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Posts tagged ‘autumn’

Nov 20

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Think Thin Tuesday: A split-speady holiday soup

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat…but first we’ve got TURKEY DAY to contend with.  I’m both eagerly anticipating and dreading the gorgefest that is this Thursday.  I mean I love the holiday because it’s an excuse for me to think, talk, breathe, sleep, swim, bathe, timewarp and gangnam dance all about food!  Still the thought of how much I’m going to eat, and oh I will be eating, makes my little bitty tummy cry out in horror and my tastebuds just laugh maniacally.   I love the food but oh I dread the scale and the rock feeling that comes after.  This year our menu will be slightly modified to feature a healthier assortment of fair since my Mom has been working to lose weight (and you know I have been) and my Step-Dad **should** be eating healthier though if you’ll remember at times I feel like that’s a losing battle.  This means mashed cauliflower at our table instead of mashed potatoes, though there will be molasses scalloped yams, and a heart healthy salad of kale and brussel sprouts but oh I am getting ahead of myself.  Thanksgiving isn’t here yet and none of these things have been made. 

As I’m trying to get all these things done my posts will be a bit lighter this week.  I’m taking the day before off work so I can focus entirely on yoga and meal prep.  In the meantime I wanted to bring you a great recipe that is perfect for Thanksgiving and anytime in the fall, light on calories and what is this?  Vegan?!  Twice in a week…two days in a row?  No don’t worry I’m not cutting meat out of my diet.  This was an “accidentally vegan” recipe.  I probably just instinctively gravitated toward out of a subconscious desire to balance the insane quantities of turkey I’ll be consuming later on in the week and for days after.

Once Thanksgiving passes the pumpkin stock in the stores dies down considerably…and after January especially.  They are usually still in season though so if you don’t get a chance to make this now keep it in mind for some chilly January night.  Pumpkin yellow split pea soup just gives me another excuse to use my favorite fall ingredient.  I’ll have a less healthy pumpkin recipe for you tomorrow too…and no it won’t be a pie!  Pumpkin doesn’t come only in pie and lattes ya know.  It’s an extremely healthy recipe—the soup tastes sweet thanks to the pumpkin.  There’s almost no fat and you still get a good 7 grams of protein in a bowl. 

What I really love about this recipe is how very simple it is to make.  If you are attending a family gathering Thursday and want to bring something to contribute that isn’t a storebought pie, try this out instead.  Soup can be made a day or two ahead of time and if you just purchase pre-made broths and get already diced pumpkin you will have basically no fussy prep at all.  These serving sizes are approximate but a big batch of this stuff should make 15 – 1 ½ cup bowls.  That makes it great for a large family.  If you have a smaller family meal ahead of you, freeze single portions in freezer safe bowls.  It’ll keep really well all winter long in an airtight container.  I always have soups on hand in the freezer for cold, rainy days when I’m feeling under the weather.  Oh and for a little extra crunch add on a few roasted pumpkin seeds!  Nutritional value does not take this into account.

Pumpkin Yellow Split Pea Soup

Adapted from the New England Soup Factory Cookbook 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 25

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Halloweek Day 1: The Devil’s Carnival Alfredo

Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday.  Big shocker right?  I suppose you’d assume that considering my penchant for cosplay.  In fact my typical response to someone who would ask me “why do you cosplay” would be: because Halloween is only once a year.  It’s just not enough!  The allure of all Hallow’s Eve extends past the costume bits though so I guess that’s not an entirely fair reason to say why I love the holiday.  In addition to it being “come as you aren’t” day, Halloween is all about ghouls, goblins and the frisson of the fantastically frightful.  Some people just love a good ghost story, a good “gotcha” moment and I guess I would have to count myself among them.  Those of us with a sick, twisted love of the macabre find the blood and guts and horror fun to play in.  I think a lot more people enjoy that as children and lose it as they grow up.   Probably because when you come to realize that there is real evil and terror in the world, playing at it seems less fun and more depressing.  I suppose that means the adults who enjoy it are either very naive or, like me, somewhat screwy.

Plus there’s candy.  CANDY!  Thanksgiving is about the meal, Christmas about cookies, Hanukkah about potatoes (and pretending that it isn’t annoying that one of the lesser important Jewish holidays gets notoriety because of its proximity to the celebration of Jesus’ unbirthday–un since his actual supposed birthday is in the spring) and Valentine’s day is sort of about chocolate I guess.  None of them celebrates our sweet tooth nearly as much as Halloween though.  Mmmm candy.

