It snowed until around 3 pm today! Just...so much snow. Friend L sent me a pic from her building in Manhattan and it was like the storm had barely had an impact, yet by me, even though the street had been plowed, it was all snowy again. Anyway, thankfully, my boss is also under about 2 ft of snow out on the island, so we are not going in tomorrow (the person who was supposed to come meet with us had their flight cancelled, so they never even made it to NY, so that will all get rescheduled, too). Whew.
Anyway, have some brief thoughts on recent TV:
- Shrinking: ( spoilers ) This show remains hilarious and endearing.
- Pluribus: I finished it and I don't love it but I am interested in seeing where it goes. ( spoilers )
I got up to watch the hockey this morning and despite Team USA pulling it off in OT, I do not accept that Bill Guerin was proved right in his choices. Eighty-five percent of the game was played in their defensive end and they only won because Connor Hellebuyck stood on his head. Maybe a little more scoring power on the team could have given them some breathing room. I am just saying. I'm happy for Hellebuyck and the Hughes brothers, and I got a little teary when they brought out the Gaudreau jersey and his kids, and I'm not gonna lie, watching Jon Cooper and Connor McDavid (along with Sam Bennett, Tom Wilson, and Brad Marchand) lose was pleasing to me on a deep, personal level, but overall, I'd still have preferred the Finns or the Swedes take home the gold.
I then baked some oatmeal for breakfast for the week, and made macaroni salad for a few days of lunch, and then for dinner, I made angel hair as planned, though when I actually read the recipe, it was not anything new to me - it was what I always do for a super quick tomato sauce, except they were adding chile crisp to it, which I guess is the thing nowadays - every recipe I read has chile crisp in it, but I'm not really a chile crisp person. I have the heat tolerance (in terms of spiciness, though I also don't like my food super hot temperature-wise either) of the whitest baby you know.
Anyway! It is a super easy but delicious meal and if you don't mind waiting a few extra minutes, you can do it all in one pot. Boil your pasta - angel hair is best for this, imo - and reserve a cup of pasta water before you drain it. Return the pot to the stove over low heat and add in a nice glug of olive oil (2 tbsp if you need a measurement), and then add a whole can or tube of tomato paste to the oil (so between 4 and 6 oz). Stir it around and season it as you like - I used garlic and onion powder, oregano and red pepper flakes and salt, but if you want to get fancy, you could probably saute a diced shallot and some minced garlic in the oil for a minute or two before adding the tomato paste - for 2-3 minutes, until it's all hot and sizzling. If you are so inclined, add chile crisp to suit your taste. Then add the pasta back, and about half the reserved water and toss it until the pasta is coated. I only used 4 oz of angel hair, so if you have more, you might need more water. Then put it in bowls and sprinkle it with parmesan cheese. If you are in an even bigger rush, you can sizzle the tomato paste in a frying pan while the pasta cooks and then combine it all back in the pasta pot. The couple of minutes you save isn't worth having to wash an extra pot to me, but it might be to some people.
This afternoon, I made this lemon cake because 1. I had an open container of ricotta I wanted to use up before it spoiled, and 2. I've been looking for a nut-free alternative to my favorite lemon cake since one of my nieces has a tree nut allergy. It turns out I did not have enough ricotta, but I made it up with sour cream, and the cake seems fine. It did stick to the pan in one small spot so I didn't take a picture of it since it had a gash in it, but it tastes great. The trick of adding turbinado sugar to the glaze to make it crunchy is a good one, too.
I also made dressing for coleslaw, which I've never done before - always just bought the pre-made deli version - and it's ok, not great. Not tangy enough, tbh. I wonder if replacing some of the mayo with buttermilk is the way to go. I ate some with a steak I pan-fried for dinner and that was nice. I don't have steak very often, but sometimes it goes on sale and I get it.
We're supposed to be getting between 12"-18" of snow tomorrow/Monday (wait, I just checked, and the current forecast is 39% likelihood of at least 18" if not more, wow), and I'm supposed to go into the office on Tuesday, so I guess we'll see what actually materializes, whether the streets are cleaned, and how I feel on Tuesday morning. Supposedly we're getting a free lunch, but I don't know when the consultant who is supposed to be buying it for our in person meeting is flying in, idk what is going to happen. There was some back and forth on Teams today about the storm and they are notifying everyone to be remote on Monday, which is the smart choice.
Anyway, my menu is not very cozy - I was planning on making that lemony macaroni salad for lunches, and some baked oatmeal with cherries and chocolate chips for breakfast. I do have bread, milk, and eggs, so there could always be French toast! Though I did make that on Wednesday when I realized it was Ash Wednesday (and that I'd completely forgotten Shrove Tuesday). I'll probably have pasta for dinner tomorrow regardless, since it's Sunday.
