a passel of book reviews

*insert ongoing lament borne of frustration from the finite amount of time we are granted by the vagaries of physics* aw, fug it...here goes:

i've been SO BUSY! there's so much to do! i'm calling contractors of all stripes and persuasions. the dotytron and i have split the work down the middle: i'm dealing with lawyer, bank, HVAC, realtor, general contractos and electrical; he's taking on plumbing, roof, home insurance.

it's exhausting. not only do we have to line people up to get quotes, we ALSO have to become fairly adept at figuring out the actual appliances in question and doing the pricing of them to make sure we're not getting taken for a ride. SO MUCH MATHS, PEOPLE. I'M NOT GOOD AT THE MATHS. i get confused when people count back the change to me to make up the denomination i gave them. i HATE that. just tell me how much change you're giving back to me! don't take me back on the journey to a whole number! so we're trying to decide whether to get a high efficiency furnace (more up front, savings down the line that we may or may not reap the benefits of) or a medium efficiency one, and learning about AFUEs and all sorts of dual/single/variable fan nonsense. then you have to add in the a/c, the hot water heater, ducts for the dryer, etc. etc.

add to that sorting out hawaii restaurants, figuring out disney stuff, whittling down our worldly possessions and attempting to scale the GREAT RE-ORG OF AUGHT 9, staying on top of craigslist for cheap things that we're going to need in the new place, keeping a mental tally of stuff we're going to need to buy/procure from ikea, etc., all my stupid woodworking projects, researching a used car (!!!!!), getting slowly packed up, still doing stuff with friends and family, the performance details, being active, dodgeball, cooking, eating outside, and the usual run-of-the-mill life stuff and before you know it you're going to sleep way past your bedtime because you can't let go of the fact that the DAY IS ALREADY DONE and you're due to get up and start all over again in SIX HOURS but g-d it, you're going to get some reading in because if you don't have time to read 'the time traveller's wife' then what the hell point is all this anyway?

it probably doesn't help that i've set impossible goals and i'm trying to cram in EVERY re-org thing that's been sitting on my back burner for who knows how long. like, selecting photos for printing and then organizing them into albums. like, re-labeling all our orphan (caseless) cds and burned dvds and putting them into a new container. like, putting all my dry goods into glass jars and labeling them. like, sifting through all our vinyl and selling the ones we don't want to keep. like, archiving all my tapes and putting them into mp3 format. OY. OY. OY.

last night was knit night. H and that guy and baby D hosted. they served us seitan (homemade!) slathered in bbq and smushed up with coleslaw bound with vegan mayonnaise in a bun. it was good! we also had sweet potato fries and regular potato fries with vegan mayonnaise for dipping and a big salad. my contribution was tofutti cuties ice cream sammies. they have a new "key lime" flavour that everyone hated but me (i thought they tasted like creamsicles). we watched "so you think you can dance" and talked about popular culture and knitted (me) and griped about how hard knitting is (everyone else). it was fun! a near perfect evening.

so the performance invites were sent on their merry way a couple of nights ago and by now have safely arrived in the bosom(s) of their intended recipients. they turned out pretty cutesy. i didn't mean to! i honestly didn't! but somehow, i'm always drawn towards the hopelessly twee and juvenile and other soft, round, adorable things that a girl nearing 30 should probably be keeping a safe distance from. this is the sticker that went on the envelopes (i bought lovely translucent vellum envelopes from my go-to card store):

and this is a version of what was contained therein (identifying information has been removed to protect the innocent from the int3rwebs):

the pictures of us will be a recurring theme on the printed matter, along with the hand drawn purple hearts (for valor, the dotytron's, for the courage to saddle himself with me for LIFE). even though they're kind of sickeningly cutesy...i do find them rather dear. i mean, it's not like i have a background in graphic design or like, letterpressing or anything like that. it's as me as i could make it.

tonight for dinner i made us reuben sammies with leftover st. paddy's day corned beef i had frozen and defrosted and sliced thin, sandwiched between sturdy sunflower rye bread along with sauerkraut and swiss cheese. we had barely any thousand island dressing left so i just tapped it all into a ramekin and we dipped into it. i also made a quickie coleslaw to go with. i was looking forward to this meal ALL DAY and it did not disappoint, no sir.

i guess it's about time i started plowing through some of my book reviews. okay...here goes:

i stumbled upon jason lutes' "berlin: city of smoke (book 2)" while browsing the comics section on a library run with the dotytron. i devoured it and then went back for "berlin: city of stones (book 1)" jason lutes is a startling talent with a clear, drawing style that pulls personalities and characters from a stark collection of black and white lines. the two part series traces the rise of the nazi party in berlin and follows a motley cast of characters that exemplify the pre-war, cosmopolitan, glittering excesses of the city, always undercut with the seething discontent that gave rise to fascist xenophobia. it's always fascinating to see how a city makes this kind of transition. how it goes from being home to josephine baker, old world architecture, and a cocaine-fueld libertine arts community; to a repressive, fearful, acquiescence to brute force and class-propelled stratification.

"city of stones" leads up to a may day workers riot that leads to the military opening fire on the civilians, and "city of smoke" picks up shortly thereafter, following the characters from book 1 as they stumble towards the grim reality of a country gripped by inflation, deprivation, and the looming spectre of war. i couldn't put it down.

