tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12254020620347341072024-03-05T18:12:11.478-06:00Kitschn CalamitiesYou can survive most anything as long as you get a good story out of it...julie k h aka jkruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12550086827450455448noreply@blogger.comBlogger502125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225402062034734107.post-43534617885589696732018-06-18T23:00:00.000-05:002018-06-19T01:13:09.227-05:0018<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
I’ve spent the amount of time it takes to reach the precipice of young adulthood without my mom. It’s hard to believe that today marks 18 years since she died. I remember intercepting the 3:30 AM phone call from the hospital and staying on the line as they told my dad that there had been a change in his wife’s condition. I knew exactly what that meant and, looking back, had been preparing for that moment nearly all my life. I raced up two flights of stairs from my basement bedroom to convince my dad to let me go to the hospital with him to no avail. June 18th fell on Father’s Day that year. It seems fitting that this was her final “gift” to him, sarcastic asshole that she was.<br />
<br />
I often wonder what it would have been like to have a relationship with my mom, adult-to-adult. Would we have gotten along? Would she be turning liberal in her old age the way my dad has? How would she react to my devotion to the Spurs instead of her beloved Pistons? Would she like Colby? What kind of grandma would she have been to Ramona?<br />
<br />
This last question is the one that opens the door to so many others I’ve held in my heart. I hate that she missed my wedding. I wish she could have seen me get my PhD (and maybe I would have, you know, actually attended my hooding ceremony). But the thing that saddens me most is how she missed out on her granddaughter. Ramona is so extra and frustrating and amazing. She’s the human manifestation of intensity. I think they would have gotten along quite well.<br />
<br />
It’s knowing that I’ll never see them together, which has led us back home: we’re moving back to Austin. My dial is always stuck at 11. I struggle with happy medium. I work an unhealthy amount because I don’t know how not to and even I, disdainer of introspection, recognize that something needs to change. We’re moving back to Austin so Ramona can grow up with our friends’ kids. We’re moving back to Austin so I can learn how to balance work and life. We’re moving back to Austin so that I’ll have a life that lasts longer than 48 short years and Ramona doesn’t have to ask these same unanswerable questions.<br />
<br />
We’re moving back to Austin at the end of this month. I’m excited for friends and tacos and central air conditioning. I’m looking forward to owning a home again and cooking in a kitchen that is mine. I am ready.</div>
julie k h aka jkruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12550086827450455448noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225402062034734107.post-81222767257646526532017-01-11T01:04:00.002-06:002017-01-11T01:04:55.295-06:00Whole 30 Day 2: creamy lemon garlic dressingI didn't watch the President's farewell address tonight because I can't bear the idea of the Obamas leaving the White House. Instead I went to a friend's happy hour birthday party (and drank nothing tyvm), battled the wind and rain, and watched this when I got home:<br />
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Sigh.<br />
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At least my food was delicious.<br />
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Lunch was another salad with surprise Brussels sprouts. I don't know why I called them surprise. I was surprised when I found them I guess? Whatever the case, they were super tasty.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_lnVmpL2cvAzK4hwG6u0sms590My8Psqo7gE1v3K-NyLMddsh50lPDMl8UWWC_gtKF1hH7SWfGXpu2Klncy0U9EQRkXIaq9TN3Z_z7mle6KttrMKyKw-RSrhJisooXFV8u1WAchc6N870/s1600/ontEp.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_lnVmpL2cvAzK4hwG6u0sms590My8Psqo7gE1v3K-NyLMddsh50lPDMl8UWWC_gtKF1hH7SWfGXpu2Klncy0U9EQRkXIaq9TN3Z_z7mle6KttrMKyKw-RSrhJisooXFV8u1WAchc6N870/s640/ontEp.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">om nom nom</td></tr>
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For dinner, Colby cooked salmon and we ate it with an arugula salad with eggs and tomatoes. It was supposed to have avocado, but the ones that we got were still super crunchy. No bueno, but the salad was AMAZING because of the dressing.<br />
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<b>creamy lemon garlic dressing</b></div>
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1/2 c <a href="http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/10/two-minute-mayonnaise.html">two minute mayonnaise</a> </div>
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juice from 1-2 lemons (to taste)</div>
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2-3 cloves garlic, crushed</div>
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salt</div>
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Combine everything and let it steep. </div>
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It is so so so delicious. Colby used walnut oil to make the mayo since olive oil is too strongly flavored. The mayo itself is really good and definitely something we'll be using as a base for other dressings and salads. I definitely want to make this <a href="http://kitschncalamities.blogspot.com/2016/04/procrastination-tastes-like-jalapeno.html">jalapeño slaw</a> next week and now I'm envisioning pairing macadamia nut encrusted white fish to make tortilla-less fish tacos. Hmmm..</div>
<br />julie k h aka jkruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12550086827450455448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225402062034734107.post-45085102749330535302017-01-09T23:42:00.001-06:002017-01-09T23:42:38.008-06:00Whole 30. Again.Yes, I know. I always start the <a href="http://whole30.com/whole30-program-rules">Whole 30</a> challenge and then quit part of the way through. I hate the rhetoric on their website/in the forums too, but my past experience has shown that it really does help me stop craving sweets and generally eat better. Plus, there's nothing like <strike>insanely restrictive yet morally superior</strike> clean eating to <strike>reignite my decades-old eating disorder</strike> make me cook at home. Since <strike>misery loves company</strike> healthy eating challenges are better when you have other people to <strike>complain to</strike> hold each other accountable, I <strike>coerced</strike> asked a few friends to join me on this <strike>goddamn nightmare</strike> magical food journey.<br />
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My motivation for doing the Whole 30 this time around is to reset my palate so I appreciate whole foods again, generally eat better, and make sure that I am as healthy as I can be. One of the biggest fitness fallacies is that exercising helps you lose weight. I'm quite the opposite where I often gain weight since exercise makes me super duper hungry. In the past, I've done Whole 30 and have been really diligent about staying within the frankly excessively restrictive boundaries and was miserable the entire time. This isn't a tenable solution for me and so this time around I'm going to modify the rules: I'll still eat small quantities of dairy and beans.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D674UeGO_zA/WHRyolHm1zI/AAAAAAAATQs/6F2FtIplWdklbPD8YNJ3YsCrLXDLbqjpwCL0B/h1536/2017-01-09.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D674UeGO_zA/WHRyolHm1zI/AAAAAAAATQs/6F2FtIplWdklbPD8YNJ3YsCrLXDLbqjpwCL0B/h1536/2017-01-09.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Corporate lunch is delicious. Also free.</td></tr>
