High-low dialectic

First, I'm going to get all high culture on you and talk about the two last books I read.  Commencing forthwith.

Téa Obreht is a 20-nothing writing juggernaut who makes me green with envy.  She's like this decade's Zadie Smith, though less funny and more sombre and lyrical.  Either way, it's maddening.  When I asked my friend K if she was planning to read The Tiger's Wife, Obreht's debut novel, she responded, "No. I'm not a fan of phenoms."  LOL!  The publication of this book was a bit of a literary event and it's received overwhelmingly positive reviews.  The story follows a female doctor in an unnamed Balkan country, newly emerging from the fog of war (it's widely considered to be about Yugoslavia/Serbia).  Upon learning of the death of her grandfather and after traveling across a newly established border to delivery inoculations at an orphanage, stories of her grandfather's youth mix and mingle with myths and lore to weave a textured tapestry of history, mortality, nationalism, war, kith and kin.  Was I smug about how her editor didn't correct Obreht for using the word "shivering" no less than THREE times in the first 25 pages as an adjective describing the motions of plants?  Of course I was!  "Some phenom!" I scoffed, with the over-sized scorn of the bitterly and enviously untalented.  She is a gifted writer though her writing isn't necessarily to my current taste.  It's a little too mannered in a stereotypical "literary" fashion for my taste.  And I thought certain chapters dragged.  The chapters narrated by the grandfather figure resonated the most.  I would certainly recommend this title, but I wasn't head over heels about it.

Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke & Bone came to my attention when it received an A- grade in Entertainment Weekly (my pop culture bible).  Subsequent breathless glowing reports from my sister confirmed that this had all the makings of being able to fill the void left by The Hunger Games in my YA reading life (my sis also introduced me to The Hunger Games, about a billion years before it became zeitgeisty).  This is fantasy-driven YA about a human girl, Karou, who is an art student in Prague, raised by demon-like "chimaera" with no knowledge of her past or of how she came to have this strange family.  Mysterious things start to happen that kick-starts a breach between Elsewhere and the human world that you and I occupy.  Elsewhere plays home to a centuries-long war between seraphim (angels) and the chimaera (demons) and the events of the book follow Karou as she discovers who she is and her role in the battle for this other world.  It is GOOOOOOOOOD, folks.  Like, I read 2 pages and was INSTANTLY hooked.  Like, I read it in 2 days good.  It's got everything - forbidden love, sex, demons, angels, a strong female protagonist, Prague as a backdrop, good, evil, war...all the awesome stuff you want.  I can't recommend this enough.  If you're not susceptible to fantasy then you might be turned off, but all I can say if that is the case is that you're letting irrational discrimination keep you from an excellent yarn.  AND IT'S A SERIES!  I don't really know how I'm supposed to wait until the next installment gets released in 2012...but it's going to be freakin' tough.

I recommended it to my friend, Montréal I, who is the person in my life MOST likely to love it.  We saw her over the holidays and she was lamenting her current single state (she's been single for a while now) and how she's on the lookout for a warrior with the soul of a poet.  It's really funny if you actually know Montréal I, how much that archetype is PRECISELY who she's on the lookout for.  However, as we were trying to think of people (fictional and otherwise) who embodied this - it became pretty tough.  Aragorn from Lord of the Rings is pretty much the standard-bearer and then it becomes pretty slim pickings after that.  Once you get into real people, forget it.  We couldn't think of a single person who personified warrior-with-the-soul-of-a-poet.  

The low culture part of my post comes when I start talking about style.  Here is my newest style tip for you ladies who have to dress business-casual.  When you wear a sweater/cardigan type thing over your blouse and you are concerned about looking mumsy (which this look can very often devolve into) - my tip is: roll up the sleeves of your sweater so that they're 3/4 length.  This very simple trick takes a mumsy-looking layer and turns it into something a little more fashion forward and sharp.  Trust me.  

So, my updated spring/summer work wardrobe is in need of some killer footwear to polish it off (that and the ultimate satchel/purse...but that's proving to be a difficult fight).  Here are some contenders:

SM Reilly Sandal is a more casual entry - not exactly what I'm looking for, this would be more suitable for casual, weeknight/weekending than my every day shoe at work.

Ted Baker's Denoo sandal is almost exactly what I'm looking for.  One of the looks I'm trying to get going is a slouchy, trouser-y khaki pant, rolled at the cuffs with a blouse, a shrunken blazer, and shoes like these to give the outfit some lift.  These are a perfect shoe to elevate a more casual outfit and ground a flirty, flimsy summer dress.  At $119 though, it's a little more than I'm looking to spend on one shoe.

The Adrienne Vittadini Aspen sandal is a more neutral, classy, understated version of the summer shoe I'm looking for.  This would be a more versatile shoe that can support a more dressed up look (ie. a summer wedding - if one was actually happening - or, the favorite fashion magazine event that never happens in real life - the garden party).

You can't go wrong with a patent flat in a neutral colour.  This will be a summer time workhorse when I'm tired of wearing heels (so like, everyday).  These are SM (I think that's what Steve Madden is called now) Gypsi flats in camel.