"jar of fools" is a sad little story about a failed magician, haunted by the suicide of his brother, who casts his lot in with a barely-scraping-by grifter and his young daughter. this book too is suffused with an almost unbearable, quiet sadness. it's filled with hopelessness as you watch these invisible denizens, so detached from the ordinary world, find connectivity amongst each other. the dotytron kept catching me reading it before bed and would chastise me for reading sad-sack comics. i didn't like "jar of fools" as much as the berlin series. there was no historical hook to maintain my interest in the sad stories.

i followed that up with g.b. trudeau's "the long road home: one step at a time" which is a doonsebury comic collection. i don't generally read doonsebury comics - i grabbed this one in the same run that yielded the jason lutes discovery above. it's follows the doonsebury character b.d. and his recovery from a debilitating injury suffered in the iraq war. he spends his time at a recovery centre and the comic draws attention to fisher house, which from what i understand is a facility near hospitals where the families of recovering war vets are stationed, while they recover from their injuries. the comedy is biting and dark - revealing the hidden cost of the war and the psyches that come out of it as damaged as the bodies that house them. the book deftly sidesteps parsimonious, liberal hand-wringing and is all the more powerful for its refusal to take cheap, bi-partisan shots.

that's enough typing out of me for one day. i'm going to give myself tonight off (well, after i wax my 'stache, measure furniture to upload into our online floor planner, and select pictures for printing) and bury my nose in "the time traveler's wife" which my sister got me hooked on.

fin.

shooting hoops with my boo after work

my life is basically a nelly video. we're trying to get out and do some kind of outdoor activity every day pre or post dinner - spend some time in the sun, burning some calories, catching up on the day's events, getting the heart rate up, you know. yesterday was frisbee and then no-rules tennis, tonight was basketball skills training. i suck. my shots are all arm, no lower body. i can semi-dribble without looking at the ball, but it's dicey and inconsistent at best. oh and i'm also playing against someone who IS A FOOT TALLER THAN ME. it's like total mutt and jeff (i know the reference, but not the referent - i think it was way before my time) out there.

for dinner i made grilled salmon brushed with a maple lime butter on top of a couscous salad with raisins, sunflower seeds, diced tomatoes, cucumbers, and scallions and dressed with lemon juice and olive oil. it was very fresh and we ate it alfresco and it was lovely. i love eating outside. natural lighting is food photography's best friend.

now we're going to sift through the detritus from our life while watching "mad men" season 1. we're on a big cleansing kick. taking advantage of the fact that the dotytron hasn't found gainful employment and is a kept man, and the fact that we have a giant spare room and we can start packing up the little used things and storing stuff in there that's already passed the cleanse test. we're getting rid of A LOT. it feels good to take stock. moving is nice like that. i'm pretty adamant about not wanting to carry useless stuff with me from house to house and i'm trying to break the dotytron of his lamentable sentimentality. it was working fine until he tried to get me to part with my collection of rave tapes. "but i had sex with kolin!" "this goldie set is recorded live from a DAT!" [that means nothing] "who knows what's on this brockie tape!" now i don't have a leg to stand on. i've whittled them down but i'm hanging onto more than i should. the dotytron is going to turn them into mp3s so i can continue chugging along nostalgia lane - the annexes of my storied past.

fin.

stephen hawking comes up in conversation entirely too often

when the goosetang clan are hanging out. i don't know why. i DO know that when the goosetang gets together, as we did last night, hungover dotytron in two day old underwear, c-hova's shirt, and unbrushed teeth and all, it tends to yield nuggets like this one:

me: "didn't babe ruth have lou gehrig's disease?"
*self reflective pause*
me: "no wait, LOU GEHRIG had lou gehrig's disease"

ahahahahaha! what's WRONG with me? that's almost as bad as my gyno-fail two weeks ago. dr. rei and hanbo hosted us for a lovely dinner of burgers, sweet potato fries, tomato and mozzarella salad, and lemonade from a silver tureen. it was trés soignée. even though we had wanted to make it an early night, we ended up staying for hours and hours talking and talking and talking and basically drawing parallels between wackadoo people in the world and their "he's just not that into you" (movie version) counterparts. ha!

oh wait, i guess i should back it up. why was the dotytron so hungover? because my adorable brothers, s-dawg, c-hova, and the outlaw bro kidnapped him and took him to niagara falls for a night of strippers, too much alcohol, gambling, and a lovely hotel room to not sleep in. the best part of the night (from the stories that i was allowed to hear) was how the outlaw bro was super-excited that across from the hotel there was a brazilian all-you-can-eat restaurant where apparently the women servers dressed in skimpy carnival attire. only when they got there they found out that the servers were actually all men, wearing like, suits, and there was a 3 hour wait. lol! it's funny if you know just HOW excited the outlaw bro would be to be waited on by women in skimpy carnival attire.

so my sister came up with the kids to hang out at my parents' crumbling estate up in markham and i kiboshed my bob villa aspirations to hang out with her. we got pedicures and gossiped and went to hit a marble slab creamery, which just so happens to be beside the pedicure place - pedis were an excuse for ice cream smushed up with your choice of toppings - my sister loves nothing more than ja cold stone creamery and its' offshoots. she's an ice cream hound. i love my family.

then we went to big mouth kee and big d spoiled us with a GIANT lobster and some weird clam thing that was awesome. finally, we got down to the real business: "he's just not that into you"

this movie is EXACTLY what you want in a mindless movie but it's also SIMULTANEOUSLY everything you hate as a man OR woman in this workaday world. it's so SEXIST! offensively so! and it trades on so many horrible stereotypical gender constructions! and the women (and the guys) are SO STUPID! such victims! it's completely implausible that in this day and age people can be such dummies. but then the sad thing is that people can TOTALLY be such dummies. and the sad thing is i totally know people who are so "he's just not that into you" and see relationships that are so "he's just not that into you" play out all the time...i'm just lucky to have avoided that crap. i don't understand how people get themselves into such clichéd situations. it's like, how do you let your life become an outtake from "keys to the vip"?!??! anyway, the dotytron wants to watch it again tonight...so i'm going to do yoga and go through my files while he experiences the joy/hate first hand.

in other news...i HATE justin long and his stupid monkey face. i also hate and have hated those pc vs. mac commercials since their inception. it's insulting! the mac guy is a smug, self-satisified jerk! how do people not see that? and the pc guys is just a normal, kind of nerdy, schlubby dude. what's wrong with that?!?? if you are ACTUALLY won over by that commercial, i feel like you represent what's wrong with marketing, advertising, youth, and by extension capitalism, today. like, if you actually self-identify with the "cool" that macs are supposed to represent as personified by justin long, then you should reevaluate your life.