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I am also in a much better position now because I get breakfast and lunch at work. Breakfasts will likely be mostly eggs and sometimes breakfast meats. Lunches are likely to be salad-based. Dinners and weekends are where I'll have to plan. Without further ado, our meal plan:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/--ys5lpWnlHk/WHRyodKdalI/AAAAAAAATQo/DZw1xPC02ww3p48HphBIVSzVCrE7tri4wCL0B/h1536/2017-01-09.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/--ys5lpWnlHk/WHRyodKdalI/AAAAAAAATQo/DZw1xPC02ww3p48HphBIVSzVCrE7tri4wCL0B/h1536/2017-01-09.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">less pretty than one would hope but yet so delicious.</td></tr>
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<b>Monday</b><br />
<a href="http://www.bonappetit.com/columns/cooking-without-recipes/article/easy-cuban-chicken-recipe">Citrus-marinated chicken</a> with cauliflower rice<br />
<br />
<b>Tuesday</b><br />
Salmon on an arugula salad with a <a href="http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/10/two-minute-mayonnaise.html">2 minute mayo</a>-based dressing<br />
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<b>Wednesday</b><br />
Potato, egg, and <a href="http://healthylivinghowto.com/say-goodbye-to-jimmy-dean/">homemade sausage</a> hash<br />
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<b>Thursday</b><br />
Dijon chicken with <a href="https://www.kcet.org/food/weekend-recipe-cauliflower-soup">cauliflower soup</a><br />
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<b>Friday</b><br />
<a href="http://myheartbeets.com/texas-beef-chili/">"Texas" Chili</a><br />
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I'll try to update with what we actually end up eating and recipes.julie k h aka jkruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12550086827450455448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225402062034734107.post-52096154469734804062016-12-30T18:23:00.000-06:002016-12-30T18:23:15.081-06:00New Years Resolutions Part 30Obviously I have the same new year's resolutions as everyone else: blah blah, eat healthy, blah blah, go to the gym. Zzzzz. Oops. I think I fell asleep in the middle of those. But now that I'm properly awake, I wanted to take the time to list some more interesting ones.<br />
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<b>1. Explore more of the Bay Area and northern California</b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://instagram.fsnc1-4.fna.fbcdn.net/t51.2885-15/e35/15538476_1659596074342365_8195607953722572800_n.jpg?ig_cache_key=MTQxNjMwMzgwOTQ5NTU4OTk3Ng%3D%3D.2" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://instagram.fsnc1-4.fna.fbcdn.net/t51.2885-15/e35/15538476_1659596074342365_8195607953722572800_n.jpg?ig_cache_key=MTQxNjMwMzgwOTQ5NTU4OTk3Ng%3D%3D.2" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My iPhone seems to think this was taken at Poplar Beach. Sure?</td></tr>
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<b><br /></b>
Yesterday we made a quick trip to Half Moon Bay to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sacrilegebrewerykitchen/?ref=nf">Sacrilige Brewery + Kitchen</a> (do recommend!) and to check out the beach. It was fantastic! Ramona wasn't a huge fan of the giant waves, but seemed happy to play in the sand further away from the water. It was a pretty quick drive (~1 hr) and a lot of fun. Definitely a place I want to revisit so we can explore more. My hope is that we travel *somewhere* at least once a month. True fact: when I'm bored, I make up gift baskets in my head*, but my new game is going to be planning out day trips.<br />
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<b>2. Cook</b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7qjdQcvn6CtE7_sneLzD_nOywxfS4mBQ6cF5Aemd7TO0mGz0KBWlFw1twHhhzKwoOA3bt9RCTItQyvt-9d1ZD-k7KQJqRN8JD10ax5wZ8Uu9FqINpIFOJiJMbP95ijLi0rkuqMxjW3okg/s1600/sando.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7qjdQcvn6CtE7_sneLzD_nOywxfS4mBQ6cF5Aemd7TO0mGz0KBWlFw1twHhhzKwoOA3bt9RCTItQyvt-9d1ZD-k7KQJqRN8JD10ax5wZ8Uu9FqINpIFOJiJMbP95ijLi0rkuqMxjW3okg/s400/sando.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This Christmas sandwich was DELICIOUS. Also, not really what I'm going to talk about but whatevs.</td></tr>
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If you look at my archives, it's obvious to see that I haven't been blogging, but that's also because I haven't really been cooking. In fact, it's so bad, that I'd say that Colby is a better cook than I am. I feel like I've lost some of the intuition that I had from years of cooking, but I've spent a lot of time this break in the kitchen and things are coming back. I usually get home from work fairly late, but there's always time on the weekend. I want to cook *something* once a week.<br />
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<b>2a. Use the Instant Pot</b><br />
I purchased an instant pot on a whim during Thanksgiving break. I want one of us to use it at least once a month.<br />
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<b>3. Be proactive about friendship</b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3298/3202419043_11556ebfcf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="206" src="https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3298/3202419043_11556ebfcf.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from <a href="http://www.jelene.com/">http://www.jelene.com/</a></td></tr>
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<b><br /></b>
I can be lazy about things, but one thing I want to work on is making sure that I maintain and enrich my friendships. We've slowly started to build a network out here, and we need to make sure we continue this. We also have an entire community spread across the country and I want to make sure that we maintain it.<br />
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<b>4. Craft</b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7nmKcPaq5JAJVSVp8HhiVBTZRNwi_2dSlD4cgUlD7Sn_stkEowlD_7KNS1w-Hplv8mP44j_rbHCDIEESqBcA-ZOBztc9UsQnJQEgE4yabdF3ALwnNR-OUi8S85WVwuWnFH5NuraeK_Xr7/s1600/IMG_20161001_174722958_resize.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7nmKcPaq5JAJVSVp8HhiVBTZRNwi_2dSlD4cgUlD7Sn_stkEowlD_7KNS1w-Hplv8mP44j_rbHCDIEESqBcA-ZOBztc9UsQnJQEgE4yabdF3ALwnNR-OUi8S85WVwuWnFH5NuraeK_Xr7/s400/IMG_20161001_174722958_resize.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I did take up embroidery very briefly this year (via <a href="http://astrochris.blogspot.com/">Chris</a>)</td></tr>
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<b><br /></b>
I really like doing complicated paper crafts because they are fiddly enough such that I need to use most of my concentration to not mess up so I have to turn off my brain for a bit. I stopped crafting once we moved because I left many of my supplies in Michigan and because there just wasn't any space. We still don't have a ton of space, but it's a lot more manageable now and Ramona LOVES crafting.<br />
<br />
*My welcome to SF basket comes with a loaded Clipper Card, a bag of high quality local coffee beans, a hand made mug from a local artist, a bar of <a href="http://www.tcho.com/shop/chocolate/bars">TCHO</a> (which seems universally beloved), and some local art in a counter top composting bucket. Cute, right?julie k h aka jkruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12550086827450455448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225402062034734107.post-79781785923285099512016-12-13T00:48:00.000-06:002016-12-13T00:48:02.100-06:00Why We Don't Do Santa ClausRamona is at the age where Santa is a hot topic and it's something I've discussed with a lot of my parent friends this year so I wanted to gather my thoughts in one place.<br />
