weekend!

the weekend is upon us! joy! happiness! lots of baking and xmas readying and studying! i kinda sorta ate healthy last night...and i went for a run (i only ran maybe 4 laps because it was FLIPPING cold outside and i don't have proper winter running gear), and did a nice long bout of yoga because i was noticeably getting tighter and less limbre (and since my limbreness is measured on a microscopically incremental gradient, it makes a BIG difference - ie. whether i can touch my toes or not). running makes you hungry! so then i ate about ten billion cream puffs and the ends off the pound cake i baked for the open house next week. we're having a chocolate fountain. it's terribly exciting.

yesterday was a very slow day at the public library so i did some "reading" while i was putting the books in order in the entertainers biography section (792 for you dewey hawks) and read some of an autobiography and biography of katherine hepburn. she was a B***H. bigtime. and i thought she was supposed to be this big feminist, sassy icon, but she's a privileged, self-absorbed, horrible person, who became spencer tracey's doormat for their 30 years together and enabled his alcoholism and was mean to his wife. so, if every day that passes leaves you with a message, yesterday's message was that katherine hepburn was a big jerk.

pet peeves: people who spout the phrase: "be the change you want to see in the world" - i want to punch them.

tonight we're going to our buddy robin's benefit party. i think the entire take from the door is being donated to him because he lost EVERYTHING he had when his apartment in ottawa burned down. everything! and he also saved some cats in the process (for real, it was in the local ottawa news and everything). i'm such a jerk and so don't like going out in the cold that i'm like (half-jokingly): "can't we just paypal that s**t? do we really have to GO" but of course, i'll go, for a drink or two (aka the dotytron's drink or two) and then head on to the succor and comfort of my home and anthony bourdain's "no reservations". the world of torrents is frustrating me by not giving me any of the the 3 seasons of the show in its entirety. but it's okay, because each episode focuses on one city and is self-contained. there's no worry with continuity or anything.

for dinner we're having a spicy beef kimchi and udon bowl. thinly sliced flank steak simmered in a beef broth and kimchi concoction with some udon noodles thrown in. yum! i found the recipe in a martha stewart living magazine of all places, and i'm hoping that it replicates my spicy beef udon bowl at our corner japanese restaurant, sakawaya.

fin.

success!

there are now only two major things (and one teeny tiny presentation) standing in the way of the end of my first term. one of them is HUGE and i haven't even started, nor do i know where i'm going with it, but hopefully i'll have the other big thing out of the way by the end of this weekend and i can focus on it for two solid weeks. one for research, one for writing.

it really does make all the difference in the world eating home cooked food. i feel better already. i also feel the need to reiterate how much i love barley risotto. it's so so so good. barley seems to maintain the creaminess even after refrigeration and subsequent microwaving back to life. it also has that al dente bite in the middle and it kind of feels healthier.

it is a truth universally acknowledged that my ever-present honesty and lack of being able to hide stuff on my face conspire to result in me giving the "wrong" reaction in certain situations. case in point: the other evening, the roomie came home and as we were talking on the couch, she gave a breathy, "guess WHAT?" and her face was filled with kid-realizing-there's-enough-snow-for-a-snow-day excitement and glee.
"what?" i ask.
"_____'s PREGNANT!" (my doppelganger).
me *stunned silence*: "what are they going to do?"
roomie (semi affronted): "what do you mean what are they going to do, they're keeping it"
me: *stunned silence*..."that's f**ked up".

i don't feel like i'm at the stage in my life where people i know (who are almost always at the same stage as me in my life) can be having babies like it ain't no thang. finding out that people are having babies always freaks me out. it's not like i'm not happy for them, but i'm always like, wow. your life is going to be so different. it's probably incredibly immature of me, and i know it. and it also has this reverse affect where it makes me NEVER WANT TO HAVE A BABY EVER. the only time i get really excited in the first moments is with my sister. otherwise, it's a gradual coming to terms with, and then acceptance, and then excitement takes over. but it's definitely a 12 step process. i'm definitely NOT one of those people who's all baby-crazy (the roomie) and thinks that every baby in the world is a precious jewel and every little gassy, cross-eyed stare, or jerky, spastic gesture is worthy of swooning and cooing. there are a LOT of ugly and unlovable babies out there and while i can intellectually appreciate that your baby will never be ugly to YOU, i think you have to be self-aware enough to know that you can't expect that kind of benevolence from everyone else. like, tom cruise's baby, suri? ugly. courtney cox's kid, coco? ugly. this is also where my reverse-racism comes into play. i generally have a lot less tolerance for "canadian" (read: wh**e) babies than "ethnic" babies. i dunno. i feel like there's way more potential for things to go wrong in the cuteness department with canadian babies.

i'm going to hell, i know. it's not like this is an all encompassing rule or approach. i'm just pointing out general trends. of course i'm going to love and spoil all my friend's babies, as i'm a born spoiler and an ACE auntie. it's more of a selfish, solipsistic moment, where i imaginatively transport myself into their shoes and every fibre in my being puts the brakes on and screams, "hells no!". i'm sure in a few years, when i'm a little more settled and have done a bit more traveling and gotten my jollies out a bit more, i'll be more generally excited at the prospect of my crew version 2.0. this is coming from the person who's planning an elaborate multi-generational xmas 2008 in disneyworld family trip and is nearly beside herself in anticipation. but this is ALSO the kind of person who is extremely neurotic and paranoid of the apocalypse (secular).

tonight for dinnie we're having the sausage, rapini and garlic pasta. with a warm baby spinach, pear, sliced almonds, bacon, and blue cheese salad.

fin.

tomorrow, tomorrow

wow, it seems like every day my blog is starting with a confession of my falling off the healthy, home-cooked food wagon. today is no exception. i ate too many open house audition treats my supervisor made and subsequently ate square boy yesterday. square boy was actually a stand-in for my initial choice, which was wendy's. apparently there's this new burger that i have to try (no, not the baconator, which is my go-to ONLY when my beloved smoky bacon mushroom melt isn't on the menu). it's the jalepeno double cheddar melt. i must try!

there's a certain subsect of people in this world, neither completely high-brow or completely low-brow in their food choices, who share a certain camraderie about food. these people just love to eat, and will eagerly share news of new dishes, or dishes past, luxuriating in every drool-inducing detail, spasms of delight crossing over their glazed faces at the thought of a certain dish at a certain cloth-napkin and wine-service restaurant, or the particular chewiness of the gristle on the pork bones at a hole-in-the-wall. i consider myself firmly situated in this community...they're my phantom crew if you will, and i generally become fast friends with anyone who exhibits these same gluttonous tendencies. well, in the past little while, there's been a ripple of excitement through the community. i was tipped off by my friend bwong, and just yesterday, had an extended conversation with my co-worker, the two of us with crazed grins of anticipation all the while (this community seems to host a disproportionately high number of chinese people in its ranks) what is the cause, you may ask?

behold! it's the kfc famous bowl. which is being introduced into canada and is causing flurries of excitement in the iron-stomach community. it's their version of shepherd's pie. mashed potatoes, popcorn chicken, corn, cheese, and chicken gravy. i didn't know this, but my cursory research indicates that there are MULTIPLE KINDS OF BOWLS. apparently there's a chicken and biscuits bowl! the discourse has been fevered and intense, to rival any academic conference. "i think it all comes down to the mashed potatoes" is a sample quote. for my part, i can't wait. i think it warrants a special group trip, a collective "famous-bowl" cherry-popping so we can compare notes together.

long day today...i'm actually EATING HOME-COOKED FOOD. i'm bringing barley risotto and leftover braised shortribs with a few fruits thrown in for good measure. i'm actually looking forward to eating real food for a change.

