Pay Dirt

Porkchop and I skedaddled after work and put dirt in our remaining raised bed, put up more of the trellis, and planted things. Here it is at the end of the day:


The bed with the trellis has sugar snap peas, spinach, lettuce, and radishes. We will add more to the trellis as we plant beans and squash. The 3x3 bed has onions, beets, and carrots. Porkchop also put strawberry plants in pots.

Quite unexpectedly, our beds now contain around 50 earthworms. Over the weekend, we noticed that earthworms were starting to invade our basement! There were dried up bodies littering the floor, and 4 or 5 huddled around the floor drain.

So, while cleaning leaves from the area outside the basement door, Porkchop found the motherlode of worms. This is a mere fraction of them:


A bit blechy, but good for the garden!

Our Bathtub Runneth Over

Holy shizzle, Porkchop and I transplanted sprouts yesterday, keeping the strongest and composting the weakest (a moment of silence for those plants), and this is what we ended up with in our bathtub-cum-greenhouse:


Here is the transplanting action:

For the past month, the garden has been at the forefront of our minds.

We're either staring out the back window at the garden beds, or we're in the bathroom staring at the plants.

We keep Great Garden Companions handy, able to recite passages and open the volume at exactly the right page.

Porkchop decides to plant some strawberry plants, and I add spinach to my greens list.

We buy a trashcan for growing potatoes.

We are going crazy with planning things!

Tomorrow evening, we're finally going to actually plant things! Carrots, beets, onions, lettuce, spinach, and peas!

The onion sets came into our possession this afternoon from our neighborhood gardening store. Like many establishments in our neighborhood, it was initially difficult for us to ascertain the status of the store. Is it open? Is it closed? Is it closed closed? What the hell, is this how it always looks?

We finally figured out that this is how it always looks:


In some areas, this would pass for an abandoned building, no?

But, signs of life cropped up a couple of weeks ago!


Plants! Live! (As opposed to the layers of dead plants that litter the area.)

Onion sets are $1.75 a pound here, and the guy has red, yellow, and white. In addition to onion sets, you can buy parakeets.

So, by the looks of these pictures, you wouldn't guess that we had maybe an inch of snow lying about this morning! I would have planted things today, but the air was a tad chilly. Instead we purchased more seeds and a couple of strawberry plants.

Let the growing begin! (please!)

Effing Daylight Savings Times

I like it to be a little bit light out when I get up in the morning. And it was....UNTIL TODAY.

Stupid government changing the date of the time change!

This time change is always difficult for me, anyway, so I don't need it aggravated even more.

Yesterday, I felt like I had the biggest hangover ever. And the time! slipped away! so quickly!

It was 11:30 pm before I knew it, which means I'm starting this Monday with less sleep than normal!

Ah well, enough complaining.

Porkchop and I have started playing Mancala. That's one reason we were up so late. That, and we started watching Man on Wire at 9:00. A counting game and a vertigo-inducing movie...just what I need before trying to sleep.

Strangely enough, I didn't dream about either of these things. Instead, I had anxious dreams about dessert bars (as in desserts in bar form). I have no idea...

Busy as a Beaver

This is how Porkchop's younger brother characterized me tonight, as I made hummus, this pita bread, and this baked falafel and yogurt and tahini dressing.

I was worried about the pita bread because it was so sticky and I had problems rolling it out. But, nonetheless, most of the pitas puffed up. Not perfectly, but still tasty...especially with the hummus.


By the way, I used dried chickpeas for the hummus and falafel, and I'm so glad I did. They are WAY better than the canned stuff.

So, our day started out bright and early with Keetah waking us up at 6:30 (an annoying habit she has developed). It actually wasn't so bad this morning because we intended to rise early anyway for yard work. Our goal was to install garden beds, and that's what we did.

Here's Porkchop with the first bed nearly finished (notice how the beds behind it are all super unlevel):


Here I am with the project finished (beds much more level, although we realize not perfectly level, with which we're okay):


We had to clear out so much swamp grass and chunks of concrete and other debris (a glass tube, wiring, fence collars, etc.). This is just a small portion of the stuff:


Needless to say, we'll be filling in the beds with some good dirt, compost, and manure. Because our yard is crazy underneath the swamp grass.

