I know this is going to sound really weird, but I am ecstatic with my new rice cooker. Jamie and I went to Pacific Mall today to buy the cooker that I've been scoping out for 2 weeks now. Brought it home and tried it out, and IT'S AMAZING!!!
First of all, you have to understand that for the entire 28 year span of my life, I have only ever used one rice cooker. It belonged to my mother, and was a one button wonder. I mean, it's gotta be pretty hard-core to survive over 30 years of use and abuse. But as its one-button status would imply, it can only do one thing. However, I kept using it because it's nice and simple and is really a workhorse. Unfortunately, lately I've noticed that the pot of rice isn't getting cooked all the way through, leading to super-hard rice in the middle - not fun.
So, we decided to retire 'Old Faithful' and get a shiny new one: the Zojirushi NS-ZCC10. This puppy was expensive ($200 CAD), but comes with so many awesome features. Like re-heat; I never imagined that this would be something that I'd be really interested in, but it's going to make lunch prep so much better for me. I'd always wanted to make onigiri from left-over rice, but the problem was that I could never heat it up adequately in the morning in the little time I have. But now with this cooker, I can combine the use of the re-heat function with the timer, and voila! I can set everything up before I got to bed, and have it ready by the time I get up! I'm also looking forward to making congee with it too. But yes, the timer function is KEY. I see myself using it a lot.
Flush with our purchase at P-Mall, which included a quick stop-over at Market Village where I got some rice moulds, we headed to T&T. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, T&T is a Taiwanese chain of Asian grocery stores that has opened up in Canada over the past few years (though I think Ontario and BC are the only provinces with them. Please correct me if I'm wrong). The beauty of this store is that it's an Asian grocery that's clean like a Western grocery. Well lit, no offensive meat or dead fish smells, rotting veggies piled in the front - you know, all the things that usually turn you off an Asian grocery. And they have this huge section of cooked foods where you can buy stuff to take home. I wanted to buy a little of everything!
Anyway, back to my original story. Being surrounded by all the wonderful food-stuffs, I felt all inspired to make good use of all the different kitchen appliances and things that I have at home to make yummy, nutritious meals. About a year ago, Jamie's mom bought us a food steamer that we had never used. I pulled it out and made meatballs on one rack, and Chinese broccoli on the upper one. It's really easy to use, so I think I'm going to use it more often now, which I suppose is good because it means I'm frying less.
Sometime this week, I want to try my hand at making dango. And I think I'll make onigiri for lunch on Monday.
About Me
Today was one of those days where I became grateful for a lot of little things. I am grateful that I live so close to where I work, and I'm grateful that I was at work at 6:30am today. That second point might be kinda odd, but once you hear this story, you'll understand.
Not long after I got to work, I got the back pocket of my pants caught on something. It made a bit of a hole, which I ignored thinking that it was just my pocket. Things would have gone the rest of the day just fine had I not chosen to sit down after a while. And that's when I heard it. A most terrifying sound...the sound of cloth ripping. Yes, I now had a big hole in my pants...
Lucky for me, my jacket was long enough to cover the hole, so I put it on and raced home to change. So, you see, had I arrived to work at my normal hour, my co-workers would have seen my embarrassing situation, and if I had lived further away from work I would've been stuck.
And you thought that stuff like that only happened in sit-coms!
Yup...every time Kim does a fun personality test thingie on her Facebook, I have to do one too. So, here are the results of my Muppet's Personality Test
| You Are Scooter |
 Brainy and knowledgable, you are the perfect sidekick. You're always willing to lend a helping hand. In any big event or party, you're the one who keeps things going. "15 seconds to showtime!" |
Don't buy Dayquil or Nyquil. Neither of them work to stop your cold/flu symptoms. At least not that I've found anyway.
Wow. This weekend was really busy! I had a hip-hop workshop, had my first ever belly dance lesson, and survived the run-through of PushPull's show as it stands so far. The belly dance lesson came via a bridal "showette" (i.e. racier than a shower, tamer than a bachelorette), and it was a lot of fun! The amount of isolations you have to master for that is NUTS! It was tons of fun though.
In addition to that, I went for karaoke with some Skule Nite cast members after running into Mason and Dan at random on Yonge street. It was lots of fun, and it really made me miss seeing the cast on a regular basis.
Okay...need to go...cat on my lap is whining and wanting attention....
Yes, Karen is a sucker for silly little quizzes...
| Your Birthdate: August 31 |
 You're a pretty traditional person. If it's lasted, it's probably good. You seek stability - both in your career and your romantic relationship. In return, you're very loyal and predictable. Which is usually a good thing. Without a partner, you feel lost. Being with someone is very important to you. Your strength: Your dependability Your weakness: You hate being alone Your power color: Midnight blue Your power symbol: Shell Your power month: April |
Most people reading this blog will most likely be moving their clocks ahead one hour this weekend. This change is coming 3 weeks early, and will be ending one week late. I was chatting with my good friend Barry about this a few weeks ago, and we were wondering just where exactly all the purported energy savings were going to come from. Being the resourceful guy that he is, Barry went and looked it up!
Turns out, the savings are supposed to come in the form of a 1% reduction in lighting use. But even this theorized savings has come under criticism. For example, this article regarding a study of energy use with and without DST claims that there are no real savings because any savings that might be realized due to using less lighting in the afternoon is offset by the need to use more lighting in the morning to function in a darkened household. There are also some in the mental health profession who are concerned that those suffering from seasonal mood disorder will be adversely affected by this change as we are now forcing ourselves to wake up in darkness, upsetting one's biological clock.
But whatever the experts might say about the benefits/harms, I personally think that the most interesting part is the fact that the Canadian government adopted this change so that we can stay in synch with the US, and not be an hour off for 4 weeks of the year. I haven't quite decided yet it that fact bothers me or not. After all, I do appreciate the fact that the US and Canada do a lot of business with each other. But does one hour really make a huge difference when I already have to look up time differences whenever I make a business call to the states anyway?
I dunno...I guess I was hoping that Canada would come up with a better reason, and the proof to back it up, other than "Well, they're doing it."