Monday, April 5, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
SNOW! AGAIN!
So I know I post a lot about snow, but we are getting a record amount of snow here. It is supposed to rain all week and but up at school in the mountains we have been getting snow. It snowed all day on Tuesday last week. It took us 20 min to make the distance that usually takes 5 min. Ths buses can´t go up the hill to the station because of the ice and the snow and aparently there is a bus stuck in the middle of the road. But we still have classes. I think we got like 3 inches of snow in about a half an hour. Gross, when you have to take a bus at least.
So last weekend was Chinese New Years and to my suprise the Chinese community actually did something for it. There was a huge parade on Saturday when it was freezing outside and then there were a bunch of stalls in Plaza de España all weekend. The parade was fun to see. There were some dancers and lion dancers and dragons and balloons and stuff an has like 30 different groups. Plaza de España was crazy crowded but I managed to buy some baked bao and some dontats (sp?). It was nice to eat some good, if greasy Chinese food that is familiar. For lunch we went to try a restaurant that has gotten good reviews. Its in the southern part of Madrid and it took us a while to find it, but they have a photo with the king! Its called El Buen Gusto, and I was disappointed. First off they never attended us. We had to wait at least a half an hour to place the order and then the dishes came out all random and seperate. I had to ask multiple times for rice and the peking duck was like fried chicken with semi wrappings. The flavor was also not good. We got some eggplant that was ¨traditional¨and it was good but it came out so late that I wasn´t hungry anymore. There were many Chinese people there so they must be able to get good food, but I have a sneaking suspision that they get better food than anyone else to begin with. I would go back and try to order ¨traditional¨ food, but I will need to wait a while.
In the afternoon we went to see the Carnaval parade. The theme was the cinema and so everything had to do with a movie or an actor or a director. It was freezing cold all day and at night it was worse. It was not a extremely good parade, but there were lots and lots of old cars and the boys were really excited about those.
Also on Saturday I had to deliver cookies to someone because I was trying to sell cookies for Valentine´s Day. I really only got one person to buy them, but it was exciting. I made little heart shaped cookies and frosted them and then dipped half of the batch in chocolate. They turned out very pretty if a bit tough from over handling.
On Valentine´s Day we went with my friend and her man friend to go bowling. The bowling alley is at the Chamartin station and has like 15 lanes. The whole place looks like it is stuck in the 70´s. Everything is old. There is also a club ther next to the bowling alley and there were people lining up for it a 6pm in the afternoon. What? Noel said that it was probably for the 16year olds who have to party during the day time because that is when their parents let them out. I forgot how fun bowling is, but we should have bought two games because it can go pretty fast and you only get in the swing of things when by the end of the first game. I need to work on my accuracy. After bowling we went to play pool in the back and then Carlos and I went to have dinner in this restaurant in Chueca called Ex Libris . More about this in my food blog. Thats all for now! otherwise I will get too backed up in my blogs.
So last weekend was Chinese New Years and to my suprise the Chinese community actually did something for it. There was a huge parade on Saturday when it was freezing outside and then there were a bunch of stalls in Plaza de España all weekend. The parade was fun to see. There were some dancers and lion dancers and dragons and balloons and stuff an has like 30 different groups. Plaza de España was crazy crowded but I managed to buy some baked bao and some dontats (sp?). It was nice to eat some good, if greasy Chinese food that is familiar. For lunch we went to try a restaurant that has gotten good reviews. Its in the southern part of Madrid and it took us a while to find it, but they have a photo with the king! Its called El Buen Gusto, and I was disappointed. First off they never attended us. We had to wait at least a half an hour to place the order and then the dishes came out all random and seperate. I had to ask multiple times for rice and the peking duck was like fried chicken with semi wrappings. The flavor was also not good. We got some eggplant that was ¨traditional¨and it was good but it came out so late that I wasn´t hungry anymore. There were many Chinese people there so they must be able to get good food, but I have a sneaking suspision that they get better food than anyone else to begin with. I would go back and try to order ¨traditional¨ food, but I will need to wait a while.
In the afternoon we went to see the Carnaval parade. The theme was the cinema and so everything had to do with a movie or an actor or a director. It was freezing cold all day and at night it was worse. It was not a extremely good parade, but there were lots and lots of old cars and the boys were really excited about those.
