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Posts from the ‘Adventures’ Category

Mar 15

Fan-tasy Friday: Science Fiction San Francisco

What do cupcakes, Tara from Buffy and singing Zombie writers all have in common?  They all were a part of my night last Friday.   This post manages to be both SciFriday, Fantasy Friday and FAN-tasy Friday.  Triple score!

One of the fantastic things I’ve discovered while living in the east bay is a group known as SF in SF – Science Fiction in San Francisco.  I threw my name down on their listserv a little while back and get delightful updates each month about a variety of science fiction events (movies, book signings, doctor who marathons) taking place in the city across the bridge.  It’s pretty awesome though often with my schedule I can’t attend nearly everything I want to go to.  Last Friday was a delightful exception to this as I got to attend a reading/signing/musical extravaganza headlined by Seanan McGuire for her new book “Midnight Blue-Light Special”.  Not only can she write but she can sing too and wait, there’s more!  Amber Benson (aka Tara from Buffy) was there along with Sara Kuhn who wrote a romantic romp about hooking up at Con.  I was unfamiliar with Kuhn before this past Friday but I found her delightfully entertaining.  She’s got a book about killer cupcakes in the works…like killer tomatoes but with batter and frosting.  I’m so excited.  Okay well the book isn’t actually about the cupcakes, it’s about superheroes, but you mention baked goods in a scifi setting to me and I’ll focus on that for obvious reasons…..

Anyway the book release, and main subject for this week’s scifriday post, is actually an urban fantasy book.  The aforementioned “Midnight Blue Light Special” which is the second in McGuire’s “InCryptid” series about a family of Monster..scientists?  Professors?  Hunters?  Cryptozoologists is the technical term and the Price family essentially does all they can to learn about, protect and at times “control” the population of things that go bump in the night.  Everything from dragons to chupcabras and three, yes count them THREE, varieties of Gorgon.  While it seems that the series arc is going to explore all members of the Price family over time, the first two books follow the eldest daughter Verity Price a ballroom dancer and monster liaison for New York City.   What does she do exactly?  Well she keeps tabs on the various creatures, “Cryptids”, and makes sure they behave themselves amongst the human population.  She also works to make sure the human population behaves themselves around the monsters as there is a not-so-nice group of Monster-hunters (the Covenant) that kill all cryptids indiscriminately.   Not all cryptids are bad you see and even the oogey woogey Boogeyman can live in harmony with the human populace…that is assuming you call operating a strip club harmonious.

Verity’s character sums up a weird Buffy Summers/Speedster mashup in my head.  I’m not sure that’s quite the intended picture as some ballroom dance skills out to be tossed in there too, but I just can’t quite un-picture Brea Grant delivering Buffy quips when I read these books.  They’re fun.  They’re fairly light reading compared to some of the heavier things sitting on my shelf.  They’re great for scratching your female ass-kicker itch.

They also have hyper-religious talking mice.  Not the Disney varieties mind you; these mice don’t captain tugboats or sew pretty dresses.  Aeslin mice spend their time either worshipping their religious figures (in this case our main character) or form hunting parties with some pretty serious hardware to kill other animals for religious feasts.  Obviously you’d want to keep them away from the Gorgons.  Despite being rodents, invasive of our main character’s privacy and congregants with a fanaticism that the Catholic Church would lust after, these characters are pretty much the most damnable adorable thing I’ve read about in ages.  I totally want my own colony because their love for food and my love for baking would presumably go hand in hand quite nicely.

When I went to the book release for the second novel I brought along a batch of homemade gingerbread inspired by another cryptid in the books—the Madhura.  The Madhura are a race of mammals that are human-like in appearance (Indian specifically) and remarkably non-threatening.  Instead they seem to love all things sweet and candy-like and run bakeshops called GingerBread Pudding.  “They consume fructose the way humans consume protein, and most seem to live on a diet of fruit, honey, and refined sugar. Examination of Madhura teeth has found them to be entirely devoid of tooth decay.”

Damn.  I want to be a Madhura.

Anyway if you are looking for a fun read, love petite blondes who kick ass, enjoy monsters, mayhem nibble on an InCryptid book or two.  Bake gingerbread to accompany it for genuine bibliovore pleasure.  Just remember that when you give an Aeslin mouse a cookie…he’ll want holy milk to go with it!

Gingerbread Cookies

Adapted from King Arthur Flour’s Cookie Companion Read more

Mar 1

1 Comment

SciFriday: Something like a recipe, Bacon-bits and my creation!

From my heart and from my hand, why don’t people understand, my intention?

What’s this? What’s this?

Last Saturday one of my favorite authors was at a local SciFi bookstore – and holy crap did you know entire bookstores dedicated JUST to that genre existed? Anyway so this author, Seanan McGuire (aka Mira Grant from my Zombie-back ribs) performed a reading of her short story that is part of a larger anthology titled “The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination: Original Short Fiction for the Modern Evil Genius”

I know right?!

Book Signing!

Book Signing!

It’s a fantastically awesome anthology theme and the stories most certainly support it.  I can’t say I’m totally impartial about which one is my favorite so I’m not going to dive into that too much but rather speak about the event which focused quite a bit on the field of “Mad” Science.  As a scientist in a highly disputed field, biotechnology, I often would have debates with people both in and outside the science world about this one question: if we can do it, should we?  It seems to me that quite often in both stories, and real life, when the scientist ignores the second part of that question is when things get a bit “mad.”  Sometimes it’s a deliberate ignoring of consequences and sometimes it seems to be that the brilliant mind is so divested from reality, he or she can’t see that what is happening is wrong.  In those situations the scientist is so convinced that their intentions are noble, that the ends are so important, the means hardly matter.  In my tiny little opinion that’s where the “mad” part of mad science creeps in.  It’s almost like a fever that takes over and clouds the ability to make sound judgment calls.

