shadowkat: (Default)
Writing this up now - since I've chosen not to write online or on the computer after 8pm. Of course I do have to make dinner at some point, so we'll see. I've tuna steak in the fridge, also butternut squash noodles - assuming they are still good, if so, I may just do the butternut squash, and some veggies with cheese, walnuts and pesto.

Speaking of squash, here's a photo of the pumpkins across the street from my subway stop in Brooklyn, which I referred to in a previous post:





***

This morning on NY1 they announced that the Washington Post lost 200,000 subscribers since they chose to not endorse any candidate. (Or didn't endorse Kamala Harris and didn't condemn the Felonious Conman running against her.)

Then they announced Bestos response - which I've been debating off and on in my head all day long.

Here's the gist - he feels that endorsing either candidate or providing any endorsement is presenting bias. And shouldn't be done. He states why below:

"Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election. No undecided voters in Pennsylvania are going to say, “I’m going with Newspaper A’s endorsement.” None. What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence. Ending them is a principled decision, and it’s the right one. Eugene Meyer, publisher of The Washington Post from 1933 to 1946, thought the same, and he was right. By itself, declining to endorse presidential candidates is not enough to move us very far up the trust scale, but it’s a meaningful step in the right direction. I wish we had made the change earlier than we did, in a moment further from the election and the emotions around it. That was inadequate planning, and not some intentional strategy."

I've been debating this in my head all day long.
Read more... )
I don't know. I can argue it either way.

What do you think?

[I'm admittedly biased at the moment, because I'm pissed off at Amazon for not delivering my charger and making me anxious about utilizing their lockers. And if it were up to me, the Felonious Conman running against Harris, would be sitting in a prison cell at Rikers at the moment, not running for any elected office ever.]
shadowkat: (Default)
Well, today's accomplishments included getting my two robot vacuums to work. So, I now have a black and white robot vacuum - I got the white I-Life one - because I was having issues with the black one. But once it arrived the black one was working again. Then today, couldn't get either to work.

One apparently needed the bin to be cleaned and re-inserted. The other? I just needed to turn on. I went to youtube and discovered it had an on/off switch.

I've named Spike and Buffy. They get along pretty well considering.

Other accomplishments?

As I've been promising for the last two months, I finally set up my little art space/studio in my apartment. Basically, I converted my remote from home work station to an art/painting station, since I can't work remotely any longer. I'd actually bought the desk for artwork - so I'm happy about that. And now I have an easel set up, which can store my paints.

See picture below:



Even started on the sunflower. It's not great. But if you consider that the last time I painted or drew anything at all was approximately eight years ago? It was sometime in 2014 or 2015? I can't remember. In short, I'm a tad rusty. Drawing and painting are like any skill - practice makes perfect.
Although it is in some results a trained mental muscle.

I've always been good at art or so I've been told by various art teachers (I've taken a lot of courses on art throughout school and post school, also outside school). One in college told me that she wished she'd gotten me earlier. (I waited until my senior year to take an art course, while my freshman roommate majored in art - she became a financial advisor and has self-published three books now, one on finances, and two that are a series of historical novellas.) I'm an intuitive artist. Not a commercial artist. Freshman roommate was more of a commercial artist.

I don't like commercial art - never have. Also don't like commercial writing - tends to bore me. I don't do paint or write on demand or by numbers well. Never could color within the lines. It's not how I think. Nothing wrong with it - just not how I think is all.

The rusty bit - also a result of the fact that I couldn't get my hands to stop shaking today. I don't know why. Tremor was just worse today than usual.

The other accomplishment?

I made a low-carb/low-sugar gluten-free chocolate mousse pie. The only sweetner is a teaspoon of maple syrup, and fruit. Maybe a little sugar in the semi-sweet chocolate chips that I melted and the gluten free graham craker crust.

Ingredients:
Read more... )
See picture below:



The difficulty is that blood sugar is still higher than I'd like it to be. health crap )

***

Still watching Peaky Blinders - which evolves as the seasons progress. The characters change, as does the setting, attire, and problems.
It does a good job of getting across the time period from 1919 to 1930 in Britain. Also, focuses on the lesser known Birmingham, and Northern England. Along with the issues with Ireland, Belfast, and the IRA conflict during that period.

