Chicago

I've been contemplating a move to Chicago for a while. There are a limited number of grad schools in the country that I can go to, and Chicago, Boston and New York have the best of them. Or at least, the ones I am most interested in. I'm sorry, but I just don't think I can live in Ohio. I've been to all three cities, on both field trips for school and actual vacations. Boston was wonderful but it didn't really click with me. New York is of course amazing, but completely overwhelming. I just can't imagine living in New York. The thought of paying that much money to live in that small of an apartment is unfathomable.

I've always loved Chicago on every trip I've ever made there. The most interesting thing is, every single person I've mentioned the move to has gotten a really big grin on their face and said "I love Chicago, it's such a great city." It's good to hear. So far the only negative comments I've heard are "it's cold as hell", "traffic is horrible" and "it's expensive". All of which I knew. I've lived in Michigan for 24 years, I can live with cold. Surprisingly, Lansing gets less days of sun than Chicago, and the average winter temperature is only about two degrees colder in Chicago. I don't plan on having a car, and Anthony will just have his Fiero, so it should be relatively inexpensive to drive, and we both plan on using the El for just about all of our transportation within the city. It won't be cheap, but paying more to live in a city with some culture and a nightlife is more than worth it.

I'll be kind of sad to leave Michigan. I was born here and always lived here. I've never moved more than 45 minutes away from where my parents' live. I have some wonderful friends. I know the area. I've found the neat shops that I adore. The Oriental Mart, Tuesday Morning, Sushi Ya, and Beaners. I know where to find the cheap groceries, the weird and fun decorating stores, the good coffee, and inexpensive amazing sushi. I know what parks are nice to take a late night walk. I know every inch of campus and the ideal gardens to photograph. I feel like I'm finally settled in here. So why do I want to leave so bad?

Sadly, Michigan is starting to feel like a dead end. The job market is awful and the economy is struggling. 85 percent of college grads leave the state after graduation. And Lansing isn't exactly a hotbed of cultural experiences. It's hard enough finding a pizza place open past 1am on a Friday or Saturday night, or a nice restaurant open at ALL for dinner on Sundays. The best theater is at the Wharton Center. But, they're Broadway touring shows, the same that could be found in any city of a decent size. I'm ready for independent shows with actors just starting out, jazz clubs on a Friday night and clubs that have a little bit more to offer than drunken frat boys.

Ask me if I made the right decision sometime next fall after I've hauled Anthony's two huge aquariums up 4 flights of stairs, walked 6 blocks in the rain to get to the El, and when I realize I have $1.50 to my name after paying the bills. I can almost guarantee I'll say, "yeah, I can't imagine living anywhere else.".

Christmas Break

Since I haven't had the time to post in the past few weeks, I have a lot of catching up to do. The day of my birthday I headed home for break. Every year my parents and I go see "A Christmas Carol" at Meadowbrook around my birthday. This year we figured out that this was probably the 17th time I've seen it. This year we took my aunt, who absolutely loves the story. It was nice to see her and we went out to dinner before it. The production was fantastic, as always, and I never get tired of it.

The next morning I went to work at the meat market. I won't say much about it, other than it was as I expected. Pure unadulterated hell. Anthony ended up working there for three days. He now knows why I hate it so much. They let me leave a few hours early on Christmas Eve which was amazing. It made the rush to get to the other side of the state a little more tolerable. They also sent me home with a whole ham and two pounds of shrimp. They pretty much immediately got frozen in smaller portions so I shouldn't have to do much grocery shopping for a while. Yay! When I got home I took a shower, threw on clothes, put a few things in a bag and headed out the door. We got to Kalamazoo by 8pm, stopped at Trevor's to drop off Earl Grey Truffles that we made. I was loved and drooled on by Julian, Trevor's fantastic dog. He's a huge hairy sweetheart of a dog. I am much more of a bunny/cat type person but I would be thrilled to take Julian home. He's hilarious, sweet AND well-trained. We stopped by Scott and Kendalyn's to drop off their truffles, unfortunately they weren't there, so we headed out to Anthony's parents' house.

