Emily Brewer Central

Let’s go!!!

I have no words!

So, I love to try new recipes out from time to time, many on a whim immediately after I have seen them prepared on the Food Network. Yesterday was no different after seeing the Barefoot Contessa make a super easy apple turnover using pre-made pie crusts and a yummy apple mixture.  No problem, right?

Wrong. Turns out since I don’t bake at all, I had none of the accessories necessary for easy success, even with a pre-made pie crust and minimal ingredients.  Case in point: the dough needed to be rolled out.  I have no rolling pin.  So I took plastic wrap, put it around a bottle of Tabasco sauce and rolled my heart out!  It worked but it wasn’t pretty. Then, you just put the mixture in and seal them up with a little egg wash, right? NO problem!  Except putting the uber simple mixture wasn’t so easy as the shape was atrocious and the apples were breaking through the dough.  After I took some stuffing out and rearranged it on the pastry sections, I got it together and made a sloppy seal with some horrific fork marks on the crust.  I baked those bad boys and then pulled the hideous, albeit tasty, morsels out of the oven.

It could have ended there.  It would have been a perfectly respectable ending. My boyfriend said it didn’t matter what they looked like, as long as they were tasty.  Hmmmm, maybe he had a point. And if not he was certainly supportive and encouraging.  So, we ate some yummy turnovers for dessert and had lots left over.  They weren’t a failure, they were also almost a mild success.  And, we also have new neighbors behind us.  So, I told my boyfriend to take a plate over to them to be nice.  You know, a little ‘hello and welcome’ gift.  And who cares that I didn’t give them the nicest looking ones because after all, it is the taste that counts, right?  Totally right!

So, tonight when I got home and went in the backyard to have a glass of wine while my boyfriend BBQ’d his dinner, the neighbor was there chatting with him.  You know, filling him in a little more on who she is and what she does for a living.  And what does she do, you ask?  She is a PROFESSIONAL PASTRY CHEF. Yes. She makes desserts. Professionally.  All day, every day.  And this is who I sent my first crack at a TV apple turnover recipe to as a welcome gesture. I just hope they weren’t laughing too hard!

ummmm, yeah.

Sunday was reserved for the trek to the Taj Mahal, or “the Taj” as the locals call it.  I use the word trek because it is a 4.5 hour drive from Delhi, so it ends up being a 13 hour excursion. I would love to regale you with tales of the harrowing drive that would put you right there with me, in the moment, but it was so ridiculous that would be impossible.  I will tell you that the highways in India are just as scary as the city streets for different reasons.  There are less cars per square inch, but they way they drive is so much scarier than the city drivers.  And you are going 60 MPH which adds another ‘interesting’ element to it.  Let’s just say imagine huge trucks, smaller cars, what seem like electric powered mini-cabs, motorycles and carts being pulled by CAMELS all sharing the highway. And by sharing, I mean really sharing.  Like if things aren’t working out the way they would have hoped on their side of the road, they just move to the other side of the road, into opposing traffic and barrel towards you until they have to swerve at the last second. And they do, but not before you have bitten all your nails off, soiled your pants and cried a little.

We had to stop to pay a tax to go from one state to the other.  The area was filled with people looking to sell little trinkets, people with monkeys and one guy with a cobra.  Yes, a cobra snake right outside the car window.  My friend made the mistake of snapping a picture and then things got crazy.  They guy wanted to be paid for said photo, but who in their right mind would open the locked car door in a foreign country to give the guy with the deadly snake some money?  What if it wasn’t enough?  What if he decided he wanted more.  The poisonous snake kind of gave him the upper hand in any dispute, so we opted to not be friends and leave the door locked.  I still think that was a good call.

We finally got to the Taj and were met by a friend of our driver who was there to give us a tour.  I was surprised by how many locals were there to see the Taj.  It wasn’t filled with tourists but Indians who had come to see the monument.  They definitely have a completely different concept of personal space and even standing in line to get in was a little harrowing.  The security guards are not worried about complaints as they are in the US, and they were screaming and frisking and throwing things and oh yeah, screaming.  Women and men had to line up separately (as in many places in India, including the airport) and you just basically hope you get thru.

The guide was very happy that in a group full of women that we had a man present, as he would only address him for the most part.  The ladies were kind of an annoyance to him, which was ok because he was definitely an annoyance to me.  One great thing about him though, he did bribe one of the guards to let us cut the 2+ hour line to get inside the Taj to see the replicas of the tombs. In my opinion, that made him worth his weight in gold and affirmed why everyone hates Americans.  It was also nice to get a bit of the history of the Taj, but more importantly, the surrounding buildings like the mosque, guest quarters and the burial areas of his other wives.

