kimchi with jim

after inspiration from his favorite cooking magazine, my great uncle jim came up with a new idea for our holiday cooking project. kimchi! which is especially fitting since the roommates and i have been considering making it for the past...3 months. aside from some minor setbacks, no korean hot pepper, a rotten napa cabbage, and slight misunderstanding of directions, kimchi madness ensued! check back in 4 days for more craziness and taste-testing.

napa cabbage enjoying a salt bath

daikon and carrots

massive amounts of ginger, garlic, dried chili pepper, "kimchi base" ie sauce sort of used in kimchi but with absurd levels of msg and fish sauce, and some rice wine vinegar for extra liquid

de-salted cabbage after a quick bath

second to last step: slather cabbage with pungent paste
last step: cram in jar with julienned veges and cover. pray to avoid explosions

the kimchi patiently awaiting its 4 day re-emergence into society. by that time it will have fermented, halved in size, and hopefully become unbelieveably spicy. mmmm.

pies!

family tradition dictates more homemade pies than people. unfortunatly since pies only came from once source we were lacking a bit. but we certainly put a christmas day hurting on those that were present.

from top: cranberry raspberry, pecan [pronounced pi-cahn not pee-kaan], and apple

mmmmm gooey cranraspberry goodness

i can't bring myself to make a pecan pie. what with a cup of corn syrup... but ill definitely eat my share of someone else's pie.
apple made with golden delicious

the sad remainders of the cranrasp which were finished today. turns out cranberry raspberry pie goes very well on top of homemade lemon bars.

jet blue

since i have earned the nickname "last minute liz" more than once in my life, it seems fitting that the sis and i flew to florida for the holidays... at 8pm xmas eve. fortunately, we didn't fly delta.

we flew jet blue! err jetted rather. after miraculously making the ronkonkoma train [thanks to the secretary's incredible driving skills] we caught the air train and got to the new T5 no problem. once there, check-in and security were a breeze [amazingly] and we wandered into the airport muji for some pre-flight ....pen buying.

then it was time for wholefoods-esque buffet food

leah's meal

• mac & cheese
  
• fried rice
• chicken wing
• pasta salad 1
• pasta salad 2
• corn salad
• hard boiled egg

my meal

• raw spinach i hoped would wilt a tad
  
• honey bbq ribs
• mac & cheese

and some live xmas jazz music. which i got a really bad picture of on my phone. mostly i was too busy cramming down food. mmmm ribs for the second day in a row.

at the gate we found they had desk terminals where you could both plug in your laptop and order coffee, alcohol, and snacks without actually talking to anyone. eeeeexellent.

a preview of florida pics:

holiday decor

xmas/hanukkah/solstice/kwanzaa decorations are scarce around the house. the roommates are leaving for home and the fam is going to florida. frank and the neighbors are left to create holiday spirit. fortunately mel sent me an early xmas present which i must say looks quite nice amongst our kitchen gear

mmm wine

close up of sparklies

we also did xmas presents early due to the traveling baggage restrictions and whatnot. and i pretty much enjoy wrapping presents

hello kitty wrapping paper! feeding the addiction i know.

sweet metallic bow on foily paper

purple. the color of winter.

well purple and black. at least in our laundry.

• dress: h&m
• gloves [just cos they matched: h&m
• leggings: urban outfitters
• shoes: target
  

black angels

george crumb's black angels is by far the weirdest most badass quartet ive heard. specifically written for electric string quartet with additional requirements being: 20 crystal glasses, 6 thimbles, 2 maracas, and the ability to whisper numbers in foreign languages.

black sparkles abound

the quartet in height and instrument order-leah, clara, mario, rich

7 of the crystal goblets

semi-acoustic violin

scroll detail

photoshop

at thanksgiving i procured a copy of pictures from my great aunt's life thus far [shes only 100]. the cold preserves the maine women.

no one was really clear who this is. or i wasnt paying attention when the name was said.

grainy sepia/b&w scan of an old picture

looking more like a "vintage" ad for booze...

95% sure this is minnie picking blueberries

reminiscent of christina's world, a painting i have always found creepily depressing and oddly enough, christina was a mainer

foggy turkey day

i am thankful for thick pile area rugs and the force of gravity only being 9.81 when grammie fell. it could have been much much worse.

i however am not thankful for having participated in the preparation of creamed onions. i abhor onions. with a firey passion. well not actually. just the semi crunchy-smushy texture that activates my gag reflex.

pearl onions

trimmed pearl onions

foggy morning

mmmm food [note the green bean casserole! amazing as always]

my first round of food. complete with hard cider, water glass, and empty glass waiting for some white wine

before the festivities ensued however, we attempted a family picture. after several attempts on a different camera, i remembered why we dont let the old ones use technology without a quick lesson. but fake smiles and without the top of my head, here we are: the sis and grammie

• dress: saks off 5th ave [faux two piece dress-ruffly black bottom]
• black long sleeve: gap
• leggings: somewhere in nz
  

umm yea

welp just kidding. study. GRE. right. maybe tomorrow. or when my new book finally comes.

the sis and i went to dc for thanksgiving. stayed with my grandma's niece, who is my mom's first cousin and my second? i never know how all that works. regardless, they are most enjoyable company and make a mean french silk pie. apparently in our family it is known as salmonella pie. but its fucking awesome and i havent had a piece in probably 8 years.

the day we ventured out into dc proper, there were 35mph wind gusts and it was 55...with a wind chill of 37. inappropriately dressed just slightly.

