I'm home!

Yes, I am home. Oh blessed home.

Robert arrived in Montreal by train on Monday night. Poor guy. He helped me move to Montreal three years ago (2 trips in the Subaru Forrester, so crammed full of stuff that it was threatening to expl0de its contents all over the 401) and endured a most hellish trip to Ikea with me. Honestly Ikea, why is your one location in Montreal in the ass-end of nowhere, accessible only from the madness that is Autoroute 40?

Tuesday was spent eating delicious pizzar from Amelio's and packing up all of my stuff. Robert did most of the bulk closet and kitchen packing while I did the cleaning and the little finicky stuff.

We woke up around 7 on Wednesday morning so that we could drag our sleepy butts to the U-Haul location in the east end of Montreal instead of the one at Pont Jacques Cartier. So much for your promise of giving me the most convenient location, U-Haul. We got there by 9am, as planned, picked up the cargo van and Robert drove it back to the apartment ever so carefully. He had back pains, so he couldn't turn around completely to look out the back and lack of windows made it impossible for him to check the blind spot on his right side. That made the drive through downtown Montreal FUN. TIMES.

We had everything packed in the van by 11:30am and then we had the fun task of making our way through the other half of downtown Montreal to get on the 20. At one point, a cyclist ran a red light as we were crossing the intersection and gave us a mini heart attack. I may have called him a son of a bitch. I don't tend to use that term as an insult towards a specific person, so I don't know what my exact feelings were at the time. The way he was zipping through Ste-Catherine indicated to me that he clearly had a death wish and we would not have been at fault if we had run him over. However, I would have been obliged to help him after turning his sorry ass into road goo since we were still in Quebec. But if I were muttering all kinds of mean things while doing chest compressions, could anyone reproach me for that? I don't think so. Damn cyclists.

Things went smoothly enough after that. We stopped at a St-Hubert in Dorion just outside of Montreal for brunch and the 401 moved along nice and smoothly. Until we were a few kilometres away from Kingston. The traffic slowed to a crawl and Robert estimates that it took us about 40 minutes to move 2 km. The thing about U-Hauls is that there's only an FM-AM radio. Robert had his Ipod, but I had forgotten to charge my Zune. I thought I was going crazy with boredom. Thankfully, Robert's laptop was fully charged and he had his external hard drive full of Scrubs episodes. I watched about 5 episodes while composing the following.

5:13pm - Robert and I have been stuck on the 401 for the past 2 hours now. From what I can tell, we are just outside of Kingston. The 401 is closed. No explanation has been given. We have moved approximately 2km in 40 minutes. Robert says that the 401 better have collapsed if there is all this fuss. I can only surmise that there is a possible zombie uprising up ahead. In which case, we're pretty screwed, because the only food supply that we have with us in the U-haul cargo van is a package of ramen, 3 servings of uncooked flour noodles and a ziploc baggie of dried anchovies used to make fish stock. And I have finished the box of Junior Mints that I bought in Montreal. We have no water. To either side is a densely forested area and we have no viable weapons. We are in the worst case possible situation for a zombie outbreak. At this point, it would be just easier to get our butts bitten by zombies and join the winning side. If our zombie selves somehow make the 300+km trip back to Toronto and bite your butts, just remember that we only did what we could.

5:24pm - If I become a zombie, the first people I'm biting are smokers. Robert doesn't mind smokers, but hates people who throw their cigarette butts everywhere. Just saw a man jump out of his idling SUV and head off into the bushes. Thought he had mysteriously received news of the zombie outbreak and was abandoning his car to take his chance in the wilderness until Robert pointed out that he probably just had to pee. Am rather glad of the fact that am thirsty and not in need of relieving my bladder. Robert has taken to reading a book during the 20 minute intervals between inching forward.

5:31pm - If there is a zombie uprising and if I do end up surviving this traffic nightmare of 401 with some kind of weapon, I would want the soundtrack of my zombie mercy killings to be Knights of Cydonia. It would be kickass. Thought: Why am I so into zombies lately?

5:48pm - Seem to be moving ahead at about 70km/h all of a sudden. Robert is very perplexed. I would come up with some kind of zombie-related reason for this, but am strangely unable to muster enough crazy at the moment. As soon as the above was written, the traffic has slowed back down. Actually saw two cars ENTER the 401. Poor suckers.

