RAR.

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Some good stuff for the new year

1.

Swiss cheese toasty: a toasted slice of whole wheat, dijon mustard, walnuts and swiss cheese. Put it under the broiler so the cheese melts on top of everything.

A little toasty makes me an exponentially happier person in the mornings.

2.

This excerpt from Mike Daisey’s show The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs.

3.

Keeping up with my Google Reader for the first time in months because of these tumblers/blogs:

Old Love

L.A. in Bloom

Southern Foodways Alliance

4.

Resolutions, which include cooking more and perhaps picking up that old, abandoned blog, cooking con booze.

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Yes yes I’ve disappeared, and it’s because I’ve moved! Packed up the apartment in San Francisco, took a brief trip to Houston and spent the last month in Connecticut cooking, picking wild berries, watching my mom’s new puppy and generally acting the lazy domestic. In three weeks I head to Philadelphia for new adventures of the graduate school variety, and even though I am no longer stuck at a desk job avoiding emails and hoping to pass the time, I promise to keep this space up in the future. So come back, dear readers, I have!

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I am taking a break from obsessively checking my march madness bracket to post this picture of the giant lily which will be keeping me company while I’m holed up in my apartment all weekend. It’s raining nonstop for the next three days, so I plan to stay in and clean house, watch games, finish my book, start another book, make blood orange jam, practice my Photoshop skiiillz and start my new blog which I will debut to you on MONDAY.

If you know what’s what, you’ll check back then.

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To Haiti.

HERE.  or elsewhere.  Now.

Since I don’t want to leave y’all with a bad taste in your mouth right before the weekend.  One great thing happened in January.

44, baby!

More awesome obama-day pictures at The Boston Globe.

Also, I just became a fan of Aretha Franklin’s Inauguration hat on facebook.  Holler!

So, I’ve been rethinking my New Year’s resolution to avoid drinking every night of the week. I’ve actually been keeping it up, but it’s starting to seem silly avoiding a glass of wine or beer on certain nights just because.  Especially since a glass of wine every evening is probably good for you. I’ve been hearing a lot about resveratrol lately. First in the NY Times, then on 60 minutes and in this week’s New Yorker, Noah Baumbach gets wasted with a mouse to test its effects. Resveratrol, found in red wine, possibly slows down the aging process and may be one of the explanations for the famous “French Paradox” (eat lots of cheese, drink lots of wine, live in France, don’t get heart disease). It is also one of the reasons I have decided to torpedo New Year’s Resolution #5- “Drink less, but better. Or something.”  Because wine is really a health food.  How did I ever forget?

And speaking of drinking…

Next time, with proper tools.

This, my meanies, is the Manhattan I made on Sunday night. D.M. described it as “Kind of good. But not.” And later added, “This is gross. I can’t drink it.”

ohhhhhhh.  damn.

First, too much Wild Turkey 101, then too much vermouth turned my very favorite cocktail into an overly sweet, bourbon-y mess. Did I let it get me down? I did! Have I been defeated? I have not!

But I have decided that to be a better mixer-of-drinks, I must devote myself to them.   I must practice.  I must have the proper equipment (no more eyeballing proportions and no more jelly jar shaker).  I must not have too heavy a hand.  I must  experiment, and when my experiments fail, I must try them again. And when they still turn out terribly, I must allow myself to dump them in the sink and open a bottle of wine.   Like they would in France!

I have been away!  and I am sorry.  First it was the inauguration, and then it was work.  I will be back soon.  I promise!  In the meantime,  a picture from The Selby.  I’m loving Jacques’s whole pad.

Cheers!!

I normally don’t make New Years resolutions – but this year I am in resolution-MODE.  So here they all are, in order of no importance:

I resolve not to spend money on stupid things (with particular focus on avoiding clothes that I will never wear.  Ahem, I’m talking about you, white tuxedo jacket).

I resolve to refrence the gazillion cookbooks in my kitchen more often.  If I’m not going to cook from them, they’re just more of the above-mentioned stupid things, bought but not used.

In keeping with my first two resolutions, I resolve to generally make more and buy less.  Did you all like your home-made Christmas presents, by the way? 

Continuing with the DIY theme, I resolve to learn how to mix my own drinks, including:

• manhattans
• martinis
• old fashioneds
• daiquiris
• other yummy cocktails from my old savoy cocktail book

To offset the above drink-mixing and drink-tasting and drink-drinking, I resolve not to booze every night.  Imbibe less, but better.  Or something.

And since I’ll have more free (and clear-headed) time to kill when I’m not drinking, I resolve to keep track of all the books I read this year with little sketches in my notebook.  I started doing this a few months ago.  The sketches aren’t any good, but they’re still fun to look back on.   In general, I’d like to keep a notebook/sketchbook/scrapbook consistently throughout the year.

And here’s where I’m tempted by the old “hit the gym” resolution.  But instead of spending more time in a certain sweaty, smelly, un-air conditioned, over-crowded Crunch, I resolve to go outside and walk more.  Ideally, I’d like to start walking to and from work.  Except I am the laziest morning person you’ll ever meet and in the evenings I’m not much better, so we’ll see about this one.

Finally, and because all my herbs were eaten by aphids while I was away for the holidays, I resolve to grow more plants.  And not to kill them.

What are your resolutions little lovelies?  Do tell!