tap my glass

Thats about all i can say (recipe here, flour used was brown rice though). New jobs rule too. They’re scary as fuck, but they do rule. Especially when you sit in a meeting where your director and lead dude babble for more than an hour about the feature you’re doing, and most of it flys over your head. Thats fun stuff. O, and day old pizza made fresh with a gluten free crust including teff, ya thats right TEFF flour, is used. Super kick ass. I also tried some gluten free gnocchi using rice flour, very different, must try the leftovers to know for sure. More to say, but little time to type amidst stuffing my face. I guess i can say the predictions i made here are coming to fuition, and that i probably will be working 9 to 10 hours a day for a long whiles.

I often wonder, not why we’re here, why we’re given this opportunity, but why we are given the power to experience such happinness and such sadness. Extremes are fundamental to our existence. Some people live there lives on one end, some on the other, and some constantly fluctuate in between. I wonder if you were to take all the individuals on the planet, sum all their respective happiness/sadness scales, what you would get? Would it be in the center? On the sadness side? Happinness? Is there some global/universal quota? Perhaps me being happy means taking it away from someone else. I have to assume this is not the case, if i’m going to continue with my optimistic attitude for this new year, new life i’m loving leading.

The cleanse is done. It was a complete success, although i probably needed a few more days (not fully clean if you know what i mean). Little “easing off” took place yesterday, started with oj, then sweet pink lady apple, then some organic sweet potato soup (not mine), then veggies and salad along with some WAY too salty olives… then a banana and more soup in the aft. Dinner was succulent, tofu pho and veggies at golden turtle, holy crap, animal based broth ok, but WOW. That fried tofu they stuff in gets more flavour than any beef they could, i suppose cause of the beefy/oxxy broth, but i don’t care, spectacuLAR! The night ended with an oven at 425, some walnuts and hazelnuts, and when ready, roasted chestnuts and red wine…. ok , then it ended with toblerone, lindt, and chestnuts. I really need to try/make some chocolate covered chestnuts. O baby.

My holiday has begun, i have little to say but much to do and think about. My birthday is coming up, and i’ve got a list a mile long of things i’d like to accomplish next week. I’ve tried to organize it, i hope i’m realistic.

In the meantime, if you’ve never had a persimmon, get your ass to boushy’s and pick one up. They’re 1.50, and pretty cool. I’m waiting for the one it the pic to get all mushy, apparently then it’ll be good. And if it isn’t, the sensation you get from biting into an unripen one is so unique you have to try it at least once…. bitter bitter bitter. The flesh is so tasty, like a peachy mango, but your lips will pucker like crazy!!! I had a salty pistachio to cure it, but there are probably better cures. O what a feeling.

I hope you all have a merry holiday and don’t let crap like not buying enough xmas crap bum you out. I’ve decided it just ain’t worth it this year, selfish yes, but nobody thats worth anything would wish the bummering on you… i certainly wouldn’t.

Life has been hectic. This has been perhaps the most fully featured 2 weeks of my life. In the following 4 categories i will rate the amount of activity - a relative scale is used, relative to previous life developments:

Home life: 70%
Love life: 85%
Cooking life: 54%
Work life: 90%

This is all i can say. My prediction for these numbers 4 weeks from now…??

Home life: 30%
Love life: 85%
Cooking life: 75%
Work life: … this one, i just can’t answer right now. I’ll know more on friday.

Is this all to subtle? Probably… only so many details can come out at a time, and i guess now is that time for no details at all… how about this. I’ve got 50 or so pages left in Rohinton Mistry’s “A fine balance” and i plan on lying in bed right now and finishing it. I’m exhasted, and this will be the earliest i’ve gone to bed in months probably. Phew.

O, and put some chestnuts in your tomato based pased sauce. Roast them first of course, then add em. They’re an excellent meat substitute/replacement. Just don’t add to much other jazz, except perhaps some mushrooms and cream… ya, rose that bitch up. Damn, thats what i forgot. Next time.

So i stayed in today. Cooked, cleaned (a bit), listened to tunez, played some tunez, screwed up what i was trying to bake, did some laundry, watched tv, computerized, and drank some wine. I tried baking some rolls - i screwed up the first batch, cause while i did the preferment step, i forgot to add it!! Then i said “flours cheap, lets just do another load and see which tastes better” (i talk to myself all the time, so i really did say that)… i’m pretty sure the preferment load does taste better, but for the 4+ hours of prep, its definitely a skippable step! I gotta figure out how to get a thinner crust too, mine were thick. And not smooth at all. But pretty tasty, warm bread is always tasty.