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Ramona's relationship with Santa got off to a rocky start. She was about 10 months old around the time of her first Christmas, during the throes of the first wave of stranger danger. We foisted her on the very warm-looking Santa (we were in Austin) and now have some hilarious pictures of her and her baby friend screaming on Santa's lap.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqY4YQaC2D1yeXZ4jHUnqIUyfiBnekhIZ8UIbUdUvH4WV5rZvTRlaTKyZPwgSf54m0BEsw5lSEvmz2ibi9ygdmCxLkz4UT2JAxOCFcF6PyjnPaPQtjeRft3F9M4wrOz1P0kkhQqmQwjxYa/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-12-12+at+10.00.46+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqY4YQaC2D1yeXZ4jHUnqIUyfiBnekhIZ8UIbUdUvH4WV5rZvTRlaTKyZPwgSf54m0BEsw5lSEvmz2ibi9ygdmCxLkz4UT2JAxOCFcF6PyjnPaPQtjeRft3F9M4wrOz1P0kkhQqmQwjxYa/s400/Screen+Shot+2016-12-12+at+10.00.46+PM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">"Get this the fuck off my head, Mom."<br /></td></tr>
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The next year we tried again, this time at <a href="https://www.bronners.com/">Bronner's Christmas Wonderland</a>. We waited almost an hour to see Santa. The end result was that Ramona screamed her face off when we put her on Santa's lap and the only way we ended up getting a picture was to have me hold her somewhat near Santa, but out of her line of sight.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5675/21533079629_efaf6c16c6_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5675/21533079629_efaf6c16c6_b.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These people are serious about Christmas. It looks like this all year. Photo Credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kenlund/21533079629/">Ken Lund</a></td></tr>
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<br />
<br />
We moved to California at the end of 2014 and didn't have the opportunity to go back to Michigan. We did, however, consider going to a different Santa, but Ramona was old enough to remember how scared she was. Every time we walked by the Santa Hut at the local mall, she'd freak out a little bit. We finally decided to tell her that Santa wasn't real. It was something we were already leaning towards but it seemed like a good way to alleviate her fears. <br />
<br />
So why were we leaning towards it at all and why have we doubled down on it now that she has teachers and friends and other people she generally trusts tell her that Santa is real?<br />
<br />
1. Santa has a social justice problem. We tell kids that if they're good they'll get presents from Santa. What about children from families who can't afford to give them a lavish Christmas? Are they not good too? Santa conflates wealth with goodness. Obviously it's not something you bring up when you tell kids about Santa, but that isn't a deep question, especially considering how competitive kids can get.<br />
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2. As much handwaving as you do, telling a child that Santa is real is still lying to them. We work so hard to teach children to be honest with us and each other. We tell kids that lying is wrong. But how do you reconcile this lie? And when they do figure it out or we have to tell them, then what? Either the kiddo figures it out and is upset that their parents and the people they trust have lied to them or they get to the age where you need to tell them and then it's crushing. Why start in the first place?<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/73/The_Grinch.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/73/The_Grinch.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Probably what you think I look like<br /></td></tr>
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3. In the same vein, we've now had to have discussions with Ramona about how Santa isn't something she's allowed to talk to other kids about and if they ask her if Santa is real, she shouldn't say anything. So now I'm telling her to lie to other people. And while I understand the alternative here is to lie to her and tell her that Santa is real, I don't want to have to lie to her so other people can lie to their kids.<br />
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4. I've spent the past 12 years working really hard to be in the position I am right now. And now I'm supposed to give credit to some old white man for all the presents that I buy her? NOPE. NOPE. NOPE.<br />
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Smaller issues:<br />
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<ul>
<li>We tell kids to not trust strangers, but it's okay that Santa some how spies on them while they sleep and he knows what they do on a day-to-day basis. </li>
<li>And then he commits the felony of breaking and entering. </li>
<li>Also, Santa? <a href="http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~cordoyne/humor.html#santa">Totally breaking the laws of thermodynamics</a>. </li>
</ul>
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<br />julie k h aka jkruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12550086827450455448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225402062034734107.post-91504509811689196192016-09-16T12:24:00.001-05:002016-09-16T12:24:12.057-05:00#BridgeTheTechGap<div>
I work in tech. My job has super cool perks like free crossfit, spa water on every floor, and a salary that allows me to live in the most expensive area of the country. I take the BART from West Oakland to Civic Center to get to the office, located about a block away from the station, and I am continually humbled and reminded of my privilege. It's a rare day that I don't pass someone with a needle. The station is littered with the slim orange caps that I had previously associated with insulin and allergy shots. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
The contrast between the Civic Center BART station and my posh office is stark. And while it's a mind-boggling thought experiment to calculate just how little* you'd be left with at the end of the month if your income was the median value for the zip code of my just-outside-of-mid-Market office and the average rent for a 1BR San Francisco apartment, it's not just a gedanken exercise, it's real life for some.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
In an effort to address some of this immense economic disparity, my friend Michelle started a non-profit called <a href="http://techtonica.org/">Techtonica</a>. Techtonica is a 6 month program that enables low-income women and non-binary adults to gain the skills they need to work in tech. While many similar coding programs cost tens of thousands of dollars (thereby being vastly out of reach for most people) with no guarantee of future employment, Techtonica is free to the students and has jobs lined up for graduates. In addition, students are provided with a laptop, a living stipend, and free child care. In order to provide these incredible benefits, Michelle is currently fundraising through <a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/techtonica-bridging-the-tech-opportunity-gap-education#/">IndieGoGo</a>. </div>
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<a href="https://scontent-sjc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/13497552_10154246229408698_6826583210319974047_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://scontent-sjc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/13497552_10154246229408698_6826583210319974047_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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If this is something that speaks to you, please get involved! Make a tax-deductible donation. Spread the word through Twitter (and use the hashtag <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23bridgethetechgap&src=typd">#BridgeTheTechGap</a>), Facebook, and your personal network. Volunteer at tech workshops or help organize or package some of the seriously awesome campaign perks.</div>
