poet and didn't know it

i'm reading this book of essays about zora neale hurston , which is exciting in and of itself, b/c y'all know i'm a huge fan of zora and her work.

so far, i've read essays about zora being a choreographer, and about her being an environmentalist before such a term really entered our lexicon, and of course about her fiction and plays, etc. one essay in particular stood out b/c it discussed zora's poetry and how a lot of people (myself included) don't really think of her as a poet. the essay closed with 2 poems of zora's that i hadn't read before, and one of them really hit home:

This Year Has Been

This year has been
a great trial of endurance
for me.

I don't mind saying
That more than once
I have almost said:
I can't endure.

I shall hold on,
But every time
I see a cat slinking
in an alley
fearing to walk upright
lest again
she is crushed back
into her slink
I shall go to her
and acknowledge
The sisterhood
in spite of
the skin.

and now i have yet another reason to swoon over zora, as if i needed one. :-)

modern-day mourning

there's an article in the new york times about mourning in the digital age. for the most part, i found myself concurring with the piece, but there was one quote in particular that didn't sit too well with me:

“We’re just too busy in this world to deal with losing people,” said Maggie Callanan, a hospice nurse for the last 30 years and the author of “Final Gifts,” an influential book about death and dying. “And yet we have to.”

the notion of people being too busy to deal with losing people just doesn't resonate with me. maybe i'm spoiled b/c y'all showed up in such an amazing way when james died. maybe my opinion of myself is too high when i think that despite the current insanity that is my life, i'd do my best to support a friend in their time of loss.

maybe i'm overreacting b/c i've been thinking about james a lot during the past week. but i really feel that the day that we're too busy to be genuinely supportive of one another, regardless of the circumstance(s) or what that support looks like, is the day that humanity's doing it all wrong.

and that's all i have to say about that right now. you may now resume your regularly scheduled friday night programming. :-)

recipe review: easy roasted potatoes with garlic

burgers were on the menu for tonight, and we'd decided to have potatoes as a side dish. red potatoes were in the fridge, along with a white onion. my original plan was just to cut them up and throw them in a skillet for a quick saute, but then i found this recipe in my files and decided to follow the basic outline of it.

i say "basic outline" because i:

--added the white onion which isn't in the original recipe
--used a teaspoon of sweet paprika instead of cayenne pepper b/c we all know i'm a wuss when it comes to spicy food. that, and i didn't want the potatoes to be too spicy for the 3 y.o. in case she decided to try them. (she didn't, but oh well.)
--used about a tablespoon of bottled minced garlic instead of chopped b/c that's what was in the fridge

i didn't cube the potatoes; more of a rough dice/chop, which translated to a slightly longer cooking time (about 40 minutes, plus a few minutes under the broiler).

simple. nom. would make again. the end. :-)

recipe review: maple-roasted chicken with sweet potatoes

i'll admit to being a little more nervous than usual about trying out this recipe. not because of the actual recipe itself; it's pretty straightforward (imo) and i knew that once i'd gotten the sweet potatoes under control, the rest of my prep would be easy. the reason for my anxiety? this was the first meal i made for the folks i'm currently staying with. (not up-to-date on that? go check out my other blog.)

so, nervous. i lost count of how many times i copped the "i haven't tried this before so i have no idea how it's gonna turn out" plea in the past 24 hours.

it turned out nomtastic! here are the substitutions i made:

--dried thyme instead of fresh b/c that's what was on hand (let's say i used about a teaspoon or so)
--a combination of pancake syrup & honey b/c, again, that's what was on hand (i'd say at least a tablespoon of each, maybe? i didn't actually measure any of the spices. or oil, for that matter.)
--i probably added less salt & more pepper than the recipe called for. did i mention i wasn't measuring things?

when i make this again, i'm adding more sweet potatoes. why? b/c i love sweet potatoes and i felt like the ratio of chicken to sweet potatoes was uneven. aside from that, we all enjoyed it. woo!

as promised: the "things that will be (back) in my life this year" post

i had to go back a few posts to confirm that i actually made such a promise, and i did, so here goes.