There's a lot more to do in our yard in terms of clearing out debris. Fortunately, we love yardwork.


We celebrated getting the beds in by going out for Sonic. Woo! After that, we hit Global Foods in Kirkwood and TJ Maxx, where I scored by finding Two Leaves and a Bud tea for cheap(er) and Dr. Kracker crackers (my favorite!). We were in Kirkwood to scope out the manure at O.K. Hatchery, where we also picked up some garden gloves for Porkchop and more marigold seeds. I LOVE O.K. Hatchery! It's packed with all sorts of good stuff, and there's no pretension anywhere. Just people picking up seed potatoes, bird feed, and cow manure.

OH, but our best find from this weekend are these cookies that Porkchop picked out last night from Jay International Foods:


SO GOOD!

No, We Didn't Run Away to Disney World Forever

We've been back in St. Louis since Wednesday...Porkchop has been busy having another cold, and I'm still trying to wrap my mind around having to work.

[I can't get through a workday anymore without being tuned into Pandora. Otherwise, I feel like I'll fall asleep.]

So...to wrap up our WDW stuff...

Monday
Magic Kingdom day.

The worst day.

After riding Space Mountain and other things in Tomorrowland, there isn't much to do. The park gets crazy crowded by lunch, and it isn't designed to handle the number of people that pile in. You can't walk 3 inches without running into someone.

Save for the ice cream, the afternoon was not fun. But we stuck it out for the Spectromagic parade and the fireworks display. (Had we left the park after lunch, there was no way in hell I would have gone back).

Tuesday
A much better day.

We spent the morning at Disney Hollywood Studios, where we rode the new Toy Story Mania ride twice. It was a fun time of playing 4-D carnival-style midway games! By the end of the first ride, Porkchop was just 500 points ahead of me. Quite unexpectedly, I totally dominated the second ride and edged out Porkchop by around 30,000 points.

After doing everything on our list, we left the park around 2:00 and rested at the hotel some. We rounded out the afternoon by playing miniature golf and taking senior class photos:


Porkchop looks cool here, but I won the game. 50-54...what's happening?! Am I becoming good at skill games, or is Porkchop losing her touch?

[I won't mention how I scored over 330,000 points on the Buzz Lightyear ride...compared to P-chop's 50,000-something.]

After golf, we used the Disney bus system to get to Downtown Disney for dinner. Since the waterpark by the golf place had already closed, getting to Downtown was a bit inconvenient. The only bus running went to Epcot. At Epcot, we had to pick a resort bus, take the bus to the resort, and then catch another bus to Downtown. In the end, we lucked out by choosing the Saratoga Springs bus, as there was a walkway from Saratoga to Downtown (no waiting for a bus, yay!).

Not so lucky was that we witnessed a woman fall off her scooter as she exited the bus! It was obvious that the woman couldn't steer her scooter very well, but no one expected her to fall off. As she rode off the bus ramp, she cut her wheels sharply, which caused the scooter to deposit her face-first on the sidewalk. And then the scooter fell on her.

I felt horrible for the woman and for the bus driver, who obviously felt quite shitty.

Anyway, where was I? We did some pin trading at Downtown Disney and had a good dinner.

Wednesday
The day we'd been waiting for! And not because we were leaving that afternoon!

No, Wednesday morning was our Segway tour at Epcot!

After I traded my broken Segway for a functioning one, it was super fun! We had around 45 minutes of training and practice indoors, and then it was off to the World Showcase. Since the Showcase opens later than Epcot, it became our playground as we zig-zagged through the columns at Italy, cruised through the Morrocco bazaar, and traversed the garden bridges in Japan.

Here we are on our Segways:


And here's a little clip of Porkchop riding hers (listen closely and you can hear me exclaim at the end as Porkchop gets a little too close to me):



The Rest of the Week
Blech. We returned to work right away, which wasn't fun.

But, we also returned to sprouting tomatoes! They're a little leggy, but otherwise okay. Oh, and the peppers are quite beautiful:


Other random things...