While it’s highly exaggerated in fictional form, there are a lot of real world scary “mad” science things we could be doing today that are prevented only by morality.  We could, for example, clone a human being.  Today.  We have the technology.  The implications of such an act are what keeps scientists from doing it.  Rumors have emerged from time to time that China has done it – you choose to believe what you want there—but I don’t doubt that someday, someone somewhere, will toss consequences over his/her shoulder and actually make it happen.  Which leads to another interesting question about this kind of “fringe” science: if we can do it, shouldn’t we do it since someone else will and at least doing it first means we can control what happens?  Oh another delicious, delectable moral qualm that makes for amazing pieces of speculative fiction.  I wonder how often this was discussed by the members of the Manhattan project.  I really need to read more about that…. Damn it goodreads list, why do you keep growing??

My biggest frustration though with “mad” science is how often things get labeled as “Frankenscience” when the truth is so few people really understand the science they fear.  Oh god.  See right there?  That can definitely be the refrain of someone who is “going mad” can’t it?  But it has some truth to it.  Like I said I majored in the field of Biotechnology and get very frustrated with people who hold strong opinions on the subject of genetically engineered food yet understand almost nothing about it.  These individuals would most certainly call me a mad scientist for supporting certain applications of the technology—or for my personal desire to develop luminescent trees to line streetwalks with.  Aside from how freaking pretty that would be, it’s like the ultimate form of green energy.  Oh and yes  I THOUGHT OF THAT BEFORE SEEING AVATAR OKAY?  Ironically enough, while we could clone a human being today, developing these trees is still outside our realm as I currently understand it.  Many people are familiar with GFP, green fluorescent protein, which could work but requires a black light to be seen.  From what I’m aware of, experiments that utilize luciferase (the protein that lets fireflies light up) have failed to produce enough protein to make any impact without overloading the cell machinery and killing the plants.  Again though I haven’t looked into this in a few years and I really should read up on it.

Okay new mad science project: time machine for the purposes of reading.

But back to the book, it’s fantastic and it’s certainly been helping me cope with a lack of good mad science-y television since Fringe left me.  There’s nothing remotely close now on regular programming to scratch that itch.  I feel like the show left the table without asking to be excused and so, much like a beloved scene, I demand Fringe return to the table.  Why?  I made some Peanut Butter Bacon Sandwiches damn it.  Now there’s some REAL mad science

WALTER: Megif avagin frim dim Tish.

LINCOLN: Excuse me?

WALTER: It’s Yiddish. It means “May I please be excused from the table?” No, you may not.

LINCOLN: Why not?

WALTER: Because I have just made some peanut butter and bacon sandwiches.

Not to be an underachiever I didn’t simply fry up some bacon and slap it onto a sandwich.  Oh no.  I decided that this application should be far more like peanut butter and jelly.  So what did I do?  I made Bacon Jam.  Why?  BECAUSE I CAN.

Mwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.  This stuff can be slathered on anything.  It can go in frittatas.  It can be eaten straight with a spoon.  I do really love it with some chunky peanut butter in the end; it’s just so damn tasty.

Olivia’s Mad Bacon Jam

An Olivia Original Read more

Feb 27

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Cookie Wednesday – or National Chocolate Cake Day!

oreocupcakesHey ya’ll – Do you like muppets?  Do you like geeky and largely inappropriate humor?  Do you like comedy duos that sing folk songs about George RR Martin?  Do you like watching things that are FREE?  I know you have to like at least ONE of those things if you read my blog so please stay with me here.

So you know how I mentioned enjoying acting and doing silly things like that?  Do you remember a certain country music video I got to be in months and months ago?  It’s okay if you don’t, I forgive ya.  BUT just today (or rather yesterday by the time this post goes up) I will have a new video up!  Exciting!  This time I got to spend a weekend down in LA working on a new show for Geek and Sundry’s youtube channel.  The show is called “LearningTown” and it features a folk-singing duo I’ve come to know and love through comic-con and w00tsock.  The brilliant team known as Paul & Storm.  They write hilarious songs about Georges we love to hate and hate to love, as well as inappropriate Sea Shanties and sing acapella about boxing nuns.   Felicia Day managed to rope the team into making a weekly series about a pair trying to save a cancelled, beloved children’s show.  I think this particular series is unique to the youtube channel world because in addition to original programming content, Paul and Storm also write several original pieces of music for each episode.  One word of caution: this is NOT a children’s show by any means.  It’s an adult show about the behind the scenes of a children’s show…got it?  If you let your kids watch and are subsequently horrified don’t blame ME.

oreocupcakes (7)

Of course you could argue my admiration for the series stems largely from the selfish reason that I was background in several episodes and featured most prominently in episode 7 which aired Tuesday February 26th.  I mean you could argue that…and you wouldn’t be entirely wrong.  But I also happen to like the content on the show.  In fact I saved a little rant that the hands down best character, Cookie Tuesday, went off on regarding the nature of what a true princess ought to be:

A princess ought to be not quite so sexist or twee, not defined by looks or labels but by her ability to mix true gentility with unconventionality; her versatility informs her personality earning her equality and true originality but her agree-ability does not imply passivity because if called upon then she can kick an ass or two or three!

It’s cute and while the character development has been slow, I appreciate the fact that the show is following her journey of discovery of self-awesomeness.  As a result I don’t feel so bad that my role was to play one of the showgirls in a fairly sexist little daydream by one of the characters haha.

Feel free to like, share, and comment about how awesome girl #7 is guys.  Just saying….