Also on Saturday I had to deliver cookies to someone because I was trying to sell cookies for Valentine´s Day. I really only got one person to buy them, but it was exciting. I made little heart shaped cookies and frosted them and then dipped half of the batch in chocolate. They turned out very pretty if a bit tough from over handling.
On Valentine´s Day we went with my friend and her man friend to go bowling. The bowling alley is at the Chamartin station and has like 15 lanes. The whole place looks like it is stuck in the 70´s. Everything is old. There is also a club ther next to the bowling alley and there were people lining up for it a 6pm in the afternoon. What? Noel said that it was probably for the 16year olds who have to party during the day time because that is when their parents let them out. I forgot how fun bowling is, but we should have bought two games because it can go pretty fast and you only get in the swing of things when by the end of the first game. I need to work on my accuracy. After bowling we went to play pool in the back and then Carlos and I went to have dinner in this restaurant in Chueca called Ex Libris . More about this in my food blog. Thats all for now! otherwise I will get too backed up in my blogs.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
sorry for the delays...
I realize I just posted Thanksgiving in January, but I've been avoiding the Blog. I'm trying to make myself do it like its homework. Trying to get back in the swing of actually doing things....
December passed without much incident. We were all antsy for school to end so we could go on break. The last weekend that all three of us roommates were home we had a mini x-mas meal. Mainly to have an excuse to make and eat a pumpkin pie. I over worked the crust and had the horrible revelation that pumpkin pies required a whole slew of spices includeing ground ginger, which I have not seen here, save maybe the American stores and I didn't want to make the trip. Thanks to the internet I found out that you can use fresh ginger in its place. I found that the only problem is that grated fresh ginger is much more chunky. But in the end it turned out ok and we had a nice little meal.
The high point of December was going "Home" for the holidays. I went back to the states, but instead of going to Oakland, I went to Mt. Vies Hawaii to spend the holidays with my whole family, new baby included (I really went just to see Nabil...) The trip took me about 48 hours to complete. Madrid to Zurich. Zurich to Los Angeles. Overnight in LA and a visit with my college friend. LA to Honolulu. Second to last flight from Honolulu to Hilo on Christmas eve. Hilo up the hill the Mt. View. Once in Mt. View I spent the next 10 days with my whole Hatayama side of the family as we ate our way through the holidays. Well, actually it was like celebrate grandma's birthday the 25 and then eat leftovers for 5 days and then celebrate New Years twice and then eat left overs for 5 days (and try not to gain too much weight). In between the eating we took Nabil, who is 5 months old, to the beach and to see the volcano. We went to a farmer's market and to the store to buy all sorts of tasty goodies. Nabil's first beach/ocean experience was epic and is well documented by all involved parties. He was confused and then he was done being conufused and he deicded that he had had enough of the experiment and started to cry. For me the beach was glorious apart from the 4 foot waves that just crashed into you with a lot of force. Being in the sun and the water was so great.
My family deserted my before New Years and I got to spend time with my Grandma and my aunt and uncle by myself. This was the first time I had ever done this and I really enjoyed getting to know them better. My grandma and I would watch old Japanese Samuri and Japanese Gangster movies at night. It nice being able to relax and eat homey food and watch cable.
The new development in Mt. View is that the Volcano Halemaumau is very active at the moment. It has been spewing steam and sometimes rocks since early November. The sulfer up at my grandma's house is really bad. When you first go outside it stings when you breathe. Its a very present reminder that the volcanoes are active and dangerous. But its also very cool to look at:)
The flights back to Madrid were more tiring than the trip over. I had a 12 hour layover in LAX where I couldn't check in until 12 hours after I landed in LAX from Hawaii because I had to book two complete seperate flights. From Europe to LA and the from LA to Hilo. Luckily LAX international terminal, or as they called the TBIT, has a lounge that you can hang out in. It cost me 50dollars for the whole day and they had wife and free snacks and beverages and nice chairs. I finally got to eat some of my most beloved Cheez-Its. YUM. After my horribly exciting stay in the airport talking to people online and watching gigantic airplanes roll past, the rest of my trip was relatively uneventful. However landing in Madrid was a huge shock. Not that it had changed since I left. It was more that Hawaii was such a huge contrast that coming back was kinda hard to process. Jet-lag (11 hour difference) and general tiredness also didn't help the problem.
