no fair

I have made no secret about my hatred for Mondays. And, that hatred gets ratcheted up a billionfold when there's a Monday work holiday that I am not privy to. Veterans, I salute you, but to everyone else: pppbbbbbbbbbllllllllllltttttttttttt! (aka, a raspberry).

But, the weekend was swell. Friday night I just had a quiet evening and watched a movie. Um, Ratatouille. Yes, it's a kids' movie, but it's also about a rat that's a chef. It was really cute! I give it two thumbs up.

Saturday I got my hair did, and actually really like it. So, crisis averted for now. I was thinking that I'd stop by the Apple Festival, but I got busy with other errands, and then went to hang out with Zeke, so I missed it (did anyone check it out?). Saturday night I sat in traffic for over an hour on 376E (while, remarkably, not freaking out. i mean, bummed that i was late, but no road rage), then went to see Persepolis (part of the Three Rivers Film Festival). It was amazing! It's based on the Persepolis book(s) by Marjane Satrapi, and I love the books. The movie was perfect.

Sunday I met a Hurd at Handmade Arcade where I found some really wonderful things. I got a couple prints, a cell phone charm that is also a screen cleaner (I've been looking for these for two years!), a print for my neice (of an inchworm. she loves worms or "wormies"), a t-shirt for my brother (of the "major award" lamp from A Christmas Story), some assorted cards, a couple buttons, my favorite vegan cupcakes (fell in love with her coconut-avocado cupcakes last year at Handmade Arcade), a book mark and stocked up on a year's supply of my favorite lip balm (I'd sooner be without cigarettes than lip balm. i literally freak out without it), and saw loads of peeps that I enjoy running into. And, the best thing I got? Hands down it was a little custom portrait of me. This guy, Reverend Aitor, had a little sign up that said "Unflattering Portraits--while you wait! $10". He said that the concept was that he was talking about those caricatures that you get at theme parks and stuff that are always kinda dumb and unflattering. He thought if you're gonna make it unflattering, you should just really go for it. His style is a little reminiscent of R. Crumb. The portrait is definitely unflattering. And, awesome. I'll try to scan it this week and show yinz.

Good times.

And, Sunday evening I went over to my pal Leslie's for "boyz night", which was gonna be beer n' pizza, but then she kicked it up a notch, and decided to stay in and cook (so, we renamed it "gay boyz night"). I grabbed a bottle of pinot and headed over (again, sitting in traffic for over an hour! Steelers! dang it!). She had a lovely assortment of cheeses, then served butternut squash crepes with sauteed kale with barley (yuh-um!), and an applesauce cake for dessert with caramelized apples and maple whipped cream. Dang. This girl is a whiz in the kitchen and an excellent hostess. And, also introduced me to Miss Leslie. Miss Leslie does not tolerate slovenly and vulgar behaviour! You have been warned!

a world without mondays

That would be the kind of world I'm talking about. Why am I up at the crack of dawn, happily, on the weekends, but it feels like serious, potentially fatal, pain to have to wake up on Mondays? The only explanation I can think of is: speed of light vs. speed of heat. Which doesn't, actually, make me feel any better at all.

I skipped the North Side farmers market on Friday since I was going to the one in the Strip on Saturday, and assumed I could get my brussels sprouts there. But, no. Not a single brussels sprout to be found in all of the Strip District! What the hay-ell? So, no sprouts for the potluck. I was flailing about trying to find a substitute, and saw some big, beautiful fennel. So, I made a slapdash fennel relish. Here's what I did. It was really tasty. I took a 'before' picture (but left it at home), and forgot to take an 'after'. (slacker!). All amounts are approximate:

Roasted Fennel Relish

-2 big bulbs of fennel (with some fronds, for cuteness)
-1 large onion
-olive oil
-sea salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375. Chop the fennel and onion into chunks, and mince a few tablespoons of the fronds to add for looks. Toss with the olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake on a rimmed baking sheet for about 40 minutes or until really soft and starting to brown, stirring occasionally.