fin.

teh fattycarmichaelz0rz

well, all my good intentions went out the window, because, as the inexorabe lunar calendar will tell you with unfailing accuracy, the moon is in the seventh house, and jupiter has landed me fat square in the midst of pms. compared to most ladies, my pms is very mild and wreaks little havoc. i don't freak out, i don't cry, i don't get unusually sensitive or angry, oh no. instead, i eat my way into junk food oblivion. therefore, day 1 of healthy eating was curtailed in favor of popeye's fried chicken goodness. we've been eating out A LOT lately. this is bad, as we are both in reduced financial circumstances. and yet, and yet...this always seems to happen as the holiday season approaches. it's a time of unrelenting business, social obligations, school-end stress and myriad loose ends to tie up. this does NOT inspire me to spend time in the kitchen cooking dinner, on top of all the other cooking i'm doing. for example the cooking i'm doing to produce my wondrous cupboard of preserves you see pictured at right. divine, isn't it?

i recently finished david sedaris' book, "dress your family in corduroy and denim" how did i live so long without david sedaris' acerbic, dry, black humoured, amazingly perceptive observational writing in my life? i adored every minute of it! i was thoroughly, bewitchingly engrossed in every word on the page, laughing out loud to myself (or, LOLing for the information superhighway generation) on the couch while the roomie and the dotytron frittered away their pitiful, non-sedarised lives in front of much more music (which doesn't even PLAY music videos anymore).

i also knitted up a storm last night, treating myself for having my presentation done early by watching a few episodes of anthony bourdain's "no reservations" (thank you, torrents!), a travel show where he flits off to the corners of the earth and eats, and eats, and eats. it's pretty appalling that the mere sight of razor clams and huge hunks of slow-roasted pork are enough to have me near tears of ecstasy. i think i might have even emitted a whimper or two. he and i share a fundamental belief that the communion of the table is enough to gloss over all differences. it's privileged, naive, and hopelessly self-serving, but i feel it in the very marrow of my bones, even as i acknowledge how nostalgic i'm being. good food and music make the world go round in my books, trans-global capital be damned!

school then home, then another hour spent tapping away at my presentation notes, then more tv and knitting. we're back on the healthy train with that pasta from last night...the sausage, rapini, chickpea one. i add the chickpeas for extra fibre, and to flush out some of the ridiculous canned bean backlog i have going on right now.

no dessert, either.

fin.

teh slackz0rz

wow, giving up my sunday contract is the BEST SHIZ EVER! i got one assignment done, didn't do the notes for my two presentations but will finish them today, and otherwise ate like a glorious pig all day. the breakfast was delicious! i've also included pictures of the shattered and decimated remnants of my dangerous dan's dinner, which i consumed in a haze of not-chewing-fury and fat-hungry fervor. we all shared a large poutine (look at how gloriously gravy-soaked it is!) and i had a rib sandwich. it's basically the meat from their "bronto beef ribs", braised to a falling-apart, gristly chew, sopping wet with bbq sauce, topped with onions, mushrooms, slices of fresh tomato, and mozzarella cheese. humina, humina.

today is a nice long day of work, and then coming home and hopefully going for a quick run (if it's not raining) after hitting up chinatown for some groceries. tonight for dinner i'm making rigatoni with a sauce of crumbled italian sausage, chickpeas, rapini and parm. with a spinach salad with avocado chunks and other goodness.

fin.

coziness is my downfall

last night was the usual fun with the crew. dr. rei came over for a sleepover, which was just what we needed. we're entering another period of ennui, where we don't want to go out, and all we want to do is be cozy at home and spend the night nattering away. it was a lovely time, if fairly uneventful. does that make me square? boring? i just don't want to go out to random s**t and spend money for no reason. it's not like we ever run out of things to say.

yesterday's field trip to mccall's was loads of fun. i got all sorts of little doo-dads and some new cake pans and other specialized equipment. it's not like there's stuff you can't get anywhere else, but it's nice that it's all centralized in one place, making it ever so convenient.

i ended up making pouding chomeur for dessert last night as i wasn't happy with how the chocolate souffle was turning out. i gave my notice at the public library for my sunday contract. i realized it was silly for me to be taking on this extra work for no good reason...it works out to an extra $140 a month and i needed to make more time for myself. i've cottoned on to the preciousness of sundays spent sleeping in, making a nice breakfast or going our for brunch, doing house stuff and not being rushed before dodgeball. today i'm going to finish making my spicy zucchini relish, finish up three assignments, make our xmas newsletter, and hopefully finish off the secret surprise xmas present for my family.

for breakkie we're having challah french toast with a spiced plum compote and a pastry cream custard. alongside some garlic sausage from the mennonites and a carrot-beet-apple-ginger-cucumber-pear juice. for dinnie tonight we're going to dangerous dan's!!! i'm going to have the bronto ribs sandwich and poutine. if the track is clear i might for a run this morning and have a nice long stretch.

fin.

no country for old men

first off, let me give some shouts out to my bfffff dj c64 who was prominently featured in this week's eye weekly magazine. complete with requisite over-exposed, myspace-y, glamour shot! last night i met my friend and we hit the mall where i proceeded to blow the xmas budget by thoroughly spoiling my niece and nephew. this is in addition to the other gifts i had purchased for them yesterday. i'm waging a dirty, new-politics-type campaign to be the "best aunt ever" and that doesn't make me above greasing the palms of whatever childhood-memory franchise lobby with my hard-earned dollars in exchange for currying me some favour. plus, i just can't help it! and all that being said, those two kids are really well behaved, so it's not like i'm throwing money down some screaming, tantrum-y, demon-pit of conspicuous consumption. or maybe i am but i'm blinded by my blood ties.

we saw "no country for old men" last night. it was quite the lovely film, as far as the self-contained-story type movie goes. the cinematography was breathtaking, with the cohen brothers really reinforcing the themes of fate, agency, and the inexorable movement of time with the barren sublime of the texas (new mexico?) desert. i feel like the cohen brothers are preoccupied with exploring different aspects of america, and have a deep love for the different iterations and layers of their country. i would also say the same thing about david lynch, but i find lynch's preoccupations are the same with every movie (he just crafts different images - no less resonating - to accompany them). the underlying messages of this film were tastefully executed (no heavy-handed broadcasting here) and matched the laconic, elegant terseness of cormac mccarthy's writing style. javier bardem, tommy lee jones, and josh brolin gave eloquent and restrained performances, and i was also quite taken with kelli macdonald (the girl from trainspotting) who made her role breath with believability. she has these doe eyes and luminous skin that was a nice accent to the all the hardened, ragged masculinity that populated the rest of the movie. all in all, i'd highly recommend it.

tacos el asador was predictably delicious, and we went at the perfect time (approx 8pm), just when the throngs of people that usually crowd the tiny place had skedaddled and there was lots of room to dump our coats and bags and move between tables to order. i always go there when i'm famished and order too much food! i had a chorizo soft taco, and chorizo burrito, a beef enchilada, and split nachos with the boy. mexican crema is > than sour cream. it must be like, 10004949% butterfat. it's so thick and tangy and round, whereas sour cream's acidity just sits on your tongue and dissipates within a second. that's the remnants of my dinner there.

today i'm going on a field trip with my supervisor at the leg to mccaul's which is a huge baking and cake decorating emporium out near kipling station. i'm stocking up on odds and sods for the holiday edibles-giving rush. i like hanging out with my supervisor, and it's a sign of how much i like her as a person that i'm not filled with social anxiety about meeting her outside of work. it's totally natural. then i'm home to do some baking, a good amount of homework, and as of right now, there's talk of going dancing but i'm leaning more in to hanging out at home. i just don't feel up to it right now...i think when i've handed in my last paper for school i'll feel like i need that release, but as of right now, i'm so busy that i just want to hunker down, with my belly full, sleepily and dozily talking on the couch while half-watching a movie on tv. it's winter! hibernation! i'm heeding the call of my primordial past!

