On an Island Across the Sea

Baking Madness, or christmas '09

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:47:31 GMT

I might have overdone it in the Christmas cooking department this year, I'm parked on the couch in a state of utter lethargy, and yet oddly, I'm not feeling like I never want to see the kitchen again...

For the past few years the extended family has been meeting at my grandparents house, but we all bring the food so my grandmother doesn't have to do anything aside from set the table. This year I did the sides and a dessert. This year's OTT-ness I think is a combo of feeling better cause I have a job, but also I have another year of cooking/baking experience under my belt, and I definitely feel more confident to do things in large batches. In any case, I spent more than 12 solid hours of cooking or baking on Thursday, but it was very much worth it.

In the end, there were roasted carrots, parsnips and mushrooms, surprisingly light gratined potatoes, broccoli cooked in chicken broth, cinnamon buns for christmas morning and of course the aforeseen cake. It's filled with chocolate mousse, and you should definitely not ask me how much cream is in it. But oh, it was very very tasty. My mother said it was the best thing I've ever made, which means a lot considering I've been cooking most of her dinners for over a year now, and she's more willing to sort of bosh things together and then wonder why the dish didn't come out, whereas I'm all over researching a dish to death before setting foot in the kitchen.

Unsurprisingly, I got a pile of new cookbooks for Christmas, which I'm now off to read. Hope everyone had a happy x-mas, and let's all hope that 2010 can at least be a bit better than this year has been.

A Crazy Mixed Up Union

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:45:10 GMT

So in my search on the internet for things of knitting and Dr Who, I have finally found a meeting of the two. http://www.knitting-and.com/knitting/patterns/drwho/drwhologos.htm Dr. Who color patterns!!! I I might possibly have to make a jumper....... I did actually make K-9 shaped mittens in college, but I gave them away before photographing them :( But I'll probably make another pair, and those will definitely get documented!

Hired!

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:40:24 GMT

As the title suggests I finally got a job! So now I'm crawling out of my cave of exile and giving an update:

Turns out I graduated just in time to watch the UK and the US swan dive into a recession, and it's been a struggle since. So, out of the roller-coaster of applications, interviews, false hopes and hiring freezes, I finally found work. I will be a technology assistant at my old high school. While it's not an actual library job, the lab is right next to the library and we work pretty extensively with them, in fact the school librarian was at my interview. Oddly, technology was the weak part of my masters degree, or at least I felt it was. Library schools are slowly moving towards new technologies as more schools have started to put their tech offices in their libraries, but we're still in the midst of a sea change and I think it's hard for them to gauge on what's important to teach.

Regardless, I'm well pleased. I can stop feeling like a sponge to my parents for starters. I'm also really pleased that I found work that was related to my field. I had actually gotten hired to do seasonal work at borders when I heard that I'd gotten this job, and I was not looking forward to that at all.

I just filled out my paperwork this morning, so now I'm kicking back until monday, when I start. I can't describe how relieved I am, and just in time for Thanksgiving too!

PS. sorry for the meme folks, I went into interview overdrive right as you guys commented, so I will get the questions to you soon!

Resistance meme

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 03:14:54 GMT

I'm posting the meme here in case anyone wants a go:

gaaked from xebgoc and others...

• Leave me a comment saying "Resistance is Futile."

• I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity

• Update your journal with the answers to the questions

• Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions (I'll also answer more, if asked)

Here are my answers..umm they ended up being longer than I thought they would, so hopefully they're not too rambly and actually answer your question. If I get to ask questions back I guess I would ask what brought you to librarianship and how did you get hooked on Dr Who? Okay, onto my answers:

1. What possessed you to go to the UK to study ?

It was really a marriage of two loves for me. I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up in junior high once and the first thing that came out of my mouth was a librarian. I got my first job at a library in high school and never looked back.

The UK part has been around for far longer. Until I was a teen my access to media was through PBS, my library and my parent's record collection. Thus by the time I was 9, I had a healthy love for Sgt Pepper, Doctor Who and Monty Python, and was teased mecilessly for it by my Michael Jackson listening and Simpsons watching peers. In college I ended up taking a lot of British history classes and went to study in London for a semester, which was fabulous (our tuition covered going to the theater every week for theater class!).

So, when my senior year rolled around I knew that I wanted to be a librarian and I wanted to go back to the UK. I checked it out on the ALA website and just went for it.

2. What have you been doing since you finished your degree and came back to the states (you haven't been updating your LJ much so I'm curious :)

Sadly, being jobless I'm afraid. Lots of openings for directorships, but not starting rung librarians, so if anyone out there would like to take an application for a librarian, or even a PA I'm there.

I have been doing house sitting, commissioned pieces of weaving, and recently an internship at Dartmouth College. Actually, I've been meaning to post about that, so look out for it soon. Oh! and I've taken a leap of faith and started writing Harry Potter drabbles. I haven't written fiction since elementary school, but with encouragement and betaing from my friend, whose LJ name is escaping me, I have been really enjoying the drabbles. If I'm feeling brave I'll post them.

3. How did you find The Way of Things?

Through Teaspoon, and then out of hope for faster updates I went to jlrpuck's lj site, and I liked it so much I had to leave a comment. I'm glad I did as I've come to really enjoy the Way of Things community and all the great fic I've discovered from it :)

4. You do a lot of crafty stuff like weaving and baking. How did you get into all of that ?

Weaving came from my knitting and knitting....well as a child I was fascinated by textiles and how they were made. I got taught the knit stitch by my grandmother and her aunt one afternoon, but the rest I taught myself out of a book, and then crochet too. Weaving was always an alluring mystery cause no matter how many books I read I couldn't figure it out and I wanted to so much. It actually became a deciding factor in choosing what college I went to, and I ended up majoring in it. Luckily for me my weaving teacher was also my academic advisor and a reference librarian, so she was extremely nice and helpful.

Cooking and baking were first out of need and then for pleasure. My brother and I do not like my mother's cooking. Of course, we didn't really have a choice over this as kids, but one day, I must have been about 11, I complained so much that they told me to cook my own dinner. So I did, I'm sure it was pasta and cheese, but I cooked everything myself. It became my chore, so I pretty much do all the cooking, which sounds like a nightmare, but really, I get to make what I want most of the time and cooking has led me to some pretty interesting people and events. Later I discovered Cook's Illustrated and Good Eats and really got an understanding of why things happen and how to control them. Bread making I got from my dad. He made pizza dough when I was growing up, and he used to let me knead small pieces of it. When I really started reading about baking seriously in college he got interested and now we make all our bread at home, and are avid collectors of bread cook books.

5. Are you going back to England soon ?

I really wish I was, but until there is a job and some money it looks unlikely. Coming home this last time really decided it for me though, I want to live there. I was so happy there, even on crap days I was happy there. I can't help but love it there, for so many reasons, both profound and completely stupid. For now, I dream, and know that I have a bunch of school mates' couches I can crash on.

