Sweet Potato Chicken Curry

Yum! For lunch today I knew I wanted (1) curry, and (2) sweet potatoes, and I wanted them together. I have a good crockpot sweet potato chicken curry recipe, but didn't have enough chicken, so I looked for another recipe. I found this, and fortunately had everything on hand, so I made it. And it was yummy!

Sweet Potato Chicken Curry

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 1/2 cups vertically sliced onion
• 1 1/2 teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 (14-ounce) can fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 2 cups (1/2-inch) cubed peeled sweet potato
• 3/4 cup canned chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup frozen green peas
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Directions

1. Combine curry powder, coriander, turmeric, salt, black pepper, red pepper, and bay leaf in a small bowl.
2. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add chicken to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until browned, stirring occasionally.
   
3. Remove chicken from pan. Reduce heat to medium. Add onion to pan; cook 10 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently.
   
4. Increase heat to medium-high; return chicken to pan. Cook 1 minute, stirring occasionally.
   
5. Stir in ginger and garlic; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.
   
6. Add curry powder mixture; cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
   
7. Add broth and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 1 hour.
   
8. Stir in potato and chickpeas. Cook, uncovered, 30 minutes.
9. Add peas; cook 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated.
   
10. Remove from heat; stir in lemon juice. Discard bay leaf.
11. Serve over rice.

Notes

• I didn't have any turmeric, so I didn't use it. I also didn't have ground red pepper, so I used a few red pepper flakes.
• I used a whole can of chickpeas, and a cup of peas.
• I didn't let it simmer for an hour....maybe 30-40 minutes. I was too impatient. In fact, none of the times were really that accurate, this recipe seems pretty forgiving.
  
• Served over brown rice. And ate like 3 servings of it. SO GOOD!

It's a keeper!

Pledged

I started listening to NPR when I was in Albany last year. Since moving to Baltimore, I've started listening to it a lot.

NPR does periodic pledge drives, just like PBS does on TV. The pledge drive here has been going on for about a week. I've been seriously considering making a pledge, since I have more of a "real" job (though that's still debatable) and I listen a lot.

Today I finally did it! I made a pledge. I'll be getting a cool "coffee tumbler" with the WYPR logo on the front. (You know, one of those insulated things that are good for drinking hot chocolate in...just in time for summer! Haha!) And okay, I'll admit it. I upped my pledge a little bit so I could get the normal mug too. And I'll get a free key chain, without having to do anything extra.

I included a note in the comments on the online form about having just finished graduate school and moving to Maryland this year, and that making a donation to NPR makes me feel more like a grown up than moving across the country did. It's true!

And an hour or two later, they read my name and comment over the air! I wish I had it recorded. How cool!

Now I just have to wait for my cup(s) and key chain to come....

Symphony Weekend

I love the symphony.

Baltimore has a pretty good symphony orchestra. And a little known fact: Marin Alsop, the current director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is the first woman to lead a major orchestra in the United States. So cool.

This past weekend I went to the symphony. They were playing Beethoven's 5th Symphony, which I love, love, love to see live. I love it so much that I decided to see it twice. (No really...I went both Thursday night and Saturday night.)

Also, it turns out that the most famous/awesome violinist in the WORLD was there too. If you don't believe me, watch these videos. I wanted to share them because I think they are cute; especially the last one, which has such a good message. Of course Itzhak Perlman has done a gazillion other things, but seeing him on Sesame Street is kind of fun.




(Can someone explain the ending of this to me? I don't get it. The part where IP says, "That was very good! What happened?" and Telly says, "Oh, for sure it was good. But it'll never happen again!" What are they talking about?)





The concert was AMAZING. IP played a Bach concerto for violin and oboe (the oboist was one of the members of the BSO), AND conducted it at the same time. I actually wish that they'd chosen a different piece, one to show him off a little more. The oboe, as much as I love it, is just so overpowering compared to the violin, and sometimes it felt like an oboe concerto with violin accompaniment. Then IP conducted the orchestra in Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings (lovely!) and....Beethoven's Fifth! Seriously. That piece is so amazing live. It's almost a shame that pop culture has cliched it to death, because really, you forget what genius it is. I love it. (Especially the second movement. It's my favorite.)

