girlfiend

The house is pretty well organized. I’ve been doing my best to keep things picked up and in their proper places so it won’t be too much of a mess when I actually go into labor. Things have been dusted in the past week and I’ve been vacuuming fairly regularly. The kitchen is cleaned daily so that’s not an issue and I’ve been on top of the laundry. The bathroom, while certainly not as clean as I’d like, is clean enough to not be too much of an embarrassment. My bedroom is a wreck, but I blame that on Boyfiend since all of his clean, folded laundry is sitting on top of an old trunk we moved out of the storage room upstairs. If he’d put his shit away (just a subtle hint) it wouldn’t look quite so bad in there.

I really need a cleaning service. It would really improve the quality of my life. Instead of hiring a service I ordered another dyson.

I’ve been cooking like crazy so I won’t have to worry about eating well later.  I’ve made a bunch of dinners and some one-handed breakfasts. In the freezer I have:

• 1 9”x 13” pan of eggplant parmesan
• 3/4 of a large baked ziti in three portions
• 2 8-cup containers vegetable soup
• 1 3-quart and 1 4-cup container of beef stew
• 1 9″x13″ pan of rotini with goat cheese, spinach and red pepper sauce divided into individual servings
• 6 bean and sausage enchiladas (1 dinner and leftovers if Boyfiend doesn’t gorge himself)
• 1 tray (3 meals) chicken enchiladas
• 2 8-cup containers of chicken soup
• half a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough
• 6 cranberry muffins
• 6 strawberry mango muffins
• 18 blueberry pancakes

I’ve also got a bunch of chocolate ricotta muffins I baked tonight that still need to be wrapped and frozen. Tomorrow or Friday I’ll probably end up baking a few loaves of zucchini bread with the last of my freezer stash from last year’s CSA.

The next meat delivery from the farm is scheduled for my due date and I ordered plenty of beef so Boyfiend could cook dinner (burgers and steaks, of course) with confidence. Shortly after my due date is the start of my CSA for the summer,  so I won’t have to worry too much about grocery shopping for a while.

Now I just want this baby out.

I’m lazy and double posting from my food blog.

Last night I picked up the turkey, did the grocery shopping and spent a good three and half hours in the kitchen accomplishing… Well, I don’t even know what I accomplished. It doesn’t seem like a whole lot.

I cleaned out the refrigerator and discarded all of the expired condiments. We somehow had a fridge full of salad dressings I’d never buy since I make all of my own. I guess my mother-in-law must have brought them here for some meal or another and forgotten them. I also discarded an ancient jar of mayonnaise. Mayonnaise is one of those things I won’t touch unless I’ve made it myself (well, I’ll eat some restaurant aioli, but only sometimes.)

So the refrigerator is cleaned out, the shelves are clean (except for the two drawers that I just didn’t have the energy to deal with) and some of the prep work is done.  I still need to figure out how to make the green beans and I haven’t decided if I want to make multigrain dinner rolls or buttermilk biscuits. I bought the stuff for both. I was pleased to see that the turkey (unlike the chickens I’ve bought from the farm) was pretty well cleaned. The giblets and neck were actually detached and stuffed inside the cavity and I didn’t have to scrape out any nasty, gooey innards. Nothing like fresh from the farm animal goo.

The menu:
roasted butternut squash and garlic bisque
turkey
extra stuffing (aunt bea)*
mashed potatoes (aunt bea)*
cranberry sauce (aunt bea)*
roasted potatoes (I have close to five pounds. Will people eat two kinds of white potatoes?)
candied sweet potatoes
green beans
balsamic glazed carrots
rolls or biscuits
cheesecake (mom)
apple pie
chocolate chip oatmeal pecan cookies

*I wanted to tell her no when she offered because I have 5 lbs of potatoes left over from the CSA and I make awesome mashed potatoes, but I didn’t want to offend. So she’s bringing stuff that would be easy for me to make. I’ll just try and be thankful that it’s three fewer items I have to worry about.

Completed prep:
Butternut squash and veggies roasted and pureed
Stock made for soup and stuffing
Onions and celery chopped for stuffing and gravy
Turkey ready to be brined
Giblets removed and liver discarded
Green beans trimmed
Sweet potatoes scrubbed
Refrigerator cleaned
Cookies baked

Today
1.    Prepare brine
2.    start bread dough? Biscuit dough?
3.    make pie dough
4.    make sweet potatoes
5.    blanch green beans
6.    cut herbs from the garden: thyme, chives, rosemary
7.    clean up
8.    bake bread
9.    make herb butter for turkey

Thursday:
1.    rinse and dry turkey
2.    make stuffing
3.    stuff turkey,  and start roasting
4.    start gravy
5.    assemble pie
6.    make carrots
7.    reheat sweet potatoes and bread
8.    finish green beans

I know I’m missing plenty from the lists. I have to set the table at some point and get all of my serving dishes labeled and ready to go. I don’t know if I’ll do that today or tomorrow though.

