Matt and I spent the weekend in Toledo with his parents. It was a tonnnn of fun. I always love going to hang out with Ginny.
We had some AMAZING Japanese food.
Went shopping in a tea shop.
Saw this awesome sculpture in the middle of a parking lot.
And went on a photo safari.
I’ve been ridiculously busy with work and studying for work and catching up on sleep that going into work at 715am everyday is making me lose. I love the job though, right now at least, and that’s the most important thing.
I made Ginny’s recipe for hummous today. It’s absolutely fantastic. It’ll be my last batch of hummous for awhile though, as my blender blended it’s last batch of hummous. It was a sad day for about 2 minutes until I realized that means I get to get a new blender (or! maybe a food processor instead). Decisions, decisions. What blender do you use? Would you rather use a food processor?
Ginny’s Hummus
1 cup chick peas, drained
⅓ cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon garlic
⅓ cup tahini
3 tablespoons water
pinch of saltDrain liquid from can of chick peas. Add water and drain again.
In blender, put lemon juice, garlic, salt, tahini, chick peas and part of water. Blend on low. Stir around with rubber spatula. Blend on medium or high adding water for desired thickness.
At this point, also taste for salt and lemon.
Serve in bowl and garnish with paprika and chopped parsley.
This week has been incredibly busy for me not working, yet. I start on Monday. I have an orientation at the hospital Thursday. It’s been a nice break not working, but I’m not sure how I’m going to juggle all of the new things I’ve been doing lately, and working. Other people do it, I can’t imagine that I won’t be able to.
Yesterday, I bought an external hard drive for my MacBook. I’ve been getting into photography A LOT more lately and I didn’t want all of my photos clogging up my laptop, so I bought the next best thing.
I was so excited to get the external hard drive (to me, it was the first real step in becoming more of a photographer). I got one that wasn’t a portable one. The external hard drive being non-portable meant that I was going to have to set up a desk. I had a desk set up in the basement, but it’s COLD down there! Ok, not always, but it’s 2 floors away from everything and everyone else. I convinced Matt to move the guest bed to the basement room and then I could bring my desk up. It is an awesome set up. Someday, I’ll even take pictures of it.
So that takes us to yesterday afternoon, when Ginny tells me that my new lens has FINALLY been delivered to her house. I met her half way between Ann Arbor and Toledo in Dundee (at the Russell Stover outlet, where else?!) and forgot my camera. Big surprise. At least I remembered to wear my bra … oh wait, I didn’t remember that either. I did get some amazing pictures with the new lens (a 50mm, f/1.8 AF) and I am IN LOVE WITH IT. I’m serious, it couldn’t be more perfect. Someday I’ll actually get around to taking AND posting some pictures.
Today has been spent returning the external hard drive that wouldn’t work with my Macbook (yeah, I was pissed), shopping for some new work clothes, checked out where my orientation is on Thursday (have you seen the U of M’s hospital campus? CRIPES!) and taken the Macbook back to the Apple Store (for the second time in a month) because its hard drive was on the fritz.
I ended up walking out of the mall with a new hard drive this afternoon and shortly after opening my computer back up to get to “work,” I realized I DIDN’T HAVE A GODDAMN THING THAT I NEEDED ON IT. Ok, I saved the pictures to the new external. I saved some songs. I saved my resume. I didn’t save anything else. I’ll be the first to admit I’m the dumbest dumb-fuck around today. I pretty much curled up in a ball and cried for a half hour because I didn’t have my RSS feeds, my bookmarks, MY RECIPES, and a whole bunch of other crap that I thought was inconsequential. So, pretty much. Fuck me. For the next 3 days, I’m going to be trying to get back everything I had before.
I learned my lesson, eh?
Last night, Matt and I went down to his parents house. Ginny enticed me with healthy fish and chips. The food was AMAZING. In fact, I wish I had some right now. After dinner, I convinced Ginny to take some water droplet pictures with me. This is what I ended up with:
I’m kinda of in love with it. It took about 100+ pictures to get a few good shots, which I don’t think is too, too terrible. It must have been hilarious to look at Ginn and me taking this pictures: both of us crammed into a small bathroom with a reflector and a tripod and yeah. It was pretty awesome though. I’m proud of the shots we got.
Speaking of Ginn, she got her picture of a little ol’ clock featured on The Pioneer Woman. I’m so excited for her! I hope she’s a finalist, she totally deserves it!
Yesterday, I went out with Ginny on a photo safari. It was amazingly fun. The boys (Matt and his dad) had to go to a basketball game and dinner before so we spent the day driving around Toledo taking pictures.
We started at The Anderson’s Market because they had some big food sample thing I saw and, well, The Anderson’s is awesome.
More pictures from The Anderson’s Market.
Then we went out to the Middle East Market because we could make whatever we wanted for dinner, and of course it’s going to be Middle Eastern. Duh.
More photos at Middle East Market.
