life, by Linley

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

mashed sweet potatoes

In case you haven't noticed, I've been in a sweet potato state of mind for about two weeks now! Tonight, I decided to venture one step further than fries and try sweet potato mash. I looked at several recipes, but I decided to go for the simplest recipe possible.
First, boil the sweet potatoes until they are soft. To check, use a nice to see if it cuts cleanly/easily through the potato. Instead of a timer, I used this as my indicator since my potatoes were quite large and irregularly shaped. I also used one Japanese sweet potato, and one white one. Both the insides are white, so it looks like regular mashed potatoes, but tastes sweet!

Once the potatoes are ready, peel them and cut them into smaller chunks.

I used butter, almond milk and salt to season. Some recipes also called for cinnamon and pepper.

And we're ready to beat! I used a hand mixer. Or you can use a potato masher thingy. or even a large fork if you're in a pinch.

Blend until you reach the desired consistency. I opted for smooth, with few chunks.

And you're done! Enjoy!

Sunday, November 6, 2011

my week in firsts.

This week was kind of meh. I got to relax, because I didn't have any tests or papers this week. Next week I have my last two midterms, and then a paper the following week. Then, it'll be Thanksgiving and December and finals and the semester will finally be over! whew.
On Halloween, I went to Chinatown for a school assignment. I walked around Chinatown for awhile, before observing the old Chinese people in Columbus Park. I definitely chose the wrong day to wear a bright turquoise coat, because I felt a bit uncomfortable with so many people staring at me. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see kids trick or treating! I saw a really cute pumpkin baby in the park. To buy some time before the sun set (my assignment was to write about Bayard st at night) I had a small dinner at Xi'an Famous Foods. While I was eating my lamb burger, two kids came in the restaurant trick or treating. What a different Halloween from the suburban experience of walking house to house.

Wednesday, I decided to dress up a bit, since it was a tad warmer than the other days. I decided to try layering a pair of lacey-ish tights over a pair of opaque tights so it 1. didn't look as weird as usual and 2. would keep me warm! I was really happy with the way the tights look layered. That day, I did an unusual color combo of a mustard dress with eggplant cardi and turquoise coat. I liked how once I took my coat off, the eggplant really toned down the look, and made the mustard-eggplant combo look really rich.

On Thursday, I finally had Korilla! I got the pork burrito with everything (as in all the vegetables + kimchi) and bbq sauce, as per David's instructions. They were out of the bacon fried rice. It was delicious. I'm sad I waited this long to try Korilla!! I might even have to make it a Thursday night tradition....

Of course I had to pair Korilla with sweet potato fries!! I am seriously obsessed with making sweet potato fries. It is so, so simple, how could you not?

And I've discovered warmed up pumpkin butter over vanilla ice cream is magnificent! I need to get a few more jars from Trader Joes before they sell out!

This week I also saw the new season of Celebrity Apprentice filming in Union Sq. I even recognized Theresa from Real Housewives! I was too scared to go up to their booth though. I'm not even sure what it was for.

Snapshots from the week:

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

homemade sweet potato fries

Wanting something different for dinner, I decided to get a favorite of mine near St Marks, Tahini's shawarma sandwich. It's super filling and so, so flavorful yet fresh and light (unlike some halal carts). Anyway, to accompany my sandwich I opted to make my own sweet potato fries! It was quite simple and super easy and fast to make!

I started with two small sweet potatoes, which was about one portion.

you can peel them, but I was lazy and chose not to. Cut off the ends, and cut the rest of the sweet potatoes into fry like shapes.

toss with olive oil and salt and maybe pepper.

spread out on a sheet so nothing touches

bake at 450 degrees for ten minutes on each side.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Embellished collar DIY

I decided to go to the Manhattan outpost of Beacon's Closet today, not looking for anything in particular. The store is arranged much like the Williamsburg store (which is three times bigger, by color. On my way out, I came across this dress in the black section. It's hard to tell if it's black or navy, and it has lots of red polka dot type things. I tried it on, and it fit! So I got it, with some very grand plans in mind.

First up, chop off the sleeves and make it a sleeveless dress. Farewell sleeves!

Then, I knew I had leftover pearls from a costume a few years back, so it was time to outline the collar.

And here's the final result!

Much more youthful, in my opinion. I'm still debating whether or not to cut a few inches off the hem. I think while it's cold and I'll be wearing tights anyway, it's fine. But come summer, snip snip!

my week in (free) food!

This week was quite busy. I had two presentations (including one for ~Stern) and a midterm. ick. The week started off on Sunday with a group meeting for my EMI presentation. To make things more cheery, I wore my macaroon t-shirt! Of course it was cold, so I had to cover up the macaroons with a sweater.

Tuesday morning, I had an interview for next semester's internship. gah. I hate interviews. I'm not entirely sure how this one went, but I hope I get it! It was pretty cold, so I wore one of the jackets I got made in Shanghai for the first time! I love the shape and the furry collar! I wish I had another one in black!

Tuesday night I had another group meeting at 7:30, so it just made sense to stay on campus and do work until then. I saw on twitter that Artichoke's Macdougal location was doing a 2 for 1 deal for NYU students. So my friend Rose and I went! We both got the crab slices. Yummy!

Thursday I got a free lunch from Rickshaw Dumplings and Kelvin Slush!! Thanks to Mastercard, every Thursday until November 17 the ten best food trucks in the city will have free lunch for #PricelessNY! I hope the locations will rotate every week. This week Rickshaw Dumpling and Kelvin Slush were on University between 13 and 14th st, so I went right when they opened (or were supposed to open) as a study break. I got the Thai Chicken and basil dumplings and the special slush of the day, Arnold Palmer with cherry mix in. I really liked the peanut sauce that went with the dumplings, so much that I ran out with two dumplings left! And it was also my first time trying the Arnold Palmer slush, (I usually get a citrus base with a fruit mix in) and it was so good!

Saturday, it snowed! A record breaking one inch!! I couldn't believe it until I saw the big, fluffy flakes from my window. I certainly did not go outside yesterday...I heard it was miserable.