New-fangled

A couple of weeks ago I was really feeling the overwhelm of technology.

In the last decade since graduating from college, I'd tried to preemptively circumvent the FOMO I knew I would inevitably feel from the engagement of technology by avoiding it as much as I could. But now I feel like I'm some old fogey who, at only 31, just doesn't understand those young people.

How do I stay connected without getting swept away?

Many of you have probably pondered and ruminated over this while I've just had my head buried in the sand. So, please enlighten me. How do you:

(a) utilize technology? (Where does it help and where does it hurt?)
(b) let go of where you aren't totally plugged in?
(c) understand the role of technology in your life?

(Insert smoooooth transition.)

Here are three new-to-me "technological" things I've been enjoying:

1. Using audio messages through iMessage to leave messages that aren't urgent. It's just so much faster for me to convey what I'm trying to say without the worry of typos or an ambiguous tone. It's also much easier to send a message when I have only one hand available, which is often.

2. Facebook groups. So nifty! Yes, I just said nifty, so you can understand just how old-fashioned I am.

3. Okay, I know everyone is going to roll their eyes at me, but I've just discovered the beauty of the drive-thru at the bank. I'm one of those weirdos/extroverts who actually likes to go into the bank and talk to someone and see how they are handling my transaction. But anyway, two kids later, I've come to see the light, and this way I can still enjoy the personal interaction without having to get myself (or the kids, lbh) out of the car.

What technology are you enjoying lately? And, on the flip side, what ways are you finding to ground yourself to the "real"/natural world?

How I trick myself into "cleaning"

I am not very good about chores and cleaning. I think I heard Kendra Adachi once mention that what Martha Stewart says to do once a week, she does once a month, and what MS says to do once a month, she does once a year, and what MS says to do once a year, she never does. I think I'm like that, but probably one notch even worse.

So I'm writing this because I desperately need more tips. I'll share a couple tricks I use to get myself to clean, and if you have anything to add, please let me know in the comments!

1. Set a timer.

This is usually a good stand-by. If I don't feel like cleaning, I set a timer for 5 or 10 minutes and just see how much I can get done. Usually I end up either finishing what I need to get done, or getting really into it, and working past the timer until everything is done.

2. Tell myself to pick up five things.

I don't tell myself what exactly I need to do (no one likes to be bossed around). I just pick a number (usually five) and then I do one thing, a second thing, a third thing, and so on until I reach the number. And if I've gotten momentum from doing the first five, and I start over again with five more.

3. The Dave Ramsey snowball method.

Lol, The Lazy Genius wrote about using the snowball method to pay off your TV debt (i.e., Netflix queue), and I have used the same method to clean my house. I start with the smallest mess: the dining table, and sometimes just move everything to the counter, then clean the counters, and then finish off with the sink.

Perhaps this is more a method of geography than size, but sometimes just getting something accomplished gives me that emotional boost to keep moving.

4. Address the thing that will give me the most bang for my buck.

I've recently realized that if I clear off the living room rug of toys (we don't have a coffee table because more horizontal surfaces = more clutter) I immediately feel better about the living room.

5. Have a specific order in which I do things, every single time.

I think this is one I could improve on. I find that my morning routine (i.e., the order in which I open the curtains, make the bed, change and put away my clothes, and start my coffee) really helps me be mindless about things (especially at a time of the day that I am pre-coffee). So I think I could benefit also with some other set routines for other house chores.

6. A home for everything.

This is one that I am really stuck on. It takes the most work, but I do also see that there is a ton of payoff in doing it. Any ideas on how to work on this one?

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After I wrote this I saw this funny article entitled A Real Mom's Guide to a Clean House and it's the perfect conclusion for this.

Also, we are three week's strong on menu planning so I'm going to keep sharing it here.

m: pad thai / t: bbq chicken / w: spaghetti / th: sirloin tip roast / f: pumpkin chili / s: lentil falafel / su: lazy genius ribs

02. Tangled

For the longest time I've wanted to do an anecdotal study of people who aren't on Facebook, but how would I reach Those People? How would I even call out to them?

