It's a sign!

Yesterday my mother told me, out of the blue, to write stuff so that I can make money (yeah, very random). She said I must make it interesting so that other people will want to read it. If only it were so easy.

Homemade bread

I had been eager to try this famous no-knead bread that I first read about in Mark Bittman's weekly column in the NY Times, and now that I've tried it, I want to do it again! In the past, the idea of taking my frustrations out by punching dough seemed like a glamorous idea until I got tired of doing that halfway through. So I was very interested in this method where you just mix yeast, flour, and water together, let it sit for 12-18 hours, shape it, then let it rise again for 2 hours, then throw into a very hot, covered pan for less than an hour.

The results were pretty good (very crusty, with soft insides) but I think I need to practice it some more before I can say I mastered it. For one thing, I made a huge mess when I was trying to prepare the dough for the second rise. It was so sticky that I couldn't shape it at all and I think I handled it so much that it knocked some of the air out of it, leading to denser bread than I would have liked.

But overall, great bread (especially for a first try) for relatively little effort and extremely low cost. The leftovers were great toasted too. I sliced it thinly and topped it with some Japanese eggplant and minced meat from Deluxe in Ctown (courtesy of the 'rents) and it was like a fusion Asian bruschetta -- yummy!!


Needless to say, I would definitely try this recipe again and you can too:

No-Knead Bread
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1-1/2 hours plus 14 to 20 hours' rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
1/4 tsp instant yeast
1-1/4 tsp salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1-5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.
2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.
3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a a cotton towel (not terry cloth) [I used a Silpat instead] with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.
4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is OK. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.
Yield: One 1-1/2 pound loaf.
Recipe courtesy of The New York Times

Some things to keep in mind for next time -- I used a 7 qt. enamel cast iron pot, which led to a fairly flat and wide loaf. I would like to try our cast iron Dutch oven next (I think it is 5 qt. or so) so that I can get a higher loaf. Also, with the non-enamel cast iron pot, I don't have to worry about the handle being able to stand the high temperature. With the enamel pot, I had to unscrew the handle and substitute a metal cabinet door knob instead, which was a bit of a precarious situation (think scorching hot metal twirling and flapping around as you try to lift a heavy cover).

Groceries

OK, so we're probably the only New Yorkers who've never tried FreshDirect before. I have a thing about it being environmentally unsound (every little thing packed neatly in cardboard boxes with lots of packing material to protect it from damage). But with my laziness, I probably would have gone that route long ago if Dear didn't have a thing about touching the food before he buys it. I think he also enjoys food shopping, seeing all the things in person, thinking of the meal possibilities, comparing items. And checking out the weekly ads for each market (Stop N-Shop, Pathmark, Waldbaums, Key Food) is like a sport for him. Like his parents, they spend hours looking at each ad, circling items of interest (even if they have little intention of buying the item). When we were dating, he'd seem distracted on the phone and I'd ask him what he was doing. His response: I'm reading [with the unspoken implication of "I'm really reading the fine print found in the ads"]. And of course, every supermarket ad whore knows that the markets in Manhattan have different items in their circular than the ones in the outer boroughs so somehow or other his father would go to the Pathmark near his workplace to pick one up every week. This obsessive behavior leads his mother to tease his father by calling the ads "his girlfriend" since he spends so much time with these printed materials. Not that she is removed from this obsession. Every Saturday morning used to be this uninterrupted time of "relaxation" where the ads would be passed from one family member to the next. I admit, I too fell victim to this on occasion (it's a great time suck, much like surfing the 'Net) but I usually only look through the ones for stores that I know I will visit and I also prefer the more organized and pretty circulars (such as Target). (Un)fortunately, this activity has slowed a little since our building absconds all the delivered ads before tenants can get to them (they think it looks uncivilized or some snobby thing like that). So Dear has had to resort to viewing the ads online, even though "it's just not the same." I prefer this method better though since he's forced to make a list and I don't have to shuffle through all the pages to remember what to get.

