denouement

so brandon davis kept emailing my work email yesterday - like twice with random questions and then the last time saying something like, "i think i need some research done by _____" (my branch)

i decided to treat it like any other research request sent directly to me and responded with the standard response indicating that we would be more than happy to accommodate his research request and he could contact our general phone line or our general email address with the details of his query. i also included the standard closer that we request that clients refrain from contacting staff directly with research because the general email and reference line are constantly monitored and therefore prevents questions getting lost due to staff being away from their desks, on vacation, etc.

then he responds with an equally formal email thanking me.

five minutes later i get THIS sent to my personal email:

"since i have both addresses .. i'll write to the one that is your junk accoutn and the one that's your fun account - as i don't know which is which.
why don't you come visit me for 15 mins. we're in the same freak'n building. you have nothing to lose.
it would be nice to chat. for me anyway - based on the stimulating grilled cheese, fries and burger king convos."

UGH. SO DESPERATE. he's oozing oily gobs and desperation laced sebum. it's disgusting.

so i finally took the gloves off and replied with the following:

"listen dudebro [thanks, bwonger!],

i'm not trying to be rude, but your attempts to get your mack on are really being directed at the wrong person. whatever you think i am, whatever you think i'm susceptible to, you have it ALL wrong. i don't know how i can be more explicit, but you're really, really, not my type.

i really enjoy my work here and i like the people around me, and like i said, i'm not interested in complicating things, ESPECIALLY with someone who i can tell i don't have anything in common with.

i prefer to keep my work life and my social life separate and distinct.

i would prefer to stay on friendly terms with you (as i would all the people at work) but i fail to see what good could come out of me visiting you, especially since you've been so ham-fisted and transparent with your attempts to hit on me and have corrupted what could have been a perfectly pleasant, cordial relationship.

i'm guessing your technique must work with some ladies, but you're totally barking up the wrong tree, bud.

i would appreciate it if you don't attempt to contact me again.

cheers,
kl"

which must have gotten the point across, because i received this:

"Sure. Not a problem at all karl.
I appreciate the honesty."

and thus ends my one week torrid affair with a media personality. i would like to receive some daps for using the word "ham-fisted" in a shut-down email, por favor.

i should have figured that when a dude comes onto you with the force and subtlety of a mack truck, the only thing that works is a brick in a pillowcase - not the civility of a white-gloved approach.



this is last night's dinner. the pickled beets and tomato-cucumber-red onion salad were delicious, but nothing trumps my homemade falafel balls. i know i've crowed about them before, but i can't help it - they're as good as any i've had out. i think it's time for me to start getting a bit more adventurous with with the legumes though. at borough market in london i had an amazing falafel made with some kind of green pea. it was delicious. i put shredded lettuce and avocado in the falafels with the tahini lemon sauce (tahini with lemon, minced garlic, salt and pepper, thinned with water) and some hot sauce on top. so good!

my t-fal ez clean deep fryer decided his time had come and shuffled off into the countertop appliance room in the sky, last night. so i poured the oil i had saved into my enameled cast iron pot and then promptly wondered why i ever thought a deep fryer was so awesome in the first place. i mean, i guess the best thing about it is that it gives you a thing to store the oil in, but to be perfectly honest, it's a plastic tray that gets manky and is impossible to de-grease. so i think i'm going to pick up a few gallon jars and store my fryer oil in that...easy peasy and easier to clean since glass is completely impermeable and unlike plastic, doesn't share so many properties with oil.

i wouldn't mind getting another enameled cast iron dutch oven though. i've got a bunch of williams sonoma money burning a hole in my wallet so i think i'm going to invest in a new immersion blender and maybe a cast iron dutch oven?

today is my day off. i'm meeting a new family doctor, doing some small cleaning bits around the house and then going for a massage. an ikea mission tonight and then heading to bwong's to fam-up with goosetang and eat burgers at jetsun's juicy burger. i'm a little skeptical of this place. they call their fries homecut but from the photo, that ain't not homecut bizness. also, not a single review on yelp? hrm...

fin.

as dr. rei would say...

...what a dangler.

the saga continues...but my mum (who actually reads this thing!) is making me paro so let's say that i'm being hit on by kid cudi (i've changed the info in the previous post to reflect that.) TBH - if i was being hit on by the real kid cudi (or TI) let's say there there isn't a force in this universe that would keep me from getting all up in there. marriage vows be damned! to be more accurate, it's like i'm getting hit on by michael buble, but it's so gross that for my own peace of mind while i'm writing this, let's just say kid cudi.

so yesterday morning during my break i go to my personal email (i'm trying to get this shiz off the work servers) and send this polite, and i would argue fairly clear, missive:

"sounds like you've got a fully stocked bar in your office - it's a wonder you get any work done!
again, thanks for the interest but i don't think we have much in common - you're too much of a grown-up for me. i'll see you around"

MEANWHILE kid cudi has ALREADY emailed me at work attempting to "clarify" yesterday's "coffee metaphor" email and say that he didn't mean anything "dirty" - so i tell him to check his gmail, thinking that's the end of that.

BUT IT'S NOT!!! the dangler actually responded:

"what you mean is i'm probably too immature and playful and you have too many guys like that already !!!! or, you just insulted me by saying i'm too old for you. ;)
hmm...."

so i'm like, IS HE KIDDING OR WHAT? what the eff is wrong with this sad-sack?

and later on in the day i respond:

"with all due respect, you're too old for me - i don't fraternize with guys in suits - i like my guys in hoodies and stan smiths." (the stan smiths and hoodies is a shout-out to my boo, the dotytron, who really does look good in stan smiths - loves ya, you big lug!)

at which point, it couldn't be MORE done, right? that's assuming you're a normal, decent person and not the sleazoid of the next millenium. because brandon davis over here actually SENT AN EMAIL BACK:

"ouch. cold. you said it wasn't a THUMP.
ha ..
first .. i don't wear suits outside work ya know.
i have FOUR muthahfuck'n hoodies.
and i've never been accused of being too old.
too rough .. maybe. but never too old.
but i suppose younger women can't always handle that.
no worries. you are hot. and nice. thought i'd see what happened.
i need to go have a nap and lubricate my dentures."

WHAT A DANGLER. can i repeat that? WHAT A DANGLER. i just TOTALLY realized how apt my brandon davis analogy is. brandon davis, if you remember, is the giant greazeball who famously called lindsay lohan a "firecrotch" and even more recently accused mischa barton of being a "heffer" even though he not too long ago looked like this:

the best thing about googling brandon davis images is that you find THIS gem:

lol x 10000000000000000000.

