spinach salad with mango and candied pecans

it's amazing what happens when you try a fruit you hate in the place where it comes from. has that ever happened to you, with any kind of food? like you normally hate gumbo, but then you're down in new orleans (my heart hangs heavy) and get the real deal and you're like wow, this is good.

six years ago (!!) mr. mimi and i enjoyed our honeymoon down in peru, and on our second week we stayed in the rainforest where of course there were fresh avocado and papaya trees, two of the fruits i typically hate eating. yeah, i know, advocado! weird, right? everyone loves avocado. well evidently i don't, unless it comes right off the tree. same with the papaya. buy me some up here in the US and i hate it. pick one off the tree in the rainforest and i love it. sure, i admit maybe it has something to do with the beauty of the place -- i fell in love with the fruit because i fell in love with being in the rainforest. i admit it because i know how closely food is tied to emotions and well-being (isn't that what "comfort food" is all about). but it's like my taste buds changed once i tasted what a real avocado should taste like.

same thing with the mango. i've always hated it. but down in haiti, mango trees are everywhere. it's the fruit du jour, tourjours! the first month i was in haiti i didn't eat any. but the second month i finally succumbed to needing some fruit in my diet and hesitatingly i ate my first mango in a really, really long time.

i loved it.

ok, maybe i admit i was in haiti and desperate for fruit in my diet -- that any fruit would have been delicious. but the mango was so fresh and juicy, with such a sweet flavor, but not like a berry sweet, just an unfamiliar (to me) tropical sweet. so when i came back home i went on a mango binge, 10 for $10 at the grocery store, done.

then i found this recipe and i was like hmm, mango and candied pecans?! what is not to like about that idea! and, indeed, i loved this salad, all three different flavors -- earthy spinach, tropical mango, and sweet candied pecans -- were wonderful.



spinach salad with mango and candied pecans: serves 4
adapted from bon appetit (april 2000, original recipe click here)

large piece of parchment paper
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
6 tb olive oil
3 tb balsamic vinegar
1 cup pecan halves
1/2 lb baby spinach leaves
2 large mangos, diced
salt and pepper to taste

1. stir sugar, 1 tb oil, and 1 tb vinegar in skillet over medium heat until sugar melts and syrup bubbles, about 3 minutes.

2. mix in pecans and stir until nuts are toasted and syrup coats evenly, about 7 minutes. turn nuts out onto parchment paper, separating them to cool completely.

3. combine spinach, mango, and pecans in large bowl. whisk remaining 5 tb oil and 2 tb vinegar in small bowl to blend, season with salt and pepper. toss salad with dressing, and enjoy!

haiti in words, no photos

what a start to 2010! so far, half the year was spent working in haiti, alongside some incredibly dedicated people trying to protect the children in their communities. it’s always the people that i meet and work with that keeps me wanting to go back out for more. many of you ask me what it was like there; here’s one story.

when i was there in february, the scenes of huge piles of concrete rubble and the wrenching stories you'd hear were always worse than whatever i saw or heard on television. it’s one thing to hear about 100 nurses who died as they were in a training; it’s another thing to be hearing the story as you're standing next to the collapsed building that still entombs them under rubble and dust. my driver showed me photographs he kept in the glove compartment of his fiancée who died in the earthquake; he showed me where his house once stood, and now these photos that he salvaged from the rubble was his consolation.

as an expat bystander the whole atmosphere wasn’t so much depressing, as just chaotic and overwhelming – only so many ways to help, only so much resources, but everywhere you drove by were immense needs not being met. signs made out of bed sheets, pleading for food, water, and medicine. and when the heavy rains came, it brought relief from the heat, but you knew it brought muddy misery and drenched nights for the thousands others not as lucky to have shelter.

and the fear that lingered in the beating roar from the chopper blades of every helicopter overhead, or the deep vibrations that shook the walls when each mack truck rumbled along on the street, not to mention the real aftershocks that happened on a regular basis. everyone ran in panic, or just stood there frozen, feverishly hoping that this, too, shall pass.

