I had a great Easter weekend. I spent most of Saturday relaxing, which was nice given that I had to work last weekend. Twelve straight days of work tires me out!
For Easter, I went to church and then spent the afternoon at the home of some wonderful friends. Their Easter get-togethers remind me of my family's when I was growing up. Tons of family, bunches of children, egg hunting, games, wonderful food, and funny conversation. Since I don't have any family out here, I feel so lucky and blessed to be included in their day.
This year for Lent, I gave up celebrity gossip. That might sound petty or trivial, but if you stop to consider how much time I spent checking People.com and UsMagazine.com (both on my computer at work and my iPhone), and how much time I spent watching E!, it turned out to be WAY to much time spent caring about a lot of crap that I have no business caring about. Whenever I had a few minutes to kill, I'd log onto the Internet and read mindlessly about people that I don't know and who, for the most part, disgust me with their ridiculous, silly, and often illegal behavior.
I think I've learned to make better use of my time. One positive result has been that I read the news more often, and I pay more attention to it (rather than just glancing over it). Also, I've begun to spend my free time on activities that probably won't rot my brain: playing crossword puzzles and Scrabble on my iPhone (okay, it's not really Scrabble; it's really the Words With Friends app -- my user name is avbreland, so if any of you have it, please start a game with me, and if you don't have it, get it).
I haven't reverted back to my old habits yet. We'll see how long I last, now that I don't have the guilt of Lent to keep me on the straight and narrow.
05 April 2010
Waffles!
I made these for the first time while Mama was in town for Thanksgiving, and we loved them. We loved them so much, in fact, that I may never buy another box of Bisquick...and even if I do, I won't be using it to make waffles. These are the best ever; a little more effort, but SO worth it. Mama called today to get the recipe, and it hit me that I should share it with all of you. So, here we go:
3.5 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
0.5 cup sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
8 large eggs, separated (yes, you're reading that correctly; it says EIGHT)
3 cups milk
1 cup butter, melted
(I also added an entire tablespoon of vanilla extract, and I sometimes add pecans. I just sprinkle the pecans over the top of the batter after I ladle it into the waffle iron.)
Sift together flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder into a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.
Whisk together egg yolks, milk, and melted butter (and vanilla, if you add it) in a separate bowl. Pour the wet ingredients into the well of the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Batter will be lumpy. Do not overmix.
Preheat the waffle iron.
Whip the egg yolks to soft peaks (I did this in my stand mixer) and fold into the batter in two additions.
Ladle about 3/4 cup batter into the waffle iron. Cook until crisp and golden.
It takes a little longer to get these crispy than it does with waffles that are more similar to the Bisquick variety. I just played around with my waffle settings until I got it right.
These are eggy, not bready. They're great, even completely dry and without a drop of syrup. I froze my leftover ones (this recipe makes a lot of waffles) and made bread pudding out of them a few weekends back. I didn't have old bread and was in a baking mood, so I improvised. Yum!
Recipe (minus my commentary) is from Breakfasts & Brunches by the Culinary Institute of America.
3.5 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
0.5 cup sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
8 large eggs, separated (yes, you're reading that correctly; it says EIGHT)
3 cups milk
1 cup butter, melted
(I also added an entire tablespoon of vanilla extract, and I sometimes add pecans. I just sprinkle the pecans over the top of the batter after I ladle it into the waffle iron.)
Sift together flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder into a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.
Whisk together egg yolks, milk, and melted butter (and vanilla, if you add it) in a separate bowl. Pour the wet ingredients into the well of the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Batter will be lumpy. Do not overmix.
Preheat the waffle iron.
Whip the egg yolks to soft peaks (I did this in my stand mixer) and fold into the batter in two additions.
Ladle about 3/4 cup batter into the waffle iron. Cook until crisp and golden.
It takes a little longer to get these crispy than it does with waffles that are more similar to the Bisquick variety. I just played around with my waffle settings until I got it right.
These are eggy, not bready. They're great, even completely dry and without a drop of syrup. I froze my leftover ones (this recipe makes a lot of waffles) and made bread pudding out of them a few weekends back. I didn't have old bread and was in a baking mood, so I improvised. Yum!
Recipe (minus my commentary) is from Breakfasts & Brunches by the Culinary Institute of America.