Lost and Found (or how our cat went walk about and we all freaked out)

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:14:02 GMT

So one of our cats went missing for two days. We have two, one is much more the hunter than the other, and of course it was non hunting inclined one (Boots) that went missing. What worried us more was that our neighbor recently lost two of her cats to coyote that have been in the area, plus the coyote had been seen during the day. We were pretty sure our Boots was a goner, and were all really depressed over dinner even though we had guests over.

The cats like to come in through a hole in a screened in porch we at the back of the house, which is directly below the window by my bed. I had been listening to a Dr. Who audio drama, when I heard a thump and meows from below. It was Boots! She was hungry and wet (it had been raining) but no worse for wear. We've been coddling her ever since, right now she's curled up in front of the fire with some catnip, purring her fuzzy little heart out. She's one of the most personable and sweetest cats I've ever known, and I'd rather not think about losing her. Needless to say, we're keeping them inside for now, probably until spring since it's starting to get rather cold, they don't like it of course, but better them mopey than dead.

And to end, a picture of my Dad with Boots (from last winter)

New theme and post wedding ponderings

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:04:56 GMT

I'm not sure about this new theme, there is that giant cisco stamp thingy in the corner, but I'm drawn by the swirling greens so I'll give it a go.

summer has proven to be the same battle between my love of fresh produce and hatred of heat and humidity, but with some interesting twists....

Mom broke her ankle a few weeks ago while climbing an embankment by our house, so now I'm looking after her, mostly to make sure she doesn't move around too much and exacerbate things. She's been bribing me to do some gardening for cookbooks, and since I can't resist a good cookbook I find myself out in the one place I hate, full sunshine just when our humid season is beginning. My friends that live nearer to the equator than I do, can laugh at me now, since my summer is probably your early spring.

I've been to two weddings this summer, and this week the third just got canceled and the fourth just got a sure date. I went up early for the first one, my cousin's to help out, mostly to keep my aunt sane and bake a fuck load of quiche. Since my cousin's now husband is in the army they had to work around his deployment schedule and thus had two weeks to pull everything together, and did a pretty impressive job of it. They're evangelical chirstians, so the ceremony is not what I would have picked, but it was small and everyone pitched in, so there was very much a relaxed atmosphere and sense of unity.

The second was in Indiana, my old house mate from college, actually one of the people I went to London with the first time (as an adult) I went. I stayed with other old house mates for a few days before and it was good to see people and catch up, but it definitely reminded me of why I was so glad to leave indiana when I graduated. I think it's a combination of me being me and being described as a staunch new englander, I never really fit in there (kind of an odd feeling cause I loved my school and my time there). Once, I was told by a Texan that my state didn't exist, mind you this was on my first day and I have to admit that I was possibly even more the snooty new englander then and it didn't help my view any. In any case, this wedding was small too, and a little less about submitting to god and obeying the husband (they had a friend get one of those online minister things and do a non denominational service). After both of these and looking forward to a full on New Jersey/Chinese wedding in a few months, I think I can safely say that if and when the day comes that I decide to get married, I will be eloping. I was torn for a bit, cause I can see the importance of public sharing and acknowledgement, but ulitmately I don't want to spend that kind of money and stress or go through the expectations on/for that one day. Sure, I'll throw a party afterwards, but the event itself will be between me and the mister and as long as we have an understanding that is tickety boo in my books.

So now I'm back, and back to the same problem I have every summer (well okay, except for the last one cause I was in Scotland, which met all my needs), I hate heat and humidity, and while we only have it for three months max here, I become a pile of lethargic goo when it goes above 75 degrees and wish for snow and get laughed at by everyone else. On the other hand, there are fresh berries and rhubarb to make into grunts and crumbles and produce from the garden and the possibility of doing vat dyeing without freezing my fingers off. So I find it a battle of whether I'm enjoying it, or just want to crawl into the basement and die, but then autumn comes and the issue is resolved.

Well, I'd best make the most of it, so I'm making a stash of Pimms and lemonade and all the things I can bring myself to love about summer :)

Road Kill. (warning: contains talk of dead animals)

Mon, 18 May 2009 16:56:25 GMT

Having lived in a rural area most of my life, wild critters have been a fact of life. Lately though there has been a spate of road kills. It all started when C called me up on his way over for some pizza to say that he'd hit a wild turkey with his car, had it in the back in a plastic bag, and did I know anything about evisceration? At the time the answer to that was no, but now, I guess I can claim to know a bit more. The short and safe answer is to cut out the back bone since all of the major organs are usually attached to it, so you get rid of everything in one process. This is a severe over simplification, but I haven't died yet, so I suppose there's something to be said for that. C's next question was if I knew any good turkey recipes. I think in the end he chose well with braising it (always good for meat you suspect might be tough) with a wine sauce and apples. Pizza was a bit late, but turned out to be fortuitous since I got my hands on a copy of The Joy of Cooking, and we poured over the game section.

This past week a neighbor brought me another dead turkey he had hit, and that is sitting in the freezer. A few days later, my brother hit a rabbit with his car, so he and his friend hacked it's head off and skinned it the best they could. In retrospect, I wish they had let me do it, cause they're both pretty ADD and did a bit of a hack job. For the sake of safety I doused the parts in vinegar, seared everything, and then brought it to a boil for five minutes before stewing it, I'm pretty sure between the acid and high temp that whatever beasties there were are now dead. The next night he managed to bash two porcupines with a shovel (yes, this is as ridiculous as it sounds), technically not road kill, but they were in the drive way, and they were a threat to the dogs. So, at the end of two weeks I find that I have learned a multitude of things about road kill, like how rabbits are a lot of work for not a lot of meat that tastes like chicken (I kind of already knew that, but some lessons are worth repeating), wild turkey is excellent, I'm not as squemish since the last time I saw a wild animal being butchered, and watching a dog throw up porcupine quills is.....harrowing (apparently my brother didn't get rid of them permanently enough).

Baking Madness

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:39:54 GMT

I've been doing a lot of baking lately, and recently conquered some new territory by making some chocolate filled croissants! glasere_rev had her b-day and she requested them. I was kind of afraid the whole thing was going to fail and we would end up with a pile of melted butter and chocolate, but in the end we triumphed. I think a lot of it is all the reading I've done about pastry and the dire warnings of keeping everything cold. When I actually set out to put stuff together I realized I already have done things like this when making bread and pie doughs. It took all day, but most of it was letting the dough sit in the fridge and the rest of the day we could wander off. The results were amazing, and tasty to boot :) I kind of want to explore this more, so we'll see what happens.

It might be spring...and omg we got a new dog!

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:13:29 GMT

Hello hello,
It's gloriously above freezing now. I'll enjoy it while I can cause inevitably we'll get heavy snowfall in the next six to eight weeks. Then again, there might be a certain charm to making snow men in May.....
we've got a new member of the family. Our older dog died in December, and we've been kind of mopey about it. Mom's been trawling the rescue sites ever since, not really committing to getting a new dog, but finally one night I told her to be serious about getting one or to stop spamming my inbox with links to dogs we'll never own. So after going through some of those links and the application process, now we have a new dog, and boy is she a sweetie.

