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Keep It Like a Secret - LiveJournal.com
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My temporary pescetarianism
Last month was particularly bacon-intensive, so I decided that I would begin this new year by giving up meat. I had put on a few more pounds, which I really didn't need to do, so I decided I wanted to detox at the start of this new year.
I also have complicated feelings about eating animals, probably like many other people I know. I love animals and for the past couple months, all the meat I've bought has come directly from a farmer. Even though I'm supporting better meat, I still had some guilt over smart, playful creatures dying for my plate. I read Food Matters, Mark Bittman's new book, and that started me thinking about the environmental impact of what I was putting on my plate.
I read about someone doing month-by-month goals, rather than big sweeping resolutions, and I liked that idea So my January goal is to not eat red meat or poultry the entire month. I had originally planned to go full-on vegetarian for the whole month, but I'm going to Boston for work next week, and I'm not going to New England and not eating seafood.
So, with that in mind, I made a goodbye-meat meal for New Year's Eve* and have not had a speck of it since. I've really been enjoying it so far. I know myself well enough that I won't do this forever but I am thinking I'm going to cut back meat far more than I have, even after I finish out this month.
I like the advance planning that it requires. For whatever reason, I've found making double-batches of vegetable dishes a lot easier to do so I've been able to cook ahead almost every night. So I'm not spending a hour or more cooking when I get home from work every night. Nor am I throwing together default meals (turkey burgers; pasta with sausage) night after night.
I have so much more energy than I've had in months. That part is stunning me. I just feel more clear-headed and awake. I'm sure that getting plenty of non-animal protein is helping (I've had beans almost every day). I just feel sharper and better than I have in awhile.
I'm eating a greater variety of foods. Since Saturday, I've eaten white-bean fritters, black-bean burgers, butternut squash tacos, white-bean stew, curried cauliflower, and a lot of other stuff. All of this, btw, has been homemade. I mean, I guess that's a lot of white beans, but I've been making a variety of recipes with them. There's a big difference between the fritters and the soup. I saw recipes in yesterday's Times for a rutabaga-farro salad and a couple dals, and they sounded great. So I feel like this is making me try new things and expand my horizons a little.
And, of course, on a shallow level, I've lost weight. In the week I've been doing this, I'm down a pound and a half. I have been kinda amazed by how many calories even something ostensibly lean takes up. I keep a food diary on my iPod** and back when I was still eating meat, I'd be struggling to meet my calorie budget during dinner. But this week, I've always had calories to spare, so it's been a pleasure to have dessert, beer, or cheese.
So that's how I'm starting this year. It's going well so far.
*First courses: white-bean crostini, goat brie baked with orange-fig jam, bacon-wrapped dates stuff with goat cheese; main course: tamarind-braised short ribs with cheddar polenta.
**LoseIt app: best $1.99 I ever spent. Seriously.
Sophie has lost her Nylabone somewhere in our house. I hope that this is the gravest crisis we face in 2010.
New Year's Eve 1999
Here is something I thought I wrote for a friend's blog, but turned out I was looking at a post from 2002. Eep. Anyway, it's been a long 10 years. A lot of good, a lot of bad.
In 1999, my boyfriend and I were debating about how we'd spend New Year's Eve. One of my closest friends, who lived two blocks from me, was hosting an end-of-the-millennium party. It was an ideal location to stumble home from. His boss, who lived three miles away and nowhere near a bus line, was putting serious pressure on him to attend a party at his place, which would necessitate either not drinking or sleeping over. Obviously, my friend's party was a better option ... but it was his boss.
In the end, we chose neither and instead went to the emergency room. I came down with a cold shortly after Christmas (like I did every year I had final exams) and on New Year's Eve Day it picked up a delightful gastrointestinal aspect. My boyfriend came over with a movie, and after pausing it twice for me to crawl to the bathroom to vomit water, the only thing I could handle, gently suggested we get medical attention.I insisted I was fine, so he called my parents, who told me to go to the hospital.
So we went to the hospital around 3 p.m. I went through three bags of saline to rehydrate me and was given something in my IV to stop the vomiting, which contained a sedative. I kept passing out, but Keith didn't know I'd been sedated so he kept poking me awake to show me fireworks in Russia or what London was doing at the start of the new millennium. We ended up being there until 10:00; we would have been out later but a number of people from a really bad bar fight (seriously, that early) came in and so the good people at Meriter turned their attention to them. I was sent home, told to stay away from solid foods for four or five days, and Keith took me home. He then went out and bought bouillon cubes (which I, uh, still have), popsicles, and Pedialyte, and settled in next to me with the only liquor he could find in my apartment (a small bottle of Jack - a gag gift from my birthday that year) at 11:00. We watched Peter Jennings, crying in his tuxedo, at the end of his broadcast. He made me stay up until midnight, so we could watch fireworks on Madison's TV station, over Monona Terrace. I raised a glass of Pedialyte to his Jack, and I knew right then that we were going to get married.
