Drunk blogging

I have never drunk blogged before. Truth is, I rarely drink. That is why I figured I should use my first drunk blogging time to tell you that I have absolutely no tolerance.

I am working retail while I go to Library School. One of my closest Chicago friends just left my retail job to work as a bartender at the TGI Fridays in the same complex as my retail job. Today was also my first day as manager (I was just promoted! YAY!) and I was being trained first by my awesome store manager and then I closed with the hated evil assistant manager that I am now on the same level as. The hated evil assistant manager was, as expected, hated and evil. I was stressed and upset when I left work so I walked over to Fridays, sat in front of Jill, and started complaining. She asked if I wanted anything, so I said sure - bring me something fun. I stipulated that she knows that I have no tolerance and so something fun and barely alcoholic. She brought me an electric lemonade which was fantastic! It's lemonade, but blue and alcoholic.

When I was halfway down I was already feeling the alcohol kick in so I demanded of Jill how much alcohol she gave me. "Only five counts of vodka" was the response. "Is that equal to five shots?" I challenged her. "No," she said, "a count is about 1/4 of a shot." "Oh - so only a shot and a quarter?" "Yup"

So I finished it, came home, and am completely schnokered. Is that the proper way to spell schnokered? I don't care.

Anyway - the point of this post is that I am a librarian pirate who gets completely silly off of a shot and a quarter. Over the course of an hour and a quarter.

I'm pathetic, but you all should be grateful that I've caught most of my typos! I hope ...

Green Tea Cheesecake with Peach Raspberry Macedoine

So I am involved in a project called TeaChef in which each month we are given a different tea to create a fantastic recipe creation from. That sentence was poorly constructed. Ah well! I'm talking about cheesecake, not about grammar! So anyway, this month we had to use Green Pekoe - a fantastic green tea (in case you couldn't tell by the name).

So the first thing I thought was "peaches." I really like peaches. I really like peach flavored green tea. I figured - why not try them together? I considered doing a peach/green tea stir fry (because fruit in stir fry is fantastic, and so is green tea in stir fry), then suddenly I realized I was being silly. Cheesecake. I needed to do cheesecake. Cheesecake is my husband's favorite desert and he's been stressed lately and how cool would it be if I created a peach cheesecake recipe? I mean ... c'mon! COOL!

So I set to work making it. Being the cheesecake fan that I am and being married to the cheesecake addict that I am I have perfected my cheesecake recipe. I think I first got it off of a Philadelphia Cream Cheese package, but I've read so many cheesecake recipes in my time that it's been changed and modified in that way that recipes do. So that's me giving credit where I think credit is due (but I'm really not positive).

So anyway, you're all wanting my recipe, right? It's fantastic. Here goes:

Green Tea Cheesecake with Peach Raspberry Macedoine

Ingredients
Crust:
1/4 cup butter (melted)
5 oz ginger snaps (ground finely)

Filling:
3 tbs green pekoe tea (ground finely)
2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese (room temperature)
1/2 cup creme fraiche
3/4 cup sugar
4 eggs

Macedoine:
3 tbs green pekoe tea
1 cup water
3 peaches
1 pint raspberries
2 tbs sugar

Directions:

Crust:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Grease 8 1/2 inch springform pan
3. Mix melted butter and ground cookies together
4. Press into bottom of pan (use the bottom of a drinking glass if you want to make it smooth)
5. Bake for 8 minutes, or until browning
6. Let cool (leave oven on)

Filling:
1. Mix cream cheese, creme fraiche, and sugar together.
2. Add eggs one at a time
3. Mix finely ground tea into mix
4. Pour mix into springform pan over crust
5. Set pan inside a roasting pan filled with water to halfway up the side of the springform pan
6. Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until you can jiggle the pan and just the center moves slightly.
7. Let cool for an hour then place in refrigerator overnight

Macedoine
1. Heat water to 180 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Place tea leaves in a cup
3. Pour water over tea leaves
4. Let steep 5 minutes then strain out tea leaves
5. Place strong tea in refrigerator
6. Cup up peaches and raspberries into "salsa sized" chunks and mix
7. Sprinkle liberally with sugar
8. Once green tea has cooled to room temperature, pour it over the fruit
9. Refrigerate Overnight

All together now!
1. Cut cheesecake using a thin knife that has been wiped between each cut
2. Place slices on plates
3. Spoon Macedoine over slices
4. Eat while drinking a glass of Green Pekoe tea

Any questions? Don't hesitate to ask! And I know I over simplified everything - this is not my first time creating my own recipe, but definitely my first time writing my own recipe.

oh! I almost forgot!

