Mad Hatter's Pottery Candles

I just got some gorgeous little pots and candles and have to share. They are from Mad Hatter's Pottery in North Carolina. I got 2, and now that I see them up close and personal, I want more!

This is how they came wrapped, like lovely presents.

This one is Feng Shui Water.



Gorgeous little handmade pots with soy wax candle. I have to keep them wrapped in plastic cause they are fresh and are Very Strong. I don't have to light them to get benefit, just leave them out for a few minutes and the whole room is scented.

Love the pendant attached with twine.

This is to give size reference. My hands are small, this is a touch over 3" across.

The perfect size for jewelry and trinkets after the wax is burned.


I'm absolutely thrilled with these pieces! I don't want to give them as gifts..

Echoes in an empty skull

Today was one of those days when I can't get out of my own head. No matter what I read, listen to or do, the stress of not having a constant income stream (even ebay sucks as income these days with no one bidding on once popular items) is throbbing loudly in my skull.

I did get a lot done, I have 50 pendants to drop to a bazaar for this weekend, so I spent all day organizing, cutting, sticking and labeling. And more photo editing and ebay. But my head was still full of fuzzy lead and the feeling that something bad will happen soon. No thanks to hearing yesterday that we are officially in a rescession, and have been so for a year. Now that it's official that means people will pull back from buying luxury goods even more. And that's what I make! Food and entertainment are pretty stable choices, but I'm making and selling stuff that is for fun and decoration. Sales have already been sucking for months. Etsy is not doing a good job advertising itself to buyers and no matter what I'm doing with it, it's not enough.

So I have no distraction outlet. No tv, no streaming video (my heatsink went kablooie a week ago and the .. no need to get technical, it overheats if I have more than 1 program open), I can't stay focused on a book, my roommates are not the kind of people I can hang with, all my friends are busy. I called a couple to catch up, but it did nothing to allay my nervous empty discomfort.

Food was the next step. I went to my favorite vegetarian indian restaurant. Completely packed with young scruffy boho types. Food was decent as usual, but I was too distracted to be in the moment and enjoy it. I wanted to sit at a strangers table and have an interesting conversation. On days like this I want to get on craigslist and say 'I want to meet a stranger for dinner, come to -blank- at 7pm and we'll talk about nothing in particular'. But I know it will not turn out as well as my imagination.

Picked up a bag of toffees that totally blew my blood sugar (I can feel the palpitations as I write). I then drove around Palms in exploratory mode. Looking for interesting restaurants, parks, gas prices (1.87!), and I found myself driving north. So now I'm at the boyfriends house blogging, while he is doing the last of another 12 hour day in Culver City.

I've had plenty of days like this when I was desperately looking for a job during the summer, and I'm not liking it at all. It's not something I can get use to.

I don't like not having someone around to talk to, someone to curl up with, someone to discuss events and ideas and nonsuch whenever I want to. And it's making me think about things I thought were long dead. Heck, I'm even feeling bad about breaking up with past boyfriends. Perfectly nice men who were not what I wanted at the time. 15 years later and I'm lamenting my breakup w/ a guy in college. My brain is feeling lonely and it's actively rubbing my face in it.

The bane of the locker room

I've heard from many guys that the bane of the locker room is the guy (no matter what he looks like) who wanders around naked, not even carrying a towel, takes his time getting dressed while boldly talking to people. The rest of us want to get out of the shower, get dressed and get out. It's a nasty locker room (no matte how nice the gym) , no one wants to pop a bottle of wine and hang out there, barefoot and naked.

Well we have these annoyances too. In my gym they have a little workout area in the women's locker room for those who want to stretch, cool down, and do their workout privately w/out feeling eyes on them. It's a little space with exercise balls and floor mats at the far end of the locker room.

I was just going to go swim, and realized I hadn't done ab work in ages, so, since I was wearing seriously scruffy clothes, I went to that workout area. As I walked over, this naked woman was talking to another couple of women who were getting dressed. She shuffled her clothes around in a bag but made no attempt to put them on. She wasn't drying off or anything, just talking loudly and naked.

They left, more women came in. And left. More women came in. And she was Still there yakking loudly to anyone who was in the vicinty about where she worked, what she was doing for the holidays and who she blahblahblah. I finished my 15 min workout and left. She was still naked! Just standing around blabbing, still shuffling her clothes like she was gonna put them on any minute. If you're gonna be a nudist who likes to talk to strangers (none of whom is also standing around naked like they have nothing to do) , doing in a locker room is not the place! Did you leave your brain in your car? Or is it just idling while your mouth is running full speed.

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

As I was leaving, a small asian woman told an attendant, in a loud and angry voice, to not move her bag. The attendant said she's not responsible for her bag and wasn't going to touch it . The asian woman responded that the bag was 'too big to fit in a locker' so she just leaves it sitting out. 'I'm only working out for 20 minutes anyway'. She continued on that the last time she left it, someone had the gall to bring it to the front desk!

An unattended bag that someone was nice enough to bring to the front desk/lost n' found. Oh the horror. She's complaining that people were being nice, instead of rummaging through her stuff and stealing it. I had to peer around the corner to see what was up with the special bag, and it was indeed huge. Weekend stay in Maui big. Lady, you came here in a car, leave your shit there.

People are weird. Maybe I should just make this a 'people are annoying and I wish I could slap these strangers' blog.