then i went back in april, and the scenes were still the same – everywhere were still huge piles of concrete rubble and twisted rusted metal. nearly everywhere were colorful buildings partially collapsed that still looked ready to tumble into the road, and onto people, any minute. i can't even come close to adequately describing the panorama of physical destruction that still dominates the landscape.

and almost everywhere were those blue and gray plastic tent cities (bed sheet cities for those still not as lucky to have shelter), people camped out with barely nothing, or people being moved by the government to where there was even less – to huge barren fields of gravel with no green trees or natural sources of water, under the hot haitian sun.

the streets of port au prince were choked again with colorful tap-taps, careening trucks, motorbikes, people, mounds of trash, and stray dogs – everything kicking up dust and filling the city's winding mountainous streets with a crash course just waiting to happen.

but one thing was different about the street scenes this time, and you immediately noticed it. as we drove to the office at 7am, you now saw children in bright uniforms, smartly pressed. boys with neat haircuts and girls with pigtails and braids with big plastic colorful barrettes and ties. all wearing a backpack, often too big for their little bodies, and sometimes carrying a lunch bag, too. walking with their caregiver (here in haiti you can never assume that adult is necessarily the child’s parent), or maybe walking with their older sibling, carefully navigating between all the traffic and other people, and on their way back to school.

it’s a naïve cliché to smile at the sight and sounds of small children on their way to school, brightly dressed. but here in haiti, you can’t help yourself.

because you take in this scene like a colorful breath of fresh air amongst all the panorama of gray rubble. even after i kept seeing it every morning, i kept breathing it in, and nothing could temper my feeling that things are going to be ok.

well, alright i admit that often i started thinking about the fact that in haiti only about 50% of children get to go to school, and about 85% of those lucky children must come from families with enough income to send them to private schools because the government so horribly fails at providing anything for its children. and don’t compare that statistic to the public vs. private school debate in the US, because i’m not talking about differences in the quality of instruction; in fact, many haitian private schools are sub-standard compared to public. i mean that the haitian government can’t even provide the basic physical structure of a school and fill them with teachers, and so for families there is no other “choice” than private.

so while i marveled at the children on their way to school, i understood that i was only witnessing half of the situation, and that for 50% of the other children here in haiti, their reality is much more heartbreaking and their future much less bright.

but when you’re surrounded by destruction, you’ll take that dream, even when you know it’s only half realized. i left haiti last week with those same mixed feelings (can’t wait to get back to a nice shower! but i will miss all the work and everyone i worked with!), but this time i left with an image of hope i didn’t have before. i can’t wait to see what new scenes await for me when i go back again.

hello, again

it's been 4 months, nearly to the day. i know a lot of you aren't reading anymore, or should i say i know that many of you probably don't have me in your reader feed anymore since there was nothing more to read.

at first i was going to blame it on work, and say it's not my fault, i was in the philippines responding to the emergency after typhoons pepeng and ondoy. and i was, but that was back in october and only for 4 weeks. so what happened to the other 3 months?


(for my other photos from the philippines, they're all on flickr).

and then i was going to blame it on this sort of late-early life crisis i'm having. you know the kind where you go wtf am i doing with my life? and perhaps it coincides with me coming back from the philippines because after i read this beautiful writing, i was left with that painful feeling that even though everything i've been doing for the last several years has me on the path to the success i've always envisioned for myself, now that i can see it closer, that version of success doesn't really seem to be what i want, afterall. or when i think about it honestly, that version of success doesn't match with what makes me happy, day in and day out.

but i'm still here, cooking and taking photographs, and occasionally baking. and what better way to start off this little blog again, then by sharing a quick and easy hors d'oeuvres that could easily start off your new years eve party coming up (we made them to start off our christmas eve dinner). i found these on smitten kitchen, who happened to find them on the nytimes. they just looked so good on her blog i knew i had to try them.

i made slight variation here and there, sometimes based on what we had in the fridge (sour cream instead of heavy cream) and sometimes based on the "classic" french method mr. mimi knows best (see note below). but they disappeared as soon as they were done. so easy, delicious, and does exactly what an hors d'oeuvres should -- whet your appetite for the next course!

