the thing is

I so desperately want to make something of myself; even if I end up offing myself in the end.

The difficulty is just in figuring out what "something" is.

holiday spirit

In the spirit of the holidays--you know, isolation, desperation, abandonment all along with family, love and togetherness I'm thinking it's time to revisit Jimmy Corrigan, the smartest kid on Earth- kinda fits my mood of late perfectly.

I you haven't read this you need to; wonderful art and minimalist/ complex storytelling.

Plus some pretty neat-o craft projects I didn't make the first time around due to lack of copy-machine. This time I want little paper locusts.

more fun w/ winter greens

• bunch swiss chard, stems removed and cut into ribbons
  
• bunch dinosaur kale, stems removed and cut into ribbons
• two handfuls crimini mushrooms, sliced
  
• few cloves garlic, sliced
• oil (any kind)
• broth (any kind would be great, and will change the feel of the dish)
• fresh lemon juice
• cayenne pepper
• salt & pepper to taste

1. in a heavy bottom large pot heat oil
2. add garlic and walnuts and cook until aromatic
   
3. add mushrooms an a little salt to encourage sweating
4. saute mushrooms until they look done
5. add kale and chard, cook until wilted
6. add a tblsp or so lemon juice, broth to just cover, and cayenne pepper
7. gently simmer for 45 minutes to an hour
8. salt and pepper to taste
9. serve w/ bread or toast
   

best roasted root vegetables ever

• olive oil
• garlic powder
• kosher salt
• fresh ground pepper
• lemon pepper
• lemon zest
• fresh rosemary
• diced potato
• diced sweet potato
• diced yam

1. preheat oven to 450 degrees
2. put all veggies in a large ziploc bag or bowl
3. drizzle with olive oil
4. sprinkle with all other spices and herbs to taste
5. spread veggies on a large baking sheet
6. cook until veggies reach desired crispness, stirring every 20 minutes (for me it took about an hour)
7. enjoy the amazing deliciousness
   

after the party frittata

I have two favorite mediums for dealing w/ left overs, cous cous and frittata. I tend to use cous cous when I want something lighter. but sometimes, say the morning after a party, all I really want is something easy to make w/ eggs. That's when frittata is perfect. For this I used the leftover appitizers from the night before, it saved me having to throw away a bunch of food that didn't look so hot in its current state, and made something new and amazingly tasty!

• diced onion
• red grapes
• sliced sausage rounds of andoullie and chicken apple
• one zuccini cut ino half circles
  
• diced stale brie
• shopped up spanikopita triangles
• eggs
• olive oil

1. in large cast iron sillet sautee onion in oil
2. preheat over to 250 or 300 degrees
   
3. when it's aromatic add sausage
4. cook long enough to kill anything that may have grown over night
5. add in zuccini and sautee a minute or two
   
6. toss in spanikopita and grapes and sautee a little longer
7. meanwhile beat enough eggs to mostly cover everything in the pan w/ a little milk or water
   
8. throw pieces of brie in egg mixture
9. gently pour egg mixture into pan let it set a little
10. transfer skillet to oven and bake half and hour to hour
11. enjoy w/ a glass of champagne
    

deviled eggs 2008

• eggs
• dijon mustard
• mayonnaise
  
• chopped roasted cashews
• olive oil
• chopped gypsy or bell peppers (red and orange)
• minced shallot
• apple cider vinegar
• (next time I'm adding finely diced fuji or pink lady apple)
• paprika +/or parsley
  
• plastic bag
  

1. boil eggs, let cool
2. halve eggs length wise, rinse whites and set aside, put yolks in big bowl
3. wet yolks with mustard, mayo, oil, and vinegar to taste and mash up
4. stir in nuts, peppers, shallots and apple
5. put yolk mixture in plastic bag, cut tiny bit off one corner and pipe into egg whites (an egg platter really helps them hold still
6. sprinkle eggs w/ paprika and finely chopped parsley
   

winter hippie food

• diced onion
• sliced beets
• chopped beet greens
• chopped carrot greens
• few hand fulls lentils
• few hand fulls wheat berries
• diced sweet potato
• vegetable/chicken broth
• olive oil
• large pot w/lid
• (next time I might throw in grated carrot too)
  

1. in large pot saute onion in oil 'til aromatic
2. add beets and saute a bit
3. add in lentils and wheat berries and cook a while longer
4. toss in beet greens and cook 'til wilted
5. add sweet potato and carrot greens
6. pour in enough broth to cover and stir the mess around
   
7. cover and simmer until the liquid is absorbed
8. after liquid is absorbed test the lentils, if they're still too hard add more broth, stir, and cook until they're done!