It is an anti-hero series. And it's violent, albeit not as violent as Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, or House of Dragon. More in lines with The Sopranoes and The Godfather. People get shot, people get beaten up.
Sexual violence is implied not shown, and there's not much of it.

I like the fact that it doesn't romanticize the anti-heroes. You know they are anti-heroes. There's no question about that.

It's well-written. I find myself re-winding a lot for the dialogue. I got the close-captioning on. Also, the acting is top notch. Not a weak link in the bunch.

I'm on S5, which is a bit bleaker than the previous seasons, possibly because it starts with the stock market crash. S4 is possibly the least bleak or the most satisfying.

***

Stumbled across an announcement that James Marsters attended the premier of Sarah Michelle Gellar's Wolf Pack in support of the actress, and walked the red carpet with her, along with her husband and co-stars.

The announcement also mentioned the toxic work environment on Buffy. I'm fascinated by stories of toxic work environments, because I've been in so many myself and am in one now. Misery loves company and all that.

From what I've been able to piece together from Gellar's interviews which all reference it now - is that Gellar doesn't much like talking about it. And kind of talks around it. Understandable - it's difficult to prove that sort of thing even when its going on. People are terrified to speak up, and the bullies have a tendency to be kind and nice to people who either aren't working directly for them, or that they like. So there's also quite a bit of gaslighting. And enabling. Go into any hostile work environment, and I guarantee you'll find folks defending the bullies, and telling you that the employee is to blame. Or it's in their head. They are also very good at finding scapegoats. Fighting these assholes is close to impossible in our society. Like it or not - we live in a society that enables and rewards bullies.

But when pressed does mention it - kind of vaguely. She's tough, and has been accused of bad behavior herself - so, that's part of the reason. What she has said is that - she felt it was important to put 100 percent of herself into it, and didn't understand why others didn't feel the same way. And discovered later that may have been a mistake - since she got burned out, early on. Also that, she got into trouble for standing up for the cast and crew - and shutting things down after 15 hours. "We promised 13, it's been 15 hours, we're done for the day. I'm going home." Having watched the out-takes, I believe that. They went way beyond what other series do in regards to takes. Most do five takes per scene, maybe ten. Buffy did thirty. I got bored watching it. I mean they literally redid each line about fifteen to twenty times. Until everything was perfect lighting, camera, etc. That's brutal. I'm surprised they got away with it. Fox, WB and UPN clearly was letting Whedon do whatever he damn well pleased.

According to the Hollywood Reporter - Gellar's husband is less vague, as is Seth Green, and others.
Read more... )

This does clarify a few misrepresentations in the press at the time the show was airing. During 1997-2003, Gellar was portrayed as the Diva on Buffy, and the main problem. Whedon loosely stated that he was used to it - he had to deal with Roseanne. And Hannigan had alluded to it. As had others. She was blamed for Buffy ending in S7. Whedon was praised in the fandom, and Gellar got a lot of backlash. Typical bully behavior - as a friend told me recently, when I describing bullying behavior at work - they want to control the narrative. Whedon worked hard to control the narrative.
And people tend to see and believe what they want to see and believe.

But there were always signs. There always are. If you look closely enough.

However, I like how Gellar chose to deal with it now. Which is to state, "this happened in the past. I learned from it. Dwelling on it - gains me nothing. Talking about it - solves nothing. I'm proud of the work I did, the work the cast did, and the show we created. We can be proud of that, without condoning the toxic work environment that produced it. And I've moved on, incorporating the lessons I learned from that time period and ensuring it doesn't happen again on my watch."

What's interesting, albeit not surprising, is that both Gellar and Marsters have stated separately that they can't re-watch most of S6 and S7. Read more... )

I give her a lot of credit for all of that. (And I wouldn't call myself a fan of Gellar's by any stretch of the imagination.) But what she's doing isn't easy in that business. It means turning down certain jobs, and not getting others. Also, it's easier said than done. I will state, I'm doing the same thing - I'm incorporating the lessons learned from previous experiences. And not staying silent when bullied. And supporting others who are bullied in the work force.

***

Anyhow, off to bed. Hope your Saturday or what's left of it was uneventful and peaceful.
shadowkat: (Default)
Which makes it tough on archiving, but oh well. (I'm almost done with 2006. I'm basically snatching my book reviews and throwing them into Good Reads, and snatching movie reviews, fanfic, meta, television essays, and book review/essays and throwing them into Archive of Our Own. Right now, an old fanfic that didn't get much attention in lj or dw, is getting attention in Ao3, which is interesting. You should post your fanfic over there.)

