Spending Summers in Seoul

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Summer is upon us in Seoul, South Korea. Usually Summer means BBQs, bikinis, beaches and booze.

In Korea we are blessed with such extremities of weather; blistering heat or torrential rain, that you’ll probably be left with squelching shoes of water either way.

I have decided to take this opportunity to share with you a list of places or activities, in which you may wish to partake, during these unbearable apocalyptic days.

They also come with air conditioning and a roof

1. Visit the Aquarium.

COEX Mall has a large aquarium riddled with various sea creatures from all over the world. Like most things in Seoul, the price is pretty decent.

Pros

Youre dry and cool
Its cheap
Its pretty big and will certainly take you a while to walk around
Theres some pretty mental sea creatures..

Cons
Be prepared to suffer the onslaught of all of Seoul who have, rather originally, thought of the same idea.
Shoving ajumas (old korean ladies) at every single window you come to.
Korean children, who for some reason, are still more majestically mesmerised at the sight of your foreign face than a great white shark gliding past it.

Where : Seoul, Gangnam-gu, 159 Samsung-dong

Website : http://www.coexaqua.co.kr/

Phone number : +82-2-1330 (English, Korean, Japanese, Chinese)

Directions : Exit 5 and 6 of Samseong station (Seoul Subway Line 2) are connected to COEX MALL. At the end of Ocean Walk is the Aquarium.

Cost : Adults 17,500 won, Teens 14,500 won Children \11,000 won

2. Lotte World theme park.

This indoor theme park has enough tricks to keep you entertained for an entire day. Boasting a couple of roller coasters, water rapids, ice-rink and restaurants, this theme park will certainly provide some joy for even the most depressed characters. Lotte World has either been designed by a pyscopath who is more precise than a rolex watch or a complete mentalist who is more insane than Dr. Evil from Austin Powers. I am unsure to be honest. The lack of signs can leave you completely lost and you literally stumble across rides and amenities. This could be however, one of the most ingenious ideas a theme park has ever come up with. Everything is disguised by something here and you never truly know what your doing or where you are going. It feels like that time you took mushrooms and told yourself you will only walk straight regardless of the obstacle, yet mysteriously ended up back at the same point you started. The ridiculousness of it will make you forget about the heavens opening up outside..briefly anyway..

Pros

Indoor roller coasters..
Too many other rides to remember
Lots of junk food
Dance intervals with incredibly attractive Eastern European/Russian females and males cartwheeling their way across stage waving, creepily smiling, winking and singing.
Its indoors..

Cons

Youve probably already been

Where : Seoul-si Songpa-gu Jamsil-dong 40-1

Directions : Jamsil Station, Subway Line 2 & 8, Exit #4 (Direct access from station)

Opening Hours : Mon Thu : 09:30 22:00
Fri Sun : 9:30 23:00

Website : www.lotteworld.com

Cost :

* Day (09:30 ~ ) Adults 26,000, Youths 23,000/ Children 20,000 won

*Afternoon (16:00 ~ ) Adults 22,000/ Youths 19,000/ Children 16,000 won

*Evening (19:00 ~ )Adults 15,500/ Youths 13,500/ Children 11,500 won

3. Games Arcades.

Koreans love video games. Fact. So do I. If you also share my thrill of using a shotgun to decapitate a zombie in House of the Dead 56 or replaying the exact same level as last time on Time Crisis 21 , spraying your way through an airport full of security guards with rocket launchers, only to be eaten alive by a rogue locust moments later, then this is for you. The brilliant thing about games arcades is that they always have the same games, regardless of where you are in the world. Theres nothing more thrilling than walking into a games arcade and seeing the same brand of games youve publicly grown up with but never publicly completed.

Pros

Loads of games
Multiplayer and singleplayer
1,000 won a game (about $1)

Cons

Cant keep chucking the money in forever..
Might look weird flying solo..

Where : Usually close to CGV movie theaters, techno marts or indoor shopping malls.

Yongsan Station, Sindorim Station, Guro Station, Coex Mall

Directions : Subway/bus/Taxi to the nearest station

Cost : 1-2,000 korean won per play

4. PS3 Room/Nintendo Wii Room.

These are not to be confused with games arcades. For the more dedicated gamer you can head on over to a PS3 or Nintendo Wii bang (room). Choose your video game of choice and be seated on a two-three person sofa in front of a 40 inch HD television. Populated predominately by young korean males epically enthralled in similar battles of Winning/PES, these game stations are exactly what the doctor ordered on a rainy day. Cold beverages of your choice are on offer whilst the over the counter service can provide you with ramen/noodles, snacks or gaming assistance (menu systems in Korean may take a while to figure out)

Pros

They are popping up all over the place
Trendy
Comfortable
Perfectly Set up for gaming with your friends
Incredibly Affordable
Snacks, Drinks

Cons

Convincing your friends to come to the one near you

Where: The best one Ive been to is at Noryangjin station although they are dotted everywhere. Just look out for the PS3 symbol amongst the Neon madness in student areas in particular.