The rescue shelter named her Sukie, and we've decided to keep it cause the foster parents were telling us it took her a long time to learn her name, so we don't want to confuse the poor thing anymore than necessary. She was rescued from a puppy mill, and was pregnant. She lost the pup and it had ruptured her uterus, so they had to do some pretty extensive surgery to save her...eep! She's 4, which I think is a good match cause our other dog is 12 and I don't think she would have reacted well to a puppy who wanted to play with her all the time. We haven't had her long, but already she's proving to be a real sweetheart, snuggling with us on the couch and trotting around the house. She's still nervous around new people, especially men, but she warms up pretty quickly when she figures out you just want to pet her. It breaks my heart to think of what might have been done to her before she was rescued. As you can see, she's super cute too. We have plenty of land and soft couches, so we're hoping she'll get less skittish and be a happy dog here :)

Adventures in Breadmaking Part 1: Somerset Cider Bread

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:09:18 GMT

Actually, this is far from part one, for me anyways. As a kid I watched my dad make pizza dough and even got to help out in some kneading occasionally, but I didn't really get into it on my own until high school. I made a lot of loaves that even door stops would laugh at, but through trial and error, and then discovering better books on bread making (ie, not Betty Crocker) I've gotten to a good place with bread making. I have some old favorites that make up the bulk of my everyday bread (I hardly buy it anymore) but I do like to experiment and push the boundaries of what I can make. I've got a lot of pictures stored on my hard drive of my experiments from the past few months so I'll slowly be posting them.

I've gotten my Dad more into the bread making fold as well, so most evenings we'll show off our ferments to each other and drive my mother mad with talk of baking stones and gluten production, Still, she's happy to eat the results, and it's driven down our grocery bill, so she doesn't complain too much. We finally replaced our old and cracked pizza stone with some marble tiles. They're a lot cheaper than buying a new pizza stone and do a better job of retaining heat since they're thicker.

Right now I'm trying to teach myself to get consistent results with slashing. I also discovered our local co-op has a good price on rye flour, so I decided to combine these and make some rye bread with slash marks. Mixed with my longing to return to Englad, I settled on making some Somerset cider bread, though with some of our local hard cider. I got this recipe from Richard Bertinet's Dough so far I've really liked his recipes, and now that I'm back in a decent kitchen it's made all the difference for my crust. He's very strict on having you weigh out everything instead of using volumes, which is pretty much all I do these days since it's so much more accurate and it really does make a huge difference in baked goods. I'm getting a bit better with the slashing, and these did come out pretty tasty. Anyhoo, I'll stop my rambling and give you some more food porn ;)

The Kool-Aid Acid Test

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:48:49 GMT

While I'm pretty sure my parents tripped the light fantastic at some point in the 60s, this kool-aid test is far more pedestrian. In an attempt to get back into textile mode while house sitting and take my mind off the gloomy task of finding a job, I've been taking all my spare bits of white wool and dyeing them with kool-aid. Quite possibly this could be labeled electric too, since I used an electric cooker to make this :) I got the procedure off of this site and it has worked really well as far as the stove top directions go. There is practically no color to rinse out at the end. I also like the relative non toxicity of this since I've used chrome and alum in the past along with some pretty toxic natural dyes (funny how when you put the word natural in and folks seem to think that it's somehow all lovely and safe). However, it does make me glad that my parents didn't let my brother and I drink kool-aid growing up, so we never got a taste for it. The idea that a chemical I could permanently stain wool with going into my stomach....yeah. I meant to get blue, but turns out tropical punch is red too. Does anyone know if raspberry is the blue one? In the end I'll probably stick to regular acid dyes cause they're cheaper overall , but using kool-aid means I can dye in the same pots I cook in, which is an added advantage, and I've been having fun playing around with mixing colors. Here's some pics of the results. The lighter one was 2 tropical punches and 1 grape, and the darker one was 2 cherries and 1 grape. I also had more yarn in the bath with the lighter one, but that went to a friend before I could take a picture.

Goodbyes

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:25:11 GMT

Hello All,
This will be brief, but just writing to say that I've moved back to the States. I can't deny it's been great to see family and friends again, but I find I still love the UK and am heartbroken every time I leave it. I guess this past year's been good. I was on the fence about a lot of things in my life and living over there was sort of a testing period if you will. I'm pretty sure I'd like to live there, I felt so at ease and in tune with the people and how things are run. I know I'll be back, but it still feels somehow like a failure that I had to leave.

My dog also died on Friday. He was 17 and not doing too well at all. He went while laying down in his favorite spot in front of the fire and there had been talk of taking him to the vet to be put down, so I'm infinitely grateful he got to die at home. I'm gutted though, he was such a sweet dog, and we had him for so long it was easy to think he'd just be around forever. We buried him up at my grandparents farm, cause he loved being there chasing the wild turkeys and the land will stay in the family so we can always go visit him.

Yeah, I know this isn't a very cheery entry given that the holidays are coming up. However, there is some good in all this. I got to come home to see my dog before he died, and even though I had to leave the UK, I learned a lot and it's given me some new goals. I'll update soon, as the holidays have given me a lot of opportunity to do a lot of cooking and textiles.

Be well everyone

You've Gotta Be Warped to Weave

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:33:39 GMT

Okay okay, that's a really bad pun, but every profession has them. In any case, I've just spent a lovely week in Nayland doing some weaving, something I had to give up when I came over here, so it was really nice to be sitting in front of a loom again. I've not used this technique before so it was also good to be learning new stuff ontop of refreshing the basics. I'd happily talk about the structural detail, but I find when I do that to non-weavers their eyes glaze over after the first sentence, so I'll spare you all. Pretty much everything I know about rug making I've learned from Jason, along with a lot of practice and some spectacularly ugly rugs (I made a brown shag one once, it looks like I went out and dragged some road kill into the house). I was so afraid I was going to mess up a lot cause I've been away from the loom so long, but it was easy peasy to get back into routine. Really, it was exactly what I needed, getting back into weaving, being back in a village, creativity and quiet :) So I'll leave you with the promised pics of the rug (it's reversible, hence a pic of each side) along with a link to Jason's website cause he does make some gorgeous rugs and is definitely the boss when it comes to weaving them :) sorry the pics aren't bigger, but I'm still wranggling with how lj works, sigh.

Election Night

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:44:52 GMT

Though the fireworks going off in my neighborhood are in celebration of Guy Fawkes Day, I can't help but feel it only adds to the utter sense of joy in the house. I walked up to the shops to get some papers and I couldn't stop grinning. I hardly dare to hope for the future, as this is merely the first step on the road to possibilites, but it is a good place to start.

I remember the stories my parents have told me of living through the Sixties and Seventies, and those of my uncle who was at Kent State during the shootings. I like to think we have taken those lessons to heart, but I'm sure there were a multitude of other factors as well. Aside from the results, it was almost more pleasing to see such a high participation. I loathe to see and hear so many apathetic people in my nation, it is unhealthy for us to adopt that attitude so fully, since not caring places our affairs in the hands of the few that do care enough to speak or take action.