ANYWAY, WHO WRITES THAT SHIZ?!??! reading the words "FOUR muthahfuck'n hoodies" and picturing THAT GUY writing them just makes you feel SO AWKWARD. it's like a very white, suburban mom trying to say stuff like "owned" or "hood rat" you just feel bad for them.

dr. rei has been hilarious - i forwarded her the emails and she's like, "ummm...the hoodies is a METAPHOR, obviously...an ACTUAL metaphor unlike your stupid coffee one"

lol!!! at this point, the emails have been forwarded to so many people, that i thought of the most hilarious way to shut this guy down for good. the best would be for DR. REI to respond to brandon davis here, IN THE FORWARDED CHAIN (so he knows it's been sent around) and interject herself into the conversation with:

ummmm...what do you MEAN by "rough"?
- dr. rei

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOW FUNNY WOULD THAT BE?!???!!!!? we died laughing over dinner just thinking about it. the dotytron thinks it's going to be the most effective shut down.

so i was going to ignore it but the guy kept sending me emails - little one liners being "should i email your work or your personal email" and i'm like "dude, you're not giving up are you?" and he's like, "no."

i'm going to stop responding. i'm going to be like, "dude, you're wack and a dangler, i'm not going to respond to any more of your smarmy, creepy emails" and block the m-fer already or report it as spam.

last night we met up with dr. rei for dinner at kenzo ramen. we had been to the kenzo up in north york with bwong before and it was so good. the downtown location (assuming it's the same chain) is equally delicious.

we split an order of meaty, tender, gingery gyoza in delicate wrappers:

the dotytron ordered the "king of kings" ramen:

which has a bunch of stuff in it (pork, seaweed, etc.) and is spicy. it's one of the most popular ones.

i ordered the tonkotsu, which has a few thick slices of braised pork, half of a soft-boiled egg, and a mess of bean sprouts and scallions, in a milky, delicate, faintly sweet broth:

the portions of ramen are HUGE! on the side you get a little personal shaker of togarashi to spice things up a bit. so good!

our seats for the symphony were pretty awesome! ground floor, centre. guys, the toronto symphony orchestra is kind of the best and it deserves your love and support. they're doing a 3 night series featuring jean sibelius' 7 symphonies played in sequential order. we saw the 1st and 2nd symphony. i prefer the second. orchestras are so cool! i love oboes and bassoons and double bass and cello the best. the sound was impeccable inside of roy thompson hall. they ended up recording the show and they're going to be broadcasting it on cbc 2.

i really enjoyed it - even if i did aggravate the dotytron by asking what it IS exactly that makes the first violinist so the bomb and why having the conductor is such a big deal - the musicians aren't even LOOKING at him. as i said, a "forte is a forte" to which the dotytron responded with a big rollseyes and exasperated explanation which resulted in me saying, "you don't have to be so defensive you know"
and him responding, "and YOU don't have to keep acting like a symphony isn't a big deal" lol!

tonight for dinner we're having homemade falafels with a tahini lemon sauce, pickled beets, and tomato cucumber mint salad. refreshing!

fin.

this is the story...

of how i got (am getting) hit on by a media personality.

last friday, i'm standing in line at the resto, waiting to order my grilled cheese on whole wheat treat. a lady standing in front of me, turns to the suited up guy behind me, and says, "hey kid cudi, i've seen you on tv a lot lately, you're looking good" and so i turned around to look and it's some vaguely greazy MAN in a suit. now, i have this bad habit of always assuming that grown men in suits at the resto are high ranking u.s. politicians. this is because of my shameful secret: that i still don't know all the high ranking u.s. politicians by face, yet. so i err on the side of caution.

i go up and place my order and the guy behind me says, "make that 2" so i turn and start talking to him. he asks me what i do, what my name is, etc. he tells me that he's an actor and a hip hop mc, and i feel bad for not recognizing him (i'm also hyper-self conscious at my work because i don't follow the news as closely as i should - i'm too busy keeping myself abreast of youtube sensations and internet memes to be - ya know, important stuff like that...lol!) so i say, "sorry, i don't watch much tv" and then we're making idle chit chat about lunch (that i would get fries except i'm planning on going to burger king and doing a calorie splurge on the weekend) and what level of service my work offers to members of the press (they're clients of ours.) so i grab my sandwich and he goes, "what was your last name again?" and i tell him and take off with a polite, friendly, "nice meeting you." he definitely left a smarmy vapour in the air - the talking was a little TOO dialed in and way too much eye-to-eye contact - so he was either trying to sell me a house/car, get my vote, or was hitting on me.

go upstairs and talk to my buddy K and tell her that i'm pretty sure i was being hit on by some dude. and i tell her who and she's all like, "OMG, M & G (my other work girls) ALSO had an experience with that guy" (i guess kid cudi likes asians.) anyway, the story with G & M is that one year they ran into him at the grammys and he was talking with a piece of gum in his mouth that he accidentally spat out AND THEN PUT BACK IN HIS MOUTH (i'm pretty sure that's the story) and then went sniffing around M's office the following day looking for her but she was away from her desk. it ended at that.

if only i had been so lucky.

p.s. we're pretty sure he's married. to a GORGEOUS asian woman.

p.p.s. he looks like this:

ummmm...such a MAN, right? maybe i'm delusional, but i like to think that i look WAY too young and cool and NOT like a "woman" to be seen associating with a dude who looks like that. jeez. i like my guys in crooks and adidas.

i eat my sandwich. half an hour later, my desk phone rings, and it's HIM ASKING ME TO GO FOR COFFEE. so i'm all flustered because i don't want to be rude to a client and it's not like it's SO OBVIOUS that he's hitting on me, but c'maaan. so i'm like, "uhhh, i'm on back-up" (which means i'm on call to handle rush, walk-in requests) so he goes, "i guess that means you're chained to your desk" and i say yes and then he ASKS ME FOR MY EMAIL.

so i give him the work one because it's still not clear that it's not professional.

THEN FIVE MINUTES LATER I GET AN EMAIL. the subject line: "fishy" (literally, it said the word fishy, not like it was suspect, even though it was so it's kind of an inadvertent double entendre).

and the wording is SO SUGGESTIVE!!! it goes like this: "i had the seafood soup, it was okay, but now all i taste is salmon. i prefer the taste of my grilled cheese - ketchup of course. i'm sure you regret not getting the fries, i should have pressured you more so i could have plucked some from your pile. ha. nice talking to you" [emphasis mine]

WHAT THE FUZZ?!? so i'm all like, what the heck do i do?!? anyway, it gave everyone a good laugh on friday and livened up the rest of the afternoon.

i sent back a generic email saying that you have to be careful what you order down there, have a good weekend, nice meeting you, etc. very tasteful (i think) and not suggestive.

then yesterday he sends me an email asking about whether i got burger king on the weekend...still pretty casual. i respond that i didn't - keeping it light.

THEN HE EMAILED ME ASKING ME OUT FOR COFFEE AGAIN TODAY.

so i said, "sorry, i can't - i'm busy all afternoon, but i gotta ask, is the coffee personal or professional?"

now, you're going to wonder why i didn't do a lot of things - like tell him i'm hitched, shut him down, etc. and this is where being hit on at work complicates things. if this was the club, in the street, etc - i know what to do - you get the polite, tight-lipped smile, and the "oh no you di'n't" finger wave in your face or something equivalent. if you continue to press your case, then you get the b****y put down that is simultaneously HILARIOUS (for me) and puts you in your place. but this is work, so i feel like my hands are tied.

also, the feminist in me is not one to go running around telling people that i'm married. i don't feel like it's anyone's business. and the non-hetero-normative-monogamous in me doesn't feel like that's a truthful response - i don't want to support an institution i find problematic by leaning on its problematic elements as an excuse. i'm not interested in him because he's gross. not because i'm married. and not because i have a husband. to me, the two are unrelated (yes, i concede that that's a less conventional view of the bonds of marriage, but that's the only way i can be okay with it.)

