Miss Cellaneous

Made it home. Made a large bowl of freshly-made steaming ( tomato-cheese soup )too.

And then, then I watched Bones, kindly alerted by chele74. Aw, I'd missed the show - Bones and Cam, Hodgins and Angela. Missed female characters who are confident and off-beat and aware, and no, I'm not just talking about the regulars. The dialogues make me laugh and their dynamics make me shake my head so fondly. Speaking of, in spite of the fact that Booth is not my kind of guy, I'm still eating up the Bones/Booth with a spoon. With. A. Spoon, people.

Little sis and the boyfriend are gone again: boo. It's a lazy sunny day after Christmas: yay.

Time for the internets culinary part of it all - tasty treats sent by the darling kskitten and kangeiko, and of course our Christmas dinner.

( Mmh. )

For some, vegan is a way of life.

For me, it's what I end up with when I have no eggs and no milk* left but really want to make cinnamon-apple-pancakes with organic Fair Trade whole cane sugar**.

* Even the last of my organic soy milk was gone. Woe!
** I KNOW, I KNOW.

(Here's a recipe that doesn't look half bad, although yet again I pity the poor souls who use Granny Smith for baking instead of the perfection that lies in apples like Boskoop. My own vague approximation of pancakes ended up tasty, in any case.)

I just got myself into ( boring & certainly pretentious-lookin' wine talk! )

Will open the Nero d'Avola now and enjoy it with my beef steak on garlic-roasted mushrooms with some cauliflowers thrown in for good measure.

I got the Spätzlepresse in the mail today! (O2, my cell phone provider, sent me that 10 EUR gift coupon, which I promptly used for something that, well, cost ten euro. 0 :-)

So now, I'll have pan-roasted venison with home-made spätzle and fresh steamed veggies--I'm thinking carrots with some broccoli. Mmh, yes.

Yesterday, I did have sushi (tekka maki, tobikko, ikura, kani & suzuki nigiri), but I found out that that was roughly 160% of my weekly allotted mercury intake right there. Oops?

ETA: I HAS WANTID TAKING PIC OF FOODZ, BUT I ATED IT.

ETA 2: Oh my God, I am so making these at some point: Apfelspötzli (Yes, yes, we're using all the umlauts we can. pukajen, I confess they *are* out to get you.)

grundbuch: *cuts tomatoes with deft & decisive hands, and also a sharp knife*
monanotlisa: You could cut them much more effectively.
grundbuch: Oh?
monanotlisa: You're cutting them in half and then carve out the green bits twice--but see, if you leave one "half" a little larger, you only have to carve out the green bit once!
grundbuch: I know, I know--but then it's not two actual, precise halves!
monanotlisa: *mulls this over* Don't you love how both of us are OCD yet refreshingly different in our approach?

Had wine and ostrich steaks and beef with couscous (I kissed him on the cheek twice during that, but it's only funny to Germans, if that) and a sauce made from fresh tomatoes, plus wine, and a Bailey's for dessert. Time for bed, I think.

Since I've already spent some time over there to to be a smartass about food share my wealth of food and nutrition knowledge--there's this new comm on the block:

1_eats_cheap, Cooking, Shopping, Eating Hints for living on your own.

This community is for trading information, strategies, hints and recipes about cooking for one. What to buy, what cookbooks and recipes you love, ways to save money and not have the fresh fruits and veggies turn to alien mush in the back of the fridge.

When we read recipes- we see: "4-6 servings?" "Meals the whole family can enjoy?" No, we're not cooking like that. How can we adapt recipes, buying strategies, to have tasty, affordable meals, and plenty of time to enjoy them, when the table's set for one?"

This being me, I of course tirelessly toot the horn of the healthy-yet-yummy options. Come contribute?

Back from two different study sessions lasting about five hours. 'course, if I could sell whatever my mind is layered with these days, Teflon would stop being the brand leader in no time flat.

toft_froggy asked for more recipes, so here's a one that I actually ate as a snack upon returning home after class because it was just. That. Good: ( Lentil curry soup )

( More food news, cut much like the bell pepper slices I added )

In the mean time, if you want distractions, lunasky has found a few useless yet funny facts.

