what to do

someone is looking out for my weekend social life...a little too much.

friday options:
dinner party
planet earth live @ the hollywood bowl
delta spirit @ the el rey
avett brothers @ ucla
dodgers game

saturday options:
planet earth @ the bowl
amy regan @ hotel cafe
backpacking in mineral king

SERIOUSLY???
YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE ME CHOOSE BETWEEN ALL OF THESE THINGS?!!

runnin' through the 90s

every once in awhile, when i'm doing an assignment at work, i come across gems that bring me back over 10 years [what???] to when
a. life was simple
b. i didn't have to pay for anything myself
c. i genuinely enjoyed the current hits on the radio

a sample of today's time machines:


[good lord, i have never seen this video. i apologize.
actually, no. i love the 90s.]

ludacris

my lunch today made me feel ill, so i didn't eat much of it, but i knew i needed more sustenance.
so i went to the cafe to buy a banana.
it was a dollar.

one. dollar.
for a banana that i could have bought at trader joe's for 19 cents.

ONE DOLLAR.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

THAT IS LUDACRIS.
LIKE THE RAPPER.

coconut macaroons

And an even easier dessert!
[I split this recipe in half and still got 26 cookies]

You will need:

3 c. shredded coconut, sweetened
4 large egg whites
3/4 c. sugar
1/4 t salt
1 t vanilla extract
1/8 t almond extract

-Preheat oven to 325
-Mix all ingredients together
-Place parchment paper or aluminum foil on 2 cookie sheets
-Drop rounded teaspoons of batter 1 inch apart on cookie sheet
-Bake for 20-25 minutes, until cookies have set and tops have browned, alternating cookies between top and bottom racks halfway through
-Let cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes and then transfer to wire rack to cool complete
-EAT!!!

chicken roulades

A delightfully easy meal to make!

You will need:
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 - 3/4 of a 7 oz. jar of roasted red peppers
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
2 oz. garlic & herb goat cheese
1 T olive oil
salt & pepper

-Cut the chicken breasts butterfly-style [making a slice parallel to the cutting board not quite through the entire chicken, so that you can lay it out and it looks like a butterfly]
-Using a meat mallet, or in between two pieces of plastic wrap with a rolling pin [or potato masher :)] mash each piece of chicken so that it is about 1/2 inch thick
-Fill with peppers/basil/cheese
-Starting with one long end, roll the chicken up and secure with a toothpick [or, uh, a nail, if you don't have any toothpicks..]
-Heat oil in skillet on med-high heat
-When oil is very hot, place chicken in pan
-When each side of the chicken has browned, reduce heat to medium, cover, and continue cooking for another 10-15 minutes until juices have stopped running pink and chicken is done
-Remove toothpicks and cut in diagonal slices about 1/2 inch thick
-yummy!

cook.book.

i bought myself two cookbooks today.

things are gonna change 'round these parts.

julie & julia & jessica

i just finished watching Julie and Julia, which I had wanted to see for ages but forgot about until i saw tonight that it was available on netflix instant viewing.

now i would like to cook. i would like very much to cook well, i should say.

now all i need is a worthy cookbook and a set of pearls.

for the time being, however, i will pretend i am amy adams, sitting at her laptop - blogging.

mozart

so then i was sitting there, watching these clarinet videos on youtube when i thought to myself, WHY am i watching videos when I could just be playing clarinet??

so that's what i did.

i went to the petrucci online library, downloaded the sheet music to my favorite clarinet concerto, went upstairs, put together my horn, and sat down to play. considering i was half a bottle of wine in, i thought i played remarkably well. but you can ask danny. because we video chatted. and i played him some mozart.

i also bought a box of reeds off of amazon. i had just gotten a new credit card that afternoon and apparently the activation hadn't gone through [thanks to the multitude of 'i'm sorry, we are having difficulty processing your order' emails i recieved]. so now, 3/4 of a bottle of wine in, at midnight, i had to call my credit card company and try [really try] to explain to them what was happening. i must have been coherent enough, because they fixed their mistake and sent me on my way.

i internally pump fisted, as i was pretty stoked to know that 10 brand new reeds were now on their way to my doorstep. then i kept playing. i only played this one piece. over, and over, and over again.
i'd like to play my clarinet intoxicated more often. this enables me to not care what other people may think, be it the neighbors i share a wall with [sorry. i hope i didn't wake you], or danny via gchat.

i finally finished playing after what seemed like hours [it wasn't]. i stumbled to the bathroom, left the unfinished bottle on the counter sink for matt to find when he came home from work at 2:30am, brushed my teeth [i think], and fell into bed.

probably the best part about last evening was that it was a big secret with myself. and i had SO MUCH FUN. i was giddy and giggly and enjoying the hell out of that instrument of mine. and no one knew what i was doing. no one was around to interrupt me, or to tell me to quiet down, or suggest that drinking a bottle of wine maybe wasn't such a great idea for a tuesday night. tim was sleeping. matt was at work. and chris was out. it was just me, being stupid and silly and, might i add, quite musical.

clarinetto!

drunk off the pinot grigio and watching clarinet videos on youtube.

awesome.