Anyway, this post has totally not turned out the way I thought because I really wanted to find out options for carrying groceries (not a worry for you FreshDirect folks). We recently decided to do the environment a favor by bringing along a few canvas bags with us (plus we have overflowing bags of plastic bags and don't need anymore). I think it works out pretty well except for when we have really heavy stuff (or we forget the bags at home). It is especially a pain to get from the car to the apartment. Things can get really heavy and so we also got an old granny cart (that is one piece of equipment that badly needs a re-design) which helps a lot. Unfortunately, even this so-called heavy-duty cart can't stand up to our burdens and it's on its last wheel, so to speak. We also had this portable folding hand truck that didn't last very long:
So, short of getting delivery or a donkey (not that pets are allowed), do we have any other options? How do you transport your groceries?

The half-anniversary

I can't believe it's almost been six months since we got married. We were reminded of this because the 10% off completion certificate from where we registered (Crate & Barrel, which mostly sucks for gift registries) expires at the 6-month mark. Well 6 months more or less because for some reason they decided to make the certificate expire 2 days before the full 6 months. So we went to C&B this past weekend and to our surprise, they let us return something we got for cash instead of giving us a gift card. We opted for the check since we still wouldn't have been able to get the item we really wanted, even with all the other gift cards we got. So C&B doesn't suck that much....

Frying fries

One big cooking production that I don't mind as much is making fries from scratch. A few weeks ago, we needed to use up the big bag of potatoes we bought and that were beginning to sprout, so I peeled them all (skinning a knuckle and fingernail in the process), Dear cut them into strips, and we fried everything in a cast iron pot.

Cut potatoes, draining before the fry

Potatoes in the oil, with a splatter screen over them to help with cleanup afterwards.

After the first fry, potatoes we put them on racks to drain the oil.

When fries drained, we transferred them to a bowl to cool down.

Fries, after the second fry

We fried the fries a second time to give them crispness (first fry was to cook the potatoes through). Then we sprinkled garlic salt over them -- so good! My mouth waters to think about it now.

Complete meal: fries, steak, and corn

Creativity overload

From the intranet's daily quote:
My future starts when I wake up every morning... Every day I find something creative to do with my life. — Miles Davis

And so, I'm looking for creative stuff to do. I am thinking of taking a woodworking class. I am also hoping to write more. And ideas for the apartment keep jamming my brain. Things I want to work on:
- storage in bathroom
- closet organization in the bedroom
- entryway

This past week I've done nothing but paint. I'm not thrilled with how the last wall came out (hence no pictures) though the trim in the foyer was surprisingly fast. That area is still a mess though. I am hoping to clean it up in the coming week and maybe another area will be considered 'done.'

Orange + food

Colors for the dining area charette bin (no, I still can't decide):

Matt's chef table from tonight's episode of "Top Design"

(Photo from This Old House)

(Photo from IKEA)

I miss Brooklyn

I was struck with Brooklyn-longing today after being reminded that it is the week to Dine In Brooklyn, Brooklyn's restaurant week. It shows that there are enough good restaurants in Brooklyn to garner enough publicity that they can do this for 4 years running. *sigh* When will there be this breadth of options in Queens? Or when will someone tell me about the secret dining options in Queens so that I can actually be able to go somewhere to eat a good meal besides having Chinese food in Flushing?

Saving coupon$

It has been a glorious day of relaxation, minor organization, and just general vegging out. I could really get used to this life of houswifery and I can totally see why people become hermits (with the heat at a comfortable temp., sun streaming in through the windows -- why would you ever want to leave the apartment?).

But not everything has been sloth and play. I've been looking for a way to use up the hundreds of paint chips that I've gathered and I thought I'd make a coupon organizer. Yes, I love to clip coupons but I love even more to use the coupons! But I've never had a good system for organizing the coupons and I end up frantically searching for the one that I need while waiting on line at the market. So I created something, which still has some kinks in it, but should do for now:

OUTSIDE of coupon holder

INSIDE of coupon holder

I want to say that I had a lot of forethought and designated appropriate colors for each section, such as cool blues for "frozen foods" but I really didn't.

Gulp, tomorrow is my first day at the new job!