Use the middle of the intersection

it doesn't matter if you're from connecticut or santa monica - if you are making a left turn, move into the Middle Of The Intersection. Not your front tires into the crosswalk, not your front tires just over the crosswalk, get into the middle of the damn road like a real driver and do it right. You blow it for everyone behind you if you don't do it right.

And if you are not in the middle where you belong, and I'm behind you, I'm going to honk. I fantasize about having a beater car with a huge Smittybilt bumper, so I could dunk into those idiots when they don't drive the way they are suppose to.

Actual conversation in the Post Office

Yesterday, at the Rancho Park Post Office on Exposition in West LA I had yet another odd encounter. That makes 3, and I'm no longer going back. The clerk didn't look at me the during the entire exchange, mumbled everything including the usual (is anything fragile, liquid, perishable?).

For the first time Ever that I've been to a post office, I don't get asked if I want delivery confirmation or insurance (which I did, but blanked on it because I was trying to figure out what was wrong with this guy) AND the clerk doesn't put the postage on the packages in front of me, so I know that he's charging me the same as he's putting on the packages. Before I've even paid, he takes the package and the label, walks over to some other clerk, and has a 3 minute conversation with her while I'm standing there waiting. He throws it in the letter bin and comes back.

I asked him to stamp 'do not bend' on one item and he completely ignores me.

He doesn't stamp 'air mail' on the air mail package. He doesn't even tell me how any of the stuff is being sent, just charges me. I pay 10 bucks for 5.40 worth of postage and put my hand out for the change.Then we have this wierd exchange.



Postal Clerk- so, you want your change back?

Me - um, yes?

PC - well, if it's less than 5 dollars worth of change, we have to ask.

Me- (raised eyebrows while hand is still out) sure, ok

PC - If we give you your change back, we don't get to eat lunch.

Me- um, ok (takes change)

PC - well, looks like there's not lunch for me then. Hope you enjoy yours, with your change.

All this with no eye contact. I grab my receipt and rush out the door. Now I'm looking on the USPS site to see where I can complain, and find a post office nearby that is not filled with nut jobs.

Jerrys Deli $5 minimum

Went to see 'Experimental Bellydance' last night in Venice, and realized that the producer was the woman I took 2 bellydance classes from over a decade ago. She has a modern dance background, so she's skin and bones (kinda weird for a bellydancer), and has a hard edge, rather than flowing and graceful movements. But the show had some memorable numbers and it was a fun evening w/ friends.

After some chow, we decided we wanted something sweet. Everything was closed so we decided on Jerry's Deli in Marina Del Rey. I was stuffed so I figured I'd have a bite of whatever dessert was ordered by the others, and pay half. When it came to me ordering, I said I was sharing, and the waiter told me that it was a $5 minimum per person at the table. WTF?! I can understand that they don't want a single person taking up a whole booth to nurse a coffee for several hours, but this was 3 people, 2 of which were ordering over $20 worth of food, enough to cover the average for the $5 per person. The waiter was having none of it, so I said I'm not buying anything, guess we'll have to leave.

We walked down to Von's and had raspberries, chocolate and vanilla ice cream, and a banana smoothie. We sat at their little service bar and had a wonderful quiet conversation (minus all the noise and bright lights of Jerry's) at well under $5 per person, and no tax and tip on top of that. Fuck You Jerry's. You were already too expensive (somewhere in the late 90's they decided to go from a moderately priced 24 hour deli to a hip, expensive deli, all while leaving their food and decor exactly the same), and now you force everyone at the table to pay a minimum. You've lost my biz permanently.

My new shoes with toes

Got my new vibram five fingers today. It took a lot of looking to find the size and color I wanted. Straight black, not those goofy ones with yellow between the toes. Those make your feet look like a bird flashing his feathers every time you take a step.

I wore them for 4 hours today. The fit easily (the website says they won't fit feet if your second toe is longer than your big toe, and I can see why), and didn't make my feet sore or rub in spots like All running shoes do for the first couple days. The only thing that is sore is some unused muscles in my feet and toes, since they are not use to being part of the process of getting from here to there. They are waking up.

It's not the same was walking around the house barefoot. Walking in the driveway, down to Fish King, around the block, I feel like I shouldn't be out there. After 5 years old, your mom always made you put on shoes before leaving the house (when young I suppose you would venture no further than the grass in the yard). I feel like I'm missing something around my feet. No socks, no stiff sole.

I'm walking with a shorter stride, if I use my normal long stride I find I'm banging my heel into the cement. Shorter steps allow my feet to move in a natural way, and I love the feeling of my toes being separate and functional.

I'm hoping they fix my hammer toes, all mashed and bent from years in shoes. I'm going to the gym tomorrow to see how they feel on the treadmill.

Photos of my little feet in black are forthcoming.

First time Golfing

Took Rimas out for his birthday last week to play golf at:
4141 Whitsett Ave
Studio City, CA 91604

I'd never played anything but miniature golf in my life. My grandfather had a house in Pebble Beach and was an avid golfer. I always saw it as a pretentious game played by doctors and lawyers who needed to rub shoulders and play the proper status games. The community course is short, nothing over 200 yards (they call it 'pitch and putt'), it was a gorgeous day, it was inexpensive (2.50 for set of clubs, $9 for the course, $7 for a bucket of balls to warm up on the driving range), and there were singles playing the course so it wasn't much crowded at all.

It was fun, I enjoyed it, I said fuck a lot, and now I need to find some lefty clubs if I want to play more than a couple times this year. I re-injured my shoulder by not warming up first, so I've spend the last few days in great discomfort.

