no. po. lo.

i don't care much for stylin' with short-sleeved polo shirts or dresses for women.

i never wear 'em and don't like looking at other gals wear 'em.

there's nothin' really WRONG with a short-sleeve polo shirt or dress.
but
there's nothin' really RIGHT about a short-sleeve polo shirt or dress.

 image from 

http://www.ralph-lauren-mall.net/wholesale-ralph-lauren-big-pony-womens-short-sleeve-polo-shirts-p-1061.html

Today's Tofu

Once again, I'm here to sing praises to tofu.
(hmmmmm ---- have I yet spoken of tofu on this blog?)

Tofu (or 'dow-fu' as I've always called it - and still refer to it when not in mixed company*) ranks as one of my all-time favorite foods. I've been eating tofu all my life, and continue to buy and use it as a kitchen staple.

Sadly, for those who haven't been indoctrinated into the realm of soy curd aka soy cheese, tofu isn't considered a significant foodstuff. Rather, tofu is looked upon as a novel food and/or inconsequential to everyday diet.


Many who aren't familiar with eating tofu respond with 'what's the big deal?' after having their first taste of soy curd. To be sure, tofu doesn't taste like much. The flavor is subtle --- though I once ate soft tofu at a restaurant in Kyoto, Japan that specialized in tofu. This was a pricey but simple offering of tofu - which was made with sweet water from a local natural spring. The tofu was served cold, with a tiny bit of lite soy sauce and a few finely minced green onion over top. This tofu eating experience was otherworldly - and provided me with an even greater appreciation of the joy of having such a simple food in one's diet.


Delectable palate memory aside....

...back to those who 'don't care for tofu'. There are folks who react negatively to the smooth texture of tofu. No chew, no thrill for these folks. Soft tofu just about melts in your mouth. A delectable sensation on the palate to some, but not others. Melt in mouth but sans flavor - what's to like, right?

No taste.
Not much texture.

What tofu eating promises, other than being a healthy food choice, is that it can take on the flavor of whatever seasonings are added to it, whether the tofu is served cold or heated. It does adopt the taste of whatever sauce it is cooked in or served alongside.

But - I digress. This post was not meant to promote the culinary virtues of tofu to those who don't already love to eat it.
Rather, it is to offer a Helpful Household Hint about tofu to those who already like the stuff. This post is to introduce to those who haven't yet tried -
Frozen Reconstituted Tofu to Cook With.

First of all, buy a package of (firm) tofu and yes - go ahead - freeze it.
Once upon a time in my youth, when bacterial concerns were not paramount at my neighborhood corner mom n' pop grocery store -- Mom used to send me out to buy tofu by the pound, made fresh by the store owners - no containers!

The entire unopened package can be chucked into the freezer as is. I typically remove some - slice it or dice it into smaller chunks, put it into a freezer container and cover with fresh water before popping it into the freezer.

Freeze for at least 24 hours.
Then -
thaw out the block of frozen tofu. I use running water to knock off the larger chunks of ice surrounding the frozen block.
Once thawed, squeeze out excess water from the tofu. Use a little or a lot of pressure to squeeze, depending on how crumbly you want the tofu to be before using.
Slice or crumble the tofu.
Then proceed to cook with it.

When tofu has been frozen, then thawed - the texture changes dramatically.
It becomes ... almost ... meat-like.
Yup, you heard right.
Texture like meat, alright - but I won't go so far as to say it tastes like chicken.

True to the nature of tofu easily taking on seasonings put to it, the resulting post-freeze textural tofu still absorbs the flavor of whatever sauce is used on it or with it. More so, actually, as the sponge-like texture seems to readily take on even more seasoning flavor than pre-frozen tofu does.

I've added frozen/thawed/squooozed/crumbled tofu to pasta sauces, in lieu of ground meat. Sounds unorthodox and seems a bit weird - but the texture and flavor is quite good.

