officially winter

Okay, so we've been playing at winter here for a while--some cold, some flurries, our winter coats and hats and gloves. But, it finally hit for real. The roads are bad, and intermittently scary, there's real snow (I think I had about 5" at my house by yesterday afternoon). I even got to leave work early yesterday! What does all this mean to you? It just means that I'm planning on using it as an excuse for not blogging for a few days. That, and my uterus has been playing games (not fun games) with me for nearly a week now. I am a cranky, bloated, tender, crampy, uterachey, crompy monster. But, that said, I'm real glad to be back to bloggin'!

First of all, the vegan-flavor cupcakes for Kramer's birthday celebration. I ended up making a sort of "almond joy" type of cupcake. I made the coconut cupcake recipe from this blog. As for the frosting, I made a chocolate-almond flavor, and I just kinda winged it like she suggests. I used powdered sugar, Earth Balance, a little hemp milk, some cocoa, some vanilla and almond extracts, and just kept beating it and tasting it until I was happy with it. Then I topped them with the toasted coconut and slivered almonds. They were yum--and cute! Here's a close-up, and one of Kramer blowing out her candles.


"blow like you've never blown before"


Also, Taste of India was pretty tasty, but I don't know if there's a place that can unseat Udipi from the top seat in my heart for Indian fare in the 'Burgh.

Saturday Barbara (PYT) made a little light dinner and hung out and played Skip-bo with me while I complained about my uterache. Obviously, I am a big bowl o' fun around this time of the month!

Couscous with garlic and veggies:


The next morning we made a big breakfast, and it was magically delicious! Sunday Brunch is my favorite meal of the week. She made her famous tofu scramble and some veggie sausages and coffee. I made some roasted dill potatoes, peanut butter-n-jelly french toast (from a recipe that came from a kid's cook book that my brother and I had when we were little), and some fresh-squeezed oj. So tasty and perfect for a chilly morning.


Sunday afternoon we went to a Baby Party. It was for her niece Violet's first birthday. However, I mistakenly thought that it meant [Dress Like a] Baby Party, and showed up in a diaper and bonnet. Boy, was that embarrassing for the first meeting with her extended family!

[Just kiddin', folks. It was a really cute baby party with delicious cake, and hilarious baby antics.]

In other news, my sandwich addiction this week is egg salad with fake bacon. I had an "Egg Salad BLT" at Hoi Polloi last week, and had been thinking about it since. Also, E-dawg and I had been talking about subbing all or most of the mayo in egg salad for greek yogurt, and then Heidi posted another egg salad recipe a few days ago. So, I gave that a whirl. I used 4 eggs, 1 T. mayo, 2 T. fage 0% greek yogurt as the base. But, it just was a little too tangy, and not enough mayo-y for my liking, so I'll likely switch back, or at least flip-flop the mayo to yogurt ratio. So, to off-set the tanginess I added some minced sweet gherkin, some parsley and salt and pepper. It was good, but not perfect. Adding the fake bacon helps, though.


Night before last I threw together a pasta dish with broccoli and a bastardized alfredo-type sauce. I didn't use a recipe, just threw some stuff together--a little half and half, a little marsala, a little parmesan, a little freshly grated nutmeg, a little garlic and onion, a little butter, some salt and pepper. It turned out pretty good!


Tonight I'm doing some shopping for tomorrow's valentine's dinner with Barbara (aka PYT). I'm going to try the recipe that's on the cover of the new Vegetarian Times magazine for a vegetable wellington. Sounds deelish!

if i were a diva...

If I were a diva perhaps it would not feel as though my uterus is trying to claw it's way out. As it stands, I've got a uterache to beat the band. Dang.

I met The Gooch today at lunch for a little Scrabble action, and while we weren't able to finish the game, she had a good lead up on me. But, I'm blaming any Scrabble-related shortcoming on my persnickety uterus. Do you all have that thing where you start dropping things and losing focus and the like around the time of the Red Wave?

But, otherwise all is well. I'm meeting some oldie-but-goodie pals this evening for a potent potable and an assload of new tunes. Seriously. I used to work with these fellas, and we had a monthly "International Interoffice Mixed Tape Exchange". Except that it wasn't really international, and we didn't actually use tapes. But, still. It was a real.good.time, and I miss both them and the exchanges. I see them from time to time, but never often enough. I've made-but-not-kept a few plans lately with one of the guys, let's call him Alan (because that is his name). Every time I talk to him he has more mixes piling up for me. Tonight he said he's bringing 13. Yes, thirteen! Woot! And, the other young man, let's call him Bob, is planning on bringing me a couple Beirut goodies (the band I'm currently obsessed with, but own nothing by) and the Juno soundtrack. And, a small painting he did of me when I was dressed up as Divine for Halloween a couple years ago. I'm so excited I could pee.

