$12 Haircut, what what!

What a glorious day!

Now that we've moved, we live next to this gigantic shopping mall that has all of my favorite stores... and then some.  So the first part of my day was spent browsing the following stores:

Charlotte Russe
H&M
Forever 21
The Loft
Urban Outfitters

While I was walking around, I also decided it wouldn't be a terrible idea to get a haircut.  I looked in the mall directory and was happy to find Bubbles, the salon I usually go to, and headed in that direction.  Well surprise, surprise, I got lost somewhere along the way.  But lucky I did because it led me to an even better option-- Paul Mitchell the School.

Some might cringe at the thought of getting their hair done by a student, but I have no qualms.  No matter where I go, I always opt for the classic trim with layers, which I think anyone with minimal training can do.  Especially since the students have instructors there for guidance.  And the best part is -- they offer DISCOUNTS.  So instead of paying the $45 and up that I would normally pay at Bubbles, I ended up paying only $12.

Random Side story:  I remember while studying abroad in London my friends and I were looking for salon schools to save some cash, especially since salons in London were expensive!  We ended up finding one, but when we got there we discovered it was a special school that only offered wacky haircuts.  So when I asked for the classic trim with layers, they said they weren't able to do that.  They did, however, offer to do reverse layers instead where the top layers were longer than the bottom layers, which I respectfully declined.  

There are some obvious drawbacks to going to a school rather than a salon.  First of all, right when you enter, you have to sign a waver basically acknowledging that this is a school, and therefore if someone screws up, they are not responsible.  Were I getting some tricky hairstyle or colors/highlights, I would have been very nervous at this point.  Also the student is a lot more tentative when approaching you and their actions a lot more carefully planned.  I'm used to my hairstylist just sort of diving right in.  But I found the student explained aloud to me what she was doing beforehand and often checked and double-checked to see if I was OK with things like the temperature of the water or the height of the chair.

The other drawback is that the entire process took a LOT longer than usual.  At Bubbles, I'm in and out within 30-45 minutes tops.  This haircut (just a basic trim) took about 2 hours.  Since I was in no real hurry, I didn't mind it.  Plus, the head massage during the shampoo/conditioning stage more than made up for it.

So here is the final result:

Some of you might not even be able to tell that my hair was cut, but yes, yes it was.

Since I was able to save some money on the cut, I decided to purchase the products that were used on my hair today: Tea Tree Shampoo and Conditioner.  I've been meaning to buy a good professional shampoo/conditioner, so this was a great opportunity for that.  Apparently they plant a tree for every purchase made.  So yay!  Save money, plant a tree...  glorious.

oo,

Egg Casserole

I've made this recipe a number of times and it's definitely one of my favorites.  It's easy to make and can be modified with whatever you have in your fridge at any given time.  Here is the recipe as it is written in the Scrapbook:

Egg Casserole       

3 cups milk
6 eggs
10 pieces of bread

Tear bread into bite-size pieces and put in a 9x13 inch pan.  Mix milk and eggs and pour over bread.  Can add cheese, onions, peppers, tomatoes, black olives, sour cream, sausage, bacon, ham, salt, and pepper.  We always bake the meat with the eggs and use the vegetables, cheese, & sour cream as garnishments.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.  Great for Easter or breakfast.  Enjoy!  Serves 6-8 people.

I always halve this recipe whenever I make it and put it into a smaller pan.  The pan pictured above is 8x6.  I like to think these directions give me license for adding whatever I want as long as I stick to the basic 3 ingredients of eggs, bread, and milk.

This time, I threw in onion, cheese, veggie sausage links, and grape tomatoes since that's what I had on hand.  For the bread, I used a couple of hard rolls that were in our freezer.  Any bread will do, but I think day old bread works really well with this.  Ciabatta would also work really nicely.

I layered the pieces of bread on the bottom of the pan and sprinkled the onions, sausage, and tomatoes over that.  I added salt/pepper to the egg and milk mixture and poured it over the ingredients in the pan.  Then I sprinkled a healthy dose of shredded cheese on top.  I put this in the oven as directed -- 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

As it cooks, the bread absorbs the milk/egg mixture and the casserole puffs up.  Also, the bread and cheese get nice and crispy on top.  When it's done, give it a light poke in the middle with your finger.  If it bounces back, then it's done.  If it sinks, then I would leave it in a little bit longer.

I had some leftover cilantro in the fridge that I added for garnish.  Here is the first piece of the casserole:

And here is how I prefer to eat it -- with a nice drizzle of ketchup on the top:

Delicious!

oo,

Chicken Tikka

Here is my first recipe scrapbook attempt: Chicken Tikka.  Why did I choose this recipe?  I was flipping through my scrapbook to see which recipes were the most difficult.  I read through the recipe for Chicken Tikka thinking it would be challenging, but I was rather shocked to see that everything was just regular ingredients and, in fact, I already had nearly everything in my fridge/pantry.  The only ingredients missing were ginger root, jalapenos, cilantro, and heavy cream.  Nothing a quick trip to the grocery store couldn't resolve.  I took that as a sign that I must make this recipe.  I tried my best to follow the recipe exactly but... well, read on.