In the meantime make a vinaigrette with:

-the zest of one orange
-the juice of half an orange
-splash of white vinegar
-1" piece of ginger, grated
-1 t. honey
-some canola oil (2-3 T.?)
-sea salt and pepper, to taste

When the fennel and onion is done roasting, gently mash a little (just a little bit!) with a fork, then stir in just a tiny bit of the vinaigrette (save the rest for salads or whatever). The orange and ginger is really subtle. Very roasty and delicious. It would be great for Thanksgiving or something like that. I served it with slice of baguette, but go crazy with other serving ideas.

....

I still have another fennel bulb. I might make some soup this week. If it ever stops being 80+ degrees and gets down to the business of being fall!

Otherwise this weekend, I attended a couple events for the Pittsburgh International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. E-dawg and I went to the VIP Opening Reception (we're VIPs!), but didn't get to stay for the movie (other plans). It was really nice. Yummy hors d'oeuvres and it was fun mixing and mingling. Then I went to see Good Dyke Porn/One Night Stand on Saturday night. Awesome, but weird. I mean, it was straight-up porn, and I was watching it (in its entirety) with a roomful of friends and acquaintances and strangers. Odd. I'd like to have a copy of One Night Stand for my only self. Just sayin'. For, like, research or some other plausible excuse. French, genderbendery, nekkid. Hott.

I'd love to see ALL the films in the festival, but realistically that's not going to happen. But, I'm hoping to see another four or five. Fun!

ps. I'm still not a diva. Eff divas.

week, weekend, what's the difference?

I'm feeling surly this morning. The transinclusion debate continued hard-n-heavy over the weekend, and continued to devolve further into nastiness. It's wearing me out. Right now I feel like saying "eff it" to the list, calendar, events, the whole shebang, and cap it off with a big ol' "EFFFFF YOOUUUUUU!!" (including appropriate hand gestures) to all the haters. I won't, but that's what I feel like doing. I'm just really profoundly saddened that this (queer women's) community isn't what I thought it was. My sails = no wind.

I also wrapped up my two-week pet-sitting gig last night. Two weeks was a long time. I'm really, really, really glad to be back home, and back in the lovin' arms of my K-Bear and China-Bear. Going back and forth across town every day got to be a drag. Actually, I got home last night and unloaded all my stuff (clothes, books, food) that I brought back home from the pet-sit house, and realized--to my hearty dismay--that I'd left one item there, and it was an item that I definitely needed. My book for the upcoming queer book club discussion on this Wednesday. And, I hadn't finished it yet (and still have about 200 pages to go!), and was planning on reading it last night. D'oh! So, I hauled my ass back across town, grabbed it, then back again, cursing all the way.

But, I did have a nice happy hour(s) on Friday. I realized that it was my last day of being in an apartment where I could saunter right down the street and do happy hour at a gay bar, so I convinced Kramer (so hard to twist her arm!) to come along for the happiest of hours at 5801. There we ran into a couple of gals that I'd met a time or two, and they sat down with us, and we had a swell ol' time for a couple hours chatting, then they left, and E-dawg rolled in for a bit, then Hurd and Kara. Good times. My happy hour ended around 11-ish. Then, I checked my email to find it full of hate. But, I already talked about that.

Saturday I met up with E-dawg for a bit at Cafe Richard in the Strip, then went home to nap and get ready for The Gooch's cook-out. The shindig was super! It was chock-full of good potluck grub and nerdy (in a good way) artists. I talked about evolution, religion, the nature of the human experience, personality profiling (Myers-Briggs style), and heard a dramatic reading of a children's poem called "The Gooch Machine". Fun.

Sunday Kramer and I checked out Oh Yeah! for some "breakfast ice cream". Mine was squarely in the 'eh' category. (I got extreme vanilla ice cream and added the "mixins" banana, pineapple and coconut). It was runny and melty, and just not very good. I threw away most of it, and then realized I could've bought two pints of Ben-n-Jerry's for what I paid for that. So, if I'm in that 'hood I might go back for coffee (their cappuccino is delicious *and* fair trade), but probably not for the ice cream.