tonight for dinner i made a deconstructed version of my pork stuffed deep fried eggplant pockets with sweet chili dipping sauce. basically, i peeled and chunked up eggplant and stir fried it with pork, ginger, garlic, sesame oil, soy sauce, and shanghai choi and served it on top of steamed brown rice with sweet chili dipping sauce.

today i had someone from library school job shadowing me. i should have thought this through some more. my job does NOT lend itself to job shadowing. what am i supposed to do? "this is me placing a phone call to a contact to get the information" "this is me typing in my search string into one of our databases" lol! by the end of it i was SO PARCHED from mindlessly jabbering on for 2+ hours i chugged a million litres of water. i did go for a signature 15 minute run today and when i got home we suited up for some no rules tennis. i LOVE SUMMER! LOVE IT!

in the spirit of LOVING SUMMER! these are my summer jams:


i first heard this tune when we were driving down to visit my sister. i didn't know it was t.i. i cranked the volume on the tune and told the dotytron offhandedly, "i like this song" and he shoots back: *dripping with sarcasm* "OH REALLY? you like this song, huh, RICK RUBIN?" i was all taken aback and he goes, "you know, i used to be so confused...i used to kill myself trying to figure out your taste in music, but when it comes right down to it, it's as simple as having the bass turned up higher than ANY OTHER ELEMENT in the mix" lol! that or an 808. it's so true. i love my sine waves. ahahahaha. anyway, i love t.i's sophisticated ratface, roller skating stylings.

the dotytron just felt the need to tell me that the line "brain so good swore you went to college" is "a bit of a double entendre" i was like, "i know what getting brained means you idiot" lol!

i don't know where madcon came from, or how they managed to weasel their way onto ryan seacrest's AT40, but this shiz is pretty tight. it's cheap, but i'll take it! ha! the rest of their stuff is pretty good...i'm feeling it. it's decent top 40, which is the most you can ask for when you're being bludgeoned to death with lady horseface gaga.

this is my new simile: jason mraz is like bedouin soundclash without the soundclash.

fin.

what a day! what a week!

so...I WON THE WORK COOKIE BAKE-OFF! it was surprisingly nerve-wracking for a throwaway kind of thing (and by "throwaway" i mean "agonized over my [multiple!] entries for a couple of weeks beforehand") what can i say? i'm a competitive, go-for-the-gusto kind of a gal. i have a despicable habit of really, really enjoying winning stuff. my two entries were: chocolate cornmeal cookies with orange cream, and a classic chocolate chip cookie with sea salt. i really thought the sandwich cookies with the orange cream were the clincher, but i actually won for the chocolate chip. at the end of the day, people really always come back to comfort food classics. T and i held hands as they were announcing the winners. lol! to be honest, the funnest part was trash talking T leading up to it. to balance out my olympian dreams, my teams lost at bocce AND the relay race. my lunchtime bocce team also suffered a humiliating defeat on thursday. WE LOST 11-0. that's right, we didn't score a SINGLE point. fastest bocce game EVER. that was pretty humbling, considering T all but announced it on the p.a. so that by the time i trucked back into work after eating a post-game hot dog, i was confronted with snickering, good-natured ribbing from my colleagues.

yesterday was kind of hectic. i hauled my butt home straight from the picnic, did a quick change, and then was picked up by my friend's D's friends to head to the ancaster old mill for D's wedding. it's a pretty spot. D and her new hubby N had already had the religious ceremony with the imam a few weeks prior, so this was just a chance for her to wear her pretty dress and sit down to dinner with her friends. it was very intimate...maybe 40 people in all? quite cozy and everyone was super friendly. there was no alcohol (D and N are both muslim) which cut down on the rambling, crass speeches and no dancing. the food was excellent and even though i went on my own (the dotytron couldn't make it because he had to oversee the final recital for his after school program thing) it was easy to talk to everyone and chat and mix and mingle.

look at how pretty she looks! and how handsome he is! he looks like a hockey player (kind of sergei federov-ish) this was my first time meeting him - it had been a bit of a whirlwind courtship but he's very sweet and gentle and shy and you can tell they're good together. her dress was awesome. i recommended the same place that dr. rei got her dress and D said they were so amazing there. that jacket she's wearing? it's made from the part of the train and dress they chopped off (she had it shortened to mid-calf length)! and that little ruffled pleating above the sweetheart neckline? also added (she needed the dress to have more coverage)! pretty awesome, eh?

so now i'm about to eat my breakkie and start my day. my day is kind of a wonky one. i'm going to head out to the hardware store and this place called lee valley to pick up supplies like: teak oil, strap clamps, wood glue, medium grit sandpaper and chrome polish to fix up my various chairs and whatnot. and then i'm going to put on a pair of gloves and get to work and see how i do. i'm cautiously optimistic. the plan today is to do the gluing and the clamping and to go at the chrome chair and see if i can get any of the rust off.

the plan for this evening is hopefully to somehow watch "he's just not that into you" lol! pretty ambitious, eh?

the worldwide short film festival is starting this week! it totally crept up on me without warning. usually i'm totally on top of it. it's a bit of a tradition for me and the dotytron spanning the entire length of our relationship so we'll have to try to squeeze in a couple of viewings. i really associate this festival with summer, with the dotytron, and with the nascent stages of our journey together. i'd feel a little odd if i missed it for no good reason (ie. i was in town, but just didn't go)

okay...time to start my day of impersonating bob villa! wish me luck!