Places I've lived and visited

Places I've been


visited 15 states (6.66%)
Create your own visited map of The World





visited 28 states (56%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or determine the next president

Super Fast Passport

I got my new passport today. I filled out my passport renewal and got my photos at the Glendale Clerk's office, and it was less than 2 weeks before it showed up. Cool, now I'm set for anything. I paid $92 total for the photos, renewal fee and the $5 fee for the Clerk to send it in for me. I know people that have waited 3 months, so I was really surprised to see it so fast. Must be a slow time of year, or renewals are much easier to do. It originally expired in Oct, and now I have until 2018 before I have to think about it again. That sounds like such a long way off.

Got my MOO Cards

First batch of MOO cards came today! I love the little dispensers. The cards are high quality and downright cute. Though they came out looking dull. And that is after I upped the contrast and saturation quiet a bit, based on recommendations from other MOO users.


They also came 15 after I was told that they'd shipped. I even held off on sending a few Etsy orders cause I wanted to included cards. And promptly pissed off my customers. ouch.

I don't blame MOO for the lateness, they sent out a 'they've shipped' notice on June 24th. They specifically said that it would take 5-7 working days to arrive, and to not contact them until 10 working days. I waited 15. And of course the day I tell them about it, they arrive on my doorstep.

I think it's the glendale post offices. I've had more loses and damages from the glendale post office than any other postal service or area in the US. It doesn't matter whether I'm shipping to London, or 5 miles away to the westside, I cross my fingers every time I have to send something and hope it arrives. I've spent many long minutes on the phone with unhelpful clerks trying to track packages sent anywhere and everywhere.

The only thing that seems to help is if I print up and pay online for the shipping labels with deliver confirmation. Which keeps me from having to stand in line for 30 minutes while the clerks help numerous belligerent non-english speaking customers, but also costs a bit more. I guess I have to spend either time or money to get what I need done. Maybe they put more care into making sure it arrives at it's destination knowing that an official email was sent to the waiting party who is now expecting it's arrival.

Yard Sale

Spend 6 hours on Saturday selling at Carol's multi-person yard sale.

I sold 4 boxes of bulky stufff, and donated another 10 bags to goodwill on the way home. It wasn't worth getting up at 6am to stand in the heat and get burned for less than $10 an hour. Carol's food was excellent as usual, but I much prefer enjoying the food during a party, than bargaining with a latina or philipina over a $5 item that they want for 50 cents. I get to a point where I'd rather donate it for nothing than to sell it to someone who wants to rip me off. Oh, and when they finally bargain the shit out of something, they hand me a 20 dollar bill.

Instead I'll stick to saving money (instead of trying to make it back) by buying stuff at a deep discount at thrift stores. It's way more fun to buy just the right shirt for 2 bucks after diving into the racks at a thriftstore, than buying the same shirt for $30 and trying to make 2 bucks off of at the end of it's life.

All the big ticket items like furniture and good quality art supplies are better sold on craigslist anyway. You only deal with people online, and when they come for it, they pay and leave. No bargaining or arguing. At least not the majority of the time.

A literate man cannot clean his attic

I have an entire file box of Food&Wine and Martha Stewart Living. Every one of them has at Least 2 articles in it that I want to keep. Which makes it hard to get rid of them, because I have to find and tear out and file each article. Then what do I do with them? Leave them for someone who will inevitably go, "oh cool, it's got a whole article on cupcak.. aw man, it's missing". Or do I just throw them in recycling?

Course, the last time I did that, they ended up being scavenged by our idiotic and wretched landlady, and placed (in revolving piles) in the laundry room. So even though I didn't cause it directly, I'm sure there are a few frustrated tenants anyway. Which really, I don't care about because I despise all but 3 of them to varying degrees. Mostly because they are snappish and unneighborly. How unneighborly of me.

I guess I should just recycle, since all of them are available at any library in the US. Not as if they are precious Gutenburg copies.

How hot is it?

It's so hot today that my lipstick melted in my pocket. Blech.

It's wonderful once the sun isnt' hitting the place directly, but because there is no insulation in these 1940's walls and roof, the heat actually radiates from the walls. I'm not looking forward to another brutal summer here. We're trying to decide if we want to go for another year or month to month, or just move to a place w/ central air. I love it the rest of the year, the cross breeze, the quiet (usually), the huge sinks, gas stove, hardwood floors. But this heat makes me want to crawl into the fridge and nap.

Public Health Home Kitchen Grade

I got a letter today that made my heart skip a beat. A letter from the County of Los Angeles, Environmental Health, Consultation and Technical Services. What on earth would they want with me? I made scones for the wrong person?

I opened the letter to find this!



A postcard sized laminated grade A. With a magnetized back, so I could hang it on my fridge, well, if my fridge front was metal anyway. I was surprised because I had taken the 'home inspection survey over 2 months ago. When I completed it, the grade was available to print, so I made a copy, framed it, and hung it in my kitchen. It makes me smile and makes others wonder. It never said anything about sending me an official looking one.

Want to take the survey? Find it here
http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/eh/ehquizlt.htm

dreams and memories

I woke this morning to sweaty sheets and the corners of a dream cutting into me. I threw off the covers and while I evaporated I recovered pieces of it. And realized it was a memory, not a dream.

One of my earliest memories was being in a white dress (must have been 4 or younger) and new white sandals with metal buckles. I guess mom was talking to friends out by the recreation center, cause she let me go explore. There was a scrubby dry marsh behind the apartment complex, so I carefully took off my new shoes and went wandering in to explore. I have no idea how long I was out there, but I remember the colors and textures of the bushes around me.