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You can read more about Techtonica and the income disparity it is working to relieve from Michelle's <a href="https://medium.com/@michelleglauser/techtonica-how-to-diversify-tech-and-help-neighbors-in-need-837d5f0b40bc#.q3ea2nshs">Medium post</a> and find Techtonica on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/techtonicaorg">@techtonicaorg</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Techtonica/?fref=ts">Facebook</a>. </div>
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*it's $100.67</div>
julie k h aka jkruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12550086827450455448noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225402062034734107.post-31311161223893127682016-04-23T19:47:00.002-05:002016-04-23T19:47:39.497-05:00Procrastination tastes like jalapeño slaw<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrvIWDQ6DgQA0__fVjs9TvODfpGhZIUmRVf0CgszTepK1NuGoVNpQ6fmBupnYJV8oCaMI2ws4CFfPtk7iWgWwCgZ_WGMxHJLDv9tYYoMW6kJPEYcn4G63LeL4Yayg2shEOiFSrgecG2yht/s1600/IMG_0430.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrvIWDQ6DgQA0__fVjs9TvODfpGhZIUmRVf0CgszTepK1NuGoVNpQ6fmBupnYJV8oCaMI2ws4CFfPtk7iWgWwCgZ_WGMxHJLDv9tYYoMW6kJPEYcn4G63LeL4Yayg2shEOiFSrgecG2yht/s400/IMG_0430.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
I want to start cooking again, but I've spent a lot of time coding and re-learning statistics in the name of professional development. I decided to carve out some time today to use up the cabbage that's been sitting in the crisper drawer for a week and the jalapeño that was on its last leg.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Jalapeño Slaw</b><br />
<br />
1/2 head green cabbage, shredded or thinly sliced<br />
1/4 c mayo<br />
2ish T lemon juice<br />
1 small lobe of shallot, diced<br />
2 cloves garlic, minced<br />
1 jalapeño, seeded and diced<br />
1 tsp kosher salt<br />
salt + pepper to taste<br />
<br />
Toss shredded cabbage and 1 tsp salt to evenly distribute in a colander placed over a bowl (or sink). Let sit for up to an hour, or at least as long as it takes to prep the rest.<br />
<br />
Combine mayo, lemon juice, garlic, jalapeño, and shallot. Let sit for a bit to let the flavors combine and the harshness of the garlic and shallot to subside. Season with salt + pepper to taste.<br />
<br />
Thoroughly rinse and drain the salted cabbage. Add in the dressing.<br />
<br />
We served it with avocado slices and pork. Highly recommend. Would do again. 5/5.julie k h aka jkruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12550086827450455448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225402062034734107.post-54073874464547153132016-04-03T03:04:00.001-05:002016-04-03T03:04:19.617-05:00Whole 30 and Random Thoughts<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiusPa7w3XPcjUAgJx7yOVyFkVEwuLRKRt7NuAwnG66rqhdwdb8LduqH0Ziuj5RAE64qDuJtLkD3x0oDHUk34BLohxNXHqUgtR7DUdEj1nYaulZX9e2T_DAEVYi9nVTMWs0xNOzjNrZG3U2/s1600/IMG_0182.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiusPa7w3XPcjUAgJx7yOVyFkVEwuLRKRt7NuAwnG66rqhdwdb8LduqH0Ziuj5RAE64qDuJtLkD3x0oDHUk34BLohxNXHqUgtR7DUdEj1nYaulZX9e2T_DAEVYi9nVTMWs0xNOzjNrZG3U2/s640/IMG_0182.JPG" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />
Fuck.<br />
<br />I should be working on something, but obviously I'm not since I'm on here.<br />
<br />
There are so many things I should be working on, but instead I'm typing into this. You're welcome.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Lice combs do a very good job of getting the larger pieces of cajun seasoning mix out of one's hair.</li>
<li>cajun seasoning does not feel so great when it gets in your eye. I do not have first hand knowledge of this, but I have been told that this is true very vehemently. </li>
<li>I've been running on caffeine, adrenaline, and cortisol for the past month+ with the occasional ounce of ethanol thrown in for good measure. do not recommend.</li>
<li>I similarly do not recommend jumping head first into Whole30 when insanely stressed</li>
<ul>
<li>and yet, here I am. Goddamnit.</li>
<li>I'm letting myself off the douche hook and am instagramming the shit out of what I eat so I can at least be entertained while I spend the next 28 days extremely hangry</li>
</ul>
<li>while I prefer the syntax and ease of Postgres, switching between that and hive is fucking up my brain.</li>
<li>Ramona is super into quesadillas, excuse me, tortillas with melted cheese right now. It makes me want to buy a quesadilla maker since I am currently weak to shopping. </li>
</ul>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNI5UYN0Dl6GisAHAF4U0oaKsuU0YrlxqkNW3p4nl-0oIkhcZJDg00_KxlAr5blCMqGIClDGuGbRBAz8ivhJeLBVYJ-TWsVV3AZzGVmXoRFHQcesk9pcu78Qqm1GKbDfruI-nVKtnkaOWM/s1600/IMG_0124.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNI5UYN0Dl6GisAHAF4U0oaKsuU0YrlxqkNW3p4nl-0oIkhcZJDg00_KxlAr5blCMqGIClDGuGbRBAz8ivhJeLBVYJ-TWsVV3AZzGVmXoRFHQcesk9pcu78Qqm1GKbDfruI-nVKtnkaOWM/s640/IMG_0124.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ube ice cream kid cone - <a href="http://www.cookiebarcreamery.com/">Cookiebar Creamery</a> - $ 2.5</td></tr>
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julie k h aka jkruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12550086827450455448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225402062034734107.post-48719492350614504932016-03-31T15:49:00.001-05:002016-03-31T15:49:16.600-05:00Basil Canteen & Whole 30 Part 2I can't believe we're doing it again, but starting tomorrow, it's back on the meat and veggie express and so long to my good friends "bread", "cheese", and happiness. I'll see if I can manage to blog about it this time, but no promises. In the meantime, here's some yummy food that I ate today.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPlj_VgEycLCa8sXMDl3d8lZNCnJ9jxlhxzv4XQ_vAfyQRRDg9yEwy_ySDztNJSKQojeVrUHYs7gJWQMN126cz3SSnxh6j7bQFv9AXKL7IwhpGDcwKyaQQb-z6rREkRUhKmoD76AppAcPf/s1600/corn_cakes.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPlj_VgEycLCa8sXMDl3d8lZNCnJ9jxlhxzv4XQ_vAfyQRRDg9yEwy_ySDztNJSKQojeVrUHYs7gJWQMN126cz3SSnxh6j7bQFv9AXKL7IwhpGDcwKyaQQb-z6rREkRUhKmoD76AppAcPf/s640/corn_cakes.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.basilthai.com/bc/">Basil Canteen</a> - kao pode tod - $7.5</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Basil Canteen was pretty good, would definitely head back if I was in the neighborhood, although it's on the pricey side.julie k h aka jkruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12550086827450455448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225402062034734107.post-86970921050223174262016-01-31T20:13:00.000-06:002016-01-31T20:16:21.825-06:00First February Meal Plan<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioAt3ifuiNcE81fJKTJZS0vshVrkIrVyfobClvls3fz-EFXkROIpHssxJUuHBaJqPXoal6TpQA0-cD53mfTHd6lM-0f-6R-RFAOJK1kigc9kyaYe6g2JoLOjDgC-1SwMeyEc1OZQJqhlhQ/s1600/DSC_0008.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioAt3ifuiNcE81fJKTJZS0vshVrkIrVyfobClvls3fz-EFXkROIpHssxJUuHBaJqPXoal6TpQA0-cD53mfTHd6lM-0f-6R-RFAOJK1kigc9kyaYe6g2JoLOjDgC-1SwMeyEc1OZQJqhlhQ/s640/DSC_0008.JPG" width="640" /></a><br />
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Greetings, strangers. Here's a quick meal plan:<br />
<br />
Sunday:<br />
Roasted vegetables, pan-fried chicken breasts, rice<br />
<br />
Monday:<br />
Mashed potatoes, roasted zucchini, <a href="http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-roasted-pork-tenderloin-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-211998">roasted pork tenderloin</a><br />