THEN he sends the grossest email back (which i kind of didn't even understand) where he responds to some of my polite filler and then says this: "the coffee request was personal (he says .. waiting for the thump)"

i didn't get what the "waiting for the thump" part meant but K suggested it's cuz he thought he was going to get shot down.

so my response was this: "THUMP...ha. while it’s super flattering to know what i made such an impression on a random trip for a grilled cheese sarnie, i’m afraid i’ve got too many extra-curricular activities on the go to contemplate complicating my work life with anything beyond friendly banter. also, I don’t drink caffeine."

which, correct me if i'm wrong, i consider to be pretty clear, but still friendly and professional.

THE GUY WRITES ME BACK (I KID YOU NOT):

"i’m uncomplicated. just so you know. ;) and coffee .. was a metaphor.
i figure a brilliant library researcher would like that word. and its implications.
let me see .. i have tea, herbal tea, california cabernet sauv, single malt scotch, beer and vodka in my office. doesn’t sound complicated to me. don’t’ suppose you have an email that’s NOT work issued that we can banter on"

and then gave me his gmail address.

WHAT THE BLOOD. WHO DOES THAT?!!!? WHO DOES THIS WORK ON?!!!? also, WORST METAPHOR EVER. what a skeezeball. now i'm just mad. i was being polite and professional and i felt sad for his leisure suit larry ways before (it's sad seeing a grown a** man acting like a chump), but now i'm just pissed that he refuses to take a hint AND thinks this crap works on me. so you're basically going to push the issue until i outright tell you that i'm way out of your league? that you don't have a chance in hell? that you're GROSS?!? what a creepz0rz.

so now i'm going to email that gmail address and nip this in the bud. something along the lines of: "you're barking up the wrong tree, bud" or "i'm way out of your league, bro-dawg"

or something else if inspiration strikes. i gotta say though, being on the hinterland side of 30, it's nice to know i still got it. and when i say "i still got it" i'm being SUPER undiscriminating. i get a bit of an ego rush if a homeless man hits on me or if i get a wolf whistle biking by a methadone clinic. i ain't picky, ya hear?

tonight i made a splendid mostly vegetarian dinner. i made a red lentil and leek soup with crispy bacon, sage, and a touch of cream and some heat from red chili flakes. the dotytron insisted on pureeing it with the hand blender until it became "velveteen."

i also made quesadillas with sautéed beet greens and roasted red pepper and cheddar cheese.

so good!

now we're off on a nightly walk and then yoga, reading, and bed.

fin.

despite a 4 hour "nap"...

this weekend was another ram-jammed one. i just didn't get any of the not-fun stuff done and ended up doing all the fun stuff. i'm okay with that.

friday night dinner with strangers was so much fun! i couldn't believe how hospitable the hosts, B & C were lovely hosts who have a gorgeous house in the bloor west village area (an area that i've NEVER BEEN TO IN MY LIFE.) we had roasted salmon, a delicious boneless grilled leg of lamb, mashed sweet potatoes, green beans, and a biryani rice studded with caramelized onions, pistachios, and plump raisins. i've so come around on raisins in savory dishes (particularly biryanis.) i love them now. i'm not saying that if i see a raisin in a scone i'm going to let it continue on its merry way without harassment, but in a biryani, we can coexist. the crack pie was pretty good! i'd say very successful overall - a 75% success rate. next time i'm not going to over cook it so that it's goopier, but it did make transporting it across town easy (especially on saturday night when i wrapped it up and had it sitting vertically in my panier on a cross-town bike ride to foxley.)

 

this was my pre-modelling breakfast, currently my favorite thing to eat in the mornings. a toasted whole wheat bagel with sliced avocado, red onion, and tomato, with melted jalepeno havarti (or another kind of mild cheese.) it's super-filling though and i generally can't eat both halves of the bagel.

the modelling went well - the pics turned out by and large. H's styling is very avant-garde - she's really inspired by japanese harajuku styles - let's just say that at one point i was wearing fluorescent pink tights, with fluorescent yellow fishnets over top, and on top of THAT, red knee socks with black hearts. you can see some of the more successful photos at H's shop: foundlings vintage

after that i met up with the dotytron and we did our weekly grocery shopping and then stopped to get a "snack" at messini's (by the by, the bio on that website of the establishment and the owner are kind of hilarious.) we got a pork gyro and a lamb gyro and split them - i'm a HUGE fan of french fries in the gyro:

 

we were SUPPOSED to do work after that but somehow ended up snoozing on the couch and then getting up and feeling cranky because we were uncomfortable and then going upstairs to snooze some more, resulting in a "nap" that ended up lasting 4-5 hours. whoops. in our defense, we were out until almost 1am on friday night - which is SOOOOOO LATE (like, vampire time) for us. we got up just in time to scramble our stuff together to bike to foxley to meet buns and xtina for buns' birthday dinner (note: the following photos of our dinner are only marginally better than the ones posted in the blog to review.)

luckily for us buns and xtina had the foresight to arrive at quarter to seven to snag a table. the place was filled up by the time we got there just after 7 and they were already taking names for the wait list.

we each ordered 2 dishes and split everything (the dishes are designed for sharing):

 

this is a blue crab and avocado salad - a mass of delicate, fine blue crab meat seasoned with citrus and cilantro and stuffed in a ripe avocado shell with decorative squiggles of sriracha. the dotytron and i were all hot from the bike ride, groggy and head-fuzzy from the too-long nap, and still full from the pre-nap gyro fat bombs so we were craving stuff that was fresh and light and kind of appetite stimulating - the food at foxley totally fit the bill. the south east asian inspired hearty small plates featured complex interplays of sweet, sour, salty, and hot that kind of perked up your tastebuds and was a little different from the norm. because they're built for sharing, we were able to try everything and i'd say that the dishes were almost all really tasty and gently priced (ranging from around $7-$20 on average.)

 

next up were lamb and duck proscuitto potstickers - intensely meaty, ginger flecked little bombs of sanguine, gaminess.

 

wahoo ceviche with mango salsa - firm chunks of fish in a citrusy mango salsa punched up with cilantro and the licorice notes of thai basil. super refreshing.

grilled spiced venison wrapped in la lot leaves served with a salad dressed in what tasted like nuoc cham (the sweet-sour dipping sauce they serve in vietnamese restaurants.) apparently la lot leaves are also known as pepper leaves and are used as meat wrappers in vietnam. the venison was so tasty! finely ground and spiced with what tasted like a hint of cinnamon and cardamom.

next we moved onto the more "main course" style heavier, meatier dishes. except for the dotytron who ordered scallop ceviche with kumquat and grilled jalepeno. this was nice - fat slices of scallop in an indeterminate sauce - to be honest, this dish got lost amongst the heavier dishes that arrived in our second wave of ordering. i also thought that the flavours of kumquat (which i tend to find very strong and floral) didn't really come through.

 

sauteed asian greens in a highly addictive, sweet sauce. so good. i think it was gai lan - nice crunch to the stems.