And I must go to water aerobics. I need a good splash with the old ladies.

I don’t vacation like most people. I’m on vacation right now, I just finished a Tae Bo workout, and I just wrote a blog post about the four cooler’s worth of food I brought on vacation at Farm to Philly. Here’s a full list (as opposed to my abridged list of local foods) of all of the food I packed.

Fruit

2 quarts of Peaches
Cantaloupe
Pint of apricots
quart of cherries
Quart of blueberries
Two bananas
12 limes

Vegetables

Beets
Bunch of kale
3 zucchini
4 green peppers
bunch walla walla onions
half pint of sun gold cherry tomatoes
garlic
quart of green beans
quart of wax beans
pint of new potatoes
bunch of swiss chard
bunch of carrots
one shallot
6 ears of corn

Fresh herbs from my garden

Rosemary
Basil
Tarragon
Parsley (not from my garden)
thyme

Meat
2 lbs hamburger
2 filet mignon
4 new york strip steaks
1 whole chicken
lb bacon
short ribs
spare ribs
4 smoked sausage links

dairy
cheddar
Jack
Raw milk Colby dill
Raw millk herbed jack
Herbed goat cheese
Parmesan
Amish butter- both salted and unsalted
half and half from pastured cows

Miscellaneous

Tofurkey Italian sausage
Morningstar grillers (veggie burgers)
whole wheat pasta (2 bags)
whole grain brown rice
whole wheat hamburger buns
whole wheat hot dog buns
peanut butter Puffins
blueberry cereal bars (from Trader Joes)
salt and pepper kettle chips
lightly salted chips
peanut butter
2 jars bruschetta (from Trader Joes)
newman os
2lbs coffee
sugar
olive oil
peanut oil
seasoned salt
garlic salt
red pepper flakes
pepper grinder
kosher salt
pizza seasoning
spicy seasoning
nutmeg
balsamic vinegar
ketchup
mustard

And I forgot the Cheddar Bunnies. I was forced to buy Goldfish.

If you think the food list is nuts, you’d never believe the packing/to do list. All four pages of it.  Perhaps I’ll scan it in all of it’s glory upon my return home. Until then, I may or may not write again. I am on vacation. Many adorable Fiendling at the beach photos are on flickr.

I’ve been tagged by Fraulein N. I feel like I constantly repeat myself when I do these things but I’ll do it anyway. These are the rules:

Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

1. I suck at folding laundry and often leave it to wrinkle in the basket after it’s washed and dried
2. Yesterday I began using my google calendar in earnest since it’s spring and all of a sudden not only are we invited places again, there are a few days where we have more than one commitment.
3. Even though I can be obsessive about cleaning I still haven’t touched the cat puke on the windowsill that’s been there since Tuesday.
4. Remember the bronchitis that I’ve had on and off since July and haven’t written about in a while? Mostly gone. I finally went to a decent doctor and got put on about a gazillion different medications and I haven’t woken up coughing in almost a week.
5. But the medications have had nasty side effects- splitting headaches, abdominal cramps, dizziness, and sunburn. I’ve been walking around in my beach hat for the past three days.
6. I was going to add the book I finished the other night to my 50 books page only I couldn’t remember the name and rather than go into the bedroom and look at the title I’ve been searching on Amazon for the past 5 minutes trying to figure it out based on the search phrase “literacy los angeles”
7. I just successfully googled it on my first try- Literacy and Longing in L.A.
8. Watching Ugly Betty I just had a craving for empanadas. The frozen Goya kind.

I don’t usually tag people because I almost never get tagged so I’ll throw caution to the wind and tag Mix because I always tag him when I get tagged, Madgirl because I forgot to tell her I wouldn’t make it to knitting on Monday and I hope she wasn’t there by herself, Doodlebug because her lists are always interesting, Chris Lehmann because I have a feeling he doesn’t get tagged for too many silly memes, Lawmummy because she has too much spare time, Natasha because she really made me want a thai ice coffee the other day, MV because she had her little girl Gabriela and I want to say congratulations and what better way to congratulate someone than to tag them for a meme. And I’ll tag Liz because Owen’s a cutie.

(I’m skipping the rule about leaving comments so if you were tagged and didn’t get a comment from me it’s because I have no regard for the rules.)

