An eventful Sunday

For a while I was so busy/tired I didn't go out and do much of anything on the weekends, but that seems to be changing. I visited the San Jose Museum of Art today with a friend, and afterwards we got gourmet french fries from the Little Chef Counter. I got poutine again... this time, with shredded braised short ribs. Delicious, as expected. I've gone to the farmer's market in Mountain View two weekends in a row, and they have just as much of an abundance of produce as they did in the summer. It's really remarkable. Last time I got kale, some kohlrabi, a butternut squash, a variety of apples, a pomegranate, some tangerines, some grapefruit and some daikon. Today, I got more grapefruit, some blood oranges, another pomegranate, a couple Asian pears, some more apples, some carrots, some yellow onions, some green grapes, and a head of cauliflower. It's so fun to just browse the aisles, try the samples, and decide what new and interesting thing to get each week.

I couldn't decide what to do with my butternut squash at first. Make a soup? Maybe. Make some fritters? Tempting. Fry it up in chunks and add it in with some kale and melted Monterey Jack cheese for quesadillas a la The Pioneer Woman? I thought about that too. In the end, though, I turned to my Smitten Kitchen cookbook by Deb Perelman, one of my very favorite bloggers, and made her butternut squash and caramelized onion galette.

I knew it would take a while to make-- from making the dough, to peeling and chopping the squash, to roasting the squash in the oven, to grating the cheese (Fontina cheese, which I actually kind of had to search around for to find, but it was worth the effort), to caramelizing the onions with butter, olive oil, and a little sugar and cayenne pepper, but it didn't take quite as long as I thought it would. It actually probably takes longer to make a nice, quality quiche. More vegetables to chop.

Anyway, this dish was fantastic. I was surprised how big it came out, but it'll be great to take to work for lunches, perhaps with some kale salad. Super healthy, to be sure.

Mine came out almost exactly like the one in the book. I just forgot to get some fresh thyme to sprinkle on top, but I used dried rosemary instead. I can see myself making more variations of the galette in the future, or other savory tarts. I used to be so intimidated by making crust from scratch but it's actually really easy, even without a pastry blender or a food processor.

It's great to feel inspired to actually bake/cook dishes that take some time and effort. At some point I'd really like to make Boeuf Bourguignon.. also involving a lot of steps and preparation, but I know the amazing flavor would be worth it in the end.

Hope my readers had a nice weekend too! :)

Christmas Break in Orcutt

I have been having a very nice little vacation at home in Orcutt. Sunday we had my aunts and uncle and cousins over for breakfast.. eggs, salami, my aunt's traditional pear french toast, latkes, bagels, fruit, and I think that's about it.. lots of food, haha. Then for Christmas dinner we had pork roast, scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, cranberry stuffing, and jello. Some nice baked goodies in between, too, including vanilla candy bark in two varieties (peanut and peppermint), rum cake, Berliner Kranzers, and later we will probably still make some fudge.

My family and I make these Berliner Kranzers every Christmas.
They are sweet and delicate, definitely my favorite Christmas cookie.

This is our tree this year. :)

Also nice seeing some friends....

Fried ice cream with a friend in Old Town Orcutt.

I have about 2 and a half days left until I head back to San Jose so I will try to relax, see some more friends, and be all caught up with work by the time I get back.

Hope everyone else is having happy holidays too! :)

Happy Hanukkah! Also, Christmas times...

Just wanted to shine my light for Hanukkah... tonight is the first night!

My dad sent me a Hanukkah gift set in the mail so I could celebrate it from over here. It came with a menorah, some candles, some dreidels, some gelt, and some little handouts explaining each thing, like the history of Hanukkah, some Hanukkah songs, and how to light the candles and play dreidel. My housemate and I are going to play dreidel one of these nights after he has had some practice spinning the top. So, it's going to be a simple but nice Hanukkah.

Meanwhile, everyone's getting into the Christmas spirit. Downtown, there are street musicians playing Christmas songs on flutes and french horns. There's this event that has been going on for the past few weeks called Christmas in the Park, and it's kind of like a carnival mixed with a Christmas display.