 

this muscatel-braised pork belly had us all swooning with delight. you don't really need to hear me wax poetic about the wonders of pork belly and how the thin ribbons of pork flesh shredded at the slightest prod of a fork and how the slippery fat coated the inside of our mouths in a symphony of sweet unctuousness. it's good here - and a healthy sized portion, too.

grilled side ribs with a carmelized shallot molasses glaze were so finger-licking good - it was one of those situations were one of the people in the couple martyred themselves and gave up the last bite to their other half. the caramelized shallots and molasses combined to give an almost coffee-like bitterness to the glaze and the meat was falling off the bone tender.

this dish we called "captain beef heart" - it was skewers of grilled beef heart with a chili lime salsa. as it turns out, beef heart, when grilled medium has a texture similar to the tender bite of kidneys - and a meaty flavour minus the chew and brawn of beef meat. i really enjoyed this dish but i tend to enjoy grilled bits of meat and offal on sticks.

the timing on dinner was perfect - by the time we finished up we had just enough time to make it to see the high school play that our friend lolly co-wrote and that got shortlisted in the regional division of the sears drama festival (which i know nothing about but is some kind of prestigious prize for high school drama productions.) her play was SO GOOD! it was amazing - i'm so proud of her - she's so talented. i mean, i write but i can't imagine writing a play. it seems like so much work and i thought her use of symbolism and a greek-style chorus and tying together the themes into a tight cohesive whole (not to mention a twist ending that would have done m. night shamalamadingdong proud) resulted in a remarkably polished piece. so good.

...and we STILL went out after that! a triple-header evening! i'm so proud of us! we ended up with kdubs crew at thymeless for "dancehall generation" which was high on roots reggae (SNOOOOOZE) and low on dancehall (BOOOOOOO). i kind of hate roots reggae. i just think that if dancehall exists, why would you bother? but that's just in keeping with me always wanting things to be boombastic. i mean, i guess i could see you wanting the irie laid back vibes if you're out in the sun drinking some red stripe on the patio - but don't you want it to get MORE HYPE by throwing in some dutty bass? i do.

sunday morning i drove on the dvp for the first time ever and almost gave myself a hernia tensing up my shoulders gripping the steering wheel with the death grip of the damned. i also almost started crying. it was very stressful.

what WASN'T stressful was eating dim sum with the dotytron's family. i had a lovely time and got to visit with momma and poppa d's friends reet and rick who own that farm that we go to sometimes (not frequently enough.)

i have a confession to make: i find it really boring watching people open presents. like, REALLY BORING. the dotytron had a good idea for bridal and baby showers and whatnot - you should take the present from the person as they arrive, rip it open in front of them, and then offer the thanks to them and them alone and then put the opened gift on a table if you want to have the chance to have other people check it out. it's not such a public display that way - because let's face it, present opening is only really enjoyable in that moment for the recipient and the gifter - everyone else is waiting to go home. also, i think it's really hard for the recipient to sustain meaningful thanks after a parade of gifts...it's hard and really draining to be so continually and publicly effusive. i actually thought the dotytron's idea was really solid.

so i came home and worked on my stupid assignment and bid s-dawg adieu (he's leaving for sri lanka on thursday) and then the dotytron and i went on a long evening constitutional down to the beaches - it was nice - i like hanging out with that guy. the intention was to find someplace to eat but we had forgotten about the dearth of non-quasi italian restaurants in that general area. good lord - how do people live there? there's NOTHING TO EAT. not a single G-D THING! it's all penne alla vodka with grilled chicken!!! ugh. and the places are full of people shoveling down that crap!

we finally settled on papa sol's. we weren't in the mood for an epic, 3 course meal and we didn't want to spend more than $10. we were also (against my better judgement) swayed by the glowing review from eye weekly posted in the window (that i've linked to above.) the food was resoundingly MEH. i don't know how you can claim to be famous for a veal sandwich when THE VEAL IS BAKED AND NOT FRIED. WHAT THE CRAP IS THAT. it was kind of appalling. we didn't notice that little tidbit until after we ordered. i got a meatball sandwich and the dotytron got the veal and we split. both sarnies were okay at best. where they really nailed it is in the bun. a soft but crusty ciabatta roll with just the right amount of give and bite - like a good partner, it supports the sandwich filling but it also knows when to give way and let the filling do it's thing, and it doesn't fight with you. the sandwiches got a turn in a panini press which added some nice toastiness.

but the fillings were so ho-hum we might as well have been eating at subway. and the fillings were kind of skimpy. my meatballs were tender enough but lacked flavour. the veal was also tender but again was baked, and not fried. they were accompanied with a sweaty, half-cooked melange of button mushroom, onions, and green peppers (which i tend to hate.) the most terrible thing was the tomato sauce, or lack thereof - it was really a thin gruel with no discernible tomato flavour.

here's the thing: you don't go bellying up and throwing down in the veal sandwich/meatball sandwich world if you don't have a good sauce. there are too many outstanding contenders out there. if they had called these sandwiches something else, i would've bought it. and they were tasty enough. i didn't feel like i got hosed. but those my friends, were not a veal sarnie or a meatball sarnie that any self-respecting sandwich connoisseur (with whom i consider myself in solidarity) would accept as an acceptable specimen. even a mediocre veal sammy is good. the crispy breaded veal, a tomato sauce, some mozzarella or provolone - how can you go wrong? but the sammies at papa sol's didn't even qualify in the same category as a mediocre veal sammy.

and this brings me to another point: PEOPLE HAVE GOT TO STOP READING FREE WEEKLIES FOR FOOD ADVICE. those guys are so far off the mark! i mean, i read them too - but i just use them to alert me of new places. they can basically tell you if a place is edible or not. but in terms of HOW good or HOW poor - i don't listen. there's no point. the food writers for now and eye are yokels.

overall - i'd say that papa sol's make decent sandwiches, but don't go in expecting a classic veal or meatball - you'll be soundly disappointed. i don't think i'd ever go back.

tonight is my LAST night class!!! yesterday i made a pretty boring whole wheat couscous salad with roasted grape tomatoes, cucumber, red onion and red pepper with dill and parsley, dressed in lemon juice and olive oil. the dotytron grilled some monster chicken breasts that had been marinated in lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, and chili flakes. i cut up the chicken breasts and served that over top. it's a healthy dinner at any rate, but not worthy of a photo.

to say that i phoned in the assignment might be the understatement of the new millennium.

fin.

yay, short work week!

not short enough! we're both going a little buck at casa dotytron and lagerfeld. it doesn't help we've been going to bed at 9:45pm every night! cuts into your nightly productivity although the extra sleep is doing us both a world of good.

i'm only just recovering from my piriformis issues, i splurged on a one hour massage on wednesday (i've been going for half hour sessions lately because my insurance covers me a flat rate regardless of how much time i'm there, so it's more cost effective to go for a few half hour sessions than a more expensive one hour session where i pay more out of pocket) and it seemed to loosen me up but i've still been cozying up to the tennis ball and heating pad. it's wack, dudes. i can't wait to go back to normal - BUT WHAT IF THAT NEVER HAPPENS. i tried doing some yoga last night and poses that i can usually snap off (like happy baby) i couldn't do! WHAT THE EFF. i hate that feeling of my life being irrevocably changed (physiologically) - what if my piriformis never fixes up? what if i can never do happy baby?