Then, we hit up The Waterfront--one of my least favorite places on earth. But, I needed a new belt (mine disintegrated last week) and a white bra. I ended up with much more than that, but it wasn't really painful at all. But, lunch was. We were trying to think of some place that had vegan offerings (for Kramer), and didn't suck (for me. heh.). I thought about a Mexican restaurant I'd seen in Squirrel Hill on Murray. So, we checked it out. Cuzamil, a couple doors down from Sree's. It wasn't good. I got huevos rancheros, and was very underwhelmed. Kramer got the veggie fajitas, and pronounced them 'eh'.

Strike Two! I hate that! I paid to eat out twice yesterday, and both were sucky! Bummer!

I have Mondayitis, and I've got it bad. Is there any hope for a cure?!

monday, monday

This seems like the kind of day that would be really good spent under an afghan (the blanket kind, not the person kind), reading, eating soup and grilled cheese sandwiches and intermittently napping. At least that's what I was thinking when my alarm went off this morning (and I snoozed it for over an hour). But, the weekend was swell, so the alarm on Monday is the price you pay, it seems.

Friday I had a swim-date with E-dawg and Kramer. After some hectic running around and changing of locales, we met up at the Bloomfield pool, but it was kinda cold! So, we just pooled it for a while, then made a beeline to the wine store and back to Zeke's house for a little mezze-style feast. We included the leftovers from Kara's delicious cookin' the other night--the arabian stew and carrot hummus, and added in some cheese (extra aged beemster gouda - it has these amazing little crispy crystals that give it an awesome texture) and crackers, this Tomate Salade that Ellen riffed from The Splendid Table (big, thick slices of yellow and red tomatoes with a vanilla-citrus dressing), some nicoise olives (I think?), oven baked carrot fries and roasted potatoes and shallots with a chipotle dipping sauce based on this recipe from Heidi's site, and some banana chips dipped in a honeyed version of the chipotle sauce, washed down with some white wine in the courtyard, escorted by our speckledy friend Zeke. It was delicious, and just looking at these pictures made me wish I had a vat of the potatoes and chipotle sauce Right Now.





Yum.

Saturday morning E-dawg and I hit the Firehouse Farmers Market in the Strip, where I got more (more!more!) tomatoes, a piece of organic raw chocolate, and ran into the Davidson-Wagner clan out a-shopping. Sadly, Mushrooms For Life weren't there, 'cause I was craving some baked shittakes. But, we also hit Reyna for some fresh tortillas (where E-dawg was several people behind me in line and I overheard her on a phone call with Baby Boo where she was saying, "Oh, just read it on the blog". When I asked her about it, she said, "I didn't feel like listing everything we ate last night, so I told her just to read about it." heh.).

We also stopped in to Cafe Richard for lunch of spinach quiche, and it was fantastic--perfect crust, creamy filling. I love this place! I've walked past it a billion times, but had never gone in. It's really French, and really cute. I did not do well on the diet, but did do well on taste by ordering a coconut cream tart to go for later. It was uh-MAY-zing. The flakiest, butteriest crust, the silkiest custard, the fluffiest whipped cream. My god. In fact, I think I saw god. Perfect.

I made one more stop at Penn Mac for some grueyere where E-dawg's nimbleness and petite stature allowed us to spot and snag a number that was fifteen spots ahead of the one I'd grabbed--and, then we also got to help out someone else by giving them our number. Nice.

Saturday evening we rolled out to Sewickley to celebrate our dear pal Susie's graduation and going-away. She's heading out West to join up with her fabu gf (who surprised her by flying in for the party/weekend!) in Monterey, CA soon. The party was at her parents' house, and everything was planned perfectly. I *wish* I could be this organized! And, there was lots of consideration given to the vegetarians in the house--including that we got to eat first (they grilled the meatless meat first) and several delicious dishes were pointed out to us as specifically veg. We ate ourselves silly and ended the evening swinging in a hammock by the fire and making s'mores while belting out 80s style television theme songs. Good times.