The signs later informed us that the 401 had been reduced to one lane for 7km, because they were working on expanding the highway. So avoid the 401 around Kingston this summer at all costs. Once we got past Kingston, everything was smooth sailing again. We got to Toronto around 9-ish and got off the 401 at the Bathurst exit. The thing about Bathurst and 401 is that you can't get off directly onto Bathurst from the 401. You get off on Wilson and that takes you to Bathurst. We got on Bathurst and drove. It was taking longer to get to Finch than I thought. I distinctly remember saying, "St. Clair is after Lawrence, right?" but I must have been too tired because I didn't register at all what that was implying. It was only when I saw the huge red and yellow sign for Honest Ed's that I screamed, "We're at Bloor! We're at Bloor!" It was UNBELIEVABLE. Does this happen to everyone or is it just me? It seems like whenever I go on a road trip, some crazy thing happens and I end up spending the night in the back of the car or unpackaging a headboard in the middle of the Ikea parking lot at 10pm. We finally got to Robert's house (we weren't in any shape to unpack any luggage, oh no) and just crashed. This experience has thoroughly ruined my desire to move anywhere more than say, 50km away. But it makes for a crazy story, no?

Plus, I'm home. That's always awesome.

Cooking Attempt #48: Thumbprint Cookies

Two of my nursing buddies and I have been doing our clinical course in an Enfance-Famille program this past year, so when the time came to say good-bye to our preceptors, we decided that we would bake a little something for everyone in the program. I found the recipe for these cookies here, but had to adjust it because the dough was too crumbly during my test run. I added a bit more margarine like the random people on the internet suggested and it turned out better for the actual batch that I presented to the nurses.

I was actually worried a bit, because these cookies aren't very sweet. I wasn't sure if they were supposed to be sweet or not, you see. I mean, all the storebought cookies are disgustingly saccharine (Tim Horton's? Even worse.). I eat maybe two and then I've met my cookie quota for the next month or two until Robert shoves one into my mouth again. So how was I to know if these would satisfy a bunch of middle aged ladies who are probably more knowledgeable in cookie lore?

In any case, they liked them a lot. So much so that they asked me for the recipe. And being an obliging youngster, I promised to e-mail my nurse the recipe, which meant that I had to translate it in French. FANTASTIC.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup margarine
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 cup raspberry jam

Method

• Cream margarine and brown sugar for about 3 minutes.
• Whip in egg and vanilla extract.
• Mix in salt and flour until formed into dough. Put in fridge for 30 minutes.
• Form small 1-inch diameter patties and lightly press with thumb to make a small well in the centre.
• Fill the well in the cookies with raspberry jam.
• Bake on parchment lined cookie sheet (I use wax paper, which works just as well) at 350F for 12 to 15 minutes.
• Let cool on cookie sheet for few minutes. It makes about 2 dozen small cookies.

These pictures are from my third time baking the cookies.

Brenda made the prettiest patties ever, don't you think?

And these are the cookies I actually presented to the nurses. I was still following the original recipe's instructions to make BALLS and then press your finger, so they have a cracked appearance. They were still yummy, I swear!

And now, the recipe in French that I translated for my preceptor nurse.

Biscuits “Empreinte de pouce”?

Ingrédients
• Beurre – ¾ tasse
• Sucre – ½ tasse
• Oeuf – 1
• Extrait de vanilla – 1 c. à t.
• Sel – 1 pincée
• Farine – 1 tasse
• Confiture – ¼ tasse
• Papier parchemin

Méthode
• Battez la beurre avec le sucre pour 3 minutes.
• Ajoutez l’oeuf et l’extrait de vanille et battez encore.
• Ajoutez la farine et le sel et mélangez. Mettez la pâte dans le frigo pendant 30 minutes.
• Roulez la pâte en boulette (?) et appuyez doucement avec une pouce.
• Remplissez le creux (?) avec la confiture. (J’ai utilise la confiture de framboise.)
• Arrangez les biscuits sur une tôle à biscuit. Mettez au four à 350 degrés Farenheit pendant 12-15 minutes.
• Laissez refroidir pour quelque minutes sur la tôle.

Cooking Attempt #47: 불고기

불 - fire (bul)
고기 - meat (gogi)

It's beef stirfry! You can order this already cooked, but if the restaurant has those tabletop grills, you can cook it yourself.

I had a huge chunk of frozen sliced beef in the freezer. It must have been over 1kg of meat. I let it thaw completely and patted it with paper towel to soak up the excess blood. I sliced up some zucchini, carrots and onion. The marinade was made with soy sauce, fish sauce, ginger powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, honey and diced apples. The honey and diced apple are for keeping the meat soft during cooking. I would have used apple juice, if I had some. I mixed everything together and left it to marinate overnight.

That's a lot of meat.