on wednesday i struggled against the forces of newly deliviered burger king coupons and made this pizza:

 

 

i was super-nervous about how it was going to turn out and if it would be good. it's squid, arugala, garlic and guanciale drizzled with a chili aioli. i shouldn't have worried - it was F**KING INCREDIBLE. so tasty! who woulda thought that combo would pay off? well, pay off it certainly DID.

last night was dinner for one (dotytron had parent teacher interviews), lagerfeld style. i sautéed up like 2 lbs of button mushrooms in butter and then mixed them with egg noodles (note: i can eat my weight in butter-fried mushrooms - true fact.) then i topped it with reheated leftover brisket and ate it with roasted asparagus:

 

unf unf! so good.

this weekend is another gangbusters ones filled with non-stop activities. tonight we're going to my buddy L's friend's place for a bbq. the female host is in my academic book club - but i've only met her the once. the other couple there and her partner we've never met before. it's kind of stressing dotytron out. lol! but we think L is good peoples so there can't be anything wrong with meeting MORE good peoples, right? as my contribution, i attempted to make the crack pie (recipe here) hoooooeeeee. i split it over two nights. the first night i made the oatmeal cookie. the second night i made the crust from the crumbled oatmeal cookie (which already has a lot of butter in it) with MORE butter and sugar, and then filled it with the filling which features over 2 cups of sugar (combo of white and brown), just over 3/4 cup of whipping cream, ONE CUP of melted butter, and EIGHT egg yolks. this makes 2 very thin 9" tart shells. by the time the things were finished baking, my silpat mats were glossed with a fine sheen of extra butter the tarts oozed out.

pretty promising, overall! i'll post pics and tell you how it tasted tomorrow. i know i made one mistake in that i over-baked them after over-heeding the advice of the foodie/crack-pie obsessed blogosphere. boo! the real thing was slightly goopy and runny - like a pecan pie filling, or a loose lemon curd, or butterscotch pie filling. i baked mine more solid - so they're like a firm butter tart. ah well...if the taste if there, then i know what to fix next time. and if the taste reaches my family's pre-ordained 75% success rate, the next time will probably be, oh, i don't know...TOMORROW.

so i'm going to bring one tart to the bbq and the destiny of the other tart remains unknown (probably on a direct route to my belly, population: diabetic coma.) so much for not craving sweets right now! the plan is that after the bbq we might try to muster some mustard to go to this old skool jungle party featuring the technics 1200 stylings of medicine muffin and c-rat. i hope i hope i hope i can coax the dotytron out! those guys are real-deal legit about their old skool.

tomorrow morning i'm heading over to H's for 10am to model clothes from her line, foundlings vintage. she upcycles vintage clothes and fabrics and makes some stuff from scratch. M is going to come too, as is dr. rei so that H has a variety of sizes to show off. she thinks that having people model instead of the dressmaker's judy will show off the clothes better, and i'm inclined to agree.

then we're going to do our usual saturday grocery shopping, followed by some house stuff (the big elephant on the to-do list is cleaning out and reorganizing the basement) and then meeting xtina and buns for buns' birthday dinner at foxley. yum! then possibly a dancehall reggae show at thymeless. VERY AMBITIOUS of me.

sunday morning we're going for dim sum for momma d's birthday up in markham. and then hopefully sunday afternoon we rest. and by rest i mean: finish my assignment for my course and prepare monday night's dinner and eat burger king.

next week is gangbusters - night class on monday, wednesday night the symphony, thursday night dodgeball finals, friday is my day off but i'm seeing a new family doctor, getting a massage and hopefully working on my quilt, and then my mum's friend from cleveland and her cool kid and her kid's gf are supposed to be coming into town. AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THE WEEK AFTER THAT.

oy oy oy!

sounds like the kind of schedule only burger king and crack pie can soothe. good thing...

fin.

hot tub time machine

DON'T DO IT.

goosetang came over last night for a low key dinner and "hot tub time machine" viewing and it was horrendous! first i gotta say again that i love having a nice, plush, clean, low-priced snacks vending movie theatre a 20 minute walk from my house. the theatre was basically all there was to recommend the flick. it was terrible! so sophomoric - so many puke/blow job/homophobic jokes that fell flat - i'm not sure who the audience for this was. the concept isn't even all that bad - they just didn't do it in a funny or clever way. it was all lowest common denominator type stuff. and the 80s are so ripe for sending up! the concept was fairly solid! this didn't even have camp value going for it (like "snakes on a plane") terrible!

we ate dippy eggs and toast for breakfast yesterday and then i spent the remainder of the day alternating between a heating pad and lying on my yoga mat in my slanket with a tennis ball under my tushie.

today is my stupid night class. the instructor is actively avoiding me now, evidenced by the fact that i've sent him 2 emails (1 about the assignment that also expresses my disappointment and disconnect between the course materials and the final assignment expectations and 1 to follow up on the fact that he never responded to my questions in the first email) and he hasn't responded. I ASKED LEGITIMATE QUESTIONS, TOO! if he fails me there is going to be HELL to pay.

for dinner i packed a nicoise sandwich (beans, roasted red pepper, tomato, hard boiled egg, olive tapenade on an ace roll) and a spinach salad with avocado, red onion, grape tomatoes, and cucumber. it was good and totally hit the spot but i think people in class were recoiling from the eggy/tapenade-y smell.

when the dotytron picked me up from class he told me a story that made me fall in love with our neighbourhood. have i told you about our neighbours across the street from us? they're kind of amazing, and the patriarch is this guy, R - who we've totally been fixated with ever since the day we saw him doing yard work whilst blasting techno out of his opened up dodge caravan. the fascination was only exacerbated when he later stopped and casually started reading a book of philosophy while standing up and leaning against a fence post. we totally became obsessed when near the holidays, we saw him striding down the street in a homemade gingerbread man costume. AMAZING. he and his wife R (who up until fairly recently had pink hair) have a passel of 3 very outspoken, adorable kids who go to an alternative school.

anyway, the dotytron came home tonight and was blasting c.r.e.a.m. by the wu. and R shouts out, "are you repping the wu?" and the dotytron says yeah, and R goes, "i love that shiz...hey, do you guys like old tunes...do you guys like vinyl?" and the dotytron is "yeah, for sure, we both collect records" so then he finds out that R totally knows jungle labels like reinforced and likes artists like ALPHA OMEGA. WTF. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! then R was all like, "we should have a sound clash, X versus Y! [our house numbers]" lol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AMAZING TIMES A BILLION.

and then the dotytron told me that tonight there was going to be a kids versus grownups street hockey game.



so he's telling me this on the ride home and we roll up to the house and sure enough, there's kids versus adults - and there were only 2 grownups, so the dotytron was invited to join in. there's even a trophy and everything! i was reffing and monitoring the penalty box (penalties are mostly for high sticking.) it was AWESOME. that's the dotytron being sour about being in the penalty box. the kids ending up winning by one point.