so let these tasty creamed mushroom toasts whet your appetite for my blog again. i promise i'll be back soon with the rest of the holiday dinner, and lots more kitchen adventures for next year!



creamed mushrooms on chive toast: serves 2-4 (it served 2 of us gluttons, but you could, i guess, serve 4 people with this recipe)
adapted from smitten kitchen

note: this mixture is basically a standard duxelles. the original nytimes article, and smitten kitchen's recipe, has you chop the mushrooms to 1/4" and then cook. but to prepare this in the "classic" french method, the mushrooms are roughly chopped (or even not at all if they're small enough) and then after cooking, finely diced. the reason for this is because of the relative high water content of the mushrooms. cooking them on high heat nearly whole (or in bigger pieces) will make them brown nicely and sear in this moisture. i'm sure another reason is because the french like to make things more complicated than they seem, bien sûr! :-)

1/2 lb cremini and shiitake mushrooms
2 tbs butter
1 large shallot, chopped
2 tbs dry white wine
1-2 tb sour cream
salt + pepper, to taste
challah or brioche bread, 4 slices about 1/2" thick and then cut into points or other shapes
1 tb chopped chives

1. brush off dirt from mushrooms, de-stem, and chop mushroom caps.

2. melt butter in skillet over medium-high heat, add shallot and sauté until translucent, about 3 minutes. turn heat to high, add mushrooms and cook, stirring, for about 10 minutes. mushrooms should be soft, and a deep golden shiny color. add wine and de-glaze, reduce until almost dry, about 2 minutes.

3. put the mushroom-shallot mixture back on the cutting board, and finely dice. return to the skillet on medium heat. temper sour cream and add to mixture (you could use regular heavy cream instead). season with salt and pepper.

4. toast bread (technically this should be a "buttered" toast recipe, but because challah or brioche is so rich already, we just toasted them and didn't butter. if you're using only white bread, you probably might want to add some butter after toasting). top each toast with mushroom mixture and sprinkle with chives.

tangy sweet coleslaw

wow, you're still here?! thank you for hanging in there with my non-existent blogging. i'm not sure why i've been so quiet since i returned from nigeria.

i think part of it was because i kept a daily journal while i was there in order to reflect on what i saw and felt and also to keep my sanity when i was lonely. and when i was really, completely, desperately bored and lonely i would actually write backwards. yes, longhand writing but with the letters and sentences written backwards -- sort of like in a neurotic heeere's johnny kind of way. so to be back home and not have to write at all felt liberating.

another reason was because my taste buds were so disappointed when i first came home. my last week in nigeria i really started thinking about foods from home. i mean, the best thing about living in new york city is its sheer variety of cuisines. but when i came home, nothing tasted good at all. restaurant or home cooked -- everything was bland, nothing was satisfying. i was cranky and that made me crave even less, which only made me more cranky.

what slowly pulled me back to american style food was the grill. and everything that dining al fresco in my own backyard brings with it -- the charred meats, longer nights, white wine, and relaxation.





one of the first grills we had was baby back ribs, something i've never had before. actually i don't think i've ever had any kind of rib before. i liked them, although i don't know if i'd necessarily make them again [mr. mimi interjects here, "whaddaya mean?!? they were great, you loved them!" -- i did?! i honestly can't remember, which makes me believe that i didn't.]

but i found a great slaw to go with it. coleslaw is so easy to make, there's no reason to buy supermarket slaw that's gooped up with heavy mayo and all sorts of preservatives. this slaw by martha uses half mayo, half plain yogurt and it was refreshing. i was on the fence about the tomatoes -- i like tomatoes, and it adds color, but i didn't like the soft texture with the rest of the crunchy slaw. either way, if you invited me to your potluck grill, i might bring this side with me! for the recipe, click here.

good-bye nigeria, hello new york

my workday lunch spot

it's been a week since i left nigeria. it all went by so quickly. you wouldn't know it since i haven't posted anything in like forever, oops!!

people keep asking me if experienced "culture shock" in nigeria? honestly, not at all. i'm not sure why? i guess because i lived in the capital city and my travels were to large cities as well. i mean, yeah life was a little different here and i ate different food and listened to different music and saw some of the poorest of the poor. but it's not like i was living in a bedouin tent in the middle of the sahara, going to work on camel back for the past three months.

