秋になるとwe throw a dinner party

Of the many things that I have a passion for, more and more I am beginning to realize that hosting and cooking for groups of people is certainly one of them. This is why a certain Beach City Girl and I should start our own business. But before I get ahead of myself, the weekend of November 11th finally arrived, and with it came the fun and joy of doing just what my heart desired- I decided to throw a dinner party with my roommates and our friends.


One of the great things about living with international students, is being blessed with their abilities to cook traditional foods from their countries. My housemates Akane and Echo made dumplings traditional to Japan and China, and homemade Chinese fried rice with prawns. Needless to say it was absolutely delicious. Our menu grew with addition of a fall vegetable stew, cornbread, and  pumpkin bread with cream cheese for dessert alongside godly vanilla roasted pears.


We even had our own little table set up for the festive evening.

We must have cooked for hours. It was extremely fun, and something I've always wanted to do since living on campus here at State: Family Dinner. Everyone had big smiles of accomplishment at how great the food both looked at tasted. Our friends from the building beside us also arrived with appetizers. We enjoyed each others company just as hoped, ushering in the fall season.

This was truly a great way to start off the month of November, as the weater is getting cooler and the rain is starting to greet the grey city more frequently. To gather around warm foods filled with comfort in a cozy environment, and enjoy a meal together, this is the meaning of community. And that can be hard to find in the city of San Francisco. Though our meal was early, in a way, we wished each other a happy Thanksgiving in those hours.

Little Glass Jars are my New Obsession. :)

I've found that drinking things out of a small glass jar with ribbon tied around it, is my new favorite thing. With that said, don't tell me, I already know: I need to get out more. But this weekend I've got loads of fun plans since I have a whole day out of classes, and my teachers were gracious to not take advantage of my freedom and assign me extra homework. Today I am tired, I ahve a headache from drinkinga coca-cola too fast and eating potato chips, and I have been sitting in the sun in a cozy sweater, which in case you didn't know, all these things are horrible combinations. Kids, don't try that at home.

But this morning, I woke up, and the phenomenon hit me that I just ought to take my coffee around with me today in a teeny little class jar with a ribbon tied around it. I've seen this done before. Hipsters on their bikes drink their coffee in little glass jars (though usually twice the size of mine), and hipsters walking to class are chugging coffee out of little glass jars, and hipsters=little glass jars you get the point! I am writing about all of this because when I have my home and entertain people from around the world, I want them to enjoy caffe con panna in a little glass jar just as much as I do. Dare I say there's nothing in the world like sitting on your couch's arm, people watching in the crisp morning over a warm cup of coffee and whipped cream in a glass jar, nestled in a cozy sweater.

as Love Grows Tall. &Recipe!

November. Hello. And October, where on earth did you go. This past October was a busy one, and so many wonderful and not so wonderful things happened, I found it difficult to document any of it. For the first time in months my blog has become the wicked step mother looming over my head, as have many other obligations. A little scary. I suppose it's perfect since October is supposed to be a somewhat scary month. This first week of the new month has brought many great things however, like Christmas cups at Starbucks, a new friend who I met in my math is class is now using me as her dream journal via text messages (you should try this with someone, it's scary cool!), daylight savings us upon us, and now it will get darker...later? I'll find out tonight.

There are many more things November has brought me. However, one of the greatest was an accomplishment. November 3rd marked the end of an experiment I did to be Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian for an entire month! Please refresh the page before my ego grows into a tall, green monster. Thank you. I had decided at the beginning of the October month to pursue a Vegetarian diet for a month after doing some in depth research on many different diets for a paper that I had to write in my (pretty terrible) English class. I figured, why not embrace the diet I'm writing six pages about for the month that it will take for the class to write it?

This turned out in my favor, as I discovered many wonderful things, one of them being a recipe my Japanese housemate taught me. It is a simple dish, one that you can make in less than 20 minutes, and is packed full of health benefits and rich flavor. Who knew steamed veggies could be so good. I have eaten this recipe twice already, and I'm going to cook it again for a friend today when she comes over for lunch. The secret ingredient in this recipe is MISO! Akane usually uses this in her meat dishes, so if you're a meat lover, prepare to be amazed that your meat craving is satisfied by the mere taste of miso. It was for me, and I was shocked. So, I give you:

 Suzuki-san's Fall Vegetable Jyagu

Ingredients:

1/2 Yellow Onion

1 bag of Potato Medly or 2 of each: Yellow Potato, Red Potato, Purple Potato

2 Carrots

1 bag of Brussel Sprouts 

1 sprig of Brocolli

Any other Vegetables You'd like - I added a bag of Vegetable Medley with Baby Corn, Red and Yellow Peppers, Watercress, and other delicious stir fry vegetables. 

2 tbsp of Miso Paste

3 cups of Water

In a deep dish pan that will hold all your vegetables chopped up, bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Add miso paste. Let simmer and mix the miso paste in the water until forms a  fairly smooth consistency and bubbles. Add more miso if taste is bland or consistency is too watery. Chop potatoes into quarters, chop carrots, broccoli, and onion. Put potatoes, onions and carrots in first, make sure the onions are on the bottom of the pan to soften. Steam for about 2 minutes. Throw in the rest of your veggies and steam until everything is all the way cooked through (of course). Add an extra cup of water if necessary to steam the heap of vegetables properly. Add some salt and pepper to taste, or any other spices you would like. Take of the heat and stir your vegetables. 

Serve with rice, or eat as a stew. 

I'm overjoyed to have found the simple joys of cooking in a Vegetarian diet. One would be surprised just how many recipes come up when you ask for "Vegetarian" or "Vegan" on websites that I view much to often like www.foodgawker.com (thanks, boyfriend). The possibilities have been wide ranging and endless, any thing I wanted to make or eat, I could this past month.

 I would encourage anyone, if they want to rediscover the joy of cooking, to try cooking Vegetarian for a month. Not only will you learn new and delicious recipes, you'll be doing something great for your health, and you may even get to experience new cultures of the world simply by exploring the food eaten in other countries.

All in all, this was a fantastic experience, and I was hesitant to leave it, but I've got to get back on poultry so I don't die when Thanksgiving rolls around. :)