We agreed this year to be more systematic about our documentation, and so we've been, as much as possible, keeping photo evidence of each day. We'll be posting entries once a week here. Do enjoy, and do consider trying a few New Things of your own.
Sincerely, Jimmy
APRIL 1 - Scientific Betelgeuse predictions!!!
Jimmy:
Betelgeuse, a relatively near red-giant star, has long fascinated the minds of earth. When will it supernova? Kate and I decided, for the first New Thing of the 2014 edition, to conduct a scientific inquiry into the matter and determine when Betelgeuse was, in fact, likely to bid us farewell.
On the night of April 1st, I went outside to investigate. I stood in the darkest portion of my apartment complex I could find and located Betelgeuse, perched just above a neighboring building.
“When will you supernova?” I asked.
The night was cool, but a wonderful reprieve from the long winter, and being outside felt wonderful, freeing, and calming. I waited for an answer. Then I understood that Betelgeuse will simply supernova whenever it wants to, and that is okay.
Thank you, Betelgeuse, for being here. : )
Kate:
The important idea in the second image is that Betelgeuse’s supernova will be inadvertently man-made, an unforeseen twist of fate in the drama of THE UNIVERSE. Also that stars look surprisingly similar to oranges.
APRIL 2 - Learn a new constellation
Jimmy:
Unfortunately on April 2nd of this year in Minnesota, it was cloudy! Luckily, a nifty star-chart app on my phone assisted me in seeing some stars anyway. I searched around for an interesting-looking constellation and came across THE HARE:
The Hare, I learned from Wikipedia, is quite an old constellation. It was named by Ptolemy in the 2nd Century, and endures today as one of the constellations recognized by the astronomical community. Good old Lepus will, hopefully, endure both in the skies and my heart.
APRIL 3 - Do some learning about new fruit:
Kate:
Durians are known as KING OF THE FRUITS so I wanted to finally eat one, or so I thought...
... its odor is best described as pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock. It can be smelled from yards away. Despite its great local popularity, the raw fruit is forbidden from some establishments such as hotels, subways and airports, including public transportation in Southeast Asia.[29]
After doing this learning about, I was convinced not to go ahead with my bold plan. Instead, I broadened my search with the help of this excellent resource, and repaired to my local grocer and later, Whole Foods to purchase an innocent mango, and also a guava.
Jimmy:
While Kate occupied herself with durians, I scouted the grocery store for an exotic fruit and came across these carambolas, also known as star fruits. I learned that star fruits, native to Southeast Asia, are enjoyed now in many places around the world and are cultivated in Asia, Mexico, Texas, and Florida.
The first star fruits were introduced to the United States decades ago. The variety that was introduced here was actually quite unpleasant tasting, so the fruits were used almost exclusively for ornamentation. Selective breeding, however, produced the variety of star fruit now consumed as food in the United States.
I had heard of star fruits before but had never seriously considered buying or eating one. That all changed on this 3rd Day of April, 2014
APRIL 4 - Cooking something with said new fruit:
Kate:
The Guava I bought wasn’t quite ripe yet, so I started looking for MANGO recipes and found the following: Mango Curry with Summer Vegetables
I substituted seitan for tofu and omitted coriander. The mango didn’t penetrate the curry as much as I’d hoped, but the bites with mango chunks were extra delicious. 
Jimmy:
My bit of culinary adventure was less ambitious than Kate’s. After investigating a few star fruit recipes, I did notice a trend: star fruit seems to frequently be paired with seafood! So on a trip to visit my parents for dinner that evening, I brought these fruits along!
“Let’s eat salmon,” I said, knowing my parents usually keep salmon in the freezer for a quick, healthy dinner. I sliced up my two star fruits and placed them atop the salmon fillets, toasting them just for the last ten minutes or so of cooking.
