Ganesh Festival

This past weekend, we went over to Rasika and Niranjan's place for the Ganesh Festival celebration. It was loads of fun.

Rasika setting up the incense on the shrine.

The beautiful shrine. You'll notice the dumplings on the ground, Rasika said we have to show all the food to Ganesh first, before we can eat it.

The idol in the middle has to sit atop a book of knowledge. Rasika said she used one of her biology textbooks. I love it!! What a cool concept.

Niranjan teaching Brandon how to do the offering.

Brandon doing the offering

Everyone sang a prayer, then we all took turns doing the offering again.

Nikki giving a prayer.

Yummy dumplings with a sweet filling. Rasika says they make this because it's Ganesh's favorite dish. That guy has good taste ;-)

A delicious rice-type dish made with tapioca pearls and potatoes.

Everyone in front of the shrine.

After prayers, offerings and dinner we all just hung out and chatted. It was a really nice, relaxing evening. The ceremony reminded me a lot of Pesach, which was cool. It was really refreshing to hang out with a group of people and experience something new. And of course, now it's back to the grind in lab...

Unhealthy Food is Occasionally Good for the Soul

It rained a lot this weekend. It was really refreshing.

We hung out on the couch with the kitty...

We popped out to lunch with friends, and in the rain I could only wear my boots. So obviously I had to put together an outfit to match ^_^

Rory came over and the boys played Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe while the rain fell.

Naturally, I needed to cook. But we were in the mood for something different. I decided to try two new recipes. First: fried pickles!

The recipe calls for bread-and-butter pickles, but Vlasic uses high fructose corn syrup in their recipe, so I opted for kosher dill stackers instead, which I then cut in thirds.

The pickles marinated in buttermilk with salt and pepper, then I breaded them with flour and panko, and fried them briefly in peanut oil. It only took a minute on each side.

We dipped them in ranch dressing. They were deeeeeelish.

Clearly, such an unhealthy snack calls for an appropriately unhealthy dessert. I tried a recipe I found on pinterest. It's a blonde brownie pie with pretzel crust and peanut butter cups instead of chocolate chips. Then I made whipped cream to go on top. Yyyyyep. We're health nuts.

Pretzel crust... Held together with butter. Yum. 

Yyyyyyyyyyep.

Then, a few days ago, I told Brandon we needed to put more effort into training Quorra. I asked him to pick a behavior and start training. Then, I came home and found this happening:

Shoulder-sitting. That's what he decided to teach her to do. Because that's productive.

Summer Sandwiches and Phenomenal Care Packages

The cover story on Bon Appetit a few months ago was an open-faced heirloom tomato and feta sandwich. We found some heirloom tomatoes at the store and decided to try it, we didn't have all the ingredients, but I winged it and it turned out great.

Spring mix, fresh-cracked pepper, extra-virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar.... They turned out pretty delicious. I toasted them a little and it helped bring the flavor out in the tomatoes, and the feta melted juuuuust slightly. It was perfect.

But as excited as I was about those sandwiches, I was even more excited today, when we got no less than THREE simultaneous packages in the mail.

Firstly, we ordered a fountain for Quorra! It arrived today, as well as a year's supply of filters (it's a fountain and a water filter, because our cat is SPOILED.)

Allow me to explain our reasoning briefly. Cats don't drink water unless they're dehydrated, and they generally don't show a lot of interest in standing water (as with a water bowl). As a result, it's extremely common for them to develop kidney problems later in life. One of the simpler ways to keep them hydrated is to give them a fountain. It's fascinating enough that they drink from it fairly regularly - and it's stimulating! So there ya go. I hope Quorra figures it out...

Okay, okay, but I really need to tell you about the care package my mom sent us, because it was awesome.

My mom bought Brandon and I a hilarious gift, totally out of the blue. I mentioned to her once a while ago that I'd love to have a vintage phone, just for fun. Well, she apparently found one online for cheap, and it's in phenomenal condition!

Brandon explained that Bell was the Apple Computers of its time... Although I'm suspicious that he didn't mean that in a *good* way. 

The first thing I want to do with the phone is make it battery-powered and blue-tooth capable. We're going to hook it up to my cell phone, and make all the buttons functional again - so I can actually dial it and talk on it, just like it was meant to be used.

But Brandon has a PHENOMENAL long-term plan for it. He wants to put a tiny Linux computer inside it, and hook it up to an intercom at our front door, so we can answer it, then use it to unlock the door and let people in. Obviously, this is a years-long project, and our current apartment doesn't even have an intercom, but still I think it's a seriously cool plan. I would love to give this beauty its own little table, and make it an every-day use item...

But that's not the only thing my mother sent! Last year at Christmas, my mom contributed to my vintage luggage collection. This has been an ongoing project for me, but since she pitched in last year, I feel like I finally have a full set. In any case, I couldn't bring it all home with me at once, and the last piece has been sitting at my mom's house forever. But I apparently nagged enough that she sent it along... Here's my collection!