When she called me back, I went looking for the shoes, and only found 1 of them. I don't know why, why would I have taken them off in different places? She was furious, dragging me around the area where I thought I'd left them, to no avail. Then she spanked me. That was the part I remember most, being yanked up by my arm and smacked repeatedly for losing an expensive new pair of shoes.

To this day, my mom says she has never spanked me. But she did many many times, the last one I was 12. I remember many of them. How can she blot out every one of them? I remember that I learned to cry and scream as soon as she started hitting me so she'd think she was inflicting enough pain and stop sooner.

And now that I think about it, I've never owned a pair of white sandals in my life.

No Knead Bread

It's all the rage after the NYT article in Nov 2006, and while I was on vacation, a friend borrowed one of my massive Descoware pots to try it. She returned it with a loaf, and I was immediately driven to find the article, recipe and do some experimenting.

Of course, I never go the simple route. I started with 2 c. AP flour, 3 T gluten and 1 c. rye instead of the standard 3 c. AP flour. And my yeast was dead. After getting down to the last 4 tablespoons in the 1lb bag, and sitting in the fridge for 4 years it gave up the ghost. So I had to spend a whopping 2.69 and get another pound. Which will take even longer to use up if I only stick to this recipe, since it uses 1/4t of yeast per loaf instead of the regular 2-3 t.

Because the yeast was dead, or at least badly maimed, I gave it 2 days instead of the standard 18 hours. It still came out perfectly, though even with 2 t of salt, a bit bland.

Now I'm baking an all AP flour with olive oil and herbs de provence, and the whole house is warm with the smell of real bread.

I tend to be lazy when I bake, and don't knead enough (unless it's a really soft dough), so most of my bread is too dense. This really does make a stunning artisianal loaf, and the pot is still clean at the end of it! Less mess, no flour on the counter, and letting time do the work is a brilliant change in the standard bread making process. I've read that if it sits around for a full day or longer, it just gets more sour, which I don't mine. And if you decide not to bake it right away, I'll bet you could just seal it and refridgerate it, bringing it to room temp for a couple hours before baking.

Only major thing I changed is to do the second rise on parchement paper, as it doesn't stick like it tends to do to the towel.

Tea Recipe - Red Pepper Jelly

Misplaced my recipe for Red Pepper Jelly. I think I originally got it from a friend's book about tea recipes. The local market had bright orange bell peppers for .99 a pound, so even though I was going to make this jelly later in the month for a tea, I decided I'd make a large batch now and can it.

Even with the jalapenos and serrano, there is only a hint of bite to the jelly. I prefer this jam to be more savory than sweet. 3 cups of sugar seems like a lot, but it's over 3lbs of peppers.

10-12 large red, yellow or orange bell peppers, seeded and finely diced or processed
3 red jalepenos - as above
1 serrano - as above
3 c sugar
3 T lemon juice
1/4 c Cider vinegar
2 t salt

Remember to cover your hands with plastic gloves or bag when de-seeding the hot peppers. Even a little on
your hands can burn for hours.

Cook all in a large heavy pot over med low heat for 1 hour. Stir occasionally, until jellied consistency, 20-30 minutes.
Taste and adjust salt as needed. Put in sterilized jars and process jars. I filled 5 half pint jars with this recipe,
you may have more or less depending on how much water evaporates. If you don't want to can it, you can store it sealed
in the fridge for a week or longer.

Serve on french bread with cream cheese, or with baked brie, or on gryere gougere. I'll post my favorite gougere recipe soon.

When web surfing goes bad

I made the mistake today of watching a video on hoarders. About an hour later I started cleaning. And I cleaned all day. Sweeping, mopping, dusting, washing, scrubbing, laundry, organizing and general sanitizing. Because I'd already planned to wash the sheets today, it didn't occur to me until evening why I started on the cleaning frenzy.

I certainly feel better because of it. I now get to start the weekend with a clean house.

Runners lung, button pushing

I love that clear feeling you get when you run, when your nose gets sensitive from, well, I don't know what. When I ran into Trader Joe's today, I could smell every person, whether it was normal person smell, cologne/perfume, if they were smokers, old people, or someone who had very young kids (little ones have that baby smell, even of their parents don't use baby powdery products).

I have this pet peeve about cross walk buttons. Whenever I see someone repeatedly hitting it, clank, clank, taptaptap, bang bang bang, I imagine throttling them. Since I know that they are brainless, and telling them that pushing the button more won't make the light change any faster, all I can do is wish them death caused by their ignorance. I think that most people spend their day going through motions, completely thought free. Like animals. They eat, shit, sleep, and never think 'it looks like rain', 'it's gorgeous today', 'I wonder why I've hit this button 50 times and am looking blankly at the sign waiting for it to change'.

The skies above Glendale have been moody all day. Short breaks of sunlight and brilliant blueness come out every couple hours from behind dark grey expectant clouds. It feels like it should pour any minute. And during my half hour jog, it seemed like every 20th car wasn't paying attention. They were on cell phones, running lights, not going when the light changed, stopping well inside the pedestrian walk. People were honking at the idjuts who were off on another planet. Don't know if it's the weather, but I've run that route many times and it was never so filled with space cadets.

Be careful out there on the roads.

Thing a day - Pumpkin Stuffed Shells

Still perfecting the Ricotta Squash Stuffed Shells. Now that my Sage is making a comeback, it's so much better w/ squash than the dried stuff.

