chinotto is my nemesis...in jeopardy!

well, my computer apparently decided it had had quite enough of my amateur attempts at jerry-rigging it back to health and kacked out on me yesterday. it was very ominous. it froze up, then an internal alarm went off, and i was left with a dead, smoldering hunk of radioactive wires and chips and whateverthef**k else is in these infernal machines. this all means that money hemorrhage fest 2007 ends with a bang with the purchase of a new computer. this one purrs like a kitten though. it's so nice to have a computer that doesn't wake you with the humming and whirring of a thousand toy clocks in vienna. i'm feeling slight trepidation about the recovery of my old hard drive and a year's worth of memories, but as i stood in the shower yesterday, i resolved myself to the fact that it might be gone forever. i mean, if it's gone, it's gone. no use fretting about it, it is what it is. people before things!

my full-time contract spending spree is ending today though, and we're ushering in 2008 with spartan, frugal, fiscal responsibility. i want to save a wad of cash to pay a chunk off my osap when they start to come calling for me, and also to save for my trip to florence, as well as save for bigger things...like a house?

we finished watching entourage and are completely caught up. i've been spending too many hours in front of the flickering glow of the boob tube lately, so i'm going to try to curtail that (although the coming term's busyness will take care of that for me...thank you, writer's strike! there'll be no new episodes to tempt me with!). over the holidays i saw "the bourne ultimatum" which was awesome because i love spies and espionage and people who can kick ass. jason bourne is effin' awesome and the last installment maintains the intensity throughout the duration of the film. i asked my family whether they would be mad at me if i turned out to be a spy all this time. my sister said she would be mad, but my younger bro understood that i did what needed to be done. once i'm done school i wouldn't mind taking up some kind of martial art. i don't know what style would suit me best.

we also saw "walk hard: the dewey cox story" which was good but not great. i love kristen wiig and paul rudd does an awesome cameo that's almost worth the price of admission alone. but it doesn't maintain the funny. i don't think jenna fischer is that great of a comedic actress...she always seems to be playing the same character all the time, or there's a sameness that carries through all her roles. the songs in it are pretty great though...especially the title number.

"the golden compass" was another good but not great one. i think the filmmakers went a little soft overall, in an attempt to please everyone they ended up pleasing no one. freddie highmore is not a terribly endearing child actor. he has a look of perpetual bewilderment which would serve him well if his role consisted of stumbling downstairs on christmas morning to discover santa claus placing presents under a sparkling christmas tree in a coke commercial, but what's supposed to play as cute instead makes him look a little daft. the boozing polar bear was kind of funny, the musical score was contrived, but i'm still interested to see where the story is going as daniel craig and sam elliott (who has one of the nicest speaking voices i've ever heard) are underused. the first movie is all set-up, so it'll be a bummer if they don't make the other two.

"the nanny diaries" was boring and painful to watch. it was so cliched and contrived and just plain awful. "look at how rich women are anorexics and neglect their children!" "look at how all business tycoons are cheating on their wives!" "look at how brittle and shrill stand in for in depth characterization!" so brutal. it's also offensive because the whole "diary" is supposed to be submitted as a graduate anthropology application essay, and i'm sorry, but even u of t scarborough campus wouldn't accept that drivel. and the kid in it is SO GROSS. completely un-endearing. although i'm one of those people who thought johnathan lipnicki was gross (and look at how he turned out. me, ftw!). i hate children in movies who are knowingly precocious. like raven simone on the cosby show. or elmo.

finally, we tried to watch "the simpsons movie" last night. i didn't laugh once (we only made it 50 minutes through). it's like a long episode of the simpsons from the its' current incarnation. the simpsons isn't about stupid, mean pranks! it was about heart, and social commentary, and references to citizen kane! they shouldn't have waited so long. way to miss the zeitgeist.

well, today is the last day of '07. we're going to see the dotytron's gig at jack astor's. it's just me, the roomie, and our montreal friend for dinner but i'm going to make something a little special anyway. we're having cornish game hens. i received a bomb-ass boning knife for christmas from the dotytron so i think i'm going to try boning out the hen, and then rolling it around a sage and bread stuffing mixture, tying it up and pan roasting it. i might deglaze with some wine and maybe do a pan sauce with some roasted grapes...but i'm not sure if i want the sweetness there so i might just keep it simple with a wine and stock jus. i'm going to do roasted brussel sprouts alongside, and a turnip and apple mash with brown sugar crisp topping. for dessert, sticky toffee pudding ends soaked in whiskey caramel sauce.