Sunday I had a little work to-do at Dave and Busters. I'd never been to Dave and Busters, but had heard it described many times as "the grown-ups' Chuck E. Cheese". And, it was! Kramer went along as my plus one, and we had some snacks with my coworkers, then hit the game floor for some serious game-tastic delights. The event was an appreciation type shindig, and they gave us a card with $50 in game credits! Sweet! I could see where D-n-B could get really pricey if one were paying for it outta pocket, but the extent of my expense was $3.25 for a bottle of rootbeer (it just seemed to fit) and tip to the bartender. My favorite games were air hockey, the shooting of the basketballs game, and Ms. Pacman/Galaga. My least favorite were this bowling game that ate up a billion credits, hurt our hands, and wasn't even fun, and Qix, some old-skool game bundled with Space Invaders (what I meant to play) that we couldn't figure out. All in all, I felt real appreciated, and it was a perfect activity for a rainy day.

This was the boxing game. Notice how cool and tough I look.

No, seriously. Why does Kramer look like a normal person, and I looked like a freak?


ps. China-Bear paws.

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.

again, the weekends kick the non-weekends' collective asses

As always, the weekend rocked and Monday is the object of my anti-desire. But, I actually came in to work to a really nice email from one of the guys I support that he sent to my supervisor, my boss and my boss's boss about what a number one, right on employee I am. Sweet! That was really nice. And, I got a super-sweet email from a friend via myspace. Monday is really trying. I'll give it that.

But, but, but! The weekend was super-duper. And, I, for one, enjoy super-duper. Friday I went a-dogsitting in Squirrel Hill. He's a sweet little guy. And, I ran out for some errands, and to go see my friend Bob Snyder's opening at Gallerie Chiz. He makes these awesome little paintings on wood that are just amazing. He even did a portrait of me a couple years ago, and I cherish it. We used to work together, and I hadn't seen him in a while, so it was really fun to catch up and also see my pal Alan and his wife Heather who we also used to work with. A nice little reunion. Good times. (AH - They asked about Hurdcakes, too, fyi).

Saturday was more dogsitting, then off to the annual Gist Street Cook-Out. Even though it was the seventh annual cook-out it was my first, and it was AWESOME. Bringing two of my great loves--authors/books and food--together. Ellen and I both made Heidi dishes. I made the sprout burgers--this time with an Italian twist--used lots of basil from my front-step plants, sundried tomatoes and parsley. Yum. And, E-dawg made Heidi's kabobs with muhummara slather. Hot damn. Actually, when we were leaving one of the grill guys said, "Whoa! That sauce was intense! We put it on everything!" of the slather. And, it was--tangy and spicy and delicious. Yum. Thanks, Heidi! And, I actually won something from the raffle this month! I've never won before. I won a set of notecards by a glass artist...whose name I'm blanking on... Anyway, a good time was had by all.

Sunday was a lazy morning with some reading, some attempted (but ultimately unsuccessful) napping and a re-watching of Election. And, a kick-ass breakfast, courtesy of Eric Gower. I made his Shirred Shittake Eggs. Oh, dang. So good. I made them with some crispy garlic homefries and oj, and it was a breakfast fit for a queen. Seriously. I'm going to make baked eggs all the damn time now. I forgot to bring the recipe, but I think I remember it:

Shirred Shittake Eggs
from Eric Gower's The Breakaway Cook

4 eggs
2 T, plus 1 t. dried shittakes, pulverized [I probably used a little over 3 T., which was about 3 dried shittake caps]
2 T. butter, plus more to coat the ramekins
sea salt and pepper
a little shredded cheese, such as gouda [ek - I used an extra-aged Beemster gouda]

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Melt the 2 T. butter in a small skillet, and add the 2 T. of shittake. Cook for a few minutes until the butter foams up. In the meantime, coat the 2 ramekins with butter, and sprinkle in some shittake dust and shake around like coating a baking pan with flour. When the mushroom-butter mixture is ready split between the two ramekins. Break two eggs into each ramekin, top with sea salt and pepper, a little more of the shittake dust and a little shredded cheese. Place into the oven and cook for about 12-14 minutes, until there is very little movement when you shake the pan, but the yolks are still soft. Turn out onto plates with a rubber spatula.