Directions: For Noryangjin. Leave the subway station (Blue Line) and head across the bridge going outside. Walk down to the left and head towards McDonalds. Walk past Mcdonalds (should be on your right) and head across the pedestrian crossing in front of you. Walk towards a fork of neon lights and head down the right of the fork. Keep walking past a Daiso amongst other small shops and turn right at the next small fork. Immediately from here there are two on your left with a PS3 sign outside. Go down the stairs and start gaming.

Cost: about 4,000-5,000 won for playing the games + drinks or extras

5. Cat Cafe/Dog Cafe.

Do it once. A cafe where you spend time with small furry animals. Each cafe has a large number of cats or dogs depending on which you choose. The cafes are riddled with toys for you to shake in front of their furry little faces.

Pros

Can be quite enjoyable
No time limit
Can pretend to be a crazy cat person for a short while
Get there early and the animals are pretty friendly

Cons

Can be annoying
Dogs can be smelly
Get there late and the animals dont care about you
You might feel a bit weird sat in a cafe playing with cats and dogs

Where:

Tom’s Cat Café in Hongdae, Seoul www.tomscat.com
Gio Cat, Seoul www.giocat.com (Seoul-si Mapo-gu Seogyo-dong 358-92 3F) Hongik Univ. Station, Seoul Subway Line 2, Exit #6 >> Follow the street with the Smoothie King in front of the Hongik Univ. entrance
Bali Cat, Seoul
Bauhaus Dog Cafe : Hapjeong Station. (Directions: http://www.eatyourkimchi.com/bau-house-dog-cafe/)

Cost: about 5,000 won

6. PC Room.

The one and only place to hang out for young Korean people. These places are on every corner on every floor. Packed full of Koreans swearing because someone stole their minerals in Starcraft/Fifa Online.

Pros

Can spend hours on the internet playing games
Cheap
Comfortable

Cons

Only PC games

7. Noraebang (Singing Room).

A room kitted out with stereos, disco balls and microphones. Pick a song. Type it in. Start singing. There is a large English section in every song book.

Pros

Sing any song you want
Get incredibly drunk and forget the time
Always hillarious

Cons

Must have friends..

Where: Every corner

8. Jimjilbang (Korean Spa).

Take your clothes off and sit in a variety of saunas, spa pools and steam rooms. These places are incredible. There are male and female only sections where you are completely naked and there are mixed areas where you are unfortunately clothed and sit in steam and sauna rooms. Clothing is provided on the way in. Shorts and a t-shirt.

Pros

Relax
Variety of rooms
TVs airing the latest shows.
Food courts and refreshment areas
Incredibly cheap
Massages and scrubs are available

Cons

The naked sections may leave you feeling uncomfortable by wandering eyes..
Koreans are rarely kept
If you get a scrub prepare yourself to be battered and torn apart by an old Korean same sex person.

Where: All over seoul but Yongsan station (Dragon Hill Spa) is probably the biggest and nicest in seoul. Leave Yongsan station, go down the escalators and turn right. Cant miss it.
**TIP Dont go to one near your school. You may see your students!
Cost: 10,000 won including refreshments and such.

9. Indoor Shopping.

Im all for sticking it to the man but there comes a time when I relapse and give him all my money. There are two huge malls/shopping centers in Seoul. Both are at opposite sides of the city. They contain all the consumerism you want.

Pros:

Stores you know
Food courts
Can be nice and relaxed
Theres a movie theater inside every shopping mall/center

Cons:

Can be hectic
You might spend all your money

Where:
Lotte Mall Gimpo Aiport (The biggest in Korea) Subway to Gimpo Airport
Coex Mall (The biggest underground mall in Asia) Subway to Samseong
AK plaza Another relatively big shopping center. They are all over.

10. Trick art/eye museum.

This is fun for a couple of hours. You walk about and take photos in 3-D photos which look as though you are part of them. You basically walk about like your in a cattle market. The place is busy and unless you go mental in the photos it can actually be pretty lame.

Pros:

Can take funny photos
Showing the photos to friends can be quite amusing

Cons

Its not a new thing
The actual process isnt fun
Having people watch you pretend to be in a 3-D photo is weird
Its crowded

Where: Seoul-si Mapo-gu Seogyo-dong 357-1 Seogyo Plaza B02-01

Directions : (Line 2, Exit 9). Walk straight then turn left at the first intersection. Walk until you reach Starbucks on the left. Cross the main street on your right and go down the alley next to Holika Holika. Continue walking for a minute and Santorini Seoul will be on your right.

