we're better suited for a fictional world

monster movie mayhem 2

2016-10-04T21:27:00.000-04:00

On the same day that Attiba and I watched The Uninvited, we also watched Most Likely to Die. The deal is that a group of people gather in some remote ocean side home prior to their high school reunion, and someone starts killing them off. All of the murders happen in the fashion dictated by their "senior superlatives" from their high school yearbook, i.e. most likely to see her name in lights is killed and put on display with her name in lights... you get the idea.

What I liked about this is that it's basically the same concept as Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, which is one of the best mystery stories of all time. That book, also called Ten Little Indians (among other titles... look it up... it was published in 1939 so give Agatha a break), is so god that I don't eve mind people borrowing the concept for current work. What I also liked were the murders, which were hilarious and creative, and I can forgive their unlikeliness. I also liked the ending - I almost didn't, but it redeemed itself in the last few seconds. Seriously.

This movie does exactly what it needs to do. It's cheesy and a little gory and I don't really have any complaints. I would watch it again, and I would watch a sequel.

Fun fact: I posted as much on Twitter after the movie was over, and two of the actors liked the tweet. I guess they're keeping tabs on who liked their movie. One of the actors is Perez Hilton, so...

monster movie mayhem

2016-10-02T20:00:00.000-04:00

It's October! And that means nonstop monster movies. I'm not aiming for one a day or anything like that, just a steady dose. I'll try to keep track of them here and give you some commentary on them whenever possible.

First up was The Uninvited. This was a pretty basic psychological thriller that came out in 2009 starring Emily Browning and Elizabeth Banks. I texted with Attiba while watching it and we figured out where the climax of the movie would happen within a few minutes. Then, halfway through, Attiba called the twist. Not that this is a bad thing. I actually really enjoy being able to predict a twist sometimes.

Emily Browning is actually going to be in the new Starz series for American Gods, which I'm beyond excited about.

on the menu 10/2

2016-10-02T15:46:00.000-04:00

This is the second weekend without the car! I called Friday and they promised it would be done by Friday next week. It better be - my mom and my brother will be here and we have plans!

Anyway, Dan is also away this weekend, so I've been making multiple small trips to the grocery store in order to get all the shopping done. It's a pain, but a lot of walking, which is a good thing, right? Anyway, I tried to keep it to lighter stuff with fewer ingredients this week to make it easier on myself.

Soba Bowls - I have the soba noodles already, and the carrots, so there was minimal stuff to buy to pull this one off. Two updates, one of which I mentioned before: I skipped the red peppers because they don't go with the shape and texture of the other ingredients, and honestly I don't like them that much. I left them out last time and didn't miss them. Also last time, I forgot to put the lime zest in the dressing and honestly liked it better. The problem with the lime zest is that I felt like it added more texture than flavor, and I ended up with tons of clumps of it. I didn't feel anything was lost by leaving it out.
Salad - I'm going to make two salads this week. I know that's kind of boring, but it's fast and easy, light and healthy. Eat those greens.
Pizza - I think that I'm going to actually make a couple of pizzas on Saturday night when my mom is here. I'll probably go with the shaved asparagus and a plain pizza. Or maybe pepperoni. We'll see.
Pasta Fagioli Soup - I think the time has come for this. It's pretty easy, it'll give us leftovers, and it didn't need to buy a lot of stuff in order to make it. I'm going to make it tonight, since Dan won't be home until later. He can eat this up when he gets here. I had half a box of noodles in the pantry that I can use for this, which was one less thing that I needed to buy, and one more thing to get out of my cabinet. I'm running out of space because there have been so many two for one sales on pasta lately. I can't help myself.
Mozzarella, Spinach, and Tomato Jam Sandwiches - Actually, I didn't feel like making the tomato jam, so I figured I would buy one. Surprise, I couldn't find any. I settled for spicy pepper bacon jam of some sort, which I think is the same concept. I just wanted something that was quick to cook up and didn't require a lot of prep. I have other things to think about this week, like how I'm going to get my house clean before my family gets here. I didn't want to work too hard for dinner.

I was going to make an apple cake for my mom and brother - I really loved the one from Smitten Kitchen. I'll try to make that on Thursday so that it's fresh, and so I can get the ingredients some other day on my way home from work. This makes a really big cake, so we definitely won't run out. For breakfast next weekend, I'll make sure to get english muffins. That's nice and simple, and we can use some of the jams that I made over the summer.

When I was at the market this morning, I saw a mountain of jalapenos. I figured I'd make a batch of pickled jalapenos for Dan. He puts them on just about everything, and even though they don't cost a lot to buy them at the store, it's nice to have them made from fresh peppers at the market. I'll get started on that just as soon as this horror movie I'm watching is over.

friday work breakfast

2016-09-30T11:00:00.000-04:00

on the menu 9/24

2016-09-24T20:26:00.000-04:00

A couple of things. First, a few weeks ago Dan "bumped" our car into someone else's car. It didn't look like a tremendous amount of damage on either car, and the other guy said forget about it. But when I looked at our car I noticed that the headlight was pushed way in, the grill was cracked, and the front quarter panel was bent in two places. One place it was bent enough that the paint was coming off, which doesn't work here, what with the fog and ocean air. So I sent Dan to the auto body shop to have it fixed. That;s going to take more than a week, so we're car-less this weekend.

