"would you watch my stuff for me"

i love being asked to watch someone's stuff. let me clarify: when i am in the library, coffee shop, or the like and the room is crowded, i love being singled out and asked, "would you watch my stuff?". i feel like i beat out so many other candidates--the girl reading a magazine, the older man on the conference call, the mother and child. this is my lottery winning feeling or how someone would feel if bob barker said "come on downnnnnn". it's then that i am granted with some great responsibility. yes. i will be the keeper of your things until you return from: going to the bathroom, getting more coffee, feeding the meter, picking your nose in the bathroom, etc.

i try not to take the request so literally. yes, i make sure to pay more attention to someone's belongings, but i don't sit there staring at them. i like to glance over every few seconds just to make sure everything is there. i don't know what i would do if another person tried to steal the "stuff" (computer, cell phone, notebooks, backpack). i've never really thought about my action plan. i hope i would say something like "hey! what are you doing?" and the thief would run away like a startled pigeon. but, to continue with the bird analogy, what if they were like a crow. what if they kept milling about and perusing through this person's notebook from accounting 203 and unhooking their macbook from the outlet?

let's hope it never happens. perhaps this isn't such an honor after all. now as i watch this young man's stuff (haha, that's what she said) i am filled with panic. please let no one else come near me in the library. where is this guy? what book could he possibly be looking for that is taking this long? phew. he has returned. i am no longer the keeper of the stuff.

oh, in case you were curious, i do not watch other people's stuff at the airport. i'm too terrified that i'll end up on "Locked Up: Abroad" and i'll be sitting there telling this reporter that i had no idea the duffle bag contained four kilos of cocaine and the remains of a well-known drug dealer. honestly, i had no idea.

out with a bang!

whenever i think of someone quitting with style--leaving quite the last impression (good or bad) i always think of seinfeld's george costanza. he truly had a knack for quitting/getting fired. i admired his cajones as i don't have quite the courage to do the same (despite how badly i've wanted to--yes former rec center employer, i'm talking about you).

i will divulge what i've done for some office revenge, but let's take a look at some of my favorite things (if you're not into this type of humor...i feel sorry for you.):

• the e-mail blast/public proclamation-here are two wonderful examples. the first is a series of pictures in which the disgruntled employee is writing on a dry erase board. check out her story here. it's a bit lengthy, but worth reading. my second example comes from an employee where i used to work. i don't feel comfortable quoting the document (really because i should not have it in my possession. but boy am i happy i do! i'm contemplating framing it) but overall it discusses specific problems and examples with a supervisor. oh, who was it sent to? the entire full-time staff, student managers and the rest of the staff that this supervisor is in charge of.

this tactic comes with its limitations--you lack control in how the rest of the situation is handled. in the latter example, this was swept under the rug and the author of the document was treated as if they were insane and all these issues were part of a large conspiracy. despite how unprofessional something like this may be, i believe it takes this sort of fire power to try and bring attention to a situation. i've done it and it felt great--although some of the people who said, "i'll stand by you. i'll back you up." were nowhere to be found (i'd like to give a big f-you to some of my former co-workers--spineless scum. i hope that recommendation you get from our half-brain supervisor serves you well in the unemployment office. have you found your way there? or is your head still up her ass?) that felt good.

• the truth telling- this is where george costanza really shines. another example is the real-life demonstration of a jet-blue flight attendant, again, so good. i think taking a beer with was a great idea! now my last example doesn't really apply to quitting/getting fired, but it still could be used in this situation. as a former-RA, i always wished i had done this to my least favorite residents. i think some of my first floor boys may have done this. on nbc's the office, someone leaves a "package" in michael's office--ya know, number 2.

okay i know that's gross, but if you're never coming back to the office, treat yourself to some taco bell, white castle, whatever churns your stomach and have a go (pun intended).

please let me know what you or someone else has been done to quit in style/get fired. i'm always looking for inspiration.

crossword puzzles

i have found a new passion for crossword puzzles. last week m and i finished one together and since then we've been doing them online and recently began racing with each other. we're still figuring out the rules since we don't have time to sit with each other for an hour or so and complete the puzzles. just when i think we might have something interesting that we do, i see it written and realize how mundane our activities are. i think i'm okay with that.