When we got there the whole family was still there. We had a quick dinner and opened gifts. I can truthfully say I've never been stared at by 30 or so people while I open gifts before. Kinda freaked me out. But I got a delicious Wasabi and Pear candle and a cute evening purse from Anthony's parents. Plus cards from some of his siblings, and lots and lots of cookies. Two of his nieces fought over who got to sit next to me, it was kind of cute. Most of the people left after a few hours and we stayed to talk to his parents and brother until about 1 am.

Armed with a large thermos of coffee Anthony decided to drive back to my parents' house instead of stopping in Lansing that night. I slept most of the way home. It was foggy as hell though, so it was a bit of an interesting drive for him. We got to my parents' place around 4 am and snuck in. They didn't realize we were there until the next morning when we woke them up.

Birthday Dinner Success

My birthday dinner was lovely. Lots of very good friends showed up. We had Cranberry Topped Brie with French Bread, two kinds of homemade spaghetti (one vegetarian, one with meat), a fabulous walnut, pear and spinach salad with raspberry walnut dressing brought by Erin and Kyle, molasses cookies, and chocolate chip and butterscotch chip cookies from Smitty. Chris brought some fantastic sausages that we had with mustard and horseradish, and a bottle of champagne. Plus a ridiculous amount of wine and mead brought by various people. We had a fire and sat around in the living room eating, drinking and talking. Later, the boys played cards while we girls sat in Katie's bedroom horrifying the guy Katie is dating with much talk about sex toys. I also got several wonderful gifts. Erin made me a grey fleece scarf with a mermaid on it, and blue earrings. Katie got me black satin pj pants with a Chinese design, and lotion called Moonlit Path, one bottle with really thick body lotion and the other that is very shimmery. Suzette got me a chocolate candle in a tin that is decorated with vintage style pictures and naughty sayings. I also have a Christmas cd from Smitty that I have yet to listen to. Ooops. All in all, it was a wonderful dinner and I am so glad so many people could make it.

Dinner

I've been terrible about posting my menus lately. We made a fantastic dinner tonight, entirely made up out of our heads.

Apricot Meatloaf: Ground beef, diced apricots and onions, and all sorts of spices. Cinnamon is amazingly good with meat. We put apricot jam on top and let it bake until it was caramelized. Mmm.

Spiced Orange Sweet Potato: We baked sweet potatoes and mashed them with milk, a teeny bit of butter, orange juice concentrate, cinnamon and a smidgeon of cayenne pepper.

A few days ago we made another amazing dinner, hooray for the discount market in Lansing that has such fantastic meats for incredibly cheap prices.

Scotch Glazed New York Strip Steaks: We seared the steaks with cinnamon, chives, salt, papper, parsley, garlic powder, and onion powder, took them out and deglazed the pan with some very nice Scotch and apple cider vinegar. They were perfectly cooked and insanely tender. We had them with really simply done peas and it was just right.

Birthday Dinner

I am having a get together for my birthday. My birthday's on December 18, but I'll be celebrating it on Saturday, December 17th. If you'd like to come, show up at my apartment with a dish for dinner or a bottle of wine. Hope to see you there! If you need directions, or an idea of what to bring, email/call/leave me a comment on here/send me a carrier pigeon, whatever works for you.

Christmas

And once again, I am going to hate the holidays. I am working at Marv's again this year. And I think I'm going to kill myself. The thought of spending one more break up to my elbows in bloody steaks and sticky boxes of ham makes me want to find the nearest bridge. Practically the minute exams are over, I try to cram in a birthday celebration with friends, see "A Christmas Carol" at Meadowbrook Hall for something like the 20th time in my life and then I work. I don't sleep well the week before Christmas, I don't have time to enjoy the tree, or listen to Christmas carols, or leisurely finish making handmade presents. I work. Twelve hour days in a freezing store with under-educated white trash who can't DO any better. I get out of work at 4pm on Christmas Eve, and this year, I'll run home, shower, drive almost 4 hours to Grand Junction to spend time with Anthony and his family, turn around and drive back to Hartland. Getting maybe 4 hours of sleep somewhere in there and opening presents with my parents and Anthony and then going to my grandmother's house to do the same and have dinner. After which I will sleep. But the fun isn't over yet. The 26th will be a "pretend" Christmas Eve because my mother can't bear the thought of not celebrating it with me. Then, the rest of the week until New Years Eve I will work AGAIN. Freezing my ass off while bitchy people complain because THEY ordered the wrong damn crown roast. And this year I don't even have a hilarious middle aged Italian man to get into water fights with and to feed me shrimp. (cries) I'll miss you Vince. New Years Eve I'll get out at six, run home and shower and go to Ann Arbor for Chris's shindig. I will have a drink and then most likely pass out unconscious because I am tired and bitter that I didn't get to enjoy the holidays.

