Flashback to Virginia

I am still trying to catch up with posting about my travels in December. Hopefully, some of you still have an appetite for reading holiday-themed blog entries!

After I returned from New York City, I had exactly two days to prepare before we were due to drive down to Virginia to visit my mom and family. And by "prepare" I basically mean an entire day of baking! Daiku and I tried to massively cut down on gift-giving this year (and asked both our families to also not give us too many things) but we did want to make some homemade treats for our families. (Also, selfishly, homemade baked goods meant I'd have something to eat, too!)

Here is what a day's baking yielded:

(From left to right)

• Gingerbread people (I made men and women)- recipe: PPK
• Chocolate chip cookes- recipe: Fairly Odd Tofu Mom
  
• Peanutiest Blondies- recipe: Vegan Diva
• Hazelnut Cardamom "Chloe" Cookies- recipe: Vive le Vegan
• Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies- recipe: Vegan With a Vengeance
• Coconut-lime cookies- recipe: Vive le Vegan

Let me tell you, these cookies were all magnificent! I'd like to thank all the bloggers who have posted or brought my attention to these fabulous recipes. Who can resist? My personal favorite were the pumpkin oatmeal cookies- everyone raved about these on their blogs, and I am joining them! Daiku requested the Chloe cookies, and they were his favorite, along with the blondies, which everyone also raved over. My mom loves anything ginger, so the gingerbread people were her favorite. My cousin, Melissa requested the coconut-lime cookies and loved them. And my uncle just loved the decadent chocolate-chip cookies that were rich with a chocolate and coconut flavor. YUM!

I also used the gingerbread people to make the crust for...

Pumpkin chocolate cheesecake! (The recipe came from the blog What the Hell does a Vegan Eat, Anyway? which is always a fascinating and inspiring place to visit). This was my first vegan cheesecake, and the process was a bit complex (involving a water bath, etc.) but it was so worth it for a special occasion. This picture is the cheesecake just out of the pan, after traveling for a day- still looks good, huh?

My not-so-vegan family just loved it, and everyone thought the chocolate-ginger crust was the best part. I can't wait to experiment with other cheesecake flavors!

I'd been saving so many of these recipes to try for a special occasion, and am I ever glad that I did. This is the most holiday baking I've ever done, and I think I'll continue to expand on the tradition next year!

To add to the long list of winter holidays that people celebrate, Iranians have "Shab-e Yalda" which is an old pagan celebration of the longest night of the year, Winter Solstice, which fell on December 21. This night is celebrated by gathering with friends and family, and food!

Here's dinner at my aunt's house.

This is "kalam polo" or rice pilaf with cabbage, which usually has beef in it, but which my aunt had veganized for me by replacing the beef with lima beans, which I love. The crunchy bits of rice are called "tah digh" which is considered a delicacy, flavored with oil or butter and saffron.

One of my favorite aspects of Iranian cuisine is that every meal is served with a variety of fresh herbs and crunchy fresh and/or pickled vegetables. Above, you can see spicy pickled eggplant.

Of course, Shab-e Yalda would not be complete without the pomegranate, which symbolizes rebirth and luck. (And for me, it is also a reminder that spring and summer, with their vibrant colors, are not too far away!)

We were only in Virginia for a few days. We wanted to do so much (like go to Sunflower restaurant, a vegetarian place I've been wanting to try for a while now!) but the days before Christmas were so hectic, and the traffic in this part of the country (right outside of Washington D.C.) is so atrocious, that we didn't really get to do much. Before we knew it, we were saying goodbye to people and packing up our cookies for the long drive to St. Louis to visit Daiku's family.

Flashback to Virginia

Please Help and Spread the Word!

Please read the below letter from PETA and send a letter and spread the word. Especially pertinent for all my upstate NY friends!

You're likely very familiar with the long-established link between crimes against humans and those against other animals and the additional incentive that this correlation gives many prosecutors to vigorously pursue cases against animal abusers. Although more and more prosecutors are taking such cases seriously, too many animal abusers still walk out of court without being properly punished.

Please send a quick note to District Attorney William Fitzpatrick, whose office is preparing to prosecute Dustin Gauger, 20, and Kyle Custer, 18, both of Elbridge. Gauger and Custer face felony charges stemming from their alleged December 20 abduction and fatal torture of an Elbridge family's cat. The defendants are accused of taking the animal from her guardians' home and bringing her to the trailer park where they reside, binding her, and dousing her with gasoline, and setting her on fire. The animal was suffering from severe burns when she was found by officials and later died, according to news sources.