My blog is being advertised over at Amandaland. Just because Amanda is advertising me doesn't mean I can't plug her for a moment! She's awesome. She works in a library, she reads a ton, and she works with a super hero. How can you get any better than that?

So go check her out. Now. Because I said so, and you all do exactly what I say, right? Right!

Friday Cat Blogging - packaging material and your cat

I came home today after a long day of work (truck day. I was there from 6:30 - 3:30. Only eight hours, but eight hours of lifting and moving and early and tired!) and started cleaning up some stuff around the house. One thing I did was unpack some pictures my mother sent me that I had been waiting until I was ready to hang them to take out of the box. I'm not ready to hang them! Exciting, eh? Anyway, I was putting all the Styrofoam popcorn/peanuts whatever you call thems in an old shopping bag for ease of disposal when Nenene decided to come see what I was doing. It sure looked like I was filling a bag with Styrofoam cat toys! She insisted on jumping in the bag and playing. Every time I fished her out (and brushed all the cling-ons off of her) she jumped right back in, so I let her play, dumping handfuls on top of her. I figured as long as she wasn't eating it I was ok. Anyway, these pictures were, after being covered in these Styrofoam things were also wrapped in bubble wrap.
I put the bubble wrap on the bed while I went to deal with the picture and suddenly I heard a loud POP and a startled MEW! I ran over to see what the ruckus was, and I found that Nenene had decided that bubble wrap would be a super fun thing to chew on. It's popping at random didn't seem to deter her for more than half a second. There would be a pop, a mew, a jump, then a renewed pounce. Absolutely adorable to watch. Anyway, once I was done I decided I needed some time of relaxation after work and what little cleaning I had accomplished. I folded up the bubble wrap while Nenene wasn't looking and I went for a run. I come home and Nenene has thoughtfully unfolded my bubble wrap.
Not only that, but she's made herself a home underneath it. I was slightly worried about her suffocating herself, but then I realized that she had also smartly created for herself an air bubble. Smart kitten!

Anyway - I'm going to go pretend to clean some more and then eat cheesecake. Why? Because I made a kick-ass cheesecake yesterday! And I rock! More on that hopefully tonight.

Thank you, Neil Gaiman

Are you guys sick of me mentioning Neil Gaiman here? I only do it now because he has called my attention to something that I want ... nay, something I need!

Anyone have 10k and a house they want to give me?

it has long been my desire to have a special book in my library one that when pulled will open to reveal a secret passageway

apparently it is possible

Potato(e) Madness!

As many of you already know, The Pink Shoe is my sister. As such, I often follow her lead when it turns out she is doing something fantastically cool. Today is no exception. Yesterday she casually mentioned in her post the existence of purple potatoes. Now, you might not be able to tell it from the inherent greenness of my blog's layout, but I happen to be quite attached to purple. At one point in my life I had purple hair. It rocked.

Anyway, I thought to myself, "I must get myself some!" I work just across the street from a whole foods - the place that the almighty shoe "claimed" to have seen them. On my lunch break I walked over there to grab a hunk of cheese and a couple of rolls (my absolute favorite lunch ever) and decided to check to see if they had purple potatoes.

They did not. That is sad. They did, however, have something utterly adorable.

Do you see that? Can you read it through the flash? I bought myself "A Delightful Rainbow of Tiny Potatoes." What could possibly be better than that? It has golden potatoes, red-skinned potatoes (I'm sure these are just regular red-skinned potatoes with white innards), and purple potatoes. I'm trying to think of something fantastically pretty to do with them.

After work I had to do my regular grocery shopping that I do every once in awhile where I stock up on everything to be consumed in the near future. Today I did my shopping at Jewel instead of Whole Foods, because I felt like it. (Good reason, eh?) Wandering through the produce section I found ...

PURPLE POTATOES! "Petite Purples" to be exact. They're purple-y and adorable. I'm super excited about them - partially because the rainbow of potatoes is so very short on the purples! I'm thinking I'll add some purples to the rainbow and have some purples just on their own all purpley and fantastic.

Right now I'm planning on cooking these very plainly ... Cutting them up, putting them on a baking sheet, drizzleing with olive oil, some salt, some pepper, and probably some garlic (because I'm Italian and that's what we do). Nothing super fancy ... but hopefully yummy!

