tonkatsu don! tonkatsu don!

last night was a total pisser of an evening.  wet, rainy, cold, miserable and definitely not conducive to mustering the energy to go and see a bond movie that's getting middling reviews.  C & C music factory opted to stay home, so it was just me, the dotytron, the roomie and l'army.  we spent the night listening to music and talking...it was really enjoyable.

dinner was scrumptious.  i love me some tonkatsu and tonkatsu don is even better. mine wasn't strictly "authentic" per se, but it was still really tasty and the brown rice was pretty good in the dish...chewy but not aggressively so:


the banana caramel pecan upside down cake got rave reviews and a groveled-for second helping from the dotytron:


the last time i made this recipe, i used walnuts instead of pecans. i'm starting to realize that i'm not the biggest fan of walnuts...i find them a little too tannic and bitter for most sweet preparations. pecans are always a winner in my books.

today for sunday breakkie we just had a simple eggs over easy, toast, and peameal bacon affair:

i re-formed my loaf and have it going for the final proofing. it didn't rise as much as i would have liked to see in the fridge for 24 hours...it was still pretty tense. i think the next time i make it, i'm going to let it sit out at cool room temperature. i'm not optimistic about the prospects for this iteration...i might let the final proofing go longer than the suggested 4-5 hours. i just checked the breadtopia site again...it looks like a lot of people have problems with having the first rise go in the fridge. next time i'll let it sit out on my counter for sure. flexibility is definitely necessary in the bread baking process...there's too many variables beyond your control and you're dealing with living, unpredictable matter.

today i'm going to do some paperwork, go to some open houses with the dotytron, go to dodgeball, have dinner chez dr. rei and hanbo with her cousin S and S's boyfriend B...we met and hung out with S a bunch when we were in florence...she's a crazy, kooky, dear bat. dr. rei is making shepherd's pie! i'm excited! and i'm glad my pineapple upside down cake turned out to be one of the finest, comeliest specimens i've ever laid eyes on.

i made some good progress on my fingerless mitts last night...making cables is actually SUPER easy! it's basically just knitting out of order and you're physically twisting the yarn to make the bumpy shape. it's cool and i feel like a pro star for learning a new skill. it's going to come in handy for my sibling secret santa gift. i'm using berocco ultra alpaca yarn...it gives pretty good stitch definition but there's a bit of a fuzzy halo to the yarn that doesn't give a really crisp finish. it's super soft and easy to work with though and very cozy and warm.

the more i think about "into the wild" the stupider i think it. i read up on the dude in wikipedia...apparently he didn't even have a compass, and he probably could have saved himself if he'd had a half-decent map (at one point he tries crossing this river that he walked through on his way in, but by late summer it's this rushing, crashing, vicious thing. according to wikipedia, there was a hand cranked tram 1/4 mile from where he tried to cross back). i don't really get why he bothered going all the way to alaska. he could have just picked up a rock and bashed himself in the head with it to the same effect. there's testing yourself against nature and then there's just being foolhardy and ignorant.

i totally got busted trying to sneakily bust the dotytron's balls for an imagined infraction on friday night. as i've mentioned, we've been vacuuming almost every day upstairs where the cats are still hanging out to try to get rid of the fleas. every website i've checked says that the vacuum is your number 1 weapon and that you HAVE to discard the contents of the vacuum (we have one of those clear containers you pull out) in a plastic bag and put it outside your house, right away. so the dotytron has been home and has been vacuuming. so i came home on friday and i put something out in the rubbermaid garbage bin we keep just outside our front door and i noticed there weren't any bags of vacuum stuff in there. so, i go into the house and call the dotytron's cell phone. i kept it really casual at first, "this is what i'm making for dinner, what do you think about doing x this weekend, i bought you a treat from the popcorn store" etc. feeling like i had safely lulled the dotytron into a state of coddled guilelessness, i oh-so-casually asked, "ummm, just before you go, where have you been dumping the garbage from the vacuum?" and without even missing a beat, he responded, "i've been throwing it in the big bin at the front of the house." then, wise to my attempt at ambushing him, he added, "YOU GARBAGE PICKER. why don't you stop rooting through the garbage. now everyone on the bus [he was on the ttc home from work] knows you're a garbage picker. GARBAGE PICKER." lol!!! so busted!!!

i've put in the "recipe" for the chili at the end here.

fin.

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vegan chili with tvp and beans

this recipe is pretty flexible...you increase it and decrease it as you see fit and sub in whatever beans you like/have on hand.

2 lb. onion, chopped (about 1-2 large spanish onions)

2 big heaping T. of chopped garlic

fresh chilies (i generally use 1-2 thai birds, or 1 habenero, or 3 jalepenos - depending onf what i have on hand and how hot i want it to be - take out the seeds and veins if you don't want it super spicy and DON'T TOUCH YOUR EYES AFTER HANDLING!!!!!!!) chopped

1/4 c. of chili powder

1 T. cocoa powder (my secret ingredient.  adds a nice, slightly bitter, rich undernote to the chili - serves the same purpose as coffee [another popular secret ingredient])

1 t. of mexican oregano

1 28oz can tomato puree or tomato sauce

1 bottle of beer

1-2 c. of tvp

1 can of beans, drained and rinsed (i generally stick to black beans or kidney beans)

2-3 dried ancho or guajillo peppers (optional)

salt and pepper to taste

- saute the onion, garlic, and chilies in some canola oil until softened.  

- add the chili powder, cocoa, oregano and cook it out (these are just suggested amounts of the spices...as the  chili cooks, you may want to add more of any of the above)
- add the bottle of beer and the tomato sauce and the tvp.

- at this point, you can let it simmer on low heat on the stove for an hour or two (keep checking the liquid amounts and add some water or more beer to thin it to the desired consistency)

- or, dump it all into the slowcooker and let it rip on low all day
- if you're using the dried chilies, cover them with boiling water and let them soften.  when they're soft, puree in a blender with about 1 c. of the reconstituting liquid.  add this to the chili.  if the chili is too thin, you can also add more tvp or more beans.

