On Sunday, I bought myself a brand new 17-inch MacBook Pro.
It was a splurge, but I’ve been wanting to upgrade to a new computer for a while since I’ve had my 17-inch Powerbook G4 for the past five and a half years. It’s been a bit slow lately, and with only 1GB of RAM, 1.5GHz Processor and a measly 80 GB of hard drive space, it just doesn’t measure up anymore… my personal workflow at home has been suffering because of my Powerbook’s limitations.
Still, I couldn’t help but feel bad as I started moving files off of my good old Powerbook to prepare it for retirement. It didn’t do anything wrong…. In fact, it’s served me very well for the past half decade, standing by my side through all those design projects and allnighters back in school, to being my work computer during the summer I worked at a start-up, to helping me land my first job out here in California. But I tell myself that five and a half years is a computer life well-lived, and that it can now rest peacefully in its nursing home (aka my storage closet).
My new MacBook Pro is quite a beauty, though, and with 4GB of RAM and 2.8GHz Intel Core2 Duo processor, I will — once again — have the power to crush the other kids.
Now excuse me for a while as I recover from this financial hangover….
Last week, my boss handed each of the employees at our company a starter bag for Amish Friendship Bread. At first I eyed the Ziploc bag with the curious-looking liquid substance inside with apprehension, since I’d never heard of starter nor the bread (Amish what?). She handed us each a sheet with instructions on what to do with the starter, adding that there was absolutely no pressure for us to actually make the bread — that we could “let it die” if we didn’t feel like using it.
Apparently this starter is a substitute for baking yeast and can be used to make many kinds of yeast-based breads, and the most common bread it is used for is Amish Friendship Bread. It’s a quickbread with a mild cinnamon flavor that is much like coffee cake and pound cake in its appearance and taste. The recipe for Amish Friendship Bread usually calls for keeping the starter and stirring or mushing the substance for 10 days (unrefrigerated) and at the end, using one cup for the batter of the bread and giving the remaining cups away to friends — the sharing of the starter with copies of the recipe makes for a chain letter effect. After trying some of my boss’s delicious loaf, I decided to give it a try.
Here is the recipe I used. (There seem to be slightly different variations online.)
Amish Friendship Bread
Do not use a metal spoon or metal mixing bowl
Do not refrigerate — if air gets into bag, let it out
It’s normal for batter to rise, bubble and ferment
Day 1 — Do nothing — this is the day you receive your batter Day 2 — Mush the bag Day 3 — Mush the bag Day 4 — Mush the bag Day 5 — Mush the bag Day 6 — Mush the bag — add 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 cup milk to bag Day 7 — Mush the bag Day 8 — Mush the bag Day 9 — Mush the bag Day 10 — Follow the instructions below:
1. Pour contents of bag into non-metal mixing bowl.
3. Into (4) 1 gallon Ziploc bags, measure 1 cup of batter. These will be your next starter and the other three will go to your friends along with a copy of this recipe. Make note of the starter date (baking day) and tell your friends what day you are on. Write the date on the baggies.
4. Preheat oven to 350°.
5. To the remaining batter in bowl, add the following:
a. 3 eggs
b. 1 cup oil (may use 1/2 cup oil and 1/2 cup applesauce)
c. 1/2 cup milk
d. 1/2 tsp vanilla
e. 1 cup sugar
f. 2 tsp cinnamon
g. 1-1/2 tsp baking powder
h. 1/2 tsp baking soda
i. 1/4 tsp salt
j. 2 cups flour
k. 1 large box of vanilla instant pudding (may use other flavors)
6. Grease 2 large loaf tins — mix 1/2 cup sugar and 1-1/2 tsp cinnamon together in small bowl. Dust loaf pans with half of mixture.
7. Pour batter evenly into the prepared loaf pans and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon sugar mixture on top of the batter.
8. Bake 1 hour — cool approximately 10 minutes — cut and serve warm or cooled.
If you keep a starter you will be baking every 10 days. This bread is very good and makes a great gift. Only the Amish know how to create the starter, so if you give them all away you will have to wait until someone gives you one back to enjoy. Enjoy!!
Today was Day 10, and I made the batter from the starter and just baked two loaves of Amish Friendship Bread with it. The kitchen smells divine and the bread looks and tastes amazing!
Now the issue is that I have four bags of starter sitting in my kitchen.If there’s anyone who wants a bag (or two) that is local, please let me know! Otherwise, if there are no takers, I’m just going to let them die.
They really do make really yummy bread and we’d be willing to drop them off if you’re within reasonable distance. 🙂
This is a few days late, but Happy 2010! We flew back to the West Coast on Sunday, despite some minor complications here and there. The airport security line at Dulles Airport was ridiculous and it took us almost an hour to get to the checkpoint — the nation is on orange alert after the terrorist attempt on Christmas Day. Our flight also experienced some minor delays due to the gusty winds (40mph winds!). We arrived safe and in one piece, though, albeit exhausted.
This year, we rang in the New Year with a handful of my college friends at a New Years Gala hosted at the Harman Center for the Arts, the Shakespeare Theater in Washington, DC. With 5 hours of open bar, appetizers, dance music being spun by a great DJ, and the gorgeous glass decor of the theater, we celebrated New Years Eve in style. They even had a roaming illusionist and caricature artist!
