Life in the key of E flat minor

It's been a while since I've posted. So, I didn't want to go too long without an entry. For the start of your Holiday pleasure - here is our Christmas tree in the new residence. There's a lot of cool in this pic, I know.

Over last weekend, I rented a car at a location at 30th Street Station.  The rental car facilities' cars are now located in a parking lot next to the Cira Centre instead of the basement of Amtrak's 30th Street Station. It walking my paperwork back, I realized that I had never been so close to the Cira Centre before and snapped this picture. I like how the perspective distorts that non-perpendicular lines of the building, causing you not to notice it at first.

I fell in love with Scotland.  It's like Ireland but connected to England, and I must confess - I love the Scottish accent more. Here's a rather nostalgic shot taken in the Moffat Hills of Southern Uplands of Scotland. The grass really was that green and the sky that blue. It's moments like this I can start to wrap my mind around how the Celtic languages had same word to mean green or blue, glas , because they are both so magnificent together. 

This picture is a beautiful as the ginger, honey and lemongrass smell (I wish I had any star anise) As many of you may know, I’m working on getting my fitness levels back to where they were in 2010 just in time for my 40th birthday. I know, at 40 the body turns to shit anyway - we start to lose our muscle mass, the dreaded prostate exams start, etc. So why care? So I can still live a good and happy life until I’m ready to call it quits. I want to be able to walk when I’m 90 and avoid diabetes. You know, that stuff. Therefore, I googled “healthy ethnic cuisine” to find a new recipe for my Around the World in a Pot! The CNN Health article I found named Vietnamese as one of the ten healthiest cuisines. I was determined to find a Vietnamese meal that I could make in the slow cooker. I searched the web and found Vietnamese inspired slow cooker recipes, but nothing very authentic. (Not that what I cook is authentic, but it’s close.) In the comments of the open forum boards that ...

I was in New York City for about 14 hours on July 24, but I was able to get this picture while I was running to Pret a Manger for lunch while getting in the spirit of London's hosting of the (then) upcoming Olympics. I never realized that Mercury/Hermes was on the top of Grand Central Station.  It makes sense, but I never really looked at the piece before. I was lucky to get a clear shot at Mercury and get the top of the Chrysler Building in the picture too.

Technically this is not a picture I took at all with my iPhone therefore it bucks the theme. However, I did have to search for this image and adapt it to the format I use in my blog’s myPic meme. I saw this image yesterday during the Olympics coverage – it’s from the United Kingdom’s first gold medal ceremony of the Olympics for the women’s double scull. I saw the Union Jack rise and heard the crowd singing “God Save the Queen” at full volume. (It recalled the 2000 Sydney Olympics when the crowd would sing “Advance Australia Fair.”) As I relive the Sydney memories, a flag with the Union Jack in the upper right hoist flies upward; it’s Australia. Then other… it’s New Zealand. It is simply a striking image to me – one for what should be a very proud host nation. Britannia’s athletes trained rigorous hard to success and they get to revel in their triumph, sharing the podium with two of her strongest Commonwealth Realms. (I’m sure the Aussies and the Kiwis might think differentl...

It’s here. Tonight is the opening ceremonies of the London Summer Olympics 2012. I couldn’t sleep last night; it was like Christmas Eve. John Williams’ score is in my head – you know it  – Olympic Fanfare and Theme based on Leo Arnaud's “Bugler's Dream:” Bum bum bum bum-da-bum bum bum bum & doot-doot-doot-doot doo doo. We will watch the United Kingdom’s response to China’s jaw-dropping opening. How will it start? The Queen in her jubilee year will open it but to what fanfare? Who will light the cauldron? What ancient rock stars will perform? Will non-Olympian, but rugby-hero and anti-bullying-advocate Ben Cohen be involved? (I think I’m only of handful who are thinking about Ben versus Beckham at the games.) Starting 10 days out, I tweeted my favorite Olympic Moments of all time. For the sake of clarity, I’m repeating them here (but switching out the Winter Olympics moments for other Summer memories) for my personal top ten significant Summer Olympics moments. ...

It's been a while since I posted on my own blog, but here is an entry that was originally posted on Frankly Penn (the University of Pennsylvania Alumni blog) on June 27, 2012. I have made minor edits. For those who don't know my day job, I work in Alumni Relations. Not everyone understands what I do on a daily basis. Baker Library, quintessential Dartmouth Alumni relations professionals advance the mission of their institutions and serve and support its alumni - graduates of an educational institution - reflecting the values of the institution. We reinforce the principles of honesty, integrity, and trust, which form the basis for long-term relationships and engagement with the school. For the majority of us, we manage and direct the work of alumni volunteers who are promoting the image of the College or University to their school peers. Annually, the Alumni Relations groups of the 8 Ivy League Universities as well as MIT and Stanford gather for the Ivy Plus Alum...