Finally, Jellypop's Garlie sandal is like a low rent version of the Ted Baker ones above.  Priced to move at $25 - these will be a good substitute for me to try this look instead of committing to the price of a multiple-season shoe.  They're a little clunkier and a little more cheap looking, but at my work, no one really notices these details except for me.

Decisions, decisions!  I probably have it in my budget to get 2 new pairs of shoes...we'll see which ones I end up with.  

For dinner tonight we had cheddar broccoli soup and Ace Bakery olive boule with butter:

Fin.

Culture Club

Watched a lot of movies and have read quite a few books over the break.  I'm a little sad about going back to work tomorrow, especially since I seem to have contracted a mild form of stomach flu.  The plus side is, all this pooping is going to help me lose some of the holiday weight I gained.  J/K!  I kid, I kid (not about gaining the weight, but about being glad about having a case of the scoots to lose it).  I am NOT endorsing this type of behaviour, impressionable readers.

I will be glad to get my body back on track though.  My sis and I hit up the outlet malls near her place so I could bump up my spring/summer work wardrobe.  Alls I gotta say is: J Crew outlet.  YES!  Mad fist pumps!  I loves me some J Crew - got me a simple black pencil skirt, a few Jackie O cardigans, two button down shirts, a patterned pencil skirt from their resort line (pictured below) which looks a little matronly but which I think I can sass up with some cork heeled open toed shoes and the right bag/tops (also, the photo below is grabbed from the interwebs...I would NEVER try on a skirt with socks - that's a recipe for dressing room failure.  Seriously.  Just take your damn socks off and see how the outfit looks with ankles!  It's worth whatever phantom case of athlete's foot you're worried you might contract at J Crew.)  I also got this pleated, tulip shaped skirt in a neutral, dark khaki griege (that's the new design blog shorthand for grey and beige, yo!) 

I also went a bit buck at Banana - got a few blouses and $20 pants.  I spent quite a bit, but now I'm  pretty much done building my spring/summer work wardrobe and can kick back on that score.  I'm a very focused shopper - I know how I want to look, I make a list of the pieces I need, and then I go out and bang it out.  If I can't get it online and I have to go to stores, this is a lifesaver for me - it's so efficient.  I don't super love aimlessly shopping any more - it's just not my style.  That's what the interwebs is for, sons.

I can't believe what a Banana/J Crew slut I am.  This is the way it is for the working woman though.  I also can't believe how I can pull together a work wardrobe, but like, Zooey Deschanel can still get away with acting like a twee girl-child and people find it adorable.  

Shortly before New Year, the video above made the rounds.  Dr. Rei and I have already debriefed about this, but we both find this video HELLA ANNOYING!!!  I'm just like, YOU'RE 31!!!  How come I had to to progress my style and you're wearing a tiara?!!???  GET OUT!  What the heck?  Are you going to be wearing mary janes and tights and too-short dresses and tiaras when you're 37?  NOT APPROPRIATE!!!  There's nothing wrong with being a GROWN-UP.  Being all girlish and coy and precocious and cutesy is SO not my bag anymore.  I mean, all my friends are adorable in their own way.  But it seems like such a put-on.  I find it annoying the same way I find the Olivia years on the Cosby Show and Elmo annoying.  Don't try to be cute.  Just be who you are.  And maybe that's who Zooey is.  I don't know her life.  Alls I knows is: it seems like a put-on.

By comparison, I feel like Tavi Gevinson is someone who is moving through adolescence into womanhood in the public eye in such a real, accessible, relatable way that I want to vomit.  She's put together this online magazine called Rookie and it's the best.  Seriously, check it out.  This is the kind of magazine that 14 year old me in high school could have really used to help navigate being a weird duck and that 32 year old me now enjoys reading as a window into how 14 year old me could have been.  Originally, I thought I was going to be all over Zooey's venture (with Sophia Rossi and Molly McAleer) Hello Giggles, but it's just not for me.  I still find Molly McAleer's blog pretty funny, but at the same time, I realized that these women are way too into Beyoncé for me.  I don't love Bey.  I just don't.  And I also don't love 2 Broke Girls (after making the criminal mistaking of making a decision after the first episode and tweeting about it).  It's kind of racist and the writing is poor.  They also all love Drake and Lil' Wayne and I'm sorry, I can't go down that nasal alley with them.  Sorry.

Auto correct always fixes "relatable" but I'm convinced that it's a word and I can't be bothered to figure out how to spell it.

Anyway...here are some reviews of movies I have seen (in the order that we watched them):

I watched Country Strong on my own waiting for the Dotytron to come back from his last winter concert before the break.  I had been hankering to see it for a while.  As some of you know, I am a frequent collaborator in the common fixation-hate for Gwyneth Paltrow that is shared by many women in North America.  It's like, she's just TOO MUCH.  With her patrician features and always going on about being macrobiotic and then flipping the switch and pretending to love eating fried chicken and being a regular gal who also wears Stella McCartney and Balenciaga and can sing and dance and act and "cook" has Senor Spielbergo for a godfather.  SHUT IT!  Anyway, I wanted to watch this movie, which is ridiculous, because it shows her as a not-so-recovering alcoholic who does self-destructive shiz like try to have sex with disgusting, bloaty guys, and scream, "GIMME THAT BOTTLE!!" while lunging for said bottle across an unmade bed in a designer bra.  It was laughable and super-melodramatic, but not without its entertainment value.  