The whole process took me somewhere around one and a half hours. The finished product is beautifully colorful, delicious, healthy, and didn't even need any spices!

editor's note: unfortunately my camera has died, so no pictures until I go ahead and splurge on a new one, instead of doing things like replacing my husband's worn-out shoes.

a dream come true

You really can live in a Myst / Riven (images stolen from my dreams) world!

really?

Is this really what the world needs now?
Yet another movie based on an 80's plastic figure/ cartoon/ marketing tool?

be afraid

office fashion

amelia's discovery of the day:

need an instant up-do at work, no bobby pins around? paperclips make perfectly feasible hairpins.

so almost punk-rock.

world philosophy day!

on the count, everybody use your brains!

1... 2... 3!

celebrity quotes

"I just did it for the sake of the idea of everything."

what does that even mean?

waterworld here we come

Blackwater gets their own anti-pirate fleet of pirate ships?

I'm scared.



http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/10/blackwater-well.html

Politics, fast food and equal-frigging-rights

Those of us who are tempted into late-night and road-trip fast-food eating should pay attention to this:

http://teaandcookies.blogspot.com/2008/11/putting-my-money-where-my-mouth-is.html

my edited version of Tea & Cookies' letter:

Dear Mr. Spongberg,

It recently came to my attention that you were a large contributor to the California ballot measure Proposition 8, which sought to amend our state constitution by eliminating equal rights for those who enter into marriage with a partner of the same sex.

I do not care what your personal beliefs regarding same sex marriage are, but I do know that it is wrong to discriminate against any one group of people. America was founded on the idea of equality for all; you are now spending large amounts of money trying to exclude certain people from those rights.

I can’t tell you what to do with your money, but I can decide what to do with mine.

I will never again step foot in any of your restaurants (Pollo Loco, Denny's and Corner Bakery), and I will advise those I know of your politics so that they may make an informed decision as well. Many of us who had loyally patronized your restaurants will not support discrimination.

Sincerely,

Please follow suit and send an email to:

jill@wkscorp.biz
subject: For Mr. Spongberg

or letter to:

Roland Spongberg, CEO
WKS Restaurant Corp
2735 Carson Street, Suite 200
Lakewood, CA 90712

(I love her recipes too.)

To search a list of other Prop 8 contributors please visit this SF Chronicle page.

I Can't stop adding to this.

From some local yes on 8 people:

9. The Yes on 8 coalition was a broad spectrum of religious organizations. Catholics, Evangelicals, Protestants, Orthodox Jews, Muslims – all supported Yes on 8. It is estimated that there are 10 million Catholics and 10 million Protestants in California. Mormons were a tiny fraction of the population represented by Yes on 8 coalition members.

http://yeson8indavis.blogspot.com/

If that doesn't make it pretty fucking clear (bold italics mine) that it's a religious issue that has no place in government I'm not sure what will.

fashion sense

I consider myself highly WASPish
I like sedate colors; shy away from raised voices and heated emotions, I can't stand the yelling family-wide argument; I think most things are better kept to one's self.

And I'm pretty sure this is the pinnacle of stereotypical WASP male fashion:

























but you know what, it really does NOTHING for me.

Tuna Salad

I was thinking the other day, that egg salad and, even more faithfully, tuna salad are the foods that most people make exactly like their mothers.

I remember going over to a friend's house, and being utterly creeped out by the mayonnaise-soaked-chopped-celery-full concoction her mother served. Why was it so soupy? what were those strange crunchy bits doing, calling such attention to themselves, didn't they know they didn't belong there?

Standing in the kitchen I realized that my own children will either be at a terrible advantage or disadvantage, depending on your point of view--because I almost never make tuna salad the same way twice.

Sure I started out making egg salad and tuna salad the same as my mother did. I even made them both the same.