26 March 2010
Clinique All About Eyes
Serum De-Puffing Eye Massage
A birthday gift from Amanda, along with the cutest little makeup bag you've ever seen (mine is red and lives in my purse, where it took the place of about three other smaller bags).
This is some amazing stuff. It sort of tingles when you apply it, and after about 15 minutes, those awful eye bags that I wake up with are GONE. Seriously. Thanks, Amanda!
A birthday gift from Amanda, along with the cutest little makeup bag you've ever seen (mine is red and lives in my purse, where it took the place of about three other smaller bags).
This is some amazing stuff. It sort of tingles when you apply it, and after about 15 minutes, those awful eye bags that I wake up with are GONE. Seriously. Thanks, Amanda!
twenty-NINE
Well, there it is. I turned 29 on Monday, and I've been expecting the gray hairs to sprout and the lower back & knee pain to start ever since. Luckily, neither of those has transpired yet (although I will admit that I found one gray hair a couple months back and basically had to be talked down from throwing myself into the canal).
That said, the big day itself wasn't nearly as traumatic as it might have been. I went to work, like I always do on Mondays, and my boss brought Sprinkles cupcakes to celebrate. I had lunch with some funny friends who always make me laugh. Dinner with more wonderful friends followed work, and then I went to sleep pretty early.
There is a wonderful legitimacy that comes with being 29, I think. I've decided that this is going to be a great year. I feel blessed and lucky to have the family and friends that I have, and despite the fact that I live so far from many of them, I think that as I get older, I appreciate them more and more. My job is dynamic and interesting, and I'm finally comfortable enough with my experience and skill set that I can relax a little bit and enjoy it. I guess that as it turns out, 29 isn't all that rough after all...
That said, the big day itself wasn't nearly as traumatic as it might have been. I went to work, like I always do on Mondays, and my boss brought Sprinkles cupcakes to celebrate. I had lunch with some funny friends who always make me laugh. Dinner with more wonderful friends followed work, and then I went to sleep pretty early.
There is a wonderful legitimacy that comes with being 29, I think. I've decided that this is going to be a great year. I feel blessed and lucky to have the family and friends that I have, and despite the fact that I live so far from many of them, I think that as I get older, I appreciate them more and more. My job is dynamic and interesting, and I'm finally comfortable enough with my experience and skill set that I can relax a little bit and enjoy it. I guess that as it turns out, 29 isn't all that rough after all...
17 March 2010
The Office of Desire
by Martha Moody
Plot (another one courtesy of amazon.com): “Moody stages this sharply observed tale of office relationships gone very wrong at a small Ohio medical practice. When Dr. Will Strub marries office nurse Alicia, he becomes increasingly involved in the local fundamentalist church. That puts him somewhat at odds with his fellow doctor and business partner, Dr. Hap Markowitz, who defines himself as a non-observant, God-fearing Jew. Meanwhile, middle aged office receptionist Caroline begins her own new relationship with a 72-year-old patient named Fred, while Hap devotes his spare time to his seriously ill wife, making office manager Brice literally the odd man out. The slow descent into insanity by one of the characters leads to a tragedy that affects all involved; gay relationships, evangelical fervor, amputation and infidelity all play in. There is a point where loyalty became a sickness, where faithfulness to someone else became a way to destroy yourself, Hap observes, and each of Moody's well-drawn characters embodies that statement in his or her own way. Hap and Caroline alternate with first person narration, which lends Upstairs Downstairs–like shifts in perspective, which can be distracting. Moody keeps things moving, though, and gets the details right, whether adding up emotional balances, Prozac samples or a patient's bill.”
I had a great time reading this book, in spite of its somewhat depressing and often wistful tone. Plots that rotate around personal relationships rather than defining, dramatic events always fascinate me because they so accurately reflect real life. There’s a lot of “drama” in this book for sure: life, death, marriage, divorce, illness, legal problems, etc. But the real heart of the story is the characters themselves and their evolving relationships with one another. The author strikes a solid balance between character development and plot.
Unlike the amazon.com reviewer, I didn’t find the teeter-tottering perspectives distracting at all. I enjoyed reading the different ways Hap and Caroline perceived the same events; Hap is a doctor while Caroline is a receptionist, so there is a wonderful upstairs-downstairs dynamic (reminiscent of Gosford Park and lots of Agatha Christie, actually). Good book.
