Reflecting Upon A Time

This time of year is always very busy and even sometimes crazy. There is the hustle and bustle of shoppers, family in town and personally for me a large desire to reflect on this year and to prepare my mind for the next! With only a few days left in 2016, there seems to still be so much that I would like to do. My list of goals may not have been completed fully but I accept that since that's the beauty of creating challenges and goals for myself; it doesn't have to be perfect.

This year of 2016 has had so many emotions and trials that in the end it has really taught me a lot about life, myself and what really matters. This year there were many moments of solitude, soul searching, and learning about myself on a whole new level that wasn't familiar to me before. I think that's something that is normal as you go through your 20's, most likely one of if not the hardest time in your life. There is so much time for self- discovery during these years that is so very needed, yet painful and even lonely at times.

While I was in Rio this Summer, there were many hard moments that I experienced, internally. There were also really nice and enjoyable times, but a lot of them were also more internal. My last day in Rio, I had the hotel room to myself since my roommate had an earlier flight. I just enjoyed soaking everything in, and looking out the window and taking some alone time to myself before my long flights ahead.

If I could pick a month that stands out to me this year, it would most likely be August. There was so much variety and new experiences that collided with one another, challenging, exciting, inspiring, and fear paved the way. The month started with going to a coffee shop with my dearest and inspiring sister, and getting more into my Arabic studies. Learning more about this interesting and exotic language keeps motivating and challenging me to advance my knowledge in this Semitic language.

Close to the middle of August, I was lucky enough and able to go to San Salvador, El Salvador for my sweet sister and brother in law's wedding. I will never forget that day and I don't even think the details will fade my memory. The experience and feeling of being there was something incredible and easy to recreate in memory and feeling but hard to explain in words. The week after the wedding followed a spark in my mind, a necessity to create a blog, something to look forward to and write and share about my interest and passions. This also happened to be one of my hardest weeks of the year- full of anxiety and fear that led my mind and actions. The end of August only got better, and writing on Plum Tree began to become a regular thing, and the last rays of Summer were in due season as Autumn would soon be taking its course.

To be honest, each season this year was very hard and had its moments of pain, but I found that this pain only brought me to know and understand myself better and with this understanding came more appreciation and awareness of  the goodness and beauty around me. I don't have to even look very far to find a glimmer of it. The pain and the emotion throughout these four seasons helped with this beauty, and realizing that all emotion is beautiful.

I think there is still so much more to say about this year, and how 'new' and 'unpredictable' were the words that highlighted this year. But I think I will save it for another post, and leave my reflections and thoughts for another time:) Cheers to this wonderful, long yet short, interesting and surprising year of 2016!! Looking forward to all that's ahead...

Favorite Foreign Words

I've been meaning to pick and write about my favorite words in the languages that I have learned. I would call myself someone who likes to and quickly jumps around from various languages, desiring and seeking inspiration along the way. I will go in order from the language that I've been studying the longest to the one that is the most recent.

The language that I've been studying the longest is Chinese (Mandarin). Winter reminds me of studying this language interest of mine, since I started learning in Winter of 2014. The often cold and dreariness of the Winter weather can get me in the mood to study something inspiring such as a language, and Chinese has been that for me. A word in Chinese which I have easily remembered since the start of learning is 东莞周大 which means California State University East Bay. I've always remembered this, and maybe also because it has to do with how personal my school has become for me. I like to say this word, I think it gives me comfort and I'm proud to say it, knowing that it belongs to me. 

After a year of studying Chinese, I dived into Russian. I liked the sound of it and still do. I think it's a beautiful language, one of the top spoken slavic languages. Unlike Chinese, Russian has an alphabet, yet some look like English letters and others sound like them, and still others look and sound nothing like English. This excited me, and I thought the letters of the alphabet looked cool and exotic. It's been a while since I've studied this language thoroughly and diligently but I know there's still an interest hidden somewhere, and will come out every now and then. The word that I really like to say, and like it's meaning is пожалуйста. This word simply means please or you're welcome. This is one of the words in Russian that I have remembered. It is a very useful phrase but also I really like the way it sounds, it's almost as if it rolls off of the tongue, so gently and elegantly. 

About a year ago, my interest for Arabic took off. I soon became interested in this part of the world and this almost scary and daunting looking language. Almost all of the letters connect, and it looks so fluid and flowy. It took some time to get used to writing from write to left, and knowing all of these letters and how to write them. There are a lot of gutteral and airy sounds in this difficult language but it makes the challenge even more present. One of my favorite words in Arabic is صباح الخير, which means good morning. It's such a simple word but this could be the first word you say to somebody and yet it's so important. I like this word becasue of that, and also because of the way it sounds, rolling off the tongue, and with the back of your throat also having a role. 