<br />
Tuesday:<br />
chicken vindaloo, rice, leftover vegetables<br />
<br />
Wednesday:<br />
<a href="http://kitschncalamities.blogspot.com/2015/11/on-nablopomo-failure-and-caldo-verde.html">Caldo verde</a>, crusty bread<br />
<br />
Thursday:<br />
Leftovers tossed with pasta<br />
<br />
Friday:<br />
<a href="http://www.kcet.org/living/food/the-public-kitchen/weekend-recipe-cauliflower-soup.html">Cauliflower soup</a>, <a href="http://kitschncalamities.blogspot.com/2008/11/nablopomo-day-three-continuous-cooking.html">chicken in parchment</a>julie k h aka jkruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12550086827450455448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225402062034734107.post-20157865836288137812015-11-15T22:57:00.001-06:002015-11-15T22:57:20.591-06:00On NaBloPoMo Failure and Caldo Verde <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtyGlH61dD57cp9hXZx-3_1crooCAYaVHeipAet9Q0bdpLnytFKpW-oqfhP2iOFwd06bG7FE-tOmWese1dS9yIVj0wIhx1vMVf08ApofPp_WjPVS1AqND0xb4LhOPdKcBPU4zrgp311L-y/s1600/caldo_verde.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="341" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtyGlH61dD57cp9hXZx-3_1crooCAYaVHeipAet9Q0bdpLnytFKpW-oqfhP2iOFwd06bG7FE-tOmWese1dS9yIVj0wIhx1vMVf08ApofPp_WjPVS1AqND0xb4LhOPdKcBPU4zrgp311L-y/s400/caldo_verde.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">dear lord this is an ugly picture</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I have unsurprisingly failed in my NaBloPoMo quest. This has happened a lot more now than it did before. I think some of it was the encouragement I had when I actually knew other <a href="http://austinfoodbloggers.org/">bloggers in Austin</a>. A lot of it is because the seasons in my life have changed and my energy is directed elsewhere. I've been going to data science and machine learning meet ups whenever I can. I've been trying to attend community-building events to learn more about creating a diverse and inclusive culture both at my company and in tech in general. These do not leave much time for blogging, or cooking for that matter. Colby bears the brunt of the domestic responsibilities and I am very glad that he can cook. <br />
<br />
I've been thinking about priorities a lot lately. I spend 2-4 nights per week doing after-work extracurricular activities. It's meant that I've been spending a lot of my mental capital on that and not on other things that I used to do (hello, paper crafting). It's also meant that I don't sleep and haven't been to my insanely expensive exercise place in 2 weeks (hello, <a href="http://alamedacrossfit.com/">Crossfit</a>). This results in very quiet weekends. This isn't a bad thing, except that my weekends used to be the most interesting part of my week. Instead, I've been spending a lot of time snuggling with Ramona, watching Bob Ross, and catching up on my sleep.<br />
<br />
The best part about quiet weekends has been that it's gotten much colder. This means that snuggling under piles of blankets is not uncomfortable and that soup for dinner is totally legit. This weekend, PBS Create had a soup-centric theme and that was awesome. America's Test Kitchen highlighted a recipe for <a href="http://www.kcet.org/living/food/the-public-kitchen/recipe-caldo-verde-a-portuguese-soup.html">caldo verde</a> and it was amazing with nothing more than a side of crusty San Francisco sourdough.julie k h aka jkruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12550086827450455448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225402062034734107.post-23491845631315084632015-11-03T00:29:00.000-06:002015-11-03T00:35:23.093-06:00Data Science Meet Up Recap<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTJk0a8AIsstDuJbbxqQomr10rgJFVV3rCclWZg2OhDutp5GOampOZ1E-NiCVu-i0bV4xcK0IluOWspQgrMWaAt8g96P6uBT1HMFWf37SlCAYOi69lvA8WbLFG7EwAbN5NEDfEYodfKLUu/s1600/IMG_1481.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTJk0a8AIsstDuJbbxqQomr10rgJFVV3rCclWZg2OhDutp5GOampOZ1E-NiCVu-i0bV4xcK0IluOWspQgrMWaAt8g96P6uBT1HMFWf37SlCAYOi69lvA8WbLFG7EwAbN5NEDfEYodfKLUu/s640/IMG_1481.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">nice picture of the back of someone's head. :) </td></tr>
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My favorite way to interact at conferences is twitter. It's easy to follow hashtags and use @messaging to connect with people. As a result, I often "meet" people on twitter and never really meet them in real life. Today I went to a data science meet up and got to actually meet someone I've been interacting with on twitter since <a href="http://scipy2015.scipy.org/ehome/index.php?eventid=115969&">SciPy</a>.<br />
<br />
The meet up was basically an intro to data science. We talked about why data science is having a moment, what the data science work flow looks like, and what skills are crucial in being an effective data scientist. We then went through a tutorial using a Jupyter notebook, <a href="http://scikit-learn.org/stable/">scikit-learn</a>, and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_flower_data_set">iris data set</a>. I've actually given a tutorial in a research seminar using that data set, so I didn't really gain much technical insight out of this; however, I did come to this realization:<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
The amount of machine learning one needs to understand to use SKLearn is very low. This is both wonderful and dangerous. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/datascience?src=hash">#datascience</a></div>
— julie k h (@jkru) <a href="https://twitter.com/jkru/status/661398063362080768">November 3, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
I also got to hang out with <a href="https://twitter.com/qsonyaberg">Sonya</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/MichelleGlauser?">Michelle</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/michaelctsai">Michael</a>, and some Hackbright grads, while meeting other people who are interested both in data science and building a culture of inclusion in the tech industry. Quality way to spend an evening.julie k h aka jkruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12550086827450455448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225402062034734107.post-27341197047048964432015-11-01T22:57:00.000-06:002015-11-02T01:32:15.576-06:00NaBloPoMo 2k15 Meal Plan #1<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFfdC3OHfKc9F2hMd3OCxfV-25Vnf-nuF1_A5QIX0rlIv7nsRGaSrea3dWgwbIyj_VKjxStXYb-YnnNbETr8Pyq5f2Se3ExDldJnwEbUOg6Q_0-fRoUA5XrUIs8x60D_uvmw5kUO5HW8yA/s1600/IMG_20150523_133108.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFfdC3OHfKc9F2hMd3OCxfV-25Vnf-nuF1_A5QIX0rlIv7nsRGaSrea3dWgwbIyj_VKjxStXYb-YnnNbETr8Pyq5f2Se3ExDldJnwEbUOg6Q_0-fRoUA5XrUIs8x60D_uvmw5kUO5HW8yA/s400/IMG_20150523_133108.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Can I actually just eat bacon all week instead?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It's November, which means that i get that itch to do something writing-related. i'm not saying that I'll success with NaBloPoMo, but whatever. Made this earlier today because we need to start eating better/cheaper:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Monday - rotisserie chicken, arugula</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Tuesday - slow cooker pork, butternut squash in a brown butter and pine nut sauce, swiss chard</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Wednesday - mac and cheese, leftover pork</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thursday - pan-fried chicken breast, roasted okra, <a href="http://www.marthastewart.com/317401/lentil-and-swiss-chard-soup">swiss chard + lentil soup</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Friday - <a href="http://kitschncalamities.blogspot.com/2009/11/new-kitchen.html">chicken + vegetable pasta toss</a></span></span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I'll actually be out of the apartment for Monday and Wednesday to attend various events, so those are actually just for Colby to do while I'm gone.</div>
