Tortilla Espanola

disclaimer: I don't know how to insert a tilda over the n, so you'll just have to forgive me. Thank you.

Despite having a cold, I've been into cooking this weekend. Usually, I try to focus on one main meal for the weekend's cooking accomplishments, but somehow I've managed to be adventurous in between the sniffles and coughs and hazy fevers. I especially like it when my head spins because I bent down to get another pan from the cabinet.

I got a new cookbook for Christmas, Barefoot Contessa/Back to Basics. I flipped through it and I immediately knew I had to make Tuscan Lemon Chicken this weekend. It was SO good, and it came out looking just like the picture. I served the oven roasted vegetables from the book also. A nice lady at the Wegman's butcher counter wished me luck with the recipe, so maybe that's why it came out so well. I digress.

So, this morning, when the cold really got into full swing, I was clicking around the internet while I had my coffee, and I saw this recipe for a Spanish tortilla. I've always wanted to try this out, and I think when I've tried to make it before, I just ended up making potatoes O'Brien or home fries and scrambled eggs because I already knew how to do that. This time, I resisted the urge, and stuck to the recipe. It was so yummy. The potatoes were perfectly done and creamy, and flipping the tortilla was easier than I thought it would be. I served it on my cake platter. I think that next time I'll add something green, like thin pieces of asparagus. I didn't have any leftover from the oven roasted vegetables, though. Oh, and instead of the Spanish paprika, (because who has that?) I just used a little cayenne for color and a little spice.

I'm so glad I tried new recipes this weekend! Now, a hot shower and more Tylenol.

*Photos taken by my new iPhone!!!! Also a Christmas present: my cold, from le nephew. Thanks, E.

I don't like it when ...

* ... people don't pronounce H's at the beginning of words. "Yooston" instead of "Houston". "Yuge" instead of "Huge". You get it. I think it's the people from the midwest who do this. * ... news anchor people are perky before I've had my coffee. I have my coffee at 6:20ish a.m. Is it so hard to just postpone the perkiness for an hour? Come on, people. * ... people don't fill out the address forwarding card when they move so the post office will have permission to redirect the mail that's sent to their old address, aka, my current address. Ms. Benescoma, I'm talking to you. Ditto, Mr. Iverson. I can't even do anything about it. I've written "return to sender", "not at this address", etc. I keep getting their mail. Don't they notice they aren't getting any bank statements?! * ... I wake up an hour before my alarm will go off and can't fall back asleep until ten minutes before the alarm does finally go off. This is why I couldn't stop yawning this afternoon at work. It was that kind of sleepy where your head wobbles and you startle yourself when you realize you're supposed to have control of your head.

Merry Christmas - here's an old shirt

OMG. From the archives of "HOW DID THIS GET PUBLISHED?" comes this article from the Houston Chronicle. It can't be a coincidence that I read this article on the same day that I read "It's Official - we've been in a recession since last December".

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/features/6141573.html

Headline = Holiday Hint: Get Creative with wrapping paper

Here's the cut-and-paste version of the article:

In these days when every penny counts, don’t waste your money on wrapping paper. There are multiple ways to wrap presents, many of which can be achieved with stuff lying around your house. Save money, think green and surprise your family and friends with gifts wrapped in one of these five alternatives: 1.A tea towel, old or new. 2.Newspaper, or any printed paper, including old maps, pages from atlases or colorful magazine pages. 3.Layers of tissue paper with leaves tucked between them. 4.Vintage fabric. 5.An old shirt. Cut the back off, wrap the shirt front around the gift and secure the sleeves on top with string.

The lowlights:

1. The tea towel, (gag), is open to being either old or new. Old or new?!

2. Tissue paper with leaves tucked inside? I don't even get it. Why do we need to go outside and pick up dirty old leaves? The tissue paper is the only suggestion that makes sense. Why ruin it with leaves?!

3. She wants me to do what with the sleeves of an old shirt? From vintage fabric (which only a chic person would have lying around their house, so I'm trusting that this option at least has potential) to tying an old shirt around a box, and then on top of that, to not even TRY to disguise that it's an old shirt, but to openly flaunt the shirtyness of it by tying the SLEEVES on top of the box?!

I expected to read an article about how to create interesting patterns with wrapping paper, or how to make your own bows instead of buying the cheap ones with the peel-off backs. Instead, I received advice on how to make my loved ones' gifts look like:

Sam doesn't even want to be near it. Even HE can tell there is something wrong with this picture.

Moon + Venus + Jupiter

This morning, the weatherman on the news told me that we would be able to see Venus and Jupiter very near the crescent moon this evening. I didn't think much of it since I usually forget about those things by the time you actually get to see them (it doesn't help that these things seem to happen in the wee hours of the morning). Tonight, however, I lucked out! While I was driving home, there they were, in the night sky. Here is an artist's digital rendering of the sight:

The moon is the closest to us, naturally, at only 252,000 miles away. While flying home for Thanksgiving, the Captain announced that we had reached our cruising altitude of 37,000 feet. That's only a measly 7 miles.