Since I love Halloween SO MUCH I figured why not do a week of recipes dedicated to the day?  Some will be simple, some will be creepifying and I even have one super cute, skinnyfied sweets to share for those looking to celebrate without killing their diets.  Halloween night I’ll be staying in–what?!  Look it’s in the middle of the week okay?  Work and responsibility, you want to talk scary?  Way more frightful than a cackling witch or a brain munching zombie.  **shudders* I’m a…grown up.  I have to be adult and wake up on November 1st to go to the office.  Oh god, no, please, make the horror stop.  I beg of you!

Anyway the plan will be to stay in and watch some scary movies and go to bed.  Old lady Olivia, that’ll be me Wednesday night.  I’m excited though because I just found out that  the creator of my favorite Gothic Rock Opera (Repo! The Genetic Opera) has produced a new flick.: The Devil’s Carnival.  It’s yet another gothic, horror themed musical extravaganza complete with Satan and an evil clown.  Supposedly it’s a vignette style story based off a selection of Aesop’s fables.  Perfection in theory for a gal like me who loves a good scare and is obsessed with Fables, Fairytales and Folklore.  Yet another reason to love this day.

Speaking of carnivals…have you met this Carnival pumpkin before?  Actually it’s a Carnival Squash- (hey relevant to that movie I mentioned and I didn’t even mean to do it!  Seriously as I was writing this post I only realized the connection between my food and movie choice)  -the name derived from its unusual striping and color patterns.  Personally I think this one reminded me a bit of abstract computer circuitry art.  Isn’t that just beautiful?  Carnival squash is another variety similar in effect to acorn so if you can’t locate this at a farmer’s market, go with an acorn squash.  It is milder and more savory than your butternut variety–butternut squash has always been too…sweet/buttery for me to call it my favorite of the winter varietals.  It’s kind of like the Chardonnay of squash to me; it’s great when called for, but that’s a rarer occurrence.  Interesting to note: acorn, carnival and delicata are all in the Cucurbita pepo family which also houses zucchini and summer squash.  I love all these varieties for daily consumption–even just steamed.  Butternut is in the Cucurbita moschata family which houses the traditional Halloween pumpkin and sugar pumpkins.  Both of which I love in sweet or creamy foods just like the butternut.  Isn’t it fun when science explains how things are connected?  

This recipe profiles both kinds of pumpkin/squash according to their strengths.  I used some canned traditional pumpkin in this recipe for the sauce (a buttery, creamy alfredo) and use the carnival as a delicious peppery, sautéed part of the entree.   I went with some black noodles to enhance the Halloween feel of the dish.  These cooked up kind of purple at the end which is probably because the noodles were dyed with a red wine extract rather than the more traditional squid ink but I think the feeling still comes across well.  Next time, if I make this for a Halloween gathering, I’ll probably stick with squid ink pasta instead.  As delicious as the sauce and noodles were, I found myself most enjoying the crunchy nuggets of carnival squash but that could just be because I’m a nutter for a good sear.  I’ll admit I broke the diet to have a nice big bowl (or two) of this dish.  It was so satisfying, season and sinful but hey it’s the Devil’s holiday right?  Perfect excuse for sinning a little….

Carnival Alfredo
an Olivia Original Read more

Oct 23

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Think Thin Tuesday: A Molar Eclipse of your stomach

NERD ALERT NERD ALERT NERD ALERT: Do you know what today is? It’s MOLE Day.

Oh moliest of days – when the number of elementary particles coincide with a chemistry teacher’s calendar on October 23rd nerds can rejoice.  Today is a day to sit around the Bunsen burner, telling ghost stories of days of dark days before a standard unit of measurement was introduced as we watch our marshmallows roast with a shell of toasty carbon.  Turn to one another and say things like “What does Avogadro like in his hot chocolate?”  Answer: Marsh-mole-ows! Oh to be nerd on this moliest of days.

