Tuesday, 26 October 2010

Lessons Learned (1)

I've been reading blogs outside of the YA sphere of late and it is through this reading experimentation that I came across Sound Bite's Monday meme - Lessons Learned.  It's a two part meme - first you volunteer five lessons from your week and secondly, you share five of your favourite things.  I won't be doing this every week but wanted to try something different :)

And here we go -
    Lessons Learned
  1. Tofu is intolerable. No matter how many times people tell how good it is for you, or how it will help you lose weight, it will never stop it from being a tasteless gelatinous mass.
  2. It's okay not to read.  It's okay to take a breather.  Your blog won't die if you take a few days off, Adele.  
  3. Summoning up the child within is a mini holiday and one I should do more often.  My first Halloween (early) celebrating with kids and I had a blast! 
  4. Give negativity wide berth.  Sure you can be cynical and pessimistic but complaining just makes you (and everyone around you) miserable.  Be the change, don't whine about how things are.
  5. Family will always surprise you.  Give them the chance and they'll grab it.

Favourites

1. Katie Gavin....as I posted on Friday.  I found this seventeen year old singer/songwriter on YouTube when looking up 'Whip My Hair' (don't judge me, it's catchy).  She performs an awesome acoustic cover of the song with some soul.  I promptly started prowling my way through her YouTube channel and found her originals are just divine (like below). She also does some mean Imogen Heap and Sara Bareilles!


2.  Choco pies - I've been in Japan for nine months and seen the box often.  Yesterday I ate one and it was love at first bite.  How can do much deliciousness fit into one tasty, caloric ridden package?

3.  Rejection - it slams you back down to earth but boy, does it keep you grounded.    I found the lesson in the ouch and (perhaps) became better because of it.  (And I shamelessly used it as a free pass for the third choco pie.)

4.  Tye - for being Glinda.

5.  The word 'wench'...which proved to be inspiration for my weekend costuming :)

It's a horrible photo but it is the only one with my costume showing to some degree.  The make up was deliberately bad but hey, what kind of wench would I be if I didn't rock the fake mole?

I was drawing my gun in the most Landry way possible so I apologise for my lack of pirating conviction.  I am a book lover, not a fighter.  (PS FNL season 5 starts on Wednesday night).

And lastly, as a bonus, a shout out to the ladies of 1928!
This is my desktop background...and shall always be.

17 comments:

Lenore Appelhans said...

I have to disagree with the tofu comment because I have just discovered smoked tofu with sunflower seeds and herbs. I am an addict! (Of course, this way, it's probably less good for you...)

Adele said...

Recipe - now, Lenore!

Em said...

Poor tofu. I have to stand up for my food friend on this one. Tofu may not always be prepared well, but when done right, is amazing. My no-egg salad is pretty darn tasty. And I love super fried, sauce-drenched tofu in a stir fry. Yum. Sometimes I just slice some up thinly and bake it until it's crispy (smother it in hot sauce or Soy-Vey for the last few minutes of baking) and eat that as a snack.

I'm ok with folks not liking tofu. Not everyone can like everything. I will never get the draw of eggplant. It's beautiful as a plant - I love to see it at farmer's markets - but I can't get over the post-cooking texture. Blech.

Adele said...

Em....recipe!

Seriously tofu is super cheap here and if you can make it tolerable, I will be forever grateful.

Anonymous said...

Kate Gavin is enjoyable.. thanks for the sharing.

fun meme.

~L

Lenore Appelhans said...

I don't have a recipe, because I buy it from the health food store already made and yummy.

I really don't know what to do with silken tofu, or even "hard" tofu, but get me smoked tofu, and I am your gal.

IS76 said...

tofu alone is meh so what you need to do is fry it. Most tasty way is to deep fry it. Healthier alternative is to lightly coat it in corn starch and pan fry until it gets crispy on the outside. You would need the firm tofu for this. Have you tried making mapo tofu? It's more of a Chinese dish but easy to make with tons of recipes on the web. Really good with rice.

Lauren said...

Despite being a total carnivore, I actually *love* deep fried tofu in green curry. I can't imagine anyone claiming it'd help anyone lose weight, but I will claim that it's yummy.

kate.o.d said...

tofu is delicious. make a satay sauce, even just marinate it overnight in soy sauce and sweet chili. fry it - yep, defo more delicious tho less healthy. i will search out some recipes for you.
don't ever eat it if it looks like it does in that photo. dis.gus.ting.

Cass said...

I hadn't heard of "Whip My Hair" before Katie Gavin's cover. :P I think you posted it a while ago, perhaps?

1.My dog's name is Tofu. We like tofu, the dog, not the food. So we don't be getting mixed-up, because we don't eat it at all. :P

2. :) I like this one. It's so true.