11. Order Mcdonalds delivery

You can get McDonalds delivered to your door. Sorry I didnt tell you earlier.

Pros

You dont have to go anywhere
These good folk will come to your house and feed you!

Cons

None

Where: Your house

Phone: 1600-5252

How : If you can read your address in korean then call the number.

***TIP When in doubt add an errrr sound to the end of your order

For example Big-err Mac-err Set-errr Trust me theyll understand you.

The general order this phone conversation will go is:

-Address

-Food

-Payment (Say Cash-ee or Card-err)

If you cant speak any Korean or dont understand still then the good people at eatyourkimchi.com explain everything here http://www.eatyourkimchi.com/how-to-get-mcdonalds-delivered-to-your-home/

Want Pizza Hut, Dominoes or Papa Johns?

http://www.koreanwikiproject.com/wiki/index.php?title=Ordering_delivery

12. Buy an Xbox/Ps3.

It might be this point right now that you wish youd bought an Xbox/PS3 or Nintendo Wii. If you havent then get on over to the nearest Techno Mart and purchase one. Yongsan has an entire gaming section.

Where: Follow this link. Contains a step by step guide on how to get there

http://www.seoulemio.com/shopping-in-yongsan-electronics-market/

If in doubt just keep saying X-Box to people and youll eventually get there

Cost: Varies..depending what you purchase. Remember that you can haggle prices here! The phrase Kaka ju-say-yo means make it cheaper please. I am yet to hear someone refuse.

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A Look at My Garden

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I love the idea of growing your own food – it is so fresh and tasty, and makes you feel so much more connected with what you eat. My dad has a very green thumb – he grows a lot of vegetables and herbs in his greenhouse and various flower pots in the roof garden – and every year in summer, when I visit my parents during the semester breaks, I have the possibility to indulge. It is a pleasure.

~ I harvested a pot like that every second day ~

In this city, however, where I live most of the year, it is not so easy to grow plants. Although I am happy to live in a house that belongs to a bigger complex of buildings arranged around a lovely courtyard, I do not have any garden space, and since I do not own a car (and cannot drive anyway), getting 10 liter bags of flower soil and big pots really is an obstacle – so I was even more happy to find a few ownerless flower pots in the cellar, and my neighbors gave me the rest of their flower soil. Ready for planting I was! I just needed some plants, and those I bought at the whole foods store today, after getting home from my research assistant work.

These lovely little plants took a place in my heart immediately! What exactly did I plant?

~ tomatoes ~

~ one of them is a cherry tomato plant, but I cannot tell which ~

~ hokkaido squash (a relative of kabocha, but orange) ~

~ red bell pepper (capsicum) ~

I will be watering them every day and hope that they will grow! They will also get enough sunlight where I have placed them (below my kitchen window). So, one day, I may be able to make something like this with my own home-grown tomatoes …

Tomato and Shiitake Salad

1 serving

Salad Ingredients

3 tomatoes, quartered and cut into slices
4 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked and cut into slices
1 handful Thai basil (or basil)
1 handful chives, chopped

Dressing Ingredients

1 tbsp oil (I used rice oil)
2 tsp soy sauce
salt to taste
shichimi spice to taste (substitute with chili pepper and sesame seed)

Directions

Dried shiitake mushrooms need about 1 hour of soaking or a few minutes of boiling in water to get soft. Mix tomatoes and mushroom slices, Thai basil, and chives in a bowl. In another bowl, whisk oil, soy sauce, salt, and shichimi spice. Pour the dressing over the salad and enjoy.

This was wonderfully quick to make and very refreshing. I threw in some leftover roasted chicken and had a yummy dinner! And temperatures already allowed for enjoying it outside.

Do you like gardening? What do you grow? Or, what would you like to grow?

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Breakfast and Relaxing Weekend

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If you have followed my blog a little longer, you may know that I have a habit to name things that mean a lot to me, and may have already become acquainted with my grand piano and my blender.

Now the family has grown. Say hello to Leopold, the little toast oven!

~ hello ~

Leopold is the present I gave myself for Easter this year. (In the case of doubt, I always end up with some kind of kitchen stuff, but that is another story.) Now you may wonder, “Why this? She already has an oven, no?”

You would be right with this: For the first time in years, I have the pleasure to have a kitchen with a real oven, and I have already used it a few times. However, now comes the “but” part: It takes at least 60 minutes to make something in this oven (20 minutes for preheating and then 40 minutes or longer for getting the food done). This is hard for somebody who lacks patience in the presence of hunger, and it also does not reflect what I think of as environmental friendliness. I can get a stir fry ready in my skillet within 15 minutes, so I really see no point in why I should use the oven if it needs four times as long.

