on a hot day...

The A/C is actually on in my office today -- dang, it feels hot outside. Beautiful sunny day -- and I wish I was in the park playing.

I've been taking tons of photos at the ballpark, and will be posting those soon. Lots of adventures to report on, including how I actually struck two people out in slow-pitch softball! Yes, you read that right, slow pitch!

Anyway, to cool off, I'm posting this lovely, cold photo of me and a snowman I built on the reservoir in upstate NY from a few months ago.

The Quick Pig - oh, what a delicious, marvelous, magical animal

Last Friday, the boyfriend and I took a cooking class at ICE called "The Quick Pig". It was fun, although I was a little surprised that we just got right into cooking, without too much demonstration.

Dishes that we either made, or got to take part in eating.

• empanadas (where I proved that I am just as bad at assembling empanadas as I am at making wontons...but at least the 4th attempted looked ok); also, it wasn't salty enough, but I wasn't in charge of making the filling


• onion, potato, chorizo soup (too much effort, not enough payoff)


• "Shanghai" meetball...a modified version of Lion's Head meatball -- this version was actually surprisingly crunchy with rice sticks and waterchestnuts, which meant that it tasted more like my mom's steamed pork dish instead of the authentic thing. Not that I'm complaining, because I don't actually care for the original


• THE BEST DISH: pressed sandwich with guava paste, serrano ham, manchego cheese, arugula


• EASIEST TO MAKE: pork tenderloin wrapped with dijon mustard and prosciutto


• Mustard Greens with bacon and portobello mushrooms


• lemon bundt cake with poppyseeds (only thing that was non-pig)

It was fun and a congenial group. I think we both agreed that next time, we would try to work at separate tables so that we could get to try all the dishes. And, that to learn more techniques, a longer series of focused classes would be better.

easter eggs

For many years, my mother has been collecting easter eggs -- mainly purchased in former Yugoslavia. These are a great decorative art. Here's a photo of the eggs on display at their dining room table.

happy easter, here come the peeps

Happy Easter, Passover...Because I didn't grow up in the states, it took me a number of years to figure out why my coworkers were crazy about peeps - which were these little marshmallow bird candies. All I knew is that after Easter, you'd see piles of them laid out on tables in the main hallway - where hopefully, somebody, anybody would eat them. I don't actually think they taste very good, but they are cute.

Anyway, for the second year in a row, Washington Post has held this contest of dioramas that must be created with peeps. I just looked at the photo gallery and it is spectacular looking at the finalists. Incredibly clever, smart, inspiring.

Take a look. (There will probably be a commercial you have to watch before you see the photo gallery.)

william buckley came to our house once

I just saw in the news yesterday that William Buckley, the conservative columnist died. When we were living in Hong Kong, Mr. Buckley came to film a series for his tv show. As part of my dad's job...my parents ended up hosting a cocktail hour for Mr. Buckley and the group that came with him. I ended up meeting Donna Shalala (at that time, head of U. of Wisconsin -- before she was on the Clinton Cabinet), one of the Rockefellers, and of course Mr. Buckley. I was going to Brown at the time, and there was no way I was going to talk about my school with him. So instead, we ended up chatting about playing the harpsichord...I know, a bit odd, but it was a fun conversation.