for dinner tonight i'm planning on making braised shortribs with carrots and cippolini onions, on top of a bed of barley risotto with lots of grated parm. i've been craving something warm and custardy for dessert so i think i'm going to go with chocolate souffles, with a cloud of whipped cream, OR pouding chomeur with vanilla ice cream. we'll see. i have to melt chocolate to make a cookie dough (chocolate crackle cookies) so i might as well do the souffle. i do love a quivery, soft-centred, crisp-crusted souffle, so.

fin.

satisfaction

finishing a knitting project boils down the essence of marx's notion of the fetishized commodity. as soon as i'm done, it's over, NEXT! onto project numero 10 billion. i don't even get time to luxuriate in my own labour for more than like, 10 seconds before i'm left feeling empty, and hungry for the next commodity to fulfill my yearning soul. at the baby shower last week i had the misfortune to choose a seat next to an earnest chap earning his phd in marxist political philosophy. in one mind-numbing, awful, five minute conversation i was reminded of what chased me away from every young socialist club i've ever joined. he lectured at me using stuff like, "well, in the words of Amin", corrected my pronunciation of lukacs name (after i had already self-deprecatingly butchered it and laughed at myself) and basically stuck to the "marxism 101" handbook through and through, effectively killing what had been light, "getting-to-know-you" party banter. i'm like dude, simmer down. and seriously, do you really feel like you have anything new to say about marx? there's marx, lukacs, benjamin, eagleton, and um...you? really?

it was nice to see the kind of academic i could have been, if the hand of pop culture and humour hadn't diverted my path. i hope i don't sound like that kind of windbag. the tone i'm generally going for is enthusiasm. i like sharing the theory...but i feel like there shouldn't be a separation between theory and life. anyway, the point is: my hat with ears looks really cute and i'm proud of myself and let me know if i'm being a windbag.

last night's dinnie was greatly facilitated by the intervention of a cuisinart with shredding blade, on loan from the dotytron's parents. i want to make a batch of spicy zucchini relish but there's like 10 lbs of vegetables to shred, and doing it by hand just seems too much for me right now. the cuisinart finishes the job in 10 minutes. i LOVE cuisinarts. i want one! i have a food processor that i got from some lady who fled the country with her husband upon learning of her husband's affair - moving back to hong kong meant they had to downsize considerably, given that hong kong is the size of a postage stamp. my hand-me-down doesn't come with any of the fancy blades though. cuisinarts are the best...they last a lifetime too, so it's a solid investment, even if they do cost a good chunk of change. anyway, the shredding blade made quick work of the beets and cabbage for the borscht and dinnie was ready in no time...good thing too, as slogging through the slow and slush in my wool birks was having a deleterious affect on my mood and spirits.

tonight we're going to see "no country for old men" with my friend...and we're going to dinner at tacos el asador as we want to see the movie at the varsity, and there's a definite paucity of adequate dining options in the immediate yonge/bay/bloor area. i'm also trying to wrap up the last of my xmas shopping so i'm going to the mall after work.

fin.

SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!

to reward myself for being so good and having my readers' advisory project file done a whole week early, i let myself have the night off for some knitting and battlestar galactica razor action. the hat i'm making is almost done! i'm pretty proud of myself...i'm knitting a little baby hat with ears for my friend who's having a little funion (calling babies funions is something i just seized upon, and i kinda like it). it's the first time i've knitted in the round and followed a pattern for a hat. it knitted up surprisingly quick. i'm knitting a few more things for presents so i got to get a move on.

razor is pretty good. there's a bit of a problem in the sense that, as the roomie identified, it's about a ship i don't care about (the pegasus...aka rapey mctortureson ship) and it's been SO LONG since the end of season 3 that i think more familiar faces would have helped me to be interested. you don't come back from a year's hiatus with something that has like, 2 characters you know well and love. there were some interesting bombs dropped which hardens the evidence for one of my theories that i've held since the very beginning. basically, without giving away the revelation, i've always believed that the way they're setting up "earth" in the series is that the race of humans we see on battlestar are our ancestors. (ie. the action is happening in the past, instead of our future). also, i believe that it's a cyclical journey. humans begat cylons who evolve, revolt, began humans and so on and so on.

5cm of snow tonight!!!!!!!! for some reason, i feel like this calls for warm cookies and milk. or some sweet little simple, homey treat and milk. i've been eating really healthfully all week, so maybe i'll hold back and be good.

tonight i'm going to write up my presentation points for the two presentations i have next week and hopefully finish that chapeau!

for dinner we're having beet and red cabbage borscht with dilled sour cream alongside tomato, cheddar, and green onion quesadillas. healthy and delicious.

fin.

bernini was a crazy f**k

...and other pearls of wisdom gleaned from watching some of simon schama's "power of art" that my friend bwong lent to me on dvd. it's a series of recreations of events in select artists' lives, and how these events manifested themselves in the art. we watched the caravaggio one (choice quote: "i'm going to boil your balls in oil" - caravaggio, 16th C) and the bernini one. i've got to say, people were WAY more ambitious a few centuries ago. carving leaves out of marble, much? designing cathedrals, much? it makes my poor, piddly concerns all the poorer and piddlier by comparison. i'm not sure who simon schama is, and whether the opinions expressed in the series are HIS opinions, or popularly accepted editorialized accounts of the artists' motivations, but the caravaggio one was heart-breaking. caravaggio was a master of light and shadow, creating transcendent pieces that stirred the people of italy to new heights of religious fervour. i have a self-obsessed blog that details the trials and tribulations of a library school student and sometime dodgeball team captain. wow. 'nuff said.

i'm starting to feel waves of freaking out, brought out mostly by the fact that i haven't started my sociology paper. !!!!! and someone ELSE happens to be doing a paper on reality television and checked out all the books on said topic at robarts, the morning AFTER i had checked the catalogue to make sure they were still listed as on the stacks. by the time i got there in the afternoon, the section had been ravaged. i'm writing a paper on top chef...but i'm not sure what i want to say...definitely something about the language of fine-dining, maybe some bourdieu...i dunno...hopefully that'll sort itself out in a few weeks...eep!

last night's dinnie was so good! i bought some broccoli, blanched it in the pasta cooking water, toasted some panko in olive oil and seasoned it, topped the broccoli with the panko and shredded parm, and threw it in the oven as a tasty veggie side. it all went rather swimmingly if i do say so myself.

dinnie tonight is the last of the leftover veggie shepherd's pie, alongside various fruits and whatnot, that i'm going to be eating at school.

fin.

mutiny afoot!

haha, just kidding (kinda). there was an incident in sunday's dodgeball game where one of my players got into a shouting match with the other player over a dubious call. it kind of got ugly and tempers were flaring. when the other player came over to our bench to apologize to my player, my player didn't accept his apology and sent him back over to the bench with some rude words. it was kind of embarrassing and needless.

so yesterday i sent an email to the team serving notice that that kind of behaviour wasn't tolerated, was hurting us as a team (which is true, we were neck in neck at that point and then we didn't win a single game thereafter (final score was 12 to 5), and that i would bench someone if they acted up again. this also came on the heels of me and my bro (the captain of the other team) having a long extended talk pre-game, and then a talk with our teams about being cool and calm and letting s**t go.