- i add the beans in the last 1/2 hour of cooking (last 1 hour of slow cooker time)

- season with salt and pepper

- you can add cilantro if you swing that way

- serve with diced avocado mixed with lime, tomatillo salsa (or the salsa of your choice), sour cream or cream, tortilla chips, sliced green onion.

puttering

it's the essence of november out there today, in all its abysmal, dreary, grey, novembery-ness, without any of the fecund promise of spring rain.  it's like the whole world has seized up - curled in on itself and seething with a slow simmering sullenness.  this makes being at home puttering very cozy and enjoyable.  

here's a picture of last night's dinner:

the soup was very yum...maybe a touch heavy on the apple perhaps, but i liked the crisp tartness against the smooth, round, velvety butternut squash. i couldn't love that toasted cheese and onion sandwich anymore if i tried. it's the essence of easy, farm food. you absolutely HAVE to toast it in the oven (or a toaster oven). don't think of doing it in a panini press or in a pan...the focaccia like this keeps a nice, airy crunch and the onions get gently coddled by the warm cheese so that they're almost cooked, leaving just the slightest bit of astringent crunch in the gooey middle.

we watched "into the wild" last night, the sean penn penned and directored film based on john krakauer's story about the real life run of christopher mccandless, who turned his back on society and went looking for salvation in nature and ultimately might have found it in his death in the wilds of alaska. if we were to plot the susceptibility to such a story of each of casa de lagerfeld's residents, the roomie would probably be most susceptible, me, with my disdain for anyone who renounces babylon would be the least susceptible, and the dotytron would fall somewhere in the middle. we all really disliked it. the cinematography is quite beautiful but penn is extremely heavy-handed (bordering on immature and amateurish) with its clumsy attempts at drawing the viewers attention to themes and the kind of petulant ranting against "society" and "consumerism" that only the very privileged, college-educated, juvenile knuckleheads can muster.

i can't fault the performances, the acting is evocative and restrained and emile hirsch gives a solid go at making his mccandless a winning, charming, lost boy, capable of engaging with the people he meets and then just as easily turning around and shedding them without a backward glance. i think the movie's failure is in making you feel sympathy or empathy for his experience. you end up really disliking the guy for being a self-indulgent, stupid little brat on an obvious suicide mission and it's jarring because sean penn obviously romanticizes and aligns himself with the character's underlying motivations and sensibilities. it's also over-long and a little meandering. in the end, a story about a rich, wealthy white kid who wants to selfishly test himself against nature because he's tired of being coddled isn't a story that i feel merits telling. the movie is also interspersed with quotes from thoreau and byron and well, we also know how i'm the least susceptible person when it comes to anything to do with the romantics (except for blake). honestly, it's just like, SHUT UP byron you simpering, mooning cad. ease up on the opium and laudanum and DO something instead of waxing poetic about mountains and trees and whatnot and fainting in shelley's arms (this is all speculation but i'm sure we can all agree that i'm 90% right)

anyway, i communed with nature and got myself in touch with my own corporeal sublime today in my own way. i woke up and started day 2 of the 3 day process to make a whole grain sourdough loaf (that's supposed to mimic the famed poilane bread of paris - the dotytron and i had it when we were there...it was pretty fantastic) as per breadtopia. i read through my "breads from labrea bakery" again and it looks like any time you're working with sourdough and you want a good product, you're looking at a 3 day process. active time tends to be around 30 minutes or so, spread out over the three days with the bulk of the time being rising and proofing time.

i really really really want proofing baskets! i've put them on my xmas wish list and the dotytron is on the case (i think, i hope) this is what they look like:

you can get them either lined with linen or unlined (either way you have to flour them...i'm not sure what kind i want yet)...they also come in round and more oblong shapes. i also would like some baguette pans, but those are lower on the priority list:

and i've been hearing about dough whisks for a while now but i was kind of skeptical about how useful they were. after seeing the breadtopia guy use one, i think i'm sold. the wire is sturdy enough to mix things thoroughly, but thin enough so that the dough comes off it and doesn't get caught up in the middle (like in a whisk) or all gummy (like a wooden spoon):

i made a batch of espresso shortbread cookie dough and formed them and froze them. they're supposed to be shaped like coffee beans. i'm either going to bake them and dip them in tempered chocolate and then freeze them, or just freeze them as is and bake them off to put in gift cookie tins this year. pretty handy and they taste good with or without the chocolate coating (chocolate makes them look more like coffee beans, though):

i also made a pineapple upside down cake which turned out GORGEOUS for my contribution to dinner at dr. rei and hanbo's place tomorrow. isn't it lovely?


AND i made a banana pecan upside down cake for our dessert tonight.

i made a bit of a mistake because i didn't let the caramel cool and harden sufficiently before pouring the banana cake batter in. so instead of the topping forming a caramel lid on the top of the cake, i've got caramel ringing the cake...it looks semi-deliberate so i'm okay with it.

anyway, i've been a busy bee. tonight for dinner we're having pork tonkatsu don. basically it's just pork tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlet, fried) with a sweet soy sauce and an egg that you top some cooked rice with. i'm using brown rice (that's what we have) and beefing up the sauce with some sauteed onions, garlic, ginger, snow peas and dried shitakes. should be pretty tasty!

now i'm going to do some online holiday shopping...maybe order my cards and some online gifty stuff and then head out and do some errands on the danny. then yoga, knitting, making dinner and there's a slight possibility that we might go see the new bond movie with either some of my dodgeball peeps or C & C music factory.

peeps on the facebook have been asking for the recipe for the tvp and black bean chili and the roasted squash pasta. i'll do one today and the other tomorrow.

fin.

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butternut squash, sage, and brown butter pasta
serves 4-6

this can be made in 30 minutes to 1 hour start to finish (depending on how comfortable you are in the kitchen)

1 medium or large butternut squash, peeled, de-seeded, cut into 1" chunks

olive oil

1/2 c. of hazelnuts

1/2 bunch of sage (i like a lot of sage)

1/2 c. of butter

1 lb. of pasta (i used gemelli, but you can use penne...something similar to those two)

salt and pepper

parmesan cheese

- take your squash chunks and toss them with 2 T. olive oil and salt and pepper.  put them in a roasting pan and put them in a preheated 450F oven for about 30 minutes (until golden brown and cooked through)

- get a pot of boiling salted water going for the pasta.

- take your hazelnuts, stick them in another oven-save pie plate or pan, and roast them for about 10 minutes (don't burn!)

- take the hazelnuts, dump them into a towel and draw up the corners of the towel around them so you have a little sack (like as if you were going to beat someone with a towel filled with quarters, or you were making yourself a little hobo bag).  when they've cooled down a bit but are still warm, rub the hazelnuts in the towel until most of the skins come off.  take the nuts and coarsely chop - discard the skins.

- in a big pan, melt the butter and cook it over medium heat until it starts to foam and brown...when the butter smells nutty, remove it from the heat and throw in your sage leaves (these can be rough chopped if you like).  make sure to turn the heat off when the butter is caramely/nutty smelling and take the pan off the heat...brown butter tends to burn easily. 

- cook the pasta, drain, and reserve some of the pasta cooking water.

