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| Emma has been really getting into the spirit of Christmas - pants or no pants. |
And in the blink of an eye, it's December already. I have these posts in my head - scattered sentences that sound good, that need effort to string together. This post is a mishmash of all the stuff I’ve been dreaming about, actually doing, or have done.
Does it happen to you too? These days I start off a post, my mind wanders, and then I lose sight of what
I wanted to say in the first place.
I've noticed shortness in my attention span that's surely becoming more
and more acute. It almost definitely stems from my very undisciplined (read: far too much) use
of my mobile devices (turns out, I’m hardly unique). Honestly, I love Facebook
and Instagram too much to disconnect completely, but I do recognize that I need
to change it up.
I am looking forward to a good 3 weeks off. And this time, I do
NOT have a looming intense workshop to trouble me when I return. Instead I have
a feisty, attention seeking 10 month old.
So, in the spirit of more than just unplugging, but to create
rather than consume, below is a list of things I plan to do during my time off:
1) Prep my homemade Christmas gifts. Salted caramel, chocolate
crackle cookies, roasted nuts, vanilla pound cake are some of the things on my
to-make list this year.
2) Tend to my garden. I want to pay a visit to some nurseries. No
major purchases except soil and what I need to replace my dead herbs, repot
with new soil. We also just got our contractor to build raised beds behind our
house, and I intend to plant low-maintenance Pandan and lemongrass there.
3) Catch up on reading. I want to finish All The Light We Cannot See (on the list of NY Times’ Best Books of 2014, for goodness sake).
4) Finish watching this. Lately I've been a bit obsessed with alternate history novels. I’ve gone
through phases of Spain (as in the country); South American history
specifically on the war on drugs and American interference; Slavery/Women’s rights;
Medieval England (OK, just the Matthew Shardlake books really); Living, eating
and cooking in Paris/France (Julia Child's My Life in France has out to be one of my absolute favorite
books. I loaned it to Francophile friend and we’re planning our imaginary
French countryside roadtrip; French parenting, and ugh, grisly true crime.
With alternate history, it started with CJ Sansom’s Dominion (which stemmed off the Shardlake series), followed quickly by Robert Harris’ Fatherland. I have to say, I have yet to find a book that really satisfies with a story. Loved the dark, gloomy setting and the atmosphere of fear and oppression that Sansom conjured (just as good as his Medieval England settings in his Shardlake series), but the story was nowhere as good. Fatherland was disappointing to me – I hate books with half-cooked endings. I want to know exactly what happened! I want you to tell me, author!
The Man in The High Castle, which is based on the book of the same name, has been gripping from the get go. In fact I’m seriously torn with wanting to read the book (and end up not enjoying the series as much), or just watch the series and not knowing what comes next (FYI, I read Game of Thrones when I was still in university, and knew about the Red Wedding/The Mountain slaying Oberyn Martell in the duel years ago. And the HBO series still doesn’t live up to my imagination).
With alternate history, it started with CJ Sansom’s Dominion (which stemmed off the Shardlake series), followed quickly by Robert Harris’ Fatherland. I have to say, I have yet to find a book that really satisfies with a story. Loved the dark, gloomy setting and the atmosphere of fear and oppression that Sansom conjured (just as good as his Medieval England settings in his Shardlake series), but the story was nowhere as good. Fatherland was disappointing to me – I hate books with half-cooked endings. I want to know exactly what happened! I want you to tell me, author!
The Man in The High Castle, which is based on the book of the same name, has been gripping from the get go. In fact I’m seriously torn with wanting to read the book (and end up not enjoying the series as much), or just watch the series and not knowing what comes next (FYI, I read Game of Thrones when I was still in university, and knew about the Red Wedding/The Mountain slaying Oberyn Martell in the duel years ago. And the HBO series still doesn’t live up to my imagination).