On the other hand, I like roasted foods, and missed the opportunity to easily reheat something without having to use pots and pans (and wash them afterwards) every time. This is where Leopold enters the stage.

His outstanding virtue is that he is small, so he starts heating immediately. (He is big enough for making a pizza, muffins, or a pie, though – things I can imagine to make in the time to come, in compatible versions.) And roasting with him is simple and not hard on the dishes: I only have to put everything into a small oven dish and can eat it out of that when it is ready – not pans or pots to clean, no spilling over while cooking and leaving the hearth in a mess.

The first prove of Leopold’s abilities was this roasted vegetable happiness: kabocha, onions, and leek, seasoned with lots of pepper and tarragon. Leopold got this ready in less than 20 minutes.

~ topped with leftover chicken and shichimi spice, this made a lovely lunch ~

For comparison: The last time I made roasted squash in the big oven, it took almost an hour.

Admittedly, the squash did not get so crispy this time, but this was due to the fact that I covered it with a layer of onions and leek. (The onions and leek got perfectly crispy.) So, next time, it will be kabocha alone, and maybe 5 minutes more roasting. Leopold: 1, big oven: 0.

What else did I do on the Easter weekend, next to becoming friends with Leopold, continuing to recover from her (nasty ) cold, playing the piano, and moving thoughts in her head?

I started to replay Final Fantasy VI, one of my favorite role playing games, on my mom’s old PlayStation she gave to me.

I worked on my diploma thesis, currently on a method chapter about exploratory factor analysis, which means reading methodological articles and writing the whole stuff together. This is a little challenging because I am a psychologist, not a mathematician, and I could not do a mathematical proof like the one below myself, but at least I can understand what is done there because in the end it is all logic. So, no need to be afraid of methods.

~ algebra, anybody? ~

I made large amounts of throw-in-whatever-you-have vegetable stock for drinking during the day.

I dug out dandelions which have been shooting out everywhere among the cobblestones in the courtyard since it has gotten warmer. My landlady asked me to remove them until Tuesday, and I have already filled a whole bag with dandelions the other day, but they like to come back overnight. Quite the Sisyphus work.

~ here we are again! ~

I made oat bran. Yes, I did, twice! You see, every once in a while, the lovely HEAB makes a post in which she mentions her love for pure, simple oat bran. I am very much for simple eating, and the idea of oatmeal has been intriguing for me for a while now, although there have been a few obstacles so far.

Rolled oats, unfortunately, tend to upset my blood sugar levels.
I miss my veggies.
It always becomes such a tiny, tiny amount. (I could of course cook a bigger serving, but that would mean a heavy carb-load and even worse with regard to blood sugar levels.)

So, it was time to try oat bran which is often said to be more satisfying. And, friends, it is! To fix the veggie and volume problems, I added a generous amount of shredded carrots. The result was a big bowl of yumminess.

~ this picture was taken before digging out the dandelions ~

Today, I made it again, but this time I also added protein powder for more satiety. It gets even creamier then, like this.

It was satisfying, and due to the carrots, it tasted almost sweet. However, since I eat a carb-reduced diet, I used a rather small amount of oat bran. You can easily make a bigger amount with a little more water. Also, feel free to add your favorite toppings – fruit, almond or peanut butter, Greek yoghurt, or whatever you like.

Voluminous Carrot Protein Oat Bran Porridge

1 serving

Ingredients

250 ml (1 cup) water
2 large carrots, peeled and shredded
40 g (1 1/2 oz) oat bran
2 tbsp protein powder (I used rice protein powder)
salt to taste
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions

In a pot, bring water to boil. Add carrots, oat bran, and protein powder while stirring constantly, then cook on low heat for about 10 minutes. Serve with your favorite toppings and enjoy.

I hope all of you have enjoyed a happy Easter weekend! I am off for taking care of a few more dandelions now …

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Beautiful Flavors

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Since I have moved to here and thus live 600 km away from my parents, Easter is the holiday I do not spend at home anymore. I usually visit my parents in March during the semester breaks, but a few weeks before Easter, the new semester has already started, and I do not go again then. Most of my friends have left already or stay with their families because they do not come from so far away, so I am usually on my own and have a quiet weekend. I do not mind at all, though.

