Whine Wine Why-n

Whoa, thanks for all the comments. Yes, the new job started has been an ongoing event - apparently they don't pay unless you go there everday. Who makes up these rules?

It's been a very fast couple of days. I'm basically responsible for internal operations of a website company. Sounds interesting? It did to me, that's why I got the job. In the interview, they told me the training period would last anywhere from 1-3 months - the work is complicated and requires lots of attention, learning, re-learning for it to be done accurately. In other words, press a wrong key and you're fired! Talk about stressful... not yet.

The supervisor who is supposed to train me is leaving next week. Yay! Other than that there's only one other person who knows about the system and he's been working there for only 2 months. He doesn't know some of the key developmental tools that are required in the day-to-day transactions. Yay again! Now, the supervisor is being replaced... with someone who doesn't know the system at all.

My challenge is, should my brain chooses to accept, to learn everything by next week as opposed to 3 months later. A challenge indeed. My head is about to explode...

Signing off to wine myself now, hope everyone is doing ok!

Boot Camp

I'm starting work tomorrow - full time! Yes, I am very excited and I've had a lovely time taking a break from life for the past year. It's been lots of fun renovating, playing in the garden, painting, going to the beach and staying up as late as one can do on weekdays. Merciless pleasure pimping at home with wreckless cooking and wining with neighbours. Sigh, the joys of life.

I have spent this on my "favourite things". Hooked up with friends, had lots of wine, food and laughter. Right now, I am getting ready to organize my wardrobe, study up before the big day and go to bed at a reasonable hour to wake up in the darling cold that Canada is experiencing at the moment.

This week will probably zip by very quickly, with moments of horror and terror scheduled in at work. Change is good! I'm definitely looking forward to the piece of paper that shows a payable lumpsum to my name (most of which will be spent on food and clothing....)

I'm wishing all of you a good week and will post to give the scoop on the job thing. Have chores to do now! (what a concept!)

Desperate Housewives

This is too funny! I recently saw this name decoder at Christina's (Mausi) website. Although I usually do not get into these "here put this on your blog" type of things (they are totally amusing to look at on other people's sites tho) I thought I would give it a try. The result was phenomenal... Meet your totally needy, open and inviting blog writer:



Oh boy, talk about a bad reputation... The picture goes very well with the "yearning" part too.
Well, it's now 10:30pm. I suppose there's a long night of drinking and affection-seeking ahead of me. Hmm....

Retard

Retard as in the french word for "sorry suckers, we know you paid good money for this plane ticket but we're going to make you sit here for another few hours. honestly, we don't care if you're hungry or travelling with kids, but we messed up the schedule and you should deal with it" -- otherwise known as "delayed" is what I have been in posting a new comment. Good to be here.

Some exciting news in Big City... The dinner party was a success. I don't think the entertainees were expecting so much food; it caught their stomachs off guard. It might be a good idea to tone down the variety for the next time but I hate cooking a 3-course meal. When I cook a lot, at least the leftovers end up seeing us through for the next couple days. (On that note, I still had to make some barley soup and rice on Sunday.)

Exciting news... Mister's new nephew came home on Sunday! Yay, poor kid must be going through ample shock and disturbance at the moment but I'm sure he'll be comforted with all the love he gets from everyone. So far he's far too small, loud for his size and clueless.

I have pictures, somewhere, in my digital camera. The food pics along with recipes will come as soon as there is a remote possibility of sorting out my life. (Not enough sunshine these days, makes me very "retard"-ed)

:) Enjoy!

Dinner Planner

For the past year or so I have gone through a phase of "dropping" friends. This doesn't sound too nice nor provides any endorsement for my reliability as a friend. But first of all, I have to correct myself by mentioning that individuals who have been dropped are more acquintances. Yes, we hung out at one point but they never put any effort in building a relationship based on trust, support and sharing. The type of people I wish to have around me should enrich my life as I enrich theirs. While I never would burn bridges or release an official statement declaring I dropped them (lol, can you imagine?), it is in everyone's best interest to move on.

So, I did. And I've been making totally cool and groovy friends as of late. Two of them will be coming over for dinner tomorrow. As they are vegetarians (Sal you've got some good recipes coming your way) I planned an authentic Mediterranean-style menu to expose them to something a little bit different. Here's the menu:

a) Mixed Green Salad with Pickled Beets
b) Artichoke Salad
c) Bulgour Paste with Fresh Veggies
d) Layered and Slow cooked baby eggplants
e) Popovers ( There's nothing Mediterranean about this! But I love them and haven't had them in six months... I'm the chef, who cares apart from the fact that I will destroyed my own menu)
f) Dessert: I hate making desserts. Although I am capable of creating maniacally labour-intensive works of weirdness... I hate sweet things. Savoury is my thing, so baking is just a chore.)