I suppose the logical question is "Well, why the hell do you work then?" Because I feel like I owe it to my parents. Because it's taking me forever to get through my damn degree and they have paid for my housing and living expenses for five years. Because they don't make me work during the year to help, they just ask that I work at Christmas. Is it too much to ask? It shouldn't be, but yes, it definitely is. There are homeless people freezing in the streets, drug addicts fighting to break their addictions, people dying from every conceivable disease out there. And I complain about my job. And I don't feel guilty about it.

Merry Fucking Christmas everyone.

Terrible Person

I am a terrible person. I have had absolutely no inclination to update my journal, in well, forever. Despite the fact that there are all sorts of things happening that I could be talking about.

Bad Luck Continued

So things keep getting worse. I left my camera with my dad, because I noticed that half of the flash is darkened. I wasn't sure if the bulb in it burned out, or what. Apparently it's more serious than that. It has a problem with the wiring in it. Apparently something in the circuit is going screwy it and making it over-fire. So it'll cost 25 dollars for the to look at it, probably 70 to fix it, and it'll be gone for 3-4 weeks. Fan-fucking-tastic. The money isn't a huge issue, my parents will pay for it, but I can't have it gone for that long. (sighs) I love my camera, and I feel completely lost without it. Plus, it's one of the few things that makes me money, I don't want it gone! I think I'll wait until after the holidays to take it in. I can use my external flash instead, and cross my fingers it doesn't fuck that up. They aren't really sure if it will or not. (grumbles)

I don't care who I have to bribe/coerce/threaten/sleep with to get my luck to turn around, but damn it, I am sick of this shit!

Menu Four

It's been quite a while since I've done any of these, so here's hoping I remember how they turned out.

Apple and Horseradish Glazed Salmon with Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage: The salmon was amazing. It was so easy to make and incredibly yummy. The sweet and sour cabbage was not as fantastic. The idea is great, I've had it before. But apparently this wasn't the recipe for it. It wasn't zingy enough. Plus, I think we sliced the cabbage too thick. It never got wilted enough. So, I'll make the salmon again and find a new recipe for the cabbage.

Crustless Broccoli Cheddar Quiche: Unfortunately, this was very blah. It didn't taste bad, it just didn't have much flavor. For some reason the egg taste neutralized all of the cheddar and broccoli flavor, and all of the seasonings we put in. I might try working with this recipe, adding more herbs and salt and pepper but if I find a recipe that looks more interesting, I'll try it instead.

Cornbread and Bean Skillet: This was fantastic. It was kind of dreary out, and I was having a crummy day and this was such good comfort food. Amazingly enough, it was incredibly healthy too. Basically, I dumped a bunch of spicy beans into a pan and made Jiffy cornbread with cheddar cheese. The raw dough was put on top of the beans and then simmered over the stove until it cooked through. It was warm, and the mix of spice with the cornbread was delicious. I might put in one can of regular tomatoes in place of one of the two cans of tomatoes with green chilis. It was a little overwhelming. This also made great leftovers.

Warm Spinach-Pear Salad: So good, and so simple. We made it with a bowl of leftover squash soup. Mmm. The salad was fairly substantial and with the soup was plenty for a meal. I love hot dressing salads. For once, I found one that doesn't involve using bacon grease as part of the dressing, so that was exciting also. I will definitely make it again.

Chicken with Tomatoes and Mushrooms: This was very good too. It needed some time to cook, but the actual preparation was simple. It didn't call for very many ingredients either, which was nice. I was pretty much guaranteed to like this recipe though, anything that calls for two pounds of mushrooms is fine by me.