In what may be a frightening illustration of the above-mentioned correlation, these defendants also reportedly face felony rape charges stemming from separate incidents involving 14-year-old girls. Ask Fitzpatrick that, if his office wins a conviction in this case, his prosecutors work with the court to ensure that the convicts are incarcerated, ordered to undergo a thorough psychiatric evaluation and subsequent counseling at their own expense, and barred from ever again owning or caring for animals—period—as is allowed by New York law. It is our experience that your input really does make a difference in case outcomes, so thank you in advance!

Fitzpatrick should receive only courteous correspondence.

The Honorable William J. Fitzpatrick
Onondaga County District Attorney's Office
421 Montgomery St. Civic Center, 12th Fl.
Syracuse, NY 13202
315-435-3969 (fax)
daweb@ongov.net

Please forward this message to others who might be willing to lend their voices to this important issue. Thank you for your compassion for animals and for your willingness to act.

Sincerely yours,

Dan Paden
Domestic Animal and Wildlife Rescue & Information Department
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

* * *

Also check out this article for links between violence and cruelty toward animals.

Thank you!

Please Help and Spread the Word!

Friday Detox Food Round-up

Hi everyone, and welcome to the first detox edition of the Friday food round-up! As most of you know, Daiku and I have decided to welcome 2007 by following Alex Jamieson's "Great American Detox Diet" to cleanse our bodies from both everyday and holiday overindulgence.

A little bit of background-- you might be asking, if I am vegan and Daiku is mostly vegan, what is there to detox from? I found that I was relying too much on refined foods (such as white bread and pasta). Daiku has a serious coffee habit, and doesn't feel right unless he drinks several cups a day. Both of us have sugar issues- I love baking various fun desserts, and both of us regularly indulge in sweets cravings (think ice cream, cupcakes, muffins, dark chocolate, granola, etc.)

Therefore, we thought that this detox would make us more conscious of our eating habits and their effects on our bodies and moods. We also both liked this specific detox because it is not radical at all. Jamieson's book talks about the nutritious benefits of unrefined, whole foods, but there is no starvation, no eating plan, no fasts, no liquid days, no weird supplements or schedules. This is something that we can not only do for a few days or weeks, but can continue to incorporate into our lives.

We have decided that because we are not detoxing from fast food or animal products (as for example Jamieson's partner Morgan Spurlock was at the end of the film "Supersize Me"!), that we will follow this plan strictly for 6 weeks instead of 8. Now I will show you some of the meals we have had this past week. You will find that the meals are a little bit repetitive, but that is not due to the diet so much as the fact that we have yet to do serious grocery shopping since getting back from vacation! Hence, the reliance on frozen and pantry foods.

The day after new year's day, we slapped our forheads after we realized that, d'oh! We'd forgotten to eat the traditional black-eyed peas for good luck on January 1st! We hope that these January 2nd black-eyed peas will make up for it.

We cooked these peas, along with some frozen mustard greens, onions, and diced tomatoes in our favorite detox find, unrefined coconut oil. I'd never cooked with this oil before, but am glad I discovered it because in addition to all its anti-inflammatory and health properties, it makes food taste great. Even though it smells very coconutty on first glance, the food you cook in it does not really taste like coconut. If you are freaked out by coconut oil because it is a saturated fat, don't worry, because plant-derived saturated fats (in the context of a healthy, plant-based diet) are not nearly as harmful as animal-derived saturated fats.

We had the peas mixture over brown Basmati rice cooked with saffron. I used saffron to cook the rice, because we discovered that the veggie broth powder that we use has maltodextrin in it (a sweetener) and the detox advises against refined or chemical sweeteners.

I can not tell you how delicious this was.

One thing about following this detox is how hungry we have been for the last few days! This is a reflection of how much we had depended on snacks and junk food previously. Without snacks between meals (due also to our empty kitchen), we both really feel it when it is time to eat! Here's a lunch salad we made. A mixture of: whole wheat couscous, cannelini beans, shredded organic carrot, organic sunflower seeds, onions, and organic currants, dressed with flax oil, vinegar, and heaps of dried mint, garnished with basil. This salad was inhaled in a few minutes!