my fair lil' ugmo: bathroom edition

so i'm kind of keen to get going on the bathroom. with some basic fixes (paint, a new door way, punching open a wall and installing closets) the upstairs would be COMPLETELY done and gorgeous. the bathroom is another thing standing in the way to one floor of the house being in tip top shape. as i've already mentioned, i'm feeling the hex tiles on the floor. and then i thought...what about GIANT hex tile? and then i googled up my vision today and found exactly what i was looking for! isn't it cute? i kind of like the look of the chubby hex tile with the subway tile backsplash. if tile floor and tile halfway up the walls gets to be too pricey, i'd settle for wainscoting, but my first preference is tile for such a damp space. just for the peace of mind and cleanability factor. i'm not a super-fan of the sink pictured above...i think i'm going to go for a wide pedestal style.


i'm also a fan of the deco style sink fixtures.

with a mirrored medicine cabinet above

and the ikea asker containers suspended on the grundtal rail and S hooks for toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc.

above the toilet, to make up for the under counter space you lose with a pedestal sink, i would either want open shelving (with a piece of fabric stretched over top so it's still hidden) or maybe three of these shelves spaced out vertically, if i have enough width above the toilet:

fin.

petty economizing...

lagerfeld style. behold my new rosewood buffet! it is even more beautiful and lustrous than the photo would indicate. the doors slide BACK into the sides, because they're all sliced up into a million pieces and curve back. don't ask me how it works. know only that it is BEAUTIFUL. it cost $450. not cheap. but it's definitely a collector's item that will retain its value. even after we drill holes into the back. it's our new tv stand. it works a little better than the other buffet i bought (which remember, was a steal at $280) because it's a foot shorter. the other buffet we're going to put in the dining room and use it to hold plates and bar supplies and other buffet/sideboard/credenza type things (the dotytron totally busted me on the nomenclature: "why do you keep calling it something different?") the rosewood buffet is heavy as all f**k and in better shape. i'm in love with it.

the petty economizing comes in when i bought expired tropicana orange juice at $2 off to make up for it. lol! and i am going to return all those anthropologie clothes. no more clothes for me, no sir. not for a long while (or, as long as i can stand it...which probably won't be all that long.) it's working out to my benefit that this summer isn't much for being hot. i don't have an opportunity to run through my copious amounts of summer clothes.

i've also snagged 2 very very old and rickety telephone tables which i'm going to turn into my first diy furniture refinishing project. i'll document the results. this weekend is busy with crafty projects. i'm going to try to clean up this chrome chair i pulled out of the trash. i gave one to H to go with her school desk (H and i are kind of setting up mirror homes...we have the same school desks, now the same chairs, and the same ikea tray underneath our respective kitty dishes...lol) i've done some research. you can apparently use 0000 steel wool and chrome polish, coca cola, or a ball of aluminum foil. i'm going to try all three to get the rust off.

on tuesday night i made up the last of the farro and black bean burger mix and made a new batch of the smoky red pepper spread to go along with.

tonight we just ate salad...i wasn't very hungry as i had a big lunch. we took a colleague out to lunch in the workplace dining room as a last huzzah. i had a pretty decent turkey burger with excellent, skinny-crispy sweet potato fries. after work i came home and met up with the dotytron and we played some no-rules tennis. i can't really generally handle eating a big meal at lunch and dinner unless i've kind of set myself up for it (ie. vacay/an "eat whatever i want" day, etc.) so i wasn't terribly hungry so i ate the spinach, grape tomato, red onion, avocado, and sunflower seed salad i couldn't eat last night. the dotytron supplemented his dinner with some leftover black bean chili.

now i'm gearing up to bake off my entries for the workplace cookie baking competition as part of the picnic on friday. i'm in it to win it (as they say.) no prisoners. it's been getting really ugly at work with my old supervisor, T. there have been accusations of sabotage.

in other news...my sister bought and devoured (her words!) sarah dessen's "just listen" in one night and then promptly went out and bought like, 3 more of her books. lol! amazing! i've gotten dr. rei hooked on the e. lockhart ruby oliver series too. i've still got a horrendous backlog of book reviews to do.

okay...i gotta put the finishing touches on the performance invites. eeks!

fin.

empty nest

the roomie has left the building. flown the coop. gotten the hell outta dodge. blown the popsicle stand. uhhhh...i ran out of aphorisms.

she technically made the move on saturday. it was hectic. tonight is our first real night alone though, as T was here last night and left this morning (we woke up at an ungodly hour to drive her to the airport.) it doesn't feel that different. we have a giant empty room in the house now. that's kind of different. but the room still feels vaguely off-limits. the fact that we're not planning on doing anything with the extra space (it seems silly to set up the living room when we're moving shortly) makes it still feel kind of occupied. we're going to use the room as a place to throw all our junk as we start to slowly pack up our gear.

yesterday for breakkie i treated T to the fat baby. look at that rise! it's magical. she was suitably impressed.

we kind of loafed around and tidied up after the upheaval of the weekend and then i headed to dodgeball for the semi-finals. we won against my brother's team. the best is when people try to badmouth my own brothers to me. either not knowing we're related, or underestimating my allegiance and loyalty to my crazy, f**ked up family. seriously, guys...i know i play dodgeball with you for a couple of hours each week, but these dudes are my KIN. we stick together and stand up for each other against ALL interlopers.


for dinner i made muttar paneer with steamed brown rice and purchased saag and naan. our buddy A came over and hung out and gave us the lowdowns on what's what in the life of a swinging jazz musician about town.

for dessert, i cranked out a batch of cookie dough. it's on my shortlist as my entry into the work picnic cookie baking contest. it's a recipe i got from the dotytron's family. they're called mona's mother's mother's favorite cookie recipe. i've included it below. they're like a mix between oatmeal cookies, florentines, and a crisp and chewy chocolate chip cookie. they're delicious.

