Asian Staycation - Day 1

Day 1 -
Country - India
Food - Shrimp in Coconut Cream Sauce
Cookbook - Flavors of India: Authentic Indian Recipes, by Meena Pathak; pp.51 
Movies - Outsourced, Jeremy Piven's Journey of a Lifetime

The first movie I saw was Outsourced starring Josh Hamilton, Ayesha Dharker and Asif Basra.  It was somewhat humorous if you can keep to the back of your mind all the jobs that were lost in the U.S. when the jobs were outsourced in a tough job market.  It was released in 2006, not long before the recession.  Bad timing.

There was a TV show of the same name that followed in 2010 starring Ben Rappaport, Anisha Nagarajan and Diedrich Bader.
 
I thought the series was better and the banter had a kind of "Better Off Ted" feel to it.  

I also went over to YouTube and watched Jeremy Piven's Journey of a Lifetime.  This 2-part video follows the actor's vacation through India.

Part 1
Part 2


Tonight's meal was Shrimp in Coconut Cream Sauce.  Since I'm only cooking for one, I made some modifications to the book's recipe.  


I cut the shrimp from 2.5 lbs. to 1 lb.  In addition to a reduced number or portions it was also a cost saving measure.  I increased the tumeric from .75 tsp. to 1 tsp.  I knew the coconut milk and yogurt were going to cool the recipe flavor down so the extra tumeric kicked it back up to my preferred level of spicy.  

I also skipped the rice since I already have a couple of other recipes this week that call for rice and the dish was filling enough on its own.

I wish smell-o-vision had been invented because my kitchen smells really good right now.

Until tomorrow, I leave you with these pictures of my finished dish.

Michael

Asian staycation just got easier and cheaper.

I've doing some research for my Asian staycation looking for a market where I can buy my food and other supplies.  There's a little place down the street from me call House of Rice.  All the years I've lived here I thought they were a restaurant but apparently they are also an Asian market will all the food, sushi kits, etc.

http://www.houserice.com/

It just goes to show that there are still little nuggets of information I can find about my own neighborhood.

I was planning on going today after work but, unfortunately, I've been trapped in the apartment Africanized Bees.

The nest was discovered yesterday.  It was brought to my attention when a man in a beekeeper suit knocked on my door.  The next is on my level across the walkway.  He was warning me that they are going to spray the nest and the bees were going to get really upset.

This morning I noticed that most of the bees were gone but about 30+ of them shifted from their nest to right in front of my door and window.  They're bumping into the the door and window which I've been told is a good sign but it can take 24-72 hours after a treatment before they're gone.

I found out at a young age that I'm deathly allergic to bees so I'm pretty much stuck here until they are gone or until they are down to a quantity that I can slip by.  After all, I don't want to spend my vacation in a hospital.

So until then, I'll do some library work at home and put some extra time into planning my trip.

BTW, don't forget that Phoenix Comicon is coming up soon and they have some really awesome guests and panels. Ticket prices go up tomorrow.


Until then true believer, make mine Marvel!

Michael

Preparing for my Asian Staycation

Since I can't afford to travel to the places I want to go, I've been doing some staycationing.  Sometimes it's just a weekend and sometimes it's an entire week.

What I do is create a theme for my week off.  This means that I cook the food of the country I'm "visiting" and watching movies inspired by or filmed in those countries.


My last week-long staycation was following the Griswolds through National Lampoon's European Vacation.  Before that I spent a week following them through the states in National Lampoon's Vacation.   I've also spent time in Spain, Jamaica, Iceland, Hawaii, etc.

Next week, I'm spending five days in Asia (or Staysia):

Day 1 -
Country - India
Food - Shrimp in Coconut Cream Sauce
Cookbook - Flavors of India: Authentic Indian Recipes, by Meena Pathak; pp.51 
Movies - Outsourced, Swades

Day 2 -
Country - China
Food - Classic Barbecued Spareribs, Vegetable Dumpling and Wonton Filling, Beef Chow Fun
Cookbook - The Chinese Takeout Cookbook by Diana Kuan; pp. 33, 41, 138
Movies - China Syndrome, China Connection, Big Trouble in Little China

Day 3 -
Country - Vietnam
Food - Ga Quay Mat Ong (Honey-Roasted Chicken)
Cookbook - The Food of Vietnam: Authentic Recipes from the Heart of Indochina by
                     Trieu Thi Choi and Marcel Isak; p. 106
Movies - Good Morning Vietnam, Apocalypse Now

Day 4 -
Country - Korea
Food - Cabbage Kimchi, Cucumber Kimchi, Glass Noodles with Beef and Vegetables
Cookbook - The Korean Table: From Barbeque to Bibimbap by Taekyung Chung
                     and Debra Samuels; pp. 67, 141

Movies - MASH, Die Another Day (James Bond 007)

Day 5 -
Country - Japan
Food - Miso Soup, Salmon and Avocado Sushi Roll, Tuna Sushi Roll,
            Cucumber Pickles, Green Tea Ice Cream
Cookbook - Japanese Home Cooking by Shunsuke Fukushima; pp. 32, 42-43,44,54,112
Movies - Godzilla (1954), Gamera (MST3K), Gamera vs. Guiron (MST3K)

I think I'm looking forward to Japan the most.  I love sushi and the classic Godzilla movie.  Sushi is also something I can share with Vivian and she's smitten with Gamera!