No one spends the turn of the millennium watching their girlfriend vomit in an ER if it's not true love.
This month has been crazy.
I spent Christmas in Florida with my family and my mother-in-law flew down to join us, and it was all really nice. Keith and I stayed with my brother and had a really great time. Kyle and I hadn't been able to spend any quality time together in awhile, so it was really fun to hang out at his house and watch the hilarious Christmas-on-demand programming*.
Then, we went to Durham, where we attended a wedding and hung out with Keith's college pals. That was also a lot of fun -- we hadn't seen some of them in a few years and we also got some dynamite barbecue.
Then we came home. And now it's the end of the decade, and I have a lot of things I want to say about it, and this terrible year, but that's for another time.
Next year, I resolve to finally fix my bathroom window. I know that was my resolution last year, but THIS TIME I MEAN IT.
*Seriously: we had our choice of a Yule log, a pine tree, or a snowman, all in glorious HD. We also watched Trapped in the Closet, because my brother had never seen it and it was on IFC, and about 20 minutes of a movie series called The Librarian, which stars Noah Wylie as a librarian who protects fancy artifacts at his library (no word on whether an MLS is required) and gets into adventures, like diving off an 80-foot cliff on a horse and not having a single scratch on him, or swordfighting with Bob Newhart.
Last weekend, I went to Ohio for Thanksgiving, and it was okay. It was the first holiday without Keith's dad, which was hard, and there was a lot of managing his mom's delicate state, which was also hard.
And then, on the way home, WE GOT SIDESWIPED BY A F**KING SEMI. The semi didn't realize it hit us, I guess, as he GOT ON THE HIGHWAY AND LEFT.
We are okay, no injuries at all, which is the most important thing. The car ... well, we got lucky there, too. The car sustained a significant amount of damage, but it's all cosmetic and the repairs cost less than the blue book value, so the insurance is going to pick up the repair costs and we're just out a deductible. It's not an ideal situation but our car is six years old, paid off, and only has 40,000 miles (and we only drive it once or twice a week) so this is far preferable to having to buy a new car or having to come up with alternatives to pick up dog food or get Sophie to her dog park.
In other news, we leave for New York on Saturday morning. Keith and various other AV Club types (plus Onion staff and various special guests who might include minor literary celebrities) will be at Union Hall in Park Slope on Monday night for a reading for Inventory, now entering its second printing. Forgive the shameless self promotion, but let's be honest: my twinsets and pretty hats don't buy themselves. Come on down and have a beer or a martini or a kiddie cocktail (and buy a book) and help the Kuenn-Phippses have a merry Christmas.
my failed blogging experiment
So I didn't quite blog every day (or every week, really)! Alas, alack, i pick up again now.
What I did instead of posting the past two weeks:
- freelance work
- had brunch with the ChicagoBusties at Uncommon Ground
- enjoyed ridiculously beautiful fall weather most weekends
- made a bourbon cheesecake for a dinner party
- read the final Luxe book in less than 36 hours
- saw Drag Me to Hell, It Happened One Night, The Box, GI Joe, and The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
- lost all the data on my iPod Touch so have had to re-input a bunch of stuff
- bought and began reading Mark Bittman's Food Matters
- went to Oak Park for my friends' book signing (their new book, Master Cheesemakers of Wisconsin is awesome) and caught up with a bunch of old college pals
- read Keith's Easy Rider road trip article, which finally went up on Slate last week
- went to a book reading for Keith's book
So I've been busy. The next couple weeks should be busy too. We are going to Ohio on Thursday and we're having dinner at a restaurant (those of you who remember the debacle of a meal we were served a few years ago - four words: mayonnaise, splenda, fruit salad - will understand why this is the best decision.
Then, on Dec. 5, we're going to NYC for a long weekend. Keith's book is doing really well, unexpectedly (it was top 100 in Amazon over the weekend and is still top 500 in sales) so he and his coworkers are hosting a reading/event at Union Hall in Park Slope on Dec. 8. It's free, so you can totally come hang out with us and The AV Club and Friends. Apparently you can also play bocce.
I am looking forward to January. I have to go to Boston for work, but once that is done, my life should be hella less stressful, and you can believe I'm looking forward to that.
So The Luxe is my Twilight, and I have the VERY LAST BOOK in my hands. I'm about one-third of the way through, and I can't decide if I want to rush through to see what happens* or go slow and savor it.
*Rest assured, SPOILER none of the characters will be turning into vampires.
Tonight, I made Brussels sprouts with bacon, figs, and parmesan, based on the recipe that Bittman had in the Times a couple weeks ago. I shredded the sprouts a little too much by using the food processor; next time I'll slice them by hand instead.