- toss the cooked squash with the pasta, the brown butter sage mixture, and the hazelnuts.  loosen with approximately 1/2 c. of the pasta cooking water.  season with salt and pepper.  top with grated parmesan cheese.

drained

even though this week was a short week, what with the mid-week breather in the form of remembrance day, i'm still feeling my regular friday-in-the-winter exhaustion.  i'm so ready to be home right now!  i can't wait to shed the layers of groceries, work clothes, and preoccupation with the work i still have to do and slip into some weekend.  

we're supposed to go to a party with dr. rei's high school hamilton cronies tonight but as of right now, that's looking a little unlikely.  we'll see how i feel after some dinner and getting rid of the FOREST on my upper lip (way to let yourself go, lagerfeld) and some reclining.  the dotytron has to get up wicked early to work tomorrow so that's also making things lean on the side of nay.  

for dinner we're having a mildly curried butternut squash and apple soup (made by the dotytron, per my directions) with that toasted focaccia cheddar and onion sammy.  i'm also going to start another loaf of no knead bread.  

last night we had our friend S over and we're sitting on the couch and my nose starts wrinkling (i'm pretty sensitive to smells) and i thought either S or the roomie had some rank-a** foot odor going on.  i would get intermittent wafts of it.  finally, i was like, "somebody has stinky feet" and we all did spot checks until i realized that the real culprit were my STARTERS sitting on the counter with their lids off, as i'd gotten distracted in the midst of giving them a feeding.   

i hope this stupid york university strike doesn't last too long.  i think the union is being patently ridiculous.  OF COURSE you shouldn't be able to live on a graduate assistant's salary!!!  when i did my half-hearted m.a. studies there, i was a grad assistant too...i got paid $8,000 (EIGHT THOUSAND DOLLARS) for 10 (TEN!) hours of work a week (usually transcribing interviews, photocopying for a prof, etc) from SEPTEMBER TO APRIL  (the school term).  it worked out to $25/hour (give or take).  that's pretty decent, if you ask me.  also, the whole "they teach half the courses but make less than the professors make" is a ridiculous statement.  professors are PUBLISHING!  RESEARCHING!  writing books!  TAs in the humanities don't have to do much more than gaze at their navels and wear SNFW and go through the motions of "discipline and punish" by numbers!  

it has been nice to have the dotytron at home.  i'm beginning to see the appeal of letting him fulfil his dream of stay-at-home dad/perpetual student/musician.  he does all the vacuuming (we've been vacuuming EVERY DAY due to the flea situation), laundry, i can leave him a list of stuff to do and expect it to be done and he does all the small errands and stuff (picking up cat food, etc.)  i quite like it.  

we jerry-rigged a flea trap from something we read on the internet.  basically a light bulb over a shallow dish of water mixed with dish soap.  you leave it on overnight in an otherwise dark room and the fleas jump towards the warmth and then drown.  apparently this is the worst flea season in years and years (according to the dude at the pet store).  i'm just thankful we don't have an infestation on our hands.  each morning when i check the flea trap we only have 1 lonely little flea caught up in death's sweet embrace.  reading people's accounts on the internet makes you very grateful that ours is pretty contained.  

another thing that adds to the allure of home is starting a new knitting project for me....a set of fingerless mitts, involving a new skill - making cables.  i ended up frogging (unravelling) the thrummed mittens....they were just too ginormous.  i pulled out the thrums to make myself another pair in the future, with smaller thrums so that the mittens are more manageabley sized. i do want a pair of warm mittens so i'm going to get right on that.  i'm also churning out xmas prezzies at a pleasing rate...i'm making a bunch of the same thing to give away.   i know nice, individualized presents would be much better, but i do have to use some fordist logic here and rely on some automation...economy of scale and efficiency and whatnot. 

fin.

way to not make it easy, world

this performance stuff is kind of annoying. i just want everything to be SETTLED.

some things are: to wit - we've got bwong to cobrasnake us...and i'm pretty sure we can get either k. mullet (that's what the kids in my family call him - but we pronounce it "moo-lay") or this other dude who takes pictures at my grandparents' birthday/anniversary/conspicuous displays of wealth functions to take the standard party shots as well (BOTH of them were at their diamond anniversary and there were two sets of pics...one where everyone looked good, the other one that was all glossy and flash-y and made everyone look like sweaty pigs...we OBVIOUSLY have to get to the bottom of who's responsible for which set because while i'm pretty relaxed about the photos, looking like a sweaty digital pig is never okay in my books).

finding a venue is a giant pain in the butt. we're going to see another one next tuesday (dr. rei - you in?) after work and i've called a bunch of other places. the place we're seeing on tuesday is MAD promising and beautiful...BUT! we might have to change the date of the ceremony. no biggie...just kind of annoying cuz we lined up the original performance date with our families' cottage vacation time. yeah yeah, i'm so hard done by. anyway, i obviously want to lock down all the big stuff so that from then it's all the little, not-so-biggie stuff to worry about.

people are totally coming together and being sweethearts. my friend M whom i worked with in pastry at canoe said she'd be happy to help me bake cakes and my old supervisor T has offered to flex her cooking muscles and make sweets. so cute!!! bwong's cobrasnaking, dr. rei's buddy N is probably taking film shots and i basically forced chris64 to dj for us (he said he'd be happy to!). fun!

tonight i'm going to this special library association general meeting schmoozefest. it's being held some place on dundas west and there's going to be a chocolate tasting. it's really so that i can be social and put myself out there professionally. i suspect it's going to be epic amounts of LAME but it's what you have to do when you're part of a profession, right? anyway...i'm going to put my best social shoes on and try to network like a mofo. i'm not sure what networking means. i think it means pretending to be interested in stuff i could care less about with people who don't know anything about pop culture and who either a) think it's okay that beyonce wants us to call her "sasha fierce" now; or b) don't even know about this nomenclature yoke of tyranny that beyonce is trying to impose now that she's the jigga man's bride. SASHA FIERCE!!!!!!! worst. name. ever.

fin.

this one's for you, veterans

i've spent a combined total of $10 on poppies in the past little while because i keep losing them and because veterans tug at my heart strings. those guys rule. rrrrrespect!

last night was fun. my bro came over and bwong was already over, having played snooker and/or pool with the dotytron, and the roomie is home, and we all celebrated me and the dotytron's anniversary with a 14 piece box of spicy popeye's fried chicken, coleslaw (surprisingly good), mashed po and gravy, coke zero, and deep fried apple pies. we accompanied this with watching "heroes" and making fun of it (and each other) pretty much non-stop. now, those of you familiar with the "heroes" universe will know that it's about people gifted with extraordinary, superhero capabilities and powers. so we're watching, and we're talking all over each other and everything gets jumbled up and s-dawg says (about sylar) in response to someone, "no, he doesn't have that power" to which the dotytron (who was well into his cups at this point and was OBVIOUSLY confused as to whom s-dawg was replying) interjects: "- of restraint?" which i found side-splittingly funny. imagining a tv show about people with superhero powers, one of which might be the power of restraint makes for pretty funny imaginary scenarios.

