Jocelyn: This pie is delicious.
James: I KNOW. It's the first rhubarb thing I've ever liked.
Jocelyn: Maybe we should learn to make pie.
James: I don't know, this pie was only $4. Maybe we should just buy a million of them and eat them for breakfast.
Topher: You know what I like? Brown sauce. What's it made of? Science doesn't know!
Adelle: It's made of brown.
Topher: Brown. Mined from the earth by the hardscrabble brown miners of North Brownderton.
Adelle: Oh, my God. I find lentils completely incomprehensible.
A sort of disturbingly enthusiastic exaltation of domesticity.
My first roasted chicken + gravy
>Stock from scratch
>>Soup, jambalaya, + a couple containers for the freezer
>>>Cheese biscuits
A good book (Farm City) finished
>And two more promising ones from the stacks
A really, really excellently large messenger bag, now adorned with girl scout patches
A big [work] website project finished
>And a clean desk
>>And a price of living raise
>>>And the amount of my student loan payments increased
A programmable thermostat
>And a heated dog bed purchased out of guilt at how our dog constantly searches for the warmest spot in the house
Heirloom vegetable seeds ordered
>And some herbs planted with seeds from the farmer's market, to grow in green pots in my kitchen
A doomed-seeming pug declined
>My first "dungeon deserter" debuff
>>Means I am not a pushover or a masochist.
Pug aside: skip at will.I felt guilty for 10 seconds, then... exuberant.
[i had spent several hours the day before running the same dungeon--Halls of Reflection-- on the same difficulty setting-- Heroic; not to boast, but this is the hardest 5-person content in the game. And our really, really good group wiped over and over. So I was a bit reticent to commit to it again, let alone with a group of strangers. And in this random group our tank had made some pretty poor gear choices, which was strike 2. This was strike 3:]
Jocelyn: i was really hoping it wouldn't be this one :)
Group leader: suck it up
Group leader: let's go
Group leader: kill mages first
Jocelyn: wow, thanks... friendly
Group leader: u r welcome
Jocelyn: /quits group
James just bought an xBox and Halo: OCD (or whatever it's called), so as I write this I can hear the cast of Firefly shouting about aliens in the basement. Surreal.
I'm really enjoying Novella Carpenter's book Farm City, but it's got me longingly dreaming of the summer. She writes about farming on an abandoned lot in Oakland, CA, which obviously has its challenges-- but 7 or so months of winter is not one of them. To cheer myself up a bit, I'm deciding which varieties of vegetables to plant this summer and I have some order forms printed out and ready to send, cheques signed. (Cheques! It's so cute! The people who own heirloom seed companies apparently don't really do PayPal.) I have ambitions to start my own seeds indoors this spring and give away the extra plants come May. To that end, I also bought a digital timer today which can be used to time the additional lights I'll need for my flats of plants. In the meantime, James has it hooked up to our oil pan heater in the car. Sigh, winter. I wish I could quit you.
ALSO! Today we delivered some cookies to our neighbours, put in a programmable thermostat, and roasted a farmer's market chicken. It was almost too wholesome to stand. I had never cooked a whole chicken before, but it turned out delicious, and there is something satisfying about pulling apart the meat and dividing it up into containers for lunches and soup. This was also my first foray into making gravy, and it was even delicious-er. It turns out that making gravy is EASY; our mothers have been lying to us all these years, trying to make themselves appear indispensable. Tomorrow I will make stock. I have been muttering the word mirepoix to myself all day in anticipation.
2010 is the year I stop doing frivolous things, like getting married and buying houses, and focus on more important things like reading books and growing Black Hungarian peppers and cooking soups. I have also hatched a plan to paint my basement an insouciant turquoise colour.
I think it's going to be good.
Holy moley. I cut up some hot peppers yesterday to make the most delicious homemade pizza ever (no exaggeration, it was amazing) and now, even though I have washed my hands several times since then, I CANNOT TOUCH MY FACE. It burns! Stupid capsaicin.
Today I ordered some eggs from a co-worker who keeps chickens. I'm inordinately excited about fresh eggs from happy chickens. (Which have not been de-beaked, or, I should think, tricked into thinking it is spring all the time.) AND! When I mentioned to some co-workers my enthusiasm at finding a source for local, fresh eggs:
Co-Worker 1: I keep chickens too. And I give the eggs away for free.
Co-Worker 2: So does Co-Worker 3, in our department.
Jocelyn: WHAT?!?
