Happy Thanksgiving!

There are not many places in the world where it is still Thanksgiving, but Hawaii is one of them, so this post is not too late. This was the first Thanksgiving that I did not spend with my parents. We usually have Thanksgiving at either their house or at the house of one of my mother's two siblings. But they all live on the east coast, which is a bit too far to travel for a long weekend.

Instead, I had a lovely Thanksgiving with extended family from my mom's side: my grandparents plus my grandfather's siblings and those offspring of theirs who live on the island. There were just over thirty of us at the party, if my memory serves me correctly. For a "grace" my 10-year-old cousin played a delightfully out-of-tune version of "Simple Gifts" on his violin. Slightly painful, but still cute. We had all the normal Thanksgiving foods: turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie for dessert, but we also had a very nice salmon dish and some sticky fried rice (good old Chinese style), a green salad, a pasta salad (vinaigrette, not mayo thankfully), green beans with almonds, and apple pie. Yum.

I was told that I didn't have to bring anything for the dinner, but to me that just meant that I could bring the cookies that I had been wanting to make. So this afternoon I baked up several dozen pumpkin cookies. I based them off the Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Filling recipe by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito I found while browsing online, but I made a few changes (including doing away with the filling, which would probably be pretty good, too, but I didn't want it). Since I had never made them before, I didn't know how they would turn out, but I was pleasantly surprised by the results. And I must admit that they earned some rave reviews at the party. So I figured I would share my recipe (I was going to say this is my blog's first recipe, but I've remembered that technically I had one before...). If you don't like pumpkin, then don't bother reading on. But you'll be missing out.

Eleni's Pumpkin Cookies
These cookies have a sweet crumbly shell on the outside and a soft, chewy, cakey interior with an aromatic pumpkin and spice flavor. One taster described them as a cross between cookie, cake, and pumpkin pie. It's a relatively easy and quick recipe (took me about half an hour to do the mixing by hand, then however much time it takes to drop them on the sheet and bake them). The following makes about 4 dozen (plus or minus depending on size of the cookies).

1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 T. cinnamon
1/2 T. ginger
1/2 T. cloves
1 c. dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 c. butter (1 stick), softened [bring it to room temperature... or warmer if your room is cold; this is more important if you are mixing with a spoon (note: large wood spoon works well), rather than an electric mixer]
1 1/2 c. pumpkin
1 large egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
~1 c. white sugar

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves and set aside. In another bowl, cream the butter with the brown sugar until smooth. Add the pumpkin and mix thoroughly. Add the egg and vanilla and stir until combined. Stir in dry ingredients mixture, mixing until blended completely. [I find it best to pour in maybe a quarter of the mixture at a time, and I'm careful not to stir too vigorously lest the powder go flying out of the bowl]. Chill dough in fridge [I chilled it for about 45 min in the fridge just to make it more manageable in the next step].

Grease cookie sheets. Drop a tablespoon of dough into bowl of white sugar [the 1 c. is just an estimate--just make sure there's sugar in the bowl and pour more in as needed]. Roll dough in sugar, shape into a ball and place on cookie sheet. Repeat, spacing balls of dough with about 1 inch between. Bake until a toothpick stuck into the middle of a cookie comes out clean, 12-15 min (the original recipe said 10-12 min, but I did it more like 15 min, though my oven's temperature may be off).

Enjoy!


******
I've been very lazy about blogging lately, but I have plans for more posts, including some exciting new Hawaii photos. I'll try to be better, I promise. Happy Thanksgiving!

Autumn in Honolulu

I know that the season formally started almost two months ago, but I'm finally starting to detect a little bit of change in the weather. At long last, it's fall (autumn) in Hawaii. Today's high was a mere 82 F (28 C), and right now at the low it's a brisk and lightly breezy 72 F (22 C). And I must admit, in my sleeveless short knit dress, it feels a bit chilly. Could it be? Am I becoming a softy, a disgrace to my New England upbringing? No, I'm enjoying the relative coolness. Really, I'm very much looking forward to a day when I can wear a long skirt to school without being to hot. I miss my long skirts. I also miss my long sweater-coat thing (not sure what the technical term is), but I've given up hope on that one.

No fall leaves, of course. However, last week there was this large tree on campus--a comose fig, it is labeled--that had bright orange fruits about the size of small grapes which fell to the ground, all within the span of maybe three days. The fruits covered the ground under the tree with a blanket of orange. Honolulu's version of fall! My great regret is that I never brought my camera on my walk to school to take a picture of it. If I'd had a photo to show, this might have been an actually worthwhile post.

Today was Veterans Day--the first day off from classes that we've had since Labor Day (the first Monday in September). The semester has seemed so long. At my undergrad institution, our semesters had only 12 weeks of classes, and the fall semester as well as spring semester had one whole week off in the middle, after midterms week. OK, maybe we were slackers at my alma mater, but here at UH there are 16 weeks of classes, all right in a row (though I did, uh, have that one week in Berlin). It's intense. These little holidays are all we've got.

Fortunately, I've managed to make good use of my holiday today. Making some progress in Dragon Age: Origins. It's been a good day.

