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i'm wearing a bathing suit instead of underwear right now. it's okay, albeit a little embarrassing to admit. i meant to do an unmentionables laundry session yesterday but got all caught up trying to update the software on my phone. i lost 3g and wi-fi connectivity over the weekend due to a 911 error with magic/rogers costumers. since this is my first foray into fancy handheld technology; syncing contacts with my pc, upgrading the ui, re-adding contacts (anyone know why google contacts are stored differently than phone contacts? i lost all the numbers i had added since buying the phone and can't figure out why) and customizing the home screen ending up taking over five hours. it was pretty fucking frustrating but now that i'm fully enabled, i'm stoked.
the sense ui is slick, fast and doesn't have any of the hang-ups my old android os did. facebook, flickr and twitter (which i'll never use) now come built in as well as really fun widgets for texting and email. (i can flip through messages like a sticky note pad!) i feel like i have a completely new phone and, while daunting, exhaustive and frustrating, the upgrade was well worth it. (added extra: rogers is providing customers with an additional month of unlimited data... that's means i'm free till march. hey-o!)looks like i'll be doing laundry tonight while baking some vegan energy bars. i found the recipe on a cute (read: hyper-positive, athletic, married couple's) blog and can't wait to compress twelve kinds of nuts, grains and seeds into portable, fibre-tastic, shit-inducing, healthy breakfasts!
i friend gave me fifteen pounds of bacon for christmas. it's too much. it's thick cut, locally sourced and goddamn delicious but, it's too much! i froze most of it in individual portions and kim (my roommate) has no problem helping me it eat but, honestly, i can't wait for it to be gone.
have you ever googled 'bacon recipe'? the results are surprisingly vast. i've candied it, baked, broiled, wrapped, crumbled, sandwiched and even fried tofu in the rapidly expanding vat of fat we're accumulating. i fear i'll smell like grease until the day i die. it's seeping out my fucking pores and i swear i only covered it in chocolate once... okay, twice.
i went to a grocery store last week after yoga. i was on the other side of the city at 9pm and hungry. i saw a 24 hour metro and wandered in. now, i haven't been in a grocery store since... well, i don't remember. that place is daunting, man. i found myself wandering through thirty aisles, dumbfounded. everything was either frozen, rotten, over-priced or completely indiscernible as food. $3.50/lb for small, wilty tomatoes from peru? no local option? no fresh option? i left with a bag of day old french rolls, a can of zoodles and a single tomato for close to seven dollars. that's what i would normally spend for a week's worth of produce!
the whole experience left me saddened for small town/uneducated eaters. is this the only option in your area? how can people afford to shop like this? please, if i am alone in these thoughts - let me know.
thank christ i'm not forced to shop in a big box that carries pads alongside frozen vegetables and imported bread. i'm still in shock, clearly.
the last couple weeks have been dreary weather-wise but really inspiring food-wise. all the colourful, seasonal vegetables tempt me from the local markets and i felt encouraged to try something new. why not a warm, hearty soup?
i had never made anything like this before so after a couple vague googles and experimenting with different vegetables, creams, broths, puree vs. chunk, etc. my absolute favourite end result was a puree of butternut squash, green ontario apples and fresh cauliflower. i roasted the apples (diced) inside the halved squash with maple syrup, butter and some thyme. when mushy, i boiled the pieces with some chicken broth, more spices and tossed in steamed cauliflower right before pureeing. it was absolutely unbelievable and, honestly, two really fun hours for a week's worth of delicious, healthy soup. i'm so proud of myself.
in other news, i did laundry for the first time in months and now the sweet smell of detergent on my clothes is making me sick. seriously.
alright. it's a new year. it's the first day back at work after the holidays and i'm going to... call in sick! weeeeeeee. i woke up this morning after tossing and turning all night while my residual two-week hangover sunk in, already late for work and realized i hadn't done laundry in months, groceries in weeks and that i could smell myself. i mean smell myself.