Today I finally finished the second coat of paint in the alcove. Just when I thought I was done painting that area and we could move some furniture over, I realize that the moulding also needs to be painted. GRRRRR!! Who, in their right minds, would ever paint trim to be any other color other than white or off-white?! If the previous tenant had left it white-ish like she did with the living room, I'd be done by now!!
And for moulding, you have to really clean up/sand all the little nooks, otherwise the paint pools up in all those little details (as it already has) and it loses its profile. So not looking forward to this part. :(

[SIDENOTE: If you are interested, that unique-looking ladder was made by Dear's grandfather -- isn't that cool? It's a bit heavy, but I am proud to be able to use something he has made with his own hands, without the help of power tools. I've heard he was really good with his hands and I would have liked to meet him.]

Progress on alcove, or how to remove wallpaper

I took Wednesday off and actually got some work on the apartment done. I am so unmotivated now, it is a struggle which I can't stand more, the mess of things unfinished or the labor involved to finish. Right now, I'm "working" on the little alcove area next to the living room. I dread even thinking about painting the hallway and doors (more funky colors to cover up!).

On Wednesday, I had some help with the sanding (which I detest more than the painting) and then I painted the first coat. Now I have just one coat left (after another light sanding of course, grrr)! Here is the progression:

BEFORE: flowery, paisley-like wallpaper and yes, the baseboard moulding really was painted yellow and green.

A few moons ago, I tested a small area to see whether fabric softener really would loosen the paper and it did! Then I stopped working in this area to finish the bedroom, which we would need so that we could sleep comfortably.

Here's another view of this area, where you can see the confluence of colors that the previous tenant lived with. I am too embarassed to show the other side right now, where there are even more colors.

So the first order of business, after struggling to remove the somewhat plasticky paper was to score it. I got this round thingy with rolling wheels underneath that pierced the paper with lots of little holes without damaging the wall behind the paper. Then I sprayed a whole lot of fabric softener, letting it soak in.

And the sheets became easy to pull down. I think the tiny holes really helped.

Sometimes a few bits and pieces were left behind because I didn't let that area fully soak. I just re-sprayed, waited a few minutes, and then scraped with a scraper.

Dear helped by removing the picture hooks with a pair of pliers.

The last piece!

The holes in the wall, patched up and sanded.

After all the wallpaper was removed, I washed all the walls with TSP, a blue liquid that really cleans your walls and leaves it feeling slightly rough, ready to primed. I thought it necessary to use TSP to make sure all the glue from the paper was completely gone. After washing with TSP, it is necessary to rinse it off thoroughly.

The walls finally primed!

I took the extra step of priming with an oil-based primer so that if there were any glue residue (wallpaper glue is water-based) the oil would block it (since oil and water don't mix).

On a sidenote, I think it will be OK to keep the light fixture here (just need to straighten it out a little). At first, with the busy twirls of the wallpaper matching the curves on the fixture, I thought it was just too much going on in such a small space. Now, I think the curves are a good complement to the plain walls.

Today, I proceeded to lightly sand the walls and then apply the second coat. Unfortunately, I ran out of paint so I only finished a wall. When will this ever be done? I can't wait to roll up the dropcloth in this area because we keep tripping on it and it is so ugly!

Two Asian-inspired dinners

This past week I cooked two full meals (perhaps my first in the apartment, if you don't count scrambled eggs or pouring a bowl of cereal for breakfast). First I made a coconut shrimp soup off the "Everyday Food" site. I left out the red pepper flakes because I can't take the heat and used whatever noodles I found in the pantry since we don't have angel hair pasta and I figured Asian noodles would fit in better with all the Asian flavors happening anyway. I also forgot to get cornstarch so it was a bit loose but I think it turned out fine.

I was hesitant about adding all the ginger and garlic (not that there is much) b/c when I cooked with those aromatics in the past those flavors would be so overwhelming to me. However, this time I microplaned the ginger (instead of mincing with a knife, which would result in chunks due to my lack of knife skills) and it melted into the soup without being overwhelming at all. In fact, it provided just enough ginger flavor that was offset by the sweet carrots and rich coconut milk.

