Major food update

This week was all about cheese for me. On Wednesday, I attended my favorite event of the week, "Cheesy Wednesday"! So, you order a beer and it comes paired with a plate of cheese, bread and grapes. Amazing -- I know, right!? I'll blog more on that later because I enjoyed myself too much and cannot write intelligently on this matter.

I love cooking seasonally, and I really wanted to try using some different greens for dinner than regular, boring ole' spinach. So I picked up some kale, swiss chard, and bok choy to use this week. Friday I made the kale. So easy, so cheap, so delicious!! All you need is: One bunch of kale, two cloves of garlic, one red onion, red wine vinegar, and olive oil.

Exhibit A:


I chopped the kale into strips and let it cook in boiling water for 10 min. Then I sauteed some red onion in the olive oil until it was soft, after which I added the garlic. Once it was smelling delicious and I could barely stand it, I added the kale to the pan to warm it back up. After a couple more minutes, it was done! I splashed on some red wine vinegar, and served it with herb-crusted chicken and wild rice (no big deal):



On to further, more important matters!

We hosted a fondue extravaganza/feast for the people I knew would appreciate it most. Melting Pot has nothing on me! Seriously, you couldn't pay me to waste 5 more hours of my life at that place for the pathetic excuse for fondue for which they have the audacity to charge you like $90/person.

Matt's not into the classic emmenthaler/greyeur combo because it's too "tangy," so I did gouda/smoked gouda with garlic, Amstel Light. Soooooooooo good. I also had like three times the amount of dippers, that were 100x better than what the ridiculous Melting Pot offers, and it took me 700x less time to make.

We dipped pumpernickel and semolina bread, broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower, pretzels, green apples, grapes, and salami. I blanched the veggies for a couple minutes (key. Someone report this to MP). I bought the meat ends at Shoprite for the salami and was only charged like 2 dollars for a pound of salami (normally like $12/pound if you want to have the packaged sticks).

So, FIRST, I chopped everything up with a huuuge knife:



Then I melted the cheese and we ate for like 2 hours:



It was amazing. We're going to do a Guinness/aged cheddar fondue next!!!

One last thing. I would pay double or maybe triple to see any of the movies featured in Seinfeld (except for The English Patient). Prognosis Negative? Sack Lunch? Count me in!!!

Race and other non-important issues

When discussing the authenticity of someone's black identity or the evils of promoting solidarity among women, I reeeeally want to hear the opinion of an old white guy. Yeah, he's definitely the one to go to for advice.

(He's the same brilliant man who enlightened us as to why women are incapable of being funny.)

New hair

Hey guys! Guess what. I just got a celebrity-inspired haircut. It looks like this:



Yeah, it's great. I love it.

More later.

Lovely night to myself

I'm home for the night with a great big bowl of edamame, a glass of wine, and a puppy to snuggle with. This is the life!

I'm researching hairstyle photos to bring to my appointment tomorrow. What I really want is something funky and drastically different (because that's what I'm all about), but I'm a wimp. I'll bring a few photos and ask for the guy's honest opinion. Right now I'm considering thick bangs with layered length or a long bob with side bangs. Judging from my history with haircuts, I'll most likely be wearing a hat for the next 3 months.

At Whoorl, this lovely lady gives awesome solicited hair advice, and I WISH I knew about this earlier!

The Dunkin' Donuts ads playing lately are brilliant, and I can't stop thinking about them. It warms my heart to hear They Might be Giants used so appropriately. 'Doin' things is what I like to do' Is the most fitting inner soundtrack for daily life ever, especially because it complements my usual jingle for my life, "Sayin' things and doin' stuff," which also has a million possibilities!



OK, I'm going, because there's edamame to eat, wine to drink, Seinfeld to watch, and snuggling to be done!!

(Sorry for the crappy photo again, but I couldn't resist!!!)

Starting my garden

First off, I'm so thrilled bring you my first post with photos. Because of camera troubles, the photos were taken via Photobooth on my Macbook, so they're not as lovely as they could be. Next time, when I have an expert to assist, they'll be even better!

About 6 weeks ago, Matt and I were taking advantage of the savings and quality goods at Target, when I came across a Chia Herb Garden set that includes everything you need to grow four different varieties of herbs! It only cost $20! Matt made fun of me for wanting it and might have even said that it was "ridiculous" and "stupid," but I don't really remember.

Anyway, he's gone for work for a while, so of course I went back to Target this weekend (twice). It was half price, and Matt was nowhere to be seen, soooo:



(Notice the fact that this is not an average, normal Chia set for everyday schlubs but a GOURMET Chia kit for fancy people like myself.)



I couldn't be happier! My future little herblings are currently are now sitting on top of the range with plastic bags over them to create a greenhouse-like environment.

Let's see how Matt feels when my dinner is flavored with delicious home-grown herbs and his is flavorless and bland.

The other exciting thing I'm working on is a new fancy scarf. My sister Claire helped me out with reading the pattern, since I usually figure things out without a pattern, and I'm really excited about it, even though it's slow in coming. It's an entrelac pattern, and it's really interesting to work on, because there's so much flipping back and forth instead of knitting all the way across, flipping, and knitting allll the way back (boooring!). I noticed last night that I was completing one section of blocks across for each episode of Seinfeld I was watching, so I'll probably have to watch all the seasons before this thing is done.

Also, I'm using variegated yarn, which I usually just hate, but because of the way it's made, the colors pool together and it looks kind of funky.

Let's hope it's all done before the weather gets warm so I actually have a chance to wear it this winter!