Better yet, previously frozen/thawed/squooozed/sliced, diced or crumbled tofu adds a delightful texture to stir-fry dishes. I sometimes combine it with meat, and am hard-pressed to notice the difference between the meat and tofu in the resulting dish. No foolin'.
Turns out that I actually prefer the tofu pieces. But then, I am crazy over tofu.

Reconstituted frozen tofu can even be sliced, breaded and lightly fried in a small amount of oil.

Here is one tasty recipe using frozen tofu.

There are plenty other recipes online to investigate. Just Google It.
 
Huzzah! Huzzah! for tofu that has been frozen and reconstituted for cooking!
A cheap eating thrill, indeedy. But a thrill nonetheless.

* mixed company = anyone who is does not speak/understand a few basic food items spoken in the Cantonese language. In Cantonese, 'tofu' is 'dow-fu'. Either way, it is YUM.

image of tofu package from http://www.thenibble.com/reviews/nutri/fruit/tofu-recipes2.asp

more things that (older) middle-aged ladies do...

back by popular demand ...
(yeah, right)

5) (older) middle-aged ladies ..... take longer to explain things than when they were in their 20's, 30's and 40's and had to explain things.


6) more often than not ..... choose 'sensible shoes'.

i won't go so far as to say that all, most or even some (older) middle-aged ladies in westernized civilizations do this, but I, for one, as an older middle aged lady...
7) no longer feel the need to buy self-help books.



(to be continued...)

SPITui!

i like blackberries.
sweet ripe blackberries.

in pie.
in smoothies.
or

mixed in with plain non-fat yogurt (add a little honey).

but i don't like
the
blackberry
nubs.

aka
seeds.

they are the stuff of SPITui!

so there.

GO!!!

Happy New Year of the Water Dragon!
Gung Hay Fot Choy. Sun Nien Fai Lok!

get set

This year, Chinese New Year (Lunar New Year) 4709 - begins on Monday, January 23, 2012.
The celebration begins that day and continues for two weeks.

When I was a kid growing up in San Francisco, CNY was BIG.
Bigger n' Christmas, it was.
Really.

That surprises a lot of people who know me but did not grow up in households that emphasized the importance of this holiday.


Where I live now is quite a bit of a stone's throw from where the bulk of Chinese New Year festivities take place. Every year, this fact always has me feeling a bit out of the celebratory loop.

However.
That doesn't stop me.
From getting excited.
And all geared up and ready
for
some good ol' fashioned ...

Gung Hay Fot Choy

image from:

http://www.foreigners-in-china.com/chinese-new-year-symbols.html

for all you list makers and letter writers out there

a website of lists.
so cool!

and here is a related, website of letters.
also lots of fun.

ooooooh. another!

thanks to Shaun Usher 
for all of the above.

another fave-o-right thing

the 'Bag Cinch' by OXO.

it's DollinkHubby's new fave-o-right thing.

fact of the matter is ...


... DH is the one who tossed a 3-pack of Bag Cinches into our cart whilst shopping at Tar-Zhay last week.

and boyohboy is that man gaga over how well these little cinchy wonders work on our cello bags o' bread. but then, he is easily amused.

actually, the Bag Cinch does work very well indeed.
it's also cute as all get out.
as far as kitchen gadgetry goes, anyways.

i dare say, OXO Bag Cinches are even niftier than Chip Clips.

on your mark

Christmas Tree Twinkle

It's the dreaded Twilight Zone Week between Christmas Cheer and New Year WhoKnowsWhat.

Yet my Christmas tree lights are still twinkling.
Ever bright.
During this (relatively) calm time - is when I enjoy the holidays most.
Even though
I do
inevitably
feel
a
little
post holiday
letdown.

Even so
I send an xo to all and to all a good night.

these are a few of my fave-o-right things

i have Sharpie Marker luv.

yes.
i do.

some time back, somewhere around 10 years (imagine that?!?) ago ??!!??, i bought two sets of Sharpie pens from Costco.

a set of 24 assorted colors of this size:

and another variety pack of 24 colors of this size:

these two sets o' markers have been used more than any other markers i've purchased over the many years of the many decades.
why?
the simple quiet colorful beauty of the line of a Sharpie Marker pen, that's why.
the lush, deep dark color.
and the permanence factor.

they've been used for various artsy as well as all those practical projects - from coloring on ATCs to inking a gourd to create a faux Zuni vase to labeling all the plastic storage containers in the garage to ...