This year, I am (still) sick – spring and summer colds are often so much more severe and persistent – and annoyed because I have missed two Japanese lessons, my exercise plans are currently on ice, and it is sunny and warm outside while I am stuck inside, often in bed. Once a day I go out and walk a little to prevent rusting completely and keep the mollusk at bay, but I must be careful not to overdo it. Happily, I do not have to go very far to have a nice walking environment. Some scenes from a walk …

~ a small castle in the city ~

~ people sitting in the park ~

~ bell towers everywhere ~

So you see, I am not totally inactive. My piano is here, I work on my thesis a little, do some conceptualization of characters and places for a novel I am planning to write (together with a friend, hopefully – more on that soon), and I have my kitchen, of course.

Something I always wanted to make but never dared is a pot roast. Naturally, I feel scared by big pieces of meat, and I am not used to cooking in advance so far. These are things I want to change, though. Meat and brown rice are good for cooking in advance (while I prefer veggies to be fresh and find them rather icky as leftovers), so I want to make more of these and was happy to find roast beef meat on offer the other day.

My mom makes an awesome pot roast – the last one of hers I was happy to enjoy was a venison pot roast she had made for dinner at Christmas. It was so good that I still have a picture of my plate from then.

~ I still drool when I think of it ~

If my mom says that making a pot roast is the easiest thing in the world, it is. Basically, all you have to do is roast a big piece of meat from all sides, season it with salt and pepper, add a little water and leave it alone for 1 1/2 hours. This is something I can do! My style, I also threw in some veggies, herbs, and spices of which I thought that their flavors might combine nicely, and the result was delicious.

Bay, Coriander, and Tarragon Flavored Beef Pot Roast

4-5 servings

Ingredients

ghee, butter, or oil
750 g (1 1/2 lbs) roast beef meat
salt to taste
pepper to taste
2 onions, peeled and cut into slices
2 stalks of celery, cut into slices
4 bay leaves
1/2 tbsp coriander seed
1 tbsp dried tarragon

Directions

Heat some fat in a big pot and roast the meat from all sides over high heat.

When the meat is brown all around, season with salt and pepper, add onion and celery slices, bay leaves, coriander, and tarragon. Carefully add some water, until it stands about 2 cm high in the pot.

Cover and cook on low heat for 1 1/2 hours. Let it cool a little, then take the meat out of the pot and drain carefully. If you like, you can clear the broth with a simmer, cook it a little further and add some sauce thickener to make gravy. Cut slices from the roast, serve with a nice vegetable side, and enjoy.

Leftovers can be stored in the fridge for a couple of days. You can reheat them, but they also taste cold and make a nice addition to a quick salad or veggie stir fry.

~ left over beef pot roast with a spicy bean sprout and spinach stir fry ~

~ leftover beef pot roast with tomato, bean sprout, and parsley salad ~

So, at least the food is a little festive for Easter this year. I am totally in love with pot roasts now and already think about the next one.

Have you ever made a pot roast, or do you have a favorite recipe to share? Are you going to cook something special for Easter?

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A Look Into my Fridge

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Recently, a friend made a post in which she showed the contents of her fridge. Following her invitation, I will let you peek into mine today. So, what do we have in there?

In the top shelf:

container of lamb’s lettuce
bag of spinach
box of chicken in anise and onion marinade

In the bottom shelf:

containers with organic butter and miso
white and green asparagus
carrots

In the vegetable drawer:

bag of organic lemons
red bell pepper (which needs to be finished off next)
Pink Lady apples
more carrots (hiding underneath)

In the door:

jar of mustard
bottle of lime juice
stylish bottle of Kikkoman soy sauce (my favorite)
tube of wasabi
piece of fresh gingerroot
pot of diluted cream

On the fridge:

kabocha squash
pot of fresh basil
bananas
bottle of roasted sesame oil
little jar of shichimi togarashi spice mix
James the blender (you can only see his feet)

And what do we do with all that spinach and a banana, with the help of a blender?

Spinach and Banana Protein Smoothie

2 glasses

Ingredients

1-2 big handful of spinach
1 banana
125 ml (1/2 cup) almond milk
175 ml (3/4 cup) water
2 tbsp protein powder (I used rice protein powder)

Directions

Blend and enjoy. (And yay, Kristina, it really gets that green! )

~ moving on to some questions … ~

Q: What do you consider healthy eating?

Plenty of fresh vegetables and some fruit, healthy fats, sufficient and easily digestable protein, high fiber and some complex carbohydrates, low sugar and starch, low PUFAs and anti-nutrients, plenty of herbs and spices, as few processed foods as possible, base excess. Taking time for eating and enjoying the meal.

Q: Do you consider your diet healthy?

Yes, meanwhile.

Q: What’s your favorite healthy food?

More than one: winter squash, carrots, spinach, onions, ginger, garlic, chicken, fish, almonds, butter, basil, parsley, just to name a few. Look at my tags list!