You know what we need? More snow.

No, this is not a screenshot from The Onion. Actually, it's the front page of msnbc.com tonight. I saw it, and I laughed. Sometimes I forget that the rest of the world isn't snowed in too. With the next big storm having rolled in this afternoon (it's snowing as we speak), work and school canceled again for tomorrow, we're heading into snow day #6. This storm is forecasted for 10-20 more inches on top of the two feet we already have.

But I'm grateful that:

(1) We still have power/internet. (*knock on wood*)
(2) My roommates are fun. (Let's be honest, we've been having a blast. And don't want to kill each other. Which is good.)
(3) I have good food to eat, and what seems like an endless supply of hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies baked by roommates.
(4) The gym remains open, despite Johns Hopkins campus being closed. And that it only takes 20 minutes to walk there. Good workouts are great to prevent complete cabin fever.
(5) I brought my work laptop home, so I'm still productive. Well, kind of....
(6) We as roommates helped each other clean the snow off each others' cars tonight....you know, so no one's roofs or windshields collapse from the weight of all the snow. (Can that happen?)

To be honest, this is the type of weather I expected when I moved to Albany a year ago, not Baltimore. Remember when I was (somewhat unhappily) getting ready to move to Albany, imagining what it would be like, and on this very blog, I wrote this:

"I sometimes envision myself being snowed in for days at a time, wrapped up in blankets, drinking hot chocolate, and busily writing my dissertation on my laptop."

Well, I don't have a dissertation to write anymore (THANK GOODNESS); nor am I wrapped up in blankets, since our heat still works (THANK GOODNESS); but I am almost always in my pajamas, working (or not working) on my laptop, and drinking hot chocolate. (Thank you Cocomotion. Love you!) And of course we've got the part about being snowed in for days at a time down.

I'll be glad when it stops snowing.

But hey. Life goes on. Turns out.

Snowmageddon

It came. And it packed a punch. Just like they promised.

They call it the Great Blizzard of 2010, or just "Snowmageddon." (Personally, I also liked the Snowpocalypse.)

We're officially having the second snowiest winter in the history of Baltimore. But don't worry, the relatively small storm we're having on Tuesday will undoubtedly give us that little push (we only need 0.4 inches more!) to put us at number 1. This weekend's storm was (when last I checked....I think people are still arguing official numbers) the #2 snowiest storm in Baltimore ever. Remember that storm we had in December? Yeah, it was #8 on that list. Pfft! And we thought it was so bad.

I think I've seen more snow in the last two months in Baltimore than I did in the three months of winter I saw in Albany. Am I the only one that finds that weird?

It started snowing late morning on Friday. Friday wasn't bad though. The snow was only moderate, and it wasn't even really sticking yet. It was light enough to hurry to pick up a few last minute things for the snowed in weekend.

Friday night it started getting heavier. Overnight Friday to Saturday, as predicted, was the worst. When I woke up this morning (Saturday), there was nearly a foot and a half outside.

We woke up Saturday morning to this:


But don't worry. Soon we were eating this:



And I spent most of the day being incredibly lazy. We had a late night the night before, so I was still tired. As I was taking a nap on the couch, I heard someone throwing snowballs at my window. Turns out it was some friends of ours, who were walking around and stopped by our house to say hi. How nice! (Even though almost all of us were still in our pajamas.) We invited them in for hot chocolate and cookies.


They took this picture as they left. This is me and my four roommates in our living room windows. (Sorry the glare is bad. I'm on the far left.)

Here is me and all my roommates on this great snow day!

Admittedly, I was really lazy about taking measurements this time around. I know, I know. I was just...well, feeling lazy, and not wanting to be cold. (I'm kind of tired of being cold, and tired of the snow.) I did take some though, after it had stopped snowing, sometime around 6:00 or 7:00pm. I used the same 24-inch ruler that I did last time. This picture (with our house in the background) about sums up today.

