a summation

Time to focus on productivity and accomplishments!

1. This weekend I made chocolate chip cookies with a very sneaky secret ingredient: Chickpeas! Now, that may sound gross, but they turned out absolutely delicious. No need for butter, oil, eggs, flour, or white sugar for this recipe. These cookies are really filling, and, no, they do not taste like humus. Check out the recipe at Ambitious Kitchen.

2. This weekend I also made homemade taquitos with yellow squash and zucchini, homemade "refried" black beans, cheese, and tortillas. Mexican food is definitely a comfort food for me, so it is nice to have a delicious and satisfying recipe that I can easily make at home. I also really like making my own "refried" beans because it allows me to give the beans a bit more pizazz by choosing what flavors I want to feature. Perhaps I will share my taquito and refreid black bean recipes in a future post.

3.On Sunday I celebrated Chinese New Year by eating as much food as possible. The afternoon started out at TC Pastry in the Outer Sunset. Although not a traditional dim sum restaurant, this place offers a wide variety of dim sum favorites. There were not a lot of vegetarian options, but I still managed pretty well. I got vegetable lo mien, a vegetable baozi, and an egg custard baozi (baozi are buns with delicious secrets inside. In China I was obsessed with dousha baozi [red bean paste bun] and basically ate one every day). After feast #1, we got milk tea with boba (tapioca balls), and then walked to J.C.'s apartment to begin jiaozi (dumpling) making! The process took a long time (2:00 to 6:00) even though there were many cooks in the kitchen. We made 120 dumplings and could have made a lot more, but we ran out of skins and mouths to feed.

  
4.This past week I sent out 17 cold emails to professors in the Bay Area who are conducting research I am interested in. Yeah, 17. It was a lot of work, but I feel very accomplished for doing it.

5. I can run 3 miles! Currently I seem to be doing a 10 minute mile. I would like to be going faster, but the route I jog does have some big hills, so I still feel pretty good about this. While my endurance is great, I find that what really holds me back is the stiffness I feel in my lower legs near the end of my run. Does anyone else have this problem? Also, I have been running four days a week, but last week I only went running twice...

6.On Friday my brother and I saw this outstanding play called "The Wild Bride." It is hard to describe the play because it combines a lot of elements one would think wouldn't work well together, but in actuality do. Basically it is a combination Scottish/Southern folk tale about a strong woman who is pursued by the devil and it is set to Blues music. I loved it and bought the album. The play is headed to New York next, so if you are there I highly recommend you see it.

Other things: I am loving the new album by Thao and the Get Down Stay Down, I am digging The Mindy Project, and I am staying happy by watching comforting anime shows and other cartoons.

Barfly

Churchill on Church St. and Market in San Francisco {photo credit}
Last night I sort of fell in love with this place; the dark, dive bar ambience, the great background music playing at a reasonable volume, the couches, the ropes draped across the ceiling. I am a passionate beer drinker (i.e. a snob), and, despite the small draft list, I liked the selection Churchill had to offer. M. and I split a large bottle of Alesmith's Speedway Stout (an Imperial Stout). I adore the strength of Imperial Stouts, and while this one was a little more bitter and less smooth than other Imperials I've had, it was just what I wanted that evening. What was better than the beer, however, was the company. M. and I (after a homemade dinner of hearty lentil and chard soup and crunchy-crusty sourdough bread) met up with our college friend K. She has such great energy and is a lot of fun to hang out with. Filled with people-love and beer-love I headed home on BART feeling hopeful and happy.
Moving to California was the right decision.

History of a tough motherfucker

(Please excuse the language in the title of this here post. It's not me, it's Charles Bukowski!)

A year ago today I thought I would be in a very different place, but what my adult life has taught me so far is that things rarely if ever go as planned. On the bright side sometimes it is okay if things don't go as planned because something unplanned and BETTER comes along. Currently the unplanned thing that happened was that I resigned from my research assistant position at an Ivy League school. A position in which I received no support, mentorship, direction, or recognition for the inordinate amount of work I was doing and the inordinate amount of effort and time I was putting into that work. While the unplanned thing has happened I am still waiting (not passively, mind you) for the something better, and I feel that it is just around the corner.

I am taking this time off to undergo some much needed detoxification, and I am also trying to focus on the positive. Although my job was generally ridiculously unpleasant I do think it was the right job for me to take at the time and Boston was the right place for me to be at the time (even if sometimes I did feel miserable and lonely there). Alright, now for a list!

The POSITIVE List
1. I learned what I do and don't want/need in a job.
2. I learned to have faith in myself.
3. I learned how to stick up for myself in a professional manner.
4. I met some wonderful people.
5. I learned many useful research techniques.
6. I was able to collaborate with a group of scientists at the Broad Institute (think swanky club/admirals lounge but with more science and less dancing/alcohol. Seriously, this place is amazing).
7. I can say that I worked at an Ivy League institution for a year, and this fact alone proves that I AM good at what I do and I CAN do anything.

Seven things on the positive list. Not too shabby.