So...y'all know that I'm a rabid hypochondriac, right?  THIS IS THE WORST POSSIBLE MOVIE FOR ME.  It was super-freaky and super-real and you get to watch GWYNETH PALTROW DIE OF A SEIZURE.  Which is kind of the best (see above).  Like, she's not wearing any makeup and she looks RUGGED and then she foams at the mouth.  Amaze.  For people who harbour apocalyptic-preparedness delusions (ie. me and most people I consider deep kindred spirits), then this movie is the exact combination of reality-fear to whip us into a state of taser/cross-bow/semi automatic arsenal gathering.  It has the following hallmarks:

1) illustrating the thin line separating civilization from anarchy

2) illustrating how ill-prepared the government is to handle a crisis

3) how quickly disease can spread

Brutal.  It also didn't help that my sis was like, "the Centre for Disease Control is one of the most consistently under-funded agencies."  AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!  We don't even need a zombie apocalypse...we're like one Spanish flu away from total chaos.  Which is all to say: this movie is pretty good.

I had super-high hopes for this movie that were quickly dashed.  This won the grand jury prize at Sundance last year.  Promising, right?  It's about these two young uns who meet in America but she overstays her visa and then gets shipped back to the UK and they can't be together and it's hard because they're in lurve.  The actress, Felicity something or other, also won the acting prize.  The film is beautiful in that hazy, Instagram-y way that shows young lovers in the best light and to which my generation is extremely susceptible.  The acting is very natural, with a lot of the dialogue improvised by the actors.  We just couldn't get into it. I was like, YEAH DUMMY, YOU OVERSTAYED YOUR VISA SO OF COURSE YOU GOT THE BOOT.  WHY DIDN'T YOU FOLLOW THE RULES?!?  And then it goes on for too long and ends like, 3 scenes after it should have ended and is kind of silly.  The Dotytron's theory is that you either have to be the age of the characters in the movie to appreciate it, or like, 60 years old and nostalgic for the thrill of young love.  Anyone in between is gonna think these guys are just janky losers with first world problems.

We followed that up with Pearl Jam 20, which is a Cameron Crowe directed documentary about Pearl Jam.  Cameron Crowe has deep roots in that scene and the footage was extraordinary.  It's a really engaging, entertaining documentary, that has appeal for anyone who likes Pearl Jam, even superficially, or who grew up in the 90s.  It just makes you realize how s**ty music is nowadays and how superficial and how no one sings and how artificial it all is at this point in time (I recognize that things go in waves).  I think we're about due.  Anyway, grunge was the best.  Being in high school at a time when that was the alternative to aspire to was really special and we were lucky that the uniform was oversized t-shirts, ripped jeans, flannel on flannel, and in the Dotytron's case, 3 hole Doc Marten's (aka business shoes...LOL!)  The story of how the Dotytron always wanted Docs and then his parents got him 3 holes is legendary around here.  

Midnight in Paris is one of the more commercially successful Woody Allen films in recent history.  I found it meh.  I think you either have to like Woody Allen or you don't and I don't think I do.  I get that at the time when he first started, his style was pretty revolutionary - but now, I'm always left at the end of his films being, "is that it?"  The same with this one.  It was kind of fun to meet that Lost Generation of artists, writers, and intellectuals in Paris (Hemingway, the Fitzgeralds, Dali, Gertrude Stein et al), but the story around it was so flimsy and the present-day relationship between Owen Wilson's character and Rachel McAdam's character was so unbelievable.  I also discovered I have a new pet peeve: when people time travel in movies and the movie spends too much time with the time travelling character being all like, "whaaa?"  "where am I?" "Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda...hmmm...this must be some kind of elaborate joke."  I'm like: WE GET IT.  YOU TIME TRAVELED.  MOVE ALONG.  It's such a waste of the audience's time.

The Adjustment Bureau is based on a Philip K. Dick story - which I've come to realize make better stories than they do films.  They are at once too slight for a film treatment and too sophisticated for a film treatment.  There's no room for the importance of Dick's investigation into the nature of control and free will to really sink in - the story gets turned into this action-adventure lots-of-people-running thing that just doesn't do the material justice.

I'll do a literature round-up tomorrow.

Fin.

Holiday photo omnibus

I know it's churlish to complain that the end of one's two-and-a-half week vacation is drawing to a close, but well, there you have it.  We've got a small case of the Monday blues and we're trying hard to not wish away the last 4 days of our time.  It's been a whirlwind holiday - here's a capsule review of what we've done:

Montessori parenting - the Big Yam experiencing "water play" (am I the only one whose mind goes to a dirty place when I hear those words?) on the floor of our kitchen.  It kept him occupied for a full hour, but he was soaked through after.  Next time we do this in the winter, I'm going to blast the heat and just have him sitting in his swimsuit.

Crafty Xmas - homemade Big Yam snowglobes

This year's holiday cookie plate - from the top: chocolate coffee toffee, skor cookies, ginger molasses cookies, walnut cinnamon rugelach, macadamia shortbread.  I also made orange-almond meringues (like amaretti), but those were done day-of.