The next day, I heated up a pan with a tiny tiny bit of oil and cooked it in sections. There was just too much to cook all at once.

Now, how to eat bulgogi, or any other type of Korean BBQ you order. You could always eat it with rice, but you'll get sick of it. I should know. At a restaurant, it should always come with some lettuce leaves, maybe raw cloves of garlic and a dish of miso-chili paste. What do you do with those?

Take a piece of lettuce. You should really hold it in your hand, but I couldn't do that and take pictures at the same time. I'm only one person.

You put a decent amount of your food on the lettuce. This is actually a bit much. You'll see why. Think about your mouth size and how much you can fit in there. I could also have had a bit of rice on the lettuce, but didn't have any cooked just then.

Then you have other stuff you can put on top. I personally like a little dollop of miso paste. Other people put the raw garlic or a mixture of green onions soaked in soy sauce. Figure out what you like. There aren't any rules.

Wrap it all up into a tidy ball and shove it into your mouth gracefully. If you've done it right, it should all go at once in your mouth. If it's too big, then things will spill out after your bite it in half. Cover your mouth with the other hand. Believe me when I tell you that you'll look even messier than when you're eating those gigantic rolls of sushi. But that's part of the fun. There are no crazy rules of meal etiquette here. Just keep yourself relatively clean. That's all!

Cooking Attempt #46: 궁중떡볶이

궁중 = Royal Court (goong-joong)
떡 = rice cake (ddeok)
볶이 = stir fry (bok-ee)

This is a dish that was served at court years ago. It's sort of related to this recipe, which was invented in the 1950s and is a favourite snack food especially among students.

It was really easy to make, considering it's supposed to be something that was served to royalty.

First, I took some frozen rice cake (it has to be little cylinders, not balls or slices) and dunked it into boiling water for a few seconds. Then I dunked it in cold water, drained it and tossed it with a bit of sesame oil. This was set aside.

I had some frozen ground beef and frozen veggie mix (Asian mix?) that I wanted to use up. Some kind of thinly sliced beef and julienned vegetables are ideal. The vegetables should be softer ones (you know, not potatoes or something). I started by cooking the beef with salt and pepper in a frying pan, then added the veggie mix. While I had that going, I made the sauce with soy sauce, garlic, pepper, tiny bit of ginger powder, sesame oil and honey. I tossed in the rice cake and sauce at the same time and stirred it around until everything was cooked through.

Before eating, I sprinkled on some roasted sesame seeds. Yum!

Cooking Attempt #45: 김치전 (Kimchi pancakes)

김치 = kimchi
전 = pancake (jeon)

I made this back in October, but just forgot to post it, I suppose. The key to making kimchi pancakes is to have ripe kimchi. Kimchi is very finicky, you see. It's very good when it's first made, then as it ferments, it goes through several stages.

Fresh --> wonky --> ripe --> vinegary --> mature (this is after spending about 2 years in proper storage and as a result, it's very hard to find).

I had some kimchi that was about to go vinegary (a few months after being made, I guess?), so I decided to use it up.

It's really easy. First you squeeze out the kimchi juice (to prevent your batter from becoming too watery and spicy). Then dice up the kimchi into itty bitty pieces. You add flour and water to make it into a runny batter (you know...like pancakes!).



Then you heat a pan with some oil and make a nice little cake. When one side's done, just flip it over once and cook the other side.




I just discovered the "Enhance Color" function in Microsoft Office Picture Manager. It's awesome. Makes the colour of food really pop, don't you think?

Cooking Attempt #44: 호박타락죽 (Buttercup squash milk porridge)

호박 - squash
타락 - old Korean word for milk
죽 - porridge

I saw them make this on an episode of 무한도전, which is a Korean variety show. Apparently they used to serve this at the palace to important foreign guests. It's supposed to be a lightly sweet appetizer.

I've been meaning to make this porridge for a long time, but didn't get around to it until I saw a nice pile of buttercup squash at the grocery store last week.

I set the rice to cook in my rice cooker. After scrubbing the squash clean, I cut it up and scraped out all the seeds.



I cooked them in the microwave for 10 minutes. When you do this, you have to make sure that the squash pieces are placed so that the peels are facing up. This is to prevent water from pooling in the meat portion of the squash. Something about diluting the flavour of the squash. *shrug*

After it's cooked, the peel comes off easily with a fork. You can eat the peels, actually.