Celebrated annually on October 23 from 6:02 a.m. to 6:02 p.m., Mole Day commemorates Avogadro’s Number (6.02 x 10^23), which is a basic measuring unit in chemistry.  Each year has a theme and this year it’s a “Molar Eclipse” which is why my title is so puntastic today.  For those of you who aren’t [chemistry] nerds I’m sure this might be a little confusing.  High School science classes are a thing long past and while algebra is still something most of us need on a daily basis, a whine of “but I’m never going to need this” probably was true for most of you with respect to the mole.  Oh sure it’s a part of your daily life since chemistry IS life but it’s not anything the average person is sitting around contemplating. Still would you like a little refresher so you can feel like a smarty pants this morning?  You would?  Excellent!

Q: How would you describe a sulfur-ically, stinky chemist?
A: Quite Mole-odorous.

Basically imagine the unit of a mole like zeroing out a scale.  In order to measure anything you need a standard to weight it against right?  Like telling me how much an apple weighs doesn’t mean anything to me if I have no concept of weight.  Whereas if you hand me a five pound brick I can then scale anything else I’m given to hold relative to the brick.  One object may be half a brick or another may weigh the equivalent of two bricks.  Simple enough right?  Well in chemistry as you know all the elements are made up of smaller components called atoms.  Those atoms are a mess of protons, neutrons and electrons.  Each element is going to have a different ratio of these components.  Chemists wanted a handy unit, a “brick” or in this case a “mole” by which to standardize all the elements relative to one another.

Carbon being one the most abundant and important molecules to life was set as this standard; the Carbon-12 isotope specifically which composed of 6 protons, 6 neutrons and 6 electrons.  Okay I just threw a bunch of words at you so let’s rewind.  Carbon-12 is an isotope that is it’s one potential configuration of carbon.  See these molecules can be arranged in different ways, like legos, and so there are different forms of them.  Carbon-12 refers to the atomic mass 12 and where does this number come from?  Answer: The number of particles in the nucleus (center) of the atom.  The nucleus is composed of the protons and the neutrons so 6 + 6 = 12.

Okay great we have our element to use as a standard, Carbon, now how much of it should be 1 mole?  We want to evaluate weight remember so we’re going to be talking grams.  Well why not make it simple: Carbon-12 has an atomic mass of 12 so the number of grams set to 1 mole was also 12.  All that was left was to establish how many particles were present.  Answer: 6.02214X×1023    Yikes!  What to name that number?  It’s kind of a mounthful.  Enter Amadeo Avogadro – an Italian chemist and savant from the 18th century.  Avogadro didn’t actually set the constant used in chemistry today but he was the first to theorize that relative masses could correspond to molecular weights and be used to calculate the mass of a gas from a known volume.  I know mumbo jumbo right?  Suffice to say he was largely influential in chemistry and so the constant was named in his honor.  Though I’m not sure Avogadro is any less difficult for folks to say.  

Anyway that sums it up for now.  I hope I managed to be somewhat clear and I didn’t bore the pants off people who may have already known this stuff.  In honor of the holiday I decided to try out this recipe for a Chili Mole.  I beefed it up a bit with buffalo meat, it was initially a vegetarian recipe, but even with the addition of some ground beef and a minor tweak here or there, it’s still a fantastically skinny recipe and extremely delicious.  You get tons of flavor from the spices, the chocolate and the meat but tons of nutrition from the pinto beans, squash and KALE.  Oh the kale is so nice in this–not at all bitter or unpleasant.  You’ll love it and feel so good about yourself for eating it.   Perfect for summer or fall since you can use summer squash or autumn squash in it though I do think I prefer the autumn varieties.  I went with a “delicata” squash which was similar in flavor to acorn squash if you can’t find it.  Now that the weather is FINALLY chilling down I have to say it is a really great blend of spice and warmth for a cool night.  Leftovers went quickly too.  Hip Hip Hooray for Mole Day! 

Pinto & Buffalo Chili Mole
adapted from Gourmet Magazine Nov 2007
makes 6 generous servings – photos are of half a serving  Read more

Oct 9

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Think Thin Tuesday: Barley’s Angels

This is a delicious salad with barley, crispy fall vegetables, briny olives and a sweet citrus vinaigrette and good for you!

I am a huge fan of strong female characters on primetime television.  Wanna sell me on a show all you usually need to do is lead off with: well it has this really empowering female character…and I’ll watch at least two episodes.  Probably three, just to really give it a shot before deciding that the writing sucks or the plot is overworked, and even then I have this bad habit of lingering on an otherwise sucky series if the leading lady is kicking butts and taking names.  There is one pet peeve I have though about the majority of these strong, female characters: they are almost always emotionally damaged.

