recipe* review: roasted broccoli

* - i'm pretty sure that i saw a recipe for roasted broccoli somewhere and just decided to "invent" my own take on it. of course, i don't remember what the recipe is or where i found it, so i can't give the recipe creator proper credit. y'all know i'd totally link to the recipe if i had it, right? right. ok, then.

what you'll need:
--fresh broccoli (how much you're buying depending on how many people you're feeding, if you want leftovers, if broccoli's on sale or if you're splurging on the super-organic whole foods stuff, etc. it's your call, really.)
--olive oil
--salt & pepper, plus any additional seasonings of your choice
--baking sheet/dish (you want something large enough so you can spread the broccoli out in a single layer)
--a knife (confession: i almost posted the "chopping broccoli" snl bit here, but i refrained. you're welcome.)

got everything? let's get cooking, then.
--preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
--while the oven heats up, rinse the broccoli and then cut the stems and any other tough pieces off until you have a pile of broccoli florets. if you like having parts of the stems on your florets, then by all means leave them on. depending on how large the florets are, and depending on if you're gonna serve this dish to children, you might need to chop them into smaller/bite-size pieces.
--dump all of the broccoli onto/into your baking vessel of choice.
--drizzle olive oil over the broccoli. the amount of oil really depends on how much broccoli you're working with. you don't need a lot; let's say a couple of tablespoons at the most here.
--add salt, pepper, and whatever other seasoning you'd like. i like to add garlic powder b/c 1) i like garlic and 2) i don't want to worry about burning fresh minced garlic.
--toss the broccoli around so every piece gets a little bit of oil and seasoning. it's best to use your hands for this.
--if you think you skimped on the oil and/or the seasonings, add a little more and then toss everything together again.
--in the oven it goes! depending on how much broccoli you're working with and how large the florets are, you're looking at a cook time of 15-20 minutes. i usually check the broccoli after 10 minutes, give it a stir, and then let it cook a little longer.

i like to still have a little bit of crunch on my broccoli when it's done, but it's also picked up a little browning from the oil and it's gotten a bit tender and omg it's so nom.

and there you have it. now we know why i usually stick to reading/making other folks' recipes instead of writing out my own. :P

today's moment of damn near perfect awesomeness

i have to start by saying that today's been pretty solid, really. had a conversation with bff that lasted for at least an hour and a half, made a bit of progress in my pile of library books to read, remembered to bring in the bins after trash/recycling pickup...nothing major, obviously, but enough so that i felt pretty good about the day.

then i made dinner and sat down to eat my store-bought chicken & four cheese ravioli and the roasted broccoli i made (the "recipe" for which i will share in my next post, promise) and sip my pepsi with anne lamott's latest book to keep me company.

this is where i detour a bit to fawn over anne lamott. she's one of my favorite writers. seriously. her books make me have all of the feelings, sometimes within the same chapter and, if i'm really gonna be honest, sometimes on the same damn page. i love her. i still miss her salon columns even though she hasn't written for them in ages. if you've not read any of her stuff, check it out. please. she's amazeballs.

ok, back to dinner. sitting at the dining room table with my ravioli and my broccoli and my pepsi and my library book. eating. enjoying the silence. feeling pleased about the day's events, even if they were relatively uneventful. pondering a plan for the rest of the evening, which likely will include watching tv, starting to prep for my next adventures in catsitting stint, and finally listening to fiona apple's new release.

but then. i was reading and suddenly a whitney houston song popped into my head. anyone who knows me and my penchant for song snippets appearing out of nowhere (a friend once said i have "musical tourette's") won't be surprised by this, i know. but the song was a bit surprising b/c i haven't listened to it in who knows how long and i wasn't expecting it to come up in my mental jukebox:



sometimes, when i'm at church or while i'm out and about or while i'm in the shower or wherever i happen to be, i try to pay god compliments or otherwise acknowledge that s/he is pretty fucking amazing. (yes, i swear while talking about god. i swear when i'm praying sometimes, too. fight me.) god usually brushes it off, like it's no big deal. not saying that god can't handle compliments, but that s/he doesn't really need the validation, but they're willing to listen b/c that's how they roll.