Last night I made some of these freezer breakfast burritos after seeing the idea on The Simple Dollar. I froze them last night and then defrosted one this morning for breakfast. [Obviously, I could have just left one in the fridge overnight, but I wanted to see how the egg would survive the freezing and thawing. I was doing science.] DELICIOUS! Seriously! I feel like my whole life is 3% better, and my breakfast problems are 39% better. That's a significant improvement. Tim Horton's will be getting slightly less of my money in the future. And that means more of my money for me! And by "me," I mean "Etsy"!
I was going to take some pictures of the burrito-making process, but then as it turned out I was too lazy (who would have thought?) so you'll have to take my word for it that they look, and taste, great. I didn't use beans (I hate them!) and I threw in some turkey bacon, since meat in the morning is one of my favourite things in the world. I also added some red pepper along with the red onion, because vegetables are good for you. Anyway, this recipe is an epic win and I highly suggest it.
Also last night, I got to level 80 in WOW (FINALLY) and packed some boxes and watched some CSI. Unlike the last time I moved, I have some boxes labeled "art." Thanks Etsy, for taking so much of my money and making me pack more stuff!
Oh, and I impatiently thought about my tax refund for awhile. I'm getting more $$ back than I had originally thought, so (in addition to paying off a WHOLE CREDIT CARD, and buying a sewing table from IKEA) I'm going to sponsor a kid through WorldVision. I keep shopping for kids on their website, and then I feel guilty, like I'm being superficial. Does a slightly less-cute kid deserve my money less? I've decided that what I am going to do, instead, is sponsor one of the kids without photos. That way I know I'm not being a jerk.
James and I have been doing the same thing with dogs on rescue society websites, actually. After we move (March 28th!) I'm getting a rescue dog, and you can't stop me, Internet. What with the shopping for orphans and rescue dogs on the Internet like they were jewelry or housewares, I think I am the worst good person ever.
Boxes packed: 5
----------------
Now playing: Melissa McClelland - Passenger 24
via FoxyTunes
1. I bought new glasses last week, and if I'm not mistaken they told me i was paying extra to have the lenses Scotchguarded. 1a. Did the person who invented this process, or at least this term, become a millionaire? 1b. If we Scotchguarded the whole world, would all spilled liquids hover uncertainly, half an inch above the ground?
2. Who thought of the idea of selling delivered pizzas with dipping sauces? This idea is so great and yet so bad for you. The dips are like little packets of heart attack. But at the same time, I sort of admire that mentality. Like, how do we incorporate more cheeze in pizza? (failed answers: make crust out of cheese, make all other toppings out of cheese, make the box out of cheese so people can eat the box after they've eaten the pizza)
Cooking only one new dish each night, always enough to make leftovers--and always something that goes with the leftovers from the previous night. Result: FEWER DISHES, without the frustration that results from never-ending leftovers!
Example:
Night 1: Turkey from Christmas + new mashed potatoes
Night 2: leftover mashed potatoes + new pork chops
Night 3: Leftover pork chops + new rice
Tomorrow: Leftover rice and WHO KNOWS!
When I wait for the bus in the morning, the smell of sausages and other labour-intensive breakfast foods drifts across the street from the fancy restaurant in the Hotel MacDonald. In the evening, as I wait for my connecting bus, I get the delicious deep-fried grease smell of McDonald's wafting across the parking lot. It's agonizing, Internet. I feel like the whole world of restaurants is conniving to make me hungry when all I want to do is catch the bus.
I am so enamoured of my new widescreen monitor at work that I may stay here forever. I'll sleep under my desk, and store various dry cereals in my filing cabinet. It does make me a LITTLE sad, though, because I know I'm going to get used to this one, and then my paltry 19" widescreen at home will seem pathetic in comparison. I'll try to play Warcraft and all I will be able to think is, this would be so much better on my work computer.
I had the most ridiculous night last night. The first half--dinner, taxes--was awesome. I'm getting a giant tax refund AND another year of GST credits (the way the government subsidizes the poor and pseudo-poor, like me, by refunding some of the GST we pay). I got to carry forward lots of deductions! The shepherd's pie sauce I invented--which included worschestershire sauce or however you spell that, chicken broth, dijon mustard, red wine, and lots of other weird things--was really frakkin' good! Then the second half made me lie down on my futon and stare at the wall in abject despair. I spent more time than I care to calculate on hold with Telus customer service after their installation CD epic fail-ed. I watched the election results come in for around an hour and a half, but the repeated utterance of phrases like "conservative tsunami" forced me to turn it off. Eventually I just had to go to bed, just to make the evening end.
I'm at work, researching how to make vegan pizza and planning my weekend. Could everyone update their blog now please? I'm bored. James keeps sending me links to warcraft armor he thinks I should buy (he creeps on my character profile page, which is both cute and a little creepy) but the rest of you aren't really doing your part to entertain me. Kthxbai.
