Angry Gin-drinker is Angry About Capitalism

Oh, Lord, yinz.  Lord, sweet Jesus.  June is upon us and we are so fucking broke.  I never say we're poor -- Ted makes a decent salary, per se, and I make a ... salary for most of the year, so it's not reasonable to say we're poor.  But between debt and my natural disposition to let money run through my fingers, we're constantly broke.  But never moreso than June through September.  Being an academic is wonderful for many reasons, but the reliable paycheck isn't one of them.

I saw this dog today.  He was very intense.

How broke?  Yinz, Ted got his paycheck, and after all our bills are paid for this half of the month (the gas bill WILL be late), we've got $270 to live on until the 15th.

Talking about this shit is fraught, y'know?  Because 1) I know that we have A LOT of privilege.  Ted and I are both very educated, very white, very straight, and have supportive families that have helped us when we've gotten just too far below the waterline.  And 2) $270 is enough money to feed two people and five cats for 14 days, and we don't NEED things like trips to the movies, beer, or ... beer.  But on the other hand, I have beef with that old canard that goes like, "Poor people shouldn't waste their money on [things other people enjoy regularly and even take for granted].  They know they're poor, they should saaaaaaaave."  I have always been offended by the idea that people who aren't poor think that poor people shouldn't enjoy a nice pair of new shoes sometimes, a nice date out with dinner and a show, a nice trip with their kids to an amusement park.  Yes, those things can be costly, but the suggestion that poor people should forego every costly, pleasant thing just because they're poor is offensively dehumanizing.

Now, as I said above, though, Ted and I aren't poor, we're broke -- and frequently irresponsible with money.  (Though definitely not as irresponsible as we could be.)  But, as far as that goes, I've got thoughts too.  Look, I'm smart.  I know how to add and subtract, I know how the economy works generally, I know that I'm in debt to a multitude of usurious purveyors, etc.  But I refuse to give too big a damn about money.  Life is -- actually, really, not figuratively -- really fucking short, and I don't intend to spend mine obsessing over something as joyless as money.  I realize that this is a form of privilege too -- many people actually, really, literally have to worry about money every moment of the day, and if they don't their kids don't get fed.  No one in this country should be in that position; but the Mitt Romneys of the world like it when other people suffer, so here we are.  But in any event, I'm not in that position, thank a merciful God -- I've got $270 to live on for two weeks, and a credit card in an emergency.  And so, broke or not, I just refuse to devote my life to scrimping and worrying and otherwise doting over money, so far as it is possible for me to avoid it.

But damn yo, we are pretty broke.

Indian food and gin. How British of me.

So, in honor of that, we got Indian take away and I am drinking a bunch of gin.  Tomorrow I will go to the Strip, buy cheap things to eat like greens and chicken thighs and pasta and bread, and so forth.

You might be able to tell I already have some gin in me.  Whatever,  In summation: fuck capitalism.  Seriously.  Fuck it.  We've got five advanced degrees in this house, how are we living off $270?

ANYHOODLE.

Today my supportive mother came to visit.  She took me to lunch at Jimmy Wan's and to see Men in Black III, which was shockingly good.  She also bought us a new puzzle, so guess what's on our agenda.

Instead of ads on the inside of the bathroom stall doors, Waterworks Cinema puts up little fortunes and platitudes.  This is also very intense, I feel, at least for a bathroom stall door.

Atonement and an Onion Volcano

Today was a great day.  I did the four things I like the most: wrote, read, ate, and drank.  I also waited most of the day to brush my teeth, and spent some time cuddling kitty cats.

The writing today turned out to be an undertaking!  I got up, made myself my tea, and sat down to write a review of the book I just finished, Ian McEwan's Atonement.  Turned out I had a LOT to say about it.  I'd really like you to read it: you can find that blog here.

Matilda's all like, "Eating WHICH animals?"

The reading took the form of some random internet dicking around at first, and then I started to read Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer.  So far it's not much I don't know, but I've spent  many years worrying over the ethical questions surrounding food.  In any case, it's good to revisit the moral quandaries of eating.  Someday, when I'm a better person, I'll stop eating sausages and such.

Cherry tomatoes, butter, garlic, salt, pepper, parmesan, hot pepper flakes.

Speaking of eating, that took the form of a lunch that used up some leftover pasta and cherry tomatoes that were beginning to fade, plus some leftover trailer provisions -- not bad at all.  But the exciting part was dinner: we had a coupon to Nakama for our anniversary (which was technically on the 8th, but the coupon was good all month).  Mmm, shrimp hibachi.  Who doesn't like dinner and a show?  At least during the week -- Friday and Saturday that place turns into fucking Bros 'n' Hos 'R' Us.

HIBACHI ONION VOLCANO.

Now I'm at home, drinking wine.  Day: complete.

Dungeons & Dragons: Pretend Baseball Edition, The Trailer, and the Importance of 50 Cents' Worth of Pasta

Today's main victory was Indian Lunch Buffet QUADFECTA.  By this I mean, not counting the three days I spent away over Memorial Day weekend, I've had Indian lunch buffet four days in a row.  Today I went back to Tamarind with Friend Jay, and had a tasty lunch -- I still think they've got the best-tasting lunch buffet in the city -- and nice conversation.