5) Get fitter. I haven't worked out for (I think) 3 months, and
while the weight gain has been minimal, I hate the way my body feels, the
lethargy and stiffness that I didn't have with regular exercise. Take walks
(with Emma), swim (take Emma for swim lessons), and (if I'm being ambitious) go
for a yoga class or two.
A few other notes:
- One of my favorite columnists writes an unique gift guidecolumn. Instead of the usual tie/sweater/scented candle, he gives
recommendations on charities/causes to give to, a chance to make a difference
in this world. In this world of corruption and scams, one of my general
concerns when it comes to charity is of course whether my money will be put to
good use. With the credibility of his work and the NY Times behind him, Mr.
Kristof’s list is probably what you want to refer to if you seek to do more
than a little good this festive season. I will be donating to TrickleUp. The
downside to this is that you have to donate in US dollars – but even 20 dollars
goes a long way here.
- In light of this miserable state
of our economy (and country as a whole, really), I’ve scaled back on the
purchases this year. Usually I’d be going crazy at Zara (I love their
Fall/Winter collections), ordering presents for my brothers and cousins online,
falling for all the prettily packaged cookies/chocolates at Jaya Grocer. None
of that this year. The only goodies I bought was a tartan skirt (been wanting to
recreate this look for a long time) and a pair of Silpat non-stick baking
sheets for baking cookies (from Amazon – super fast delivery and still cheaper
than local retail. Highly recommended). With Emma around, I guess I also want
to make sure we focus on experiences.
I play calming, jazzy Christmas carols near bedtime, put up decorations around the house, and even messed around with
local “pine” tree branches and leaves in an attempt to create something
handmade. Boo and Emma got super excited and decided to hijack the effort, but
of course. Really, it is little moments like these I need to cherish.
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| An attempt at frugal Christmas decorating, with 2 rather unhelpful elves |
- We’re still throwing our annual
Christmas party with colleagues this year though, and I’ve finally decided to take the plunge and roast my own turkey, which is half the price of buying a ready-made one. I made
AK drive me to 3 grocery stores to see what was available (local organic –
looked a bit skinny/wiry to me; American Halal – “preserved” in some kind of
broth-salt mixture so not suited for the dry brine I intend to do; and the
generic American one that comes in sizes ranging from 5 to 7+ kilos). I settled
on a good ol’ generic American one that came in at 5.5 kilos. She’s thawing in
the fridge as I type. I did a trial run with chicken, and intend to scale up
the recipe for the turkey. It was really good with
this (in my brother’s words when I sent my family photos of it) malnourished
looking organic chicken, so I have high hopes.
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| Frugal turkey trial run: Test roasting a chicken |
Dry-Brined Roast Chicken
Ingredients
1 organic chicken, around 1.5 kg
A few sprigs of rosemary (4 – 5)
A small bunch of thyme (around 8 stalks)
Sea Salt (I used pink Himalayan)
A few slices of butter (cut from a stick)
What I served with:
4 potatoes, cut into chunks (around 4 per potato)
1 large onion, quartered
A few garlic cloves, unpeeled
The day before you want to roast the chicken, rinse the chicken
with hot water and pat it dry. Rub a few tablespoons of salt into the skin of
the chicken – really get onto every surface you can, erm, reach. Leave the
chicken overnight in the fridge (uncovered, this really important) to dry out.
Take the chicken out of the fridge a good hour before you start
roasting. Pull the leaves off the rosemary stalks, leaving a few to stuff into
the bird. Same with the thyme. With your fingers, gently lift the skin of the
chicken off the breast, taking care not to tear the skin. Insert the rosemary
and thyme leaves and slices of butter, using your fingers to push the herbs and
butter further “in”. Place chicken on the bed you’ve made of it out of onions,
garlic and and potatoes in the roasting tin.
Preheat oven to 220 deg C.
Place roasting tin in the oven, close the door, then turn the
temperature down to 180 deg C. Roast for about 45 minutes to an hour. After 45
minutes, test for doneness – juices should run clear or temperature of the
chicken at the thighs should be above 80 deg C.