I really loved making the figs in bacon fat - they turned out tender and flavorful. I'm going to be using that combo a lot more in the future.
I basically want the next season of Mad Men to start right now.
I won't spoil anything .... but I really, really do not want to wait until next summer! Although I do look forward to getting to bed at a decent hour on Sundays.
For reasons I can't quite explain, I spent this afternoon watching The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2.
Never saw the first one.
One of the great pleasures of life is watching William Shatner read various quotes from the Palin family and its hangers-on as beat poetry.
one year later...
I just reread my post from the Obama rally last year. It feels so far away, and yet just like yesterday.
As I wrote on Inauguration Day, he was always going to disappoint us. But as frustrated as I am by the health care debate being, well, a debate, the situation in Afghanistan, and the continued existence of Don't Ask Don't Tell, I think of everything that happened since he took office, knowing full well it wouldn't have if it had been someone else: Lilly Ledbetter Act becoming law, the repeal of the global gag rule, expanded hate crimes legislation to include sexual orientation, and ending the travel ban for those with HIV and AIDS.
Is it everything I wanted from him, by now? No. I expect a lot more. But you know, the man has eight years of damage to undo (and more, really; as much as I admire Clinton and think the good far outweighed the bad, the man did sign DOMA and the dreadful Telecommunications Act of 1996).
I don't feel the euphoria like I did last year. But I don't think there's any reason to give up.
Made fresh pasta tonight -ravioli stuffed with pumpkin and then cavatappi with the leftover dough. It was easy to make the dough, but rolling it out and cutting and molding it? Oh my.
I bet Italian pastamakers have f**king awesome shoulders.
Italian bread salad - yum!
I'm trying to do NaBloPoMo to kickstart regular blogging, so expect to see a few posts about cooking in the next few weeks. Like this one!
Keith had to see A Christmas Carol tonight, so I was on my own for dinner. After briefly considering an Amy's microwaveable meal, I decided to make something similar to panzanella, an Italian bread salad.
I think it usually involves tomatoes and occasionally capers, but I didn't have that. The most important ingredient is good bread that's a few days old, and that I definitely had.
It turned out delicious and super-filling. I've got leftovers for later this week. And, best of all, it took, like, 15 minutes.
INGREDIENTS
3-4 slices Italian bread, torn to bits
4 cloves garlic, cut in half
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup chopped leeks
1 cup roasted squash*
1 cup/1 can white beans**
2 chicken sausages, sliced***
1/2 cup vegetable stock
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh parmesan shavings (optional)
Place torn bread and garlic in skillet, add olive oil and toast until bread is slightly crispy. Add leeks and squash. At same time, cook sausage until brown in a separate skillet, then add to bread mixture. Cover with vegetable stock and vinegar, with salt and pepper to taste. Cook in skillet until bread is slightly soft. Top with parmesan shavings and serve.
*I roasted then froze a squash earlier this month, so I just defrosted it and used it in this meal.
**I had fresh beans in the freezer (Navy beans) but a 12-ounce can of cannellini or other white beans would work.
***You could easily leave this out and make it a veggie dish.
fashion advice
So! I have two fashion questions and would appreciate any advice.
1) I am catching up with the hottest styles of spring 2009 and will have a pair of boyfriend jeans arriving this week. It is November, so obvs. the sandals and ballet flats typically worn with these items will not do. How do you make the boyfriend jean work for fall in a cooler climate?
2) I'm in the market for an adult handbag, something made of leather by an actual designer, as opposed to something made by Guatemalan children for Target that will begin to fall apart after two weeks of daily use. It needs to have inside pockets (zippered and for cell phones), something I can attach my keys to, be cute but professional. I don't want a messenger bag, just something I can throw over my shoulder. I'm thinking low three figures, and I want it something that'll last the next ten or fifteen years. I like the hobo shape or a shoulder bag. Nothing too big, oh, and no logos visible logos (if it's attached to the bag like a keychain that I can remove, that's okay.)
and so it goes
Keith's father passed away this afternoon. His mom was by his side, and Keith was able to spend time with him this morning at the hospice facility. I'm flying in tomorrow, and we're planning on services in the early part of next week.
It's a difficult time, of course, but we're grateful for all of the thoughts and prayers that everyone has had for us.
There is a new Robert Langdon book by Dan Brown. I am so torn, you guys! I am DYING to read it, but then I reflect on the last Dan Brown book I read ... and I am too embarrassed to request it at the library. I guess I can wait a few months until I can buy it for $1 at a garage sale again.
Then again, this new book does not appear to have any homicidal albino monks doing the secret bidding of obviously evil old possibly gay antiquers intent on destroying the Church for ... God, I can't even remember why. So I may not enjoy it as much.