Also, Dan has (another) bachelor party next weekend, so he's not going to be here beginning Thursday night, which means I didn't need my usual number of meals. I can probably stretch the leftovers of one meal into another one for me Thursday or Friday night.

Finally, in the midst of this planning (literally while we were at the store in the middle of an annoying, car-less grocery shopping trip), our friends invited us over for dinner, so I didn't even need everything I bought anyway. Burgers and salad tonight, then!

Fettuccine with Tomato Cream Sauce - I wanted to try to lighten the load of groceries that I had to bring back from the store without a car. I would argue that I didn't really do that, but it's a good excuse to eat some of the fresh pasta that I froze a few months back. Also, I might be compelled to make some more tomorrow, and my freezer is already at capacity, so this helps. When I was thinking about the sauce I wanted to have with this, the plain fettuccine, I didn't want something really heavy, but I didn't want the butter and parmesan that I usually have with the fresh pasta. I'm going to go with a variation of the tomato cream sauce from the orecchieette with prosciutto and melon that I love so much. Basically the sauce, but without the melon, and I'm going to swap the prosciutto for pancetta (even though I think prosciutto in thin strips might have been good here, too).
Pizza - It'll probably just be me, so I can wing it like I usually so, but with my own preferences in mind. Black olives, anyone?
Salad - The usual, plus anything that looks particularly good at the market tomorrow.
Meatball Hoagies - Since we have some ground beef in the freezer, I actually think for once I'll make the full recipe here and buy the ground pork, too. We might be having some friends over for dinner. If that's the case, I'll make all of the meatballs. If not, I'll put half in the freezer. This is my favorite meatball recipe, but I don't normally make the sauce along with it. I'm of two minds when it comes to the sauce here: If I'm making a huge batch for a lot of people, and I'm going to cook it in my slow cooker, then I honestly don't mind jar sauce. I get the plainest sauce I can find and let the meatballs do the rest. If I'm making a smaller batch, eating these meatballs plain and not as a sandwich, or cooking them quickly in a pot, then I tend to go for the five minute tomato sauce from 101 Cookbooks. I like my sauces fresh and clean and unencumbered by herbs. Hopefully I'll be able to find some decent rolls to have these sandwiches on...
Miso-Curry Delicata Squash - I have to admit that I've been eagerly awaiting the arrival of delicata squash at the market. Dying for it, more like. I love it so much. It's not heavy and too sweet like butternut and kabocha, it's not weird like spaghetti squash, and it's not acorn... which I actually like, but you have to peel it, which you don't with delicata. You can eat the skin! Genius! This is a really nice dish that comes together pretty quick with a minimum of dishes used. I find that as long as you massage the kale really well with the dressing, it doesn't need to be cooked, but if you find raw kale to be too tough or too bitter, you could always just throw the kale onto the tray for the last few minutes of baking time. Save some extra dressing, though.

Now, a few projects: I just make some black pepper pasta dough. I've been meaning to try it, and my friend might be coming by tomorrow to mess around in the kitchen, so I figured I could get a head start on that one. Basically, you add three or four tablespoons to your typical egg pasta dough - mix it in with the dry ingredients. I just tried the pasta dough recipe from the Tyler Florence cookbook Eat This Book. Usually I use the recipe from Jennifer Perillo's Homemade With Love, but I admit that I find it hard to work with. The recipe from my Flour + Water cookbook requires SO many eggs that I literally can't bring myself to make it, particularly when they're mostly egg yolks. The Tyler Florence recipe ups the egg count by one compared to Jennie's, but also adds two tablespoons of olive oil. I added the black pepper and subbed in half of cup of semolina flour, too. It came together really easily and looks beautiful, so I have high hopes.

I'll let my friend decide what, if any, other pasta we make. I'm up for anything. I'd love to do another ravioli, particularly because it seems like it would go much faster with help, but it is a lot of work. We also might make some pickles, since we're just at the tail end of a lot of nice summer produce. A few weeks ago I make pickled green beans and we finally cracked them open this week. Even I liked them. Speaking of pickles I like - I actually really love pickled carrots, so I'd be happy to make those, too. Both carrots and green beans are nice because you can water bath process them and they don't get mushy. In fact, with the green beans I feel like it cooks them just enough to make it not feel like you're biting into wood. Carrots are much the same, especially if you slice them thin.

