A common and favorite dish of mine to make at home is baked chicken parmesan.  It’s healthier than frying the chicken and very easy to prepare the pasta, the chicken, and the sauce.

Sauce Ingredients:

• 1 can of Tutorossa crushed tomatoes (favorite brand out of many)
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• Basil
• Dried, powdered parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper
• Olive oil

Sauce Preparation:

• Add a small amount of olive oil to the bottom of a sauce pan and put on low heat
• Mince cloves of peeled garlic
• Add minced garlic to oil and simmer until slightly brown
• Take off heat and add can of crushed tomatoes (important to cool down oil for safety)
• Add a few shakes of parmesan cheese to the sauce
• Add as much fresh basil as you care to.  Can’t have too much
• Add a little salt and pepper to taste
• Cover with metal mesh and simmer over the lowest possible heat, stirring occasionally for 1 to 2 hours.  Want the sauce to cook down to a rich red.

Chicken Ingredients:

• Two to three boneless chicken breasts (one per person being served)
• Two eggs
• Plain breadcrumbs
• Dried, powdered parmesan cheese
• Dried parley and basil flakes
• Salt and pepper
• shredded mozzarella cheese

Chicken Preparation:

• Cut fat off of and wash chicken.  Pat dry
• Beat two eggs in a small metal bowl
• Add Plain breadcrumbs, a small amount of parmesan cheese, and salt/pepper together
• Add a little salt and pepper to raw chicken breast for seasoning
• Dip chicken on both sides in egg solution
• Coat chicken with breadcrumb mix until covered
• Place in oven-safe casserole dish that has been slightly coated in olive oil (or cooking spray)
• Bake in oven at 350 for 30 minutes

Pasta Preparation:

• Half a box to 1 box of uncooked pasta (I prefer penne or lined ziti)
• Bring a pasta pan full of slightly salted water to a boil
• Add pasta and cook for 10-12 minutes or until pasta is tender
• Strain pasta well and return to pasta pan
• Add all pasta sauce minus what you will need for the chicken

Final preparation:

• After 30 minutes in oven, add a small handful of shredded mozzarella on top of the chicken and bake for an additional 4 to 5 minutes.
• Remove chicken from oven and cover with sauce and a little additional mozzarella cheese
• Serve chicken with side of pasta and any side vegetable for a very good meal.

I was in a pinch due to some last minute friends coming over for some music and board games and I decided that I had to have dinner ready for them.  Thanks to a sale at my local supermarket, I already had the ingredients and uncooked shrimp in the freezer.  Here’s what I came up with:

Ingredients:

• 1 box of uncooked penne
• 1/4 cup of chopped yellow onion
• 3 cloves of minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• A bunch of broccoli, cut into florets
• salt and pepper  to season
• 1 pound of uncooked, medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

Steps:

1. Cook the pasta in salted water until complete (8-12 minutes on high).  Save 1 cup of pasta water before draining pasta.
2. In nonstick skillet, sauté onion, garlic, butter, and oil until onion is soft and garlic has slightly browned
3. Add broccoli, salt, and pepper, cooking over medium/high heat for 6-7 minutes
4. Add cup of pasta water
5. Add shrimp and cook while stirring for 3 minutes or until shrimp is pink and broccoli is tender.
6. Add contents of skillet to bowl of drained penne.  Don’t need to use all the pasta.  Just use what you wish so that the pasta doesn’t suck up all the sauce.
7. Serve with available parmesan cheese and a bowl for the shrimp tails and you’re good to go.

Only sad part for me was there were no leftovers.

I started out with some frozen Gyoza, sheets of dried seaweed, some plain buns, and some Asian-style spoons that we were seriously needing.  We usually steam the gyoza and then brown it in a pan, steam the buns, and use seaweed when we make any sort of fried rice or stir fry to scoop up the food in make-shift sushi rolls – sometimes with the fish.

After picking that up, I went right to the produce section.  Since I had just left work and had a long ride home on the subway, didn’t pick up much from here, but our usual staples involve these massive cabbages, carrots, Chinese cucumbers, and daicon.  Because they looked pretty, I also snapped some photos of kohlrabi and eggplant.  I bought me some Chinese broccoli which we will most definitely use.

For general packaged foods, we do have a taste for pickled ginger, but that didn’t make it in my basket today.  Instead, I got very cheap scallion crackers, which we call Pop-pan after our first and favorite brand, some mango pudding mix which I am making now, and some dried miso soup, which always makes for a good snack.  Wasn’t too sure about the Roasted Eel, though.  If anyone watches the Food Network regularly, you will also recognize the hot sauce (siracha).  This sauce isn’t an easy find in more traditional markets.

While the market wasn’t too busy, I snapped a few pictures like every other white person in there.  It’s small, but always worth the trip, especially if you’re looking for that unique piece of produce you can’t find anywhere else.

And because Pop-pan sounds like “Pon Pon”, going to link one very crazy video that always makes me smile… in a weird and very confused sort of way:

In a trip to Taipei last year, I had the chance to see many examples of Buddhist temples, albeit with a twist due to the incorporation of other local religions.  The streets of Taipei area dotted with much smaller and similar temples and shrines, either serving a neighborhood or family.  The same can be found in Taiwan’s rural areas.

