Sherlock

Back in 2010 when I was living in England I was introduced to Sherlock by a couple of good friends of mine (who incidentally were also living in England). Unfortunately for me, Sherlock came out the same week that I was going home so I only got to watch one episode before I flew back to the States. And then I had to wait six months for PBS to pick it up and air it. (I find it super annoying that we have to wait like 6 months to get the good shows over here.) So anyways. Season 1 was fantastic. Loved it. And this week Season 2 began! I watched the first episode this morning and it was just as amazing as I remember the first season being. And I'm really excited for the episode next week. It is always impressive to me how good of a job they did at taking these awesome stories and modernizing them.

Nooks and Kindles

I have a pretty awesome job. And as part of my job I have to learn how to use the Nook and the Kindle. What a shame. I'm sure most of you know my feelings about e-readers, but for any of you out there who are unfamiliar... I think e-readers are great, but not for me. I am totally on board with the idea that I can travel somewhere and I don't have to carry tons of books with me. I think it's awesome that you can change the font size for people who need that. I'm not on board with having to purchase e-books, that the publisher can then take away at random from me if they choose. I mean, come on. A publisher (or Amazon or anyone) would never walk in to your home and re-possess your actual books, so why can they do that for e-books? I also just love to hold actual books, and I like being able to turn the pages and see how far I am in the book and skip around easily if I choose to. To sum up. I think that e-readers are cool, but I have no plans to purchase one.

Even though I have no plans of owning any kind of e-reader I nevertheless think it is super cool that I got to sit down at work one day last week and play around on a Nook and a Kindle and learn how to use them. I found the Nook a little bit more intuitive than the Kindle and I liked the interface it had better. The Nook was also in color which I liked whereas the Kindle I used wasn't. But I wouldn't be surprised if my preference for the Nook stems from the fact that it was the first one I used. In all reality, since I still have no plans to buy an e-reader I don't feel like my preference matters in any way shape or form. And I'm sure that with time I will become equally adroit with both.

Rain

When I left the house this morning it was a little bit drizzly and so I donned my raincoat and packed my umbrella. As I was walking to the catch the train to work (yeah, I live in a city where I take the train to work) a familiar scent greeted me. I guess it was just the greenery mixed with the rain compounded by the fact that I was wearing my rain coat, but it reminded me of England. Oh England, how I miss thy "green and pleasant land" (from "Milton"--William Blake). That is one thing that I really love about Boston. Now that the trees have come into leaf, the city sometimes has a very England-y feel. Someday I'll go back.

On a totally and completely different note. Today, Maurice Sendak died. No more wild things and no more Little Bear. Sad day. Though I did discover that apparently there are two more books that are sequels to Where the Wild Things Are. I'm going to have to go find them.

Boston Pops

So it has come to my attention that not everyone in the entire world has heard of the Boston Pops. While the Boston Pops are the Pops, I suppose it is acceptable for not everyone to know who they are. I mean, not everybody likes orchestras as much as I do... So. In the words of the conductor, Keith Lockhart: "The Boston Pops Orchestra performs the best music of the past and present, appealing to the widest possible audience with a broad spectrum of styles, from jazz to pop, indie rock to big band, film music to the great American songbook, and Broadway to classical, making it the perfect orchestra for people who don't know they like orchestras!" (from their website) But the Boston Pops are more than just an awesome orchestra, they are one of the most recorded orchestras and sometimes known as "America's Orchestra."

I couldn't really say what it was the introduced me to the Boston Pops, but I feel like I've known of them my entire life (I did grow up watching PBS, maybe that had something to do with it?). But when one of my friends approached me a week or two ago and asked if I wanted to go to a Boston Pops concert with her and some of our other friends it didn't take me long to say yes. And the best part was that she was getting free tickets from work. Not only was going to see the Boston Pops, but I was going for free! Since we came into these free tickets we decided that it would be an awesome thing to make an evening of it and go out to dinner. We went to this restaurant near the Commons called the Parish Cafe. Essentially what happened is that they (the Parish Cafe people) approached a number of well-known local chefs and asked them to create a sandwich for this restaurant. So all the sandwiches list what chef contributed it and their restaurant and they are all pretty amazing. I had a chicken sandwich with bacon, lettuce, and tomato on it, and it was fabulous.

So after dinner we headed over to Northeastern University for the concert. I guess this particular concert was special and was actually a part of the NU's commencement activities and so the Pops weren't playing that their normal venue, but it was still fabulous. The arena they played in had pretty terrible acoustics, but what do you expect from a sports arena? I always forget how much I enjoy going to concerts. I'm really excited for the fall. I discovered a month of two ago that the Boston Symphony Orchestra (of which the Pops are an offshoot) offers a fantastic deal for college students. You can pay $25 and buy a "college card" for the season and that allows you to get a ticket (at no additional cost) to any available show. From what I understand it's basically any show that hasn't sold out (with I'm sure some restrictions). Isn't that FANTASTIC! I am so excited. For practically nothing I can attend concerts to my hearts desire. Now I just have to wait for the regular season to start up again.