Christmas at our house...you'll notice our tree's lights are brighter on the bottom because the sets of strings are different brands.  I'd be lying if I said that the brighter lights on the bottom didn't gnaw away at the Dotytron's soul.

For Xmas breakkie, we roasted up this oven-roasted bacon slab from St. Lawrence Market, which is one of our new favorite delectables.  We also had Momma D's ham and cheese strata which featured bread spread with butter on one side and dijon mustard on the other.  It was killer.

I followed a Thomas Keller tip by way of a FB friend and torched the outside of the prime rib.  Such a good crust on that thing, which was kind of wasted on Momma D's family because they eschew fat (so weird!)

I'm really, super proud of this dinner.  I was so worried that I had overcooked the prime rib and it emerged a beautiful, rosy, perfect medium rare.  We had roasted garlic mashed potatoes, jus, roasted brussels sprouts & chestnuts tossed with brown butter, maple-ginger carrots, yorkshire puddings, and Momma D's apple squash gratin.  So good!

To finish, I was really keen on making this salted caramel chocolate mousse, which I thought would be a nice, light ending to the meal.  It was delicious.  I'll post the recipe in the coming week.

This is my family's Xmas

This picture is kind of a big deal.

The obligatory "matching PJs shot" featuring the extremely rare and much sought-after Rocher phone.  

This is the Dotytron, Manda, and S-dawg assembling S-dawg's gift to my nephew W.  It's a 6 foot long, helium-filled, remote controlled shark that's supposed to hover at around 5-6ft.  It's HUGE!  

Seriously.  I can't reiterate enough how much this thing is a blimp.  With my family, we open presents in reverse age order, in a series of one-present-at-a-time rounds.  The first gift that W opened, he chose because it was a big, heavy box.  As he finished tearing off the paper, imagine how flummoxed he was to be confronted with a helium tank.  The whole family was mighty confused.  We were like, "are you serious?  Open the box!" and then S-dawg was like, "no, it's actually a helium tank" and we were all like, "uhhhh, oooookkkkaaay."  A few more rounds went by and then W opened the shark.  It took 3 people over an hour and a half to put the thing together.  It's kind of awesome for like, 5 minutes and then the reality sets in that you're stuck with a 6 foot long shark zeppelin.  

For the Dotytron's birthday brunch with Momma D and Ehmdo, we went to try this new brunch place in our hood, Hammersmith's.  It's been getting pretty decent reviews.  We had the duck hash plate which comes with 1 fried duck egg and a few slices of baguette - for $13. I had a few problems with this place.  One: the service was MEGA-SLOW.  It's the chef-owner manning the stoves.  We got there right when the place opened at 10am, and he must have literally just rolled in 2 minutes prior.  They were turning on the lights, the place was cold, the stoves were cold.  I don't freakin' care if it's your restaurant, YOU SHOW UP AT LEAST A HALF HOUR BEFORE THE RESTAURANT OPENS!  That's restaurant service 101!  So the food took an hour to get to our table, and if you look at what we got (alongside a side of bacon hash), you're kind of like, WTF?  What took so long?  The duck was already confited!  The portions were a little small for the price.  And I don't appreciate getting dry toast.  Offer some butter on the side, please.  The Dotytron's take was that they were a little too hype on their own shiz.  We also split a "scone plate" for $5 (scones are otherwise $1.25 each) and the scones were TINY.  Like, about the size of 4 postage stamps put together.  That's HIGHWAY ROBBERY!  Also, the scone plate came with jam and honey, but the plate was more than the cost of 3 individual scones, so I'm like, does that mean if you get just one scone, you get that tiny scone with no jam and honey?  WTF?  How are you guys running your business?  Wack attack.  

I'll be posting about my time in Geneseo, next.

Fin.

Ringing in 2012

We spent about 5 days in Geneseo, hanging with my sis and Uncle Rico and the kids.  It was an absolutely lovely, relaxing time of eating delicious, vegetable-free, fatty foods, watching a tonne of movies, reading, knitting, and watching my niece and nephews be goons.  A few funny things happened.

One day, I saw this felt toy that I had gotten for my niece 3 Christmases ago, sitting in a corner, all forlorn.  I was harping on her about it, so Little Ze said that he would make a scene using the felt and then I would take a picture of it to preserve for all eternity.  Then, Miss Ramona said she wanted to do one too, so I came up with a plan that we would all vote on which scene we liked best (secret ballot).  Here is #1:

And #2:

To reiterate, I, a grown woman of 32 years, decided it would be a good idea to rank and judge two siblings "art works" through secret ballot.  This basically flies in the face of ALL contemporary educational research with its emphasis on differentiated learning, child self-esteem, etc.  


Needless to say, it was a disaster.  Everyone voted for #1 (Little Ze's) and when I realized that it might be 5-1 in favour of #1, I changed my vote (I was the one reading out the results) to #2 at the last minute so it wouldn't be such a wash.  Miss Ramona was NOT PLEASED.  To say the least.  She actually kind of lost her shiz.  There was much crying and moaning and angry accusations that, "LITTLE ZE'S ISN'T EVEN STRAIGHT!" and when we tried to console her by saying that it was all a subjective opinion, that two people voted for her, she let out a wail, "BUT ONE OF THEM WAS MEEEEEEEEE!"  LOL!!!  We all died laughing (secretly).  It was kind of the best.  It didn't help that I tried to introduce an "artist's statement" section and Little Ze's "explanation" was the most rambling, convoluted thing since like, Hegel.