Finally, I just made this Date Spice Loaf from Smitten Kitchen. She actually posted it on Instagram today, and it looked and sounded amazing. Also, I needed dates the other day (for coffee bacon sandwiches while Dan was out of town) and had to buy a whole container just to use three. I don't actually know how long dates last, but I didn't want to waste them so this seemed perfect. I'll put this loaf in the freezer for later. In the meantime, I thawed the blueberry-blackberry bread that I made a few months ago to make room, and to have something to offer our friends when they come over.

friday work breakfast

2016-09-23T10:30:00.000-04:00

another roadside attraction

2016-09-22T16:16:00.000-04:00

Free mirror; limited function.

creepy clowns

2016-09-21T16:11:00.000-04:00

My favorite/least favorite thing going on right now is the reports of creepy looking clowns appearing in towns and scaring people. Basically people are dressed as clowns, and are coming out of the woods or shadows or whatever and scaring the hell out of people. Either trying to lure them into the woods, following them, that kind of thing.

I say favorite/least favorite because this is happening in several states and many towns. I love the idea that this is individuals acting on their own. That maybe one guy did, and someone else thought it might be a terrifying thrill and tried it somewhere else, and on and on for no other gain than just scaring people and being weird. It's my least favorite thing because it's really freaking terrifying - and I'm not even a person who is typically afraid of clowns.

The worst case scenario here, and by that I mean the scenario where I'll be really disappointed (think "finding out Santa Claus isn't real" level of disappointment) is that this is some kind of viral marketing gimmick. It's a much more magical world if this is just people doing it for kicks. Dark magic, but magic nonetheless.

patent application 11

2016-09-19T16:04:00.000-04:00

Idea - for free or best offer:

Use the AMC "two screen story sync" feature available for episodes of The Walking Dead to present live fact checking during political debates.

cow share

2016-09-18T15:51:00.000-04:00

A while ago there was a farm at our farmers market that sold sustainably raised beef and pork. I wasn't prepared to buy that day, but I noted the name - True Grass Farm - and when home to check it out online. I found out that they do cow and pig shares, where you can purchase a meat from a portion of the animal directly from the farm. The cost is comparable to what you would buy at the store (sometimes a little better) and you have the advantage of knowing where your food came from, that it was raised in a humane and environmentally sound manner, and that you supported a local farmer.

I've talked here a lot about how I think we, as a people here in these United States, need to scale back on the amount of meat that we eat. The demand for meat - cheap meat - has created an industry that is cruel, gross, and damaging to the environment. That cheap meat that you buy at the store is raised in these horrifying high density lots where the animals are penned in, fed who knows what (definitely not grass...), pumped full of hormones and antibiotics, and rushed through to slaughter so that Americans can have beef on the table every night of the week. It's weird and troubling, so in addition to deciding to eat much less meat, when I found this farm I also decided to see if we could manage to last a year on a cow share. Eating meat once a week, and having not eating beef every week anyway, should probably make this cow share last quite a while.

So here's the deal (and you can certainly read about it on the farm's website): The farm in Marin is dedicated to raising grass. That's really the best way to describe it. Because this is pasture land, if the grass is healthy, the environment is healthy, and anything raised on it is healthy. The idea is to rotate the livestock through the pastures so that they don't graze it down. Grazing the grass down takes away sustenance from other plants and animals, creates fire risks, causes the water to move unnaturally through the land, etc. The list goes on. Unhealthy grass allows for parasites, which infect the livestock. Unhealthy grass leaves nothing for livestock to eat, which means they need supplemental feed, which is mostly things that they wouldn't necessarily eat on their own in the wild. I'm not really doing this description of the eco system justice. I suggest Michael Pollen's Omnivore's Dilemma, or just stopping by your local grass farm for a chat.

Anyway! The farm sells a certain number of cows per year, and you can choose the share that you want. We went with 1/16th (called the "City Share", for city folks with small freezers...), which worked out to about 25lbs of meat. We were actually not confident that we could eat all of that, or store all of the meat in our freezer, so we split it with some friends of ours. about 12 lbs each. The meat came broken down, frozen, and vacuum sealed. We got various cuts, including steaks, roasts, braising meats, ground, and bones and offal. We actually got at least 2 of each cut, which made it really easy to split between two people.

In the spring, the farm determines how many cows they will sell that year, and allows you to make a deposit for the share that you want. We put a $150 deposit down on our share, to pay the rest when we picked it up. At the end of August, they contact you to let you know that your share is ready to pick up. You then arrange with them where you want to pick it up. While this farm no longer goes to our Inner Sunset Farmers Market, they do go to two in the East Bay. Alternatively, you can pick it up from the farm directly if you're up for the drive. We were.

Listen, if you do something like this and pick up on the farm is an option, I absolutely recommend that you do it. We called the farmer himself when we got there, and he came in from the field (where he was teaching a course on pasture management) to give us our share, take our payment, and to chat for a while about the farm. Even those few minutes of talking to him were fascinating and totally enlightening.

