Bitten

by margaret Posted on 17 March 2012

I read cookbooks like most people read novels.  I don’t just read the recipes; I read the intros and the sidebars.  I flip through every single page and look at every recipe until I get to the index.   I stick post-its on every recipe that appeals to me, even if its unlikely I’ll ever get around to trying it.  My latest read is Mark Bittman’s The Food Matters Cookbook.  It’s a collection of recipes based on his arguments in his preceding book, Food Matters.

I really enjoy reading Bittman’s writing.  I used to read his pieces in The New York Times, back when I had to time to actually read a newspaper, and I follow his blog daily.  My family are unknowing fans, as I’ve backed countless loaves of his famous No-Knead Bread.  He’s a no-nonsense cook without the expecting his readers to be skilled culinary artists with copious amounts of time to spend in the kitchen.  I like cooking, but I don’t want to spend my entire life doing it.

When I came across this book at Powells on the sale rack, I grabbed it and half debated whether I’d just skip the rest of the work day to go home and start reading it.  When I finally had the chance to crack it open, I was instantly hooked.  I grabbed my blue post-its and immediately started marking recipes.

Here’s the thing.  I’ve been feeling like most recipes I come across are either meat-centric or very vegetarian.  While I enjoy eating meat, I don’t need it to be the main attraction, and while I enjoy eating vegetables, I sometimes feel like it lacks depth of flavor when it stands alone.  I’m also married to man who loves for his protein to come in animal form.  I’m not joking; he eats with such fervor when his plate is piled with meat.  But I feel gluttonous when the only vegetable on my plate is the onion in the sauce, so I try to offset it with a vegetarian meal on occasion.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen him sit at the table and quietly (read: sadly) eat his veggie dinner, only to get up and grab a yogurt from the fridge as soon as he has eaten a sufficient amount that won’t raise my eyebrows.

Thankfully, The Food Matters Cookbook gives me the best of both worlds: meals that are chock full of vegetables and grains but also include meat and fish.  But unlike so many of the other cookbooks on my shelf, the dishes don’t overwhelm you with meat.  The amount is just enough to flavor and satiate.  I’m so excited to try out some of these recipes, I’m almost itching to go to the grocery store right now!  I can imagine what my husband might say as he reads this post: if a cookbook can actually get me excited enough to go shopping…   

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Justifiable Guilt

by margaret Posted on 29 February 2012

I had a rather unproductive day today.  Knowing I had an afternoon of meetings, I had planned out all I wanted to accomplish in the morning.  All of that fell by the wayside as soon I opened Outlook to check my mail.

I couldn’t log on.  I had changed my about-to-be-expired network password yesterday, so I figured it just hadn’t propagated out to all the systems.  I called the help desk only to find out that, for some mysterious reason, my account had been disabled.  The man on the other line outlined the steps necessary to re-enable it, which involved me notifying my manager, who would then need to submit a ticket to the help desk (yes, the very same group I was currently on the phone with), who could then reactivate my account.  Then he said something where I about fell out of my chair.  He said, “It’ll take us about a day, so you’re going to have a pretty unproductive day.”

Generally, I find email to be pretty distracting at work.  I often close Outlook altogether when I really need to concentrate on something, but at my workplace, just as any large company, so much is done through email.  Meetings are changed or cancelled at the last minute, and innocent inquiries spawn into ongoing conversation threads.   All day I felt like I was sitting at the dark, waiting to be enlightened.  I tried to work on tasks I had set out for the day, but I couldn’t shake this feeling that I was missing some big update to the project or change in direction.  I should have really just gone home; I probably would have accomplished a lot more.

At 4pm I walked over to a company-sponsored social where food and beer were served.  I am generally pretty relaxed about alcohol during the workday, especially when the employer/client is providing it and everyone is drinking responsibly.  But usually when these events come up, I’ll grab some food, mingle a bit, and then head back to my desk to finish up work before heading home.  Today, however, all things considered, I felt no reason to try to salvage what was already an unproductive day.  I drank my one beer and chatted up with various people from my project and then headed home.

