I just finished dinner.
Dang.
Pumpkin Gnocchi (or dumplings as they call them) were amazing. I doubled the recipe, added a tad more flour and seasonings and sauteed them in sage brown butter.
The grocery by my house did not have kale but they did have collard greens. I sauteed thinly sliced onion in butter until golden, added a chopped apple, garam masala and more butter. The collard greens were deveined, cut into a 1/4 inch chiffonade and added to the apple and onion and mixed briefly until bright green.
I also roasted some salmon but that was uninspired and I probably should have gotten a pork chop.
If David does not get home soon, there will be no leftovers for him. Those gnocchi are screaming for me to eat them.
Also, completely unrelatedly, I’m totally getting a tattoo on my forehead that says ‘corporate whore’. I’m sitting here in my green Old Navy track jacket, rocking the faux-hawk and accessorising with those little plastic barettes you had when you were a girl. I suck.
Oh well, I can drown my sorrows in pumpkin gnocchi and cheap red wine. what have you got?
Category Archives: Blab
yum yum yum
Last night I went to Ramadan dinner (technically breakfast, the meal at which they break their fast) with Jessi and Ahmed. how much fun was that? A room packed full of happy people filling up on the most delicious egyptian food. Because it was Ramadan we had to wait until the appointed time to eat, but because this was a very popular place for Muslims to eat dinner you had to get there early stake out a table.
It was a room full of people sitting and waiting, there was a buffet set up at one end and it smelled wonderful. It was hard to wait (and I had not been fasting the way they had been). About 10 minutes before it was time to eat you could go up and get your plate, but you could not start eating until the appointed time. Everyone dug in at once, it was a very happy time.
I mean that, this was a really happy time. There was a lot of joy and a lot of generosity in the air. Everyone was kind and smiling. Ahmed knew almost everyone, the room was mostly Egyptians along with some Palestinians and Somalis. How could you not be happy, this was an event, a coming together to share wonderful food with people.
I can’t possibly describe all the food, there were probably 3 or 4 eggplant dishes, 3 lamb dishes, all the vegetables are stewed with tomatos, every dip from baba ghanouj to fava to hummus to tzatziki, 4 salads, rice, falafel and even french fries for the kids. You couldn’t possibly eat enough of anything.
then they brought out the tea and dessert.
I was worried going in to this, I felt like I was walking into a minefield of customs and mores that I would not understand. I did not want to offend anyone. I made it through, I offended no one, i even knew enough not to try to shake someone’s hand when introduced.
Jessi and Ahmed rock, they continue to answer my questions, and I have a lot of them. Also, I notice that they were playing an Arabic language television station. I got to see the weather in India, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia (they all looked hot and sunny). Then they played some sort of soap opera. I was reminded of eating in a Mexican restaurant where they play Univision all the time.
Other than that I did nothing for halloween. I got home too late to hand out candy and I would not have been able to with the dogs barking and jumping the whole time. Last year Alan came over to help me with the trick or treaters, he got to hold Ghengis while I handed out candy. Alan’s great reward was a Ghengis pee stain on his sweatshirt.
in other news…
Ghengis is recovering nicely. He slept under the covers last night. He’s a good, warm little dog.
I’m trying to decide what to make for dinner. I have the house to myself, I should take advantage and cook. I do not know what to cook. Anything I want to cook will require a run to the store. I’ll have to think about it.
Thought about it (i love the way time just flies). I’m thinking pumpkin gnocci with sauteed kale and salmon. Yum? YUM! I’ll let you know how that goes.
happy to see you
it’s not the jumping, the barking, the happy dances or hyperventilating joy, those things are nice from the dogs when I return from a trip, but they aren’t what really make me happy. What I love is the exhausted dog pile, the happy, contented, tired dogs that pile onto me and fall asleep.
The goat farm was a wonderful weekend. We had so much fun. I’ll post pictures and stories later. Now is time to chill and watch movies and drink jamaica Tang.
Happy
Happy (early) anniversary to David.
Friday is our 1 year anniversary and while I’d prefer to write about it on the day of, we will be going to a goat farm to celebrate and I won’t have internet access.
So, a year ago I’m emailing this guy and we decide to meet. I call him from my office to try to set things up. I end up on the phone with him for like 90 minutes. Then I get home, get ready and call him for directions. I end up on the phone with him for so long that I have to tell him that if he doesn’t let me off the phone I’ll never get there.
I pick him up and we go to the Chatterbox Cafe. He’s very tall and thin, he has a nice smile, laughs at my jokes, makes me laugh. So far so good.