A few thoughts on American Idol before tonight’s result show. In bullets, because full sentences and paragraphs are just too much for me this week.

• Paula gets more and more bizarre. Drugs? Nerve damage? Either way, bitch is crazy.
• Watching AI I’ve learned that vests have made a comeback. Please. Vests have to go. Tight, cleavage enhancing vests should join ponchos and shrugs in a special fashion pit of hell.
• I can’t stand the dedication videos.
• Celine Dion songs should be banned from the competition.
• Celine Dion songs should just be banned in general.

• None of the guys are spectacular. Chris Sligh was my favorite, but his last two songs haven’t impressed me all that much.
• At least Blake’s interesting. The beatboxing reminds me of that a capella group at UPenn that does the techno songs.
• The other Chris has really grown on me. He’s my new favorite.
• I still don’t see the appeal of Sundance. I didn’t get it on the audition show and I certainly don’t get it now.
• Brandon is super hot, but dude is picking all the wrong songs.
• Sanjaya’s got to shave before he performs. The dirty looking moustache is a bad choice.
• AJ and the others just aren’t that interesting. Obviously they haven’t made an impression if I can’t remember their names.

• I don’t like Gina all that much.
• Antonella Barba is terrible and if she’s not voted off it’s because America wants to believe that she really is the chick in the blowjob pictures.
• Alaina Alexander is almost as bad as Antonella. Totally off key. Terrible song choice. And she, fortunately or unfortunately depending on how people vote, doesn’t have the wet t-shirt pictures online.
• Melinda and Lakisha are both incredible, but I’ll be shocked if either of them win.
• I like Stephanie, but her song this week wasn’t that great. Crazy in Love would have been more fun.
• Leslie is quirky and cute, but not good enough.
• Who did Haley’s hair? Crimp ‘N Curl Barbie?
• Sabrina’s great.

• I really like the Vote for the Worst website.
• Speaking of television websites, because I’m a loser, I found myself reading a site dedicated to Rory and Logan’s relationship yesterday.

I know I’ve done this many times and there’s very little regular readers don’t already know, but since I’ve been tagged by  lisamechelle I’ll do it again.

RULES: Each player of this game starts off with 10 weird things/habits/little known facts about yourself. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 10 weird habits/things/little known facts as well as state this rule clearly. At the end you need to choose 5-10 people to be tagged and list their names. No tag backs…

1. I’d have a Bert-style unibrow if I didn’t pluck obsessively.

2. After reading the book Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret when I was five or six I practiced raising my left eyebrow in the mirror until I could do it effortlessly. Now my eyebrows are uncontrollable. I have no poker face because my eyebrows give everything away.

3. People tell me I smile all of the time, which I find difficult to believe since I’m usually so damned cranky.

4. I read ridiculously quickly without trying. It was always painful in school when we had to read in class because I’d finish a good 10 minutes before everyone else.

5. The same goes with test taking. I always finish first and go back over my answers two or three times waiting until at least one other person has finished before turning it in. The standardized tests like the Praxis, where you’re not allowed to do anything when you finish are painful.

6. My fingernails are always dirty and uneven.

7. I am a terrible dancer. Truly terrible. So bad I had friends who used to show the part of their wedding video that featured my spastic dancing to everyone who visited their house. Fuckers.

8. My nickname for the Fiendling is Smooshy. Or Smushy. How would you spell it?

9. Aside from typos and a few lapses- Smooshy vs. Smushy- I am a naturally good speller.

10. When Uggs got popular a few years ago I was slightly bitter because the Uggs that I’ve worn as winter boots since 1997 were too water-stained to be fashionable. I’m not the type to wear them with miniskirts anyway.
I’m not tagging anyone, but if you choose to participate let me know in the comments and I’ll check it out.

1. I still haven’t gotten around to doing anything about the chapstick fiasco. The clothes are still sitting in the laundry room covered with wax. Awesome.

2. Today I checked two blogs I haven’t seen in a while only to learn that both bloggers are just into the second trimester of pregnancy. How do people keep their mouths shut? I lasted like a week before I blabbed all over the internet.

3. What’s up with people at the gym who insist on doing their hour long yoga practice on the stretching mats? There are two empty rooms with mats and mirrors at their disposal but they prefer to practice in the place that 90% of the gym members use to stretch and do ab work. It’s bright, it’s noisy, and frankly, the mats are pretty fucking nasty. Why not take a class? And people who talk on the phone on the treadmill? Shut up already.

4. What do you get people who have everything for a housewarming gift?

Since I gave up on the 50 books blog long, long ago, here are a few very short reviews of the last books of 2006. Happy New Year!