We did some cooking one night - we had what we called "white trash" tapas the day after New Year's Eve - shrimp cocktail, wieners rolled in Pillsbury Crescent Rolls, artichoke dip, Mexican dip, baked brie with apricot preserves in puff pastry - it was one of my favorite kinds of meals:

There were also lots of opportunities to watch these two homeboys hang out - it's pretty cute.  Little Big Cuz wanted nothing to do with the Big Yam but the Big Yam kept going in for kisses (he does this slow, open-mouthed approach) and was continually rebuffed.  The Big Yam is also a pretty empathetic cat.  At one point, during dinner, my sis was offering Little Big Cuz some ice cream and LBC was shaking his head and holding out his hand (implying he didn't want any), and when my sister moved my spoon in towards LBC again, the Big Yam, sitting beside him in a booster chair, started shaking his head, "no!" It was really cute.

I will say that my colon is glad to be back home, though.

Fin.

Sicko

I meant to post before this but then I done gone got myself sick.  Woke up at 2am on Thursday with awful, awful lower abdomen cramps that had me thrashing and moaning and being a sucky baby that wouldn't let anyone (read: The Dotytron) sleep until they had  heard the full extent of my grievances.  Called in sick to work on Thursday as my tummy was still all jacked up and tender...limped my way to drop the Big Yam off at daycare and lay about and slept with a heating pad on.  By the end of the day things were slightly better, but I was still weirded out.

Yesterday took the Big Yam to the doctor and explain my symptoms.  Guess what he told me?  He said, "girl you better try to have fun..." no, wait, that's Prince.  As soon as I started saying, "I had these awful cramps in my lower abdomen" he kind of sucked in his breath and sighed and said, *Sigh* "The abdomen is really tough to diagnose because there are so many things in there," *sigh* "and with women, there's the extra stuff..." He said that basically, because I was feeling better on Friday, there wasn't anything to do but monitor it.  He felt around to make sure my appendix hadn't ruptured and gave me a clean bill of health.  The Big Yam, too.  I got mother-in-law'd into taking him to the doctor because he's had a dry cough for the past week...as I suspected, there's nothing to do with a cough sans phlegm, fever, sluggishness.  He's just gotta work it out.  The doctor said that this time of year, they see hundreds of people with coughs and they only treat about 15 of them.  

There was a flurry of wrapping and last minute shopping and braving the Mennonites for my Christmas dinner order, and standing in line-ing yesterday.  We're mostly done today, as of the time of this post.  Just some last minute finishing on tomorrow night's dinner that can be done ahead and last minute tidying.  

This was Wednesday night's dinner (pasta w/ rose sauce):

Last night was our Chanukah meal and since I made a 3lb brisket, we put up the House of Plenty signal to try to get peeps over to help us take 'er down.  L'Armi and the Roomie obliged and we had a delicious dinner of brisket bourguignon with sweet potato and yukon latkes, apple sauce, and sour cream.  It was SOOOOO good!  I used a recipe from Serious Eats, which has been my favorite food site for a while.  It's just written by my people.  They've got good recipes, good restaurant reviews, and they're not snooty like Chowhound (ie. they review fast food restaurant breakfast sammies in all earnestness).  This is a link to the recipe I used.  No changes made and I wouldn't recommend any, either.  It's perfect as is.  

Because Chanukah is all about oil and deep-frying (and the festival of lights and the reclaiming of the Holy Temple, blah blah blah) I made a low-key version of doughnuts - churros.  Some dusted with cinnamon sugar and some injected with dulce de leche.  Dulce de leche churros were sooooo freakin' good:

Huge Chanukah breakthrough for the Big Yam.  Walking suddenly "clicked" last night.  Fortified with a bellyful of latkes, brisket, and clementines, he went on a walking tear - doing crazy loops and shouting joyously the whole time.  He kept it up for almost an hour and you could see the unrestrained glee in his face at the knowledge of his own burgeoning physical autonomy.  It's a bit of a nightmare from a baby-proofing perspective, but it's also a wonder to behold:

Note: the above video contains an asinine observation from yours truly that you love your kid more than your niece and nephew.  LOL!!!


Tonight it's the traditional Christmas Eve takeout and movie with Momma D and Ehmdo.  Poppa D will be missed.


Merry Christmas, all!


Fin.

Attack of the blob

Have you guys ever had congee?  It's like a savory rice porridge that my people generally eat for breakfast in the homeland, but has been adopted as more lunch/dinner fare here.  We made it for dinner last night and even though I KNOW that it's like the most cost-effective, high yielding food of all time, I stupidly decided to double the recipe like a total n00b.  The thing with congee is, that rice is like the most absorbent starch of all time (this is not a scientific  method-based observation.)  So it CONTINUES TO ABSORB for like, a full week after you started putting the dish together.  Anyway, 2 cups of rice and 20 cups of water later, I have vats and vats of preserved egg and pork congee to keep me warm at night.  

