thank you martha stewart

I had no idea that I was in the market for a chocolate frosting recipe, but apparently, I was. I checked out Martha Stewart's 'Cupcakes' cookbook from the library the other day, and almost immediately, I looked for a chocolate frosting recipe. And of course she had one, this being Martha Stewart and all.

I'm going to a Farewell BBQ tonight, and so I made yellow cupcakes to go with my chocolate frosting. The frosting is perfect. It's super chocolate-y and fudgy, but not at all heavy.

I hadn't even finished frosting the cupcakes when I decided to taste test one. It was wonderful, and I'm a little sad that I have to share.

Even though I'm in love with Martha's chocolate frosting recipe, I don't think I'll be buying her cookbook. About half of it was recipes, but they weren't particularly new or innovative. For example, as much as I love pumpkin cupcakes, I probably don't need another take on them. The remaining half of the cookbook was "recipes" for decorating your cupcakes. Stuff like how to make your cupcakes look like a yule log, or farm animals, or sea creatures, and so on.

This is going to sound hypocritical, given that I took a cake decorating class and that I have been known to enjoy the Food Network's 'Ace of Cakes' show, but I will never understand or embrace this movement to make baked goods look like, well, not baked goods. You just don't see this with other foods. I mean, when's the last time you heard of someone making a lasagna look like a car? Or someone using chicken to sculpt Santa Claus? I think you catch my drift here.

The other day at the library, I came across Bakerella's new cookbook. Bakerella makes cake pops that don't look like cake pops. In the spirit of the Hello Cupcake cookbooks, Bakerella will teach you how to make cake pops look like hamburgers or teddy bears. Out of curiosity, I looked at the recipe for said cake pops, and *gasp* it calls for a boxed cake mix. The folks over at Hello Cupcake also advocate boxed cake mixes.

And this, I believe, is my problem with this crazy, over the top cake decorating: boxed cake mixes. Have we become so accustomed to eating shitty food that we'll sacrifice taste for a cupcake that doesn't look like one? Herein lies the paradox: there are people that won't go to the trouble with baking a cake from scratch, yet they will spend hours on end decorating that cake (enough people at least to warrant such a market). I understand that cake mixes are convenient, fast, and easy, but what I don't understand is if people are going to spend all this time decorating a cake, why not just make one from scratch instead and skip the extravagant decorating?

The cake pops look cool, but I bet they taste like crap. There is no substitute for homemade baked goods, and if you don't believe me, come on over to my place and I'll bake you a cake. From scratch.

3 weeks

So here's the rundown: Drew is currently at the Great Wall right as we speak. Jealous? Yeah, me too. He's a little halfway through his language program, and he'll be home in 3 weeks. For the past month or so, we subleased our 2nd bedroom to a professor who was here for a seminar or something like that, and he left yesterday. So I have the place to myself for the next 3 weeks.

I spent some time in the garden today. One of the tomato plants is not doing well and I have no idea what's wrong with it. And I haven't been that concerned with trying to figure it out either. Until today, all I'd done about it was call my dad, and describe to him the state of my plant while standing out at the garden (he's like my personal garden adviser. I call him with a problem, and if he doesn't know the answer, he calls someone else and calls me back. I'm spoiled). The leaves are yellowing and then they eventually turn brown and crunchy. One day, I pruned away all the brown and crunchy leaves, but the next day, more leaves turned yellow and brown. It's like the plant is mocking me. Anyway, today I added some compost to the soil because I suspect the plant needs some nutrients. We'll see if that works.

The rest of the garden is looking pretty good and green:

There are about half a dozen jalapeno peppers on this plant:
And nearly all 8 of our pepper plants have at least 1 or 2 peppers:

It's pretty cool, but at the same time, it makes me nervous. Pretty soon, we're going to have loads of peppers, and I'm pretty sure I won't be able to eat them fast enough. I plan to roast and can the red peppers, and I guess I'll blanch and freeze the green peppers.

And finally, our cherry tomato plant keeps producing about 4 or 5 cherry tomatoes at a time. I've learned that I need to be more diligent about picking them when they turn red, lest they fall prey to the crows that hang out around the garden. I don't really mind sharing, but I wish they'd at least eat the entire tomato instead of leaving part of it in the garden.

just say no

After 5 years of being in a Ph.D. program, I cannot, in good conscience recommend that anyone go to graduate school. I've known this for the past year, but I didn't really know it. When my students ask for advice about grad school, I'm vague and generic. I don't outright dissuade them, but I'm no grad school cheerleader, at least not for a Ph.D. program.

I hadn't fully realized or admitted all of this until yesterday. I went to a birthday party and met a guy halfway through his undergraduate career. I asked him what he studied, and then he said he was thinking about graduate school. He's barely spitting out the words, but I'm already shaking my head, telling him not to do it.

Most everyone is bright eyed, bushy tailed, and optimistic when they enter a Ph.D. program, but somewhere along the way, we get jaded. Along the way, we sell out and sell our soul. It takes a few years, but we learn that grad school is nothing like what we thought it would be. I haven't yet decided if it's the smart ones who get out or stick with it.

a birthday and a full garden

I turned another year older a little over a week ago. A close friend and I share a birthday and finally, after 4 years, we were able to celebrate together. I made a lemon coconut bundt cake for the occasion:

We had a party, and it was lovely. It was tame, even though the police paid us a visit around 2 in the morning, after all but a handful of guests remained. It's not unusual for the cops to shut down parties around here. The only surprise is that it didn't happen until 2am. (usually it happens around midnight or 1) Anyway, it was a good thing the police arrived; they checked my ID and that's how I learned that my driver's license expired.