... and this is the ultimate true confession - to color the occasional white hairs that dared to sprout on my otherwise black tresses. this was ages ago, of course, when my hair started to show the occasional white strand. wanting to hide the offensive white root but not yet ready to succumb to dye jobs, i colored the whiteness with a black Sharpie marker. nowadays, a truckload of black Sharpies won't do the trick, and it's a full L'Oreal treatment, every 6 weeks. still in denial about the graying that comes with aging, but not with the help of Sharpie.

(no worries)

so
yes
i do
i really really do.

the bottom line is

i luvs me

some Sharpie Markers.



OMG.
there is a Sharpie Markers Official blog!

helpful Sharpie Marker hint of the day =
use a Sharpie to address all your envelopes, be they thoughtful sentimental cards and letters or those damnable bills that need to be paid. the ink on Sharpie-addressed envelopes will not bleed out if the outside surface of your letter happens to get wet from lawn sprinklers, puddles, heavy fog, drooling babies or seasonal rain/snow storms.

Sharpie Marker pen images from 

http://www.sharpie.com/enUS/Pages/Home.aspx

a plug

for Pandora internet radio.
There are other such online stations, but I'm doing very well by Pandora, thank you very much.

What's not to love about 'Creating your own stations' to listen to via computer/device/whatever.

One station I've been hooked on is my 'Cole Porter Radio' station.

Luv luv luv it.

some things that (older) middle aged ladies do...

1) hold their own hands (more often than not, massaging one hand with the other).

2) talk to salespeople whilst getting rung up at the register - in conversation - as if they and the clerk were sitting down together for a nice chitchat over a cuppa - instead of having a brief customer-to-salesperson encounter.

3) carry tissue (aka Kleenex) in their pockets.

4) touch the skin at the throat of their neck.

(to be continued...)

what's up

'Doc'.

The story of John Henry Holliday.
written by Mary Doria Russell.

Best read at least on my bedside table in a long long while.
More so if you favor, as I do - the western genre in non-fiction/ historical fiction and tv/film.

Bonus: if you're a fan of the 1993 film 'Tombstone', you'll be visualizing Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday whilst reading this book.

Sure as shootin'.
 
P.S. 'I'm your huckleberry'.

gal crush

i'm a gal with a Gal Crush on the character of Miriam Grant (played to perfection by Rosamund Pike) in this movie:



Barney's Version.

The 'F' Word

The 'F' Word is Frugal.

which is not to say Cheap aka Stingy or Miserly.

I don't go for Cheapness but I am a fan of Frugal.

Alas, I too often suffer the slings and arrows directed at the Frugal Minded. Though I am admittedly only Frugal at times. My personal lifestyle nod to being Frugal means doing stuff like the following, which irks some people no end:

(1) I re-wash and re-use plastic zip top closure food storage bags of all sizes.
I confess to doing so, but only once per potentially reusable bag.
Only those bags that have previously stored non-greasy, dry foodstuffs (slices of bread or raw produce) get re-washed with soapy water, allowed to dry, and then are used once more. After which, they are disposed of. BTW, truly frugal folks and/or rabidly 'green folk' don't use plastic food storage bags at all. I confess to being only Kinda Sorta Frugal.

(2) I sometimes use scissors to cut a superextralarge (dinner sized) paper napkin into two equal sized, slightly smaller napkins for use at meals. This is only done when it's just me and/or The Hubster eating here at home. When guests join us for a meal, each diner gets a WHOLE (party time!!!) napkin or we use cloth napkins (super party time!!!). Hubs doesn't even use a napkin, so when it comes to committing the frugal act of cutting large paper napkins in half, it's really only for my benefit. Half now and the other half at the next meal. Some of those paper napkins are so large/absorbent that to use a whole one for dabbing one's lips or greasy fingers once, maybe twice - during the course of a meal - seems - wasteful. Not so much with half a napkin. If only using a half, I have no problem tossing it afterwards.