Also, I have not smoked today (my yesterday's tally was four). I want one, but am doing okay because I found an old nicotine patch in my medicine cabinet. I'm going to get some more, but have to wait for a minute because while I normally am paid once per month, in January we're not paid for six weeks (because we're paid two weeks early in December because the office is closed for the holidays at the time they'd normally pay us). It is putting a hurtin' on me. Luckily, I have some dog-sitting gigs coming up. But, in the meantime, if you have some extra patches and/or gum and the like sitting around doing nothing, give me a holler. I will gladly use them.

mutherhumper!

Dang it! I've been so absurdly busy that I haven't been able to post a blog, and it's killing a Hurd*.

*Hurd is actually my friend Amy's last name, but I love it so much that I also like to refer to myself as "A Hurd"--especially when I'm talking to her. As in, "A Hurd is feeling a Hurd. I totally know what you're saying." Plus, it's just really fun to say stuff like "it's killing a Hurd". "Hurd" also goes really well in nearly all popular music songs: ex. 'All I need is a miracle...All I neeeeed is Hurd!' or 'I'm bringin' Hurdcakes** back, Ow!'.

**Hurdcakes is another variation and a real good time.

A Hurd and a half a Hurd (new years in Toronto, which i will not discuss other than to say: down with Canada).


Anyhow, yeah, I didn't even get to do a rant about Mondays yesterday, as is my custom. Too bad, too, 'cause I was on a roll with hatin' yesterday (my uterus made me do it). I even forgot my mantra about hatin' being so last year.

But, the weekend? Oh, the weekend. How I love thee. I had a great one. The weather could not possibly have been better. And, I was out and about biking around! You know I mentioned that a few weeks ago my friend Marsha hooked me up with a (FREE!) bike from a woman she works with? Well, it was awesome, but a little big for me, and it has a boy-bar, so that I was terrified of having to stop suddenly and damaging my delicate lady-parts, so I worked out a trade with Mags. She's a little taller than me, and liked how light and fast that bike is. I like how hers (now mine) has a girl-bar (girls rule, boys drool--fyi) and just feels more my size, and I feel more stable on the seat, and like that it came with a WVU Horticulture milkcrate. I just got it a few days ago, and have made good use of it so far!

I rode down to a meeting for the Northside Co-op on Friday. Riding down Troy Hill was thrilling! I had big plans to ride it back up, but there was no way. I'm pretty out of shape, so I gotta ease into this thing. Luckily, Sandra and Jessica were also at the meeting, and gave a Hurd* a ride back up the hill, and let me store my bike at their place for the night.

Saturday Ellen and I rode over to the farmer's market (so fun!) from the Northside (to the Firehouse Farmer's Market in the Strip) and back. I'd met the manager of the market, Megan Cook, at the co-op meeting on Friday, and that made it even more fun 'cause I got scoop on stuff (well, really just that it was the first week for sweet corn, but still. she's a peach).

Sunday I went swimmin' at the Bloomfield Pool and then rode over to the Quiet Storm to meet up with The Gooch for our weekly Scrabble Fight To The Death. I totally kicked her ass. Just sayin'.

And, today? Today is my crowning achievement thus far. I drove to Bloomfield this morning and parked, then rode my bike to work. And, rode it down into Oakland to meet Roya for lunch (java fried rice and Dave-n-Andy's. don't blame me--the uterus made me do it) where she GAVE ME HER BRAND NEW COPY OF THE NEW HARRY POTTER BOOK (thank you, Roya!!!)!

I feel like a badass. For real. I bought a bike rack on Sunday, and so I'm going to take my bike everywhere I go, park a few miles away and ride so that I can gradually build up my stamina and tackle hills.

Also, I'm totally giving up the back-sliding smoking 'cause it makes my lungs want to bust through my chest when I'm biking. So, smoking: 0, biking: 1.

look! i'm so far ahead 'cause i'm so fast!


bike-n-me photoshoot (all my farmer's market goodies are in the back):


farmer's market


I got a bunch of stuff at the farmer's market because I was going to the 2nd Annual Pittsburgh DYKE MARCH & Picnic on Saturday afternoon. It was a real good time seeing all the ladies and marching, and I loved the addition of after-picnic. I made some tomato-bean-potato salad (based on a recipe from Chef Lon in a Whole Foods class. i couldn't find the exact recipe, but I think it was close), some of the white bean dip with basil drizzle with baguette, and a Blueberry Crisp (based on this recipe from Heidi's site).


The salad was a breeze to make, and is super-tasty.


I just quartered a bunch of new potatoes (I used a mix of red, gold and purple for cuteness' sake), and boiled them until tender. And, meanwhile blanched the green beans. I quartered a bunch of small tomatoes (plum? the ones from the farmer's market picture above). I julienned a handful of basil, and tossed all that stuff together, and added the dressing:
1/2 c. olive oil
1/2 c. vinegar (i used a mix of white and apple cider)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 rounded teaspoon of whole grain mustard (i used Double C)
salt & pepper to taste
I just put it all in a jar with a tight-fitting lid, and shake it-shake it. I didn't use all of it for the salad, just add enough to coat everything well, and then use the rest for salads. It'll keep for a week or two in the fridge. Yum.