Here is the shopping list:

ASIAN STAYCATION SHOPPING LIST

4 cups onion

4 cloves garlic

1 tsp ginger pulp

2.25 lbs. large shrimp (raw, shelled, deveined)

4.5 tsp. salt

3 tsp. pepper

.75 tsp ground turmeric

8 tbs. vegetable oil

4 cloves

4 green cardamom pods

1 in. piece cinnamon stick

2 bay leaves

.75 tsp. cayenne pepper

.25 cup plain yogurt

1.5 cup coconut milk

3 tbs. honey

6 tbs. Chinese rice wine or dry sherry

2 tbs. ketchup

1 tbs. hoisin sauce

11 tbs. soy sauce (same as sweet soy sauce?)

11 tsp. sesame oil

4 tbs. minced garlic

.5 tsp. Chinese 5-spice powder

2.5 lbs. pork spareribs (pref. St. Louis style)

13 shitake mushrooms

2 lbs. baby spinach

10 green onion/scallions

1 pkg. dumpling wrappers

.5 lbs. flank steak

2 tbs. oyster sauce

3 tbs. sugar

1 tbs. black beans (fermented)

1 lbs. wide fresh rice noodles or 12 oz. wide dried rice noodles

3 tsp. fresh ginger

1 large whole chicken

3 tbs. honey

1 tbs. lime juice

1 tbs. annatto seed oil (or seeds turned into oil)

1 large head green cabbage

5 cup water

2 tbs. sea salt or kosher salt

.5 bunch garlic chives or regular chives

7 tbs. kimchi paste

2 1-gallon plastic zipper bags

8 mini cucumbers

7 oz. daikon radish

.25 lbs. sirloin tips or rib eye steak

5 oz. dried Korean vermicelli noodles

.5 lbs. spinach

2 tbs. canola, sunflower or other neutral oil

1 carrot

1 tbs. dried wood ear mushrooms

2 tbs. sesame seeds

.25 cup shiromiso paste

.5 tsp. instant dashi

1 tbs. wakame seaweed

3 sheet nori

1.75 cup sushi rice (cooked)

2 pinch wasabi paste

.5 medium avocado

2 strips sashimi-grade salmon

4 strips sashimi-grade tuna

1 English cucumber (10 oz.)

4.5 cups vanilla ice cream (high quality)

1 tsp. matcha

Food pictures and recipes will follow.

ALA2013 Day 1

Today officially kicked off the ALA 2013 conference.  I began the day at the Class of 2k13 debut authors.  The program was hosted by Veronica Roth (Divergent, Insurgent and Oct 2013's Allegiant).  The line up was:

Caela Carter
Cristin Terrill
Debra Driza
Demitria Lunetta
Geoffrey Girard
Jennifer McGowan
K.A. Barson
Kate Karyus Quinn
Liesl Shurtliff
Lydia Kang
Mindy McGinnis
Nicole McInnes
Polly Holyoke, Panel Coordinator, The Class of 2k13
Stephanie Kuehn
Tamera Wissinger
Tara Sullivan

A trivia game followed with each of the debut authors hosting a table; to the winners (not me) were "super" grab bags.
It was a fun program and it looks like it will be a good year for YA fiction.


The next program I attended was Intellectual Freedom 101 hosted by the Office of Intellectual freedom and then the General Opening Session.

At this point the Exhibitor Hall opened  and there was a flash flood of Librarians being swept down the aisles, grabbing what they could as they poured down the aisles,

More details and pics to come.

Michael

ALA2013 warm-up day

Today was the first full day in Chicago.  The weather was great and even had a few minutes of nice cool rain early in the morning.

Today's goals were to get my conference badge, scope out the convention center and begin to "nest".

The first two tasks were accomplished.  The third is under way.  I've got a couple of days worth of food from the local store.  With a small fridge in the hotel room, this is a great cost saving measure as restaurants, room service and snack machines get expensive for a conference that lasts 4-5 days.  One of the few benefits of being diabetic is getting a higher priority for a hotel fridge for the room.

As an added bonus, the 9 story Harold Washington Library was right across the street from the store.  Topped with a skylight garden and gargoyles at the top, this is an impressive building.

The first floor houses their Popular Collection and Information desk.

