Cybertron Flower

I.
I'm in Venice - I met a colleague at the airport who suggested to take a direct taxi boat to the city instead of the bus + boat combo that my guesthouse suggested. We had to wait in line for half an hour (being too loudly upset about politics, but that's what happens when you put together an
Iranian-born Swiss-American and an Eastern-Europe born Jewish German) but otherwise it was the best decision ever. I got a bit of sightseeing that I do not expect to manage for the rest of the week.

( 3x mobile photos )

I am regretting that I did not take my camera with me. But on the other hand: I don't think I'll gave time to look around much, anyway.

II.
That said: that review talk on Tuesday? Still not done. Ugh. And tomorrow will be a busy day. (Expect very exciting science results to hit the news; not mine, but it will still be full of excitement.) And I know, I am procrastinating now again, but there is only so much talk I can write given how tired I am by now.

III.
I know that I shop when I am stressed. I lost my black shawl while in Slovenia and it's such a staple that I needed a new one immediately. Also those new skinny dress pants I bought when changing airports in Paris really need different tops that the ones I own, so I now own a wide lightweight wooly sweater in grey and a black popover blouse. And since I was at it, also a set of rose-plated triangle earring (I mean, it happens so often that I find earrings that I live that are silver I had to buy them, right? … On the other hand, wtf my new fascination with gold-colored jewellry? Am I getting old?)

IV.
Also, new phone. Because my old one decided that I abused it too much. It's not fully dead but there was a pattern of guest-touch behavior that made it crash several times and I am not risking being without a phone with all the current and upcoming travel. Unfortunately, I missed that the successor model is half an inch larger when I ordered it. The old one wasn't small, but this one is giant. Well. I am trying to convince myself that whatever phone I would have gotten it would have been the wrong one because it's not my old one. (And I could not have just bought the old one again, I considered, but I ordered it using motomaker in a configuration that was only available from Motorolla USA, not from any resellers D:)

V.
Voltron really isn't a good series. But I keep watching. Because Lotor. And we are at the point when he actually becomes really interesting. (I even tried to go fanfiction, but ugh, nothing along the lines that would interest me D:)

VI.
I complained to sophiawestern (through whom I have one of my current favorite soup recipes) that there is no Kabocha squash in the Netherlands - I only found two sad kabochas at one market stall a few weeks ago. But now my local supermarket has them! Yeah! Take bets on who is going to eat all the Kabocha & chicken & pear salads!
I still have a ton of roasted kabocha and carrot soup in the freezer (the aforementioned favorite soup made from the aforementioned two sad kabochas), otherwise there would be some soup cooking forthcoming next weekend.

VII.
I'm not sure I agree with everything in this blog entry (I often find myself disagreeing with xykademiqz, the blog author), but the last paragraph is important (to realize for both kinds of people) and I absolutely loved the last sentence: I need to emit into the world, hoping the world receives some of it.

Now: bed. And finish that talk tomorrow.

I know, cooking posts in such a quick succession! But I just need the creativity outlet that cooking gives me. Plus I am making photos of a lot of the staples that I cook for the first time here in Leiden, things that I do not photograph when I cook them the second or the twentieth time. Although the definition of "staple" is an interesting one once you hit a certain number of recipes - my "yummy" folder alone contains 90 PDFs and there are tons and tons of dishes that I don't have a written recipe for, from pancakes to plov (in two rather different variations), from baked fish to endless variations on "classic" salads. So even a staple can sometimes only return onto the menu after a year. Or have to wait until I'm in a country that has a certain ingredient readily available.

Anyway, less talking, more food. As always: if you are interested in a certain recipe, let me know, I am glad to either provide a link or to try to write it down:



Grapefruit cake that I made with N. It was nice and moist (this was the first time I soaked a cake with extra juice - I was hesitant but it worked greatly) and all around delicious. Having a loaf pan is a great thing.

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