fin.

le cafe vert and coca review

yesterday we had breakfast with my friend maxine. we were supposed to go to okay okay diner, but unfortunately, they were closed (what small restaurant makes enough money that they can afford to be closed for brunch during the holidays???), so we searched around and ended up at le cafe vert on queen east. le cafe vert has received glowing reviews for it's eco-conscious and vegetarian friendly card. the decor has also been praised, although i'm not sure why. it's a mish-mash of well-meaning, ten thousand villages, "world" artifacts thrown together with all the panache that a first year university, leftist, 60s soul revival and black panther acolyte could muster. they were also blasting bob marley, which to me, when combined with the decor, is an unforgivable cliche. the menu is another first-year university experimental vegetarian "world" cuisine mish-mash. there's the ubiquitous pad thai, some kind of "african groundnut" (aka peanuts to you and me) soup, and a small brunch card of 5 or 6 items, all priced uniformly at $11, and edited down to consist of things that you don't really want to eat. i ordered the "gluten free" waffles with scrambled eggs and sausage.

my waffle arrived cold, tough, chewy and flavourless. my scrambled "eggs" should have more rightly been identified in the singular, as the portion was a pittance and they were also cold and gummy. the sausage was the only good thing about it, and thankful am i that i didn't go for the vegetarian option. the dotytron had this "frittata" which was a giant thick mess of an egg torte with spinach and bacon and mealy, undercooked potato chunks. it was TERRIBLE. we left hungry. now, i'm all for being eco-conscious (there's no one who's a more rigorous defender against energy wastage and i routinely spend a hunk of my time sorting through recycling), but you can't build a restaurant based on an IDEA. you have to KNOW HOW TO COOK. which is where a lot of lenny vegetarians and vegans go wrong. i mean, it's all good if you're okay eating crappy food for the rest of your life, but don't put your crappy egg and butter-free baked goods out into the world or try to approximate animal-filled cooking. go with cuisines that have a LONG-STANDING TRADITION of meat-free (indian, asian, etc). don't go making something up on your own because it inevitably ends up being pants. anyway, i thought we got hosed on the cafe vert, considering we can get eggs benny with REAL hollandaise at three's company on the danforth (our new favorite local) with a mixed variety of homefries for $7. or, you can also get their croissant french toast served with a fruit compote and vanilla custard for $7. add a side sausage and it's still only costing you $9. THAT'S breakfast, not that miserable excuse for a projected idea of what che guevara would have eaten that i was served above.


thankfully, coca was a HOME RUN. the portions were more than generous for a tapas resto in toronto, and were built for sharing. we've been to some places that serve enough so that everyone can have one small bite, but look at the size of the plates below!!! the price was amazing too...we got 17 plates of food, 1 sparkling water, 1 glass of cava, 4 glasses of wine, 1 glass of port, for 5 people, and it came to $315 after tax, before tip. all in all, i was thoroughly impressed.

we started with the house-cured olives, which consisted of the following flavours: orange/cardamom (very nice), smoked chili, fennel black olive, ras al hanout (very nice), oil cured arbequinas, honey and sherry (too sweet for my liking), and anchovy stuffed (divine).

next up we had this elk, lamb and beef sobrassada, flavoured with cocoa and topped with manchego on top of brioche. we were really hungry (due to my meagre breakfast) and this provided a satisfyingly meaty, flavour-packed punch of delicious fat, soft, buttered, crisped brioche, and the round flavours of game meat punctuated with the sharpness of the manchego.

we then tried their charcuterie plate. clockwise from the top is a wine-cured horse bresaola, a house-cured sweetened duck breast and a spanish serrano. the spanish serrano was the best of all, sweet and sliced paper thin, so it melted in feathery, porcine, waves on your tongue. the duck breast could have been served to be trimmed a little bit more, as the fat was lacking in flavour slightly and was overwhelming the dimensions of the actual duck breast. the horse bresaola had a nice texture, but was lacking in taste.

we shared an octopus salad, served on beans with chorizo, capers, and pimento. the smoked paprika was too strong in this dish, although the beans and the octopus were cooked correctly (crisp and tender, respectively), the dish was cold on top and warm were the components were in direct contact with the heated dish. overall, a warmed presentation works to help the flavours of the salad mingle, as the cold bites i had were under-whelming.