so today i slept in a bit (government worker day off!) and met up with my old supervisor T for a trip to etobicoke to go to this cake and pastry supply store to grab some stuff...then i went to scarborough to re-write my G1 written test. I PASSED!!!!!!! yay!!!!! i called the dotytron as soon as i stepped out of the place and was all like, "get your motor runnin'" *dotytron replies with the guitar part* "get out on the highway" - too awesome! now i can learn to drive (again)!

i called a bunch of alternate places for reception sites for the performance. some gallery spaces, some other restaurants, some caterers.

tonight for dinner we made chilaquiles:

now we're going to watch "atonement" (we watched part of it the other night...it's stupid AND dumb) and i'm going to knit and maybe do some yoga.

in other news...bwong drew our attention to this little gem (featuring actors that look NOTHING like the people they're representing):

fin.

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chilaquiles

makes 4 big servings

1 1/2 lbs. loose (not in casings) mexican chorizo (or plain ground pork, but it'll be less flavourful)

1 onion, chopped

garlic, chopped

3 dried guajillo or ancho chilies (or combination)

boiling water

1 chipotle chili (from a can of chipotles in adobo)

1 28 oz can canned tomatoes

1 t. cumin

1 t. coriander

1 t. mexican oregano (if available)

4 eggs

corn chips

diced avocado, scallions, sour cream, salsa

- heat some oil in a big saute pan over high heat. add the chorizo and brown, breaking up the chunks with a spoon until cooked through. add the chopped onion and garlic (to taste) and cook until the onion is softened.

- meanwhile, cover the dried chilies with about 1 1/2 c. of boiling water. let soak 10 minutes or until softened and pliable, then blend the chilies with the water, the canned tomatoes, and the chipotle until pureed smooth.

- add the tomato chili mixture to the chorizo and the spices. simmer uncovered for about 30 minutes. season to taste with salt and pepper

- just before serving, crack 4 eggs into the mixture (space out) and cover the pan with a lid. cook until the eggs are just set.

- ladle into bowls and generously mix in corn chips and top with the suggested toppings.

sunday recap

so, saturday night turned out to be a bit of an epic fail that turned around into a giant win through the sheer force of the amazingness of my friends.

bwong came over and we destroyed this:


i kind of overcooked the duck, but other than that, i thought it was pretty tasty, with extra daps going to the potato gratin, which featured slab bacon lardons, thyme, and a good amount of cream. i seared the duck breasts really slowly skin side down on a medium hot cast iron skillet to render the fat...my problem is when i flipped them, i cooked them too long on the second side (bogus). i tossed the grapes into the duck fat and threw in a couple of slugs of balsamic vinegar...i thought they turned out really nice.

then we went down into the basement and youtube'd stuff all the live long day. bwong is kind of a youtube impresario. we started watching snooker and billiards (both of which are NOT the same as bumper pool, as i was told by bwong with a slight hint of withering disdain buried in his good-humoured incredulousness at my ignorance) then we progressed to watching gang sign stacking and crip walking. then the roomie and l'army bailed on coming out with us, but offered us a ride to wrongbar. we were TANTALIZINGLY close to calling an audible and bailing on the night but for ONCE! me and the dotytron rallied our inner party and trekked out into the bitter cold to arrive at wrongbar, pay a suspiciously low cover, and find that we had gotten there BEFORE kdubs crew.

we were mostly jubilant and high on the fact that we were out of the house though, so it was already a win. when we found out that dj sega was a no-show (according to A, his mom had a stroke and he couldn't make it...poor guy), it couldn't dampen our spirits (dotytron's slightly drunken spirits) and the arrival of kdubs crew only made things exponentially more awesome. we decided to bail after listening to about an hour of an insufferable dougie boom set (i kind of hate dougie boom) and then we tried getting into a bunch of other bars (the rhino, stone's place, the gladstone, the parkdale drink) before ending up at a pizza pizza at 1am, thumbing through the escort pictures at the back of a now magazine and playing an energized round of "who would you do" and the sexual scenario game (sample question: "could you still be with the dotytron if you found out he had paid for sex?").

it was a lot of laughs and mucho fun. i feel like the company is really what makes nights out lately. we haven't been to that many shows where the music has been so stellar that it destroys you...mainly you go for the company...i mean, i think daft punk was the last sure fire hit of an evening and daft punk comes around like, 1 every 10 years. actually, equinox was a win too. so we've definitely had some good music nights...they're just fewer and farther between.

yesterday we had this for breakfast - sourdough pancakes (made with saved, discarded starter) and bacon. the recipe for the sourdough pancakes i got from the "river cottage family cookbook" - it kind of sucked. the recipe didn't have ANY sugar in it, which is why they didn't really brown up nice in the pan. they had a sturdy texture which i liked, and a faint sourness which was tasty...i think next time i'm going to add a bit of brown sugar to the recipe and they'll turn out fine. i added some sliced bananas because we had them sitting around:


then the dotytron and i biked around and went to see this GIANT house that's for sale. it's kind of great...dead end street, huge lot, garage in the back...but (and it's a big but) - it's a rooming house right now. so it's completely gross with rooms rented by the hour by people who keep all kinds of pets and had been smoking in there (cigarettes, but who knows what else) since pretty much the dawn of time. it was GROSS. AND there was a rooming house right next door. but we definitely saw the potential and the bones of the house and the size and price were great.

yesterday was a BIG day for me in terms of pushing myself socially. after dodgeball (where i played like poop until i got angry, at which point i started playing smarter), i went to a book club meeting started by this girl P, who is the wife of a friend of our friends B & G. her husband, R, me and the dotytron and B & G all went to the same high school (B & G are part of the growing number of peeps from our year at markham high who ended up hooking up after high school was long done). they still rep the high school crew pretty hard...us, not so much. anyway, so it's her, her husband, and some other random coworkers and peeps in the group. so we met up and i was kind of proud of myself for not bailing. it should be aight. might be a little n00b alley, but i can't expect EVERYONE i know not to be a n00b. they're nice. they might not have as many levels as i like in my nearest and dearest friends, but not many people can, and that's why they're my nearest and dearest, right?  (note: most of the levels are related to being able to appreciate crip walking and such) 

then i stopped off at my boyfriend's house because his gf had made spaghetti and a bunch of the peeps from dodgeball were going there (a lot of them are long time friends). that was my second brave thing of the day. i went and hung out for a bit and got initiated in the world of WoW (world of warcraft for you n00bs). i was all emboldened because on saturday night i got daps from A's friend J (who's a WoWer) for asking a VERY good question on the WoW universe. i was right chuffed about it. anyway, some of the dudes on my team play and so sharky set me up on his account. i made my avatar. i'm a level one tauren druid. i also completed my first mission. it was kind of hype. the best part is picking your name. i tried "omarion" but that was taken (!). then i tried "spumante bambino" (also taken!). then i went with "bambinonegro" and i got that.