I'm behind on my journal correspondence. I'm not ignoring you - I've read your responses at work - I just don't know how to respond to them yet?
Brain fog. Partly.

More on Ice Cream

Read more... )

Family

Mother figured out why niece wants to go to Milan Read more... )

Also, mother's physical therapist is a huge theater buff - she's been to NYC this year and seen four musicals, and is traveling to Houston to see another one, and then to Atlanta to see several more. Read more... )

On the movie front, mother and I agreed that we both wouldn't mind seeing the Elvis movie.Read more... )

***

Covid

Crazy workplace has decided COVID is pretty much over. OR as long as there aren't massive hospitalizations or deaths - there's nothing to worry about. Read more... )

***

Tired. Signing off.
shadowkat: (Default)
Took the day off - for a doctor's appointment. I thought it was the annual physical, but apparently just a follow-up. Didn't matter - had to give the blood and urine samples anyhow.

Didn't feel great this morning - but nothing to worry the doctor over. I think it was the shift in barometric pressure and IBS issues. (Which resulted in bowl issues - regarding bowl eruptions that you may not want to know about )

NYC on it's face appears to be a difficult place to find bathrooms in. Although most places are. finding a bathroom while out and about, when one desperately requires one... )

Also, a lot of television shows and books don't talk about bathrooms. Actually 98% of them don't. In sci-fi, I ponder it. Granted we don't necessarily want to know. But I was admittedly impressed with the Expanse for showing it, not to mention Firefly, and I think BSG. Star Trek acts as if no one ever has to go. (Maybe they advanced past that point?) They are all wearing form fitting jump suits - making it difficult to go to the bathroom. I feel for the actors.

In addition to the above? There's the new movie out (Lost in the Jungle?) with Sandra Bullock who plays a romance novelist stuck in the Amazon Jungle with her cover model, and she's wearing a glittery jump suit, that you have to disrobe completely from in order to go to the bathroom. When I read the article - I thought, okay, why? She stated in the article that she didn't go to the bathroom very often - because she'd basically be naked in the jungle. (Sounds painful. I'm guessing she didn't eat or drink all that much during shooting?)

Apparently the costume designer or the director or both of this new film didn't much like Sandra Bullock? I mean the costume designer of Romancing the Stone was nicer to Kathleen Turner - she got to wear a shirt, skirt and high heels, that she chopped off. Also, her companion was an adventurer who could actually shoot a gun. Granted she did her own stunts, and got beaten up in the film, but hey, better outfit to go to the bathroom in. If I had to choose which film and heroine to get trapped in - I'd pick Turner's.

Yes, I think about these sort of things.

***

The doctor decided to prescribe me an expensive and not exactly easy to figure out - Glucose Level Reader. You get a 14 day supply, and it costs $69.58 or thereabouts. (Why it doesn't just cost $70 even, I don't know.)
I have a feeling I'm going to get the finger sticks.

This new thing - according to the directions, requires you to place the item on the back of your upper arm, then put the reader up to read it. It has a needle attached to it - so you push in the needle then pull it away, then put up the reader, and see the glucose level.

I'll let you know how it goes. It's pricey, so I don't see myself continuing with it.

Type 2 Diabetes is fun.

***

Decided the reason I'm feeling off today is definitely barometric pressure changes, sinuses and post nasal drip/gerd. Because I took tynenol sinus and it relieved some of it. Also have prescription dose pepcid (which is a lot cheaper than the over-the-counter version believe it or not - about a 90 day supply cost $10, when it normally costs $39-50).

Getting older means more pills to keep track of. Lovely.

**

Also managed amidst all of this - to get laundry done. I'd run out of socks again. Also the black jeans from the well...bowl issue described above, required washing. I washed them in the sink first, rinsed them out, and then put them in the washer for well obvious reasons.

Had a lengthy conversation with guy in the laundry room. Apparently he owns a house in Delaware with his partner, and is renting an apartment in the city due to work issues. He works in the city. But can't really afford a house here - it's cheaper in Delaware. I'd think owning a house, and renting an apartment in NYC would be expensive - but what do I know? The need to own a house or apartment is kind of lost on me. I know how much houses and apartments cost to maintain, I actually dealt with repair men while house-sitting my parents house. It's a lot cheaper and less stressful to rent particularly in New York - which has high property taxes. You just need to find a well-maintained complex, with a good super.

