I'm going to preface this post by saying I have had a shitty week, all told. What with the craziness of classes, various annoyances I've had to discuss with people and may or may not have resolved, the paranoia of possibly running into my evil ex around campus, my general anxiety surrounding the major changes in my life and the re-assimilation into what could be considered routine, and the underlying feeling that I've done absolutely nothing useful with my life this week, that's not really a surprise. Plus, I made the mistake of reading creepypasta for hours last night, which meant not only did I have trouble getting to sleep in the first place, I also woke up about every two hours and finally had to sleep with the lights on at about four in the morning, and consequently slept in about three hours later than I'd planned.*
My point is this: I was talking with my guy Paul last night and came to the conclusion that I need to draw more often for the sake of practice. So today, I sat down, hit the "random" button at Questionable Content, and spent about forty-five minutes or so drawing different versions of Faye Whitaker. They weren't perfect, but I was pretty satisfied with what I ended up with. And here's the weird part - while I was drawing, I was concentrating so fully on it that I forgot everything that was bothering me. This hearkened me back to high school, when art was my favorite class because I could spend an hour every day doing something that was calming and distracted me from whatever else was going on in my life.
How in the hell did I forget about this?
Now don't get me wrong, I love writing; I'm an English major for a reason. But the difference between writing and drawing is that even if I enjoy what I'm writing, it's hard for me to stay focused on it at the best of times, unless I'm really on a roll or on the tail of an idea. Conversely, when I start drawing something, I get really into it. Maybe I'm not the best artist, but it doesn't really matter at this point.
I'm wondering if I picked the right career path. Maybe I should have started out in the art department or something. Or is this really what I want, and drawing as a side hobby is enough for me?
GAH EXISTENTIAL CRISIS
*That's the thing about creepypasta. It's not usually that scary when you're reading it, if at all, but it has a nasty habit of sticking random visuals in your brain just when you think you've forgotten about it.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
What is my subconscious doing?
These are some recurring themes in my dreams of the last few weeks:
Teeth falling out
Being someplace that would normally be really cool, but there's some negative aspect (ex. no way to get home, stuck in a hotel room with lots of people)
Plans disrupted because of being in the wrong place/time (ex. I want to do something in Muncie but I'm in Cape, forgetting t0 make my Halloween costume until the day before)
The last two aren't really that surprising or hard to interpret, since I have sort of been forced out of the normality of the life I knew for 22 years. But what's with the teeth falling out?
Teeth falling out
Being someplace that would normally be really cool, but there's some negative aspect (ex. no way to get home, stuck in a hotel room with lots of people)
Plans disrupted because of being in the wrong place/time (ex. I want to do something in Muncie but I'm in Cape, forgetting t0 make my Halloween costume until the day before)
The last two aren't really that surprising or hard to interpret, since I have sort of been forced out of the normality of the life I knew for 22 years. But what's with the teeth falling out?
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Pierogies? Pierogies!
So, since this past week has been one of nearly unremitting craziness and today has been spent with farmer's markets, kittens and a rather deadly photo/glue combination, I will refrain from giving you all the hairy details of above and instead concentrate on this week's new recipe - pierogies!
The first - and by far superior - pierogies I ever ate were at Pike Place Market, at a little Russian food stand that also serves a delicious borsch and many sides and salads whose names I can't remember. The ones I love there are potato and mushroom, but they can be filled with just about anything, as long as it's something you can fit into a dumpling.
The recipe I used was found at About.com, of all places. (Man, I remember watching commercials for this website on Channel One news in junior high; who knew I'd actually use it someday?)
So, first I washed and peeled the potatoes for the filling and set them aside, then put all of the dough ingredients in a bowl. (This dough has sour cream in it!)
The dough ended up to be a pretty stiff dough not unlike bread. Once mixed, it had to be set aside and put in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.
The first - and by far superior - pierogies I ever ate were at Pike Place Market, at a little Russian food stand that also serves a delicious borsch and many sides and salads whose names I can't remember. The ones I love there are potato and mushroom, but they can be filled with just about anything, as long as it's something you can fit into a dumpling.
The recipe I used was found at About.com, of all places. (Man, I remember watching commercials for this website on Channel One news in junior high; who knew I'd actually use it someday?)
So, first I washed and peeled the potatoes for the filling and set them aside, then put all of the dough ingredients in a bowl. (This dough has sour cream in it!)