We came home for a bit, said good-bye to the boys, threw Lucy-dog in the back of the car and ventured out to take pictures. Ginny knew of a train engine, so that’s where we headed first and then we went searching for a good view of the sunset.
More pictures of the train and the sunset.
For the last few weeks, I’ve been using one of Ginny’s old cameras (one given to her by a dear friend who passed recently), which is an extreme honor, but I can’t lie: I am extremely scared of this camera. The camera itself doesn’t intimidate me, but the history of the camera scared the shit out of me.
image from Steves Digicams
The Fujifilm S1Pro is the camera I’ve been using. By looking at it, you can tell it’s more of an established photographer’s camera. It’s been awesome to learn on this camera, but I think it’s probably time to make the move to something more my skill level, and have I mentioned I’m SCARED TO DEATH of doing anything to this camera? Ginny’s told me more than once that it’s mine to use, and something to the effect of that ‘I don’t need to worry about it.’ I do worry. It’s not mine and it has ridiculously RIDICULOUS sentimental value.
Why am I trying to rationalize this? Because I want this:
image from PhotographyBLOG
The Nikon D3000. It’s small and pretty and red and it’s everything I want in a camera.
So, the question remains, do I splurge a little bit on this camera with my incoming tax refund, or do I keep using the camera I’m almost, kind of, scared to use. I think it’s a no brainer.
Late last night I realized that I had EVERYTHING to make chocolate chip cookies, so I made them. I used the mixer Ginny got for me on SUPER clearance at Target a few weeks ago and I was off. The cookies turned out fantastic, even if I did, um, almost kill the mixer in the process.
Warning: 800 pictures (ok, not that many) follow … which normally isn’t my thing, but I just HAD to show how this cookie scraper works!
Ginny also gave me this while going through her kitchen drawers. She told me the name of it, but hell if I can remember. It’s a cookie scraper to me, and honestly, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever use it. I tried it out tonight. It worked like a charm. Or, you know, like two teaspoons.
First, you dip the curved edge (the side without the moving parts) into the cookie dough, and get a huge glob (of course! who likes small cookies?!).
It looks all fancy when it’s on the scooper, and all that jazz.
Then, with your thumb, you push down the move-y part …
And, magically the cookies fall perfectly off …
And you do it 3072498273498273423 times …
And you have that many piles of cookies. Really, the thing is pretty awesome. I could dip, scoop, and smush the cookies off with one hand while I was taking pictures with the other. It was also a whole lot cleaner than using two spoons. I don’t know if I would have gone out and bought the tool, it’s very unitasker, but you know, it’s awesome because it was Ginny’s and now it’s mine.
The only cooking tip I ever got from my mom was that when you made cookies (or brownies, or anything that was cut up and put into a container) if you put a piece of bread into the container with the baked goods, it kept them fresh and moist longer.
The bread, takes all of the dry air and becomes quite stale. It looks weird, and I always get strange looks, but honestly, it keeps the cookies fresh for a lot longer than they would be in a regular container.
The cookies are ridiculously good. I finally have tweaked a few recipes into one good recipe and they are aaaaamazing.
Even the bottom is good, not burned and oh-so-tasty. (Please don’t notice that chocolate chip that magically fell from the cookie when I turned it on the pan because I don’t have any cooling racks).
Milk Chocolate Cookies
3 cups flour
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips
2 teaspoons hot waterPreheat oven to 350 degrees.
Soften the butter and cream together with both sugars. Add in the eggs, vanilla, and salt. Mix. Combine the hot water and the baking soda, until dissolved. Add in the flour and chocolate chips.
Bake for 12-14 minutes, watch carefully.
Makes approximately 3 dozen cookies.
I should probably also mention that NO MATTER how good vanilla extract smells, you should never, EVER taste it. EVER.
When Matt and I moved into the condo last April, one of the first things I got set up was the kitchen. I’d never really had a kitchen like this (pretty much everyone who comes over is ridiculously jealous of it) and I was so excited to get everything into it.
I had made a pilgrimage to IKEA with Ginny right after we moved in to get curtains and shower rods and all the stuff you need to buy when you move into a brand-new home. I can’t tell you how long I looked over the IKEA catalog. It was seriously hours. The pages were getting dog-eared and crinkled pretty bad. I finally made my choices (and subsequently threw them all out the window as soon as we walked into that bright, shiny building).
One thing I didn’t falter on was my spice jars. I fell in love with them as soon as I saw them in the catalog and have never regretted the choice.
The jars are the Rajtan jars from IKEA. They’re ridiculously cheap ($3 for 4 jars) and they’re absolutely cute (especially when stuffed with amazing spices). I even use one jar for my vanilla (mostly because Ginny brought me some amazing vanilla from Mexico and I didn’t have anything to put it in – she wouldn’t let me have the whole bottle, psh!)
The problem of the spice rack lies with the actual rack. I don’t have one. I have a shelf I bought one day at IKEA, which conveniently, they don’t carry anymore.