Here is a typical detox breakfast: organic steel-cut oats topped with unsweetened soymilk and a mixture of maple nuts and currants. Daiku had made these nuts the night before when he really wanted a sweet snack: he had taken raw pecans, hazelnuts, peanuts, cashews, and sunflower seeds, and toasted them with maple syrup and cinnamon. I learned from the book that maple syrup is a great natural sweetener that is low in sucrose (as opposed to white sugar which is almost 100% sucrose.) However, watch out! Maple sugar or crystals is considered a refined product that is also nearly 100% sucrose. Therefore, your body would react to it in the same way as it would to regular table sugar.

Daiku and I gave ourselves a new cast-iron grill pan (flat on one side, ridges on the other) as our Christmas gift. Here it was being used for the first time to make some grilled tofu rubbed with homemade jerk seasoning, organic shoyu, and lime juice. Look at those grill marks- so exciting!!

The tofu was served on a bed of mustard greens cooked with onions and some lentils that were cooked and then sauteed with some caramelized onions (again, cooked in coconut oil.) This was such a satisfying meal for both of us.

Here are some spices (yellow mustard seeds, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, red pepper flakes, black pepper, cardamom, turmeric, and freshly grated nutmeg). These, along with some bay leaves gave the explosive flavor for our...

...potato and okra curry stew. Potatoes, frozen okra, tomatoes, carrots, and onions went into the stew, which we served with Hawaiian Wehani rice (a textured, chewy, and delicious whole-grain rice variety).

Finally, tonight's dinner, which we call "Burrito Pasta Salad." We mixed together: whole wheat penne pasta, black beans, garbanzo beans, frozen corn, shredded carrot, onion, and some spaghetti squash that we had cooked and frozen a few weeks ago. We also mixed in some frozen cilantro, salsa, chopped olives, and chopped sun-dried tomatoes and topped with fresh lime juice, flax oil, and julienned basil. This salad was hard to resist, it was just like a burrito in a bowl, although both of us wished we had some avocado to put in there!

So what has the first week of detox been like?

I gave up caffeine totally, since my black and green tea intake was not that high. However, Daiku has been gradually lowering his coffee intake, as the book suggested. As Jamieson notes, for someone who is used to large amounts of caffeine, going cold-turkey would be unneccessarily painful. Still, both of us went through a few days of unusual irritability, which we attribute to the detox. I also had a low-grade headache for a couple of days and felt that I was coming down with a head cold. These symptoms are also passing. Daiku and I have also noticed how much more we appreciate the taste of food even after such a short time. This evening, we were desperately searching the house for a sweet, detox-friendly snack, and found a bag of unsweetened dried fruit. As I bit into a prune, it tasted like the world'd most beautiful thing. Ultimately, this is what the detox is giving us: a renewed appreciation for the taste of real food. It has also forced us to put a variety of ingredients into use: instead of just olive oil all the time, we are using more coconut oil, flax oil, and walnut oil (All expeller- or cold-pressed, of course). Instead of just bread, rice, and pasta, we are using couscous, oats, buckwheat, and barley. That variety is a good thing.

Another update next week! By then, I hope to have cooked some of the recipes provided in the book (such as scones!) I look forward to hearing any comments, suggestions, or questions you guys might have.

Have a great weekend!

Friday Detox Food Round-up

NYC images, part 3

Ok, one last post with NYC pictures...I swear, I'm not one of those people who tortures others with endless slides of their vacations... or am I?!

Since many of you have visited New York, you might be familiar with this building in SoHo, known simply as "11 Spring Street." It was an anomaly in New York City, a building that was abandoned and had been taken over by artists as an art and performance space. Over the years, artists of all kinds had added their own touches to this evolving building. Well, surprise, this building was finally sold to a developer (to be turned into condos) and this was the last time it would be accessible to the public.

Needless to say, 100's of people had lined up to get in and explore this building before it meets its fate.

While I didn't go inside, the art outside was unique and cool enough. Above is a 3-D display made of real produce, sticking out of one of the walls.

Here's an artist, spray-painting away as the crowds watched. I'm so glad I got to see this old landmark one last time...

Click here for an article about 11 Spring Street.