For the crisp, I followed Heidi's recipe exactly, but substituted blueberries for the peaches and plums and rosewater for the orange blossom water. I probably could've cut the sugar in half, too. But, it was tasty!


In between the farmer's market and the Dyke March, E-dawg and I went to the pool (Jack Stack), and then stopped by The Vault. We'd tried to check it out a week or two earlier, but were there on Sundays, and they're closed that day (I hate when coffeeshops are closed on Sundays!). But, it was worth waiting for. It's the cutest place ever! they have a bunch of hilarious signs, friendly staff, a great magazine selection, cute decor, and possibly the best pb&j sandwich Of All Time!



Mark my words, I will be back!

I went out to Operation Sappho and got my dance party on late Saturday night, so I was ready for a hearty breakfast again. I had to do the Shirred Shittake Eggs and fried potatoes again. So good. Thank you, Eric Gower!

Last night was the "Queers: They're What's For Dinner!" dinner at the Gypsy Cafe, and it was some good eatin'. My favorite thing was the crostini with this creamy veggie spread. Yuh-um.

Phew. Okay. I think I'm caught up. Just in the nick of time, 'cause a Hurd* needs to ride a Hurd's* bike over to Bloomfield to get a Hurd's* car.

cranky

My uterus has once again risen in revolt and is currently staging a coup. I feel like surrendering and crawling under my desk and napping until quittin' time. Instead, as a compromise, I'm just not working yet sitting at my desk and being somewhat pleasant. That counts for something, right? Plus, she's trying to force me to go to Spice Island for some java fried rice. Instead I am eating carrot slices and feeling bitter.


But, in good news, I just checked on bus schedules and there's one that goes from work directly to my dog-sit house! One bus! No transfers! Sweet! This morning I walked downtown and caught a bus to Oakland from there, and that was nice, but in the evenings I just wanna get there. Plus, Zeke's mom is getting central air installed As I Type so it is going to be a deliciously cool and humidity-free oasis this evening. I brought a cheesy movie over to watch, too. It's so cheesy I can't admit the title (even though I know that one of you has watched it already 'cause we talked about it). Okay. I'll tell.

Don't blame me! It's my sappy, belligerent uterus!

I have been reading this site all morning. She has some fantastic-sounding recipes and she knows Heidi. 'Nuff said.

I can't wait until the weekend. For one, no work. For two, my car will be fixed. For three, I will get paid and can get some groceries (farmers market and co-op, here I come!). For four, there are some queerific fun times happening this weekend. For five, my bff will be back from vacation. For six, weekends are always far superior to non-weekends.

i'm a winner!

I did it! I called Comcast last night and told them to suck it! I was feeling a little sad about it yesterday, but then they called to harass me to pay my bill from last month, when I *told* them I wasn't going to pay it until I saw the credit for all the time it wasn't working. So, I went home, got my "Lost" on, and then immediately called them and told them to turn it off thatverysecond.

Speaking of "Lost", holy shit! That was a freakin' awesome episode! Crazy.

Yesterday evening my uterus demanded that I get takeaway from Spice Island Tea House (Atwood St., Oakland). It, and I, needed the Java Fried Rice (vegetarian with tofu and egg). Hot damn. It's not "healthy" 'cause I can see the oil in the bottom of the dish, but it is fabulous. And, it does have lots of veggies, so I can pretend it's healthy. And, I brought the leftovers today for lunch. YUM.

My uterus suggested that since we were on Atwood Street, perhaps we should also swing by Dave and Andy's Homemade Ice Cream Shop. So, we did. I got the cinnamon-apple-granola frozen yogurt, and it may be the best ice cream-type creation In The World. Holy moly.


I'm taking Scout (my kids' bike) by a lady's house after work to try to sell it. I hope she buys it. Mostly 'cause I'm pretty broke (getting paid once per month sucks), and I'm going to the Rachel Carson Centennial this weekend, and I'm sure there will be some delicious treats to try. It's five bucks to get in, and then you get to try a bunch of chef's tastes. I like the sounds of that. Plus, the Firehouse Farmers Market, other vendors, etc. http://rch.extranet.bbfsol.com/Default.aspx?tabid=88

You know what is a moment of pure joy for me? It's when I open a brand-spankin' new jar of peanut butter and the surface is so smooth, and then that first dip into the jar. I made a PB-n-J burrito this morning (peanut butter and fig jam), and had this experience. It's just so satisfying.

Untouched:


Making contact:


First dip:


Ahhh.

And, TGIF. For reals.