these were truffled potato and cheese croquetes. bites of gooey, runny potato and cheese mixture (more like a truffled bechamel inside than starchy like the potato would usually indicate), that were encased in a crispy but light breading. absolutely delicious.

we then tried a couple of the restaurant's namesake cocas, which are catalan flatbreads. these were prepared well, but weren't that impressive, as they're basically just a thin crust pizza. the one above had a nice combination of ingredients, with dandelion greens providing bitterness, the smoked fresh cheese providing a deep, woodsy dimension that was supported by the heft and delicate earthiness of the chanterelle mushrooms, all of this punctuated with the sweetness of semi-dried grapes.

this coca had caramelized onions, apples and roquefort cheese. it was very nice, although the flavour combination wasn't as exciting for me as the onion-sweet fruit-blue cheese combo is kind of standard.

from there we moved into the heftier "main course" style tapas. this was a salted basque cod served with manila clams, chorizo, preserved tomato and piquillo peppers. clams and chorizo are a favorite combo of mine, and i loved those elements, but the salt cod was still very very salty and the mixture of the salt of the cod, with the chorizo and the brine of the clams was too much in the saline department. the dish was also cold (a few of the dishes suffered from the trek from the kitchen to the second floor of the restaurant, where the reservations are allowed. also, the kitchen seems to have problems pacing themselves when they get slammed at peak times). a little texture on the salt cod and a more prolonged soak to get rid of the extra salt would have made this dish work a lot better.

this was a smoked duck breast, duck sausage, and white bean stew with truffled foie jus. it was rich and substantial, with tender beans and little nuggets of sage-y duck sausage, lightened by the delicate, lightly sweet, jus. again, this dish was delicious, well balanced and well executed.

escargots served in sherry was up next. unfortunately, the escargots and the sherry mixture were underseasoned and suffered from a lack of balance. the sherry would have been nice if it was a counterpoint to a rich sauce, providing a shot of acidity. however, because the sherry mixture was predominately sherry and lacked a substantial heft of richness (butter, cream) to round it out, it tasted like a unseasoned vinaigrette.

hot cherry peppers stuffed with serrano and a chunk of asiago were the definition of successful bar food. bright, spicy, sharp, fatty, all the elements were there and even though i don't drink, i can imagine how you could just keep snacking on these all night long with beer or vino.


garlic prawns with vanilla, rum and soaking bread were cooked perfectly. tender, slightly sweet with the subtle perfume of vanilla, this dish was addictive. i could easily have eaten about a billion more, with some of the excellent, text-book greasy foccacia like bread for sopping up the juices. there was a very generous pile of prawns for about $12.

this dish was a serrano consomme with serrano ham draped on top of the flute, topped with a few nuggest of nova scotia oyster fritters. i think this dish suffered from the presentation. how the eff are you supposed to eat this thing? because they give you a generous portion of oyster, you can't just wrap the fritters up in the serrano like a little burrito...you have to disassemble the entire thing and the flute si too tall for the amount of consomme. a shot glass would have worked better. the combination of the fried oysters, the saltiness of the consomme, and the ham, combined to make this taste like chinese food for me. the fried oysters were totally reminiscent of the piles of fried pacific oysters you get at chinese restaurants, and the ham and ham broth tasted like really salty won-ton or ramen soup (the kind my mom tells me i'm not supposed to finish after i've eaten the noodle component because it's so saturated with msg). i love fried oysters though, so what can i say? i still liked it.

this dish was called xato, but the handy pronunciation guide on the menu directed us, in no uncertain terms, to "say SAY-TO". it was green beans (al dente again), olive oil poached tuna (hefty and delicate), boquerones (little marinated anchovies), olives, tomato and hazelnut dressed greens. i'm going to say it here and now: I LOVE WHITE ANCHOVIES, so therefore, it'd be a little hard for me to assess the dish objectively, because I LOVE WHITE ANCHOVIES.

dessert! cheese plate with manchego, cabrales, and idiazabel. i didn't try this but it got properly mowed by the parties responsible (dr. rei and the dotytron, who has never met a tasting of anything he wouldn't order).

rosemary and citrus flan. when i read flan, i thought they meant latin "flan" as in a creme caramel or some kind of egg custard. this was still really nice, although i thought the crust was extraneous.

