The cooking issue

I am not a great cook.  I wouldn't even call myself a good cook.  What I am, is a learning cook.  I enjoy it-- there's something almost magical about throwing boring plain ingredients together and coming up with something that smells, tastes, and maybe even looks, awesome.

I love cooking for people I love.  Part of it is, Oh hey!  cooking for just one seems like a waste of time!  But another part of it is that I like DOING things for people I care about.  I liek caring for them, I like the nurture aspect of things.  And hey, I love being taken care of too.  I like give and take, and feel that feeding people-- one of our most basic needs-- is a fantastic way to show appreciation for them as a person and appreciation for them in my life.  

Some things I love. A completely non-exhaustive list.

1.  Cheese.  Especially room temp or warmer, delicious, earthy brie.  Also potent blue cheese with fruit.  And sharp goat cheese.  And Chevre, with some herbs, on crackers.  And basically everything.  I love fondue, and quesadillas, and fancy cheeses people eat at parties.  I tend to say my favorite foods are sushi and rare tender steak, but I LOVE cheese, and I probably eat it more often than any other food.

2.  Candles.  Scented candles are like kryptonite to me.  Especially sweet vanilla scents, and cookie scents, and other baking scents.  Also, cherry and other red scents, and fresh lemon.  I don't like florals at all, and I don't the earthy scents very much like "beach" or "night".  My current favorite is a coconut lime candle.  And my favorite source of candles is Yankee Candle-- they don't have as much of an artificial tinge, and last so long.

3.  Shoes.  Super high girly heels, ballet flats, wedges, platforms, buckles.  I love shoes.  I want a freaking rainbow of colors, plus earth tones and blacks and greys and whites.  I especially need more strappy kitten heel sandals for summer.  mmm, shoes!  You need them, and you might as well have them match your outfit!

4.  Books.  I'm actually a huge nerd and I love reading.  My favorite author is Thomas Hardy; I've read all of his novels, even the bad ones.  I don't really like poetry, but novels have been my friends since I was a kid.  I'm branching out now into some creative non fiction, but reading is always my comfort, and I love getting reccomendations.

5.  Dresses/skirts.  I think part of the reason I like cute, feminine clothing is that my height often makes me feel unfeminine.  I'm taller than a lot of my guy friends-- not as much here, but in undergrad, the guys were definately shorter. (maybe its the difference between who goes into law, and who goes into science?).  But I do love feminine things, and I love the aesthetic of cute.  I would dress in the modern take on pinupgirl/housewife combo that's so popular now in some circles if i could.  (www.pinupgirlclothing.com, if you don't know what I mean).

6. Being tipsy.  This one embarasses me, but I do like the loss of inhibitions.  I've always been shy, and slightly reserved and awkward, and I jsut love the feeling of losing my inhibitions and saying whatever comes to mind.

7.  The feeling after exercising.  I get all happy and tired and pumped with endorphins.  It makes me feel good. And alive.

Completely irrelevant weekend chatterboxing

1. R is for Redbones. JD and I decided to walk to Redbones last night in celebration of the gorgeous weather. It really was lovely, but the next time I go on a four mile walk-- I should probably wear comfortable shoes. I have a lovely new set of blisters, though! This was JD's first trip to Redbones, and my third. I love it. I'm a big fan of meat, and every time i go to a barbecue place I end up getting pulled pork. The pulled pork at Redbones is some of the moistest, most flavorful i've had in Boston. The only downside is that I think it took us less time to walk there-- an hour-- than it did to take the T home.

2. JD downloaded the pilot for Caprica. I'm thrilled to see what they're doing with it-- the prequel to BSG. BSG had a lot of interesting charecter interactions and strong female charecters, plus excellent writing, so I'm hoping Caprica lives up to its example.

3. The majority of today and tomorrow will be spent buried in my Tax and Trusts&Estates hornbooks. Joy. See you on Monday with a new post!

sick. sniffle sniffle

After waking up from a horrible nightmare (that sounds SO STUPID when I relate it, so don't even ask) I discovered that my low level stuffyness has turned into a full fledged cold.  But I still feel fine, except for the whole hot stretched face thing I get when ill.  So I am adamantly trying to fix it via hot tea, and some chicken carcasses which are currently in the oven and which will be a lovely thick broth in a few hours.

