Two Bees and a Cat

I always end up getting better candy deals after Easter rather than after Halloween. I'm fine with that.

Happy 2017! This morning, A and I were talking about the movie Bladerunner with Harrison Ford. We realized that it was ahead of its time. Then we wondered, "what's a word for 'ahead of its time'?" It's 2017 and we don't have a good word for ahead of its time. We also don't have words that rhyme with "orange". So we have made up a word: torange. It means, you guessed it,  "ahead of its time" E.g. Dawn of the Dead was torange.

We went to Minuteman Historical Park today. This place is located in Concord, MA, about 25 miles from Boston's Logan Airport.   You can get here by public transportation but there's a lot of walking involved. I'd recommend a car. Minuteman Historical Site is considered the site for the opening battle of the American Revolution. On April 19, 1775, ordinary farmers were pushed to their limits by the British Government. The "Shot Heard Around The World" was fired in this park at this bridge: What I found interesting was that the "shot" was actually the command from the American Militia to fire back. It wasn't as much the shot itself, but the command to attack the British troops, which was treasonous. This skirmish, followed by years or war, eventually led to the Treaty of Paris  (1783) where the Revolutionary War ended and the US became a sovereign nation. A group of rag-tag farmers revolted against a powerful empire. It was interesting ...

I have decided to restart this blog and make it into a little more than just foods. It is exhausting to try to do only a food blog, as I am quite busy these days. But hopefully an adventures blog will help! I've moved to Washington DC and that will help with the adventures part :-)

So it really has been two years since I’ve made a substantial post. My coworker Nancy said “you really need to update your blog” and I thought—she’s right. So here we go! Last year, around this time, I became a vegetarian for a month as part of the Nepali festival Swasthàni. It was really hard but I got to explore new ingredients. This year, I modified the “fasting” to one vegetarian meal a day and it has worked really well. I may have to do that on a regular basis! A recipe I found last year that is really good both vegetarian and non-vegetarian is Quesadilla. According to A “it’s restaurant quality” but I think she is too kind with her complements. Regardless, it is extremely easy to make. I don’t have the “all ingredient” picture because I made this quite a while ago and don’t have the picture. If I make it again, I will update this post. List of ingredients, however: 2 shredded chicken (alternate: 1 lb extra firm tofu cut in strips; I also added finely chopped mushroom...

Just like the title said! Gosh, 2014 just flew by with a lot of traveling and personal changes. Moving is not a fun experience, and I would highly recommend everyone to either 1) not accumulate a lot of stuff, or 2) not move. In the cold winter months of January and February, there is a Nepali festival called Swasthàni Purnima. It starts on a full-moon evening of the month of Poush and ends a month later in Magh. This year, the festival started on January 4, and will end on February 3. Growing up in Nepal, I remember cold winter evenings when our family would gather around the heater with blankets and layers of clothing on around the Swasthàni book, and we would read a chapter a night. Because Hindus do not have specific congregations and services, this nightly reading was the only form of structured lessons in faith I ever got as a child. I remember being very excited when I could finally read Swasthàni. There is a verse evoking the Goddess Swasthàni, a form of the eternal female...

Smothered Pork chops are probably the most consistently good thing I make. It was also one of the first things I learned to make from a given recipe! It is also very easy for a cold winter day, because it is warm and very home-style. The key to this is real bacon. None of that pre-cooked crap that you can find in a non-cold section of the grocery store. Fire up your stove and brown bacon in one pan while browning pork chops in another one. Once the bacon is browned, take it out, and leave the grease in. Add mushrooms, garlic and onion and brown. After it is browned, add 3 tablespoons of flour and mix together.   Add the browned pork chop to the pan with the veggies. Add the broth and a bayleaf and simmer for 30 minutes to 45 minutes. Add crispy bacon and serve over rice.