apparently the benching thing was taken as me "power tripping" or something, and i was told by one of my other players that i had no right to bench someone in a recreational league. to be honest, i kind of disagree. to wit: i told two other players on my team that were showing up late that if they showed up late again, i'd have to bench them (if we don't have enough girls, we can't play and we have to forfeit) and no one mentioned a peep at that point. no one! second of all, as the team captain, my responsibility is to make sure that my team is in line, even MORE SO in a recreational league, than in one where there is a referee. someone has to make those calls, and i have to have recourse, otherwise, there'd be no order. the fact that it even has to come to this, i feel, has NOTHING to do with me at all. i don't want to have to! i think it's ridiculous that it would even come to this because people get so wrapped up and competitive in a flippin' DODGEBALL game.

i was also accused of not standing by my team and trying too hard to be the "nicest team in the league" which i also think is bogus. basically, i always advocate that in the case of a dubious call, our player just either let it go, or walk off the court. there's NO POINT yelling about it for 10 minutes, because we've all been there. we've all been hit and not noticed it, lost track of what's happening, etc. and furthermore, do we want to be the kind of team that wins from having shouting matches? or do we want to be the kind of team where there's NO QUESTION we mopped the floor with you, and if you question it, we'll give it to you because we're STILL going to hand you your asses on a platter?

anyway, i think the whole thing is ghey and quite frankly, i don't have the time or patience to deal with it. tempers flaring in dodgeball is just plain wack. and more than anything, it hurts us as a team. it ruins our concentration, and keeps us more focused on what the other team is doing, than what WE'RE doing.

so this week post-game we're going to have an open dialogue with the people who don't like my style of captaining. meh...i care not. this blog post was just to fill in interested parties (aka, my sister).

i got too much shiz on my plate right now...and i got some big news that i can't share yet (or may not be able to at all) which is going to make my life VERY interesting over the next few months. eep! i don't want to jinx it...it's probably not going to happen cuz i'm never that kind of lucky ducky.

check out that empanada!!! it's mondo! we needed to take a pic with ian's giant hands in it for scale...take THAT, "jumbo" empanadas in kensington market! you ain't got s**t! the green beans were also quite tasty. it was a nice and filling meal.

today i've got work in the afternoon and i'm doing school work this morning and hopefully going for a run and doing some errands so tonight i can just come home and relax (aka, work on next week's presentation). tonight we're having a pasta of squid, chickpeas, arugala, chilies and lemon. with a salad, maybe (i don't know what we have in the fridge).

fin.

the week of eating dangerously

has come to an end. popeye's last weekend started us on a slipper slope of weekend binge-eating. it wasn't good at all. i feel disgusting. time to get my life back on track. i was barely productive at all this weekend and that has to get turned around. in my defense, i cranked something out during the week so i felt justified taking a few nights off...but now it's full-on game time.

i'm going to try to get two assignments done this week so that all i have to worry about is my government documents class and my sociology paper.

the baby shower was very fun yesterday!!! there was an array of vegan and non-vegan snacks and there were also lots of cute felt toys and puppets to decorated. does it make me a party pooper if i delicately mention after the fact that babies shouldn't have toys with sewn-on buttons on them (in case they choke)? or am i being an irrationally, over-protective, parental friend?

short post tonight as i'm already running late for work. tonight for dinnie we're finally having those pork empanadas with spanish green beans fried in sofrito. mmmmmm...real food for a change!

fin.

omarion the unicorn

i poosed out last night large-time. i felt kind of tired all day, and for a brief, shining moment i summoned the muster to go out after all, but after coming home, i was just beat. i really wanted a night in to relax, do my own thing, and collect my thoughts, because this weekend is crazy. tonight i'm having dinner with my friends (and neighbour) m and m, then i'm going to my friend avi's cd release party. tomorrow i have my friend hanners baby shower, and then dodgeball. so all i wanted to do was be at home and chill and centre myself.

i feel badly though because instead of going out, in the end bwong and dr. rei came over here. the conversation was scintillating to say the least. these nights always pass in a blur where i can't even keep track of all the funniness that goes down. all i know is that dr. rei regaled us with this CHOICE story from her childhood, we unanimously decided that douglas coupland is an a**hole (corroborated by the fine blockbuster employee, matt, who had to unfortunately bear witness to our ill-advised venture into the public realm), we're going to start playing world of warcraft or war of worldcraft OR dungeons and dragons, and my character is going to be omarion the unicorn. dr. rei's is going to be dumbledalf, gambledore, or some other fusing of gandalf and dumbledore, who she's decided are the same person (like that old janet jackson and michael jackson urban legend of yore). we also unanimously believe that anarchy is hopelessly juvenile (the shudder of understanding that passed over bwong when dr. rei was trying to describe some meatball - "you know...he talks about...anarchy and stuff" - spoke volumes)

we assembled quite the viennese dessert table. pictured above are: dill pickle chips, cool ranch doritos, wasabi peas, tangfastics (kids and grownups love them so), swedish berries, lady di's sock, dried mango, the remnants of my swiss chalet double leg festive special lindt chocolates, and cheesecake brownies i made. i like cheesecake brownies. in other news: i got ganked on the festiveness in my festive special (no stuffing, no cranberry sauce). poor, swiss chalet delivery, poor (as you can tell, my laziness precluded making the empanadas yesterday for dinner).

i hereby promise bwong and dr. rei that next time WE WILL GO OUT.

today is a busy day...i'm going to try to write out my reader's advisory presentation on the apocalyptic science fiction genre, make a jam, make a cookie dough, make a batch of cupcakes and make deviled eggs for the baby shower i'm going to to tomorrow.
i'm also going to go for a run cuz i feel like a petit baleine. that's why i'm up an an ungodly hour on a saturday morning.

no idea where we're going for dinner tonight, hope we can keep it local.

fin.

i ain't got time to bleed

or, how i'm slowly going crazy with work. i started having a teensy-tiny miny freakout last night about all the work i have to do. luckily, sanity and reality prevailed and i realized i don't have the time to have a freakout...that would be precious minutes wasted! i managed to get one little assignment done before calling it a night at around 11pm. which left me just enough time to watch the final episode of buffy. which of course left me in tears covered in goosebumps. *tips cap to joss whedon*

this by now should be a familiar rant, but it really gets my goat when people *think* they know what buffy's about and dismiss it...cuz when you finally watch it and realize it's the best show on television, then you're forced to hate yourself for being such an idiot all this time.

not to say that i don't have some quibbles with the end. *SPOILER ALERT*

namely, where the crap did that awesome amulet come from? it's just something that angel found in the bottom of his sock drawer? why did spike have to die? why can't buffy just be in love with spike? anya dies too?!? brutes!

today i have presentation, which i haven't prepared for at all, which i don't care about because i don't have time to. it's about nationalism and benedict anderson's notion of "imagined communities", which i find really captivating. tonight i'm going to this edumacation party put on by the old skool hip hop kids, never forgive action i'm going with dr. rei, possibly the dotytron, possibly the roomie, and bwong. if it sucks we're going to go to the social for rock night and sing along to bon jovi and journey. you can't lose either way.

for dinner i'm making pork empanadas, using a dough recipe my supervisor gave me. the filling has peppers, sliced olives, onions, tomatos, pork and paprika. i hope i can make it as tasty as she does! we're having these with spanish-style green beans cooked in a paprika-laced sofrito.

fin.

first snow squall

we went from 16 degrees yesterday to the chance of the first snowsquall today. that means: no more biking for me! i'm going to at least try to bike to the public library gig this morning, since it hasn't started raining or anything yet...and see whether how long i can push it.

in other news, my friend brian posted the most hi-larious pictures from last week's dodgeball game on facebook. seriously, i almost died laughing. in just about every picture i'm screaming my head off, yelling about something or other. i look like doraemon. these pics are so gold! i love 'em.