School started on the 11th and I've been slowly getting acustomed to my life back here. I have to get back in the habit of cooking for myself and then waking up early to sit on a bus to go to a job that is completely less than thrilling. Its a good thing I have all of Madrid to make up for the uninteresting job.
The first Monday of school actually became the first Tuesday of school because it snowed massivley (for Madrid). I would guess like around 4 inches of snow fell on the city center. Lots of nice fluffy white stuff. Too bad for us, we were unsure if school really was canceled, and we bused out to work anyway only to be told that there were no classes and we could go home. We threw some snowballs, had a coffee and then went back home. Next time they cancel classes in the whole area of Madrid, I'm totally going to believe the news reports and just not go to work. Our school would never bother to tell us ahead of time.
Most of January is almost done. I wonder what February will bring...
December passed without much incident. We were all antsy for school to end so we could go on break. The last weekend that all three of us roommates were home we had a mini x-mas meal. Mainly to have an excuse to make and eat a pumpkin pie. I over worked the crust and had the horrible revelation that pumpkin pies required a whole slew of spices includeing ground ginger, which I have not seen here, save maybe the American stores and I didn't want to make the trip. Thanks to the internet I found out that you can use fresh ginger in its place. I found that the only problem is that grated fresh ginger is much more chunky. But in the end it turned out ok and we had a nice little meal.
The high point of December was going "Home" for the holidays. I went back to the states, but instead of going to Oakland, I went to Mt. Vies Hawaii to spend the holidays with my whole family, new baby included (I really went just to see Nabil...) The trip took me about 48 hours to complete. Madrid to Zurich. Zurich to Los Angeles. Overnight in LA and a visit with my college friend. LA to Honolulu. Second to last flight from Honolulu to Hilo on Christmas eve. Hilo up the hill the Mt. View. Once in Mt. View I spent the next 10 days with my whole Hatayama side of the family as we ate our way through the holidays. Well, actually it was like celebrate grandma's birthday the 25 and then eat leftovers for 5 days and then celebrate New Years twice and then eat left overs for 5 days (and try not to gain too much weight). In between the eating we took Nabil, who is 5 months old, to the beach and to see the volcano. We went to a farmer's market and to the store to buy all sorts of tasty goodies. Nabil's first beach/ocean experience was epic and is well documented by all involved parties. He was confused and then he was done being conufused and he deicded that he had had enough of the experiment and started to cry. For me the beach was glorious apart from the 4 foot waves that just crashed into you with a lot of force. Being in the sun and the water was so great.
My family deserted my before New Years and I got to spend time with my Grandma and my aunt and uncle by myself. This was the first time I had ever done this and I really enjoyed getting to know them better. My grandma and I would watch old Japanese Samuri and Japanese Gangster movies at night. It nice being able to relax and eat homey food and watch cable.
The new development in Mt. View is that the Volcano Halemaumau is very active at the moment. It has been spewing steam and sometimes rocks since early November. The sulfer up at my grandma's house is really bad. When you first go outside it stings when you breathe. Its a very present reminder that the volcanoes are active and dangerous. But its also very cool to look at:)
The flights back to Madrid were more tiring than the trip over. I had a 12 hour layover in LAX where I couldn't check in until 12 hours after I landed in LAX from Hawaii because I had to book two complete seperate flights. From Europe to LA and the from LA to Hilo. Luckily LAX international terminal, or as they called the TBIT, has a lounge that you can hang out in. It cost me 50dollars for the whole day and they had wife and free snacks and beverages and nice chairs. I finally got to eat some of my most beloved Cheez-Its. YUM. After my horribly exciting stay in the airport talking to people online and watching gigantic airplanes roll past, the rest of my trip was relatively uneventful. However landing in Madrid was a huge shock. Not that it had changed since I left. It was more that Hawaii was such a huge contrast that coming back was kinda hard to process. Jet-lag (11 hour difference) and general tiredness also didn't help the problem.
