Life & Research Notes

My favorite easy standby comfort food recipe is turkey chili. It’s really hearty and filling, but super healthy too, low fat and low carb, etc. It also keeps and reheats well for a few days after you make it, so it’s great for leftovers. It’s simple to make. A few easy ingredients:

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 large can stewed tomatoes
• 1 can kidney beans
• 1 onion, chopped up
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped or pressed
• 3 tbsp chili powder
• 1-2 tbsp ground coriander/cilantro
• 1-2 tbsp cumin
• 2-3 tbsp oregano
• a beer or three (for you; preferably an ale)
• salt and pepper to taste
• red chili flakes (optional)
• grated cheddar cheese and/or sour cream (optional)

In a pot that will fit everything, coat the bottom with a thin layer of olive oil, then saute the onions on high heat, stirring until they’re somewhat tender, maybe even a little browned. Add the garlic, maybe some salt and pepper too, and stir it in and continue sauteing until the whole mixture is fragrant. I like a wooden spoon for all this, but whatever you’ve got around. Sometimes I add in some beer during this step, though I have no real reason to think it matters. I just like pouring in a little of the beer I’m drinking. For the dead turkeys.

Add in the ground turkey meat, chopping and mixing up with the spoon and stirring in with the onion/garlic goodness. Stir regularly until white and kinda cooked, but still with bits of pink so that it’s not quite something you’d feel comfortable eating. Add in the cans of kidney beans and tomatoes. Stir it all up into a big soupiness.

Now add in the chili powder. Then the herbs. Stir around, letting it come back to a low boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for a while until you’re confident all the salmonella nasties are dead. Taste it. Something is missing! Add a little bit of whatever it needs most. It probably needs some salt and pepper. Maybe a pinch or two of chili flakes. It definitely needs more chili powder, and probably a smidge of cumin. Put in a little at a time, but don’t be scared. Trust your taste and smell. You’ll figure it out, and if I told you exactly what to do, you wouldn’t have quite the sense of accomplishment afterward.

When it tastes good, leave it simmering without too much stirring. Some of the liquid will boil off, and if you did it all right a nice thin filmy coating will form at the top. That’s the special chili way of sealing in the yumminess.

At some point it will all be a nice even, rich deep red-brown color, and you and your companions will be achingly hungry. This is when you should eat. I like some grated cheese on top. Crackers can be nice too, especially if you’re eating it for lunch. Some people like sour cream, especially if it’s spicy. If you don’t manage to eat all of it, let it cool a bit then store it in the fridge. It heats up really well in the microwave or on the stovetop.

Eat it with a nice beer, maybe watch some TV or a movie, read the paper, look at Facebook, whatever. It doesn’t actually matter what you do, because you’re so stoked on how awesome your freakin’ chili turned out. Nice work.

Decent black tea. Tetley is a good starting point, Yorkshire Gold is better, and I really like Barry’s. Twinings will do in a pinch, preferably their Irish Breakfast. I take sugar, either with some whole milk or a wedge of lemon. Sometimes some decent soymilk, like Silk organic or similar, can be nice as well, though it’s a little thinner and not as smooth. I don’t generally drink Earl Grey tea. I guess I’m just not a fan of the built-in citrus flavor. I’d rather add my own. My friend Anita is really good about setting a timer to steep it for 5 minutes. I usually am not so exact, but I’m still careful not to overbrew.

Mint. I drink a lot of this. Straight up is good, but I usually take it with some sweetness, preferably honey. And lately I’ve been squeezing half a lime in, sort of like the tea version of a mojito. With the lime it reminds me a little of this smoky red tea I had in Thailand, drinking out of bamboo mugs while staying up in the hill tribe village, cup after cup with so much sugar and fresh lime juice. Lime actually makes almost anything better. I actually prefer more normal mint teas like Twinings or Stash, or even loose from the bulk section. I found Mighty Leaf smells better than it tastes, and because it’s expensive I feel a little more hesitant adulterating it with the lime and honey. Regardless of brand, while steeping the tea I like to inhale the cool mintiness from the wrapper or container.

