My New Project

When we moved into our new bigger home, we didn't have the furniture to fill the spaces we had just acquired.  We figured this was ok and would sort itself out eventually.  In the meantime, we used camp chairs in the main level living room so I could watch "Say Yes to The Dress" while Rob kills zombies and plays in trenches.  This was ok for a little while, but the camp chairs are only so comfortable and not any kind of style we would like to portray, so "finding new seating" moved up the list a bit. 

We had a disastrous attempt at finding something we both liked in IKEA.  I didn't want to spend a lot of money because there's a 98% likelihood that my cats will take their claws to it sometime in the future.  IKEA seemed like the logical place to go looking.  Craigslist was another option, but you either have to be looking daily OR be lucky.  Today I was lucky.

The advertisement didn't try to do a hard sell on the chairs, but offered up "Pink Wingback Chairs $10".  I thought hey, how bad could it be?  I couldn't tell from the pictures if it was bad lighting or dirt, but overall they looked ok.  Since our living room is more for social gatherings and me sitting to watch the occasional show, they need not be huge comfty sofas.  We have those downstairs.  I actually had a vision of the living room having two wingback chairs and a loveseat with a coffee table.  So when I saw this post I figured, why not ask if they were still available?  For $10, it was worth asking.

Sometime around noon today, I got a reply that yes they were and were all mine for $10.  WOHOO!  So we managed to get over there and pick them up tonight.

As if I need another project to add to the "To Do" list, but these seemed like too good of a deal to pass up.  The grand plan (as if I really have one) is to make slip covers and put a new cushion in the seat.  Have I ever done this before?  No, of course not, but would I let a little thing like that stop me?  I have a sewing machine and I can measure pretty darn good, so I think this will be like working out a puzzle.  I am going to put that craft room to good use!

Unblocking

I have been considering lately to unblock the blog.  I dislike that I even had to block it in the first place and that was out of protection from the crazier people who know me.  But I love sharing with people (unblocked) all the wonderful random thoughts and projects that are going on.  I don't even know how many people really still check this since it requires a log on now.  If I have hindered readership, then who am I really doing this for?  I mean I still like it, but it would be nice to know that others are enjoying it in one way or another as well.  I guess I'll try to make a decision soon and see what happens. 

Harry Potter

I went to see the final Harry Potter film this past weekend along with millions of other viewers.  I hate that I couldn't go opening day (the forces of exhaustion were against us), but at least I made it for opening weekend.  There have been many many reviews and raves about this movie and I am with them, mostly.

This is probably the only book (series) I truly really loved that I would see on the big screen.  For one, it's kind of hard to ignore all these movies and commercialization of the franchise.  But more than that, they were really working with the author for how how the movies should take shape.  This is not to say I haven't been disappointed in the choices they have made along the way, but I respect that the author at least approves of the substitutes and the vision of her story.

I can remember the very first movie when it came out.  I went to see it with Andrea and Tyler in between the finals at RIT.  It was November 2001, almost 10 years ago.  We were there for the 11am showing (the first one of the day, no midnight showings for the first one in our area).  We were there with bus loads of kids from the area schools, but it was magic on the screen.  I remember just being entranced by the movie and hoping there would be many more to follow.  My wishes were granted.

My love of Harry Potter started the year before at Christmas when I participated in a White Elephant exchange where someone brought the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for the exchange.  It went around like hot cakes and everyone was fighting over it.  I didn't end up with it, but I said, I need to get a copy.  That year, I took my bookstore gift card from my grandfather and went and picked up a copy.  I ate it up and wanted more.  I read all the way through the fourth book and was really disappointed when the fifth book was going to be a two year wait (from when I started reading)!  But that's ok, the movie would fill the void.

That summer, 2001, was when I think Harry Potter went big time.  The fourth book had gained quite a lot of momentum on it's own with the message from JK Rowling that one of the characters died, but then they were making a movie to be released in the fall about the first book.  Everyone wanted to know, well if this is a 7 book series, will they have a movie for them all?!  And the answer now is obviously yes.  As the books came out and they got longer, it was harder to condense it to the normal 2ish hour movie, but they did well.  The fourth book (first in the larger book sizes) was the first where I noticed the cuts they made.  Sure they can't really take up screen time to show how Hermonie made scarves to free the elves, but it would have been "nice".

Well here we are at the final Harry Potter film.  As I watched the story unfold in front of me on the big screen I couldn't help but feel a little sad.  I mean, after all, this had captured my attention for 10 years.  I have re-read the series more times than I care to admit (all books have been read at least 4 times, some more) and I have started the holiday tradition of watching the movies while I decorate for the holidays (as the first movies came out in the fall).  There were a lot of emotional parts to the movie and I will admit, I cried my eyes out when he went into the Dark Forest.  It really captured the emotions that I had when I read the book, but they didn't follow the story as well as they had in other movies.

I will tell you that I did re-read the last Harry Potter Book before going to see this movie.  This may have been a mistake, however, even if I had not done so, there are things I would have noticed anyway.  I understand most of the reasoning from a cinematic perspective, but that doesn't mean I agree with it.  I wish they had shown the events from when the enter the Room of Requirement until the end more true to the story as it was written.  There were a lot of "shortcuts" taken, which again I understand, but did not care for.  The way they get to the Gray Lady, how they handle the students in the castle, where Snape dies, the Kings Crossing scene (they leave a LOT of back story out, but they never explained it before either, so it made no sense to add it in now), the duel between Molly and Bellatrix, and the final scene with Harry and Voldermort.  I will always like the books better (as in any series), but I am still pleased with the movie representation of the book.