I really like this post. Hope you post more of these soon. ;)

Sommer said...

I love tofu, but I've had enough not great tofu to know it can be bad.

Idea 1: When you prepare it, make sure it is as absolutely fresh as you can buy it. Even a few days can change the texture and taste considerably. Buy it and use it, don't keep it in the fridge too long.

Idea 2: Most people prefer extra firm tofu, the softer tofu is more for sauces.

Idea 3: Try baking it. Frying is fine but unhealthy, but baking is delicious. Take any recipe that calls for baked fish and switch it out for a "steak cut" of tofu. Bread it and make baked "eggplant parmesean" with similar steak cuts of tofu.

Also, you can make tofu like loose meat sandwiches or sloppy joes by putting the extra firm tofu into the freezer for a little while (not too long, till it's just firming up) and then crumble it into the pan with oil and spices/BBQ sauce/etc

Idea 4: You know how when you go out for Chinese or Thai and order something with tofu, you get 1x1 inch cubes? Go smaller. Cut them until they are cubes about the size of a thumb nail. You need extra firm tofu for this. The smaller sizes can make it more appealing to people who don't like the consistency.

Finally, not everyone likes tofu, and that's ok! It's cool that you seem willing to like it. Good luck! I really loved this post!

Anonymous said...

I like tofu. Stick it in sundubu ('cept that has to be extra soft tofu, can only get it in Korean shops) and it's delicious. I usually eat it with shoyu, but my grandparents put ginger shavings in the shoyu. ^^;;.

yumi sato said...

there are many ways to eat tofu, but I don't know whether you like them or not. so I recommend a few.

a. put it in the miso soup

Do you like miso soup? If you don't, skip it.

b. hamburger steak
put tofu with minced meat,egg,dry bread crumbs, milk, minced onion together as you usually make hamburger steak. and you can add mashed green soybeans or hijiki. After you fried, pour soy sauce a little bit.

c. nabe

Have you ever been to have nabe? After hotter season past, we Japanese want to eat Nabe. Put some vegetables like Daikon, Hakusai, Negi and mashrooms, konnyaku , chiken meatbolls and tofus in the pot. There are so many kinds of sauce for Nabe. So you can choose and try it.

d. Agedasi Dofu
It means fried Tofu with soba tsuyu.

first dust a tofu with potato starch or corn starch and brush away extra powder. and next, bake or fry it in the pan. You have to fry every face of the tofu. and warm the tsuyu which is for soba or udon and dilute with water and pour the tofu.

The most simpliest way to eat tofu is putting sesame dressing.

Wana try?

Vee said...

Eeek, Tofu. Tofu was the reason I'd never sign up as vegetarian for ANY school camp despite the fact that the vegetarian meals were always way, way better -- I was terrified I'd be forced to eat tofu, lol.

And I LOVE choco pies. My best friend in primary school was Korean, and absolutely obsessed with them. She used to eat them every day, so I got into it, too. There was a really awesome convenience store near our school that sold them.

Em said...

Hmmm. Recipes.

Well for stir fry, I don't have a recipe, but generally I make small cubes of tofu that I fry up first, spraying with some soy sauce, and once starting to get crispy, might add some other sauce or ginger. I put that aside and then cook up the rest of the stir fry ingredients adding the tofu towards the end to cook again for a little bit (warm it up, mix it with the flavors and sauce). Lately we've been making black bean sauce noodles and veggies with either tofu or tempeh. That sauce can make anything taste good!

For no-egg salad, I crumble extra firm tofu into what I consider the perfect egg salad texture (some like it more mashed than me - I like some little chunks). Then I mix in diced celery, chopped scallions and parsley, some minced garlic (I use a garlic press), about a half a cup of soy mayonaisse (I suppose you could use the real deal, stuff, but then you might as well make this with eggs rather than tofu, right?), 1/4-1/2 cup of relish (the kind I have is particularly tasty - I never liked relish much until I tried it), 1-2 T of mustard, and some salt to taste and turmeric for color mostly. I like this on rye toast with a little fresh lettuce. Yum.

The first time I tried tofu, I didn't like it. My mom is an amazing cook, but she didn't know the first thing about how to cook tofu. She convinced me to eat it by telling me it was toe-food and thus good for ballerinas.

Alison Can Read said...

Tofu is yummy! It can be bad, but I really like it when it's well marinated or fried. My husband (who lived in Japan for several years and loves everything Japanese) will eat it cold, dipped into soy sauce. That still turns my stomach just watching him do it.

Anonymous said...

Wow, I'm surprised by how controversial tofu is - thank god you didn't express a preference for pitbulls or something. I really love that Katie Gavin and doubt I'd ever have some across her if you hadn't posted that clip - so thank you!