Because that's how I combat being ill.  I make chicken soup from scratch.  Ridiculous, I know.

At any rate, it puts a damper on plans for today which included a cleaning frenzy (not sure I have the energy) taxes (which will get done), and a steamed crab leg or panko encrusted scallop dinner... but I think the flavors are far too delicate for my mouth to currently appreciate them.

The point is, all this has me thinking about all the small obstacles or stops that happen in daily living, and how easy some are to get around, and how difficult others are to deal with.  My passport, for example, is somewhere hidden in the apartment.  THANKS CATS.  Which normally wouldn't be a problem, but I'm trying to get my name changed on all my official documents, and I sort of need to have it with me.  This makes it a Big Hassle.  But not being able to cook the dinner I want?  Not a big hassle!

Anyway, I'm sick today.

In a lot of popular media, when a woman gets sick, she's portrayed as being a martyr, while men are portrayed as being enlarged children who wine and moan and need to be taken care of.  It's a pretty shitty portrayal for both parties, because for women, it says we must be self-sacrificing and that paying attention to our own needs is not acceptable.  For men, it says they're juvenile idiots.  Modern advertising often manages to be sexist in a way that's both misogynist and misandric at the same time, which is impressive in a saddening way.  Men aren't all idiots, and women aren't all martyrs.  It would be nice to see more ads with people behaving in non-gender-stereotyped ways.

In our house, JD does a lot of taking care of me when I'm ill.  If I'm too ill to make my chicken soup, he goes and buys me soup from the drugstore or Trader Joe's, and he heats it up for me.  It sounds like a little thing, but it's sweet, and it's him being the caretaker, a role men are often not shown in, even though many men do fill the role with ease.  And when JD gets sick, he tries to hide it and tough it out in a way very similar to how moms are often shown in commercials.  He just... ignores the sickness until it leaves his body, or takes over.  I wish I could do that, but I guess I'm too much of a mess or something.

And now, I'm going to drink my tea, and prepare to give JD a sad, suffering face when he comes in the room, as a means to display that wah, I'm sick.  Oh, and blow my nose.  Nonstop.  Because red, chapped nostrils are just so attractive.

Anyway, if this post makes less sense than normal... well, I guess I might be sicker than I think I am.  Funzies.

Guess what I'm not going to be buying? Truvia!

JD and I are watching TV.  And we just saw a commercial. That I thought was going to be for some delicious jello type snack.  But!  No.  It was a commercial for Truvia*, which is apparently an artificial sweetener.  But all I really got from the commercial is that if you're using real sugar in your recipes, you should hate food and your body and eating!

Well, yay.  Because it isn't like women  aren't already hung up on food, and eating, and healthy ingredients.  So now, we need things to convince us that sugar, in and of itself, is going to make us fat-- not even a focus on health here, it's one that's completely on appearance.  You know what?  I'm going to stick with cooking with sugar, and eating a healthy, balanced diet, and continue to not buy products which are targeted at making money off of women's insecurities, especially when the product is not even necessarily related to those issues.  Because you know what, Truvia?  Sugar isn't making "my butt fat" or driving me insane, or ripping away my self control.  I've... got a pretty good handle on those things, actually, even with using sugar in recipes!  So, truvia, you and your add campaign designed to make women doubt themselves and stop eating real food?  You are something I will not be purchasing, and that I will encourage my friends not to purchase.  Granted, I don't purchase artificial sweeteners anyway, but I have friends and family that do, and I'll be doing my best to encourage them to patronize other companies.

I'm just-- furious that an add like that would be accepted for TV.


* Transcript of the commercial: I loved you sweetness, but you're not sweet, you made my butt fat.  You drove me insane, self-control down the drain. We're over I'm so done with that.  I found a new love, a natural true love that comes from a little green leaf.  Zero calorie guilt free no artificiality, my skinny jeans zipped in relief it's name is truvia i had no idea no more sprinkling my coffee with grief.  Truvia: Honestly Sweet.