Today, I watched Batman Ninja, which features the Batfamily time traveling back to feudal Japan (but so much Joker and I am so tired of Joker), and then its sequel, Batman vs. the Yakuza League, which I enjoyed more because it has Wonder Woman in it and she's fantastic as always. It also features ( I guess this is a spoiler ) It was weird to me though that we got 4 Batboys (Jason's feudal Japan headgear is HILARIOUS), but no Cass or Babs at all, and I didn't love the art for Selina. Someday we'll get an animated version of Wayne Family Adventures and the girls and Duke will get their due!
In what is likely the only time I will be all "USA USA" about these Olympics (or basically anything these days), the US Women's hockey team won gold in OT over Canada! 🏅🏅🏅🏅🏅
Hilary Knight with the game-tying goal with 2 minutes left and the goalie pulled - she became the all time leading US scorer at the Olympics! GOATed! (She also got engaged yeserday{? I think it was yesterday? to a lady speed-skater} so she's having a time in Milan!) And then Megan Keller won it in OT - right through the 5-hole on Desbiens (who I do feel bad for - she had herself a game today after getting pulled in the previous US-Canada game)! What a sick goal!
(I don't think the overtime in a GOLD MEDAL GAME should be 3-on-3, but at least they were scheduled to play a full period - no shootout in the gold medal game.)
Of course, I was supposed to be working so people kept emailing me and calling me and I couldn't be like, "Don't you know the US women's hockey team is in OT against Canada in the gold medal game!??!" so ugh. work.
In other news, last night I was struck with a mighty strong craving for an Orange Julius, and i had an unopened 11 oz bottle of OJ in the fridge so I stuck it in the freezer, and then this morning I pulled out the blender to make it, and I think the part that defrosted enough to get scraped into the blender was all water, because it had only the vaguest of orangey taste. But I have the other half of the bottle left, so I will try again tomorrow. I'm sure nostalgia is playing a part, but there was something so amazingly good about an Orange Julius at the mall when I was in high school.
1. I had the dentist today, so I took the day off, because I am always so exhausted when I come back from the dentist. It's rarely bad, but trying to breathe through the cleaning is always an adventure I do not enjoy and it makes me tired. But I told them that the crown I got in December is mostly fine except if I try to eat almonds or other hard things, so the dentist did something to it "fix the bite." He also said it didn't look like anything was wrong either in the examination or on the x-ray, and to let him know if it didn't get better (or even got worse), so I guess we'll see.
1a. I arrived about 30 minutes early for my appointment - it usually takes much longer to get there so I allowed an hour - but they took me in right away since I was only scheduled to be there for a cleaning, and I was home before noon.
B. I was excited to see ZIBANEJAD score the tying goal for Sweden, but then Quinn Hughes won it for the US in overtime. I have to admit, I don't like 3-on-3 overtime (or shootouts!) for the Olympics. Just play another sudden death period.
iii. This past weekend, Baby Miss L went to her first princess tea party event at the Riverhead aquarium (or near there?) and the pictures of her holding court among the princesses are amazing, but my favorite picture is the one of her making a very excited "oh wow!" face at the plate of desserts in front of her. She was ready to dig in!
d. Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band are coming to MSG in May!!! Tickets go on sale this weekend! I will probably not try to get them, even though MSG is pretty much the 2nd most convenient venue he could play. (Forest Hills Stadium would be the most convenient for me, but would never happen.)
5. I've reached The Butcher's Masquerade in my DCC reread, and I think it might be my favorite of the books? It has a couple of my favorite scenes in it, anyway, including ( spoilers ) I definitely prefer the more open-world type floors than the stuff like the Iron Tangle (and I did find the cards so fucking tedious in book 6; otoh, ( spoilers )).
Though This Inevitable Ruin is also a strong contender, since I fucking love ( spoilers ) There's a lot in it that I enjoyed and that also makes me so curious about what happens next, both in the dungeon and outside of it. I am definitely writing up an epic post based on notes I'm taking on rereading, which will eventually get posted. I hope. *g*
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Current Mood:thoughtful
Current Music:I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - u2
I’m sick today – some minor sort of dread lurgy the main symptoms of which seems to be low self-esteem and the overwhelming urge to lay around glumly watching the Olympics. It’s a raging snow-ice storm outside and I am so sick of winter that I can scarcely look out the window, so I thought I’d break up the misery of the day by telling you a little story.