The orange and green ones are a decent size for a weekend trip. The red one (the one my mom shipped us this week) is really more of a carry-on item for airplane trips, and the floral one I usually use for toiletries or odds and ends.

Honestly, these photos don't do them justice. I need to find better lighting - the orange suitcase is a SCREAMING orange, the teal is a rich, bright teal, and the red is a legitimate ruby red. The floral case is really the odd-man out, it's made of fabric rather than false leather, and it's a darker shade. It's also not in as nice shape.

I was posing them together for photographing when Brandon reminded me of my green train case! I use it for my sewing kit, so sometimes I forget that it's technically luggage.

I love this collection. They were all such phenomenal finds, they're in great condition - totally usable, even on an airplane, and they really pull together into a funky little collection. (can you tell I'm excited?)

Okay, lastly, my mom included a couple very special gifts for Brandon. A while back I bought him a level attached to a metal square ruler. My mom found a fun little vintage book that outlines how to use this tool. Additionally, she dug up my grandpa's old pocket slide-rule and decided Brandon was the one person who would really appreciate it.

It's a perfect fit because I already got Brandon a slide rule, and he just loves it - but he didn't have a pocket-sized one. But also I think it was very sweet of her to send him something that belonged to my grandpa. It was a very cool and thoughtful gift.

What a fun week! Oh gosh, it's only Monday....

Saturday Fun

Last week on Saturday I woke up to find Brandon making me crepes for breakfast. He's amazing.

Brandon likes to make crepes once in a while, just for fun. Every time, he insists on doing half savory, half sweet.

The savory ones had chicken, arugula and parmesan.

The sweet crepes had melted chocolate, bananas and confectioner's sugar.

At the grocery store last week, Brandon got me some super-healthy green juice. It had celery, cucumber, spinach and parsley in it, and nothing else. Admittedly, it needed some sweetening up, so I mixed it in with orange juice and it was perfect.  It's silly, but I feel healthy drinking something so green.

And then this happened!

Such a goofy cat. She gets more and more adventurous every day. ^_^

Lots of love! I'll post more photos when we have more.

Home Remedies

Recently I've been getting into skin and beauty products more. I never used to care about what I had branded "girly stuff," but it has become a sudden project for me.

I bought a few fun products that I'd like to try to make on my own. There are TONS of recipes on pinterest for scrubs, lotions, shampoos, everything. I started small: aloe vera for sunburns and cuts, and a sugary lip scrub to keep my lips soft. ^_^

Brandon got us an aloe plant a while back, and he's been taking care of it. It lives on our porch, and it requires very little care, since we live in Texas and this is very close to its natural environment. But we don't want to start cutting leaves from it until it gets a little bigger, so for a quick test run of the procedure, I bought a piece of aloe at the grocery store.

I read a recipe online that says you need vitamins C & E to stabilize the aloe if you're going to be keeping it for an extended period. In the past, I've always just cut a tiny slice of the plant and used it immediately for sunburns, but this is the first time I've made a home-remedy that is meant to stay on the shelf, so I bought some vitamin E gelpacks and I opened up a few of the vitamin C capsules my dad gave us to take with breakfast.

First you have to carve it open, which is quite messy, then you scoop the guts out and measure them so you know how much of the vitamins to add.

Brandon got a billion pictures of this part mainly because it was so silly. It was goopy, messy, weird...

But finally I got it all in the blender and it was time for the vitamins. For the vitamin E, all we could find were little gel packs.

I emptied the vitamin C capsules in first, since they were easier to empty. Then I cut the vitamin E gel packs with a very sharp knife and a steady hand.

Then I squeezed them into the blender. It was a silly way of doing it, but this way I knew the dosage I was adding.

Halfway through I noticed there were some vitamin bits sticking to the side of the blender, so I pushed them down, but other than that, I just blended until it was smooth.

It's not much to look at, or smell for that matter, it just smells like nothing. But I put it in the fridge, and now, when Brandon inevitably gets sun-burned, we'll be ready!

Next I made a delicious lip scrub for my pretty pout ^_^

This is another recipe I found online. it calls for raw sugar, cinnamon-infused olive oil, brown sugar, and just a drop of vanilla extract. I started that olive oil infusing in cinnamon months ago. It's been sitting on our window sill, I think it's more than ready.

Our brown sugar was apparently getting very old...

Something I've noticed with scrubs is that the sugar or salt tends to sink to the bottom and become hard. When you use it, you have to stir it up again every single time. But that's part of the point, you don't want the solids dissolving. I like scrubs; the oils freshen up and moisturize your skin while the salt or sugar scrapes away the dead skin and reveals the fresh, new skin underneath.

We decided to give it a try.

.... and make a few silly faces, while we were at it.

It was absolutely lovely. My lips felt very soft. Now I just need to use chap stick diligently and KEEP them that way. ^_^