Thoughts for Festive Foods

‘Tis the season for holiday parties and celebrations.  Still trying to figure out what  to make for all of your events?  Let me help you.

Still deciding what to serve for Christmas dinner?

Let me tell you, Hot Cheddar Marbles and Crabapple Ornaments are the new bacon-wrapped everything and cake pops.  But the Roquefort Mousse Salad is not your taste?  May I suggest an alternative Christmas dinner, featuring Shrimp in Asipc (nothing says happy holidays like aspic) and Cranberry Candles.  Did I mention the ingredient list for cranberry candles includes cranberry sauce, gelatin, mayonnaise, and oranges?  Mmm.

The Working Lunch: Buffalo Quinoa Salad

For lunch this week, I recreated a salad from a local restaurant chain called Protein Bar that I used to visit when I worked in the loop.  It’s full of all the good things that make buffalo wings delicious, including chicken, buffalo sauce, and blue cheese, plus crunchy vegetables and quinoa which make it a totally acceptable (and healthy!) choice for lunch.

 

Buffalo Quinoa Salad

3/4 cup quinoa

1 1/2 cups, plus 3 tablespoons water

1 chicken breast, cooked and chopped into cubes

1/2 english cucumber, diced

1 stalk celery, diced

2 medium carrots, shredded

1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese, optional

2 1/2 tablespoons butter, melted

5 tablespoons frank’s hot sauce

salt and pepper

1. Rinse the quinoa in a fine mesh strainer.  Add quinoa and water to a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.  Cover and lower the heat to medium-low.  Simmer for 15 minutes, or until water is absorbed.  Turn off the heat and let stand for 5 minutes.  Fluff with a fork.
2. Meanwhile, add chicken, cucumbers, celery, carrots, and blue cheese to a large bowl.  Season with salt and pepper.  Set aside.
3. Combine the melted butter and hot sauce.  Stir until combined.
4. Add the quinoa to the chicken and vegetables and toss to combine.  Add the sauce and combine until evenly coated.  Serve.

Makes 4 servings

 

Proximity to time zone borders affects the composition of daylight hours.

INTRODUCTION: As a relatively recent transplant to Chicago, IL from Pittsburgh, PA (and before that Rochester, NY), it seemed as though adjusting to Central Standard Time (CST) would be relatively simple.  Aside from being mindful of late night telephone calls to friends and family on Eastern Standard Time (EST), and watching primetime television shows an hour earlier than normal, it seemed as though there was no significant difference between CST and EST.  However, as I became more attuned to my surroundings, I noticed that the long summer evenings and short winter days seemed… shorter.  At first, I dismissed this idea as simply a nostalgic recollection of my childhood, when summer days lasted forever and I was finished with school at 2:30PM instead of walking out of work at 5:00PM.  However, while driving from Rochester, NY to Chicago, IL and watching the clock on my phone change from one time to an hour earlier in the span of a mile, I began to formulate another theory.  In fact, it seemed that because Chicago was so close to the EST border, what was evening darkness in Indiana became late afternoon darkness in Chicago.  What follows is my scientific exploration into this theory.

HYPOTHESIS: Due to its proximity to the eastern border of the CST, Chicago has longer morning daylight hours and shorter evening daylight hours than cities in close proximity to the western border of the EST.

METHOD: Using the google search engine, I recorded the sunrise and sunset times for Chicago, IL and South Bend, IN on December 6th, 2012 and June 6th, 2012.  South Bend was chosen for its close proximity to the western border of the EST.

RESULTS:

Table 1		Sunrise	Sunset
	06-06-2012
Chicago, IL		5:16AM CST	8:22PM CST
South Bend, IN		6:11AM EST	9:16PM CST
	12-06-2012
Chicago, IL		7:05AM CST	4:19PM CST
South Bend, IN		7:58AM EST	5:14PM EST

Table 1 clearly demonstrates that the sun consistently rises and sets earlier in Chicago, IL compared to South Bend, IN (based on the local time in each location).

CONCLUSION: There are many factors that people consider when determining where to live, including cost of living, job market, proximity to family, transportation system, arts and culture, and weather.  It is my recommendation that proximity to a time zone border be a part of this equation.  Early risers may favor locations close to the eastern border of a time zone, while night owls may prefer locations close to the western border of a time zone to maximize exposure to daylight hours.

My less objective conclusion is that I really wish they could move the CST border so that Chicago was in EST because longer summer nights are obviously better than full daylight at 6:00AM and the sun really set at 4:19PM today?  That is absurd.

The Working Lunch: Broccoli & Couscous Salad

One of the biggest changes I’ve noticed since starting my new job is how routinized my weekdays have become.  Wake up, get ready, commute, work, commute, eat, clean up, hang out with the boyfriend, shower, read, sleep, repeat.  And while my Type A, to-do-list-making, hyper-organized self enjoys the structure, it makes me especially cherish those free, unscheduled moments.

That’s why I spent a little time coming up with a plan for my weekday lunches.  I’m a big proponent of bringing my lunch, since it generally means cheaper and healthier (and especially during this time of year, more money in my pocket and a few less calories never hurts).  However, the last thing I want to do before going to bed or while I’m trying to get out the door in the morning is pack my lunch.  So I put together a list of easy, healthy recipes with the goal to make one or two over the weekend so I can spend more time doing craft projects and watching christmas movies and less time figuring out what to throw together for lunch each day.  I thought I’d share my favorites here.