tonight we went and visited trevor d. i'm feeling really good about our grillz. he's kind of awesome. i haven't received my gear yet but i think i would whole heartedly endorse him to anyone looking for some mouth hardware or custom jewels. as it turns out...we know people in common! lol! he said he thought we looked familiar the first time we were in. my life is totally absurd. T was totally in shock of how many people i saw out and about from various avenues of my life. not friends...total randoms. like my nemesis from library school, a friend of dr. rei's out and about, a girl i met at L's farm over new year's, some dude who i play dodgeball against bouncing at a club on college on saturday night, a dude i used to cook with on the platform waiting for the ossington bus on sunday. i actually saw trevor d out on the danny on sunday AND the dotytron's cousin. what a hodgepodge. you know you've lead an interesting life when you cross paths with so many different types - the scarborough burnout, the rocker, the cook, the brit, the ponce. i'm certainly well rounded...just not in the way that makes you a rhodes scholar or anything.

anyway, we took the molds and put in our request. he's totally hype on it. we'll be his first set of wedding grillz. heh.

then we went and got the dotytron's suit and shirt and tie and got him some snappy, narrow, classic shoes to go with. this week i'm hoping to print out the invites and have those mailed off. the invites are mostly a formality. but i had fun making them, i must say...even if it revealed my distressing tendency towards twee and cutesy design.

i'm not gonna lie. it's been a hella long day. we woke up at 5 in the a.m. to get T to the airport on time. i'm a super sad perogie that she's gone. i know a zillion people but have like, 2 friends. it sucks the big one when one of them lives across the country.

fin.

--------------------------------------------

mona's mother's mother's favourite cookie recipe

1 c. butter, softened
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1 c. flour
1 1/4 c. rolled oats
3/4 c. shredded coconut
1 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1 1/2 c. chocolate chips (i used milk chocolate ones this time, just to be saucy)

- cream the butter and sugars together until fluffy
- add the egg
- stir in the rest of the ingredients
- chill that shiz down
- preheat the oven to 350F. scoop out tablespoon sized balls and roll them up (i make mine on the large side - using the 1 1/2" diametre ice cream scoop) place them well apart on a silpat lined cookie tray (they spread. beware!)
- bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown and lacy.
- cool on tray until they keep their shape and savour with a glass of cold milk

EPIC

zomg. i came home at 3:30 last night (this morning). THREE THIRTY! that doesn't happen anymore! i'm so chuffed about it.

the past few days have been epic. let's start with friday night. got home from work and got all gussied up to take T and the dotytron out for dinner - to celebrate T being in town and the dotytron being DONE m-f'n TEACHER'S COLLEGE! i thought this day would NEVER come!

we went to tomi-kro restaurant in leslieville. it's close by and i've been meaning to try it for a long time. we also did a walk by of lil' ugmo as well (it was en route) to show T what is giving me periodic knots of anxiety in the flesh.

anyway, the meal was really lovely! we all had three courses, a bottle of wine, and one martini. here's what went down...

bread. basically warmed, pita triangles that had been brushed with an herbed oil. pretty tasty, but kind of nondescript.

lobster maki balls. bits of lobster mixed with chili mayo and avocado, encased in sushi rice which is then rolled in nori, dipped in tempura batter, and then deep fried. the lobster was barely noticeable, but i tend to be a sucker for deep fried maki. it's served with a slightly spicy wakame salad and more chili mayo on the plate. it's tasty because crispy+maki+spicy mayo is always a winning combination and this dish capitalizes on it.

at the top, foie gras brulé. a generous ramekin of foie mousse with a bruléed crispy sugar topping. served with toast and some kind of tart fruit preserve and other foie gras accoutrements. it was really really tasty. the foie mousse was whipped and airy and smooth and the bitter/sweet crunch of the bruléed sugar provided a nice texture and flavour contrast.

on the bottom, we have the miami short ribs. these were braised and then grilled and served with a vaguely asian, five-spice enhanced sauce. they were tender and delicious and generously portioned.

beet salad. huge slices of tender, chilled, beet topped with a goat-cheese cream studded with pistachios on top of greens. i loved this dish. it went over really well with a table of beet lovers.

i ordered the veal osso bucco. three tender, meaty chunks of veal shank, braised and topped with a rich, mushroom-cream infused sauce. this dish was quite heavy for summer but it was actually just what i wanted after waiting until 9pm to have dinner and walking through leslieville to find eats. the meat could have used a touch more seasoning but other than that, it was a nice take on osso bucco - extra points for a particularly huge slippery knot of marrow.

dr. rei ordered the seared salmon with tempura battered sweet peas and some kind of cole slaw type thing (or vinegary shredded stuff.) the salmon was served medium rare and had a sweet glaze going on.

T had the tuna, which came rolled in sesame seeds, seared, and served with some kind of miso sauce on edamame hummous. i didn't get to try it but T said it was yummy.

the dotytron ordered the filet of beef. it came with some kind of root mash and sauce. i was getting full at this point so even though we were going splitsies, i didn't eat as much of it as i thought i would. the meat was as tender as filet should be and cooked the requisite medium-rare.

despite my above assertions that i was approaching fullness, that didn't stop me from ordering dessert. i ordered the flourless chocolate cake, which is a silky, dense, mousse-like triangle of pure chocolate flavour, accented with whipped cream and berries.

dr. rei ordered the chocolate pudding, which came with a chocolate brownie (i found the brownie a touch dry.)

the dotytron and T had the dulce de leche cheesecake. it was also very good and and restrained with the caramel flavours, which can sometimes get too sickening and cloying.

all in all, i thought the food was really good and pretty fairly priced, for the portion size and the execution. we paid $280 including taxes and tip for four people to have 3 courses each and a bottle of decent wine and one cocktail. i would go there again.

yesterday was a loooooooong day. the roomie was moving out yesterday, so T and i hightailed it to bonjour brioche to get out of her hair. plus, i wanted to take T there because it's something a little different in the brunch department. on our way, the area that i live in now was having a massive street sale, so we walked through that. some of the prices were exorbitant and not in the spirit of yard sale-ing. for example, some dude was selling a plastic radio flyer wagon for EIGHTY DOLLARS. that's not good yard sale etiquette. do you want to get rid of the stuff or NOT? on the way back, we spotted H and baby D and H's mom J. they stopped over for a visit and showed off some of their finds from their trawl through the yard sale. H has the best yard sale/goodwill/value village luck i've ever seen.

