) (And why can I still feel like such a technological moron?) So far I have downloaded some U2, some Peter Gabriel, some Genesis, some Led Zeppelin (Zep!), some Stylistics, Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes (with Teddy Pendergrass), and a few odd singles. When I decided to step away from my laptop and get some other things done (like eat dinner) I took a few minutes to listen to something on my new toy. I put my on head phones—I mean ear buds—and danced around to Modern English’s Melt with You. Seriously danced. I have a lot of music to go but am so excited! Like a kid on Christmas. Only I’m 44.

I think, in my effort to find peace and quiet, and block out the noise, and take time to meditate and do my daily affirmations, I don’t often listen to music anymore. Especially in the car. But, if you can tell by my play list, I love all kinds of music. So maybe before upgrading my cell phone to one with a QWERTY keyboard so that I can text more easily I’ll get a little speaker set instead to plug in my MP3 at home so I can listen to more music again, to dance around the house and find joy in music as I do in silence.

I mean to rock on with my bad, MP3 player self.

Two Hour Delay

I knew last night that this morning would be a struggle. I'd want to snooze my alarm, and I'd probably move around in relatively slow motion after being on vacation for more than a week. I'd become accustomed to sleeping in and leisurely mornings and 5:30 was sure to be a rude awakening. So in addition to getting my lunch ready and planning my outfit last night, I also decided to set my alarm a few minutes early--5:21 instead of 5:28--to build in some time for moving slowly and/or hitting snooze. Just in case.

At 5:21 I hit snooze. And got back on my bed, but not under my covers. By 5:22 I was in the shower. When I got downstairs my coffee was still brewing (I didn't change my timer on my coffee maker). I sat down and turned on the TV and saw names of towns in groups of three appearing on the bottom of the screen. Hmmm...Guess those flurries at the tail end of the storm amounted to more than a dusting for some towns. The Os were going by. Of course none of those towns are close by, and my school district is at the beginning of the alphabet, so I waited.. The Ps and Rs meant nothing to be either. But then came an S next door, and another and another; the Ss started talking to me. So I went over to my laptop and there in my inbox was my 2 hour delay notification. I walked back to my couch and picked up my house phone, and there on my caller ID was the call I missed when I was being my Up and At 'Em! self in the shower.

$&#^@!!

If I went back to bed my hair would dry all funky. Plus, I was already feeling awake, and my coffee was finally ready. And it smelled really good. Going back to bed didn't make sense.

Guess I get my leisurely morning after all.

Setting the Tone

I believe I have mentioned that my mother is the Queen of Superstitions. In fact, some of what my sisters and I lump together as “superstitions” are probably a combination of Farmer's almanac applications, some folklore, some old wives’ tales, some religious traditions, and only a few can't be-classified-as-anything-other-than superstitions.

Saving the ends of our umbilical cords and putting them in coin envelopes, and then sending us off on our respective first days of school with them in our pockets, was supposed to make us smart and is definitely one of those can't-be-explained-any-other-way-than Superstition (although, truth be told, we all excelled in school). Not harvesting cabbage to make the year's sauerkraut until after All Souls' Day (maybe All Saints') probably had more to do with the weather and when cabbage was actually ready for picking, or maybe taking the time on a holy day to prepare for the winter, than anything else, but over time it garnered an or else clause that I can't put my finger on (it won't ferment right?). To this day that is when my mother and father prepare their barrel of cabbage to ferment and become our year's supply of sauerkraut. They won’t tempt the fate of a bad batch or a growing a third eye or whatever else, and every year the sauerkraut is great.

This week my mother has no doubt been making notes about the weather on each of these twelve days of Christmas, which is supposed to foretell the weather for the twelve months to follow. If it snows on the seventh day it doesn't mean it will snow in July, but I think it means it will be a wet month. I'm not sure my mother follows up on the accuracy, but for those twelve days she makes notes and for twelve months they can be found among her coupons on the kitchen counter.

Another one of her superstitions says that how you spend the first day of the New Year is how you will spend the whole year. Interesting, right? I must say that this is one of those I have come to see not as superstitious at all, but instead embrace as making a lot of sense. There needs to be a little flexibility in the interpretation, of course—especially for those of you out there who spent the better part of January 1 nursing a hangover and making empty promises to God so you could feel better fast—but it makes perfect sense to me. It’s about setting a tone at the beginning of a new year, and an opportunity for fresh starts. Maybe you don’t want or need a fresh start. In that case it could be about taking stock and appreciating the way you live and who you love. Maybe it’s just about making the most of your day, on the first day of the New Year.

How did I spend the first day of the year? That is, am I being smug?

Well, I woke up around 7, made coffee, then sat and wrote for a little while. I wanted to get some writing time in because I didn’t know when I’d have free time to write again for a couple more days because I was having company. When I finished writing I went to the gym, and then came home and got ready for what was a very nice weekend.

So if, according to my mother’s superstition, that means this year I will continue to take care of my physical and creative selves and enjoy the company of special people, I am happy. And I’m happy to be smug if that’s what you deem me to be. (Or maybe you’re just pissed that you didn’t know about the superstition and spent the first day of the year looking for the cold spot in your sheets, or worse, on your tile floor, wishing you had Yoo-Hoo and a Big Mac. )

Either way, Happy New Year to us all.

Happy New Year!

Wishing you health and happiness in the New Year.