i finally came home to the slow-cooker goodness of tvp and black bean chili, pictured below, with the accoutrements of diced avocado, sour cream, tomatillo salsa, and sliced scallions:


i also made a batch of the no-knead bread with the grape sourdough starter. it needed more time to proof the second time and we were too eager to eat it so we didn't let it cook long enough. it turned out a little dense and under-coloured...but boy does it have an AWESOME sourdough taste! it was a noticeable difference. i used 1/4 c. of my starter in place of the 1/4 t. of instant yeast called for in the recipe. i didn't get a picture of it as i was too busy eating hot, buttered slices as fast as my hands could move bread into my mouth. next time, i'm going to let it proof longer the second time. this might mean that this 24 hour recipe turns into a 30 hour one...but that's what you have to do. i'm also going to start baking some of the breads from nancy silverton's "breads from la brea" bakery. batards, rye, and ficelles, here i come!

we wanted dessert to go with our night of "gossip girl" so i made quick chocolate brownie pudding with walnuts, served with vanilla ice cream:


we watched episode 9 (STILL WITH THE NATE AND LITTLE J STORYLINE?!!!! GROSS X 1000000000000) and then started "atonement." so far it's kind of boring and way too british for me, but we'll probably slog it out some more. there was nothing really we wanted to see (way to go, writer's strike).

today is work, doing some overtime, dodgeball, then either leftovers or picking up some take out on the way home. i went for indian buffet lunch with my friend M at kathmandu. tasty tasty chat papri!  

more importantly, today is 7 years with the dotytron.  seven!!!  more than half a decade!!!!!!!! time has ravaged our once youthful looks but other than that...things seems to still be chugging along...he's kind of the best.  at least for a little bambinonegro like myself.

fin.

cereal box serving sizes

are straight-up wack. not only is the amount of cereal piddly (i guess that's how they get away with saying there's only 120 calories per serving) but when you factor in the amount of milk they recommend (usually 1/2 c.) it's barely enough to moisten your bowl! it's gross! i mean, i can understand for certain cereals that are gross when soggy (i'm looking at you, corn pops and shreddies) but for some stuff like mini wheats or even worse, those plain hay bales of shredded wheat, trying to yam those dry, bristly, throat-rakers vaguely coated with a thin mist of milk would be uber-frustrating.

anyway, globe was a qualified success. the food was delicious, the service was great, but there's a little problem with the room. we have a tentative invite list of about 80 people, and the room is big enough for that, but the manager said that with 80 people cocktail reception, the place feels like a nightclub. so it'll be cozy and warm. i think if we had 60 people, it would be perfect. i think we're totally fine with giving some the b-list peeps the heave-ho...but we'll see. they have a lovely patio space that the information package the manager sent me says you can have exclusive access to for an extra fee...but last night when i asked how much that was, the manager said they didn't give exclusive access. so i emailed him this morning saying we loved the space, but that we don't really want to subject the older members of our party to a "nightclub atmosphere" and that we'd take it in a second if we could get the patio and we'd be willing to negotiate a premium for that privilege.

here are some shots of the room with the dotytron for scale:




we really love the banquettes along one wall, which would alleviate the griping from peeps about having to stand at a cocktail party and help get the old folks off their legs. we could stick the dj booth in the little indent beyond the dotytron in the first picture, because the space is small we wouldn't have to worry about cranking the tunes...since we're not planning on playing any slow numbers you don't need a lot of space to turn the entire place into a dancefloor. it tends to be my experience that people don't go buck dancing at weddings anyway. too bright, people feel too self-conscious, etc.

the dotytron is feeling a little bit of stress about the thing and i have to keep reminding him that it's not a big deal. the moment you start feeling stress or worrying about stuff is when it's not going to be fun. i'm treating it like a slightly larger iteration of one of my usual dinner parties...same attention to detail, same desire for fun. of course i want to try to have all the bases covered, but what can i do about weird stuff that goes wrong on the day of but throw up my hands, laugh, and think that it's going to make a really great story? there are no such things as perfect days that you have planned out, not in my books. the people make it perfect and since we'll be surrounded by our favorite people, then it'll be a big lark we're having together...that's the most important thing. here's a pic of where we want the actual performance to go down borrowed with thanks from the toronto gardens blog:

the dotytron is stressing about what we're going to do if it rains. i figure i have no problems with telling people that they should dress for the weather, bring brollies, and be prepared for the sight of me clomping down the path in my wellies. if it's torrential, then we'll have to do a bucket-brigade for the nearest shelter, and we'll assign people the task of grabbing the amp and stuff and making a run for it.

finding a photographer is proving to be a trial. i'm not really into being posed and i most defo don't want those pictures where it's a closeup of a shoe, my hands, the dotytron's hands, and some blowsy rose. what the hell am i going to do with that?!? or i defo don't want a shot of me swinging on a swing or gazing off into the distance with some flowers in the background. i'd feel stupid doing stuff like that. the dotytron and i would be perfectly happy if the pics from the event turned out like a facebook album of a night out. some shots that just record the fact that it happened, we were there, we were happy, these our our nearest and dearest. i don't need every single moment recorded. i should really get the lastnightsparty or cobrasnake guy to do it. lol!!! that would be HILARIOUS.

we asked dr. rei's friend N to take shots. he shoots the most amazing, hazy pictures using expired film (according to my photoblogger doppelganger, A). if he can come, that would be perfect. he was SO NICE and gracious about it. we've met him once and he was totally being a hummingbird heart...i facebook msg'd him about taking the shots and he sent me an effusive message back, congratulating us and waving away my offers of payment (we would obviously still pay him). we've met him once! so sweet! i might get the dude who takes shots at my grandparents' things to back up N with some digital camera shots for interiors (N's camera doesn't have a flash) and then count on camera-toting buddies to do the rest. it takes a village, people!

so here's my rundown of globe bistro. we started with house-baked sourdough bread, butter, and some kind of tomato-butter spread:


then came our amuse of smoked arctic char mousse on a wild rice cracker:

this was really nice...i'm not sure how they made the cracker out of wild rice...unless they turned it into wild rice flour...the cracker was paper thin.