Oh, wait. This one by my car is even better.

Speaking of my car, doesn't it look sad? Oh wait, you can't see it. Well, trust me, Filbert is ready for spring too.


Proof that Baltimore DOES have snow plows.

Among the best moments of the day was when Ashlee decided that she absolutely HAD to get the Mountain Dew that was in the backseat of her car. We documented this undertaking.





Victory!

We made homemade pizza for dinner, but....I didn't take any pictures. But it still tasted good.

They've canceled church tomorrow, so we get another snow day. I'd rather have spring though.

More snow coming!

It snowed last Saturday, enough to cancel 2/3 of church on Sunday. (But they do that for 5-6 inches of snow here.) It snowed another 3-4 inches Tuesday night. (The above picture is from that storm.) Some schools were canceled, some had delayed openings, and STScI operated under "Liberal Leave." (I barely know what that means, mostly because it only affects administrative staff, and not us post docs. All I know is that I went in around 10:30 and I got an awesome parking space, when on normal days I wouldn't even get a spot in the main garage.)

But now we're in for ANOTHER giant storm this weekend. Winter warning issued for 10am tomorrow (Friday) until 10PM Saturday.....they've recently upped the estimates again. Now we're looking at 18-24 inches. GROSS. There goes the roommate day trip to Philadelphia! Maybe next weekend.... Instead Amanda's idea was to spend Saturday morning making Cap'n Crunch French Toast. Sounds good to me. And I'm working from home tomorrow!

Winter Festivities

I had a lovely holiday. By the time I flew out to go home to Utah, the snow at the airport was sufficiently cleaned up and I breezed through. And my flight was even direct!

I spent a week at home with the family, and had a nice Christmas. I got some good stuff, including a food processor. I've been dying for a food processor for quite some time now. So excited! I've already made carrot apple salad (requires grated carrots and apples), AND munched up bread crumbs for an impromptu chicken recipe I made up for a dinner party Sunday night. Perfect! (Speaking of that dinner party, I also made the best homemade garlic rolls EVER! So yummy.)

I returned to Baltimore the Tuesday after Christmas with moderate hassle (involving delayed flights and missed connections), and got to work on final preparations for a conference I was attending. I was presenting a poster of my own research from here at STScI, and was heavily involved in getting data together for another poster. There were a lot of all nighters involved that week. Truth be told, it wasn't fun.

Saturday night I went down to my church's temple just outside Washington, D.C. During the Christmas season, they have lights up on the grounds as well as concerts at the visitors center. Here are some pictures. It was beautiful! But, so, so, so cold.




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The next week (this being last week now) I attended the annual winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society. The meeting was astronomical in itself, as the largest astronomy meeting ever with over 3000 participants. I had fun catching up with people and going to some interesting talks. I presented a poster on Monday. Here's a picture of my poster, and one with me by my poster.


I took the commuter train everyday between Baltimore and DC. (The ride between Baltimore Penn Station and Union Station in DC is about an hour; plus about 20 minutes on the metro in DC.) It was exhausting, but nice to sleep in my own bed at night.

I also got new glasses. My old ones were about four years old, and not strong enough. I like them.

And I bought a new chair for my room! I'm WAY excited about this purchase. It's an overstuffed armchair. There is a store near my house that sells used hotel furniture, and I got this great chair for $50. (Plus the cost of a fleece blanket from Target to throw over it to make it cozy, and hide the crazy pattern of the chair.) Here's a picture of my awesome chair.

You might wonder where I have room in my bedroom to put it. I wondered the same thing, and after several attempts at rearranging, I figured it out. I'm happy because I FINALLY have my bedroom arrangement figured out, and the current arrangement really opens things up and makes it feel a lot bigger. Picture:

And now it's back to real life (I guess). Half my roommates are back (yay!) and preparing for their semesters to start. And I'm trying to be productive at work, as I have at least three papers on the docket to get out this semester (yes, I still think in semesters). They are in varying stages from very close to being ready to submit to still need to recheck the data. Onward and upward!