As you may have guessed, I've been working a lot my Skype tutorial which is due this Saturday. I even took off yesterday (Tuesday) to work on it, and I'm also taking off Friday. I've typed up a good chunk of it, Tonight with my teacher's help, I finally figured out the chat function. I think it will work out all right.

Then I have another project which is called a memo, but is really more of a proposal. We have to write a memo convincing (an imaginary) library to adopt some sort of technology. I didn't have a topic for that so I asked my teacher what he thought and he suggested offering Skype at the library. I'm not sure I'll be able to get five pages out of that, but I'll try. There is some controversy around Skype so I'm sure I can dig some of that up to make it interesting.

I can't believe I haven't even posted about Thanksgiving. Me who loves holidays! The meal was completely vegan and Sweetie did most of it:we got the Tofurky kit, but he roasted the Tofurky in the this yummy caramelized onion and sour cherry relish type stuff that he made. He also made Mama Stamberg's Cranberry Relish, which is getting to be his annual tradition. I cooked up some green beans (fresh) and mashed pumpkin (from a can), and I also made an apple crumble pie (completely from scratch of course). His mom brought a fruit salad and an orzo pilaf of sorts.

It was just Sweetie and I and his parents. After we ate, I brought out some old photographs I have from my mom's side of the family and everyone seemed to enjoy poring over those with me. The ones from my grandmother's wedding in 1926 are always quite the hit. She was beautiful. I also got to hear some stories about my mother-in-law's family that I had never heard before. Fascinating stuff. I love family history. I am really blessed to have such nice in-laws. My mother-in-law even called later Thanksgiving weekend to say what a nice time they had had.

Labels: family, food, holidays, school

posted by Miss Rachel 11/28/2007 09:36:00 PM

. . .

Nothing of much excitement going on here. I have just been working, sleeping, eating, exercising, reading, watching, listening... you know, the usual. Also, I have been feeling much better lately. I imagine the Cymbalta must be working. After a little while, the nausea stopped, and then I eventually increased the dosage to 60 mg, as instructed by my doctor, and that was that.

I have enjoyed reading two books since the spring semester ended. It took me a while to get into Pride and Prejudice, but once I did, I found myself wanting to keep going to find out what would happen. I mean, I knew Elizabeth Bennet would marry Darcy, but I wanted to find out how it would come to be. The other book I read was Digging to America by Anne Tyler, and I was immediately enthralled by it. I read it in about three days. The characters and situations are SO real, and the main character makes an important and believable change in her life by the end of it. Digging to America is one of the best books I have read in a long time.

I am currently reading Victory by Joseph Conrad. Monique has said that she hates Joseph Conrad, but this was after reading Lord Jim and I have a hunch Victory might be better. Also, I am determined to read it because when I was a miserably unhappy high school junior, I took a class called The Modern British Novel and this book was one that was assigned that I didn't read. I mean I guess I must have read some of it, because I passed the class, but I was a master bullshitter and was able to pull off Bs and Cs back then while doing a minimum of work. Anyway, I want to read it now in the spirit of completion. The other books in the class (which I also didn't read) were Brideshead Revisited, Where Angels Fear to Tread and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I have since read Brideshead and Angels, but I guess I will need to complete Portrait at some point. Anyway, so far Victory is fairly good, definitely well written. I can't remember if there were other books assigned in the class, but it occurs to me that it seems a very sexist selection. I mean, there were female modern British novelists too, right?

Today Sweetie and I went out for brunch at It's Only Natural. Sweetie loves going out to breakfast and now that he is eating vegan, his choices are limited so he really wanted to try this. I told him as long as I had time to prepare mentally for leaving the house on Sunday, which is traditionally my "sanctuary" day, I would go with him. So we went. I had a cafe au lait and the strawberry pancakes which were served with scrambled tofu and homefries. Sweetie had acai juice and the scrambled tofu breakfast which was served with broccoli with vegan hollandaise sauce, grilled bread and homefries. As usual, our meals were delicious if a bit pricey. I filled out the survey that came with the check which asked if we would still go there if they moved to New Haven, and although I didn't say "we'd cry" as Laura did, I wrote that we would go much less often. They also asked where we would like them to move and I wrote "Hartford or thereabouts" or that they could stay in Middletown. I don't want my favorite restaurant to move farther away!