I've never used Facebook for an extended period of time. I was required to finally get an account for campus ministry during my senior year of college in 2006. I think I hardly ever used it after that but didn't actually shut it down until after I had a smart phone for my job at which point it was too easy to scroll-scroll-scroll and it was "pointless" and I was barely connecting with people enough in real life so I didn't need more nonsense. (I found this old post where I deactivated, lol. And oops, I re-used the title recently.) Then I reactivated for the Known workshop last month but I've been able to not get sucked in. I think I need to first reply to the people who tried to message me before deactivating again. It's just not the place for me.

HOWEVER, I found Instagram a couple months ago and I was like, woah. It kind of scared me how hard I fell for it. (And I am so skeptical when I fall for something. 6.)

I still have yet to post anything to it. I feel so pressured by the medium, which is the message, yes? Maybe that's why I still love blogs; I can do a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g I want here.

***

The picture above is a back-of-the-figurative-napkin calculation to figure out whether the Ziploc Storage Bag Variety Pack (currently on sale at Costco) is a good deal or not. I thought that maybe since I don't always need "Freezer" thickness, it might be more value. However, my quick and dirty calculations proved that even if the bags within were "Freezer" quality and purchased at the bulk (and on coupon) price at Costco, you would still be paying a premium for the "snack" sized bags in the variety pack, which are, as you know, smaller than the sandwich bags. Cute, but more expensive for less material. So just in case you ever wanted to know: it is cheaper (per unit) to just get the single-type (albeit all Freezer thickness) Ziploc bags at Costco.

(This is seriously what a nerd needs to do during precious naptime. I could have used that time for writing and have something way more profound to say now. But I did something that was me, and without over-thinking, I spent some time thinking. Yup.)

***

When I told my dad on the phone the other day that I have been meditating on the idea of not overthinking things and instead just DOING, he reflected back to me in his calm, logical manner, "So, you've been thinking a lot about not thinking?"

***

If you've ever been to my house and it's been clean it's because Kathy is a wizard. A cleaning goddess if you will. She has a magical talent whereby she can effortlessly clean a place. If she's feeling silly she'll say "bippity boppity boo" after she's done. The Tangled song "When will my life begin?" is her anthem.

I'd always asked her how she cleans with such ease. One time she just laughed and said, "I don't feel anything, I just do it. I'm numb." She probably didn't think much of it at the time but I latched onto that thought and meditated (there I go again) on that concept.

So often when I'm facing a task (e.g., cleaning the kitchen) I think way too much about the most efficient way to do it, instead of just diving in. And it takes way more time to try to process the process than to just do the process.

So a couple times since that conversation I've tried to "numb" myself and not think the thoughts or feel the feelings. I just do. (However, for this to work you have to numb yourself to the extent that you block out this thought: that by the time you're done cleaning there will be another mess.)

It's been awesome.

The life-changing magic of Vietnamese noodle bowls

It's Wednesday again and I can't think of anything we ate this week that was really noteworthy.



I blame KonMari, which has been slowly but surely taking over our house. Giggle all you want but I (and David!) have been delightfully surprised by how addicting it is to follow her method. (There's lots of stuff on the web about it but this was a favorite essay.)

Yes, I really need three mustard yellow scarves.

So far we've done clothes, books (gasp!), papers, and some komono.

In light of that, there hasn't been that much time for cooking, so I'll just share a regular standby that serves us well whenever we need a quick dinner. Sometime in our first year of marriage, we discovered our favorite Vietnamese noodle bowl at The Backdoor Kitchen on San Juan Island. We loved the bright, lime-y dressing (dressing is really too heavy of a word to describe what this is though) and we spent most of the meal (as we often do when we are out) dissecting the rest of the dish.



Normally I don't like places that do fusion, but I think that Northwest restaurants often do a good job of it. In fact despite the PNW being full of great Viet restaurants, the Backdoor's bún has been the best I've tasted, since most of the aforementioned Viet restaurants - though they serve a rockin' bowl of phó - often sweeten their nuoc cham to the point of cloying.

We love that this dish works well with any kind of leftover meat - rotisserie chicken from Costco or leftover steak - or even no meat at all.

Tofu works great, obvs, and in a pinch even hard-boiled eggs will do.

It can be simple or fancy but what we think makes it really special is when you make the effort to buy the herbs (especially mint) and roast peanuts fresh to serve on top. Here's an outline of a recipe.