Friday night after work, I requested a chair massage from the "Chinese Exercise" place in the Galleria. I heard from a co-worker who heard from her dance instructor that, if you don't have time for a full massage, this place is pretty good. While my experience was just fine, Porkchop will tell you otherwise. To begin with, Porkchop didn't even want a massage, the woman there pretty much forced her to sit down. Then, after the woman had worked on P-chop for a few minutes, a guy took over and started punching her calves and quads. Finally, to top it off, the woman asked if Porkchop was my child and, I swear, proceeded to make fun of us in Chinese (newsflash: it's never cool to make fun of people, especially when they can't understand you). When we left, the woman told Porkchop, "I love you, baby."

Huh? We won't be going back.

On another topic, we received radish sprouts in last week's share, and they are amazing!! I love radish sprouts!

I also love the Mexican hot chocolate at Cafe Ventana!


I declare this the best hot chocolate in St. Louis. The cayenne pepper and orange zest make for an amazing drink. The beignets are also pretty darn good. A cinnamon sugar one came with my drink, and next time I'm going to try the chocolate one. Yum!

Greetings from Walt Disney World!

Hello!

Porkchop and I are taking a little break from the day's activities to give y'all a little recap (because I guess we're so vain that we think others care about our Disney World trip). Anyway...

Friday Night
We landed in Orlando around 9:00 and made it to our hotel room shortly thereafter via the Magical Express. We're staying in the Pop Century resort again. This time in the 50's area (as indicated by the giant bowling pins flanking our building).



Although we knew we had an early morning ahead of us, we both had a difficult time sleeping (I dreamt of bugs in our bed and of being upgraded to a much more expensive resort, while Porkchop had a horrible nightmare that I traded one of my fancier Disney pins for a baby Minnie Mouse pin of much lesser value).

Saturday
Epcot was first on our agenda, and the morning went well with two Soarin' rides, Test Track, Living with the Land, and a Behind the Seeds tour. The tour was a more in depth visit to the hydroponic greenhouses than you get when riding Living with the Land. The highlight for me was seeing the trellis structures up close, as well as getting a better look at the tomato and eggplant trees.



I also enjoyed seeing vanilla and ginger trees, and sampling a cucumber grown in the greenhouse (a special Mickey head-shaped cuke).



After lunch and seeing the 3D show, Honey I Shrunk the Audience (snoozers), we hit the World Showcase and hit our tired wall. We struggled to drag ourselves around the lagoon and were annoyed by all the people who go to the World Showcase to drink overpriced beer. Also annoying were all of the people who thought that Porkchop, who was wearing a Disney themed nametag on her pin lanyard, worked for the park. This included a German man who wanted directions to the free Coke pavilion, some Asian girls who were looking for the Maelstrom ride in Norway, and a couple of kids who insisted that we trade pins with them. (WDW Pin Trading 101: Cast Members are obligated to trade you for whatever pin you want. Other guests may not be as accommodating.) We felt a little bad for the kids, who were genuinely excited by our pins, and each ended up trading them one of our nicer pins for... you guessed it, a cheap little baby Minnie Mouse pin! Porkchop is a prophet.

In addition to being exhausted, we both suffered from sore feet. Despite being a Disney expert and knowing better than to wear new shoes while traversing the parks, Porkchop donned her new Keens in the morning and regretted her decision early in the day. She likened it to walking on broken glass, moaned and groaned around the World Showcase, and nearly lost it when she found out we had to STAND through the 15 minute movie in Canada.


So, we limped away from Epcot early without seeing Illuminations. At the hotel, I snoozed while Porkchop watched a Blues hockey game. Despite our promises to go to bed earlier, the Blues game went to overtime and Porkchop nearly missed the disappointing end to the game (Final: Blues lose 1-0).

Today
This was a short day at the parks. We have an early reservation at the California Grill, so we scheduled Animal Kingdom for today. AK isn't as big as the other parks, so we can do everything we want by mid-afternoon. AK is my favorite park because of this, and because it's so shady. Seriously, shade is a must for me.

We started the morning big with Expedition Everest. Then it was on to Dinoland for a couple of rides, and then back to Expedition Everest to use our Fastpass.

Up next was a tea and snack break while we watched the Flights of Wonder show (an exciting time as one bird grazed our heads with its wings).