Since I am in a relatively autumny mood, I thought I'd share my favorite autumny poem.

Spring and Fall: To a Young Child
Gerard Manley Hopkins

MÁRGARÉT, áre you gríeving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leáves, líke the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Áh! ás the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you wíll weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sórrow’s spríngs áre the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It ís the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.


Oh right, the Blight. Time to get back to DAO...

At the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

This just in: The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in Manoa Market is playing Christmas music.

You'd better watch out
You'd better not cry
You'd better not pout
I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town

It's been pointed out before, but it's worth repeating how that song turns Santa into a horror movie creep.

He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness' sake

Or what? Oh no! Actually, that reminds me of what was probably the funniest skit in short-lived Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, where Chris Hansen catches Santa Claus on his To Catch a Predator series.

Anyway, the point is, it's November 5 and they're already playing Christmas music in Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. Pop Christmas music, no less. *Sigh.* What am I even doing in a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, sitting back in the leather couch and sipping my chai tea latte with my work MacBook Pro in my lap? I should be at home diving into my shiny new Dragon Age: Origins on my home PC. November 5--my application deadline was 5:00 pm today, and I am pleased to say that I submitted the application with a whole 117 seconds to spare. And now I am free! Free, in theory, to play DAO. So why am I here?

I am somewhat ashamed though mostly baffled to admit it, but I am here because of the Housemate. He works better here than at home, and I found I kind of do as well, so we've been coming here all week to work on our applications. But since his application isn't due until tomorrow, here we are. I'm here to provide moral and grammar/punctuation support. When I could be gaming. Jeez, what has become of me?

But it's cozy here (a clean, well-lighted place?), I've got my hot chai tea latte, and I'm aimlessly blogging. Feeling pretty good for now. DAO can wait until the weekend. This weekend is going to be fun.


This post was brought to you by The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. Have I plugged you enough yet? Please replenish your supply of the spiced honey apple cider already!

November 3 has passed me by

November 3 (3 November) has come and gone, and I've been so busy with my proposal (due Thursday, i.e. TOMORROW) that I missed all the fun!

Yesterday, the third of November, 2009, was a hotly anticipated date for two deliciously geeky reasons: it marked the series premiere of ABC's critically acclaimed reboot (remake? reimagining?) of the 1980s sci-fi series V, and it brought the release of BioWare's new dark fantasy Dragon Age: Origins.

ABC has been promoting V heavily all fall, with trailers airing frequently and gorgeous (and creepy, CGI-eyed) Morena Baccarin staring out at us from magazine ads and billboards (I assume the latter--Honolulu doesn't do billboards). The pilot was well received at Comic-Con, and last week the critics came out with stellar reviews of the show, comparing it even to the Battlestar Galactica reimagining (see Variety's review here). In further good news, the numbers from last night are very, very strong, with 5.0/13--13.9 million viewers making it the most-watched series debut of the season (Variety). Unfortunately, we're only being granted a taste this November, as four episodes will air and then it will go on hiatus until the spring. The show airs on ABC Tuesdays at 8/7c. Episodes will be posted on Hulu on Saturdays (obnoxious), but I'm sure one could find it on less reputable sites right now.

Dragon Age: Origins, BioWare's single-player fantasy RPG said to be the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate, was supposed to debut for PC last spring, but they decided to make us wait until November so they could release it for all platforms simultaneously. Hopefully the wait will be worth it. My copy arrived in the mail yesterday, and I would not allow myself to play or even install it because of my approaching deadline. I did allow myself to open it; the shipping box had a green "Time sensitive materials" sticker on it, after all--for all I knew, if I didn't open it yesterday it might have burst into flames (bloody flames, of course) or hatch into a terrorizing (bloody) dragon.

Anyway, yesterday was extremely exciting, but my enjoyment of what it brought must be delayed until Thursday evening. More than I have in a long time, I can't wait for the weekend.

Busy J.J., Vol. 3, DAO is sweet, Joss is sweeter

It's been a really long time since my last entertainment news post. I have a bunch of things collected, but I'm going to be brief on all of them (not that my ramblings are usually interesting, anyway). I have that application thing that I should be writing instead...

J.J. Abrams has a new series in the works, a spy action/adventure thriller. The spec script written with Josh Reims was just bought by NBC (Variety). Yay J.J.

NBC's midseason thriller Day One has had its order cut from 13 episodes to a four-hour miniseries (Variety). This isn't a totally bad thing for the makers of Day One; they can still hope to pull a Battlestar Galactica.

This is old news now (it's been soo long since my last news post), but Quentin Tarantino is planning to make a Kill Bill: Vol. 3 (Variety). Isn't Bill already (spoiler alert) dead, though? Eh, whatever, it'll probably be awesome.

I hate reality shows in general (only exception: So You Think You Can Dance). An article in Variety suggests that maybe, finally, they are on the decline. It warms my heart to hear it.

Robert Rodriguez has cast Adrien Brody to star as the alien-hunting mercenary in his reboot of the Predator franchise (Variety blog). Interesting choice. Topher Grace has also been cast in the movie, which leads me to

The Spider-Man spinoff Venom movie will be directed by Gary Ross (Variety blog). It is uncertain whether Topher Grace will be reprising his role as Venom from Spider-Man 3, since the spinoff is starting from the drawing board.