Later in the evening, when I was sitting with my daughter and showering her with kisses, she stopped me and asked, “why do you smell like beer?”  It was then that I felt this twinge of guilt.  Not because I had a beer, but because in her mind, beer does not equal work.

Today, she would be right.

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Community

by margaret Posted on 28 February 2012

I have many aunties and uncles in my life, but only some of them are actually related to my parents. I grew up in a close-knit Chinese community, and in Chinese culture, you pay respect to your parents’ friends as though they were family. But my respect for them ran deeper than that.

You see, I grew up in Minnesota, where there are far more Scandinavian descendants than there are of the Asian variety, and the Chinese sought one another out like moths to a flame. They created a bond based on the mere fact that all of them left their families in either Hong Kong or Taiwan for an education and all of them stayed and started families of their own, on their own. Instead of growing up with siblings or cousins, many of my childhood memories are filled with other ABCs, American-born Chinese. Our grandparents lived on the other side of the Pacific, and any relatives we did have in the US lived in densely populated areas like California or Boston. We spent holidays, both Chinese and Western, together. Our parents threw potlucks and dinner parties where the adults sat around the formal dining table while the children played games in the family room. Our parents kept tabs on all of us and how well each of us did in everything we did. We were all raised similarly, with similar expectations, and while we all tried desperately to fit in with our American friends, we accepted and embraced the community our parents had built for themselves and for us.

As a mother I very much miss having a community for my family, particularly for my daughter. She doesn’t have siblings, and her cousins are far away. I love that my cousin (whom I love like a brother) and my sister-in-law live in Portland, and she loves being with them. But when we are together she is the lone kid, and I think she is aware of that. She’s at an age where she understands that she is not always a part of the conversation or the center of attention, and I sense she craves a relationship of her own that is in parallel to ours. Most of our friends have children, but we don’t see them consistently enough. Mike has his friends, and I have mine. The overlap is small. Thus, we spend time with friends like we are on rotation, on an individual basis, and never in the multi-family settings I grew up with.

I suppose maybe this is a compelling enough reason to start going to church?

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Dreaded trips

by margaret Posted on 26 February 2012

I despise grocery shopping. I always have. Before parenthood, my husband and I often went out to eat. I enjoyed cooking but not enough to have a consistently stocked pantry. Sometimes, we’d make a thing of it where we did it together, as a couple. But when my daughter was born, especially as she got into eating more foods, it was necessary evil, and it became a strike-force task: get in and out as quickly as possible.

There is never a good time to go to the store. When I stayed at home, mornings were filled with playdates and outings. Naptimes and evening witching hours made afternoons impossible. So while my husband tucked our daughter to bed, I snuck off to the store, and on several occasions, I spent early Sunday mornings with a coffee in one hand and pushing a cart through the aisles with the other. Now that I am back to full-time work, I struggle even more. I refuse to join the masses on the weekends, but I am generally too exhausted in the evenings and too unwilling to leave the comfort of my bed in the mornings. I’m also too cheap and too picky about my product to have groceries delivered to my door.

As a result, I’ve become more of a European shopper, where I stop in the store on the way home from work to pick up the few things I need for that night’s dinner. I wouldn’t mind this so much if I weren’t the one who picks up the kiddo in the evenings. Though she enjoys trips to the store, I really have to muster the motivation to go. Having to get her in and out of her car seat, herding her through the aisles, and making sure she doesn’t break anything is a disproportionately large effort for just a few items. I find myself thinking up of more things than we need, thus spending more money than planned, just to make the whole trip worthwhile.

As I sit here procrastinating a very necessary trip to the store, I wonder, why don’t we have drive-thru grocery stores? Much like a drive-thru Starbucks, I want to drive up to a speaker, shout out a list of no more than 5 items, and have a bag of said items handed to me when I pull up to the next available window. I’ll even let them pick out the produce.