Afterwards, we pushed on to Rafiki's Animal Planet and then went on our two-week Kilimanjaro Safari.


Before lunch, we had our final Expedition Everest ride via another Fastpass. The final ride resulted in the best picture of Porkchop, her expression captured her authentic anxiety as we plunged down the side of the mountain (Porkchop doesn't like drops and usually puts on a fake face for the photo).

We wrapped up our day at AK with Festival of the Lion King. This time, the show included a fire handler guy who danced with a fire baton thingie.

So...now I'm just waiting for a tasty dinner at the California Grill!

Never a Prettier Sight...

...as peppers sprouting!


I sit and stare at these little guys for minutes at a time.

Also great are the little basils:


Not so great is that I've been suffering from some strong allergies. Murrrr. A doctor at the urgent care clinic suggested that it's the jet stream bring up pine tree stuff from Texas. I have no idea if this is correct at all, but I do have tree allergies.

I hate being allergic to things like trees because I love trees! My physical reaction to tree pollen does not accurately reflect the love I have for trees. Please don't judge me based on my allergies!

Last night, I sneezed and sniffled my way through Coraline. Even though my mind was hazy with allergies, I recognized the movie as awesome.

I have no segue for this:


A 12 lb pork shoulder. Currently marinating in the refrigerator for all-day cooking tomorrow.

When I ordered pork shoulder from Fair Shares, I didn't realize it would be the entire shoulder! I expected 3, maybe, 5 pounds. Although my mind reeled when I saw it, I tried to play it cool.

If the cooking goes well, we'll be rolling in pulled pork (hmm, that's kind of gross imagery...anyway, we'll have a lot for freezing and many dinners to come).

New Record!

Longest time without posting since I started this here blog!

Not exactly the sort of record I like...

What's Been Going On Since You've Been Gone
Not too far in the past, St. Louis received snow. A lot of it! So Porkchop and I invested in a snow shovel, and she graciously shoveled. Here she is hard at work in the backyard during the early morn' (please don't dwell on the jankiness of our garage - thanks):


Most recently, as in this weekend, Porkchop has been sick! And dogsitting her brother's chihuahua, so she spent most of her time like this:


Poor thing! Of course, she is refusing to go to the urgent care clinic to get real meds, so I can't feel too badly for her. The deal is that if she isn't better by the end of the week, she HAS to go because her sickness can't ruin our upcoming vacation. Yes! Porkchop wore down my resistance yet again and I have reluctantly agreed to a trip to Crazy World. I mean Disney World. Much as I dislike the place (why go to a fake place when you could go to a real place???), I am looking forward to a trip to ANYWHERE outside of the Midwest.

So, anyway, while Porkchop sniffled on the couch with the dog, I made cupcakes:

(P.S. I wasn't so feeling so hot on Saturday, either, but not as bad as Porkchop.)

They are yummy lemon cupcakes with vanilla bean frosting. Go here for the recipe.

Over the weekend, I also made a curry chicken dish with raisins and almonds; this sweet potato, corn, and jalapeno bisque; honey whole wheat bread; and this smashed chickpea salad. All of the linked recipes are pure tastiness!

On another note, a couple of weekends ago, Porkchop and I picked up a compost bin and seed starting supplies...all from Worm's Way. I'm loving the compost bin:


In addition to being a tumbler, it collects compost tea in the base!

We also picked up seed starting trays, heat mats, and a grow light. I am serious about this seed starting stuff this year! Yesterday, we started with pepper and basil seeds. It's a little bit early for starting inside by around a week. But if nothing happens with these seeds, I'll know to try again.

Pepper seeds can be hard to start because they need to be kept in soil at 80 degrees F. The heat mat seems to be doing well, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed still.

Anyway, I've also done a bit of my knitting on miscellaneous projects - my log cabin blanket and a random baby hat.

That's all!

Oh, wait, I meant to mention...

The Chocolate that has Changed My Life
I love good dark chocolate.

The 70% Madagascar Sambirano Valley chocolate bar that I received through Fair Shares makes my heart light and happy. This bar from Patric Chocolate blows everything else I've ever had out of the water. I can't wait to try everything else from this small shop in Columbia, MO!

This City Stinks

No, seriously, the city stinks!