The recipe is quite simple and with practice I think I can get it down to less than one hour before dinner is ready and served. Since it was a recipe for 4 servings, I didn't add in all the shrimp (plus I got real tired of peeling all of them!) and I put in just enough noodles for one meal. I figured that I could just add in fresh shrimp and noodles for a meal later in the week. Unfortunately, I foolishly put the rest of the shrimp in the freezer and it was too late to defrost in time for the next dinner. So I had to resort to my old stir fry.

I was turned off to stir fry because I was/am just so bored by it but this time I had no choice. However, with the powerburner that we have on the stove plus the professional Chinese wok that Dear picked up from a restaurant supply store, I think it came out OK. (I am half-kidding about the wok b/c I think it is the heat that makes all the difference) I microplaned the ginger again but slightly overcooked the pork. The Chinese broccoli came out just right though (that vegetable is really growing on me -- I love the crisp stems). Thankfully this was just a meal for me (gotta finish it before Dear returns from his business trip, lest I be embarassed!).

So for future reference, here's the recipe for the shrimp soup:

Coconut Shrimp Soup
Serving: Serves 4

Ingredients
* 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
* 1 Tablespoon grated fresh ginger
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* 1/4 to 1/2 Teaspoon red-pepper flakes
* 1 Pound (6 to 8 medium) carrots, peeled, halved lengthwise, and thinly sliced
* 1 can (13.5 ounces) coconut milk
* 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
* 4 Ounces angel hair pasta
* 1 1/2 Pounds large shrimp, peeled, deveined, and tails removed
* 1/4 Cup freshly squeezed lime juice
* Coarse salt
* 4 scallions, thinly sliced

Directions

1. Heat oil in a large (3-quart) saucepan over medium-low heat. Add ginger, garlic, and pepper flakes; cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add carrots, coconut milk, and 3 cups water. In a small bowl, mix cornstarch and 2 tablespoons water until smooth; add to pot. Bring to a boil.
2. Break pasta in half; add to pot. Return to a boil, reduce heat to medium, and simmer until pasta is al dente and carrots are just tender, 3 to 4 minutes.
3. Add shrimp; stir until opaque, about 1 minute. Remove pot from heat, and stir in lime juice; season with salt. Ladle into serving bowls, and garnish with scallions.

Eating out vs. in

Today Dear posed the question of whether or not it's worth it to eat in. My argument is that it's definitely cheaper but is it really? With the time it takes to cook and then clean up* afterwards, we're finally able to relax around 10-11ish pm, which means that if you want to get anything done, you've got at most, an hour before you should really go to bed (provided that you get 7-8 hours sleep). Either we're doing something wrong (too elaborate of a meal or too stringent cleaning standards) or there's a better way. Or maybe I require too much sleep?! What are we doing wrong?!

*Note that the dishwasher is the greatest thing known to man because I can't imagine if I had to wash ALL those other dishes, what time I'd be able to go to bed. Prior to this year, I've always washed dishes by hand (my parents have never owned a dishwasher). I sometimes find washing dishes soothing (though I've always hated cleaning big pots and pans) but after having to clean up after Dear cooks (he actually sets up a mise en place most of the time), I've come to see it as more of a chore. :(

Bedroom floor

I know it's going to be anti-climactic to post about the floor before the walls, but I can't find the pictures of the walls before they were painted. So here's a rundown of part B of our very first apartment project (part A being the walls):
BEFORE: the ugly, dark green carpet after wallpaper removal (hence the scraps of paper on the edges) and after painting (hence the dropcloth).

Big blob of paint that I spilled.

I cut/tore the carpet up in strips with a utility knife to reveal a pretty hefty carpet pad beneath. I then tied the carpet up with twine pilfered from Ikea. :P Interesting to see the wear pattern from the previous owner on the carpet pad (mostly leading from entrance to around the bed).

Another view of the room (from windows towards closets).

Close-up of the roll of carpet. Notice how I tied it like it was a pork loin, which gave it some nice handles to carry down to the dumping area.

I then proceeded to rip up the carpet pad using the same process as for the carpet. This time I had to be more careful so as to not damage the wood floors underneath.

Floor (mostly) revealed!

Voila! I love how the floors are warm and honey-colored, without too much shine. I am hoping that my preference for non-shiny floors will not lead to extensive damage to the wood, especially after seeing the wear from the previous tenant.