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili: This recipe didn't taste exactly how I thought it would, but it was amazing. It had a very mexican flavor, which I don't normally associate with sweet potato. It also had a garnish of a little bit of sour cream mixed with cilantro. I added lime juice, and it was even better. I'll certainly make this again.

Feta, Olive and Spicy Sausage Pizza: Using pre-made crust, we brushed olive oil on it and sprinkled garlic, salt, pepper, and rosemary on the crust. We baked that for a few minutes and topped it with feta, black olives, spicy sausage, tomatoes and mushrooms. We baked that for a little bit longer and it turned out AMAZING. Really quick and incredibly good.

Roasted Chicken Noodle Soup: I roasted a chicken, fairly early in the day. I stuffed it with fresh basil and rosemary and put carrots, onions, celery and garlic around it. After it was done roasting, I put the whole thing in a pot of water with all of the drippings and let it boil for about 5 hours. By the end of the night it had completely fallen apart and the whole apartment smelled good. We strained the liquid, and saved it, picked apart the chicken for the good meat and put it back with the broth. We added more herbs and vegetables and noodles and let it cook for another fifteen minutes or so. It was probably the best soup I've ever had. We made a ridiculously large amount of it, so we've been having leftovers all week, and we even froze some.

Curried Cider-Braised Pork Chops and Horseradish Smashed Potatoes: Both were delicious! The pork chops were simple to make and curry is so yummy with cider. It probably would have been even better with sliced apples. I invented the recipe for the potatoes and they were superb, if I do say so myself. I boiled potatoes and then smushed them up with milk, a little sour cream and butter, rosemary and horseradish. The horseradish added a really interesting flavor to it but it wasn't overwhelming at all. Katie tried them, and she really liked them, which is saying a lot, because she's the pickiest eater I know. Luckily, this time she ate something I made, it didn't make her throat close. Hooray for food allergies. No peach shakes for Katie I guess...

There were also plenty of meals of leftovers, and dinner at my parents' house, and I was gone for a while and even a night of sushi. Mmm, sushi. So there aren't as many recipes as there would have been otherwise. I might have forgotten something I made too...

Randomness

This past week has not been going well. I wanted to start making and selling greeting cards with my photographs on the front. I bought the cards and envelopes, plastic sleeves to put them in, mounting tape and I picked out photos to use. When I went to order the photos I realized there was a huge problem. York Photo doesn't print 3 by 5 pictures. I assumed it was only that particular company, so I looked on Snapfish, and Shutterfly, and every other online photo processing place. No luck. I went to Meijer, hoping that they could at least print them if I brought in the negatives. I nearly cried when the woman there told me that 3 by 5's are getting discontinued everywhere. Apparently 4 by 6 is now standard. Also, apparently "no one uses 3 by 5's." At that point I was so frustrated I almost screamed "I use them you bitch." But, she was just some lowly photo processing peon. She had no say in it, so I bit my tongue and thanked her for her time. I can use the 4 by 6's on the cards I bought, but they don't look anywhere near as nice. The bigger border was so much better. But I suppose it's asking too much to have things go the way I planned.

I went to Delaware, Ohio this past weekend. My cousin Marthena was having a baptism for her twin babies. While I'm not a particular fan of either the church or babies, it wasn't a bad weekend. Well, sort of. My streak of bad luck did continue. I left half of my stuff at home that I needed, including shampoo and all my styling products. I also somehow managed to leave the gift I had for them in my apartment. I spent MONTHS knitting two baby blankets, and they're sitting here on the floor in their nice gift bag. (grumbles) I also managed to slam my head on the corner of a wall while sitting down. Oh, and I was convinced I'd lost a sock at the hotel, only to find it in one of my bags. Plus, on the way home, I apparently dumped my wallet out of my purse and left it in my parents' car. So I have no money until they either mail it to me, or I go meet them somewhere. Fantastic. Anyone else want to add to my lousy week??

