back in action!

Woah. It's been some week. Delirious highs, staggering lows. And, I'm serious about the delirium. I was dog-sick all week. I was off Thursday all day from work, and took off early Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Phew! I'm still coughy and a bit tired, but I'm starting to be able to breathe through my nose and move around without getting dizzy and sweaty again. That is progress.

Also, I went car-shopping again today, and I'm cautiously optimistic that I may've found a car. I'll give details when/if it actually materializes. But, today I looked at cars being sold by individuals instead of dealers, and it couldn't have been a more different experience than the one I had last weekend. These people were nice, helpful and genuine. What a refreshing change!

And, then I came back home to find a box sitting on my steps. It was from my friend Alex, and contained one of these:


If you don't know what that is, it's an XO laptop. You've probably heard something about this program over the past couple of years on NPR, the news, and the like. The mission of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is to give children in the developing world laptops to give them educational opportunities they may never otherwise have. A quote from their site is "to help make education for the world’s children a priority, not a privilege." It's pretty amazing. And, they're currently running a promotion that if you donate the XO laptop, then you can also receive one for "the child in your life". I am the child in Alex's life. And, I'm so, so grateful that I am! This little machine is totally amazing. Alex is totally amazing. She's at it again, being generous and doing good deeds, all the way from Poland. (Annnnd, after some, uh, to-be-unnamed slacker never got a care package in the mail to her. d'oh.) You can find out more about this amazing organization, including donation information, here.

So, yeah. It's been an action-packed week. I also paid a visit to Hoi Polloi a couple days ago, paid up from the dine-n-dash incident (my not-so-secret shame), got some delicious cream-of-mushroom soup, a grilled cheese and some hot tea. And, some fantastic service from Hoi Polloi fella, Daniel.

And, the queer book club had our holiday meeting and gifty book exchange meet-up extravaganza this week, too. We'd read Kate Bornstein's Gender Outlaw, and had a great discussion (seriously, the best/most literary book club I've ever been involved with), exchanged our book-gifts, and picked our next selection--Claire Messud's The Emperor's Children. It sounds like a good one. (If you're interested in joining the book club, send me an email and/or post a comment with how to email you).

Peeps, life is good. Sometimes I forget that, and often I lose focus, but I do believe it. I'm lucky to have wonderful friends, a fantastic family, a good job, and now all the little things are starting to fall into place. I'm looking over the last year, and see that I made some significant progress, had some setbacks, learned a lot and am grateful for it all. Sometimes I get to feeling really low and small and frustrated and embarassed at feeling that I've fallen behind my peers in this ol' game of life. But, it's all interesting, it's all, ultimately, good. And, I'm trying, really trying, to opt for personal growth as I can. I want to recommit to the commitment I made to myself at the start of 2007. I'll post more about this soon. I'm still pondering. But, the overall feeling is that, indeed, life is good.

comfort, schmomfort

Well, the colcannon was a big, fat failure. It turned out more like spackle or papier-mâché or glue than a bowl of fluffy love. I'm not sure whether it was the potatoes (they were more sweet, less starchy) or the fact that I cooked them the night before (even though I rewarmed them for mashing). It may have been a combo of both, but I'm leaning towards the potato variety. You need starchy goodness, but I just wanted to both use up my CSA potatoes I'd been stockpiling for weeks and wanted colcannon, so I made a gamble. And, lost.

So, after I realized that the potatoes were glue it just hurt my heart that I'd already invested ten or twelve (smallish/mediumish) potatoes, three cloves of garlic, half a head of cabbage, a bunch of chard, a bunch of parsley, lots of grated parmesan, some half-n-half, some butter...well, I just wasn't ready to throw in the towel that easily. So, I came up with the plan of making them into potato cakes. So, I threw in a couple eggs, some more cheese and an entire bag of panko. I formed them into cakes (not easy since they were still so gluey), and fried them in a little olive oil. Guess what the result was?

Yep, glue cakes.

The flavor wasn't horrible, but the texture was grody. So, I threw the finished cakes in the trash, but was still left with a giant bowl of the glue. I called Schwatts for her expert advice. Guess what that was. She said, "Make a piñata?". And, then she settled down and shared her own tales of Potatoes Gone Wild, and suggested that maybe I could try using it as thickener for soup. So, that's gonna be my last-ditch effort. I'm gonna warm some stock, and whisk some in and see if that'll work. Otherwise, I just gotta bite the bullet and toss 'em (dang, and today was garbage day). So sad!