Shut Up, Ya Prick

July 4, 2001

He wanna mess wit Jess, Play guitar wit Jess
He wanna make her his in the middle of the night
He wanna drop her puzzle with one a his friends
He wanna creep past Rach, get Jess again
He wanna hang wit Jess, Chase Bigley away
He wanna fight wit Josh, Rachel blows his day
He wanna pretend to hear, but not care at all

If he finds one more of his friends liking Jess
He want a food from the Rolling Rock, Make fun of the waitress
Access to her passion
Keys to her blood pump
He wanna talk online, ask How's your day?
That's when Ian's gotta tell her the truth
He said he doesn't care, just a few night stands
When Rachel isn't there, he wants Jess to care
But Jay knows Jess is not dumb
She hates everything Jay says, Jay does!

Heartbreaker, you screwed her royally
And she will never come back incessantly
Oh why did you have to run your game on her?
She should have known right from the start
You'd be an ASSHOLE!

Don't gimme your love, gimme your love, gimme your love...

thursday morning

currently listening to:



and drinking mate


and it is raining.
finally.

WHAT A GREAT MORNING!!!!!
:)

lost.

lost is over and i don't want to talk about it.*




*come find me when i have finished crying.

pigs can fly.

my office window opens.
only took me 14 months.


i wore heels.

vegan chickpea & chorizo & spinach bowl

adapted from this new york times recipe

-olive oil

-2 cups cooked chickpeas [canned is great]

-salt & black pepper

-4 oz. soy chorizo

-few handfuls of spinach [baby, or roughly chopped regular spinach] [recipe calls for 1/2 lb - i just didn't have that much around :)]

-1/4 cup sherry [i do not have sherry. i substituted with: 1/8 cup rice vinegar + 1/8 cup water + 1/2 tablespoon sugar]

1. heat a few tablespoons of oil over medium/high in pan. add chickpeas [make sure they are fairly dry] in one layer so that they all touch the pan. sprinkle with salt & pepper. reduce heat to medium and cook for about 10 minutes or so until chickpeas begin to brown

2. add chorizo and cook for another 6-8 minutes until chickpeas start to crisp up a bit

3. remove chickpea/chorizo mixture from pan and set aside. add a bit more oil - when hot, add in spinach and sherry [or substitute]

4. cook over medium/low until spinach is very soft and all of liquid has evaporated

5. add chickpea/chorizo mixture to pan and mix together.

6. EAT!!! yes, that's it!
[nytimes recipe says to sprinkle with breadcrumbs and place in broiler briefly, but, eh, probably not necessary.]


[what it should, and surprisingly DOES, look like]

k'naan

i just bought a hip hop album?




[click album cover to purchase/take a listen. in that order.]

mama mia's meatballz

i made meatballs last night.
i had a craving.
i indulged.

meatballs!

mom gave me this recipe forever ago and i had yet to use it.
they are easy as pie. er, meatballs?

1 lb chopped meat
1 egg
1/2 diced onion [1 whole onion, if on the smaller side]
handful of breadcrumbs
sprinkling of parmesan cheese
2 T parsley [i made that measurement up. just sprinkle til you're happy]
a few dashes of garlic powder
salt/pepper to taste

[really, the important thing to remember with these things is that once they are smothered in sauce and sitting atop a nice plate of noodles, they are going to be delicious. so feel free to be liberal in your preparation - i didn't quite realize how much i was until i realized just a moment ago that i really had no idea how much of each ingredient i had put in]

-in a bowl, mix all of the ingredients together. with your hands.
-form into balls.
-in a large pan over low/medium heat, fry those suckers up! [if you are using 90% or higher leanness, you may need a bit of oil in the pan. if using a fattier meat, you can just throw them right into the pan]
-and really, that's it. cover the pan if you want 'em to cook a little faster. they'll brown when they are ready. then i like to put them into the sauce pan to keep them warm while the pasta is finishing up. MMM!!

mama mia! that's a speecey spicey meata balla!!

which 30 seconds?

i would like to meet the person who decides which 30 seconds of each song goes up on itunes.

labels.

snippet of an online conversation.

though it may as well be a transcription of an actual conversation, that's how translatable this is to words.
good work, friend. you use your internet communication skills WELL.

---------

he might be the fastest boyfriend i've ever made

and i have never used that term with him before

anddddddd thats awkward

ahaha

THESIS

NO, I DID NOT WRITE ANOTHER ONE.
BUT KRISTINA DID.
AND SHE IS DONE!!!
YAYYY!!!!

ella ella ay ay ay

i don't care if you're trying to keep the sun off of you.

if it's 75 degrees and sunny and you are walking around with an umbrella, you still look stupid.