(3) When a tube of lipstick gets used down to 'the nub' - that is - lipstick is no longer applicable from the tube alone without scraping one's lips on the Ouch! edges of the applicator)
--- guess what. There's still quite a bit of lipstick left inside that (hidden) last half inch of the tube. There is at least a half teaspoon. Really. Plenty enough to use for another few weeks or more, if dabbed at with a lip brush. As my fave lipstick brand is M-A-C, using a lip brush to get at what remains inside the tube allows for holding off a tad longer before purchasing a brand new M-A-C lipstick at $15-$30 (depending on where it is purchased) a pop. Totally worth the frugality.

To be sure, I LIKE and make use of The F Word.

Cereal Cocktail

Cold cereal + milk.
Kinda ho-hum.
Cold cereal + milk + slices of banana on top.
Less ho but still hum.

Two, three or four kinds of cereal, related in flavor but unrelated in texture and shape
+
milk
+
slices of banana

is
a
Cereal Cocktail.
a real taste treat.

=
YUM.

So, go ahead. Don't be affeared. Life is short.
Mix your cereals, but with thought and consideration as to the combination.
Heck.
Add berries along with those bananas. Get a little crazy with that ho-hum breakfast.
Go wild.

Enjoy.

a sailor went to sea sea sea

(to begin, a hand clapping song from my youth ---)

a sailor went to sea sea sea
to see what he could see see see
but all that he could see see see
was the bottom of the deep blue sea sea sea

it's come to my attention - the span of which is remarkably short these days -
that
there are few, if any, sailors to be found (anymore) in the great port city of San Francisco.

photo from foundsf.org

when i was a kid growing up in San Francisco -
it was commonplace to see (male) sailors walking up, down and around the streets of the City by the Bay, particularly in the North Beach/ Chinatown/ Nob Hill / Downtown sections of town, which were my hang out neighborhoods.

sailors, dressed in their tidy navy 'dress blues', trimmed in white stripes and stars. my favorite part of the uniform, other than the deep navy color and distinctive wide legged bell bottom pants - were the collars, on which always appeared three very distinct vertical creases pressed at evenly spaced intervals across the back collar flap.
the creases were ironed in 'just so'.

sailors wore jaunty sailor caps in the brightest white.
and highly polished black sailor shoes. i thought they were pretty darn cute.

but one doesn't see much of sailors and their dress blues anymore.
military uniforms change over time and so do the regulations regarding them.

in addition, the port of San Francisco no longer serves as a destination for navy vessels.
sailors are rare these days on the streets of The City.

unless it is Fleet Week.

i miss sailors who went to sea sea sea 
and docked
in San Francisco 
to see see see
the sights
of the big city by the bay
before heading back out to
sea sea sea.

HouSE tOUrs

When people (not just anyone, but those who I consider friends) come to visit my home for the first time, I almost always - give a house tour.

Our home isn't large.
Our home isn't fancy.
There are no brand spankin' new kitchen countertops, cabinetry or flooring to show off.
Our wall to wall carpeting is old, buckled in places and, truth be told, could use a deep and thorough shampooing.
Well.

We don't have the accoutrements of the type of high-living that most might strive towards. Not out of our own desire, nor for show n' tell.
Even if we did, these things would not come close to defining who we ARE.
Some are of the mindset that these things do just that for them.

Any home decor updates we take on are what little things we've managed to make affordable and/or that help to create a comfy lifestyle. Thus far. To be sure, the list of 'wouldn't it be nice to have...' is still yards long...

Still, it would be out of character for DollinkHubby and me to stage our home to show off how much disposable income$$ we have (we don't) or how well we've managed to keep up with the prevailing trends in Wannabe Affluent Looking type living, or - worse yet - to 'one up' our fam and friends. Most of what we have in the way of material possessions is NOT to render our visitors feeling envious
(well ---- except for ----- my honest-to-goodness authentic / purchased in Pennsylvania / made by an Amish woman / queen sized / completely hand quilted / Amish quilt ---- which I get a lusty satisfaction from seeing other quilt enthusiasts become grrrrrrrrrreeeeen with envy over....).

