Cook-A-Thon

Ana decided to host a Cook-a-Thon last night, with each person demonstrating how to make a dish, and then subsequently the dish getting devoured by the rest of us. For ironic purposes, she decided to make it a chick night and only invite girls. That's right, we had a girl-power gathering and belted out Alanis Morissette (including the hidden track at the end - remember that?)...all while in the kitchen, barefoot (but not pregnant).

There was a complete lack of coordination on what dishes to make, but the menu turned out decently balanced anyway. The theme could fairly be called "Things Wrapped Around Other Things." Without further ado, we had:

• Prosciutto wrapped dates and herbed goat cheese
• Baked brie wrapped in phyllo dough with apple
  
• Pork and chive dumplings
• Filipino lumpia, a type of spring roll
  
• Tortilla espanola, similar to a potato & onion omelet
  
• French chocolate torte
  

Katherine and I were responsible for the dumplings, since both of us are authentic Asians, except for her. So it was mostly me putting together the ingredients, while she demonstrated how to wrap a dumpling. It's been a while since I've wrapped dumplings, and I'm proud to say my technique has improved greatly since Chinese school, when everything looked lumpy. I finally mastered the "pinch in the middle, pleat toward the sides" method, which results in a purse-like dumpling with a concave seam. Now if only I could top the wizened, little old ladies who can fold dumplings one-handed.

Less you get too impressed with our formidable cooking skills, I should mention the frequency with which the fire alarm went off. In between baking the brie, the torte, and frying lumpia, we were generating lots of heat and smoke which did not make the alarm happy. Moreover, Vanessa put the fried lumpia on a paper-towel lined plate, and then leaned a little too close to the gas stove. The paper towel caught on fire, and as we doused it in the sink, the lumpia still in the pan began burning too. We kept hitting the fire alarm with a broomstick to turn it off, until it detached from the wall, wires dangling. Oops. Clearly Ana should know better than to invite us over to destroy her place.

As we chilled in the kitchen after dinner and drank the leftover wine, we realized that everyone present lived by themselves, and had the studio apartment. So here's a toast to not having roommates! Don't get me wrong, I loved my housemates from 209, and I'm glad I had that singular college roommate experience sophomore year with MF, but there's something to be said for having your own place.

Simone: "Here's to coming home and being able to take off your pants!"
Me: "Oooh, I do that all the time! Wait, I've been wondering if anyone else does this...do you guys ever pee with the bathroom door open?"
Everyone else: "OMG totally!"

I guess that's more proof that we're generally not as weird as we think we are.