an experiment in getting to the point

Big A+ goes to charlesandmarie.com for sparing their customers from shipping jargon. Bottom line only. Love it. Of course there's a little link you can follow if you just want more info (that would not be me...) but they haven't traded information for wit and efficiency. I was in the process of buying a super rad flash drive which I must admit, I'm far more enthusiastic about than a cheeky, albeit useful, dropdown.

wow, that wasn't helpful.

Step 1: Break apart chopsticks.
Step 2: The picture won't help you, but you just hold them in your hand the way you are supposed to hold chopsticks. Figure it out.
Step 3: Since you're holding them perfectly with no real instruction, just start picking up food. That's what chopstick are for... picking up food.

These instructions are supposed to be a courtesy, but it seems more like they're mocking people who don't know how to use them... like, "Let me help you. Well, you just do it, stupid."

ratatouille’s ratatouille

I love Pixar. I love cooking... so making this dish was, well, lovely.

A little back story: Pixar, since they're the smartest/coolest people ever, took learning about food quite seriously while making Ratatouille. This involved taking cooking classes, dining in Parisian restaurants, and spending some time with famed chef Thomas Keller. One of the contributions Keller made to the film was the re-imagined version of this French classic. I must admit it was a little odd to make the fancy pants version before a traditional one... but, come on, it was fun. Much thanks to Smitten Kitchen for digging up this recipe and making it more visible to people like me. My version was somewhat of a hybrid of the super intense Confit Byaldi (Keller's version) and the abridged Smitten Kitchen take on it.

For the sauce:
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup finely diced yellow onion
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 1/3 cup canned crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup roasted red peppers, drained and chopped finely
1 sprig thyme (optional)
1 sprig parsley (optional)
1/2 bay leaf (optional)
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt

For the vegetables:
1 zucchini (4 to 5 ounces)
1 Japanese eggplant, (4 to 5 ounces)
1 yellow squash (4 to 5 ounces)
2 or 3 Roma tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/8 teaspoon thyme leaves
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper


Preheat oven to 375. Combine oil, garlic, and onion in medium skillet over low heat until very soft but not browned, about 8 minutes. Add tomatoes with their juices. Next add thyme, parsley, and bay leaf (if using). Simmer for about 10 minutes until little liquid remains, do not brown; add chopped roasted red peppers. Season with salt, then remove and discard herbs. Spread the mixture in the bottom of 8-inch skillet or round pan.

Trim the ends off the eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, and tomatoes; cut into very thin slices approximately 1/16-inch thick. Atop the tomato sauce, arrange slices of prepared vegetables concentrically from the outer edge to the inside of the baking dish, overlapping so just a bit of each flat surface is visible, alternating vegetables. You may have a handful leftover that do not fit.

Sprinkle garlic, oil, and thyme leaves over vegetables; season the top with salt and pepper to taste. Bake tightly covered with foil for 40 minutes, then uncovered for 15 minutes more. (If you've got time, bake at 275 covered for 2 hours, then uncovered for 30 minutes.)

Serve with crusty french bread (traditional) or with couscous (non traditional, but pretty darn good). Yields 4 servings as a side dish, 2 servings as a main.

the cheesiest song ever written

It's true, "Careless Whisper" wins the prize. Occasionally I'll hear it in a pharmacy or something, and I'll think to myself "How did they cram this much cheese into one song?"... mind you, the tone here is more one of reverence than criticism. I mean, the saxophone ALONE, come on.

I like to imagine the natural habitat for this song, if you will. A couple staring longingly into each other's eyes across a heavily shellacked dark wood table in the corner of a bar. She's wearing frosted pink lipstick and he's tapping his cigarette into a hunter green glass ashtray. And when the saxophone plays, he averts his gaze... dramatically closing his eyes. Oh yes. This song is disgusting perfection.

pastel cauliflower

While shopping at Metropolitan Market (which has a frighteningly similar logo to the aforementioned DVD twins, I might add) I came across something truly strange: a colorful smorgasbord of cauliflower. Call me old fashioned, but do we really need to inject excitement of this kind into our vegetables? Is the thing missing from cauliflower that it needs to come in Easter colors? I don't appreciate weird visual novelty entering my high end food market. Sorry.