And so the ending is bittersweet, but the characters will continue to live in the books and in the movies.  I only hope that someday when I have kids, they will still enjoy the stories just as much as I continue to do.

Korean BBQ

Tonight was my first adventure into Korean BBQ.  I have been told by many people it's good, but always thought it was some bizarre branch of food I wasn't quite willing to try.  Like pineapple, I think I seriously misjudged this food group. 

The idea for this came from an agreement at the dinner table to use the grill more this week.  I went in search of new recipes and found this one for Korean BBQ Bulgogi in an old issue of Cuisine at Home.  It was a fairly straight forward recipe and I had a steak in the freezer so I was willing to give it a go. 

Korean-style Bulgogi with ginger dipping sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
2 T. soy sauce
2 T. fresh minced ginger
1 T. minced garlic
2 t. toasted sesame oil
2 t. sambal
1 t. cornstartch
1 t. water

3/4 pound rib-eye steak cut into 1/4 inch strips
salt and pepper
toasted sesame seeds
sliced scallions

In a small pot, simmer the brown sugar and the next 6 ingredients until blended.  In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and water, then add to the sauce.  Bring to a boil and then simmer for one minute.  Set aside.

Turn your grill on high.  Season the meat strips with salt and pepper and place them on the grill for 2 minutes for each side.  Remove from grill and toss in 2 tablespoons of sauce.  This helps the sesame seeds and scallions stick to them.  Place strips onto two plates and divide the dipping sauce into two ramekins (or other small containers for dipping).

Sesame Rice Vermicelli
4 oz dry rice vermicelli
2 T. scallions, sliced thin
1 T. toasted sesame oil
1 T. toasted sesame seeds.

Prepare vermicelli according to package instructions and cool.  Toss with remaining ingredients.

There are no leftovers from this recipe, it serves two well.  The recipe said it was to take 25 minutes, but for a first time I would say more like 30-35 minutes.  I take my time on the first go around, but the second I am sure I would have it to the table in under 30.  I had never made vermicelli, so I wasn't sure what it would take.  Mine claimed 2 minutes in warm water would work.  Warm water means just under boiling apparently because hot tap water didn't do a thing.  So, those things I know now and lessons that should be applied on the next go around.  And believe you me, there will be a next go around for this one!

Going Green in the Kitchen

After we got back from baking in the sun, we decided we would tackle the project of painting the kitchen.  We had a color picked out and everything.  We just needed to go to Home Depot and pick it up.  So off we went and dove right in.

As a reminder this was the original state of the kitchen when we moved in.

  And here's our work in progress starting with what we did in those first few days we moved in.

Rob taking down the fluorescent lights

My sister helped hang our new lights before we moved in.

Sam and Wayne playing electricians

So now back to the work we got done most recently.

Rob working the ceiling.  We had to paint because we took down the fluorescent lights.  The stupid contractors didn't paint under them, so it was VERY obvious where they were.

Sarah cutting in along the floor boards

Finished product

Finished product

Finished product or so we thought.  After about a week we decided that we really didn't care for that color.  It was too minty and too bright, so we chose a second color, a shade darker.  So we went back at and this is the real finished product.

The next immediate upgrade is the stove.  Hopefully we can catch a good Labor Day Sale.  :)

St. Lucia in a Nutshell

At the end of May, Rob and I and a couple of our friends went to St. Lucia.  We had rented a villa at the north end of the island for a week.  Some of the highlights about this vacation was how hot it was and driving on the left.  It was a really pretty place, but not a very big one for sure.  In the week we were there we saw pretty much the whole place.  Since I take some many pictures, I'll do the highlights using them.

View from the villa

View from Pigeon Island

Pigeon Island

Rob and I in front of the Pitons

One of the pretty flowers in the botanical gardens

Marigot Bay

Sunset at Smugglers Cove

Enjoying a nice cocktail after a hard day of snorkeling at Te Kay Resort

The Rum Distillery

Starfish we found on our last outting

Our super fancy dinner out at the only place we didn't sweat all through dinner

Group photo by the pool!!

It was a great trip and I am glad we were able to do it with friends.  We can now say we have been to the Caribbean.  Check!

Smitten Kitchen

There's a blog out there called Smitten Kitchen which is about cooking in a tiny apartment/closet in NYC.  A friend of mine showed me this really nifty recipe they did a while ago called White and Dark Hearted Brownies.  They looked ubber cute and not too complicated.  And to boot, I actually have a small heart cookie cutter that was perfect for this project.  You can use any shape really, but since I had a heart, I used it.

The recipe itself was pretty straight forward.  I bought Ghirardelli brand chocolate bars for the white and semi-sweet chocolates and that seemed to work out well.  I only wish I owned two 8x8 baking pans for this recipe as you have to bake two sets of brownies separately (one white and one dark).  So as an industrial engineer, there was a lot of waste in this process waiting on my other pan to cool enough to get the other brownies out and be cool enough for me to line to pan with tin foil again.

The recipe worked pretty well in the end.  The one piece of advice I would give as a way to enhance the difference of the white and dark brownie is so use clear imitation vanilla in the white brownies to keep them lighter.  I totally forgot and the recipe doesn't hint at it (at least the part I read) so my came out "darker" and don't show as great a contrast as what the photo on the site shows.  They were a big hit for the dinner with friends last night and were a delightful mix of flavors.  I thought it would mostly be different by color, so I was surprised by the difference between the two match ups; eating a dark with a white heart and a white with a dark heat.  If you have one pan, and about 2 hours to kill, I would try it out!