i bring home many stories with me, some that i will share, some that i will just hold in my visual and mental memory. i might not have experienced culture shock but i definitely understood that my life is very different, and not because of me as a person -- but only because of the sheer circumstance of where i happen to live.

before i left i bought my taxi driver a goodbye gift, we were in the store together and i told him to pick out something for himself. he immediately proceeded to show me an electric hair shaver. i was like umm, ok if that's what you want??!! it cost 2,300 naira (about $18). to me that wasn't expensive but to him (and to anyone of his class), that was a generous gift. but i was thinking -- of all the gifts you want me to buy, you pick out an electric hair shaver??!!

on the car ride home he gave profuse thanks, and appreciated how generous i was and how happy he was. i asked if he had one already but was broken? he said no he doesn't have one, he goes to the barber and his son goes too -- but he worries about HIV/AIDS infection and so he is so grateful that he can now cut his hair and his son's hair at home. and immediately i realized, to me it was just 2,300 naira spent as a gift for a friend here, but to him it meant so much more -- to him, to his wife, to his family.

that's when i realized what the real difference -- the real "shock" -- is between me and everyone i met there. it's not about their culture or what they eat or wear or how they live. it's the fact that i go to the salon and get my haircut and my only worry is i hope it doesn't look like crap. my friend goes to the barber and he worries about being infected with HIV/AIDS.

i tried to anticipate how i might feel when i'm back in new york city. i remember when i came home from a two month stay in geneva. i hated the city, i hated the noise and sidewalk litter. i absolutely hated the MTA (can ya blame me there?!) -- but in about a week i fell back in love again with all the things that's amazing about new york.

this time is a bit different. i've never had to deal with such noise pollution (honk, honk, hooonk, HOOONKKKKK!!) as i've had in the streets of abuja. so now new york city is like an oasis of calm and quiet! but a week later and i still don't feel quite at home. i have less patience for the constant jockeying along the hipness and coolness spectrum that is the circus life of new york -- even if i don't join in on the circus, it's become tiringly annoying to watch. i also don't have my tastebuds back yet -- everything i eat leaves me unsatisfied.

but in my downtime i'm catching up on the (literally) thousands of blog posts i've missed in my google reader and i can't wait to start cooking and baking again -- i promise mimi on the move will be busy again soon!

nigerian field visits photos

As most of you know I'm in Nigeria for four months to finish my masters, working with an international NGO.

This past week I was able to visit the three child protection teams in northern Nigeria -- Bauchi, Kano, and Kaduna.

It was a great experience, and sits with me deeply. All my senses were taking it in -- the sights of the never ending rubbish, goats at every turn of the road. The smells of all those motorbikes, rubbish fires, and at times, sewage. The sounds of all those motorbikes, the hawking, the mosque calls to prayers. The taste of northern Nigeria cuisine, which even the same basic item (fried yams) tasted different.

And of course, the children. I'm not sure what I think. On one hand, it's easy to be angry when every corner in Kano has a bunch of Almaijari boys begging at every car that passes by -- you spot them by their plastic bowls. Boys are sent to the Almaijari "schools" which are Koranic boarding schools where neither the Koran or any form of education is taught. Instead, they are forced on the streets to beg. Millions of boys in northern Nigeria are in this situation.

But it becomes much more complicated when you travel to the communities. Beyond the poverty, you see so many children during the day who should be in school -- in the streets, hawking, working, caring for other children. It's like another world -- especially in Kano, where these communities are basically a hidden world from the main tar streets. But it's not just as easy to say "well, they should all be in school!" At the schools -- the children enrolled are easily identified by their uniforms, but many more children hang around the schools who are not receiving an education.

However the reaction of the children to the foreign oyibos are always the same regardless. With the little ones, it was like a running, screaming mob. For the older ones, we would walk into a classroom, and they would all be hushed by the teacher. They would sometimes sing a song, or merely say in their loudest, proudest English a big "dank you!" -- and once we walked out, it was like pandemonium as squeeling of delight and wonder filled the room. It was impossible not to hear the children and see their laughs and smiles -- and feel relieved and happy. But at the same time -- I always wondered how naive or presumptuous I was to feel that. How cliche, right?