It's been stinking since yesterday and no one knows why!

It was especially foul this morning. I didn't think it could get any worse as when we drove past the Ronnoco plant on 40, and the stink mixed in with the burnt coffee smell. But! Then I got out of the car at work and nearly fell over from the grossness.

Blech!!

Maybe the snow and ice will clear the air??

And the Day isn't Over Yet

Today I have done the following:

• Moved the closing date of our mortgage refinance.
• Scheduled the appraisal for the refinance.
• Received and approved proofs for a FAQ booklet.
• Reviewed, re-reviewed, reviewed again, and sent out press-ready files for a User Guide.
• Performed a massive mail merge.
• Supervised 4 students who are assembling a giant mailing.
• Took an hour lunch.
• Went to the library and checked out a book.
• Breathed for the first time in a few weeks.

I'm totally ready for the weekend!

Our House Today

Yay, flags!

Today, Today

I cannot focus on work.

I can't sit still.

I'm happy.

I'm nervous.

I want to cry.

I want to throw up.

I'm proud to be an American again!!

A Day to Remember

Not only is it Martin Luther King Day and the day before Barack Obama's inauguration (YAY!), it is also the day I give you this:

It's the yarn left from my Interlocking Balloons scarf!

I started this scarf November 7, 200-freaking-7, and I am indescribably relieved to have it off the needles.


For quite some time, I was convinced that this would be my perpetually unfinished object. I would work on it for hours, only to be disheartened at what seemed to be a lack of progress.

The lesson? Don't choose a scarf pattern that has a 44-row repeat and somewhere around 50 stitches per row!

Anyway...it's done. Now I just have to block it, and that, my friends, will require blocking pins (which I don't have).

Also today we baked honey whole wheat bread. Yum!


I spent a little bit of time this afternoon at Mississippi Mud House, and for dinner we had some cheap Chinese food. This is the time of my cycle during which I crave one certain thing and my brain won't shut up until I have it. The sesame chicken was most unhealthy, but nothing ever tasted so good.

Nothing, with perhaps the exception of dinner Friday night...


Acero (or, Total Deliciousness)
Porkchop helped a friend design wedding invitations, and I provided the letterpress printer hook-up, so said friend took us out for a very nice dinner at Acero. We all enjoyed the four course tasting menu (for a mere $25, one of the best deals in St. Louis), accompanied by a red wine, the name of which I can't recall.

I started my dinner with the chicken liver mousse crostini, which was totally perfect. I'm a secret chicken liver fan (I grew up eating chicken liver regularly), so I loved this crostini topped with the creamy mousse. For my pasta course, I had the orchiette with acorn squash and pancetta. Again, two thumbs up! However, I'm not quite convinced the squash was indeed acorn squash...it tasted rather butternut-ish (no complaint from me, of course).

For the main course, I chose the slow-roasted porchetta, mainly for the polenta accompaniment. The meat was tender and flavorful, and the polenta yummy and creamy. Finally, for dessert I chose the chocolate-pistachio bread pudding with espresso topping. It was good, but the bread pudding was a bit on the dry side. Not something I'd choose again.

In conclusion, I look forward to going back for another dinner!


What else...
I also finished my February Lady Sweater! It is blocked and ready for buttons! After finding some appropriate buttons and completing the deal, I'll post a picture.

Yesterday, Porkchop and I watched Slumdog Millionaire. It totally deserves the awards it's winning! Such a well put-together film.

Also, I can't forget... Happy Inauguration Day!

Noodles! And Other Things

I have been to two more restaurants! This is a crazy, unexpected restaurant-eating week!

On Sunday, I met Porkchop and Suzi and others at Crown Candy Kitchen (P-chop and Suzi attended a wedding show on Sunday. For Suzi, not Porkchop.). So yum! I considered getting a sundae but decided on a hot fudge malt. Next time...the hot fudge sundae is totally mine!

Two things I love about Crown Candy Kitchen:

1. They've been open in the same location since 1913.
2. Their website lists a "Carmel Sundae." Totally St. Louis...try saying "caramel" around here and people look at you like you have three heads.