I just hope it has lines as great as "Bazu Fache lost his shirt in the technology craze a few years ago. And Fache liked expensive shirts." Don't we all.
Last night, I listened to NPR for three hours while I reorganized our closets (yes, I know how to party) and heard the absolute worst piece that This American Life has ever run. The theme was "Got You Pegged," about people in situations in which they make assumptions that aren't true: there was a wonderful piece about a woman giving up her child for an open adoption, a very funny reading from Richard Price about a wrongheaded arrest he witnessed, and then this absolutely wretched, neverending bit from Shalom Auslander about trying to expose a fellow vacationer as fabricating his status as a Holocaust survivor.
First of all, it was twenty minutes long at least, and it was just this guy, with a nasal-yet-monotone delivery talking about how he ruins every vacation he goes on basically because he's a jerk. So he goes to therapy for a year and he and his family decide to go to some Sandals-like place in Anguilla, and their neighbor is an 80-year-old man. Auslander immediately doesn't like the old guy, essentially because the old man is chatty and people are nice to him. Later, he finds out the man has been going to the resort for 20 years and he liked to do certain things that he used to do, with is wife, who died. In the Holocaust. Which the old man survived. And that makes Auslander hate him more. So then Auslander becomes convinced the guy is faking his past so he can get free stuff, and spends the rest of his vacation trying to expose the guy as a fraud. And it kept going and going and going, and the voiceover was basically, "and then he said hello. God I hated him! He's so horrible, with how he says hello and talks sadly about his dead wife."
From what I could tell, he was just mad that this old man's talking was getting in the way of his being able to enjoy himself at his luxurious resort. And then, he ends up having to help the old man out of the ocean and flat-out says that he doesn't like the old guy. Then the old guy leaves him alone and he has a fine vacation. There was nothing funny about it, there were no deeper truths about humanity discovered. It was just, "Hi, I am kind of a jerk and here is a story about how jerky I really am."
I think it was supposed to be funny, or self-deprecating, but dear me, it was irritating and unpleasant. And it was Act Four, and it was about 20 minutes. I can't imagine why This American Life devoted a third of their broadcast to some pissy jerk complaining about how horrible it was to have to stay in a high-class resort along with a lonely Holocaust survivor.
I love bad movies, entertainingly bad movies* anyway. So, of course, the last ten years of Nicolas Cage's career have been a gift, to me. Particularly the National Treasure franchise. Well, I just watched this amazing trailer of a remake (kinda?) of Bad Lieutenant starring America's greatest fallen actor and his hair. I don't think it can live up to The Wicker Man, but any movie with the line, "Shoot him again, his soul is still dancing" has nowhere to go but up. Or down.
You know what I mean. Watch this. It's the best way to spend two minutes today.
*Fool's Gold, for example, is not entertaining. Side note: I still have not seen Obsessed! Beyonce! That chick from Heroes! STRINGER BELL! Maybe this weekend...
is this thing on?
Oh, hi! Yes, it has been several months since I last posted. (I've been reading and commenting though.) I'd like to say that everything has been boring, and that's why I've been offline, but it really hasn't. I suppose it's like anything else you stop doing for awhile; you don't know quite how to start back up again and it's paralyzing. Anyway, this is what I've been up to:
- Saw Morrissey, Leonard Cohen, and Bruce Springsteen
- Went to Italy (loved it!)
- Took on two new freelance jobs, so my free time has been limited
- Started writing a novel
- Started taking long walks each weekend, after walking 5+ miles a day in Italy
- Solved a Rubik's cube
- Hosted my parents for a few days
Anyway, I've missed posting. It's probably time to start doing it regularly again. With my job keeping me busy, all the travel we've been doing and planning (we're going to Ohio and New York next month) and the freelance work I've been getting, I haven't been taking much time for me as of late. And that's really important, to make sure I'm eating right, sleeping, working out, seeing my friends, writing in my journal and such. Plus, I find that I'm getting less articulate and that writing, here, helps me in writing elsewhere.
If nothing else, the weather is nice again, and that is making me think positively.
There has been so much going on, I have barely had time to post.
Monday was my birthday. It was super fantastic. I took last Friday off, and Keith and I went to Madison. We drove up via New Glarus and stopped at the brewery to enjoy the day's tasting (Stone Soup, Coffee Stout and Cracked Wheat) then bought pastries at the New Glarus Bakery, the best bakery I have ever visited. I had a doughnut, even though it was 5p.m., that's how good the doughnuts are there. We bought 52 bottles of beer. We ate the fish fry at the Old Fashioned, visited the House on the Rock (OMG, the terror) and went to Nick's for pie and saw some old friends. On our way out of town, we did our weekly grocery shopping at the Willy St. Co-Op, so I have loads of Wisco cheese and organically raised meat from the fields of God's blessed country.
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