then S came over to look at some furniture and we visited with her for a bit. it turns out all the stuff i'm getting rid of is too big for her new place so it's not going to work out. but it was nice catching up.

finally, after the cavalcade of stars, we headed out for our day of shopping. i didn't buy much. i got a straw hat for myself and a pair of shorts for the dotytron. pretty restrained considering i saw a bunch of nice stuff i wanted. i'm really into the thin, button down, breezy, rolled up shirt/dress look this summer. i think it's so crisp and clean and like, blake lively strolling through martha's vineyard on a hot summer's day.


this is kind of what i'm talking about. so nice! so breezy and crisp and still relaxed and vaguely hippie for hot climes. it's very vacationy. but i was good and didn't succumb. i'll do a trawl through the sale racks if and when i ever get some disposable coin. i definitely don't want to pay full price for that stuff.

we walked and walked and walked and had a serious case of barking dogs. we met up with the dotytron at harbord fish'n'chips and mowed down and then came back home and napped. we met up with our buddy B at the subway and headed over to our buddy M and fox's apartment in kensington where we did some pre drinking with other peeps. bwong came and met us there and was winningly insouciant as per usual. we headed out to supermarket first and were bored to death with some crappy disco-y standards ("pyt" etc.) i went up to the dj and asked if they were going to play any hip hop and requested m.o.p's "ante up" and he said he'd play it. we sat through some more indeterminate crap tunes and were just about to leave when he dropped it and the crowd went OFF. what the hell dudes, just let me program a set. then he played some more old skool hip hop but it might have been too little too late. we trooped over to thymeless but they were full (!!!) so i convinced people to go to some random jungle party at toi bar featuring the sounds of dj saigon and possibly frankie gunns.

we squeezed in just before last call and got a reduced rate. T and i bonded at trent university over le jungle, bwong is an old torontojungle.com stalwart, the dotytron and i met via jungle, and some other random friend of friend of the dotytron's high school crew who was in attendance was also a former jungle devotee. it was a BLAST. we danced our butts off to really crappy jungle and it was awesome. lol! i think my voice was hoarse from "brup"ing and "bo"ing. ahahahahaha. at one point, i started rolling up the legs of my jeans and told a (shocked) bwong that i was really going there. T had been worried about being under-dressed for supermarket but we were totally OVER dressed for jungle. ahahahahaha! so good!!! i also got hit on by a n00b. he offered to buy me a drink. i ordered a gin and soda (T's drink of choice) thinking i could pass it along to her but the bar was closed. the point is, i got hit on (i'll take what i can get) and i still got it for skeevy jungle dudes (like i said: i'll take what i can get. lol!) we kinda closed the place down. like, the lights came on. then we dip-setted out of there with bwong shouting, "quick! before the lights come on!" and then we kind of staggered out because it felt like we had all just like blacked out and fell into a time warp. it totally escalated quickly. all in all, a super fun night. can't ask for more.

i'm about to make some breakkie and get this day started.

fin.

i freakin' love my work

today the ontario beef council or some shiz set up shop on the front lawn of my work for their annual beef lunch giveaway. i lined up for like, half an hour with a colleague but it was so worth it! medium beef tenderloin, roasted and served up with grainy mustard, spicy horseradish, and caramelized onions, soft rolls, potato salad, roasted carrot and beet salad, sliced tomatoes, and asparagus in a light vinaigrette. with your choice of drink. FOR FREE!

it's a good thing i had already designated today as an "eat whatever i want day" (K helped me to figure out that my day to day diet is my own twisted karl lagerfeld, esquire version of the weight watchers points system.) which means that i have already earmarked pizza (and/or panzerottoes) for dinner. lunch was delicious!!! the beef was so tender i didn't even need the feeble assistance of a plastic knife to cut through it and the potato salad was a couple of notches above the norm - plus a roasted carrot and beet salad?!?? who does that?!?

another reason i love my work is that next week is the annual work picnic and this year the division hosting has set up a cookie-baking competition. no sooner had the email announcing the contest landed in my mailbox than i fired off a reply asking if i could submit more than one entry. lol!!! i think i'm going to do 3 different kinds. chocolate cornmeal orange sandwich cookies. a dotytron family recipe called "mona's mother's mother's favourite cookie" and maybe a classic chocolate chip. i'm a little stuck on the third option. i'm also entered in the bocce tournament with a dude from security as my partner AND i'm signed up for the relay race. i'm such a joiner! ha. you never could have forced me on threat of torture into signing up for a relay race in high school or university, but for some reason, work brings out the best in me. AND me and my partner won the first game in the lunchtime bocce tournament. i was the champ last year, but this year the stakes are higher. last year's prize was $10 each. this year it's FIFTY!

aside from being a joiner, another thing i never thought i'd find myself doing is obsessively trawling through ebay for jcrew clothes. i'm like a boho-prep. it's such a deal! plus, the stuff is fantastic for work. full price is insane though. i'm actually experiencing buyer's remorse about the anthropologie buys. doing the lil' ugmo/performance/hawaii/home repairs/lawyer fees/taxes number crunching has been sobering to say the least and i really don't need to overspend on clothes (and make no mistake: anthro is hella expensive, even WITH a sale room) when there are ebay sales and GAP sale rack items to be snapped up with an even higher pleasure:dollar spent return.

last night's knit club meeting was long on tasty eats (i make a mean, mean, black bean chili), short on knitting, long on cute babies and "so you think you can dance" - i can really eat an ungodly amount of freshly fried corn chips. i lost my frying mojo after eating my weight in chili, avocadoes, corn chips, sour cream and tomatillo salsa, so i didn't end up making dessert. we polished off the last stragglers from the club pack of ice cream sandwiches that had been staking out prime real estate in the freezer. club pack of ice cream sammies, i hardly knew ye.

