25.02.2010
Hello, dear, dear readers! If you’re seeing this sentence, that means you are still checking here for posts, and I thank you sincerely for that. I have been AWOL again, and I don’t even have a good excuse. I still think about and plan blog posts often, but have been having difficulty transforming those plans into actual, written entries.
In the past few weeks I’ve done a lot of reading, quite a bit of cooking, gone ice-skating twice, and drank a lot of tea. C & I spent Valentine’s Day in the Emergency room at the hospital (we are fine, just couldn’t get into a clinic!) which was interesting, but certainly not fun. We are not vegan (or even vegetarian) but we have been eating lots of vegan & vegetarian meals lately. Out of sheer laziness, we’ve also been eating out a few times a week. Since it has been raining and/or snowing all week here, I haven’t been buying as many groceries as I usually might. Consequently, we’ve just been using up the contents of our cupboards and fridge.
Various aloes: far left is a gel for topical use. The others are edible and delicious.
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Tags: Favourite Ingredients, Korean, Snacks, Tea, Treats
Posted by Meaghan in Breakfast, Plants, Tea, Treats | 6 Comments »
10.02.2010
I finally got around to trying/tweaking these delicious treats that I’ve been seeing around the blogging world for the past few months. If I’d realized they were this dead-easy and delicious, I would have made them ages ago.
just a few simple ingredients...
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Tags: Snacks, Treats
Posted by Meaghan in Snacks, Treats | 6 Comments »
04.02.2010
Hello lovelies! Today is a wonderful, sunny day where I am. It’s still very cold and very… umm… February, but it is always so nice to see the sun! It does wonders for my mood. I am now reading The Great Gatsby for the first time, and actually finding it much more engrossing than I’d expected, despite the occasional deterioration of the narrative into sexist, racist, and classist comments. I am finding Fitzgerald’s sporadic lack of understanding for these issues surprising, since he is so obviously insightful at other times. Perhaps I’m blaming the words on the characters on Fitzgerald, which isn’t really fair…
Anyway, I guess one becomes bothered by these things most especially when one has just finished reading a book of cultural criticism by bell hooks, who certainly has no tolerance for the intolerance of others. It is still a good read. On to tea!
A few days ago we made a big pot of turmeric-ginger tea. I’ve made turmeric tea before, using powdered, dried turmeric, and even wrote about the tea and it’s health benefits here in this post. This time we used fresh turmeric and fresh ginger, and it was much better than using the dried powder. Using fresh turmeric also means that more of the potent anti-inflammatory properties of the root are preserved, making it even healthier. It’s not difficult to make, either, as long as you are able to find fresh turmeric. It looks much like fresh ginger root, except it has a smaller diameter and is bright orange (especially when cut open).
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Tags: Favourite Ingredients, Tea
Posted by Meaghan in Tea | 2 Comments »
03.02.2010
I’m a few days late in welcoming February. What can I say, it crept up on me. I have no idea where the past month went.
Winter is like that for me. My dad used to refer to it as my ‘blue fog’ (or was it fug?) anyway–I don’t necessarily feel sad or SAD (seasonally-affected) in wintertime, just very passive, very quiet, and very low-key. I suppose that I don’t do much of anything. Like a bear, I hibernate and try to keep warm. Unlike a bear, I do a lot of reading.
I came across something by Doris Lessing today, that seemed to fit my current mood perfectly;
Let us be lazy in everything, except in loving and drinking, except in being lazy.
Quite.
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Tags: Books, Seasons, winter
Posted by Meaghan in Books | 1 Comment »
28.01.2010
I was surprised to read that J.D. Salinger died today. He was 91 years old, so he certainly lived a long time. I think that the main reason I was surprised was because he is never in the press… he gave his last interview in 1980 (three years before I was even born) and was almost as famous for being reclusive as he was for writing The Catcher in the Rye. I said almost.
My seventeen year old self, like many other adolescents, was able to identify deeply with Salinger’s characters; their humanity, their yearning for a more authentic way of being in the world, the passions and recklessness of being very young. I haven’t re-read Salinger’s work in years, and look forward to revisiting it as an adult. I loved Holden Caulfield’s voice, but identified even more profoundly with Franny Glass of Franny and Zooey. The fact that Salinger’s characters inspired such devotion in fans was a source of pain for him, he who most wanted to be left alone, but it has also insured that the genius of his singular talent will continue to live on. That’s the beauty of the written word.
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Tags: Books, herbs, musings, Vietnamese, winter
Posted by Meaghan in Books, Treats, musings | 2 Comments »
27.01.2010
Whenever I’m in Marche Oriental, our local (as in nearby, not Locavore) Vietnamese-owned Asian market, I’m always amazed by the fresh herb section. Most grocery stores always carry a few basic herbs, though they usually look somewhat wilted and abused. Marche Oriental’s herb section is another animal entirely. For one, most of their bagged herbs are filled with air (like herbed balloons!) so they don’t get squished or soggy. And the selection is wonderful. They have mint, cilantro, dill, tia to (perilla), holy basil, Vietnamese balm… the list goes on. Last week I picked up a package of pennywort, which I had heard of, but never tried.
Asiatic pennywort looks like this
Tags: herbs, Treats, Vietnamese
Posted by Meaghan in Plants, Treats | 3 Comments »
11.01.2010
yes, that is a bicycle in the bedroom.
Our Christmas cactus is in bloom. It was really nice to wake up to sunlight and vibrant pink blooms by the bed this weekend. We inherited this cactus from some friends just a year ago, so this is the first time it has bloomed at our place. There are two flowers on it now, but there are seven more buds on it that will open soon.
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Tags: musings, Seasons, winter
Posted by Meaghan in Seasons, Tea | 2 Comments »
01.01.2010
With love, from Meaghan & the edible library.
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Tags: musings, travel, winter
Posted by Meaghan in Seasons, musings | 2 Comments »
21.12.2009
That’s right, today is the shortest day of the year in the Northern hemisphere, as well as the first day of winter. I think that’s great news, because now we’ll be getting more and more daylight-time as the weeks go by, instead of less. The cold weather will still be here for awhile longer, of course, but for me the darkness of winter is more challenging than the cold, and every extra moment of daylight helps.
I read a bit about the winter solstice here on National Geographic.
Now for a mystery:
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Tags: musings, mysteries, Tea, winter
Posted by Meaghan in Tea, musings | 2 Comments »
19.12.2009
Though it is a fruit, there is nothing sweet about goya–also known as bitter melon or bitter gourd, it resembles a very bumpy cucumber and is in the same family as pumpkins, squash and gourds. It is traditionally eaten in Japan, China, Vietnam, India and other South and Southeast Asian countries.
this is the Vietnamese variety of bitter gourd
C. says that while he was in Okinawa (where goya is very popular) people said the reason Okinawans live so long is because they eat lots of pork and lots of goya! I can’t verify this, but it sounds reasonable enough, I suppose. One dish that is very popular there is goya champuru which is a stir-fried dish that features goya and often pork, eggs, onion or garlic and other seasonings.
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Tags: Favourite Ingredients, fruit, Japanese, pickles, Tea, vegetables, Vietnamese
Posted by Meaghan in Preserves, Tea, Veggies | 3 Comments »