It's been a very Asian week so far for dinners - spicy beef kimchi udon on Monday, followed by congee yesterday.  The Big Yam has been so-so about it.  He's a big fan of spicy food though - he was very nonplussed by the chili heat of the spicy beef udon.

On our way home from the Dotytron Family Xmas to-do, I was pondering aloud about what kind of kid I want to raise.  Having been forced around the company of adults from a very young age, dragged to business dinners for my mom and Big D's clients and such, all my siblings and I were forced to learn to sit and smile and be pleasant through interminably long, multi-course epic mealtimes with people who we shared very little in common with - either they were old (meaning adults) or they were weird, nerdy, future doctors of America (the children of said adults).  I may not have acquitted myself with grace back then, but it's kind of important to me now that my kid is able to be well-rounded, well-read enough to be comfortable keeping company with adults.  I want my kid to have the social skills so that they don't clam up if they're forced into situations where they don't appear to have a lot in common with their companions.  I want my kid to okay striking up a genial conversation with all kinds of people, not just other kids.  I want my kid to be able to know how to ask questions and find commonalities with others - not just talk about themselves and their own narrow interests. 

I want my kid to be the opposite of narrow.  I want the Big Yam to have broad interests, to be intensely curious, to be interested and engaged.  

This might all be a pipe dream.  Right now he's pretty self-absorbed.  He can fake it pretty well though.  He has this fake curious sound he does, which is a super-exaggerated, "hunnnnh" followed by a "hmmmmmmm" that goes up at the end so it sounds like a question.  It's pretty cute but can also be pretty infuriating - especially when he unleashes it after randomly calming down after being a bear.  Suddenly he's all like, professorial inquisitive guy, going "hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?" after you've been dealing with him lying on the floor wanting to be picked up for half an hour when you're trying to make dinner.

Ahhhh, life.

Fin.

Walking it out

This weekend was crazytown.  At one time or another, it featured me, the Dotytron, and/or the Big Yam all being foul owls.  


Friday night I had the brilliant idea to make our weekend "easier" by organizing this after-work, super-ambitious, Friday night weekly grocery shopping mission, the intent of which was to free up time on the weekend.  Well - what little time I freed up on the weekend was quickly squandered by the Dotytron's tension levels at STILL having 2 more holiday concerts to get through, compounded with the usual bemoaning of the busyness that is a life with a kid, a house in Toronto, a super-type A significant other, a demanding job, and a full social calendar.  So imagine his dismay, when he met up with me at the veggie store, and I, blithely oblivious and offended at the state of the brussels sprouts at my usually stalwart Fruit King, said, "we have to go the Farmer's Market tomorrow to get carrots and sprouts."  He damned near lost it.  "BUT THERE ARE CARROTS HERE.  JUST GET ANYTHING." Me: "But I want colourful carrots" (imagine, dear readers, how well that reasoning played - know your audience, readers, know your audience.)  Suffice it to say that what ensued involved a lot of f-bombs (me) and a lot of long-suffering, tense pauses (the Dotytron.)  


When the dust had settled, we realized it was because I didn't pitch it correctly.  I should have said, "do you want to go to the Farmer's Market tomorrow morning and get breakfast and have coffee and walk around and then maybe we can see if there are nicer carrots for Christmas dinner?"  That would have gone over waaaaaaayyyy better.


Anyway, when we got home, we had this waiting for us: 

That would be warm, trippa alla fiorentina (tribe, Florentine style), which we scooped into bowls direct from the slow cooker and topped with grated parm, a dollop of chimichurri I was passing off as salsa verde, and sided with big warmed hunks of my roasted garlic, caramelized onion focaccia for dipping.  It was heavenly.  The Big Yam didn't think so, but that's because I had bought his grocery shopping compliance with cheddar bunnies.  I got him to eat it on Sunday, after he rejected it for lunch, by starving him into submission.  Is that mean?  Maybe.  I don't give picky eaters no quarter, though.  Choice is a luxury that is not allowed to him, unless I deign it so, and if he starts throwing perfectly good food on the floor, he can go hungry until he's willing to eat it later (which he was.)  

The Big Yam, after 6 months of being a fantastic eater (which isn't all that much time until you realize it's like, half his life) has started to become "snoopy" in the words of Nany.  But it's weird and day to day with him.  One day he's dumping handfuls of apples off the side of the high chair, the next day he's taking bites out of an apple the Dotytron is eating.  There are certain consistencies - like he will always eat: French toast, oatmeal, toast, most carbs, all berries, bananas, clementines, most fruits, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, avocado, corn, beans, etc.  Other vegetables are more touch and go...I just keep offering it and offering it again and again.  

Anyway, our morning at the farmer's market ended up being very nice.  We woke up and bundled ourselves in schluffy clothes into the car and went to St. Lawrence Market and had breakfast sammies from Carousel Bakery alongside some extra strips of oven-roasted bacon from one of the meat purveyors.  Did our shopping and came home and got ready for the Dotytron family xmas party which was being held up in Pottageville or some other place off the map.

It was a gong show getting there.  First we timed it so we would go to Costco and pick up gifties first and then head to Pottageville.  Got to Costco (which is MADNESS on a weekend generally, but ESPECIALLY SO on a weekend leading up to the holidays), and realized I had forgotten my wallet at home, which kiboshed the Costco mission but also kiboshed the me being the designated driver scheme we had cooked up.  So we had to drive all the way home and then head out again. 