School started on the 11th and I've been slowly getting acustomed to my life back here. I have to get back in the habit of cooking for myself and then waking up early to sit on a bus to go to a job that is completely less than thrilling. Its a good thing I have all of Madrid to make up for the uninteresting job.
The first Monday of school actually became the first Tuesday of school because it snowed massivley (for Madrid). I would guess like around 4 inches of snow fell on the city center. Lots of nice fluffy white stuff. Too bad for us, we were unsure if school really was canceled, and we bused out to work anyway only to be told that there were no classes and we could go home. We threw some snowballs, had a coffee and then went back home. Next time they cancel classes in the whole area of Madrid, I'm totally going to believe the news reports and just not go to work. Our school would never bother to tell us ahead of time.
Most of January is almost done. I wonder what February will bring...
Friday, December 18, 2009
Thanksgiving!
Sorry that I crapped out on my Thanksgiving news folks. Thing just kept happening.
I'll try to catch up...starting with turkey day.
Preparation started on Thursday with making pie crusts. I am working on making pate brisee. flour, butter, and a little water. I used a Martha Steward recipe to make a double crust, and a Fine Cooking Recipe for the single crust for the pecan pie.
We did Saturday because the two Americans in the house don't have time to prepare anything huge during the week. I work until 8.30 on Thursday, and Chelsea works on Friday. So on Friday I went to pick up my pre ordered turkey from the closest Market, And when I say market I don't mean the grocery market. I mean the Spanish Mercado that is a few blocks away that has fresh fruits and veggies, meats, and sea foods. I was a little worried about the size. This being my first turkey, and in Spain, I had no idea what to expect. When the man handed it to me after wrapping in about 5 plastic bags, I was surprised at how compact and little it was (5.5 kilos-i think). Earlier when I had talked to my brother and sister-in-law they told me that my turkey and my 3month old nephew were roughly the same size.
The second task at hand was how to prepare the bird. My Spanish roommate and I burned off some extra feathers and tried to deal with it's legs because they were stuck out like it was going to walk away at any minute. Dead turkey legs must be like any other dead animals legs...not in the mood to be forced in a different direction. So I had to come to terms with the fact that my turkey would not look all neat and tidy as the birds in all the pictures of roast turkey there are floating around. For the Brine I used Alton Brown's recipe from the Food Network, with a slight variation of added pepper corns, because I didn't have allspice berries, and some rosemary. After making the brine solution, the next step was finding an adequate receptacle for the bird and bird bath. the little bones at the ankles of the bird were sawed off in a very sharp manner which was bad news for the garbage bag approach and so my roommate and I emptied out a container and crossing our fingers plopped him into the largest Tupperware we had. He just fit. But there was no way he was going to be submerged. So we covered him the best we could and then my roommate put a towel to "osmosis" the brine solution to the exposed side of the bird. It was more like so the brine would capillary action to the exposed side of the birdy. We stuck him by the mini deck doors so the cold would keep him fresh. Later me moved him into the fridge. Good thing we have some medium sized spaces. Half way though the brining process, I flipped the bird over and left it over night.
Friday also the day of making pies. I also made a double batch of spinach dip, because it is always a hit. Judging from our Facebook Event we were expecting somewhere in the range of 20 people to come...slightly nerve-wracking.
Saturday came and I picked up the sage that I ordered at the fancy produce market next door. I have never seen sage with leaves the size of rabbit ears before. I also went around and picked up bread for the spinach dip.
After I ran my errands i extracted the turkey and places in into our pan...I had a stroke of genius and put the metal trivet under the turkey so that the air could circulate and it could brown nicely. We tied the legs and the tail together with some string we found in the drawer and tried to tied the wings down. I used water soaked bamboo skewers to close the holes where the head and the behind used to be and it just fit into the oven. It brought to mind when Oakland brought in a crane from China that fit under the bridge with inches of clearance. Same thing here. I think I might have been able to fit a finger between the top of the turkey and the top of the oven. The turkey cooked for 2hours and 45 minutes. I did the old 'clear juice" test since I didn't have a thermometer, so I probably slightly over cooked it. Reading all of the turkey cooking guides about bacteria and health codes and turkey temperatures probably also added to the slight over cooking. It turned out beautifully brown after a few turnings and ended up tasting alright. The first turkey I ever made was deemed a success!