He figures that the way they raise the cows and pigs on the farm actually works out to a net positive for environmental impact. He talked about how the land changed since they've been managing it - they now have a lot of deer on the farm because, well, they have the best grass. Side note, they may also start to allow hunting of those deer to people who have purchased a share of another animal raised at the farm. Dan was beside himself. He talked about how the drought caused them to scale back the herd, since there wasn't enough grass to support them. He told us where the lambs were hiding (they do lamb shares, too, but I'm honestly not a fan of lamb so we'll skip that one). I also learned that cows only have top teeth in the front, not bottom.

Just the experience alone, and having that connection to where your food was raised, is enough for me to agree to do this again. We actually talked in the car on the way home about whether we could also manage the pig share next year. The pig only comes in a half or whole, and the half works out to more than 70lbs of meat... Even split between us and our friends (who are already totally down for it) that's still more food that we'd have space for, so we're trying to find a third person to go in on it with us. But naturally, as soon as we got home and split up the meat, we headed over to our friend's place to cook some of the steaks on their grill. And if the experience alone wasn't enough to make us buy again, the steak, well...

Also, what about my caprese stacks back there, huh?

on the menu 9/17

2016-09-17T15:06:00.001-04:00

I've been bad at updating, haven't I? I wish it was because something huge and awesome was going on, but it's not. It's really just life as usual over here. Last weekend we were in Santa Cruz, which was nice but cold. We sort of did the grocery shopping on the fly on the way home and ate based on what we already had in the fridge, freezer, and pantry. I like when we can do that, but I also really like elaborate meals and kitchen projects. Remind me that I need to fill you in on the cow share...

Farfalle with Chicken Polpettine, Roasted Peppers, and Basil - This is another one from the Flour + Water cookbook. I'm not going to make the farfalle by hand because... I just don't have it in me to figure that one out. It seems labor intensive and probably like it won't turn out. The recipe calls for tomato powder in the pasta, so if I can find one of those veggie flavored pasts I'll go with that. I'm really in it for the chicken meatballs, because I'm always in it for meatballs. The ingredient list here is kind of long, but most of it makes up the meatballs, so the steps aren't really that complicated beyond that. The roasted red peppers would add another labor element, but I actually have some that our friends grilled up for us the other night, so I'm going to use those. You could also grab them in a jar or from the antipasto bar at the store to save time.
Pizza - Sure, whatever you want on this. I'm really starting to like deciding on the fly. It's a nice Friday night ritual.
Salad - I'll go with the regular salad again because it's such an easy standby.
Sweet Potato Tacos - I have a ton of tortillas in the fridge that I need to use, and I really didn't want to make meat tacos again. The problem is that these sweet potato and bean tacos are the only veggie tacos that I find totally satisfying, and I just haven't been in the mood for sweet potatoes lately. I'm willing to go for them now, though, for whatever reason. I wish very much that we could use black beans here instead of pinto, but Dan has something against black beans that I just can't get him to overcome. Even though it doesn't call for it, I really like these with a crumbly, salty Mexican cheese because I like the contrast with the sweet potatoes. Try it. Trust me.
Greek Salad - We made this last week because Dan has been on a Greek food kick (we made souvlaki and gryos and there's no end in sight) but I'd like to try to lighten that up. I love the chunky Greek salads with balsamic vinegar. This is sort of a combination because it's more like a traditional salad, with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and red onion, but also croutons made of pita and grilled chicken (using the souvlaki recipe). It was actually kind of awesome when we did it last week, so we'll have another go this week.
Orange Sesame Tofu with Snow Peas - This is one of our go-to dishes, but I haven't made it in quite a while. This week seems as good a time as any to make it again, though. This is usually good for leftovers, too, and after a leftover-less week, I'm glad to be able to bring a lunch to work again. It's much easier to manager your weight when you know exactly what is in your lunch, and when you have reasonable portions, not store bought giant helpings.

We don't really need a dessert, but I'm really excited to make the ice cream sandwiches from the original Sprouted Kitchen book. I had kind of passed over them, but this morning while idly flipping through I noticed that they're really more like peanut butter oatmeal cookies, with chocolate chips, and for some reason that really appealed me. I haven't been eating dessert every night - it depends on what I've done that day and how late I have dinner - so these are good because they just hang out in the freezer until you're ready for them. You can also make them as small as you want.

I feel like I should have another project this weekend, but since I didn't make it to the market last weekend, I'm not up on what's in season, and this is sort of a transitioning produce time. If I'm there tomorrow and I spot something awesome, I'll make it on the fly.

friday work breakfast

2016-09-09T14:55:00.000-04:00

technically

2016-09-06T14:53:00.000-04:00

A week ago at the store I saw this:

I'm trying to control the irritation that I feel. It's still summer, you guys.

on the menu 9/3

2016-09-03T14:49:00.001-04:00

It's finally September! And for about, oh, two days it looked like our Fogust weather had gone. But now, conveniently, it's a holiday weekend and here we are with tons of fog and temperatures just barely making it into the 60s. Oh well. The important thing is that it's a three day weekend and I hVe a few kitchen projects that I'm going to knock out.