Election night was shared with </a>olivia_circe and some curious Brits that were kind enough to let us hang out at their flat and watch Beeb coverage of the election, that was far more entertaining and to the point than American networks. Pitting John Bolton against Simon Schama at 2 am, while neither orthodox or perhaps prudent, was entertaining nonetheless ;) It has been intriguing to in part see my country's election process through the eyes of another nation, and it has I believe helped me to think more critically about politics, especially when being asked by non Americans about the process, policies and attitudes.

All in all this was incredible and amazing, and even though the future stil looms uncertain, I feel better about coming home. I could probably be more eloquent about all this, but I haven't got the words

Peace everyone

Risotto with Sauted Mushrooms

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 22:15:58 GMT

In the past few years this has become one of my favorite dishes. It is creamy and filling, with so many wonderful flavors, many of which can be changed on a whim. It also happens to be what I made for dinner tonight and thus I was able to photograph it. I went with a pretty classic interpretation, using white wine and my absolute favorite, mushrooms. So, as both winter and the election approaches, it is good to have something comforting at hand to ground and nourish you. I do hope people give this a go, cause it is really very tasty.

Not only was it one of my first forays into Italian cooking beyond Americanized versions of lasagna and pizza, but it has taught me a lot about improvising in cooking. Many a time I have found myself with left overs needing to be used up, that have worked perfectly in a risotto. Equally, I have found myself enthusiastically in the middle of making risotto, only to discover I am out of an ingredient and had to make something up on the fly and found the new creation to be delicious. Not all of them have worked, but it has helped me to make educated decisions about flavor combinations that do work.

There is a certain amount of detail that one needs to attend to while cooking this dish, but once you have that sussed out, it offers a wide array of options in terms of flavor. All manner of meat, herbs and vegetables can be added. I have seen everything from cucumbers to raspberries put into risottos and they all look delicious. The trick is that the vegetable or meat in question needs to be in bite size pieces and prepped before going in the pan. Prepped basically means cooked if it is a meat or a vegetable that is not really eaten raw or a fruit that you enjoy eating hot. It also does well to note that while variety is nice, your chances of putting something on the table that actually tastes good are greatly improved if you limit the items you fold in to around 2, definitely not more than 3. I'll add my commentary to the directions and ingredients, as some stuff might be new to people and I'll share what I've learned from making it over the years.

I've made risotto from tons of recipes and I'll be honest, they're all practically the same and I've gotten to the point where I don't really even measure. So, this is sort of an amalgamation of all those recipes, but if you'd like something more definitive I'd recommend looking at Jamie Oliver's site or going to Lynne Rosetto Casper's The Splendid Table, as I've found them to both be excellent for making risotto and beyond.

Ingredients

2 Cups Arborio rice. This might also be labeled as Italian or short grain rice and you should find it either with the other rices or in the international section.

1 Medium onion or enough shallots to equal about one onion, finely diced or minced. I often use the food processor to speed this up and avoid tears.

2-3 Cloves Garlic, minced. If you're using the food processor for the onion, do this in there as well.

4 Tbsp Butter, unsalted preferable

2 Tbsp Olive oil. If you don't like the idea of using that much butter, you can switch the proportions around.

1 Cup white wine. White is tradtional, but if you want a stronger flavor go with red, but your rice will turn purple.

5-6 Cups chicken stock. you can substitute vegetable stock if you like, or any kind of stock really.

Salt

Pepper

Grated Parmesan, at least a 1/4 cup, I probably end up using about half a cup.

Juice and zest from a lemon.

Prepped vegetables or meat

Directions:

1. Chop onion and garlic. Get out the meat and vegetables you want to put in and get them chopped up too and put them off to the side. Measure out the rice, wine and fats. Place the stock in a saucepan over low heat on the back burner, or if you have an electric kettle, put it in that and turn it on. If going down the electric kettle route, once you've brought it to a boil you'll probably only have to reheat it once. The aim is to keep it hot, but not boiling.

2. Over medium low heat, melt the butter and oil in a saute pan or large frying pan with relatively high sides. Once the butter has melted add the onions and sprinkle with a bit of salt, go easy though cause the parm's going add saltyness at the end. Cook the onions till they're soft and then add the garlic and cook for a further 30 sec. Add the rice to the pan and get the grains coated with oil, then leave it alone for about 4-5 min, or till the grains look opaque. when you first coat the rice with the fat, it will go translucent, but toasting the rice will make it go opaque again and add nuttiness to the party.

3. Add the wine and turn up the heat to medium. You want most of the alcohol and liquid to burn off, so you can get the creamy factor going and not end up with super boozy rice. Now time for the stock. Add about half the stock to the rice and turn the heat down to low, you want to see a little bit of bubbling, but not much at all. If you're adding dried herbs, now would be the time to put that in so it will get a chance to rehydrate and mingle with the ingredients. Leave the rice to cook for about 10 min, stir every once in a while, till most of the liquid is gone and you can see the bottom of the pan when you draw your spoon or spatula through it. This is when you want to be cooking your veggies and meat if you need to cause you're not really doing much else while the rice cooks.

4. Add a bit more stock and wait for it to cook off. Repeat this about 3-4 more times till the rice is cooked or you have no stock left, it should take another 10-15 minutes. The rice is done when it's soft, but still has a bit of a bite to the center. You'll see the sauce form as the cooking takes place, this happens cause the starch from the rice comes off and thickens the stock, you want it pretty oozy, but not soupy.

5. When the rice is done and you have it at a consistency you like, take it off the heat. Stir in the parm, lemon juice, pepper and give it a taste to see if it needs any more salt. Usually not cause of the parm and stock and salt at the beginning. Then fold in the vegetables and meat. Done.

Recipe Index

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:47:23 GMT

I'm putting this in the links section so once I've built up a fair amount of entries, you won't have to trawl through all the posts to find stuff. I'll put up new categories as I post things that fall under them and I'll try and do my best to index stuff right after I post.

Sweets

Chocolate Truffles

Pasta and Rice Dishes

Mushroom Risotto

My Kingdom for a Truffle

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 21:45:31 GMT

Hello All,
As promised here is the first of my food focused entries. I know that I've been teaching a few of you to cook, so I thought maybe this would be a good way to show you the process through pictures since I can't be standing next to you all the time. I'm also doing this to document my own progress with cooking, and hopefully capture some triumphs as I explore new territory....

I couldn't resist having the first entry be devoted to chocolate. I adore chocolate, but have been intimidated for a long time in actually doing anything interesting with it after years as a young teen reading through cook books and being warned about seizing and tempering. These days, after learning baking and bread making, chocolate doesn't seem that scary at all, but I find my education in the subject to still be lacking. This of course is the perfect excuse to get a new book, but that's another story ;)

In lieu of any truly specialized knowledge, I'm starting off with something infinitely simple, truffles. I know what you're thinking, truffles can't be easy, they're so posh and decadent looking. Trust me, truffles are easy, and you look and feel like a million bucks when you serve and eat them to boot.

all you need is:

227 g or 8 oz dark or bittersweet chocolate, if you're feeling very lazy, use chips.