Naked Pillow Fights

Erin and Katie and I decided that we haven't been spending enough time together, just the three of us, so we had a girls' night at Erin's. She kicked Kyle out of their house and I stole Anthony's truck and went up to St. Louis. We spent lots of time talking, eating and drinking. The usual. We also watched "Dead Like Me", a show Erin's been yammering about lately. It's hilarious. Very weird and quirky. I need to hunt down the DVDs, and start it from the beginning. As Katie put it, "What kind of crack do you have to be on to come up with stuff like this??" Sounds like the perfect show for me... We also were incredibly girly and played with makeup. The guys were lucky they weren't around, there's no way they could have made it through the evening without a makeover. (cackles)

Katie slept in the guest bedroom, to avoid having 20 pounds of Boris kitty jumping on her head and licking her. Erin and I stayed in her room, and got tromped on by Boris most of the night. We stayed up talking until about 5 or 6 am, and got up at 9, we haven't done THAT in a while. We also managed to get semi-freaked out because the house was making strange noises. I swear Anthony and Kyle snuck up to the house to freak us out so Erin and I would end up cuddling. (laughs) apparently their secret plot worked, we did sort of end up smushed in the middle of the bed. But I'll let you decide if the three of us ever had the naked pillow fights everyone was so hoping would happen...

Stratford

My parents and I went to Stratford, Ontario last weekend. They picked me up at the apartment friday afternoon, and we drove straight there. We got in around 8pm and checked into our bed and breakfast. Technically it is a guest house, since they don't feed us breakfast. I had a room on the top floor. They aren't wildy exciting rooms, but they are clean and cute and the old lady who rents the house is really nice. We walked around town to find a place to eat. We went to a Chinese Canadian restaurant. That phrase is absolutely hilarious to me...there's something about Chinese Canadian that cracks me up. Maybe it's cause I am used to hearing Chinese American...but I swear there's just something inherently funny about Chinese Canadian food. First of all, what the hell is Canadian food??? Moose? Beer? Anyway, the Chinese part of the menu was fantastic. We had really good soup and egg rolls. None of us were starving, so it was a great dinner. We went for a walk and looked at all of the fantastic old architecture. There are tons of gorgeous brick houses.

On saturday morning we went to a cafe for breakfast. It's called the York Street Kitchen and it's very fun. It's a tiny hole in the wall place, with bright painted walls, and colanders as lamp shades. I had a sandwich called the H.M.S Pinafore, a bagel, goat cheese and smoked salmon. I get it every year when we go. We spent most of the morning and afternoon walking around town. There are a ton of cute little shops and gorgeous gardens. For dinner we went to an inn. They had amazing duck. (drools) Mmm, duck. We went to see the Shakespearean play "As You Like It". It was a different interpretation, it was set in the 60's, and The Barenaked Ladies composed and arranged the music. They did a fantastic job, and I am tempted to get a cd of the music they did.

We went for a picnic on sunday morning after stopping at the grocery store. We ate along the river and then headed out. It was kind of a long drive back because we stopped in Michigan to look at more bricks. They were making their final decision this week. They're either going with a brick that they can get now, so the bricking will be done this fall, or one that will put it off until the spring. I'm not sure which one they went with. Anyway, it was a good trip and I love going.

Serenity

I loved it! It's taken me a while to get around to posting (yeah, I am slacking again). I saw it last friday...the first showing available. We managed to see it before Anthony had to go to work, and I left for Stratford. (sighs happily) I was so happy with it. They managed to make it hilarious, suspenseful, and incredibly shocking. There are a lot of people complaining about a particular scene in it, but although I didn't like the scene, I thought it was well done and necessary. I'll avoid mentioning what it was in particular, for the people who haven't been able to see it yet. But it brought a different feel to the movie...it created doubt about the ending to the movie, and the possibility of any sequel. Say what you will, but I thought it was well done. I am just so happy it came out and I got to see it. My parents want to borrow the DVDs. My mom caught one or two of the episodes when it was actually on, and she liked it, but it was kicked off the air before she got to watch it more than that. I think it's sort of cute that my parents are getting into "Firefly".

