Don't bore Nina!

Is it me, or is the current season of Project Runway totally boring? I still watch, but I just don't care. Their clothes seem so-so -- not much is shocking, except occasionally for how BAD it is (skanky hot pants?! 30 yards of white ruffles?!). Could this be because the season was filmed so long before it aired? Carol Hannah's dress pockets, for example, don't seem like a big deal now, because pockets have swept the nation over the past year. Maybe what once would have seemed inventive now looks like old news. But, that doesn't address my other issue: there's not much fun conflict. Irina is bitchy, Carol Hannah is super cute, and Althea has giant 80s hair and a complementary wardrobe. But it just feels like it's missing something. Maybe a guest appearance by Wendy Pepper would help?

Butternut disaster

Last night was the second time Brad and I and our friends Joel and Bekka met for dinner party club (man, we really need to think more about what to call this - really, "dinner party club"? Ew). Since Bekka and I cooked last time Brad and Joel were up yesterday. When I came home in the afternoon I peeked in Brad's grocery bag and was a little bit shocked to see not pizza dough or hamburger buns or taco shells, but butternut squash, red onion, and artisan bread. I had been wondering how things would turn out, because we have two guys who eat meat and don't do much cooking, and two girls who don't and love to cook, but the groceries showed a lot of potential for vegetarian delights.

When Bekka and Joel got here the ladies sat at the table eating an appetizer of bread and several bread dipping options served in ramekins (Brad: "Joel, we're going to put this stuff in ramekins." Joel: "A ramekin? What's a ramekin?" Bekka: "Joel, you know, like the big white one I have." Joel: "A ramekin? What's that?" Repeat.) I had just decided to get out the camera and take a picture of the boys in the kitchen when, while attempting to peel the squash, Brad sliced his whole finger off.

It wasn't really his whole finger, but a pretty serious, very gushy cut in his left middle finger. Squash fell on the ground, Bekka and I ran around looking for bandages and tape, and Joel examined the wound. It bled a lot for a while, and then they ended up wrapping it tightly in gauze and securing it with duct tape.

Of course this would be the one month of our entire lives when Brad doesn't have health insurance. That's right: this is the one time EVER that Brad hasn't had medical insurance. He's in an off month between being covered through his old job and the new one, and when he went to apply for temporary coverage to get him through October, he was already past the deadline, so here we are, just waiting for November 1. Joel thought he might possibly "need a stitch." Would we have seriously considered the possibility of stitches if he were covered this month? I think so. It was bleeding a lot. But knowing it's 8 pm on a Friday night and the only thing open is probably the super expensive emergency room limits what you're willing to seriously consider.

Very professional bandaging

For the time being dinner preparations just went on. I jumped in and did some quick peeling of the squash while all of the chaos was going on, and then got out of the kitchen so the guys could finish up. They made Warm Butternut Squash and Chickpea Salad (as seen on Smitten Kitchen, who got it from Orangette, who got it from somewhere else), and it was DELICIOUS. The tahini dessing is fantastic. Everything about it is fantastic. Except that there aren't any leftovers for me to eat today.

Ramekins!

This salad might cost you a finger, but it's worth it

For dessert we ate brownies and ice cream, and then Bekka and I went to the store and bought some New-Skin, and when we woke up this morning Brad's finger was still attached - so far, so good. Because if he loses a digit over peeling squash for dinner party club, it could really cast a pall over the whole operation.

So hot right now

Have you lost the pulse of pop culture? Me too, but I'm pretending I'm on it. Things I'm loving right now:

• Ben Folds, who we saw perform with the Spokane Symphony on Sunday at The Fox. So fun! So much orchestration! And I loved the disjointed crowd - the dressy symphony season ticket holders, intermingled with the uber casual Ben Folds fans pleading for Folds to "Rock this bitch!"