44. The Sea of Trolls

Excellent. Trolls, dragons, and adventure.

45. Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs

Chuck Klosterman’s essays should be read in very small doses, not all at once. His pop-culture irony gets old after a while.

46. Prom

Not Laurie Halse Anderson’s best book, but it was fun. The prom committee’s faculty sponsor spends all the money and Ashley who claims she’s not interested saves the day.

47. Charmed

A terrible book about a Canadian teenage girl who ends up a prostitute. That’ll teach her to cut school and smoke pot.
48. Party Girl
This book was either really bad or else I’m just not interested in stories about gangbanging Mexican teenage girls.

49. Wrecked

Loved it. E.R. Frank is a great writer.

50. Alice alone

Lame. Really, really lame. I don’t understand the appeal of the Alice series.

Lawmummy tagged me for this meme which I’m pretty sure I’ve done before, but I can’t find it in the archives so I’ll give it another go.

Five things you might not know about me.
1. I seriously considered moving to Portugal to be with a guy I met on vacation.
2. Howard 100 is my favorite radio station, closely followed by Sirius 26, Left of Center.

3. When it came to dance and gymnastics I was hopelessly uncoordinated and I was always incredibly embarrassed when I was forced to engage in those activities in elementary school and summer camp. I could never do the grapevine properly and I once caused an entire line of people to fall when I turned in the wrong direction during an open dress rehearsal for a musical.

4. Last weekend I got a haircut and I hate it.
5. I’m five books away from completing the 50 Book Challenge and I have only two more days in which to do it. Last night, because I hadn’t read it and it seemed like an easy read, I picked up a book that I’d otherwise never consider reading from my pre-teen library. I got to page eleven in about two minutes, and it was so bad I had to put it down. The book? The Boy-Oh-Boy Next Door, a Full House book about Stephanie.

Because it only cost $50, my mom (Jew) purchased a Christmas dinner for eight (ham) from the culinary arts teacher at her school and threw a small dinner party. I’d written a whole story about it, but now that time has passed, I think I’m better off listing some of the events that make it a typical gathering with my mom.
1. My mom threw her dinner party in her studio apartment. She lives at the shore most of the time so she has next to nothing in the apartment. She bought plates from the dollar store for the occasion and served pink martinis in a coffee press. Nothing says Cosmo like coffee grinds.

2. A few hours before the party half of her guests, a family of four, bailed. She had to scramble to find two other guests.

3. One of the last-minute guests, a guy she works with, has a tattoo of his nickname on his arm. Classy. (And I’m sorry if any of you were once drunk enough to get your own fucking name tattooed on your body, but really, it’s asinine)

4. After dinner my mom handed out a few gifts. She regifted some Bliss products my cousin gave her for Chanukah to her good friend, and gave us gifts from family friends. The Fiendling got a book. Boyfiend and I received a cake knife and server set.

5. After the gifts she served dessert. She asked me for the cake server I’d just opened. I told her no.

6. The first dessert, a yule log with meringue mushrooms, was horrible. She offered coconut custard pie as an alternative. She cut an enormous slice of pie and handed it to me. I told her it was way too big and Boyfiend offered to share it with me. He grabbed a fork and with my fingers I popped a coconut flake in my mouth.

7. I almost spit it out. “It’s salty,” I whispered. Boyfiend took a whiff of the pie and nearly gagged. “It smells bad,” he said, and passed it to my mom’s good friend who smelled it, wrinkled her nose and burst out laughing.

8.We stood around the plate giggling and my mom asked what the problem was. We told her and she said, “Oh no. I must have taken the seafood quiche out of my car instead of the coconut custard.”

9. We all gaped. The conversation went something like this:

“Wait, you have food in the trunk of your car?”

“Yes, I’m having another dinner party on Christmas Eve at the shore and I have a dinner for someone from work. I don’t have room in the fridge here.”

“But it’s 50 degrees outside, you can’t keep food in your car.”

“It’s not that warm.”

“Yes, it is, and tomorrow’s supposed to be 60. You have a seafood quiche and a ham in the trunk of your car? That’s not safe.”

“Two hams, some sides, a few pies and a quiche. It will be fine, leave me alone.”

10. I don’t think leaving a ham in the trunk of your car on a sunny day is ever fine, nor is it a particularly good idea.

11. Leaving eggs and seafood in the hot trunk of one’s car is even worse than leaving a ham.

12. Before we left my mother encouraged me to purchase a meal from the culinary arts teacher for Easter. I declined.

13. Upon arriving home Boyfiend and I both felt ill. In time we realized that it was the idea of the food, not the food itself, that was the culprit.