and just like that...with all my griping about the neighbours yesterday, i totally fell in love with my street and my hood. how can you not? this is the kind of upbringing that kids (and parents) should dream of! neighbours helping each other out with child care, playing street hockey in the dusk, hanging out and chiefing it up. i'm such a curmudgeon sometimes but ultimately, this is the stuff that families and good people are made of.

fin.

piriformis

somewhere in the middle of the events that i will recount for you over this four day weekend, i have completely ruined my periformis muscle which has resulted in me being unable to:

1) walk without wincing every few steps
2) walk with the tender, tentative gait of the stooped and aged
3) make a transition from any position (seated/standing/lying) to another position (seated/standing/lying) without experiencing pain and with any modicum of grace
4) get a good night's sleep
5) put on (or take off) my own pants

it's hell. my periformis tends to give me trouble and i haven't seen my massage therapist in about 3 weeks (soon to be 4) and it's highly problematic. i think my cocktail of running and biking without stretching exacerbated things.

friday morning the dotytron and i availed ourselves of the friday grocery shopping opportunity and got all our grocery shopping done. we love friday grocery shopping because:

a) there's less people
b) everything is stocked up for the coming weekend rush so when you go get bagels you have a choice of the full spectrum and don't have to settle for spelt raisin
c) we can find parking for the captain

all very good reasons and it makes grocery shopping a much more pleasant experience. when we left and came back, the neighbours were in full effect being neighbourly. it was all very well and good but it always makes us feel awkward when we're leaving the house or coming back from errands and people are sitting on front lawns under lawn umbrellas with kids and zipping around on vespas (!) and visiting with each other and we just go into the house after a "hi!" and a few words. i mean, are we supposed to sit outside chiefing it up all afternoon? we don't have kids! there's no reason for us to BE outside (even though i think we hold a certain fascination for the neighbours - being so young and childless and presumably "free" and all.)

making breakfast burritos definitely perked me up a bit, though:

doesn't that look good? i made refried beans with canned kidney beans sautéed garlic and onion and cumin and coriander and oregano and chili flakes, mashed them up and mixed in baby spinach. spooned that into a tortilla shell with some soft scrambled eggs mixed with cheddar cheese and then folded the whole thing up and toasted them in the panini press. we ate it with salsa, sour cream, and avocado and lime. so good!

then we tried to go for a run and that's when i realized my periformis was messed up. we called off the run and walked to the garden centre to look at flagstones and flowers for the front yard. i want dahlias.

then my family minus big d came over for a passover dinner of brisket, mashed potatoes and cabbage:

i was going to make latkes but the messed up periformis put a damper on that plan.

my sister was in nyc for the day on thursday and posted it about it on fb and i posted in response that she should go to momomfuku milk bar and pick up one of their "crack" pies and bring it up...AND SHE TOTALLY DID. because that's how awesome my sister is.

this is a $44 USD pie. and this is what it looks like:

kind of unassuming and a bit of a rip-off, right? that's a regular, 9" foil pie plate, not even a deep dish one. the pie is like 1" deep, at best.

so i cut it up and served everyone a slice:

we all took our first bites. there was a pause. then we all erupted in a chorus of overlapping exclamations: "uhhh...this is EFFIN GOOD!" "OH MY GOD" "i'm addicted" and the most important one: "WHEN CAN WE GET MORE?!?!"

the "crack" pie nomenclature is not a misnomer - that shiz is hella addictive. it's got the perfect balance of the chewy crust from the oat cookie, the salty-sweet combo, the gooey factor. so delicious. i'm already hankering for more! thankfully, recipes for the pie abound on the internet - so i'm going to try to recreate it at home. we agreed that we'd settle for a 75% success rate.

we woke up in markham on saturday to an absolutely, pitch-perfect day. so gorgeous. we decorated easter eggs:

me, doing the blowing-the-egg-out-of-the-egg-butt technique


we called this angry crafts with rico (cuz my outlaw bro is very particular about mess and order and following instructions). this is rico and little ze during a touching (non angry crafts) moment

our finished eggs


we played kick-ball for hours, at the park and at home in my parent's yard. we ate AYCE japanese for lunch and i stuffed myself silly. we went to big mouth kee for dinner and had what we call "BMK big d" present - which means that big d is in a magnanimous mood because he's at big mouth kee and it's his favorite there and he totally spoiled us by ordering all our favorite dishes.

then we went to see "clash of the titans" this weekend was perfect because the days were hot and sunny at 24-27 degrees and then the nights cooled down to about 10. if every day in summer was like that i'd be beyond happy. so it was nice and cool and windy when we got the theatre, except the theatre that they put us in (we didn't bother seeing it in 3D because by all accounts it wasn't filmed in 3D and the effects were added in after and therefore didn't justify the increased ticket price) hadn't been cleaned so it was FILTHY and it stank like feet and the A/C was broken so it was a billion degrees in there. gross! i complained and so we got free passes and basically got to see it for free. yay!

overall, we'd give the movie a low 7. it was entertaining, the movie was appropriately and tastefully CGI'd out, but the pacing was off - the final battle seemed like an afterthought and as usual they gave it all away in the previews. my sis is a huge mads mikkelson fan so she was pumped to see him in there. it wasn't enough of anything - it wasn't enough of a cheeky send-up for the original, it wasn't funny enough, it wasn't buddy movie enough, it wasn't really all that quest-y. it just needed some fine tuning. dr. rei was disappointed that they made mt. olympus look like a**, which i agree with, and there was a general failure of the imagination, i think. also, i didn't know who you're supposed to side with - humans? zeus? hades? perseus? they were all so conflicted! and it's gross that zeus is one giant raping machine. and medusa's story is super-sad - she basically gets r'd and then gets PUNISHED for being r'd by athena. raw deal.

what we collectively realized though, is that "release the krakken!" is a good all-purpose phrase for when you want to announce you're taking a deuce, when you fart, before coitus, etc, etc. there are no limits to how sophomoric my family can get.

sunday easter brunch was at ambassador chinese cuisine for dim sum which was uber tasty and again, we ate too much. then we played frisbee and did more hanging around outside. the kids went swimming. i was feeling thoroughly owned at that point so i opted out. we were trying to figure out what to order for dinner and so i was trying to narrow down the options, burgers, pizza, or fried chicken. and then i kind of said off-handedly, "well, there's also double double" and then s-dawg piped up, "you know...double double isn't that bad" and so that's how we ended up ordering 16 pieces of fried chicken, 2 large 3 topping pizzas, 40 potato wedges, and 8 slices of garlic bread for like, 6 people. i ate a LOT of double double growing up and i gotta say, it's pretty good! the pizza is totally decent and the fried chicken is crispy and tasty. i'm a fan.

my mom wandered down wearing pj bottoms and a "star wars: rogue squadron" t-shirt which made me ask, "ummm...where did mom even GET that?" and s-dawg responded, "nintendo power" which is HILARIOUS. can you imagine my mom ordering a t-shirt from nintendo power? and not even that, sending away for the iron-on transfer and then ironing it herself?!? lol!!!

her home clothes notwithstanding, my mum is WAY too fabulous to iron.

fin.

the month of march...

has no long weekends in it. and that's why march sucks. this is also why i'm EVER SO GRATEFUL that working for the quasi-government means that i get BOTH friday and monday of this easter/passover/whathaveyou weekend off. sweet holy mother of time off, i totally need this!