Anyway the reason I’m also plugging that country music video from before is that the whole reason I got this second paid gig was because Jason Charles Miller is essentially a BAMF and thought of me when they needed girls.  I don’t know what I did to earn kindness and thoughtfulness like that but I’m so happy to have gotten this opportunity.  So help me show him some appreciation back and give the music video a little youtube love?    Both days on set were a lot of fun and the upside to LearningTown was that my group (The Guild of Extras) was there as well for other background work.  Once we finished filming the number music video I got to go play behind the scenes a bit more and I’m sure my blond mop will be in the background of a few other episodes.  I’m only jealous that I missed another day when my friends got to play board games with Paul and Storm during downtime.

I made Jason some Buttermilk  Pancake Oreo Cupcakes last time I was in LA and they were fairly popular.  See we’d been out for breakfast and initially Jason was going to order the oreo pancakes but I think they weren’t offered as an add-on, or the kitchen was out of something, so he ended up not getting them.  I’ve been chastised for not baking more when I’m down south and inspiration struck to make these as I wanted to do something nice for Jason as he’s been such a kind friend to me.  When I realized the video came out today I wanted to share that recipe but since Wednesday is also National Chocolate Cake Day I’m modifying the recipe a little to be Chocolate Oreo Cupcakes.  That’s probably more of a classic flavor combination anyway and less likely to confuse people when you serve them these bowl-licking goodies.  Normally I’m someone who prefers cake to frosting, but since this frosting is essentially just a whipped cream with crushed oreo cookies, I have to say I could eat it with a spoon and leave the cake behind.  Probably not the best message on a day celebrating Chocolate Cake…erm.  Whatever.  ENJOY THE COOKIES…Tuesday.  Except it’s really Wednesday.  Damn I just fail all over this blog.

oreocupcakes (14)

Chocolate Butter Cake w/ Cookies and Cream Whipped Frosting

From the Whimsical Bakehouse Read more

Jan 17

A berry frightening cake-walk

CranberryUpsideDowner (9)I’m pretty sure I almost just got mugged.  My hands are still shaking from the adrenaline that got pumping as I walked away hoping desperately that I wasn’t going to be followed.  Never more have I wished for Slayer strength.

I was walking home from the BART station later than usual because I have a few doctors’ visits I need to catch up on.  I’ll spare you some of the gory details of dental exams or toe surgeries but suffice to say I was coming home in the dark.  It’s only a few paltry blocks to my apartment, cake walk even late, and I’m not in a particularly dangerous part of town.  Regardless I remain aware that Oakland is a city and cities mean higher rates of crime.  Pretty much every city dweller I know, regardless of what part of town they live in, has been mugged eventually.  I know it’s very likely going to happen to me at some point.  Last night I really thought it was the time.CranberryUpsideDowner (17)

As I approached my building, literally just across the street, I came to a stop at the corner of a bar full of happy hour patrons to wait for the light to change.  I noticed that coming up to my left was a somewhat imposing looking man, walking quite slow and staring at me rather hard.  A quick scan down and I saw that in his hand was a switchblade which he was toying with.  As I made eye contact, for only a moment, I became aware of movement and saw that he was slowly opening and closing the knife.  I pulled my bag closer and began to pull away from the light.  It was still green in the opposing direction and I figured I’d be safer moving toward the bar.  If the light wasn’t going to change soon I was ready to jump into the bar and order myself a cuppa.

CranberryUpsideDowner (14)The would-be-mugger slowed down even more and the blade flicked open again, and then closed.  Funny how something that probably took only a second could seem to drag on so long.

The light turned yellow and I took a chance.  I jumped into the street, left turning cars be damned, and keeping my eye over my shoulder, hurried across the street.  In my mind I kept the mantras of Arya playing “quick as a deer, calm as still water, fear cuts deeper” Halfway across the light turned and my little walking man appeared.  I glanced back again and the criminal in question was simply standing at the walk, staring across but not moving to walk.  His knife was still in his hand and he was simply standing, not looking to cross in either direction.  Once I made it across the street I felt my heart beating faster as I hurried to the end of the building to get inside.  All I could think was that in my puffy marshmallow coat, my Russian flap hat and fingerless gloves, I appeared to be little worth the time or effort.  Not when a more well put together bar patron may approach that corner with cash in hand. Never have I been so glad I didn’t wash my hair or put on makeup that day.  Once inside, behind my locked and card entry only door, I let myself feel the fear that I was suppressing.

I may well be over-reacting.  I know many men who play with their knives as an idle exercise.  I have even done it with mine when I’m walking home alone at night.  I can only tell you that he didn’t **look** quite right and I am far more Klingon than Vulcan when it comes to trusting my gut in situations like these.   He also may have just been crazy.  The sad thing about city life is that you see those individuals who have truly managed to slip through the cracks.  I have no sympathy for 20somethings with dreadlocks, guitars and hands held open on nights that aren’t cold but I do feel so sadly when I see the genuinely mentally ill wandering about in the evening.  They generally aren’t asking for handouts either—rather they are likely to smack you in the stomach (which happened to me my first week in town) or rave at the sky.  THOSE are the people who need help.  I’m actually going to look into some sort of volunteer or outreach program to get involved with in the next month.  I’ve been wanting to do some sort of volunteer/community work lately.  Grief replace with pity for a city barely copin’….

CranberryUpsideDowner (13)

Having survived my possible robbery, I went up to my top floor apartment and did the two things those who know me well might expect: I called my stepdad and got to baking.  I guess I am just a girl at the end of the day.  All I wanted after a scare like that was the calming influence of a father’s voice and the comforting smell of something in the oven.  Baking always gives me a sense of peace…at least it does when it goes correctly.  Which is why on nights like this I’m happy to have recipes I can turn to that always go right.  Cheesecake is one thing I can do in my sleep so I threw one together for a coworker’s birthday.  Then I turned to this recipe from Dorie for a Cranberry Upside Down Cake.  It always comes together beautifully and it always tastes like home.  Probably because of the holiday association with cranberries but this really is a great cake to make year round.  I always have cranberries in the freezer.  It also works really well with other fruits.  I made it a few summers ago with some spice tweaks and peaches instead.  Delicious!