so, fuck it. i emailed in asking for a personal day and slept till 2pm. a hot shower and four hours of laundry later, i feel like a whole new woman. i made a nice tomato bisque tonight and uploaded a shitload of pictures. i've spent so much of the last month partying (four birthdays, three dinners, two holidays, several stress-relieving mid week bombings), baking (cookies, bars, muffins, cupcakes, bread, libraries, pies) and waiting on retards (if you don't know how to connect to the internet, i'm not going to sell you pro tools) that i just needed a me day. a day, alone, to reset my world and get ready for the next step. i'll begin the voyage with vegan chocolate pancakes!
this year i have baked, boiled, beaten, braised, brunched and barbecued more food than i previously knew existed. i've gone from blurry breakfast cell phone pics to post processed pig part pictures from a digital slr. alliteration almost aside, this has been a fucking fantastic year for food.
i'm going to be twenty seven in an hour and a half and, well, i'm stoked. getting older is getting better and i finally feel like i'm headed in a direction. i can't see which direction right now but i feel like i'm doing something right.
here's a link to the food i ate this year, people i got drunk with and stuff i rode past on my bicycle(s). thanks to the fellow gluttons, drunkards and well-wishers i've had over a hundred blog posts, a thousand photos on flickr and hazy memories of all of it. see ya next year, assholes!
you carried me home on drunken summer nights. you flew through ice and sleet like a fucking atv. your brakes barely worked and your chain fell off if i changed gears but, i loved you. thanks for the rides, the bails and all the ripped pantyhose. you will be missed, blue bike.
ah yes, another bike stolen at christmas. god rest ye merry thieves. i hope you pawned my only mode of transportation for cash... your crack babies and fat wife need presents!
i have been eagerly awaiting the re-opening of stem restaurant on queen st. for almost a year. when they closed "for filming" and never reopened we were all worried the fucking croc store would expand or some other bullshit would move in but, last week a sign finally went up. when i saw the bqm logo i was a little disheartened. i mean, there's already two bqm's in toronto and neither is exceptional.
i ate at this location for the first time about an hour ago and it was alright. they aren't rocking the full menu yet but promise to have daily rotating blue plate specials (read: roast beef, meatloaf, pulled pork sandwiches, etc.) and all day breakfast seven days a week. i got the cheeseburger. it was bloody, tasted like meat and, in my carnivorous opinion, pretty perfect. the fries were thick but crispy and the staff was overly attentive (i was the only customer). if only those tattooed line cooks hadn't been making fun of "dirty" oshawa girls the whole time. i mean, i can say it because i lived there for twenty plus years and i have the right. you, sirs, do not... regardless of how many of us you've tried to fuck.
i'm often thankful for the neighbourhood i live in. i'm wedged between chinatown and kensington market so i've always got fresh goodies near by and the late fall/early winter is quickly becoming my favourite produce season! i bought three kinds of beets this week (who knew, right?). i roasted them all for awhile, ate a few burning hot chunks and threw the rest in with my brine mixture (getting better by the pickle, thanks for asking). the candy cane beet has weird colours like, uh, a candy cane and the golden one is a completely different taste than the classic purple guy. next up: local squash and apple soup. boom.
i bought a new phone yesterday. it's an htc magic. i'd been eyeing it for months and, honestly, couldn't be happier with it. i never thought i would have one of these cool, touch screen, smart phone, gps enabled, app downloading monsters but, hey, it's sleek and allows me to remotely download torrents, check the blogs i follow, learn about constellations, ensure shelves are level and make hilarious fart noises. who could ask for more? (actually, for reasons unknown the magic is incapable of caller display outside of my contact list. it's the one infuriating thing in an otherwise glorious device. hopefully a firmware update is in the midst.)
also this week, phil and i went out for ramen. i know what you're thinking (mr. noodles?) and you're half right. we were debating which ramen hut to visit and after an email from our mutual crushes, the food jammers, we stopped by their endorsed place, kenzo on dundas. the meal was simple but delicious. i would recommend it to anyone in the area with six bucks and twenty minutes to slurp, slop and savour the winter blahs away.
