Musings of a Virgin

1 year ago today I was in California for Blizzcon 2009, but I could not make it out this year. Still I sprung for a virtual ticket and will be spending the next 2 days watching the activities from my home.

After being there last year, its easy to imagine everything that's going on there. Its just a whole lot of fun. And I really think I want to be there in 2011.

Still there are benefits to watching the activities at home. Its comfortable and here's my Blizzcon snack. Wings with a Mozzarella cheese, tomato and salmon salad. Definitely a step up from the hot dogs and other convention foods available there.



Incidentally, here's what the outside of my house looks like today. No a green leaf in sight and lots of dried leafs on the ground.

Posted by emyln at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments

Its fall again. How fast the year has flown by. These pics are actually a week old, the tree are much redder/balder now. Still , it is pretty. As usual, these are the tree from my street.

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I made Spaghetti squash noodles again. If you're trying to find them, its shaped like a papaya and yellow. I find it interesting that they are only available 1-2 months out of the year.


This time I have ground turkey and mushrooms. And bought a very expensive bottle of tomato sauce. It was $7 a jar BUT absolutely fresh ingredients, all natural, no paste, puree or added sugar. And I must say, it was quite good.



2 squashes produce a lot of spaghetti. Next time I'll just get one.

Posted by emyln at 12:16 AM | Permalink | Comments

I read this blog article on Spaghetti Squash and just had to try it out. A healthy version of noodles!

Luckily, I was able to find squash at my local grocery store. But they called it mixed squash so I picked 2 different squashes to see if the yellow one was Spaghetti Squash and if there was a difference from other squash.

Here's the squash after 1 hour in the oven at 375 degrees and cut in half. Note that I put the squash in whole.


And here's the result. The Spaghetti Squash got its name because the flesh literally looks like Spaghetti. The other squash was also fibrous, it tastes and feels enough like Spaghetti, but in the looks department its a huge difference.

The squash has no taste, not sweet or... anything really. Think raw potatoes but much more tender.

I had thin sliced beef in the freezer so decided to use that in the sauce, and of course lots of garlic. I used some butter and olive oil for stir frying the beef.

Added a little wild mushrooms and viola, just add the squash. One thing I did notice is that because this is not flour based, you want to make sure there's not too much liquid. The squash will only absorb a little bit, and since its already cooked, I basically put it in and brought it to a boil and it was done.

Really fast and simple.


Finally the verdict. It tastes pretty good, and it is healthier than regular noodles. Texture wise there is a little crunch from the squash which is actually very nice and the best part is these noodles do not turn soggy like normal noodles. Micro-waving it the next day, and it tasted just as good.

I think I'll be buying quite a few more squashes this fall.

Posted by emyln at 9:25 PM | Permalink | Comments