*There should be an off-brand version of Cap'n Crunch that is just called "Captain Crunch." Or "Capt. Crunch." Or Corporal Crunch!
This weekend has been top-drawer. i love long weekends where monday is the holiday. Four-day week coming up! It's psychological manipulation, the good kind.
On Saturday James and I went to the farmer's market. I have been there before, many times, but never in actual food-buying mode. It's fabulous! I bought tons of local, organic, non-feedlot meat, and some fresh pasta. Next time I'll take more money because you can also get locally made perogies, green onion cakes, hummous, honey, and cheese! It was very exciting. We'll start to get local vegetables soon too. I can't wait. I already put zucchini in everything, but this summer it's going to be all local zucchini.
Yesterday I watched one of my favourite movies from my childhood: Swiss Family Robinson. Have you seen this movie, Internet? It's actually pretty good! I totes have a crush on the oldest brother (Franz)--he's hot. Actually, I think 25-year-old Jocelyn loves that treehouse as much as 8-year-old Jocelyn did. I'm so impressed by how industrious these people are, too. If I was stranded on a strange, ecologically confused island, it would take me at least a few days to adjust. Not so the family Robison! They get right to work building their little 19th-century paradise, where reward is based on competence and man is free to achieve his full potential. (And it is Man. Woman is mostly free to scream at lizards and marvel at the men's accomplishments, although the mom in this movie is pretty tough, everything considered.)
Today:
*ding* 67. The key to weekend productivity is to intersperse other activities with the warcrafting. I went for a swim today, had a shower, made lunch, applied for a job, did some dishes, and made potatoes in my slow-cooker. In addition to hitting 67. And it's not even 6 yet!
The first three Thing-A-Day days (including today), all I've done is cook. This might seem pathetic, except this cooking counts for two reasons: first, cooking always counts, because I love to cook, and the time I spend cooking is as rewarding as the time I spend doing any other creative enterprise; second, this cooking counts in particular because I have made STRICTLY THINGS I HAVE NEVER MADE BEFORE! Oh yes! I have done this partly in honour of Thing-A-Day, and partly because I am still in the half-life of Animal Vegetable Miracle, in which I fantasize about making my own cheese. So.
Friday I made stuffed potatoes. James helped, in a pepper-buying, potato-mashing and vegetable-chopping capacity. I baked them in my scalloped-edge orange stoneware bowl and I felt like I was at a semi-fancy 1950s potluck. They were delicious! It did feel weird to be eating them because we did so while watching TV and it felt like we should have been doing something a lot more fancy.
Saturday I made rice krispie squares. I made several different kinds. They were various levels of disastrous. Some of them were inedible (the coffee-flavoured ones--sad face!), and others were delicious but mutated. The delicious but mutated ones even contain tiny M&Ms, because if you're going to bake retro desserts, thou shalt not do it half-assed. Because they taste OK, they are chopped into more-or-less squares (read: "hunks") and wrapped in plastic wrap, in anticipation of lunches next week. It's hilarious that of all the things I tried to make this weekend, the disastrous ones were the easiest. You may not know this, but when you melt marshmallows in a pan, they become EXTREMELY MESSY AND STICKY. No, no kitchen implement you own will help. You will probably just have to move. How do other people do it?
Today I made zucchini fritters and cinnamon buns (from scratch!). The zucchini fritters were delicious. The recipe came from Amy Sedaris's book I Like You, as did Friday's potatoes. Not surprisingly, when you mix shredded zucchini with cheese and onions and fry it in olive oil, something delicious is the result. The cinnamon bun recipe came from a cookbook I got from the library. They aren't baked yet (still in their second rise) but when they come out, I'll take a picture. They already look beautiful, and impossibly neat, like they were prepared by someone else.
The outcome of all this cooking is that I have lots of little bags and containers of things in my freezer. That is one of the most satisfying feelings I can think of. For tomorrow I will make something with paper, or cloth.
Sunday evening to do list: (1) bake cinnamon buns (2) get to L66 in Warcraft (3) watch My So-Called Life. In other words, nothing. And everything.
I learned yesterday that Batgirl was a librarian--saving Gotham City by night, AND by day. The ALA store has a Batgirl poster which I want to buy for every librarian I know.
Last night I made homemade pizza. I made the dough from scratch using unbleached flour (and some whole wheat flour!) I used organic, free-range, grain-fed turkey sausage as the meat! I put zucchini on it! It was crazy. And actually pretty good, everything considered. I'm eating leftovers RIGHT NOW.