**

My appetite has been weird lately. The idea of red meat, lamb, beef, steak, hamburger, any of it - turns my stomach. I don't know why. I looked at it in the store today and was completely turned off. Also I can't stomach green beans at all. The mere idea of them makes me ill. What happened? Did I burn out on them finally? Wish I'd burn out on other things. Like Against the Grains Pizza?

While in direct contrast? I have been craving celery. I used to hate celery. Now I love it. I also love celery juice. WFT? My body is very odd.
I picked up a kosher gluten free chocolate cake roll from Molly's Bakery at the grocery store. It's apparently for passover. I considered getting the honey cake - but it was too big.

I've actually done Passover - with a college boyfriend in San Francisco (with his brother and his brother's family). Read more... )

Off to make dinner and lunch. Or attempt it any rate.
shadowkat: (Default)



It's hard to care about the snowstorm. I can't go anywhere anyhow. However, I do feel for the poor folks who had their vaccine appointments cancelled because of it. NYC always freaks out over snowstorms - mainly because they got blind-sighted once or twice, and decided NEVER again. New Yorkers seem to hold sternly to the view - "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me!" Or "you caught me with my pants done that one time, but it ain't happening again, Dude."
Read more... )
Also I went to the grocery store to pick up lime and lemon juice, along with a few other items (because I was there, and I hate going) - and it was crowded. More than I wanted it to be at any rate. I had a KN95 mask on - I've been wearing them for well over three months now - and I'd not seen any others until now. Now, it seems everyone is either wearing the KN95, or the double masks. Except for the maskless wonders - who we will not speak of. (Spits). But you can't enter a grocery store now without a mask - they'll boot your ass out. (Thank god.) Those days are long gone.

Felt like a human obstacle course. Read more... )



Two people in front of me - clearly going home after doing laundry. Read more... )

Oh that's not snow on the pavement - that's rock salt. Like I said, they go crazy.

Haven't done much else today. Read more... )

Did invent a new soup yesterday. Let's see if I can remember what I did.
Ah..

Soup Glorious Soup! Or rather just blended Apple and Turnip and curry soup... )

I ignoring the political situation in the US at the moment, I suggest you do the same.

Good night and good luck. I'm off to fix myself something to eat. Not that I'm hungry - but it's almost 7:30, so I really should.

shadowkat: (Default)
Except for me, 2020 didn't really begin until March 9. So it will be over on March 8. I go by my birthday. Works better that way - and guess what this year it kind of makes more sense than most. The roller-coaster ride won't be over until March, when the vaccine is more readily available and Trump and Republican party sail out of office for the most part to face State and International criminal investigations.

I'm baking today. I decided to see the year out on this crisp rainy day, by baking. I made a spinach, sharp cheddar, and fresh spinach quiche, and a pumpkin pie.

Tonight, I'm broiling a lobster tail filet mignon, and possibly having green beans and sweet potato. I don't think I can't do a lobster tail and a filet mignon. So saving the lobster tails for tomorrow night, perhaps. Or will flip them. [ETA - the lobster tails are still frozen because I bought them on Tuesday and put them in the freezer and forgot to take them out until 12 noon today.]

And I have cans of pink sparkling wine - Sofia, which I like. I don't like champagne and it does not like me - tends to give me a headache and gas.

Me: My vacation or staycation has gone by so quickly!
Mother: And you thought you'd be bored and struggle to find things to do..
Me: Apparently I have no problem doing nothing. I actually kind of enjoy just sitting and watching television shows, playing on the internet, working on my writing, taking long walks around a cemetery, and talking on the phone or watching stuff on Zoom. This is not a problem for me at all. It was very relaxing.
Mother: And you were so worried.
Me: I should have known better. I'm well-suited to this actually. I like routine. I don't need to busy. It's other people who make me feel that I have to be busy, silly people.

Also sleeping until 9, and staying up until 12:30, probably helps.

A found farewell to the rollercoaster ride that was 2020 - here's to 2021, which will hopefully be less topsy-turvy.