While in New York, I was excited at the chance to meet a fellow vegan blogger, Wiebke. I've never met a fellow blogger before! She was nice enough to pass on information about the Satya Magazine holiday party, being held at Red Bamboo in Brooklyn. Well, I love Satya magazine, I've always wanted to check out Red Bamboo, which is a famous vegetarian restaurant, and the party sounded fun, so I dragged my friends Tony and Dorota with me.

Here's me and Tony at the party. But I didn't get a chance to meet Wiebke. :-(

We got to try a lot of fun hors d'oeuvres (veggie shrimp and chicken and spring rolls, oh my!), and I also ordered veggie Buffalo wings. Living in Upstate NY, I am surrounded by actual chicken wings at every corner (restaurants often sell them by 20, 30, 50, or more- yuck!), so it felt really good to get to eat some cruelty-free wings, with celery and ranch dip. These were good, though greasy. As you can see, I forgot to take a picture before we'd pretty much devoured the whole plate! My friends, knowing that I would soon be starting a detox, joked that I was "retoxing" on beer and greasy (but yummy) foods!

The party was so fun (and SO crowded!), and it was good to see so many cool people in one place. Thanks, Satya magazine!

Finally, I leave you with one of the funnest aspects of visiting New York- getting to see Dorota's kitty, Willis. Here he is, sipping water from the countertop. She adopted him when he was a kitten and was found in a dumpster. Appearantly, his energetic meowing had caused him and his siblings to be rescued from the dumpster where they had been abandoned- you go, Willis!

Tomorrow, I will post my first friday food round-up - detox edition!

NYC images, part 3

NYC images, part 2

A few more images from my trip to NYC...

Here's a dinner Dorota and I made at home. (I have to admit I was inspired by a similar dish Urban Vegan made a few weeks back that had looked so delicious and stuck in my mind) Lentils sauteed with some spices served with a mixture of caramelized pearl onions and mushrooms, with a side of simply dressed mesclun topped with toasted pine nuts and some Tofutti vegan cream cheese. We were not going off a cookbook or a recipe, but both loved how these simple ingredients came together and tasted. Now I crave this every day!

Every time I go to New York, I have to make a pilgrimage to my old neighborhood of Long Island City, Queens. This is the first subway stop out of Manhattan, so you get fantastic views of the New York skyline and the East River. It is also very close to these fun neighborhoods: Astoria (Queens), Greenpoint (Brooklyn), and Williamsburg (Brooklyn).

First, I had so say hello to the old apartment, on the fourth floor above the "Stop One Mack Deli."

Then, down the block on Vernon Blvd. to the Brasil Coffee Shop, which made a mean cup of coffee, where we picked up a bagel for...

...lunch on the East River. It was a beautiful, warm day, and well, the view was perfect. (There's the United Nations in the background!)

Here I am, contemplating all the new skyscrapers going up on the waterfront. Development and gentrification are a fact of life in most NYC neighborhoods, but there is something so bittersweet about seeing all the small shops, restaurants, and apartments going out of business or getting left behind as the neighborhood becomes, well, yuppiefied.

This picture shows the juxtaposition: a fancy French Bistro, Tournesol, next to a neighborhood bodega. An old brick apartment building near the giant luxury apartment building. (We used to call this the "mowhawk building" because of the way the orange top glowed in the night.)

Of course, I had to feel like I was doing some "serious work" on this trip, so I headed to Chelsea to check out some new art gallery shows. The funnest was a show by Chuck Close, a favorite photographer of mine.

Here are 2 self-portraits. (On the left, a photograph, on the right a tapestry)

For the last few years, he has been working in the medium of daguerreotypes (a 19th century precursor to film photography). He took daguerreotypes of himself and a group of friends, and then blew them up into giant photographs and tapestries. The medium of daguerreotype, with its long exposure time and overwhelming detail produces hauntingly frank portraits, and this show was exciting to behold.

Here are some of his portraits of the artist Lorna Simpson. Here is a link to the show catalog (which ends tomorrow, Jan. 4) for anyone who is interested.

My friend Tony and I went to dinner at Quantum Leap, a fantastic vegetarian/vegan restaurant (that also serves some fish dishes) with two locations in the East and West Village. I had this super indulgent dish: Chipotle "chicken" burger with "bacon" and "cheese"- oh my gosh, this really hit the spot! I made up for the naughtiness of the burger with going with a side salad and miso soup instead of the french fry option...

