Saturday, January 8, 2011
January's second new dish: Italian-marinated chicken
Last night I made another sauteed chicken dish. Over Thursday night I marinated some chicken in Italian salad dressing with pepper and garlic then I made it last night. The end result was tasty, but I didn't take too many pictures. I think I prefer chicken with spices rather than marinade, but I also think using salad dressing is a shortcut that is probably not going to get me the best result. Maybe I will try to make my own marinade sometime to see how that goes. I did better with the oil this time and used a more reasonable amount, but I also left some of the marinade in the pan while the chicken cooked (which looks sort of funny in the picture and I'm not sure I'm supposed to do it that way). I will also probably look at baking things with soup on them, or barbeque sauce or something.
January's new dish: garlic chicken and asparagus
I have actually made several new things since January began! I made some garlic chicken and baked asparagus. I'd never made asparagus before, but I've had it at restaurants and always found it to be very tasty so I decided to branch out and make that on my own. I have no previous knowledge to fall back on to determine if asparagus in the produce section is "good" but I think it turned out pretty well, so I guess I picked a good bunch.
I also sauteed chicken, which I have never done before (at least not with entire chicken breasts). Usually when I make chicken I either grill it on the handy George Foreman, or I boil it and then chop it up to put in something else, like a casserole or pasta dish. To make this garlic chicken I just seasoned the chicken with garlic powder and pepper. I would have used actual garlic but I don't have any right now, and I wanted to try something new.
The only thing I would change about these dishes is to use less oil when I cook them. I used more than I needed and I think that would greatly effect the healthiness of the meal, but I'm actually not sure how much oil really gets into the food when you cook. But at the very least, it was coating everything, so I'm sure we ate a fair amount of olive oil. Our house also still smells faintly of garlic, but I love me some garlic, so that's alright. It'll air out eventually...
I also sauteed chicken, which I have never done before (at least not with entire chicken breasts). Usually when I make chicken I either grill it on the handy George Foreman, or I boil it and then chop it up to put in something else, like a casserole or pasta dish. To make this garlic chicken I just seasoned the chicken with garlic powder and pepper. I would have used actual garlic but I don't have any right now, and I wanted to try something new.
The only thing I would change about these dishes is to use less oil when I cook them. I used more than I needed and I think that would greatly effect the healthiness of the meal, but I'm actually not sure how much oil really gets into the food when you cook. But at the very least, it was coating everything, so I'm sure we ate a fair amount of olive oil. Our house also still smells faintly of garlic, but I love me some garlic, so that's alright. It'll air out eventually...
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
January pleasure reading
For Christmas this year I received Anthem and We the Living by Ayn Rand. I started Anthem on New Year's Eve and I've already read it twice. Granted it's only about 100 pages long, but I really enjoyed it and I wanted to read it again to soak everything in!
I really like her writing style and, of course, her ideology. For the first part of the book I was a little confused because everything is written by and about one person, but he always refers to himself as "we" instead of "I", which is part of the main themes of the book (the dangers of living solely for the collective good).
I had a few quotes that I liked in particular, such as:
As we reached the end of the story, the main character has escaped the oppressive collective, along with his new knowledge of electricity (which had been lost to men previously) and discovered homes occupied by people long ago. In the home it was obvious they already had electricity and clothing and books (things all lost to the people now) and the main character read the books contained in the home and came to understand the word "I" (the Unspeakable Word in the society he escaped). My favorite part of the book was the end where he understands all these things and can put all the answers to the questions he poses in the beginning of the book into words:
And then my last favorite quote from the book:
I really like her writing style and, of course, her ideology. For the first part of the book I was a little confused because everything is written by and about one person, but he always refers to himself as "we" instead of "I", which is part of the main themes of the book (the dangers of living solely for the collective good).
I had a few quotes that I liked in particular, such as:
"It was not that learning was too hard for us. It was that the learning was too easy. That is a great sin, to be born with a head which is too quick. It is not good to be different from our brothers, but it is evil to be superior to them."
