How to Cook Everything

 

How to Cook Everything is my new favorite app and I haven't even made anything with it yet! Mark Bittman from the New York Times had one of the top rated cookbooks (printed) this year and then he went and had an app made for $5 with all of the recipes, hints, lists, and illustrations! It's amazing. I'm all for printed cookbooks, but this one is definitely more transportable and about $25 cheaper!

It's got essential recipes for all the basics and covers food from a variety of cultures including France, India, and Africa.

Year in Pictures: Weeks 3-5

I've still been doing my daily photos (although I must confess that I missed one day by a few minutes and quickly took a photo in guilt and shame). There's quite a potpourri this time around of friends, Shanghai, and proof of my domesticity.

Dec 1: Christmas tree decorating with my roommates...they don't know about this picture.

Dec 2: What's more humiliating than wearing a Sponge Bob Square Pants outfit on Shanghai's 5th Ave? Having someone take a picture of you.

Dec 3: He looks calm now but those little fingers move faster than greased lightning.

Do You Hear What I Hear?

I've been listening to my 350 Christmas songs since Thanksgiving (that's nearly one day's worth of music, by the way) and I thought I'd share with you some of my favorite albums because 'tis the season for lists!

1. A Charlie Brown Christmas: I hope you all have this. It's classic. There's no Christmas for me without Charlie Brown and the Vince Guraldi Trio.
   
2. Seabird–Over the Hills and Everywhere: A new one I just picked up on Google music after hearing a bit on the Relevant podcast. Their version of "Go Tell It On the Mountain" is worshipful in the kind of way that makes you want to get out of your seat. What's not great about this line- "He made me a watchman upon the city wall and if I am a Christian, I am the least of all." Got to remember that. Have a listen:
   
   
   
3. Brothers Figaro–Old Time Christmas: 1930's Gypsy Christmas music that sounds like it's being played on a gramophone. It's great, unusual, and a bit melancholy. Good to mix with other music.
   
4. James Brown: You at least need "Soulful Christmas". It's just so funny.
   
5. Elf Soundtrack: Pretty much one of the best Christmas mixes (with "Pennies from Heaven" thrown in) ever. I love it and it triggers the funniest moments of the movie. "Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?"
   
6. Chris Tomlin–Glory in the Highest: Mr. Tomlin is not always my favorite, but this is a great, worshipful, upbeat Christmas album, especially My Soul Magnifies the Lord.
   
7. Harry Connick, Jr.– Harry for the Holidays: It's Harry. It's good..although you can definitely tell the songs he penned himself.
   
8. Sufjan Stevens–Songs for Christmas Vol I-V. Nice and low key, especially love his version of O Come, O Come Emmanuel.
   
9. All Crooner Christmas songs: Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra. You just need it. No one does Christmas like them.
   
   

Here's wishing you a restful week where friends and family are valued and the Savior is worshiped.

First Pictures with the Box Camera

I got back the photos from my first roll using my box camera. I was kind of scared that after all this, there was some leak of light or a broken mechanism of some sort that meant it doesn't actually take pictures as all.

Thankfully, I got a couple of good shots, which is great since it only takes 12 and there is nothing that indicates how far to turn the film so I actually only took 7.

There is definitely a different quality to these shots. I think I'm in love!

 My friend Arlene took this one so then...

...I took a picture of her. We're trying to look classic since it's an old camera. Also she's gorgeous and so photogenic. Admit it.

 This one is my favorite! I double exposed it. There are so many interesting things that resulted from it, I think–the tree trunk is clearly magic and there's a mysterious figure in the bottom right hand corner.

 My stairwell.

 And some shots from a moving vehicle. Very vague, but also kind of cool or is it just my infatuation with the camera that I can't see any of its faults?

Next I'm going to try my hand at some black and white film.

We're Funny: Anne Taintor-esque photos

For my friend Tati's birthday, I had this great idea (I don't mind saying so cause it was a rare light bulb moment)--to do Anne Taintor-esque photos (vintagey with witty quips) with pictures of her friends. You have to understand how much Tati loves her Anne Taintor. During our college years I dragged her away from countless Taintor displays (and historic cemeteries--that's another unrelated story) and last summer during our 5th year reunion weekend, I caught her again carefully reading each magnet, card, and mug of her favorite gift brand.

So, several of us emailed around photos with our hilarious Ivy league wit and I made her some cards (and possibly a Christmas gift...) with them. Here are some of my favorites. Hopefully Anne Taintor will think we're as funny as we think we are and won't try to get me for copyright infringement...

 This one made you laugh, right?

Engagement Photos: JR & Annette

Just before Thanksgiving I had the pleasure of taking engagement photos of my friend JR and his new blushing fiancee (it hadn't even been 24 hours since he'd proposed!). This was my second engagement photo shoot, and I have to say that Shanghai is such a beautiful background for photos. I'm still getting the hang of taking people's photos (I tend to take pictures of a lot of inanimate objects, if you haven't noticed), but Jr & Annette were great and I got them to smooch lots! Woot woot!

Here are some, er, quite a few of my favorite shots from the day.

 

This one might be my favorite.

I muted the colors on this one. Don't you just love old doors, especially ones that match your sweater?

We took some photos on Moganshan Lu, one of the best places in town for graffiti or is it street art?

Year in Pictures: Week 2

I think I'm changing this to "Year in Pictures" instead of "Year of Pictures"...hm. or maybe not. Wait til next week to see, I guess.

Over the past week, I've had lots o' opportunities to take pictures both with my big hearken camera and my new box camera (which my friend David showed me how to work!)...On Saturday I took about one million photos of some yellow gingko trees...I'll be showing those later...