Although I only spent a week in Taipei, it didn’t take me long to realize that residents of the city had a particular habit that isn’t abundant in American social or political life: they all chose their words well and said exactly what they intend to say.  While this may be a gross generalization, it may be true given that Chinese culture and etiquette lends itself more towards the group, mutual respect, and harmony.

Now that I’m reflecting on this trip, I’ve realized that this aspect of mutual respect is often absent in American culture and society, particularly when engaging in political discourse or debate.  Conversation is often littered with uninformed opinions, gross exaggeration, outright lies and, while understandable, inflated emotion.

While China is far from a perfect utopia, I’m left thinking that countries with a high population of Buddhists who know and apply the Noble Eightfold Path to their daily lives, whether through innate cultural etiquette or intentional adherence,  more often inspire a sense of harmony and support of those around them, friends and strangers alike.

Right View compels people to see things as they really are instead of how they perceive them to be.  Right Intention governs purposes behind how you relate to yourself and others.  Right Speech applies moral discipline in understanding that what you say forms the world around you and compels all people to avoid harsh language.  While only discussing the first three steps along the Eightfold Path, one might begin to see how our society can benefit from this wisdom.

Instead of using negative views, intentions, and speech which inevitably create more suffering in the world,  attempt to see the world through others in order to determine what the nature of the world truly is when absent characteristics of attachment and suffering.

Note: Second image taken from http://www.doncokerart.com/blog . It is never my intention to steal the work of others.  If you own rights to this image, please let me know and I will take it down immediately.

Thanks to the generosity of Boyfriend’s father, we claimed this wicker bench for free, minus the cost of gratitude.  It taught me an important lesson: wicker furniture needs padding and is otherwise uncomfortable, but still a nice piece of furniture to fill an empty mudroom.

Arguably one of my favorite pieces, this coffee table found it’s way to me as a $40 purchase and $5 in gas to move it from the store to home.  With the slate tiles, we don’t need coasters as long as we’re careful to clean up any liquid that spills on it.  It was cheap because it was a little damaged, but nothing anyone ever notices.  Lesson learned: when going to a funiture store, make sure to check out the damaged stock.  You might find something like this that might normally sell for $120.

Thanks to the previous tenants for leaving this shelf behind, we inherited it for free.  Add to it two boxes of LP’s for around $30 and the record player from Target on sale and we have all the music we could ever listen to on a regular basis and a nice little place for my small book collection.

Guests also seem to love this more than anything in the house.

Another thank to Boyfriend’s father for the desk, currently serving as a dining table, and the four black chairs.  Thank a random store for the rug and a housewarming present + free glass jar we found on street (“Free stuff” sign) and we have our dining room set for around $35.  Doesn’t fit the space, but everything matches will with our choice of wall color.

Another piece of furniture from a local area furniture discount store, but this was in the discounted discount room because it had minor surface damage.  Not a bad find for $25.  Currently serving as a laundry stand for stuff needing to go upstairs and for DVD storage.

Not a huge fan of the flower print, but I love the color and rustic feel of it.

My least favorite piece of furniture ever.  Bought from previous tenants for pretty cheap.  It’s really heavy… kind of broken, but serves as Boyfriend’s dresser.

My dresser is classier, but not going upstairs now to take a picture of it. 

We were able to get this desk for free.  It was left behind by previous tenants moving out.  Add to it my awesome computer system, comfy chair I found at Staples for $35.  Add onto it my Steampunk garden gnome, $6 for the ivy and clay pot and a teddy bear from my dearly departed Nonna and you have a computer center that serves all of my blogging and working from home purposes.

Who says you can’t have a little fun?  Ikea end table for $20, some inexpensive Jade in a clay pot, a clay bowl I made in middle school, and matching Maneki Neko statues for a nice touch for the mud room.  Thank boyfriend for the cute cats.  They were my birthday present.

After all the savings from furniture frugality, we were able to splurge and purchase the following items at full retail price:

• Memory foam mattress
• Kitchen bistro table
• Kitchen butcher block
• Chair and a half with ottoman
• Full sized couch with added storage

After all, comfort doesn’t always have to be sacrificed in the name of frugality.  There is such a thing as being too frugal.  Exhibit A:

Lessons learned:  If you live in an urban area with a quick turnover rate on rentals, ask your landlord if he has additional furniture that old tenants have left behind that they would be willing to sell to you at a good price.  Good things are desks, tables, end tables, and anything else without upholstery.

Go to discounted furniture shops, especially if they have overstock rooms with damaged goods.  A little scratch might be the difference between $400 and $50. 

Decorative items don’t have to be expensive.  Some of our best items are from Amazon, Chinese supermarkets, are homemade, or generally repurposed.  If you live near college towns, take look at all the items being tossed away at the end of the summer.  If it doesn’t have fabric and can be cleaned and sanitized, there is no harm in reclaiming someone else’s junk.