• chop up the protein
• mix in enough mayo to wet
• add as much pickle relish as you want (sweet or dill)

Most of the time I still make egg salad this way, but my tuna cravings have varied. Last night I found success:

• Albacore tuna
• mayo & olive oil combination to wet
• chopped up red bell pepper
• lots of capers
• chopped up hot red pepper

mix it all up and enjoy

summer salad

When that's what's in the farm box, and that's what's growing in the garden, everything you make comes out the same colors.

for the salad mix:

• fresh corn cut off the cob
• red onion
• cucumber
• bell pepper
• shredded carrot
  
• finely diced sour plums
  

for the dressing mix:

• dijon mustard
• minced garlic
• paprika
• olive oil
• minced fresh sage leaves
• honey
• champagne vinegar
• kosher salt & fresh ground pepper
• diced chili pepper
  

summer saute part one of many

A really simple & delicious summer saute:

• tbsp butter
• minced garlic
• diced acorn squash
• sliced okra
  
• chopped super chili
• hard plums diced fairly small
  
• brown rice
  

1. get brown rice started in a rice cooker
2. heat butter and garlic over medium heat in a wok until it becomes aromatic
3. toss chili and okra in wok and cook for a minute
4. add in squash and plums and cook until just tender
5. serve over brown rice
6. yum.

where there's smoke there's flames

No fucking wonder I can't breathe:



View Larger Map



















You know this all our fault for letting the homosexuals marry don't you?

really?

Instructions: The top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, asterisk the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish.

1984
A Clockwork Orange
A Confederacy of Dunces- just pulled this out of our old car, could not finish it, just too choppy
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
A People’s History of the United States: 1492-present
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Short History of Nearly Everything
American Gods
Anansi Boys
Angela’s Ashes: a Memoir
Angels & Demons
Anna Karenina
Atlas Shrugged- my god I loved the fountainhead, but could not stomach this.
Beloved
Brave New World
Catch-22
Cloud Atlas
Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed
Crime and Punishment- where did I put that after my last move?
Cryptonomicon
David Copperfield
Don Quixote- see crime & punishment
Dracula
Dubliners* yeah never really read any Joyce
Dune
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
Emma
Foucault’s Pendulum
Frankenstein
Freakonomics: a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Gravity’s Rainbow- but I love the crying of lot 49
Great Expectations
Gulliver’s Travels
Guns, Germs, and Steel
In Cold Blood: a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
Inferno
Jane Eyre
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Les Misérables
Life of Pi: a novel- but it sucks ass
Lolita
Love in the Time of Cholera
Madame Bovary
Mansfield Park
Memoirs of a Geisha- also sucked ass
Middlemarch
Middlesex
Moby Dick
Mrs. Dalloway
Neverwhere
Northanger Abbey
Oliver Twist
On the Road- I am ashamed
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Oryx and Crake
Persuasion
Pride and Prejudice
Quicksilver
Reading Lolita in Tehran: a memoir in books
Sense and Sensibility
Slaughterhouse-five
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
The Aeneid
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Blind Assassin
The Brothers Karamazov
The Canterbury Tales
The Catcher in the Rye
The Confusion
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
The Fountainhead
The God of Small Things
The Grapes of Wrath
The Historian: a novel
The Hobbit
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Iliad
The Kite Runner
The Mists of Avalon
The Name of the Rose
The Odyssey
The Once and Future King
The Picture of Dorian Gray- started someone else's copy on a weekend away from home, never picked it up again
The Poisonwood Bible: a novel
The Prince*
The Satanic Verses- once again, started it abroad, still need to get a copy & finish it
The Scarlet Letter
The Silmarillion
The Sound and the Fury
The Tale of Two Cities
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
To the Lighthouse
Treasure Island
Ulysses
Vanity Fair
War and Peace
Watership Down
White Teeth
Wicked: the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
Wuthering Heights
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: an inquiry into values

tool

when I was a teenager, I never got quite how terrifyingly creepy this was.

My heart is broke wide open--a work in progress

Okra

she's gone, and i need this.

okra peasley birdy gray
falcon freedom fighter
janjatweet militia
okara-chan
we are we are, an okranation
squeakarella
fearless flying falcon
little chirper
demon bird
little wing
squeaker
seed-eater
okra train! choo choo! (when pushing her cage room to room)
seed the falcon

it's only been a week, but a long tired week, and as these names start to leave my memory i feel lost, like i'm letting her down again, i need to keep the pain sharp to prove my love.

i miss the way she smelled like dried mushrooms when she bathed; the way she wanted to do whatever you were doing, even though I never let her have my gin & tonics; her little dances on the laptop keyboard, and her fight to death with my mouse; how she fluffed up and bathed in the puddles in our yard, and the kitchen sink while i was washing dishes; how she burrowed through a bunch of dill, and joh's hair; how she'd sit calmly on my back for hours while i read in my father's front yard; how she sang along to the blues, season three of Babylon5, and Garrison Keillor (much to our dismay, though we'd leave it on for her anyways;) i miss most how when we made noise in the middle of the night she'd let out a little chirp, just to ask "are you okay?" and when i'd chirp back she'd make her happy little noise; i miss her free-jazz happy-singing, curled up in her hut, her little red head peeking out; i miss the way she'd make us happy, the complete unconditional love between the three of us; i miss how much she needed us;
i regret all the pictures and videos i never took; the way she'd attack bells; sitting on the edge of my bowl tearing up popcorn;

reading

dooce, like everyone else, but....

