Vareniki

VARENIKI
Ukrainian

Vareniki are Ukrainian dumplings. I made a ground beef stuffing, which was really pretty easy and tasted good. And I made the dough myself, which was a pain because I didn't realize it'd be so sticky (unless I made it wrong? I don't know, I've never made dough before). Served with mascarpone (because I didn't have sour cream) and drenched in lots of buttery goodness (which is why they're so yellow)!

Eh, it was okay. I don't know what I did wrong...

Raggmunk

Quickly -- my Swedish Potato Pancakes with Bacon and Lingonberry Jam:


I don't know what potato pancakes are supposed to look like but upon googling it, I think mine looks fairly good in relation. I'm gonna go do some research and find out what they should really look like at a restaurant when I have the time. Doesn't look too appetizing from the picture, I know. But it wasn't bad. I loved the tartness of the lingonberry jam. The pancakes themselves were very dense though. So full afterwards. Maybe a little wet? I squeezed the grated potatoes as much as I could given the fact that I was rushing for work.

And yes, my bacon looks yellow because I like to overcook my bacon (because I'm afraid of those brain tapeworms you get from undercooking pork).

That's all! Early morning tomorrow. Going to the temple. Maybe I'll put some pictures up from there. It's like a little patch of paradise, I kid you not.

Croque-mariage

[The title's supposed to make sense when you see the second picture]

I prepared croques again today! But this time, I wanted to try just a regular croque-monsieur.

Rachel made herself a croque-madame. We used different cheeses for our own respective Béchamel sauces and this time, I did not burn our sandwiches during the broil! I used Dijon mustard also to keep it closer to the original French way of preparing this sandwich but Rachel didn't like it (wah wah wah). I put a little too much on mine though. But it was so so delicious still. I just love the sauce on top with all the melted cheese and the crunchiness of the bread (croque translates to crunch in English).

Et voilà (and there it is!) -- a croque-madame and a croque-monsieur... in a croque-mariage!

A Felicidade / Happiness

I have a friend who does these translations every now and then. And I figured I would want to try my hand at them too. I mean, why not right? It'll help with my learning of Portuguese, which is the closest thing I've got to a second language. I don't want to remain monolingual all my life!! MOM, Why didn't you teach me Tagalog growing up!?!?!?

Anyways, translating Portuguese is so great because there are so many awesome Brazilian songs from which I can choose! But the only thing about this is that a lot of these have already been translated into English by their composers, lyricists, etc. I mean, I guess that's okay. That shouldn't stop me, right? They usually change up the verses and stuff so they aren't really direct translations, right? Whatever, I'll still do it anyways. And yes, I acknowledge that there are some awkward lines. I did the best I could. (Also, I wish there was a way to put these up side by side)

A FELICIDADE
Lyrics: TOM JOBIM

Tristeza não tem fim
Felicidade sim

A felicidade é como a gota
De orvalho numa pétala de flor
Brilha tranqüila
Depois de leve oscila
E cai como uma lágrima de amor

A felicidade do pobre parece
A grande ilusão do carnaval
A gente trabalha o ano inteiro
Por um momento de sonho
Pra fazer a fantasia
De rei ou de pirata ou jardineira
Pra tudo se acabar na quarta feira

Tristeza não tem fim
Felicidade sim

A felicidade é como a pluma
Que o vento vai levando pelo ar
Voa tão leve
Mas tem a vida breve
Precisa que haja vento sem parar

A minha felicidade está sonhando
Nos olhos da minha namorada
É como esta noite
Passando, passando

Em busca da madrugada
Falem baixo, por favor
Prá que ela acorde alegre como o dia
Oferecendo beijos de amor

Tristeza não tem fim
Felicidade sim
____________________________________________

Sadness has no end
Happiness does

Happiness is like the drop
Of dew on a flower petal
That shines serenely
Then dangles weightlessly
And falls like one love’s tear

The happiness of the poor seems like
The grand illusion of Carnaval
People work the entire year
For one moment to dream
To create a fantasy
Of kings or pirates or gardeners
For everything to end on Wednesday

Sadness has no end
Happiness does

Happiness is like a feather
That the wind carries through the air
That flies so lightly
But has a brief life
That needs to have a wind that does not stop

My happiness is shining
In the eyes of my sweetheart
It is like this night
Passing, passing

In search of the dawn
Please talk quietly
So that she agrees happily with the day
Offering kisses of love

Sadness has no end
Happiness does

____________________________________________

In other words, I don't really have a picture that goes along with this so I decided I'd just rummage through my old images. I came across one I took on Sept 7, 2008, the day I first got my camera, and it totally could've worked had I known what I was doing. I didn't even expose correctly or anything. I took the image at 1/3 of a second -- why!? HAHA. So since it was really bad, I decided I'd mess around on Lightroom. Here's what turned out. Do you see the motion blur? Mmhmm.

Matzah Ball Soup

Six days late, I made Matzah Ball Soup, a very kosher dish traditionally eaten at Passover. It was my first time making matzah balls but it turned out delicious. A little dense perhaps but still pretty good. I didn't have a chicken or anything so I just made a basic vegetable soup to go along with it. It was surprisingly very good. I don't typically prepare soups so this is definitely a first step.

So chunky and so healthy! Matzah balls, carrots, celery, zucchini, potato fingerlings, chopped onions cooked in chicken broth for 40 minutes garnished with chopped parsley and scallions!

Croque-madame

Ya, I've been watching a lot of Food Network and I've got this bug to cook. I mean, most of the stuff I've been making is pretty simple. This one was a little more difficult, but it was worth every bit of the hard work. I originally set out to make a Croque-monsieur (French toasted ham and cheese sandwich) but since I burnt it during the broil, I decided to add a poached egg on top in hopes of perhaps covering up the burnt taste a little more. And voila! Croque-madame!









Next time, I'll be careful to not burn my sandwich when I go to broil. Also, I'm gonna put more ham in there. I mean, it was delicious and all but I could've put more ham in my sandwich. I was being a pansy (actually, I wanted the main taste to be the Béchamel sauce/Gruyère cheese). Does this look good? Yes, I'm sure it does. I'm definitely going to make another one of these in the future. I've got enough cheese to do another, I think. It's absolutely delicious. I can't stop thinking about it.

Step One: Finding Friends

Blogging really isn't much fun if you're not blogging with people. Why write when no one reads? Or why use a social networking site when you've got no one with whom to network?! So first, I'll need to find people who use this regularly.

Secondly, I'll need to figure out what I want to do with this blog. Picture blog all about my dabblings in the various art forms? Most likely. Pictures I've taken, food I've created, stuff about film. I don't know, it's whatever I guess.

I just got a tumblr as well. Although, you can't really write blogs and post pictures up at the same time on there, can you? I'm not sure. I've yet to figure it out.

OH -- I got my blog name from a new Yeah Yeah Yeah's song called "Hysteric" off their new album It's Blitz! The album is really good, best I've heard this year so far. Granted, I've only listened to three so far, but it's still the best nonetheless. And that's after listening to Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavillion.

So to reveal my first photograph (and in keeping with the theme of this post, which is finding friends):

"Penguin Finger Friends"

Toy Joy

ISO-1600
1/25 sec
f/5
40mm