Sunday afternoon was all about hitting the pool. Ellen and I have set a goal to try to check out all the city pools. So far we've been to:
-Riverview
-Bloomfield
-Jack Stack
-Highland Park
-Scheneley Park


And then I rolled over to the Quiet Storm for my weekly Scrabble bout with The Gooch. Once again, she cheated. That is all I have to say about that. Except that everyone should try the pina colada vegan milkshake. It is bomb.

I have a book club (Classic Book Club) tonight, and need to make a snack. I'm thinking of doing another white bean dip with basil oil. I loved the last white bean dip I made, but Hurd said it didn't have enough flavor, so the basil oil should take care of that. I love white beans. And, on Tuesday I have dinner at a friend's house, and I'm going to attempt Eric Gower's Maccha Truffles. Keep your fingers crossed!

a mid-week holiday equals an extra "monday"

I know it's ungrateful to complain about a day off, but still. It feels like a second Monday today. I was emailing with E-dawg about it this morning, and we were both feeling cranky. I freakin' hate waking up by an alarm. It makes me want to throw a temper tantrum, even though I'm not normally prone to temper tantrums.

But. But! I had a great day yesterday! I got up early and headed down to Morgantown and met up with Nowlze and B-dub for breakfast, then had a brief visit with Nowlzie's family.

Then headed out to Cooper's Rock to meet up with my family. My mom, step-dad, brother and niece all drove up to meet me for a picnic/hike/hang-out. Good times. Here we are!


I made some picnic treats to take. A pesto pasta salad with the pesto I made on Monday. Just used some pasta, toasted pine nuts, yellow bell pepper, feta and grape tomatoes with the pesto. Yum.


And, a beet salad. Here's a recipe I winged. It was good, but I also made some notes for next time, following:

8 small-medium beets, peeled and sliced into rounds
3 small carrots, grated
1 small red onion, frenched
1 handful of cilantro and parsley
1-2 T. apple cider vinegar
1 T. sugar
1 t. salt
2 T. olive oil

Cook the beets, just covered with water, the vinegar, salt and sugar until tender (like, 20 minutes). Toss with the other ingredients, and chill.

NEXT TIME NOTES:
-use a mild white onion instead of red
-maybe dill instead of cilantro
-double the amount of carrot
-make a vinaigrette with the beet water, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, shallots and pomegranate molasses? honey? fresh horseradish?

This picture is right after I made it. The next morning it was all beet-colored. Both are pretty, but I loved all the bright colors when I first mixed it:


I also sorta made up a recipe for a strawberry tart after looking at recipes from a bunch of people. The crust is based on the Pastry Sucree Crust from Anna Thomas. It was very, very tasty, but I'd still change a few things for next time.

Crust:
1 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 c. butter (oops! i meant this to be 1/4 c.!)
1/2 c. macadamia nuts
1/4 c. sugar
1 egg + 2 egg yolks
pinch of salt

Cut the flour, butter and macadamia nuts together until it resembles a coarse meal. Separately mix the sugar, salt and eggs. Then combine together, and chill in the refrigerator for about an hour. Then pat into buttered pan, and poke holes for steam to escape. Bake at 400 degrees for about 5-10 minutes.

Filling:
8 oz cream cheese (I only had Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese, so used that, and it was good, but I'd probably use cream cheese or marscapone next time)
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 t. almond extract (couldn't really taste this, so either omit or add 1/2 t. instead)
zest of 1 orange
1 T. freshly squeezed orange juice
1 large basket of strawberries (and I used a small basket of cherries to make two individual tarts)

Cream first five ingredients together and chill for about an hour. Then, spread into the cooled crust and bake for about 40 minutes (put foil around edges of pan so the edges of the crust don't get too browned).

