worst week ever (so far! please be careful not to tempt the gods)

served with lawsuit
somebody wants to change my baby's name
yelled at by SVP
TV broke
company site hacked- boss completely unavailable
washing machine quit draining
personal email hacked - all sorts of closed doors awkwardly reopened
checking account hacked- $$$ stolen, spent in NC
walked out of a show, kicked out of a dance troupe
"broke up with" friend's girlfriend
bailed on new friend - scolded via text message

but the baby is happy and healthy
and today i bought new dresses
(i'll worry about the bills later)

also- the sun is shining, i tried pastrami for the first time, and i helped put in a really pretty garden border.

i can still see the bright side. is that my saving grace or my ultimate downfall??

i deactivated facebook

to maximize privacy, i'm disappearing from the internet (obvs not entirely). why? well, maybe facebook could tell-- when i deactivated my account, the captcha phrase was

the prenatal

as in "if you had handled this in the prenatal stage, maybe you wouldn't be deactivating your account, dummy."

awesome = garden

the sink's been clogged for a couple of weeks, so cooking has taken a backseat. i'm playing in the yard instead~

i'm growing BERRIES this year

blackberries and raspberries by the shed.
blueberries in the front yard

ornamental strawberries in a pot on the stoop
last years strawberries gone wild in their bed

there's also a jasmine growing by the front door that makes me smile every time i smell it, and that Mexican Orange (?) that is leggy and irritating, but man it smells good and attracts the bees. 

finally, there's a barely hanging on lemon tree which must have rooted into something toxic or rock-like, which is now surrounded by nasturtiums i started from seeds. i fertilized the rose bushes with compost, too, just in time for their first big yellow bloom.

huzzah!

MIA helped me cook Thai food

oh my GOD i was bored with butternut squash. i love squash but sweet squash is a key baby food and i feel like i've been steaming squash non stop for the past year-even the munchkin was spitting it out-BLEH.

so when a coworker gave me some of her curry with acorn squash in it, i rejoiced. for serious.

SING THIS WHILE YOU COOK - you'll understand soon...


i found a recipe. i like how flexible she is with the ingredients, and that it doesn't include "curry paste". you know the thai ladies aren't buying jars of curry paste, why should i? anyway, i also took the opportunity to enjoy the bounty of bay area markets and learn about kaffir lime leaves and galanga. there was some old lemongrass in the fridge, too...

things i changed: sub 325 degrees, use one .5 lb fillet of cod (not farmed, not endangered). round two included turnips, carrots, broccoli. i have no idea how long i cooked it, whoops. i put it in a pie dish because i need a casserole dish :/

it's delicious. baby likes it too. but i forgot the butternut. whoops. so after i cooked everything, i pulled out the chunks and replaced them with slivered butternut (the thinner the slice the easier the knife goes through?!discoveries!). baked for approx 20 minutes at 375.

TO MAKE THIS EASIER-

there's no reason ( i don't think?) that you couldn't make a ton of this stuff and freeze jars of sauce for the next time. one day i'll try that.

And for more homework- GROW YOUR OWN
thaitable says "If you live in a nice and warm place with no frost try grow galangal in your yard. It has beautiful flowers that resemble orchids."

bored with food- go asian

i was so bored with my own cooking the only thing i could find to eat was a pan of brownies. after my heart exploded from palpitations, i made some:

yellow thai curry with cod, carrots, broccoli, a couple turnips (next post)

and then, with some leftover twirlie pasta, i went "peanut".
sesame oil and a spring onion, a few cloves of garlic (remaining from the curry, in fact) into the frying pan

add a few julienned turnips, thin carrot discs, tablespoons of almond butter (peanut would be better.), 1-2 T tamari, red pepper flakes, some canola oil. before everything got cooked too much, i added a little water to steam it up. then tiny pieces of broccoli...and in go the noodles! done!

i added peanut butter a few times. and another dash of sesame oil...there's probably a technique for knowing the proportions up front.

but AMEN for a fresh flavor with lots of fat. i appear to be hungry for fat, so that's a WIN. (i'm not afraid of fat- one day i'll go GAPS and BOY will i eat a lot of delicious fats then)

mama's in the kitchen and on the new computer

this blog serves ME most when i use it for recipes that work. i'm an improvisational cook, but when I'm uninspired i have no idea where to start. I'm going to try and help myself get motivated by posting - and thus remembering - successful kitchen experiments. It's also good for marking moments in time, so I'll be doing that too.

Here's a moment: right now I'm feeling very close to FREEDOM after applying this method to eradicate a mountain of debt. When I called a mortgage broker less than two years ago, i told him "i don't know if a mortgage is possible for me- my debt is about equal to half of my annual income. it's not going anywhere."

but now i'm really close* to paying off all but the student loan portion. WHAT?! (side note- grad school was the worst financial decision i ever made. it did get me to know myself deeply...was it worth the cost? depends on your priorities, i guess.)

what does this mean? it means FREEDOM. it means i can live anywhere and do anything without worrying about paying hundreds of dollars every month for past mistakes. i am excited. about taking trips and donating money and being FREE. or maybe just having a cushion. 2011 is on me.




*as close as my tax refund? we'll see.

this is my mantra

Feeling screwed up at a screwed up time in a screwed up place does not necessarily make you screwed up
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