it's also a short day today! woo woo! so pumped! it's also passover AND easter which means that i'm cooking heeb food for the next two days.


tonight we had my famous, "better than bubbe's" matzo ball soup with my dilled matzo balls and a homemade chicken stock laden with chopped veggies (onions, garlic, carrots, celery, celery root, sweet potato) and fresh parsley and dill and thyme. i served it with an open faced, half reuben - mustard on rye topped with sauerkraut, thinly sliced corned beef and then toasted with swiss cheese in the oven until melty and hot.

late dodgeball game tonight - last game before playoffs! whut whut! super stoked because this game is close to our house for a change - we can bike there and back in 20 minutes.

this weekend is going to be so ballin' - sunshine, lollipops and rainbows, sons! tomorrow we're having my mum and both bros over for a passover dinner of brisket and latkes and flourless chocolate hazelnut torte.

then team geneseo is showing up so we're decamping to markham for saturday and sunday - easter egg hunting, easter brunch dim summing, japanese AYCE-ing, CLASH OF THE TITANS 3Ding, swimming. ya know. then on monday we're meeting up with dr. rei and hanbo for some home cooked deliciousness and hot tub time machine. BOSS.

also, i found out my sis was in nyc for the day today for work - so i made a crack on her fb wall to stop by momufuku milk bar and pick up one of their famous crack pies to bring home. AND SHE TOTALLY DID. this is why my sister is the best sister on the planet. i can't wait to try it. nom nom nom nom.

so you know how you get flyers in the mailbox from randoms to do windows, doors, handy stuff, plumbing, etc? and they're all photocopied on generic "goldenrod" paper at kinkos and have pretty low grade graphic design. and you know how you're automatically suspicious of these advertising campaigns because you're like, dude, if you're reduced to going door-to-door, how busy/good can you BE?

well, last weekend i pulled this flyer out of our mailbox:

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

HEADING: LAW OF PHYSICS CHALLENGED IN HOME IMPROVEMENTS

entropy: in any closed system disorder always increases with time

this second law of thermodynamics is more than just a theoretical abstraction - a quick glance around your home may provide some irrefutable evidence. however entropy can be reduced by the expenditure of energy, or work.

[details of services offered, ie. carpentry, walls, bathrooms, flooring, etc.]

so stand up to the laws of physics and put a little more order (and beauty) into the universe (or at least your spot in it).

for a no obligation consultation call quantum home improvements

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

so i'm reading it out loud to the dotytron, and against all better judgement, i'm like, "ummm...I KINDA LOVE WHERE THIS GUY IS GOING WITH THIS." and the dotytron replies, "it's a pretty unique approach he's going for, and he's swinging for a pretty narrow spot in the market - he's got US, though" lol!!! OF COURSE we would be swayed by someone who introduces their home improvement services using a definition of entropy. quantum home improvements really DID get us. talk about market segmentation.

so against my better judgement, i'm going to give the guy a call. lol! we have some people coming in to give us quotes on a few small jobs anyway (fixing the plaster walls in the craft room, new railing that's to code for the stairs) so we might as well, right?

it was so hilarious - the way this contractor who is seemingly MADE for me and the dotytron totally fell out of the sky. randomonium.

fin.

lunging our way to success

i forgot to mention a particularly funny anecdote from saturday that A referenced in his comments on my last post. L's boyfriend T was talking about someone he knew in college or university, who wiped his butt after a deuce from BACK TO FRONT. which of course, due to the unnecessary complexity of such an endeavor, resulted in much hilariousness and the coining of the term "s**tnut" or "s**tballs" (the obvious by-product of such an action.) it was pretty funny.

almost as funny as the sight of the dotytron and i, going for a run last weekend, early in the morning, doing some warm-up lunges on the sidewalk, as per my little bro chova's instructions (chova has a body fat ratio of negative 10.) when we heard a commotion coming from a neighbour's house and saw workmen walking in and out with piles of lathe and dumping them in one of those rented dumpsters, we wanted to investigate, but didn't want to seem to bait up about snooping. so we LUNGED OUR WAY OVER TO THE PERSON'S HOUSE AND GAWKED (WHILE STILL LUNGING.) !!!!!!!!! imagine the dotytron, in all his 6'4" glory, LUNGING. it's funny in and of itself. then imagine us, in our wackadoo running gear (where we end up looking like twins because we have identical MEC fleece zippies), lunging our way down the street. hilarious.

this is last night's dinner. i took leftover corned beef and hand sliced it thinly. then piled it on rye bread with some sauerkraut and swiss cheese, buttered the outsides, and threw it in the panini, making a bastardized reuben of sorts. i served it with old fashioned potato cakes made with leftover champ mixed with the creamed cabbage and then fried. it was pretty effin' tasty.

we polished off the last of the lemon chiffon pie for dessert. we had the roomie over for dinner - it was nice. we're baby-sitting her while l'army is away.

some things that blew my mind today:

1) i read in business week (and apologies for being a n00b) that people actually have to pay for "extras" like a plum tree and whatnot when they play those stupid games that nobody cares about on facebook like mafia wars or farmville. WTF?!? playing those games already makes you appear to be a colossal loser of the highest order. finding out you PAY for that dubious privilege just blows you out of the water, imo.

2) uhhh, that's it, really.

tonight was "takeout night" so we ate wendy's big bacon classics (doubled) and i ordered my first ever fresca under duress. we were sitting in the drive through lane and i didn't want anything super sugary so i was asking if they had diet root beer and then the guy misunderstood my question and started rattling off the drinks and i just went all tourette's and shouted "fresca!" and that's the story of my first fresca. i kinda like it. it's zingy! like, more citric than sprite or 7up. do they even MAKE 7up anymore?!?

here's the thing with being with someone for 9 years: you kind of start to become the same person. there's a lot of "get out of my head" moments. one of the things we do when we can't decide what to do/buy etc. is we do a "on the count of 3, say what (paint colour/birthday gift/restaurant) you want" and then count to three and shout out whatever our choices are. the number of times that we're shouting the exact same thing is running at like, 98% so in order to decide on where to eat last night, we had two "on the count of 3s" - 1 for a fast food chain, and 1 for a non-chain restaurant. we both shouted wendy's and we both shouted square boy as our non-chain. it kind of streamlines the decision making process but it's also hella creepy.

fin.

blintzes et al.

hangs with the kdubsguelph tdot crew were the best! i seriously love those guys to the moon, even if we are all collectively a little cray-cray. it's cray-cray in a good way (mostly.) we ended up going to great burger kitchen again - and i gotta say, night two was a little underwhelming. i figured i'd branch out and try the lamb burger, but i wanted it without blue cheese and they put it on anyway. the place has only been open since wednesday of this past week, so some blips are to be expected. my lamb burger was intensely overcooked and a dry tasting puck, flecked with acrid bits of carbon. not pleasant. they also didn't have veggie burgers for the veggies in the crew. le sigh. i hate it when i talk a place up and then it disappoints. you have to believe me - the mexican poutine and the onion rings were delicious and the classic burger was GOOD on friday night. like, seriously good! some people were complaining about the amount of onion rings but to me, it seemed on par with the portion size at harvey's.