Movies

Anthony and I went to see "Lord of War" last week. I was really surprised by it. Not only did I enjoy it a lot, it was more thought-provoking than I expected. Going into it I expected more of a comedy. It had some hilarious moments, but it also brought up some interesting points. I was impressed that they were able to make a movie about gun running that neither glorified it, nor made it out to be a heinous crime. That opinion was left to the audience to decide. The filming was incredibly well done without being over the top artsy. More than worth seeing.

Erin and Anthony and I watched "Corpse Bride" saturday night. It was every bit as wonderful as I expected. The combination of Johnny Depp (swoons) and Tim Burton is always perfect. It was funny and sweet, and a bit ghoulish all at once. Other than the ridiculously loud audio for the first 20 minutes, it was perfect.

Now I am counting the days until "Serenity". It's driving me insane. I am also going to be very cranky if there isn't a midnight showing on thursday night. Otherwise I'd have to wait until sunday to see it. I am going up to Stratford for my annual trip with my parents. I love the trip but it is quite annoying that it had to be the same weekend as the movie release. If anyone has heard about midnight showings, please let me know.

Menu 3

Man, I really need to come up with a more exciting title than 'Menu 3'...

More recipes...
Greek Rotisserie Chicken Salad - I had half of the rotisserie chicken left, so I added it to a Greek salad. I forgot to get tomatoes, but other than that it was great. Greek dressing is pretty easy to make from scratch so the whole meal went together pretty quickly. Nothing wildly new, but perfect for a simple, healthy dinner.

Spaghetti and Meatballs - We made the meatballs from scratch and clearly this is NOT a recipe I have mastered. The recipe was my mom's and hers are usually fantastic. Mine...not so much. They didn't taste bad, although I think I could have made the recipe a little more exciting. The biggest problem was that they completely fell apart. I need to ask my mom how she does it. Plus, I think we made them a bit large. The faster they cook, the less time they have to crumble. A non stick skillet would have helped too. They tasted pretty good with the spaghetti noodles and sauce. The sauce wasn't homeade, but I added a few spices and a bit of wine and it was really good. Yay Kroger!

Squash Soup - The squash soup recipe is originally Kyle's I believe. It is always delicious. I made a retardedly large amount of it, because squash was on sale for 39 cents/pound. I made the basic recipe: sauteed onion, squash, and stock. Only this time it was beef stock, not chicken. Grr on Kroger not having my Better Than bouillon stock base. How rude. Once it was all cooked down Anthony attacked it with his immersion blender until it was smooth. We divided it into two large bowls. One of the bowls I made a sweet soup. I added apple cider, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and a bit of brown sugar. The other was savory with milk, salt, pepper, rosemary and grated Gruyere cheese. They were both amazing. I froze four huge containers of it. Now I can have squash soup whenever my little heart desires. (swoons)

Cherry Glazed Pork with Green Beans and Feta - Another great recipe that is nice and fast. It's a basic sweet and sour sauce made out of cherry jam and red wine vinegar. It took maybe 15 minutes to make and most of that was just letting it simmer. I've been trying to eat a lot of green beans lately because they're really healthy, but there are only so many ways to prepare them. I was excited because I created another one tonight. I sauteed them in a tiny bit of oil with salt and pepper. Just before I took them off of the heat I added a bit of crumbled feta cheese. Mmm, so good. It caramelizes the cheese, and it's a wonderful blend of sweet and salty.

We also went to dinner with Ashley and Kracker, and Erin and Kyle. It's nice to do the dinner party thing again. Ashley made lamb, and mashed potatoes and carrots and Yorkshire puddings. I'd never had them before but they were really good. The lamb was wonderful too. Apparently Al has a slight obsession with gravy, which we teased her unmercifully about. My contribution to dinner was a key lime pie. I've made plenty of them before, but this was a new recipe. It was amazing. Just a few different twists on the standard recipe that made it really outstanding. Since the recipe came from someone online, of course I got harassed. Erin accused me of having secret pie affairs with strange men online. I have to admit, she's right. Luckily my boyfriend doesn't mind if I talk dirty about baking with other people.

Menu 2

More recipe reviews...