So, I went empty-handed to book club last night, but I didn't leave with an empty belly. There were lots of delicious treats--E-dawg's chocolate chip pumpkin loaf (yum!), Nat's baked apples (yum!), Hayley's madeleines (yum!), and all the other delectable treats that I can't think of right now. All in all, apart from the colcannon debacle, a delightful evening.

And, today's Friday! Woot!

Handmade Arcade is this weekend, and it's two days this year! It's this big annual DIY craft fair, and it's awesome-awesome. I plan on getting all my holiday shopping done there. Halfly because I don't plan on doing a ton of holiday shopping this year (down with capitalism, up with good cheer!), and halfly because there are so many incredible things to see and purchase (okay, so not totally down with capitalism).

Also, I'm getting a hair cut tomorrow. Finally. My head is looking like I'm sporting a mullet mop. It's so displeasing to me that it actually makes me nauseous. It's that bad. Yet, I'm going back to the same person that cut it last time. If anyone has excellent hair-cuttin' suggestions for the 'Burgh, please bring 'em on. My friend Beth once told me, "You should always have someone cooler than you cutting your hair." And, hey, let's face it, it's hard to get cooler than this guy.

And, I'm pet-sitting Zeke this weekend! My special little guy!

Annnnd, Slow Food Pittsburgh is having an Apple Festival tomorrow at the Union Project! Complete with apple pie baking contest and Johnny Appleseed look-alike contest! (I love this gal's blog, and she mentioned a while back that she's entering the contest. I'm pulling for her for the win! Seriously, her blog is called "Pittsburgh Needs Eated". That's the cutest name ever).

So, it'll be an action-packed weekend! Not so great for hibernating, but good for the soul, nonetheless. Hope you have a good one, dear readers.

hamsters know what's up

E-dawg and I checked out a new (to us) restaurant last night--Rivas Restaurant in Carnegie. It's the first time I'd had Nicaraguan food, and I really liked it! It's similar to Mexican food in the spicing and ingredients, and WAY better than the stuff that Kramer and I got on Sunday. I wasn't too crazy about the chips (too thick and hard) or the plantain tostones (greasy, not much flavor), but the main dish I got, Gallo Pinto con Queso Frito, was really yum. It was sorta like a fried rice kinda thing (and you know how much I like a fried rice kinda thing) with rice, beans, pico de gallo, onions, green and red peppers, and these little planks of fried cheese (I thought they were tofu at first). They're BYOB (but, we didn't B), but they have a bunch of non-alcholic different drinks that they make there. I got the strawberry lemonade, and E-dawg tried the peach lemonade (both super-good!). I proclaimed mine so delicious that I was fantasizing about installing one of those drinking tubes that hamsters use beside my couch, kept full of their strawberry lemonade. Like, this:


It's the night of the queer book club tonight--i.e. one of my favorite nights of the month! We read Strange Piece of Paradise by Terri Jentz. It was interesting, but could've done without about 350 pages (out of 542 pages in total). By the end I thought I was going to freak out due to the same stories being repeated. repeatedly. and then repeated again. It was a test of endurance.

Anyhow, you may remember that book club is also a foodstravaganza. I think I'm going to make Squash Spice Cake (recipe from the current Vegetarian Times). I baked the squash this morning, so I should be good to go. I don't have spelt flour, so I think I'm going to try a 1:1 mix of whole wheat flour and unbleached all-purpose (I love whole wheat flour!).

SQUASH SPICE BREAD
Serves 8

Butternut squash purée adds flavor while replacing some of the eggs and fat in this quick bread recipe. Spelt flour imparts a fine-grained texture, but all purpose flour will work just as well.

1 medium butternut squash, halved
and seeded (1 1/2 lb.)
1 Tbs. maple syrup
1 1/2 cups spelt flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbs. chopped walnuts, divided
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
1/4 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
1/3 cup plain (unsweetened) soymilk
1 Tbs. vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat baking sheet with cooking spray. Place squash halves cut-side down on baking sheet. Bake 40 to 45 minutes, or until soft. Cool. Scoop fl esh from skin, mash with maple syrup, and set aside.
2. Coat 8- x 41/2-inch loaf pan with cooking spray. Combine spelt flour, sugar, walnuts, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, and salt in large bowl. Lightly beat eggs in separate bowl. Whisk in oil, soymilk, and vanilla until smooth. Fold squash into liquid ingredients with spatula. Stir squash liquid mixture into flour mixture.
3. Pour batter into prepared pan, and sprinkle with remaining 2 Tbs. walnuts. Bake 60 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 20 minutes on wire rack, then unmold and cool completely.