2011 was pretty craptacular, for myriad reasons. i still have a bit of optimism left, though, so i've decided to make a list of things that will be (back) in my life in 2012. i wouldn't consider this a list of goals or resolutions or anything like that - just some things i'm looking forward to in the coming year. i'm sure i'll come back to this list as 2012 progresses, either to check things off or make some additions/changes. in no particular order:

--a smartphone w/a data plan

--voice lessons

--room service

--an apartment of my own in chicago

--less debt

--live music (as in going to concerts more often)

--a vacation that involves an airplane and/or a change in time zones

--dining out (as much as i love to cook, i really miss going to restaurants. so many places to visit, both old and new.

--arts/cultural/entertainment outings

--at least one trip to the casino, preferably on christmas eve for jesusjack

--a job that doesn't suck

--medical insurance

--visits to my doctors that don't involve me begging for free samples of meds

--going out with friends spontaneously (vs. having to plan things out w/r/t my budget)

--disposable income

--a savings account that has more than the minimum amount needed to keep the account open

--a retirement account, or at least something that resembles a retirement plan

--more book purchases (and bookcases to put them in)

--a trip to the dentist

--a new watch

--regular attendance at ddpp

fun with online contests

my track record with contests on twitter has been pretty solid as of late. this morning, i found out that i won my first prize of 2012. woo!

that said, i just entered another contest this morning for a macbook air. want in on the fun? of course you do. click here to enter and we'll see what happens.

happy hump day!

stockyards palate

a new york times article about charlie trotter closing his restaurant came across my twitter feed on sunday. the person who shared the link seemed a bit taken aback, if not offended, by the "stockyards palate" mention in the headline. i shared the outrage at first, primarily in a "how dare this nyt writer talk about chicago in such a way" kind of way.

but then i thought about it. charlie trotter's has been open for 25 years, which means i would've been, oh, 10 years old or so when it first opened. my memories of dining out from that age that didn't involve mcdonald's or other fast food? old country buffet and any number of chain steakhouses - ponderosa, bonanza, sizzler, etc. oh, and shoney's, but that was for the breakfast buffet and we were almost always traveling when that happened. this was also during the time when kids could be fooled into thinking that "chopped steak" was a fancy meal, instead of a hamburger sans bun. yes, that happened to me. i was probably a freshman in high school when i was allowed to upgrade to real cuts of steak. mmm...steak. i've definitely become more adventurous in my food choices as i age, but steak and potatoes never fails to make me a happy girl.

i say all of that to say that, maybe, the notion of my fair city having a stockyards palate back in the day isn't that farfetched. i'd love to hear from other folks who grew up around here and can remember going out to dinner w/their families. where'd you go? what kind of impact do you think those types of restaurants/meals had on your current palate?

first recipe review of 2012

i knew i wanted black-eyed peas and collard greens today. yes, i support the "black-eyed peas for luck and greens for money" superstition. i also knew i'd want something relatively easy to make. i remembered that i had this Cajun Chicken With Collard Greens recipe on my hard drive, and decided to give the collard greens part of it a try. i'd already made chicken wings earlier in the week, so i didn't need to make another main dish.

when i finally managed to get dressed this afternoon (note: migraine + cramps + migraine-induced nausea + all the vodka i drank last night = one of the worst mornings i've had in a long while), i knew i was only going to eat one meal today. once i managed to establish that i could indeed go longer than an hour w/o regurgitating and could actually think about consuming food instead of the water/7up diet i'd been on all day, it was time to start cooking.

note: i used minced garlic instead of the slices called for in the recipe b/c i had minced garlic on hand. i also "cheated" and used a bag of precleaned/prechopped greens that i picked through and rinsed thoroughly. good thing i did, b/c the greens were still a bit gritty and there were still plenty of stems that needed to be discarded. oh, and i used seasoned salt instead of salt/pepper. i didn't measure it, though, so i can't give you a measurement for that. sorry. also, i let the collards cook a little longer than the recipe specified; maybe 10-12 minutes or so before i added the peas.

anyway...nom. so nom, in fact, that i had to stop myself from finishing all of it in one sitting. i might actually eat some more later tonight as a snack.

i just realized that the last 2 recipes i've written about have been vegetarian. that wasn't intentional on my part, but i know there are some of y'all who can appreciate that. :-)

bon appetit!