I put 2 cups of milk, 3/4 cup of cooked sticky rice, a pinch of salt and the squash pieces into a pot. This should be cooked at medium heat and no higher. You don't want the milk to burn. From this point on, you have to stir constantly to prevent the milk from burning. Gradually, the mixture turns into a sunny yellow. After it was heated enough, I used my hand mixer to make it into a nice thick consistency.



Then I mixed in a tablespoon of honey and poured myself a bowl! I sprinkled on a tiny bit of nori just to give it a visual accent. Mmm~ It was like eating a bowl of sunshine!

Cooking Attempt #43: 칼국수 (Korean noodle soup)

칼 - knife
국수 - noodles

So...knife noodles?

I guess this would be like the Korean version of ramen in Japan? I'm not sure how they make their noodles for ramen, but for 칼국수, you make a dough with flour, water, salt and egg. Then you roll it out and cut it into long thin strips. These are then tossed straight into the pot when the soup portion is ready.

Of course I didn't make the noodles myself. I bought ready made noodles from the Korean market. You have to buy fresh noodles, because dry noodles aren't as yummy.

I made the broth with dry anchovies and dashi (standard broth making ingredients in Korea). Then tossed in potato, onion, mushrooms and green onion. The seasoning was made with chili paste, miso paste, soy sauce, garlic and ginger. You have to make sure that there is a lot of broth for each portion, because the noodles soak up quite a bit of moisture as it cooks. Right before I turned off the heat, I swirled in an egg. Mmmm~~~

A declaration.

To: You people know who you are

Please, for the love of beans, stop over analysing stuff. Especially relationship-y stuff.
You make me oh so tired.

Yes, I am your friend. I consider myself a damn good empathetic willing-to-cry-with-you-if-something-bad-happens type of friend. But I am only willing to do so if there is truly something to empathize about.

If you believe that the guy you rejected but now have feelings for but he was seeing someone but then you have reason to believe from the oh so reliable evidence from Facebook stalking that he isn't seeing that girl anymore so maybe you have a chance again- You see? I can no longer form sentences to describe your situation. And I used to be excellent at forming seemingly run-on sentences that were actually quite sensible.

The point is, if you do this to me, I will sit there with my smile-that-isn't-quite-a-smile and say, "Ah."

Maybe in the process of becoming a nurse, I have learned to differentiate between "hard evidence" and "you are analysing the way someone waved at you across a dark room?" level of foolishness.

Do me a favour. If you are interested, ask the person out. Do it. And no, a text message asking if the person is "free" sometime in the future to do "something" is not good enough. SMART goals, people.

Specific-Measurable-Attainable-Relevant-Time-bound

If you didn't include all these components into your significant discussions for plan making with someone, then I can't be bothered to listen to you whine when it falls through. And I don't believe in coddling anyone. You can find someone else to help you cling to false hopes or any sort of delusions by saying, "Oh yes, she will totally come back to you one day. TOTALLY.", because I don't do that.

I. Don't. Do. That.

So don't call me heartless and unsympathetic and wah wah wah. Because it's not just one person who is filling a balloon with honey-coloured daydreams that aren't at all realistic. It's MANY people, each with their own individual balloons and it is SUFFOCATING me.

At one point, I had to resort to scream-praying to God, okay? I haven't prayed since grade 6, okay? I don't even believe in God. I did that because of you. And your yammering. And believe me, I'm not trying to burst your bubble. I'm trying to deflate it as gently as I can.

So please, help me preserve my sanity. By doing so, you will be helping to create a sarcastic and fun Judy. Someone you can truly rely on to congratulate or comfort you when something significant happens.

Help me help you.
Help me help you.

Love and hugs, your friend.

Cooking Attempts 41~42: Mmm~

Egg roll: 달걀말이
It's not the egg rolls that you get with Chinese food. It's basically an omelet that's rolled up. They sell square frying pans at the Korean market so that you can make a neat roll, but it's easy enough using a round one. You can mix in whatever you want (as long as it doesn't have too high a water content), but I chose chopped up kimchi. It was really easy to make. I used 3 eggs. Heat up the pan with oil, pour the mixture in. When it's about half cooked, instead of flipping the whole thing, turn the heat off and gently start rolling from one corner. Wait for it to cool in the pan so that it sticks and then cut into neat little pieces.

I think next time, I'll try a mix of cheese, green onions and red pepper.

Mackerel Radish Stew: 고등어무조림
It's not really a stew, because the liquid is simmered away as much as possible. But the closest translation is a stew, according to Yahoo's Korean dictionary. So! Cut some white radish (daikon) into bite-size pieces and line the bottom of a pot.