On Monday, my supervisor took me out to lunch. Amazing what trying to apply for a different job can do! We walked over to Bobo Noodle House and had a delicious lunch. The vegetarian pad thai was, hands down, one of the best I've had in quite some time. My supervisor's lemongrass beef was tender and livened up by the accompanying spicy noodle and cucumber salad. All in all, it's a good place for us Wash U folks!

Not So Good
I tried making potato gnocchi on Saturday.

It was horrible.

Instead of "little pillows of heaven," I ended up with mushy balls of what might as well have been mashed potatoes.

I don't know what I did wrong. And I don't know if I'll ever attempt it again. I'm usually not so quick to admit defeat, but the gnocchi mystifies me.

Two Restaurant Reviews and Some Complaining

This week has been full out nuts at work. We have a humongous project mailing going out in a little over a week, and nothing is ready yet. I cannot even begin to describe how draining this month has been and will be. Let's just say that I woke up at 5 am stressing out about stuff and I couldn't fall back asleep for nearly an hour and a half. It's freaking Saturday morning, for crying out loud, I shouldn't be stressed out!

Blech.

I found a promising job posting last week, so over the weekend I was all about this:

Yeah, revising and updating my resume. During the week, I wrote a kick ass cover letter and yesterday I had the difficult conversation with my supervisor about how I was applying for a different position and could she act as a reference.

So, OF COURSE, right after this conversation I checked the job posting and found that it was no longer there!! ARGH!!

I didn't even get a chance to submit my stinking application, and I feel really deflated.

But at least my supervisor is aware that I won't hesitate to apply for other positions. I'm hoping this leads to at least a small raise and/or title change to truly reflect all of the activities that I do. I like most of what I do, and I want to be recognized properly for my work.

Anyway...

During the week, Porkchop suggested we go out to lunch. To Pappy's Smokehouse! I've been wanting to try Pappy's for a while, and I'm so glad we went there. We both had the lunch special with the pulled pork sandwich. The pork was crazy tender and moist - nothing dry or chewy about it! So good! The sauce is served on the side, and since I combined all three sauces on my sandwich, I can't write about them individually. But I did enjoy what I had. For my side dish, I had the sweet potato fries. Also quite tasty!


When we arrived at Pappy's, the place was packed and the line to order was long. Fortunately, it moved quite quickly, and many of the orders must have been take out because we found a place to sit right after ordering. The sandwiches were out quickly, and the service was friendly. The owner made frequent rounds to make sure everything was okay.

One of things I enjoyed most about Pappy's was the cross section of St. Louis lunching there. There were fancy corporate types pulling up in Mercedes, SLU students, office workers, and other people just looking for some good BBQ.

Our other restaurant outing was last night after I gathered myself together and stopped moaning about my missed job opportunity. I might have been eating of misery last night, but I still enjoyed Tower Tacos. My only complaint is that I ate WAY too much. You see, their hot salsa is actually killer hot, and I enjoyed soothing my mouth and stomach with the horchata...so I quickly developed a habit of eating a chip or two dipped in hot salsa and relieving myself with the horchata. For dinner, I tried a chicken and a chorizo sope. Sopes are thick tortillas with raised edges, and they were topped the meat, refried beans, and the regular lettuce and tomato. I liked the chicken, but the chorizo we get through Fair Shares has spoiled me, so I wasn't much of fan.

Next time, I'd like to try one of the more special dishes. And I'll definitely order the horchata again.

Okay, so this next photo doesn't have anything to do with the rest of the post. But it's my favorite photo from our Gatlinburg trip. It's Suzi and me, and obviously the world is being invaded by aliens:


Actually, we're just at the aquarium, in the tunnel running under the big tank.

A Thrown Together Catch-up Post and a Restaurant Review

Porkchop and I are hanging out on the couch tonight, watching the Blues game. Well, Porkchop is watching and I'm doing other things in the vicinity of the TV (like writing this overdue catch-up post), allowing me to cheer and groan as appropriate.

Watching TV is totally different these days because of our new TV! I'm not very attached to things like TV, but I'm liking this new TV. At first, I was opposed to such a purchase, but when I learned the picture on our then-current TV would be even smaller due to the digital conversion box that we would need to purchase by February 17, I realized that it was time. Here's Porkchop with the new TV (see our old TV at the bottom...can you imagine the picture being even smaller???):


The day before Christmas Eve, I worked from home...a quite fortuitous decision I made only that morning. You see, I was at home in the afternoon to show a guy Porkchop's car. He came over with cash, and that was that! Anyway, this relates to the TV because the car sale paid for the TV.

