Pending

There's a lot of food I want to blog about. Unfortunately, my Very Significant Other is in hog heaven slaving away at a chemistry conference... in the mountains of gorgeous Leavenworth, WA, with ample food and drink and many fascinating people to have that food and drink with. More pertinently, he brought my computer, which has my camera's data card in it. Food blogging will have to wait until Andy's back from his vacation work retreat.

Instead, I want to tell you about a few things that have happened lately.

1. Went to the Lincoln Center Out of Doors concert last night with the Asphalt Orchestra playing The Pixies' Surfer Rosa and the Kronos Quartet performing, among other things, a Dan Deacon piece with ample audience participation in honor of their fortieth anniversary of being totally badass. "Out of Doors" is particularly relevant because it was pouring rain, and all I had was a boys'-size Darth Vader poncho* and a shared umbrella. There aren't many performances for which I would tolerate a good dousing. Anything involving Kronos and Asphalt playing "Where is My Mind" is one of them. Here's the clip Bill Bragin tweeted. Dan Harrington put the icing on the very damp cake by (I think) popping out his bridge while absolutely shredding "Purple Haze." The rest of the quartet patiently held the chord while he fixed his instrument and got back into it.

Now go listen to Surfer Rosa and the Nonesuch Records album Kronos Quartet. Shoo. Git.

2. I'm going to be a neurologist. Phew, a decision at last**. Now, to scale the Sisyphean peak that is ERAS, and take Step 2, and go on the interview trail.

3. So, I started typing this before I left for the hospital this morning, ending with a blank Bullet Point No. 3, and I don't remember what my third point was. I've probably just avoided inflicting more artsy-fartsy rambling on the world. You're welcome.

*Both this and the umbrella courtesy of the mother of a friend of mine. If you're reading this, thank you for taking pity. It kept me dry from the waist up.
**Emergency medicine, I'm going to miss you in all your smelly, barely-suppressed-chaotic glory. I promise to think of our love whenever I'm tempted to whine about an ER consult. Adieu, mon p'tit chou chou.

How does it happen?

Boring Way to Start a Blog Post No. 81653: "Wow, How the Time Has Flown!"

Wow, guys, this year has just flown by! It's July? I haven't posted in nearly two months? NSA what?

I sort of have an excuse for the posting part (and nothing useful to say about that last part). Andy and I tried this weird lifting-related diet that, I admit, is both insane and completely unsustainable. This is particularly true for someone who likes to, you know, chew a variety of salty and sweet foods rather than suck down protein powder and the occasional egg. And then there was vacation, and then there was stressful stuff, and there's still stressful stuff but I'm making my own damn bootstraps and picking myself up by them.

But before we embarked on that questionable endeavor, I cooked a multi-course Indian meal to celebrate Andy passing his quals. He's an official PhD candidate now!

Clockwise starting at top left: sauteed tatsoi, Bengali mustard
cod, cold cucumber soup, and tamarind-mint candied cashews.

 Part 1 of a small sampling of interim dishes: an exciting recipe for pickled mixed vegetables from Smitten Kitchen...

Managed not to ding myself with
the mandoline in the background
(despite using it on snap peas).

The finished product atop lentil burgers.

Seared tofu with roasted red pepper adobo sauce, over quinoa. #whitepeoplefood

Aaand last but not least, squid with black garlic cilantro butter, atop a corn, Savoy cabbage, and roasted red pepper hash.