Vietnamese Noodle Bowl

• For the dressing: Squeeze one lime into a bowl. Add 1-2 T of brown sugar and about 6-8 T of water. Stir and taste. You're looking for it to taste like a very dilute limeade. Then add one medium garlic clove, minced, and 1 fresh Thai chile, also minced, if you have it. Finally, add 2-3 T fish sauce. 
• Bring to boil a pot of water and cook 8 oz rice noodles (you want the cylindrical noodles often labeled "bun gao"). When they are tender (take one out and taste it, they can be deceptive), drain them and rinse them cold. If you want to be super fancy, you can lay them out on a dishtowel and get them really dry. David likes this method because it makes the dressing even more concentrated. I still go the lazy way and think it tastes just fine.
• Prep all your desired veggies. We usually do romaine, sliced thin. Cucumbers are a must. Carrots are great but I can feel lazy about making them pretty (the best would be to julienne them on a mandoline). Any other vegetables would be great; radish would be especially pretty. 
• For herbs, pick your favorite few from this list: green onions, cilantro, Thai basil, mint, dill
• Prep meat in bite-sized servings.
• Roast 1/2 cup peanuts and crush in a mortar and pestle.
• Let everyone make their own salad at the table and dress as they see fit.

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And now for the reason you even read this blog at all.

Theo

• is still 2 years old.
• replied, upon being asked by David if he wanted to go out with him on some errands, "No. Stay home. Eat food. Watch show." Boy after my own heart.
• used the word "combine" as a noun. I seriously did not know that word until high school when we had to read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I'm still not sure I even know what they are now. 

How did my baby become a boy?

 Emilyn

• turns 20 weeks today.
• still loves to roll.
• has started to giggle more.
• is most definitely teething. There is lots of drool and she was even cranky this week. 
• slept before 9pm six out of seven nights this past weekend. W00t.

David and Lisa

• are still super enamored by The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up. Want your life transformed? Apply: (1) the gospel, (2) Dave Ramsey, (3) KonMari. No joke. 

This is just to say

that I found my old iPod Mini circa 2005 and it still works!

It's in black and white*, yes, but it works.

At first, I thought the wheel was broken, but then after googling, I realized the orange "hold" button was on. #thestrugglewasreal

Okay, just had to share. I'm no longer on Facebook, so what else is a girl to do when she has something trivial to say?

On that note, right before I deactivated my account, FB wanted me to know that my friends would "no longer be able to keep in touch with [me]." Wow.

No, really, they said that.

Am I really sure I want to lose touch with all my friends FOREVER? Especially Professor Davinder Bartagupta? 

Wow. Just wow.

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* Whenever we want to introduce the kids to an "old" movie (think Matrix or Ocean's Eleven), Kenny always asks "Is it in color?"

An aside in itself

I'm writing this post as I finish the rest of the meal and as the dishes are still sprawled on the table from dinner. That's how important this is.

Yes, that's a Subway napkin.

The thing I want to tell you about today is ludicrous, actually. It's really an aside in itself and should be relegated to an extremely long "Lisa footnote."* Because I'm not sure you would actually want to make the thing I'm going to spend most of this post talking about. I promise that at the end I will tell you about something you should make, but because I love to tell ridiculous stories, I'm going to make you sit through this first.

*   *   *

My brain is always asking questions and generating weird ideas. (Strengthsfinder says that I'm "ideation." And "input." Gahh!) Often when I come up with what I think might be an original idea, I check the internetz to see if anyone else has thought of it before, and if so, whether it works. (These ideas could run the gamut of how to keep kitchen towels clean, has anyone ever cut holes out of a sleep sack to make it footed, how do you implement GTD as a homemaker--possibly using Excel. I would show you a screenshot of my search history, but that could be embarrassing.)

If I don't see my idea after a couple of Google searches, I assume that either (a) it's a very dumb idea, or (b) I'm an absolute genius. I'm not sure there are any other possible logical conclusions.