If we got to the moon, and looked back at Earth, the Earth would appear to us about 3.7 times bigger than the moon looks to us from Earth. That would be a BIG "moon".

Venus is 94 million miles away, and Jupiter is 540 million miles away. The next time that the crescent moon, Venus, and Jupiter will be as close and visible as they were tonight will be November 18, 2052! I'll be 72. Here's hoping someone wheels me outside to see this again.

I want an iPhone!

Since the iPhone was released (the first one), I've been ignoring it. Yes, it's beautiful. Yes, it's awesome. "Blah, blah" was my reaction.

I guess I finally drank the iKool-Aid, because I HAVE GOT TO HAVE ONE. It happened all of a sudden, just like a switch was turned on, or maybe someone wiped the windshield clear so I could see. I need it.

I've been Googling and staring at eBay for days. I don't trust the hackers on eBay promising me that the iPhones they have for $700+ are unlocked and ready for any GSM carrier. (Why do they have a no-return policy then? What if you can't find good service?!) Congress is trying to work something out, or they were trying before the economy popped.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9879554-7.html

Can't we all just shut up and sell SIM cards, which will either be tied to contracts or a pay-as-you-go service, and then have universally compatible handsets for sale separately? Then, I could walk myself to the mall next door, march straight into the Apple store and skip out with an iPhone for mois. Is that so difficult? Who would deny me such cell phone happiness? What have I ever done to the world?

Make it happen, people!

Somebody better make it happen soon, because my frustration over being in cell phone contract jail until February 16, 2010 is going to give me gray hairs.

Laughter can be dreadful

Remember the song in Mary Poppins about laughing? I can't figure out how to post this video, so here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx7lz5X2vKk I know a person with many annoying laughs. Let's call her Jane. Jane sometimes hisses like a snake. ssssssssssssssssssssss Other times, Jane wheezes like she's going to have a heart attack. Which gives me a heart attack, because I naturally assume I'm about to see someone clutch their chest and fall over. Frightening. She will even cackle on occasion. I don't think I've ever cackled. What can come over a person to make them cackle? I don't understand that emotion. Why is laughter, a positive thing, sometimes so annoying?!

To launder or to pack?

I realized just a few minutes ago that I would actually rather pack than do laundry. Packing is awful! Why would anyone in their right mind rather pack up all of their belongings three whole weeks before they're moving than do a load or two of whites? I'll show you why.

Here is the UGLY laundry room I have:

All of that mess on the wall is because there was a leak last month and the maintenance peeps said they would let it dry out and make sure there was no more leaky ... wall or whatever ... and then they'd come spackle and paint. (I'm not sure if spackle is the correct term here; I just like to say "spackle".) You can see the wall for yourself, so there's the end of that story.

Here is the inside of my washer:

As you can see, only about two towels and maybe a sock will fit in there. Then, during the spin cycle, the lid will bounce up and down and the entire tower of washer/dryer machinery will dance about. I feel sorry for my neighbors. I never hear their machines boogying. I want this:

What girl doesn't deserve this glossy duo from Samsung? That's laundry heaven, right there. I'll take the laundry room, too. Thanks.

Define "fat"

Breaking news - are you ready? Americans are overweight. I know, shocking. A government-funded study predicts that everyone will be fat within 40 years.

Let's take this with a grain of salt, please.

#1. This study was published in a medical journal called "Obesity". Clearly, they're a little obsessed and probably prone to exaggerate. Maybe they should go for a walk and clear their heads.

#2. Dr. Liang acknowledges that this is "really intended as a wake-up call". She admits that it's a scare tactic? Nice.

In other food news, en la France, taxes will likely be imposed on fatty foods. Now that's just not nice. All of French food is fatty! What will they eat?

How can the above two stories be newsworthy when we've got a story about how cancer chemicals are being REDUCED in chips and fries?! Pardon? I guess there's this chemical, acrylamide, that naturally occurs when you fry a starchy food. It causes cancer in lab rats. Check out this nice quote:

"Everybody's trying to figure out how to lower levels (of acrylamide) without significantly, adversely affecting taste," said Michele Corish, an attorney for Lance, which produces Cape Cod chips.

Oh, so what ... cancer tastes yummy? Couldn't we just nix the cancer altogether and just be done with it? I'm pretty sure that would make us all happier. I can't imagine that acrylamide makes a potato taste more like a potato, which is what we all expect when we eat a potato, no?

What I really want to know now is this: is this cancer story intended as a wake-up call, too? We should all stop eating potatoes in any fried form?

I guess it's one small step to save us from our impending communal fatness - no, I mean obesity.

"Crazy"

As I occasionally do, I did some dusting off in my iTunes library this morning. Sometimes, you just need to look at the songs with a zero play count and delete those bad boys. (free singles of the week you didn't like, stuff you swiped from a friend but hated - you know what I mean) Unfortunately, when I got a new laptop, all of my old songs transferred over with a clean slate, so everything started again with a zero play count. Consequently, I have a lot of zeroes.