240 ml or 8 oz heavy cream

cocoa powder

you can either do this on the stove or in the microwave. you need to pay more attention with the microwave, but you only mess up one dish this way. For both chop up your chocolate fairly small or dump your chips into a glass or metal bowl. For the stove, heat up the cream till you just see a bare simmer and some steam starts wisping off the top. Pour the cream over the chocolate and let sit for 5 min, then stir till smooth. For the microwave, pour the cream over the chocolate and nuke for 30 sec at a time. the bits of chocolate won't be completely melted, but when you stir it, it'll feel soft and the residual heat will melt the rest. Don't over do it, chocolate burns easily and tastes horrible when burnt, with no real way to repair it.

Now stash the bowl in the fridge for at least two hours. you want the ganache (french word for chocolate and cream mixture) to be pretty firm, you can speed this up by putting it in a wide, flat vessel so the mixture has more surface area. Once it's firm use a melon baller or small spoon to scoop up about a teaspoon's worth of the mixture. Roll this into a ball with your hands quickly and drop into a small bowl of cocoa powder and coat the surface. place the finished truffle on some parchment or wax paper. repeat for the entire batch. you'll want to keep these in the fridge so they stay firm, and I also recommend using gloves when rolling cause this is pretty messy. But oh so tasty :) see? it truly is that simple.

I leave you with some photos of the process, hopefully it'll give you an idea of the process. Sorry for the not so good quality of these, I'm still figuring out photographing food, and I kind of left it too late for any natural light.
Hope you all enjoy :)

Autumnal Musings

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 23:44:49 GMT

Wow,
Nearly Halloween and more than a year on from when I started this trip. No longer am I in my little flat with K and M, but that's the way it was always going to be. This autumn has been what I needed in some ways, and I've done an awful lot of thinking about the future, but I suppose when you're young, that's about all one can do....

My new place is much better in many respects. Don't get me wrong, I had a great time with my flat mates, but let's face it, that was the smallest flat ever, in not the nicest part of town. It's much quieter here, I don't have semi trucks thundering past my window at all hours and my room is bigger. I used to live with these people, but as my host family and we seem to have picked up where we left off quite easily. They have two very cute dogs, which is also a plus. I love having pets, so even when they sit and beg for food, I still can't regret having them around.

There are three other Americans in the house, students living in the same room I was a few years ago. They're friendly enough, but I am befuddled by some of their habits. I'm beginning to wonder how British I've become over this year. They're also my little brother's age, which makes me feel old. They said they'd never really recycled before coming here !?!?!?! my liberal, green living mind is agog at this. no recycling? I've been trained from birth to recycle, it's like breathing at this point. sigh. That and none of them can really cook, they do things culinarily that make me cringe, but I hold my tongue, cooking isn't everyone's forte.

Aside from frantically filling out applications I've been going for long walks in the park nearby and knitting mittens, it's quite joyous, especially now that the leaves are turning. Not as beautiful as New England's of course, but then, I am a bit biased in that regard ;)

Alright, I'm off to bed, but there shall be new and different posts quite soon I think. too long has this journal been lagging. I may not do fic, but I do cook, so look out for cooking related posts folks.

as always, be well.

The Great UK Adventure

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 23:40:28 GMT

Hello Again,
I know, my god, I'm posting more than once a month. I did promise a recap of the trip and here it is. I think I'm going to break this down into location or periods of travel, as we were pretty inconsistent in where and how long we stayed. I suppose I should start at the beginning.....

It all began when I picked the Frumpys (the collective name my mother and aunt have given themselves) up from the airport and we got the rental car and drove back to my flat through London traffic. This of course was the first of our fun, but slightly harrowing experiences on the trip. On a good day one is lucky if they remember what you told them in the morning and even luckier if you can hold a five minute conversation without them getting distracted. London traffic is awful, even at off peak times, so it was rather a miracle that the car came out of the whole trip unscathed. That said, we only had a few near misses, and I should concede that my aunt's driving skills, while scary at times, are excellent. So once we got sorted we made our first push north on the M1. I love how the sign for the M1 promises that by taking this road, you shall eventually reach a mysterious place called 'The North'. I'd not been very far north before this trip and while I'm aware that there is a north/south rivalry or sorts, this sign sort of hit the message home a bit more, I'm sure it's not meant that way, but now it's stuck in my head.

The first major place we stopped to have a look around was York. I loved York a lot. Didn't get to wander on the walls nearly as much as I wanted to, but I did get to meander across the bridges and through the streets winding our way towards the Minster, which was massive and beautiful, even peeping through the cracks of sky in between the shops. From there we headed towards the coast and Whitby, to camp for the night. We set out the next morning for Edinburgh, but stopped off at New Castle for lunch and wandered around Berrwick Upon Tweed in the afternoon. I ate more fish and chips on this trip than I have the for the entire year, and I think I shall not be having any for a while yet. New Castle, while certainly not as pretty as York, was friendly, if a bit rainy. Berrwick was even more rainy, but I did get to walk on more walls and that is always fun.

We ended up staying in Edinburgh the longest cause my aunt has relatives there and free and friendly housing is always a plus. This was my first time to Scotland and I think I might just be a little bit in love with it. It rained most of the time we were there, but despite that, it was still really, very lovely. I could just list off all the sites and museums we went to, but I think then this entry would really just end up being a list and become very dull. Seeing the castle and being able to look down on the city from the cliff was fantastic, and we even got a bit of sun. The parks and gardens were gorgeous as well. I love how easy it was to escape the city and be almost directly in the forest or at least in some rolling fields. I miss this so much by being in London. From Edinburgh we made our way west, through Glasgow and down to the lochs. On the way over we stopped at Stirling Castle. While we visited numerous castles on this trip, this one stuck out cause they had a whole house devoted to tapestry reproduction and my weaving self could not resist having a gander at their techniques and results. The drive south was gorgeous, full of lakes, hills and many many trees. I could really go on and on gushing the pastoral merits of this place. The hostel we stayed at was quite the thing as well. It was a large house built in the 1860s, very fairy talesque. The frumpys were convinced it was an actual castle, and would not listen to my appraisal until all their hopes were dashed by asking the woman at the desk. I might have been a wee bit smug after that ;)

Finally we crossed the border back into England. We spent a morning in Mary Port to see their Roman museum and a bit of Hadrian's wall. My mother had confided to me at the beginning of the trip how excited she was to be seeing the wall. I warned her that most of it is just earth works or crumbling away, but she was having none of it. Mary Port of course, proved me right as the only thing left of the original fort and wall, was the earth mounds on which they had once been built. She has an enthusiasm for history, I'll give her that, but it's the grasp of evidence and reality, that escapes her. She's very much tied up in the romance of things. Having seen this we had a jaunt through the lake district, staying near Cockermouth one night, and then working our way through Windemere where we saw the most fantastic garden, so we spent the afternoon wandered through all it's paths. The second night was spent in Kendal, a nice town with a lovely river and pubs.