Here's a festive little marzipan Santa that Dorota bought at her neighborhood bakery in the Bronx. Unfortunately, he looked better than he tasted, the marzipan wasn't the best.

NYC images, part 2

New Year

Daiku and I returned from holiday traveling late on December 30th, so New Year's Eve day was the first full day we had at home. We were anxious to do some home-cooking after a bunch of road food and rich holiday food, and were both preparing to embark on a detox (based on Alex Jamieson's book "The Great American Detox Diet") in the new year. (Thanks again to Midwest Vegan for sending me this thought-provoking book!)

For breakfast, I decided to make the Mt. Washington Hot Bread that Emmy had written about on her Vegan Diva blog. She had veganized the original recipe found on Wait-and-See Pudding. There was only one problem: in anticipation of the detox, we had gotten rid of all the refined sugar in the house. However, this was an opportunity to test how well unrefined sweeteners can replace sugar in a recipe. The "Great American Detox" has a great conversion chart, so I replaced the 1/2 cup sugar called for in the recipe with 1/2 cup maple syrup (thanks for the huge jug of maple syrup, mom!) and eliminated most of the liquid called for in the recipe. (Instead of 1/2 cup of soymilk, I used a small splash).

The resulting hot bread made a warming, hearty breakfast:

As you can see the texture was not too greatly affected by the maple syrup substitution. However, the bread did dry out a bit after a couple of hours (I think white sugar helps keep baked goods nice and moist), which wasn't a problem, since Daiku and I polished these off pretty quickly. Thanks for the tip, Emmy!

On New Year's Eve, Daiku and I stay home and cook pretty elaborate dinners to celebrate. However, this year, having just gotten back home and with the detox soon to start, we toned things down a little.

A glass (or two) of our favorite cheapo wine from California, Barefoot Sauvignon Blanc.

Some breadsticks (made with leftover dough from our Thanksgiving dinner rolls) coated in Italian seasoning

...and eaten with white bean dip. (I blended a drained can of cannelini beans with garlic, extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, some veggie broth powder, water, oregano, sage, and a small pinch of coriander)

And one of my all-time favorite comfort foods, pad thai, courtesy of Daiku. We realized that we had bought soybean sprouts instead of mung bean sprouts, but they were crunchy and good. What else did he throw in there?... Some mock duck (from a can) marinated in barbeque sauce and baked, shallots, carrots, cilantro, peanut butter and roasted peanuts, shoyu, and lots of other things I'm sure I'm forgetting.

We indulged in our dinner with candlelight and a fire.

The next day, we knew we weren't fully detoxing, since we had some leftovers to get through. But we began implementing changes.

Breakfast was miso soup with tofu and wakame and dulse seaweeds, accompanied by organic orange juice and water with organic lime. I always have to convince myself that broth-based things can be satisfying, and indeed, this simple breakfast kept us going for most of the day, which included a hike.

Since Syracuse, like much of the rest of the country is unseasonably warm, we took advantage of the fact and went to our favorite close-by hiking trail, the Clark Reservation to welcome the new year and get some exercise. Here are some shots from the hike.

Finally, last night we tried a new thing. Daiku had read about Goma Dofu, a staple of zen vegetarian cuisine in Japan, and had been wanting to try it. It is basically a tofu made of sesame paste and kuzu (starch) instead of soybeans. Making it is considered zen practice, since it involves a lot of time-consuming, meditative work such as pounding sesame seeds by hand. Daiku wants to try making this at some point, but just to get a sense of what it's like, we decided to try a packaged version first.

Unfortunately, we couldn't understand the instructions on how to prepare the goma dofu! (Why, oh why, did I never learn Japanese?) We even tried going to the company website, but no luck finding English instructions. Going by the illustrations, we decided to place the packages in some hot water for a few minutes, and then immerse them in cold water.

This is how the goma dofu looked out of the package, with little packets of sauce to accompany it.

Here it is on our plate, ready to eat. The texture is like a firm silken, custardy tofu, and the taste is mildly sweet and reminiscent of sesame. The sauce, from what we could taste, had some plum, ume, shoyu...? It took a while to get used to the different flavor, but by the end, we both liked the faint, delicate sweetness and depth.

And that is ultimately our resolution for the new year: to continue to explore and try new things, to expand our knowledge and our repertoire. (Sure, there are more everyday resolutions too: work on dissertation more, become more environmentally aware, travel more, lose weight, stop procrastinating... but I like the first one the most.)

