A few months ago, I had to have muscle and nerve conduction tests due to numbness and tingling in my arms. Fortunately, they didn’t find anything major wrong with me. I was sent to a physical therapist who helped me stretch and relax my tight neck and back muscles, and the unusual sensations have mostly gone away. (Thanks Elsa!)

The electromyogram test was fascinating. The neurologist sticks you with tiny needles that are connected to a computer wire and a speaker. When you move, the electrical pulses that are your nerves “firing” produce staticky pops over the speakers that sound quite similar to a needle being placed on a record. The computer monitor displays wavy lines, a bit like the pulsing lights that appear on some stereos, or on itunes, as the music swells. The doctor studies the sounds and curves to see if they seem normal. I do not recommend the situation that led to me being sent for these tests, but it was fascinating to find that I’ve got the music in me, so to speak. I vaguely knew that muscle and nerve activity was electrical, but I didn’t realize quite how much the elaborate communication systems we’ve devised for ourselves resemble the inner workings of our own bodies.

Fresh chai cake

When my friend Jeanne got back from two years in India, she taught me to make chai. This year, since Jeanne was back in LA for a vacation that coincided with her birthday, I got the idea to make a chai cake, which she ended up helping bake. I found this recipe for chai cake with honey ginger cream, which was apparently the cake of the month for an online baking club at one point, and is therefore well documented in various cooking blogs. I decided to make the cake according to the instructions, but instead of the suggested tea bags, use loose tea and fresh spices according to the proportions Jeanne had shown me for authentic Indian chai.

I purchased the tea and spices at Samosa House/ Bahrat Bazaar, so they were nice and fresh. She specifically  uses Red Label tea if she can get it. We infused the milk with loose tea and spices, then strained it. (For actual chai, you steep the tea leaves in water and then add some milk, but here we wanted chai-infused milk as a cake ingredient).  She uses fresh ginger and leaves the skin on since it will be strained out anyway. Jeanne also removed the seeds from cardamom pods to make the ground cardamom for the batter; we ground the seeds in my little Mr. Coffee grinder.

The fresh spices made the cake extra special. It really did taste like chai, and the fresh cardamom was fragrant and lively. It was a good recipe in general: the cake was tender, the frosting just the right level of sweetness and tang. I think it also helped that I used a local wildflower honey in the frosting: it wasn’t overly sticky, and had a complex, almost bittersweet edge to it that kept the cake from being cloying. I was also excited to find an unbleached cake flour, and I used organic butter, milk, and cream cheese. I’m not very fond of cream cheese, but I did like this frosting. Also, Haägen-Dazs Five ginger ice cream seemed made for this cake. It’s still listed on their website, but I have not seen it in stores lately, unfortunately. I made a two-layer cake because for some reason I just couldn’t get my mind around a three-layer one, but I think the three-layer one would have been nice.

Fresh Chai Cake with Honey Ginger Cream
Adapted from Sky High:Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes by Alisa Huntsman and Peter Wynne
Makes a 8-inch 3-layer cake or a 9-inch 2-layer cake; makes about 12 servings

1 and 1/3 cups milk
4 tsp loose black tea, Red Label brand preferred
A tablespoon-sized chunk of fresh ginger
3 whole cloves
Seeds from 3 cardamom pods
Half a stick of cinnamon
4 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 and 3/4 cups cake flour
2 cups sugar
4 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 ounces unsalted butter at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 350 Degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour the bottoms and sides of the cake pans.

In a small saucepan bring the milk to a simmer over low med-low heat. Add the tea, chunk of ginger, cinnamon stick, cloves, and cardamom seeds. Remove from heat and steep for 5 minutes. Strain. Let the chai milk cool completely.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, vanilla, and 1/3 cup of the chai milk.

In a large bowl, the flour, sugar, baking powder, ground cinnamon,  ground cardamom, and salt. Add the butter and the remaining chai milk, and mix with an electric mixer on med-low speed.

Raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg mixture in three additions, scraping the between additions. Divide the batter evenly among the pans.