Our next drive brought us to Liverpool. The frumpys were in heaven as I waved them off at Albert dock for the Beatles tour. Now, don't get me wrong, I love the Beatles, a lot. I had the dubious distinction in grade school as being the kid who liked Sgt Pepper over Thriller, but I doing the pilgrimage thing just seems a few steps too close to stalkerish for me. Liverpool held an even greater opportunity for me that afternoon, since there was a massive exhibition of Gustave Klimt works on at the Tate. My student concessions ticket was worth every pence as I made my way through room upon room, of not only his paintings, but furniture, jewelry, clothing and all manner of things that had been designed and created by the man. Unfortunately I was left waiting about for a while since the frumpy's tour was late, but overall, the exhibition was worth it. We stopped that night in Chester and spent most of the next day there checking out the shops and walking along the city walls, before heading south for Wales.

Northern Wales, while definitely a very distinct landscape, reminds me the most of home. I'd been camping in Snowdonia a few years ago, and it was lovely to return to the area. The most distinct and amazing feature is the large piles of slate that glaciers have left sitting in amongst the mountains, and mist is always drifting around. I think if I was given free reign over where I could choose to live, I think that area would be in the top 3. We spent a day seeing Caernarfon, both the castle and the town. It's definitely one of the more interesting castles we'd been too, and even though I'm deathly afraid of heights, it was worth overcoming that to climb the towers and look out over the coast and the town below.

From there we drove down to Cardigan....well, rather we thought the place we were staying at was near Cardigan. Later we found out that it was in fact much closer to Aberyswyth, about 40 miles back, but by then it was 9, so we ended up crashing at a B&B. Even though we cocked that up pretty bad, overall we did alright considering we went most of the trip by paper map and printed out gogle directions. The frumpys had brought a sat nav, but the thing was techy at best and by the end I think they were sick of the voice and ready to chuck it out.

My birthday was spent driving from Cardigan to Oxford. I've not had a "normal" birthday since I was about 15, and something mundane or weird invariably ends up happening on the day, so I have come to expect it, and this year delivered by making sure I was on the road for 6+ getting motion sick in the back of the car. We did stop in Cardiff to see the Welsh Assembly and the Bay, the Assembly being the last on my list of UK houses of government to see, and the Bay was just really pretty, plus mum bought me a 99. They also made it up to me by taking me to a really nice pub for dinner. Actually, we were walking down the road looking for pubs and it was the second and more friendly one we bumped into. So, if you're ever in Oxford and happen upon the Cape of Good Hope, I can say with confidence that it is a good place to eat. My aunt had the lamb and squash tagine, and my mom and I got chicken, red wine and bacon pie with mash and leeks. If nothing else I had a good evening sitting back on the bench savoring my pie and sipping on my lager. The frumpy's got a bit tipsy though so I had to slowly heard them back to the hostel, while they stumbled and giggled along.

The last day was a bit frantic, waking up early in Oxford and getting on the road so they could catch their flight back. I said goodbye while we were in the grocery store. They wanted to get tea and biscuits to take back and I needed to restock for the week. It was odd, but then, I've never been any good at goodbyes. It was strange enough seeing her in what I have come to know as 'my' Sainsbury, but to be hugging her goodbye in the midst of looking at some rocket was even weirder. Ah well. I was really glad to have taken this trip. The frumpys had their moments of cultural/social gaffes as they always do, but translating for them was kind of fun in it's own way. I'd seen some of southern England before, and my jaunt to Snowdoina, but this was by far the most extensive trip I've taken across the UK. The more I see of here, the more I love it, and at the risk of sounding completely soppy, this trip definitely did nothing but confirm that.

phew, a long, dragging post I know, but I had to put it down sometime. Hopefully I didn't bore you all too much.
cheers everyone

Hamlet, moving and other forms of madness

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 22:14:18 GMT

Hello All,
I know it's been a month and I've been horrible and not updated. I recently traveled pretty extensively across GB and I shall be putting that in my next post cause it really deserves it's own description. In any case, I shall be relating more recent events here. Backwards I know, but hey, when has that ever stopped us before?

So life has pretty much gone into dissertation/finding somewhere to live in September. I fear the dissertation problem shall not be solved till September, but I do hope to be putting a good dent in it this week. The moving issue seems to be solved however, which is a load off my mind, since I've been slowly freaking out about it since about April. My old host mother from my semester abroad here said she has a room free and will rent it to me. I liked being with them a lot the last time, so I think this shall be a very good thing. They also have dogs, and I miss mine a lot, so at least I can look forward to some surrogates :)

Right, so my weekend in Stratford Upon Avon. K has been so stressed from work, that she made her R make arrangements for them and I found my own B&B. Even though we really only met up for the play, I think it was just a lot less stressful this way and heck, we live together so it's not like we don't see each other. right, back to the story. So I caught the train and settled in for a nice ride with my David Sedaris on the ipod and cracked open my Mastering Weave Structures (oh my shameless nerdy ways). it was fairly quiet until we stopped at a station about half an hour away, when the carriage was inundated with teens, clearly on their way to some sort of event, evidenced by their glow sticks, bottles of wine and costume jewelry. Stratford station was also a bit of a surprise as the transport police were out in force to meet the horde of teens. I later learned that there was a rave going on in Stratford. The irony of this makes me grin.

Found my B&B, which was lovely and not too far away from the city centre. Found a Bible and bad romance novel next to the bed, and thus ate my curry while laughing at poorly penned lines of cheesetastic passion and devotion with a Christmas theme, written in the mid 90s. I had a few hours to kill so I wandered around town. Stratford is beautiful and I'd really only been there before to go to the museums so it was nice to just walk around and get a feel for the place. I meandered over to the theater, said hello to the ducks and bought a program. Met up with K and R , and discussed our journey's. We got standing seats, cause they are cheap, but we still had decent views of the stage and standing that long was actually not that bad.

And as for the play itself.....it was really well done, and the cast was really tight. I've seen Hamlet done on stage at least 4 times before this at varying levels of professionalism, and there are some pretty consistent problems with how it is put on that I think were really well addressed in this production. I think a lot of the problems stem from over acting, or making things very morose cause we all know that so many people die in the end. Hamlet has lots of funny lines, and a wide range of emotions are expressed and I think the idea of it being a tragedy kind of overtakes it when it's being performed. This was definitely not the case on Saturday. Not only Tennant, but everyone really pulled it off. Particularly how they handled the subject of Hamlet's madness. There were funny moments of it between him and Rosencrantz and Guilderstern and especially with Polonius. okay, and there was also the part where they were sending him off to England, had him strapped to an office chair and Tennant said 'wheeee' while being wheeled out. These were countered by really intense scenes, like when he jumped in Ophelia's grave, or was curled up in a fetal position, rocking and crying his eyes out.