so i'm doing a presentation in two weeks with another person, that has a written component that has to be submitted this coming wednesday. the other person wants the two of us to get together and WRITE IT TOGETHER. AT THE SAME TIME. i kind of agreed to it, not knowing what i was doing, but when i thought about it, i was like, wtf? that's wack, guy! we should both just write our parts and smush them together. i wonder if it's because the person thinks i'm a bad student because i never go to class? anyway, whatever the reason, i'm sure as hell not coming into school on a sunday morning to do work. helllllls no.

this weekend is jam-packed already. we have a crapload of leftovers in the fridge so i don't think i'm going to cook anything new tonight. we'll try to clear through some of the fridge backlog and i'll make something new tomorrow. i have to make carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for my sociology presentation tomorrow (it's on culinary nationalism).

fin.

dip-dappin'

pasta alla carbonara is one of the BEST pastas around. way to go, rome, way to go. it's a salty and fatty hot mess and i love it so.

last night was aight. don't get me wrong, sharon was ON POINT. the dap kings were ON POINT. the phoenix disappointed me by having the sound levels kind of low, but the sound in the phoenix is really crisp, so they get it right on that score. no, the pissant of the whole evening was THE CROWD. it was night of the living dead all up in there. and RUDE people too. like it was their first concert. no dancefloor etiquette, no understanding of concert behavior. case in point: at one point, these two broads with mad frizzy hair stepped RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME (ie. i suddenly found myself with a mouthful of frizzy hair and a broad expanse of back pressing up against my tee-tas). so i stood like that for a while, with no room to dance, and then noticed that they had left a three foot square space IN FRONT OF THEM for whatever reason. so, being shorter, and requiring that space for my hip-shakin', i excused myself and stepped in front of them. i could feel them gesturing about it and being all "wtf?" and they were being such miserable scunts that in the end, i went back. i hate people who insist on crowding to the front if they're not dancing. the crowd sucked the life out of the place. i finally found myself a corner with some 50 year olds who were getting DOWN. parkdale librarian crew was represented like whoa last night. that's me and dr. rei's codename for a certain kind of downtown girl, the kind swathed in just-so vintage, the kind who knits, and crafts, and goes to the "goin' steady" night at the boat, the kind with a million bird tattoos or star tattoos or whatever the new-articulation-of-olympia-grrrl-tattoo-de-rigeur is...it's a very specific subsect but they exist nonetheless. they're also some rude-ass b***hes, ie. the girl who CUT IN FRONT of me at the merch table. i KNOW YOU HEARD ME CALL YOU A B***H. it wasn't an accident.

today is my long day. i'm supposed to have an appointment with the plastic surgeon but i'm skipping out in favour of doing homework. i'm also on a mission for knitting needles. NOTE: it is not knitting that makes the "parkdale librarian" typology, it's a certain je ne sais quoi that takes the sum of all those parts (most of which i do on an individual level) and makes them unspeakably lame (turns it into a tautology, if you will).

we also watched "the squid and the whale" the other night. i thought i was going to hate it (the director/writer co-wrote "the life aquatic with steve zissou, which i disliked), but i didn't mind it. although again, i'm sick and tired of the "quirky family" dynamic that's so popular in movies now that it's become it's own stylistic (visual and written). in this case, i understand the need to make the characters kind of idiosyncratic, because otherwise you'd loathe and despise them. still, as much as i simultaneously hated the classist nature of the piece, i kinda liked the tony literary intellectual savagery of it all. i thought it was a great depiction of a section of new-world liberalism...a world where "the new yorker" is your bible and you talk to your kids like they're adults. the incisiveness of the dialogue and depiction of divorce did ring true.

although i went to the museum of natural history in nyc and i don't remember that the squid and the whale were fighting. i kind of thought they were opposite each other, hanging in mid-air, not that the squid was ON the whale.

today is long day so i'm packing the last of the chicken biryani and green beans thoren that i've been jealously hoarding in the fridge.

fin.

dap-dippin'

this morning i have a meeting with my group and my professor where he's checking in with us about a group presentation we're doing in two weeks. you know, because we're in GRADE SIX. so insulting. so beyond insulting.

yesterday was mad productive...i got caught in the rain and had to walk around like a schmoe and i even had to double-BACK to the yarn store because i was having second thoughts about the colours i had chosen. the good thing is: i'm knitting again!!! and loving every minute of it! i like being crafty.

these next few weeks are flippin' gangbusters. but i can see the homestretch! my sociology paper is the biggie that i'm putting off until i'm done all my other crap...i really want to do well and put a lot of good work into it. i've also signed up for another sociology course for second term that a buddy in my food course is taking. it's called "the sociology of popular culture". it's another work-intensive one with weekly 2-3 page writing assignments. i think i'll really like it. anything to talk about popular culture!!!

the shepherd's pie was tasty...you really don't miss the meat. i sullied it's vegan status by putting cheddar cheese on top. i really can't resist a chewy, starting-to-brown-at-the-edges layer of melted cheese. today is my co-worker's second-last day (it's the other student at the leg library - the one who had already graduate - she got a full-time job) so i made raspberry and almond jam bars to go with her little afternoon soiree.

tonight is super-fun concert night!!!! we're going to see sharon jones and the dap kings. that's her new video below. she burns like fire! and the dap kings are the best band ever. i don't devote as much time to music anymore as i used to when jungle was my life, so new music is few and far between for me (as in, stuff that i fall in love with), but sharon jones and the dap kings were the best discovery of the past three years. it's such a great continuation of a funk-tastic tradition. i love it.



and here's a live show:



"how long" is probably still my favorite sharon jones and the dap kings number. it's a finger-shakin', boy-gone-done-me-wrong ditty, and there's nothing i love more than a heartfelt lament for a boy-gone-done-me-wrong.

tonight for dinner i'm making bucatina alla carbonara. with a salad.

fin.

fun fun fun fun fun!

dodgeball last night was probably the funnest game ever. the other team, whom we have an awesome rapport with, "the wrench dodgers" didn't have enough players to play (they only had 3), so they were going to default. my brother's team were planning on sticking around and watching our game as we are playing them next week, so we all kind of combined players and all played each other for fun. it was awesome. we also had an extra ball so we were playing with five balls, like masses of people on the court, it was mayhem. then we'd switch up the teams and have people cross the floor so we could play against each other...it was a lot of fun and such a good time.

the popeye's feast was delicioso. crunchy sheets of skin were brandished and waved around for all to admire before being consumed in a fat-smeared orgy of excess. biscuits were used to sop up said grease before sliding down our gullets and all of it was washed down with the sweet caress of fountain pop. the banana pudding (the disgusting remnants of which are pictured above) was pretty tasty, although i went just a tad heavy on the nutmeg. our buddy bwong also brought some tasty after-dinner snacks of the asian persuasion - pocky, toothpics, soy milk (the real chinese kind), condensed milk, wasabi peas, and other snackies, which the dotytron and the roomie much appreciated as i generally don't keep "snacks" in the house.

all in all, it was a fun weekend. it's a government holiday today which means i've got to get my ass in gear and do a tonne of work. i'm trying to get two assignments done today if i can manage it. we'll see how it goes.

tonight for dinner, we're returning to healthy, normal eating with a vegan shepherd's pie with tvp, sweet potato, celery root, carrot, onions, garlic and thyme for a filling, topped with buttermilk mashed potatoes and maybe some cheddar cheese.

fin.

librarian prom!

was lots and lots of fun! we didn't talk about work at all and everyone was in such good spirits, the night went really well, and needless to say, my friend was beautiful and she and her husband are totally cute together.

they played some pretty awesome tunes and i really wanted to get down, but i don't really know how NOT to dance like a club slut, which isn't something you necessarily want to bust out when you're the lowly student assistant at your work and two of your direct supervisors are present. and even though said two supervisors are very nice and accepting, it's still not the best when you're on contract. so alas, when they played mr. vegas' "head's high" i had to resist every skanky, windy bone in my body that was crying out for rude booty bass. le sigh.

today is a fun day! i'm working a sunday shift at the library, but first we're going for brunch on the danny. we're trying a new place, "three's company". then tonight is dodgeball, and after, i've been charged with the honour of ushering dr. rei through her inaugural "popeye's fried chicken" experience (i'm well suited to my post, as i'm one of their most ardent - and vocal! - supporters). so we're going to reconvene back here with crispy spicy halal chicken, biscuits, pops and mashed po' and gravy. and to go with our southron feast, i made a southron dessert: banana pudding! featuring mr. christie nilla wafers nestled between layers of nutmeg and cinnamon infused custard, sliced bananas, and all topped with a snowy cap of meringue.