This time around the recipe looked like:

1 box large shells, slightly undercooked so they are still a bit stiff. Drain and add 2 T olive oil to keep them from sticking.

Saute in 1 T olive oil until soft but not brown:
3 shallots
1/2 onion
2 t fresh sage
2 t fresh thyme

In a large bowl mix:
shallot mixture
2 eggs
1 large butternut roasted and mashed equal to 4+ c (Any winter squash works, I love this recipe w/ fine grained Kabocha)
2 c lowfat ricotta
1/2 c cream cheese

Cheese sauce
Make roux:
2 T butter
2 T flour (I tried Whole Wheat this time for a slightly nutty flavor)

Whisk in:
2 c milk (whole, lowfat, whatever)

Stir until bubbly and thickened.
Add:
1 c asiago
1/2 parmesean
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t white pepper

Stir over low heat until cheese is integrated.

oil a large casserole pan (I use 2 9x9" so I can freeze one for later) with olive oil. Stuff shells with butternut mix, add to pan to form a single overlapping layer. Slather on cheese sauce and bake 350 for 30-40 min. Cool 5 min before serving.

Photos forthcoming

Thing a day - Handwarmers

Had a clothing swap a couple weeks ago, and I was left with the hundreds of unclaimed items. Found an xs wool sweater that had been felted by accident, so it was now an extra extra small. Cut the sleeves off, snipped thumb holes, and blanket stitched the edges. They go all the way to my elbows, they are now the longest pair I have, perfect for computer work during days like today, when it's just a bit overcast, but not cold enough to warrant a sweater.

Thing a day - Vietnamese Ribs again

Same recipe from Chubby Hubby with same modifications. I was planning to tweak the recipe further, but they were so good I stuck with what I did the first time around.

Food and Wine Recipe - Horribly Wrong

In the 'Last Bite' section of Feb 2008 Food & Wine is what I thought was a lovely little recipe for 'Chocolate-Caramel Sandwich Cookies'. I've made a lot of recipes from my 3 year subscription of Food&Wine, and they have consistently needed tweaking. Not enough salt, leavening, flavor, they all seem to be not tested well, or just some misc. recipe that some chichi restaurant handed them and they went with it w/out even inspecting it for errors.

This has got to be the worst offender yet. I will not print the recipe as it needs too many fixes to warrant a rewrite. But I will list what went wrong.

They were suppose to be a 'reimagined oreo cookie' by Rachel Thebault, with a caramel filling instead of whipped lard. What it Was, was a mess.

The cookie dough-
- was so soft and gooey that it had to be frozen on the plastic wrap (that you had to roll it on to keep it from sticking to everything) every few minutes in order to peel off the cut out cookies.

- recipe called for 20 minute bake at 350. Any more than 12 and they burned.

- even baked properly, they were greasy and pretty flavorless. The entire batch of cookie dough had only 1/2 c. of cocoa powder, and you could barely taste it. They were visually deceptive, because they looked richly dark brown, but had little flavor.

The caramel
- a 9" square pan is too small to cut out enough caramel to fill the cookies. It had to be a much larger pan. The caramel came out very thick.

- evil evil recipe writers. You said to oil the pan, put wax paper in it, then pour the caramel in to cool. Didn't say to oil the proper side of the wax paper, and I trusted you. From previous shoddy recipes I should have known not to. I now have a big chunk of pretty flavorless oily caramel (there was absolutely no salt in the recipe) with wax paper glued to one side. I tried freezing it, reheating it, cutting out shapes and peeling it off, all to no avail. If only I had a horrible evil neighbor I could pawn these off on, and pretend I was an incompetent cook as I smiled while they ate the cookies with a delicate slice of wax paper sandwiched between flavorless caramel and bland cookie.

I'm canceling my subscription. I'm tired of tempting looking recipes that are flops over and over again. I paid a lot of money for those stupid magazines, and I've never once cut out a recipe and added it to my book of favorites.

Sure there are ideas in there that I use as a base, but I am not going to continue buying the magazine knowing that all the recipes are in need of tweaking and research. I have plenty of great books I can use for that purpose.

Thing a day - Vietnamese

Well, you ask a cook to do a Thing a Day, and most of the time you'll get food.

Originally seen on the David Lebovitz blog, the recipe is braised pork ribs done in a Vietnamese style. As per David's recommendations, I added fresh ginger, and some red pepper flakes. Oh man these are good. Rich color, slip right off the bone, and even better the next day. Plenty of goopy sauce to add to brown rice.

Best to chill the whole batch to skim off some of the fat. I picked my ribs up at Smart n' Final. An inexpensive way to get a whole slab.

The slowest part of the recipe is waiting for the sugar to caramelize to just the right color.

And boy did the house smell of fish sauce, even when I closed the kitchen door and opened the windows. Not a bad smell, just pungent. Easy cleanup too, since all the cooking was done in 1 pot, from the caramelizing, to the braising. I used one of my Grandmothers huge old enameled cast iron pots.









