I don't wanna work, I just wanna bang on these pots all day.

Seriously, y'all's. I have a problem.

All I want to do is cook. Breaded, Italian herb-crusted tofu. Tofu with lemon and capers. Baked tofu with soy and ginger. Brownies. Cookies. Pudding. Tomato sauce with fresh basil, chili flakes, and kalamata olives. Lemon garlic broccoli with chili flakes. Tofu omelettes. Vegan meatloaf. Mashed potatoes. Gravy! Potato enchiladas with green chili sauce. Lasagna with tofu/spinach mousse. Spaghetti sandwiches. Lemon bars. Custard-y fruit tarts. Coconut cake with lemon curd. Pot pie. Mujadarreh. Split pea soup. Kale-lentil stew. Bread. I want to use my new pots and pans, my tiny baby whisk, my mini muffin tins. I wake up at night with recipes in my noggin. Too many to write down.

Instead, I think I'll work on my results section. Guess where my heart is(n't).

What I Did During My Bronchitis-Themed Staycation

Tuesday: Doc-in-a-box says, "Girl, you sick!"



Wednesday: Sleep. Take Drugs. Sleep. Sleep. Drug. Sleep. Does anyone else get hot-face when they take Prednisone? It's ooky.

Thursday: See Wednesday. Bake 4 loaves of bread (3 edible ones), motivation unknown...



Friday: Begin to feel stir-crazy. Not better, just stir-crazy. Make ill-advised late morning trip to 'burbs to stake out stainless steel cookwear. Go home empty-handed. Return to mall on Friday night to enjoy teenagers ogling each other. Adorable, actually.

Be in right place at right time to tell young lady (25?) that her tiny dress has inched up to her waist on one side, baring her unclad cheek to all. I think I was the only one to notice. She was appropriately horrified.

Return home with Emeril's 10-piece set. I can't stand the man, but All-Clad's done good with this one.



Also, snuck in a Martha cookie dough scoop. Can't wait to use it! Because I'm a dork!



Ate perfectly spicy kung pao tofu. Smoky peppers = amazing. Do you eat them? Or am I the only one?



Watched Ghost Whisperer. See "dork" comment.

Not bad, huh?

What's your week been like?

Things I thought about last night when I couldn't sleep

1. Games to play at a bar or in your nearest hipster hangout:

Hipster or lumberjack?
Hipster or Matt Dillon's character from Over the Edge?

2. How delicious would it be to pan fry patties made from vegan cheese grits and serve them with collards and red-eye gravy?

3. I really need to get a back-up drive for my dissertation stuff.

4. OBAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!




The end.

Mixtape for the ages

So, I found some old mix tapes the other day and popped this one into my tape player while I made dinner. I was pretty happy with how well it held up. I kind of can't stop listening to it, even though I have several more to catch up on. Of course, there are some pretty kitchy songs that I wish I didn't have to fast-forawrd through, but it was 13 years ago, so whatever.

I think I made this in my 4th year of undergrad. Notice that I didn't say "my senior year". That's because someone transferred a zillion gajillion times.

Anyways, here's the playlist. I don't know all of the band names. For some reason, I didn't obsessively list both the title and band on this one, like I usually did; thankfully, I didn't name the sides of this one cutesy titles, either. And some of these songs were straight from mix tapes other people made me. There's no tracking it back. So, if anyone knows who played these (or if I made any mistakes on band names), please please please let me know!


side a

equalized -- jawbreaker
gov't/satellite -- ???
cause -- swiz
my manacles -- edsel
me and you -- egg hunt
our secret -- beat happening
feeling good fixation -- unrest
time expired -- slant 6
some things -- rastro!
hello kitty -- cub
fly away -- tattle tale (by far my favorite re-discovery on this tape, the Jawbox song was a close second)
suggestion -- fugazi
day ditty -- shudder to think
bee stung -- kristin hersch
the end of a love affair -- matt dennis and red norvo

side b

cool schmool -- bratmobile
that girl -- that girl
what's new pussycat? -- tom jones
lucky -- ???
good guys -- minor threat
why i oughta -- blast off country style
youth -- fish + roses (beat happening cover)
impossible figure -- jawbox
baby blue -- ???
stay away -- heavens to betsy
word traffic -- jenny toomey
more of the same -- coral
12th street rag -- lawrence welk
she said -- bratmobile
i'll take you down -- autoclave
here again -- bratmobile
dig your own grave -- heavenly
yesterday -- ???


Does anyone else have any old mix tapes you still listen to?

Does anyone know how to get cassettes to CD or MP3?