!!!!!!!!! so excited!!! and tomorrow is a government day off! whoopeee!

fin.

lucien review

it's astounding to me that after all this time together (time that has literally flown by) when left to our own devices, just me and the dotytron sitting at a table, we can basically spend 3 hours engaged in nonstop blabbing.

lucien last night was good, but not great. the space is nice, warm, intimate feeling, the soundtrack is horrible (five discs ranging from bluesy jazz to more weird instrumental stuff, to vocal crooning - i LOATHE crooning - that was played at a volume slightly too loud to be unobtrusive, but not loud enough to be warranted by the playlist), service was decent, a little perfunctory, a little rushed, and absent near the end when the dotytron ordered an after-dinner drink, we had to almost resort to air-traffic-controller type motions to flag down our server after he had missed us about 10 different times. we also waited unduly for the check.

the bread plate was quite nice. house-churned butter flecked with hawaiian black salt, a warm brioche bun (correct, if just a tad dry) some cumin bread sticks (what's with the cumin breadsticks?) which was deliciously soft and yeasty and some cheese-flavoured flat crisps.

the dotytron started with the grilled octopus (which had been poached, then sliced uber-thin and laid out on the plate carpaccio style) with house-made chorizo (wonderfully gamy and smoky), potatoes, and a pimento aioli. we both really liked the dish.

i had the berkshire pork belly, served with clams (succulent and briny), cuttlefish, (served in fat, tender noodles), kimchee, toasted barley, and a slow poached egg. this dish was AMAZING. the pork belly was all quivering, melting fat, bound by melting strips of meat, all laquered with a sweet, asiany glaze that tempered the heat of the kimchee. the slow-poached egg was basically a self-contained little ball of egg custard, it was so velvety, and all of this was set off with the saline punch of the seafood and the chew of the cuttlefish. this dish was outstanding.

the dotytron had the fried organic hen. from left to right is the "creamed" collards (sauteed collard greens topped with a deep-fried, crunchy ball of suspended cream, that when cut into, oozed it's sauce all over the greens - ingenious); then the chicken breast which was breaded and fried (still juicy) and sitting atop a cornbread stuffing that had been formed into a flat little square; on the right was another part of the hen (dark meat) that had been crisped and served with braised little wee onions. this was delicious, especially the book-end elements. we both thought the chicken breast and stuffing centrepiece could have used a touch of jus, as both elements (even though the chicken was still moist) when eaten together were a little on the dry side.

i had the duck breast. i was a little disappointed in the portion size. it was tiny. barely 4 oz of meat that was undercooked slightly so it was a little tough. the ramen were housemade and quite nice and chewy, and the broth was strewn with seared mushrooms. overall the dish was a bit of a flat. the broth was too salty and tasted too strongly of soy and sesame oil, which mimicked the source material (ie. a bowl of noodles with bbq duck at your standard chinese bbq joint) too closely. there was nothing transcendent about the dish. it tasted like a slightly fancier rendition (although much smaller portioned) version of something i had at king's noodle on spadina last week.

we shared the cheese course. it came with nice accompaniments, a chewy sliver of peach, a jelly, a preserved cherry and some nice crispy crackers. there was a nice salt spring blue on there, and a nice sheep/goat combo and my perennial favorite, la riopelle. the only one we didn't like was the thunder bay gouda, which had no flavour and a waxy texture on the tongue. completely unmemorable.

for dessert i got the "good humour" aka homemade ice cream bars. these were quite nice. from the left you have strawberry shortcake (strawberry sorbet encased in white chocolate with bits of cake rolled around it), the drumstick (delicious! chocolate ice cream rolled in crunchy bits of bittersweet chocolate and salty peanuts) and the "creamsicle", which was some kind of cream flavoured ice cream topped with a yuzu sorbet. this was very cute and refreshing but not too sweet. it was a nice way to end the evening.

the dotytron loves tastings of anything (he's all about comparing and describing) so he ended with the rather pretentiously named chocolate "complex" (tasting of chocolate from around the world). i forget where they were all from, but they were all bittersweet chunks of chocolate from venezuela, montenegro (which led to my extremely off-colour - but hilarious to me - jokes about how that one tasted way more "negro" than the others) served with hawaiian pink salt, honey, balsamic and oil, and this overly floral hibiscus stuff that was just awful. it was like eating a pile of cheap perfume.

all in all, i thought it was quite good, but if we were to compare meal for meal, i thought that my amuse bouche experience the previous week had been a better all-around go, foodwise and service wise. with a half bottle of wine and a cocktail and a post-dinner drink it was $275 with tax and tip. the only homeruns for me at lucien were the apps, so i'm not sure how soon i'll return.

so now our time at playing at bourgeois is over. *tear* no more fancy meals until the dotytron's birthday. it was a good run while it lasted, and it was nice that one of the meals was a freebie.

today i'm going ot my coworker's wedding. we're jokingly calling it "librarian prom" because all the circ staff and librarians are all a-twitter at getting dressed up. i think it'll be fun! i'm excited for my friend as she's the sweetest girl alive.

so tonight's dinner will be wedding food!

fin.

a study in character

ever since i was a little kid, for as long as i or my family can remember, i've been EXTREMELY unreceptive to being woken prematurely from a nap. the cranky, thundering maelstrom of an outburst precipitated by the car creaking to a stop in the garage, jerking me to consciousness after a late dinner out, earned me the (fully justified) nickname: "mad dog". it was ugly. it was unsightly. it continues on to this day. the other vestige from childhood to which i cling is a fully irrational fear/reluctance to be left in the dark (figuratively and literally, but for the sake of this anecdote, literally). these two facets came together in an altogether ridiculous display on wednesday evening when i prematurely fell asleep on the couch while watching tv. when the dotytron roused me in order to get me downstairs to the comforting embrace of my flannel-decked bed, i was less than pleased. when he refused to turn off the upstairs light and left me to do it, i went BERZERKER. i believe the words used were, "i'm going to cut your F**KING head off" alongside a string of equally insane and vicious expletives.

here's the thing, when i go crazy, i go crazy. it's like a supernova of rage. but just like nuclear fission, after that initial release of energy, the slate is wiped clean, and it's like nothing ever happened (i mean, if you consider nuclear winter "nothing, and obviously, i do). i explode, and then i go back to being normal and it's done, forgotten, over! however, the poor soul in my orbit of my mercurial reactor is more often than not, the long-suffering, ever-agreeable, dotytron (he's got his own issues, but that's not for here).