Found this to be an interesting analysis of what's been happening politically since well the 1980s..ie, the Regan era or the era of pronounced individualism.

Heather Richardson Cox is a Political Historian who sums it up as follows:
excerpt )

Here's photos of my quiche and new garden..







Unfortunately, no lobster tails tonight, will have to be for new year's day. Since they aren't fully defrosted yet. That's all right. I'll have filet mignon instead.

Per the NY Times briefing:

As of this writing, 2021 has already arrived in much of the world, from a New Zealand free of the coronavirus to an England in lockdown.

In most cities, there are no roaring crowds, no gatherings for fireworks shows and, let’s hope, no strangers kissing at midnight. But people around the world are still toasting the start of the New Year. Here’s our live coverage.

In Australia, a fireworks show went on as usual. Big Ben, long silent while under renovation, chimed at midnight, as Britain left the European Union. The ball will still drop in Times Square.


Good news?

And on Friday, 20 states and 32 cities and counties will raise their minimum wage, which will reach or exceed $15 an hour in 27 of them. More places will join them later in 2021, bringing what was once a fringe idea into widespread reality.

Here's hoping for a better 2021.

shadowkat: (Default)
HAVE YOU EVER: AMERICANA COOKING EDITION

[US or American language and cooking terminology, specifically Midwestern and Southern, working class/middle class American, in that biscuits mean well the American version of a scone, which if you've ever had them - you'd never in a million years call a scone. They aren't like them at all. Biscuits are more puffy, and Also, since I'm gluten intolerant - most of stuff hasn't been done recently.]
Read more... )
shadowkat: (work/reading)
1. So, I've had a day. Which wasn't helped by being soaked by the deluge on the way home. It was pouring so hard, that after two blocks, having an umbrella didn't appear to matter. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

2. Currently reading..(I'll look it up for you) The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African-American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty

It's basically a memoir by an gay African-American chef -- who explores his African-American ancestory and heritage through cooking. So part cookbook, part memoir.

I'm about 20% in -- or 50 pages.

Reading it has made me think about my own cooking or culinary heritage such as it is. Mainly the writer makes the assumption that we all have one, or all African-Americans can trace theirs through it. (I beg to differ, I happen to know a lot of African-Americans who do not cook nor want to. What is about human beings that we have a tendency to think everyone shares our views, perspective, and skill or tastes? )
Read more... )

It's strange but in my fifties, I'm beginning to see myself and others more clearly somehow. And I'm less concerned that others share or even understand my skills or tastes. It's as if I no longer feel the need for approval or validation. Or care.
It's weirdly freeing.

For instance, I realized recently that I don't enjoy cooking that much. Read more... )

3. Finished Powers of X #2 by Jonathan Hickman and RB Silva. The art, once again, is quite good. But there is an awful lot of expository world-building and hard science fiction detail in this book. It feels at times like reading Doris Lessing's Sci-Fi Opus.. Canopus in Argos which I couldn't get through. This is just a comic and breaks things up a bit. Canopus in Argos was a huge book...and pages and pages of it.

There's a nifty pair of quotes at the end of the comic -

Stan Lee - February 1969 - " Where do you nuts get your ideas?" " That question is asked of Yours Truly at lectures, interviews, and bull sessions more often than any other..... The point is, ideas are no problem. Here in the Bullpen, we can't talk to each other for five minutes without coming up with a zillion new thoughts and angles. The big hangup is getting the time to develop the ideas...to polish them and refine them until we feel they'll have maximum impact -- until we know they'll be an integral part of the ubiquuitous Marvel universe! Everyone has ideas -- you, I, the gang in the mail room- even our competitors, bless-em. What really counts is what you DO with them. We believe that almost any idea can be worthwhile if it's presented with integrity, taste, and imagination. For, an idea is like a guitar -- it doesn't mean a thing unless you know how to use it!"

This is followed by the quote: " You must see by now,there is no you and I, there is only us. We are together, or we are nothing." - Xavier


I had to read several bits twice. Read more... )
shadowkat: (Default)
Recovering from eating a fresh Habanero chili pepper
which I'd confused with a sweet pepper and sliced up in my salad. (What? They do look the same. Granted the Habanero is a lot smaller but still, same color.)