Plot (another one courtesy of amazon.com): “Moody stages this sharply observed tale of office relationships gone very wrong at a small Ohio medical practice. When Dr. Will Strub marries office nurse Alicia, he becomes increasingly involved in the local fundamentalist church. That puts him somewhat at odds with his fellow doctor and business partner, Dr. Hap Markowitz, who defines himself as a non-observant, God-fearing Jew. Meanwhile, middle aged office receptionist Caroline begins her own new relationship with a 72-year-old patient named Fred, while Hap devotes his spare time to his seriously ill wife, making office manager Brice literally the odd man out. The slow descent into insanity by one of the characters leads to a tragedy that affects all involved; gay relationships, evangelical fervor, amputation and infidelity all play in. There is a point where loyalty became a sickness, where faithfulness to someone else became a way to destroy yourself, Hap observes, and each of Moody's well-drawn characters embodies that statement in his or her own way. Hap and Caroline alternate with first person narration, which lends Upstairs Downstairs–like shifts in perspective, which can be distracting. Moody keeps things moving, though, and gets the details right, whether adding up emotional balances, Prozac samples or a patient's bill.”
I had a great time reading this book, in spite of its somewhat depressing and often wistful tone. Plots that rotate around personal relationships rather than defining, dramatic events always fascinate me because they so accurately reflect real life. There’s a lot of “drama” in this book for sure: life, death, marriage, divorce, illness, legal problems, etc. But the real heart of the story is the characters themselves and their evolving relationships with one another. The author strikes a solid balance between character development and plot.
Unlike the amazon.com reviewer, I didn’t find the teeter-tottering perspectives distracting at all. I enjoyed reading the different ways Hap and Caroline perceived the same events; Hap is a doctor while Caroline is a receptionist, so there is a wonderful upstairs-downstairs dynamic (reminiscent of Gosford Park and lots of Agatha Christie, actually). Good book.
To the Power of Three
by Laura Lippman
This is the second book of Lippman’s that I’ve read, and I’m thinking it may be the last. My gripe about this one is the same as last time. The book is excellent and kept me riveted right up until the end, and then, the ending sucked. Everything was tied up in a neat, pretty little package with a bow, by a single character who all of a sudden decided that she just had to tell the truth. As mystery novels go, this is, in my opinion, the worst ending possible. And let me tell you, it NEVER happens that way in real life. The killer (or the witness, or whoever) does not get a sudden attack of conscience and run to the cops to reveal “what really happened.”
Plot: Three teenage girls, who have been best friends since 3rd grade, are the center of a high-school shooting. One of them is implicated as the shooter while the other two are the supposed victims. All three are bright, popular, and have promising futures, so no one can grasp the motive behind the shooting. The action centers on the small town’s reaction to the shooting, the investigation by the detectives, and the families’ attempts to ferret out what really happened.
Most mystery novels end with a bang. Either the literal bang of a gun, or some really exciting, shocking surprise that the reader might have been piecing together but couldn’t quite get a handle on. Lippman, though, writes compelling, moving, perfectly paced novels that end with a dull thud. In the case of this novel, it’s also a little far-reaching and implausible, too. Yuck. I’d rather read a book that’s awful from the beginning (Lord Jim, anyone?) than enjoy one so thoroughly only to be this disappointed upon finishing.
This is the second book of Lippman’s that I’ve read, and I’m thinking it may be the last. My gripe about this one is the same as last time. The book is excellent and kept me riveted right up until the end, and then, the ending sucked. Everything was tied up in a neat, pretty little package with a bow, by a single character who all of a sudden decided that she just had to tell the truth. As mystery novels go, this is, in my opinion, the worst ending possible. And let me tell you, it NEVER happens that way in real life. The killer (or the witness, or whoever) does not get a sudden attack of conscience and run to the cops to reveal “what really happened.”
Plot: Three teenage girls, who have been best friends since 3rd grade, are the center of a high-school shooting. One of them is implicated as the shooter while the other two are the supposed victims. All three are bright, popular, and have promising futures, so no one can grasp the motive behind the shooting. The action centers on the small town’s reaction to the shooting, the investigation by the detectives, and the families’ attempts to ferret out what really happened.