Q: What’s one thing you could do to improve your diet?

Eat more regularly.

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Recovering from a hard day

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I had another home day today, after having already cancelled everything on Monday (Japanese course, piano lesson, swort-fighting practice) . It was good that I did and got some rest, though, and this morning I woke up in the absence of headache. However, while I was feeling better during the day, everything got worse again in the evening. I just hope that all of this will be over soon.

A few impressions from today …

~ lots and lots of tea ~

~ a lovely lunch bowl: chicken and asparagus, roasted in butter ~

~ learning Hiragana syllable signs in the courtyard ~

~ freshly made vegetable stock for drinking throughout the day ~

A thing I have been doing a lot lately (and which has not shown on my blog so far, with one exception) is marinating, and I have tried quite a lot of marinade recipes so far and will post the yummiest ones on here. Until a couple of weeks ago, I used to simply fry my chicken and fish like it was, but by now, I marinate it almost all the time. I have to store it in the fridge anyway, so why not store it in marinade? And it gets so much more flavorful and tender from marinating!

Of course, you cannot only marinate meat and fish. Tofu would be awesome, even hard-boiled eggs might work, and why not try beans? Also, vegetables like sweet potatoes, kabocha, carrots, or asparagus can be marinated before baking them in the oven or steaming them. Prepare for a fireworks of flavors!

The beginning makes this anise and onion marinade I made today, which is inspired by flavors that are used in Chinese cuisine.

Anise and Onion Marinade

1/2 cup

Ingredients

2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin (or sherry)
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 tsp peppercorns
4 whole star anise

Directions

Mix everything together and use for marinating. Foods should be marinated for at least 30 minutes, better overnight.

This marinade works well with chicken, turkey, pork, beef, fish, tofu, and eggs.

I am off to bed now! Have a happy day everybody!

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Preparing for the better

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I am delighted that one of my favorite lyrics from the song appear in the video pic above.

You say the magic’s gone – I’m no magician.

You say the spark’s gone – well, get an electrician.

Awesome, awesome, and just how I like it: Regardless of the misery you are in, never lose you humor!

Speaking of misery: My cold has gotten worse today. My arms, legs, and back hurt all the time, I got fever now, and my head cannot decide whether to implode or explode – well, this way, it stays at its place, at least. I am very thankful for the care that speaks from your comments on my last post, and your great suggestions. However, with regard to how I feel today, there was no thinking of exercise, and despite a 20 minutes drag to the grocery store and back, I was happy not to move at all.

I spent the day in my bed and in the bathtub , and later I moved to the living room and did some piano playing, reading, and drawing. Eats were light and far from special, since my head was not willing to show any creativity at all. So, this is the perfect day to post one the recipes I recently made and have not posted yet.

As I have written a while ago, my cooking style can be described as throwing everything into a single pan. I use to make single servings and eat everything up at once, and a few hours later, I will do the same thing again. This way, I almost never do any cooking in advance, unless I know I will be away for the complete day – then I fry a pound of chicken breast filets at 7 am and throw them all into a lunchbox, alongside with a bunch of vegetables and a handful of almonds.

While my cooking style is perfectly alright, given my current life conditions (I spend a lot of time at home, working on my diploma thesis, giving piano lessons every now and then, and doing stuff), it sometimes annoys me for the following reasons:

I am inflexible. Since I do not eat most grains, I cannot simply make a quick sandwich or have a bowl of cereal if I am hungry, but always need to cook something. (The only “quick food” for me is a green smoothie, that is something at least!)
I eat very much the same all the time – stir fries, stir fries, stir fries.
It impairs my creativity in the kitchen. There are many recipes I would love to try, but which take quite a lot of preparation time. Usually, I start cooking when I get hungry, and this means I do not want to wait for an hour, but have something ready within 15 minutes. And, for ecological reasons, I really do not see the point in preheating my oven and then bake a single serving of something for 40 minutes or longer if I can have it ready in the pan in a fraction of that time.

With cooking in advance, though, these things would not happen.

I would have something to eat at hand every time.
I could try a wider range of recipes, and thus have a bigger variety of dishes. Moreover, I would also make more meatless side dishes to please my vegetarian and vegan readers.
I would not have to mind about preparation times. You can justify 40 minutes of oven roasting if you get several servings from it, no? Plus, you can roast several things in your oven at once!
Oh, and did I mention that I do not have any problems to eat the same things over and over again?

Why do I not do it, then? Well, I think it is mostly laziness, mind clutter (thus, not thinking of food when I am not actually hungry), and bad organization (cooking in advance calls for planning). And you know that I am not the best when it comes to just doing something – in many different regards. Fear also plays a role.