Today, among other things, I wanted to know if anyone has ever made chicken biryani in a rice cooker - without frying any part of it. Here are the permutations I searched:

"chicken biryani in rice cooker"

"chicken biryani in rice cooker no stovetop"

"no-fry chicken biryani"

"raw chicken in rice cooker"

"make chicken biryani without frying"

Alas, I found no meaningful results to my searches, so it was time put the idea - and me - to the test. I mean, if an amazing dish could be made decently well without very much work, wouldn't someone else have already made it??

Anyway, so whenever I'm trying to figure out if a "cheater" method works, I purposely do every step the laziest way possible. Because if I were to do one thing un-lazy - such as to sear the chicken first - and the rest of it the lazy way, I wouldn't be able to tell what caused the dish to work or not work. So in the name of the Scientific Method, I do everything like a bachelor. In this case, everything was thrown into the rice cooker - no stove time, and hardly any chopping.

I still used my brain, though, and marinated the chicken with salt and curry powder hours before I wanted to "set it and forget it."

Then, an hour and a half before dinnertime, I threw the following into the rice cooker: 3 cups Jasmine rice (unwashed, don't tell my mom!); water/chicken broth (to just under the correct level on the cooker; I'm not Asian enough to do the knuckle method, but you could definitely do that-- note: I add the water before the rest of the ingredients); 2.5 lbs chicken thighs/drums, marinated; a few slices of onion; 1 green chile, sliced in half lengthwise; 1 t each, ginger and garlic, minced; a bunch of turmeric (maybe 1-2 t?); 3 cloves; 3 cardamom pods, lightly crushed; 1/2 t whole black peppercorns; 1 t salt (if using water or unsalted broth).

I even threw in cilantro stems to "scent" the rice. So fancy.

And then I hit "start."

It turned out surprisingly well. The chicken was moist and the rice was flavorful, spicy. The only thing I would change is to use just slightly less water (it was a little sticky) because the other ingredients let out water, and to serve it with raita.

Verdict: Tasty, but I'm not sure I would call it biryani, lest your Indian great-grandmother roll over in her grave. But for a bachelor dinner that was ten times more delicious than it should have been, considering the work that went into it, A-plus.

I'm not posting a picture because biryani is not photogenic. (Even when it's made the real way.)

*   *   *

Anyway, so like I said at the beginning of the post, I'm not sure this is worth your making, easy as it is. But for the morbidly curious, I had to tell you the results of my experiment. Now that you've read my long story, here's what you should make.

I have long loved the Five-minute Indian-style cabbage dish I wrote about once here. But today I had some wax and green beans from our CSA so I decided to sub them in. And I think they turned out even better than the cabbage version.

This rendition was of my own devising. It wasn't already on Google, so it must mean I'm brilliant.

Five-minute Indian spiced green beans

inspired by Herbivoracious 

1 lb green beans, trimmed, and cut into 1.5 inch lengths (I had a mixture of wax and green, from our CSA)

1 T black mustard seeds

1/2 t each, turmeric and cumin

a touch of cayenne if you're not serving a baby, too

3/4 t salt

Heat oil in a pan over high heat. Add mustard seeds and turn heat down to medium-high. As they pop, add spices and saute for 30 seconds. Then add beans and salt, and saute 1 minute, then add 1-2 T water/broth, and saute another 3-4 minutes until crisp-tender. 

P.S. Aaand the obligatory baby picture:

Blogger, why you gotta be so obnoxious? I hate when the photos don't turn. (David says, "Theo turns heads, so it's okay.")

P.P.S. A few randoms I have been saving for a post. I have been saving up to be thematic, but I guess that would be not-the-point of randoms.

• Have celery languishing in the fridge? Make this celery stir-fry. (I definitely think the word "languishing" was invented for celery. It's like the only thing it does. Languishes.)
• An article on decluttering. 
• Mexican polenta pie. Was maybe gonna blog about it... The filling as written was meh, but the concept of polenta and cheese melted over was worth sharing. 
• Making plans is difficult nowadays. Excuse the minor (albeit censored) profanity. My favorite line: "I wasn't expecting all this predictable rush hour traffic."
• Baked spaghetti. Do it. Way more than the sum of its parts. Definitely better made with refrigerated spaghetti (just like fried rice is). Throw in tomato bisque if your husband obtains you a free lunch at the hospital and you manage to have leftover soup.

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* I just named this a "Lisa footnote." In case you hadn't figured it out already.