Trofie with Heirloom Tomatoes - This recipe is from my Flour + Water cookbook and I slightly regret not looking at it earlier in the summer, since it's divided into seasons. This looks pretty simple (which is unusual for this books - it's pretty complex for the most part), but I'm not going to bother to make the Trofie. (See Smitten Kitchen's attempt here.) Trader Joe's sells a tri-colored trofie, which is fine. Two issues here: one is that I can't find a reprint of this recipe online anywhere, although a Blue Apron version is making the rounds (happy to complain about that another time). This is a problem because my F+W cookbook has a misprint for this recipe! And what seems to be a sentence or two of a pretty critical step is just totally missing. I'm going to guess what it says. If it doesn't turn out, and no one has responded to my pleas, I'm going to have to go to the restaurant and ask. Fortunately it's just across town...
Pizza - Whatever we have on hand (last week we used leftover meatballs which was awesome).
Salad - We actually didn't get to our regular salad last week because we went out to dinner last night, so I mostly need to buy lettuce. Everything else should still be good.
Soba Bowls - I really like these soba bowls from Sprouted Kitchen Bowl and Spoon, but I have decided to make an executive decision this time and leave out the red bell peppers. For one thing, I don't love them so much that I feel like they make the dish. I could take or leave most peppers, if I'm being honest. I mostly tolerate them, and don't usually sweat it if I don't have them. What I noticed with this is that using the whole red bell pepper is a bit much, and when we get to the bottom of the bowl it's just full of peppers. I'll save the food waste and leave these out this time.
Souvlaki - Dan spotted this recipe online and sent it to me while we were at work one day. I'm always happy to try something that he's really enthusiastic about, and this looks pretty simple. Plus, I really love souvlaki. Related to our trip up to Marin to buy our cow share (more on that later, too), we've also been looking for a farm or CSA that we could buy chicken directly from. Until then, we'll go to our nicer market down the street and buy the nice chicken from the meat counter. The cool thing about this recipe is that it includes a pretty simple process for making pita yourself, which I'm going to try. It might not always be practical, but I'd love for that to be something in my cooking repertoire, especially because when I buy pita we always end up not eating all of it. Controlling the yield would be great.

I'm thinking of two kitchen projects this weekend: Blackberry jam and dilly beans. This is the tail end of blackberry season, and I figure I'll make some jam while I still can. The nice thing about the berry jams is that you can really scale them down smaller to use the amounts that you have. That's a little better if you don't have a house full of really enthusiastic jam eaters , a small kitchen, or both. Green beans are nearing the end of their season, too, and I've never actually pickled them before so I'm actually looking forward to it. This recipe makes about four pints, which isn't too much to deal with considering they last about a year if you process them in a water bath. We have a friend that we'll likely give a jar to, anyway.

No desserts needed this week because we still have most of a peach pie. And peach pie is a really good labor day pie, don't you think?

friday work breakfast

2016-09-02T14:30:00.000-04:00

humbled in your expectations

2016-08-31T08:00:00.000-04:00

This mosaic is on the wall at my train station. I usually pass it on Friday morning when I treat myself to coffee at Blue Bottle. Every other day of the week I walk the other direction.

I know that this mural, made by a high school kid, is supposed to say HOPE, but I'll be honest: every single time I pass it I ready it as NOPE. And I've come to like it better that way.

The mosaic saying NOPE serves as a way to humble whatever expectations you might have had for the day. You thought you were getting that coffee at Blue Bottle?

NOPE.

Line is around the corner. Enjoy your sub par, too hot coffee from the other place with the bad dance music playing.

Nice slow Friday at the office to get caught up one work?

NOPE.

Nothing by emergencies and disasters from the time you walked through the door. Sneaking out early?

NOPE! You're staying late.

Anyway, I want to thank the kid that made this. If nothing else, I get a little smile when I walk by and misread it.

banned

2016-08-30T08:00:00.000-04:00

Again, things I noticed when I'm out walking around:

There are wads of gum on the ground everywhere. In the street, on the sidewalk, in the subway station, on the train platform. Everywhere. Once you notice them, you can't unnotice them.

(Putting aside the fact that I think it's completely unacceptable for adults to chew gum at all unless they are quitting smoking) Are that many people just spitting their gum out into the ground? Didn't anyone teach any of you better than that?

When I'm in charge of the universe, I promise that all gum will be outlawed and banned from production. Enjoying grossing up our sidewalks while you can, jerks.

floss

2016-08-29T08:30:00.000-04:00

Whenever I'm out walking around I see those little dental floss toothpick things on the ground. Like suddenly America is totally into flossing, but we've forgotten to use trashcans.

I wonder why those little flossers are made of plastic instead of cardboard or something else that would be more biodegradable? At least then when jerks missed the trashcan, maybe they'd just dissolve?

where have you been?