As we reached the end of the story, the main character has escaped the oppressive collective, along with his new knowledge of electricity (which had been lost to men previously) and discovered homes occupied by people long ago. In the home it was obvious they already had electricity and clothing and books (things all lost to the people now) and the main character read the books contained in the home and came to understand the word "I" (the Unspeakable Word in the society he escaped). My favorite part of the book was the end where he understands all these things and can put all the answers to the questions he poses in the beginning of the book into words:
"Whatever road I take, the guiding star is within me; the guiding star and the lodestone which point the way. They point in but one direction. They point to me.
I know not if this earth on which I stand is the core of the universe or if it is not but a speck of dust lost in eternity. I know not and I care not. For I know what happiness is possible to me on earth. And my happiness needs no higher aim to vindicate it. My happiness is not the mean to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose.
Neither am I the means to any end others may wish to accomplish. I am not a tool for their use. I am not a servant of their needs. I am not a bandage for their wounds. I am not a sacrifice on their altars.
I am a man. This miracle of me is mine to own and keep, and mine to guard, and mine to use, and mine to kneel before!
I do not surrender my treasures, nor to I share them. The fortune of my spirit is not to be blown into coins of brass and flung to the winds as alms for the poor of spirit. I guard my treasures; my thought, my will, my freedom. And the greatest of these is freedom.
I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debts from them. I ask none to live for me, nor do I live for any others. I covet no man's soul, nor is my soul theirs to covet.
I am neither foe nor friend to my brothers, but such as each of them shall deserve of me. And to earn my love, my brothers must do more than to have been born. I do not grant my love without reason, nor to any chance passer-by who may wish to claim in. I honor men with my love. But honor is a thing to be earned."
And then my last favorite quote from the book:
"And as I stand here at the door of glory, I look behind me for the last time. I look upon the history of men, which I have learned from the books, and I wonder. It was a long story, and the spirit which moved it was the spirit of man's freedom. But what is freedom? Freedom from what? There is nothing to take a man's freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. This and nothing else."
Friday, December 31, 2010
Making my 2011 goals
My goals for 2011 are about the same as my goals for 2010 except they are a bit more specific:
• Submit an abstract to 3ICSHM by January 14, 2011
• Submit an abstract to BMES 2011
• Reach vacation weight by February 10 (I know I can't reach my target weight before our trip using healthy avenues, so I have two deadlines for myself)
• Reach target weight by May 1
• Attend basketball campout
• Save $900-$1000 at the grocery store over the course of the year -- This may or may not be possible, depending on how much we spend on groceries this year. Usually we spend about $50/week on groceries, with some weeks being higher when I stock up on meats and stuff. We can reasonably expect to pay about $2800 for groceries and health and beauty stuff over the course of the year and saving $900 in a year would be pretty significant savings. We'll see what I can do...
• Save at least 20% on each trip to the store -- This is a more feasible goal based on how much we spend on groceries, but it's nice to aim high. I guess ultimately I want to save at least a month's rent ($815) on groceries but it would also be nice to save a month's rent plus utilities at the store
• Contribute the maximum to my Roth IRA -- I will be doing this Monday!
• Open an individual mutual fund
• Contribute a set amount to our joint mutual fund every month
• Contribute a set amount to my Vanguard accounts each month, dividing it as necessary between my money market (money I might need in the short term) and mutual fund
• Run at least 20 miles every week
• Weight lift twice every week using the new regimen I planned with my course instructor
• Run in the Turkey Trot race on Thanksgiving and beat my time from this year
• Plan trip to England/Wales (assuming I'm asked to present at 3ICSHM)
• Go to Jazz Fest in New Orleans with Caitlin
• Submit research paper describing my current experiments by June 15, 2011
• Get my Master's -- submitting my intent to graduate form this month!