"Sometimes parenthood is like being 13 all over again, when you're really into setting things on fire or wanting to find out how big of a mess a watermelon would make if you dropped it off the roof."

These were the exact things I spent hours/days/months doing when I was 13.

and 15.

Only we advanced to throwing flaming pumpkins off the top of a four-story parking garage.

just a little late for the bandwagon

Things I learned living w/an 18yr old male, and losing any remaining indie cred I ever had.
because really, this video is pretty fucking awesome.










Yes, I did just say something involving Britney Spears was awesome. Yes, someone please shoot me.

crazy

"Did you ever see this?? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3PbaFQBgv8&NR=1 "

"no. I had not. and I'm not sure if I'm going to thank you."

buying stuff

This is what any major purchase jevan & amelia attempt to make looks like:

smurf sex

Jevan:
"Good Jevan;
I have been gifted several K2 LEDs. They are 450 nM (deep royal blue)
and can be run at 1 amp plus (with heat sink). These mothers are BRIGHT!

Got any uses for such ? Eq to about a 60W bulb but monochromatic."

Hmm... can't really think of any real uses.... intense mood lighting?

me: "amelia's let's-pretend-we're-smurfs sex parlor"

Jevan: hehe

me: but I'm not sure you should tell my dad that...

Jevan: I'm just gonna reply with something along the lines of: "Wow those sound cool... but I don't think I have any real use of them... other than intense mood lighting"

me: okay

no smurf sex?

Jevan: hehe

I'm not sure if it'd work out like you are imagining

me: we'd probably look more like blue men

me: and blue men just make me think of analrappy now

learning to swim

I learned to swim at polly's puddle--a great big indoor pool balanced on the upper west side of santa cruz. I still remember the feel & smell of warm chlorinated steam, how I'd get to play with the miniature water wheel if I'd been brave and dove into the deep end. She wore a bathing cap (I may have had to too) which struck this little hippie child as very strange.

I must have been 3 or so, and she must have been at least 70 (strange how young that seems now that my own father is 65.) I believe she retired soon after. Those lessons were one of the best things my parents did for me. I still never feel as free or alive as when in the water.

Strange it's one of those pleasures I constantly deny myself.


Below is everything the internet divulges to let me know I am not yet completely insane:

OBITUARY
Pauline McNeely

A celebration of life will be held Dec. 3 for Pauline "Polly" McNeely of Eugene, who died Nov. 12 of age-related causes. She was 86.

McNeely was born June 21, 1919, in Santa Cruz, Calif., to Don and Minnie Madden Sadler. She married Sam McNeely on June 24, 1945, in Santa Cruz. He died May 13, 1994.

She had lived in Santa Cruz all her life until she moved to Eugene 3 1/2 years ago. She graduated from the National Aquatic School in Prescott, Ariz., in 1954, and taught survival swimming for 52 years, including employment at the Santa Cruz Plunge, Shaffer's Tropical Gardens, Harvey West Park and Santa Cruz High School.

Starting in 1962, she taught swimming lessons for many years in the swimming pool in her backyard, Polly's Puddle, in Santa Cruz. She taught children and adults, including those with mental or physical disabilities.

McNeely was named Santa Cruz Woman of the Year in 1963. She enjoyed sewing and gardening.

Survivors include two daughters, Pamela Brodey of Crow and Donna Smartt of Wallace, Calif.; a son, Dennis of Santa Cruz; six grandchildren; and two great-grand- children.

The Dec. 3 celebration will be held at the Cocoanut Grove Banquet and Conference Center in Santa Cruz.

Musgrove Family Mortuary in Eugene is in charge of arrangements.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Stewart Aquatic Center.

News obituaries are printed free as space allows. The News Department will accept information on its standard obituary forms submitted through funeral homes or by the deceased's immediate family. Obituary information is available at (phone) 485-1234, Ext. 5534, or (fax) 683-7631. If you want to purchase advertising space for a more detailed obituary, call 338-2421. News obituaries published in the past 30 days are available at www.registerguard.com.

