08.01.07

brain dump 006 [hey, august]

worst casserole recipe of all time: combine 1 cup uncooked wild rice (rinsed), 1 lb. fresh mushrooms (sliced thick), 1 cup onion (minced), and 3 cloves of garlic (minced) in a 3 quart casserole dish; add 3 cups of vegetable broth, cover, and bake at 350 degrees for an hour and a half.
excellent if predictable and not particularly healthy fix for worst casserole recipe of all time: dish up a bowl of baked casserole, stir in a dollop of sour cream, and salt and pepper the shit out of resulting mixture.

flexible pet ownership. like zip cars, but with live dogs! after paying $150 to register, $99.95 for yearly account maintenance, $49.95 per month, and $24.95 per weekday (plus applicable sales tax), you can rent your very own dog. wow, so people who aren't committed and/or responsible enough to have a pet of their own can bypass hanging out with the lonely dogs at the pound and hire animals like bikes! apparently the FLEXPETZ dogs are rescues and/or need homes, and i'm all for them getting attention, but implying that an animal's company is a commercial product seems, to me, like a good way to encourage people to treat them like objects. that business plan makes my skin crawl.

101 in 1001: 024 grow kitchen-worthy herbs from seeds [completed may 07]
i'm calling this one; it never got to the explosion-of-herbs stage i was hoping for, but we did manage to garnish a wee salad with the basil shoots i thinned on day 29, and that's a technical pass, i say; the rest of the basil croaked a month ago and i don't have much of an interest in sending away for more of those weird chia growing sponges. melissa has since given me a bunch of really kick-ass dirt (she and our friend dave actually do their own composting, the rock stars) and some carrot and lettuce seeds, though, so i'll certainly experiment again. i just won't, um, link said experiment to a public list.

the mole. joe and i just finished the first disc of season 1, and god, that show holds up (we watched season 2 when it aired on tv back in - '02? - but had never seen season 1). i'm glad anderson cooper got to get back to the casting of the news, but he was a fantastically arch host. why the long form game show evolved into shit like age of love and couldn't have spawned a bunch of spy-themed mole spinoffs is beyond me.

the eyelash perm (at last!). "first, lashes are individually curled over rubber rollers. next, two solutions are applied (the smell is reminiscent of a perm), followed by conditioner. then you're off, to bat those thick, come-hither fringes at any eyelash curler or makeup guru in your way." sweet lord! i didn't even know what eyelash curlers were until like two years ago; they looked like props from marathon man to me. folks will process anything these days (vaginal rejuvenation patients, i'm looking at you).

oh, that interview i was so nervous about in california ended up needing to happen while i was in california, and...no. the prep i would have needed to do to acquit myself well would have sucked up most of the vacation, and we were helping a friend move when it would have taken place, anyway. i'm still beside myself, though: how often does a ladymag give you the chance to talk to the speaker of the house?

4 comments:

wabes said...

oh, i'm so sorry that the rice was a bust! certainly it doesn't doom all wild rices dishes to inferiority, but perhaps next time, i don't know...radishes? cheese? tomatoes?

tom said...

Oh man. That interview bit blows. As compensation, they really ought to give you another shot. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, perhaps? (She could probably tell some neat stories.)

sharon said...

a friend prepared this brown rice, nut, & tempeh casserole last night, and it was amazing. perhaps you will like.

http://www.recipezaar.com/13578

in boston, you can borrow a dog when you stay at a certain hotel [name of which escapes me] and take it for a run, if you want. not really the same thing. but that's what it made me think of.

lately, i've been wanting a bunny. [didn't kari have bunnies? i feel like she did. noelle had a pig, but that's not really relevant here.] i know that i should not get a bunny because i am rarely home and would therefore not be a good provider for him. plus, my lease reads something like "no pets, blah blah blah."

then someone told me that you can't have bunnies within the city limits. i proceeded to google "bunnies illegal portland" and versions of [and then realized legal language about the alleged rule would not include the word "bunnies" and promptly changed my search to "rabbits illegal portland"]. i don't think they are illegal, because as it turns out there is a rabbit adoption agency in portland where you can volunteer to work with and care for the bunnies before they are adopted, which i think sounds like a nice way of giving a bunny some love without having to walk it every night.

lovely to chat with you yesterday.

-s

lauren said...

by the by, my officemates just discovered the FLEXPETZ site and think it's the best idea ever. since i can't say anything nice, i won't say anything at all.

wabes, the nice thing about the fix was that it really was a totally solid fix - plus sour cream, that casserole was actually good. i offer this as conclusive proof that sour cream solves most problems.

tom, the really sad thing about the interview is that we almost never work with people like la pelosi - they're just not our beat - so this was kind of a one-shot thing. i'm over it, though: my Serious Interview phase should probably wait until i have more practice, anyway.

sharon, that's a bummer about your lease - i've heard house rabbits are fantastic (if you can protect your electrical cords). i had a coworker at the spca who had like four (she was also dating one of the fucking champs - which you wouldn't expect from a bunny person, really, but they were punk bunny people), and she actually carried them around in baskets. thank you for the recipe - it was lovely to chat with you, too!