T.G.I.F.! Yup, that's how I've been feeling lately by the time Fridays roll around. The past month since returning to the US has been a bit of a whirlwind. I made two separate trips to DC in January, presented at a workshop filled with USDA and NIH people, taught 3 classes and seemed to have gotten into a cooking frenzy of late. I guess the kitchen has been my place of solace in the midst of the busy-ness at work on the evenings and weekends. We invited 10 friends (plus 2 infants) over for dinner on January 22nd for a Chinese New Year Reunion dinner, which was a great opportunity for me to go into full cooking mode. What a blast. I made a number of dishes I normally won't make, but am now thinking should be part of my regular repertoire. Based on how much he ate, I think Marc would not object!

Reunion Dinner Menu for the Year of the Black Water Dragon:

Sweet Potato glass noodles with julienned zucchini, carrots, turnip, shitake mushrooms, scallions and egg strips

Vegetarian dumplings/pot stickers

Steamed whole Sea Bass

Har Cheong Kai (prawn-paste chicken) drumsticks -- so stinky but oh so good!

Stir-fried eggplant and tofu in black bean chili sauce

Blanched Mustard greens with Oyster mushrooms, garlic and sauce

Mango pudding

Walnut cream with Vodka poached pears

Since then I've tried a number of other recipes (e.g., an awesome tomato soup, and lots of granola) thanks to inspiration from Lara and a new blog she directed me to (http://smittenkitchen.com/), which oddly enough another friend (Amy) mentioned to me independently earlier this week as well. Must be a sign.

Otherwise, Marc & I have been (surprisingly enough) able to catch a few movies on the big screen (as oppose to simply watching Netflix on our laptops -- which we also have done a bit of). We highly recommend The Artist, which both we thought was superb. I have to admit I had my qualms about it despite the rave reviews since I knew it was a silent movie, but boy, it actually all comes together and, well, it works! Loved it!

The other mainstream movie we've seen lately is the new Sherlock Holmes flick, which is action packed as promised, but full of great dialogue and wit! What we really what we loved about the movie is how it put the audience through the thought process of another person (Holmes) -- very smart device by Guy Ritchie. It's funny how all the previews leading up to it was clearly targetting the male demographic -- every single one of them involved fighting, stuff geting blown up, and a general portrayal of machismo. Marc turned to me before the actual movie was about to start, saying: "Wow, I feel like I just saw ONE very very long preview."

gee... that was how I felt yesterday after a very long day (left the house at 7:45am and did not get home after work & a church meeting until 9:30pm!). But as I said, T.G.I.F.! Marc & I are eating out tonight (checking out a new South Indian restaurant in town) and going to a concert (Carolina Chocolate Drops)