Upside Down Cranberry Cake

from Dorie Greenspan’s “Baking from my home to yours” Read more

Jan 16

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Hipster to be squared

Oh oh oh Mr. Darcy
oh oh oh Colin Firth
you wily old bastard, you wonderful specimen
you’ve messed up the hearts of young girls round the earth

lemonbars (12)How many of you subscribe to the cliché that women only like jerks?  Whether you are a woman who loves jerks or a man who thinks this is true—go on admit it, it’s okay to say you do.  The truth is a lot of women do wind up with complete assholes but it’s not an unavoidable situation and it’s also not nearly so confusing to know why we do.  I’m happy to observe that for the most part, people follow up that statement now with an acknowledgement that it isn’t really jerks women go for.  It’s confident men.  The problem is that bravado is often conflated with confidence and indeed it can be hard to tell the difference in some of the more clever bastards out there.

Or it’s all Mr. Darcy’s fault.

This past weekend I was thrilled to find out that a band I first heard at Comic Con last year would be playing in Oakland.  The DoubleClicks!  Oh yes a sister group playing folk music themed entirely around geek culture.  Playing at a store I didn’t even know existed—a store entirely dedicated to table top gaming and they host game nights.  Holy Stan Lee—Batman!  This was a most excellent discovery on both fronts.  Fairfield, the cultural wasteland that serves as a bathroom stop along the way to Sacramento, is not the place where you will find an awesome convergence of supreme nerdgasmry.  Oakland by contrast is definitely not lacking for culture.  Sure certain areas might have a bit too much—gangs and worse, hipsters, roam the streets freely.  I’m not sure which one scares me more but regardless I’ve been trying hard to avoid totally binging on Oakland’s options for nightlife.  Remember this year’s goal: balance.  I have this extremely bad habit of overloading myself so I need to be sure to not take on too many things at once.

lemonbars (14)

Yes you could say I’m a little excited…but how does this relate back to my original topic?  I’m getting there, I’m getting there!

The DoubleClicks, in case you haven’t heard of them, are these adorable girls who sing music that will delight both your more traditional geek of yore and have a few great songs thrown in for the English geek in your life.  If like me you are both, then you need to check out their music.  I have to say they first ensnared me with “I fell in love with a Spock impersonator” though currently the song I find myself singing most in the shower is “Oh Mr. Darcy”  As a side note, I keep having this thought recently about how Worf reminds me a bit of Mr. Darcy.  Tall, dark, gruff, obsessed with family status and propriety, a fondness for opera and secretly capable of being quite caring….  I can’t believe I never saw it before.  Star Trek meets Victorian lit.  Come on, someone tell me this fanfic exists somewhere.  No?  Argh okay I guess I have to write it then.

lemonbars (10)When I first saw his furrowed brow
I knew the ideal man had come and found me somehow
I mean, what else could I think
When he looked me in the eyes and told me prune juice is a warriors drink

I fell in love with a Worf impersonator
from his forehead to his baldric and his badge communicator
I thought my search for love was at an end
but being strong and angry did not make him a very good boyfriend

I’ve got to admit that while I enjoyed Jane Austin’s masterpiece, it’s not where I turned for all my ideas about love.  I do know a number of girls who would say that it is—but I found myself swooning over other jerks as a wee lass.  Most notably Rhett Butler.  You want to talk about idealizing an asshole.  Oh “Gone with the Wind” you not only made me fall in love with a man who is a complete jerk but set me up to romanticize tragic, tortured love affairs.  Thankfully I had “Anne of Green Gables” to balance me out a bit.  Gilbert Blythe may have been a schoolyard bully at first, but he’s probably the most anti-jerk romantic figure I’ve ever gone to bed with.

lemonbars (2)I meant that I read the book in bed you pervs.  Sheesh.

But anyway these ladies are very clever…and witty…and pretty…and sweet!  Oh so sweet.  I got their CD, signatures and absolutely awful photos for which I entirely blame the photo taker and not the fact that I look completely HAGGARD.  Anyway check out the links above or their website here: http://www.thedoubleclicks.com/ They are TRUE geeks too.  None of this hipster nonsense.   I get extremely angry actually when people want to lump anyone now who looks like a nerd as a hipster. Urgh like the doubleclick song says:

You love my nerdy glasses — but I need them to see
and it’s not a matter of image that I got a job at the library
no I actually like star trek that was not supposed to be funny
and I’m not pretending when I act like I don’t have any money

Speaking to my soul!  I wear corrective lenses!  I worked in a library all throughout highschool and college!  I LOVE STAR TREK!  Stupid hipsters.

Meanwhile should you find yourself sitting down to tea with your Mr. Worf Darcy anytime soon, you’ll need something to serve to that stalwart and gruff object of your affections and what goes better with tea than…Lemon Squares.  This recipe is kind of a combination of a few recipes I’ve used in the past.  I was looking to use up some lemon curd and had a batch of some pecan shortbread cookie dough waiting for utilization.  Not hard to draw the most logical conclusion.

Lemon Squares

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare an 8 x 8 inch cake pan with non-stick spray, butter or line with parchment paper.

Press the cookie dough into the base of the pan and bake for approximately 10-12 minutes.  This will partially pre-bake the dough but you don’t want to bake it all the way through.  Remove and let cool.

Meanwhile whisk the lemon curd with the egg, lemon zest and juice.  Spread over the cooled crust and return to the oven to bake for another 15 minutes.  Remove and let cool fully before dusting with powdered sugar and slicing into squares.

Nov 26

Muffin Monday: A Bran New Car!