Happy new year to all my dear blogging friends!

New Year

NYC images, part 1 + happy New Year!

A few quick photos from my trip to New York City. This trip was a chance for me to catch up with Dorota, one of my best friends. It is strange to think that I live so close to NYC, but only get to visit every other month or so. Anyway, this week of bonding did us good!

The night before I left, Daiku and I had a farewell dinner. I got the recipe for this Thai-style curry from a British magazine called "You Are What You Eat" (Dec. 2006 issue, p. 94). Funny name for a magazine, huh? I had never heard of it, but this recipe, and many of the articles in the magazine, were really intriguing.

Here is their recipe for "Butternut, peanut, pea, and spinach coconut curry with cashew salad" with my modifications:

2 TB vegetable oil
1 large onion, sliced
1.5 TB Thai green curry paste
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 handfuls skinless peanuts, chopped
1 lemongrass stalk
400 ml. unsweetened coconut milk
600 ml. hot water
2 green chillies, sliced (I used Hungarian red chillies instead of Thai bird chillies)
600 g. butternut squash, peeled and cut into large chunks
3 TB Thai fish sauce (I omitted)
2 large handfuls peas (I used frozen peas)
250 g. small leaf spinach (not being used to metric measurements, I didn't realize that 250 grams of spinach is a LOT! so I used less, because I didn't have much)

Cashew Salad:

handful of toasted cashews, chopped
2 spring onions, sliced
handful of coriander (cilantro), roughly chopped

• In a large pot, heat vegetable oil and sauté onion until it just begins to caramelize. Add curry paste and garlic, fry for one minute, stirring often.
• Add peanuts and fry another minute, stirring well to ensure mixture doesn't stick
• Meanwhile, remove base and head layers of lemongrass and thinly slice until you get to the woody part- but reserve the woody part
• Add coconut milk, hot water, chillies, lemongrass slices and the reserved stalk, and bring mixture to a boil. Add squash and fish sauce. Simmer until squash is cooked. Add peas and cook for another 3 minutes, taste and season. Stir in spinach and turn off heat.
• To make salad, mix the ingredients together. Serve curry with a little salad on top.

This stuff was magnificent! The squash in Thai curry was a first for me, but it came out really well. Try this recipe!

We ate the curry with a side of baby bok choi, steamed, then sautéed and sprinkled with sesame seeds. We also had some baked tofu (I gave Crystal's recipe another try, this time with firm tofu, and it came out beautifully)

Enough for leftovers on the train the next day. (Including Thai take-out leftovers) I had the coolest lunch on that Amtrak, hands down!

A lychee cocktail at Spice Restaurant. We all commented that the lychee kind of looked like a fetus!!

Sorry for the blurry photo: dinner at Spice. My friends Nicole (who was visiting from California) and Dorota were kind enough to order veggie things, so I could try them: spring rolls, potstickers, and Japanese Eggplant salad. Spice is a cute restaurant, with plenty of vegan options (including mock duck!)

Union Square Farmer's market. I used to walk through here every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on my way to work. Check out these Romanesco Cauliflowers!

Yours truly munching on a whole wheat sourdough baguette at the market. I basically ate my way through the city for the whole week. (Hello, free samples everywhere?!)

Speaking of samples, here is Dorota at the Max Brenner Chocolate by the Bald Man store. Not too many vegan options here, but it is a fascinating shop/restaurant to walk through- chocolate fountains, little plastic syringes for a "shot" of chocolate, chocolate truffles, pizza, ... They had samples of chocolate-covered pecans, the remains of which you see melting on Dorota's hands!

A crazy new Automat restaurant on St. Mark's place. There was only one vegan option (PB & J sandwich), but I was intrigued by the place: simultaneously old-school and futuristic. Fun to walk through.

These cups are among my favorite things that Dorota has ever brought back from Poland:

You'll be innocently drinking your Açai juice when you see something weird.

What is this?! You exclaim as you take a few more sips.

Ah! It was a froggy hiding in my cup! So cute.

I have one of these cups too, with a puppy instead of a frog.

The frog wishes you Happy New Year's Eve! I hope the upcoming year brings everyone peace, health, and love. Daiku and I have a tradition of staying home and cooking for New Year's Eve. I better go help cook.

So long, 2006. It's been real.

NYC images, part 1 + happy New Year!