It’s a sliding scale to be sure, some are far worse off than others, but almost everytime I see “strong” it comes attached with “baggage.”  It’s as though writers don’t know how to craft a female character whose strength isn’t rooted in tragedy of some sort.  I mean I get it, it makes sense.  Typically we find our strength through adversity so most people who are strong have had something horrific happen to them and when you want good television it needs conflict.  What easier way to manufacture that then by making sure this powerful character has some serious flaw.  Plus the act of overcoming that baggage usually plays a central, and important role, in the story arc.  Like I said I get it and it makes sense.  It’s just a little…played out.

Let’s look at some of the most iconic but baggage laden women I can think of in Scifi :

  • River Tam: strong, powerful and  also completely psychotic because the government frakked up her brain.
  • Seven of Nine: truthfully almost every “strong” female character on Star Trek has the same schtick with one exception (who I name below) but I’m focusing on Seven specifically because she’s the most “bodacious” of the bunch which includes:  Tasha Yar, Ro Laren, Kira Nerys, Kathryn Janeway and B’Elanna Torres.   Deanna Troi is hot but she’s not a strong character, nu-uh. and Crusher was more Mama Tabby Cat than Mama Tiger  Anyway ALL of these women are strong but “broken” at the start of their development.  They all  have what I call the “Ice Warrioress” syndrome.  Their strength has simultaneously “hardened” them and so they have to be “softened” over time to let love in.  So over it.
  • Aeryn Sun: same problem as the star trek ladies.  Ice Warrioress syndrome.  Aeryn is too hard and too guarded and needs to “loosen” up.
  • Leeloo Minaï Lekarariba-Lamina-Tchaï Ekbat De Sebat: strong, powerful and incredibly naive about the world.  As a result she learns about a little pesky thing called war and practically shuts down.
  • Kara Thrace “Starbuck”: do I really need to sum up the level of frakked upness her character embodies?  Ice Warrioress doesn’t begin to cover how “guarded” and emotionally screwed up this ass kicking, beer swilling and otherwise amazing chick is.  Her reaction to finally letting her guard down with the man she loves?  She  runs off and marries someone else the next morning because she can’t handle the vulnerability of love.
  • Dana Scully: another “stick up the butt” type that has to loosen up to get a man.  Wah Wah Wah.  Though okay, I guess she isn’t quite as bad as the others, but still she was often portrayed as cold and distant in the beginning.  She lacked humor.
  • Olivia Dunham: I love Fringe and I love this character but again she is portrayed as strong yet cold and hard to break down.  She’s got baggage and baloney.  This is especially juxtaposed against Fauxlivia whom at one point Peter explains “smiled easier” and he thought that was a sign that Olivia was “letting him in.”

Rattling off some others let’s see: Sydney Bristow (Alias), almost any comic book heroine, Xena, Susan Ivanova (Babylon 5), Max Guevara (Dark Angel)….Give me more if you have em.  Or prove my theory wrong if you like.


I can think of a few strong, female characters who defy this stereotype.  Jadzia Dax  (Star Trek: DS9) and Zoe Washburne (Firefly) I feel are the most relevant because they start as strong characters when we meet them and don’t need the traumatic, this is why I’m damaged backstories to justify their strength.  They just are unabashedly kick ass with no need to balance it out via emotional buillshit.   These ladies certainly encounter hardship but it doesn’t define where their strength originates from and makes them genuinely refreshing characters.  As such I think these two women are often unsung heroes of the feminist scifi world.  Especially compared against the three most iconic women I will be discussing next.
Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Ellen Ripley (Alien) and Princess Leia (Star Wars) are hands down in my mind the top 3 examples of strong female leads in scifi.  I think they straddle the line of “damaged strength” because we don’t start off with them damaged.  Rather, we go on a journey with them, finding the source of their power and seeing how that affects them.  Buffy certainly becomes Starbucke-sque in her level of emotional baggage, but she overcomes it and we explore the arc from start to finish, rather than coming in halfway.  Buffy doesn’t start off emotionally unavailable but rather we see how it happens and how the same power that takes her to that dark place brings her back from it.  The same applies to Ripley.  Leia starts off as a strong leader and we get to journey with her from Powerful Princess to Rallying Rebel.