what's left of an apple and manchego empanada with toffee sauce. this just tasted like a (really good) apple dumpling to me. it was very nice, but the manchego and the other elements that would have made it more interesting, weren't highlighted in the forefront as much.

i ordered the churros with michel cuizel hot chocolate mousse. with all modesty, the churros weren't as good as mine. the choux paste was a little too eggy and the churros weren't that crisp. if you look closely, you can see that the mousse (which tasted fantastic...deep and bitter with a hint of cinnamon) had separated slightly, so the oil presence was slightly off-putting.

overall we were extremely satisfied with the meal and the price point and the portions. the upstairs room is cozy and warm (if a little too low lit for my liking), the service was polite through not terribly effusive, but the food was well prepared. the kitchen just has to tighten up on the timing (cold salt cod with cold clams just isn't that big a winner in my books). i'll definitely be going back here sometime soon.

today we're going to brunch with the dotytron's family. i think we're eating at joy bistro on queen east. then it's home and i'm having a friend over for movies and knitting. then for dinner i think i'm making milk-braised pork with spaetzle and brussel sprouts and carrots (if our montreal friend is staying for dinner...if she's not, then i'm going to eat leftover spicy beef and udon kimchi) and if we still have guests, i'm going to make trifle. if not, then i'll save the trifle for new year's eve dinner.

fin.

hosed

yesterday's experience at the dental clinic was yet another example of how my nascent hypochondria, when mixed with medical professions not covered by OHIP, result in me getting hosed. i dropped like $400 dollars in less than two hours, which i guess i'm okay with, considering it was a first time visit and i got those panoramic x-rays and the clinic is all super-fancy and new, with flat screen televisions that i can watch while i'm being serviced. however, there was some weird techy stuff that i wasn't so into. first, they took my picture with a little digital camera. fine, i can deal with that, if it's something that sits in my file. but in each room, they also had a flat screen monitor which showed the entire schedule for each dentist and each hygienist for the whole day, and instead of names, the calendar showed each patient's picture in the little blocks of time. isn't that a privacy issue? maybe i'm being paranoid. then, my hygienist was 20 minutes late to see me (from said handy-dandy calendar, i could see that i had been slotted in for 7:00pm to 7:45pm, but i didn't get seen until 7:20pm). she then said that she was going to have to split my cleaning into TWO sessions. when i asked at the end if i had to pay for both sessions, the office administrator was all like, "well, because it's taking two separate appointments to clean your teeth, it'll be charged as two separate visits". but i didn't get the full first treatment!!! in the first appointment, when i saw the dentist, i again planted seeds of insurance-company bilking in his wee little head, because the neurotic in me insisted on asking if i had undue wear on my teeth because i might be grinding. he said there was a "little" wear and that i should get fitted for a night-time bite guard. you know how much that costs? another $350. i think i'm going to wait for that one until i get full dental coverage. i don't experience jaw pain, and i think i should get a second opinion. my other dentist has never told me that there's wear on my teeth, and even though he is a hack-job in an aging clinic in the wilds of scarborough, you think he might have mentioned it once or twice in the 20-odd years i've been seeing him. i can't believe i grind my teeth! although the dotytron has corroborated this. but i don't trust the dotytron because he's always trying to pin stuff on me that i didn't do that he actually did (mostly to do with farting).

speaking of lady di, it's his birthday today!! we're going for brunch in the morning with my friend maxine, at okay okay diner in leslieville. then he's off to do some errands and get his amp fixed, while i spend the day with our shared bff, dr. rei. tonight we're going for a birthday dinner at coca on queen west. it's a tapas bar that's operated by the same people as czehoski. i've heard mixed things, but it's worth a try to see for ourselves, and the dotytron wanted a place where he could have a bunch of nice wines by the glass. hopefully the roomie is coming with us and our montreal friend.

my little knitting bag turned out awesome! i'm so proud of myself. it's an example of my can-do attitude. i just winged it (wung it?) if you look at it close up the seams aren't perfect but overall it turned out really well. i love the fabric. i want to make another one with this other fabric i got that has little wee red mushrooms on a dusty yellow background. so cute!

i've also got some selected pics from the christmas weekend with my family. as you can see, the suggest dress code for the entire weekend was "pajamas".

fin.