The dough ended up to be a pretty stiff dough not unlike bread. Once mixed, it had to be set aside and put in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.
While the dough was firming up, I started the potatoes boiling (which I probably should have done at the start) and sauteed the vegetables for the filling. The recipe called for onions, but I also added mushrooms because I just love them.
I used red onions because the store was out of green onions (my favorite) and that was the next choice. Although the recipe called for a whole onion, only about a quarter of it actually ended up going into the pan, because it was a GIANT onion. (In retrospect, I probably would have used more of it.)
The potatoes took FOREVER to boil. I had never cooked them that way before, so I had no realistic idea how long it would take; I ended up scooping the potatoes out after a while, cutting them into pieces and then boiling them some more. When they were finally finished, the next step in the process basically involved making mashed potatoes with the sauteed vegetables and some cheese. (I used a LOT of cheese.)
The next step was rolling out the dough to make the dumplings. My two major problems here were 1) I had no rolling pin and had to make do with a tall glass from the cabinet, and 2) The dough was extremely elastic, to the point where it absolutely would not stay the thickness I was trying to get. I'm not sure whether this was just a characteristic of the recipe or something I did wrong; as it was, the dough was supposed to be about 1/8 inch thick, and it ended up being almost twice that thick.
I cut out the dumpling circles with the same glass that had served as my rolling pin. (No cookie cutters? No problem!) Because of the thickness of the dough, I had a lot of leeway as to how far I could stretch it around a large amount of filling, but I still ended up with a good amount of filling left over. The mushrooms may have been part of that.
After all the dough was used up, all I had to do was crimp the edges with a fork (both for practicality and attractiveness) and pop them into some boiling water.
They cooked surprisingly quickly. The recipe called for frying the pierogies after they were boiled, but I skipped this step for three reasons: 1) My favorite pierogies from the market are boiled, not fried, 2) I generally don't like fried things anyway, and it's healthier, and 3) I was getting damn hungry by this point, since the recipe was supposed to take an hour to make and it had taken me nearly three.
Luckily, they still tasted good not-fried. They probably would have been better had I been able to roll the dough thinner, but not bad at all, particularly with sour cream. I ended up having a total of seven pierogies for dinner, and there were enough left over for at least two more meals.
The potatoes took FOREVER to boil. I had never cooked them that way before, so I had no realistic idea how long it would take; I ended up scooping the potatoes out after a while, cutting them into pieces and then boiling them some more. When they were finally finished, the next step in the process basically involved making mashed potatoes with the sauteed vegetables and some cheese. (I used a LOT of cheese.)
The next step was rolling out the dough to make the dumplings. My two major problems here were 1) I had no rolling pin and had to make do with a tall glass from the cabinet, and 2) The dough was extremely elastic, to the point where it absolutely would not stay the thickness I was trying to get. I'm not sure whether this was just a characteristic of the recipe or something I did wrong; as it was, the dough was supposed to be about 1/8 inch thick, and it ended up being almost twice that thick.
I cut out the dumpling circles with the same glass that had served as my rolling pin. (No cookie cutters? No problem!) Because of the thickness of the dough, I had a lot of leeway as to how far I could stretch it around a large amount of filling, but I still ended up with a good amount of filling left over. The mushrooms may have been part of that.
After all the dough was used up, all I had to do was crimp the edges with a fork (both for practicality and attractiveness) and pop them into some boiling water.
They cooked surprisingly quickly. The recipe called for frying the pierogies after they were boiled, but I skipped this step for three reasons: 1) My favorite pierogies from the market are boiled, not fried, 2) I generally don't like fried things anyway, and it's healthier, and 3) I was getting damn hungry by this point, since the recipe was supposed to take an hour to make and it had taken me nearly three.
Luckily, they still tasted good not-fried. They probably would have been better had I been able to roll the dough thinner, but not bad at all, particularly with sour cream. I ended up having a total of seven pierogies for dinner, and there were enough left over for at least two more meals.
Monday, August 23, 2010
I see potential here.
I just encountered a bright light in the bog of my day so far. Now I just hope it doesn't turn out to be a hinkypunk.
Said light is my first class of the semester, an English senior seminar entitled "Manifestos and Book Binding'. And I'm pretty sure it's going to be just as awesome as it sounds. Our final project is to make four copies of our personal manifesto and hand-bind it; it's more of an art class than an English class, which is fine with me, since all of the actual art classes on this campus are majors-only. Plus, I can probably use the cool scrapbooking supplies I have lying around.