Chicken Tikka

For the Marinade
1 cup yoghurt
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp minced ginger
4 tsp salt
3 boneless chicken breasts (cut into small pieces)
4 long skewers

For the Sauce
1 tbsp butter
1 clove garlic, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp paprika
3 tsp salt
8 ounces tomato sauce
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1.  In a large bowl, combine yoghurt, lemon juice, cumin, cinnamon, cayenne, black pepper, ginger, and salt.  Stir in chicken, cover, and refrigerate for an hour.
2.  Pre-heat a grill for high heat.
3.  Lightly oil the grill/oven.  Thread chicken onto skewers and discard leftover marinade.  Grill until juices run clear, about 5 minutes on each side. 
4.  Melt butter in a large heavy skillet over medium heat.  Saute garlic and jalapeno for 1 minute.  Season with cumin, paprika, and salt.  Stir in tomato sauce and cream.  Simmer on low heat until sauce thickens, about 20 minutes.  Add grilled chicken and simmer for 10 minutes.
5.  Transfer onto serving platter and garnish with cilantro.

I got as far as step 3 and realized I did not have a grill.  So I broiled it instead for about 15 minutes (turning half-way).  The chicken still came out nice and browned like on a grill.  (Sidenote:  I had to squeeze it onto 5 skewers as they would not fit on 4.  No biggie.)

At this point, I cut off a piece of chicken and tasted it.  It was delicious but HOLY MOLY!  It was SPICY.  AND way salty.  Yikes.  OK recipe tweaking time.

I scraped off a bit of the marinade from the chicken which helped a little.  Then for the sauce, I only added half of the cumin, half of the paprika, half of a jalapeno, and no salt.  This seemed to do the trick.

The dish came out looking beautiful (as you can see from the picture) and smelling authentically Indian (just take my word for that).  I can't really judge what authentic Chicken Tikka is supposed to taste like, but I really think this probably tastes like the real deal.  I also happened to have some brown basmati rice which I steamed and some hummus and naan bread from Trader Joe's.  So all in all, quite a feast.

Would I make this recipe again?  Definitely.  And so should you!  But here's what I recommend doing differently:
1)  Cut the spices in half.  (You can always add more to suit your taste.)
2)  Add maybe 1/2 or even 1/4 of the salt (to your liking).
3)  Use low sodium tomato sauce.
4)  Depending on your spice tolerance, use only half of the jalapeno.
5)  Use 1% or 2% milk.  Or even half-n-half.  Just to cut some extra calories.

See?  I told you it's impossible for me to stick to recipes.  Actually I was Googling Chicken Tikka and found this recipe on All Recipes.  Nearly all of the comments said to decrease the salt and spiciness.  So it's not just me!  But overall the reviews were very positive and it got 4.5/5 stars with over 1000 reviews.  Not bad.  I'm still glad I (mostly) followed the original recipe though.  Aside from the spice proportion, I, too, think it's a great recipe.

oo,

Recipe Scrapbook Challenge

At my wedding shower last year, I received one of the best gifts a girl who loves to cook could ask for:  a recipe scrapbook.

My dear sis/MOH asked all of our family and friends to send her one or more of their favorite recipes to include in the book.  The response was amazing!  So much so that not all of the recipes fit in the book so for the moment there are a bunch just hanging loosely inside the cover.  I was so touched by this that I decided I want to try and make every recipe at least once.  Too ambitious?

I blogged about this before but nothing really came of it.  But now that it's nearly a year and a half later, I really need to step it up.  Since there are so many recipes, I'm not setting a time-limit for myself... the goal will just be to finish making all of the recipes in the book.... someday.

What I like most about this book is the variety of recipes.  I think almost all of the Asian countries are covered -- Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Korea, China, India... not to mention French, German, Mexican, and a fair share of good ol' recipes from the Mid-West.   Also there are desserts, appetizers, entrees, snacks, side dishes, cocktails, and at least 6 or 7 different banana bread recipes.  So plenty to choose from!

There is one rule that I'm setting for myself:  No tweaking the recipes the first time around.  This will be hard since, as I mentioned before, I never stick to recipes.  But I want to make it the way it's originally intended.  So the only tweaking I'm allowed to do is serving size (as there is only me and Patrick to feed) and any other limitations, like if something requires grilling (I have no grill) or if there is an obscure ingredient that I can't find anywhere.  Other than that, I want to try to stay true to the original recipes.

Of course I will include some of my recipe scrapbook endeavors on here under the "Recipe Scrapbook" label so look forward to that!

oo,

Top Chef Meets NASA

Did anyone catch last night's episode of Top Chef?  (Check it out on Hulu here)

We have been particularly interested in this season since it takes place in DC.  And last night we were even more particularly interested because the episode took place at NASA!