and then i realized that i hadn't really had one of these intense moments lately. luckily for me, i don't feel compelled to save my worship for when i'm in a church, b/c that doesn't happen on a consistent basis for me, especially with my new work schedule (have i mentioned that i work sundays and i'm really gonna dislike it come football season?). i almost cried. seriously. as weird as it may sound, and i am fully cognizant of the fact that this sounds weird to some of y'all, it was like i had all of the warm and fuzzy feelings at once and if i didn't acknowledge that fact, even with a slient headnod to god, i was going to burst. i both love and hate that feeling - love it b/c i feel so full and happy and i just want to give hugs and high-fives all around, and hate it b/c my inner control freak is all "what in the entire fuck are you doing? stop it!"

even now, as i'm writing this, inner control freak voice is screaming for me to delete this and just give y'all the roasted broccoli hookup. possibly a few of you are wishing i'd listened to that voice instead of all of this emotional fuckery. but if you made it this far and you're still upset about reading this...well, i'm probably not the one you should be upset with. just sayin'.

so this is what solitude feels like...

tonight marks my first night alone, sans pets and/or children, since i had to vacate casa de eulalia back in october. it's glorious and a bit depressing at the same time. glorious b/c, well, i have the house to myself and y'all know how i cherish quiet time. depressing b/c, well, it's not my house. it's gonna happen, though. hopefully sooner rather than later, but i've learned not to put firm timetables on these kinds of things. i'm actually going to use tonight and tomorrow to remind myself of just how much i love (relative) peace and quiet. weirdly motivational, i know, but that's how i roll.

and hey, i'll be in the city this weekend, and for an extended amount of time in july, so it's not all bad. besides, i have that whole part-time job thing going, which is an obvious plus.

hope y'all are having a decent week. isn't this lovely (and by lovely i mean omfg it's so hot) weather we're having? :P

in which i admit to having some, if not all, of the feelings

i have a confession to make. i got a little teary while boarding the metra train back to the 'burbs tonight. it's not that i haven't missed being in chicago before now, because i have. tears have been shed previously over not living here anymore, so this isn't anything new.

it's a combination of things, really. spending 10 days in the city i know and love with some of my favorite people (you know who you are and you're awesome and i love you like i love chocolate and reading and quiet time), plus dealing with yet another father's day w/o daddy even though a part of me really thinks that after 15 years, i shouldn't get as affected by this as i still do, plus feeling grateful for my new part-time gig even though i'm still hoping/praying for an additional part-time job or a full-time one so i can really try to set things in motion to get back to chicago on a permanent basis, plus feeling sad for my oldest brother who just laid his biological father to rest yesterday, which has to be extra-painful given that it's father's day weekend and now he's lost all three of his parents - our mom, my dad, who was technically his stepdad but i honestly don't remember that terminology ever being used, and now his biological father, who he just (re)discovered ~10 years ago - plus losing james a few years ago and i almost sorta kinda but not really wish that our relationship was such that i could call or email him and let him know that i know the shit hurts, but we're not in that space and therefore i feel like an asshole and why on earth do y'all let me run on like this?

so, all of that, plus the unshakable "i really should've been back by now and why the fuck is this taking so long" feeling of frustration i have, plus feeling like shit b/c i am stuck on the sidelines while a colleague/friend is trying to maneuver her mother's pending demise (i would really like cancer to die in a fucking fire right the fuck now), plus dealing w/some other feelings toward some other people that i know good and gotdamn well i have no business even trying to deal with right now b/c i really don't have the emotional and/or mental fortitude to go there, and yeah…i'm kinda surprised i haven't started bawling while i'm typing this on the train.

y'know what's weird, though? the whole time i've been writing this post, one of the voices in my head has been screaming at me for even considering sharing this with y'all. i will readily admit to not being superwoman, and damned if i'm gonna keep all of these feelings bottled up when i have a perfectly good outlet like this blog to get some shit off of my chest and out of my head. i mean, we all know i'm gonna (wo)man up and put on my big girl panties and keep plugging away until i'm back in chicago and am approaching something that could be construed as financial stability, but fuck. this shit is hard. it's really fucking hard and i am so fucking tired and sometimes the only thing that stops me from curling up into a ball and sobbing myself to sleep is knowing that y'all have my back and that some of y'all would, if i asked, quite literally kick my ass and make me get back in gear b/c you know me well enough to know that this is only temporary and for fuck's sake i've run on again. shit.

before i forget, though - and this is really important - please don't let my current insanity stop you from talking to me about any and all major shit (hell, even minor shit) that's going on with you. i really appreciate the fact that you don't want to add to my emotional distress by telling me your troubles/challenges/whatever, but we're friends, gotdammit, and if we can't share the highs and lows of our lives with each other, then we're all doing it wrong. i'll readily admit that i haven't been as communicative as i probably could've/should've been w/some of y'all lately, and i'm sorry. it's never been my intent to use my woes as an excuse to be (more) self-absorbed and uncaring. that's not what i want, and if you see me doing that shit, please tell me to cut it out, mmkay?

hot fun in the summertime*

eta: omg you guys. i have a job. i start on friday. more about it here.