the point of this long, rambling exposition is: i really really really like the dotytron in all his affable, happy-go-lucky, stringbean, weird little guy, glory. tomorrow is our six year anniversary, which brings us back to the very day that we (re)met, at a splinter productions party at audiowerks, on a cold saturday, so very long ago, the party titled, ever-so-auspiciously, "sometimes...acid babies bite back"

anyway, the dotytron is teh awesome and i'm a lucky little industrious pig. i don't usually trumpet about my happiness because the chinese in me is very suspicious of tempting the fates by proclaiming (through the fate-defying longevity of the internet, no less) my current contentment with my partner. plus, generally, i'm not publicly romantic like this. it kind of grosses me out. even typing the word "romantic" is making small waves of revulsion pass over me. NEXT!

since i'm going to a wedding tomorrow, we're having our anniversary dinner tonight. we made reservations at lucien. full review with annoyingly low-megapixel pics tomorrow!

fin.

poor taste

so everyone's talking about roberto cavalli's collection at h&m that's being unveiled (today maybe?). seriously? roberto cavalli is a disgusting pig and so are his clothes. first of all, one of his most well-known clients is beyonce "drag queen" knowles. second of all, do you REALLY want to go line up in the freezing cold and fight it out with 10 billion other crazy b***hes to own something from an entire collection that's leopard print, ripped, shredded, made in morocco and overpriced? no thank you. call me bougie as all get out, but i'm sure as HELL never going to line up outside of a store for clothes, ESPECIALLY not leopard and ripped ones. h&m is perennially disappointing in the sartorial department. although i will buy the odd $10 work shirt there.

yesterday i cut night class (eek! i haven't been in a month!!!) and hung out with hanners instead. it was infinitely more enjoyable. and i scored a wicked diesel, blue, grey and brown tartan skirt for $20 marked down from $100+ at winner's. i also grabbed some jogging pants (!!!!!), one of those special-thermal-breathable workout-y shells (!!!!!) and a pair of nice black pants for work. it's all work clothes, all the time now. and apparently, jogging clothes as well. yikes.

a bit of a late book review, but at the cottage i read nina planck's "read food: what to eat and why" which is an impassioned (though highly romanticized and scientifically suspect) plea for a return to so-called "real foods" (ie. containing fat, not synthesized soy proteins, etc.) from organic, sustainably raised animals and vegetables and fruits, and why. she blames all the ills of modern society (high blood pressure, heart disease) on everyone's favorite whipping boy: trans-fats and basically industrially processed foods and farming practices. she also thinks (and i agree) that turning soy into veggie burgers and dogs does as much ill as eating meat in the first place. it was a pretty good read, and convincing, especially the chapter that talks about fats and how real fats (from animal or vegetable products) aren't the enemy...it's the weirdo fats that are (canola and vegetable oils are slightly suspect as well). i just didn't like the discourse of romanticized pastoralism that she used to frame her argument.

i'm halfway done my multiculti paper. good thing, as it's due tomorrow. it's 3/4 spurious charts and tables, 1/4 b.s. that's a good mix!

i was talking to a few old classmates yesterday, finding out who's taking what, what they think of the classes...and boy, am i the odd one out. my opinions on profs and classes are almost the exact opposite of the peeps i'm talking to. a lot of them really like being lectured at!

tonight for dinnie i'm making a roasted butternut squash, brown butter, and sage pasta with parmesan cheese and a romaine salad with odds and sods.

fin.

shady business

my multiculti paper is supposed to be 13-14 pages long. so i've taken the liberty of padding my b.s.-filled loquacious passages signifying nothing with pictures (!!!) and weird tables and charts. the things that information studies makes you do, i tells ya.

i'm going to go to work and then skip a chunk of class to work on it. hopefully i'll have it 3/4 done by the end of today and i can just crank out the ten bajillion other things i have to do. thank goodness monday is a holiday! that means i have the day off to work solid. i need to crank out a few piddly things and then worry about my big sociology paper. and then first term is DUNZO! i also want to have time to maybe see if i can take a course in another department again. it's nice having three courses i don't have to think about/show up for/etc and one class that is mentally engaging and worth the work put into it. it's like the perfect balance.

that's a picture of the soup from last night. the walnut sage pesto isn't in there yet. the dotytron made it but i didn't eat any because ONE of us was being a major, pmsy, insane b***h last night (i'll leave you to guess who) and so i ate chicken biriyani again. no skin off my nose, i effin loved the chicken biriyani. i packed the soup for dinner tonight for my long day. i'm taking a break at three pm to meet my friend hanners for some shopping along bloor there. i need to find a simple black clutch i can take with me to the wedding i'm going to on saturday. and maybe some black work pants? that'd be awesome!

okay, back to the grindstone. no rest for the wicked and all that.

fin.

good news and bad news

the good news is, i got UTAPS money (that grant i got last year to supplement my OSAP that i don't have to pay back). i got $2700 which is nice because i didn't think i was going to get it. last year i got $4000 which was even NICER. but i'll take it! the bad news is, they put a hold on my OSAP which basically means i'm currently ineligible and i won't be able to receive the second half of my funding. i was supposed to get another $4000 in january. the canada revenue agency ratted me out and basically i made more than i thought i did. i don't really understand it, somehow, for fiscal year 2006 i made $30000?!? for 5 months of that year i was working part-time! and for another 2 months i was drawing wsib money. i don't get it. anyway, i guess if i combine the UTAPS with what i would've gotten from OSAP, i'm only out $1300. the other good thing is, because i'm working so much, i'm covering all my rent and living expenses with my two jobs right now, so i'm doing okay. i haven't had to draw from my OSAP other than to pay my tuition and i also have rrsps and two lines of credit i can fall back on if i ABSOLUTELY have to. that doesn't mean i'm not going to call and try to wheedle my way back into OSAP's good graces though.

last night's biriyani turned out delicious, even if it meant combining TWO separate recipes. first i made a saffron basmati rice flavoured with cardamom and cloves and cinnamon. then i took some chicken leg pieces and fried them in a dry-ish yoghurt-finished sauce. then i layered those two together, and topped them with a tonne of onions fried in butter. then i baked it in the oven. and to finish it, i sauteed some raisins and almonds in butter and topped it with that. crazy! but it was sooo delicious and i think i'm actually starting to like raisins in savoury preparations (keep them out of my butter tarts and scones, though!). i also made green beans thoren.

tonight we're having a sweet potato, escarole, and white bean soup with a walnut sage pesto and guacamole and cheese quesadillas.

fin.

faux-interview today...eek!

first things, first. i love my little brother sterling. me and dr. rei showed up early to witness their game against the prep school twerps we played last time. they got OWNED. it was awesome! the prep school guys were getting so pissed off and were once again engaging in EXTREMELY unsportsmanlike behaviour (aiming repeatedly for the girls' heads and laughing about it) and not calling their own outs and being jerks. then, ANOTHER team captain from this other team, "the wrench dodgers" showed up EARLY specifically to tell sterling NOT to give the prep school kids any spirit points. so it seems like EVERY OTHER team in the league has had the same negative experience we did. which is awesome! so there's mad solidarity and we're organizing that all the team captains email the league to express our concerns and possibly have them kicked out. i can't express enough how ugly it got between sterling's team and the prep school kids. i'm sure it didn't help that i was shouting jabs about "how about that STRATEGY now?" or making constant comments about "the rules". it was awesome! it must suck for them knowing that everyone else in the league hates them (a recreational dodgeball league at that). anyway, i love my brother because he rinses lines like this: "to f**k with one lee is trouble, to f**k with two lees, that's just STUPID" damn straight, son! don't test the power of the swangingest cbc (canadian born chinese) clan, ever. boh!