2016-08-28T01:49:00.000-04:00

Is anyone else seeing all these headlines in the media pondering how the party of X politician became the party of Donald Trump? I saw one the other day that asked how the party of John McCain became the party of Donald Trump.

Are we really asking this question? Is anyone surprised? This is the same party that has basically governed by temper tantrum for the past eight years. Who has worked at every turn and juncture to ensure that large groups of people are left out of equal rights and protections, are denied care and assistance, and that progress of this nation in general is hindered. He's not actually saying anything that various members of the GOP haven't already been saying for years.

For each of Donald Trump's outrageous, offensive, disturbing, and ludicrous statements, rest assured that there is another prominent member of the GOP who has said something similar, proposed legislation in support of something similar, or blocked legislation which would have moved us away from something similar. Punish women who have abortions? Yep, there have been a few people who have said similar things. Deport all undocumented immigrants? I can think of some GOP politicians who have made statements or proposals that sound just like that. Build a wall? What, like he thought of this? Ban muslims? Bring back DOMA? Anti-trans bills? Get rid of Obamacare? Talk shit on other national leaders?

He isn't saying anything that other GOP politicians haven't already said. The difference is that while this vile rhetoric is generally doled out among many politicians, each representing a single disturbing and backward view of a particular cause, Donald Trump just says it all at once. He's like a greatest hits records of hostile, narrow-minded, dated, and self-serving garbage. It's not like he came out of the blue with these wild ideas that the party never supported. Rest assured that someone in the party agrees with him. He's like Captain Planet. By your powers combined...

Maybe this is the first time GOP members have seen that full scale of their party's position, all at once and in their face? Maybe this is the first time they're seeing the party the way that everyone outside of the party has seen it for years? That moment where you realize how other people see you can be particularly painful. But honestly, as anyone who doesn't actually support the GOP will tell you, this is exactly how the party has come across for years. This IS the party of John McCain.

It's the party of hatred, selfishness, and of old fashioned, progress-fearing, insecure old men. And what is Donald Trump if not all those things?

on the menu 8/21

2016-08-21T15:49:00.000-04:00

I think I may have missed some weeks of posting my menu, right? I can't tell. Last weekend Dan was out of town so I just did tons of kitchen projects: white nectarine jam, blueberry jam (total failure!), three batched of fettuccine, two batches of eggplant ravioli, and a loaf of blueberry/blackberry bread. I also bought new running shoes and yoga pants. It was kinda nice.

Anyway, here we are! Tonight we're headed to a friend's house for a cookout. I'll bring over the avocado-cucumber salad from the Smitten Kitchen website, and also the brown butter crispy treats, also from the Smitten Kitchen. And listen, don't hate on those crispy treats. They're the perfect thing to bring along to a barbecue. If it's hot out, they hold up, the brown butter and salt makes them a little more sophisticated than the traditional kids version, but kids will eat these, too. They're really simple to make, they don't cost a fortune, and you can easily double the recipe. Do it. Everyone will love you.

Summer Squash Pasta Bake - Being someone who comes from a place with really hot summers, the thought of a pasta bake that uses summer squash is absurd. But it reality I would have made it living in Philadelphia or St. Louis, it just would have been one of those things that you just suck it up and deal with the fact that it's going to heat up the house. Side note, if you have a good toaster oven, you can run an extension cord to it and put it outside, that way you can bake smaller things without turning your house into a furnace. As it is, I now live in a place where it's quite cold in the summer, and even if my oven heats up my house, I fix that by opening a window. Back to the squash pasta bake - we made this for the first time recently and it was actually awesome. I was concerned that it would be too runny because squash has so much water, but since you're cooking it first, it releases a lot of the water. The rest of the sauce it on the drier side, so it ends up working out well. I use shredded mozzarella here because I wanted the cheese a little more melted. And despite the cheese and milk, this dish doesn't feel too heavy, so it wouldn't be bad if you lived in a place that was actually hot, either.
Pizza - Maybe some of this leftover zucchini would make a nice pizza topping? I love the farmers market themed pizzas.
Salad - Speaking of farmers market themed things, I'll throw a bunch of that stuff in a salad, too.
Summer Vegetable Tacos - Lately whenever I buy tortillas for things like enchiladas, my options are to hardly buy any, or to buy a massive stack. I have to keep planning follow up meals that involve tortillas because I don't want to waste them. Hence tacos. But I wanted non-meat tacos, and spent a lot of time looking for something that fit the bill. I spotted these, and I think they actually look really great, with a nice mix of summer produce. Plus, Dan and I have been really into chimichurri lately - we've had it in various formats in a few different local places (chimichurri fries at Richmond Republic, steak with chimichurri at both Outerlands and Sunset Reservoir, grilled cheese at Lupulo) and every time we say to each other, we should make chimichurri sometime. So now we are. The basic idea of this recipe is that you do a quick saute of the veggies and top them with chimichurri on the tacos. Sounds awesome.
Meatballs - Another meal that wouldn't be seasonally appropriate if we lived in a place with actual hot summer weather. As it stands, meatballs year round can totally be a thing. I was complaining recently about how I really want the recipe for the bolognese from Pastaria in St. Louis, and I came across their meatball recipe. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, but I'm willing to give these a shot. I still think that my usual recipe will be my default, but I'm looking forward to trying to recreate these. I'll make the five minute tomato sauce from 101 Cookbooks and serve these with garlic bread and a salad. I actually have some smoked mozzarella leftover from the ravioli I made last weekend, so I'll most likely bake these in a casserole dish to heat them up. The cool thing about meatballs is that you can make them in advance and just reheat them, which is great since they're a little on the time consuming side.