Reading: Digging to America by Anne Tyler
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Victory by Joseph Conrad

Watching: Serenity (2005) starring Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres et al.
The Looney Toons Golden Collection.
The West Wing, Season Three.
The Control Room (2005) An excellent documentary about Al Jazeera and the war in Iraq.
All in the Family, Season One.

Labels: food, reading, the blues

posted by Miss Rachel 7/22/2007 02:16:00 PM

. . .

Yesterday, my chief accomplishment was making a Blue-Rasp-bery Pie. Not a "Blue Raspberry" pie mind you, as we know blue raspberries only exist in the world of slush puppies, slurpees and the like. A fellow baking enthusiast I used to know, once told me he had made a baked raspberry pie, and it was a disappointment. The filling became a seedy mess. James Beard recommends making glazed berry pies (in which the berries are not baked) when using raspberries and strawberries, and even blueberries. I have to "go ahead and sort of... disagree" (tm Office Space) with him on blueberries. I think baked blueberry pie is food of the gods.

Yesterday, I decided to make a blueberry pie, and then decided to also use some raspberries. Although I have trouble making it, my piecrust always seems to taste good and have a nice texture. I like to make crusts with butter, but since Sweetie is vegan, I made the crust with Earth Balance. Then I cleaned, dried and dumped into the crust one box of blueberries and sprinkled it with Florida crystals and flour, and proceeded with a box of raspberries, another box of blueberries and then another box of raspberries. I baked it 15 minutes at 425 degrees and additional 40 minutes at 350 degrees. And it came out great! My friend Writer came over and had some and said it was delicious and Sweetie and I each had two pieces. Blue-Rasp-berry Pie is destined to be a summer tradition!

Labels: food

posted by Miss Rachel 7/14/2007 09:29:00 AM

. . .

What's Going On

We had friends over (!) for dinner last night. I made Cauliflower Curry from the Vegetarian Epicure cookbook. I served it with whole grain pita wedges and basmati and wild rice with chick peas in it. For dessert, I made vegan brownies which I served with vanilla Soy Dream and vegan chocolate chips. I also put out some Connecticut grown strawberries. Our friends brought a bottle of wine which we all drank. We had a nice time.

This morning I got up and watched the French Open. Kind of "blah" finals this year. It was pretty clear during each match that both Henin and Nadal had it in the bag. I watched another Poirot video. I'm now onto Disc 10.

Then Sweetie and I went to the cemeteries to check on the flowers. The impatiens at my dad's grave are doing great (the alyssum isn't but there isn't much of that anyway). I gave them some water and also checked out the footstone (not just a "marker") with his name, dates and the fact that he was a Corporal in the US Army during the Korean War. The footstone looks really nice. Too bad I forgot to bring my camera. We also went and found my great grandparents' grave.

Then we went to the Catholic cemetery to check out Nana's grave. The flowers there look all right so far. I gave them a lot of water and then pointed out another grave to Sweetie because it is planted really nicely AND because I was struck by the fact that two children predeceased the parents by quite a few years.

On the way back from the cemeteries Sweetie's car broke down. I called for help on my cell and then these two women came over and said they would help us push the car out of the road. They were so quick, and I was so blown away that I didn't help them at first (Sweetie was steering), but then I recovered my senses and ran over and joined the pushing. I think I said "thank you; that was so nice" about five times to them.

I had a really bad stomach ache all day, but it finally went away while we waited for the tow truck. Since we were in the parking lot of a Blockbuster, Sweetie went and got some trail mix and a lemonade. There was copy of the New Yorker in the car so I read part of an article about Manny Ramirez and part of an article on a Chinese political prisoner, Zha Jianguo.

We rode in the tow truck to the service station. Sweetie had already scheduled an appointment for an oil change there tomorrow anyway. Then the driver gave us a ride most of the way home, which was nice. We're only about 2 miles from the service station, but still he didn't have to go that way.

Now I'm going to go sit outside and drink a Reed's Extra Ginger Brew and read the rest of the article about the Zha Jianguo.

Labels: family, food, friends, life at home

posted by Miss Rachel 6/10/2007 05:09:00 PM

. . .