that's my breakkie from yesterday...deeelicious! we also had a carrot-beet-ginger-apple-cranberry-cucumber juice. it was a really productive day yesterday, just not about school stuff. i made a batch of jumbleberry jam, cleaned house, planted my bulbs in the garden, etc. tonight is homework (aka pulling a paper out of my butt) night galore.

for dinner tonight we're having a chicken biriyani. boneless skinless chicken breasts (or even better, thighs) in a spicy gravy layered with saffron rice, fried onions, and topped with butter sauteed raisins and almonds. i might make a batch of those coconut green beans as well.

fin.

so much for that extra hour

i ended up waking up at 7am daylight savings time, which means that i took advantage by sleeping in a whole extra hour. so ridiculous. i have been productive though. sharpened my knives, started a jumbleberry jam, did some laundry, did some research for this ridiculous multiculti paper. i told my sis about my assignment and she was beyond dismissive. coincidentally, so was dr. rei.

my lovely tailors/dry cleaners in my neighbourhood whom i adore and who adore me, are going to let out my dress for my friend's wedding! which means no more silly dietary restrictions!!! oh happy happy day! haha. now i want to be eat everything in my path, because i can, with impunity. yesterday as i went coat-shopping with the roomie i kept wanting to skip out on making dinner and instead eat macdonald's or swiss chalet in a gluttonous frenzy. i'm going to get all my clothes let out! haha!

last night's cioppino was delicious. rich with mussels, clams, shrimp, scallops, tilapia, bits of halibut, all in a garlicky tomato broth. i made a roasted garlic parsley butter and spread it on bread for dipping in. and behold! look at my brand-new, s**t hot white bowls!!! thank you tap phong! tap phong has a whole "restaurant" signature white plate line, so every couple of months i'm going to treat myself by picking up a few until i have my set of 16 that i so desperately desire. white makes food look so good! i also made bittersweet chocolate brownies which we ate drizzled with caramel sauce and topped with a fluff of whipped cream. it was pretty tasty, even though i overcooked the brownies a bit.

we watched robert rodriguez's "planet terror". i think it's ridiculous that the two films are being rented separately, because i thought the whole point of the exercise was to go to a theatre and see a representation of the 70s grindhouse experience. we only got to see one of the trailers. i'm not sure who did it. it just defeats the purpose of rodriguez and tarantino's project. i really liked it. i thought it was really funny in a self-referential, smart way that wasn't as over-the-top or overly pastiche-y or patronizing. special props to the baby in the last scene who looks EXACTLY like henry the VIII.

today i'm going to try to work on my paper and also plant some bulbs and go for a run. sunday breakkie is going to be pan seared polenta, with a pancetta, mushroom, red pepper, tomato and parmesan ragout topped with a poached egg. mmmmmmm. we're going for post-dodgeball eats tonight at one of those chinese congee noodle bbq places on spadina.

fin.

amuse bouche redux

some of you may remember the disastrous experience the dotytron and i had at my birthday dinner in august at amuse-bouche. this prompted my first-ever negative letter to a restaurant (i'm a nerd, and when i eat at high-end restaurants where they comp me stuff because they find out i used to work in the industry, i send thank-you notes) which precipitated a graciously worded apologetic letter from the manager and a voucher for a complimentary dinner for two (no price indicated).

when i made the reservation, the manager, who had told me to contact her directly when i called to come in again, wasn't in, so i just stated that i had a voucher from the manager and was wondering if i could use it. they were extremely gracious on the phone. when we arrived last night, i was unsure how to play it...since i didn't speak to the manager directly to make the reso, did they know it was me? should i tell the server i have a voucher? i had never been in this situation before.

as we sat down, we were immediately presented with flutes of pink champagne, which told me all i needed to know. we both ordered an appetizer and a main course a la carte, and i must say, the fall menu was much more appetizing than the summer menu. it was difficult for me to decide and everything sounded much more appealing.

we started with a plate of warm bread. one was a cumin-flecked bread stick, and the other was a warm sweet roll studded with raisins, served with butter sprinkled with fleur de sel. in the summer, i wasn't such a fan of the sweet roll to start the evening, but for some reason, it seemed to work better in the cool of fall. the cumin one is absolutely delicious, warm and spicy.

our amuse bouche was a tiny lobster croquette served with a sprig of baby cilantro on top of a mango aioli. this was the same amuse as last time, except this time, the fact that it was served piping-hot, did much to improve the flavour and texture. it's hard to detect the lobster, instead, it tastes more like a melange of shrimp and lobster...tasty nonetheless.
i had a trio of rabbit to start. on the left is a rabbit terrine, cold meaty little chunks sheathed in a quivering jelly served with a concord grape jam. there was a rich and pleasantly gamy sausage that packed a condensed punch of meaty essence. on the far right is a rabbit poutine, shredded rabbit mixed with fried potato "pearls" mixed with creme fraiche and a funkily sharp aged cheddar, glistening with a fatty jus. this was DIVINE.
since i usually go for foie whenever i see it on a menu and had played against type last night, the dotytron ordered the foie. it was a seared piece (considerably heftier than the portion i received in august) with a clove-infused marshmallow, a turned piece of roasted pumpkin and a shard of nougatine. it was a perfect blood-warm temperature, expertly seared so that it maintained its' form but was just starting to liquefy inside. alongside the spicy-sweet elements on the plate, it was a superb preparation that veered just enough outside of the classic to be inventive, while honouring traditional flavour-texture pairings.

our intermezzo was a scoop of nutmeg and honeydew sorbet. usually i find the taste of honeydew to be too milkily, cloyingly sweet. the nutmeg added a depth that played on this and made it almost taste like eggnog.

for our mains, i had the roast suckling pig. big, melting chunks of fatty pork were topped with a tail of butter-poached lobster, on top of which sat a shard of crisp pork crackling. scattered around the plate were tender pieces of japanese radish and little souffled potato gnocchi. this was all sitting on a bed of the silkiest, creamiest, cauliflower puree i've ever tasted. it was like velvet. the dish was sauced with a passionfruit glaze which played on the pork and the lobster equally well. it was a smash.

the dotytron had a venison loin with venison sausage served with roasted cipollini onions, baby carrots, brussel sprouts and parsnips. his venison loin was juicy, medium-rare, and so tender it melted in your mouth (to use a well-worn metaphor). the sausage was rich and dark and hinted at livery iron tang, which i thought cleverly played against the fresh sanguine top notes of the loin.

they presented us with a dessert tasting platter for dessert (we didn't have to order). from left to right there is: an almond milk panna cotta with an earl grey gelee (this was INSANELY good. the balance between the two flavours was exquisite, i could eat a whole bowlful of that stuff and i want to recreate it); a lemon mousse; a mango and meringue tartlet; and a campari and red grapefruit tartlet with pineapple ice cream; and a coffee and chocolate mousse.

as we finished the meal, the manager checked in with us to see how we were doing and to apologize for our last meal there. she was extremely gracious and the service was quick without being hurried, effusive and warm without being intrusive, and the pacing was spot on. i thought they handled everything extremely well. we left a $70 tip (we tipped as if we had paid for the meal and then a bit more...was that the right thing to do?) and we're going to go back soon and pay for a meal, to show how much we appreciated their efforts to correct what had been a bad night. they basically redeemed themselves like crazy in my eyes for the way they handled it, and i can't say enough good things about them.

today is a busy day of doing fieldwork and errands and helping the roomie buy a winter coat. tonight we're having a dinner of cioppino (san francisco seafood stew) of striped bass, mussels, clams, shrimp, scallops in a roasted garlic/tomato/clam broth served with toasted giant croutons for dipping. i think i might make a bread pudding for dessert.

fin.