Ribs just added Ribs almost done

Thank you to me

Thank you for

- being a neatnik, in a good way. I like having a clean house to live, work and play in

- washing all the dishes every day, even the sticky greasy ones. I know it's a horrible neverending chore, especially with no dishwasher

- scrubbing down the huge kitchen sink so it's not greasy, even the faucet and around the edges

- cleaning the stovetop

- cleaning the kitchen counters and getting all the espresso stains of of them

- cleaning and sterilizing the chopping block

- sweeping and mopping the kitchen floor

- shaking out the rugs whenever they need it

- dusting everything that needs it

- treating and cleaning the laundry and putting it away

- vacuuming upstairs

downstairs

the stairs

- cooking wonderful meals that tast good and are good for me

- trying to get to your piles of little projects, I know you are so creative you have to start 2 for every 1 you already have

- keeping the bathroom clean

- washing the bathroom sink

- changing and cleaning the sheets and towels before they really need it

- keeping your socks and clothes in the hamper and not strewn

- keeping your shoes in one place

- moral support when I need it

- starting an exercise and diet regime again. I feel so much better (and sleep better) when eat and exercise well

- being creative and resourceful, whether it's sewing a button back on or making gifts and food and art, I love that you are endlessly producing ideas

- keeping the plants watered and cared for

- sweeping and cleaning the porches

- keeping yourself clean and polished. You're flossing, wearing moisturizer and all those little things that will keep you looking and smelling healthy and attractive for years to come

- caring about your family and friends. You may be stubborn and aloof, but I know you just feel isolated sometimes and don't know how to express yourself

Diet and Exercise

It's almost a month before I head to HI to see mom. Now that she's recovered from cancer, the drugs, radiation and congenital heart failure, she wants to start walking and getting her strength back. She finds it much easier to exercise daily if she has a partner, so I'll be walking w/ her every day.

I did bootcamp and South Beach in fall 2007 for 2 months, lost 17lbs, then gained half of it back over the holidays. The first 2 weeks of South Beach, with no fruit, was so miserable that I don't want to try it again. While perusing the web I found this workout and diet schedule by Tim Ferriss. Even if the final numbers look outrageously high (I'm guessing his body put on a lot of water weight, it's not physically possible to gain that much muscle in so short a time), I'd be thrilled to do half that well. Doing weights twice a week is certainly managable.

So I picked a few multi-joint exercises and did them. I've never done a deadlift before, they always looked off balance and I was worried I'd hurt my back. They felt odd, but I didn't kronk anything. And my hamstrings were sore for days afterwards.

You are suppose to each exercise to failure, which I've never done, though I've lifted weights for years. What was suppose to be 1 set of 10 reps per exercise became 2 or more sets as I kept upping the amount of weight, trying to get to failure. I can lift way more than I thought. Course, for 3 days after the first workout I was wobbly, sore and shaky. I can see why you are only suppose to do this twice a week. It takes that long for your body to recover between workouts.

The food is easy - slow carbs, legumes, meat, and I throw in the occasional piece of fruit. And a half glass of wine a night. I picked up a few bottles of my favorite reds that I have to vacuvin every night, so they don't turn to vinegar by the time I finish the bottle. Not optimal, but I don't have the ability to drink wine faster than a glass a night, even if I'm not on a 'diet'. I have to have it with dinner, instead of before bed as he does it, since I'm a complete lightweight and end up blitzed and spinning while laying in bed.

Another high point of the diet is that you are Suppose to eat crap once a week. I don't have to hold off for weeks at a time, or have only a few bites as a splurge. Which means I can plan to go crazy for Valentine's day with cheese and chocolate fondues.

I'm already seeing the scale changes, and it's only been 4 days.

Thing a day paused

It's hard to update thing-a-day when one has left their camera elsewhere. My 'things' are piling up, and will be posted when I retrieve the camera.

In the meantime, I'm happy to announce that my friend JennX is in the process of creating one of the most beautiful things on the planet, a baby. She's 10 weeks in, I just found out yesterday.

IMPORTANT: If you are Non Partisan or Independent

If you are Non Partisan or Independent you ARE allowed to vote Democratic. Just ask for a Democratic ballot when you go it to vote. The poll workers may not have any idea what you are talking about, but it's right there on page 5 of your 'California Presidential Primary Election' booklet that we all got in the mail.

If they give you guff, just show them the page.

Happy Voting!

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We voted Dem, I'm terrified that every single republican is anti-abortion and wants to repeal Roe Vs. Wade. On that alone, I wouldn't vote for any of them. We are not about to go back to the dark ages, or, at least not any further after the terrible backwards slide from bush's regime.

Travertine Pendant

Just posted a few travertine pendants on Etsy http://www.dragonarium.etsy.com/ These are the same material that the Getty Museum in west LA is made from. Ivory colored, soft (For a rock) and quickly warms against your skin. I love working with and wearing it.

Thing a day 3 - Created knitters

To sequester myself from the super bowl insanity, I did a knitting workshop for 12 women. A couple were there for review, but most were new knitters. I think creating 12 new knitters in the world definitely counts toward Thing a Day. It's always interesting that some people catch on in 2 minutes and can get the movements down right away (even w/ no previous needlework experience). Then others can go for weeks or months and never pick it up. Some were so excited they stayed up late into the evening knitting their new scarf, and raved about it at work the next day. With such a positive response, I think I'll host it again. I liked even though everyone was excited to learn, it was a low key and relaxed event.

Also baked 3 batches of scones. My classic buttermilk recipe in blueberry lemon and cranberry orange. I love that recipe, and they only take 10 min to bake, so I can whip them out in no time.

Tangerines are peak season right now, so I had a 5lb bowl of of them on the table. The scones were snatched up quickly, but only 1 tangerine was eaten the entire day. Now what am I gonna do w/ 5lbs of fresh tangerines? The skins are too soft and rumply to zest. Guess I could juice them if I can't find takers in the next day or so.