julie k h aka jkruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12550086827450455448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225402062034734107.post-24254548995888363252015-08-31T00:39:00.001-05:002015-08-31T00:39:24.803-05:00Coconut Raspberry Muffins, Part 1<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjftdGRoczZckw7OrNqV2zFWVlJID6etMhfM5QOacBDuEK51kyrk39wjABLnkRWUY6s8Q_c9iHOG1SNYdL785EQutvBK8sqjGI9YIpbohcfmvnr7qIEKXaQjkhgyL2Gf-qRHv0oEYbn0Pkd/s1600/IMG_0746.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="639" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjftdGRoczZckw7OrNqV2zFWVlJID6etMhfM5QOacBDuEK51kyrk39wjABLnkRWUY6s8Q_c9iHOG1SNYdL785EQutvBK8sqjGI9YIpbohcfmvnr7qIEKXaQjkhgyL2Gf-qRHv0oEYbn0Pkd/s640/IMG_0746.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Remember when I took actual pictures with a real camera in natural light?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Remember when this was a <a href="http://kitschncalamities.blogspot.com/search/label/food">food blog</a>?<br />
<br />
Remember when I used to post <a href="http://kitschncalamities.blogspot.com/search/label/recipe">recipes</a>?<br />
<br />
Remember when I planned and executed stupidly complicated <a href="http://kitschncalamities.blogspot.com/search/label/dinner%20party">dinner parties</a>?<br />
<br />
My new job keeps me busy, but I really love it. I was able to meet up with one of my Hackbright mentors today and had a chance to reflect on the last (gasp!) 7 months. It's been good, though there is always room for improvement.<br />
<br />
These days, I rarely cook. Colby has proven to be a good cook and, given that he preps food daily, perhaps even better than me. While I miss being in my old kitchen (with the counter space, walk in pantry, center island, in a city where I have friends), I don't miss stress baking because I hate grad school. After watching enough America's Test Kitchen, I finally decided to bake something.<br />
<br />
Are these any good? Ish. There should probably be more sugar (maybe even up to 1/3 c) and that would balance out the harsh flavor of whole wheat. It's also unsatisfying that these are made from a mix. However, I'll probably make these again with some modifications. It's a low-pressure way to ease my way back into the kitchen.<br />
<br />
Coconut Raspberry Muffins<br />
<br />
2 c Trader Joe's Multigrain Pancake Mix (or any Bisquik-like mix)<br />
1 T granulated sugar<br />
2/3 c culinary coconut milk<br />
1 egg<br />
1 T melted coconut oil<br />
1/2 t vanilla extract<br />
1 pint fresh raspberries<br />
<br />
Preheat oven to 400 F.<br />
Whisk together pancake mix + sugar.<br />
In a separate container, combine coconut milk, beaten egg, coconut oil, and vanilla extract.<br />
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until combined, some flour lumps are okay.<br />
Add in raspberries and stir to distribute.<br />
Bake for ~14 minutes, rotating halfway through.<br />
<br />
<br />julie k h aka jkruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12550086827450455448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225402062034734107.post-74355177596430514622015-06-06T17:38:00.000-05:002015-06-06T17:38:40.748-05:00Alameda Farmers' Market<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<br />julie k h aka jkruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12550086827450455448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225402062034734107.post-5629414027802232292015-02-08T22:58:00.002-06:002015-02-08T22:58:28.796-06:00Roasted Cauliflower Soup with Za'atar Spice<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic4vDp3Pwu9doN73wrx1IDfjr0OdGVWOV6HMumB4yEzUUtKG1A6f3LJThLWQZ8TdWCpQFuaRMVzaNgPmTdD27p3PfKGrskVj7PgSHHu6cJ0PyytL_PQFmPG-mrNygu6VyAArA0ubwISWZn/s1600/2015-02-08.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic4vDp3Pwu9doN73wrx1IDfjr0OdGVWOV6HMumB4yEzUUtKG1A6f3LJThLWQZ8TdWCpQFuaRMVzaNgPmTdD27p3PfKGrskVj7PgSHHu6cJ0PyytL_PQFmPG-mrNygu6VyAArA0ubwISWZn/s1600/2015-02-08.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There's no way to take a picture of this that doesn't look terrible. See also: hummus</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
For the past 2 years, I've been telling myself that after some particular event happened, I was totally going to hop on the primal bandwagon. Obviously this has never happened, but we're trying to cook from home more often and choosing recipes that aren't just flour with potatoes and a side of sugar is probably to everyone's benefit.<br />
<br />
Cauliflower is the darling of the paleo/primal community, so we had a head in our fridge to make it into *something*. After watching enough America's Test Kitchen, I made cauliflower soup this weekend. It was surprisingly good, although I'll definitely be playing with it to achieve a better depth of flavor. The next iteration will (hopefully) include actual bacon, I'll actually brown the onion, and look at adding other sources of umami.<br />
<br />
1 head cauliflower, chopped into florets<br />
1 T za'atar spice<br />
1/4 c whole, peeled garlic cloves<br />
1 medium onion, chopped<br />
1 bay leaf<br />
2 T butter<br />
1 T bacon fat<br />
2 c water<br />
2 c stock<br />
salt + pepper, extra virgin olive oil<br />
1/2 t balsamic vinegar<br />
<br />
1. Roast the cauliflower and garlic cloves in extra virgin olive oil, za'atar spice, and salt + pepper at 375 for ~30 minutes or until everything is golden brown and delicious.<br />
<br />
2. Meanwhile, saute the onion with a pinch of salt until softened.<br />
<br />
3. Add in butter, bacon grease, bay leaf, water, stock, and the roasted cauliflower and garlic. Bring to a boil and simmer for ~15 minutes, until everything is softened.<br />
<br />
4. Take off the heat and puree. Add in balsamic vinegar, and taste for seasoning.julie k h aka jkruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12550086827450455448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225402062034734107.post-20585536285523666302015-02-02T02:53:00.002-06:002015-02-02T02:56:16.017-06:00Home Makings and Other AnnouncementsI've been thinking about Austin a lot lately. I miss being part of a community that I know by heart and being close to so many of my good friends. One of the biggest differences between Austin and the Bay Area is that everything that I "need" is spread out here, whereas I could almost find everything I could possibly want north of the Colorado River in Austin.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs5k7yk0uVCZn2REt28PxZKsbeh3g6koG0QjSDpQ6mxcZmyTtR__P9kXp664k482xp9DI7amJTzWySaeLOMKlPLwdCK3q7WNgFaoBS5S896zEcAN_tAUSNXwtjuX92TBf6YTpN_LrCLxwC/s1600/austin_heart.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs5k7yk0uVCZn2REt28PxZKsbeh3g6koG0QjSDpQ6mxcZmyTtR__P9kXp664k482xp9DI7amJTzWySaeLOMKlPLwdCK3q7WNgFaoBS5S896zEcAN_tAUSNXwtjuX92TBf6YTpN_LrCLxwC/s1600/austin_heart.png" height="592" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://maps.stamen.com/watercolor/">Watercolor maps</a> are awesome.</td></tr>
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<br />
