Cooking through the Pantry- a Communal Experiment

I’m moving in a month. Instead of packing the random ingredients and what-nots from the pantry, I’ve chosen to whittle it down to the basics- spices and accoutrements. Here’s where you come in: I took several photographs of the items in question and I would love your suggestions of how you think I can cook with these ingredients so as to bring smiles to the faces of friends or co-workers and deplete their stock on the shelf. I look forward to your ideas…

A Trip to France

Doesn’t that sound nice? Hob-nobbing with Msr. Sarkozy and walking the Champs-Elysees after picking up a warm baguette and cafe au lait to go. I’m cleaning up years of accumulated paper in preparation for the move, which is to say, years of collected words. Why else would anyone have boxes of paperwork laying around the house? I stumbled upon a favorite old poem by Victor Hugo that used to hang in my school dorm room. I must remember to retrieve my bilingual Baudelaire when in Texas again. At one moment in time, I actually even knew this by heart. Enjoy avec un croissant in hand.

Demain, des l’aube
Victor Hugo

Demain, des l’aube, a l’heure ou blanchit la campagne,
je partirai. Vois-tu, je sais que tu m’attends.
J’irai par la foret, j’irai par la montagne.
Je ne puis demeurer loin de toi plus longtemps.

Je marcherai les yeux fixes sur mes pensees,
Sans rien voir au dehors, sans entendre aucun bruit,
Seul, inconnu, le dos courbe, les mains croisees,
Triste, et la jour pour moi sera comme la nuit.

Je ne regarderai ni l’or du soir qui tombe,
Ni les voiles au loin descendant vers Harfleur,
Et quand j’arriverai, je mettrai sur ta tombe
Un bouquet de houx vert et de bruyere en fleur.

A word about salt

Can salt lose its saltiness?

I was pondering this tonight and did a quick google search. Lo and behold regular table salt has to be decomposed through electrolysis or diluted in water in order for the sodium and chlorine to separate. Am curiously interested in this possibility and glad I use kosher salt.

Sunday afternoon indulgence

Sunday afternoon indulgence

Originally uploaded by indieaz

Let’s all have some ice cream, shall we?

I’m watching you

I’m watching you

Originally uploaded by indieaz

Min

Mindy

Originally uploaded by indieaz

See the wave machine in the background. One day we will become world class pseudo-surfers!

Rent-a-bike

Rent-a-bike at Mission Beach

Originally uploaded by indieaz

at Mission Beach

TGA Team Member: Chuck

Chuck

Originally uploaded by indieaz

This is Chuck. He flew out from Houston and is best known for his Youtube videos where he is known as the SEO Rapper. Chuck was our resident photographer and has a great laugh.

TGA Team Member: Vache

This is Vache in the checkered shirt, from our team, TGA. He lives in NY and has multiple blogs, but got his start writing about Asian films. He was our technical superstar with everything from surfing the free WIFI when we would stop to calling friends back in NY and asking them questions when we got stumped.

Vache

Originally uploaded by indieaz

TOUCH: Small things from which to derive joy

In a recession-rife economy, the pundits encourage us to hunker down money into savings while still keeping money passing through the markets by spending. For those of us living in expensive cities (San Francisco or New York as examples), this can curb into an already cinched budget. And as the recession continues creeping into our way of living, it can possess the quality of opportunity rather than mere challenge to become creative about how to entertain oneself. Thus, I am in the process of thinking up a list of top 20 things to do without spending any money and look forward to your contributions. A roommate, JT shared some of hers, noted below. Here goes, the first bits of said list:

1. Yoga class with Kate- you get to discover your inner-gymnastic-child + think about exhale / inhale
2. Singing in church with Karl and the band
3. Walking through Golden Gate Park, through a hare krishna festival, past some old folks lawn bowling
4. Laughing with friends
5. Wiping my face with a hot washcloth
6. Making a mug of V*osges Parisian soy hot chocolate with mini marshmallows
7. “Freshly brewed coffee at the beginning of the day in my favorite ‘Life is Good’ mug”- JT
8. “Talking about politics or world events in a heated conversation”- JT
9. “Window shopping”- Jack
10. Reading a book of poetry- right now “Dreaming the End of War”
11. Color
12. Listening to NPR in the mornings on the way to work
13. Learning new things daily
14. Those extra 10 minutes when my alarm goes off and knowing I can snooze for 10 more minutes
15. “Petting Hazel (the dog), taking her for a walk or hanging out with her” – JT
16. Planning a Star Wars marathon
17. “Journaling”- JT
18. Staying in bed on a Saturday morning when it’s grey outside and reading a book
19. Playing Guitar Hero with K
20. The beginnings of a new poem or a line that gets embedded in the head