• The September Issue - holy cow, what a cool insider's view of the life of Vogue, Anna Wintour and her insanely far-reaching influence over the world of fashion, and the Creative Director, Grace Coddington, who's more of a free-spirited artist in the commercial world. It's really great. My brain can't even contain all of that fashion.

• Mad Men, Mad Men, Mad Men. Beautiful, quiet, informative, heartbreaking, often hilarious. Keep your eyes out for riding lawnmowers - not for indoor use.

• Where the Wild Things Are - it looks perfect, the music is great, the characters are developed and believable and sad and funny. For what it's worth, I think it really captures the destructive yet cuddly yet angry yet loving yet stubborn yet dependent nature of boyhood like nothing else I've seen. Of course I'm an outsider when it comes to boyhood, but from what I've observed, this movie really nails it.
  

Avant garde marketing

Today I received an issue of Gourmet (a magazine I've never subscribed to) in the mail. Every so often I receive just such an unsolicited magazine. I'm assuming that's because I'm part of X magazine's target audience and they want to lure me into becoming a subscriber to X by flaunting all of its goodness in my face. But that's not really an option with Gourmet, since they're on their way out - the November issue, which I received today, is their last. And here's the kicker: the magazine was wrapped in plastic, and inside the plastic was a piece of paper that says this:

"Give the gift of Gourmet - only $4....Use the Card [yes, they capitalized Card, but I won't dwell on that] below to send a holiday gift to your favorite epicurean!" The detachable card shows all of the rates and options (12 issues, 24 issues) and even has a "Bill me after Jan. 1" option.

What is this all about?! Were these all bundled up and ready to go before Conde Nast announced the closing of the magazine and they just decided, "Who cares that we're promoting lies? We're sending them!"? Because a lot of people might take this offer and send in their little Cards. And then Conde Nast or whoever deals with these things is really going to have a mess on their hands. I think current subscribers are being bumped to Bon Appetit, or something like that. They'd have to do some serious bait and switch with any newbies.

The sad thing is, I really like what I see in the magazine. If they weren't already out of here, they might have won me over. Bad timing, I guess.

Big day

So yesterday was the first day of the last year of my twenties. I think that is what is called a mind f. Getting older is the weirdest thing. It hurts my brain to think about how time passes and how I feel young and grown up and accomplished and unsettled all at the same time, and I know that's not going to stop, ever, even when I turn 500. Time is weird. But everybody knows that. And I feel like turning 29 is a bigger deal than turning 30 somehow, because 29 is the last of something, and 30 is the beginning. And I also feel like, who even cares how old I am or any of this thinking I'm doing right now? Let's all just spend a few minutes celebrating me!

And that is what we did yesterday. Because I am such a mature and responsible lady, I spent most of the day working from home and then writing essays (for school) from a coffee shop. But I really went crazy at the coffee shop, and instead of just buying a cup of coffee, I treated myself to a whole bowl of soup. On my birthday I really go nuts.

Then last night we went to dinner at Mizuna with Bekka and Joel, sometimes known as Lady B and Gentleman J. I had never been there for dinner before and it was great. They have a huge vegetarian menu, which meant that there were like five whole entrees I could choose between. I was in the lap of luxury. And our super cooky server took $6 off a really nice glass of wine in honor of my big day. The only downside of the Mizuna experience was that the same cooky waitress (can I still say waitress? do I have to say server? I'm not going to) knew it was my birthday, and when we were ready to leave came over and looked at me and said, "If I were you, I'd stick around for about ten minutes or so, if you know what I mean," POINTED LOOK. So we're all thinking, ooh, birthday treats to come for me! Dessert, etc. But here's what happens: she leaves us alone for about twenty minutes, and then gives us the bill. No dessert or mention of the fact she'd asked us to stick around. Happy birthday!

But Brad and I took care of the dessert thing by wandering over to the mall and getting some Oatmeal Cookie Chunk ice cream at Ben and Jerry's before he took me to see The September Issue. Ice cream=my favorite thing. Fashion documentary=fascinating. Me=so, so old, but having a very nice life.