• Try one new recipe every month
• Read a book for pleasure every month
Well this is a nice summary of most of my goals for the year; it's not all of them, but it's a good overview of what I want to do. Ambitious, but I work well when I have a checklist of all my stuff that I can go through and see definite progress.
• Submit an abstract to 3ICSHM by January 14, 2011
• Submit an abstract to BMES 2011
• Reach vacation weight by February 10 (I know I can't reach my target weight before our trip using healthy avenues, so I have two deadlines for myself)
• Reach target weight by May 1
• Attend basketball campout
• Save $900-$1000 at the grocery store over the course of the year -- This may or may not be possible, depending on how much we spend on groceries this year. Usually we spend about $50/week on groceries, with some weeks being higher when I stock up on meats and stuff. We can reasonably expect to pay about $2800 for groceries and health and beauty stuff over the course of the year and saving $900 in a year would be pretty significant savings. We'll see what I can do...
• Save at least 20% on each trip to the store -- This is a more feasible goal based on how much we spend on groceries, but it's nice to aim high. I guess ultimately I want to save at least a month's rent ($815) on groceries but it would also be nice to save a month's rent plus utilities at the store
• Contribute the maximum to my Roth IRA -- I will be doing this Monday!
• Open an individual mutual fund
• Contribute a set amount to our joint mutual fund every month
• Contribute a set amount to my Vanguard accounts each month, dividing it as necessary between my money market (money I might need in the short term) and mutual fund
• Run at least 20 miles every week
• Weight lift twice every week using the new regimen I planned with my course instructor
• Run in the Turkey Trot race on Thanksgiving and beat my time from this year
• Plan trip to England/Wales (assuming I'm asked to present at 3ICSHM)
• Go to Jazz Fest in New Orleans with Caitlin
• Submit research paper describing my current experiments by June 15, 2011
• Get my Master's -- submitting my intent to graduate form this month!
• Try one new recipe every month
• Read a book for pleasure every month
Well this is a nice summary of most of my goals for the year; it's not all of them, but it's a good overview of what I want to do. Ambitious, but I work well when I have a checklist of all my stuff that I can go through and see definite progress.
Meeting my 2010 goals
Each year I make a list of "goals" instead of New Year's resolutions because not all of the things I want to accomplish during a year are really "resolutions", such as saving money, submitting to conferences, and making new recipes. I think "goals" are also easier to keep because I have defined end points (ex: saying I want to lose 10 pounds is a lot more descriptive than saying I want to lose weight).
Overall I'm happy with the progress I made towards those goals and I successfully completed about 80% of the stuff on my list :-) Some of those goals I was able to meet:
• Getting in shape and learning to eat healthier
• Contributing the maximum to my Roth IRA
• Contributing a set amount to our joint mutual fund and my money market account every month
• Submitting abstracts to and presenting at both the Society for Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering Society conferences
• Completing my review paper by May 31 and submitting it for publication (it's now online!)
• Planning our trip to RI and ME for our one year anniversary
• Attending basketball campout
• Reading a book for pleasure every month
• Finishing coursework and TAing responsibilities
Some of the goals that didn't fare as well:
• Losing weight -- I did lose some weight, but I didn't reach my target weight. I'm not sure if that's due to the fact that I gained a fair amount of muscle or if I just didn't lose enough weight. My clothes fit better though, so maybe I'm a little smaller than I was earlier in the year...? I don't know, but since we're going to Costa Rica in a few months I have extra incentive to slim down!