Fear, you ask? Sure! For a coward by disposition, new things tend to be scary, and cooking several servings at once is unknown territory for me. Thank goodness, I have some fellow bloggers who already did/do it and, without knowing, improve my confidence about it. And while I am still frightened by the thought of a whole chicken, I think chicken drumsticks are something I can handle.

~ I made them in my new cast-iron pot ~

Okay, my dear vegetarian and vegan readers , this one might not be for you, but the seasoning was awesome, and I think it might work with tofu as well, if you first fry the tofu in a little oil (which was unnecessary with the chicken drumsticks because the skin contained sufficient fat) and then roast it with the spices for 10 minutes or so.

Speaking of the seasoning: I used lavender for this dish, and liked it a lot! The dried lavender blossoms are tea actually (at least I got them from the tea shelf at the organic supermarket), but I though they would make a nice seasoning as well.

Juniper, Rosemary, and Lavender Roasted Chicken Drumsticks

4 servings

Ingredients

4 chicken drumsticks
1 tbsp juniper berries
1/2 tbsp dried rosemary
1/2 tbsp dried lavender
4 garlic cloves, peeled and cut into slices
salt to taste
pepper to taste

Directions

Put the chicken drumsticks into a pot and cover them with garlic slices and spices. Heat carefully to let them roast a little, then fill a little water into the pot (so that the water stands as high in the pot as two fingers are wide). Bring to boil, then simmer covered and at low to medium heat for about an hour – the water will be cooked away afterwards. Serve hot and enjoy. Leftovers will stay fresh in the fridge for a few days.

Do you cook in advance? Do you have any recipes to share that are good to make in advance? Is there a dish you like a lot that only pays the effort if you make several servings at once?

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Moving and move your body

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It was dancing time again! Friday was the day of this semester’s psychology party, and unlike the last time, it did not take place at the psychological institute, but at a small alternative music club. However, like the last time (and several times before), I was asked to DJ, and so I did!

I am not at all a party girl, but I enjoy DJing every once in a while. Being an introvert person, this is also a great way for me to “survive” a party. See, I usually have a problem with being squeezed in the middle of a crowd and people touching me all the time (which cannot be avoided in the middle of a crowd), and I am not so much a socializer, so I usually just go for an hour or two, sustain some small talk, and then go home. I like to go and see some fellow students and dance a little every now and then, but I tend to get tired very quickly – not in the sense that I would have to go to bed, but from too many people and chatter and noise around me which feed my need for alone time. But there, in the little peaceful space behind the mixer, I have a sanctuary from where I can observe the dancefloor and feel like actually attending the party without being in the middle of it, or standing by the side and feeling a little lost. And everybody is happy that I am there because I get the people dancing.

I am not a professional DJ, but I have a good feeling for music and for what the people want for dancing, and I was happy to see that I had them on the dancefloor non-stop for the three hours of my shift. Three hours may sound like a lot of time to fill, but they passed very quickly, like DJing time always tends to do. This means that you should play the best you have.

I had prepared different sets of music, according to different styles – it always works fine to start with independent rock, then move on to dancehall, funky tunes, and big beat, and end with electro later at night, because there are a lot of people with different tastes in music, and this is quite a good solution to play something for everybody and still have consistent music sets. People screamed when I played The Killers and The Gossip, they sang when I played The Rolling Stones and The White Stripes, they danced on the tables when I played MC Hammer and Peter Fox, they raved when I played Trentemøller and Deadmau5. We all had fun.

The next day, I was tired and vexed by a headache until late afternoon, although the only thing I drank the night before was a big bottle of sparkling water – unnecessary to say that I had quite a hard time to stick to my “from mollusk to muscle” plan, and I must admit that I did not manage to go for a running-and-walking something in the morning. However, I managed a quick-paced 20 minutes walk later that day, and I think this is quite good since my goal was to do a little something every day, and 20 minutes of walking are a little something.

Even more unfortunately, I woke up with a sore throat and stuffed sinuses, and I am seriously annoyed. I feel a little sick rather often – not enough to stay in bed, but too much to exert myself a lot. What do you do in situations like that? Have a rest day, or exercise nevertheless? I am afraid I would have quite a lot of rest days, and I am concerned about my habit building plans when accounting for it too much. Of course, it also means welcome counter-exercise arguments for the blue Smiley … So, I am thinking about another walk today and some stretching at home. And lots of vitamins to get back on my feet – like this.

Apple and Lemon Protein Smoothie with Chili

2 glasses

Ingredients

1 apple
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp protein powder (I used rice protein powder)
175 ml (3/4 cup) water
125 ml (1/2 cup) almond milk
1/4 tsp dried chili flakes

Directions

Blend and enjoy.