Most mystery novels end with a bang. Either the literal bang of a gun, or some really exciting, shocking surprise that the reader might have been piecing together but couldn’t quite get a handle on. Lippman, though, writes compelling, moving, perfectly paced novels that end with a dull thud. In the case of this novel, it’s also a little far-reaching and implausible, too. Yuck. I’d rather read a book that’s awful from the beginning (Lord Jim, anyone?) than enjoy one so thoroughly only to be this disappointed upon finishing.
27 February 2010
Clarisonic Face Brush
Got mine yesterday (happy birthday to me, a month early...thank you Mama!). I had to charge it all night, so I couldn't use it until this morning. My, oh my. I love it. I'm hopeful that my skin will benefit from it, and that my pores will go AWAY soon. The only drawback thus far is really minimal: when I wash my nose, the vibrating makes me sneeze.
Living proof.
full thickening cream
To be honest, I'm not altogether sure why I bought this product. I walked into Sephora with a specific purpose, but then saw these adorable little bottles all standing in little lines, so I was intrigued. Amanda, I thought of you instantly, because they will blend perfectly with your bathroom decor.
Also, my hair is curly, but it's pretty fine...and it's much flatter out here in Arizona, what with the lack of humidity and all. So, I thought it could possibly benefit from some body and volume.
While I was talking to the Sephora lady about it, she told me that I shouldn't use it with any other products that contain silicone. The leave-in conditioner that I've been using for over a decade, and which I love (Biosilk Silk Therapy) does contain silicone. Sad face. But, luckily for me, Living proof makes a leave-in conditioner, too.
It's called frizz (only I can't figure out how to use the strikethrough function, so just imagine that it's there). So far, I love both products. My hair is fuller, but it's not enormous, just normal. The other great thing is that the product doesn't make my hair hard, and it doesn't flake. It just feels like hair, and the more I run my fingers through it, the more body it seems to have. It also takes care of the flyaways that I used to have, and it makes the horrible cowlick in the front of my hair controllable.
To be honest, I'm not altogether sure why I bought this product. I walked into Sephora with a specific purpose, but then saw these adorable little bottles all standing in little lines, so I was intrigued. Amanda, I thought of you instantly, because they will blend perfectly with your bathroom decor.
Also, my hair is curly, but it's pretty fine...and it's much flatter out here in Arizona, what with the lack of humidity and all. So, I thought it could possibly benefit from some body and volume.
While I was talking to the Sephora lady about it, she told me that I shouldn't use it with any other products that contain silicone. The leave-in conditioner that I've been using for over a decade, and which I love (Biosilk Silk Therapy) does contain silicone. Sad face. But, luckily for me, Living proof makes a leave-in conditioner, too.
It's called frizz (only I can't figure out how to use the strikethrough function, so just imagine that it's there). So far, I love both products. My hair is fuller, but it's not enormous, just normal. The other great thing is that the product doesn't make my hair hard, and it doesn't flake. It just feels like hair, and the more I run my fingers through it, the more body it seems to have. It also takes care of the flyaways that I used to have, and it makes the horrible cowlick in the front of my hair controllable.
17 February 2010
kiss me tonight
This is philosophy's version of Neosporin Lip Health. Unlike the drug store product, this one works. Love it.
kiss me
by philosophy
I don't need to discuss again that I'm on a never-ending quest for a product that will stop my lips from peeling. Well, I'm not sure yet whether this product will stop it, but it certainly makes the flaky skin go away.
It's a lip exfoliator, and it tastes like sugar...so I'm guessing that it has sugar in it. I have to stop myself from licking it off my lips.
In addition to scratching off the flaky skin, it also conditions and makes my lips soft. I'm a fan.
I don't need to discuss again that I'm on a never-ending quest for a product that will stop my lips from peeling. Well, I'm not sure yet whether this product will stop it, but it certainly makes the flaky skin go away.
It's a lip exfoliator, and it tastes like sugar...so I'm guessing that it has sugar in it. I have to stop myself from licking it off my lips.
In addition to scratching off the flaky skin, it also conditions and makes my lips soft. I'm a fan.
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