One of the biggest challenges is to find a replacement for <a href="http://centralmarket.com/">Central Market</a>. As absolutely ridiculous as it sounds, Central Market played a big role in our lives. We played on the playground and watched the turtles in the pond. We used it as a space to get to know people who would become dear friends. I worked on my thesis while drinking iced lattes and liters of mineral water. And even more plainly, we shopped for our groceries there. I miss being able to find the ingredients I cooked with in my Austin kitchens (my kingdom for some Cento crushed tomatoes) and being able to create the meals that I've fed my family and friends for the past six years.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim5zBauhGCrgka-Em3rghuJZC3lR4PbiLEqgiMsHRp2syGF006Dhhn3FdK3RKkwuzSud2u9opCI3sLCU3lTKpAR3cMZkjDdu7S6AwKdalP32Y2w0lw73pcSazZ9ZZpq826mPw4fIMbJG20/s1600/IMG_20140715_141001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim5zBauhGCrgka-Em3rghuJZC3lR4PbiLEqgiMsHRp2syGF006Dhhn3FdK3RKkwuzSud2u9opCI3sLCU3lTKpAR3cMZkjDdu7S6AwKdalP32Y2w0lw73pcSazZ9ZZpq826mPw4fIMbJG20/s1600/IMG_20140715_141001.jpg" height="640" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">whole milk lattes. forever</td></tr>
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<br />
We do need to work on making the Bay Area feel like home, though, because we'll be here for awhile. After Hackbright ended, I put some serious legwork into applying for jobs. I even had a twitter hashtag that I used like three times (<a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=%23getAJobJanuary&src=hash">#getajobjanuary</a>). I'm happy to report that I start work as a data scientist today. Wish me luck.julie k h aka jkruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12550086827450455448noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225402062034734107.post-5802827444764637162015-01-30T17:54:00.001-06:002015-01-30T17:54:58.353-06:00Birthday Month 2015!My birthday month is fast approaching, so I figured it was time for me to put together my annual list of demands, erm.. I mean, wish list for Colby. Also, I should be studying right now, but I am a super wonderful procrastinator.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnyGGjao5mdk_x-Fn4pqjxDkm4zKZ1NIz2yol7yw8gVFJT6UNgt2KAitN5iLrUUl8ECMK3q2oiGP0eHeelzIXoPSX36T4aQvtLwZFluLG5PnYLa0oLL3mtrObYlUqnRm-wOHv0MnHmzCgN/s1600/raleigh-retroglide-womens-220079-1-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnyGGjao5mdk_x-Fn4pqjxDkm4zKZ1NIz2yol7yw8gVFJT6UNgt2KAitN5iLrUUl8ECMK3q2oiGP0eHeelzIXoPSX36T4aQvtLwZFluLG5PnYLa0oLL3mtrObYlUqnRm-wOHv0MnHmzCgN/s1600/raleigh-retroglide-womens-220079-1-1.jpg" height="408" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://centurycycles.com/product/raleigh-retroglide-womens-220079-1.htm">Raleigh Retroglide</a></td></tr>
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I really want a bike for riding around Alameda. Since Alameda is completely flat and the speed limit is 25 MPH in most places, I don't need anything fancy. Therefore, I want something cute. Like, super cute.<br />
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Over the past couple of years, I've noticed that whenever I've tried a <a href="http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/">Yotam Ottolenghi</a> recipe, it's been a great success. Next on my list to try is his <a href="http://www.marthastewart.com/344169/caramelized-garlic-tart">caramelized garlic tart</a>. And now I want all of his cookbooks and have my Julie/Julia moment with him, except that Julie/Yotam is not nearly as alliterative.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ottolenghi-Cookbook-Yotam/dp/160774418X">Ottolenghi: The Cookbook</a> - Recipes from his restaurants<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Jerusalem-A-Cookbook-Yotam-Ottolenghi/dp/1607743949/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_z">Jerusalem: A Cookbook</a> - Written with Sami Tamimi, explores the cuisine of their home city<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Plenty-Vibrant-Vegetable-Recipes-Ottolenghi/dp/1452101248/">Plenty</a> - Features all vegetarian recipes<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Plenty-More-Vibrant-Vegetable-Ottolenghi/dp/1607746212/">Plenty More</a> - Follow up to Plenty<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2O_Im8TbYrcHqoC-jQ-lFyXYM5ugH6pndTl_CrqXyYRbYjPdetdkbz6dVoHKdgw_5n8dvNPpmmrE1iYh9e66nCjsbhC0Ch-XkzcyzOqdEWw6aT_DRKfd_qqzvgEXHS5FFxwglN7M2aAWO/s1600/bonavitaelec.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2O_Im8TbYrcHqoC-jQ-lFyXYM5ugH6pndTl_CrqXyYRbYjPdetdkbz6dVoHKdgw_5n8dvNPpmmrE1iYh9e66nCjsbhC0Ch-XkzcyzOqdEWw6aT_DRKfd_qqzvgEXHS5FFxwglN7M2aAWO/s1600/bonavitaelec.jpg" height="377" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bonavita-1-0L-Electric-Kettle-BV3825B/dp/B005YR0GDA/">Bonavita Electric Gooseneck Kettle</a></td></tr>
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<br />
I've been getting into coffee again. I still haven't found a good replacement for my beloved <a href="http://www.circacoffee.com/">Epoch</a>, so making coffee at home is a must. I prefer pourover style to coffee machines and a gooseneck kettle allows for much better control. Even better than a gooseneck kettle? An electric kettle. Because I'm lazy.<br />
<br />
<br />julie k h aka jkruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12550086827450455448noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225402062034734107.post-41856433079620821882015-01-27T02:39:00.001-06:002015-01-27T02:39:41.580-06:00Biiiiiicycle, biiiiiiiiiiiiicycle<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPMiwPikVzAwCQhF6Amt46Fy7TQhXbywi-oa-dcnmLFGyTQ7DV75kWffwjXVa6op7Jmzzd2nhpQRiADY6ImUMFXypVdQI5Ucsc39No9qEMK31fwbbRyDU-CtUPFGEtTyFkVof3JOhPGUFW/s1600/bike.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPMiwPikVzAwCQhF6Amt46Fy7TQhXbywi-oa-dcnmLFGyTQ7DV75kWffwjXVa6op7Jmzzd2nhpQRiADY6ImUMFXypVdQI5Ucsc39No9qEMK31fwbbRyDU-CtUPFGEtTyFkVof3JOhPGUFW/s1600/bike.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Please don't be intimidated by my kolourpaint4 skills. I'm an immensely talented individual.</td></tr>
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<br />
<br />
I need some advice, so I'm crowd sourcing. I'm looking to buy a bicycle in the next few months. The idea would be to ride my bike from my apartment to the ferry station in Alameda, which is about 1.3 miles, and lock it up there.<br />
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Things to note:<br />I am so very incredibly short. As in, my inseam is 26 inches and I was really excited when crop pants were in because I could finally find pants that fit and didn't bunch around my ankles.<br />
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The last time I really rode a bike was in college. I had a Lance Armstrong approved Trek mountain bike that got stolen from in front of Owen Hall at Michigan State in the summer of 2005. I guess I learned my lesson about cable locks versus U-Locks.<br />
<br />
I'd be okay with a used bike.<br />
<br />
I've never used clip-in pedals, but maybe that would be okay? I don't know how necessary it is based on how short my commute will be.<br />
<br />
I'm not currently planning on bicycling in San Francisco because I'm too young to die, but perhaps if I get comfortable around Alameda, I might try it in SF. Not sure if that changes the recommendations.<br />
<br />
So, please send me all of your recommendations and suggestions! Also, I'd totally be into biking tips and safety info, too. :)<br />
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<br />julie k h aka jkruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12550086827450455448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225402062034734107.post-19422841447998179542015-01-12T00:09:00.001-06:002015-01-12T00:09:45.771-06:00Yerba Buena Gardens Children's PlaygroundIt's hard to take pictures in San Francisco. This is due to a number of things conspiring against me, but mostly it's because the sun sets early and Ramona hates sleep. We went hung out in San Francisco this afternoon and I actually got to take a few pictures. I can't believe I have an almost 3 year old.