my fair lil' ugmo - tchotchkes edition

totally obsessing right now over vintage flip alarm clocks. love 'em. there's something deeply satisfying about the faint "whuff" sound when it flips.

this cheapie, cheerful, battery-powered number from target is another one on the shortlist (and a fitting compadre to apple clock, senior) i'm basically looking to replace our ugly, LED radio shack monstrosity with something a little more aesthetically pleasing.

bedroom:

i'm going with the roomie and l'army and T to check out this lady in etobicoke who seems to be some kind of mid-century furniture collector. apparently she goes buck at estate sales and then has to unload all her stuff on craigslist. she has a teak bed frame, queen size. the dotytron and i are thinking about upgrading...here's what it looks like:

there are a few drawbacks. yes, it's a queen and it would be nice to sleep in something bigger than a double. but! when we slept in the king at the hotel in chicago i didn't like it because i like to play "human blanket" in the sack...we don't actually need that much space because we're pretty smushy *BARF X 1000000000000000000* but i feel badly for the dotytron's cramped gams hanging over the end. the other thing is, i don't like the finish on this wood and i don't like the cut of the handles. our current bed frame has flat front drawers on the built-in nightstands. this looks more low-rent to me. but it's still worth seeing in person. also, i want to see what else she has.

i also don't want my entire place to be an homage to like, "mad men" or something. the other thing to consider is that the beds with the built in nightstands have EFFIN' long headboards. SO LONG! and unless we plan on becoming millionaires, most bedrooms in toronto would be dwarfed by anything bigger than a double. so there's that consideration as well.

i'll update with pics from last night's dinner.

fin.


--------------------------------------------

black bean chili

serves 4-6 main course portions

1 1/2 c. dried black beans, soaked, and pre-boiled (i just doubled the amount when i was making the black bean burgers the other night, but you could always just add an extra can, or add more dried black beans)
2 c. black beans, rinsed and drained (see note above)
1 large onion, diced
a crapload of minced garlic
1 T. cumin
2 t. coriander
2 t. oregano (mexican preferred)
4-6 dried whole chilies (your choice. i usually do a mix of guajillos, anchos, pasillas, etc.)
2 whole chipotle chilies (from a can of chipotles in adobo)
1 28oz can of tomatoes (whole, diced, crushed, whatevs, you're going to be puréeing it anyway)
salt and pepper

- sauté the onion and garlic in a good glug of olive oil until translucent. add the cumin, coriander, and oregano and sweat out. dump into a slow cooker or a big dutch oven.
- meanwhile, stem the dried chilies and break into pieces. cover with 2 c. of boiling water and cover. let stand 10 minutes. blitz up the chilies, the water, the chipotles, and the tomatoes until fairly smooth. add to the slow cooker/pot
- slow cooker up that shiz (i did mine on low for 5 hours) or simmer on low heat, stirring occasionally.
- season with salt and pepper
- serve with your preferred accoutrements (sour cream/crema, diced avocado mixed with chopped scallions and lime juice, tomatillo salsa, crushed up corn chips)

visitation rights

we popped by to say hi to lil' ugmo and to see if our neighbours had surveys last night. the neighbours were SO FRIENDLY. the ones directly attached to us are the boom...they were so thrilled we got the place and were beaming about it. in the course of our conversation with them, a bunch of other people were walking around with their kids, checking in with neighbours, saying hi to each other. it was super cute! it makes me think everything is going to be okay. i flippin' love the neighbourhood.

the peeps across the street from us who sold their place for $428,000 (they bought it for $240,000 FOUR years ago, but they said it was a rental and was in piss-poor shape - worse than ours) showed us around their renos. he said that if you pull down the lath and plaster on the wall that separates your house from the person you're attached to, you can get the exposed brick. exciting!!! it's only like 1/4" of plaster, too. i think we're going to do it. we're going to have to seal it up though to prevent dust and crumbling mortar. actually, the more i read up about it, the more of a pain it seems...gah, yet ANOTHER decision to grapple with.


last night for dinner i made us black bean and farro burgers with a smoky red pepper spread. the burgers were amazing! i was so impressed. they were tender and flavourful, but the spelt gave it a nice chewy texture. the smoky red pepper spread MADE it though. i've attached the recipe for both below (i got them from food and wine magazine.) the pictures don't do this veggie burger justice. it's a little time consuming, but you could probably split the prep into two (easy) days worth of work.


so. 'terminator salvation'. what is there to say that hasn't been said at this point? the movie was a snoozer. all dark, bleached out, post-apocalyptic ultra-exposed and gritty textures - much sound and fury, signifying nothing. sam worthington does a good job of coming out of nowhere and upstaging christian bale - no small feat considering bale is giving it his gravel-voiced best. supporting characters are extraneous (including the inclusion of a totally mis-cast and outplayed common) and the story is ludicrous. my family spent a good hour afterwards arguing over where it fits into the mythology. it was hard to tell because they kept trying to knowingly shout out the mythology, but the references and the story were completely implausible - that's the tangled web you weave when you tango with time travel. it was kind of boring, really. skynet is the stupidest computer system ever. there were multiple points at which they could have killed the protagonists...but don't? the action sequences were aight, but nothing breathtaking and the female characters were walking hair products ads or had to stand there staring dumbfounded. weaksauce!

tonight is knit club night. i'm making vegan-friendly black bean chili with tomatillo salsa and diced avocado and scallions and crunched up freshly fried corn chips for chucking in there. (black beans two nights in a row = major pooting)

for dessert i'm going to fry up flour tortillas and toss them in cinnamon sugar and serve them drizzled with dulce de leche for the non vegans.

fin.

