what i made

damn, i wanted to post about my trip to colorado as soon as i got back, but i don't have the hardware i need to download the pictures onto my computer yet! coincidentally, after all my hinting here, my dad has up and loaned me his digital camera. theoretically, he doesn't even know i have a blog. anyway, i'm not going to say anything about colorado until i get back from circuit city tomorrow and can post pictures to go along with it, except to say that it was very relaxing, and that it was in the seventies and sunny the whole time.

instead i'll tell you what i've cooked since i got back on wednesday:

1. last night, all tossed together in a big bowl as a wilted green salad: mâche, which is a wonderful buttery, yet dark, green; gnocchi, sauteed in olive oil so they were slightly crispy and golden on the outside; zucchini also sauteed in olive oil, till just brown around the edges; fresh basil; alfalfa sprouts and a grated mixture of italian hard cheeses in a homemade dressing of olive oil, mustard and lime juice. (picture of newly acquired from ebay antique jadite reamer to come.) oh, and slivered almonds, which i sauteed till brown, in the zucchini oil, that, now that i'm talking about it, i'll go ahead and say, briefly had a mushed clove of garlic in it.

2. just now--it took me all day--i made stuffing. i went to the union square greenmarket and got celery root, pears and purple cipollini onions (i also got a pumpkin, a butternut squash, tiny roasting potatoes, and apples, but they didn't go into the stuffing. i'll let you know what becomes of them later in the week.) i got, elsewhere, a whole loaf of--i think portuguese--bread, mushrooms, milk, prunes, pecans. i diced and soaked the prunes in vermouth. i chopped the celery root and pears into thin slivers so they would cook quickly. i chopped the mushrooms real tiny so my boyfriend wouldn't complain about them. while i was drying out the bread i had cubed pretty small, with no bread knife, mind you, on a cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven for twenty minutes, i sauteed in olive oil and kate's homemade butter everything else with some sage, rosemary and thyme (no parsley! ha! my boyfriend made me throw it away before we left for colorado.) i tossed everything together in my huge stainless steel mixing bowl--which is my current favorite kitchen thing, i think--added milk (boyfriend is vegetarian so i can't use stock--i've found substituting milk instead of vegetable stock--ew--is generally successful) and a beaten egg. then i packed it loosely--i probably should have added a little more milk and packed more tightly, i see now that i've eaten some--and baked it for an hour at 350 degrees. yum.

now i am going to make my dog mimi's costume for the halloween parade at the tompkins square dog run tomorrow. someone just kidnap me, slap a kid on my hip and transplant me to the suburbs! i am becoming more and more domestic every year. watch out! i might offer you a homemade muffin or mend your underwear the next time i see you.

artistic pictures

my picture looks so poised. it kind of waters down everything i type. i need one that is more animated, but i don't have a digital camera. hint. hint. i would buy one, but i don't want a crappy one. and i can only afford a crappy one. since i just bought an expensive handbag.

it occurs to me every so often, like whenever i consider running for office, that there are so many naked pictures of me out there in the universe it's not even funny. i like being photographed in the nude. i don't think it's a sexual thing, i think it has to do with the fact that it's naughty. and not "naughty" in a sexual way, just, you know, rebellious. supposedly a lot of developing places won't even develop nude pictures. i like imagining the film developing workers and the conversation they will have about the pictures. kind of like the artist i read about a couple sundays ago in the times who buys clothes from walmart and then sews an exact replica by hand and then "returns" the handmade garment to walmart. she anticipates the moment when the person who buys it realizes it's handmade. if they ever realize it at all. i also like taking pictures of people sitting on the toilet. but, don't worry, only with their permission.

not that i am considering using a naked picture as my blog profile picture.

going away

i'm off to colorado on thursday. never does one feel so old as when one is to leave town. at least i never do. i have arranged my life so that i never have to plan ahead or do anything i don't want to, for the most part. but now i must make sure that all the things i am resposible for don't fall apart while i'm gone. i'd much rather spend the day reading my new nigella lawson book. but. i must update the dog care document, which i will then post, as it is funny and weird. i must cook everything that will go bad while we're gone. i must leave yummy things in the fridge for the dogsitters, there will be two, as one can't do the whole week. etc. etc.

i am too exhausted for any of this right now, i am realizing, since i spent the whole day so far shopping for a handbag that will make me seem more grown up to my parents, whom i will see in colorado, and also that i will like and use every day and is big enough for a book and sweater and grocery and is not too trendy looking; i am the only girl in new york who wants a bag neither lindsay lohan nor sienna miller would carry. they all have tassles and studs on them and are bronze or baby blue python. yech. anyway, i found one and paid way more than i've ever paid for an accessory for it. but now i am done and can concentrate on the lampshades and velvet coat i need. velvet coats were all the rage this spring and now i can't find hide nor hair of one!



we are going to my favorite place in the whole world, natural hot springs in the sangre de cristo mountain range. i've only been there in the summer, so it will be fun to soak this time in the snow!

too many adverbs at the end, but, hey, it's a blog entry!

well, ive just finished crocheting my summer sweater, of heavy cotton yarn--just as the regular coffee weather has blown away the iced coffee weather. i guess i'll wear it next summer. i wish i were able, in knit blog tradition, to post a picture of my finished project, but i have no digital camera. hint. hint. it's actually quite hideous, the sweater. and i can't undo it and start over because it is made of granny squares, so the yarn is cut up into many small lengths. but it's comfortable and weird, making it perfect to wear to work. i like to express my lack of desire to be here by wearing bizarre, inappropriate clothing. that way i dont have to exert myself to act surly.

additionally, but not extremely relevantly, i was complimented this morning on my green bobby pins by the one gay dude in the office. mysteriously, he likes me. is there such a thing as fag-hag-dar?