Pineapple Curry Fried Rice

So it's been a while since my last post - I know, I am entirely to blame. I've been distracted lately with many trivial things, namely just enjoying the remainder of summer before school starts. I know I am going to miss this short period; it is truly a great feeling to be so free of duties or obligations, although I can see how it can eventually get boring.

That's another thing to think about - the upcoming school year. So far, all I've heard about second year are scary stories - how much harder it is than first year (which, as I recall, was already pretty strenuous). This year I want to succeed - but what does success mean? It's not about honoring every class, or getting top ranks in every test. That would definitely be nice, and at one point in my life, I would have definitely measured my success by my grade point average. No - I've come to realize that success means so much more than a few marks on the transcript. It's about balance. Balancing ALL the important aspects of your life, not just any one thing alone. Last year, there was a point when I dropped everything and let my grades take over my entire life. I eventually came out of that period, but I never want to go back to it again.

But I have faith and hope in the upcoming year. It'll be good, I think.

Glutinous Sticky Rice (Nuomi Fan)

Thank God for our 4-day weekend! After preparing for a cumulative physiology/microanatomy final that covered literally almost 1000 pages of material (914 to be exact), it feels nice to just sit around and have FUN. I was invited to two potlucks (I made an ice cream cake in the first, which you can see in my last post), which gave me an opportunity to try my hand at Chinese-style glutinous sticky rice. I've made it once before during a Thanksgiving potluck in undergraduate school, but I haven't touched it since then, mainly because it is so unhealthy. Sticky rice has a very high Glycemic Index, which means that you won't get full as easily from it as you would from something more fiber-rich (like brown rice). But man, it does taste good!

Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup

The other day, Dad asked me if I had any recipes for Mushroom soup. I think he was thinking back to our trip to Slovenia (I still need to post that), where we had mushroom soup almost every night. I never had the chance this time, but Dad says the first time he ever visited Slovenia, his coworker helped him order a mushroom soup made from an assortment of mushrooms literally picked minutes before from the restaurant's own personal mushroom garden. It must have tasted like heaven.

Spanish Paella

I first made this dish during the very end of my senior year of high school (ages and ages ago) after happening on a random recipe of Paella on Mediterrasian. There was a night that my parents went out for dinner, and my friend and I jumped on the opportunity to lord over the kitchen. After hours of cutting, crying (from the onions), and haphazard stirring, I finally chanced upon a dish that actually did not turn out half bad. That was nothing, however, to my astonishment when my mom, trying out our leftovers, actually took a great liking to it. I mean, Dad will literally eat anything I give him, but when my viciously, brutally honest mom compliments my cooking, that's when I know I've hit the jackpot.