On another note entirely, today has been fucking crazy in my head. I'm attempting to get into one English class that sounds cool and fulfills a requirement, which, if I get into it, will require me to drop a different class that conflicts with the time, which means I will have to take that class in the spring. This doesn't really bother me requirement-wise, since a t least ten variations on this class are offered every semester, but the one I was going to take looked like it would really helpful to me; it's called "What Am I Going To Do With My Life?" Which, you know, is fucking PERFECT for me right now.
Complicating this situation is this honors thesis I have to complete sometime this year, which I didn't realize I actually had to register for and not just talk to the dean about it. (Which I did.) so now I have to try and register for this "class" which it turns out requires prior permission, so now I have to call the honors department and figure out how exactly I would go about obtaining permission so I can register.
At least I know what my thesis is going to be. I'm going to research what necessities (availability, preservation, etc.) led to the distinctive ingredients used in various world cuisines. Of course, I'll have to include some recipes and try them out as part of the project!
Said light is my first class of the semester, an English senior seminar entitled "Manifestos and Book Binding'. And I'm pretty sure it's going to be just as awesome as it sounds. Our final project is to make four copies of our personal manifesto and hand-bind it; it's more of an art class than an English class, which is fine with me, since all of the actual art classes on this campus are majors-only. Plus, I can probably use the cool scrapbooking supplies I have lying around.
On another note entirely, today has been fucking crazy in my head. I'm attempting to get into one English class that sounds cool and fulfills a requirement, which, if I get into it, will require me to drop a different class that conflicts with the time, which means I will have to take that class in the spring. This doesn't really bother me requirement-wise, since a t least ten variations on this class are offered every semester, but the one I was going to take looked like it would really helpful to me; it's called "What Am I Going To Do With My Life?" Which, you know, is fucking PERFECT for me right now.
Complicating this situation is this honors thesis I have to complete sometime this year, which I didn't realize I actually had to register for and not just talk to the dean about it. (Which I did.) so now I have to try and register for this "class" which it turns out requires prior permission, so now I have to call the honors department and figure out how exactly I would go about obtaining permission so I can register.
At least I know what my thesis is going to be. I'm going to research what necessities (availability, preservation, etc.) led to the distinctive ingredients used in various world cuisines. Of course, I'll have to include some recipes and try them out as part of the project!
Great.
So, since my sleep schedule has been summer-fucked and I've somehow been unable to muster up the willpower to actually get up before 11 a.m. in the past week, I was unsurprisingly unable to fall asleep at the proper time last night despite a glass of Moscato that I took as a soporific. Consequently, I got about six hours of sleep rather than the eight I had planned on, and I woke up this morning for work with a headache I can't shake, and I just realized I haven't seen my iPod in the past few days. (This is a new iPod that I went through hell to get, by the way.)
Oh, and I forgot my lunch.
Great way to start out the school year.
Oh, and I forgot my lunch.
Great way to start out the school year.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Carne Asada!
Well, her mom is still here. So until we can have a talk about guests and proper notice, I'll regale you with this tale of cooking success!
(Cross-posted to Flirty Food.)
In the spirit of my new-school-year's resolution to try a new recipe every week, a couple of days ago I made a dish that I'd tried many times before in restaurants, but never made - carne asada. I love this dish partly for the fact that it's steak - and I love steak - and partly for the things it's traditionally served with. (Avocado/guac, beans, pico de gallo and sour cream.)
The recipe, which I got from Simply Recipes, goes as follows:
To get a facsimile of refried beans without the effort and added calories involved with actually frying them, I put a can of pinto beans in my food processor with some salt, garlic and lime juice. They were great!
Finally, it was time to grill the meat. The recipe called for either an actual grill or a cast-iron frying pan; I only had a newfangled Teflon-type pan, so I went with that. I don't think it was a mortal error.
It took a little longer than I anticipated to cook the steaks, but luckily I like my meat pretty rare, so it could have been worse. Here's how they turned out:
Finally, after slicing the meat, I made up a plate with some steak, avocado, beans, sour cream and pico plus a few mini tortillas.
Shortly after finishing dinner, I emailed my dad to tell him I'd successfully grilled my first steak. He was proud.
(Cross-posted to Flirty Food.)