Pasta with Butternut Squash and Spinach - This recipe didn't taste how I expected it to, but it was very good. It wasn't too time consuming and made a ton. I was able to put a lot of it in the freezer, and have some for lunch the next day. The only thing I would do differently would be to use chicken stock instead of water, but I was out. I also added rosemary (yeah, I know, I'll put rosemary in anything) to make up for the lack of stock. I think I'll keep rosemary in even if I make it with chicken stock next time. It gives the dish a little more depth. We had the pasta with a really good Chardonnay. It was one I'd had before, and I love it. Kroger has it on sale on a fairly regular basis for around 5 dollars.

Barton et Guestier Chardonnay, France 2002 - A really good chardonnay. Not much of an oak flavor and it's easy to drink. It has a very full flavor, warm and buttery. There's a definitely apple taste. A good white wine for fall.

Rotisserie Chicken and Tuscan Bean and Wilted Arugula Salad - I bought a rotisserie chicken from Kroger because they were having a really good sale. I've been wanting to try this salad for a while. I used spinach instead of arugula, added a tiny bit of vinegar to the dressing (warm olive oil, lemon juice and zest) and cooked the onion instead of leaving it raw. It was phenomenal, and with the pre-cooked chicken it was really quick to make. I haven't enjoyed a salad that much in a long time.

Honey Glazed Pork Loin with Applesauce - I was a bit disappointed in the way this recipe turned out, but I think it had more to do with cooking difficulties than the recipe. I didn't have any aluminum foil, so the edges of the tenderloin got a little crispy. Adding water to the roasting pan helped, but I didn't do it until half way through. The flavor of the honey glaze was wonderful though. I usually prefer to make applesauce with a variety of apples, but this time I only made it with Granny Smith apples. It's definitely better to do the mix, there is a better texture to it. The apples cook at different rates and it makes a much chunkier applesauce. It had cinnamon, ginger, orange zest, apple cider, and honey in it. The flavor was different in a very good way.

Chicken with Pear, Sage and Cheese and French Peas - I am absolutely in love with this! It was so easy to make, and delicious. It was flattened sauteed chicken with Gruyere cheese melted on top and a sauce of pear, sage and cider. I've been so excited about fall arriving, and this was the perfect fall food. The traditional way to make French peas is to steam them in a pan lined with lettuce and seasoned with butter, salt, pepper and nutmeg. I didn't have the lettuce, but I kept the seasonings the same. Well, less butter, but enough to leave a nice taste. The nutmeg adds the perfect flavor. From start to finish dinner probably was done in less than 15 minutes. Mmm, quickie gourmet. ;)

Disappointed

I am incredibly disappointed that I haven't sold anything on Etsy yet. It's an awesome site and I know some people have been doing really well on it. I guess I shouldn't be that surprised. There's a limited market for handmade crafts. Plus, I am trying to sell photography and that really isn't a high demand thing. Fairly soon I am going to make up some photo cards. Nice white cardstock with a photo mounted on the front. I am hoping that will be a little more appealing. I did make some changes to the site, and Stav made me a spiffy banner. I'll give it a little more time and see if the changes have any effect. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. I can always use feedback. The link to the site is Drifting Visions Etsy and it's also to the right. Any kind of feedback; on the photos, the prices, shipping, my avatar, the descriptions or even suggestions of what kinds of photos you think people would buy. If I don't have something similar already I'll go out and take the pictures. I also am listing two of my photos on Crafters United to donate the profits of any sales to Hurricane Katrina Relief. The money goes directly to the Red Cross. Sooo, if you've been wanting to donate to it, and get a fantastic photograph, check it out.

Menu

I've been planning on making up a weekly menu for months now. I know it would cheaper, easier and healthier, but this is the first week I've been able to get around to it. It's actually going really well. I even managed to sort of incorporate it into the camping last weekend. It's also a good way to get me to try out new recipes. I have thousands of recipes that I've never tried. Here's a list of what we did this week and a quick review:

Chinese Grilled Pork and Spicy Green Beans- This morphed into grilled chicken because of a small pork disaster. The pork I had bought THE NIGHT BEFORE was green when I pulled it out of the refrigerator. It was from Kroger, and I've never had a problem with them before, so I am just assuming it was a strange fluke. If my food turns weird colors again, they're in trouble though. The Chinese marinade was awesome with chicken and would no doubt be just as good with pork, if not better. I will definitely try to make it again with the proper ingredients. I also broiled it instead of grilling it this time. The Spicy Green Beans were fantastic. Spicy and sweet at the same time and I could probably eat pounds of them in a sitting. Luckily they are quite healthy, so that won't be a problem.