I am a little bit of a vexillogist . The current naval jack is apocryphally based on the first Union Jack of the United States . Reintroduced in September 11, 2002 on all navy ships in support of the War on Terrorism, the USS Constitution has been flying this jack since the 1980 as the ship's privilege since she is the oldest active ship in the navy. This photo comes from the deck of Old Ironsides. In a honor of our Independence Day, I posted this photo on facebook.  I took it while I was in Boston this April for the Marathon. However, the picture of the naval jack is altered.  The wind was blowing in the opposition direction and I actually got the text in reverse.  I didn't think that anyone would mind if I flipped the photo in order to show off the text originally from the Gadsden flag . So below I posted the original photo, untouched. Happy Independence Day.

City Hall is an amazing gem in the city of Philadelphia. Here is a detail of the tile in my jury deliberation room from my stint on jury duty about 3 weeks ago. Notice the yellow and blue of the tiles, evocative of the City of Philadelphia flag.

I've moved from Center City to West Philadelphia - only a block away from the very first place I lived after graduating in 1995. I've returned to the area and was impressed to see how lovely Clark Park has become in the years since I left. In the park is a wonderfully rare treat - one of only two status of Charles Dickens in existence. (The other is in Sydney .)  This one has an addition character, Nell Trent from The Old Curiosity Shop .

Toronto is a lovely town - full of history, fun and ingenuity. I was lucky enough to sneak a quick picture of downtown and Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport on my trip back home via Cleveland earlier this May. (My flight was our of Pearson.) If you squint, you can see the CN Tower in the lower left area of the shot.

During my walkabout in Pittsburgh after getting a Primanti Bros. sandwich this weekend, I returned to my hotel via the End East. I walked past the U.S. Steel Tower . I remember the first time I was here was summer of 1993, two friends and I were returning from Cleveland and ended up parking at Fifth and Liberty to find a place to eat. We ended up going out to Squirrel Hill for dinner, not before I noted the steel and architecture of the the then named USX Tower. The building looks like a retro-futuristic skyscraper for a Jules Verne novel.  It is out of place, but yet, one of the appropriate iconic buildings for Pittsburgh. 

Like the Pollo en Escabeche and the Cawl recipes prior, this is another slow cooker meal to start the night before. As with the cawl, you will need to skim the fat off the top prior to serving. I find it easier to refrigerate while I’m at work and then skim and reheat when I get home. Just about to turn on the slow cooker but I forgot to take a pic of the seared oxtails :( Albeit, this is a little more complex than my usual “set it and forget it” meals, but I’m moving and I’m working on eating most of the items in my freeze and pantry. I had a leftover container of ricotta and some homemade stock. The ricotta, which freezes well by the way, was earmarked for my Cranberry Ricotta Tart for Christmas. However, I didn’t get to dine with Aunt Florence at Christmas this year, so I didn’t have to make the tart. Plus, oxtail just happened to be on sale and I do like a good ragù! Ragù and not the Unilever brand, Ragú, is a rich meat-based sauce. While there is a difference betw...

While I was in Toronto for work, I knew that I wanted to see the ROM and the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal .  Relatively early on Sunday morning, I rushed over Bloor and Queen's Park from the Delta Chelsea to get a good 90 minutes in the museum before I had to get ready for our event. I spent most of my time exploring the galleries of the crystal. This is one of my favorite galleries - the dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. I took this picture as an example of so many opposites coming together in this exhibit: the juxtaposition of the very ancient with the incredibly new, the organic with the inorganic, the play of light versus dark, the sharp stiff lines and angles with the curving bones and the list goes on.

This week, I took an impromptu staycation overnight.  Our water heater broke and it was going to be about 72 hours before we would have hot water.  So I pricelined a hotel, which happened to be at 11th and Arch, for $55 and stopped home for a change of clothes.  After enjoying a great Malaysian dinner at the Banana Leaf , I returned to my room for some TV in a king-sized bed.  Before calling it a night, I snapped this photo of my view.   By the way, I had Beef Rendang for dinner and don't be too surprised if I adapt it for an Around the Word in a Pot soon.

The đuveč from the Wikipedia article on Serbia Welcome to my non sequitur life. As you may know, my folks are planning to go to Scotland and Wales this year, and due to the success of our trip to Ireland, I’m invited to go.  This explains why I was looking up cawl a few weeks back. In doing my research on our future trip, I spent Saturday afternoon googling the Celtic Nations, because I only remembered 4 of the 6 of them off the top of my head. (Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Cornwall. I forgot Brittany and the Isle of Man.) Then too, I only knew 4 of their 6 patron saints (Patrick, Andrew, David and Piran. St Anne is Brittany’s and St. Maughold – I never hear of him either – is Mann’s.)  While I was trying to learn about his story – he was an Irish thief converted to the priesthood by St. Patrick’s nephew and found refuge on Mann – I saw that Irish writers called the Manx island Eubonia . I had thought I saw that word before the night prior when I was reading Wikipedia a...