MySpace
HeroesPolly's Puddle. Where I learned to swim and this women taught until the age of 87.

color me bad

for my husband who HATES cop & lawyer shows, and my good friend that can't get enough of the crime drama--though I'm pretty sure she has yet to stoop this low:

http://www.brandonbird.com/lno_color.html



did I use that hyphen correctly?

intended to serve the public interest

Trying to use Demurrage in a dirty sentence.

too many tabs

I kept wondering why npr had incongruent calypso music in the back of this really really long story that seemed to be several stories combined only they didn't combine--then realized I still had this open...

It's good, everyone's mother should play.

sarah

so a few years ago a friend of mine died, january 16th 2006 actually.

we hadn't really talked in several years, and the last interaction wasn't all peaches; her mocking goths, as i sat there fat and dyed-black haired in my sisters of mercy t-shirt.

but i was always happy to know she was alive, that she existed. i got along better w/ her last girl-friend. she went to the college of my dreams, that I wanted to attend before she knew it existed (they rejected me.)

i took it much harder than i ever thought i would. some consider me cold, heartless; i didn't think i cried except for self interest, knowing everyone's time is up - when a friend committed suicide in the 6th grade i never shed a tear. but her death was harder, when i heard i lost the ability to stand. was at work, had to go back to my desk and drink a 1/2 gallon of water just to feel my body enough to stand again.

for months afterwards i'd wake up crying, having conversations with her in my dreams.
the funny bit is, she was one of the most significant people in my development, and i never think she knew.

first time i ever did speed--with her, of course she'd done it before, old hat to the game. but i was one of those easily impressed youths.

and that was where our friendship fell apart.

last time i really saw her was after i'd been up three days, had a promise with the roommate to stay clean 'till we saw each other again. i tried to be a normal(?) teen, stay the night at a friend's house, roommate smoked, i wigged, had to go back to the den. I don't think my friend's parents even really knew what was going on, and if they did never faced my father about it.

she moved to New York, went to England, went to college. i got into a dead-end 7ry relationship.

and looking into her coffin, all i could see was the 8yr old lip-syncing to the oldies (rob orbison, marvin gay, hey mr postman) and the 15yr old i took acid with, swimming in the pool (made of jello) listening to james, listening to blur-park life, which i'm listening to right now, thing of her.

and i looked into that coffin, and saw the precarious (totally not the word i want, but my vocabulary is failing me) nature of life, saw one of the most alive people i'd even known--pale and dead--and cried harder than i knew i could.

three bean salad

Mix together in large bowl in amounts that please your senses

• 1 can black soy beans
  
• 1 can kidney beans
• 1 can green beans
• marinated roasted red peppadew peppers, torn to pieces
• small onions marinated in balsamic vinaigrette (can be found sometimes in the olive bar area of yuppie grocery stores) torn to pieces
  
• pepperoncinis, torn to pieces
• chopped garlic
• powdered garlic
• fresh parsley
• fresh oregano
• dried thyme
• red pepper flakes
• kosher salt
• olive oil
• balsamic vinegar
• white vinegar

serve garnished w/ fresh French baguette pieces topped w/ ricotta, fresh ground black pepper and fresh grated nutmeg.

poached egg

1. poach egg, place in small ramekin
2. reduce following ingredients until thick & tasty:

• 1/2 & 1/2
• butter
• lemon juice
• lots of paprika
• champagne vinegar
• ground sage
• black pepper
• fresh oregano (pull out after a minute)
• honey

3. spoon sauce over egg and top w/fresh chopped parsley

what keeps me in Davis

Walking in the arboretum, lunch break, sunny, not yet devastatingly hot...

ducklings! ducklings! ducklings!

They are here again! I can stare for hours, Jevan has to pull me away when Itry to stuff them in my bag, completely convinced they really can live a happy life in our bathtub.

also a pair of Chinese Fringe Trees in bloom; turtles sunning themselves; swallows (?) with red bellies skimming the pond for insects, splashing down each time so hard I'm afraid they'll get stuck in the murky water; and a foot & 1/2 long black carp rising to the surface.

Ahhhh, spring.

did you ever think

that maybe the incomprehensibility of David Lynch could be the solution to all our problems?