I share my birthday with several friends and even family, and I am used to and enjoy celebrating it with others. My cousin and aunt and I all share a birthday, and when I was child, we would have a joint party. It was something I looked forward to, and I was a bit sad when the tradition ended.

In other news, I got us a little ornament for the garden. It sure is cute:

And we finally have a full garden plot:

After accidentally killing off the seedlings, I went to the nursery for a few replacement plants. I planted 2 romas and a cherokee purple. The garden is, for the most part, doing pretty well. The peppers are thriving, and we have beans coming up. But for some reason, the once thriving mint, isn't doing so hot. Most of the tomatoes are doing well, except one has started to turn yellow. Not sure what's going on there.

The other day, I stopped off at the garden on my way to school. A group of kids from the day care were there, having a look around. They love the garden and their teachers bring them there often, maybe even everyday, but I'm not sure. Anyway, I showed a couple kids some peppers and let them play with our garden ornament (the head bobbles back and forth). When I got ready to leave, they got sad and asked where I was going. I told them I had to go to school and even though they seemed upset that I was leaving, they did walk me to the gate. I had no idea kids can get so attached! They were so adorable, I kind of wanted to stick around.

since you've been gone

In case you didn't know, Drew has been in Beijing for the past 2 weeks. He will be there for another 5. He's there for a language program at Beijing Normal University. So far things seem to be going well. He lives in a dorm and has a roommate that also happens to be a student at UCI. He is busy with class in the morning and homework in the afternoon. Drew goes out with friends from the program for dinner and such, and I think there is sightseeing involved, but I think the most noteworthy thing thus far is that he got an iced coffee from McDonald's. And instead of cream, it had soft serve vanilla ice cream in it.

So here I am, holding down the fort and tending to the garden. I've been tending to the seedlings, but I'm apparently not doing enough tending because I've lost some more and now we are down to 3. I go to the garden nearly everyday. I've planted beets, onions, sweet basil, thai basil, garlic, and beans. I've transplanted tomato plants and planted an eggplant plant. This weekend, I'm going to plant some romas. But do you know what I have not done? Watered this plant:

The irony is that the garden, though not far from our apartment at all (it's about a city block), is still obviously farther than this plant. This is Drew's plant, and I'm supposed to keep it alive while he's gone. Despite the fact that it sits perched atop a bookshelf in the living room, I haven't watered it. Lest you think this is a conspiracy against Drew, I am responsible for the 2 plants on the porch and I can't remember when I last watered those. I am tempted to see how long this plant will live without water. So far it's been at least 2 weeks. We'll see if it makes it another 5.

Flying solo hasn't been difficult to adjust to. I've been keeping busy with school, and most of my friends are around for the summer. Even so, it's been pretty quiet around here. The biggest adjustment has been going back to cooking for one. I haven't gotten the hang of it yet. I ate udon noodles for 4 days in a row, and I ate potato salad today for the 5th time within a week (and I'm gearing up for the 6th and last time tomorrow). And somehow I have to find it in my stomach to eat 3 more servings of eggplant parmesan in the fridge. I definitely need to start halving recipes.

It's been only 2 weeks, but Drew is already tired of Chinese food (or as they would call it, just food). He's already craving Mexican food. I told him about this Chinese restaurant here that reputedly serves up some great dumplings, and I told him that we should go when he gets back. He said I should go now without him and reminded me that last summer, after having been in Beijing for a month, we didn't eat Chinese food for at least 2 months. Maybe 3. Seeing as how he'll be there for almost 2 months, I guess I don't expect to eat Chinese food when he gets back for about 6 months. Well, then I guess I'd better go ahead and make this while he's away. But I'll be sure to cut the recipe in half.

the garden

I don't want to jinx things, but the garden is still doing well. I went out today to compost, mulch, and plant some thai basil and sweet basil. I was staking the pole beans, when I looked down and was so surprised to see these:

I know, I know, I mean, what else did I expect to be growing on a pole bean plant? Spaghetti? I was surprised that the plant was doing well enough to produce beans because something has been eating the leaves. I picked the beans, took them home, and ate them raw. They were quite tasty, though I suppose they'd also be tasty roasted with some olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Our pepper plants are still doing well, and all 8 of them are developing blossoms. And this one even has some teeny tiny peppers!

Our garden plot is one of 50 plots, and we have quite a nice gardening community. There were some community seedlings free for the taking early in the gardening season, but now all that remains are a few tomato plants that look to be on their last leg. After accidentally killing off some of our tomato seedlings, I decided to rescue one of the community tomato plants. When I planted it, it was pretty sad and weary, with maybe one or two green leaves. But now, after about only a week, it seems to be thriving. When I first saw it, I thought to myself, "I'm the freaking plant whisperer."

The rest of our tomato plants are bright green and bushy:

Below, we have some tomato plants in containers, garlic in one container, and thai basil in another:

Another view of the peppers:

garlic

It's all the rage. Garlic? Yup, garlic. I've been a fan since 2004, when an old friend and former housemate introduced me to it. I was familiar with garlic, but only the stuff that's powdered. And now, I put garlic in everything. Sometimes even brownies.

Some of my fellow gardening friends told me that you can grow garlic from a garlic clove. Really? Really. Stick a clove in the ground, and then voila! Garlic. They have or are in the process of trying it out themselves, so I had to hop on the bandwagon.