In the spirit of my new-school-year's resolution to try a new recipe every week, a couple of days ago I made a dish that I'd tried many times before in restaurants, but never made - carne asada. I love this dish partly for the fact that it's steak - and I love steak - and partly for the things it's traditionally served with. (Avocado/guac, beans, pico de gallo and sour cream.)
The recipe, which I got from Simply Recipes, goes as follows:
Ingredients
2 pounds flank or skirt steak
Olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Marinade:
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeño chile pepper, seeded and minced
1 teaspoon freshly ground cumin seed (best to lightly toast the seeds first, then grind them)
1 large handful fresh cilantro, leaves and stems, finely chopped (great flavor in the stems)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 limes, juiced
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
I eliminated the salt and pepper (because I'm lazy), the jalapeno (because I don't like it), and the cumin (because I thought I had some and didn't). I also used dried cilantro instead of fresh, because that was what I had already, and garlic from a jar. (Incidentally, I highly recommend Spice World marinated garlic. It packs the same punch as fresh garlic for a lot cheaper, and you don't have to go out and buy a couple of cloves every time you want to put garlic in something, which for me is a lot of the time.)
The rest of the marinade ingredients went into a mixing bowl along with the steak, which I had to cut into a few smaller pieces for the sake of not being so messy.
The bowl then went in the fridge for an hour and a half or so while I went to go do online homework or, more likely, poked around Tumblr for a while. The recipe recommends 1-5 hours marinating; I would have liked to let it sit longer, but I was getting hungry!
While I was waiting, I also prepared some of the things I was going to eat with the steak itself - plain old avocado (guacamole is sometimes just too much effort) and beans, plus some prepared pico de gallo from the grocery store. (For the record, the Marsh here has amazing avocados; I couldn't stop myself munching while I was cutting them up.)
To get a facsimile of refried beans without the effort and added calories involved with actually frying them, I put a can of pinto beans in my food processor with some salt, garlic and lime juice. They were great!
Finally, it was time to grill the meat. The recipe called for either an actual grill or a cast-iron frying pan; I only had a newfangled Teflon-type pan, so I went with that. I don't think it was a mortal error.
It took a little longer than I anticipated to cook the steaks, but luckily I like my meat pretty rare, so it could have been worse. Here's how they turned out:
Finally, after slicing the meat, I made up a plate with some steak, avocado, beans, sour cream and pico plus a few mini tortillas.
Shortly after finishing dinner, I emailed my dad to tell him I'd successfully grilled my first steak. He was proud.
Unexpected guests.
Yesterday, I told my roommate that I was going to make beef stroganoff for dinner; we'd talked about this previously and she seemed all for it. So now I have all of the supplies I need to cook dinner for two people.
Today, I come home at around 3 to find that a friend of hers came over; whether she knew about this before the fact, I have no idea. To further add to the confusion, within the hour, her mother had also arrived unexpectedly (to me. Apparently Teresa knew about this on Thursday, but neglected to mention it to me).
Problem number one: I probably have enough extra supplies for the extra people, but I don't think I should be expected to cater to these new people if I wasn't prepared to do so or informed of the situation at all.
Problem number two: We moved into this apartment on Monday. Her mother (and sometimes her father) were an ever-constant presence on Monday and Tuesday, both roommate and parents were gone on Wednesday, but then they all came back on Thursday night. Yesterday was the first time my roommate and I had been alone in this apartment, and I thought maybe we had gotten rid of her mother for the time being, but here she comes showing up again and doesn't seem to even really have a purpose for being here other than just wanting to "hang out".
I don't want her mother here anymore. I don't feel like I have a single shred of privacy in my own apartment except if I barricade myself into my room, and that's not cool.
I want to know when people are going to be here.
And I definitely wish she had mentioned this potential visit to me yesterday when I had discussed making dinner in the first place.
I was already angry today due to situations beyond my control, and I really do not need this right now.
Today, I come home at around 3 to find that a friend of hers came over; whether she knew about this before the fact, I have no idea. To further add to the confusion, within the hour, her mother had also arrived unexpectedly (to me. Apparently Teresa knew about this on Thursday, but neglected to mention it to me).
Problem number one: I probably have enough extra supplies for the extra people, but I don't think I should be expected to cater to these new people if I wasn't prepared to do so or informed of the situation at all.
Problem number two: We moved into this apartment on Monday. Her mother (and sometimes her father) were an ever-constant presence on Monday and Tuesday, both roommate and parents were gone on Wednesday, but then they all came back on Thursday night. Yesterday was the first time my roommate and I had been alone in this apartment, and I thought maybe we had gotten rid of her mother for the time being, but here she comes showing up again and doesn't seem to even really have a purpose for being here other than just wanting to "hang out".
