magic in the air

i have a hereditary disorder that involves not being able to keep large, open surfaces free of clutter. my bedside table has a really large top.. it's proobably 2 feet square.. and i cannot stop myself from piling all kinds of stuff on it. the other day i was about to go to bed and i looked over and just had to laugh at how much junk had accumulated. and there's also a bottom shelf that you can't even see and it has even more than the top does. 

 but when your whole life is stored in one little room, that's just part of reality.

this week i tried a couple more recipes out of how easy is that? and we decided the tuscan white beans are our fav so far. delicious. i was a little afraid of cooking with fennel because i know i don't like licorice flavor, and raw fennel smells just like black licorice. but when you cook it down.. it's more like celery but with an earthy taste to it. pretty yum actually.

the recipes from the cookbook aren't online, but i'd be happy to type it out if you want it.

went to a sichuan restaurant with the fam tonight and we had hot pot. it was freaking me out to be smelling taiwanese smells, tasting taiwanese food and then i would look up and maj and faj were sitting across from me. glad they got to experience that though. now if we could only find a ching xin tea shop.