A little over a week ago I got a phone call that someone had an emergency (minor) and needed my help. I immediately booked a flight to the (even more) frozen (even further) North and set about packing my knitting. I’d be gone a week, I was going somewhere really cold, and to my way of thinking this somehow equalled a metric tonne of knitting that I’d be doing. I put my Self-Imposed-Sock-Club socks in there, then I put the shawl I’m working on in there, then I went and got all the extra yarn for the shawl and added that. Then I frowned and fetched a little baby set that I’m working on and have barely started and laid that on top. This I thought, this was a decent amount of knitting. Loads really. Then I opened instagram saw the Canada Mittens and thought – I should make those. I should make those right now. Actually (as the Olympics flickered on the screen near me) I realized that all the knitting in my suitcase was trash and I should make several pairs of those right now. Lucky for me the yarn shop that made the pattern and had the yarn (Briggs & Little sport, the OG Canadian brand for yarn) is nearby-ish and they have been super quick to ship in the past, and so I ordered a ball of each of the red and white, then paused… hovered my hand over the cart to checkout online and… ordered more. 2 red and 2 white. That’s lots. I’m good. I added a little note that said something like “Quickest possible delivery please” noted that I was leaving on Sunday (this was Friday and let me assure you this seemed really reasonable to me) and clicked send.
Almost immediately someone awesome emailed and said no. It was too late, there’s no delivery pickup on weekends so the soonest they could mail it was Monday. Did I want to come get it, they asked? I did. I did very much want to come and get it, but Galt House of Yarn is in Cambridge and I was in Toronto and Joe had the car and so it was a no. I thought about it for a minute (I cannot stress to you how much I wanted this yarn right away) and then asked the next best thing. Could they ship it to my destination- send it North? They could – swiftly the shipping address was changed, I was assured it would arrive there at the end of the week, and I set about maturely coping with the disappointment of waiting a week for yarn I wanted right now.
Apparently I was both terrible at this and transparent about it, because the next day (Saturday) Joe offered to drive to the shop and pick it up for me. “Really?” I asked “No…” he said “I’m just trying to torture you.” That was a joke it turned out, and Joe left for the yarn shop in the afternoon. For my part, I took Elliot skating and sent a quick email to the yarn shop telling them that my glorious spouse was on his way to get the order. A little bit later – when Joe was pretty much in the parking lot of the shop, they emailed back to say that my glorious spouse was no match for their intrepid shipping staff and that they had already shipped it – a staff member choosing to do me a solid by taking it to Canada Post themselves so it would have a head start getting up North.
I sat there, and then I laughed out loud. I’d been defeated by fabulousness and fantastic people who were so dedicated to getting me my yarn that I couldn’t have it, and in that moment I snapped, and told Joe to get more. “Just get it” I texted. “Just tell them to give you a skein of red and a skein of white just like the two red and two white they shipped. Just say that.”
Now Joe’s been a knitting adjacent spouse for a long time, so he didn’t say anything. He didn’t say “Hold on, you’ve already got this yarn coming could you perhaps … wait a few days?” He didn’t say “How many pairs of these mittens are you fixing to make Steph?” He didn’t say “My bride, my sweet – are you sure?” He said nothing. He especially didn’t say anything when after reflecting for a few seconds, I texted again and said “Double that. Just tell them to sell you what they shipped.” Moments later Joe walked into that yarn shop and said that, and you know what? The yarn shop didn’t say anything about it either.
He brought home the yarn, I cast on my mittens, putting two balls into my carry on, and put the other two balls (I wound them) into my suitcase – even though there would be four balls arriving in a few days. Nobody said a single word about that either. I got on the plane, I stayed there for a week before coming home with this much of ONE mitten knit and pretty much all eight skeins intact.
Further to that, I do not feel like this was a learning opportunity and I am happy with all my choices.
Peace out. Go Canada Go.
PS – probably worth mentioning that there are one or two spots left at the Spring Retreat at Port Ludlow in a few weeks, if you’d like to talk about yarn in person, and if you happen to be more of the day-tripper type, there’s room in Debbi’s ace class where you make a custom dummy out of ducktape and an old teeshirt. email to info@strungalong.ca if you’re the type.
I lost most of yesterday to feeling unwell and spending a good part of the day in bed, but I did make char siu and therefore did make pork buns today and as always, they are so good! And remarkably easy, too, if you follow the recipe. I still have tomorrow for doughnuts, potentially.
I also spent some time yesterday watching more Pluribus and I find myself arguing with myself about it. ( spoilers )
So I still am not sure how much I like it as a show, but I am definitely curious to see where it goes (no spoilers past "HDP" please!).
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Current Mood:intrigued
Current Music:Work That - Mary J Blige
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