There is more to life than food...

...But apparently that's all I want to blog about. First, a quick Fresh Abundance update: I forgot to order my fourth variety box last week. But I still had a few things left from previous weeks (potatoes and yams, a couple of pears, celery, onion, a couple of peppers, Swiss chard), so I made a delicious minestrone out of most of that stuff (no pears or potatoes or yams) with a recipe I modified a lot out of Gourmet. Because really, I just don't have two hours to spend on soup most days. I also don't eat pancetta. So instead of cooking the first group of ingredients (through chard stems) for a leisurely 45 minutes, I went with about 15. The soup was still delicious. In your face, Gourmet! Maybe a few tips from me would have saved your little magazine.

That was a joke.

And on to the main event! Cookies. I made some flourless oatmeal cookies last week and they were a big hit. I was a little nervous because I hadn't gotten to taste the cookies before I brought them to class the night I baked them, but they were very popular and also, I am in love with them. I made about 50 cookies with the amount of ingredients shown below. The original recipe is for "monster cookies" but I think mine were just people-sized cookies. I also used a combination of white and dark chocolate chips instead of other chocolate candies - and I'm pretty sure I used WAYYYYYYYYY more than the one cup originally called for. Probably more like one cup of each kind of chocolate. Probably more like one cup of chocolate per cookie. Brad and I ate every single cookie that I didn't take to class, too - and that doesn't usually happen. If you knew for certain that there were no traces of gluten in your oats (like Bob's Red Mill, or quelque chose comme ca), these would also be officially gluten free.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Monster Cookies
About 4 dozen cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, slightly softened
1 1/2 cups creamy natural peanut butter, well-mixed
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 teaspoons baking soda
4 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
About 2+ cup chocolate or mix-ins (follow your heart)

Preheat oven to 350F and line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper (or Silpat).

Cream butter, peanut butter, and sugars. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Beat in baking soda, then oatmeal and mix-ins.

Drop onto cookie sheets with an ice cream scoop and flatten slightly. Bake at 350F for 8-10 minutes or until done. Do not overbake! Don't you dare!

Remove from oven when slightly golden. Let cool on the sheets for a few minutes until they have firmed up enough to remove to wire racks.

A bloggy deal

Here's what I just learned from my blog stats:

• Most readers come from the U.S. The country with the next highest number of readers? Obviously, Brazil!

Searches that have brought people to my site:

• "dressing up for sporting events" (like that has ever happened!)
  
• "zaftig veronica mars" (excuse me??)
  
• "doesn't that sound nice" (there's a nice, specific search, holy cow)
  
• "one year anniversary for lovers" (I recommend Vermont)
  
• "rory logan goodbye" (that might make a nice subtitle for part of the episode, robot)
  

And my favorite:

• "I'm a fembot" (you ARE? So is Francie!)
  

True love

Brad and I saw Paper Heart at the Magic Lantern a couple of nights ago. This is a super quirky doc(mock?)umentary featuring super quirky comedian/musician Charlyne Yi and the ever-adorable Michael Cera (directed by Nicholas Jasenovek). The premise of the documentary is that Charlyne doesn't believe she is capable of love (specifically, of being "in love") and so takes a bunch of trips all over the country to talk with regular people, scholars, romance novel writers, and others about their experiences with and understanding of love. Along the way she and Michael Cera meet at a party in L.A. and start dating, which then becomes part of the documentary, because HOLY COW, if Charlyne is finally finding love as we're making a documentary about Charlyne not being able to love like other people, we better capture that on film! Hope that doesn't cause any conflict in their tender young love!

Something about the way their relationship plays out doesn't really ring true (and I don't even think they intend for it to, and also some say they'd been dating for years before this came out), but it doesn't really matter. The documentary is quirky (have I mentioned it is quirky?), funny, occasionally touching/cute/sweet, and worth checking out.