There are also really dark sides/themes which again, I think get lost in the foreshadowing of death. There is the obvious moral theme of revenge and the torment of that eating at him. Hamlet has had his world let him down, but this is something I think happens to most people at some point in their life, and it can seem like madness. He had a parent die, and that's never easy, you think they're going to be there forever and I can't imagine suddenly losing that source of support in your life. He's also discovered that people he thought he knew, things he felt sure of in the world were not as pure or what he thought they were. He discovered his uncle was a murderer, that people he thought to be his friends could be bought into performing tasks against his interest, and he found out his mother was willing to sleep around and marry quickly to assure her position of power. When your world view alters that much, I imagine you'd start questioning yourself a lot too...In any case, I have a degree in history and studio art and cannot claim to be well learned of theater or plays, but I did enjoy this production a great deal and how they decided to handle the material.

And now for a paragraph that I shall probably be blushing and slightly regretting committing to....well not paper, but you get the picture. This is my paragraph of shameless tennant oogling. what can I say? I adore pale skinny men in suits and he likes to deliver on those factors a lot, especially in this play with the suit (I prefer suits to tuxes, so this was a particular treat), the tux, and the t-shirt with the buff man chest on it. Whoever was doing costuming was sympathetic to the hetero female eye, and whoever decided that he should untie his bowtie and start unbuttoning his shirt has my thanks ;) I was definitely of two minds during the play, one trying to enjoy it for the theatrical production and the other shamelessly enjoying the view, though in my defense I got distracted by the weave structure of one of Ophelia's dresses and started trying to figure out how to recreate it in the back of my head. Of course, that only exposes the true extent of my weaving nerdyness. So in the end, I got drawn into the plot, but also managed to do a lot of drooling, all of which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Post play I parted ways with K and R and wandered out of town and back to the B&B with Jeff Buckley on the ipod and feeling that post theater buzz. Rode home the next morning with a carriage full of quieter, hung over teens and enjoyed the rest of my Sunday. While I wish the US would have better theater culture, I'll just have to enjoy it for as long as I'm here and savor it :)

Peace Everyone

Glass Ceilings and the Road Ahead

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:06:51 GMT

Hello all. Things are pretty good, even if a wee bit scary. I say scary, really it's just the unknown, and I've done the unknown before and lived to tel the tale. So really, things are pretty good.

Basically, my life has become my dissertation. Though now that I have work, I suppose that will become life too. It's all very......I'm excited, but it's like......It's like something unexpectedly blew up in my face, but the result of that explosion was better beyond anything I had been expecting in the first place. I love it here, even when I hate it, and now I get to stay. It also makes life simpler in some aspects. For months, well since I got here there was always the fork in the road of whether I would try to stay after and recently had gotten pretty intense, but for the time being it is solved with this job and I don't think I fully realized just how much it was stressing me out. Sure, I'm going to be slightly paranoid till I walk out of that office with work permit in hand, but I'm on the right path. Well, I'm on a path, one that I happen to like a great deal. I'm slightly terrified I'm going to do the procedure wrong and they'll kick me out, even though I check all the time to make sure. sigh. I don't think it would be much different if I went home. It's like I need that little prod of fear in the back of my head to keep me going.

I'm loving my dissertation. I've been reading personal accounts from women who grew up in the 1950s. Even though so much has changed in terms of education, technology and social policy, it still feels so relevant. It's really gotten me thinking about this career I've chosen and the choices I'm going to have to make in the next few years. An apt quote comes to mind oddly enough from that Monkee movie, Head. "The trouble with kids these days is that they might get exactly what they want." I know I'm doing what I set out to do, but there is much yet to go, and I'm rather excited by the prospect....I think.

April Showers

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 23:23:34 GMT

Hello all,
yeah, it's been a really long time. sorry bout that. April was a bit crap, for various reasons. In any case, I've just noticed it's spring so I've been taking in the green and hopefully am on my way to getting over April.

My main gripe with April was my hard drive failing and having a ton of work due at the same time. That said, I did get the problem fixed by some very nice and helpful people and I did get my work in, albeit not in the manner I had hoped to. sigh. Now the crunch time begins for the dissertation....eeep! I really should have more confidence, but I think I'll have to build up to it.

I went to Greenwich park the other day, and found it to be fantastically lovely. It was raining (typical) but it was just so green and trees were blooming and it was just the right place to be. Went to the maritime museum and saw the coat that Lord Nelson was shot in. There was some lovely nautical equipment, but I'll be honest, I was more into the coat and the other textile artifacts they had on display. E and I oogled the historical bits and caught up over tea. After that we walked up to the Observatory to see the prime meridian line. So, I stood in queue to stand on a line, a british experience if ever I've had one.

Doctor Who is finally back on the screens and I'm yet again able to get my fix. I'll not talk plot cause people are either not into it or have some decisive opinion on spoilers, so it's safer just to keep silent on it. Still, it's all very lovely to know it's there. Doctor Who's been an entertainment staple since my childhood and I suspect I'll be a semi closeted whovian/sci fi nerd forever.

The flat's been pretty empty these days. M went home for a bit, and K has been over at the boyfriends or also going back home. I've noticed I've been baking more in response to that, mainly cause I know I'll have the kitchen to myself, except for the mouse that's taken residence there (he's been dubbed Jerry). Our oven is odd in that the heating element is on top, so essentially it is a very adjustable broiler as opposed to an oven and I burn the top of things a lot, so it's been a lot of fiddling and testing. Is it crazy of me to fantasize about my dream kitchen? someone left an Ikea catalog on the bus the other day and totally got sucked in. For some bizarre reason Ikea seems to fuel my uber domestic side, a dangerous prospect considering I have the smallest kitchen ever and not that much money to spend. ah well, one day.

As a reward for turning in my work, I got a new cookbook, a nice Cook's Illustrated one, I've tried some of the curry dishes and they've all turned out really nicely. I accidentally bought self rising flour at the shop last week so I've been making biscuts. I do have a recipe for cinnamon buns.....hmmmm.

I know I've said it before and I'll probably mess up again, but truly, I'll try to update more. honest :)
night all

Fic: Rory's writing prompt 1

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 19:31:26 GMT

Okay, this is my first real whack at fiction. I'm still learning how to lay out dialogs and whatnot, and my punctuation and grammar are shit. The prompt is behind the cut.

Frankenstein 1

Pick the five most interesting words on these two pages (52-53). Write a conversation between two characters using all of those words.

words chosen: recapitulation, elixir, transmuted, impossibilities, grappling

The rain had started to trickle down Diana's forehead, but she didn't mind it much. Head to the sky, she contemplated the overcast afternoon.

"What are you doing out here?"

Glancing across the garden, Diana saw Iris coming from the side of the house.

"Hello yourself. It's a lovely day, I thought I'd go for a stroll."

"You're mad."

"So I've been told."

Iris shook her head, and turned to leave. Diana followed her as she headed down the path towards the front of the house. Wanting a cigarette, Iris sat on the steps and slowly went through the ritual of pulling one out of a packet and fishing around in her jacket for a lighter. when the paper finally lit, she turned to Diana.

" And what weighty issues have you been grappling with today Lady Di?"