late nights with vinny et al

so we've been going to bed at like, 2 am every night (very uncharacteristic of me, since i usually have to be at work for 8:30am and i'm not the kind of person who likes to go to work on zero sleep), so that we can marathon episodes of entourage. we're almost done season 3. next up on deck is big love or the wire, but for some reason i can't find the wire on dvd at any of the rental places close to us. i love ari gold and i love lloyd but i hate e and vinny's an idiot. i love all the external characters but the main ones are annoying. i also really enjoy the fact that all the episodes are so light and bubble-gum-y and short. it's like candy television.

yesterday i was even more motivated to stay up late as i was busy making myself a little kit to hold all my knitting supplies. i think i did a pretty good job for a first-off, homemade bag. i LOVE MAKING CRAFTS. i'm vaguely embarrassed about it, i don't know why...maybe because i feel like it's a chink in my carefully constructed tough-as-nails, f-bomb coated exterior. whatever. i love doing crafty things and making stuff with my hands. i need to put the finishing touches on it, but i'll post pictures when i finish it...it needs about another hour of work.

i have a dentist appointment tonight. it's with this dental clinic down the street from me. the first time i've been to a different dentist since i was about 4 or 5. it feels kind of weird and traitorous, but my other dentist is at ellesmere and pharmacy, and it doesn't make sense. also, after what happened with my cleaning last year, i was left with a bad taste in my mouth (literally).

so...i kinda think i might want to do a phd. hahaha...oops. i got a really good mark back on my top chef paper and the prof was so complimentary and she really dug my writing style and my approach. she insists that i need to find an avenue for my food writing because, according to her, i have a voice that "must be heard!". isn't that sweet? it's so validating (i need academic validating like a child needs a blanket) because i put a lot of work in (though still not as much work as i would have liked), and i'm interested to see what i would come up with if i didn't write a paper in 2 days, with 3 days of "research". like if i ACTUALLY put in the amount of work you're supposed to, i think i'd have something pretty spectacular to say. i'm just intrigued and fascinated by this whole world of food scholarship, and i think it's the perfect bridging of all my interests (or at the very least, a substantial portion of my interests). but i'm kicking myself for thinking of starting a phd so late...like i shouldn't have spent 4 years cooking and not doing school, but at the same time, i realize that it's my time in the trenches that adds a depth to my approach to the subject matter that other people lack. it's what keeps me from being all ivory-tower about it all, and taking up raymond williams' charge to not treat people as the objects of my study. at the very least, i think once i'm done the library school and i'm just working full-time, i can devote some time to reading up on food academia and maybe preparing papers for conferences or journals. i can always do a phd part-time or something...anything is possible! i just really adored this class and this prof and felt that i really grew with the course and that it had an impact on me and my academic growth in a way that hasn't happened in my degree so far.

tonight for dinner i'm doing that spicy beef and kimchi udon noodle bowl with tofu and enoki mushrooms.

fin.

settling

today was the one-day only, entire-store-25%-off sale at the largest knitting and crocheting emporium in toronto, romni wools. check out that charmingly basic website! i spent a completely inappropriate amount of money on yarn. VERY inappropriate. like, checking-out-pornography-at-work levels of inappropriateness. but i have my next 4-5 projects lined up...and i got 25% off! going to the yarn store (my regular and favouritest yarn store is "lettuce knit" in kensington market) is an exercise in how very much of a non-individual you really are. because, as much as i'd like to pride myself that i'm a special, unique, mold-breaking little star, as i'm pulling out balls and skeins and cakes of yarn out in the colour that i ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE AT ALL COSTS FOR THAT CUTE LITTLE SHRUG, i come to the realization that there are only 1 or 2 balls of it, barely enough for a hat. and while there are piles and piles of bland oatmeals, bilious brick reds, puces and horribly un-subtle mustard yellows, the royal purples and turquoises, the raspberries and soft kelly greens have been picked over by people who share alarmingly similar taste to mine. however, despite all this, i did still manage to spend an extremely inappropriate amount of money on wool. what can i say? i was born to handle cashmere. (seriously i was...you haven't met mama lagerfeld yet...a lady with a yen for designer clothing that would put posh to shame).

tonight for dinner i had spaghetti and meatballs (sauce and meatballs courtesy of my work supervisor) and ceasar salad and garlic butter, spread on a baguette and toasted in the oven. it was nice to have a normal meal, of regular food, that i prepared, that wasn't "holiday" food, or "holiday season is coming and i'm too stressed/busy to cook" takeout.