to start i had the "tongue and cheek" - creemore braised beef cheeks, corned tongue, corn shoots and pickled grapes. it was a wonderfully substantial portion for $14, the meat was supremely tender and everything was elevated by the shot of acidity from the cold, sweet grapes:


the dotytron had the heirloom beet salad with black olive horseradish leather, sheep's milk creme fraiche and carrot coulis. this portion i thought was a little small...i loved the sheep's milk creme fraiche against the beets (but beets and goat's cheese/sheep's cheese is a classic combo) and i liked the leather. the carrot coulis was lacking in dimension and could have been taken off the plate with no discernible difference.


somewhat predictably, for my main i had the "nose to tail suckling pig" which was served with truffled potato foam (divine), braised fennel (could have been cooked a bit longer) and "brawn" which i can only assume are the two fried chicken-finger looking things gracing the plate. i don't know what "brawn" is supposed to be...but this turned out tasting like a pork version of the second peking duck course (the one where it's chopped up meat and veggies that you're supposed to wrap in lettuce leaves). it was interesting because the chopped up stuff wasn't bound with any kind of wrapping before being coated in breading and fried. the crackling on my pork could have been a little crispier with a bit more colour, but the pork was suitably tender.


the dotytron had the magret duck breast with duck sausage, jerusalem artichokes, haricots vert, and blueberry juniper coulis. the coulis suffered the same fate as a lot of sauces subjected to the blistering hot plates that restaurants seem to favour - it had been shellacked onto the plate and had turned a little leathery in the process. the duck meat was tender, sanguine, and sapid - served medium rare. the beans (sorry, haricots verts) were cooked perfectly, with a fantastic crisp-tender crunch and the jerusalem artichokes had been formed into a little pave round.


desserts were probably the standout courses. i loved both of ours. i had the banana pavlova with grapefruit sorbet, white chocolate cream and banana fluff (i will always be a perennial sucker for the evocativeness of "fluff" as a food descriptor, especially in reference to anything sweet). this was fantastic. the meringue was a crisp shell filled with sweet, vanilla-flecked custard and topped with cooked bananas. the dots on the plate are the banana fluff, which can only be described as banana-caramel flavoured meringue which had been toasted with a blowtorch until burnished. the dotytron found the pink grapefruit sorbet a little too bitter for the dish but i liked the way it brightened up the plate and cut through the sweet cream flavours of everything else.


the dotytron resisted the lures of the cheese plate and ordered the pumpkin bavarois, which came with a ginger funnel cake, black pepper buttermilk ice cream, and salt licorice sauce. the salt licorice sauce was a little much for me but everything else was near-perfect. the bavarois was light and redolent with pumpkin pie spices and the ginger funnel cake miraculously arrived at the table an airy, tangle of fried
crunch dusted with powdered sugar. i could have eaten an entire bowlful of that, with a ramekin of caramel sauce for dipping (hmmmmm...future dessert idea)



overall, we were both impressed with the food. we hope we can get the patio space and then it'll be done. if we can't, we'll look at other places or consider chopping down the guest list.

today i'm going to try to study for my scheduled second showdown with the driver's education written knowledge test. eeks! EVERY TIME i crack the stupid book i'm asleep within 10 minutes!!! i'm going to do some knitting, do some yoga and then head out to meet H, baby D, M and maybe our friend L for some fabric shopping in H's hood.

then i'm heading home and making dinner for bwong, the dotytron and myself. we're having seared duck breasts, roasted grapes, roasted squash, and a bacon, thyme, and cream potato gratin. i don't know if i'm going to bother with a dessert.

then tonight the plan is to meet up with kdubs crew and hit wrongbar to the b-more/philly club sounds of dj sega. the roomie and l'army might come too.

fin.

overwhelmed

i have to admit to feeling a little overwhelmed lately.  each spare minute of my day is accounted for, and the looming spectre of the holiday season isn't doing anything to assuage the rising tide of anxiety i'm keeping at bay with a hairsbreadth levy of sheer will.  

then i come home and i want to knit and work on my quilt and do yoga and make dinner and plan the performance and socialize and keep on top of house stuff and catch up on my feeds and maybe do a bit of work stuff and read and get ready for the holidays and unwind but there's just no time! i'm kind of freaking out about christmas already.  that's weird and neurotic and waaaay too ocd, i know, but i can't help it!  i feel like i should be doing some more canning and preserving and have my cookie doughs already frozen up already.  i'm going bucktown for no reason though.  somewhere, deep down, in the small, rational part of me that still has some autonomy against my own perfectionism, i know this.  but it's almost the middle of november, people!!!!!!  handmade gifts don't make themselves!!!

probably adding to the stress was finding out that the spot we wanted our performance cocktails and passed appetizer party-to-be has gone down in flames (or something).  we wanted to use coca tapas bar.  if you go to the website (*edit, i just checked the website and now it's completely DOWN), details are sketchy and there's this ominous message: "our server has been sketchy ever since the break-up, if you need to contact coca please email [insert chef nathan isberg's gmail address]"  every time i tried calling them (during the day and during service), the phone went directly to voice mail.  there were rumours on chowhound that the chef (who also co-owned czehoski's) had split with czehoski but was keeping coca, and then the rumours mutated that he had in fact split with both properties and is going to be running the food and beverage side of the berkeley church now.  totally stressful!  i think places book up like wildfire and i've been heart set on doing the tapas and cocktails thing for a long time.  plus the food was good.  good food is SUPER important to me and not something i'm willing to compromise on.  

so i've been scrambling like a mofo ever since coca started to act all shifty and avoiding like a shoplifting teenager.  in my mad web-survey, i brainstormed globe bistro.  we've had brunch there before and it looks like their private dining set up is actually a lot better designed and a much bigger space than coca's anyway.  they also seem to have a pretty professional operation set up and access to a grand outdoor patio.  they can do seated for 60, so i think cocktails for 80ish should be totally doable, and super-spacious.  plus they have an entire wall of banquette seating which gives the older folks some options.  

anyway, it's our anniversary on monday (SEVEN YEARS! what tha-?!?) and since we don't have the money to spend $400+ on the tasting menu at splendido at the moment (which was first on our restaurant-to-try hit list) we're going to do two smaller, cheaper meals instead.  i definitely want to try the dinner menu at a place before subjecting our nearest and dearest friends and family to their cooking so we made dinner resos for globe bistro tomorrow night.  then we can possibly tour the private dining facilities and get a sense of the layout and whatnot too.  