Today, I ran across Patsy Cline. I only have a few songs, so she's easily lost in the 10 gigabytes of music, and I guess I forgot all about her. I was surprised when I saw her in there, and I decided to Google the girl. As it turns out, she grew up (and is buried) in nearby Winchester, VA. I've lived here nine years and I never knew that. More importantly, I had NO idea she died in a plane crash when she was 30 years old! Anyone who knows me knows how much I HATE HATE HATE flying. Just add Patsy Cline to the list of reasons I do. Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly & the Big Bopper are on that list, too. (Need I say more?) You always hear those stories about people who knew they were about to die. Patsy Cline supposedly knew she was going to die soon. She started giving her things away, just how old people do when they think their time is up. She wrote out her will, and asked friends to take care of her children if anything happened to her. She even referred to her latest album as her "last". Spooky. I don't think I'll forget about Patsy Cline again. All of her songs are out of the zeroes now. Here's to Patsy.

Bad Everything Days

I was talking with someone today about how sometimes you just don't have a good hair, face, figure, etc. day. Sometimes, all of that happens at once and it's the worst day ever that you could imagine having your picture taken. Imagine being a celebrity and that happens to you. Then your picture is published and snarky columnists and bloggers alike write slick lines about how ugly you looked that day. (They don't say "ugly", but that's what they always mean, isn't it?)

One day, little Katie Holmes, our sweetheart from Dawson's Creek, decided to marry Tom Cruise. On that day, there was officially no going back. The spectacle that is TomKat was born, then came Suri, and she is forever in the public eye. That poor girl never saw it coming. Look.

What could have possibly happened on this day? This is just like those days when you can't decide what to wear, so you end up trying on ten million outfits, and before you know it, you've burned 45 minutes trying on clothes and discarding the rejects on the bed, the floor, everywhere!! Then your friend, boyfriend, whoever, gets impatient and says it's time to go NOW. At this point, you resort to simply meeting the goal of covering up your body with whatever is around and run out the door, praying that nobody you know will run into you.

Poor Katie.

My dog can walk.

The best thing about having a dog is that they make you laugh a lot. Maybe not if you have a boring dog, I guess. Luckily, I don't. This is what Sam and I did tonight:

The Dark Knight

The first words out of le husband's mouth this morning: "10:00 a.m." The first words out of my mouth this morning: "Is that what time it is?" When I found out it was only 8:00, I rolled over and muttered something about making coffee. The 10:00 a.m. referred to what time we would be at the theater to see the new Batman movie. I grudgingly (so tired) got out of bed soon after, had my coffee, got dressed and rode in the car. He didn't even try to make me drive! The theater was pretty full, but not too bad. He gets snaps for picking a good movie time. He also gets snaps for taking me to see Batman.

I don't want to spoil it for anyone, so no details here, folks. I will say that at the end of the movie, I was like one of those screaming girls from the 60's whenever The Beatles were on TV or something. Fluttering heart, wide open eyes so I could take it all in, and thinking "Batman!". Just like this:

You will, too. Even if you're a guy. Two thumbs up.

Crime Scene

At the law firm I work for, there was a crime scene today. It's not what you might think. There was no gunshot, no high speed chase, no emergency calls to family and friends to let them know we were all okay. This was a different kind of crime - a silent crime. I've heard of victimless crimes before, and this fell into that category, but only depending on who you ask. It was a Thursday morning like any Thursday morning. The weekly breakfast club had donuts and pound cake in the kitchen. At approximately noon, I became aware of a scene in the main copy room. A coworker asked me if I had been to the crime scene yet. Irresistible curiosity pulled me towards the copy room. There, on the floor, was the evidence: The evidence was sloppily left in plain sight on the floor. There was no mistaking it - SOMEONE had dropped a bit of pound cake, or even perhaps a cake donut morsel (that's open for debate), and LEFT the scrap on the floor, in front of the copier. From the personality profile I have compiled, the perpetrator was most definitely a member of the breakfast club (of which I am not), which means: 1. This person is too busy on Thursday mornings to eat breakfast at home. (What else are they doing on Thursday mornings? We need a team of investigators to find out.) 2. This person may be blind. After all, anyone with working eyeballs would know they dropped such a massive bit of pound cake/cake donut and would feel compelled by an innate sense of responsibility to pick up said morsel. 3. Finally, this person obviously exited the building after committing the crime. The crime scene tape was left alone all day by all of the coworkers. Only one time was the morsel accidentally knocked out of its square by a wayward shoe. (That perpetrator was quickly admonished. No worries.) As such, our perpetrator would certainly have noticed the tape and been, again, compelled by an innate sense of responsibility to confess the crime and receive just consequences. No such confession was heard. In short, our team of investigators will need to scrutinize building security footage to narrow down the list of employees who left our office after noonish today, and narrow down that list by the Breakfast Club roster. It's all in a day's work, I guess. I wonder what tomorrow will bring?