"Why do you insist on calling me th- oh what's the use? Nothing too strenuous, in answer to your question. Truly, I was feeling cooped up in the flat and wanted some air. You're home early."

At once, Iris launched into a lengthy monologue about her somewhat new boyfriend and their date from the night before, pausing only to take an occasional drag on her cigarette. While the details were slightly altered, Diana couldn't help but feel that this was yet another recapitulation of the commentary on Iris's love life that she'd been hearing for the past few months now. It was a sort of ritual at this point. A nudge on the knee shook her out of the thought

"I said, I bet you would love it if your boyfriend showed up in high heels, eh?"

"Sorry. Mind wandered a bit there. Heels? mmm well I'm sure he'd pick out more fashionable ones than I ever could. Better legs for it too."

Iris shook her head as she turned to grin.

"Well, mine certainly aren't up for the job, and since I refuse to shave or smother them in some supposedly magical elixir, I imagine they'll be staying that way."

Flicking the cigarette end down the concrete steps, Iris watched the last ember burn out before turning back to her flat mate.

"Hey, we talked about this before, you just need to take charge."

"I can't just transmute into this vixen, not for just some random stranger. I'm hopeless with timing, best to not tempt fate and be sure I'm reading him right first. Still, impossibilities have a knack of happening when I least expect them. I'd be better off having breakfast with Alice. "

"You're so weird."

"Thanks."

Iris shuffled up to the door, but turned before she went in. Diana looked up again to see the rain had stopped.

Frankenstien and other romantics

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 16:06:32 GMT

March has freakishly creeped up on me. Things have been looking up, I just needed to pull myself out of the funk. I've had to be a bit more proactive with myself this year in the happiness department. The jury's still out on if this is a good thing or not, but I think that it just might be.

There's a shit ton of work due soon, but oddly I'm not freaking out too much. I've been planning my dissertation topic mostly, though I still haven't pinned it down. I know I'm leaning towards women's history. I loved doing my paper on it last year, and am intrigued by the directions I can go with it this year. I sometimes look back and think how odd it is that I like it so much.

I think that I have made the classic blunder of falling for the stereotype of women who do women's studies. I am not an angry man hater, far from it. Thinking about this has made me sit back and revaluate if I am a feminist, and if so what does it mean. I think I am a feminist, I believe in equality of the genders and that seems to be the one meaning most people can agree on. It seems a reasonable belief, I wish no ill will on men or any other section of humanity. Coming back to my original fascination with the study of women's history, I like it because it is history, because it is another piece of the story. Not because it is going to further any political or social agenda I may have about women, that is not history. To study history one must be prepared to have missing pieces and dark stories that don't fit your ideals. It is the story of ourselves, and one cannot ignore that we have cocked things up quite a bit at times. Thus, I like doing these papers cause it gives me a better understanding of what I have known before. I could go on, but I really, it would be a completely separate rant.

On a more fluffy note, I have had my second successful dabble in Czech cooking. M was waxing poetic about these fruit dumplings her mother makes, and I wanted to have a go. I discovered that the library had a Czech cookbook, so I've been having a gander at it for a few weeks now. Czech cuisine has this dichotomy of sweet and savory that is unlike anything I have encountered before, and it's fantastic. So you make this sweet yeast dough and wrap pieces of stone fruit in it and then boil the dumplings. when they're done you put farmer's cheese, powdered sugar and butter on top. I would never think to put the cheese and sugar together, but it works and the whole thing is actually kind of refreshing. I made a few bad ones at the beginning cause I didn't boil it long enough and I needed to cut the fruit pieces smaller, but after M put up with some testing, she declared that it was good and fairly authentic. I'm well chuffed if I can get that response from a Czech on my first go at this, and apparently it's one of the harder dishes to make. The only trouble was the cheese, I couldn't find the Czech cheese so I went with haloumi which is a bit too salty. I'm thinking I'll try other stuff out, the cookbook is a bit off in the measurements, but I think I can work around it.

As to my odd subject line, I finally finished reading the copy of Frankenstien Rory gave me at Christmas. I'm now working my way slowly through the writing prompts she has given me, so I shall be posting those fairly soon, or at least the first one. If you happen across them, do comment, and give me constructive crit, cause I've never really written fiction before and thus am dipping my toe into new waters with this. They're not based on any fandom, I've tried to start one a few times, but something in my head demands I write my own thing at the moment. Reading Frankenstien has encouraged me to read other romantics. I'm sure Rory will be pleased. I've taken to picking out interesting passages or poems and writing them out and illustrating them with pen and ink. Not sure where it's heading, but I like the process so far so I'll stick to it.

We finally got the key to the back garden! I've been going out and just putting my feet on the grass. It's something I take for granted at home, but is so precious to me in the city. When it gets a bit warmer I think I might take my pen and ink out there and bask in my tiny slice of green. Sigh, back to work. Hopefully I'll be posting stories soon and if I'm lucky, someone will read them.
Be well,
--Liber

London's burning but my head's at sea

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 23:10:38 GMT

Sorry! I know, I totally meant to update. Ah well, I'm doing it now. I'm finally on break this week and I shall try and look back on January. I know it's still winter, but here it is starting to look a lot like spring.......

    Right, where to begin. Well, second term has started and it's going pretty well. I've totally gotten into manuscript studies as it combines my love of books, making things and history. I'll be looking into a dissertation topic in this area I think.....sigh, I know, I'll have to commit here soon. gah, I'm a bit frightened at how time has flown here. It has hardly rained all week, and has been warm, well warm for London in the winter.

    Mainly I'm having a motivation problem. Silly, I know. I want to get on with it, with life, I want a job, a house with a garden and some chickens and a dog. Getting on with it, means doing stuff this year. This is the part I can't quite figure out. I'm enjoying classes and what I'm doing, yet I'm having a hard time with bringing all this work home. I think I just want to be zapped to a few years in the future, but I wake up to find myself here and now. It's a bit like floating along and then realizing that everything is blurry cause you're really drowning. Even that didn't come out right, sorry I seem to have a knack for particularly bad/gruesome analogies. Things have been strange this week.

    Camden town burned up pretty good, I think it will bounce back though. If nothing else that is a section of the city well suited to survival, and people want it to succeed. Pretty surreal, but then, it always is when something like this happens. London has burned before and she's always carried on well, I have no doubt she'll carry on, she always does.

    I went to see my old weaving teacher and had an excellent time. And I got out of London. As much as I love it, I was not born a city girl and to some extent will never belong in one. I miss the trees and the quiet too much. It was a relief to go to the village, something familiar in a much more fundamental and unconscious way than my own London town. And to see weaving! I miss being able to create cloth like that so much. It's been getting me to be thinking about what I want and need next year, and possibly for life. Everything changes though, and so dramatically. I sincerely hope I am not and never become a drama llama, but this year has proved a rollercoaster in the emotions department. Mainly I've been sitting on my doorstep being a bit homesick this week. I'm still bumbling about in the dark really, but I'll get there in the end.
Hope everyone is well
-- Liber