An Ode to Unemployment

Dear Unemployment,

We have had what feels like ample time to get to know one another over the past few months.  However, on Monday I will leave you behind and venture into my post-graduate school life with a real job.  While I am looking forward to that, I wanted to let you know that we did have some good times together, and there are things about you I will miss.

1. Not setting an alarm (mostly).
2. Sweatpants as my dress code.
3. Getting to enjoy nice weather, no matter the day of the week.
4. Grocery shopping in non-peak hours (and cursing myself when I don’t).
5. Watching America’s Test Kitchen and Ellen regularly.
6. Spending ridiculously long stretches cooking.
7. Weird mealtimes.
8. Field trips.
9. Lots of time for organizing/cleaning/planning organizing and cleaning.
10. Doing what I want, when I want.

That being said, there are things that I will not miss about you.  It’s not your fault, no relationship is perfect.

1. No pay.
2. Not a lot of necessary tasks/responsibilities, which paired with my penchant for netflix, could result in a dramatic lack of productivity.
3. No deadlines for anything.
4. Daytime television mostly sucks.
5. No excuses for a messy apartment.
6. Did I mention there was no pay?
7. I had to listen to construction a lot.  Across the street, in the apartment downstairs, in the hallway.  SO MUCH CONSTRUCTION.
8. When people ask you what you do, “I’m unemployed” doesn’t usually get a lot of positive responses.  Mostly just those awkward faux-sympathy noises and faces.
9. The feeling of unknown when you think about what you will be doing in a week, or a month, or a year.
10. It really can’t be said enough.  No paycheck.

Farewell, unemployment.  Although it has sometimes been fun, I’m hoping I never unintentionally find myself with you ever again.  Here’s hoping it’s mutual.

Love, Jackie

I am a gross slug person.

Well, folks, my office is near Union Square, and the street it’s on looks like this. So, I had no work again today, and will have no work for the rest of the week (at least) for now.

My roommates work above 34th St., so they decided to walk to work over the Brooklyn Bridge. It took two and a half hours and sounded like it was super fun. Neither of them are going to try walking to work tomorrow.

I, on the other hand, sat around my apartment like a lazy worm creature. Well, that’s not entirely fair. I left my apartment to go to the bagel place down the street, and then I came back to my apartment to eat it. Later, I then went to the hardware store to buy a lightbulb for my fridge, and then returned to clean my kitchen. I discovered that we now may have mice. Yay!

Later in the afternoon, I felt like I was losing my mind. So, I thought, maybe I should go to read in a cafe or something. And so did everyone else in Park Slope ever. Seriously, there are about five cafes in a three-block radius from my apartment, and they were all standing room only. Instead I walked up and down my street and bought some flavored pellegrinos. Go capitalism!

Tomorrow, I plan for a long walk. Perhaps additional purchases? I apparently can now take the F train around in a circle in Brooklyn; maybe I can just ride that around for a while.

Survey of my building.

I have two neighbors. The nice Italian couple on the first floor are having a party; two guys on Vespas rolled up around 10pm with some beer. I bet they live in Red Hook.

Whoever lives upstairs left the building’s skylight windows open, so the wind keeps rattling our front door. The howling wind sounds are nice, though. Very cozy.

It is fucking hot in here and our landlord has it so we are deliberately unable to adjust the radiators. I have my bedroom window open, mostly for ambiance. I can’t really see anything. Something fell out back like two houses over. I was half hoping something would fall on my dumbass neighbors’ pool, to teach them a lesson about having their pool open until November. But only half-hoping, as that would cause major unnecessary flooding in our neighborhood.

I’m going to go watch some Netflix until I fall asleep or we lose power. Whichever comes first. My office is closed tomorrow. Par-tay.

Hurricane news coverage drinking game

EDIT: Finish your drink if the camera pans back to the newsroom and the anchors are texting.

This is testament to how drunk I am and also how little I play drinking games. Leave suggestions in the comments for additional items!

Drink every time someone says:
– “Worse-case scenario” (this alone could be your game.)
– “It’s really raining out there”
– “The news keeps flooding in right now”
– +2: “robust” anything. +3 if you work at OUP and this happens.

 

Two drinks when:
– news anchor draws football-commentary arrows on top of storm map (+1 more if the map already has arrows)
– news anchor gives advice for disaster-aversion techniques, like you’d be watching your TV for that.
– news anchors in the field can’t hear the news anchors in the studio for more than 5 seconds

Three drinks when:
– news anchor gleefully points out horrific damage (“The Hudson is actually three feet behind me!”)
– weather man stands in front of green screen of a shot of nearby Manhattan street
– Anchor or interviewee, while standing outside: “You should not be outside right now. A tree could fall on you.”
– Blair Witch-style camera work, +1
– Police asks anchor to leave

Hilarious news coverage

The NYC ABC local news has some woman and a camera crew driving around New York. It is hilarious. “I’m just going to open the window here, look at this!” “Oh, there’s a policeman; he’s giving us directions. Hector, are you getting this? Hector?”
Anchor: “Well..thanks, Diane, that’s enough…”

 

Also: water on news cameras + camera crew lighting = all outdoor anchors have halos.

Landfall!

Jackie suggested I liveblog the hurricane–I’m in a higher up part of Brooklyn (Park Slope), so I can’t say I have any awesome flood photos for you guys. Lights are flickering, but we still have power. We are watching some TV that is primarily broadcasting about NJ, which is extra comforting.

Plus, we opened some wine.