Bake the cakes for 26-28 minutes, or until a cake tester (for instance, a clean toothpick) inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool in the pans for 10 minutes. Remove cakes from pans. Cool completely on a wire rack. (I made the cake the night before the party and wrapped the layers in foil, then unwrapped and frosted them the next day. This seemed fine).

To assemble the cake place one layer flat side down a serving plate and top with 2/3 cup of icing. Spread to the edge and repeat with second layer. Place third layer on top and spread the remaining ginger cream on top, allowing it to drizzle down the sides of the cake like icicles.

Honey-Ginger Cream

2 and 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
6 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
6 tablespoons of unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup of honey
1/2 teaspoon fresh grated ginger

Place all the ingredients in a food processor. Pulse to blend together, then scrape the sides of the bowl and pulse until smooth. (I used my hand mixer, but I think a food processor would work better if you have one.)

The “fit properly” part of the equation was the challenge. I’m petite: I’m fairly short, and very small-boned. I want to look like a stylish girl, not a fleece-covered blob. It took a lot of trying things on to figure out what brands would work for my narrow shoulders and short arms, and my low height when I wear flat shoes or sandals. I now have some idea what will fit, which makes shopping faster and means I might be able to take advantage of things like online outlets. I figured I’d share this information for others who find themselves in the same situation.

Actual Petite Sizes

REI carries a lot of petite clothing. This was great, because I could go in and try things on, and I found a lot of items in the store that worked. I didn’t find their own brand of clothing attractive on me, though.

The North Face was a brand I was trying to avoid at first, because I associate it with annoying preppies wearing their parkas. However, they make a lot of petite clothing, and their pants fit me perfectly and were actually flattering. I found them on sale, too, which made the high prices more bearable. Congratulations, North Face, you have won me over.

Athleta also has a lot of petite sizes. They seem to work really hard to make things that look as nice at a restaurant dinner as they do on the trails. The prices are quite high for the quality, though; sometimes the sale prices are still high.

Petite-Friendly Regular Sizes

Marmot runs small, which is awesome for my purposes. Their waterproof, breathable jackets fit my shoulders and arms. They’re expensive, but clearly well-made and seem like they will last for years.

Lucy varies widely. Some of their clothes fit me perfectly, and others seem made for six-foot women (I’m sure the six-footers who shop there are equally pleased and befuddled by which half of the clothes will fit them). Their clothes are well-made and often fashionable enough to wear to brunch. The prices go way, way down at sale time. By far my favorite of their local stores is the one in Manhattan Beach, which seems to have the greatest assortment of things you could wear in a variety of situations.

Big 5 Sporting Goods had some well-priced stuff that worked. I found a pair of “Rugged Exposure” brand pants that are much more tailored than you might guess from the brand name, and a Body Sensors by Terramar shirt whose long sleeves fit my arms, and which also has flattering seaming that makes the whole shirt fitted, not baggy. I also got an Adidas shirt; Adidas generally fits me pretty well.

Wintersilks amazes me because so much of their silk clothing is machine-washable. They are great for those of us who are allergic to wool and want to keep warm. They do have some things in official petite sizes, but what I’m obsessed with is their silk clothing that’s appropriate for yoga, like these pants (which used to come in black and brown). Silk yoga clothing feels ridiculously luxurious, and this stuff is affordable, easy to care for, and fits me well enough.

Shoes seem like they wouldn’t be different for petites, but I do find that heavy shoes are difficult for my little legs to lift. I buy trail-running shoes for hiking, because they are lightweight, yet have treads on the soles to grip the trails. I find that Adidas shoes suit my feet, which are narrow with very high arches.

What Not to Try

Patagonia and Prana brands seem designed for wide shoulders, long arms, and long legs. They don’t make petite lines, so if you’re small, there’s no point. It’s too bad, because they have some nice styles that make rugged wear look delicate and pretty. I didn’t find anything suitable from some other popular brands, either, but regretted it less.

I did buy a sleeveless Lolë top, though it’s a bit too big. I wouldn’t try them for anything long-sleeved, or long pants.

A recent New York Times Magazine article discussed how some species of whales may recognize that humans are no longer actively hunting them in many areas, and may be trying to get to know us.