Ahem.
Nothing here of that sort to envy...
UNLESS, of course - it is the intangible,
homey, welcoming ambiance of our home environment that is communicated, enviable and ultimately, enjoyed.
That here is an aesthetic that is at once
pleasingly coordinated
as well as
decidedly (and fancifully) eclectic
and
full o' touches of the personalities of the people, and of those who have touched the lives of the people, who live here.
Most importantly - welcoming.
As in mi casa es su casa.

But hey.
That ain't what this post is about.

It's about those HouSE tOUrs -
and
how I've come to notice (granted, I've 'come to notice' many and more things of this sort as I get older...)
that
some people
give house tours
and
others don't.

F'rinstance -
having visited the homes of people who have grown increasingly close in the way that good friends become like extended family -
there are still some of these family-friends whose homes I've not seen the whole of (like their bedrooms and/or bathrooms) -
though I've visited their homes on numerous occasions.

Why is that?

They don't give whole house tours.
Some people choose only to have guests tour the 'showcase areas' of their houses.
(We have no such designated spaces, so I show most everything, without resorting to opening closets and drawers...).

Not seeing personal/private rooms should be no big thing. After all, there is such a thing as privacy and some areas could/should remain absolutely 'nobody sees this space but us'.
I'm sure that in their 'private rooms' some people keep their piles of unfolded laundry stashed, mountains of unpaid bills, gold bullion (or sex toys) out in the open and in full view. I know from freshly laundered clothes and well as stacks of unpaid IOUs, so those things would not bother me. Their valuables I don't covet and my prurient interests can do without intimate knowledge of the sexual habits of fam/friends.

But I am curious about those rooms.
What architecture? What choices of decor? What color schemes? Are there hints of lifestyle choices evident in what they choose to decorate their rooms with?

At any rate -
I do give house tours.

But why?

More than anything, so that my guests feel comfortable and welcome into every room of my home - should they venture here or there for whatever reason, they won't feel awkward for not having stepped in before.

One of the main reasons I show the master bedroom and adjoining bathroom is because we have a two bathroom house, and if the hallway bath is 'in use', I like my family and friends to know the second, master bath - is also available for their use.

I call our house tour the Ten Cent Tour. It's short n' sweet. But I'm so very proud to share, hoping that our home reflects me and the DollinkHubby - and in a good way. Moreover, in the spirit of Welcome to Our Home.

Anyway, who doesn't like a house tour? OK, so there might be a few of you out there who don't give any kind of special hoot when it comes to touring people's homes. You arrive, use the nearest potty (that you're allowed to), plop down on the sofa and commence to playing the latest video games via the TV or worse yet - play with your phone. Ho and Hum to YOUSE!

But me --- I loves me some house tours, due to my natural curiosity about how people live, what they choose to surround themselves with, what aesthetic they utilize to define their surroundings.

With any luck, the homes I am fortunate enough to tour show some personality, and aren't just wishful copies of artfully arranged rooms from photographs that appear in Architectural Digest (no 'dis' on AD, just add some 'people actually live here' elements, puh-leeze!). I think it's great fun to 'play' our personalities into the decorating of our homes, and to express something of who we are with our stuff.

Not everyone does this, but ooooooooh, it's so utterly deliciously delightful when one's home reflects something of the essence of the people who live there.

And they give HouSE tOUrs so we can revel in what's there.

Good, bad or ugly.

plucked too soon

baby corn.      

really IS
corn!

who knew?!?

baby corn is an actual ear of corn, plucked just as the silk forms but well before the the poor little thing has a chance to grow to bona fide corn cob maturity.

plucked too soon!

what a waste of a perfectly good cob of corn.

baby corn is frequently used in Chinese cooking as a filler veggie.

i don't like to eat it. if you must, give me bamboo shoots or celery as a filler veggie in my stir-fry, but please oh please NO BABY CORN.