Thing a day 2 - King Cake for Us

I had to resist 'testing' the cakes. You can try gumbo or roasted veggies and it won't be noticable. But after creating and smelling brioche for hours, it was downright torture to not taste it. So I made a second one for us.

It was as I expected, rich, slightly sweet, slightly citrusy, and just moist enough to keep you wanting one more bite. I would definitely make this for parties again, but not for myself. It's too tempting to keep having another slice.

Thing a day 1 - King Cakes for Party

I of course missed the signup window for Thing-a-day, so I'll be doing it myself. Sour grapes to you for only giving me a couple days to sign up.

Today I made 2 King Cakes, first time I've ever attempted them. Brioche dough with lemon zest. The large one is plain, the smaller one is more dense and has a marzipan filling.

This is how the first one looked when it first came out. A very soft dough, I needed the bowl to make it hold it's shape. It was sticky and unwieldy to work.


The second one had more flour, and I altered the liquid a little, making it easier to knead, and stiffer once risen. The glass jars between the two breads are cooling Meyer Lemon Marmalade. We'll see how they set up after being in the jar for a day or so.

Below - The King Cakes with sugar and icing (traditional design of gold, purple and green sugars) and ready to go to the party.

Cooking cycles

Cooking in my family skipped a generation. One reason I got into cooking was because i was tired of mom's casseroles and crock pot cooking. When I asked if I could cook something different, the answer was 'you make the mess, you clean it up'. That usually included all the serving dishes, eating utensils, and plates too. Which led to me doing some cooking, mostly during holidays. But it was only after I left the house that I really started having fun cooking and experimenting.

She (nani) wasn't taught much by her mom, who just wanted everyone out of the kitchen when she was cooking.

And grandmother had 2 boys who were not interested in the craft.

At the grandparent's houses I wasn't allowed to do much in the kitchen other than stir stuff, and basic prep (and then only for grandmother and not nani). I likely would have been a cook for a living if mom hadn't enforced the 'you make it, you clean it'. I have friends who think that if you are willing to do the shopping, put together the list, research the recipes and cook, then someone else should clean, or at the very least, help clean.

I'm waxing and waning these days, I really want to cook and bake, but get frustrated that I have to clean all the dishes, including the plates and utensils. We have no dishwasher. I'm it. My cycle is cook, clean, get frustrated, don't cook for a 7 days or more, break down and cook again. I'm in my downcycle now, after doing a chicken roasting workshop and Robbie Burns Dinner last weekend.

Saw Cloverfield - no spoilers

After being scared for that long, I'm totally primed to be jumpy and overly concerned about things under the bed. I'm glad I have someone to cling to tonight.

Devon had to peel my fingers off his arm several times during the movie. I'm not a fan of 'unsteady cam' and covered my eyes several times to ward off the nausea. It had a blair witchian feel.

It had more scary moments than Sunshine, but then, I hated the whole sun zombie thing in that movie. I made the mistake of going into Sunshine thinking it was sci fi, not horror. I don't do horror, except on rare occasion w/ drinking buddies, and even then it's cheesy, chainsaw, buckets of blood, b movie horror. The gratuitous special effects in Sunshine, like when the frozen astronaut goes floating into space and smashes into bits, burns itself into my memory and I hate that kind of visual. See, I'm trying to talk about another scary movie in the hopes that I will distract myself from Cloverfield. My jaw hung open several times during Cloverfield, and my mouth was dry afterwards. I guess that's as good a response as any to this kind of movie.

We saw it at a free Paramount screening, after some (always) excellent food at Crown of India. They make curries thar are lick-the-bowl good. I wanted a spatula when scrapping leftovers into my box, so I wouldn't miss any sauce. Yumness.

Thing a day

On the 21st, sign up opens for http://www.thing-a-day.com/

For 29 days starting on February 1st, participants are invited to create one thing every day and post it on the thing-a-day.com blog.

I think I can do that. It will certainly be good momentus to get my creativity going again. Since there is no way I can just cook every day. And all the knitting projects I have will take more than a day to complete.

Now they need to come up with a 'Thin a day'. Maybe I'll do that in March.

the last one

Who leave 1 single ibuprofen in the bottle? It's as bad as leaving 3 sheets of toilet paper on the roll, as if that somehow neutralized the obligation to replace the roll.

I don't take a lot of pharmaceuticals, but when I need ibuprofen, I need a lot of it.

Punch up and tweak chocolate chip cookies

The standard recipe for Nestles chocolate chip cookies (the one on the back of every bag) is too greasy, sweet and bland for me. I find I'm always trying to adjust it. I have a more European than American palate, which means more flavors and less overpowering fat and sugar. Most american candy is just too slap in the face sugary for me. I need caramelization, salt, citrus, nuts or something else in the mix.

Brown Sugar
I never use brown sugar. It's 3 times the cost of regular sugar, and all it is is white sugar with a few drops of molasses added to it. I'm not talking about the fancy 7x more expensive specialty brown sugars (which I think is equally ridiculous), just C&H. How can you check? Put a pinch of brown sugar in your palm and rub your finger against it. In a few seconds your palm will have molasses on it, and there will be plain white sugar crystals on top of it. Rip Off!

Just add a teaspoon or 2 to to a recipe that calls for 'light' or 'dark' brown sugar. Molasses keeps forever (as opposed to brown sugar which goes rock hard after a couple months), and can be used to liven up the flavor on myriad recipes from sweet to savory.

My newest cookie recipe tweak.