Dotytron family xmas was lovely, though.  It was kind of a pot-lucky affair - I brought: thyme and Gruyere gougeres, proscuitto-wrapped prunes, and the homemade kit kat bars.  We were supposed to go to Supper Club afterwards but we left the family thing late (around 8pm) and it was too much for us and especially the Big Yam.  It would have involved getting him out of the car, waking him up, hauling him to Supper Club for an hour, only to pack him back into the car, him falling asleep, and then hauling him back out again when we got to our house...it just wasn't feasible and fair.  I think we'll be more ambitious when he gets a little older - in fact, it's very important to me that he get used to falling asleep at people's houses and being bundled up in his jammies and taken home, but for right now, it's too disruptive for him.

So we came home and started watching Louis C.K.'s show, Louie, which we INSTANTLY fell in love with.  It's the funniest thing ever.  We were laughing so hard we were crying.  It's also viciously smart, nuanced, highbrow, lowbrow, and keenly observant.  This scene, is brilliant.  Near the end, there's a discussion of the use of the word f****t, which I thought was so layered and perfectly encapsulates comedy, the simultaneously elasticity and rigidity of language, the nature of semiotics, and the use of taboo words.  It really struck me.  

In retrospect, it becomes all the more striking when it is revealed that my mother-in-law, the dear Momma D, might possibly have heard me call the Dotytron a "f**king c**t" on Sunday.  Whoops.  In my defense, I was joking.  He left the lock for the stroller at home and I was jokingly berating him for messing with my system.  She was in the car and this all happened outside the car, with the car doors closed, so I'm not 100% sure she heard it...but the Dotytron is convinced.  LOL!!!  I actually find it pretty funny.  But I can see how this probably doesn't improve my image as the shrewish, shrill, harsh-o-matic outlaw daughter always giving her son a hard time.  I can't help it!  I've got a potty mouth!!!  I come by it honestly, having worked as a blue-collar worker for many years.  Cooks have the filthiest mouths.  I also go straight to: "I'm going to f**king kill you" any time something small happens.  In fact, the smaller the thing, the sooner I am to jump to: "you're an idiot" or "I'm going to f**king kill you."  I guess from outside, if you don't know me, I can see how it looks bad...but I don't mean anything by it!  That's just the way I talk.  Anyway, Momma D and Poppa D like, never had screaming matches (according to the Dotytron), whereas in my family, from the outside, it sounds like that's ALL WE DO.  So it's a cultural thing?  I don't know.  Alls I knows is - sometimes, I'm going to throw down the c-word, and it ain't no thang in my books.

This all happened on the way to the Toronto Christmas Market, which was amazing, the only downside being that it was a victim of its own success.  Basically, they turn the Distillery District into this European-style Christmas Market, with little wooden stalls selling mulled wine (DELICIOUS!) and apple cider, and maple taffy, sausage on a bun, schnitzel, mac'n'cheese, candied bacon, etc and also little tchotchkes  and stuff...there's a GIANT Christmas tree and there are twinkling lights all around and a bunch of stuff for kids like a Santa's village, and the shops are open so you can stroll in and out.  It's beautiful and lovely and very festive.  Because it was so awesome, it was also a s**tshow, with way too many people trying to navigate around dogs and strollers and a million other people.  If they do it next year, I would want to take an afternoon off and be leisurely about it.  I also hope they extend it into the holiday break so that it spreads people out during the holiday, instead of all crammed into the weekend.  I highly recommend it, though!

So the long and short of it is, even though we were foul owls at some point, in the end, the weekend was perfectly lovely - full of experiences, good food, and family.  

Here is a video we finally managed to capture of the Big Yam working on his crip walk:

Spicy beef udon for dinner tonight.  Shazzam!

Fin.

Favorite moments

My favorite moment of the week this week was having the three of us on Monday night, after the Boobla's bath, in pajamas, lying heaped together on the floor of the Boobla's room, while he quietly played with his toys in his post-bath glow, listening the Nat King Cole Christmas album, playing all scratchy and warm on the Dotytron's record player.

This is hands-down my favorite Christmas album - no one in the world has a voice like Nat King Cole. And on vinyl? Quit it. It's just insanely good. We suspect it was recorded pre-multi track, which is what makes it so good. Remember when the room used to matter? Like where you recorded was a big deal? It's a miraculous album.

The Dotytron was telling me about how when he was a kid, like 5 years old, he would put on the Nat King Cole Christmas album and listen to "O Tannenbaum" and go to the tree and plug in the lights and just sit under the lit tree listening to the album and be like, "this is the BEST!" D'awwwwwww...how cute is that? Picturing wee Dotytron sitting in his footed jammies alone under the lit tree, transported by the pure joy of Christmas as made manifest by Nat King Cole's velvet voice. So darned cute.