Tangents aside...The concert and the dinner and the evening and the company were all fantastic. It was so nice to get out and do something (especially something cultured) and to have people to do it with.

Validation

I was talking to a friend the other day and she was saying something about feeling validated and it reminded me of this YouTube video, that I saw a year or so ago. It's a little long, but it is absolutely worth every single one of the 16 and a half minutes it'll take to watch it. So watch it, and smile.

Panna Cotta

In honor of integrating my food blog with my rest-of-my-life blog (and trying to un-alienate my devoted food blog readers) I am starting off this new experiment with food. What better way to start anything than with dessert?

I don't know if you'll remember many moons ago when I first made Panna Cotta, but I made it again. Actually, I've made it many times since then. This dessert is one that I absolutely love. In fact, I love it so much that I think I may even include the recipe for you (and you know how often I do that).

Because I love cool, creamy desserts so much, and because spring is finally coming to Massachusetts (not that we had a particularly harsh winter or anything, because we didn't) I've been craving this for a while. Unfortunately, for me this dessert is just too rich to eat more than one ramekin full of at a time and so it really works out better if I have other people to help me eat it. Luckily, one of my roommates invited the sister missionaries over for dinner one night last week and she was gracious enough to let me make dessert. Voilà! four people with whom to share my dessert. I was feeling a little lazy so I didn't take the time to plate the panna cotta, but nobody seemed to mind. And this way I could let everyone help themselves to the mixed berry coulis that I made. By the way, if you ever find yourself with a package of very freezer burned frozen fruit, a coulis is a great way to revive it.

As promised, the recipe to make your very own panna cotta. This is super easy.

• 1/3 cup milk (any kind works--actually I've only ever tried cow's milk, so I don't know how soy or other non-cow-milk would fare)
• 1 (.25 ounce) envelope unflavored gelatin
• 2 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1/2 cup white sugar (I actually never put in more than about 1/3 of a cup, sometimes less--depends on how I'm feeling that day)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Pour milk into a small bowl, and stir in the gelatin powder. Set aside.
2. In a saucepan, stir together the cream and sugar, and set over medium heat. Bring to a full boil, watching carefully, as the cream will quickly rise to the top of the pan. Pour the gelatin and milk into the cream, stirring until completely dissolved. Cook for one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, stir in the vanilla and pour into six individual ramekin dishes.
3. Cool the ramekins uncovered at room temperature. When cool, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight before serving. (from Allrecipes.com)

 You can also experiment with other flavors. The possibilities are endless. Also, you can put nearly anything on top. I ate one of my leftovers from this time around with chocolate ice cream topping and it was fabulous (think chocolate ice cream sundae, only gelatinous).

I hope you all love this as much as I do.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Amar Waked and Ewan McGregor

Since I got my last assignment for the semester turned in yesterday and since my last class isn't till next week I found myself with some free time today and decided to treat myself and go to the movies. A month or two ago I was watching something and a commercial for the movie Salmon Fishing in the Yemen came on. It sounded intriguing, so I found a trailer. How can you go wrong with Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt, and Kristin Scott Thomas? Exactly. Ever since then I've been dying to see this movie. Unfortunately, as a poor grad student working multiple jobs there just isn't a lot of money/time to go see a movie. I've been mildly worried that it would leave theaters before I had a chance to go and I discovered earlier this week that Thursday is the last day.

Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt

I don't know how the other 4 people in the theater with me today felt about me coughing through the whole thing, but they seemed to have survived. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is about a Seikh who believes that the sport of salmon fishing can enrich the lives of his people and is willing to pay any price to bring fishing to the desert. It's really quite a charming film. I really enjoyed it.

Brussel Sprouts with Roasted Grapes

So a while back I saw this recipe on Two Kitchen Promenade that looked pretty interesting. Brussel sprouts are one of those foods that have a reputation for being pretty awful. In fact, until I made this recipe I had never ever had a brussel sprout before. I think the only reason I was brave enough to try them was because I have known 3 or 4 people in the recent past who think brussel sprouts are pretty amazing.

Unfortunately for me green grapes were what was on sale so my dish didn't have the same color appeal that this one had, but c'est la vie. I will say that brussel sprouts are pretty delicious. I'm not sure how they ended up with such a terrible reputation, but I'm glad that they are coming back in style. One thing I will say though, is that they are much better fresh; they don't reheat well at all--actually, it's mostly the grapes that don't reheat well. Next time grapes (and brussel sprouts) go on sale I will definitely be making this one again.