I don't want her mother here anymore. I don't feel like I have a single shred of privacy in my own apartment except if I barricade myself into my room, and that's not cool.
I want to know when people are going to be here.
And I definitely wish she had mentioned this potential visit to me yesterday when I had discussed making dinner in the first place.
I was already angry today due to situations beyond my control, and I really do not need this right now.
Friday, August 20, 2010
I must begin my life anew.
Let me explain what I mean.
I've lived in the Midwest all of my life (although my family's well-traveled); I grew up in Cape Girardeau, Missouri and I go to school in Indiana. Now my parents have decided, now that they are both retired and my sister has graduated from high school, that it's time to do what they've talked about for years and move to Seattle, where they can be closer to my brother and his family and take advantage of what is admittedly a spectacular city.
That's all well and good for them, but this creates several problems for me and my sister, the first and foremost of which is that while we're still close enough to home to go back for a visit...we kind of can't. I mean, I could go back to Cape Girardeau and stay with a friend for a few days, but my house? The one I've lived in all of my life? Empty, locked, off-limits, waiting patiently for a potential buyer. Somehow, it's not the same.
Also: unless by some miracle the parentals find her a home with someone we know, I will most likely never see my cat again. We've had her since I was maybe five or six; she's got to be honing in on sixteen years or so now, but Molasses is a tough old bird. But since my brother is highly allergic to cats, my parents can't take her with them to Seattle. My apartment at school doesn't allow any pets that aren't fish, so my taking her was out of the question, and my sister, of course, lives in a dorm. So when it was goodbye to my old house, it was also goodbye to good old Molasses.
Complicating matters further, but an inevitable part of anyone's life, is the fact that nothing with my friends is certain anymore. The youngest of them are going off to college as I speak, and the older ones, like me, are getting into their senior year and gearing up for internships, graduation, and proper employment if all goes well. Not all of them will be coming back to Cape anytime soon, and who knows when, if ever, we will all be in the same place again even long enough for a trip to Denny's?
In short, my life as I've known it ever since high school is swiftly falling to pieces and there's nothing I can do about it. So, this will hopefully be the chronicle of a year in which I get my shit together and deal with these changes. I might have to get some serious counseling to do it, since I apparently deal with big change like a child with its hands over its ears, but I will do it.
Hey, at least I know I have a problem.
I've lived in the Midwest all of my life (although my family's well-traveled); I grew up in Cape Girardeau, Missouri and I go to school in Indiana. Now my parents have decided, now that they are both retired and my sister has graduated from high school, that it's time to do what they've talked about for years and move to Seattle, where they can be closer to my brother and his family and take advantage of what is admittedly a spectacular city.
That's all well and good for them, but this creates several problems for me and my sister, the first and foremost of which is that while we're still close enough to home to go back for a visit...we kind of can't. I mean, I could go back to Cape Girardeau and stay with a friend for a few days, but my house? The one I've lived in all of my life? Empty, locked, off-limits, waiting patiently for a potential buyer. Somehow, it's not the same.
Also: unless by some miracle the parentals find her a home with someone we know, I will most likely never see my cat again. We've had her since I was maybe five or six; she's got to be honing in on sixteen years or so now, but Molasses is a tough old bird. But since my brother is highly allergic to cats, my parents can't take her with them to Seattle. My apartment at school doesn't allow any pets that aren't fish, so my taking her was out of the question, and my sister, of course, lives in a dorm. So when it was goodbye to my old house, it was also goodbye to good old Molasses.
Complicating matters further, but an inevitable part of anyone's life, is the fact that nothing with my friends is certain anymore. The youngest of them are going off to college as I speak, and the older ones, like me, are getting into their senior year and gearing up for internships, graduation, and proper employment if all goes well. Not all of them will be coming back to Cape anytime soon, and who knows when, if ever, we will all be in the same place again even long enough for a trip to Denny's?
In short, my life as I've known it ever since high school is swiftly falling to pieces and there's nothing I can do about it. So, this will hopefully be the chronicle of a year in which I get my shit together and deal with these changes. I might have to get some serious counseling to do it, since I apparently deal with big change like a child with its hands over its ears, but I will do it.
Hey, at least I know I have a problem.
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