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julie k h aka jkruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12550086827450455448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225402062034734107.post-68218366613695876852014-12-15T00:28:00.005-06:002014-12-15T00:34:41.451-06:00Strawberry Chipotle Jam with Liquid PectinOh hey, remember when this used to be a food blog and not a blog about Hackbright?<br />
<br />
Right.<br />
<br />
So one of my friends gifted us a jar of strawberry chipotle jam for Christmas a few years ago and it was fantastic. I've been making a variation of it ever since, but it's been been awhile. For whatever reason, it's always been easier for me to get liquid pectin and all of the recipes I've seen call for powdered pectin. Here's my converted recipe because I originally started this blog as a way for me to catalog things that I thought I'd want to come back to and I'm kicking myself for not writing this down earlier.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyw6FaJ32GBsW-SL-OCym9ADvtm-4wIxIBFmyRLgCRpUmparcExpMAyuQdahBf1xND9QRws4UKZwIT_73zRGVDHx9L0saTB3g3WNI8r_Dw1RtHiJ0Qgnw_IsJ84osgZggKioVPKIegjetA/s1600/jam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img id="try" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyw6FaJ32GBsW-SL-OCym9ADvtm-4wIxIBFmyRLgCRpUmparcExpMAyuQdahBf1xND9QRws4UKZwIT_73zRGVDHx9L0saTB3g3WNI8r_Dw1RtHiJ0Qgnw_IsJ84osgZggKioVPKIegjetA/s1600/jam.jpg" height="640" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Everything is better with a highly enthusiastic child in the background</td></tr>
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Strawberry Chipotle Jam with Liquid pectin<br />
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1 c (or 1/2 lb) strawberries, chopped<br />
1 chipotle pepper, minced<br />
1 c (or 100 g) granulated sugar<br />
4 t lemon juice<br />
3 T liquid pectin<br />
<br />
1. Combine strawberries, chipotle, sugar and lemon juice. Bring to a rolling boil for 1 full minute.<br />
2. Stir in pectin and bring back to a rolling boil for at least 1 minute<br />
3. Make sure that the jam is <a href="http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_07/jelly_point.html">sheeting</a> and remove from heat<br />
4. Let the jam cool a bit and then pour into a pint-size mason jar.<br />
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I like to consider this "nano-batching" because it just makes a jar and then you don't need to worry about the canning aspect of jam making. Be sure to refrigerate the leftover pectin.
julie k h aka jkruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12550086827450455448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225402062034734107.post-72226556952800860542014-12-09T03:51:00.002-06:002014-12-09T03:51:31.144-06:00Cook RouletteOh hey, I have a blog.<br />
<br />
I spent 5 weeks busting my butt trying to make an app. I succeeded in that. Hooray!<br />
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Cook Roulette is a random meal generator. I'd go into details, except that I spent an extreme amount of time on my github readme document, so I'll just direct you <a href="https://github.com/jkru/cook_roulette/blob/master/readme.md">there</a>.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jkru/cook_roulette/master/static/img/readme_img/login.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="331" src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jkru/cook_roulette/master/static/img/readme_img/login.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My log in page is my favorite page because CRONUTS.</td></tr>
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Also, it's live. Go to <a href="https://cookroulette.herokuapp.com/">https://cookroulette.herokuapp.com</a>. Once you click on the meal generation page, you can check the Yummly button to use its API and get a recipe suggestion based on the randomly generated ingredients.<br />
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It was so insanely easy to deploy that I want to make other random apps just because I can. I'm thinking about working on two different projects. I'd like to use <a href="https://www.djangoproject.com/">Django</a> in one, but I'm not really certain what I want it to be. The other one is a game that I'd like to make (mostly for my friends and me) written in JavaScript (gasp. I know) using <a href="https://www.firebase.com/">Firebase</a> as the database. Firebase is really really cool.<br />
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My biggest project, however, is getting a job. I have a couple interviews lined up, so fingers crossed that those go well. A lot of people are trying to be strategic about when they apply to places, but honestly, I'm going to believe that I'm a competent software engineer and I'm qualified to apply for junior development roles right now. Perhaps I should be more cautious about when to apply to places, but if I wait until I'm comfortable, I'll never apply anywhere because comfortable is not typically my state of mind.<br />
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<br />julie k h aka jkruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12550086827450455448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225402062034734107.post-66416242259772959432014-10-29T02:27:00.002-05:002014-10-29T02:27:49.370-05:00Hackbright Day 22: Machine LearningWow it's after midnight, but I've been incredibly productive, so that's a good thing. It's almost project time and I'm flailing around trying to make sure that I get everything in order for next week. I really want to do a machine learning project. I spent the evening scraping content from one of my favorite blogs that uses really nice css selectors so that I can use a python library called BeautifulSoup to grab the ingredients from recipes and try to do some sort of clustering on them to see what's the what.<br />
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And also, shell scripting? Still incredibly useful:<br />
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cat list_of_pages_to_scrape | awk '{print("grep "$1" toc.php?sort=date")}' | bash | sed 's/"/ /g' | sed 's/</ /g' | awk '{print($3)}' | awk '{print("curl -O -A, --user-agent PPPPPMozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.2; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/32.0.1667.0 Safari/537.36PPPPP http://www.myfavoritefoodblog.com"$1)}' | sed 's/PPPPP/"/g' | bash<br />
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julie k h aka jkruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12550086827450455448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225402062034734107.post-58436143988437874572014-10-28T01:08:00.002-05:002014-10-28T01:08:29.358-05:00Hackbright Day 21: Where we continue on in our movie ratings appI totally forgot that I was supposed to blog today because I was busy playing around with a potential project idea.<br />
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We talked about SQLAlchemy today and continued to work on our movie ratings app. It's a pretty fun project because we had to start things from scratch, or at least, a lot more scratch than previous assignments. It's hard to remember all the moving parts, but we have our other assignments to refer to.<br />
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And this is like the lamest post ever because I'm way more interested in playing with my project. That is probably a good indication.<br />
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<br />julie k h aka jkruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12550086827450455448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225402062034734107.post-53732169453592568132014-10-27T01:07:00.002-05:002014-10-27T01:07:45.186-05:00Hackbright Day 20: ugh projects.Once upon a time, I had a project in mind and it was a very good project. And then I had a side project that I was just going to play with, but then a few people pointed out that I seemed way more interested in the side project than the main project. Fleshing this out more and one instructor thinks that this might be really cool and two of them think that it's probably impossible. Le sigh. I went back to square one with project ideas this weekend and came up with a bunch of things. It turns out that a lot of the stuff that I'm interested in programming are really really hard problems.<br />
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Of course they are. This is how I decided to get a physics degree and why I kept pushing to get my Ph D. I have a stupid habit of doing things because they're "hard" or for the sake of some ideal that makes my life a living hell until it's over. And now I'm not sure what I want to do. I do know what I don't want to do and that is anything that is front end heavy. I have some really talented friends and there are women in my cohort who are amazingly talented designers. I am not of this group, although I appreciate their skills. I want to solve complex and interesting problems using some combination of math and programming. And I don't want to do it in Javascript.<br />
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Friday was mainly a study hall day, although we did get two really good tech talks on object-oriented programming in JavaScript and bootstrap. I'm really glad we got both of those presentations because they reinforced the idea that I don't like front end, but there are tools available that will allow me to minimize my front end work. We also talked about dates and times and datetime in python during the morning lecture and how to effectively organize your code during the afternoon. They were both really informative, but they were definitely overshadowed by the stress of project discussions. I spent a lot of time talking with two of the instructors about my project ideas and ways of doing it. I overheard one of the instructors say to another student ,"please take a seat in the project discussion chair" because right after I got out of that chair and put it away, someone else grabbed it and proceeded to have a similar discussion. And this post is really disjointed because it was a disjointed day. Saturday was good because I participated in a hackathon and that will be a separate post.julie k h aka jkruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12550086827450455448noreply@blogger.com0