while i sit in the library making use of the weak, albeit much needed WiFi, let's talk about food. i'll have to add the pictures later since i don't have my camera with me.

pulled pork--the easiest thing i've ever made. i am a big fan of all thinks pig. i am strongly considering getting a picture of bacon tattooed on myself. what's stopping me? i've seen too many "dudes" with it and i haven't been able to find an image that really does it justice. back to pulled pork--i bought about three pounds of pork shoulder, salt and peppered it, and put it in the crock pot on high with about 3/4 of it sitting in water. the pork will be tender enough to pull it apart easily with two forks after six or seven hours. i'm sure if you left it longer it would be fine. drain the water out prior to pulling it apart. add your favorite bbq sauce (we enjoy the kraft original) to taste and let the pork cook for another hour or so. i've eaten the pork without letting it cook longer and it still tastes good, i just think it's better when you let all the flavors get to know each other.

i like to serve the pork on a regular hamburger bun and some coleslaw on the side. personally, i like the coleslaw in the bun because i enjoy the crunch (i also put potato chips in my sandwiches and fries in my burger. i loved living in europe because so many sandwich places did that).

okay, i will fix this post later and add more pictures. then you'll want to rush home and make this because it is simple and delicious.

summer wins, it always does

my summer mantra for the past two years has been: summer wins, it always does. originally i had directed it to my inability to avoid summer's greatest weapons--sunburn and mosquito bites. now i think i will add "reduced productivity". i found myself keeping up with recipes, one of (f)unemployment's little perks. i was never good at religiously blogging the day after. while i still strive to be the best cook i can be for my small following (myself and m), i want to use this space as a means of chronicling my "new adventure"--working as a VISTA for Americorps.

as i look back on my journals from study abroad and other travel experiences, i realize how little i can remember. re-reading these entries is almost like picking up someone else's journal. towards the end of my trip, when i scrambled to visit every favorite restaurant, each art museum and most beloved people watching bench, my journal entries resembled shopping lists more than detailed memories. it's times like that where i wish i was like dumbledore from harry potter. a pensieve to store strands of memories as i recall them at the time and can slip into when the need arises. perhaps if i visit the harry potter theme park i can purchase one...probably not. blogspot it is.

i feel like i'm breaking my new commitment to journaling already. i'm dashing off to a favorite cafe' in chicago one last time to read my book (The Elegance of the Hedgehog) and hopefully make use of the WiFi and catch up on some journaling.

in case i forget (which i might), here's my shopping list of topics to cover:
-post about the recipes i promised (pulled pork and pasta carbonara)
-my move from Chicago to Cleveland
-debrief about training in hotlanta! (i will spare the boring details of seminars and focus more on the people. i'm gonna talk a little trash, i won't lie...)

culinary creativity

i made those meatballs last week and had leftover ground turkey. i think my original plan was to make turkey tacos, but i realized that since m. and i had pita we should go along a mediterranean theme. i followed no recipe and instead just did a little experimenting.

i sauteed a small onion and 2 minced cloves of garlic. i added the turkey, browned it, drained a little of the excess liquid and then added the diced red pepper and a little bit of red pepper flakes (we hate spicy food, we're so boring. but a little red pepper really made the dish better)

here's the finished product (am i really terrible at taking pictures? i don't think this looks appetizing, but does ground turkey ever?):

i packed up our meal and took it over to m.'s. she works until 21:00 so this was one of our late meals. i diced up tomatoes and cucumber. i was going to make my own tzatziki sauce but i forgot to buy yogurt. i ended up having to use store-bought sauce (it was about $4...i will definitely remember to buy yogurt next time).

we heated up the pita, i put tzatziki sauce, spinach, ground beef, tomatoes and cucumber. it tasted really good. i usually don't like my cooking very much. i must say this was a really good dinner--with all the hot weather we've been having, it was light and refreshing. i'm happy we have leftovers :)

i cheated the next night and went out to dinner with my friend lauren. i ordered m.'s dinner to go and i ate my leftovers with her later that night. i love eating leftovers when i get home! that's really the only reason i get them :)

next on the menu: pulled pork and pasta carbonara (that will bring my recipe count for this week to 3!).