Hiya dear reader and welcome back from a weekend of what I hope was a delicious food coma equal to mine.  I needed to take a break from blogging to just cook and bake and do some other tasks that required my attention over the long weekend.  Namely car shopping.

Sweet lord why did no one ever tell me how grueling, exhausting and time consuming car shopping can be?  I have been looking for the perfect “first car” for weeks and it was finally crunch time.  Since I had several days off work I was able to spend the requisite hours traveling to dealerships to examine cars I found online, test drive and talk pricing….  Before you know it half the day has been spent and you are just even more confused about which car is best.

Obviously the worst thing is the deceptive and manipulative nature of car salesmen.  I have to wonder does the industry turn a person into this kind of smarmy creature i.e. does the job change the man?  Or is it that this job and what it requires attracts the jaw jutting, deceptive individuals I had to deal with?   One dealership handed me a carfax for a 2011 Nissan Versa that clearly showed the engine had been replaced already.  When asked they informed me that the carfax are usually wrong and one guy said aside to the other “Oh we can make that go away on the report for next time.”  I got the hell out of there without a second glance.

There’s also apparently this new trend where the sticker price on the lot is far different from the internet price.  If you are going to buy a car do not use the sticker lot on the price as a starting point.  They do that to make it seem like they are giving you a deal but really the internet price is their true number and you can haggle down from that.  You’ve just gotta know it and show them you do though.   For example a car might be 16,500 on the lot sticker but online it’ll be listed at 13,500.  Without the internet number they will offer you a deal to a whopping 14,800 off the sticker price!  Oh boy sounds great until you find out the internet listing is even less. I’m a very direct person and I hate having my time wasted.  I don’t beat around the bush.  I like to cut to the chase.  Any other idioms you can think of that might apply? Well you get the point.  Being that I’m a “just get it over with” kind of person, having to do this level of dogged fact checking and hearing some line about what a good deal I’m getting for 20 minutes really, really aggravates me.  On more than one occasion my stepdad and I just turned and walked away from someone while they were still talking.

I’m happy to report however that after hours, and I mean HOURS, of looking at lots I have finally managed to bring the search to a close and pull out what I think was a good deal.  I’m spending a little more a month than I intended but I wound up getting a hybrid car so I figured that the ~60 more in my budget on car payments will balance out at the pump and therefore it’s worth it.  I’m also proud to say that I haggled down from the internet price and ground down the dealers just as much as they did to me.  I swear I could see the words “bitch” flashing behind the eyes of my salesman when I oh so innocently ratted him out slightly to his supervisor.  The young man tried to sell me on a new car lease which made absolutely no sense based on my commute.  Once I realized that I pulled out of it completely and he stared at me dumbfounded as I left the dealership.  Well the next day when I came back apparently I was “that girl whose deal fell through at the last minute” and so when the higher up manager asked me what specifically made me change my mind, I explained that I commute 120 miles a day.  “OH my god, no a lease makes no sense for you.  That’s nuts who even recommended it.”  Cue my sidelong glance at the jaw jutter.

BUT BUT it’s finally over.  I made the plunge, I got a car in really amazing condition and just spent more money than I ever have on any one thing in my entire life.  I don’t think my deposit on any apartment I’ve lived in broached more than half of what I put down.  Spending money is terrifying for me because I’m a big saver and security focused person (ever the ant, never the grasshopper) and that’s why I just spent so much time and energy and tunnel vision on this process.

After all that food and sales BS I feel like my insides could use a thorough reset.  Is anyone else still reeling from third helpings of stuffing?  I think I had about ¼ of the pumpkin pie I made all by myself….  Well I know that my digestive system could use a reboot so for today’s muffin I went with a classic: blueberry bran muffins.  Just the thing your happy, healthy colon will want after a weekend of indulgence and the stress that family gatherings always bring.  If you aren’t sick of the kitchen by now, this is a delicious recipe that will help unblock that mass of sweet potatoes and turkey still sitting in your large intestine.  I just love how bran muffins have those sweet, sticky tops with a chewy center but the outer rim gets a nice crust from spreading slightly in the pan…it’s texture and moisture heaven.

 

Bran Muffins

Modified from Alton Brown’s “I’m just here for more food”- makes 2 dozen mini muffins Read more

Nov 5

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Muffin Monday: Rockin’ Country Punkin’

This is the story of how I got to be in a music video. 

Hey ya’ll.  I’m a feeling a little bit country AND a little bit rock and roll today.  Why pray tell?  Okay blog readers I’ll let you in on a little secret: a few months ago on one of my LA weekend trips, I got to film a music video.   (click through on the link or scroll to the bottom of my post to see it!!)  As in be in a music video and I actually got some legitimate camera time.  It was an amazing experience with some incredibly talented and kind individuals—and yes the music is what I guess you would call country rock.  Some of you will wrinkle your noses at the mere mention of country music.  To you I say PAH.  I think bashing on country music has become one of the few socially acceptable prejudices and that’s a shame.  I’m not an auditory bigot.  I believe that all genres have some good stuff and some bad stuff, country included.  Jason Charles Miller definitely falls into the GOOD stuff side of country music.

When I got the offer to come down to shoot I leapt out of my chair and did a little happy dance.  I love getting to play on set and be immersed in the creative, kinetic energy that production generates.  It’s really a great experience and I’m so lucky to get to do this from time to time.  I met Jason through “The Guild” and was beyond thrilled that he brought me in on this project.  If any of you are fans of this guy from his past days in Godhead or his current solo career I want to let you in on a secret: Jason is one of the most amazingly sweet, down to earth guys you will ever meet.  It was all he could do to make sure that the gaggle of blondes, as well as his entire crew, was happy, healthy and well fed during the entire shoot.  The man didn’t have to do that but he did.