My lips still burn 35 minutes later. My tongue burned for 10-15 minutes.
And by burn - I mean BURN! Luckily I had an apple and Siggis Yogurt with me - to help, plus plenty of cold water. I threw out the salad. These are considered the second hottest pepper in the world. I've drank the equivalent of 8 glasses of water.

But hey, on the bright side? It woke me up and killed my appetite.

Read more news about Osma Bin Laden assaination on Huffington Post.
Apparently they varified that it was him via his sister's DNA, then they
buried him at sea per Islamic rituals. They offered to give him to the Saudias but they turned them down. (Or it was Syria, can't remember which.)
Pakistan is furious that the US went in there and took out the compound without telling Pakistan about it first. (ie. You invaded our country without permission? How dare you!) Saw the President's speech on it last night live...hence the reason I feel so dead this morning. Well that, and the fact that I stupidly stayed up to write the entry on both it and Game of Thrones.
Really need to stop doing that.

Day is dragging workwise. Not helped by feeling sleepy. Also it cloudy and overcast. Not a good walking day.

Sigh - lips still burning, but tongue fine. Apparently just touching the skin with your lips is enough. Who knew? Note to self - no more impulse buying of veggies and food items.
shadowkat: (Default)
Watching Carousel in the background - forgot what a dark musical that is. The darkest of the Rodgers and Hammerstein oeuvre. It's about a Carousel barker who falls in love with a lovely gal in New England. He gets killed and goes to heaven. And is sent back to help his daughter whose in trouble. But before that happens, he has to tell his story to the star keeper in heaven who is responsible sending him back. In the story, we learn that he was abusive to his pregnant wife, stole, and didn't really work. He comes back to help his daughter who was hurt much like he was and could go down his path. It's a disturbing musical...on a lot of levels, that I hadn't noticed before. I'm willing to bet that one out of three women have either experienced physical or emotional abuse from a boyfriend or father or husband or male boss/teacher etc. Two of my great-grandmothers - one on my father's side, and one on my mother's were beaten to death by their husbands (my great-grandfathers). At least two aunts were either emotionally or physically abused by theirs. And I've heard the excuses. They are all the same. Usually out of anger. Or their own fathers were like this. Or lack of control. I think it's about power mostly...and having none, so they struck out. But it does not excuse it.

Our media gives us mixed messages...as if we ourselves can't quite decide. Is it okay to use violence to resolve our problems? Is it ever okay? And if not, why do we feel compelled or satisfied when we see it resolved in this manner either in a video game or tv show or a film?

Also watched Life on tv this weekend...it's reassuring in that it shows violence exists in nature as well. Perhaps the desire to resolve issues with violence is in the DNA. It is deeply embedded in our genetic code. Animals kill, fight, and chase each other and other animals. Insects do as well. Nature is extraordinarily violent, yet beautiful in its violence, there's a grace to it that is difficult to describe. It reminds me of watching the Jerome Robbins dances from West Side Story, yet here we see the grace of the cheetah landing on the ostrich or the lizard grabbing a pray mantis with its tongue or a pair of birds doing a mating dance of joy across a pond.

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution )
NYC's battle to eat healthy ...it is admittedly becoming a rather absurd one, depending on your point of view. )

Sigh. People bewilder me. Apparently mother nature did not deem it fit to give everyone common sense. And particularly not those of us who decide to become politicians.
shadowkat: (knitting and pottery)
Yay - TV is back. So is cable internet. Got up bright and early this morning to ensure it got fixed.

Sigh. One duty down. Two to go. Have to buy a yellow t-shirt to wear on Monday to demonstrate unity with finance department. Why they chose yellow, I've no clue. Green, red, blue, purple - I could have done. But yellow? Ick. I really look horrid in Yellow. I do not buy or own Yellow. Dang it. Also write movie review for Wales.

Should have made more of my time away from TV - but difficult work week. Very aggravating.
And not any cool social things planned. Did hang out with Wales quite a bit. And had fish three different nights. One I fixed myself.

In one of my many conversations with Wales this week - we were discussing Waitress - a film that I promised Wales that I'd write a review of for her friends cultural website - Wales mentioned how she hates to cook, rarely does it, and couldn't really identify with the main character's creation of pies in her head. I on the other hand, adore cooking. I love food. Particularly love playing with food. Presentation. Experimentation. Fiddling with different tastes and textures and rarely, if ever, use recipes. Or I'll use them then just change bits and pieces of them. Alter them.