I still haven't done my homework, but the dinner was good. For the variables in the recipe, I used the following: olive oil, canned diced tomatoes, Yukon Gold potatoes, Imagine brand vegetable broth and chopped fresh kale with the stems removed. I have whole mustard seeds so I added those as was suggested. I forgot about serving it with lime juice, and I should have used more curry powder than I did, but the dish still tasted good. I'm thinking it might even be good left over.

Re my homework: I said to Sweetie, "I wonder if the person who wrote this book knows how boring it is." I was referring to the textbook for the class. I don't think the book is necessarily badly written; it's just on very dull subject matter. I'm hoping it will help me with my homework assignment, but I'm not sure if it even discusses what we have to do in the homework assignment. And trying to read it started to put me to sleep today... oy.

Labels: food, school

posted by Miss Rachel 3/18/2007 07:23:00 PM

. . .

Yummy Vegetarian Dish

Tonight I am making Elizabeth Bear's Starving Writer Curry. Bear is no longer a starving writer (she's actually famous now), but I can say I knew her when (she's an old "acquaintance" of mine - kind of a long story). ANYWAY, I have been planning to make this since I read the recipe last fall, and I am now finally getting around to it. I have not tasted this dish yet, but all sights and smells are pointing in the direction of Yummy-ville.

Labels: food

posted by Miss Rachel 3/18/2007 04:48:00 PM

. . .

Bookmark This Site

... if you care about not buying from factory farms: The Cornucopia Institute. Most helpful to me, especially since I'm buying dairy again, is the Organic Dairy Brand Ratings Scorecard. It's important to remember that just because milk is labeled organic, does NOT mean that the cows are treated well. There are loopholes that factory farms have managed to get through. I found this site via the always helpful Organic Consumers Association site. Just some of the brands to avoid are these, which I see a lot of: Horizon, Nature's Promise (Stop & Shop's Organic label) and Wild Oats Organic. Happily, 365 Organic Milk, which I bought today, gets a Four Cow rating.

Labels: food

posted by Miss Rachel 2/02/2007 06:14:00 PM

. . .

I went to therapy and now I feel better. I realize the source of my anger was due to the state of my job and the way that my mother won't let me express any kind of sadness or dissatisfaction. She just cuts me off or tries to deny it in some way, and it pisses me off to no end. Why can't I have my negative feelings? And she does not understand my dissatisfaction with my job. She loves my job. (FYI, I never told her about the possibility of the other job because I knew she would shoot that idea down.) So I'm still angry, but talking to my therapist helped.

Afterward I went to Whole Foods to buy (mostly) whole foods. Recently I tried to eliminate dairy and eggs from my diet, even though I love them, in attempt to be more animal friendly. However, I read about the negative impact of too many soy products in the diet and the negative impact of any soy products in the diet of people who are hypothyroid which I technically am, since I had my thyroid gland removed. I put tons of milk in my coffee so I was having about 12 oz. of soy milk a day, not to mention the soy in Tofurky which I eat at least 4 times a week, so I decided to go back to dairy, and eggs too. I know there may be other milk alternatives, but for now, I'm sticking with dairy (1% milk of course).

I also bought apples, bananas, beets, brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, popcorn, chips, "salsa con queso" dip, yogurt, cottage cheese, Florida Crystals and frozen: pizzas, macaroni & cheese, egg rolls and whole sprouted grain bagels, and for a treat, a piece of some kind of chocolate cake.

It still hasn't snowed. I guess the storm we were supposed to get blew out to sea. Evidently, the groundhog did not see his shadow so we should be having an early spring. Of course, I don't really believe that, but I am a big fan of the holiday of Groundhog Day, and think it's worth a mention. Groundhogs are awfully cute too.

Watching: Miss Marple: What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw (2004). I taped this from PBS the last two Thursday nights and watched it today. I always enjoy Miss Marple mysteries, and there seems to be a new series of them with Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple, and I especially like her. I believe this story was actually called "The 4:50 from Paddington," a wonderfully English sounding name, but for some reason they changed it for US viewers. Bah!

Labels: food, the blues

posted by Miss Rachel 2/02/2007 03:20:00 PM

. . .