First and foremost, happy Father’s Day !

While I agree that we technically celebrate our loved ones everyday, it doesn’t hurt to have an official day of celebration to remind us not to take that which we love for granted.  Over the past year-or-two, I discovered a passion for cooking and obsession with food.  I can’t say my waistline appreciates it, but I’ve also been trying to delve more into healthier foods (i.e. increasing fiber/whole grain intake; more veggies).  So, when my parents, sister, and I were trying to decide what to do for Father’s day (my sister happened to be visiting home since a friend of ours got married recently, and I live close enough to home that I could visit to celebrate; my brother is off on an outdoors retreat, so he couldn’t make it ), they initially decided to come visit me Saturday and visit a beach.  But the weather was dismal and my mom didn’t feel well, so they postponed the visit until today for lunch.  So to make the drive worthy and also because I enjoy cooking, I decided to create a small feast for the four of us!

Pardon me, I’m still in my ‘jammies. 

I started prepping on Friday (since I thought they were coming Saturday) by starting with dessert (my fav, of course ):

I had to make sure each layer could set, which means a lot of waiting time in between.  This is a dessert consisting of a chocolate mousse, strawberry gelée, and a vanilla yogurt panna cotta (reduce the amount of cream needed ) over a hazelnut crust. 

It’s actually a hash-up of many recipes I liked into one dessert (see links for what inspired me; I’ve tried the first three recipes, but only the crust for the last one) because my Dad loves chocolate, and I love Neapolitan ice cream, so why not find a middle ground?  Plus, it is a good way to reduce monotony with so many different textures and flavors that actually work well together.

I then spent Saturday doing whatever prep work I could do for Sunday, so that means baking a cake and making some beet pasta (my first time working with beets.  And that’s when I realized – I’ve never been able to describe the smell of rain, but it is always distinct – but now I finally knew how I could describe it – rain smells like beets!  Or vice versa).

 I was so excited about that discovery that I thrust the beet towards my unassuming boyfriend, who found his nose to be stained by the beetjuice.  I beet my boyfriend.  (Then I baked the beet, and then “beat” the beet…)

(I absolutely do not condone violence, but how could I resist the pun…).  Anyways, the rest of the lunch consisted of:

Leek and asparagus with salmon (and gnocchi), kale and butternut squash in browned butter, the beet pasta with pumpkin alfredo, bacon and facon wrapped asparagus (mom said the facon was actually pretty good…looking at it makes me worried, but I wanted to cater to her dietary preferences), and a chocolate hazelnut cake!  Tada!  I think I made their drive worth it…oh there was also a squash (which I didn’t try/rarely eat), but I made it because they love veggies. 

Inspired by the Hasselback potatoes, I attempted it on squash (I didn’t want to do too many potatoes since there were already gnocchi…and then I wanted to color/flavor balance it, so I didn’t want to do sweet potatoes, which would be similar to the pumpkin and butternut squash…so yellow/summer squash would serve as a different texture and bright color).

 {All photos taken by my sister }

The best photo from the day was this one though:

My sister managed to capture an adorable picture of my parents in which my dad is genuinely smiling (he frequently does this artificial smile, sort of like how in HIMYM Barney is always ready for pics…sort of anti-candid photos.):

Not to mention he’s wearing one of the shirts I got him for Father’s day a few years ago (a Threadless shirt with the big dipper on it, since he used to always take us stargazing ).  {And I definitely inherited the sweet tooth from him.}

Xanga

I’ve been mulling over the imminent deadline for supporting Xanga, and decided to go ahead and pledge to support.  I’m worried though – the numbers have kind of plateaued, so maybe it won’t survive [???].  I’ve been reading some posts about Xanga, and it feels almost like a Titanic moment, where the boat is sinking slowly, and we’re all waiting to see what happens.  I really want it to survive – kind of a combo of understanding that it is a tight-knit community, nostalgia, and being super sentimental.  I feel some culpability too, because I think a lot of Xangans like myself have probably taken it for granted that Xanga would be around for us even if we were no longer super active…but in reality, the up-keeping requires active members, revenue, and so many other things.  And at the same time, I don’t like the sound of Xanga 2.0…WordPress?  It just seems so weird to me.  Like it’s not Xanga if it is hosted on WordPress…it is WordPress in disguise of Xanga?  And I have the dilemma of multiple usernames…I kind of want to keep them all alive, but there is no way – I don’t have the means (I have at least 14 old Xanga accounts that I just like looking at from time to time, re-living old memories, inside jokes, some shared with friends, some “secret” Xangas from teenage days, memories that I have long forgotten…) – I wouldn’t even have an idea on which one I should preserve.  Sure, I have the archives downloaded, but it just doesn’t have the same feel as seeing it with the layout, and being able to visit old abandoned sites belonging to friends…It’s just all very different.  But Xanga 2.0 doesn’t really preserve all that entirely either.  But for now I support because I’m sentimental, maybe a tiny bit hopeful, and because Xanga means a lot to me, and a lot to other people.

I’m not sure how rational that is.  Thoughts?