I did do up the turkey broth too. Made a turkey gumbo with massive cajun spices, shrimp from the freezer, beans, golden beets (what the hell are those anyways!), and a whole wack load of other stuff. Damn kickin cayenne action knocked me in my ass, but is dang satisfying! Tons leftover, lunch and dinner for the week, woohoo!!!

Do you think i’m cooking and enjoying cooking to escape from something else? In retrospect, this is a good possiblity… on 2nd thought I’m going to ignore that moment of insight in favour of putting the leftovers away and having another glass of wine.

Ok, so the ingredient of the week has to be: peanuts and/or peanut butter.

I only had an hour or so to chill, decided salad was the best bet. Wanted to try a new dressing, couldn’t find any decent peanut based dressings, and had a peanut craving (since the recent peanut butter soop). So i remembered an old recipe for a pasta with peanut butter sauce, but of course no quantities… i could’ve looked it up, but what fun is that??

I put about 1/4 cup of smooth pb, some soy sauce, some honey, some red wine vinegar, some sesame oil, a bit of water, and a pinch of cayenne (not enuf to make a dif, perhaps more next time). I also added some garlic and ginger powder, again, not enuf to make a diff. Dang, it was good dressing (i’m gonna cut up some apples and carrots and finish it off as a dip tomorrow)… bought some spinach and sprouts at boushys on the way home… then i added “what i had lying around” (ha! i love reading that in recipes, you can learn so much about people by what they have ‘lying around’… observe:) - a carrot, a shallot, some mushrooms, walnuts, pumpkin seeds (too salty but o well), almond slabs, a tomato, and some pepper. It was a damn good salad, and dang, i can eat a lot of salad. And i did.

Other than that i played poker tonite and lost a whole bunch of money but had a good time with my friends. Some times i wonder why i bother, other times i know its cause its fun. This is only half of one of those times.

I think i need to do some research into flour and bonding agents. I tried to make some sweet potato gnocchi tonite. Decided to try sans gluten with some gluten-free hempseed flour i had. Also tried my previous no-egg recipe… i’m sure any semi-educated cook could tell me this is doomed to fail. What is there in this mix that will hold the cooked potato/flour mixture together… NOTHING!!! I think you need gluten. Or eggs. I don’t know what gluten is, but i should probably find out. The sweet potato, my fav food du jour, needs to be worked into one of my other favorite recipes, gnocchi. Homemade gnocchi, while time consuming and precarious, is incredible.

Luckily i bought some storebought pasta this past weekend… fettucelle. Its basically fettucinni perhaps missing a mm or 2. Did my first tomato based sauce of the ’season’ - today, being the last day of summer (o how i will miss they), couldn’t be a better time to usher in the comfort canned tomato based sauce. Remember though, table cream (18% i think) is no substitute for whipping cream (35%). If you’s be adding it to add that fattening flavourful kick, and you want to call someting “roseh”, use the good shite will ya? Speaking of which, are there any cream substitutes that don’t involve dairy? This has got me thinking i can alleviate recent tummy woes with a dietary change… why do i drink what is naturally intended for calfs anyways? Marketing? Culture? Mom? I’m old enough now, i should be able to figure out why i “drink milk, love life”.

And then afterwards in a nutshelll….. ate, watched family guy, friend came over, went to clocktower, played with plastascene(sp), watched strange creatures come to life, eyed strangers inquisically to no avail, walked a friend home through centertown ghettos (ya right!), played a game of pool, organized future dart meetings, learned that the mill restaurant has decent waiters but the prime rib’s too expensive for them to know what it tastes like, and finally, spent the last pint of beer on a cab ride home after walking thru a pool of water in the entraceway hall…. phew. Its amazing how you can think so little happenned but have so much to blab about. I could say so much more, but will refrain for the time being. Nice people were met and talked too, for this and recent anti-shy actions i am grateful, it was a terrific day.

“Your love life will be happy and
harmonious.”

“In youth and beauty wisdom is rare.”

2 fortunes for lunchtime pho is great. Both arrrrrrrr so true - the latter ensures i be not too arrogant and self swabbin, and the former tells of the riches to plunder through a life nobly led. Arrrrr.

Eat your mighty sweet potatos like this, just don’t miss the 1/2 juice of the lemon else you get the naughty scurvy.

Recipe (not mine) is here.