fin.

i bless the rains down in africa

what a holiday! santa was really good to me and gifted me with all sorts of wondrous things, like a new cuisinart, giant power bars, a carving fork, and more tights and work socks than i could ever possibly need for a year. more than that, it was a chance to do some quality time with both families and eat a tonne of food. the meeting of the families went really well and i managed to avoid watching "a christmas story" (which i hate because i think the part in the chinese restaurant at the end is racist). so score one for me! that was the christmas dinnie i made for my family, and the sticky toffee pudding with whiskey caramel sauce in which it is soaked. for the dotytron's family, i made a trifle. i subbed in pound cake for sponge cake (i hate sponge cake more than anything - soggy, texture-less, flavourless, limp thing that it is!) and layered it with a raspberry mix, lemon curd, and whipped cream. it really sang after a dinner that was comprised mostly of carbs and an aggressively cooked turkey that had no choice but to cry surrender after an inordinate amount of time in the oven. here are some things that i have learned: my off-colour, racially insensitive satiric humour plays better with some audiences (my family) than others (the dotytron's family). the dotytron's nany and poppa are probably the warmest, cutest grandparents around and love shopping with a vigour that would have warmed the cockles of adam smith and the chicago school of economic's heart. so far, the wave of tchotchkes (i spelled that right on the first try! score!) is being held at bay, but i sense that as our christmas list to santa's elves becomes by necessity shorter and shorter (the older you get, the more the stuff you want tends to cost thousands of dollars - like a mid century modern teak 8 ft dining room table), the amount of "decorative" home items is going to grow exponentially. i am not into "home" decor per se. in the sense that i have a very specific idea of what i want my person, abode, and surroundings to look like, and generally, it doesn't involve seasonal, purely decorative items like wreaths and miniature santas and the like. it's just not my style.

now i can finally show off the knitting i've been doing! the first is a scarf i knitted for my sister, out of this ridiculously expensive hand-dyed alpaca. the pattern is from the yarn harlot's blog, and i saw someone on another knitting blog do it and copied it from there. isn't it lovely? it's soft and warm and cuddly, like being wrapped in a hot dog bun, to borrow a clever metaphor from the dotytron's aunt. the next thing i made is the montego bay scarf from the interweave summer 2007 issue for the dotytron's sister. it's basically a 4 row pattern but it almost broke me. the yarn is also ridiculously expensive (it's rowan handmaiden sea silk - hand-dyed again) and i must have ripped it up at least 10 times. the last time, i had finally mastered the pattern and had knit about 3 feet of it, but the fishnet lace kept changing direction on me (i mastered the pattern at about the 2 foot mark) and it nearly broke my heart ripping it up, but i'm a perfectionist, and even though impartial judges assured me you couldn't tell, **i** could tell, deep down in my heart, and my little type A conscience wouldn't let me give something away that WASN'T perfect.

this was also my first time "blocking" a finished object (FO in knitting blog speak). blocking is a process that separates home-spun, organic looking knits from something that people would pay a lot of money for. basically, you soak the item(s) in a yarn-soap and water bath, then pat it dry, then pin it out and let it dry to the shape that you pin it out to. it kind of makes the fibres tighten up and neaten up and look all sharp and professional. it's like getting a shampoo and hair dry at the salon, instead of letting something just go au naturel. because the fibres of this scarf was so fine, i just steam blocked it with the steam setting on my iron. it made a world of difference. the lace pattern really popped.

now it's time to get my life back in order. le sigh. unpacking and sorting all the stuff from the holidays almost requires its' OWN holiday. to that end, i'm feeling lazykins and not terribly inclined to cook. i think i'll restart my life tomorrow with oatmeal and healthy, home-cooked food. tonight, in its' stead, i'll probably get takeout (it's the holidays!!!)

fin.