• Making a new recipe every week -- For the first two months of the year I kept up with this resolution really well, but now it's the last day of the year and I've made about 30 new recipes. That's pretty good, roughly a new recipe every other week, and for 2011 I've modified that to be a new recipe every month
• Backing my computer up once a week -- I am AWFUL about this. I rarely back up my computer. But now that I have a new computer at work and actual data worth protecting, I have an external hardrive that I take with me every day to backup what I do that day. And really that's the important info on my computers anyway, work/school stuff
• Tracking our grocery spending and saving -- I did this really well for the first year we lived together, and then I began slacking off. From fall 2008 to fall 2009 we saved almost a month's rent at the grocery store! We rarely ate take-out or ate at restaurants. This year as I've become busier with work and school I've slacked off a bit and we make a lot of little trips to the grocery store that is a sure-fire way to waste money. I still shop with a list and stock up on things when they're on sale and I have coupons, but I only saved roughly $600 this year with coupons and MVP savings -- next year my goal is for between $900-$1000 in savings. I'm already off on a better foot; yesterday I bought our meat for the next few months because beef, chicken, and pork chops were on sale (I buy a lot and freeze it) as well as some healthier and new produce choices (like asparagus) and I spent $86 but saved $31. That's not the best percentage savings I've ever had, but it's still respectable. I hope next year to save at least 20% on every trip to the store!
Soon I will post about making my 2011 goals, which are really similar to my 2010 goals, only perhaps more specific and including more work-related information (since now I know much more about what I'm doing than I did this time last year). Happy New Year!
Overall I'm happy with the progress I made towards those goals and I successfully completed about 80% of the stuff on my list :-) Some of those goals I was able to meet:
• Getting in shape and learning to eat healthier
• Contributing the maximum to my Roth IRA
• Contributing a set amount to our joint mutual fund and my money market account every month
• Submitting abstracts to and presenting at both the Society for Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering Society conferences
• Completing my review paper by May 31 and submitting it for publication (it's now online!)
• Planning our trip to RI and ME for our one year anniversary
• Attending basketball campout
• Reading a book for pleasure every month
• Finishing coursework and TAing responsibilities
Some of the goals that didn't fare as well:
• Losing weight -- I did lose some weight, but I didn't reach my target weight. I'm not sure if that's due to the fact that I gained a fair amount of muscle or if I just didn't lose enough weight. My clothes fit better though, so maybe I'm a little smaller than I was earlier in the year...? I don't know, but since we're going to Costa Rica in a few months I have extra incentive to slim down!
• Making a new recipe every week -- For the first two months of the year I kept up with this resolution really well, but now it's the last day of the year and I've made about 30 new recipes. That's pretty good, roughly a new recipe every other week, and for 2011 I've modified that to be a new recipe every month
• Backing my computer up once a week -- I am AWFUL about this. I rarely back up my computer. But now that I have a new computer at work and actual data worth protecting, I have an external hardrive that I take with me every day to backup what I do that day. And really that's the important info on my computers anyway, work/school stuff
• Tracking our grocery spending and saving -- I did this really well for the first year we lived together, and then I began slacking off. From fall 2008 to fall 2009 we saved almost a month's rent at the grocery store! We rarely ate take-out or ate at restaurants. This year as I've become busier with work and school I've slacked off a bit and we make a lot of little trips to the grocery store that is a sure-fire way to waste money. I still shop with a list and stock up on things when they're on sale and I have coupons, but I only saved roughly $600 this year with coupons and MVP savings -- next year my goal is for between $900-$1000 in savings. I'm already off on a better foot; yesterday I bought our meat for the next few months because beef, chicken, and pork chops were on sale (I buy a lot and freeze it) as well as some healthier and new produce choices (like asparagus) and I spent $86 but saved $31. That's not the best percentage savings I've ever had, but it's still respectable. I hope next year to save at least 20% on every trip to the store!
Soon I will post about making my 2011 goals, which are really similar to my 2010 goals, only perhaps more specific and including more work-related information (since now I know much more about what I'm doing than I did this time last year). Happy New Year!
Thursday, December 30, 2010
December pleasure reading, part 3
I just finished reading the third book in the Narnia series, The Horse and His Boy. This book was also enjoyable although it didn't really have that much of a plot. I guess since it's just a kid's book it doesn't really have to have much of a story behind it. It's only peripherally related to the other books, mentioning Lucy, Edmund, Susan, and Peter only briefly. I think I'll keep reading because now I'm invested in finishing the whole series. :-)
Sunday, December 26, 2010
The season of... receiving?