Pesto Chicken Packets - Amazing. We took them camping and everyone loved them. Very simple and healthy too. It was just chicken, tomato, zucchini and a tablespoon or two of pesto. We wrapped it all up in foil and put it on a grill over the fire for 20 minutes or so. Also, halved tomatoes with pesto, salt and pepper in foil on the fire are also incredible.

Cream of Broccoli Soup - Very good. Surprisingly healthy for how good it tasted. It was simple to make, and really inexpensive. The recipe calls for rice to thicken the soup, and then some cream or 2% milk. I usually only buy skim, so instead I added a little bit of cream cheese. No doubt it would have been even nicer with cream, but in the interest of not dying before 25, it seemed like a good compromise. We did add a little too much pepper, but other than that, it was a great recipe. I even have a decent amount of it to put in the freezer.

Curried Chicken with Plums and Ginger and Sweet Potato Wedges - Anthony made the chicken and it was fantastic. It was pretty simple and didn't take long to make. The ginger was supposed to be crystallized ginger, but at $12 a bottle, that wasn't happening. If I can find it in bulk I will probably buy a little bit the next time I make it. Using powdered ginger instead wasn't a problem though. The chicken thighs were insanely tender, and mixed with the sweet plums, spicy curry, and green onions they were to die for. I made baked sweet potato wedges with salt, pepper, lemon juice and a tiny bit of cumin. They went really well with the curry and were really quick to make since I put them in the microwave for 5 minutes before I baked them.

There are a few more recipes for the week that I'll update as we go. If anyone wants any of these recipes, let me know. If you have any fantastic recipes to barter, that would be even better. Also, if anyone wants me to make these recipes for them, they either need to pay me/bribe me with backrubs or a bottle of wine but I will cook for hire.

Camping: Take Two

Last weekend was fantastic. Anthony and I met Erin and Kyle at their house, and followed them north to the Au Sable River Primitive Campground at Sawmill Point . We got a site, set up our tents, started a fire and made dinner. Pruden and Sung got there around 11. We basically spent the weekend relaxing around the fire, cooking and swimming. We hiked down a dune to the river and despite none of us having suits with us, we decided to jump in anyway. The hike back up the dune was nothing short of torture, but probably a sign that I need to hike up hills more often and NEVER do it three days after I give blood. Despite the heart attack, it was more than worth it. The view was gorgeous. I'd like to go back and take a canoe/rowboat out and explore the river. On our way out on sunday we drove east to Tawas. We had lunch near the beach, and went swimming for a couple of hours. Anthony literally had to drag me out of the water. I hadn't had much time to swim this summer and I miss it so much. I always feel better when I'm in the water. It makes my arthritis disappear and I feel so relaxed. It's sort of hard to explain, but I always feel more centered and more myself in the water. Like all of the day to day things that drive me crazy just don't exist. It's just me and the sky and the water. This might have something to do with the fact that I was in the water before I could walk, when I was barely 6 months old. I spent 90 percent of my summers from then until we moved at the age of 10 in the water. If it was daylight, I was in the water, and plenty of times even when it was dark. I doubt I'll be able to make it swimming again this fall, but it's top priority next year. Kyle suggested winter hiking...I don't know how I feel about it, but we'll see. If nothing else I do want to make sure we (Anthony and I, and Erin and KYle) try to go once a year. I always forget how much I enjoy it until I go.

It's A Party!

Katie and I finally decided when we are going to have our housewarming (apartmentwarming?) party. To make things easier, we decided to make it a combined housewarming/Halloween party. It will be Saturday, October 29. I suppose that makes it a pre-Halloween party, but the same rules still apply. COSTUMES for everyone. I will be sending out invitations. Probably just by email but we'll see. Everyone I know/have ever met is invited. So, give me a call, send me an email/IM or post a comment to let me know if you can make it. The more the merrier.