The most recent language that I've been studying is Hindi, as of early Fall. I enjoy learning this language, it's so different but I find myself immersed in it every time I study it. I want to create goals for myself with this language, since there are so many things to learn and to keep learning and challenging myself is always something good. The word that I really like in Hindi is कोई बात नहीं, which means it's alright or no problem. I feel that I say this word a lot in English anyway and it's a useful word. Soon I will make flashcards for Hindi and will need to start memoriszing more words and phrases. Happy language studies!

Persian Twist

I've been meaning to cook a Persian dish, and for a while had no luck in finding a cookbook from this region. With a little more scoping, something came up, and I found the same recipe that I had had at a Persian restaurant just 3 weeks ago, with my sister and brother in law. I was excited to make this recipe, yet I've learned a few things about the cooking process. Always read the whole recipe before starting, and once I did this I realized that I had the wrong kind of lamb. Lamb shoulder instead of ground lamb. Oh well. So the recipe made a turn of its own, and I created a kind of lamb chops with rice. It wasn't what I wanted initially but it turned out alright in the end.

The delicious Persian meal

With great company:)

Hopefully in the future, I can cook more Persian meals, and maybe try this one again, with the right ingredients;) Now, I'll need to figure out what I'll be baking this holiday season! Till next time...

Welcome to the World of Baking

Baking has been on my thoughts recently. With a new season of the the Great American Baking Show, my Mom baking Christmas cookies and seeing more and more ideas on what to bake during the holidays in magazines such as Bon Appetit and Living; I seem to grow closer and closer to the mysterious and colorful world of baking.

I remember when my Grandpa was still alive, or Bebop as we would call him, he asked me what kind of cooking I liked to do. I was only in High School at the time and wasn't familar with much in the kitchen. I would even go further and say that my heart wasn't there, yet nor my knowledge. I was really only interested in eating what was made in the kitchen, for eating sake. When Bebop asked me this, I wasn't sure what to reply, and knew that he was quite the cook and really enjoyed cooking and eating expensive and high quality food. Then and still now, I like to eat sweets and desserts; I'm a sweet tooth by nature. So my reply was desserts, although I never really delved into baking then either. From his bookshelf, he pulled out a cookbook that was inspired and influenced by a restaurant. I had never heard of it, and thanked him yet wasn't sure how I would use it. To this day, my Mom still has this cookbook, since I gave it to her and she was familar of it from her childhood.

When I think back to this moment, I wish I could talk about cooking and baking with him, now that I've become more and more interested in it, as well as comfortable. The kitchen is no longer a foreign  place, but one that stirs up inspiration and creativity, using my whole being- my mind, atttention, imagination and all of my senses to make it right.

The idea of baking perhaps seems harder or even more delicate compared with cooking. Cooking is tough and straight to the chase, whereas baking can be dainty and precise, rich and sweet all in one. This is something that is new to me, but I want to give it a try! My goal before 2016 is over: to bake three things. They will most likely be holiday/Christmas inspired. I have three weeks, lets see what I bake!

Spices and Flavors for the Chicken

I made a Pakistani dish, according to Mary Knoll International Cookbook. This dish seems to have many variations to it, since I've made a similar recipe but the Indian version. The recipe is Chicken Curry, and upon seeing this recipe, I immediately knew that I wanted to cook it. That's the thing about me, even looking for a recipe to cook (or bake) has to inspire me in some way! I think I also have to be in the mood to cook as well.

This recipe was fairly easy, and the ingredients were not too crazy or unfamilar, except I wasn't sure what a cheesecloth was, so just used the ingredients separately for that. I think it turned out similar to what it was supposed to, hopefully :) I really like chicken dishes where there are lots of flavors and spices- I find that the Middle Eastern and Asian recipes have the most of those.

 My next recipe will be something new for me, and I've been looking for these kind of recipes from this certain country for quite sometime, and finally found a cookbook, which made me stretch my arms to reach this beauty. I am excited to cook and share it here on Plum Tree, so stay tuned for that next week! 

It called for yogurt to be mixed in with the chicken and the spices and other main ingredients.This part reminded me of one of my favorite recipes- Syrian Meatballs, which I still have not made and put on PT, but I want to do that soon! I made white rice to go on the side for this dish, which worked well, as most chicken and meat dishes do. Enjoying the late Fall rain on this cozy Saturday! So many things I want to do and capture my melancholy, creative soul once again;) Till next time...