Aline Brosh McKenna (Devil Wears Prada, 27 Dresses) and Simon Kinberg (Mr. and Mrs. Smith, X-Men 3) have teamed up for a script, and their pitch was just bought by Paramount (Variety). The movie will be produced by Bad Robot with J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk. I am intrigued.

The Warcraft movie has a writer: Robert Rodat, of Saving Private Ryan fame (Variety). Sam Raimi is already signed on to direct.

20th Century Fox has just made a deal with EA to make an animated Spore movie, with Chris Wedge (Ice Age) attached to direct (Variety). Hmm.

Speaking of Spore, much like that game's pre-release promotion, EA has released a downloadable character creator module for Dragon Age Origins, the new BioWare title that will be released on November 3 (Variety blog). I. am. so. psyched. If only it weren't for this proposal/application thing.

And I already said this in a previous post, but it needs to be said again. JOSS WHEDON IS GOING TO DIRECT AN EPISODE OF GLEE (EW Ausiello Files).

The Berlin Zoo

On the Friday of my conference in Berlin, I skipped out to go to the zoo. Zoos are always a little sad, because you look at the tiny space allotted to these animals that should be out in the jungle or on the plains... But if this is one way to introduce people to the animals, make them feel a connection to the animals and ultimately care about the fates of their brethren in the wild, then there is some good to zoos. I've been to a number of notable zoos before, but each is unique. Here are some photos and descriptions of the highlights of my visit to the Berlin Zoo.

One of the first exhibits we visited was the elephants. I've seen elephants before, of course, but we had a good time watching these ones. While we were at the elephant exhibit, we saw a lovely red fox--not a legal resident of the zoo--strolling by some bushes along the walkway. The elephants noticed it as well. The two adults pulled in close on either side of the baby elephant, and they began making threatening sounds while slowly walking towards the fox's location. The elephants needn't have worried, for the fox was separated from them by a deep trough like the rest of us, but I wouldn't have wanted to mess with those elephants if I were the fox, anyway.

Leave our baby alone, puny fox!

I'd never thought such a thing was possible, but the Berlin Zoo had a very impressive collection of chickens and pigeons. Really. I didn't take many pictures of them (why would I take a picture of a chicken or pigeon at a zoo?), but here are some chickens. Yes, they are chickens.


The Berlin Zoo has more monkeys and apes than any zoo I've been to before. They have a huge monkey house complex, with some fun and photogenic apes. This guy looks awfully anxious. I kept looking, but I never did figure out what he possibly could have been looking at so nervously. My guess is he was seeing through the planes...

I see... I see... Death, coming...

I spent a good amount of time watching the gorillas. They are so human-like, it's kind of disturbing seeing them in a cage. The thing is, when they make eye contact with you, you can feel them thinking--considering and assessing you. Unsettling (zoom in and you can see she really is looking at me).

What are you looking at?

Otters are my favorite animals, so anything otter-related is of great interest to me. This is the first tayra that I'd ever seen.


Speaking of otters, here are some adorable Asian small-clawed otters (the smallest species of otter).




The thing that really stood out to me about the Berlin Zoo was that it was so obviously NOT IN AMERICA. By this, I mean that they had exhibits set up in ways that you would NEVER SEE HERE. Consider the lion exhibit: Visitors stand behind a waist-high railing located approximately 5 feet away from the lion cage. And the cage is not thick glass but thin wiring with wide spacing almost worthy of a collapsible dog kennel. And the lion sits right up against the cage, with a bit of its mane fur sticking through. It looked so calm and friendly. And soft. How I would have loved to run my fingers through that nice, thick mane. Nice kitty...

My point is, had I decided to, I could have hopped over that railing and stuck my hand into the cage in two seconds. Any stupid kid could have done the same. In the U.S., some idiot would have done just that at some point, then sued the zoo after getting their hand bitten off. The liability is just too great. I couldn't believe how much trust the Berlin Zoo had in the practicality of its patrons. It's quite refreshing, really.

Along the same vein, here's an adorable tapir we saw. Yes, it is halfway out of its pen, with only a short stretch of grass between the pen rim and the sidewalk in the foreground. Unlike lions, I don't think tapir pose any sort of threat to zoo visitors, but the zookeepers would still probably rather not have to chase it down. We stood there for a few minutes cheering on the tapir--You can do it! Come on! Just a little hop! Yeah, almost there. Go!--but moved on when we concluded that those who had designed its exhibit must have carefully calculated how high they had to make the pen so the tapir couldn't lift itself out. But it has time to work on that upper-arm strength...

So close, yet so far away...

And last, we have Knut. The famous polar bear who not only has his own song, but he still gets his own celebrity zoo pen separate from the other polar bears (I wonder if he likes that). He's not so tiny and cute as in the YouTube videos, now that he's almost three years old. And he was kind of covered in green scum (algae of some sort) when we saw him. But there he is: the famous Knut, der kleine Eisbär.