Sportea has frequently rescued me from exhaustion, coldness, or even just melancholy. It’s a blend of green tea, mate, ginger, ginseng, and some other magical goodnesses from the hearty eco-outdoorsy land of Boulder, CO. It has a wonderful light, natural sweetness, and the longer it steeps the better. On cold days I like to throw a bag with hot water into my nalgene as I’m heading out the door, and hold it to keep my hands warm while waiting for Bart or the T or whatever other public transit system. And anyone I share this tea with becomes a convert. Reminds me of all night projects at the lab, working through sleep deprivation and hunger, drinking many cups. It’s never jarring or jittery, just a pleasant increased alertness. Plus tons of bonus points for having the most enjoyably bad website I’ve probably ever seen. (link)

Rooibos. I was on a bigger kick with this a few years ago, but occasionally it is still the best thing. No caffeine, nice very light earthy flavor, and supposedly some of the same health benefits as green tea. Great with some honey, or a little milk and sugar. I’ve also had it in more ground forms, brewed espresso-style to create shots for lattes. I’m kind of a sucker for the vanilla flavored variants. Reminds me a little of pipe tobacco.

These are just a few of my mainstays. I’m not picky by any means, and I enjoy a variety of other teas as well. When I have a good bag of loose green tea I can quickly get into a very regular ritual with it. It’s a great pick-me-up almost any time of day, and generally isn’t as harsh tasting as some black teas. There aren’t many green teas that really jump out at me, though I do like the Mighty Leaf tropical green mix. My sister is much more of a green tea drinker than me. Occasionally I’ll go for Jasmine, Oolong, or various black teas (Russian caravan, etc), but my knowledge of these is fairly spotty. I’ll also sometimes drink chamomile, throat coat, sleepytime, or other herbals. I’ve also had some very nice mixes.

I always enjoy water heated in a kettle on a stovetop (preferably gas). Not a big fan of whistle kettles, but sometimes they’re important if you’re multitasking (laundry in the garage while you boil the water, etc). I don’t like hot water dispensers or microwaves so much, though if a dispenser is available I generally feel obligated to use it rather than wasting energy just for my own fetish. Maybe it’s just because it’s what I grew up with, but I like the ignition of the gas, preparing the tea cups or pot while waiting for the water to heat, and listening for the boil and watching for the steam.

sunday
naturfreunde oktoberfest with jeevan, emily, and others. off and on i’ve been going to this since i was a kid. mom and dad were there too, dancing. beer, sausages, bacon-infused sauerkraut. past few years it’s become quite the 30ish singles scene, probably to the dismay of the normal club members. makes sense though… sun, beautiful nature, alcohol, music. pheromones were palpable.

monday
woke up in marin. excellent soy latte, meetings upon meetings in the morning, but all necessary and with good peeps. afternoon got some work done. went home and read my signed copy of spook country, gibson’s voice echoing in my head.

tuesday
even longer work day. much accomplished. significant coffee intake. got home at 12:30am, wired, read more spook country, didn’t want to put it down.

wednesday
mid-week relief. lots of work. then tasty sushi and sake at moki’s with great ex-girlfriend-now-friend faith. general life catch-up and commiseration, feeling happy and proud of ourselves for not being estranged. afterward, sitting on milk crates outside her sister’s house while she expertly rolled and smoked her cigarette.

thursday
coded. created icons. learned about accuracy versus precision marketing. phenomenal joe bonamassa show at the palace of fine arts, courtesy of excellent uncle rick. i did not know that blues could rock so fully. would not have even known to go to such a thing. horizons substantially and permanently broadened.

friday
worked, encountered difficult bugs. after work, brent/katie fest 2007, found ourselves at the world changing party, people seriously getting down on the dance floor, a little disconcerting actually. then to bernal for faith’s goodbye night at the wild side. pinball, friends, and big daddy ipa’s.