I had a full evening.

My day started unusually, especially for a monday. I was up before normal, and was at my desk at 9:07. This is about 30 minutues earlier than usual. Work went quite smoothly, and i was home round 6.

I had many options. I decided, as with most mondays, to just follow my instincts. I had many things on my agenda:
- dinner
- excercise
- social behaviour
- house work
- dart practice

The last one is because my dart season starts tomorrow, and i haven’t practiced at all in the past few months… anyways i’m happy to say, my focused mind (which of late, has been rare) came through in the clutch.

I went for a relatively short run - after my horrible showing on saturday (barely lasted 17 minutes) i did a short run (which for me is about 30, from here, straight south on percy to the canal, to the little glebe park and through it, back to percy, and home). It was great. I guess my cold and respritory illness is waning. I got home and started to fry onions, red peppers and garlic as per this african peanut soop recipe. I’ve been meaning to try this recipe for a week or so, basically to prove that anything involving a can of diced tomatos as half the bulk is never good… i think i’ve been proven wrong.

I had my shower, then finished off the dish. It was actually pretty good. I used chicken broth (sans msg) and cayenne instead of chili powder, but it was pretty good, very satisfying. Something about crunchy peanut butter, you can’t go wrong. I’m still kinda shocked - i think improvements could be made too. More simmer time, slightly less tomatos, and some blending, would probably of made it super kick ass. It didn’t need any salt either, most soops do, i guess the pb had enough.

Anyways, after that… i did the dishes. Then…. i watched some tv. Then… i took out the recycle. Then… ok then i realized i had enuf time to paint the ceiling of my bathroom. So i did. It only took like 30 min. I was quite impressed.

Ok, after that i got dressed (its hot today, after shower, just shorts, quite comfy), and sk8ed up to aloha to meet my buddy. Had a very nice stella, whilst listening to the empricals or something. Normally bands don’t play on mondays as bimal normally does his dj thing, but this monday was different cus the band is going to china or something. Anyways, they were loungy and quite good.

After that pint, off to the oak for some much needed dart practice. To my surprise 2 good regulars were already playing, and so i got some quality games in… saw a couple jump the ‘fence’ and dine and dash… Dave tracked em down, good for him!! Bunch of savages in this town…

As i was paying my tab saw S and said hi. She was with her sis, post backstreet boys concert… ahhh girls. Guys like me are so silly. I don’t even know why she’s appealing, just stupid irrational chemistry i guess, but arggg!!!

Sk8ed home wanting a cigarette REAL bad… if i had only bumped into dart folk outside but i was so streamlined i didn’t think to look. Good thing, i’m sure i’d regret it in the morning. I wonder if i can do it though? And by do it, i mean, when i really want a smoke, thinking it’ll add to my immediate enjoyment for the evening, can i? Will i be ok? They say a smoke or two a day is fine… hmmm. I’m not convinced, but i’ll probably learn the hard way.

So it was a full day.

I woke up to check my email, realized i’d botched shite large at work, stressed, went to work, brought timbits, discovered the flaw and corrected, and still felt uneasy.

Got home, decided it was the day to try pea pasta. So i did. Here’s the dough:

It worked out ok but i was WAY short on flour. Started with a cup each of all purpose and durum semolina, ended up adding probably another full cup of all purpose. Had to do the roll out, add flour, roll out, technique. Haven’t had to do much of that since i switched to durum semolina as the half flour base. But today, absolutely necessary. And after all thats said and done, hows it hanging:

And final product:

It was quite appetizing but pretty damn heavy. Cooked too much too, shoulda tried freezing some… next time, in the cold long winter, once i remember to appreciate the goodness all a hot tomato based sauce has to offer, i will try the same pasta with that. Pesto may have been a bit much.

Then, heavy tummied, i went to see of montreal at barrymores. It was… n’t as what i was expecting, but it kinda was.

Based on my limited exposure, i assumed beaty happy go lucky indie pop. And thats pretty much what it was… during the show i had commentary to myself like crazy, less of it is here now. I did see a beer store girl… and a pretty hideous shirt on the lead singer, but i was wearing what he woulda called a pretty hideous shirt, so thats ok. They did play the one song of theirs i know well, bizare celebrations. It was cool. I guess i like climactic music, or at least was expecting that. Based on their loose roots with elephant 6 and neutral milk hotel, i expected more i guess… i guess i just love that style. There was no “in your heart there’s a spark that just screams”. Agg, pipe dreams. But it was good.