I order my dinner and when it arrives it is full of onions and olives, two things I hate. After eating around them and picking them out, he graciously offers to trade meals with me. Nice. I forgot he was vegetarian, my meal has chicken, he’s eating it anyway.
Hmmm, so he’s really nice. Now I am worried, maybe he’s too nice for me, maybe he’ll get to know me and dislike how un-nice I am.
We go to coffee and sit there yammering on about this and that. He tells me about eating the sand on the beach in Kenya and canoeing in the bayou in Louisiana. I’m sure I tell him retarded stories.
I’m a little nervous, I’m smoking like a chimney.
I drive him back to his place and we end up sitting there talking again. Strangely, at this point I am still unsure about the progress of the date. We’re having good conversation but does he like me? I don’t know. Do I like him? I’m not sure yet.
I’m not even thinking seriously about anything, I’m nt looking for serious, I’m looking for something casual, a fling before I sell my house and head off to the east coast and reinvent my life.
So I’m not sure how the date is progressing, then we kiss.
And now he’s here and I didn’t move and he’s good and kind to me and my dogs and he makes me giggle and smile and laugh.
So I guess that date a year ago went pretty well.
I like you, David.
el coruzón del sol
I hit a dip in the road of my mind early in October, it was a hard time all around. To know me is to know that I have a low level anxiety that loops around in my head sort of constantly. On occasion the anxiety kicks itself up and I find myself wading around in a soup of unpleasantness.
I spent most of this month worrying about everything, was I fucking up my life somehow? was I making poor decisions? was I wasting some unseen opportunity? I don’t know! I mean look at most of the people that you know who are fucking things up, it’s not like they can see what’s happening! How would I know, I’m in the middle of whatever I’m fucking up, I can’t see from the outside.
Things were not so good, but as these things go, they got better. I analyzed the hell out of it and got a grip on myself. Am I fucking things up? I don;t know but I guess it depends on your definition of ‘fuck up’. I have a good job, I have my own place, I pay my bills as soon as they arrive (except my insurance, I threw that in my purse and totally forgot about it!) because I can, I have a good relationship with someone who is kind and intelligent and fun, I have my dogs and they seem generally content with the situation.
There are things I could be doing, I suppose if I put forth the effort I could be president of the moon someday, but I don’t want to be. I prefer a quieter life and I have that.
And, so while you really should not trust the self-assessments issued forth by the crazy people, I think I can safely say I am doing okay.
And I’ve become more productive! I’m cooking dinners more often, cleaning things up, keeping track of stuff better. Sure, we still have ‘chips and salsa’ nights (how could you not when you have a stocked supply of Herdez Salsa Verde straight from Mexico? I’m trying to be judicious in my eating of the Salsa Verde, but it’s hard!), but I’m really trying to put a meal in front of David on more nights than I am not.
It’s important to me. It is my way of saying he is worth the effort. And he seems to appreciate the effort. It works out.
Speaking of…
Last night I peeled and shredded 2 small potatoes, drained and rinsed 1 can of chick peas which I then ground in the food processor. Combined potaotes and chick peas and 1 egg and a little olive oil and lots of spices (cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, chili powder, red pepper, salt, pepper, cumin, cardamom). Shaped them into patties anf fried them up. Served them with an onion, apple, raisin, carrot, cinnamon, orange chutney/relish that I invented on the spot.
I thought it was pretty good, but it definitely could have used more flavor. I was worried about overseasoning and it ended up on the bland side. next time, garlic and lemon and oregano will be added to the patties (which were a lot like soft falafel) and the sauce will be closer to a puttanesca (sans the olives, I hate olives).
My audiobooks idea has been going swimmingly! Keeps me productive! I went to go by another as I am almost done with ‘The Year of Magical Thinking’. The iTunes interface kind of sucks, I really dont like it. I end up having to go to Amazon.com and looking up things I am interested in and then going back to iTunes to look for it. I got the bright idea to get “Quicksilver”, Neal Stephenson’s first book in the Baroque cycle. Now I like Stephenson, I think he writes good stuff. I also think he writes too fucking much in his stuff. Brevity and getting to the point are concepts lost on him. I figured I could get the audiobook and get through the daunting Quicksilver faster. First off, it was $47, I’m not spending $47 on an audiobook that I will likely only listen to once. And why would I only listen to it once? Well, because it’s 22 goddammed hours long!
I’m pretty sure I don;t even have 22 hours left in this life! I downloaded “Anansi Boys” by Neil Gaiman and should be starting that tonight.
Speaking of…
I’ve got dishes to do so I can make us some dinner. Can you put molé on salmon? I’m gonna find out (david will get tofu. We know you can stick mole on tofu).
So long, party people.