BUCK!

i'm going about 10 billion different kinds of buck right now, exacerbated by the fact that i left my day timer at the yarn store, so i have to journey all the way back to lettuce knit and pick it up. BOGUS.

can't talk right now! i'll post intermittently throughout my weekend festivities with the family in markham. i can't wait!!!

i think for dinner tonight we'll probably end up having noodle star or some other kind of fast, noodle-y, asian, takeout, msg-laden delight.

fin.

culture run-down

end of year edition. so i've had a lot more free time lately, in betwixt and between my onslaught of holiday craft and entertaining madness. more free time for me usually means one less then i *have* to do while simultaneously juggling 3 other tasks. so i recently finished reading david sedaris' "me talk pretty one day" which was equally as hilarious, insightful, witty, and well-written as "dress your family in cordorouy and denim". i love this man. i wish i had the perceptiveness and perspicactiy he does, and the ability to translate it into dry, sly, addictive prose like he can.

i also watched "waitress" starring kerri russell and written and directed by adrienne shelley who was tragically killed (they suspect murdered) shortly before the film was to be released. the film is bright, and candy-like with super-saturated colours and more than a hint of magic-realism-type whimsy. the characters and situations all have a slightly classic-sitcom-y, almost stage-y feel and the line delivery and dialogue maintains a similar, dream-like/fantasy tone. however, i felt that it unsuccessfully negotiated the line between whimsy and realism, as the story and subject matter were quite serious (the main character has an abusive, domineering husband). it also had a strong feminist theme, with women supporting each other throughout the film, and a willful female protagonist, but i found it off-putting because *SPOILER ALERT*



her character ends up being redeemed by becoming a mother. throughout the course of the film, she is consistently resentful and downright antigonistic towards the child she is carrying (the baby was an accident, and she considered it a parasite), and yet somehow, at the moment she gives birth, she finds the strength to emanicipate herself from her situation. i was also bummed because nathan fillion gets the shaft (he plays the married man with whom she has a passionate affair) and i was mad that they didn't get together...because if she's going to be redeemed by her child, you might as well go whole hog and have her be redeemed by a fulfilling relationship with a smart, caring person as well (ESPECIALLY if it's nathan fillion).

in other news, i called the lady at the globe and mail and turned down the job. she is SO NICE. i wish i could work for her! she's as nice as my current supervisor is now! we just get along like we've known each other forever, and she recognized immediately the strengths that i would bring to a busy environment like the globe...basically...my kitchen-honed superhero talent of never, EVER getting rattled at work by seemingly insurmountable odds and tight deadlines, and racing against the clock. she says i'm the perfect candidate because she knows that i could jump in with both feet and take up a challenge and run with it...and it's true. i'm very adaptable and highly capable. gah!!! but i feel like i have a real rapport with her so i'm going to check in with her every now and then...she's a great contact to have, and the fact that we're so copacetic makes it even better.

so i came home yesterday, and the dotytron had been a busy bee on tuesday, running errands and buying my christmas present (i'm pretty sure). so yesterday, i come home, to an empty house, and i noticed that tacked up on the door to our room, was a little note that read: "KEEP OUT! ELVES AT WORK!!!" which is pretty cute already. the cuter thing, is that the dotytron is about 1 solid foot taller than me (i'm 5'4" he's 6'4") and the note was at HIS eye level. not mine. so i would have missed it anyway if the timing had not have worked out and i came home early and i would have spoiled my own surprise prezzie by blundering into the room. i'm actually being pretty chill about NOT spoiler alerting my own christmas and his present this year (aside from the two previous foiled attempts at ipod procurement). i think it's because i've actually been too busy to try to be a ruiner and christmas totally has creeped up on me, super-fast this year.

stuff like that makes me forgive the big lug for having a sieve for a memory, remembering stuff that didn't happen, and not making the bed before he leaves the house.


fin.

*edit*

I GOT THE JOB!!!!!

i start january 2nd!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!one!!!!!elevensies!!!!!!!

day of destiny

my blood pressure skyrocketed immediately and i'm really nervous. i prepared last night for approximately 3 hours...but i'm not sure what to prepare. if they ask me a really technical question, i'm toast, because i obviously don't have that much formal reference experience.

i'm really on edge right now and i want it to be over. i hope they give me an answer this afternoon, but i doubt it...it's just not cool to drag it out after i've been through 3 weeks of up and down!

in the meantime, here are some happy pictures to take the edge off my nervousness and trepidation. i CAN'T WAIT to see these two little buggers and spend all weekend with them! if i don't get it - a weekend with my family, eating and laughing, will surely take the sting out.

tonight for dinner the dotytron is buying some jalepeno cheddar melt from wendy's for dinnie. i'm going to make another chocolate babka because i had a slice yesterday, and omg - babka PWNS. it's like chocolate-dusted challah! i love ashkenazi jewish cooking!