Side note--I love Christmas, don't you? but I'm also not quite ready to let go of fall. It's been an unusually autumnal fall here (if you've ever lived in Shanghai, you'll catch my drift) and it's my favorite season. Long bike rides, yellow leaves, light jackets, pumpkins, apples, crisp (weather and apple)...it's too much to let go of...

  November 24: While on an engagement photo shoot (I say that like it's a regular thing I do) at Yu Garden, I took a picture of the voracious koi(s). Give those suckers some bread or your finger...

 Thanksgiving I: Isn't he the cutest little boy? Love him...taken at our annual Thanksgiving football game.

Directions: Getting from Taiwan to China

If you've ever wanted to know how to get to China from Taiwan, Google Maps has the solution...see number #23.

Just Finished: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Nothing like Russian lit to darken those bright, crisp autumn days. Why did I decide to read a Russian novel about a guy in a labor camp this side of January? At least it was short.

Ok. I'm exaggerating. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn is not the world's most depressing Russian novel, and as the title suggests, it's about one day in this man's life. The narrative follows Ivan Denisovich from morning to night as he survives another day in a communist labor camp–a place where it seems no one is actually guilty of crimes against the Soviet empire.

This was Solzhenitsyn's first novel, published while the USSR remained intact and published because Khrushchev saw it as a way to separate himself from Stalin's policies. Probably everyone in Russia could relate to the story because either they themselves or a family member had been in one of the camps. And perhaps its most enduring legacy is that it was published during Communist rule.

The story itself is nothing particularly miraculous. After years shuttled from camp to camp, Ivan has learned how to survive in the harsh Siberian climate. Life is not at all fair and he hasn't forgotten it, but there is no sentimentality that connects him to his old life. He is there indefinitely and he lives as well as he can. He does odd jobs to raise a few rubles for his cigarettes. He works hard. He has neither optimism or pessimism. He is a fairly decent guy, in a situation that he cannot extricate himself from.

It's hard for me to say anything else about the novel. To me, it seemed pretty cut and dry and it's message was as well. No faulting that... I would be interested in reading more Solzhenitsyn and perhaps a newer translation...my copy was published shortly after it made waves in Russia...

Reading next: Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

Year of Pictures: Week I

I made it through my first week of picture taking without forgetting once! I think I have to be careful that this little project doesn't become a chore and actually helps me develop my photographing abilities...so many things I want to do better. I should be independently wealthy...

 

November 17: You've already seen this one, but it was the best one of the day...

November 18: Sarah and our yu xiang rou si （鱼香肉丝）—the latter of which is not completely in focus.

 

November 19: Post on Anfu Lu (安福路)

November 20: Detail of my scarf in a cab.

November 21: Wasted Day

 

November 22: Pillow Feather

November 23: The throwaway picture of the week...my teensy closet. Smaller than the rest because it's such a boring picture, but I've only been to the gym today...

Which pic do you like best and why? Anything you'd alter?

I've got a photo shoot tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Birthday Recap No. 3: Cooking Class + An announcement!

In lieu of another long-ish row of pictures...I thought I'd do a collage of my birthday present from Sarah—a Chinese cooking lesson! So exciting. Chinese food is a mystery...a delicious mystery. There are so many different cuisines and tastes. It's a shame to live here so long and have no idea how anything is cooked.

Sarah found a cooking school that does at home lessons called the Flying Chef. They bring everything to your door from ingredients to cooking utensils. Amazing and a very good idea and something we couldn't afford to do in America.

Chef Li (love him. He was so warm and even gave me a hug) arrived promptly at 10:10 and started getting to work. The lesson wasn't so much hands on as watching, which was actually good. 1. Chinese kitchens are small and mine is quite large in comparison to most. 2. He explained why and how he did everything which was a wealth of knowledge and he had previously lived in Germany so I got the sense that he understood the differences in how East & West prepares cuisine. 3. Everything in Chinese food needs to be cut up...best to have someone with a machete and several decades of Chinese cooking under his 10 gallon chef's hat.

The class is sort of designed for a larger group than 2 so we had A LOT of food. It was like Chinese Thanksgiving by 1:00 when everything was finished. I have lots of leftovers and it's seriously some of the best, freshest Chinese food I've ever eaten (did I mention that I live in China?)

Hopefully, I'll detail the how-to's in future posts.

And...

THE ANNOUNCEMENT

Hopefully you didn't scoll quickly to the end of the post to get to this announcement. It's not that exciting...but here it is...

To make sure I don't go long stretches without taking pictures of anything, I've decided that this year (the 365 days from this birthday to the next) I'm going to take at least one photo a day and chronicle them week by week. 

In addition to my Nikon D60 and my little Sony, I just got this amazing camera as a birthday present from my roommates. I had coveted it when I went to that antique market and they went back and found it well over a month later. I'm so excited. I took it on Friday to the camera market to get it cleaned out and the repair lady seemed optimistic that it would still work. I'm really hoping so. If not, I'll still love it...it's very old Shanghai.

Anyway, I expect you to keep me accountable if I don't seem to be posting any pictures.

Birthday Recap No. 2

My birthday was this week, in case you didn't get the memo I sent out to everyone on my email list. I really like birthdays and since there's a larger affair going on this weekend, I wanted to do a small, swankier meal at one of the restaurants in town that I've been pining away for for years—the classy M on the Bund. 

All day I was dreaming of their famous pavlova, which I'd only heard of...yum! A rare splurge!

I brought my point and shoot, which I think I've forgotten how to use...hence the collage in the middle.

I took a cab wearing large earrings I got for a previous birthday. And no, I have no idea where that light came from...apparently you get a halo on your 28th birthday. Did not see that written in the fine print, but I'll take it.

 

I convinced 3 of my girlfriends to get all dolled up and join me for dinner. They're quite beautiful don't you think? Then we (or maybe I) proceeded to order everything on the menu. No regrets people.