Posted via email from Margaret Wang

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No time for anything but wasting time

by margaret Posted on 24 February 2012
I feel like I don’t have time for anything, and yet, I spend copious amounts of doing nothing.  It doesn’t really make sense to me.  My daughter is probably more independent and self-sufficient than one could expect from an almost four year old.  My husband is amazing with sharing household responsibilities.  And work is currently in a stage where I have just enough, rather than too much, work to do.

Every day I think about about how I wish I could get more sleep, run more miles, call my best friend on the other side of the country who just had her third baby.  I think about the stack of books piled on my nightstand collecting dust, the magazines tossed in a bin, the gallery of frames on the floor of our hallway, and the increasing number of half-written blog posts scattered among my various gadgets.  Some nights I drive home from work, excitedly thinking about the book I’ll maybe read or the project I’ll maybe start.  These nights are rare, and actually cracking open that book is even rarer.  However, I can account for countless hours on my internet surfboard with my social media crack pipe in one hand and my boob tube needle in the other.

Some days I am near my wits end, and I start thinking about hiring a maid, deleting my FB account, and canceling cable.  But it wouldn’t be enough.  I’d also have to give up my iphone, ipad, and laptop, as well as go off the grid, and possibly even change my career entirely (until I figure out how to be a web developer without those things).  And even then I’d still find ways of doing nothing.

Posted via email from Margaret Wang

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Obsession

by margaret Posted on 29 November 2011
It has been quite awhile since I last posted here, mainly because I’ve struggled with how I want to use this space.  Random musings generally go to Facebook, and anything running related goes to yet another space.  Anything else is generally not suitable for the Internet, for one reason or another.  

But on my way drive in this morning, I realized that I’ve acquired a new obsession.  It has taken over nearly all my brain cells.  Mike is probably tired of me talking endlessly about it, and god knows I’ve spent enough hours researching it online.  It’s even reached the point where my three-year old has started to obsess over it.  And the problem is, I don’t see an end in sight.  So brace yourself, because I’m about to suck you into my black-hole: I’m talking about cars.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, but I’m not that kind of person.  I don’t subscribe to Car and Driver, and I don’t watch Top Gear.  I barely keep a pulse on the automobile industry since I don’t buy a new car every few years.  In general, I think cars are a hassle, and I wish I weren’t so dependent on one.  

But that’s another blog post.  

The reality is that I have a 1998 Honda Accord, and we recently decided it was time to get a new car.  The thing is, the car still runs well, it’s in good shape, and it has low miles (not even 99,000).  So I’m not in any hurry.  I’m also my mother’s daughter, which means I notoriously research every major purchase to death.  With a constant stream of products, it never ends, but that doesn’t stop me from trying.  Throw on top of that the fact that I have absolutely no idea what kind of car I want, and you’ve now found me smack in the middle of an obsession.

I’m sure most people have some general idea of what they want, or they have enough constraints to dictate what they end up with.  I’d imagine there are even people out there who have a dream car in mind, however (un)attainable it may be.  The problem is that my dream car doesn’t exist: I want a reliable, safe, and comfortable car that offers some utility (read: no sedan) and 50 mpg.  But I don’t want a Prius…or a clown car.  

I’ve read reviews on nearly every crossover and wagon/hatchback out there.  Every car I look at seems to have something about it I don’t like.  Due to lack of time and general lack of motivation, I’ve only test-driven a small handful of cars, and it’s not looking good.  Last week I drove a Lexus CT200h.  I really liked the handling, and I loved that it has an EPA rating of 43/40.  But I felt cramped in the back seat, and I’m not a tall person.  A few months ago I drove a Jetta SportWagon TDI (diesel), and while I liked the interior and the space, its suspension was a bit too German for me.  I’ve also received numerous recommendations for the Subaru Outback.  We have an Impreza, and we love it.  But honestly, for my car, I want a little less utility and a little more styling.  I also wish the Subs had better gas mileage.  I’m not always a fan of Subaru’s AWD all the time; I don’t really need it when I’m mainly just driving to and from work.  