*yes, i know it's not technically summer yet, but i think we're close enough.

i've been in the city since thursday and i am pretty sure i've eaten more pork and drank more alcohol in these past few days than i have in at least 2 months. seriously, i'm amazed that i haven't succumbed to a porcine version of the meat sweats. and ham. and more bacon. i actually had a meatless monday yesterday b/c i know my system isn't accustomed to this much swine anymore. that, and the fact that there's more pork in my future before i head back on sunday. bacon burgers? check. a pork/apple pie? yup. it's all gonna happen and maybe now some of my pants/skirts will stop falling off of me due to the weight i'm sure to gain this week.

have i mentioned lately that i have awesome friends? b/c i do. i've managed to hang with a few of y'all already and there have been lots of laughs and music and nomz and booze and i love y'all for it. it's no wonder that this got stuck in my head before i went to bed last night:

time for a little family feud

when richard dawson died this weekend, this gem of a video popped up in my twitter feed. i just watched it again and if you're having a week like i'm having so far, you could probably use some laughs. enjoy. :-)

can't travel anywhere

oh, cta. you've really gone and done it this time. announcing the closure of the dan ryan branch of the red line (from cermak/chinatown to 95th street) for five months, presumably in the name of saving money & time. 

my initial reaction to today's news was shock. i didn't play the racism card, although there's definitely a strong case to be made there, seeing as how the ridership south of chinatown to 95th is predominantly black. but that's not the case i want to make right now.

people who know me relatively well know that i am a huge fan of the cta. i come by it honestly, seeing as how both daddy and james worked for the chicago transit authority for more than 20 years before they retired. i've always said that cta helped get me through northwestern, thanks to daddy's pension plan. the occasional trips home from evanston didn't hurt, either.

people who know me relatively well also know that i've been attending 1st c. off and on since i was 6 years old. in those 25+ years (holy crap i am old), i have never missed 5 months of sunday service. not when i was in college. not when i was balancing 2 part-time jobs, an internship, and grad school. not even during my current suburban sojourn. 5 weeks, maybe, but not 5 months. 

for those of you who weren't at the urbantherapy wedding or at james' funeral: 1st c. is on the far south side. like 111th street far. as in i take the red line to 95th and then hop on a bus to get to 1st c. this pending closure pretty much means that i'll be fully embracing my heathen status for those 5 months. that also means that i'll be losing a part of my community for 5 months. oh, yeah, and there's that whole "the only time i usually hang with my family is at church" thing, which will go by the wayside for 5 months.

i'm writing this while riding the metra back to the 'burbs and i haven't been online since lunchtime, so i don't know if any major players have made a statement about this cta plan. i'd love to know what the white sox think of having their primary station closed…but i'm willing to guess that having a green line station and a metra station nearby takes some of the sting out of it. i'd presume the same for the university of chicago, esp. since the green line is technically closer to campus and there's also metra access nearby. same goes for iit.

[eta: the tribune article has been updated w/comments from the white sox, who do indeed refer to the nearby green line and metra stations as game day alternatives.]

i wonder what metra has to say. are they planning to boost capacity and/or adjust schedules on their southern routes during these station closures? has cta mentioned anything about changes to their bus lines/schedules, particularly in the areas affected by these closures?

did anyone at cta give voice to the fact that the "shuttles to the green line" option only works for people who aren't south of 63rd street? or that it's entirely possible that some riders may find it cost-prohibitive to switch to metra for those months? or that it's just not a convenient option to get to/from a metra station, or a bus stop, for that matter?

granted, we have a whole year to gear ourselves up for this, but right now? it just doesn't sit well with me. hopefully i can make it to one of the town-hall meetings to see exactly how this is supposed to play out.