Speaking of Memorial Day, Ted and I and Friend Sarah took a vacation to The Trailer, and I'm hoping you'll read about it here; for one thing, you will learn of the existence of Sponge Candy.

Ted in front of some typical rural New York art. Painted saws. Who knew.

Otherwise, today I finished Ian McEwan's Atonement, which I plan to write a full review of.  I'm ... I don't know.  I've got a lot of feelings about the book, but I'm not yet sure what to say about it.  Hopefully I'll be able to work on that tomorrow.  Next up on the summer reading list is either The Idiot, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, or Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer.  It's not a momentous decision, because whichever I don't pick to read first will get read second, but still, if anyone wants to voice an opinion in the comments about where I should go next, feel free.

Meanwhile, it seems my wondrous vacation month is over.  We exhausted this month's money over the vacation weekend (oh, the perils of the once-a-month paycheck), and there's not another one, for me anyway, coming, so we're upon our annual period of brokeness.  I've got a coupon for a nice dinner at Nakama for our (sacramental) anniversary that came earlier this month, and Mom's visiting on Thursday, which always means a nice free lunch, but otherwise.  My habit is to like things to start on tidy times, so I'm going to finish out the week as though we were still fully in glorious May.  But next Monday, since I have to be all pathetically cheap anyway, I'd like to start a routine of ... stuff.  Less-than-fun stuff, like brushing up on Russian and such.  Self-improvement stuff.  Maybe even, God help me, a little exercise.  (Lord, I hate exercise.)  So let's see how next Monday goes.

Today's other small awesomeness was dinner, which was late, because Ted was off at the bar undertaking some kind of stratometric fantasy baseball match.  I think the word is stratometric?  Stratomatic?  I don't know.  Baseball is boring as shit already, and fantasy baseball is like some sort of godawful mathematical abstraction of baseball, and apparently stratospheric fantasy baseball is like fantasy baseball except with boards and papers and dice, so it's basically like playing Dungeons & Dragons: Pretend Baseball Edition.  That's what he was doing tonight.  If he weren't already married, he'd be consigning himself to a protracted, late-life sexlessness, I suspect -- he might be anyway.  Ahem.

How beautiful is rainbow Swiss chard?  Seriously.  What beautiful leafs.

ANYWAY, in the meantime, I used the rainbow Swiss chard that remained in the veggie drawer from last week, and was only now beginning to wilt, to make a pasta.  I've published the basics of the sauce recipe already, recently, so I don't know what made tonight's extra tasty, but swiss chard and peas in creamy parmesan garlic sauce came off extra delicious tonight, accompanied by a Parma sausage.  Part of the deliciousness was that I used Colavita pasta (radiator shape!), which I picked up at the Pennsylvania Macaroni Company last week.  It's dried pasta, about fifty cents more expensive per bag than the store-brand pasta I usually buy, and I don't really know how this is possible, because as far as I can tell dried pasta is basically flour and water, but man, that 50 cents was well worth it -- the pasta itself was much better than the usual stuff I use.  I'm going to buy more after pay day when I go grocery shopping.

I'm pretty terrible at taking food blogger pictures, but trust me, this was delicious.

Other than that, Chief demanded a lot of extra cuddles because we left him alone over the weekend.  Chief's Idiopathic Vestibular Disease seems to be clearing, and the steroids are making him spunky.  There's much to be happy about, upcoming poverty aside.

His "How dare you leave me without my permission?" attitude comes across pretty well in that look.

A Lego Ragemonster Stocks Up for The Trailer

Today was a laid back day. I met my fuzzier half in Squirrel Hill (where he works) for lunch at Coriander India Grill.  (Of course Friend Sarah and I have rated Coriander!)  This means that I officially ate Indian lunch buffet three days in a row.  TRIFECTA.  There is no better $8 lunch.  Ted always orders off the menu, though -- he hates buffets; he thinks they're unsanitary.  He might be right, but if there's one thing I love in a meal, it's tasting lots of different things -- guess who has a blog and loves tapas, y'know?  Ted ordered the lamb vindaloo, and I stole a little, despite all of my buffet offerings.  Here's the thing about Coriander's buffet: it's good (today the chicken makhani was the stand-out), and I like that there are usually lots of veggie dishes (it let's me pretend the lunch is healthy).  But there's a huge downgrade in quality from the food off the menu to the food on the buffet.  Now, since the food on the buffet is still good, this should tell you something about their off the menu items -- delish.  They have the best vindaloo in the city, as far as I'm concerned, and the chana masala is also tremendous.  It's just always a little frustrating that that doesn't translate as well to the buffet as at some other Indian places.  Ah well, it was still a really tasty lunch, and I got to eat with my favorite guy!

No, I never get tired of eating Indian food.

Other than that, I just ran a few quick errands to finish provisioning for the weekend.  As previously mentioned, we're going with Sarah to The Trailer, and though we'll likely eat out in nearby Ellicottville one night, in general The Trailer exists for drinking, snacking, reading, and sitting quietly in the air conditioning.  So I've stocked up on provisions.  We're bringing:

~ Prosciutto, pepperoni, and salami from Parma Sausage Co.
~ Taleggio and Humboldt Fog cheeses
~ Whole seed bread and wheat crackers
~ Fresh apples, raspberries, and tomatoes
~ Dried figs and mango slices
~ Mixed nuts
~ A variety of olives, and pickled peppers and artichoke hearts
~ Tea
~ Dark chocolate
~ Tins of smoked oysters and clams
~ Bourbon
~ Vodka
~ Two pounds of assorted gummi candies

This isn't counting whatever Sarah is bringing, but I hear she's stocked up on Doritos, which makes me happy.  We may be overstocked, but I like having a picnic of delicious, only semi-perishable items available while I relax in the wilds of New York.

Gummi bear cubs, cola bottles, Swedish fish, and fried egg gummis.

The gummis, by the by, came from The Chocolate Moose on Forbes, which has a great selection of bulk gummis.  Also while in Squirrel Hill, I got to check out this year's Lego contest at S.W. Randall Toys.  I LOVED Legos as a kid.  You have no idea how much I loved Legos.  And it makes me a ragemonster to see how increasingly, Lego markets itself only to boys, and only in really gender essentialist ways -- back when I was a kid, there were sets of Legos, sure, but it was like, Lego Town, and you built gender-neutral things like ambulances and little stores, or Lego Pirates, which everyone everywhere could think was awesome.  And mostly, you just had plain Lego sets, which were just nonspecific giant mixes of bricks, and you made whatever you wanted; I liked to build elaborate, multistory houses, complete with furniture and grounds.  But now Lego sets are 1) hyper branded with other corporate products, like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Batman, etc., and I'm not saying those things aren't cool, but I think that corporate shilling shouldn't be ALL that Lego does, and 2) hyper masculine, with all kinds of like, combative wolf robots and stuff aimed exclusively at boys, which a) alienates young girls from the awesome experience of Lego (and suggests that girls can't build complicated, difficult stuff, which is horseshit), and b) alienates young boys who don't like hypermasculine combative war games all the damn time.  I mean, it's bad for all the reasons gender essentialism is bad, and it's bad for boys and girls and all gender points in between, and it sucks, Lego, it really does.  But the nice thing about the Lego contest is that you can't enter a set, it has to be something of a kid's own design, and it's remarkable how NOT gender essential the entries are, almost as if kids aren't ultra-delineated in interests based on their genitalia or something WHO COULD EVEN BELIEVE SUCH A PREPOSTEROUS IDEA.

My favorites are the Ms. Pacman characters and Troy Polamalu.

Anyway, I'm certainly not the first person to talk about this.  Here's one such little discussion, on Sociological Images.

Also seen in Squirrel Hill today were about ten times more elderly people than I've seen in months, seen by me in the span of about 30 minutes.  I'm not opposed to the elderly per se, I'm just saying it was sort of an odd demographic shift -- I'm not sure it bodes well for the neighborhood.

After that it was a grocery store quick hit, and since then I've been dicking around on the Internet, periodically telling myself I should read a book instead, while Floyd naps on the couch next to me.  Later tonight, we've gotta tidy up and pack, and at the moment I'm wondering if 4:36 is too early to start drinking on a Friday.

I know, Floyd, sometimes reading can just be too taxing.

Oh, and before I close out for the weekend, here are two things I missed from earlier in the week.  First, here is a picture of bees that I took at this Monday's farmers' market, where I bought some honey from the Fine Family Apiary.  Apparently, the queen in here wasn't doing well in her hive, so they replaced her and moved her to a smaller set-up to see if she does better; in the meantime, she's reppin' the apiary.

Bzzzzzzzz.

Second, we had a mildly fascinating arachnid encounter earlier this week.  I was sitting at the kitchen table, and felt something tickle first my arm and then my leg.  I looked down, and on the floor was a pretty intense looking black spider, who escaped uncaptured.  The next day, he was spotted again on a wall, and this time Ted caught him in a glass and released him outside, where he leapt away into the grass.  Some googling tells us that we had a daring jumping spider on our hands, which sounds pretty impressive to me.  I didn't get a picture of our actual spider, but here is a good photo of what he looked like.

He was a pretty intense little dude.

He was probably about the size of a dime.

So that's that -- enjoy the holiday weekend, and I'll be back Tuesday.

Death

Today started out ... varying.  On one hand, I've had a backache for 2+ days now.  My spine is my enemy.  I've had surgery on my lower back twice, and it and I are still in contention.  It's the sort of thing one just has to live with, and I do, but, y'know, allow me a couple of sentences to bitch about it.

But the day perked up when Friend Nick asked me join him for Indian lunch buffet, this time at People's.  That is two Indian lunch buffet lunches in a row, which is #Winning.  People's is very good, but variable: by this I mean, some days you go and it's good and spicy, and some days it's bland -- there's no way to know until you're there.  Today, unfortunately, was bland, though the food was still good, just too mild for the likes of me.  However, two things about People's that are always good: it's $8 even, and they put out delicious chai with the buffet.  Mmm, chai tea.  (Yes, Friend Sarah and I reviewed People's for the Great Indian Buffet Tour.)

Plus also I got to have a nice long chat with Nick, who is one of my best friends, and whom I always enjoy seeing and chatting with.

After that, I spent the afternoon reading Atonement by Ian McEwan.  It was recommended to me by Friend/Boss David, who raved about it.  So far I find it compelling, but also flawed, in ways that I plan to discuss when I finish it.  Wait for the review.

The big event of the day, though, was visiting Friends Katie and Randy at the viewing of Katie's father, who passed away very unexpectedly this Monday.  I felt helpless, and mostly talked to Randy (her husband), who is the sort to make jokes in the face of sorrow, which is also my wont.  I don't know what to do around death, in part because I inherited my mother's stolidness on the subject: they're dead now, what was there is gone, and so that is that.  But I realize that other people aren't like this -- which is probably a good thing, because my mother and I might be dancing the line of sociopathy on this one -- and since it's a friend, I want to help.  But how? I didn't know what to do with my hands, and I kept sweating, which I do when I'm nervous.  Katie said she wouldn't turn down a casserole -- it was all I could think of.  Mumford & Sons, which is a band I like but isn't necessarily profound or anything, has a song containing the lyric, "In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die."  Something maudlin comes after that in the song, but I kept thinking of just those two phrases today.  That's all there is to it.  I think the only way most people can live their lives is to forget, from moment to moment and day to day, that they will  some day die -- and even when you have it put in front of you -- in this body I live and in this body I will die -- you still can't actually embrace it; something in your brain turns it aside and paves over it, over and over again.  At least, that's how it works for me.

Take that, mortality.

After the viewing -- Me to Katie: "We're gonna head out, we're helping your husband be inappropriate" -- Ted and I got in the car and drove, literally, across the street, to D's Six Pax and Dogz, the one on Northern Pike in Monroeville. It's not as good as the D's in Regent Square: the pizza wasn't as good (though it certainly wasn't bad) and the service was indifferent, plus the entire place had the faint odor of raw potatoes to it.  But Ted and I ordered a large "Three Little Pigs" pizza -- sausage, pepperoni, and bacon -- to, as we put it, spite death.  Because what else can one do?  I've paved you over, today, Death, with pepperoni.

A kitten picture, since things were getting a little heavy, there.  Did you know Matilda is laser-equipped?

A Day in the Life

I did a lot of stuff today, though I'm not sure I have much to say about it.  Mom came to visit, and we went to Tamarind, Flavor of India for lunch.  Tamarind's lunch buffet, although small, is absolutely fantastic, and in fact, it is still winning my and Friend Sarah's Indian Lunch Buffet blog ... contest?  I don't know if it's a contest since there's nothing to win, but we've made it a point to visit several Indian lunch buffets and assess them critically and rank them, and Tamarind is winning.  So, you should probably go eat that.  Also read about it, here.

This was Round One of Indian food.  Not pictured: the goat I ate during Round Two.

After lunch, Mom and I went to the Strip, where I chiefly shopped for provisions for the upcoming Trailer Weekend.  Sarah's parents own a trailer -- though it's really nice, so I think "foundationless house" is a more accurate term -- up in New York, near Salamanca, and last Memorial Day Weekend Ted and I and Sarah went up to western NY and really enjoyed ourselves, so we booked The Trailer for this MDW as well.  If you want to read about last year's trip, you can do that here and here.

After that I dozed off on the couch.  Then I went to Casbah for their wine happy hour, where Ted met me.  I'm a huge fan of Casbah's happy hour: $6 a glass for really good wine.  Is it cheap?  No.  Is the atmosphere good, the service great, the wine delicious?  Yes.  Am I bougie?  Sure, everyone knows I'm a snob.  So there you have it.

SO MUCH DELICIOUSNESS.

While there, I informed Ted that we had two dinners for the next two nights based on my visit to the farmers' market on Monday and the Strip today: pasta with swiss chard and a Parma sausage, and stewed beet greens with a Parma sausage and some Mancini's bread and butter.  Which means one night between today and Saturday we have to go out.  He chose tonight, so we ate out at Point Brugge, which is one of my favorite places to get dinner in the city.  It's not cheap, but it's a good value for the quality.  We shared the cheese plate, with sausage (also Parma), which tonight turned out to be smoked meats -- YUM.  Then Ted got their chicken sandwich, which he loves, and I got the moules frites, red curry.  1) Best French fries I've ever had, anywhere, hands down, no other contenders.  2) The curried mussels are amazeballs.  Go there and eat them.  Also, excitingly, they had a beer I last had several trips ago at Pizza Paradiso in DC on the drink menu tonight, Saxo from  Brasserie Caracole, which I was super pleased to drink again.  Such a cute label!

That snail knows how to play the saxophone.

Now we're at home, and I might have a tiny Trader Joe's ice cream cone for dessert.  I love summer.

Ethiopian Cooking and Popery

Today was another food-centric day.  To start with, I got a text from my mother late this morning: she was  at the Mills mall, and asked me to meet her for lunch in Aspinwall at Patron.  So basically the day started out with delicious chicken fajitas.

Then I came home and got dinner started.  I had a meeting to attend at my church tonight (I got talked into being on the Parish Life committee -- I don't know about you, but when a priest asks me to do something, I usually end up doing it), so I decided to pre-prepare dinner, so it could just be heated up when I finally got home.

Ted and I enjoy dinner at Abay, one of the Ethiopian restaurants in East Liberty, and so, just as I decided it was time to learn how to make homemade Thai, I've decided it's time to learn how to make Ethiopian at home.  Plus, I had some beets and potatoes from last week's farmers' market languishing in my veggie drawer.

Local beets and potatoes. And look at my adorable wee Japanese ginger grater!

The first hurdle I encountered is that there seem to be fewer resources on the internet for Ethiopian recipes than for Thai.  The second hurdle is that there seem to be 1,000,000 variations on berbere, which is a spice mixture that makes up a key component of a lot of Ethiopian cooking, specifically wats.  Finally, I couldn't crush my fenugreek seeds, because they were as hard as tiny bits of gravel.  So there were roadblocks.

I decided to make tikil gomen, a cabbage, potato, and (oftentimes) carrot dish; kay sir dinich, which is beets and potatoes, and which as far as I know is exclusive to Abay's menu; and doro wat, chicken stewed in berbere.  The tikil gomen and kay sir dinich were pretty simple: it seems much Ethiopian cooking starts with a base of onions, garlic, and ginger, cooked in a spiced clarified butter called niter kibbeh.  I confess I didn't undertake this, and just sauteed the aromatics in plain old butter, but maybe in the future I'll undertake this African version of ghee.

I used epicurious.com's berbere recipe, though I cut back on the paprika and chile, and substituted ancho for New Mexico chiles -- and, as I said, I didn't have ground fenugreek.  I sauteed onion, garlic, and ginger in butter, and added four chicken thighs and about two tablespoons of the berbere mix, and a few cups of filtered water, and let it simmer forever.  It turned out perfectly tasty, but it didn't taste Ethiopian.  I plan to try a different berbere recipe in the future.  The vegetables were simpler; I sauteed onion, garlic, and ginger in butter again, threw in potatoes, carrots, and cabbages, several cups of filtered water, about a half teaspoon of turmeric and a teaspoon of cumin, plus a pinch of salt and black pepper.  This tasted most successfully like the tikil gomen I'd had at Abay.  The kay sir dinich was onions, garlic, ginger, butter, chopped beets, potatoes, and a pinch of salt, boiled down until everything was tender, and it tasted pretty much like the restaurant version as well.  I'd say the main sticking point is the berbere.

And the injera.  Ethiopian food is served with a spongey flatbread -- more like a pancake, really -- made out of fermented teff.  Trying to make it seemed like more of an undertaking than I was ready for, so on my way home from my meeting I stopped at Abay and bought two injeras for $3.21.  It helped make things seem more authentic.

I can't take credit for the pancake.

So, in summary, I don't have any recipes down, but it wasn't a disaster, and I have something to build on.

Oh, and if you're curious about the church meeting, we're putting together a youth group program for the parish's teens.  Being Catholic is odd, I know.  I was raised Presbyterian and converted to Catholicism when I was 22.  I preferred it as a practice, and I chiefly see religion as a matter of practice.  I can't tell you whether or not God exists -- I've never talked to Him, anyway.  But I do know that it's good for me to have a spiritual practice and moral reference, and so when I found Catholicism to be more satisfying in this regard -- I enjoy the ritual, the solemnity, the historical reliance, and the universality of the Church -- I converted.  (I didn't feel I wanted to stray too far from the religion I was culturally accustomed to.)

The trouble, of course, is that I'm very liberal.  And, frankly, I think the Church -- the papacy in Rome, the American Council of Catholic Bishops, etc. -- is frequently despicable and loathsome, in its treatment of women, the LGBTQ community, its refusal to embrace contraception in AIDS-ravaged communities, and so forth.  But I regard my relationship with the Catholic Church the way I regard my relationship with the United States of America, which is also frequently despicable and loathsome; I might be a Catholic and I might be an American, but I'm not necessarily responsible when either of these bodies do despicable and loathsome things.  And I have as much right to this Church and this country as do the people who move them to be despicable and loathsome -- moreso, in fact.  So it's my job to be a good Catholic and a good American, and try to push these bodies in better directions, or at the very least, it's my right to say that I, a good person, represent these bodies, and so they should be judged according to my beliefs and behaviors as much as according to those of the despicable, loathsome types.

But this seldom comes up for me in church on a day-to-day basis, because I belong to a very liberal parish -- I sometimes think, being in the ghetto, the diocese just kind of ignores us -- and my priest is The Awesomest.  He is good and kind and holy and there is a rainbow flag in the parish office.  So.

Sports! Also: Much Chicken is Eaten

So, no, I didn't post on Friday.  I felt like bloody hell all day because of Ted's cheap brandy, and didn't feel up to typing.  But!  That doesn't mean I didn't do anything on Friday -- indeed, I went to Union Pig and Chicken for lunch, and it prompted many thoughts on gentrification, race, and urban redevelopment, which I wrote into a blog and posted here.  Please read it: I'm curious about others' thoughts on the subject.

And then the weekend was busy!  Saturday, first of all, was a big day of Sports.

Ted in his West Ham kit, from back when Dr. Martens was their sponsor.

Ted's English football team is West Ham, and last year they got relegated down into the Championship League.  (My team, Middlesbrough, was relegated in 2009, and there they seem likely to stay for the foreseeable future.)  But, the Hammers were in the Championship Final against Blackpool on Saturday morning, and the winner got to move back up to the Premier League.  So off we went to Piper's Pub to watch the match.

English Breakfast Boxty

Piper's is the best place in the city I know of to watch soccer, and this seems to be confirmed by the number of expats that are there every weekend.  Plus they have delicious United Kingdom comfort food to nom.  I actually special-ordered an English Breakfast (fried eggs, bangers, mushrooms, tomatoes, and baked beans, usually with toast) atop a boxty, an Irish potato pancake.  Needless to say, that couldn't possibly have been a bad idea.

West Ham pulled it out in the end, and Ted is very excited, because this means that next season he'll be able to watch their matches on TV at Piper's Pub.  (The poor Champions League doesn't get televised in America, that I'm aware of, except for the big League Final.)

After that, it was back home for a little relaxation.  Then we set off for the Consol Energy Center to see ... the Pittsburgh Power.  Yes, we went to see Pittsburgh's Arena Football League team.  I'd never seen Arena Football before, and it's kind of odd.  The score runs up much higher, but the play's no faster, because the field's so short north-south that after about five yards or so, the rushing player just gets crushed into the wall; pass plays don't come off too well because, well, they're not the best QBs out there, y'know?  It was hard to judge the fan investment in the affair, by which I mean, I couldn't tell what percentage of the enthusiasm on display was ironic, as compared to earnest.  Ted and I watched with more interest in the spectacle than investment in the winner (and a good thing, because the Power lost to the Kansas City Command), but we had a nice time anyway.  EXCEPT.  I went into the affair super excited because there was supposed to be a Tim Horton's stand in the Consol, and God knows I love me some Tim Horton's.  Except when we got there, the stand had been converted into a motherfucking Dunkin' Donuts kiosk.  Dunkin' Donuts is so mightily inferior to Tim Horton's it is impossible to even quantify the exact level of inferiority -- you like, need an electron microscope or something.  Plus, the Consol Center is Pittsburgh's ice hockey arena; eating Dunkin' Donuts at a hockey game makes no fucking sense, whereas eating a Tim Horton's donut at a hockey game makes infinity sense.  If you don't know why, educate yourself.  So anyway, that was a huge letdown.

Let's go Pixburgh Paher!

Interesting aside: when I was an instructor at the University of Michigan, one of my students was Terrance Taylor.  He was a senior on the UM football team.  At the time people expected him to be a first or high-second round draft pick after he graduated, but then scouts got wind of the fact he was lazy in the off-season, and he dropped to the fourth round.  He bounced around between Detroit, Jacksonville, and Indy, and now he has landed in the AFL as a defensive lineman for, you guessed it, the Pittsburgh Power.  The world is really fucking small.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to see Terrance play, though, because he is apparently on the IR/suspended roster -- the AFL doesn't bother to distinguish between these two states of inactivity, which is sort of hilarious.

Look at how the grease glistens!

After the game we went to Sidelines for dinner, and I ordered the Kitchen Sink Crunch Burger (except with a chicken breast instead of a burger, because ground cow is disgusting).  It was the unhealthiest thing I could think of, and it just felt right, given the evening's activity.

Speaking of unhealthy chicken sandwiches, on Sunday evening we went out to dinner at Burgatory with Davin, which was tasty.  One could also consider it a celebratory chicken sandwich: on Sunday, Ted and I finally finished our jigsaw puzzle.  I did not know those things were so fucking difficult.

VICTORY IS OURS.

Today, I took myself to $5 Movie Monday at Waterworks Cinema -- you get a free small popcorn, and free air conditioning, too.  I watched The Avengers again, 'cause it was awesome.  After that I picked up a hoagie, which I ate in the park -- by which I mean, I parked my car and rolled all the windows down and ate in my car in the park, because I'm not really a sit in the dirt kind of girl.  Then after that it was off to get more leafs at the farmers' market in East Liberty, where I got swiss chard, beet greens, carrots, lettuce, and a quart of absolutely delicious strawberries, plus some local honey.

These are so fucking good.

Currently, I'm making some simple tomato sauce for the stuffed shells we're having for dinner tonight along with the wee lettuces.  I have no regrets about the unhealthy noms of the weekend, but I'm glad I went and bought some leafs to eat today.  A person needs leafy greens to feel OK about themselves.

Children's Books

Today not too much happened.  I took Chief to a check up with the neurologist, and he's doing well.  He'll stay on the steroids, and he's got another check up in six weeks, but it seems like everything is on the up and up.  Thank a merciful Lord.

After that, I did not too damn much all day, besides work on the jigsaw puzzle and cuddle Chief.

We had dinner at Tamari: 5:00 - 7:00 half-off tapas and cocktails.  Get to Tamari.  Do not pass Go.  Just get thee to Tamari's happy hour.

BUT.  I had a guest blog posted on @yinzrreadin's blog.  It's about children's books and how they affect us -- even how they hurt me.  Please read it; I really enjoyed writing it, and there's a few typos that I thought I copyedited out, but ... but, anyway, please take a look, I really enjoyed writing it.

The Children's Book Blog.

Matilda helping with the jigsaw puzzle.

Road Trip to Nowhere, Or: Mmm, Golden Pig.

Today I went on a little road trip adventure!  Everyone has been raving about Golden Pig, the tiniest Korean restaurant, clear out in Cecil.  When I say "clear out in Cecil", I have to say, before I set out today in Marshall, my Honda Accord, I didn't have the faintest idea where Cecil was.  Honestly.  I'd read and heard people going on about Golden Pig, and they'd be like, "It's in Cecil," and from that I figured out that Cecil was 1) within relatively reasonable driving distance of Pittsburgh, and 2) ... *cricket cricket*.  It turns out that Cecil is south and west.  It's actually easy to get to Golden Pig, it just takes a while.  The thing I find curious about Pittsburgh is that there's the city, which is a city like any major urban center (except better), and then there're the inner-ring suburbs, which could easily be mistaken for part of the city proper, and then -- nothing.  Nothing whatsoever of interest.  Highways.  Trees.  The odd small town, but really, just nothing.  It's instantly rural, like, 20 minutes outside the city in all directions.  It's bizarre, frankly.  But so anyway, to get to Cecil, go through the Fort Pitt Tunnel, get on 79 South, get on 50 West, keep an eye out on your left after a few miles, and there you go.

Desolation.  Picturesque enough, though.

So wee.

Golden Pig is about the wee-est place I've ever eaten.  There are 11 seats inside.  The cooking happens in the same room as the eating, and everything is prepared fresh by two very nice Korean ladies.  Friend Mark J. joined me for lunch, and I don't know about him, but I liked the atmosphere.  It was homey.

There's a theme, you see.

I ordered us a "Korean pancake" to share.  I'm not sure what it was made of, though Mark surmised buckwheat flour.  It was crispy on the edges and had the particular glutinous consistency that I have only ever encountered in Chinese and Korean cooking.  It was filled with kimchi and quite tasty; we also got little dishes of kimchi and other pickled vegetables, which we nommed at with stainless steel chopsticks.  I mention the chopsticks because it occurred to me that I had never seen stainless steel chopsticks before -- I'd eaten off very nice, lacquered wood chopsticks, but never stainless.  Well, there you go.

Pancake and various yummy pickled things.

For our entrees, both Mark and I ordered the daeji bulgogi, which was thinly sliced, stir fried pork in a super rich (but not thick), spicy, succulent, just fantastic sauce, plus a side of truly delicious sticky rice.  Good rice is easy to make and common -- great rice is an art.

*Homer Simpson gargle*

SO FUCKING GOOD.

Seriously.  And my half of the meal came to $12.57.  Plus whatever I spent on gas, but, whatever, I practically never leave the city, so it's good to burn a little gas from time to time.  I listened (sang along to) Hot Hot Heat on the drive home and just generally was pleased as punch.

Home again, I watched two more episodes of Downtown Abbey, which I discovered yesterday and already totally heart.  Dowager Countess v. Mrs. Crowley -- I don't even know who to root for, because they're both so fucking fabulous.

Other than that, the day rounded out with MORE awesome food, because I decided it was Taco Night -- remember those Reyna's tortillas?  Ted always really likes Taco Night too.  

TACO NIGHT!!

Then Ted and I went back to work on the jigsaw puzzle we started last night, which he had picked up on sale last week.  It's based on a Frank Lloyd Wright carpet and we spent four hours on it last night and barely put a dent in it.  We went to work again tonight, and made a bit more progress, but we had to stop because ... well ...

We couldn't do it without him.

Chief was helping.  Poor little guy goes back to the vet for his follow-up appointment tomorrow morning, so he gets some slack.  By which I mean, lots and lots of extra love and anything else he wants.

Making Love to Mushrooms and Stripping

First things first!  I wrote a recipe post for the blog I share with Friend Sarah.  It contains an easy, wholesome pasta recipe and includes an illustrated explanation of how to make mushrooms taste really good.  Perhaps you already know how to do this; if you don't, read the blog and then you will.  I guarantee that anyone who says they don't like mushrooms only says that because they have been subjected to rubbery, slippery, undercooked, overcrowded mushrooms.  Well no more!  You can change any mind about mushrooms, and all it takes is a really big skillet and patience.  Read that blog here.  (Please!)

Really good mushrooms. And a happy spoon.

Yesterday I mentioned my successful farmers' market run. Point #1: I didn't buy enough leafs for the whole week -- from now on I'll know better.  Point #2: I was a little brain dead last night, so I just threw some dinner together in a stew pot.  Red kale, beet greens, onion, garlic, chicken thighs, salt, pepper, cider vinegar, Red Hot -- stew stew stew for an hour.  I served it with bread and butter.  I accidentally oversalted it a bit, but Ted liked it enough to get seconds.  This was actually my first time using beet greens, and I really liked them, so now I know.  Now, of course, I've got beets in my vegetable drawer, but they'll get used, don't worry.

Still, man cannot live by leafs alone, so today I headed down to the Strip.  My first order of business was lunch, since it was already almost 1:00 and I hadn't eaten yet.  I ducked into Reyna's to buy some tortillas, and the taco stand tacos smelled so good I went with those, one pollo and one carnitas on fresh corn tortillas with queso fresco, sour cream, lettuce, tomato, onion, salsa, fresh squeezed lime, and a few dashes of Cholulu hot sauce for $5.35 (with tax).  The carnitas won the day.

"Buy some food that's prepared near the stre-eet, who knows you might even see this guy ..."

Really nice and fresh.

From there I headed over to the Pennsylvania Macaroni Company, where I availed myself of their cheese counter for some delicious Cypress Grove Humboldt Fog goats' milk cheese and a pound of fresh ricotta.  I also picked up some sour cream, some dried pasta, and some fresh linguini.  Onwards, I went to Stan's Market and got three orange bell peppers for only $2.50(!), some savoy cabbage, some fresh basil, and some limes, since Friend George was good enough to bring me a giant bottle of my favorite gin (Bombay Sapphire) for my birthday, and we're definitely getting into gin 'n' tonic season.  After that: delicious delicious pork.  I hit Parma Sausage for hot Italian and Sicillian sausages, some pepperoni, and some prosciutto.  It's all made fresh by Parma and it's the best fucking stuff around.  Seriously.  Get thee to the sausage men.

They look humble, but do not be deceived.

Oh, and I also picked up some chocolate truffles for Ted and I from Mon Aimee Chocolat.  Cause, yum.

It is taking all of my willpower to not eat my little packet right now.

So that's that, and I've got dinners planned for the rest of the week: tonight is going to be swiss chard whole wheat linguini and Sicillian sausage; then chicken tacos, stuffed shells and Italian sausage, and I'm going to take a crack at Ethiopian food on Friday.  Saturday we're going out, and Sunday is going to be curry.  I just have to pick up a few more leafs tomorrow.

Battleshots and Local Leafs

It was an eventful few days.  I've been celebrating my 30th birthday for over a month now, and this Saturday I had a birthday party.  Good friends came, Friend Sarah gave me a hot pink immersion blender, and Battleshots went over gangbusters.  I've got a leftover growler full of Washington Apples shots that are just going to have to get drunk, oh noes.

BATTLESHOTS.

Friend Neilbert brought me these lovely fleurs from his own garden.  Yes, that is a very happy carrot in the background.

Getting ready for a party is always daunting, but Ted is a good husband and he cleaned the entire house. In return, I brought him Greek food from the last day of the St. Nicholas Greek Food Festival in Oakland.  SO FUCKING GOOD.  The next Greek food festival is in the North Hills and starts on the 24th -- I'm planning a tiny road trip.

How do you know it's Greek? Columns.

Lamb, chicken, pilaf, green beans, spanikopita. Not much to look at, but so damn good. There were also amazing pastries.  HONEY. WALNUTS. GLORY.

Sunday was sort of a day to recover.  I wasn't hungover but I was exhausted, because the last guest left at 4:00, and then we couldn't find Matilda.  We combed the entire house, and then, fearing she'd escaped when a guest came in or out, Ted went to look outside.  An hour later she emerged, we still know not from where, looking at us like nothing was amiss, even though we'd been calling her and calling her and she hadn't even come out when Ted opened a can of food.  Kids.  Sheesh.

She looks so innocent. :-/

An Irish Boxty from Piper's Pub helped me right myself on Sunday.

Today I went out with my mom to celebrate Mother's Day.  We went to lunch at Jimmy Wan's over in Aspinwall, which has a nice lunch special, and then went to see Dark Shadows -- her pick.  It wasn't very good.  I think Johnny Depp and Tim Burton are just doing things to amuse themselves now, without consideration of, y'know, movie audiences.  After that we stopped by the first Monday of the East Liberty City Farmers' Market.  This time of year it's a lot of leafs, but leafs are tasty.  I came away with  Swiss chard, red kale, beets, potatoes, onions, asparagus, and the most delicious little strawberries.  Now I have to look up what to do with Swiss chard and beet leaves; I'll let you know what I find.  Finally, Mom and I went to Casbah for a happy hour drink -- mmm, gin and tonics.

The Farmers' Market haul.

Tomorrow I've got nothing in particular planned, though I think I'm going to take a trip to the Strip District for a few non-vegetable groceries.  I'm looking forward to a basically unstructured day; last week was busy and this week is busy, too, and I have yet to start a single project besides, predictably, the Summer Reading List.  Tomorrow I also plan to start Ian McEwan's Atonement -- I'm sure you'll hear about that when it's done.

Oh, and as a kitty update, Chief is still snorfley, but his follow-up vet appointment out at PVSEC is on Thursday, so perhaps while we're there we can get some help with that.  And I'm pleased to report that Floyd -- who spent the entire party hanging out with everyone on the couch -- made friends with Friend Mark J., who is a gentle and patient soul, and who I think is an excellent choice for Floyd to bond with.

Aren't they cute together?