serene’s posterous

I am currently a little obsessed with roasting cauliflower.  It is probably a little warm these days to be firing up the oven, but I haven't been able to resist.  I have been mostly tossing the chopped up cauliflower with smashed garlic cloves, a little salt and pepper, olive oil and curry or chili powder.  And then baking in the oven for about 20min at 400°C.  I just love how the cauliflower gets brown on the edges.

I had some frozen Coho salmon fillets from Trader Joe's in the freezer, so I decided to make Teriyaki Salmon.  I had some Kikkoman Kotterin Mirin in the fridge, so I mixed that with some soy sauce and a few drops of sesame oil, and marinated the salmon with this mixture.  I added some garlic cloves and sliced ginger to the mix too.  Broiled the salmon for about 5-10min, until the salmon was cooked, and then sprinkled some chopped scallions over. 

Next time, I may want to sprinkle some sugar over the salmon, and broil a little longer to get a sugar crust.

Photo credit: Mathieu Young/FOX

I didn't find this week's SYTYCD as compelling as last week's performance show.  Perhaps more dancers were out of their comfort zone?  My favorite this week was the contemporary piece performed by Jonathan and Karla, and choreographed by Stacey Tookey.  But I am not sure if it was because I love the song Falling Slowly by The Frames, and that colored my impression.



On the results show, I liked the group dance choreographed by Mia Michaels.  Although, I wished the camera work wasn't so frentic.  The music - Higher Ground by Stevie Wonder - was great.

Saw this.

I don't eat beef.  It was therefore somewhat disconcerting to realize that there is beef flavoring in KFC's grilled chicken.  At least I don't eat fast food often, and I haven't tried this new grilled chicken from KFC.  I guess on the grand scheme of things, KFC isn't doing anything really wrong, since they did declare the beef ingredients on "Page 14 of a 37-page ingredient document on its website".  And it is possible that there is beef flavoring on the chicken items of other fast food brands.  It is just that I haven't bothered to look it up yet.

This is probably also less terrible than realizing that in the US, McDonald's fries has beef flavoring (labeled as natural flavor before the complaints/lawsuits).  McDonald's had touted that their fries are fried in pure vegetable oil, which caused people to mistakenly think that the fries are actually vegetarian.

Hmmm...third novel read in a row that has been made into a movie that I have not watched. 

I have always enjoyed reading historical fiction and to be immersed in some other time period.  I am not very familiar with the historical details in the Tudor period in England other than it was a tumultous time in England's history with the breaking from the Roman Catholic Church, and that King Henry VIII had several wives.  I imagine that Philippa Gregory took some liberties with the historical details for dramatic effect.  But since she used the lesser known Mary Boleyn as the narrator, she had somewhat more flexibility to take "artistic license".

The book was an easy read...it is mostly about plot development.  There was some sense of the rigid, claustrophobic life and all the politicking in the court.  Ultimately I wasn't too impressed by the book, it reads too much like a breathless fluffy throwaway.

We just wanted to be outdoors last weekend and do a hike, any hike.  And because we didn't manage to finish all our errands on Saturday, we didn't have enough time to travel further to do a longer hike on Sunday.  We ended going up Mission Peak.  In 2004, we went up Mission Peak several times in our misguided attempts to "train" for our first backpacking trip in Peru.  But we haven't been back since.

It isn't a particularly hard or spectacular hike.  It climbs about 2000 feet in less than 3 miles.  Although we started hiking close to 5pm, it was still quite hot on the way up due to the lack of shade.  It was very windy at the summit, so we didn't linger too long to enjoy the panoramic views.  On the way, we saw handgliders, possibly a turkey vulture and hawks, and plenty of squirrels and cows.  This hike is probably better early spring because I imagine that the hills would be filled with wild flowers.

       

I am not sure what to say about this movie.  The first hour or so of the movie is quite good.  What happens when a hit goes wrong, and the hitmen have to lie low in a foreign country?  The acting was great too.  Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes were all memorable in their roles.  I also liked the touches of humor in the situation.  But then, I was quite disappointed in the farcical ending, so I can't really recommend the movie.

Photo credit: Mathieu Young/FOX

This is probably the only TV show I would watch bits and pieces of over the summer.  This is the top20 week.  My favorite routine is the weird and quirky piece, choreographed by Wade Robson, performed by Kupono and Ashley.  Crash test dummies. Toy dog. Cool music - Felt Mountain by Goldfrapp.



Special mention to the lovely routine performed by the Ade and Melissa.  Although I did not like the treacly music, I love the series of side-by-side coordinated jumps around 46-49sec in this video.

Had dinner with 2 friends from way back (we met in elementary school over 20 years ago!) on Friday night.  It was fun catching up and doing the girl talk thing.  The food at Sushi Kuni was great.  The restaurant was tiny so we had to wait a long time for a table.  But it was well worth the wait.  We got a variety of dishes to share - ordering some from the "special menu".  We had the seaweed salad, assorted sashimi, grilled squid, fried eggplant (my favorite dish), and cold soba with tempura.  Admittedly, the tempura was a little soggy (maybe we waited too long before eating it?) but other than that we enjoyed every bite.

Nostalgia...  I did listen to a lot cheesy music when I was growing up.  And like most tweens, all I cared about were catchy tunes and bland good looks.  This is probably as cheesy as it gets with the synthesized drum machine, and without the retro coolness of 80s music.  Jason Donovan was one of those pop stars who became very popular based on his good looks and a few catchy singles (plus the marketing efforts of his record company).  His romance with label-mate and co-star Kylie Minogue helped fuel this popularity.

Admittedly, one of his biggest hits, Too Many Broken Hearts, is a catchy pop song.  Unfortunately, the music video is unintentionally hilarious, with Jason Donovan strumming along on his unplugged electric guitar while wandering around in the mountains.



By the time this song, Hang on to your Love, was released in 1990(?) off his second album, Jason Donovan's popularity was already on the wane in the UK.  But I remember liking this video a lot.