saturday
not enough sleep, and no coffee. exhausted most of the day, but somehow managed to take care of little errands. stopped at revolution cafe for a bite, watched a cute little girl eat strawberries. home, hardware store, home, deconstructed our bed frames to move them up from the garage, then reconstructed them. lygia made us a tasty salad for dinner. overall a great, much needed house/roommate day. reoriented my bed to face the window, and vastly improved the space.

sunday
back where i started. slept in. soup for lunch. now pondering technical jackets, relationships, bikes, javascript code, and the best place to get a haircut this week. wondering about the balance between blog entries that simply record life events versus taking on bigger ideas and issues. thinking about my little moleskine, and how i always want it to be more than it is, but it always ends up just being weird todo lists, doodles, budget calculations, scrawled ideas i get that don’t make any sense later, but in retrospect i actually my notebook the way it is, because it is faithful to how i actually think and live. considering that perhaps my blog should be like that. simultaneously chastising myself for spending too long on this entry.

Thank you Anita.

Update: days later this thing is still making me intensely happy.

This is going to sound shallow and simplistic, but I think things changed for the better a few weeks ago when I got a new car. Like, new as in new, a 2007 Honda Element (EX / 4WD / manual / silver). Somewhere around here I’ve got some photos, and once I dig em up I’ll post them. OK, it’s dorky, but I like pictures of people with their cars. And it’s a nice car, very friendly looking, definitely a little yuppie, but hopefully forgivably so. The car was a key step because it meant I didn’t have to keep taking the bus to and from work, which was a huge time sink. And it also meant I could once again listen to music while driving, which generally increases happiness.

And then only a few days ago I moved into a new home. I’m living in the city finally, in Bernal Heights, a couple blocks from a lot of good stuff, near my favorite record store and taquerias, yet peaceful and quiet up a (very) steep hill, with a great back yard and a garage. I’ve got an excellent housemate, and a comfy room, although at the moment I’m sleeping on some borrowed twin mattress pads. The hill is a killer, but it gets my blood flowing, and I’d much prefer to be more up and away from things than smack in the middle. We can see both Sutro tower and the bay, and it all feels very SF. My first day involved getting slicks and flat pedals for my bike, cruising around, getting lunch at revolution cafe, and hanging out in Dolores park with my sister. Very pleasant.

So it’s funny how things both fall apart and come together in waves. A few months ago I was totally discombobulated, taking things one step at a time. And I’m still in transition, but now on an upswing instead of a down. At the same time some of my great friends have been going through all sorts of interesting life events, with babies, weddings, engagements, sabbaticals and trips. So with some patience and some effort, things do come back together.

I had a lot of fun meeting up with three high school friends for dinner tonight. At one point in the evening we all came to the conclusion that, for the most part, we are all doing pretty much what the others would have expected… a doctoral student finishing his PhD and starting a business, a lawyer doing non-profit and pro-bono work, an up and coming green tech journalist, and a designer/engineer nerd working in a startup. None of us were at all sure of our plans back then, and we’ve all gone through our various challenges and adaptations. But for the most part each of our actual trajectories line up relatively close to our previously projected ones. It’s funny to realize this, and surprisingly comforting.

Generally I am a big proponent of preemptive transparency and honesty. It may not always be an immediately advantageous strategy, but in the long run it’s an approach that connects me to others who feel and act the same way, and those connections lead to lasting, rich exchanges. It’s my strategy for friendship, and I intend for it to be my professional strategy too.

That said, it’s not necessarily easy to implement in practice. One thing about having a blog like this is that people know things about me without me specifically telling them anything. How much of my personal life stories and thoughts do I really want to mix in with my work? And conversely, how much of my work can/should I justifiably talk about here? My previous situation at the lab had few boundaries between work and personal life, so it was fine to have everything mix into one soup. But now I’m finding it harder to reconcile the two worlds, and the pool of immediately interesting material seems to have shrunk.

No doubt I’ll leave public everything I’ve posted the past year and a half, and I do intend to keep writing. I just need to redefine the goals of this journal. This is new territory here, figuring out how to thread digital identity into the ongoing changes of real life.