The story of the Taj is a great and terrible one.  The Emperor Shah Jahan built it for his 4th and favorite wife, Mumatz Mahal.  Apparently the other 3 wives never gave him kids, but Mumatz died when bearing the Emperor his 14th child.  For that reason he wanted to build her the most beautiful tomb ever built, and I think he succeeded.  Indian myth states that he wanted to make sure that no building more beautiful would ever be built, so he cut the hands off of all the craftsman who built to Taj so they could never again build something like it.  My coworkers told me that little gem. Not sure if it is true but it is definitely an extraordinary story.

Since the drive was such a long one, we had to leave about 2 hours after we got there to go back to Delhi.  We thanked the guide and paid him for his services, and then got back on the road for the white knuckled drive home.  While the day was definitely a hard one with many hours of travel, crowded spaces and ‘Indian’ toilets, I am glad I went.  It isn’t every day that you get to see one of the 7 modern wonders of the world.  And it was definitely a wonder.  One of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen and such a wonder of engineering for the time.  A must see for sure!

Many friends have been asking for a report on my trip to India and I haven’t blogged in 2 months so I though it a good idea to recount the highlights of my trip here!  For those that don’t know – I had the opportunity to travel to India for work in November.  Luckily for me it was during an American Airlines double mileage promotion, so on a side note I now have AA Gold status!

My journey started in LA when I left my house at 8:30 AM Monday morning.  After many hours of travel and more that 9 thousand miles in my AA mileage bank, I landed in New Delhi at 10:30 PM on Tuesday evening.  With the time difference, two full days wiped from my calendar!  The differences are immediately apparent after deplaning. Even the inside of the airport was very foreign to me.  Foreign sounds, sights, smells and it was definitely a lot to take in. Co-workers were kind enough to pick us up from the airport and drive us to our hotel, The Leela Kempinski – which by the way, was one of the nicest places I have ever stayed.  Even though it was midnight by the time we settled in, you just aren’t tired. So the co-workers and I headed down to the hotel bar where the DJ was rocking old school 80’s pop and we were drinking the fine wines that India had to offer.  The lounge was full of international business people and we ended the night chatting with Irish and Scottsmen who worked for a mobile company.  Then we crawled off to bed ready to start the ‘business’ portion of the trip.

The next day we headed to Sapient’s office.  This is the part where I will tell you about the ‘driving.’ And I use that word loosely. It is also the one thing that my co-workers who had been to India told me about prior to coming.  The utter chaos and lack of order and how they were amazed that no one hit each other.  I laughed and imagined what that might be like but I can tell you that there is no way your brain is capable of envisioning what it actually is. It is something that has to be witnessed first hand! We called the rides to and from the office “Six Flags” for the remainder of the trip for good reason.  I sat in the front set only once, and I literally covered my eyes with my hands – no joke.  The driving is so scary there I couldn’t even look.  I will say that out driver – Dharminder – did such a great job we all survived to tell the tale.

Sapient’s Gurgaon office is just across the border from Delhi in the state of Haryana.  Their offices are located in the DLF Cyber City.  That is just what it sounds like.  A huge complex of hi-rise buildings in what used to be the small village of Gurgaon.  A very smart man who is now the second richest man in India paid all those villagers to get the heck out, and now it looks like downtown LA.  And just about every major company has a presence there: Microsoft, Oracle, American Express, Canon, HP and GE to name a few – you almost don’t know you are in India except there are cows and stray dogs wandering around the office complex and some of the roads are dirt.

The inside of the office looked just like any other Sapient office and our co-workers got us settled in for the first day of work in India. I worked the rest of the week and Friday evening it was time to get to know the India crew. They had arranged a group outing in a sports bar in the DLF Cyber City. It was pretty strange to be in what looked like an American sports bar but the differences were there. A very keen interest in Rugby and Punjabi music blasting from the sound system.  The team got nice and toasty on wine, scotch and one of my new favorites – King Fisher beer.  A very decent tasting Indian Lager that became my friend in the bars!  The group got up for some dancing and I learned some Bollywood moves and did my best to teach them what I learned from SYTYCD (which isn’t much)! We had a great time and I got some great shots for the team back home.

Saturday was for shopping! We went to a local bazaar/flea market type of place in Delhi called Delhi Hut.  apparently it is where Indians do their own shopping and let me tell you, it was an extravaganza of rugs, pashminas, scarves, trinkets and most of all – BARGAINS! And bargaining, which I am terrible at, but I went along for the ride.  Every single stall you went past people were yelling “pashminas!” at you and trying to wrestle you into their booth.  They were very insistent that pashminas MUST be purchased from them as they had the best price around.  One vendor was trying to charge 3500 rupees for his pashmina because it was of the best quality. The neck hair of Himalayan goats! FYI that was about $75 US dollars. We declined his kind offer and opted for the pashminas for 450 rupees instead. A much more palatable deal.  They had wonderful crafts, rugs, artwork, jewelry and other items.  It was truly an experience. We spent hours there and the crew did most of their shopping there for a great price.