The days leading up to Christmas were quite busy and filled with holiday activities, but I wasn't really feeling it this year. It all happened so quickly, and I had time only for a smidge of holiday baking. We made a single batch of orange-chocolate-pistachio biscotti this year. That's it!


No chocolate pretzels, no chocolate crinkle cookies, no shortbread. Sigh.

There was, however, kugel. I made this recipe from Smitten Kitchen for Suzi's Hanukkah dinner, and it was delicious. Yum, dried cherries! And heavy. Including the baking dish, it weighed in around 10 pounds.


Porkchop worked a lot around the holidays, but she managed to crank out some tote bag presents for friends and family.

Here is Suzi's (it makes sense because she owns a gun (!!!) named Jack):


Here is my mom's (who always talks about the crazy squirrels in her yard):


And here's my sister's (who always wants to play board games):


Awesome tote bags, eh?

With the holidays over, I'm getting back into my regular routine. Today I did laundry and knitted on my FLS. I'm also contemplating what to do with the yarn our friend Patrick brought back from Argentina. Here's Patrick, the yarn, and me:

It's huge! And rather rustic. And nice. Ideas?

During his visit the week before Christmas, Patrick also gave us Spotted Cow beer, truffles from Gail Ambrosius, and a mate set. So nice! We also had terrific pizza while he was in town, so check out my review at the end of this post.

Speaking of visits, Katie of Katie and Beth visited us the day after Christmas. We had dinner at Pi and drinks at Bailey's Chocolate Bar, and I was surprised to see both places bumping. Obviously, I don't go out much on Friday nights, but I was glad to see local establishments doing well.

A total contrast was Banh Mi So #1 on New Year's Eve. It was just me, Porkchop, and a few other people. Of course, this might have been because the restaurant wasn't officially open. It was all rather confusing, but we ended up enjoying shrimp spring rolls and tofu curries. YUM! I love Banh Mi So #1!

Back to today...while Porkchop was at work, I baked bread! Yes, starting on my 2009 goals already! I made this recipe for roasted garlic bread, only I substituted rosemary for the parsley, which makes it tons better in my opinion. Oh, and I used butter instead of margarine because I think margarine is the devil.

I haven't baked bread in at least 10 years, and I've never had to shape it into a loaf.....but, I think it turned out awesome:


Next time, I will cook it a little bit longer because it could be crustier. But, all in all, it is delicious! And I'm excited about baking more bread!

The Good Pie
During Patrick's visit, we ate at The Good Pie, one of the newest pizza joints in St. Louis. This one's a keeper! GO THERE!!!

The pizzas are thin crust Naples-style and cooked in a wood-burning oven brought over from Italy. The ingredients are simple and fresh. I nearly cried when I had my first bite because this is the type of pizza I've been missing! The crust is thin and crisp, yet chewy inside, and the ingredients are high quality and tasty.

We tried four pizzas, and all were awesome. The margherita, the salsicca, the atina, and the mast'nicola. I loved all of them, but the mast'nicola was my favorite with the pancetta and pecorino.

The Good Pie also serves local beer, and I had a tasty porter from O'Fallon (I think...it was a long time ago).

My only suggestion is that they improve the signage on the outside. The windows are tinted so dark, we nearly didn't even try the door, thinking they were closed! They should at least put up an Open/Closed sign of some variety.

Anway, I can't wait to go back!

Year-End Review/New Year Preview

I'm not a resolutions type person, but on the first day of 2008, I took stock and thought about what I wanted out of the year.