----------------------------------------------------
black bean burgers w/ smoky red pepper spread
makes 4 giant burgers and 8 small to regular sized ones

1 1/4 c. dried black beans, covered in cold water and soaked 4 hours or overnight
3 1/2 T. olive oil
1/3 c. farro (spelt)
1 small onion, finely diced
1/4 t. crushed red ppper
minced garlic to taste
2 large eggs, beaten
1 c. breadcrumbs, fresh or dried
1/4 c. chopped basil
1/4 c. chopped parsley
generous amount of salt and pepper
vegetable/canola oil for sautéing
8 buns
smoky red pepper spread and thickly sliced red onion for serving

- in a saucepan, cover the beans with water and simmer over medium heat until tender (add water as needed to maintain>)
- meanwhile, in a saucepan, heat 1 T. of the olive oil and add the farro. cook over high eat, stirring, until farro is lightly toasted. add 3 c. of water and a pinch of salt and boil the farro until the grains are al dente.
- in a small pan, heat the remaining olive oil and sauté the onions and garlic until softened. add the crushed red pepper and cook for a minute or two longer.
- in a food processor pulse all but 1/2 c. of the black beans to a chunky puree. transfer to a bowl and fold in the reserved 1/2 c. of beans, the farro, the onion mixture, eggs, breadcrumbs, and herbs. season generously with salt and pepper. cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes (can be made a day ahead)
- in a large skillet, heat 1/8" of vegetable oil. form the burger mixture into patties and add them to the pan, cook until golden brown and crusty, flipping once. transfer the patties to the buns.
- i sprinkled my finished burgers with some coarse fleur de sel.

-------------------------------------------------

smoky red pepper spread

1 red pepper
1 c. of feta
1/2 t. of smoked spanish paprika

- roast red pepper over a gas grill until charred and blistered all over. stick it in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap and let steam for 10 minutes.
- peel and seed the pepper and put the flesh in a food processor. blitz with the feta and the smoked paprika to make a fairly smooth spread.
- smear generously on the top and bottom buns of the burger.
- this stuff is seriously like crack cocaine.

the weekend that was

what a fun-filled, food-fueled, frippery-fandangoed, weekend! started off with a lovely brunch with the work ladies, their men, and their little men (in the babies sense, not the dwarf/midget/whatever-preferred-nomenclature sense). i ate some of K's pancake and my own egg's benny florentine, which comes on a slightly mushy potato rosti topped with smoked salmon and spinach, runny poached egg, hollandaise, and a lovely crisp english muffin on the side.

unfortunately K didn't get the (collective unconscious) yellow memo. next time! LOOK AT HOW CUTE THOSE BABIES ARE. LOOK AT THEM.

that night we saw 'up' it was fantastic (thought i liked 'wall*e' a bit better.) the film basically had the whole row of us, including my mum, and the two kids, all in 3-D glasses, bawling our eyes out with the OPENING 5 MINUTES (well, the kids weren't crying.) it's quite adult. the animation is thrilling, kinetic, fanciful, deep. the story is quite simple, but filled with endearing characters (shouts especially for the asian lead! way to go, pixar!) overall, i thought that it didn't do quite as good of a job bridging the adult and the child audience elements as 'wall*e'. there was a bit of an incongruous element whenever some of the humour veered towards the ankle-biter demographic, which shocked you out of the very mature overtones - of life, adventure, family, love, and mostly, loss. the action is there, but some of the humour wasn't as textured as what was in 'wall*e'. is it still one of the best films i've seen all year? undoubtedly. is it worth seeing? unequivocally. is quibbling over pixar's oeuvre a bit of a moot point? assuredly.

the next day we had dim sum with my grandparents. thereafter, thoroughly addled by the msg and sodium coursing through my veins, i went to watch my brother's team play dodgeball (my team played after.) or i thought i was going to watch. instead, i was called up and played alongside them, when every over-salinated/umami'd cell in my body was crying out for the sweet release of slumber atop a pile of quietly moldering gym mattresses stacked in a corner. then i had to play my OWN game. where i got beaned in the melon with a ferocity that gave me a ringing in me ears.

we grabbed T (who was going to my grandma's birthday banquet) and headed up to markham. i don't know if it was the knocking my brain got or the lack of sleep, but i suffered from a brief bout with the stoops. i questioned whether or not i had fallopian tubes (?), couldn't remember liam neeson's name (!), and otherwise became less eloquent. this of course had me spiraling into a self-diagnostic froth about having a concussion. my family and T ignored me. i recovered to get gussied up and hit dinner. here are some shots:


T is dressed normally. we are all ridiculously dressed up because we were told that there were going to be family portraits. unbeknown to us, there was a last minute audible so we looked like dorks AND showed up an hour early for dinner. gyno-fail!

today was my day off. me and T did day 1 of our "T's in town shopping extravaganza: recession-busting edition." we checked out the shops at don mills and went to the anthropologie. BY ALL THAT IS HOLY! how am i supposed to resist the lures of a store where 90% is CUSTOM MAID FOR MY BOHEMIAN-GIRLY TASTES?!???!!! how?!??? why?!!!? i bought two things and some undies. from the sale room. (that's right - sale ROOM - C had warned me.) but i'm experiencing home owner's buyer's remorse and i might return them. i don't need MORE clothes. i need less. i'll probably be unloading a bunch. i need to live a more spartan, monastic existence. and by "spartan" and "monastic," read: "as ascetic as one can get with chrome fixtures and vintage lighting and hex tiles in the bathroom." well, maybe i'll keep one of the things and the undies. garg.

then we walked along in leslieville. i found a gorgeous vintage dress that might fit me (if in some universe i happen to have a 26" waist) that would be perfect for the summer weddings i'm attending. so if i trade in my stuff and it's still there in a month, then i feel i can get it. we'll let the fates decide.


tonight for dinner i made us a crème frâiche, fava bean, asparagus, and lemon farfalle pasta. with a baby spinach, ontario strawberry, shallot, and sunflower seed salad with lemon-maple vinaigrette. for dessert i made us a strawberry rhubarb pudding cake that i served with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream.

i got a good bit done on the wedding invites. they're kind of cute, if i do say so myself. doesn't feel right that i have to go back to work tomorrow.

fin.