I also have been cooking a lot more since we moved in, and collecting more and more spices, which no longer conveniently fit on the single shelf anymore. I have no idea what to do with this. I don’t want the jars hanging out on the counter, it’d be amazing I could have found that shelf again.
So, you’re probably asking WHY THE FUCK DON’T YOU BUY A SPICE RACK!? Good question. The space between the bottom of the cabinet and the countertop is 16 inches, oh and there’s that 3.5 inch “backsplash.” All of this means there is absolutely no space for a spice rack.
I do have to admit that I haven’t been to Home Depot or Lowe’s yet to look for a spice rack, or hell, just a shelf that I could use to store them on – but I’m not sure how well that’d go for me anyways (I’m probably the most picky person in the world).
My question to you: How do you store your spices? Do you hide them in a cupboard? Do you display them proudly? Do you even use them?
Oh, and if you have any ideas for my conundrum, PLEASE please PLEASE! Do tell!
PS, there’s a brand new design for you three people who read Yuppish on your reader … so, check it out!
Today I went to downtown Ann Arbor for the first time. Ok, it wasn’t the absolute first time, I’d been there before, mostly it was just driving to No Thai or going to lunch with Ginny. Honestly, though, I hadn’t spent any amount of time there. I finally convinced Matt to go today while some friends were in town (perfect way to get him down there because he hates it there).
After parking in the PARKING STRUCTURE (which apparently is the weirdest thing I’ve ever said) we made our way down Main Street and then I saw this …
Then, across the street I saw people making ice sculptures, little did I know it was a theme all down Main Street and there was one right behind me in front of the Moosejaw store.
It was pretty awesome. I had my camera in my pocket the whole time (yeah, I didn’t think to bring the goooood camera – STRIKE ONE) but it was absolutely SO freezing (at a balmy 20°F, not including the wind) that I couldn’t bare to bring it out because I’d have to take my gloves off (they’re wayyyy too clumsy for any picture taking) and hold up the group to take any pictures. So I wish I had taken more pictures, but there’s always the spring and summer when it’s actually warmer (Aparna even agreed to go on a picture taking walk with me). I was ridiculously jealous of all the yuppies walking around with their Canon DSLR’s hanging off their neck (no lie, didn’t see one Nikon; therefore, Canon must be the DSLR of choice of yuppies).
We walked around downtown and got warm beverages from a certain coffee shop. The barista was absolutely the worst person working at a coffee shop ever. I asked for a Orange something-or-another Hot Tea. When it was given to me (like five minutes later), it had all this cream and crap in it. I ordered hot tea. Why the hell did it take five minutes to put a tea bag into a cup and fill it with hot water. Not only did it take that long, I’m fairly sure we were overcharged and all three employees were too busy worrying about nothing I wasn’t offered a refund. I figured I’d take care of it later.
So we went out walking again down Liberty Street and I saw this shop that was $15 and under AND fair trade. Awesome! I was so excited to go in and see what they had. As soon as I walked in the door, I was accosted by this woman wanting “to hold my coffee until I was done shopping.” First of all, it was keeping my hands warm. Second, nothing in this shop cost more than $15 (I would have more than graciously like an idiot paid if I had ruined something). Third, I’M A FUCKING ADULT. Seriously. I don’t need some hippy grabbing my tea from me as soon as I walk in. It’s like someone asking to hold your backpack when you’re in high school and you walk into a convenience store because they’re convinced you’re going to steal something. We left the store fairly quickly, but unfortunately, it was an awesome shop I’ll probably go to again (though, next time I’ll make sure I have a water bottle in my purse that I pull out and start drinking in the shop).
There was a Michigan basketball game this afternoon so it was ridiculously busy, but we walked around a bit, saw the city and the campus and now we’re braving the cold again to go to Palm Palace. I can’t wait!
Last night Matt and I went to Toledo for the University of Toledo basketball game. I don’t actually go to the basketball game (I went once, and well, the squeaking shoes bother me), I spend the evening hanging out with Ginny and learning awesome things. Lately there’s been a lot of photography learning going on.
Last night was no different. I’ve been using the Fuji S1Pro Ginny let me borrow for the last few weeks and I think I’ve been getting fairly good at it. Last night I learned lighting. We started with the flash last night and then went into natural lighting today. I love going to learn new things, it’s amazing to see what you can do with a camera (no matter what kind).
I also spent a great deal of time with Ginny’s macro lens. I love this lense. I do not, however, love that it will not auto focus on the S1Pro, but I finally got it to manually focus today and ended up with some great photos.
Only the first two pictures are with the macro lens, but there are definitely a lot more on my flickr page. It was a bit of a chore to get anything with the macro lens outside, since it was fairly windy and cold. I was shaking a little bit, which made it even more difficult because of the manual focus. I think they turned out well though.
I can’t wait to try out more of the macro lens, and I can’t wait to get outside when the weather is better to start taking more photos outside (I almost froze my fingers off today).
