Reasons I am happy today:
1. I had vegans over for dinner last night.
2. I have a pile of vegan chocolate-zucchini-masala bread in the fridge (and some in my tummy from breakfast too).
3. I made butterless, chickenless vegan butter chicken last - and it rocked! There are leftovers for lunch!
4. I am working on an album cover for an indie rock band.
5. I have the prettiest vintage dress ever making it’s way to me from Kansas via etsy. As. We. Speak.
So, it some patience and some waiting, but my heirloom tomato ship finally came in. We’ve been enjoying these babies pretty thoroughly the last few weeks. They’re just so gorgeous, they make every meal a little more special - sliced up with some olive oil and sea salt - or chopped into a spinach curry - or gently sauteed and tumbled over pasta.
Every few days when I have a new pileup of them on the counter I slice ‘em up and stick them into the oven (at a really low temp - like 100-200 degrees F). Half a day later, I have my very own oven dried heirloom tomatoes to use all year long!
Yeah, these babies are pretty much as hardcore as food porn gets.
Last week my friend Christine kept talking about banana bread on her blog, and if there’s one thing I can get on board with, it’s a delicious baked good. Luckily I had some bananas that were just about ready to rot sitting on my microwave, so I whipped up a batch.
I used this recipe (called Aunt Holly’s Banana Bread) because, who doesn’t love a baked good that invokes somebody’s beloved auntie? Also, it came from Cookie Magazine, also known as the number one reason I want to have children (to have a legitimate reason to get a subscription).
It turned out delicious. As you can see.
It was also really, really easy. I recommend it, highly.
I also recommend not skimping on the chocolate chips.
If you know me, you know that I love Mad Men.
I’m pretty proud that I was one of the first people to discover it, way back in the spring of oh-seven when it premiered on AMC (before that if you count me salivating over the ads). To be fair, a show made by the classic movie channel set in an early sixties advertising firm surrounded by vintage office equipment, mid-century furniture, fabulous fashions, saturated colours, excellent writing, and some very good actors (including former cast members of pretty much all my favourite TV shows and movies, ever) combines ALL of my favourite things in the universe into one beautiful little package - wrapped up in ribbons and bows like a present just for me.
So when Joan Holloway (also known as the sexiest character on TV) strutted across the screen in a cute little capris, and boat-neck sweater outfit I was pretty much instantaneously jealous.
Until I remembered I have pretty much that exact outfit sitting in my mid-century, walnut, tallboy dresser:
Yeah. It was totally meant to be, this outfit and me.
P.S.: I am thinking of dying my hair red.
Believe it or not, devoted Mac customer that I am, Apple hasn’t done much that has gotten me excited. Not in years. Not even the iPhone.
But I do like these new Nanos. Mostly because I’ve always been a sucker for a good chromatic rainbow. Also because, wow 16 gigs? That’s a lot. That’s a real lot when you consider my first 2nd gen ipod only held a measly ten gigs, and was the relative size and weight of a brick.
But mostly? They pretty.
The whole iTunes Genius thing sounds pretty cool too, I guess.
I just added him as a flickr friend. He’s so web 2.0!
I would also like an Obama 08 t-shirt at some point, because I think his campaign logo (you know, the O with the swoop?) is some of the sexiest logo design I have ever seen. I like this version, in particular (but for the record, I also like this one, which has nothing to do with politics, it’s just super cute).
Gah. I wish I was American so I could vote in their exciting, history making election instead of our boring, boring, boring and depressing one.
Stephen and Stephane’s respective charisma combined couldn’t match the charisma found in Obama’s left pinkie.
Little known fact about me: I used to hate the zucchini more than any other food on the face of the planet, except for possibly sweet pickles and liver.
I haven’t changed my mind about yum-yums, and beef liver still disgusts me (though I might occasionally snack on pate) but I have completely changed my tune when it comes to zuchini.
I like to call them courgette now though, and I think using that substantially more sophisticated, frenchified word calls to mind the softer, gentler, more indulgent vegetable a tender young zuchini can be. Sauted in butter and garlic? Delicious. Deep fried in tempura batter, dipped into ponzu? Yum.
The trick is to pick them when they’re young (the younger the better) and try out the sweeter yellow varieties instead of the traditional (and often bitter) green. Pattypan squashes are also pretty delightful and mild, and have that awesome spaceship shape.
Right now I have a basket full of the things, grown from my own garden, and I’m trying to decide what to turn them into. We are having a party on Saturday, and I’m thinking I can borrow a friends idea and use little rounds of them as the bases for canapes (in lieu of bread or crackers). Perhaps some courgette bruschetta? Could be pretty delicious.
Other than pondering zuchini, this week I’ve been crafting and watching the new fall shows. My verdict on the new 90210? That main Grimey girl is pretty annoying, but seeing Jessica Walters basically reprise her role as cocktail swilling, smack talking, matriarch of the Bluth clan is pretty worth it. Gossip Girl gets a similar pass for continuing to up the amazing outfits ante, and for giving me my sorely missed weekly dose of Chuck Bass. They both may or may not get watched depending on how I feel from week to week. They’re entertaining, but I’m not married to them or anything.
Now if only somebody would make a sitcom where Alia Shawcat runs a movie studio despite being a teenager (hilarity, of course, ensuing), we wouldn’t even need a Arrested Development movie…