Gangs + Cupcakes?

I get so geeked out about interesting maps.

I went to a lecture today about telling stories with maps. One of the maps that Vaughn Tan shared with us was this San Fransisco map of gang territories and cupcake shops. Can we infer anything from this map? Probably not. But, it's super cool. The violence described in the accompanying article is absolutely not super cool.

Listen up, gangs: cupcakes, not guns.

1, 2, 3, 4, I declare a Blog War*

For the record, I did NOT try to kill Annabelle. Not this week, anyway. And, you should completely disregard that one time when I lit her ponytail on fire because that really was an accident.

Mac'n'cheese RULES!

That is all.

* Though I would be just as happy with a Thumb War.

she may be a fascist, y'all

You know how when people don't like something as "all-American" as apple pie they get called "communists"? I don't think that's such a bad label, all in all, but I'm not fond of the fascists.

Which leads me to Annabelle.

Before last night, she'd never taken a whole bite of macaroni and cheese. For serious. Did I mention this is one of my favorite foods?

After having dental work done on Monday, her mouth has been very sore. Last night, my goal for dinner was soft food. Given the way I inhale mac'n'cheese, I thought that might be something she could try to inhale, too, that might be both soft and filling. You have to know, though, that Annabelle doesn't like: a) cheese, or b) noodles. Making this for dinner was a risky choice, but I'd hoped that the inhalability of mac'n'cheese would make it okay.

I was so wrong. To her credit, she didn't throw up after that one bite of mac'n'cheese, but she definitely wanted to.

Macaroni and cheese was an important part of my childhood. Hell, lots of people would say the same thing. It's a feel-good food for me. It's so strange to me that it's something she can't make herself eat (it's a texture issue). When I think of the staples, I think about mac'n'cheese, tomato soup, spaghetti, BLTs... all things Annabelle doesn't like.

To be fair, there are foods I don't like: blueberries, olives, beets, radishes, cottage cheese, salmon. Who doesn't like blueberries???

When we have kids, they'll either eat everything we put in front of them, or they'll be the pickiest eaters in the city.

It takes more than three days to make something a habit, doesn't it?

On Tuesday, my buddy D and I began our very own "Biggest Loser" competition. Like the show, we're going to see who can lose the largest percentage of weight over the course of the semester. We weighed in on Tuesday, and we'll have the final weigh-in on the last day of classes. For accuracy and consistency, we weighed in at the College's health center, and they're helping to track our progress.

The past three days, I was up at 5am and in the pool at the gym before 6:30 -- I have to go from our apartment in Chicago to the gym in Evanston. And yes, there ARE, in fact, gyms in Chicago. This one in particular is adjacent to the downtown Evanston stop on the Metra I take to work. So hush; it does, too, make sense to go that far to the gym. On those three days, I swam my 1/4 mile, and I did it hard. I tried to pay attention to my breathing and movement with each lap, making sure my legs were working. And boy, did they work hard.

By yesterday afternoon, I was popping extra Aleve for my bad joints and tired muscles. Despite the pain, it was a sure sign I accomplished something.

I didn't go in today. I was out past 11 last night with students -- we went to see a speaker a the University of Chicago -- so getting up early would have been painful. A different kind of painful. I get what they mean about having a little rest time for your body.

The competition element of all of this is what's going to be most helpful, I think. I have a GOAL. I'm going to BEAT HIM at weight loss. Perfectionist much? I know, I know. I must say, though, that perhaps the biggest motivator this week associated with the bet was the weigh in. I never would have guessed it, but I weigh 15 pounds more than he does. That is NOT okay.

I must admit, though, that the thought of winning a lunch of bacon-wrapped filet at Fogo de Chao isn't bad incentive, either.

randoms from my trip to NC this week

I wanted to compile a list of things that cracked us up and/or made us happy during what was an extremely stressful trip this wee. I'm hoping that by making this list, I'll be inclined to come back and write about them.

Filter Plant Rd., also know as Fill-Her-Pants Rd.
Weiner Works
Guns Plus
Sha-Fay-Fay
Nam, or The Middle Finger followed by "the town formerly known as Nam"
the Macy's incident
blowing out a flip flop
Sean John clothes
rocking the Caddy
the leaky toilet
the Coug
Debbie Downer and the XM radio
Chick-fil-A
"Arriving at Scott"
throwing Rudy's bone out the window
leaving your house unlocked in the middle of a city
drugs, particularly klonopin, xanax, and pepto capsules
The Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill
the flight attendant on the diet who smiled kindly while we ate Cinnabon
Pre-Board Authorization
landing back in Chicago

report: ice cream recipe, part 1

Yesterday, I posted my cut-and-paste recipe for vegan pistachio ice cream. The first part of the recipe involves making a pistachio custard, which sounded like it would be a pain in the butt without eggs. It actually cooked up pretty darn well, I must say. It remains to be seen how the consistency is today, but last night, it behaved very much like a custard. A. noted it was a pretty putrid green color, but it tasted pretty damn awesome. I'll also note that I made it last night so that it was out of the way and could cool overnight.