East-facing façade of the Royal Ontario Museum, built in 1933, courtesy of Wikipedia It’s months shy of a decade since first I visited the ROM, the Royal Ontario Museum , in Toronto. Back then, the ROM was an example of Italianate Neo-Romanesque architecture – a beautiful building commanding Bloor Street. During my stay in 2002, I had heard about the new plans for the ROM and this talk about an addition that would look like a chrysalis. The vision of something so radically incongruous coming out of an original traditional structure always piques my fancy. Now, with my recently-expedited renewed passport, I will be heading back to YYZ for work and I have taken an extra day to get there on my dime to return to this fantastic museum, which is Canada's largest museum of world culture and natural history and one of the largest museums in North America, in general. It’s no Bata Shoe Museum , but that’s okay. While I am excited to see the dinosaur specimens and exhibits focus...

Building the bredie in the slow cooker My exposure to tomato bredie came after I chose the 1999 Man Booker Prize for Fiction winner, Disgrace , by J. M. Coetzee for bookclub . I googled South African cuisines to help develop the theme for the bookclub meal. In my search, I found this: the Congo Cookbook , a collection of African recipes, which features excerpts from historic texts and rare recipes. One fine highlight was passages from Recipes: African Cooking (Foods of the World), a companion volume to Foods of the World: African Cooking by Laurens van der Post . Van der Post mused on one of the South African dishes that come from the Cape Malay, bredie : "Almost every country in the Western world has its meat stew. The Irish, of course, have Irish stew; the English, Lancashire hotpot; the Dutch, hutspot ; the Germans, Eintopf ; and the Hungarians, goulash . But only in South Africa is the dish of Oriental origin. The very word bredie is significant: it is a Malagasy ...

I was in Boston last weekend for the Marathon.  I was planning on watching my cousin run; yet due to the heat conditions, he was able to defer until 2013.  In the meantime, we took our other cousin who had never been to Beantown on a bit of a tourist run. During our stop in Faneuil Hall, I snapped a shot of the staircase.

At 0.02 acres, this building is America's smallest National Park. It is the Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial , at 301 Pine Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A Polish patriot and a hero of the American Revolution, Kościuszko returned to America to a hero's welcome after his wounding, capture, imprisonment, and banishment from his native Poland occupied by Russia, in 1796.  He lived in America for a year before returning to Europe, living life as a Polish émigré.  On October 15, 1817 Kościuszko died in Solothurn, Switzerland. In 1818 Kościuszko's body was transferred to Kraków, Poland; the Émigré was repatriated. Today the building serves as a Memorial to Kościuszko's life and work. The displays focus on his work as a brilliant military engineer who designed successful fortifications during the American Revolution.

Today I’m bringing you another recipe that you can prep and cook overnight so you can refrigerate while at work to have ready for dinner. The Welsh Leek on a £1 Silver Proof Coin with 24k Gold Plating, courtesy of the London Coin Company . In anticipation of a trip to Wales and Scotland via England, I have been doing my research of all things Welsh and Scottish.  We all know that I got the whisky thing down right, even dropping the "e" when talking Scotch. Yet outside of a haggis, whisky (Scotland) and leeks (Wales), I do know what else to expect. (Scotch eggs might not even be Scottish; London department store Fortnum & Mason claims to have invented them in 1738. For more of a tie in, if you go to the Fortnum & Mason site for the week of April 1, the second photo is of the Queen and the two Duchesses taken on March 1st, St. David's Day, the Welsh nation holiday; Duchess Catherine is wearing a daffodil, the Welsh flower.) Cawl is recognized as Wales’ na...

I have visited Houston on a few occasions, but I never really explored the place.  The first time I was stuck out in the suburbs of Humble and my returns to the Space City have had me out in the Galleria area for the day or two that I was working.  This time, I was able to drive around and see more of the city and get to be a part of the daily life. The monument at its full height I won’t claim to understand H-town.  Without a guide, I couldn’t find the bustling downtown area.  Yet, I can drive to the Galleria area from the airport blindfolded and I did find the lovely Museum District, around Bissonnet Street.  After a delicious crawfish po’boy lunch at Calliope's Po-Boy , I headed out to the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site, leaving the 610 loop eastward toward La Porte, Texas. After the twenty mile drive from lunch, I turned off the highway and drove down Independence Parkway, through massive drum-shaped oil containers and the Texas-themed...