Don’t you love it when people you admire turn out to be genuinely kind and good?  It really makes that admiration feel well deserved and earned.  It can feel like such a betrayal to meet a hero only to find out that this person you’ve looked up to, been inspired by, is a douche or a phony.   Plus I think that because Jason is such a nice guy, his crew really respects him and as a result they were also all unbelievably nice, accommodating and I had just as much fun in between takes just sitting around talking with them as I did getting to film the video.

The added thrill of getting my hair and makeup done professionally, getting paid for it and basically being made to feel like a glamazon….well that didn’t hurt either.  I’m a girly girl believe it or not and this was the sort of thing us girly girls dream of getting to do one day.  Bucket List item #37: CHECK.

The video itself is a play on a Robert Palmer shoot from the 80’s – Addicted to Love – in which the singer is surrounded by almost apathetic, stunning blonde models playing in his band.  I think our group got a little more animated but how can you not with a song this catchy?  Now some folks might notice that a few of the women in the shoot are a bit notorious i.e. they are adult film stars.  I had some people ask me about that, about what that was like, and I am going to tell you right now to put any of those questions out of your mind: it wasn’t like anything.  These were all really sweet, kind women who I had a fantastic time with on set.  Their day jobs, or night jobs as it may be (badum-cha!), have little to no bearing on what kind of people they are.  I can not begin to tell you how genuinely pleasant, upbeat and joyful these ladies were.  In an industry setting where it can be quite easy to encounter self-absorbed bitches this was a delight.  They brought a great energy to set and as far as I was concerned, their line of work was a non-issue.  At some point during the day Jason checked in with me to make sure I was alright with it and I told him “What’s going to happen?  It’s not like I’m going to catch porn or anything.”

I’m a firm believer that people ought to be judged by the choices they make and how they behave and treat others.  What you do for a living only defines you if you let it.  Otherwise who am I to judge someone who brings home a paycheck and takes care of their shit?  Are they hurting anyone?  No?  Then get over it.  There are of course a few notable exceptions to this.  Chiefly politicians, lawyers and that jerk who throws people into the Sarlac pit.  I might have to reflect a little bit on the kind of personality these jobs attract but teh pr0ns?  Please.  Sex is not my enemy.  Thank God, Moses, Allah, Xenu, Cthulu, Ron Jeremy…whomever, thank the Universe I was raised in a home without any sexual hangups.  There’s a lot I can complain about with my family but my mother never raised me to view sex as something dirty, shameful or sinful.

Now if you want to talk SINFUL we should get to these Pumpkin muffins I baked up.  Oh yes more pumpkin noms.  Tis the season people!  You know what I had a hankerin’ for?  Cranberry muffins with a pumpkin twist.  Mmmmmm.  You never see these out in the shops and I don’t know why not.  It makes perfect sense to me, we eat both these ingredients at Thanksgiving and they pair so nicely.  Pumpkin is sweet and earthy, cranberries tangy and sweet…top it off with a little flax seed streusel and you have yourself a delicious fall muffin.  Makes you want to sit on a porch swing with a hot cup of coffee on a fall evening with a good song to listen, maybe a blanket (or a guy) to snuggle up with and just watch the leaves fall….  It’s just a shame that these are such season ingredients.  You can’t change the way you still want these muffins all year long.

Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins Read more

Oct 24

My Devil-May-Carrot Ways

If you’ll remember a week ago I had mentioned how my back was hurting.  Hurting like hell in fact and quite a terrifying experience for me too.  I’ve never been immobilized so completely, not by physical injury, and the last time I was in that much pain from merely breathing was when I had pneumonia.  I don’t have fond memories of pneumonia.  Obviously no one would but for me it was particularly harrowing because I’d been suffering from bronchial infections repeatedly and all my life.  It felt at that point like I was only going to spiral into a worse series of chest illnesses, die of tuberculosis at a young age and never experience life.  Hey I’ve always had a bit of a flair for the melodramatic okay?

Anyway the back pain has largely subsided though I still have no clue what I did to injure myself.  I have some suspicions but it’s kind of disappointing when that level of injury isn’t coupled with an epic tale.  All of my other crippling injuries do.  See I kind of have a family orthopedic surgeon who I’ve been to on numerous occasions.  I’ve been to the hospital far more times than the average person goes in their lifetime–I’m pretty comfy in an emergency room.  I don’t do any extreme sports or take exceptionally large risks but I can be somewhat careless with how I conduct myself.  I think I run into walls more often than a  reasonable person should.  I’ve sprained my ankles at least 3 or 4 times total, injured my neck falling from the top of a fireman’s pole during an intense playground game of freeze tag and even broke my arm in 4th grade during a rousing game of Red Rover.  I was determined to see the the girls beat the boys you see, even to the detriment of my own bone cohesion.

The stupidest and yet most epic injury I ever incurred was probably the worst ankle sprain of the bunch.  The recipe for a Grade 3 sprain that takes well nigh on a year to heal?    Mix two feet in flip flops with a handful of college grads.  Liberally soak in vodka, milk and coffee liqueur.  Flambe in a laser tag arena with a sprinkling of obstinance over ending a game early after injury.  Enjoy!

Yeah not my brightest or shiningest moment.  I honestly didn’t realize how bad it was until after one of my friends fireman carried me out of the arena (all the while my insisting I was fine) and then hoisted me into a chair in the light.  See it was too dark inside for me to see my ankle and the mixture of adrenaline and alcohol had numbed me to the pain of the sprain.  In the harsh light of the fluorescent entrance to the laser tag spot I looked down, saw what was literally and I mean literally a cantaloupe sized mass of swollen tissue and tears began to stream down my cheeks.  It was bizarre because I didn’t actually feel any pain at all, and my mind was somewhat disconnected from my body, so I was just sitting there both in shock at how elephant like my foot was and wondering why I was crying so heavily.  6 months of crutches and braces later and I still had limited mobility.  It was not a good time.  Not at all.