my green eggs and ham moment (maybe)

i hate pancakes. please don't tell the government. i'm afraid it will be viewed as an act of treason--the only crime defined in the constitution (what a nerd i am). to answer the next question in your mind, i do like waffles (i am in the market for a waffle iron/panini press--suggestions?)

i took a recipe out of my cookbook. i have never made pancakes and i have never made them from scratch. m. is some sort of pancake snob and when i mentioned the "b" word (bisquick, people) she turned her slovak nose up at me. i made pancakes, not buttermilk pancakes. why? i really didn't understand the difference, other than pancakes are not made with buttermilk. buttermilk pancakes are made with buttermilk (i figured that out all on my own! golly gee i am a smart cookie).

here they are in my favorite, and only skillet. i also have these nifty pancake molds (perhaps i can use them to make a tartar one day. although that grosses me out.)

in addition to pancakes, i also made eggs with onion (i didn't add cheese like i usually do. with the pancakes and sausage and fruit salad, i didn't want to overdo it! ;) ). not to brag, i am really good at making eggs. i thank my dear la (grandmother) for showing me how--but i do prefer hers. i hate runny eggs like you get in a diner. i like mine to be more like an omelette with a nice light brown to them. yum. special thanks to m. for heating up the sausage. oh, and we shared a plate--i would never try to eat this many pancakes on my first try!

here is the fruit salad i "made" (the jury is still out on that one). it has macerated strawberries, banana, kiwi, and apples (gala, i believe).

now i am sure you are wondering, "what do you think of pancakes now?". well, i think regular pancakes are too dense. i should have splurged for the buttermilk. and i think i used too much batter--so i will need to practice. i ate three pancakes so they weren't terrible, but i'm also not rushing to ihop. i like them more than i did, but me and the pancake aren't in love.

i want to make crepes at some point, but given my trouble with pancakes i think i need some help.

dessert

i think it is fair to count my dessert as one of my required recipes. i know i didn't make the pound cake (my dear friend sara lee to care of that) and the ice cream was not homemade either (the wonderful mr. mattus donated his creation, haagen dazs). but, the macerated (another culinary term i enjoy saying) strawberries were all me. and i incorporated fruit salad into brunch the next day, so i'm counting the fruit.

...after reading the above paragraph i realized that the strawberries don't count. but the fruit salad will count with the pancakes (so i fulfilled my weekend recipes). i should have discussed this with m. and i will need to do a better job of keeping records of what i make.

i decided for dessert we would do something light and refreshing. my freezer is not great at keeping ice cream cold, so i picked up "single serve" ice cream cups and a pound cake (all were on sale, so i felt particularly good about my purchase). m. is not much of a dessert person (she eats the crust of pie and leaves 95% of the filling) and we have found out she does not eat pound cake. the prospect of eating it all myself sounds wonderful, but i'll restrain myself. i would give it to my mom, but she has gestational diabetes. this pregnancy is really ruining my life. just kidding, sort of (we will discuss baby names in a later post...). anyone have any creative ways of using pound cake? maybe if m. and i entertained people we wouldn't have dessert leftovers. hmmm, food for thought.

here's what we had for dessert after the meatballs: pound cake topped with macerated strawberries and coffee ice cream that i made into little egg shapes. what's the culinary technique called where you use two spoons and kind of mold the item (in this case, ice cream) to look like an egg shape (see below)? anybody?

because i am having so much trouble with inserting pictures, i will discuss brunch in my next post.

proof i'm cooking

last week i took a couple of the recipes i had made before--baked mac n'cheese and turkey meatballs--and tried to improve them. when i made the mac n'cheese in the past i had combined it with some instant kraft mac that i wanted to use (please don't judge me). this time i made a bechamel sauce (my first!), added cheese (shredded colby) and then mixed it with my noodles (cavatappi--you could use anything, but i really like saying "cavatappi" aka corkscrew).