Here is that list with comments in bold:

• Buy a house. I'm sick of apartments. Fortunately, my cigarette- and pot-smoking, loud-talking, door-banging downstairs landlady and her loud-and-constantly yawning and spitting boyfriend have kicked my need-to-buy-a-house ass into gear. CHECK! DONE!
• Cook at least one meal a week that uses only locally produced food items. This will be easier when I can grow my own little garden, which means I need a house. CHECK. With Fair Shares, we have many all - or nearly all - local meals.
• Recommit to recycling at home. Since St. Louis doesn't have curbside recycling pick up for everyone, I've become lazy about recycling. This is my dirty little secret. Fortunately, when it's just me living here, I don't have much recycling waste. But, anyway, we bought a recycling receptacle yesterday, and I looked up the guidelines for the drop-off recycling locations. My biggest waste is vegetable and fruit matter. When I buy a house, I'll be able to start composting. RECYCLING - CHECK! COMPOSTING - NEARLY CHECK. I hate to admit it, but I fell off the worm bin composting. BUT, we will set up an outside compost thingie in the next couple of months.
• Replace current cleaning products with ecologically sound ones once current products are gone. GOOD PROGRESS. Our laundry detergent is always biodegradable now. In terms of cleaning supplies, we've switched to "greener" ones, but I really want to buy some of the locally made, non-toxic cleaning supplies available at Local Harvest. Sometimes I use borax and a lemon to clean, but not nearly enough. Porkchop didn't like the biodegradable dishwasher detergent, so now we're using one that doesn't contain phosphates (good, but I think it's still bad).
• Knit garments beyond hats and scarves and hand mitts. On my way with the Tilted Duster. CHECK! Tilted Duster done, and I'm nearly finished with my February Lady Sweater.

These are my ideas for 2009:

• Plant my own vegetable garden! I shared a garden last year, and while it was fun, I wasn't able to tend it very well and my tomatoes didn't do so hot. But we did have lots of chard. Too much chard. Porkchop and I made a list of plants (no chard) and supplies for our backyard garden, and I'm quite excited.
• Can my own food! A friend of ours in Massachusetts (yes, you E Buz) has inspired me with her canning. For Christmas, I received the Ball Book of Home Preserving, and I can't wait to start.
• Figure out my career. Really, I need to formulate some sort of plan for growth.
• House maintenance: paint inside, paint the foundation, finish the drylocking in the basement, put up that additional downspout, fix up the backyard....this list could get quite long.
• Learn how to knit Fair Isle-style. It is so time to do this.
• Do more baking! I've fallen behind this past year sadly.
• Secret project with Porkchop. Maybe more details later.

My motto for the coming year is "2009: Making it Mine." You can use this, too, if you like.

Happy New Year's Eve!

My Favorite Thing Today

I am back at work and bored out of my mind.

Oh, there's a lot to be done with building out our new website, but I don't feel in the mood to write queries.

So I'm distracting myself with the green raisins in Trader Joe's Trekking the Himalayas nut mix.

I don't know how on earth these green raisins are so freaking good, but they are one of the best things ever.

All for now...

It's a Time to be Thankful, But...

I don't want to complain about Christmas presents, but someone has to stop my sister.

For the past five years or so, our routine has been that my sister buys used clothing for us from a consignment or Goodwill shop (or simply plucks them from her closet), gives them to us as presents, and then we return them to our local Goodwill.

I'm tired of it for real.

This year featured a leather shirt with ruffles. Not only is it absolutely diametric from my personal clothing style, but it's a size or two too small.


I also received this snakeskin-print Guess shirt:


Unfortunately, I'm not into snakeskin-printed clothing.

There was more clothing, including this Western-inspired shirt given to both Porkchop and me. Size it's a Size One, neither of us can squeeze into it. Otherwise, I'd be sure to rock it around town.


Moving on...every couple of years, my parents like to give hats to me and Porkchop. Unlike other years, the ones we received this year are not twins. They are, however, in a similar style. Because we like to coordinate all the time, obviously.


Ah well, we did receive some lovely gifts. Maybe I'll write about those tomorrow.

Hope you are enjoying the holidays!

FU UO

Isn't it weird that a store selling Jesus action figures and loads of stuff about doing drugs and drinking and having sex draws the line at selling pro same-sex marriage t-shirts?

While the right-wing owner of Urban Outfitters has no qualms about selling all sorts of useless and tasteless crap, apparently making a profit while supporting the queers is just too much.

I've purchased a few things from Urban Outfitters in the past...but no more!

Oh, and keep in mind that the same guy owns Anthropologie...so don't shop there either.