Just Peachy

I ate the most perfect peach today.

While sitting at lunch, I was commiserating over how to answer a friend who had recently messaged me to ask how I was doing.

It's not an easy answer lately, if I tell the truth. Since I am given to telling the truth, in graphic detail, I can't exactly get away with saying "fine" either.

So I sat tabulating the negatives of my life and trying to weigh them away with positives to construct an acceptable answer between bites of salad ("I'm unemployed, but I'm not going hungry!"). Then my thoughts wandered to the other times I've done this in the past. Usually at the end of relationships, when I was trying to figure out why it went awry and how to use it as "a positive learning experience." On the whole, it was a pretty glum meal, despite a nice salad.

Then I took the peach. The first bite literally shocked all other thoughts away. It was rapture. The consistency, the flavor, the juiciness were balanced in a way that I don't think anyone thinks is physically possible anymore. And I had actually paused before eating it. I wasn't sure I wanted to eat it. It could just have easily ended up in a clafouti I am slated to make later today.

But I did eat it. And it showed me the best part of my life right now.
I am learning to enjoy simple pleasures with utmost gratitude.

Asian Cooking Adventures!

I really love mochi; a soft, semi-sweet rice based pastry. I also love red bean paste, and since my mother thinks adzuki beans are super healthy and should be bought in 5 lb. bags it wasn't long before I tried to make mochi with red bean.

YouTube was my friend on this endeavor.

Cookingwithdog is basically my hero. Their zenzai and anko recipe is easy to follow and comes out perfectly. Because of the amount of mochi I was making, I turned all my adzuki beans into anko.




I preferred this mochi video because it didn't use a microwave in the cooking process.




Here is my anko, pre-portioned and ready to wrapped in mochi. The toothpick helps so that you don't mar the mochi whiteness.

My Thoughts On Gaza

My email and social feeds have been inundated with articles, videos, and friends' opinions--all about the recent Gaza flotilla incident. It's hard to speak clarity into such murky waters; but just because something is hard doesn't mean you shouldn't try it.

Instead of joining the fray of evaluating video footage and first-hand reports to determine who was "right" and "wrong", I want to remind you of some things that may have been forgotten.

Hamas is a terrorist organization. They flagrantly abuse civilians, murder women and children, and are composed of lawless, blood-hungry despots. Hamas controls the area known as Gaza. How can any sensible, peace-loving person expect accountability from such an organization? It is ludicrous. Without accountability there is no relief for the common inhabitant of Gaza. Without accountability no Gazan child will ever receive a donation of toys, no matter how many flotillas are assembled.

Israel is not stopping humanitarian aid with their blockade; they are trying to insure at least a small step of accountability. The only humanitarian aid a common citizen of Gaza will ever see comes from the hands of IDF soldiers and Israeli citizens.