PER SERVING: 311 CAL; 7G PROT; 15G TOTAL FAT (1.5G SAT. FAT); 40G CARB; 53MG CHOL; 323MG SOD; 5G FIBER; 17G SUGARS

I'll try to remember to take pictures to post tomorrow. I think my squash is big enough to make two loaves, but I didn't weigh it. So, I'm going to weigh myself, then step back on the scale with the squash to see if it's a three-pounder. It's huge; I had to use two baking dishes (one half in each), so I think it will be, but I'm horrible at guessing stuff like that. Will report back.

guess who!

Guess who forgot their camera last night, and therefore was only able to take a couple crappy phone photos? I'll give you a hint. Her name rhymes with Behrrin Beenan.



I'll have to make it again. The crust was a very tasty vehicle for getting the tomatoes and basil into my gullet. I just went with the fresh slices instead of "Chef Mark"'s suggestion of lightly sauteeing the tomato slices. They were just super lovely as-is. Not that you can tell that from the photos...

There were also two fantastic homemade salsas at the book club. You can tell it's tomato season! And, a selection of dips, grape leaves, cupcakes, rice pudding, lots of wine and good times. I love book club! We read A.M. Homes's The Mistress's Daughter, a memoir of the author's experience in meeting her birth parents as an adult. Most of us felt kinda 'eh' about it, but several in the group had read her fiction, and described it as "great" and "creepy" and "disturbing". I like the sounds of that, so I have one of her novels, The End of Alice, on loan from the library right now. Along with...um...fourteen other books. Admittedly, I do have a bit of a problem when it comes to getting carried away with library books, but also I had a bunch of stuff reserved, and it just all happened to come in at once. And, I just got an email that another one is in! Eek!

The best part is that I have another book club meeting next week--"classic" book club. But, we, um, read The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Not my choice! Not it! Actually, I shouldn't be overly hard on it because it is teen chick lit. I mean, for real. What can you expect? And, in that context, it was fine--just not something I'd normally want to read.

Are you on goodreads? The myspace equivalent for book nerds? Yes, I know I've mentioned this (a couple times) before. Get on. Be my friend. Let me evaluate you based on your choice of reading material. Doesn't that sound fun?!

In other news I'm still struggling. A lot. With smoking and eating and cleaning and just generally feeling motivated and not depressed. I'm not exactly sure why. I thought that confessing would make me feel better, and it did--temporarily, but then I just felt more pressure to be "good". Blah.

book club = good times!

It's book club tonight! Queer book club (not "classic" or "hardcore"...what? I like bookclubs!), and the queers enjoy throwing down some delicious treats along with their literary discussion. I'm making Heidi's Heirloom Tomato Tart in a Parmesan Crust. I made the crust last night. I don't have a tart pan, so I used a regular 9x9 glass pan, but I think I made the sides too high (see Heidi's picture), but it smelled like heaven out of the oven, so hopefully it'll be a-okay.

I am rapturously in love with summer tomatoes (and hate their waxy, mealy supermarket poser wannabe cousins with an rabid venom in equal measure as my love for the sunkissed real tomatoes), and am constantly looking for things to do with them. I often get stuck on tomato-cheese sandwiches, tomato-on-toast and just thick slices on a plate with salt and pepper because they're so fantastic just on their own. That's what intrigued me about this recipe--the tomatoes stay in tact and lovely and just-sliced, but they get a fancier outfit to ride around in and make their way to your mouth. And, I'm actually considering trying out a twist that was posted to the comments on Heidi's site by "Chef Mark". I just checked out his blog, and it's not really my style, but I liked the suggestion:

Lovely article, and a great recipe. May I add a suggestion which I use for Tomato Basil Tarts? You say that you leave the tomatoes uncooked but salt them to draw out water. You can achieve the same result with just a tad more work, but get some added flavor by GENTLY sauteeing the tomato slices in a light soffrito (garlic, butter and oil, and parsley, or for a subtle flavor, marjoram.

After a few minutes, use a spatula to transfer the tomatoes to a colandar set over a bowl to drain. You can save the juices for another purpose. I LOVE this garlic and herb infused juice to add to soups, any tomato sauce, a vinaigrette, etc.

I'm going to try to remember my camera tonight so I can photograph the tart and any other delectable delights that show up. I know that E-dawg made a fresh salsa that I can't wait to taste.