Next on the list is the Acura TSX SportWagon and the Highlander Hybrid (if I can locate a dealer in the area that actually has one on the lot).   And if that fails, the Mazda CX5 due out in February could be promising.  But I’m not holding my breath.  When I tell people that I’d probably be sold if Toyota came out with a hybrid version of their Rav4, they ask, “What about the Ford Escape Hybrid?”  To which I think, What about it? I’m an Asian snob, I only buy German or Japanese.

Posted via email from Margaret Wang

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May Day

by margaret Posted on 1 May 2011
P210

After so much rain and gloom, it finally feels like Spring may actually arrive here in Portland. Today was a beautiful day, and Mike took full advantage by sporting around in shorts! You can tell someone was hungry for some sun since it barely hit 70 degrees. I’m just hoping we get a few more days like these…I don’t want another cold and short summer.

I finally got around to picking some flowers from our yard. I love fresh flowers in the house!

Posted via email from Margaret Wang

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Dollhouse for less than $4

by margaret Posted on 28 January 2011

I wanted to give the kiddo a dollhouse for Christmas. She’s always engaged in some sort of imaginative play, and she always plays with the dollhouse at our favorite toy store. So deciding on what to give her was a no-brainer. But if you know me, you know I can be very picky about, well, everything. I had scoured all corners of the Internet to find something within my budget (otherwise it would’ve been Plan Toys Eco house). I finally found it: a wooden dollhouse with some color, furniture (including a weight set and bench!), and doll. AND it was modular so you could “build” the house to whatever your tastes. All for $80. I was so excited, and I had over two months until Christmas! Then I screwed up. I didn’t really know where I was going to store the thing without her seeing it, so I decided to hold off on buying it. When Mike said I could hide it in his workshop, I decided there was no rush and that I’d wait until cyber Monday, just to see if it would go on sale.

That morning, as I was drinking coffee, I went to online to buy it. Only the dollhouse didn’t come up in the search results! After a slight panic, I remembered I had copied the link. Click. “Noooooo!” It was sold out. Ok, I thought, I’ll just check if other places carry it. I had vaguely remembered other stores having it, but I couldn’t remember their prices. After searching every store I could think of and entering about a thousand different wordings of essentially the same item, I couldn’t find one for anywhere near the $80 tag. The next best price was nearly double, after accounting for shipping (first place had free shipping). At this point, I kicked myself. Hard. I wasn’t sure what to do. To buy both house and furniture was going to blow our budget. The runner-up set no longer seemed suitable to me. I started to think that I would just scrap the idea altogether and get her something entirely different. After talking it over with Mike, I decided I’d just get her the furniture, and we’d make do with boxes or something. After all, she’s still young enough that boxes are toys, too. And what good is house if your dolls have no place to sit or cook their food? At least this way, I could pick and choose the furniture sets.

After some time, I started thinking that maybe I could whip up a cardboard version. Just something a tad better than using a shoebox. Of course, then my brain said, “Nah, Miss Destructo will crush it in no time”. In the end, I got some foam core board (like what they use for displays and presentations) from the dollar store, and, with scrapbook paper, pages from a catalogue, and wrapping paper, constructed a one-of-a-kind dollhouse. it may not be what I originally had in mind, but to her, it’s perfect (Christmas was over a month ago, an she still plays with it). And in the end, that’s all that really matters right?

Not quite step-by-step, but I documented the “construction” with photos.

Posted via email from Margaret Wang

Posted in Around the house, Family, Holidays | 2 Comments

Knitted Giraffe

by margaret Posted on 4 December 2010

Adding to the kiddos ever-growing collection of stuffed animals, I saw a knitting pattern (link to come) for this ridiculously adorable giraffe and wanted to make it. It was my first knitted toy, but I’m quite happy with how it turned out. Now, I just have to refrain from cuddling with it myself…at least until Christmas.

Posted via email from margaretwang’s posterous

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