There are rides, and popcorn/hot dog stands, and stands selling all kinds of other food... churros, hot chocolate, burgers, Hispanic food, and more.. and also a bunch of Christmas trees, and little dioramas with dolls of various themes, the trees and dioramas designed by different community organizations. Also there were fake snow, lights, and Christmas music in the background.

Loved this gingerbread house!

Pretty trees...

The Nutcracker :)

A choir singing...

And a big tree of lights right at the front!

It's nice to know that San Jose gets into the spirit for Christmas. Whether you live in a big city or a small town, Christmas is all around.

P.S. My final project is finished... check out the finished product if you wish :)
http://senna.sjsu.edu/aparsons/corobj/finalprojectmain.php

So busy, but here's another video!

So, I'm still wading through finals... and trying to keep up with my second job.... but for my computer class I made another video so I thought I would share it.



I am building a website about medieval literature. I will post the link here when I finish it. It will be featuring all the authors in this video. I will enjoy revisiting all these classic greats.

Another sneak peek:
http://senna.sjsu.edu/aparsons/corobj/france.php

I can't believe it's just 3 weeks until Christmas. Thank goodness my finals will be over after this week so I will have a little more time to start preparing and enjoying the season.

Video!

Hi friends!

I thought this would be a good opportunity to share a video I made for my web design/programming class. It features fun stuff I've done in the bay area so you've probably seen all these pictures before but it's still a nice video and I chose pretty music for it from this jazz soloists cd I like :).



So, enjoy, until next time when I have time to write a review of the book I just finished! :)

Halloween & CLA

So, fun week/weekend. At work we had our halloween party and people had fun costumes. I was a penguin.

We also got delicious catered Chinese food, and candy. There was a costume contest and the winner was the guy who dressed up as a revolutionary.

This weekend was the California Library Association General Conference, CLA for short, here in San Jose. I had a great time.

I went to a session on social media, a panel of mystery/crime authors, some lovely receptions where I met some new people, and a little evening amusement called CLA Battledecks which mixed slideshows and improv. I also saw lots of fascinating posters from different companies/libraries and enjoyed perusing the exhibit hall. Great weekend, and I still had time to meet with my study group and finish all my homework.

Here's a picture of a bunch of "swag" or fun exhibit hall freebies I got. Some flyers, bookmarks, pens, post-it notes, candy, a free picture of myself as a "Library Scientist"...

 ...and some books, including a free one I picked out about pirates.

I also bought a book by one of the authors at the panel I attended. She writes crime novels set in Paris, and she actually goes to Paris on a regular basis to do research for her novels. She signed my book for me, too :). I will be reviewing the book here when I finish it. At the suggestion of one of my new conference friends, I think I will occasionally start reviewing books here on my blog, because I really want to get back into reading more and that would give me the motivation to do so.

Happy November!

Fun times

So, last weekend I went to the Ferry Building Farmer's Market in San Francisco with my cousin, and it was a really nice day. I got pomegranates, red potatoes, kale and some apples... and with some of my ingredients I made this lovely soup.

It's got kale, potatoes, white cannellini beans, carrot, vegetable broth, a little garlic, onion and salt, zuchinni, and a little shredded cheddar ontop. Definitely a keeper!

We also went inside the ferry building where we made a visit to Miette, a cute little pastry shop where I got an amazing chocolate lavendar macaron...

...and also Blue Bottle for some coffee and cookies.

This weekend, I went to the San Jose Flea Market to search for inspiration for my Halloween costume. As I observed all the fun animal hats, I recalled that they sell a lot of those at anime conventions too... so I decided I'd buy one and be an anime convention attendee. I even have my old badge from 2011 with all the buttons I've been collecting ever since I started going to conventions. Next post I will post a picture.

They had a farmer's market at the flea market too, where I got some more pomegranates, tangerines, and avocados.

After the flea market, I visited Japantown and got some pocky to go with my costume.. and no visit to Japantown is complete without a Hawaiian shave ice.

This time I got blue raspberry and green tea. A little boy and his mom shared my table with me, they were from Campbell and super nice. We talked about legos and farmer's markets.

Pretty relaxing day so far, went to get some things at Whole Foods and just relaxing now. Hope everyone else is having a nice weekend too! :)