I'm wondering whether this is enough now... Maybe one more simple savoury item would complete the menu. We'll see!

Goldfinger

Long time no communication. These past few days have been quite busy. Between arranging the start of my new job, mental prep, getting used to a new (and better) sleep pattern I feel like smashed potatoes, with butter ;)

Today, I'm giving you a recipe that is one of my all time favourites. Although named "Popovers", it's basically a gourmet version of what British call "Yorkshire Pudding" (with less grease.) They are simply fantastic. Since they're bread-like, you can serve them with some olive-oil and aged balsamic vinegar or simply offer it to complement the main dish. Or just eat them fresh from the oven, they truly hit the right spots of your tongue.
There's a million ways to prepare this recipe, so you should experiment with different spices and tastes to adjust it to your liking. Just follow the basic guideline below:

3 tbs butter
6 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon thyme leaves (fresh)
1 teaspoon rosemary leaves (fresh)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic power or minced fresh garlic
2 1/4 cups milk

Basically mix everything together. The batter will be fairly liquid. Use a muffin tray and fill each slot 2/3 full with the batter. Bake at 400F for 20-25 minutes, until golden! Bon apetit!
Recommendation: Serve this with goat cheese, relish, olives, fresh tomatoes and basil!

Now that I've spent all this time writing this recipe, my stomach is directing me to go into the kitchen. It's time to batter things up!

Olives and Moods

Dark sunday in Big City. As the weather forecast points to a massive quantity of snow for the upcoming days, I'll be busy creating fresh and uplifting dishes to brighten up spirits. This is my way of dealing with the lack of sunlight! Colourful vegetables, citrusy smells, fruity wines and lots of entertaining to bring everyone together.

There's a couple yummy recipes prepared for today. First one is yet another salad, but it's very quick to assemble.

Prosciutto Pear Salad

• Enough mixed Greens to fill you salad bowl
  
• 10-15 thin slices of Prosciutto (this is a dry-cured ham, originally from Italy)
• 1 pear, sliced thinly
• Cherry tomatoes, halved
• Parmesan cheese, quantity left to your liking
  
• Fresh cracked black pepper
• Balsamic vinegar, Olive Oil

For the maximum effect, I suggest you place Prosciutto on mixed greens, surrounded with cherry tomatoes. Then sprinkle your parmesan cheese. It looks like there's snow on your salad! You can add the dressing before serving. This salad is a total crowd pleaser: It looks amazing and tastes orgasmic! As an option, you could also add bbq'ed chestnuts here...!

Mediterranean Style Baby Bok Choy

• 3 heads of Baby Bok Choy
• 2 Cups of mushrooms, sliced (Skiitake preferred, but anything goes really...)
• 1/2 cup olives, pitted, sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1tsp oregano
• 1 tsp paprika
• Dash of salt and black pepper

Simply saute your vegetables with olive oil. When they are near done, add in olives and spices. Cook for 2 more minutes, enough to warm the olives. DONE!

I hope to you'll like these. Cooking is a definite passion for me. I'm always trying to figure out new ways to cook things, bring some excitement to everyday food and share tasty delights with friends. If you have any questions, comments, or have specific food-needs, please fire a comment/e-mail and I'll be happy to provide you with a recipe! Now, I have to clean the house a bit. Yay! Here comes the highlight of my day... :)

Salad and Technical Difficulties

I wasn't able to log into my blog today, let alone posting an entry. Finally, technical difficulties seem to have subsided and I am back with a new fresh look! (Finally got a profile picture - it's one of my favourite paintings in the world!)

Next item on the agenda is actually a recipe for Mr. Sal DeTraglia - a fellow blogger whose musings amuse me quite a bit. I found out he's quite fond of Thai Salads, so I thought it would be a good idea to share my version of the dish. You can visit his place via the link provided on the right side of the screen or just go to Sal DeTraglia's Virtual Tapas Bar. So, I hope you all like this recipe - it's really refreshing and satisfying.

Thai Mango Salad

• 1 medium English cucumber, peeled
• 2 mangoes, peeled and pit removed
• 1 cup grated carrot
  
• 1 red Thai chile - sliced in rings (remove the seeds if you want to taste the salad!)
  