we celebrated earth hour (somewhat reluctantly on my part - i hate mass forms of "political" action that mean jack s**t - i consider it cheap and throwaway - like international "buy nothing" day.) it was nice having 11 people clustered around our dining room table and finding that we could fit that number easily - it was a little squishy, but i like a table with peeps all around it.

for sunday breakkie i made us blintzes with blueberry sauce:

i couldn't find farmer's cheese so i used all cottage cheese in the filling - it was a little runny. next time i'm going to sub in some quark for 1/2 the amount of cottage cheese and drain the cottage cheese overnight to firm it up some. i do love a good blintz though. what's not to love about a stuffed, eggy pancake that then gets kissed again with hot butter in a frying pan and drenched in sauce?

we had a lazy day on sunday. went for a rainy bike ride to pick up some groceries i had forgotten about. then nany and poppa and momma and poppa d and ehmdo came over for dinner. we had a belated st. paddy's day feast. i made my baked corned beef (spread with mustard and brown sugar and then steamed in a foil packet for about 2-3 hours in a low oven. i made champ (mashed potatoes w/ scallions) and creamed cabbage that i also put some apples and freshly grated horseradish in. i also made a minted pea puree which was a big hit. i love peas!



for dessert i made a lemon chiffon pie in a graham cracker crust:

the recipe calls for a gingersnap crust but i didn't have it in me to make gingersnaps just to grind them up and i didn't want to sully my kitchen with a cheap box of purchased gingersnaps because i know i wouldn't have used them all and then i'd be stuck with a craptacular box of gingersnaps laying around in the pantry. i like a nice lemon chiffon pie - it's kind of nice and light and refreshing - it doesn't have the same intensity as a lemon curd.

i also LOVE hosting grandparents. especially nany and poppa because it's never too late a night, which is what you want on a rainy sunday. they come at 5:30pm, we have a nice pre-dinner drink and catch-up and then we eat and have tea and coffee and they're out the door by 9pm. totally civilized! they also got us some adorable easter goodies and housewarming gifts consisting of 2 very cute egg cups and a golf set for the dotytron and a frilly, girly, half apron for me which is almost too pretty to wear whilst cooking. i almost want to sew up the back and turn it into a skirt.

for today's night class packable dinner i made us a pretty effin' tasty dish. it's macaroni pasta tossed with roasted grape tomatoes, parsley, mint, feta, chickpeas, and garlicky, spicy shrimp in a lemon vinaigrette. the best part is that you can eat it hot, cold, or tepid:



to go with and to up my veggie intake a i made us a quick pickled cucumber-dill salad:

okay...here i come with the book reviews.

"fire" is by kristin cashore, the same author who wrote that other YA fantasy-ish book i raved about, "graceling." it's spun as a companion to graceling sharing a minor character in common and taking place in the same world, but a different land from graceling. instead of those who are graced, the world of "fire" features monsters, which are spectacularly coloured, unspeakably beautiful versions of regular creatures and humans, but who through their beauty can entrance and control the minds of regular animals and people - more often than not to prey on them. "fire" is a monster girl who's living under the horrible, brutal legacy left by her monster father, who used his monster powers for his own capricious, selfish, and sadistic means. there's action, adventure, court intrigue and of course, a little romance. cashore makes a conscious effort to craft strong female characters who break (or bend) the mold and i applaud her for it. this book was really good, but fire is less of an enticing, anti-establishment heroine than graceling's katsa was. still an engaging, enjoyable read and i would definitely recommend it.

my work got a kindle to try out and when i was test-driving it, this book was one of the ones already loaded onto the e-reader. kathryn stockett's "the help" has been a huge, runaway, new york times bestselling word-of-mouth hit, from a first-time novelist. entertainment weekly grouped it with other word-of-mouth hits like "the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society" and "the time traveler's wife" - both of which became giant sleeper chart busters and were by first time authors. i had kind of dismissed it as mom lit and wasn't feeling it and then one day on the ttc when i was test-driving the kindle i flipped randomly to a chapter and started reading it and found myself sucked in. it's compulsively readable! i'd say it's strangely addictive - like if i tried to isolate what it is exactly that makes you want to keep turning the pages, i can't quite pinpoint it, but it's there all the same.

the help is about jackson mississippi's slow crawl towards a kinda sorta integration, told through a story-within-a-story approach. it tracks the lives of 3 different women, 2 of them black maids and 1 of them a white woman who embarks on a project to record the stories of "the help" as a way of becoming a journalist or writer. the book switches between their three perspectives and describes what life was like for african americans in a deeply segregated, racist community as the world was beginning to change around them. i found the maid characters were much more sympathetic than the white lady, who i still thought of as exploiting the maids for her own personal gain even as the narrative tries to attenuate that kind of dichotomous depiction. i wasn't buying it! some of the stories are horrid and makes you grateful at how far we've come (in some ways) and how deeply scarred the american south is by the burden of this racial history - how deeply entrenched the misconceptions and ignorance are. it's not the kind of book that lingers with you, but it's a fast quick read - like beachy vacation airplane reading.

"the photographer" is an awesome, awesome testament to the power and flexibility of the comic to tell a story. didier lefevre is the titular photographer, who follows a doctors without borders mission into afghanistan. he is aided by comic artist emmanuel guibert (who wrote "alan's war") and colorist/designer frederic lemercier. lefevre's gorgeous photos and observations are interspersed with illustrations that capture the rugged, barren beauty of the land and the differences of afghani culture - from the armed and exuberant muj to tribal leaders and those dispossessed by the war. the work of doctor's without borders is brought to startling light - these are noble, brave people and their organization will probably be the recipient of my charitable donations in future years. it's incredible. this is one of those stories made so much richer by the medium - the combination of text, drawings and photos adds a layer of depth that any one of those forms wouldn't have been able to capture singly. imagine an annotated national geographic article with drawings. this was a little difficult to get through - the communities of afghanis are quite impoverished and it's quite sad - your eye also wants to linger on each page and each of lefevre's brilliant photos.

finally, aravind adiga's "white tiger" - the booker prize winning novel about the thieving, grasping, indian underclass rising up against their masters. this book was an easy read, but i wasn't super into it. i wasn't feeling the main character (you're not really supposed to - he's very upfront about being a vicious murderer) but even knowing that i'm not supposed to necessarily feel aligned with him didn't make me more inclined to spend a lot of time with his voice inside my head. i also found the structuring of the novel a little needlessly cutesy and kind of condescending (it's structured as a series of letters that balram, the main character, is writing to the premier of china.) i guess it's a refreshing antidote to the whole post-colonial, magic realism thing - to show the dirty, poor, and great unwashed members of what the author refers to as the "rooster coop" - enslaved into horrible, disposable lives of deepest poverty by their own willingness to comply with the traditions of the caste system. i mean, i get it - the hideous underbelly of the world's biggest democracy - beset with poverty, corruption, blah blah blah. i just wasn't feeling it. it was an unpleasant read and not in the way that it's supposed to be discomfiting and unpleasant, more in that i was kinda like, well yeah, obvs. i could see why it would make the booker people go buck. people eat this shiz up. i'd give it a sideways thumb.

okay! i'm donezo!

fin.