(and take this Mac whores!)

lasagna?

dish:

• spaghetti squash (cooked & separated)
• sliced tomatoes
• cooked lasagna noodles
  
• fresh mozzarella sliced in rounds
  
• olive oil
  
• balsamic vinegar
• pressed garlic
• kosher(ing) salt
  
• ground pepper
  

1. mix oil, garlic, vinegar in bowl
2. layer tomatoes, spaghetti squash, fresh mozzarella, brush w/ vinegar dressing, top w/ noodles.
   
3. repeat till baking dish is full.
4. top with crumbled mozzarella.
5. cover w/ foil & bake until done.
   
6. broil briefly at end to brown top.
7. let stand and cool before serving

While the other is baking make topping:

• chopped button mushrooms
  
• chopped fresh herbs: cilantro, oregano, parsley, thyme, basil
  
• chopped garlic
• red pepper flakes
• kosher salt
• ground pepper
• champagne vinegar
• white vinegar
• olive oil

1. combine herb mix and mushrooms in about equal portions w/ the rest in bowl.
2. let marinate while layered dish bakes & cools
3. serve atop the lasagna

very pretty, really I need to remember to take pictures of these things

the BEST music video EVER!

No really, this is the BEST music video EVER; completely deserving of the caps.



So take your pretty little selves to YouTube and you search for "Knights of Cydonia." Do it, and do it now.

Get your politics out of my science!

http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/restoring/scientificfreedom.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19085881

beotches.

quote of the day

for all those people I know who are so fucking special
""If you're one in a million, there are six thousand people exactly like you."

*edit: My PMS may be out of control this month, but I mean every word.

Jambalaya-ish

Fed 6 people

• .75 cup brown rice
• one large carrot sliced in rounds
• .5 lb stir fry chicken chunks
• one yellow onion chopped
  
• two ribs celery sliced
  
• .5 large red bell pepper roughly chopped
• .5 large green bell pepper roughly chopped
• .5 cup frozen corn
• four andoullie sausages, cut into half inch pieces
  
• .5 cup fresh basil leaves

• one cup dry white wine
• one can chicken broth
• fresh & dry thyme
• fresh & dry oregano
• minced garlic
  
• garlic powder
• paprika
• salt
  
• cayenne
• red pepper flakes
• dried crumbled or chopped bay leaves

1. layer first set of ingredients in order in crock pot
2. mix spices w/ a small amount of the wine in large container to taste
3. mix rest of wine & chicken broth with spices
4. stir well
5. pour spice broth over stuff in crock-pot
6. set pot cook at high heat and walk away
7. when the rice on the bottom is edible it's done! (3-4 hours on high, you could probably cook it on low while at work all day)
   

This was way better than I thought it'd be for a first try. Waaaay better, like I wish I'd actually written down what I was doing while cooking good. There may have been another vegetable in there I'm forgetting, and likely a few more spices, will update as memory serves.

I think the potential to recreate this many times over using seasonal vegetables is limitless.

cuteness zap!

Come on,
you know
you want to.

creatures

I cannot get enough

the erotic adventures of a hamster

So this is old news, even to me. But seriously, if you haven't seen
Oruchuban Ebichu
You really need to; I'm pretty sure everyone I call a friend will love this deep down in some secret part of their being, even if they wouldn't admit it.

ebony & ivory

Jevan & I met over the MLK holiday.
That 1st weekend, and every year since, we bake a black & white (sometimes pink inside, sometimes swirled) cake to commemorate.
This year's cake was chocolate genoise, filled with white-chocolate Grand Marnier ganache, frosted w/ whipped cream, stenciled doctor in cocoa powder.

salad (jevan calls it mixed veggies)

1. .25 yellow onion
2. large handful baby carrots
3. handful asparagus spears
4. hot harissa to taste
   
5. garam masala to taste
   
6. honey
7. dijon mustard
8. 1 egg
9. olive oil
10. kosher salt to taste
    

• finely chop .25 yellow onion
• mix spices, oil, honey, mustard and onion in large bowl
  
• blanch baby carrots & asparagus
• boil egg
• finely chop or rice egg, cut asparagus spears in half
• mix it all up in the large bowl

Yum.

biscuits!

Woke up thinking these biscuits would taste great, and they did. I used that staple of the American diet Bisquick, but I'm sure they'd be even more delicious from scratch.

• Make your favorite drop biscuit recipe-
  
• (since I used Bisquick I added a table spoon of walnut oil)
  
• add diced ripe green d'Anjou pear to batter.
• add a few crushed cardamom pods to the batter
  
• serve warm with a potent blue cheese. ( I used Bleu d'Auvergne)
  

Yum!