The House Poet

Lugging a large bag filled to the brim with DVDs and CDs I didn't want any more, I made my way to Amoeba Records in Berkeley to do some trading! I knew they wouldn't give me much money, but I wanted to get rid of some things. It makes moving easier. My dad dropped me off on Telegraph Ave and then went off to the Theological library. I was able to get $20 in store credit, which isn't too bad. I bought two used CDs: Andrew Bird's new album Noble Beast and a Sigur Ros' album called Agaetis Bryjun , which has just been named Iceland's best album of all time! I am excited to have new music to listen to! :) Then, I walked around trying to decide whether or not I should scrape some change together for some frozen yogurt or gelato, but decided against it. Instead, I walked through the streets and enjoyed the nice cool day. I relished the coolness since it's been a crazy hot week! I love how green everything was! So bright and cheery! Then, I walked onto the campus a...

Ahhhh, summer is truly upon us. The days are slow and hot, full of relaxation and sometimes idleness. Even Scooter is spending her days just sleeping and munching away at her cool lettuce, like in the picture above. Since my dad didn't need me at work today, I stayed home and made something we needed! I've realized that I really like working and keeping busy. :) What is that mound of dough going to become? BAGELS! Yes, this morning I tried my hand at making homemade bagels! My dad doesn't like buying bread at stores anymore so he makes his own. Today I wanted to try! In the two pictures above the bagels are puffing out and waiting to be boiled. You have to boil the bagels quickly before they are baked in the oven. Here they are after being boiled. Wrinkly aren't they? I am not too sure why, but my dad thinks it is because we didn't have any bread flour so I used regular all-purpose flour instead. Voila! Homemade bagels! Even if they don't exactly resemble ba...

Grace of Sunlight A field of yellow-- Now that summer has come The grass has gone dry My hands are outstretched And I feel the dry tips of plants With my fingers My legs take me far And I don't stop Words and feelings stream by Like a river that propels me forward But I'm lost in its currents The sweet musk of jasmine flowers Hangs in the hot air As I ride my bike down paths not yet forgotten The trail opens itself up to me, It welcomes me Ducks swim by with their fluffy ducklings Plopping in and out of the water Learning to navigate through it Bees hum and hover among the flowers And birds trill out from the trees A turtle's head peeks up from the rippling water A silent hello, a faint recognition Squirrels scuttle through the paths and up trees The air is flavored With the refreshing bite of eucalyptus Everything flows through me Cleansing me and reminding me Of the grace of sunlight

I have been dying to try making homemade pesto sauce ever since I discovered how much I like it at Cafe Citti. I bought a nice pasta cookbook a couple weeks ago, and there is a quick and simple recipe for pesto in it. Thus, I couldn't wait to make some! My dad let me make some for dinner tonight, and here is what happened! Basil leaves, garlic, and parmesan is put into a food processor and blended together. I omitted the pine nuts because my dad doesn't like them. After all those ingredients blend, with the motor running you pour olive oil into the mixture to make a paste. Here is the pesto paste! I love the deep green color of it! :D Here is the finished pasta! Yay! We didn't have the required amount of basil leaves on our plant that the recipe called for. Thus, the pasta isn't as green as it should be. I also think that the food processor we have is too big, so the pesto paste didn't mix too well. My dad and sister really loved the pasta though, which made me hap...

Ooooh, two posts in one day! Yay! ;) Anyway, today my dad took my sister and I to the beach for the first time in two years!!! I was really excited about going since we hadn't been for so long. It was a nice family outing, and we went to the beach that was a large part of our childhood. It made me a bit nostalgic! :) I smartly took a hat and was very excited to show it off apparently, hahaha. :D I had fun taking lots of pictures with my camera! For lunch, we packed a picnic! We brought sandwich fixings and everyone helped themselves. I made a gigantic sandwich full of chicken, Black Forest Ham, lettuce, sharp cheddar cheese, and I spread some hummus on the bread! Trader Joe's hummus is rather sharp, and since I have only been eating my dad's homemade hummus I had forgotten what that one tasted like. I think the acidic flavor is almost too strong, but that's just me. The sandwich was delicious and filling!! I also munched on some Fuji apple slices, yum! The day started o...

Yesterday I spent the day with my two oldest friends! We hadn't really hung out too much since summer started because we've been busy, so it was nice to be with them again and have fun. It's been a while since we did that. :) Things are changing in our lives and ourselves, but we will always be family. It was a hot but pretty day so we wanted to eat outside. Thus, Val went to go get a burrito from Chipotle and then walked over to Whole Foods where me and Andrea were getting sandwiches! We sat outside and had fun talking and eating. My sandwich was delicious and filling! I got lettuce, spring mix, onions, roasted turkey, cheddar cheese, hummus spread, and basil pesto spread on a sweet baguette! I loved how all the flavors meshed together so well. Pacific's sandwich counter could learn a lot from Whole Foods! One might think that having basil pesto spread on one side and hummus on the other might taste kinda weird, but it works! The hummus had a nice strong garlic taste t...