It was fun watching with Patrick since he knew or had met most of the NASA people on the show.  The challenge, of course, was to prepare a gourmet dish for space.  The winner's dish would be freeze-dried and sent to the International Space Station.   In the end, I think the judgment was based more on flavor and execution rather than practicality as a space meal (Lamb chops in space?  Come on now...) but it was still interesting to see what kinds of dishes they came up with.

Random sidenote:  Before the episode even started, I was curious to hear how many times they would incorporate the phrase "Out of this world" but I believe it was only once or twice.

Patrick already knew a little bit about space food as he has toured the space food labs at Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX for work and even attended a luncheon there where he was served a full-course meal of freeze-dried astronaut food.  Apparently food tastes better in space when it's spicy, and so many of the foods are prepared that way.  Even the green beans he ate were "spicy green beans."  And I'm told one of the favorites among the astronauts is the spicy shrimp cocktail.

I think when most of us consider space food, we immediately think about the freeze-dried strawberries and ice cream that you can buy at the gift shops (which, if I recall correctly from my childhood, are not overwhelmingly tasty).  It's interesting to hear how advanced the food being sent into space is becoming these days.  Also, since the International Space Station is, in fact, international, there is the cultural variety of food to consider.  The Korean astronauts have, of course, invented space kimchi (actually check out this article about it) and the Russian astronauts have some form of space Borscht.

In case you haven't seen the episode, I won't reveal which chef/dish won, but I will say I was a little surprised at the outcome.

oo,

Watermelon Popsicles

During the move, I came across these cute little Martha Stewart popsicle molds that my mother-in-law and sister-in-law so generously gave me for my wedding shower last year, and I finally decided it was time to try them out.

I remembered an episode of "Giada at Home" on the Food Network in which she made watermelon popsicles with vodka, and I happened to have a bunch of watermelon around the house... more than the two of us would be able to eat.  It was only $3.99 per melon (not per lb!), so of course I had bought the biggest and heaviest one I could find.  So inspired by Giada, I decided to make watermelon popsicles.

As usual I looked up a bunch of recipes online and put them together (I can never follow a recipe exactly) and decided to omit the vodka the first time around (but I'm definitely trying it in the near future).

Here is the recipe I came up with:

2 c diced watermelon
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp sugar
a pinch of salt
1/4 c strawberry banana juice (just b/c I had some in my fridge at the time)

I also quartered a bunch of strawberries and macerated them in a little bit of sugar and set them aside.

Blend all but the strawberries together in a blender until smooth, then pour into the molds leaving about a half an inch at the top.  Plop a bunch of strawberry pieces in at the end and insert the sticks into the molds (pictured above).  Set them in the freezer for about 4-6 hours.  To remove the popsicles from the mold, run them briefly under warm water until they loosen.  Here is the final product:

Patrick's verdict:  Too watermelon-y.  Go figure.
My verdict:  OK, I admit, too watermelon-y, but also a little too solid.  It was too much like sucking on an ice cube.

There are these amazing Breyers Popsicles that we regularly buy from the store and they melt just perfectly - nice and soft.  I looked at the label and it was mostly just fruit puree, fruit juice, water, and corn syrup.  So maybe the secret is corn syrup.  Or maybe the problem is that watermelon is water-based and therefore freezes solid like water.  I'm going to experiment with other fruit and would suggest pureeing the strawberries instead of leaving them whole.  And I will definitely try the addition of alcohol (margarita popsicles anyone?)  But next I think I'm going to make Patrick's suggestion: Dr. Pepper popsicles.

oo,

"AUTO" Addict

Hi, my name is Monica, and I am an "auto" addict.

So you may or may not recall that last year I bought my first digital SLR camera (which I blogged about in my other forgotten blog here and here).

To justify buying this, I made an unbreakable vow to myself (much like the one in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) that I would study and use all of the features of this camera.

Well, it is now nearly a year and a half later and I am still exclusively using the "auto" button.  Oops.  I bought a couple of books to help teach myself, but I am now convinced that you can't learn good photography from a book.  I think it's all in the hands-on experience.  And a good level of motivation can't hurt, either.

Whenever I take photos, I tend to be plagued by two demons, impatience and laziness, which compel me to reach for the "auto" button every time.  (Not sure why I feel the need to obey them but I do...)  But good photography requires just the opposite.  Dedication and patience.

Don't get me wrong though, folks.  You can still take some lovely photos on "auto", particularly of flowers and nature.  I think it's because you have natural light and a beautiful subject to begin with.  These were taken on a hike during our recent trip to Breckenridge, Colorado:

But when I look back at pictures of people or pictures taken indoors or pictures taken at night, I am rather disappointed at the outcome (see previous post featuring pictures of our apartment as an example).   The auto function can only do so much.  Eventually I want to be able to shoot photos like these: click here.

So I think in addition to reading my "how to" photography books, I'm going to make a point to start taking my camera with me everywhere I go and start really testing things out.  I will plan to share my successes and failures on here as I go along.  But for now, I'm afraid you're stuck with my limited photography skills.

oo,