Ironically I never fall or hurt myself when I’m in high heels versus sneakers or flip flops.  No one ever believes me but it’s true!  I think I am just more aware of my foot placement when I’m teetering on 4 or 5 inches of stiletto and so as a result I make wiser decisions.  Had I been wearing a wedge on the evening of my fateful sprained ankle, I may not have been running so hard on quite so many white russians….  I only wish I had a story quite so entertaining  to recount for my back but I am quite glad that I’m not going to be laid up for 6 months like I was with the ankle so I suppose that’s the trade off.

Maybe, just maybe, I’m growing out of my cavalier and devil-may-care ways with respect to personal safety.  I only really injure myself when I’m being overly competitive and in fact it was probably some too aggressive weight lifting and then pushing too hard in yoga that caused my back to lock up like it did.  I’m even getting a little bit better about being aware of myself in the kitchen and not grabbing nearly so many hot pots with bare hands.  I haven’t burned myself in months!  Though I did come dangerously close to doing so with these cookies but that was my mouth I almost burned trying to scarf them down when they were still too hot to eat.

Oh my gosh these are delightful little devilish morsels.   So much so that they are what I’m calling “Devil-May-Carrot” cookies though sadly the recipe is not mine and they are more commonly known simply as Carrot Cake Cookies.  I made them in half-dollar sized morsels rather than a large fist sized cookie like I normally would.  Why?  So I could sandwich them with homemade dulce de leche obviously.  Pimped out carrot cake cookies like these are essentially crack.  Eat one and suddenly you’ve devoured a plateful.  Can I just claim that I sprained my stomach and that’s why my belly is bulging?  Omnomnomnomnomnomnom.  I’m not kidding I’m warning you now.  You make these and add in my homemade caramel to make a cookie sandwich?  You’ll release your inner cookie monster in no time.  The devil is in carrots!  I warned you!

Ginger Carrot Cookies
from Dorie Greenspan’s “Baking from my home to yours” Read more

Oct 10

Plum kind of wonderful

By the time Friday rolls around I’m usually pretty wiped.  My new job is extremely satisfying in that I’m getting to do more clinical trial work, but the commute and constant learning of new things does tend to get a little wearisome.  The upside to working hard is that I feel like I’ve earned myself a little fun and that makes the reward of getting to spend time with friends that much better.   Last Friday night not only did I get to treat myself to some much needed socialization, I had the wonderful privilege of getting to visit my friend Doug where he works—Lucasfilm Studios in San Francisco.  I genuinely enjoy spending time with Doug…he’s one of the few friends I think I can talk about politics with totally openly without having people look at me like I’ve got two heads or without my wanting to stab things with pointy objects.  The studio tour was just a cherry…okay a bunch of big fat cherries, on top of that treat.

This place is like paradise for nerds and movie buffs alike.  It’s basically a historical museum of film (and a fair number of geeky classics obviously) but it’s a museum where they are also making movies of the future.  Outside the building there’s a fountain with a beautiful statue of Yoda and once you walk in the front door there is movie memorabilia everywhere.  Unfortunately to get past the main lobby there’s a non-disclosure agreement which basically says “take pictures, you shall not” and so aside from the obligatory awkward family pose with a life size Boba Fett, there’s not much for me to show you from inside the compound.  Suffice to say, it was very, very cool.

At one point Doug showed me a model from the Jurassic Park films of the T-Rex.  I think he must have considered me a little nuts because I commented that I feel as though I can recognize the specific T-Rex model as the Jurassic Park dinosaur (as opposed to say just any old T-Rex) and that probably does sound a little silly.  Then again what other iconic dinosaur movies are there?  Land Before Time is the only one I can think of but that’s animated…maybe Fantasia, but again, the dinosaur scenes are animated so no models included.  By the way has anyone else noticed that the consistent hero and star of all the Jurassic Park films is the t-rex?  No really!  Think about it.  In the first movie it bursts in at the final moment, saving the humans from a horrifying raptor death…plus it eats the lawyer.  I applauded both moments as a child when I saw the film.  Then in the second movie you’re rooting for the Mama Rex, even forgiving the scene where she eats that dog, because really you want to see her reunited with the baby and defeat the evil poachers.   Besides that dog was probably an asshole right? Then again in the third film when the Spinosaurus is chasing down the humans, who saves the day?  T-Rex.   I think he dies in the process but everyone loves a martyr.

Anyway…Doug.  Right.  So occasionally he gets to invite a friend to join him at George Lucas Theatre (!) on site to watch a movie screening/premiere.  Last Friday I was lucky enough to join him for the screening of Seven Psychopaths and after we were treated to a Q&A session with director Martin McDonagh and actor Sam Rockwell.  Frakking fantastic.  The film, the theatre, the comic con-esque panel after without any of the associated lines…just plum kind of wonderful.  The movie was brilliant by the way.  I always forget that Collin Ferrell is actually a pretty talented actor.  Rockwell is easily the star—his portrayal of the character was amazing, right down to dozens of ticks in body language.  Christopher Walken was his usual amazing self.  The critics who are comparing the style to Tarantino aren’t far off.  It manages to somehow be humorous, violent and thought provoking without coming off too heavy handed on any account.  I wavered between laughing at the simple gags, laughing at the smarter bits of dialogue, cringing from some particularly over the top gore (which still carried humor to it) to actually tearing up at a particularly poignant moment at the end commenting on the Vietnam War and hope for a future.  I love films like this where you get the fun aspect of a stupid shoot-em up but so much intelligent writing to chew on that you walk away feeling like you fed your brain AND your inner base desire for “guns and coffee”.  But here’s my advice: if the first five minutes don’t make you laugh, odds are you should leave and get your money back.