i hope it works!  if it is halfway decent i'm ready to throw down the deposit right then and there. then i just have to worry about them going out of business in the next nine months.  i love repping the east side, there's green P parking behind the place, it's closer to the site of the performance, and it's close to home...those are all huge selling points.  

if it doesn't...i have one more potential spot and then i'm all out of ideas.  

tonight i kept it simple with paninis and salad.  the paninis had roasted pepper, artichoke hearts, and grated fontina (danish).  the salad was radicchio, fennel, some parsley, orange segments, the juices of the oranges squeezed in, lemon juice, salt and pepper and olive oil.  i'm going to yoga tonight come hell or high water because i'm stiff as a mofo and i'm trying to combat fat little weirdo syndrome (this war is being waged kind of half-a**edly and intermittently, considering i ate 4 new york times chocolate chip cookies right before bed last night).  then i'm going to knit and watch gossip girl episode 9 and tonight's taped episode of 30 rock.

omg!!!!!!!! we watched episode 8 last night.  *spoiler alert*

WHY CAN'T CHUCK AND BLAIR JUST BE TOGETHER!!!  they're so meant for each other!!! they're so prickly and they give off sparks like crazy!  crazy sparks!!!  like, bonfire in a rayon factory incendiary blaze!  and can i also say...JENNY HUMPHREY IS A TART!  and NATE KISSING HER IS DISGUSTING FOR MANY REASONS, NOT THE LEAST OF WHICH IS THAT SHE'S 15!!!  on the show AND in real life!  GROSS!!!!!!!!!!!!  worst romantic subplot of all time.  plus she's a spoiled brat and i don't think she's talented.  yes, even as an imaginary, scripted television show designer.  how are we supposed to believe that "little j" is some kind of fashion prodigy?!?  i'm not buying it.    

here's a shot of tonight's dinner.

 

and finally, as some eye candy, here are some prints i'm kind of obsessed with: 

final parting words of wisdom: don't ever, ever, EVER underestimate the aesthetic lyricism of a barn owl in a colonel sanders' string tie.

fin.

tentative hope

i was too nervous last night to watch the election stuff. first of all, my mom bailed on me at the last minute for dinner (this is the THIRD TIME she's bailed on me. me! her LEAST favorite child [ironically i'm also the child who bears the most physical resemblance to her - seriously, my mom in the 70s = a seriously stylin' skinnier version of me. she was the definition of gamine]) so i stayed late at work and rode home on my bike (incidentally, i'm quite smitten and enamored of the new bike lanes on wellesley) and made dinner and then had a brief visit with cousin A and his girlfriend E (i effin' love cousin A) and then spent what was left of the night ironing all my washed and dried quilting fabrics and doing some knitting and reading.

we kept periodically checking into npr to see their maps but i was just too anxious that the media had become too cocky in the final days leading up to the election and that the polling information was wrong. i'm too superstitious i think. i'm way too cautious about expressing happiness or rejoicing too much in my good fortune lest my hubris be my downfall and some higher power sees fit to teach me a lesson in fate-derived humility. it's better to just be a little cautious and tentative rather than risk drawing attention to how good i have it.

i cried watching snippets of obama's acceptance speech this morning and i teared up again at work reading the entire transcript. i would give my left nut to meet his speech writers. that's some good quality writing right there and it's supported by what an eloquent and effortless public speaker he is.

i'm worried though. i don't think people get lionized in this day and age without the inevitable fall. we love nothing more than a chubby, disgusting, grasping hanger-on to draw penises on the faces of celebrities (i effin' hate perez hilton) and to catch people and harp on their human foibles and mistakes. i feel like people are going to give obama a very small window before the sharks start circling (in the case of russia...a VERY small window.) i can't imagine how one goes about untangling the mess of the economy and afghanistan and iraq. i'm wondering if this election is going to represent a realignment of the republican party and i'm wondering in which direction they're going to lean - further cement the kook ultra-conservative element or move more towards the middle?

then there's the inevitable zeitgeist x factor. mass movements are unpredictable, capricious things and our attention spans are shorter and more divided than ever.

okay...that's all my worrying for the day.

the best part was watching the wrap-up on cnn this morning and having the commentator say that the part of mccain's concession speech where he talked about this election and the impact it must have for african americans and how america is a country that offers opportunity to all was met with, "tepid applause" lol! it was a very gracious concession speech.

i was feeling kind of glum on monday evening and had a rough day at work. right before bed i opened my email to an email from the roomie's friend P in new york. it was the funniest thing i'd ever read and it totally make my night. it was a total P moment and in the writing, she managed to convey the P-ness of the situation (long story short, she went to an awkward halloween party where she didn't know anyone, most of the girls were dressed like sluts, she dressed up as someone who got stabbed in the back, she starts drinking out of nervousness and social anxiety, the story ends with her eating cat food (dry) by accident). lol!!!

last night i made this baked penne thing. some guanciale in the pan, with a sliced onion, some chopped garlic, and ground beef (last minute addition - took it out of the freezer, threw it in some cold water and shaved away still-frozen pieces with my knife hoping that: a) i wouldn't cut myself and b) that it would defrost and cook quickly in the pan). added sliced mushrooms and two bags of spinach, chopped, and my last litre of reserved tomato basil sauce. cooked up a pot of penne well past al dente (i didn't want the pasta absorbing too much liquid in the baking) and mixed it all together with a container of ricotta cheese and salt and pepper. topped with some grated mozzarella and baked in the oven for a good long time...basically until the mozzarella got all melted and chewy and crispy brown...i LOVE that shiz (see earlier posts extolling the virtues of lasagna edges.)

in other news...i'm no longer on a pay-as-you-go phone. my bro s-dawg put me on this family plan that i'm sharing with killah-C. which means that i'm going to have to retire the phrase: "I'M ON A PAY AS YOU GO!" bellowed into the phone as my customary greeting. i think i also have voice mail?! i don't know if i'm going to pay for that yet. and i get like a thousand texts and unlimited minutes to 5 numbers, one of which is my dear friend in bc which is nice...so i can talk to her basically for free now. i don't really know what life is going to be like with basically unlimited minutes. can i handle this change? is this a change i can believe in?

tonight's dinner is going to be leftovers. we have a lot to choose from. there's still pozole, leftover pasta from last night, leftover squash pasta from the previous night. i'm going to make a batch of rice krispie treats for the dotytron's after school guitar class. using stale marshmallows results in a sub-par product but last night's batch (he does the program on wednesdays, thursdays, and fridays) was abominable. i'm never scrimping on buying bulk generic rice krispie cereal again. the name brand stuff is where it's at.

this is last night's dinner:



fin.