I stopped at the Spice House on the way home, where I picked up arrowroot and almond extract. I used the arrowroot as my thickener, and it did its job. I got a little nervous that it wouldn't and added a little more than the recipe called for. I hope I don't end up regretting that when I go to assemble the ice cream this evening. I can always thin it with a little more soy milk, I bet.

So, part 1 has been tested and successful!

Also, I heart my food processor. Amazing appliances; such a timesaver. The coarse chopping of the pistachios for the ice cream add-in is already done. Did that in the food processor while I waited for the custard to boil.

ice cream season begins with an experiment!

I'm trying to make some vegan pistachio ice cream. It's been a headache so far, mostly in that it's making me think too much about how to do it right. My shortcuts haven't worked, so I'm back to the drawing board. I'm posting this mostly for myself as a place to have all the info in one place. I'm hodgepodging together a couple of recipies, so this is, as of this posting, untested. I'll post when it is, though.

Vegan PIstachio Ice Cream - UNTESTED

Ingredients

Custard base:

• 1 cup pistachios
  
• 2 cups soymilk - separated to 1/4 cup and 1 3/4 cups
  
• 3/4 cup sugar - separated to 1/4 and 1/2 cups
  
• 2 Tbs custard powder (like Bird's brand), cornstarch, or arrowroot
  
• 1 tsp almond extract

Remaining Ingredients:

• 1 cup soymilk creamer
  
• 3/4 cup pistachios, coarsely chopped

Directions

Custard base:

Mix 1/4 cup soymilk with custard powder. Set aside.

Finely grind 1 cup pistachios and 1/4 cup sugar in processor. Bring 1 & 3/4 cups of soymilk and ground pistachio mixture to boil in heavy large saucepan. Remove from heat. Mix in almond extract, cornstarch/custard powder, and remaining sugar.

Return saucepan to heat. Cook the custard over a low heat, stirring constantly, until thick.
Remove from heat. Strain into large bowl. Chill until cold, about 2 hours.

Making the ice cream:

Stir creamer into custard. Transfer mixture to ice cream maker and make according to manufacturer's guidelines.

About 5 minutes before manufacturer's specified end time for processing ice cream, add chopped pistachios. Continue processing. Transfer ice cream to freezer for firmer ice cream of serve immediately for soft-serve style ice cream.

back to it

I'd like to get back in the habit of blogging again. I'm not sure why I stopped. I won't go into details other than to say that The Wife has been having a bad patch, and while that has weighed heavily on my mind, it's not something I've wanted to write about. I also had a patch of worsening depression that's now managed.

So, back to it.

We didn't actually spend Valentine's day together. We don't really care about that stuff. We exchanged cards, and she brought me home the frosted heart sugar cookie she was given at work. That was all we needed, really. She spent the evening with a friend of hers, and I went out with two of my friends. I hate to admit it, but "He's just not that into you" was rather cute (predictable, yes).

I'm on a Relay for Life team with the Stitch'n'Bitch, and we're preparing a fundraiser. We'll be selling handmade items, including hand-dyed yarn by yours truly. I bought 16 skeins of superwash wool and borrowed a crockpot from Siobhankha. This doesn't do the work justice, but you can at least get a glimpse of the dyeing so far.



The bathroom has been overrun by yarn. Seven more skeins to go, plus rewinding some of it (because the tangles just got out of control for some of them).

In other news, I started tracking Weight Watchers Points online last week. I though that afternoons were my weakness, but it looks like evenings are just as bad. I blame our inconsistency with being home at dinnertime and thusly not cooking. I will be better! I will! But not this week. I have something to do every night this week: 2 nights with friends and 2 with work. Oh well. ;)

I suppose the only other interesting thing to note is that I went to Philly with Merdie. She had a job interview out in the country, and we could fly into Philly for pretty cheap. I'm not a fan. We had a helluva time finding the public transit, and when we did, it was poorly marked (talk about carrying your bag up and down stairs till you find the right platform!) with no token sales. And I didn't see one accessible vehicle. You know it's a bad sign with the tourists (some dude) are asking other tourists (us) how to get places. The small town where she interviewed was super cute, and we scored big at the outlet mall on the way back to Philly. Also? Cheesesteaks.

I'll leave you with some pics.

a watched bowl never explodes

I like making oatmeal from the actual canister of oats. Add in a little flavored creamer (vanilla) and some brown sugar and dried fruit... yum! I usually only make it when we're out of milk; today was one of those mornings.