Some might argue Leia isn’t worthy of being lumped in here since she 1) has to be rescued and 2) the infamous gold bikini.  Guys she also faces down torture, the destruction of her homeworld, finding out her father is freaking Vader, kills Jabba the Hutt and manages to date Han Solo without whining.  I think she  qualifies.

Now I love Buffy with a passion–Leia and Ripley too–but I don’t think it’s fair how Jadzia and Zoe get overlooked.  Jadzia and Dax are strong but loving; practical but comfortable with their femininity (slinky dresses anyone?); capable of light-hearted humor and then turn around wipe the floor with your limp body.  Speaking of which, this is a great high-fiber and complex carb salad for those of us with active lifestyles but still trying to lose weight.  It’s not low carb but a single serving is still under 500 calories making it a decent lunch option on days when you need to replenish those glycogen stores and keep up your energy for a good ass kicking.

Barley, Radish and Fennel Salad
from Bon Appetit June 2012 Read more

Sep 17

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Hey Muffin Monday: Op Op Op Rosh Hashanah Style

L’Shana Tova! Rosh Hashanah New Year’s Resolution: focus on what you need to get done now.

It’s yet another new year for the Jewish folk out there. I certainly feel like this theme of renewal ties in to my current state of affairs. Things are well, pretty crazy, to say the least. I’ve got so much to do and such little time to do it in in order to get ready for my new job on Wednesday!

I have a serious problem. Apparently when I’m already swamped with things to worry about, when I have new change happening that I should be preparing for, I can’t seem to help myself from thinking about the next new challenge I want to take on. This weekend on top of preparing for my new role (getting mentally situated and studying materials) I decided I should start planning a million other projects. Sewing projects, cosplay projects, blogging/writing projects, my Thanksgiving menu…. It’s sick. I need help. Why can’t I seem to stop trying to overload myself with things to do? I really wonder if it’s just that I work best when I’m stretched or if I use these things to escape from something. Maybe it’s that I procrastinate by planning. Don’t focus on the task at hand…think about the next one!

Living in tomorrow is unwise if you can’t control where you are today. Something I’ve learned is that even when you have a handle on current affairs, if you spend too much time mentally living in the future, you miss out on everything worth seeing along the way there. Then suddenly it’s the future and you’re not appreciating all that planning because you’re already another span ahead. It isn’t fulfilling. So I’m going to try to stay focused on the here and now for the next few days. I’ve got to or I’ll go crazy taking on too many things.

Still…one list I wanted to start formulating was a new set of 1001 things to do in 101 days. I really like that challenge and it makes you sit down and plot out where you want to be and what you want to have accomplished over a three year span. It’s not something to be taken lightly and odds are you won’t get all those things done if you plan your list as loftily as I did last time. Still I managed to get through 30% of my items which wasn’t too shabby. Let me procrastinate just a little bit at you and give you my top 10 items for my 101 list….

  1. See Bernini’s David in person – my top item on any bucket list
  2. Buy a car
  3. Full time employment *that makes me happy*
  4. Move into my own place
  5. Go to Dragon*Con
  6. Travel to Prince Edward Island
  7. Host a fabulous dinner party
  8. Organize a group cosplay
  9. Take an acting class
  10. Fall in love again

So nothing too ambitious right? I notice that most of this is about traveling and doing things with friends. A few practical items…buying a car for one thing. That’s going to be unavoidable the next few years but since it has seemed like such an unattainable thing for a while I think it should make the list. Moving is also going to be something I can’t avoid doing…but again it makes the list. I’m not going to specify where I plan on moving to yet. That will always be tied to item #3 on the list. It’s incredibly frustrating actually. I’d love to move to another part of the country but I keep finding that no one wants to relocate you so they avoid hiring non-locals. Thus if I want to work somewhere else I might have to move first and look into jobs after. It takes a special kind of courage to just pack up, move and see what happens.

But see here I go thinking about that when I haven’t even started my new contract yet! I have so much to do to get ready for this new job. Something about new year celebrations just infects me with an even greater than usual desire to plan and plot and prepare. There’s so much energy there! Wonder if there’s a way to get a job being a project starter. I think I’d be good at that….