I can't wait until this little nugget does that. Well, actually, I can wait a good long time (I don't want to rush him to the age of 5), but when he decides to do it, it's going to be just as sweet:




So, I don't know how many of you know this, but Dr. Rei recently got a job at the Ministry of Magic. It's well deserved, it's what she's wanted, I couldn't be happier for her, blah blah blah. The funny part comes in because she's had a RUUUUUDE awakening these past two weeks as a member of the gainfully employed. You see, Dr. Rei was operating under the mistaken impression that doing a post-doc and being in grad school somehow approximates a job in the real world. So we've been exchanging hilarious text messages about how PWNED she's been getting having to get up early, not take a million personal calls at work, make her lunch every day, not go home when she's tired, etc. LOL! It's been making me laugh. I love that gal. I think now she's starting to understand why so many of our telephone conversations when she's called me at work have consisted of me responding to scandalous gossip with the most terse, non-committal, "uh huh" "i know" and "yeah." Ha!

This was Tuesday night's dinner - freezer polenta lasagna:

The past couple of night's we haven't had much in the way of dinner because yesterday I had this massive holiday catered staff lunch at work and today was the annual buffet at Hart House which is like eating at Hogwart's (think, long wooden communal tables, portraits of headmaster's past, a grand piano, turkey and stuffing and a carving station). So consequently, we haven't been doing much in the way of dinner around here.

Fin.

Rock and a hard place

I'm stuck in the hinterland known as the place where my practicality butts heads against my principles. It's a bit of a pickle.

Because I'm trying to move away from extravagant xmas presents from siblings, outlaw parents, outlaw grandparents, and the like, I haven't provided preemptive gift list suggestions this year, as I think doing so would be hypocritical and a tacit endorsement of a system that I'm trying to extricate myself from. Yet, at the same time, I know that by NOT providing a list, I leave myself open to all kinds of well-intentioned but misguided items that will subsequently be sitting in my basement until such time as we do a basement clean and they make their way to Goodwill and the like. Is it awful of me? I don't know. I know you're not supposed to look a gift horse in the mouth and be grateful for the sentiment, etc. - but surely we've all been the recipients of gifts where we appreciate the thought and feelings behind them but can't bring ourselves to submit to the actual execution? It's kind of crazy how wrong people can get it, sometimes.

Anyway, so I'm torn. I hate the waste when people spend their hard-earned dollars on stuff that's just not me. But I'm not going to submit a list. All this pent-up frustration has to go somewhere though, and so here are some things that I adore.

Roll Call of Awesome:

BleuForet cotton tights. These are the BEST cotton tights in the whole, wide world. They're so soft and stretchy and warm - like the very best attributes of soft, thin socks and tights mashed up together without any of the thigh-cinching, waist-pinching aspects that can go along with tight-wearing. They are ridiculously expensive, so I can accept that all my cotton tights can't be BleuForet brand. The grey, prune, violet, and pine coloured ones are particular favorites of mine.

In the winter time though, tights are generally a good bet for me. Black, opaque, fishnet, patterned, they're all good and since I almost exclusively wear skirts and dresses to work, I'm always blowing through them.

I've been pining after this for a while. David Chang edits this kind of expensive magazine called Lucky Peach (well, expensive by magazine standards, I guess - it's $28 for 4 issues). It's a compendium of food writing from people and chefs I admire, all packaged in a cool, hip little bundle.

Other good literary-based gift ideas for me: Amazon gift cards so that I can stock up my Kindle, renewing my subscription to Entertainment Weekly for me.

Cast-iron cookware. I don't use Teflon anymore and I'm almost exclusively cast-iron when it comes to cooking nowadays. The problem is, that I only have a small, 10" skillet and while it's seasoned beautifully, as you all know, when I cook, I COOK, and I cook for a crowd. So a big, 14-15" cast iron skillet would be lovely.

As a daily fruit eater tired of retrieving bruised bananas and pulpy pears from the bottom of my purse, a banana guard and a froot guard would be lovely, cheap, stocking stuffer presents for me. So practical!

You also can never go wrong with gift certificate to my favorite stores: CB2, Crate and Barrel, ModCloth, Joe Fresh, Ruched, Anthropologie, Social Butterfly on the Danforth. PEOPLE LOVE GIFT CARDS. THAT'S WHY THEY'RE UBIQUITOUS.

I just recently started using this stuff after reading about it in the pages of In Style magazine for the past 17 years. I got a trial, sample size from my friend M and it's kind of changed my life. A little blush and a bit of eyeliner go a LOOOONG way with me - turning me from a wan, snake-eyed, sickly looking thing in the winter, to someone who looks robust and healthy and glowing. Seriously. I've gotten mad compliments from colleagues who are all like, "you look fantastic after having a baby!!!" and then you have to go and admit that it's all smoke and mirrors and it's only because I'm wearing a bit of this stuff on my cheeks. It's so easy. I don't know how to use highlighter or any of that shiz - but I can rub this stuff on the apples of my cheeks. I find it hard to justify buying a full-size bottled of the stuff though. It's like $30 for a little bottle of dye. That shiz just ain't right.

Sorry for the GIANT photos. Thanks to my gal, Mindy Kaling and her super-smart guy writer friends who helped contribute to her Black Friday gift guide, I've been hepped to Creative Recreation shoes. Look at those kicks. Just look at them. That's some fly, motherf**king s**t right there, folks. That's like the perfect Dotytron shoe. Uh huh. Hot. And they're hella affordable, too.

That's it for this installment of Roll Call of Awesome.

Fin.