Now, in this version I actually placed the fruit and glaze onto the pie before baking, but next time I'm going to put the fruit and glaze on afterwords so the berries stay beautiful.

Glaze:
3 T. orange marmalade
1 T. freshly squeezed orange juice

Before baking:


After baking (still pretty, but would be so good with the unbaked berries--actually, probably would still bake the cherries, but not the strawberries):


My mom brought her famous butternut pound cake (my favorite!), deviled eggs and a bunch of stuff from KFC. I took some cake and eggs home with me. Here was my leftovers plate.


I'm actually having more beet salad and pasta today for lunch. Right now. Right as I'm typing this. Like magic!

why do mondays always come so quick?

Okay. I have realized that this blog is turning into a 10% celebration of weekends and a 90% bitchfest about the weekdays. I would like to say that this will stop, but I cannot. Weekends are where it's at and way too short, and it makes me wanna squeeze someone's face in anger when they're over. I just read on Wikipedia that Mondayitis is a real disease! Well, something like that:

Many people claim that the "condition" is in fact a diagnosable illness based on the human circadian rhythm being incompatible with a 40-hour work week. However, the medical credibility of the condition is a matter of debate.

Anyway. Yeah. Boo for Monday.

But, the weekend was freakin' lovely, wasn't it? Friday evening I was finishing up dog-sitting with Zeke. I got off work early to go pick up my car (now with all four windows functional!), and shopped at the co-op--which took forever because I was on the phone with the Hurd, and her scintillating conversation was distracting. And, then went to the Citiparks farmers market and got some cherries, a slice of raspberry pie (dear lord. delicious. Sand Hill Berry Farms.), some basil, and potatoes. Then, I got Zeke, and we met Sandra and her little doggie-gal Talulah in the park for a nice little stroll and dogstravaganza. Good times. Then, I went home and watched Music and Lyrics. Whoa. Real bad. My uterus has horrible taste in films. But, a lazy night in with some bean-n-cheese-n-avocado soft tacos was a good time (and, I like a good time).

Saturday morning Ellen and I walked over to the Strip to hit up the Firehouse Farmers Market, Reyna, Penn Mac and La Prima. Now, that is totally my idea of a good time! At the farmers market I got some mushrooms (1/4 lb. of shittakes and 1 lb of criminis), some mint and cilantro, and some fresh horseradish. Those fluffy, beautiful flour tortillas and some mango salsa from Reyna. Some Breemster cheese, saffron, fresh pasta and dried fava beans from Penn Mac. A latte from La Prima.

I did the same baking of the mushrooms that I did last week, but this time I had what Ellen called a "mushroom off". I wanted to see if I could use other (less expensive) mushrooms and still achieve the deliciousness that the shittakes gave me. So, I went with 1/4 lb. of shittakes and 1/2 lb. of criminis. Brushed off any dirt, removed and discarded the stems, sliced them thinly, tossed with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and ready, set, go'ed them at 325 degrees for about 20 minutes (flipping/shaking after ten minutes, then every 3-5 minutes after that) and tasting along the way, as per Doggie's instructions.

before (criminis on the left, shittakes on the right):


after:


I declare the winner to be....shittakes! Yes, they were just smokier, saltier, crispier and just had more depth of flavor. However, that said, the criminis were good, too. Just not as good.

But, the criminis still had a chance to redeem themselves, and they did! I'd been wanting to bake something since the weather had cooled down to a manageable temperature for having the oven on. I wanted to do some kind of savory tart. So, I dug around through some recipes, and found a recipe for Onion Tarte Lyonnaise with pastry brisee crust in The Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas, the old skool edition. I added potatoes and mushrooms and forgot the cheese (d'oh!), cut down the amount of cream and increased the milk, but otherwise stuck closely to the original. It was simple and rustic and freakin' delicious (even without the cheese). It made enough for a 9" pie pan and two individual tarts in small ramekins. So, here's what I did:

2 medium red onions, thinly sliced
4 medium potatoes, thinly sliced
1/2 lb. mushrooms, thinly sliced
butter and olive oil
4 eggs
1/2 c. heavy cream
1 c. milk
nutmeg, salt, pepper

pastry brisee:
2 c. flour
2/3 c. butter
salt
1 T. sugar

Okay. So, first I made the pastry crust. She describes it as the "shortest of the short crusts", and it is. It's very flaky and crumbly. I put everything in the food processor and cut it until it resembled a coarse meal. She suggested forming it into a ball and chilling in the fridge for about an hour, but I just pressed it into the pans, poked it with a fork, then chilled it in the pans for about a half-hour. It's too crumbly to roll out, you just have to work it with your fingers to press it into your pans. Easy, peasy.

For the tart filling, I sauteed the onions until translucent with a little butter and olive oil and s+p, then added the potatoes, and cooked on low with a cover for about 10-15 minutes. In the meantime, I sauteed the mushrooms in a separate pan with a little butter and olive oil and s+p for about 5 minutes. Then tossed them all together, and spread them out over the bottom of the crust (it filled most of the pan). While they'd been cooking down, I combined the eggs, cream, milk, nutmeg (maybe 1/2 t.?), salt and pepper. After the potato/onion/mushroom mixture was in the crust, then I poured the egg mixture over them to fill them up. Sprinkled with a little more nutmeg and s+p. Anna also had called for some grated gruyere (3 oz?) in with the eggs. I had planned to add an equal amount of chevre in little dollops, but just spaced it. Luckily, it was still tasty without.

Next time I think I will cook the potatoes a little longer over higher heat to get them a little crispy, and add the cheese, of course.

before:


after:


Saturday night I went to Cattivo. Someone (I think it was Lisa Campbell) put an idea out on the queer events mailing list to have a meet-up there for "The List", so I had to go, right? It ended up being a heck of a good time! Tons of ladies there! I'm bad with guessing how many jelly beans are in a jar, but maybe 150? maybe more? I don't know. Lots. And, I wore my fancy new dress that I'd gotten at the beach and was unsure if I'd ever wear. I liked it. This is how cool I looked. So cool that I had to pose with my sunglasses on.


Sunday I slept in, then got a call from Ellen for a coffee quest. We tried to hit up Beleza and Amani, but both were closed. And, right after we'd been talking about how righteous it is to have two coffeehouses in the North Side! Dang.

Actually, it ended up being a-okay. We went over to La Prima again in the Strip (and Ellen suggested that we pick a place each weekend to make it our hangout, and hang out there a lot, but only for that weekend. This was La Prima's big chance!). We ran into another local lesbian and had some coffee and chatted and eased gently into our Sundays. Good times. Then I went by Bobcat's new digs (super cute!) briefly to drop off some tart for her moving-in sustenance, then on to the Quiet Storm to meet up with my pal The Gooch for a Scrabble Smackdown. Unfortunately, I was the one smacked down. D'oh! But, it was still relatively respectable. 307 (The Gooch) to 301 (The Me). Still, dang. I was even wearing a Scrabble-themed outfit to inspire fear and intimidation. I was imagining myself to be some exotically plumed bird of paradise and was planning to freak her freak with my mere Scrabble-esque presence. So much for that. Then I was just left being a nerd. Ah well.

Then I got a call from The Hurd who suggested that I come over and join she and Ellen for yardening (sans yardening). Now, Hurd recently posed a question in the comments asking why our joint adventures rarely show up in the blog. And, the answer was that our shared adventures are seldom fit to print. This is not an exception, but here goes. We had a little wine, smoked cigarettes on the deck (I have to start the freakin' Chantix and quit again), had a kitchen dance party, smoked more, had an upstairs dance party to "Dick In A Box", may have engaged in some borderline illegal activities, then wrapped it up with a trip to Giant Eagle for Ben & Jerry's ice cream. We both wanted Willie Nelson's peach pie thingy, and there were two pints left. However, one of those pints was shoved all the way to the back. Hurd's solution? Have me climb into the freezer case with a package or Pringles to use as a reaching aid. Classy. (You like that Hurd?)