*swoon*

y'all know i'm a zora neale hurston fan. you also know that i love reading. the fact that i didn't scream with happiness when i saw this pic a few minutes ago? pure self-restraint. (also, i need to save my screaming/yelling for the bowl game in a couple of hours. go u!)



source: awesome people reading, a site i just found while clicking through vintage black glamour, another swoon-worthy site.

happy saturday!

roasted vegetables and chickpeas: a review

you'd think that not having a kitchen of my own would diminish my zeal for cooking and looking at recipes. you'd be oh so very wrong. i may or may not have a tentative menu plan in mind for my first few meals in my new apartment (whenever that happens).

when i saw this recipe, i decided i wanted to make it for christmas dinner. so i did. and it was delicious. the prep work was a little intense, b/c sweet potatoes always seem to give me trouble w/r/t to peeling and chopping them, but the payoff? nomz. i still have leftovers and they're still nomtastic. i'd make this again.

my favorite songs of 2011*

not all of these songs were released in 2011, but i added them to my itunes library this year - hence the asterisk. there's no particular order of preference here. i basically dumped all the songs into a playlist and then rearranged a few in an attempt to make them sound more cohesive, for lack of a better term.

here's the list:

mmm...hot fudge action...

i don't even know why i still have this photo in my files, but i saw it last night for the first time in who knows how long and had to laugh. someone remind me to make brownies for the nye bowl watch party so we can try to get a reprise of this:



happy saturday and/or (insert your preferred holiday greeting here)!

just in case you want/need a little more holiday spirit

i know we've all seen this 5011 times, but it still makes me laugh.

highlights from today

--commiserating with folks about the gotdamn snow even though it's december in chicago and we know better

--running into a former northwestern football player (from the 1995-1999 era) at the cvs in evanston

--picking up this book, among others, from the library

--hot fudge action at margie's with donna (sorry, christin. i know you're my usual partner for hot fudge action, but you're out of town and, well, it *is* my birthday and all. :P)

--watching hours and hours of cable, which i'd missed in the past couple of weeks

--all of the texts/emails/tweets wishing me a happy birthday. thanks.

lowlight? definitely twisting my ankle/foot while coming down the stairs of my friends' apartment building. nothing's swollen or sprained, but there's definitely a bit of a limp in my stride.

but the absolute best highlight from today had to be this email snippet:

I believe in you. I have always believed in you. This is a detour, and you will find your way out of it. You’re coping amazingly well.

apparently i needed that more than i realized, b/c that definitely pulled at the heartstrings a bit.

and this is where i thank y'all for reading about my adventures, both here and on my other site. your support, as always, is much appreciated.

coming soon: my list of songs i really loved in 2011 and a "shit that will be (back) in my life in 2012" list. saying that here means i actually have to work on them, so hopefully that means i'll get them up sooner rather than later. stay tuned.

*throws confetti*

it's here! my birthday, it is here! i made it to 35! woo! holy shit i'm old! exclamation points!

i kinda feel like a little kid at christmas. i woke up at 4am and then again at 6am and had to convince myself to go the fuck back to sleep b/c it was just too damn early. when 7:30am rolled around, i figured it was ok to start waking up, even though my alarm wasn't going to go off until 9am. whatever. it's my birthday, bitches!

and omg it's fucking snowing. i'm so glad i arranged a ride from my current crashpad to my new one later today, b/c lugging my stuff around in the snow on cta isn't really an experience i want to have on my birthday. fucking snow. there was no snow in the forecast last i checked. what the shit, mother nature?

anyway...it's my birthday and the celebration will continue though pulaski day (that's in march) at the earliest. i'm not doing anything big today b/c of the aforementioned switch in crashpads - i'm actually looking forward to watching tv and reading b/c it's been a busy week and tomorrow might be a bit epic w/r/t mistreating my liver.

i keep looking out the window and i can't believe it's fucking snowing. i'm going to the library later this morning (yay books!) and there's snow on the ground. this shit is actually sticking. i did not sign up for this.