hormonal

the pms monster struck swift and hard yesterday...i had this weird mood/activity fluctuation where i ran all the way the yarn store, went to an open house, went grocery shopping and then flounced around lethargic for the rest of the evening and moped with occassional forays to the basement to disturb the dotytron doing homework with repeated, insistent declarations to the effect of, "i'm sad"  *significant pause waiting for a response that doesn't come* *cough* "I'M SAD" "nobody likes me"  "life is but a walking shadow" etc etc

this was after i ate this for breakfast:


i made this for dinner.  i scrapped the fennel/orange salad in favour of steamed green beans tossed with the last of the chimichurri.




i also caught "the breakup" on the women's channel and got sucked into watching that as part of my inactive/guilty pleasure/vacant eye candy. ummmm...it kind of totally sucks.  you expect a comedy (based on the previews and the premise and the casting) but it's actually a very dark, depressing, rote look at two people breaking up.  it did have the unintended consequence of adding a layer of nuance to my feeble attempts to get the dotytron to take pity on me and pay me some attention, in the form of me accusing him (completely arbitrarily) of "taking me for granted" in tandem with a list of said ways in which he takes me for granted, a good portion of which i cribbed from jennifer aniston's laundry list from the movie.  

i did manage to rouse myself from my torpor enough to hide my pajamas in a giant overcoat and drag myself to the nearest blockbuster, where i indulged in another movie that i knew the dotytron would never watch with me (he went to visit our friend A after dinner), "definitely maybe" or some shiat. > it stars ryan reynolds telling his precocious daughter this weird story about his bildungsroman journey into adulthood with the clinton presidency in the background (!!!) where his daughter has to guess which of the misnamed characters turns out to be her mother (!!!) i know, really weird, right? and seriously...i think it's a little too early to feel nostalgia for the clinton administration. or maybe it's just me. the backdrop of the politics just seemed a little too forced. not enough time has passed where re-watching snippets of the impeachment confessions can conjure the same reverberations of shared collective unconscious experience that say, buffalo springfield's "for what it's worth" can do for the 60s (or a simulacra of the 60s). anyway, i didn't really care and it was kind of boring but feature rachel weisz who i tend to find impossibly alluring.


also, my dodgeball game was canceled tonight. without warning. we showed up at the gym only to find that the gym was closed because they were painting the school (on a monday night?!) so i walked my butt all the way to landsdowne and bloor for nothing. then i came home and ate panzerottoes with my brother and made fun of the cbc. so it was a good night. my bro did this pretty good impression of what we think that heavily hyped drama "the border" is about (in our heads, it's about a booth on the queenston-lewiston bridge and features a solid hour of a bored customs official thumbing through passports and delivering scintillating dialogue such as: "how long were you visiting. any cigarettes. how much did you spend." and variations thereof.) my brother had the good idea that the cbc should actually PAY HIM to watch the cbc and then broadcast him making fun of it. i think it would definitely be a ratings success and controversial to boot. totally po-mo.

fin.

fall back, ftw!

i love gaining an hour of sleep and i'm not overly affected by losing an hour of daylight, so fall back is a total win-win situation for team lagerfeld.  

last night was oodles of fun, but i totally was a jerk and forgot to take pictures of the attendees.  i also didn't take a picture of the table when A & C had pics of their grandparents up (complete with these cute post-it note frames that A made to differentiate the still living person from the dead grandparent in the pictures) and one that our friend B brought of our friend S who passed away last year.  this is a picture of the table:

i think calling back the dead people to walk among us totally worked because at some point, everyone's eyes started burning like crazy and we couldn't definitively attribute a source.

these are the crazy paper decorations i bought. aren't they beautiful? i love them...i want to have them around and up all the time. the paper cutting is so intricate and the colours are so punchy. i especially like the purple one and the level of detail in the yellow one is insane. i also dig how coy the religious nun skeleton is being. she's totally giving you come-f**k-me eyes:



i was totally brutal at making tamales so i out-sourced the work to C, dr. rei, and bwong. they did an amazing job. the pozole turned out really nice and toasty with rich chili flavour and my roasted tomatillo salsa was incendiary. overall i was quite pleased.

the piece de resistance was the pan de muerto, which is probably the best rendition of an egg and butter-enriched sweet bread that i've ever done. i think the secret was to start the dough with a sponge. it had a great, moist, texture and didn't require a super-long time in the oven...it was lightly sweet and had a faint orange flavour from 3 oranges that i zested into the dough (the recipe only called for 1/2 an orange...i'm glad i upped the amount.) i've found that a lot of these sweet breads can get a little dry (panettone, babka, even some brioche) but this one was super soft and yielding.

i was super proud of how it turned out, even if my skull and bone decorations turned out looking like weird, vaguely phallic splotches. the hazelnut churros are always a winner. i ate an ungodly amount of those, too.

today i have a jam-packed day of doing sweet f**k all. i might hit some open houses in the 'hood. we went to one yesterday...the house was a gut-job reno and cost $529,900. the thing with a lot of these flip-job renos is that you end up paying a $100,000 premium for this generic "new" looking style that (to me) lacks any personality or individuality. it ends up looking like one of those model homes in the 'burbs or just another standard condo. so yes, it's "nice" but it's also very, very bland and lacking in personality. i'd rather have a place that has a bit more character to it, so that i can personalize it and make it more reflective of my own aesthetic taste. but it seems like you can't hit that sweet spot. so you either get reno'd and super expensive, or you get cheap and a s**thole. you can't really find medium priced, good bones, but not re-done.

for sunday breakkie we made french toast with the pan de muertos and had that with bacon.  we drizzled extra bittersweet chocolate ganache on the french toast instead of maple syrup, and topped it with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream.  even with all that, it didn't taste overly sweet. regular french toast with maple syrup is way sweeter.  i'm debating on skipping dodgeball. i don't really feel like going. i kind of feel like maybe going for a bike ride or a run and then doing yoga and holing up on the couch knitting all day.

i really want to unwind.
i'm hoping i can finish giant mitten #2 and get on to knitting fun holiday gifty stuff.

tonight for dinner we're having seared scallops with hollandaise, guanciale, and peas.  with a fennel, radicchio, and orange segment salad with parsley.  maybe new york times chocolate chip cookies for dessert.  maybe not though.  

i tried on both of my performance dresses this morning...they still fit (phew!)  i could probably tone up a little though, but realistically that's not going to happen, and realistically, i'm also probably not going to change my eating habits.  so i'll be a giant silver sausage on my performance day.  i did run to the yarn store at the bottom of my street and back and i'm going to an afternoon yoga class.  so i don't feel TOTALLY piggy.  but sundays are kinda meant for being piggy anyway.

fin.