For example: As a kid, I learned that chocolate chip cookies sometimes tasted better if you mixed them with your hands as opposed to the mixer - at the final step in the process. My best friend at the time taught me this. Then later, I discovered that if you mixed crisco with butter - you got the texture of crisco for the cookies, but the flavor of butter. And if you put slightly more brown sugar than white sugar they'd be a bit richer. Plus always put two or three tablespoons of pure vanilla extract. I often would add a bit of coffee or expresso. For the flour mixture - I sometimes put in a little less than recommended, with bit less salt, and little less baking soda. (Part of this was by accident, since I was always misreading measurments). And when I baked them? Took them out five minutes before I was supposed to. My family loved my cookies and could not figure out how I made them, because it certainly wasn't what was on the back of the Nestle chocolat chip wrapper - they knew this because they followed it. (Ugh, now I crave my chocolat chip cookie dough - which of course I can no longer have, due to the gluten intolerance.)

Last night's dinner of Tuna with black olives over baby argula with rice pasta mac and cheese on the side: Seared tuna steak, with shitake mushrooms, ground pepper, a touch of green bean curry, marinanted lightly in soy with a touch of thai fish sauce and greek or italian black olives over argula. Quite tasty. If you don't like black olives you can substitute green or just do without - but the olives added a great flavor. Use olive oil to seare in the frying pan. Steak should be on the medium rare side, pink in the middle and cooked on top and bottom.

Brown rice gluten-free macroni and cheese. Used Glutino's brown rice macroni. My favorite is the potato and rice blend - but can't find it any more. I make it with a touch of whole milk, a touch of salted butter (you can substitute yogurt or soy milk I suppose), white sharp cheddar cheese, parmeses cheese (about a cup, maybe more), ground pepper to taste.
Chill a bit. Then serve. Very good the next day or two days later, I've discovered.

Wed night: Orange Chicken and Mango stirfry. With chocolate ice cream and blackberries/strawberries a dollop of whip cream for dessert

Chopped skinless, boneless chicken breast
Chopped skinless mango
table spoon or two of soy sauce (wheat-free, low sodium - can get from Tamarind)
chopped shitake mushroom
Snow peas
Green bean curry - thai
Tablespoon or two of orange juice
Tablespoon or two of white mint tea

Mix chopped chicken with soy and about a teaspoon of green bean curry, maybe less - depends on how spicy you like it.
Use olive oil in the frying pan. Not very much.
Throw in chicken, mango, mushrooms all at the same time, fry for a bit, then throw in snow peas (which cook the fastest).
Add orange juice and tea - this will give the sauce a bit more liguid and act as a counter for the spicy green curry and salty soy.

When done? Pour over jasmine white rice. One chicken makes enough for two depending on how large it is. I split it for dinner and lunch.

For dessert? strawberries, blackberries, with chocolat ice cream and a little whipped cream.
which I made look really pretty, before realizing - damn, I'm eating this and I'm supposed to be on a diet.

Wales who has sampled my cooking, amongst the few who have - thinks I should be a ghost-chef, come up with the stuff and let someone else do the work. Told her this would never work. Besides if I did it for a living, it would cease to be fun. People treat cooking the same way they treat knitting and most crafts - it is done *this* way, with precise measurements, precise materials, etc. They don't seem to understand the whole intutitve/spontaneous thing - the idea of *play*. Or rather it doesn't occur to them that these are things one would play with? Ponders.

At any rate, Wales and I take turns envying one another. I honestly think I'd struggle less with weight, if I enjoyed cooking and eating and looking at food and varieties of food less. Sure it depends on mood. But I love food when I'm happy or sad. The only time I don't is when I'm anxious and scared or filled with anxiety. Like before a trip, waiting for someone, or about to do something I'm nervous about. Wales wishes she enjoyed cooking and was more spontaneous about it, less worried about following the recipe or getting it exactly right.

Goals for today:
1. Write review of the Waitress for Wales
2. get cable and internet fixed
3. Write review of Shortbus
4. Work on revisions
5. Go to the Y and see if I can join on a trial basis and partake of their huge swimming pool - they are approximately 25-30 blocks away, but there's a subway not to far away from them. And it might work better than the expensive fitness collective. Plus pool. We'll see.
6. Buy yellow shirt to show unity with finance department. (sigh)
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