“I’d… challenge anybody to say that these whales are not actively soliciting and engaging in a form of communication with humans, both through eye contact and tactile interaction and perhaps acoustically in ways that we have not yet determined,” says a marine mammal behaviorist quoted in the article.

It’s not that I want to anthropomorphize animals, but I do think they think, and that whales are probably extremely intelligent. It would be fascinating to someday understand anything they could tell us about life in the majority of our world, the watery parts.

The picture here is of a gray whale spouting. We came upon a number of them frolicking in the surf near where we were horseback riding in Cabo San Lucas this past winter at a company event. I think this was fairly close to one of the areas discussed in the article.

This is the view from the hall of my building about 10 minutes ago. I love when the clouds form curves that direct your attention to a focused area of brilliance.

I love the smell of eucalyptus. It’s fresh like pine, and helps my lungs feel clear. In a red glass vase, it looks festive for a California Christmas.

“I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree.”

I wake up to a clock radio. It works because it changes all the time; I get too accustomed to any particular alarm.

Over the past few years, I’ve become far too accustomed to waking up already furious with the news that’s begun seeping into my ears about the effects of policies that seem to have been based on ideas that someone wanted to believe were true, whether or not they were. The morning after that victory speech, I have no idea what was on the radio, but it certainly felt like I’d woken up to music.

The current fires in Southern California aren’t that close to where I live, but the air does smell like smoke.

Photo by P M M via flickr.

I often treat cooking as a mad science experiment. I find a food I haven’t tried much before, and see what I can do with it. This is how I sometimes end up with things like hot pink salad dressing.

I recently acquired some prickly pear cactus fruits. My previous experience with this fruit — known in Spanish as tuna — involved consuming a cactus fruit ice cream from a stall at Mercado la Paloma in downtown Los Angeles, and once trying to eat slices of the fruit raw, which I did not enjoy because of the hard little seeds. The flavor of the fruit is a bit like a mild mix of berry, melon, and cucumber.

This time, after browsing several web sites, I decided to try making a salad dressing from the prickly pear fruits. I scanned the other recipes but then invented my own:

• Peel the prickly pear fruits. Cut into chunks. Puree. Strain.
• Combine: 1/2 cup of this prickly pear puree (from about 3 fruits), 3 Tablespoons lime juice (from about 3 limes), 1/2 tsp sugar, about 1/3 cup canola oil, 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1/2 teaspoon salt. I used the blender. Taste and adjust.
• ( I think if you stopped after the sugar and added tequila, triple sec, and ice, you might be on the way to a decent prickly pear margarita. But I didn’t try that).

Once I got it into my mind to make this dressing, I decided to make a salad of other Mexican/Southwestern fall ingredients. Using produce from the farmers’ market, I made a salad of:

• Red leaf lettuce
• Chopped jicama. I recently acquired a vegetable peeler with a serrated blade designed for soft produce with thin skins. It made short work of peeling the jicama, though with all those sharp little teeth on the blade, I had to be much more cautious about my fingers than I would with an ordinary peeler.
• Sliced radishes. I used the mandoline I got for Christmas, which made neat, thin slices, though I’m not sure it saved time over slicing them with a knife.
• Kernels of Corn. To cook corn easily, place a full ear of unshucked corn in the microwave and cook on high for 3 minutes. Then shuck it. Thanks, Jessica, for teaching me this method!
• Roasted, salted pepitas (pumpkin/squash seeds)
• Crumbled queso fresco (A Mexican cheese somewhat similar to feta)
• Julienned carrots

Here’s the thing: this dressing is bright pink. I think it may not have helped that I made it in the blender, which made it extra emulsified.

That combination of ingredients makes an excellent salad. The slight sweetness and tanginess of the prickly pears give the dressing a complimentary flavor. The dressing and the salad taste good together… if you can get over the fact that it is all oozing with hot pink.

I actually tried making a traditional vinaigrette with red wine vinegar (which is pink too!) and eating it on the same salad. That looked normal, and probably would have tasted good to me, if I hadn’t already sampled the delicious and revolting cactus fruit dressing.

Organic. From the farmers’ market.