This weekend I will get my paladin to L64. LAUGHING TIME IS OVER. I need to stop my tomfoolery (heh. that's a funny word) and catch up to my guildies, before they decide I'm the weakest link and vote me off the island. I made an Excel spreadsheet calculating how much playing time it will take to get her to L70--around 75 hours, give or take. I figure I can do it in ten weeks, since I have to do other stuff too, like go to work and sleep at night.
I was just SO NERDY right now, and for the previous 25 years.
I've been feeling inexplicably domestic lately. I may be getting old, or I may be pregnant, or just bored. Anyway, tonight I made these zucchini chocolate chip cookies, the recipe for which appears in the Barbara Kingsolver book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I haven't tried one yet as they are still on my "cooling rack" ["stovetop"] but, just based on appearance, they look like my most successful cookies in a long time. Mainly because they are not one giant omni-cookie. I used unbleached flour instead of normal white flour. Are these equivalent types of flour? I have no idea. Anyway, their texture is a little weird because of the flour and zucchini, but I'm confident they're going to be good because I was there when I put the chocolate chips in, so I know how many are in there (approximately 1 package, minus the ones I ate while I was stirring. I have no willpower whatsoever when it comes to chocolate chips).
So, since finishing Animal, Vegetable, Miracle I've been complaning to anyone who will listen about the difficulty of finding locally grown food in Edmonton, where the growing season is short and the interest in healthy eating is, uh, minimal. Then I discovered that an Edmonton couple is trying to live on a 100-mile diet and blogging about it! Hooray! There's hope for me yet.
I'm back.
Our travel was hilariously disastrous, going to Washington and coming home. In each case, our first flight was delayed, causing us to miss our second flight. Coming home yesterday, door to door, took 10 1/2 hours--and it felt like 11 1/2 because we lost an hour through time-zone time-kidnapping. In the Vancouver airport, slouched like a delinquent across two seats, I felt like a woman without a country, or a home--the idea of my apartment seemed like something I had seen in a movie, that didn't belong to me. Anyway, we came home and now we're home and I don't know about you, but I'm happy to be home. I was getting pretty tired of the nonstop Washington drizzle.
I read four books and half of a fifth while at my parents'. One of these was Amy Krouse Rosenthal's Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life, which I really enjoyed. My dad picked out this book for me, apparently on the basis that if I wrote a book, that's what it would be like. (According to him.) This book inspired me quite a bit, mainly in the sense that I want to write encyclopedic entries about things that do not belong in an encyclopedia. Such as:
My parents', visiting.If I were ambitious, there would be more of these, but as it is I think there may just be one.
My parents moved into a new house a year and a half ago. Their new house is a weird combination of not-home and home, as I have never lived there and it is located in a country where I have also never lived, but it is full of familiar things, such as VHS tapes and towels and my dog. Every time I encounter something from my old life in my parents' new house, I am a bit astonished and taken aback, and I will say something to myself like: "that's weird, they still have these mugs?" In my mind, they have a completely different life, a completely different house, and completely different stuff, and evidence to the contrary baffles me.
I thought negative calorie foods were a myth, but today lifehacker has a list of fifteen of them and a link to the wikipedia article that contains an even longer list. Is this for reals?
A man built a floating personal island with a frame of bamboo and recycled plastic bottles. This is an absolutely amazing project in and of itself (and the fact that it is reminiscent of the Disney Swiss Family Robinson treehouse doesn't hurt), but it also seems like it could be a precursor of the future. The more people there are on the planet, and the less land there is, the more likely it will become that we will be living in Waterworld. Only, hopefully, without Kevin Costner. Everyone living on little floating islands = sounds OK. Having to live in an overwrought, badly written movie = nightmare. (Also, having an adorable family dog on the island = Cool. Brawling with pirates = cooler.)
I am totally ziplisting Swiss Family Robinson.
I had Swiss Chalet for lunch, which I deeply, deeply regret. Doesn't Swiss Chalet seem like one of those franchises that should have gone out of business a long time ago? Now I feel both still hungry and vaguely ill.
san pellegrino
stolen food, we're watching you
i wish you were mine
consider myself
a woman of principle
except days like this
(When I worked at the public library, all the work fridges had signs that said: "STOLEN FOOD - We're watching you." I always thought that was weird. I mean, it's not the food's fault it's being stolen. They should be watching the FOOD-STEALERS. Unless it's talking Muppet food: "Help! Help! I'm being stolen!" It also seemed like kind of an empty threat. I mean, if someone were really watching the stolen food, then it wouldn't be stolen any more would it?)
