Thursday, December 20, 2007

what happened to December?

what a crazy whirl wind of a month! I am making my solstice gifts for all the girls and getting ready forall the friends and family who will be here in christmas day.

My favorite boy had a birthday last week and it had to be a surprise. Sister M. decorated with black paper stars and ribbon, quite effective. I'd post a pic but am stuck on this silly Toshiba windows thing that is (arr) driving me nuts.

nathan and I went to dinner prior to his surprise party at Paley's Place and had an excellent meal at a horrible table in the "bistro" area. watching the server station at the bar was just not the view I wanted. Nathan had bone marrow, escargot and sweet breads for the first time. the food was excellent, of course, and the wine was good but I would choose different if I could go back in time. I had a shrimp thing with winter veggies that was interesting They expected you to eat the whole body of the bug, but I could only gnaw on the egg sack, too many arms and legs for me. we had a chocolate soufflé for desert which I had a candle for. I am glad I didn't tell them it was nathan's birthday, though maybe it would have gotten us a better table. probably not going to rush back to that place tho. We then went for drinks at a bar where the friends and family were waiting. Only two of nates friends made it, but my usual gang was in attendance.

Nathans parents took us out to dinner the following night. They were both exhausted and had gone to some dinner before hand at the art museum. neither of them seemed to like Le pigeon, but I don't think nateys mom likes anything about portland. I had the boeuf bourgogne, and nathan had the most amazing venison with a blue cheese fluff thing. I have never in my meat eating life eaten a better slice of mammel.

I did get my shoe shelf built, but after putting a few pairs away realize I need twice as much room as I thought I did. A 6' by 5' wall thing will only fit 60 pairs, and I have at least 120 not counting boots or the new ones from the past year and three quarters. I had a friend in from seattle down to help me put shoes away, and he said I should think about getting rid of a few. I told him to set aside any he thought were unworthy of my collection. He didn't find any rejects but I found three shoes to be tossed, thats 1.5 pairs kids! a job well done! around nine we decided it was time for Le Din Din, Brazil grill, an absolute orgy of meat. Meat on swords! Barbecued meat on swords, could it get any better? YES! It's all you can eat! makes me hungry all over again. We had a great bottle of wine, and some good conversation. wonder why they don't do something about the decor, or lack of, in that place? Then again who cares, it's all you can eat meat!

Out of the three, where would I want to go again for sure? the burnside squab and the south american meat orgey. paley's was a pale place compared to the last time I went there. maybe it was the view..

momzilla showed up at noon today, while I was looking for my phone to call her. We hit a couple dansco shops in hopes of clogs for her, but no luck. We did hit the thrift stores for xmas bulbs. red, green and silver. should be okay with the color changing lamp I got for my tree project. expect pics!

Tonight: drill holes in poles for xmas tinsel tree. Maybe toss a few decorations on it too.
clean my room
sweep floor in the front room
start some beans for bean stew
decide if I want to go to santacon part duex..


starving!

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Anxiety is a therapeutic tool.


I can't believe how wonked that little car accident has made me. I've been up the Bodhi to see if they can work out the kinks. My first visit fixed me up fairly well, but by eight that night my hair hurt. My hair! freaky! I did get my shelves up, but didn't paint them, I covered them in Mylar. its a bit too factory but it keeps the corners bright. Unfortunately I am having trouble finding more glass blocks. I picked up four at the recycling center. "I love that place" though I loved it more before they started charging nut ball prices for stuff, but that's how portland goes. Expect pics when I have the whole thing together.. watched "Dumplings" super creepy movie about what those crazy bitches do to be beautiful; and am now watching deckchair danny, about a guy whose girlfriend is a social climber whom he sees canoodeling with a car salesman/tv show host and ties on a few huge balloons and ends up shot down in a macadamia festival fire works display. Its funny and I like the accents.

The family has decided that xmas morning is at my house. I fear the helldays like I didn''t know I could. But if I worry it out in advance there won't be anything to go wrong. Ra, Ra, Right!

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

must paint stuff!

I really do have shelves to paint, but Brandon Frazier is on tv. He was super hot in ensino man and I have carried a torch for him ever since, 80's skaters *sigh*. stupid tv, stupid weather, stupid lazy ass of mine.

goals for uhm, soon: Paint shelves for shoes, paint the little yellow dresser thats so ugly and yellow, and get out of bed.

Nadies monitor is going out, and had to borrow mine so I am on the little baby lap top.. right! work!