People were constantly between saying that they were going to come and then saying they couldn't come and at one point we had 20 people coming , but we actually ended up only having 8 in total. After we digitally documented our work, we dug in. The food was a success and then the pies were over the top. 4 types of pies and everyone had a slice of eat. Hows that for an end to the meal? We all laid around in food comas for about half an hour.
All in all, Thanksgiving in Spain was a success with lots of things learned and more things enjoyed.
I'll try to catch up...starting with turkey day.
Preparation started on Thursday with making pie crusts. I am working on making pate brisee. flour, butter, and a little water. I used a Martha Steward recipe to make a double crust, and a Fine Cooking Recipe for the single crust for the pecan pie.
We did Saturday because the two Americans in the house don't have time to prepare anything huge during the week. I work until 8.30 on Thursday, and Chelsea works on Friday. So on Friday I went to pick up my pre ordered turkey from the closest Market, And when I say market I don't mean the grocery market. I mean the Spanish Mercado that is a few blocks away that has fresh fruits and veggies, meats, and sea foods. I was a little worried about the size. This being my first turkey, and in Spain, I had no idea what to expect. When the man handed it to me after wrapping in about 5 plastic bags, I was surprised at how compact and little it was (5.5 kilos-i think). Earlier when I had talked to my brother and sister-in-law they told me that my turkey and my 3month old nephew were roughly the same size.
The second task at hand was how to prepare the bird. My Spanish roommate and I burned off some extra feathers and tried to deal with it's legs because they were stuck out like it was going to walk away at any minute. Dead turkey legs must be like any other dead animals legs...not in the mood to be forced in a different direction. So I had to come to terms with the fact that my turkey would not look all neat and tidy as the birds in all the pictures of roast turkey there are floating around. For the Brine I used Alton Brown's recipe from the Food Network, with a slight variation of added pepper corns, because I didn't have allspice berries, and some rosemary. After making the brine solution, the next step was finding an adequate receptacle for the bird and bird bath. the little bones at the ankles of the bird were sawed off in a very sharp manner which was bad news for the garbage bag approach and so my roommate and I emptied out a container and crossing our fingers plopped him into the largest Tupperware we had. He just fit. But there was no way he was going to be submerged. So we covered him the best we could and then my roommate put a towel to "osmosis" the brine solution to the exposed side of the bird. It was more like so the brine would capillary action to the exposed side of the birdy. We stuck him by the mini deck doors so the cold would keep him fresh. Later me moved him into the fridge. Good thing we have some medium sized spaces. Half way though the brining process, I flipped the bird over and left it over night.
Friday also the day of making pies. I also made a double batch of spinach dip, because it is always a hit. Judging from our Facebook Event we were expecting somewhere in the range of 20 people to come...slightly nerve-wracking.
Saturday came and I picked up the sage that I ordered at the fancy produce market next door. I have never seen sage with leaves the size of rabbit ears before. I also went around and picked up bread for the spinach dip.
After I ran my errands i extracted the turkey and places in into our pan...I had a stroke of genius and put the metal trivet under the turkey so that the air could circulate and it could brown nicely. We tied the legs and the tail together with some string we found in the drawer and tried to tied the wings down. I used water soaked bamboo skewers to close the holes where the head and the behind used to be and it just fit into the oven. It brought to mind when Oakland brought in a crane from China that fit under the bridge with inches of clearance. Same thing here. I think I might have been able to fit a finger between the top of the turkey and the top of the oven. The turkey cooked for 2hours and 45 minutes. I did the old 'clear juice" test since I didn't have a thermometer, so I probably slightly over cooked it. Reading all of the turkey cooking guides about bacteria and health codes and turkey temperatures probably also added to the slight over cooking. It turned out beautifully brown after a few turnings and ended up tasting alright. The first turkey I ever made was deemed a success!
People were constantly between saying that they were going to come and then saying they couldn't come and at one point we had 20 people coming , but we actually ended up only having 8 in total. After we digitally documented our work, we dug in. The food was a success and then the pies were over the top. 4 types of pies and everyone had a slice of eat. Hows that for an end to the meal? We all laid around in food comas for about half an hour.
All in all, Thanksgiving in Spain was a success with lots of things learned and more things enjoyed.
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