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh mint
  
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tbsp freshly grated ginger
  
• 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
  
• 1 tsp fish sauce (did you know that fish sauce is just anchovy extract?)
  
• large pinch of sugar
  
• 2 tbsp black sesame seeds, for garnish (you can toast some sesame seeds too)
• Optional: 1/2 tbs of crushed corriander + 1/2 tbs of crushed pink peppercorns

This a basic guideline I use for my Thai salads. You can add/remove or adjust amounts. I find the cucumber works really well in here - but it has to be English cucumbers. In North America, there is another type of cucumber, called "Field Cucumbers." (What's the cucumber situation in the rest of the world?) The texture for that is a bit more waxy and tasteless. I stay away from it. You can also add some mixed greens or Thai Basil in here. Experimenting is always fun! Bon apetit!

Big City Gems

A friend of mine came over today. She's sick of the Big City corporate rat race by now. Although she's been living here for quite some time, every now and then her yearning for her homeland grows outside the ability to visit for just two weeks. She quits her job and makes her way down there to chill for a couple months. See some friends, visit some family, work on the side for pocketmoney... She's a pretty cool independent spirit who has become unknowingly guarded hopping countries and continents.

As we were walking around today, we bumped into a former colleague of hers. The man, Zoolander we'll name him, is one of most prominent concept store designers in Big City.

We ended up touring one of his most recent projects: a concept bar designed in incredible psychadelic undertones in a small Victorian-style storefront with a patio that is reflective of the vibe. Despite the abys of the place right now, listening to his vision was amazingly inspiring. You just never know what you will find on the street. (Actually, a man was receiving oral favours from a prostitute, parked down the street from our house a couple nights ago. That's something else you can find on the street I suppose.)

On that note, welcome to the neighbourhood I live in! There are two shady "pubs" around the corner. The clientele is near the cast of a very trashy Western movie: teeth missing, smoke in one hand, beer in the other. It's fairly obvious some illegal substance transactions go among the regulars as well. In front of those bars, you can probably find some "women of questionable morals" (I won't use the "p" word again) most days of the week. And if you're really lucky, you'll see a 16 year-old kid, fresh with his driver's licence, trying to pick a lady! Unexperienced youngsters tend to be very nervous; hence very obvious in what they're doing.

"No dear, you simply cannot back the car against the flow of the traffic because you didn't get a good look at the second one."

Not that I've done this before, but the whole thing requires a certain level of discretion. (You don't want the whole world to know you're THAT desperate.) What's that noise I hear? Oh, it's the neighbour trying to back his trailer into the kitchen again - he says it's easier to get beer that way. Lord help us all!

Ceteris Paribus

Have I explained why my blog is called Ceteris Paribus? This is actually a term in economics, latin for "Everything else remaining equal or held constant."

When economists build models to explain the real world, they propose theories that help explain isolated issues. But of course, no one issue is standalone - it's always affected by something else.
e.g. Stock prices don't necessarily depend on the performance of a company. Political and social situations play a great role; like burger chains - they lost a fair bit of money because everyone is eating healthy these days.

Of course in the real world, it's impossible to hold things constant. Everything is transient and we're not in a position to change that at all. Because my blog is always here and changes according to my needs and wishes... (and doesn't talk back to me) - it's Ceteris Paribus: It's the only aspect of my life that is held constant or controlled at desirable portions.

Flat Faced Happy News

If you haven't seen happiness materialize in your life for some time, how would you react if happiness came to your doorstep and gave you a big kiss on the mouth?

That's sort of what I'm figuring out today. My life in Big City Canada has been like flat Coca-Cola (sorry for the product placement): sweet yet dull. Part of the reason is that I got tangled up in the immigration process & the government cancelled my work visa right after graduating university . Then the ensuing mess of finding a job. It got all a bit too complicated! I will start writing about my job hunt adventures pretty soon and I have to say it's all too funny now that I look back on it. At the end of these processes,

1) I have become akin to an immigration consultant for Canada
2) Got some detailed scoop on finding a job in the big city

So, the point of this whole thing is? (Jezzz woman, make a point will ya?) I got a job offer! I guess it's a happy thing. Yes, it is, right? Puzzled beyond belief here. Hmm... Anywayz. The company is good, timing is good, people who work for the company are good. So good things do happen to people? I suppose. Someone please throw something heavy my way, maybe it'll make it easier for me to comprehend it all. Yay! I guess I'll be employed soon!
Note: there's still contract negotiations and all that fun stuff but... i'd say it's pretty much a done deal. :))))