Rolled up carpet and padding

In the next two pictures you can see the pad remnants stuck to the staples. I didn't mind the little pieces because they helped me see where the staples were when I was removing them. I pulled up each individual one with needle-nose pliers while wearing only flip flops (my choice of footwear is not recommended!). It was kinda fun and went by pretty quickly.
You can see the thickness of the high quality pad that the previous tenant had used. Though the thick padding is easy on the feet and absorbs noise pretty well (we had to get used to the creaks afterwards), it made opening and closing the doors quite difficult. It also covered up about half the baseboard moulding which made the moulding look really dinky.

I repeated all the steps above (except for the pad removal) inside the closet as well. While inside the closet, I noticed the smell of old cigarettes, which grossed me out. I eventually washed the walls with TSP, which works miracles, and got rid of the smell completely. It also made the walls feel really clean. When all the painting is done in the main areas and we've moved in a lot of our other furniture, I would eventually like to redesign the closets to make for more efficient use of that space.

Anyway, we were in a rush to finish the bedroom because we had scheduled the bed to be delivered that week. I took a day off from work for the delivery of our sofa and chair and finished painting the last coat on the last wall, just as the furniture was delivered. I then was able to finish the floors as a surprise for Dear, who returned that night from a business trip.

Undoubtedly, the floors have been my favorite project so far. Satisfying results in a relatively quick timeframe. And destruction is always more fun than construction. :)

Browns and oranges

Dear always makes fun of me for being indecisive about color choices. He thinks that I test him by making him choose amongst several colors, then showing him another bunch of colors with his first choice mixed in to see if he picks the same exact one. I swear that they are all different colors but in looking at my last post, I can see why some would view me as crazy. Some of those colors look exactly the same!

So here are the colors, matched as closely as possible to web colors through colorcharts.org:

Which color do you like?

The living/dining room's slow transformation

The original wall color -- an old-ladyish dusty rose

At this point the walls were slightly roughed up with 150 grit sandpaper so there was dark pink dust everywhere -- eegh!

View of other end of room, with walls primed

First coat of paint (yes, there's really color there)

The color came out a lot lighter and more yellow than I expected. Everyone kept saying that you should find a color you like, then move up one shade lighter on the color chip thingy because it comes out darker in real life. Well phooey on them because I would have preferred something darker and if you hold the chip up against the wall, it blends in perfectly. It's just hard to gauge how it will look until the entire space is covered. And every little thing affects it, from lighting to furniture, etc. but I'm OK with it (for now). One thing the majority was right about is testing out colors in the room, at various times of day, on a white background. I didn't really have a white background to work with and the color ended up being less beige and more like cream.

Second coat, with potential accent wall left unpainted

I think it's a bit easier to see the color next to the currently white wall. Or maybe it's that the second coat of paint really did make a difference. Speaking of second coats, this color is so light that it was really difficult to see where I had already painted. Such are the perils of painting....

Choosing (or trying to) a color for the accent wall

If it's not already obvious, I have no idea what I'm doing, if this is even the right wall to accent, whether or not any of the color choices clash with the existing window treatment (b/c we're not likely changing those custom-made blinds), and whether these colors will clash with the furniture or other stuff. The idea is to put the dining table in front of this wall and I was thinking of a warm color to cozy up this side of the room and I had also read that warm colors make you feel welcome and induce you to eat more (i.e. feel more comfortable). That said, can you help me choose a color?!

The previous tenant

This past weekend, we finally discovered that there is another laundry room on our side of the building (don't get me started on our laundry woes -- I'll have to expound on them some other time). When the doorman was showing it to us, it was fascinating to see rows of doors that once were (maybe still are) apartments but are now considered illegal because they are in the basement. The doors were right next to each other, with a little mailbox next to each one, so I can't imagine there being much room inside each. Back when the rooms/apts were occupied, it must've been like tenement living, complete with the bathroom down the hall. Even more interesting was some of the gossip/history that the doorman, and later the super too, dished out.