If anyone has any other suggestions, though - I'd be all up for it!

In which I am UBER!

First things first - My post last night was sooo not supposed to be the first post on the top of the page today! I had things to post about just this morning so that you wouldn't come here and see "Must Comment Monday!" That so wasn't the point! I was supposed to have that be posted on Sunday so y'all wouldn't feel obligated ...

le sigh

ah well. Let me tell you a story.

I have had one of those weeks. You know the kind? The kind where you don't have all that much to do and therefore not all that much gets done? Yeah. I had one of those. So I knew I had a paper to write for my class tonight, so I started it last night and finished it this morning. While working on my paper I double checked the syllabus so I was sure I got everything in my paper that I needed to get in my paper and OH MY GOODNESS HOLY CRAP I HAVE TO TELL TONIGHT IN STORYTELLING! That's pretty much how it went. I freaked out a bit, but I had to go to work so I did. After work I had a half an hour then an hour and a half drive, then about forty five minutes of waiting for class to start in which I picked out my stories, learned them, and perfected them. That's right, I'm talking plural. By the time it was class time I had prepared four stories. They were short Goha the Wise Fool stories, but still! Four stories! And not only that, but I gave a kick-ass telling! I could just feel it. I knew what I was going to say, I got the class super engaged. It rocked!

I am loving this class! I'm one of those doubters - one of those people who never feels quite good at anything. Storytelling, I just clicked with and I feel ... good. I feel talented! It is quite a fantastic feeling.

And to conclude, I shared the following joke with friends yesterday:

Why do the French only eat one egg for breakfast? (answer in the comments)

And one of my friends replied with this ... possibly one of the best language jokes I've seen in awhile.

a moment of procrastination

So I have been reading and reading and reading (mostly Creative Storytelling. After a couple of hours I decided to take a break and stroll around some blogs. I thought I'd share some fun things I found ...

Homeland Security officers tell Library patrons not to look at porn (found here)

Must Comment Monday ... I thought it was a fun thing, and I plan on doing it. I don't know about all y'all, but I have a tendency to read blogs super fast and only stop to comment rarely. No, this isn't a plea for more comments on my blog (because Lord knows I don't get enough! (; ), but rather just something fun I wanted to share.

The Bad Art Award! While the husband and I have very little art in our house right now (does a top heavy pile of boxes of books just waiting for me to buy a bookshelf count as really bad art?), so I won't be entering this contest, I thought you all out there might be interested.

My husband better thank his lucky stars he never wrote up a Contract of Wifely Expectations.

And by popular demand (well, because my sister wants to see it):

My new hair length


Anyway, back to work!

My plan for the night

I love being a library science student. I love having a library that lets patrons check out 100 books at a time.

I went to the library tonight for my Library Materials for Children class, and for my Storytelling class, and I came home with two huge bags full of books. I got just a bit carried away. I have to read The Book of Three for Library Materials for Children, and I ended up grabbing The Black Cauldron and The Castle of Llyr as well. I'm sure that next time I'm at the library I'll be picking up The High King and Taran, Wanderer.

My plan for this evening is to sit and read as much as one can possibly read in one evening all while drinking as much tea as one can possibly drink in one evening. I'm quite happy with life right now. You wanna see half my stash? This is all the books from one of my bags of books ...
(and one last thing - I cut my hair today. I'm sure you're all interested, but I'm slightly traumatized by the shortness. I mean, I know it's only five inches, but that's almost half a foot - and half a foot, as we all know, is right up there next to being a foot! And a foot, as we all know, is dangerously close to being 5 feet - and when you get all the way up to five feet you're just 7 and a quarter inches away from how tall I am! So if you put it that way, it really was quite a bit of hair I got chopped off today. Lets see if the husband notices!)

Numbered List #1

1. I've been sitting here for quite some time with four or five posts in my head, starting to write one, deleting it, starting to write another, deleting it. I want to write about them all at the same time which could get a bit confusing. I have a lot to say about each of the subjects, but I'm not finding myself getting very far.

2. I love numbered lists. I make them far too often.

3. I just read Coraline by Neil Gaiman. As many of you already know, I am having a torrid love affair with Neil Gaiman, so it isn't hard to expect that I loved this book. It us suggested for readers aged 9-12, but as a 23 year old I was absolutely terrified. Then again, I'm a pansy.