This year I got SO MUCH STUFF for Christmas! Keegan and I even cut what we decided to spend on each other by a third, and I still feel like I got so many presents I can't even remember what all was involved.
Now, I am thankful that I received all these wonderful things, but I'm also a bit overwhelmed. I am much happier giving thoughtful presents to people and it makes me a little uncomfortable actually when people watch me open presents (other than when it's just me and Keegan). I know they want to see that I like the gift, and I love watching people open what I've given them, but when I look under our tree I'm almost a little ashamed. Some people have nothing for Christmas and yet here I sit with more things than I could possibly dream of asking for. I had like 6 things on my list and all of them were things that I would like to have but nothing that I needed. For example, I really love the show Murder, She Wrote, so I thought, "Hey, I'll put that on my list because otherwise I only have gift cards on here" and I got SIX seasons! I'm really pumped to watch them (I love me some Angela Lansbury... "Good times, she wrote" as Phil Dunphy would say) but at the same time I feel like that money could have been spent in much more rewarding ways. Again, that doesn't mean I didn't want the gifts, because I love them and will enjoy them, but how much do I really need?
When I was growing up, and even now (although regrettably since I started grad school I've slipped a bit and began buying more things just because I want them) I would never buy things for myself. I would agonize over small purchases, like a single movie, and just look at it every time I was in a store without ever buying it. I guess now that I have steady income that is above what I need I figure if I want to buy a season of something or a movie that I "deserve" it. I think this is a really dangerous attitude for myself because I remember at Christmas from my mom and stepdad I would get about 4 presents, usually around $100 in value, and I was always very content with that (and I'm still content with that). But as a kid I was really insensitive to my siblings because I remember coming back from my "second Christmas" with my dad and my grandparents and gloatingly showing off all my Beanie Babies and toys or whatever I got that year. It was never really big, valuable stuff, but as a kid I think the number of gifts was always more impressive than the value. I look back on those times and I feel ashamed. I've tried to make up for that in the past 6-8 years or so, getting them presents I know they'll love and downplaying the things that I have that Keegan or other family members have given me and just generally being less obnoxious. I also try to think of things we can do together that are just fun and don't require spending any money at all.
But joining Keegan's family has also changed that because they give a TON of stuff at Christmas. I would say that they spend at least 5-6 times more on each person than my family does. It's wonderful they're in a position to afford that but I feel like they may be setting their kids up for disappointment when they realize that in the real world you have to work for stuff. It also makes me feel a little sad because I think maybe the kids just don't realize how much their gifts cost and that they are in fact above the "middle class" bracket and have astonishingly more than a huge percentage of the population. I've heard several remarks about the "rich" and "upper class" and I wonder if they realize they're in the group they're commenting on. Keegan seems to have adjusted well to working in the "real world" and having to save for things you want, so I hope his younger siblings are also able to make that transition smoothly. But then again, Keegan has very little that he wants for and I think that's in sharp contrast to some of his family members. I am really happy to be a part of their family now too, and I love them all dearly, but I can't really adjust my mindset to getting so much stuff, easily 3x more than my own family gives me, when I'm happy with a lot less. I guess I don't want to get "poisoned" or whatever and start needing progressively more and more to feel satisfied.
Keegan and I are also concerned with what will happen when we have a baby. We would like to set up a college fund for the baby(ies) that would be open for everyone to contribute to because, especially with the first grandbaby on both sides, and with my parents being divorced, there is going to be a crazy amount of toys and clothing given to us when in reality one toy from each source would give the kid 5 or 6 toys, and that is more than enough at a time.
For example, this Christmas I got 35-40 individual items and that's crazy to me! I'm worried that I don't mind getting so many gifts enough to tell people to stop giving things to me, but I also feel like there's no harm in getting all this stuff. But there is a little bit. I don't want to raise our kids valuing the wrong things and I'm worried that there will be several sources from which our kids will not learn by good example. Hmm, I guess maybe I won't have to cross that bridge for awhile though....