I know that not everyone gets to reward themselves for a hard week with this kind of amazing opportunity so I offer up to you a delicious alternative instead: a brioche plum tart.  MMMM oh god.  Unlike a traditional tart you use a rich, buttery, eggy Brioche as the basis for the tart.  This is such a beautiful, Parisian way to usher in a Sunday morning brunch.  The dough gets made the night before and comes together pretty easily.  You store it in the fridge overnight so the yeast take a long, slow time to break down all those starches into delicious flavor and then in the morning you just fill it with a simple blend of stone fruit, jam and sugar.  It could just as easily be a dessert but something about simple baked goods of rich, buttery dough and fruit seem particularly satisfying to me in the morning with a hot latte and pajama bottoms.  The recipe is for plums but peaches, apricots and cherries would all be delicious too.

 Plum Brioche Tart

From Dorie Greenspan’s “Baking from my home to yours” Read more

Oct 2

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Taste my Pirate Paddy (Below Deck)

We interrupt this week’s Think Thin Tuesday ( to be resumed next week or postpone  to Thursday, haven’t decided yet) to bring you this breaking announcement: The Guild Season 6 premieres today! In fact the new episode may be up by the time this blog gets published.  Be sure to check Geek and Sundry today and you might even catch a glimpse of yours truly in a certain establishing shot….

I wanted to write about how The Guild is responsible for connecting me with some of the best friends I’ve ever had.  I also wanted to dedicate a recipe to the precise line of the show that brought these people to my life: “Taste my Pirate Paddy” Yes those are the words that set into motion the finding of my karass.  I’ve written about this before but I guess I just really wanted to talk about it in detail, why it means so much to me, with the premiere coming out today.

I had written an entirely long piece while crafting this post about the history of my life as it pertained to friendships and it was rather intensely personal and far too long for a single entry.  I’ll share eventually but decided that it wasn’t quite the tone I wanted here. Basically the conclusion of that story is my problem isn’t so much finding people to be friends with—it’s in the keeping of them.

I have this theory about sitcoms and romantic comedies, a theory that the Guild ties into rather nicely, about how the real draw to these shows isn’t the romances or the personal development of a character.  The thing we as viewers, as people, romanticize most about shows like “The Guild” or say “How I Met Your Mother” are the friendships.  Yes finding true love, finding yourself, these are great things we want in our lives but they are really quite easy compared to finding that circle of friends that we can having a standing date with at the pub or coffee shop.  I mean do I really need to argue my point more considering one of the most successful, long running sitcoms was “Friends”?  Yes it had the running conflict around romantic relationships but that wasn’t the draw was it?  It was the concept that 5 people could find each other and form these intimate, unbreakable platonic bonds.

Seeing Syd Sherman grow, seeing all of the Knights of Good grow, and  watching their crazy antics is awesome, but the heart of the show is the entity that is the Guild itself.  No matter how some characters may try to avoid it **coughTinkcough** it’s the friendship that is at the heart of it all—and what I think is the real Holy Grail I’m always searching for.

The friendships formed in these shows aren’t the “have coffees every 5 months and talk about the weather” sorts of bonds.  They are very romantic and intimate in nature—the sort of people who you can be around every day, sit with comfortably in silence and read each other’s thoughts.  If that’s something that we struggle to find in a single partner, as the quest for love demonstrates we often do, of course it’s that much harder to find several like-minded individuals who can share these things.  If a marriage takes work, these kinds of friendships must take even more and indeed even when we find them, how often do they fall apart?  How many married couples do you know that wind up being each other’s best friends not just because they are, but because they lose touch with everyone else?

I can count on one hand the number of really good friendships I’ve got that have lasted longer than a year or two—that have been more than just a result of loneliness and proximity.  I would need probably all my fingers and toes to tell you how many people/groups of people I’ve grown away from.  My fondest hope is that this eclectic group I’ve wrangled for myself breaks the mold.  I would consider myself extremely lucky were that the case and I’m in the process of doing everything I can (including looking into moving to LA to be nearer many of them) to keep that.

The opportunity to be an Extra back on season 5, I’m in an array of scenes that relate to the infamous line that inspired my recipe today, was never something I imagined would be this influential on me.  All I really went into it with was that geeky fangirl hope I’d get to hang out a bit with Felicia Day.  Maybe a day dream or two of some sort of internet stardom, not gonna lie.  That obviously didn’t happen but instead I got something I never even thought was going to happen: I found that idealized group of friends. It’s magical to me that a show like The Guild, which hey, you do realize the title is all about a group of people coming together and forming a bond, may have finally brought me this same joy.  They just might be “the one(s)” if you will.   There will be conflict, fighting, tears and I’m sure we’ll lose a few in our band along the way.  Still there’s something uniquely special to this group…something I’ve been working to identify and will probably bore you about in another sappy blog post. There is a quality to the friendships on “The Guild” that echoes in the group I’ve found, but since I’ve already written two pages now, I think we’ve reached a good ending point today don’t you?  I’ll wrap up this sappy reflection with the hope that I’m not proven wrong about this gang and now share with you the recipe I lured you in with at the start.

This here be the most sea worthy burger ye will find on any ocean!  Cheeseybeards is home to a fine array of grub fit for a Pirate, but none quite so favored by me as the “Below Decks Burger” – a burger featuring a delicious infusion of the Caribbean waters that Pirates love.  The beef is seasoned with Jamaican spices, topped with cheese, rum-candied onions and a spicy mayo.  I figured any burger that mentions going “below deck” ought to have an alcoholic component but don’t fear, this menu item is child appropriate since all the booze cooks out while the onions soak up all the flavor.  Just be careful: these are addictive and if you might find that all the Sailor Jerry gets used up making round after round of these delicious Pirate Paddies—and you can only hope that the crew is too full to be wonder “Why is the rum gone?”

Below Decks Burger
an Olivia Original inspired by “the Guild” Read more

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