And for the moment you were all waiting for -- yes I took photos, finally!! I didn't get as many photos of images/experiences that I wanted to. Mainly because I was "working" and not travelling, where I could stop as I'd like. And even when I did get to take photos, it never seemed to capture what I was seeing/feeling.

But they are up on flickr, so click on this link to view --

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimikatzchen/sets/72157615259746736/

three random stereotypes that are relatively true

1. women carry huge amounts of X, Y, Z balanced on their heads -- well, this is only partly true because plenty of men are hawking items along the street, even if the majority are women. but you see them everywhere, balancing a huge bowl of bananas, mangos, water, rice, etc etc while walking down the hot, dusty sidewalks.

i try not to be impressed by such feats of balance but more than once i wish i could try to do such balancing myself without (a) dropping the load on my feet like the lame oyibo i am or (b) appearing condescending or naive like the out of touch oyibo i am.

2. nigerians drive like shit -- ok, you want me to be kinder and gentler? how about they drive like crazy crap. this is something that photos cannot do justice to, nor even mere narrative. i cannot describe what riding around in a taxi is like here -- this is something that can only be experienced first hand. but all those rumors i heard about driving on sidewalks, cutting people off, no headlights at night, burn-out car crashes in the middle of the road etc etc are very much true here.

part of the problem is that there are too many cars. everyone owns his/her own car because taking taxis all the time can add up pretty quickly (i should know). so it's a source of pride -- you always see people cleaning up their cars to a glittering sheen, whether it's a brand new peugot or a beat-up 20+ year old volkwagen with no door handles and cracked windshield.

however, once they get on the road -- it's the law of step aside bitch, me first. i like to believe they don't necessarily do this with malicious intent. the truth of the matter is the process of getting a driver's license consists of forking over the required "fee" and there you go, you're ready to drive! it's all about money, baby. so i say a good majority of the drivers out there have never really "learned" how to drive.

so a road technically wide enough for 3 lanes easily becomes a 4 lane road. or even funnier, when the 3 lane road becomes a 2 lane road -- nigerians seem to love to think of lane markings as what you drive over, as if it's a monorail tracking. i've finally gotten used to 4-way intersections with no street lights where the law of step aside bitch, me first is quite an adventure. basically i hold my breath and hope not to get side swiped. only one taxi ride (out of many) have i ever felt "are these my last thoughts? am i going to die here in abuja, alone, in this taxi?" -- but it still doesn't get any easier.

3. nigerians love obama and think of him as a brother -- this is also very much true from my unscientific sampling of taxi drivers and other local folks. the best conversation i've had about obama though was from a taxi driver who was amazed that a black man could become president of the US -- his voice was filled with awe and he felt that made the US a wonderful country where anything was possible, and he only hoped for such greatness to be able to happen in his country. i admit (and i don't even like obama) that i was pretty proud to be representin'!

tomorrow i leave for nothern nigeria -- bauchi, kano, and kaduna -- for a week of field site visits. bauchi recently had some riot troubles, but the curfew has been lifted and so we're going ahead. i'm pretty excited, especially to see historical kano. this is supposed to be work and i'm not really supposed to act like a tourist but i hope to have time to see the famous dye pits and the ancient city walls (what's left of them). i'm also bringing my camera so hopefully i'll have photos soon!

abuja, nigeria

it’s been over two weeks here in nigeria and i still haven’t written. i guess partly that’s because there is no cooking or baking to tell you about. it is so hot (even by nigerian standards - every day has been easily over 100F degrees) that the thought of turning on the stove or oven seems a cruel punishment. but hot weather has never deterred me before.

then i realized it’s because i don’t have any one here to share it with. i never think of food as purely sustenance. i’m fascinated by the rituals, customs, and habits of people sharing food. i enjoy cooking and baking because i enjoy sharing it with others. my fondest memories are embedded in events surrounded with food. baking is a solitary activity for me - but it's always shared with others afterwards. and my favorite part of cooking is doing it together with mr. mimi. so when it comes to cooking or baking by myself, and for myself - i’m at a loss.