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

mmmmasa!

the last couple days have been spotty with the ol net..

okay replanted the plants it's bigger in person, really..

then I made tamales, pork chops with rosemary, green beans, mashed tates and left over stuffing from T day ( I made a ton)
for dinner. Nathan made the mashed potatoes, he used milk. Not whip cream. good stuff. I took a picture of my far too small stove. some day I'll have a full size stove, with *big, big, sigh* gas heat...
I need a bigger stove! okay first post with pics, go! It decided to change text color all by its self!

okay and the tamales, I needed to make something with left over smoked and none too tender turkey. Mom and I walked into gartner's when they were having a TEN DOLLAR SMOKED TURKEY SALE! crazy! momzilla and I had split one. They were nice enough to slice it in half for us and packaged it so it would be fine in the freezer for a couple months more. poor thing was dried out and stringy, yes we both forgot and mine is still in cold storage.! But the flavor was great, I shredded about six cups and mixed in some double roasted salsa from trader joes, cilantro, and some other stuff and set it aside to think about things. I found a couple recipes online but made up my own..
melted butter and corn oil. about 2 cups. to which I added,half a bag of masa mixed with some dried herbs, about half a cup of mixed stuff, warm, not hot, chicken broth. Fun to mush into a "peanut butter" consistency
I pre soaked some corn husks and pondered why at the end of all the recipes I found it told you to soak the husks for two hours. but only at the end of the recipe. and here is is some place in the center not even at the end.. I drained a few shucks on a towel and mushed a quarter cup of masa mix on the husk, I think I made mine a little too skinny.
please see action shot! then stacked them in the steamer basket.
yum! once it was full,
I plopped it over a a gentle boil with a lid and let it steam for 2 hours. when the buzzer went off I removed one and let it cool for five minutes before eating it to make sure they were cooked through. quite good indeed.. they had to cool out of the pot and onto cookie sheets till cool then into bags. I believe I made at least thirty tamales.

I threw a couple into the oven with some enchilada sauce, and some left over enchiladas (turkey, no way!) I do love food.

Garlic and Saphires

I just finished a beautiful memoir by Ruth Reichl. I \ hate girls with curly hair who want to have straight hair. Don't they understand what its like to have straight hair? it's nothing, no curl no defiance, just once in awhile some rogue wave from drying it too quick

This curly haired wonder winds up as The New York Times Critic".  She wears full costumes, wigs and assumes an identity to visit restaurants in new york. She visits many but actually attempts to be truthful. Oddly she chooses a batch of half people to become. with her donning of a wig she becomes some sorrowful woman with out family or a miss marriage, it seemed with all her studies in character she never chose a strong or happy person, just lonely and alone.

A few wigs later and a trillion meals of delight tucked in she writes this book. "Oh, I am so skinny and have curly hair, but I eat in all the super fab places!" I'd want to kick her rich ass if she didn't write about stuff I liked.

I love her book for being an easy read, yet I hate it for being less than complex. She writes about restaurants eons in the making yet makes me feel I as if I am visiting some fast food mexi-fresh joint with each report, with clean table clothes and truffles.

I enjoyed her book, an least honest read on fine dining.  Memoirs that held to the idea of food for enjoyment and understood when getting a shitty table a and a bitch of a server,  your meal just might be ruined.

The book had a handful of recipes and The bacon carbonara is specifically fatty delightfulness.



Can you go wrong with bacon ?


Spag-carb a la Reichel, as translated by me..

start a pot of water and drink a glass of white wine while you dig up your ingredients:
how ever much pasta you need, preferably spaghetti,
as much bacon as can might want
a clove or two of garlic
two eggs ( unless you are cooking for one)
pepper
hard cheese

Take 8 0r 12 rashers of bacon , chop well and saute until the fat is just beginning to go soft and add a clove or two of garlic, don't over cook or slice the bacon too thickly or you won't make the mix we are searching for. it has taken me a few times to get it right.

While the bacon is cooking, remove shells from your eggs and put them into your serving dish, where you should beat those eggs until they are uniformly bright yellow and seasoned with a few grinds of pepper.

When the pasta is cooked drain and toss with the eggs, the heat from the noodles will cook the egg mix. Add bacon, and most of the fat. I did not mix all the fat in with my pasta, though I am sure I am going to die of heart failure anyway. Add cheese, and a little more cheese, mix and eat..

Cheese, egg, pasta and bacon, go get em fatty!

Sunday, November 25, 2007

All Right Then!

I plan on using this blog for crafts and cuisine, but I bet a few other things get tossed in.

Todays projects: Replant the jade plant, plant the aloe plants, and see if the roses are dormant so I can trim them back. Hello winter!

Mom is dropping off turkey to go into the huge pile of tamales I plan on making tonight.

Now I must get out of bed-soon!