I started off by not following the measuring directions. I corrected that and popped the bowl in the microwave for 1:30. It came out too watery. I added more oats and popped it back in the micro.

And I didn't watch it.

Oatmeal takes on a life of its own. When the microwave dinged and I went to retrieve my breakfast, most of it was on the rotating glass plate in the microwave. Like at least half of it, but probably more. I'm imagining it looking something like the mushrooming of a nuclear explosion of oatmeal. So, I had to scoop up this huge pile of hot oatmeal and try AGAIN to make a portion that I might be able to call breakfast.

It wasn't my best effort. Not by a long shot. It didn't even taste all that fabulous, probably because I forgot the coffeemate and we didn't have dried cranberries.

In short, I fail at oatmeal.

two things

1. I'm WAY excited to go to the DIY Trunk Show tomorrow!

2. What should I make for vegan Thanksgiving? Last year I made some pretty awesome stuffing, which I may revisit. I also made skin-on red mashed potatoes. This year, I'm thinking about something with sweet potatoes. Any thoughts or grand ideas?

thanks, BNL

Per the usual, it's freezing in my office. I should bring in some sort of thermometer to see how cold it actually gets in here. And a blanket. I should definitely bring in a blanket.

Despite the cold fingers, I've been PRODUCTIVE, which is pretty remarkable for a Monday, especially so since my Mondays are especially heinous.

I've been listening to the Barenaked Ladies all morning. I think that's helped, though I kinda wish I was "lyin' in bed, just like Brian Wilson did." Mmmm, sleep.

The weekend was pretty good. I was back to volunteer at Planned Parenthood after being gone 5 or 6 weeks (October was BUSY). We had Ethiopian with some of my work pals on Saturday and dinner with my pal Jennjer on Sunday after she played with the College's orchestra and choir in Wrigleyville. I'm not a huge fan of classical-type or choral-type musics, but they were awesome.

I know my friend Roly's excited for the Peppermint Mochas, but honestly, I'm just not ready to give up the Pumpkin Spice Latte. There's no comparison. I had one yesterday on the way to the concert, and there's nothing like a hot cup of coffee on a cold autumn day.

Time for lunch before my 5 straight hours of meetings/out-of-office stuffs.

um. tasty?

I took a fish oil pill for the first time this morning.

I keep burping sushi.

I'd rather be crocheting.

Why is it that the one and only website I need to work this afternoon has to continue to fail to load?! I finally got a text for a student who needs it in electronic format, and I need to get the publisher contact info.

In other--better--news, it's Curry Hut Wednesday. Indian buffet, baby. So. Stuffed.

I'm totally engrossed in my project for the Ravelympics, the 17-day challenge for knitters/crocheters on Ravelry. Goodness, how I want to work on it. I've finished all my red "squares," and now the purple are almost done. I might actually finish this project. :)

My grandmother called this morning to report that my grandfather is definitely perking up, which is good, though if he had his way, he wouldn't leave ICU until he's ready to go home. We think he likes the attention. ;)

Has anyone else been completely mesmerized by Brandi Carlile's "The Story" on that GM commercial they keep playing during the Olympics? I get transfixed every time that commercial plays. I want to hear it right now. In fact, I just might go off and find it. Totally productive use of of time, I know. :P But if it helps with my filing...

I'm so full.

I'll tell you what, those folks in the library might not keep peanut butter around, but damn can they cook! The library summer BBQ was moved from tomorrow to today, which happened to be a day I didn't have time to pack my lunch. Geez, it was so good.

dry toast, and I'm not even home sick

Why did I want to come back to the library again? Yesterday, there was clearly a jar of peanut butter in the staff kitchen. Unfortunately, it was today my english muffin and I headed downstairs for a mid-morning snack to find--gasp!--no peanut butter. The honey bear was hard, no honey moving. The strawberry preserves promised to be good till next May, but I was still too nervous about the big red jar in the fridge. And, no butter in sight. Over in the Butch, there wasn't any community food/condiment storage, so everything was a known quantity. Here? Well, who knows how long something's been sitting out or who's put a finger in the jar for a little taste? Also, don't bother looking for a plastic knife. Plastic forks abound, but if you want a knife, it'll be real and followed with the thought about how long it's been since someone washed the dish rag hanging over the sink. Blech.

So, I did what I had to do: I ate my toasted english muffin dry. Always safer with a known quantity, and having had food poisoning once, I can safely say that's not something I want to do again.

At least the cafe in the student center will be open when I go warm up my lunch, meaning I should be able to find a pat of butter for my reheated mashed potatoes. And this weekend, I'm buying myself a small jar of peanut butter for my office. And plastic knives.