SOME HISTORY
We bought the apartment from a recently widowed woman who had somewhat of an eccentric taste, and you could tell she was very particular about lots of things. She was also high-strung and extremely talkative and she always had nothing but praises for both the super and the doorman. However, they apparently disliked her and her husband b/c they were "crazy." Both the super and the doorman said they would be annoyed by her and were so happy when she moved out. We knew she was particular, but I didn't know that she threw a fit when there was a minor leak in the kitchen and some of her cabinets got wet -- the management company ended up giving her $20,000 to fix everything. She also gave the super her new, expensive microwave/convection oven b/c it was the wrong color.

But the doorman and super weren't the only people that were annoyed by her. The woman was in a rush to sell so that she could move elsewhere. We were surprised that once our offer was accepted we had the board interview within a few days. Normally it takes weeks, even months, but she so annoyed the management company (I think she called them everyday) that everything moved along very quickly.

HER LIES
The woman told us numerous times that her strong and healthy husband died suddenly from cancer that had already metastatized throughout his body; doctors discovered it one day when his blood tests came back suspicious but they had no clue otherwise. She didn't mention that he used to smoke packs of cigarettes in one day. They also had the vice of tipping back the bottle one too many times, as the super would find jugs and bottles of wine and liquor in the recyclables bin.

I was also under the impression that she and her husband were very much in love (she recalled stories of how they met back in high school and she broke down crying at the closing when she saw his signature) however they were also on the verge of divorce before he suddenly died. The super told us the story of how her husband once went crazy looking for her but he didn't have the keys to the apartment so he wanted the super to break down the door. Instead, the super climbed onto the fire escape and saw her inside the apartment, going about her business -- she was mad at her husband for something and had locked him out. I also found it a bit odd that as a grandmother, she never once mentioned her granddaughter. She did seem quite fond of her only daughter though. Turns out that her daughter blamed her for her father's death.

It's so fascinating to see the other side of things, another perspective, how things are never as they seem. But in this case, it's also sad. I feel sorry for this woman, who built up defense mechanisms (like denial) b/c everyone secretly (maybe not all so secretly) dislikes her. And everyone dislikes her probably b/c she is anal retentive about everything. I want to know what happened that was so bad in her marriage that they would want a divorce after growing old together (he was a lawyer, she worked from home -- was there an affair going on somewhere? Was it mutual -- she still seemed to love him?) I want to know what happened with her daughter that they would practically hate each other. And in her moving to another state, was it just grief that she was running from? Things are never as they seem. What other stories are people hiding?

Valentine's dinner redux

There are many things wrong with the above picture (why is there a spoon instead of a fork, why so much rice, hardly any presentation to the food, messy 'table') but the taste was anything but wrong. Add to the things that are wrong with the picture the fact that it is actually mostly leftovers that I heated up for myself when Dear was working late the other day, but it was still some good eating.

As I blogged about previously, Dear made me bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin and scallops for that pagan holiday and while the second iteration of it in the convection oven wasn't as good, I was able to snap a picture for remembrance's sake.

Good bye bigfatchinesewedding

I've "graduated" from engaged-and-wedding-planning to newlywed-and-living status. Gone are the days of frantic research on vendors for that one BIG day of your life, hello to the world of making your home by finding ways to beautify it, all while trying to manage your time, money, and energy amongst work and play.

It ain't easy

This homemaking stuff is hard! I don't know how people manage to work, cook, clean, eat, sleep, and still manage to have some leisure time. Because right now, I do at least 2 of those aforementioned activities on the subway (sleep, read somewhat leisurely, and sometimes eat). Thankfully, Dear is there to do most of the cooking while I labor away at the apartment. It's moving along very slowly and it's obvious that things won't be ready in time for Chinese New Year. :( I now see why people need to hire maids to help clean, or nannies to take care of their children.

SIDENOTE: I remember a while ago, not having much to do (I was screaming boredom at the humdrum-ness of my life), and then all of a sudden, I had a wedding to plan, and now an apartment to make home, and no time to relax. Where was the busy-ness back then?!

Latest memorable meals: shrimp and pasta in a lemon and butter sauce and for V-day (aka pagan holiday) bacon-wrapped pork tenderloins and scallops. The pork, as the name suggests, is very tender and wrapping the bacon (my favorite all-time food!) made it taste like a big hunk o' tender bacon. I was in bacon heaven!