The Piece of the Pie

I do not do well with uniforms, so I've learned. The realization that putting together an outfit all on my own, with my innovative and artsy mind to help, is what lifts up my mood and helps create a world full of ideas and inspiration to reign in.

One of my first posts on Plum Tree http://plummtree.blogspot.com/2016/08/i-remember.html had to do with a job of mine that I soon discovered I did not like, mainly becasue it was not a fit for me in the slightest. Some days, I find myself reflecting on this particluar time in my life, this season and job where finding what I needed to thrive was somewhere in the dark, and needed to be found and revitalized again. This job, among many customer service type jobs had a uniform- it's own particular and strict uniform guidelines, in order to look and play the part. It's true, I was playing a role, all the while not feeling like myself in the process, yet felt like how all eyes percieved me to be.

My creative, self expression was out the door, and I had to literally leave it there once I came into this noisy, intimadating and unsure environment that I called work. Day in and day out, my mind and attitude about this place began to spiral, not to mention my well- being and confidence. The connection that I wanted to create with this small stucture of a place, it's inviting demeanor and sense of hospitality left a different impression than ever before, since I was slowly but swiftly discovering what it's like to be behind the scenes, to play the part and get paid to act it for those 6 hours, and to see the outside world taking it all in, appreciating every motion, smell and tired smile.

Seeing all of my clothes, accesories and everything that could make me feel more alive, just as simple as wearing my own clothes while not working, felt like a breath of fresh air. I no longer felt like a number, an identical among the coworkers, but like my good ol' self again. Once I decided to leave this job, there was no turning back. I began to heal the things that made me feel like not enough or underestimated. These toxic thoughts affected me, yet they soon began to disappear as my wardrobe was in use again, and no longer having to rush off to a crowded, noisy place, wondering if I'll remember how to pin this, and tuck in that and say the right things and not forgetting to smile at the exact moments. Flexibility is a quality of mine, but it didn't serve me much use in this environment where unpredicability is the name of the game.

Art, stlye, fashion, these all give me the inspiration I need to pull through the day, and to discover a side of myself that I was unaware of. Last night, I helped pick out my sister's clothes for her workday. the next day. These random, and ordinary times where I like and decide to help her out and find options- perhaps some that were new and never seen or discovered before and make it look like a whole new creation, just by shopping in her closet. Mixing and matching, and finding the right patterns, colors and textures all make me feel and be inspired. I find that it's a little different when you do this for someone else than yourself, since it's more like an act of charity, and making it easier for them, such as my sister who doesn't always enjoy the process of finding a new outfit for the next day.

I've learned and expereinced how it is to not have the piece of pie, and how much different it can make with that extra piece in the picture. I didn't realize how important this slice was until it was taken away. Hello 100% pie, hello inspiration!

Full of Noodles

Noodles, noodles, noodles. I came to realize that I enjoy cooking with noodles, and that I want to keep going with this interest of mine. This funny and quirky allure of noodles reminds me of the book I read this past Summer, On the Noodle Road. Like I mentioned before in my Summer Books post, that the author traveling and becoming knowledable about throughout the regions of Asia, Central Asia and to the boot heel of Italy. This book inspired me, within the art of cooking as well as traveling, and learning about the various and eclectic cultures in these geographical locations of the world.

Now for the recipe, which is something that is easy and simple along with no sweat or tears, except maybe the onions that are optional for this dish.

Here are noodles, cucumbers, mushrooms, onions, and chicken.

Easy, breezy directions.  Directions with 1,2,3 always makes you feel better!

This stir fry dish is always a go to, and doesn't make you feel too bad because it's still cooking, and a process. There will be many more times when I cook this go to recipe, and other noodle recipes to come!

What Happens in a Coffee Shop

Coffee shops, a time to reflect and process the busy and hectic days, but also an area of space to do all the things I love- study language, talk with my sister, read, drink a not so often starbucks drink and observe all that is around me. I think ideas and inspirations come best in these type of spaces and places. The tune of the music gives off a soft whisper to be taken in and motivated when studying or reading enticing words on a page, or helping me form my thoughts and words while embracing and participating an inspiring conversation.

I want to go to cafes more often, since it always helps me rejuvunate and process things and just relax and enjoy myself. I think coffee shops are always nice anytime of the year, but especially during the Fall and Winter months, the brisk cold air and the onset of the holiday season. Cheers to a hot drink and a book that you're glued to!