4. I was hanging out watching movies with a friend last night when another friend invited us to go to a bar with her. Since I had been planning on a night of vegging I was wearing my favorite comfy pants that have ripped open multiple times and that I have patched multiple times. Both of my friends looked gorgeous with traditional bar hopping skimpy tops and their general gorgeousness. We were teasing that me, being the only non single one of the group, was going to attract all the men with my t-shirt and my pants with the badly patched holes. At the bar I had three different men come up to me and start conversations based on the holes in my pants. Who called it?

5. The hole that caused the most ruckus was just over my back. When I patched it I had thought I was being cute and I patched it from the inside so that the pretty fabric peeks out through the hole.

6. One particularly drunk 40-something was absolutely belligerent about this hole. "You say it's patched! It's not patched!" "No, sir, it definitely is patched." "You patched it with flesh colour!" "It's tweed" "It's pink tweed!" "Pink tweed with whole big stripes of green!"

7. A friend lent me a copy of Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.

8. Isn't it shocking that within this post there is reference to two Neil Gaiman books that I previously had not read? This shocks me ... but I've fixed it now.

9. One of the main characters of Good Omens is Crowley "(An Angel who did not so much Fall as Saunter Vaguely Downwards)." (page xiii of Good Omens).

10. The review I linked two above says, "I will say that if you are looking for a lighthearted read that won't make you think, you will enjoy this book." I'm afraid that I must be a bit silly because this book really did make me think.

11. While writing this post I discovered that at one point, at least, there were plans in place to make this book into a movie. I'm not so sure it would translate well, but then again I always have trouble envisioning much fantasy and sci-fi translating well onto the big screen, and I am often supremely pleasantly surprised by the results I get.
12. I was given the first season of The West Wing on DVD for Christmas. I have always liked The West Wing when I see it, but I rarely catch it on TV. There is little I catch on TV.

13. I sat down and watched the entire season in far too short a time, and now I'm itching to run out and rent the second season. I'm being good and channeling my energy into more productive things like cleaning the house and blogging.

14. Have a great night.

15. The blogger spell check does not recognize "blogging" as a word.

Friday Cat Blogging

The Kitten came to curl up with me about an hour ago smelling quite a bit like something horrid had happened in her litter box. I got up from my studying and went to the bathroom where we keep it and found a loooong brown smear. That has since been cleaned up. That was easy - it was on tile. Then came the more difficult part.

The kitten as well smelt. And even though she's really good about sitting and grooming herself for hours on end, this was a bit more than either the husband or I could deal with waiting for. For the first time in my life I bathed a cat.

Surprisingly enough, I don't think she's decided that she hates me. This first picture was taken right after she got out of the bath, right before I rubbed her down with the towel she's wrapped up in. She was already starting to lick herself dry. That's something about cats that I've never quite been able to understand - the whole licking ones self dry thing. I look over and she's been licking herself for the past twenty minutes and while it is definitely still obvious that she is wet, it's more of an overarching spikiness then the matted drowned kitten look favored in that first picture.

It is also funny to note that this foray into the bathtub does not in any way seem to have dampened her addiction to said tub. Even as I type this, she stopped her drying and ran into the bathroom to roam around in the tub for a bit and then to run back here to clean herself.

Poor kitten - I'm glad she's forgiven me.

Random complainings

My husband is a server at a restaurant and today is Valentine's Day. Well - it's after midnight, so it isn't V-Day anymore, but still - the sentiment is the same. He had to be at work today at noon so he had to leave the house by 10:45. Being Valentine's Day, I'm sure he was super busy at work today, but he's still not home! He's been gone 13 and a half hours, and darn it I want my husband home!

So I'm sitting at home drinking Green Pekoe tea (making plans for the next TeaChef), watching the first season of West Wing, and moping. I thought I'd share with all y'all.

But I'm making a fantastic dinner, so that's good, yes?

I'm sorry for the lack of updates lately. I've had that stomach flu that's going around which means a lot of throwing up which means extra dehydration which means extra migraines SO between throwing up and having migraines, I just haven't had time to blog. I'm sorry!

I just heard that Michelle Kwan withdrew from the Olympics because of injury. That makes me super sad - I've always been a Michelle Kwan fan, hoping that someday she'll have that Olympic gold medal. Anyway, I just hope she gets better quickly.

I woke up yesterday to a news report that six convicts had escaped from Cook County prison and were on the loose. Two had been caught just a few blocks away from my house so they were searching right where I am for them. The husband and I were a bit nervous so we decided that yesterday would be a good day to not make the long walk to where we park the car. I feel bad skipping church, but then my stomach flu reared its ugly head again and I decided it was best we decided to be a bit lazy. By this morning all six had been caught, so nobody needs to worry anymore!