• borrowed down vest: eddie bauer
• sheer "burnout" cotton sweater-ie not warm: ny&co
• purple shirt: kenneth cole
• black tank top: h&m
• jeans: calvin klein
• purse: calvin klein

and here's a recent work outfit. and contender for weirdest pose/face of the year.

• sweater: uniqlo
• dress: old navy
• leggings not tights: uniqlo
• blue boots: zara
  

the future of...

me?

any free time from now until after xmas will be spent studying for the GRE, attempting to write a college essay, and figuring out my life goals. that leaves little time for miscellaneous crafties. fortunately, the holidays will be here and gone before we know it. until then, maybe outfit posts. but that's probably it.

happy hiatus.

the "im wearing pants!" clothing post

• shirt: urban outfitters [and its a nice green. not a washed-out black]
• black jeans: pacsun
• shoes: old navy
• earrings: handmade
  

• coat: dillards [mom was buying me calvin klein long before i became obsessed]
• pin: target
• dress: h&m
• leggings: unknown [and yes not pants i know]
  
• boots: target
  

• scarf: some shop downport [pj village]
• sweater: dkny
• long black tank: h&m
• shiny opaque leggings: forever 21 [yes leggings as pants. for shame. BUT MY ASS WAS NOT HANGING OUT]
  

blond restaurant

for my birthday [and cos amazing long island restaurant week falls on my birthday], my sister took me to blond restaurant of miller place. their website is a little dumpy looking, but their prixe fixe menu for restaurant week was pretty effing amazing.

i started with the crispy calamari with asian vegetable slaw and wasabi aioli. in retrospect i should have ordered the wasabi on the side. i really really do not like the weird not quite spicy burning numbing feel of horseradish. but the rest of the salad was perfect and i even ate some of the tentacley parts. crunchy and fried deliciousness with just a hint of spice.

for the main course i ordered the braised short rib on mashed potato followed by a slice of raspberry cheesecake. never have i had both dinner and dessert melt in my mouth. and i will leave the description at that. AMAZING.

leah ordered the house salad, mushroom risotto [that i actually tried and liked even though i abhor the idea of eating fungi..the great recyclers of the forest floor], and chocolate mousse.

the decor of blond was a bit odd. i felt a little awkward trying to take pics besides the ridiculously dark photo of my fried salad so no documentation. it looked a bit like they had finished remodeling the restaurant [we were told under new management] and then taken random bits of half dried latex paint and thrown it at the walls. perhaps in a style that jackson pollock would have come to at the ripe old age of 98 with cataracts and palsy, had he not died an untimely death.

like the previous sentence, it tried, and failed.

but umm given the givens, i would recommend blond to anyone looking for a delicious but overpriced dinner in a rather snooty-but-trying-to-be-more-bourgoise atmosphere.

and a week late [def not complaining] the guys at work bought me gigantic belated birthday cupcakes!

my hand is there for scale. and as kt can tell you i have gigantic man hands to match my monkey arms. each cupcake [out of a box of 20] weighs .4 pounds. put that in your pipe and smoke it.

closeup of chocolatey swirly goodness. the orange frosting was actually orange flavored too! delish.

crochet inspirations

when we unceremoniously ripped out the remnants of my dead garden..toni saved the green tomatoes which have since been slowly ripening on our front porch.

she also pointed out the ANGRY TOMATOOO

they inspired more autumny crochetage

closeup of eggplant's old man pooch

and this little doggy that has kind of creepy archie-like eyes. no pupils. oh well. he stands up atleast!

ungardening

saturday [unlike 65 degree sunday] was perfect for doing yard work. 50, sunny, and just breezy enough to not get too hot but not too much as to blow leaves around. so i delegated toni and jason to yard-help-duty. we cleared out the garden in preparation for next year, toni and jason raked the front yard, and i reorganized the garage for storage, access to stuff in storage, and potential future beer pongage.

150 daffodil bulbs [25 tulips elsewhere]

flower bed minus dead flowers

dun dunnn. mixture of daffodils and tulips waiting to be planted

brussels sprout plant enjoying its last few moments in the sun. they were planted waaaay too late and mostly just sat around being cabbagey instead of sprouty.

daffodils are a member of the onion family. i prefer to eat neither. squirrels on the other hand have since dug up a few as a tasty treat.

that's a cat butt. presumably of the momma frank.