Now, I am thankful that I received all these wonderful things, but I'm also a bit overwhelmed. I am much happier giving thoughtful presents to people and it makes me a little uncomfortable actually when people watch me open presents (other than when it's just me and Keegan). I know they want to see that I like the gift, and I love watching people open what I've given them, but when I look under our tree I'm almost a little ashamed. Some people have nothing for Christmas and yet here I sit with more things than I could possibly dream of asking for. I had like 6 things on my list and all of them were things that I would like to have but nothing that I needed. For example, I really love the show Murder, She Wrote, so I thought, "Hey, I'll put that on my list because otherwise I only have gift cards on here" and I got SIX seasons! I'm really pumped to watch them (I love me some Angela Lansbury... "Good times, she wrote" as Phil Dunphy would say) but at the same time I feel like that money could have been spent in much more rewarding ways. Again, that doesn't mean I didn't want the gifts, because I love them and will enjoy them, but how much do I really need?
When I was growing up, and even now (although regrettably since I started grad school I've slipped a bit and began buying more things just because I want them) I would never buy things for myself. I would agonize over small purchases, like a single movie, and just look at it every time I was in a store without ever buying it. I guess now that I have steady income that is above what I need I figure if I want to buy a season of something or a movie that I "deserve" it. I think this is a really dangerous attitude for myself because I remember at Christmas from my mom and stepdad I would get about 4 presents, usually around $100 in value, and I was always very content with that (and I'm still content with that). But as a kid I was really insensitive to my siblings because I remember coming back from my "second Christmas" with my dad and my grandparents and gloatingly showing off all my Beanie Babies and toys or whatever I got that year. It was never really big, valuable stuff, but as a kid I think the number of gifts was always more impressive than the value. I look back on those times and I feel ashamed. I've tried to make up for that in the past 6-8 years or so, getting them presents I know they'll love and downplaying the things that I have that Keegan or other family members have given me and just generally being less obnoxious. I also try to think of things we can do together that are just fun and don't require spending any money at all.
But joining Keegan's family has also changed that because they give a TON of stuff at Christmas. I would say that they spend at least 5-6 times more on each person than my family does. It's wonderful they're in a position to afford that but I feel like they may be setting their kids up for disappointment when they realize that in the real world you have to work for stuff. It also makes me feel a little sad because I think maybe the kids just don't realize how much their gifts cost and that they are in fact above the "middle class" bracket and have astonishingly more than a huge percentage of the population. I've heard several remarks about the "rich" and "upper class" and I wonder if they realize they're in the group they're commenting on. Keegan seems to have adjusted well to working in the "real world" and having to save for things you want, so I hope his younger siblings are also able to make that transition smoothly. But then again, Keegan has very little that he wants for and I think that's in sharp contrast to some of his family members. I am really happy to be a part of their family now too, and I love them all dearly, but I can't really adjust my mindset to getting so much stuff, easily 3x more than my own family gives me, when I'm happy with a lot less. I guess I don't want to get "poisoned" or whatever and start needing progressively more and more to feel satisfied.
Keegan and I are also concerned with what will happen when we have a baby. We would like to set up a college fund for the baby(ies) that would be open for everyone to contribute to because, especially with the first grandbaby on both sides, and with my parents being divorced, there is going to be a crazy amount of toys and clothing given to us when in reality one toy from each source would give the kid 5 or 6 toys, and that is more than enough at a time.
For example, this Christmas I got 35-40 individual items and that's crazy to me! I'm worried that I don't mind getting so many gifts enough to tell people to stop giving things to me, but I also feel like there's no harm in getting all this stuff. But there is a little bit. I don't want to raise our kids valuing the wrong things and I'm worried that there will be several sources from which our kids will not learn by good example. Hmm, I guess maybe I won't have to cross that bridge for awhile though....
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