And with that it's back to bed for me.

RIP Arrested Development

I'm on my way out the door to an RIP Arrested Development party. Fox is playing the final four episodes of the season (and possibly of the show) against the opening of the Olympics. Good for you, Fox. That's a way to boost the ratings! Anyway, there is hope that either ABC or Showtime will pick up the show which would be fantastic. Here's hoping!

And to entertain you all, I just read the most well written and thought provoking article here about Freeganism. I've recently met my first Freegans and thought this article summed up what I was feeling about it quite nicely.

But then again, Tigers and Strawberries always seems to have great things to say.

Hope you all are having a great night!

Happy Valentine's Day

I know, it isn't for another week, but my husband and I declared yesterday Valentine's Day. We don't ever really do something big for V-Day. Our first one he baked me cookies. Last year we had an all day extended edition Lord Of the Rings marathon. Okay, so that last one was big, but not really a traditional Valentine's Day thing. When the husband told me to reserve February 7th on my calendar, I was expecting we'd go out for dinner and a movie or something. He knows I don't expect much.

So I was allowed to make lunch. About a week ago, my sister posted about a brilliant looking recipe that I just needed to try. So I stole her idea and it turned out beautifully.

Anyway - after lunch we set out to downtown Chicago and my husband took me out to see Wicked. WOOT! Not just any woot, but full on geeky \/\/007! It was fantastic. I read the book back when it first came out (I thought confessions of an ugly stepsister was better, but still loved it!), had listened to the music, but hadn't seen it. It's definitely not the book, but I loved it! The choreography was especially brilliant. It gives clues - the choreography gives clues! How much fun is that?
(Picture borrowed from here.) Overall it was fantastic. It was no "Assassins" - no "Into the Woods", but then again - what is?

It was kinda sad though. I had Kristy Cates as Elphaba, who was fantastic. We had a super long intermission, then a voice came on, apologized for the delay, and told us that Courtney Corey would be Elphaba for the rest of the production. She was fantastic as well, but it is worrisome. I understand Kristy Cates' voice bugging out and just needing someone else to finish the production, but the extra long intermission worries me. I'm hoping that she was ok! Act 1 ends with the picture over there on the the left, and Brandon was speculating that she mighta gotten hurt coming down from that height.

Well, google isn't telling me she's hurt, so I'm not gonna worry too much. Just know that I had a great night last night and I hope you all are good as well!

Happy Super Bowl Sunday

I'm kinda disappointed in this years superbowl. I grew up in Colorado and have recently moved to Chicago. For a bit I thought I was going to have a Broncos/Bears super bowl.

vs

How cool would that have been? I would have had a big party and worn blue and orange and NOBODY would have known where my loyalties lay.

Truth be told, the Broncos and the Bears have always been my two favorite teams, so I'm not entirely sure which I would have been rooting for. As it is, I'm watching the game for the commercials because I don't care much about either team.

I don't like Mushrooms

It's true. I don't like mushrooms. They're icky and gross and blech. That is the inner five year old in me speaking, I admit that, but still. Ick. Gross. Blech.

Ignoring that, I know that pretty much my entire family loves mushrooms. Hence, I am wishing all of them a Happy Stuffed Mushroom Day.

Friday Cat Blogging

Nenene is completely insane. I don't understand cats and their comfort level. Don't get me wrong - I sit in what most people would consider uncomfortable positions all the time, but this takes the cake.



My friend Mia sent the husband and I a package which Nenene promptly declared her bed. The part where her belly and back legs are is full of video tapes. The part where her front legs are has just got a dress. The picture doesn't show it as much, but her front legs are much further down than her back legs, then her head is back up. She fell asleep like this.

How?

Insomnia

Little bits of caffeine don't affect my sleeping all that much, and I don't usually drink any late at night just out of taste preferences anyway so I never really think about it. Tonight I drank an entire pot (37 oz) of my current favorite Valentine Tea, and now I can't sleep.

It isn't like I don't have some decaf teas that I love. I'm not a huge fan of most herbal teas (and yes, there are definitely some exceptions to this rule), but thanks to my good friend Jo I love Rooibos teas. My brother gave me a fantastic Tropical Rooibos that I absolutely love! I can also always drink something other than tea. The possibilities are endless!

Basically the point of this post is that I can't sleep, it's all my fault, and I'm silly.

The end.