What do you do exercise-wise when feeling a little sick? Do you enjoy parties? And which is your favorite kind of music for dancing?

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Plum and Almond Cupcakes

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I must confess that I am not a baker. While I admire the artworks accomplished people are able to create with dough and sugar frosting with all my heart, I simply lack the patience for baking. The reason is that I want to eat when I am hungry – which means that I am not so much up for waiting for another hour until something is ready for eating, so I prefer cooking a quick meal – and I am not so much concerned with food when I am not hungry. Thus, baking somewhat goes against these habits. Lately, though, I have been getting more and more into preparing yummy things out of sequence to have at hand when getting hungry and wanting for something particular that would take too long to prepare at once (like brown rice of which I use to cook a batch at a time because it takes rather long). And all the lovely recipes and pictures I have seen on other blogs during the past months have convinced me that it was worth to give baking a chance.

A while ago, when it was gradually dawning on me that the time for baking was going to come, I had bought a mixer, and today was the time to inaugurate it.

~ it can whisk and knead ~

And last week, I had picked up some gluten-free products at the health store, thinking about future baking to come. One of those was a container of tigernut flour.

Tigernuts are no actual nuts, but the tubers of a grass species. They are free of gluten, rich in healthy fats, and have a hearty, nutty flavor. Ground tigernuts can be used as a substitute for regular flour. I tried it with the cupcakes I made today, and I was delighted that they turned out yummy!

~ a little ugly , but very tasty ~

These cupcakes are free of gluten and sugar. I found them very flavorful and did not miss any sweetness, but if you want for some, feel free to add any sweetener of choice.

Almond and Plum Cupcakes

6 cupcakes

Ingredients

200 g (1 1/2 cups) tigernut flour (or other flour)
100 g (1/2 cup) chopped almonds
3 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
dash of salt
125 ml (1/2 cup) almond milk (or other milk)
2 plums, pitted

Directions

Preheat the oven to 200 °C (390 °F). In a bowl, whisk flour, almonds, eggs, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt, then slowly pour in the almond milk and go on whisking until all ingredients have nicely combined.

Then cut the plums. I used two plum slices per cupcake, so I cut the plums into six slices each.

Slightly grease a cupcake baking pan, then put one or two tablespoons of the dough into each hole and flatten it with a spoon. This should use up around two thirds of the dough. Then nicely arrange two plum slices on every blob of dough.

Use the rest of the dough to cover the plums.

Bake the cupcakes for around 20 to 25 minutes at 200 °C (390 °F). Let cool and enjoy. Cupcakes that are not to be eaten immediately can be stored in the freezer compartment.

Would you call yourself a baker? Do you like cupcakes? If yes, what is your favorite kind?

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Personal update

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Currently, I am working on my diploma thesis in social psychology (a diploma in Germany equals a master’s degree, and meanwhile degrees have switched to BSc and MSc here as well, but I’m still doing the old one), which means that I work at home a lot, doing research and writing things together.

A little while ago, I used to do all the working at my kitchen table, but recently, I have shifted my working place to the living room.

Why that? Well, the main reason is that I wanted to disentangle my activity spheres. I used to do everything at my kitchen table – writing, researching, eating, reading blogs, watching movies, phoning – and I did not even realize that I did not feel overly comfortable there. I was sitting on a wooden chair all day long, and the rest of my apartment remain almost unused.

However, I have decided to change that. If I have to work anyways, I can at least feel comfortable doing so, right? And what does it help me to live in an apartment which I do not use for the most part?

I think a lot of this habitual self-denial goes hand-in-hand with my eating disorder background, and while I have always been perfectionist and ascetic by nature and feel an inner occasion to go on being that way, I know how detrimental it will turn out if this disposition prevails. So, I am actively going against it.

~ this is much more comfortable than an unupholstered chair ~

I have dragged all my equipment to the sofa bed in the living room, and this is where I do most of the work now. It felt so much better at once! My laptop sits on a tray with a cushion attached to the bottom so I can easily balance it on my knees and it does not run hot.

And finally, I have enough space to spread all my files and articles around me without turning my kitchen table into a mess.

~ fortuatnely, the rest of the literature comes as pdf ~

Another thing I found very helpful with this arrangement is that it takes me away from a space – my kitchen – that is loaded with associations of food, or rather, eating and not eating. My kitchen is not at all a negatively connoted room for me (anymore), but currently it is still easier for me to keep spheres separate: The kitchen is for eating, and everything else is done elsewhere. After making this change, I was astonished what a difference it made, and how much better I can work now, with less distractions. I had severely underestimated the power of a cue-loaded environment.

Have you made similar experiences? Do you have everything in one place at home, or do you keep things separate? Which option do you like better?

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