That's all we need, since we'll be going to our friend's house for dinner. I forgot to mention that I was planning to make a batch of pickles to take a long, as well. I don't like pickles, but everyone else does, and Dan loves this particular version from Food in Jars (with two changes: half the dill and double the red pepper). I never process these because Dan doesn't like mushy pickles, so I make smaller batched and keep them in the fridge.

it's not you

2016-08-11T00:23:00.000-04:00

If you haven't heard by now the bit about Mr. Trump's second amendment comments, go Google that now and then come back so I don't have to explain.

Ok, ready? I saw this article that Vice posted, where they actually talked to the guy with the big reaction that could be seen in the background of that speech. Basically this guy Vickers was shocked and couldn't believe he had said it. He says, essentially, that that kind of thing deserves a whooping (because the best way to keep someone from speaking violently is with physical violence, but never mind) because you don't talk that way.

He then goes on to say that he "believed Trump's comments were said sarcastically but easily misconstrued by the liberal media."

About that:

It seems to me that you construed the man's comments in the exact same way that the "liberal media" did.
There are a lot of countries out there in this world that are more "liberal" than the United States. If the media in the US took it that way, how might the rest of the world?

I don't believe for a second that the guy was talking about grassroots organizing and get out the vote initiatives, but even if you decide to buy stock in crazytown and accept that explanation, explain to me how it could be in our best interest for the leader of this nation to be constantly saying things that so easily misconstrued?

The president of one of the most powerful nations in the world can't afford for make "jokes" that no one gets. WE can't afford that.

on immigration, legal or otherwise

2016-08-09T16:10:00.000-04:00

There's a thing right now about Donald Trump's wife and her questionable initial immigration status. How nice, how schadenfreude it would be if we could point to this scandal as yet another sign of the absurd hypocrisy of it all.

But here's the thing. This is complicated. And as someone who works in immigration, day in and day out, for my whole career, I'll tell you that I absolutely do not have an opinion on this right now. You shouldn't either, because we don't have enough information.

Here is the information, as I understand it:

Mrs. Trump made a comment about doing things the "right" way when coming to the US (I have a few other posts where I talk about the fine, treacherous line between the right way and the wrong way), but then also made a comment about having to travel home every few months to have her visa stamped. The only visa that the United States issues that would require the bearer to leave the US every few months is the visitors visa. If she was in the US working on that visa, that would be illegal.
There is also some information out there about Mrs. Trump claiming to have graduated from college when she actually didn't (alternative stories say she claimed to have gone to a university that didn't exist) and some people have commented that an H-1B visa, which can be issued to models, requires a bachelor's degree or higher. While almost all H-1B visas require a degree, I don't actually think the H-1B does when issued for model (I need to confirm... and really who cares? I have real work to do, but if you want to check, go ahead and let me know.), so if she had the H-1B as a model, that might have been perfectly fine.
Ultimately, Mrs. Trump received permanent residence and citizenship, which means any potential illegal activity was either not flagged or met the criteria for a waiver. An important point to note here is that in the case of a waiver, she would have needed to meet the criteria for the waiver at the time which could have changed by now, so it isn't actually worth speculating. Also important to note is that the tracking and monitoring of foreign nationals entering and leaving the US is a system that has been constantly changing and improving over the years and so if Mrs. Trump was working without authorization at the time and you are wondering how she wasn't caught, it most likely is because the systems that would flag someone's frequent entries and long stays in the US now was not in place in the mid-90s, or wasn't as effective.
Mrs. Trump is a white woman with a respectable background, some education, some money, and from a country that isn't one of the top offenders of illegal entries and activities in the US. She's also really pretty. When she entered the US, she was likely not scrutinized as hard as, say, someone from South or Central America, someone from Africa, or someone from the Middle East. Yes, I said it. Like it or not, there is privilege at play here.
It is true that when you complete applications for both permanent residence and citizenship, you have to declare on there that you have never violated any immigration laws (or any laws at all), including working without authorization, and if the US found out that you had perjured yourself here, they could elect to take action. The case of John Demjanjuk is an example - Mr. Demjanjuk was deported to Germany to stand trial for war crimes from World War II, even though he was a naturalized US citizen. How? Well, on the I-485 application there is a question that asks if you served in the Nazi government during WWII and Mr. Demjanjuk answered no. It was later proven by his military record that he served as a guard in a concentration camp, making that statement on the form a lie, which allowed the US to not shield him from extradition. So, in Mrs. Trump's case if she had answered that, no, she never worked without authorization in the US, she could be found to have lied on that form if she had, in fact, worked without authorization, but the real question is whether or not you could prove that. Are there payroll records from the modeling agency? Were taxes filed? Is this worth the investigation and tax dollars that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services and Department of Justice would have to spend to go after her?
It is a very real possibility that she truly did not know that she was working without the proper authorization. When people come to the US, particularly for work purposes, they tend to just do what their employer tells them. They, and their employers, are not often experts when it comes to immigration law. Even some attorneys aren't always experts, and there is always an interpretation of what is permissible and what isn't, and what amount of risk you, as the employer, will tolerate. While in house immigration teams (such as mine) are becoming a lot more common these days, they weren't necessarily the norm at the time, and may not be the norm among modeling agencies even now (as they are in tech and finance). If your employer gives you the opportunity to come to the US and work, and tells you the B-1 visa is the appropriate method of entry, are you, as a young model, going to question that? I have veteran tech guys who have worked in the business for decades who wouldn't question that. And if she really believed that she had entered on the correct visa and worked legally, that defends any statements that she made on her subsequent applications.