The second floor is the 18,000 sq.ft. Thomas Hughes Children's Library.  A quick look around shows that the space clearly is designed for children; my opinion is that a children's space should look appealing to children.  This is true of this space.  Kudos to the Chicago Public Library System.

The third floor contains the computer commons, the newspapers/periodicals and my favorite part, the new Maker Space.  According to an employee, this is set to open in about a month but as a conference attendee I was able to join the group that was touring the space.  There were about half a dozen laptops, a laser etching machine and several  3-D printers working away.  The coolest part was the laptop hooked up to a Microsoft Kinect sensor that, after taking a picture of someone, was able to send the image directly to the 3-D printer to create a bust of the person.  Uber-cool!

Unfortunately, at this stage, my blood sugar took a major drop and I had to leave.  I think the 13 hours it took to get from AZ to IL yesterday and today's humidity combined with the four miles I walked in 3 hours was a bit too much.  Like a dope I left my sugar boosters in the fridge at the hotel.  D'oh!

No worries though.  The store across the street supplied me with what I needed and I was able to down some orange juice and stock up on a couple days of supplies.  I returned to the hotel with plans to check out the rest of the library before leaving town.

I have pictures to upload including some shots with Flat Stanley.  My new phone isn't playing nice with the computer right now but I'll get them up soon.

Time to catch some zzzzz's.  The conference kicks off with sessions tomorrow.

Michael

We did it!

Thanks to everyone who donated, tweeted, cross-posted and spread the word in any way!

I reached my funding goal for the "Please help get me to ALA Annual 2013" crowdfunding campaign with a couple days to spare on cofundedu. 

I'm just so excited to be at ALA this year and that there was such an outpouring of support for this new project.

If you are a library staff member who wants to get to a conference but you or your library don't have the funds, start a campaign!

Michael

ALA Annual 2013 Crowdfunding Campaign

Hello friends, family and colleagues!

I’m writing this email to let you know about a new venture I’m in.  The American Library Association Annual conference (ALA 2013) is coming up and I am trying something new to get there.  This is the premiere conference in my industry and due to budget cuts, etc.  over the past five years libraries around the country have cut back drastically on sending front line staff to not only this industry conference but many others.  For library staff to progress in their careers and become more valuable to their communities these conferences can be essential.

Last year, I was invited to join my second national committee; the Library Information Technology Association (LITA)  Top Technology Trends Committee.  This was a huge and unexpected honor so I jumped at the chance.  Over the past several months, I have been working on brainstorming ideas/topics and helping create a panel of Library and Technology insiders for our program at ALA 2013 in Chicago. 

Unfortunately, due to the cost (registration hotel, transport, etc.), I have not been able to attend since I first became a librarian in 2007.  My fellow committee members and the committee chair agree  that it would be a good idea to have me on site as one of the planners and liaison to several panelists.  They understood not just my financial issues but also library financial positions however, as tech people, we thought there had to be a way around this.  And, thus, an idea was born.

Conference attendance overall has been slipping gradually; not because the content isn’t fresh or relative but because library budgets and staff pay have been cut around the country, and the world and people just can’t afford the out of pocket costs.  We brainstormed and researched and our committee chair came up with the brilliant idea to start a crowdfunding campaign.  If you’re not familiar with the concept, people will post to a site like Kickstarter or gofundme and ask for donations to help them reach their goal.  Our goal is very similar however unlike other sites we are exclusive to library staff who want to attend library conferences where, due to financial barriers, they would not be able to.

We decided that I would be a good test case.  I want to assure you that you will not receive any emails, etc. from anyone else.  The heart of Crowdfunding is to first ask direct family, friends and colleagues. There has been quite a bit of red tape to go through but we are now ready to launch.  We hope to be offering this to more library staff around the country and for more library related conferences.  The really exciting part is that we don’t need to raise all of the money on our own.  We have several companies within the library world that have agreed to be sponsors and match every dollar raised!  This means we only need to fund half of what we need.  For example, my campaign will try to raise $945 and then the sponsors will match that.  I’ve already put in all I can.  There’s no “mad money” in there.  This covers the conference registration, hotel, flight, transportation, and other requirements only.

Disclaimer:  I am doing this as a private citizen and not a member/representative of my city or library system.

My main reason for posting this is also so you know my social media accounts have not been hacked.  Since this has never been tried before it may or may not get the interest of media or association journals and we will be promoting this heavily by word of mouth as well as online.  Please do not feel obligated to donate although it would be greatly appreciated.

Here is the link to my crowdfunding campaign.  Sorry for the long post and if you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading it :)

http://www.cofundedu.com/campaigns/please-help-get-me-to-ala-annual-2013/

Hope everyone is well!

Michael

Librarian

LITA Top Tech Trends Committee

YALSA Legislative Committee

Grand Canyon Reader Award Committee – Tween fiction/non-fiction