Absolutely sweet

Since I was a child, one habit my parents practiced in our home – and successfully passed onto me – was removing your shoes before entering anyone’s house.  Although a common practice in America growing up, it seems to me to have fallen out of favor, especially among my younger friends and family.

My current apartment is, for me and my boyfriend, a shoe-free zone.  The first thing we noticed when moving in was that the previous tenants did not seem to have the same practice.

That’s right.  It was summer in Boston and we had a bad case of dirty feet.  After insisting… strongly… we agreed to have our carpets steam cleaned, but that only partially fixed the problem.  Feet were still dirty.  Mopping the kitchen five times and vacuuming every other day for two weeks has the problem 95% resolved.

So what are your thoughts?  Ours is an outdoor free shoe house for many reasons.  Chemicals, germs, dog poop, general dirt and grime, small shards of broken glass sticking to shoes on the cleanliness side…
and the simple joy of being barefoot and hitting all of the right pressure points when you walk around on the health side, taking your shoes off as you enter your own home or someone else’s home still conveys a sense of respect.  You are leaving the outside world quite literally outside.

I say that humans were born without shoes.  Our most content method of relaxation is without them as well – something many Asian countries have seemed to master.

Many people might recognize the WNYC image above of the Drought Monitor for the United States at the end of July, 2012.  It looks fairly bleak, with a significant majority of the land mass experiencing sever to exceptional drought.  Most of the country is feeling the minor sting or major gut wrenching that comes with a map like this.  Lawns are browning.  No burn laws are in effect in national parks.  Forest fires are starting to spread.  Crops are withering or have already died.  There is no rain. 

Without rain, there is only two options for water: pump from ground water or regional aquifers or import water from other regions.  This has, of course, led to the creation of an economy for water and privatization of our natural fresh water supplies away from the public.

But these aquifers are being depleted faster than they are being replenished by nature: pumped above ground for the irrigation of our nation’s massive establishment of corn, soy, and other crop monocultures.  The vast majority of these monocultures are being harvested exclusively for the bulk-feeding of American livestock creating, for one of the very first times in history, a society whose staple diet includes meat.  I digress.

We’re in a water race, with more and more companies stepping in and staking claim to our nation’s dwindling natural water sources.  They purchase the land, measure the water, bottle it up and ship it all over the nation or world, removing the water from its natural water table.

In times of drought, the water is carried from the Northeast to the Southwest, where it is poured into the desert to feed green lawns that dry and wither in a matter of days without replenishment.  What we’re left with is a removal of water and essential nutrients from its natural cycle to regions where imported plant life is forced to grow.

Water is our most precious resource.  Fresh water is the most basic necessity and access to it should be a given human right.  Instead, privatization leads to bottling and export to the highest bidder.  In water-poor countries, water treatment plants are unheard of and water is rationed despite locals going thirsty.  We’re left with a situation where a bottle of water costs more than a bottle of soda from the same companies.  In other countries, individuals have been fined or arrested for using rain gutter systems to capture and reuse rain water: convicted by the companies who own local fresh water sources of theft.

In 34 states in America, the American Water Corporation owns and operates all water and sewer systems and has historically faced many accusations of corruption and price gouging: absurd rates for poor service and endangering public health and safety.

Water privatization leads to rate increase, poor water quality, pleasing of shareholders over customers, corruption, removal of control from local governments, job losses, and all the while, costing taxpayers money in state and federal subsidies. 

This is an issue that should be of great concern for all people, both left and right.  It is high time we take a stand and return control of our nation’s fresh water supplies to the people.  Every single drop of water that is removed from its natural water table is a drop of water removed from future local use, not bottled, piped, and sold to only those who can afford it.

I want this to be my design piece for my new apartment

I’m moving into a new space and there is so much potential.  I’ve decided for a more minimalist, bronze-age design.  Brown leather couch, bar table, some wall decor, and covering up some hideous white kitchen cabinets with some linen I’ve yet to pick out.  Oh… and I’m going to buy this garden gnome.

Awesomely entertaining.

He always impresses.

From ChiquitaBananas.com:

Why waste money on expensive processed bars and vitamin supplements? At about 23 cents per finger, wholesome Chiquita bananas are one of the healthiest, most affordable natural power foods you can buy! Here’s just a few of bananas’ nutritional facts:

• Safe and pure enough for baby’s first solid food
• A terrific heart-healthy food
• A nutrient dense food that’s ideal for any diet or weight-loss program
• Fat-, cholesterol- and sodium-free
• Provides an excellent source of vitamin B6

Update: I went to the supermarket and got a banana for lunch.  It wasn’t as tasty as the lonely banana in Boston.

People are in his bases stealing his keys?

Most of the photos below were taken from Summit Avenue in Brookline.  The two pictures of the nice girls were prompted by my overhearing them say “I wish we had a camera”.  Girls, if you get to the site later tonight, hope you like the photos.

The rest are random shots.  We’ve had such nice weather lately.  If anyone wants to use any of the pictures, by all means.  Sorry for the MSN format.  I’m looking for better options now.

		March, 2011 in Boston VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL