Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Too much?

Yesterday the professor told me in front of everyone in the class that I am extremely analytical. I didn't quite know how to take it and so I waited until the end of class to ask her if that was such a bad thing. Her answer was that no, that it meant that I was really thinking about the subject.
But it got me thinking, and doubting of course, whether I sometimes push too far. I am well aware of the fact that I tend to look for what is not said, what is not implied and what sometimes is not even thought of. I often want to go beyond what is obvious and look deeper into things.
I've been known to dig in so deep that whatever I was digging for is no longer an issue. It sometimes has come to point of annoyance, an although I have that little voice on my shoulder telling me to stop I don't know how to.
I question everything, absolutely everything. But, shouldn't there be a point of just accepting things for what they are?
What marks the difference between a quizzical mind and a provocateur?

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Mojo

I've lost my cooking mojo. No the pleasure I get out of cooking mind you, it's more like the cooking that comes out of that pleasure... null!

I've had the bright ideas:
Stuffed zucchinis and tomatoes with ground meat that has simmered in onions, herbs and a little wine, topped with Parmesan. All accompanied with rice and a salad of cut-up lettuce and chunks of avocados. Sounds great doesn't it? The zucchinis and tomatoes were dry! I didn't make the damn tomato sauce to top it all off with and the vinaigrette on the salad was well, too vinegary.
The following day, not letting past fiascoes get the best of me, I embarked on yet another culinary dare: Crepes filled with shrimps and crab meat, topped with a spicy Bearnaise sauce, and an endive salad. I wasn't holding my breath on this one. I mean, how bad can I mess it up, right?... famous last words.
Although I did cook the flour for the Bearnaise enough, (good thing too because if not hubby and I would have to most definitely sleep in separate quarters lest we want to suffocate each other, anyone that has ever eaten uncooked flour in butter knows what I mean) the end product was, well, not appealing. Oh it tasted alright, but the crepes disintegrated and so we had a blob on our plates, a shapeless, unidentifiable-to-the eye blob.
Today I decided to cook some of the vegetables we have left: Japanese eggplants, mushrooms, a tomato, the inside of the zucchinis I had set aside when I did the afore mentioned stuffing fiasco, some garlic, onions and for color chopped up the leaves of some green onions.
Garlic,onions and veggies? can't go wrong... or so I hope. Watch them be over or under cooked and have no flavor whatsoever.

So I'm trying here people, although somehow the days of putting together a meal with no worries are gone. But I won't give up... I will find the damn mojo, whatever it takes, even if in the process hubby begs me to stop while holding his stomach in pain. I will get it back!

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Kawabonga! (and now what?)

I've been trying to finish this post for about a week now and I'll be damn if I don't finish it today!
A few things are no longer current or accurate, but I feel like being bipolar so I will add a 'second voice' to the damn thing, just for kicks.

Spring break! yeay! (spring? what spring? I'm freezing my butt off here!) OK so for this girl the only thing that it meant was that I wasn't going to class for a week and a half, but still... yeay! not getting up early this Saturday is plenty for me at this point (not yeay, not even close to ye, I still got up early for no reason whatsoever, didn't even enjoy it).
Mr N and I decided to hit the farmers markets that are close by (would have been nice IF THEY HAD BEEN OPENED! yeah I'm organized like that... pfff), OK not thrilling but a change of pace. Seriously, I'm just enjoying being able to not have any obligations (besides cleaning, doing laundry, food shopping...). Period .
Mr. N has been in a spring cleaning mode that leaves me thrilled. The bedroom has a whole new look, the walls have been washed, furniture moved... I'm in heaven! In this household we move furniture ever so often and it gives the apartment a fresh new look that we love... for about 4 months and then we move stuff around again (and still moving, there's clutter everywhere).

And this is where I left off. Full of optimism for a week packed with exciting things to come, and what happened? Nada, not a damn thing besides the usual day in and day out. Serves me right for 1) not looking at the weather forecast, where I would have learned that we were going back to winter-like temperatures, 2) being a wimp when it comes to having to wear layers to go out and 3) thinking that one week off after months of getting up early would make ANY difference. Like if.

So the week has come and gone and I've done nothing to take advantage of it. We're promised warmer (read above freezing) temperatures for next week, whoopity doo! couldn't have been while I was off... noooo.
So I guess I'll have to wait until summer to actually get a life. At least I won't have the weather as an excuse for not having one!