Passover (or how i spent my weekend cooking)

Passover began last night. I’m very excited. It’s one of my favorite holidays, up there with Thanksgiving. I'm a big fan of holidays that revolve around eating delicious food, spending time with family, and no gift-giving/receiving. Granted, this delicious food during Passover is limited to the seders I attend since I will probably be living off of hard-boiled eggs, matzah, and haroset for the other 6 days…not that those aren’t delicious…I digress…I decided to spread the joy and cook a Passover meal for my housemates. There was only one issue: I’m a vegetarian and have been for a while. Having been a co-cook for my summer camp for two weeks surrounded by either vegetarians or people who have a serious love affair with meat, I understood that I should include some sort of meat dish in the meal or face the wrath of the carnivores. So I opted for the meat that I miss most as a vegetarian, which is also Passover appropriate: Brisket (a better option than my other favorite, bacon).

Getting the brisket was an ordeal in itself. I went grocery shopping with Sydney, who is also a vegetarian. So when it came to buying brisket we were CLEARLY THE BEST PEOPLE FOR THE JOB. I went into this situation with the same mindset as when I go to get my car fixed (which is often) - I need to sound like I know what I'm talking about and have confidence oozing out of my pores.

me: do you have brisket?

meat man: yes (proceeds to show us to the briskets)

meat man: how much do nee..

me: eighttotenpounds.

meat man: well the biggest we got is probably 4 or 5..

me: thatsgood.

meat man: ...pounds..you sure? here's a 6..

me: Yeahi'lltakethesix

meat man: personally, i'd go with this one with good marbling..

me: andamoreuniformcutyeahdefinitelyagree

mean man: ookayy...

Whatever. Clearly I am very knowledgeable when it comes to purchasing cuts of meat. The rest of the shopping went off without a hitch (though lugging around a 5 lb box of matzah without a cart did draw a few looks from the gentiles of the wisconsin st. giant). So with my newly purchased, soon-to-be-a-staple-of-my-kitchen cookbook, Sydney and I spent Saturday and Sunday cooking up a storm. It was complete with me squealing every second I had to touch the raw brisket and asking the carnivores to check it every 5 minutes.

All in all, we made brisket (duh), matzah ball soup (duhh), haroset, and an eggplant dish. We didn't have a true seder because itwassundayandnotyetpassover NOT because I couldn't get haggadahs... Not to mention I'll be going home next week to help my mom put on a seder..wouldn't want too many seders..wouldn't want too much of a good thing..no way. But there you have it- my seder meal. If you read all of this, I thank you. Next time I see you, perhaps I will reward you with a slice of the Passover Wine Cake I just made which may or may not have been successful. Also, thought I'd point out, not mentioned in the Haggadah is the 11th plague, also known as the mess created in my kitchen as a result of two days of cooking. Lethal.

Chag Pesach Sameach!

cherry tree, meet 228

out of nowhere [well maybe spring had something to do with it], the tree in our front yard bloomed. it caught a lot of us by surprise. last night, we all sat outside underneath it, enjoying the warm evening and the people watching that our location affords us. it was a great early start to the potentially rainy weekend. happy friday.

Schools of the Future

Today I got the really really cool opportunity to sit on the jury for CEFPI's School of the Future Design Competition as part of School Building Week 2011. I, along with several other jurors in the educational/architectural/environmental realm, listened to the 6 finalists of the competition that included middle schoolers from across the country (Alaska!).

For the competition, middle schoolers had to design a school that would be high-performing, healthy, safe, sustainable, and community-engaging. The groups competed within their own schools, then at the state level, then regionally, and finally (today), nationally. And what they came up with was incredible! The ideas that these 6th, 7th, and 8th graders developed far exceeded my expectations. When I was in middle school, I was sending crickets down a T-shaped "maze" to see if they chose to go left or right at the end; not designing schools for the future that would be environmentally sustainable, allow students to thrive, and enhance community interaction. They used words in their presentations that I'm sure I had never used/heard of until late high school/college. If the future is in their hands, we're in good shape. Granted monetary value of incorporating and developing their ideas was not taken into account (as one competitor put it - they didn't want to stifle their creativity!), they assured us, and I don't doubt it, that their vertical wind mills, smart-boards, hydroponic gardens, etc, would be beneficial in the long run. Adorable.

if you watch carefully..

...you will see my housemate, Max, stuff an entire pineapple round into his mouth.

just nonchalantly shoving one entire pineapple round in his mouth after another. it was just one of those days for him. after he realized i was recording him he said "please don't pace this on fostbook". noted, max. instead, i'll "pace" this on my blog!

oh dear...

[I think these kind of blog posts are cop outs, but I have a little to stay about a lot of things]

dear blog,

sorry for neglecting you so. i have had adventures, seen many friends, thought many a thought, all of which i want to share, and will do so in the coming days.

dear tourists,

i'm glad you're here for the cherry blossom festival, glad you're here supporting the tourism industry, but don't look so surprised when i give you the stink eye as i pass you because you couldn't be bothered to make room on the sidewalk for others.

dear small unattended child,

if you're not careful (rather, if your parents are not careful), i just might scoop you up next time your guardians are distracted taking pictures of themselves touching the top of the washington monument, because you're so gosh darn cute (same to you, wandering puppy).

dear group of school kids i passed on my walk to work on friday,

just because i am dressed up to go to work, and walking by a senate building, does not mean i am a congresswoman. but i did appreciate the "pardon me miss congresswoman" and "excuse me congresswoman". it's a nice change from being asked if i am an unaccompanied minor in the airport.

dear mockingbird that is always singing outside my window,

did that rock i threw sorta near you scare ya? huh? huh? did it? guess we'll find out tonight...

dear courtney,

thank you thank you for visiting dc this past weekend. i loved the opportunity to hang out with you and finally catch up. i found this gem from our night out:

which reminded me of this picture from high school when you (wrongfully!!!) accused me of stealing $5000 of project graduation money from you. i forgive you. please visit again.

winner winner chicken dinner

well lookie what we have here...

is that me at the top? yes, yes i do believe it is.

after holding it down at the bottom of the standings for so long,

i pulled through with a come-from-very-behind victory.

let's hear it for the big east.

in the long run...

This past weekend I ran my second of three 20-mile runs in preparation for the Pittsburgh Marathon. On my shorter runs, I'll listen to music, but it's gotten to the point where I know how long my songs on my running playlist last, so I am very conscious of how much time/mileage has passed. On my longer runs, I need something to really take my mind off of the fact that I still have 15 or so miles to go (but something that allows me to be able to focus on my running simultaneously) so I started listening to audiobooks. But on this run, I decided to tune out to podcasts and catch up on This American Life and The Moth. For the most part, it was delightful! Until I got to Anthony Griffith's story on The Moth titled under "Best of Times, Worst of Times". That should have been my first clue. Turns out this was the "one of the saddest stories [they've] ever presented". Yikes. But maybe something sad would really distract me? Long, sad, story short: it's about Anthony's struggle to balance his career as a rising comedian and fathering a cancer-stricken daughter. It is a really moving piece and if you get the chance to listen to it, please do it. It brought me to tears. I was downright bawling. And running. Not a good combination. Two people stopped to make sure I was alright. I tried to blame it on the rain..."the...the...weather...don't...worry..." only it wasn't raining at the time.

Also on my run I kicked a poodle. One of those small ones. It wasn't on purpose. It got in the way of my foot after I yelled "excuse me!" to its owner multiple times and he still didn't pull his dog closer to him on the small sidewalk. It yelped and I'm sure it was fine..probably looked something like this:

...just kidding