so unless you want to hear random stories about nigeria i probably won’t be writing much here. if i bring out my camera maybe i’ll post some photos. right now i’ve only been using my iphone to take quick photos - certainly not blog-worthy!

until next time, as they say here - you’re welcome!

chunky peanut, chocolate, and cinnamon cookies

i have finally settled back into new york city after a really great holiday vacation in san diego, san francisco, and sonoma. and now i have just a little more than two and a half weeks before i leave for nigeria.

it's a strange feeling not having a place to report to. since i can remember, i have always had to - in theory, folks - be at work or in class. but now, in between a few school papers due and and a couple of travel-related errands, i really have nothing to do.

i guess i should cherish this downtime, but i have heard i will have lots of it in abuja!! so i decided to take the next two weeks and bake every day. all those things i have wanted to try again and get right, all those bookmarked blogs, and tagged book pages. of course, i can't get to it all, but there is really no excuse to start having fun again in the kitchen.



so sit back and enjoy the treats. my first bake is by request of mr. mimi: chunky peanut, chocolate, and cinnamon cookies. honestly, i hardly tasted any cinnamon, but they were still very good. i did add the vanilla in with the wet ingredients instead of at the end (as instructed) because it just seemed very weird to me to do otherwise.

i used the recipe from her book, in which she suggests that you can make ahead and bake-off when needed. simply form the dough into 1-inch balls, flatten them slightly, freeze them on cookie sheets until firm. keep in resealable plastic bags for up to one month. i froze about 3/4 of the dough and baked some off last night. i love that i have cookies waiting for me in the freezer!

for the online version, click here.

cook book and travel advice needed!

my dear readers, there are a few of you out there who i think might be able to help me with two questions ...

now that colder weather is here, i love to curl up with new books. i've already got a few on my wish list, but i really want a new cook book for dinner.

i've been eyeing the barefoot contessa books and know there are a bunch of fans out there ... so, if you like BC and have her cook books, which one would you recommend? do you have a favorite recipe from one of them? maybe her first one? or in paris? or at home? they all sound and look so lovely!

and it might be only october but that doesn't mean i'm not thinking about the holidays! the mimis are heading out west to visit family for christmas. we decided to extend the trip up to san francisco for new year's eve. neither of us know anyone in san fran, and mr. mimi was there only about 25 years ago! i'm super excited to visit chinatown, joe's burger, chez panisse, and muir woods.

but what should we do about new year's eve?? how do most people in san fran celebrate? unfortunately since we don't know anyone there, house parties are not an option. so for those stuck out and about, which part of town do people go to? we're no longer club hopping kids (well, mr. mimi never was, haha!) but like music, dancing, burlesque, etc etc. if you have specific suggestions that's great, but at least right now we're just trying to decide what area to book our hotel that might offer the best possibility of being in walking distance of whatever it is we end up doing! so downtown? union square? the mission? soma or whatever it's called?

i don't have much to give in return except my sincere undying gratitude, suggestions for vegetarian cook books, and new york city travel tips!

(photo credits: the contessa by quentin bacon and golden gate from destination 411)

a little taste of south africa

that brings back so many good memories. this was perfect with tonight's dinner, which will hopefully be posted about tomorrow! right now i'm a little too tipsy to type! ;-)

south africa

settling back home is always the toughest part of vacation. but especially so when you have the best vacation, ever. which is the simplest way to express how much we loved south africa.



in two weeks you can hardly see anything in a country as large and diverse as south africa, but of what we did, it was amazing.



our itinerary kept us very busy until just the last day: boulders beach, cape of good hope, langa township, hermanus, kruger park, sabi sands reserve, and hazyview.



the main reason we decided to vacation in south africa was for the animals. and we were not disappointed at all! in addition to the big five, we saw so many other animals large and small. great birding too, and beautiful, diverse ecozones.









you can also see more photos on my flickr set. if you really want all the boring little details, i also have a trip report posted on lonely planet.