God, I want that soap. I need that soap.

As promised to neevebrody (and written despite my plastic cast due to tendinitis after ten hours of constant writing in two days; got ten hours more ahead of me, alas):

Recipe for ( (vegan) coconut vegetable curry soup )

Random things before I head out to the Citizen's Office for Necessary Papers -- they did agree to prepare beforehand so I can just pick 'em up, yay:

1. After watching a lot of Spooks/MI-5, US-Americans begin to sound like cowboys to you. Or maybe just me. Um.

2. For the first time in my life, I made a soup (roasted garlic in flaxseed oil, added chopped fresh tomatoes and, in the very end, a finely diced yellow bell pepper, plus salt, pepper, demera sugar, and tomato puree). It might even have been good; I have no way of knowing.

3. I have no sick! icon. Why is that? ::looks v. weak & wobbly::

Made this, with ( modifications, of course )

Okay, so what I ate in the end bore little resemblance to the recipe. But I always change recipes as I see fit; vervealemania thinks me foolish, but I a) don't always have the ingredients and must improvise, anyway, and b) think cooking's an art, not applied chemistry: gotta be creative.

Also watched Supernatural 2x03. What's with the ( spoiler )

There's a documentary about Mounties on tv. Aw, N24, you shouldn't have.

As for real life -- it's picking up speed again, thank God. grundbuch and I first made curry ( details for the food fen among you ), then hit the movies (see below) before driving by his parents' place for a It's Not Flooded, Right? check-up and returning to my apartment make dessert and have a drink ( yet more yumminess ).

As for the whole film experience -- first and foremost, I was thrilled to return to the world of movie theatres. Don't think the rest of the audience even noticed me fidgeting and shifting my seating position every ten seconds, considering the steady streams of whistles and catcalls and the running commentary from the tracksuit gang sitting behind us (a classy cinema this was not). And if you think Mona reviews farcical French movies; how did that happen?, I have two words for you: ( Sneak Preview )

The always-fabulous autobadgirl sent me a parcel from Canada, and not only Canada but Québec! There was much glee upon opening it and finding, among other sparkly beauties, an assortment of Tartinades Abitibiennes. Now, you wonder, what on Earth is that? ( Here's a pic of the contents. ) Badgirl, you're even sweeter than all these babies. Thank you -- I feel very much like a prettypretty princess now.

***

In other news, I just booked a flight to London for August 30th, returning September 4th. Pray that my supervisor doesn't mind; I had no chance to ask her yet and would prefer to do so face-to-face.

In any case, my English friends (or friends-in-England, actually): Care to come to your fair capital city and meet me? I'll be paying a visit to kangeiko, and we'll be having a ball -- attending one, anyway -- but if I recall correctly, she's working, and I'll be free during the day (Thursday, Friday, and Monday).

***

Something that made me giggle: Salman Rushdie is a fanboy. I'm linking to selenak's post so you can avoid the spoilers in the original post.

***

grundbuch will be here in an hour, and we'll cook ourselves some nice curry. Or maybe it'll be naughty curry. We never know, being forced intoMasters of Improvisational Cuisine.

Life with grundbuch is infinitely better. ( Escargots à la mode, and more )

In fannish news...

...profshallowness has a poll about readers and writers of het fic. I tend to be unhappy with the limited options of most polls, and this one is no exception, but hey, go decide for yourself.

...I participated in shusu's body parts meme...which, I promise, is far less sordid than it sounds! As per her request, here's ( a 100x100 artwork featuring Lt. Laura Cadman's hair )

See Mona buy venison. See Mona run home. ( Help Mona *do* something with it? )

ETA: Prepared the second recipe eretria posted so kindly in the comments. ( Mental notes )

After coming home today -- which goes without saying, because how would I do the following on the road? -- I cooked something new. Well, new for me. Maybe not for you? ( Only one way to find out. )

And oh, if you are interested in nutrition information & cooking, you MUST check out this site; just enter your particular food in the upper right hand corner: NutritionData.Com

Why do I not have a food icon? Must rectify. Done, real quick, with the FF Eljay Icon Maker Extension.