Last night, my dad made a Filipino chicken dish called Chicken Adobo! I love the flavor of the sauce with the chicken; soy sauce, spices, and other yummy things are mixed together to create a very aromatic and flavorful dish! The rice soaks up all the sauce and is a perfect accompaniement to the chicken and sauce. :) I've only ever tried my dad's chicken adobo, so I would love to try a true Filipino version! For lunch today, my dad wanted to take a shot at making Miso Ramen soup again. Thankfully it isn't super hot right now, so it wasn't bad having soup. :D The broth tasted very nice and strong; I think my dad did a really good job this time. It's simple, with only the miso broth, noodles, green onions, and hard-boiled eggs, but it's good. I will post a recipe on here once we perfect it! On a truly random note, I think mopping the floor is an absolute waste of time. The floor will get dirty from the mop and your shoes, so there is no point! Augh! I had to clean...

Even though I miss college a lot, I have to admit that the food at home is way better than the food at school! My family is very lucky and thankful that we can eat so well. For lunch yesterday, my dad made fried rice! We had some leftover rice in the fridge that we needed to eat, so my dad mixed that up with some ham, green onions, celery, egg, and peas. Then, he sauteed green beans and carrots in a garlic sauce to mix into the rice as well. It was very tasty! The ham added a nice meaty flavor to the rice. :) My dad was so proud of how he presented this that he told me to take a picture for my blog! I guess he is getting into the whole food blog/photo thing too! ;) This mashed up-looking dish was part of last night's dinner. It is an Indian dish called Aloo Gobi, and there is cauliflower and potatoes in it. You can also put chickpeas an regular peas in it, but my dad kept it simple. He put in a small amount of curry, so it was okay for me to eat. It was delicious! It had been simme...

Yesterday my sister and I spent the morning in Berkeley while my dad went to the theological library to stock up on more books for his research. We were there before 11, so many of the stores and cafes weren't open. Many summer students were roaming the streets and campus, which made me want to go back to Pacific! UC Berkeley's campus feels so collegiate and inspiring; I would love to take summer classes there but they are ridiculously expensive. :/ After we walked down Telegraph Avenue for a bit, my sister and I stopped in The Musical Offering classical music shoppe and cafe. It's across the street from Sprawl Plaza, so it has a very convenient location. In the picture above I am contemplating Bach. :D Here is the cafe's delicious strawberry lemonade! I like to get this whenever I go; it's very fresh and sweet! The cafe also serves lunch and dinner entrees for very reasonable prices. They have sandwiches, soups, salads, and then fancier dishes for dinner. There are...

Things have been rather chill at home so yesterday my dad asked me if I wanted to cook anything special. He was going to the grocery store with my grandmother and wanted to know if I needed anything. I grabbed some of our many cookbooks from the overcrowded living room bookshelves and paged through them, yet nothing called to me. I then went over to our awesome Asian food cookbook and opened it up to a random page. Lo and behold it was the recipe for this soup! I had been wanting to make this soup for a long time now, so it was fun to finally do it! :) Here is a pic of the dumplings bubbling in the broth. This soup isn't necassarily difficult to make, but it has a lot of different parts to it, such as the dumpling filling, broth, and then actually filling the dumplings. It's a lot of hard work. I need to make it again, since I had a couple of mishaps. I should have made more broth, but the amount I did make was fine for the three of us. The broth was sooooo tasty though! It was...

Yesterday for lunch, my dad made pizza! It was such a treat! He had already been in the kitchen all morning working hard on making chili, so the fact that he made pizza too made me so happy! The pizza pictured above was my dad's pizza, with pepperoni, olives, basil leaves, cheese, ham, and a tomato on it. The above pizza was mine! SO GOOD! My pizza had an egg in the middle (yay!), ham, pepperoni, basil leaves, cheese, and mushrooms. I really enjoyed it! This was my sister's pizza with tomatoes, pepperoni, mushrooms, cheese, and basil leaves. She wanted to have a healthy pizza. ;) The pizza tasted awesome, but it had a special twist to it. My dad used whole weat flour to make the dough with, so the crust tasted different. It didn't fluff up as much, but it had an almost chewy, tasty texture. I really liked the wheat crust! My dad made homemade hummus on Thursday and it's really good! He put garbanzo beans, tahini sauce, lemon juice, and some spices into a food proce...