Don't get me wrong, here, I think there is tremendous possibility here Mrs. Trump was not actually authorized to work for part of her time in the US. I think this whole campaign has been an absurdist shit show. I think the hypocrisy is a stunning slap in the face to the American people in general. But I don't actually think this is an issue we should string this woman up over. It's way too complicated for even the experts to understand, so we're just calling her out based on speculation. We are, despite what the Trump campaign has demonstrated, better people than that. Sometimes life is about being the bigger person and extending the courtesy to someone else that they would never extend to you.

the old switcheroo

2016-08-08T15:29:00.000-04:00

Movies that should be remade with the genders of the cast reversed:

Die Hard
Rambo
Taken
Crank
Fried Green Tomatoes
Das Boot
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Shawshank Redemption
City Slickers

I'll give you a moment to think those over.

on the menu 8/7

2016-08-07T15:22:00.001-04:00

Next weekend Dan is going to be out of town at a bachelor party, which means I'll get the house to myself for a bit and can cook and eat things that Dan doesn't normally like. Coffee bacon sandwiches, anyone? Tropical smoothie bowl? Anyway, until then...

Pasta with Yellow Tomato Sauce - The past few times I've made this, I've gotten whatever tomatoes looked great, regardless of the color because face it, this is a really good recipe regardless of what tomatoes you use. But today I found yellow! Hooray! I tried to get three pounds worth so I could freeze half, but the problem with the farmers market is I never know how much I have until I pay, and by then I'm not going to go back for more if I didn't get enough. Anyway, whatever pasta shape looks good, a side salad, and a lot of pecorino romano cheese and this is a great meal.
Salad - The regular salad because sometimes you just don't feel like thinking too hard about things.
Pizza - We didn't have pizza last week. I might end up making it just for myself this week, so there's that.
Zucchini Pesto Noodles - I think I'll make this tonight because it's a little on the time consuming side. But it's worth doing because it's really good and healthy. I have a bunch of orange cherry tomatoes that I'm going to use instead of the bigger on-the-vine kind. I like the smaller tomatoes more, anyway. The key with cooking this is to be quick so that the zucchini keeps its shape and doesn't get soggy. Similarly, I don't think this makes very good leftovers, so I recommend making as much as you'll eat that night and then sucking it up and buying lunch the next day. Which is what I'll do.
Caprese Sandwich with Prosciutto - Twice this weekend Dan and I have had variations on caprese salads. We had a more traditional one on Friday with basil oil replacing the fresh basil, and we had a sort of caprese/melon prosciutto combo yesterday afternoon. This inspired us to make a caprese sandwich this week, with prosciutto, of course. I did just buy a whole bunch of fresh basil at the market, but I'm thinking all of that will go with the zucchini. For this I'll use the basil paste that comes in a tube and mix it with olive oil to spread on the bread for the sandwiches. I'll make a balsamic reduction in case that's what we're feeling. And I'm reserving the right to add peaches to mine.

That's all, because Dan is leaving Thursday morning and I have an event after work so might not need dinner that night, anyway. I still have ice cream and caramel sauce, so that covers dessert. Then, as I said I'll run to the store for something to indulge in over the weekend. Score.

waste not

2016-08-01T15:47:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned, we had some friends over for a pizza party on Friday night. I realized as we were eating that I was basically feeding them our leftovers. Leftover carnitas, the other half of an onion from earlier in the week, two zucchini that I'd over-bought, leftover half of a chorizo, leftover meatballs...

I always say that that's the beauty of pizza, that it allows you to use up the odds and ends in your fridge. It's just funny that I was feeding those leftovers to guests. You don't need to tell people that their dinner is made up of leftovers, but real friends won't care anyway.