Carribean Coffee Chocolate Chip Cookies

cream:
1.5 sticks butter
1.5 cups sugar
2 T molasses

Add:
2 eggs - 1 at a time
1 t vanilla
2 T espresso or coffee concentrate (I always have some coffee toddy in the fridge)

Mix together, then stir into liquid in 3 parts:
1 t fine sea salt
1 t baking soda
1/2 c cocoa powder
1 c whole wheat flour
1 c white unbleached flour

Stir in:
1-2 c chocolate chips ( lately I like Guittards bittersweet, the large flat chips are a nice change in texture) depending on your chocolate craving.

Dollop onto parchment and bake at 350 for 10-12 min until slightly firm to the touch. They are not radically different, but they don't leave a greasy slick in your milk when you dip them, and they have a nice depth from the interaction of the molasses, cocoa and coffee.

I like to freeze the dough in a long roll and wrap it in plastic wrap. Then I can take it out, cut as many cookies off of it as I want, and bake a single sheet of them. Fresh cookies whenever I want, and only as many as I need.

How useful is a blog?

At Haliewa Joe's in HI.

I see more blogs that focused as tools for selling than journals about the authors life. Barely anyone I know uses them to about people in their lives. Sure they cover the big events like births and weddings, but I always thought a journal also contained your thoughts on other people, what you did or didn't like about them, your learning experiences about them. We're tribal, and before stuff and work comes how we socialize with others.

But the blogs I read are mostly about careers, art, crafts, tech, and 'big' social events. Do the same people who write those blogs write elsewhere about their lives,
their travails, the gossip? Or do they just talk about to their friends, and then its' gone, never to be read about by them or others, years later when they wish to retrieve that moment. Sure they knew what recipe they were experimenting with, or what shop they visited or cheese they ate or who's book was recently published back in June 2006, but who were they fucking, and was it good? Was it different than it is now, and what did they think about that person?

I certainly want to know about the recipes and cheese and books, which is why I subscribe to those blogs. But I wonder if they keep their other personal info on those blogs as well (as private entries), or write them in a private place and put it on a shelf (always nice to write by hand, but you can't do a fast search for a name or place by hitting ctrl +F, you have to skim shelves of pages of scribbles), or don't even put them to paper at all. Letting those moments that truly define their humanity slip away, to only be half-remembered decades later as a fuzzy recollection mixed in with the definite sharp knowledge of a cheese they discovered around the same time.

MTG - end of an era

I use to play MTG when it was BIG. It peaked just around the time the Ice Age expansion came out. MTG was the only card game out there, there was nothing like it, everyone I knew who collected comics or was into D&D also played. I collected until Urza's Saga came out, and the addition of yet more stupid annoying rules made me quit collecting and playing altogether. I should have sold my cards then. But I was hoping that either they would make a comeback, or I'd be able to play again w/ some regularity. So I kept them.

Not that I played a single game of magic in the last 10 years, but I've kept them close to my heart. Hoping some day that I could find people to play with, people who were not impatient impolite teens with $400 decks that had all the time in the world to study the new rules that come out every 3 months, and no time for old codgers like me who just wanted to play open, unlimited, for fun. I tried a few comic stores that had an extra room for Magic The Gathering back in the 90's, and had no luck finding the right vibe.

Today I sold them to a college student who supplements his income by reselling them. He paid cash, and I am now out 1 entire box of magic cards. A file box full that I didn't have to part out card by card, look up, research, package, and sell individually. Sure I could have gotten 5x what he paid, but it's out, gone, and it won't be looking at me with big 'MTG' in red ink every time I walk by the bookshelf. It won't taunt me any more with potential playability. I have too many other projects and art and things to do.

I dreamt about the cards all last night, of selling them or of keeping and selling them myself. That I'd make so much more if I focused on just selling them, time I don't have, and when I woke I knew that I was getting time back by getting rid of them. If I really wanted to put in the effort to sell them, I had a decade to do it, and didn't.

I did spent 2 hours last night taking one last loving look at the cards, remembering favorite decks, long hours playing with friends, the first few excited days of learning what the hell the game was all about with a friend who was equally lost, the days when I would eagerly await the next expansion, of saving for a handful of booster packs.

OK, I did keep 4 cards. I sold over 3000 of them, so it's not like I kept a whole card box. It was an odd 4, nothing rare, just because I loved the cards, not the art (otherwise I would have dug out all the Quinton Hoovers, and it would have been another couple weeks before I got around to posting the ad) and used them a lot.

Now I wish I could hand every box I have to a college student and he'd pay me that much. I'd much prefer the space than the stuff.

New Years Day

What did I do new years day? I spent it sleeping in, then putting away boxes of wrapping paper and holiday decorations. Then I played the last and best hours of Mass Effect, until 1:30am. I am not a big console gamer, but I am a sucker for a good choose-your-own-adventure game. That was tremendous fun. The last time I enjoyed a game that much was Planescape: Torment. Funny enough, it was made by the same people. Thank you to the entire studio for making a very entertaining, dramatic, and in depth game.

If only school could be as much fun as video games, I think our kids would be a lot smart and more involved in the learning process. I spent many hours reading the codex and planet informational blurbs in Mass Effect. Besides being entertaining, all of it completely useless for every day life. But like a good book, I could focus on nothing else.

And like Planescape: Torment, it has great replayability, you want to play the full Renegade character, then Paragon, chose different love interests, and different responses. But I'm done with it for a while, I didn't do much else all week and need some time away from the TV.

Now I have to scream through Something Wicked This Way Comes for the bookclub tomorrow.