Anyway here’s to wishing you all a Sweet New Year! It is tradition on Rosh Hashanah to eat apples dipped in honey. Typically I make a sweet cinnamon apple honey challah loaf but this year I’ve been so busy that bread baking just takes up too much time. I am skirting that by baking up these muffins instead…ah muffins, how I love thee. They come together so quickly and bake up so perky.

Honey Apple Nut Muffins
Modified from Dorie Greenspans “Baking from my home to yours”
in the book this is listed as a muffin recipe that was hastily poured into a cake pan to make a rustic cake instead. I opted for the original intention and MMMMMMM not complaining Read more

Apr 18

Curry it Along

Hello, my name is Olivia and I’m a neurotic perfectionist. They say admitting the problem is the first step. I’m not going to sit there and spend 30 minutes straightening a painting mind you, and I’ve certainly “decorated” cakes that looked like a 2 year old did it. No I don’t always take it quite that far but I do have what are considered “unreasonably high standards” that I set for myself. As such I tend to catalog and replay, for no reason at all, every time I’ve failed to meet that standard or live up to what I know my full potential is. I practically have a full NFL commentary running on each incident.

It sucks.

Of course this need to be my absolute best is what drives me, at my best, and can completely freeze me up at my worst. There were several years of depression where I literally could not function because I was stuck in this zone of spiraling failure that my brain had predetermined every event outcome to be. While the down side is debilitating, ultimately this attitude is the engine for my bottom line: “I Make It Happen.” Now this bottom line gets me into trouble sometimes because I will forgo convention, and occasionally unintentionally hurt feelings in my quest to get something finished. I’m a fairly considerate person and so it’s usually a round-about stepping on toes. Mostly because I just have no patience for things I perceive to be “time wasters” and would rather see something get done correctly myself than leave it up to someone else if it results in a lot of wasted time explaining things.

Let me try to explain from a recent example. If standard protocol dictates I follow a set order that makes it impossible to complete my end goal on time I will improvise, manage or generally do whatever it takes to find an alternate route. If this means I pick up the slack where other people are failing, I do it, usually without complaint because my only concern is making sure I get the job done. I really don’t get upset if it means I put something together that normally a vendor or teammate would do. In the process the person being displaced can feel made useless, ignored or worse if a superior, undermined. That’s never my intention and I have discovered I need to be more aware of this in the future. I’m just used to a “no excuses, make it happen” mindset.

I once tried to use an excuse to get out of something deliberately as a child. It is always stuck in my mind as the 4th grade ruler incident. I had some math homework I didn’t feel like finishing and I was cutting corners so I could go play outside. One question called for a ruler and since I couldn’t find one in the house, I didn’t bother with the problem. In class the next day I was called on to answer that question. I shot my teacher a shit eating grin and replied that since I didn’t own a ruler at home I couldn’t have done the problem. I loved this teacher. Basically every child in my school worshipped her.

She turned an icy gaze on me and told me that was no excuse and walked on. I felt disgusted with myself. I was mad at myself for letting her down and even angrier still at myself because I knew she was right. I could have figured something out, or at least put some sort of work into the problem. I tried my hand at the idea that it was the world’s fault and found it just wasn’t for me. I remember this incident of course, because I remember every time I have ever felt that deep twinge of disappointment in myself for failure to live up to what I know I could do. I just wish this same positive force didn’t have the power to freeze me, shut me down and make me feel fatalistic when I fail.

This is a fantastic recipe that comes together pretty quickly on a weeknight for those with a need to overdo it.  The recipe is made with coconut milk and coconut cream (think of it as a reduced coconut milk) but keep in mind that coconut milk isn’t actually dairy but be sure to check the label in case your company mixes in milk.  Making this the most vegan, lactose-intolerant delicious parve meal ever.  Can’t find coconut cream?  It’s easy to make from coconut milk–simple pour a second batch into a glass, refrigerate and allow the fats to separate.  What rises to the top is your coconut cream.  Keep in mind this is also really more of a fall recipe when there are bountiful sweet pumpkins for sale at the market.  Unfortunately I haven’t applied my work ethic to this blog as of yet and I’m sitting on a backlog of recipes I never put together or blog posts I never wrote.  I’m attempting to change this in the coming weeks.

Do or Do Not.   Damn okay I should say attempting, I should say AM changing this week.  Yoda is no friend to half-assed blogging attempts.

 Creamy Pumpkin and Cashew Curry Read more

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