but now it's back to the reality of not working and going back to school ... AND BAKING!! 'tis about time to get back to it, huh? so i'm off to make an old favorite and spend my entire afternoon catching up on everyone's blogs that i've been missing!! :)

thinkin' light

are you like me? got the winter belly expansion? i don't think it's even an issue of weight per se, but just that overall feeling of blahness and heaviness. the great thing about winter is those warm comforting stews, chilis, chunky soups, and roasts. but the two hours to digest afterwards is another matter. so the current issue of everyday food was a perfect inspiration for something lighter, brighter, and healthier.

prep time

i used to hate avocado. nachos with guacamole? i was probably the only one around who would take a pass on that mushy, tasteless stuff. i mean, who doesn't like the good guac?! but when we were on our honeymoon here, part of it was spent in the rain forest, where i was fortunate to have lunches of fresh avocado right off the trees. i fell in love with that creamy sweetness served with the fresh acidity of sliced tomatoes. and so i found the light and became an avocado convert.

a bowl of goodness

brown rice bowl with shrimp, snow peas, and avocado: serves 4
adapted from martha's everyday food magazine (jan/feb 2008, p. 27)

1 cup brown basmati rice
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tb rice vinegar
2 tsp light brown sugar
1 tb olive oil
salt + pepper
1 lb peeled, deveined medium shrimp
1/2 lb snow peas, trimmed and halved on diagonal
1 piece fresh ginger, peeled and cut into matchsticks
2 hass avocados, pitted and cut into chunks

1. in large saucepan, bring 2 cups salted water to boil. add rice and cover. reduce heat to low and cook until rice is tender and water is absorbed, 45-50 minutes.

2. meanwhile in small bowl, stir together soy sauce, lemon juice, vinegar, and sugar until the sugar is dissolved; set aside.

3. when rice has finished cooking, heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. add shrimp, snow peas, and ginger; season with salt and pepper. cook until shrimp are opaque and snow peas are bright green, 2-3 minutes.

4. divide rice in four bowls. top with shrimp mixture and avocado. serve sauce on the side.

little (unwanted) haitus

waiting for spring ... and for me to feel better

sorry for the little hiatus here at chez mimi on the move. i've had the ill-luck to become sick, yet again. i honestly don't know what is wrong with me, it makes me want to cry. since december: i get sick, i feel better, i get sick again. i'm not doing anything differently, i'm not out late in the wee hours. i'm not stressed at all. i'm trying to eat more veggies and fruit. zinc drops and citrus. but i'm still getting sick. and my skin looks horrible! another tell-tale sign that i'm not at my 100 percent. something is off inside of me and i'm not sure what. maybe i just need a good old fashioned diet cleanse.

i hope to be baking away by next week, but in the meantime, here are just some random thoughts while i nurse myself back to health ...

1. debate was good. however, if i hear one more time from anderson cooper that obama voted against the war i'll poke my eyes out. it's repeated over and over on the airwaves, and in the blogs. obama was not in the senate and thus there is no vote to speak of. and while it is true, he made an anti-war speech at a rally in 2002, it's easy to have an opinion about something when that opinion doesn't matter. i'm not saying he wouldn't have voted no. i'm just saying it's easy for anyone to say he was against the war and he would have voted no when he didn't have to vote at all!! yes, of course i'm pissed that clinton voted for that resolution. but i get even more pissed when people say that obama voted no!

2. i was desperately wanting to make new york's finest black and white cookies to support the homeboys win on sunday. but who wants to eat cookies from someone who blows their nose every five minutes?? wahhh! i hope this isn't a jinx!

3. i'm trying to decide what to do this summer, for my month off. i'm debating between studying french in antibes, travel to south africa to see the big five, or travel to thailand and cambodia to eat amazing street food and see ankgor wat. your thoughts and opinions are welcome!

and most importantly ...

4. vote for me!! my little mediterranean pizza is officially in the hay hay it's donna day round-up and i would love to win! there is some mighty fine competition out there and i'm not trying to peer pressure you or anything, but hey, you do like me right? so vote for me by sending an email to eighty_breakfasts (at) yahoo (dot) com and vote for mimi on the move!!