fin.

l'hiver!

winter has come with a vengeance! but i'm kind of worried about it because i feel like the aggressiveness of winter this year is going to make canadians feel that global warming is NOT an issue and we're going to continue our s***ty record with kyoto protocols and continue acting like giant, hypocrite douches at summits like in bali. we woke up yesterday to a winter wonderland though...dr. rei, the dotytron and i then shoveled our way out in order to get to brunch. everything was so quiet. the streets were empty, the snow muffled everything, it felt like the apocalypse (or at least, magical like harry potter). i loved it! those are some pics from the front window and backdoor. keep in mind that we had already shoveled the back path TWICE and that was about an hour later.

i LOVE winter. love love love it. i love getting warm again, and being cozy at home, cooking and eating and baking in my jammies. i also LOVE THE FACT THAT I'M DONE SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh yes. i finished my paper before dinner time last night, edited it, and it's ready to be submitted, bliss of blisses. i feel like a giant weight has been lifted off of me, and even though i'm working full time this week, it feels like i'm free! i can't believe my time is my own again. i'm going to watch movies and knit and prepare for holiday madness next week.

dinner last night was delicious. the chunks of quince were quite nice and the lamb was soft and melty. we also had a dessert of battered, fried bananas with caramel bourbon sauce and ice cream. i also tried battering and deep-frying ferrero rochers. the batter wasn't thick enough and created a nice crunchy crust on the outside...but also allowed for little leaks and it dirtied up my oil which was a real pisser.

i'm running a bit late as i have to leave extra early to make sure i'm at work on time to open. tonight's dinner will probably be leftovers as we have a massive backlog to get through before we disperse for the week. i also finished another sedaris book and watched "waitress" last night. i'll have to give a rundown tomorrow.

be safe, everyone!

fin.

success!

i hate to toot my own horn, but i'm actually really flippin' good at writing papers. i can't attest to the quality per se, but when i get into the groove, i can churn out quite a lot. so i made up for my slackery on friday night by writing TEN PAGES yesterday. that's right, 10!!! i haven't even started talking about top chef, yet! and i started at 10:00am and stopped at 4pm and gave myself a well-deserved night off. then i went berzerker and did about 10 billion things. i made gingersnap cookies, chocolate orange sandwich cookies (i started panicking that i had too many people to still give cookies too and not enough frozen dough), almond toffee, and a chocolate babka for the government library (it's all wrapped up in the picture, but i'll take a picture of it when it's sliced). the babka was surprisingly easy to do. it's a sweet bread (kind of like brioche) that gets rolled up with chocolate and sugar inside and then twisted up so all the chocolate is swirled up in its innies. i also made a bourbon caramel for my family's christmas dessert. it was so delectably productive that i almost exploded! there's a picture of the xmas cookie tin this year. i'm giving out four kinds of cookies (pecan butter, espresso shortbread, caramel spice stars, chocolate crackles, as well as cranberry chocolate hazelnut bars and pecan butter fudge). bwong and dr. rei did an admirable job making pumpkin raviolis, which turned out delicioso, although maybe i shouldn't have lazed out and used a real gourd, instead of canned pumpkin.

i also know that i don't have the patience to make lots of little things...my raviolis were total ugmos. although i'm not sure if it's because i had just written a tonne of an essay and made 4 other things. but bwong has the fingers of an angel. his look amazing! and he also has a tonne of sharp knives that make my nellas look like teh crapz0rz.

we watched "harry potter and the order of the phoenix" last night. wow. the movies just keep getting better and better. i think they could have explained a few things a bit more (like kreacher - the black's house elf, and a little more into snape's back story) instead of focusing so much on the dolores umbridge scenario. but the films are getting more and more dark and they're so entertaining...the score is haunting too. i do loves me some harry potter.

the laughs-per-minute ratio was off the chains last night. the combination of the four of us always seems to result in mayhem. one of which included playing a game we called "guess the faux-rero rocher" - see if you can do it!

today we're going for brunch at three's company on the danforth. i'm going to work on my paper, and hopefully have it edited by dinner-time, so i can spend the rest of the night watching entourage on dvd and knittig. tonight for dinner we're having a lamb and quince tagine with almonds and steamed couscous.

fin.