Cut some onions and layer on top of the daikon pieces.
I used frozen mackerel chunks that my parents brought for me from Toronto. They say that fatty fish are best for this recipe. I mixed chili paste, soy sauce, honey, chili powder, garlic and ginger and splooshed on top of the fish.
Then I put in just enough water to cover the whole thing. I also threw in some dashi (hard dried seaweed used to make fish stock) for extra flavour. Then I boiled at high heat for 15 minutes, medium heat for 15 minutes and low heat until the water had reduced to a sauce. The liquid from the daikon and onions thickens it just enough. The key is not to stir it while it's boiling. Otherwise the fish will break off into small chunks and disappear instead of staying nicely together like this!
I also threw in some chopped green onions just before turning off the heat altogether. It was really yummy. My first fish dish! ^_^

"Like sands through the hourglass, so are the Days of Our Lives..."

Into the second year of Harvest Moon now. Relationships becoming more soap opera-like by day.

Year Two: Spring
Denny, that rat bastard, didn't do anything for Spring Harmony Day, which is when boys are supposed to give girls sweets. Sigh. Didn't get anything from Vaughn either, but that was expected seeing as how I only get to see him two days out of the week.
Decided to put all my efforts into my ranch to deal with the disappointment and was rewarded with the first prize at the potato festival. Mirabelle also gifted me with a white horse. I named her Winnie and brush her everyday.
Denny asked me out, but it was only to Chen's general store. Chen kept teasing us about how he should take me out to a nicer place on our next date. Denny kept insisting that we were just hanging out. I'm starting to get annoyed with his vacillations. Also, if he tells me one more time that I should start getting up earlier because the early bird catches the worm, I'm going to sock him. If he had to renovate his house just to fit another bed for a future spouse and figure out how to raise an island so that a church can be built for the wedding, he wouldn't be able to get up at 6am either.


Year Two: Summer
Spent summer trying to figure out how to upgrade my damn equipment so that I don't have to do all my farm chores one square at a time. I also raised up Rice Island out of the sea, which was a bad idea in retrospect, because I just don't have the time or the necessary equipment right now to grow rice. Dammit, should have raised Mushroom Island instead so I can forage for mushrooms, which is easy money.
Denny organized a fishing contest. I only got fourth place, because I'm still only catching small fish. Lanna, a former pop star, won first place. Now that I think about it, she's always hanging around the beach just down the street from Denny's shack. And I see them sitting together all the time in the Café. She better not try anything or I will cut someone.
My worries were later assuaged when I attended the Fireworks Festival. Denny asked me if I wanted to watch the fireworks with him. Ha! Take that, Lanna!


Year Two: Autumn
I walked into Mirabelle's store to buy some feed and was unexpectedly asked to help Vaughn take care of some farm animals. He was reticent at first, but accepted my help and told me that I wasn't completely useless. As heartwarming as his praise was, unfortunately I spied him a few days later talking to Sabrina, the meganekko daughter of the mine owner. He fixed the chain on her necklace for her. Damn them! I've got to either raise up Mushroom Island so I can start giving him mushrooms as presents or buy a cow so that I can get some milk and cook some porridge. ARGH, my brain!
As I still have many things to do before I can propose to Denny with the certainty of being accepted, I have decided to start up a friendship with the new guy in town, Will. He showed up on his yacht after I raised up Volcano Island. He's Sabrina's rich cousin, who's out to see the world. He's a bit of a playboy and I saw him talking up Lily the treasure hunter a few days into our acquaintance, which annoys me. But he has a yacht, dammit!


Year Two: Winter
Mining the depths of Volcano Island is the primary source of income for me in winter. As I am but a beginner miner, most of my finds are amethysts and topaz, but it should be sufficient to get me through the winter. How is it that you get a plate of gelatin when you pour water on little pools of lava? Perhaps it makes sense to a Harvest Moon geologist.
Gave chocolates to Denny and Will for Winter Harmony Day, but Vaughn wasn't around since it wasn't a Monday or Tuesday. I must say that the challenge of courting Vaughn is making him more desirable than Denny. Relationship with Will is coming along nicely. I'm keeping my eye on Lily, that treasure-hunting hussy, to make sure that she doesn't get her claws into Will.
Went to the Starry Night Festival with Denny like last year. Not close enough to Will yet and Vaughn is (AGAIN!) nowhere to be found. At this rate, I think I'll just end up marrying Will with his yacht and mining heir money. It's not mercenary if I find him genuinely likable.


*meganekko: "glasses(-wearing) girl" in Japanese, a term used in anime and manga to refer to females wearing glasses , which is considered their most attractive trait