The star fruits have a mild flavor similar to a lemon, and their pulp has the texture of the inside of a grape. I think my star fruits were not quite ripe, but even so, the star fruits and salmon were delicious together, and I may well give this another go.
APRIL 5: Speak in Rhyme
Even though rhyming is fun
It’s something that isn’t often done,
And unfortunately on this day,
I’m slightly embarrassed to have to say,
That much rhyming did not occur
Despite its significant allure.
Perhaps next year we’ll better fare
And not receive a hostile glare.
APRIL 6: Visit an unfamiliar neighborhood
Jimmy:
Luckily, last August I moved from the west side of the Twin Cities to the east, landing myself in the midst of a sea of unknown neighborhoods. I suggested to Taren that we might investigate a neighborhood close to where he lives, and he whisked me away to the lovely Highland Park.
Highland Park is a neighborhood of about 20,000 people situated just north of Fort Snelling on the Mississippi River. It has commercial and residential areas and, as I learned in some spot-research, was once home to a Ford assembly plant.
Here are some pictures I took around Highland Park:
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| The Highland Park cinema |
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| Some very cute houses |
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| Community life around Highland Park |
Kittel and I went to brunch in Kendall Square, and then to the MIT Museum.
This is a neighborhood that I have been to before, but we walked through a new part of the MIT campus, and sit outside for quite a while waiting for a brunch table, a good opportunity to take in Kendall Square.
Here’s a map of our journey!
APRIL 7: Let a coin plan your meals
Kate:
For breakfast, I let a coin choose between the following: Banana, Granola, Yogurt, Toast OR Guava, Cottage Cheese, Bagel. The coin chose the former. For lunch, I let it determine whether I should have pita bread or rice with my leftover mango curry (it chose pita bread). And for dinner, things got a little more extreme. I addressed every item in my refrigerator (except the special gluten-free food) and asked the coin whether or not I should include it in my meal. This process resulted in the following selections: Peanut butter, humus, salsa, pesto, cream cheese, tofu, lemon juice, milk, pasta, pasta sauce, spinach, thyme, kale, bread, carrots.
This was too much food to eat in one meal so I bent the rules a little bit and made myself pasta for lunch the next day with the pasta, pasta sauce, lemon juice, thyme, and kale. Then I set about making a sandwich with the rest of the ingredients. I fried the tofu and put condiment like things (salsa, hummus, pesto, cream cheese) on the bread. I ate the carrots with peanut butter and drank some milk to wash it all down. My dinner was a little weird (ok it was really weird) but undeniably more thrilling than most, thanks to the squirrely coin.
Jimmy
Once again not as ambitious as Kate, I began my morning with a coin flip for breakfast: would I have hash browns, or would I have oats?
The coin determined that I was to gorge myself on oats.
“Oats” is a dish I prepare most mornings for breakfast in which I mix a number of various breakfast-dry-goodies together. It usually includes roughly…
⅓ cup granola
½ handful dried apples
2-3 spoonfuls raisins
2-3 spoonfuls flax seeds
Whatever space is left in the (large) bowl, fill with rolled oats
Pour in some milk
Heat 2 minutes in microwave
Add about ⅓ cup plain yogurt
EAT.
Given the changeable nature of “Oats,” I asked the coin which type of granola I would eat (I had two types that morning). It determined that I would have blueberry flax seed granola. So I did.
Lunch I packed based not on the coin, but rather on what was in my fridge. :( Sorry, coin!
But for dinner, I did let the coin choose. Before leaving work for the day, I found two appealing recipes: Scrambled Grains with Mushrooms, an old recipe of my mom’s, or this Asparagus Souffle!
I took the coin from my pocket. I flipped it into the air. Cylindrical metal met desk, met carpet, bounced, flipped, and lay still. And that coin proclaimed: “MAKE ASPARAGUS SOUFFLE!”
I was secretly pleased.
And then I made asparagus souffle.
It looked like this:
It was vividly green, radioactively green, even. And for it, quite delicious!
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