ok, enough bitching about the snow...for now, anyway. it's my birthday! squee! :-)

it's almost my birthday (and other updates)

of course this week is sorta kinda jam packed with stuff: my monthly date with bureaucracy and a job interview (woo!) and dj'ing at ddpp and maybe helping people pack and maybe helping people clean and definitely laundry and who knows what else?

oh, and i'm taking myself to dinner on friday night, thanks to a stash of gift certificates i somehow had the foresight to put in one of the folders i'm moving around with (vs. one of the folders stashed in a box in a basement). saturday? no official plans for the day yet, aside from moving from one friend's couch to another friend's guest room in advance of my latest catsitting gig. depending on how the week goes, i might go to dave & buster's for skee-ball & tequila shots, or i might just curl up in front of my friend's tv and watch cable all night. i honestly don't know yet.

in any case, i plan on celebrating my birthday until pulaski day at the earliest. (pulaski day's the first monday in march, btw.) special thanks go out to everyone who's asked about my birthday plans. if i come up with a group outing, or if i decide to go to dave & buster's, i'll post an update here or send a mass email or something.

hope y'all had a good weekend. :-)

when a year treats you like this

how can you resist the temptation to punch it in the face? seriously, 2011 - you sucked balls and blew goats, and i can't wait to put you behind me.

(image courtesy of a friend's tumblr)

rolling in the mashups

these have been stuck in my head all week, so i decided to share them with y'all. you're welcome. :-)

adele vs. the eurythmics:

adele vs. jamiroquai:

all december everything

it really is the most wonderful time of the year. yeah, i'm biased b/c my birthday's in 16 days, but so what? december's my favorite month, my birthday's my favorite holiday, christmas is another favorite holiday even though i don't really make a bfd about it...it's a celebration, bitches!

although i don't foresee being able to do it as live as i'd like to for my 35th (well, not right now, anyway), i'm still planning on having fun. actually, the fun started a couple of weeks ago, when i had a day of free food and free laundry and made a little bit of money helping out a friend. last week's fun? hanging with bff and her mom. i'm taking myself to see "the muppets" as soon as i'm done posting this entry, so that'll be this week's contribution. i've won 2 twitter contests in the past week, so i'm counting those prizes (a cookbook and a pair of jeans) as birthday presents.

remember at the beginning of november when i identified 2 goals that i wanted to achieve? well, that didn't happen. not for lack of trying, though - i applied for 119 jobs and contacted who knows how many agencies re: housing referrals. i actually called a few more places today, only to be told that their waiting lists are at least 6 months long. obviously i don't have that kind of time. you can go to my other site to read more about that.

y'know what i want for my birthday, besides the obvious job offer and stable housing? room service. seriously. i want to stay in a hotel for my b-day weekend. this urge wouldn't be as strong if i actually had a place to sleep lined up for that weekend (december 16-18), but as it turns out, those are the only days in december where i'm not catsitting or crashing somewhere. (wanna offer up your couch/futon/air mattress/spare bedroom? let's talk.)

i think i'm forgetting something, but of course i can't pinpoint what that is right now. bah.

happy december! :-)

gobble gobble (for real this time!)

happy thanksgiving! or, for those of you who don't celebrate this holiday, happy thursday! :-)

i won't bore y'all with a list of who/what i'm thankful for this year, primarily b/c said list would be way too long to type out right now. i woke up this morning and started thinking about a quarterly list of thankfulness, and even that's kind of insane. so, here are a few of the people and things i'm thankful for, in no particular order:

--the amazing folks who helped me move out of casa de eulalia

--friends who've offered up their couches/futons/air mattresses so i have somewhere to crash

--bff, for so many things. it's not her birthday, but i could definitely write another post about our friendship and how grateful i am for her.

--everyone who's donated , either online or offline. i've been blown away by y'all's generosity.

--the friends who, while casa de eulalia still had a physical presence, were more than ok with coming over to hang out on the cheap.

--anyone and everyone who's subsidized food and/or drinking outings in the past few months. thanks for making sure i don't starve to death and for keeping my alcohol tolerance at a steady level.

i feel like i'm forgetting someone or something, so i should probably stop here. this was meant to be a partial list, anyway.

enjoy your day! :-)