After Delhi Hut we made our way to Khan Market.  There was a tailor there that my boss had used in the past that she wanted to visit.  Since it is listed as the costliest market in India the deals weren’t as abundant as they were in Delhi Hut.  It basically looked like an Orange County strip mall with stationery stores, clothing boutiques and several restaurants including sushi and Chinese!  I did learn a valuable life lesson in Khan Market.  Tailors need a body to make clothes that fit, not just measurements.  Much to my chagrin, the custom made raw linen shirts I got made for my boyfriend fit his neck, chest and arm measurements perfectly. But sadly they were longer than a prom dress and now have to be completely re-done. And they cost almost $60 dollars US a piece.  Ouch. lesson learned. Khan Market not cheap and bring the body to the tailor.

After Khan Market, it was a trip to Central Cottage Industries Emporium, which is a government owned an operated gift shop with some great stuff.  If I could have managed to get some of the furniture they sold back to the US, it would have been on!  They had jewelry, dishes, silver, tea sets, dolls, clothes and it goes on and on. I was really amazed by all the beautiful things they had for sale there.  If I had 3 extra suitcases and packing materials at my disposal I would have gone crazy.

The day was a great success on the shopping front plus, as we drove aroud the city to these different places we saw some really cool architecture from the British Imperial period as well as monuments like India Gate.  We also got to see the hustle and bustle of life in New Delhi, the streets, the businesses, the cars, buses and motorcycles with the ladies in their saris riding side saddle on the back in all the chaos.  Definitely a feast for the eyes and other senses.  Hours and hours and hours later, we had some Indian food with a colleague and his wife and then headed home.  Due to some refinery fires in Jaipur it was the worst air quality day in India in 9 years so our lungs needed the rest!  And we had to make sure we were properly rested for the trek that was lying ahead for us the following day: The Taj Mahal!

Fear and Loathing in Malibu!

Ok, so for those of you who know me, you know I am part of a relay team for the 2009 Malibu Tri on Sunday.  I, Emily Brewer, will be doing a timed, competitive 18 mile bike course along PCH at Zuma Beach.  Some parts of which feel like I am riding straight up the side of a mountain.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not super familiar with the course as I have grossly undertrained and only ridden it twice.  Once when my gear shifter was malfunctioning so badly I had to do the first 9 miles (hills and all) in one gear.  And the second time, gears still not functioning well (this time I had 3 gears though, a huge improvement) and now a stripped seat, which cannot be trusted to keep its height, and sunk into the socket when I hit a nasty bump.  Ah sub par equipment! You can only make the experience better, right?

When I was doing the course last Sunday, my final chance before race day, I felt as if I was the slowest person in the world.  Wait, I was.  People were passing me left and right, and at one point, I was passed by what can only be described as the bicycling equivalent to a pack mule.  A lady on a road bike with about 13 bags and backpacks around her.  Passing me.  Up a hill.  While she had 400 extra lbs of weight attached.  And my heart was beating so fast I thought I would have a heart attack!  The kicker was when I was passed by a guy on a completely collapsible portable bike.  Which in my delirium I thought was a tricycle.  Or a unicycle.  Talk about being dejected!

At the end of the day I must remind myself I am not doing this to be the best athlete.  I already know I am not the best athlete.  Not the fastest, not the most fit, not the most spectacular.  I am an every person.  Someone who thought she could never do something like this but wanted to challenge herself to do something extraordinary.  So I stepped up to try it, to participate, to challenge myself.  So even if I roll across the finish line dead last and possibly close to death at least I will finish.  That is what I am telling myself anyway.  And hey, it is for charity, so the sick kids will get some benefit out of my physical misery as well.

Let the games begin!!

Dear Sprint PCS,

I am sorry to have to say this, but I am leaving you.  It wasn’t an easy decision, so don’t bother arguing with me.  I know it has been 11 years, but you can’t change my mind.  It’s not you, it’s me.

I have met someone else.  If I am being honest, I have been wanting out for a long time.  Don’t get me wrong, you are really great.  You are almost always there when I need you.  I can always rely on you.  But there isn’t any thrill left.  You don’t excite me anymore.  I held on for a long time hoping you would come to your senses, step it up a bit – but you never did.

Sure, I left you for someone who isn’t as reliable.  I can never be sure if they will be available or not. And they don’t care.  At all.  It is take it or leave it.  But they look good!  Really good.  And they are really fun and cool.  The coolest.  So while my new infatuation costs me more money and treats me like crap, I am leaving you Sprint. For something more exciting.

Goodbye.  And take care…

Apparently this is a must have.  Thanks to Tim for finding it and letting me know before the masses snap them all up!

Happy birthday to my brainiac.  I hope you have an awesome, bacon-filled day!