unfortunately, i didn't have my camera during the bechamel sauce process, so here's what the finished product looked like: i channeled my inner paula deen and made sure butter and cheese were plentiful. make sure you grease your pan before you put the mac in to bake--even with a non-stick pan i like to take extra precautions. i baked my mac at about 325 for 25 mins. as you can see (maybe, i hope) i topped the mac with extra cheese and i also put alil (okay a lot) of thinly sliced butter on the top with some bread crumbs mixed in (that's from my girl giada de laurentiis--although i find the bread crumbs really don't do anything. i'll chalk that up to user error).

i noticed my bechamel was very bland; i get nervous about adding too much salt. to compensate, i used salted butter on the top--i think i should have used salted butter in the bechamel sauce, versus unsalted. yet another thing to try later on.

on to the meatballs (that's what she said; in my unemployment i've fallen in love with the office, please excuse the immature humor courtesy of michael scott).

i used about 1.5 lbs of ground turkey (there was a sale on a 3lb pack so i picked it up...). i have learned that you don't want to over-mix your turkey because it will become difficult to mold. in a large bowl i combined my seasonings first--salt, pepper, dried oregano, 2-3 cloves minced garlic, 1 small onion finely chopped, bread crumbs and 3 tablespoons of ketchup (a giada thing, but i think it worked out well).

i added the ground turkey in and mixed everything together "just enough". i hate that phrase, i see/hear it in cook books/shows and i never know what it means. my definition is this: blend ingredients to the point that everything seems about evenly spread out. like i said, if you play with the turkey too much, it won't hold together.

in a large skillet, heat olive oil (i put enough to coat the entire pan, but not so much that it splatters all over when heated--another cooking faux pas of mine :/). i formed mini meatballs with a teaspoon (i'm bad with measurements, so i have no idea how much that is--an inch? quarter of an inch?). just make sure you don't make them too big. 1.5lbs of turkey made me about 30 meatballs (i made the first few too big). cook them until they are browned on all sides. i like to taste test the first one because it tells me if everything's been cooked through and i like eating :)

here's the finished project (again i am sorry i forgot to take pictures while cooking):





i am having such a difficult time adding in pictures. someone help me! i want to add pictures into the middle of my post, but every time it uploads, they end up at the top. oh well. i will have to continue this post later (i want to show off my dessert pictures)...i am making pulled pork and i need to run and take some pictures before i forget...again.

the beginning

like any cookbook, this is the beginning. here's the run-down:

who: me. 23. in a relationship (2 years 1 month 5 days). unemployed but happy playing the housewife role...but not forever. i'd like to take a hiatus from unemployment and use my degree, in the meantime this will do. i'll request the help of giada de laurentiis, the better homes cook book, paula deen (okay ya'lllll) and maybe hubert keller (i'm not up to his level yet).

what: i'm trying to cook better (in the general sense and in the become-more-health-conscious sense).

why: i hate all the scraps of paper i have laying around with recipes i've copied. i want to archive my failures and occasional successes. who knows, i may actually want to show my children someday. plus, i'd like to know what other people think about the food i make--i am open to suggestions.

when: at least 2 new recipes during the week (monday-friday) and 1 brunch/dessert recipe on the weekend (saturday and sunday...and maybe national holidays). i need to try and hold myself accountable, otherwise this won't happen. now, i am far from perfect. the weather and the course of my day (were the kids' buses late? did my dear la (grandmother) annoy me again? did my skin flare up? and the other minor things that get me angry...here's where the "trying to be less bitchy" comes into play) will affect what i do. also, m (my lovely girlfriend that puts up with me) and i have crazy schedules sometimes, so cooking at 21:00 is not my cup of tea. that would most likely be a 5 guys night (guilty pleasure).

how: most likely in my studio apartment kitchen. it's not conducive for chopping vegetables or cooking large meals (i'll have to remember to post pictures of my kitchenette)--but we've been surviving for about 9 months :) phew.

my next step will be to re-cap some of the things i made last week. i am upset that i didn't take pictures when la and i made crabs and lobster (unlike julia childs i did not kill them first. i don't know if that makes me a bad person).