Ready for the New Year!
The Harman Center for the Arts in DC: with those glass walls, the place glows at night!
New Years Eve with some of my favorite Hokies!
Ladies, ladies, ladies!!!
with the hubby
The Countdown!
Happy New Year!!! 新年明ã‘ã¾ã—ã¦ãŠã‚ã§ã¨ã†ã”ã–ã„ã¾ã™ï¼
A huge thanks to Hanna for chasing people down and getting the group together for the NYE celebration! We had a memorable time with everyone. 🙂 (For more photos, see my New Years Eve album on Flickr.)
I ended up being sick most of New Years Day — it seemed to be one of those 24-hour stomach flus, rather than a hangover as everyone suspected — and I couldn’t really enjoy any of my mom’s New Years cooking. (For those who don’t know, New Years celebration is a big deal for the Japanese.) I was feeling a little better by the evening, though, and had a fun time catching up with college friends at Pat and Theo’s for a potluck dinner and game night.
Playing Taboo at Pat and Theo's place in Tysons Corner.
Eric and Jen are the cutest couple!
On our last night at home, we went with our family to Blue Ocean, the family’s favorite Japanese restaurant in the area. As always, it was delicious! 🙂
sushi boat from Blue Ocean
the family at dinner
Can never get enough sushi!
Complimentary mochi ice cream dessert!
While we were at Dulles, we caught a glimpse of their new rail system that will be replacing the current people movers that transport passengers between terminals. Gorgeous!
Dulles's new rail system (not in operation yet)
Dan had to try some Five Guys at Dulles before we left the East Coast.
Five Guys gets Dan's stamp of approval.
Dan and I both had a wonderful time back in the DC area spending time with friends and family. Thank you to everyone who made time in their schedules to see us and catch up. We can’t wait until our next visit! 🙂 And of course, you are more than welcome to pay us a visit over here on the West Coast anytime.
May 2010 bring many more exciting and memorable moments for all of us!
Dan, my sister and I spent a good part of the day yesterday in Washington, DC. They had never been to the Holocaust Memorial Museum before, and I hadn’t been there since going there for a field trip in fifth grade, so we decided to brave the freezing cold to pay a visit to the museum. It’s definitely one of those places that everyone should visit at least once in a lifetime. The permanent exhibition there is one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive repositories of Holocaust-related records. After going through floor after floor of photographs, models, videos, and preserved items from the era, you are confronted with the horrors of this atrocity. It serves as a reminder of how awful and inhumane genocide is and encourages us to work towards a world in which such injustices will be eradicated.
Clear skies in Washington, DC!
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
the line into the museum
The Next Time You Witness Hatred... The Next Time You See Injustice... The Next Time You Hear About Genocide... Think About What You Saw
Miwa and I in front of the Holocaust memorial museum.
There was no photography allowed in the exhibition areas, but we were allowed to take some pictures on the first floor of the four-story museum.
Quote by Bill Clinton at the entrance of the museum.
enscription on the wall
"For the dead and the living we must bear witness" - Elie Wiesel
memorial area
From Memory to Action
Smithsonian Metro station... waiting for the train to go back home.
I’ve really missed DC and the richness of history, culture, and education that is characteristic of our nation’s capital. In the Smithsonian area alone, there are so many art, history, and science exhibits and archives that you can enjoy free of admission. Because I was so used to museums where everyone and anyone had equal opportunities to visit and enjoy exhibits, museum admission fees are such a foreign concept to me and I didn’t really realize that most museums around the country charge until I traveled to other cities. The Kennedy Center, where I interned one summer, boasts the nation’s busiest performing facility and as the national center of the performing arts, it is a public-private partnership in which ticket proceeds and gifts from individuals, corporations and private foundations go towards educational and outreach initiatives. There are endless resources to educate and open your horizons in DC, and it had been such a privilege to live only fifteen minutes away from it all. It’s one of those things that I couldn’t truly appreciate the value of until I was away from it.
Our family drove up to New York City this weekend and spent a short but fun two days in Manhattan. We visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Rockefeller Center, the Manhattan Center, Times Square, met up with family friends, ate a whole lot of good food… and more! I was born in Queens, and although we moved to the DC area soon after, there’s something about New York City that resonates with me. It’s too busy and fast-paced for my taste and I could probably never live there, but it’s still part of my roots. I spent most of my childhood and adolescent years in Northern Virginia, but we used to take annual trips up to New York City during the holidays as a family so it was really nostalgic to be up there with the family for the first time in almost a decade. Here are some photos from our short trip:
Eating ramen lunch at Sapporo in Manhattan
Sapporo Special
the parents
New York subway
Brother harassing the hubby.
The clusterfuck that was the Met that day.
Entering the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
samurai exhibit at the Met.
Sculpture garden at the Met.
Renoir painting.
We stayed at the Skyline Hotel.
sushi rolls for takeout.
Rockefeller Center and its huge Christmas tree.
St. Patrick's Cathedral
The ginormous New York Macy's.
Madison Square Garden
Empire State Building
So sunny compared to the previous day's torrential rain.
sweet treats at a Chinese bakery
First time seeing Sylvia in years! So good catching up!
Miwa, Mari and I at Tick Tock Diner. I've missed you Mari!