In case you were wondering these veggi labradoodles have names, of course: cheddar, graffiti, and verdant.

cool neighborhood!

Maybe if we just tell them it's cool here, they'll believe us. Hey, no harm in wishful thinking...

and then everyone ran out of ideas

In the almost infinite choices of a) DVDs I could rent and b) possible design options... I ended up with two that looked exactly the same. Sightly metallic gray, centered on the upper half, the more salient of the two words bolded... it's uncanny.

kids meal panda

It's hard to even guess why Burgermaster would have put this image on this side of their kids meal boxes. Before we go any further... yes, I still order kids meals. Guilty as charged.

Confused, I launched an investigation.
Me: i dare you to make sense of this picture.
Jen: uuuuhh, I guess the other animals are from different parts of the world? and he's from china? and i think he's on safari? but he's def wearing a pimp hat.
Me: i thought he was a pirate. but then i though he was a fireman panda. but then i was confused by the fact was wearing intense dish washing gloves. with binoculars.

that's the spot.

I don't know what's better... his little hands? Or the "don't stop" face.

twitter redemption

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not sold on Twitter. The idea that it's successful as a one size fits all communication format is preposterous (and a little funny). There are, however, some interesting/beautiful/[dare I say]poetic applications of this medium, like the video above. Running a search for "star next to the moon" on Twitter will bring up these images and some lovely person compiled them for us. Watching it, I am overwhelmed with the knowledge that indeed we do all share the same sky. And even though I know that fact intellectually speaking... there's something amazing about seeing it represented visually. So, in conclusion, if Twitter is the engine that bubbles little things to the surface so that bystanders can present a "meta view"... I'm down. But I can really live without hearing what Ashton Kutcher ate for lunch.

nothing like a little negative reinforcement

Implied if/then statement: If you care about the environment, then you will buy these coffee filters. Even in the smallish realm of coffee there are bigger things happening... how about fair trade or shade grown coffee?? Nonetheless, please turn down the smug-o-meter.

pop quiz

Women between the ages of 40 to 55 refer to the vagina as "vajajay" because:
a) Oprah says it.
b) Oprah says it.
c) Oprah says it.
d) All of the above

i promise...

Genius, I tell you. Married to the Sea is my go to place for a fun desktop, and a giggle here and there.

could paul rudd be more lovely?

Maybe my enthusiasm is being colored by the fact that I saw I Love You, Man last night... but still, Paul Rudd is super great. He's funny, cool, and attractive (the latter being soooo uncommon for comedic actors), and as a bonus he teaches children about caring for the environment. Love him. Love him.

In lieu of embedding the video (for some reason the code has been stripped for that one) I shall link you to it.

important health benefits

Sometimes clever wording isn't so clever.

oops

May I just add that I didn't find this on some "omg, look at the ridiculous crap people sell on craiglist" site. No, my officemate was actually looking for lumber, and this is what he found.

my breakfast

So pretty. And beats the hell out of my typical banana + toast in the car.

phrases that aren't ok: installment 1

"Do me a solid..."

where the wild things are

This book is so close to my heart that odds were high for this trailer to spoil all my hopes and dreams of a good reproduction of this classic. Needless to say, I've now overcome this fear... basically because this looks effing rad. Counting down the days now... ahem... 193.

land quilt made of tulips

Clumsy title, sorry. I mean, the Dutch and their tulips have always been impressive... but there's something particularly amazing about seeing them in an aerial view. See the original source here. Ah, yes. Good plan.

**ADDITION 4.11.09**
Reading back over this, I realize that it might sound like I'm all about mono-cultures... but I promise I'm not. I just like the picture. But I like bees more.