the boys I mean are not refined

First of all, I want to tell you all about Chrome For A Cause! From now through this weekend, every time you open up a tab in Chrome, you get a point. At the end of each day, you get to choose how to donate them! All you have to do is install an unobtrusive plug-in that counts your tabs, so there's really no reason not to. :)

And secondly, I need you to listen to me very carefully. You must try Mario Batali's recipe for linguine with clams. This is imperative. It is the best kind of simple that is effortlessly classy. It is a two-pot dish - one for pasta, another for the rest - that honestly only takes 20 minutes & comes out perfectly every time. It's fast and easy (and you know that's how I like it). You will fall in love.

I make it every single time I go home, usually within 48 hours. However, if you're 1. unfortunate enough to live in some crazy Midwest town where you can't buy, say, clams - and the boy at the seafood counter doesn't know the difference between clams & mussels anyway - or 2. a dead-broke college student, or even 3. both - it's okay. I'll let you cheat.

Because you know what? If you trudge back through a foot of slush after a lab that quite literally blew up in your face - giving a whole new meaning to "pop a cap" - followed by a test that has you considering dropping the class, and you're cranky and hungry and ready to cry because you've only had 7 hours of sleep in the last three days and have another three tests before you can finally, finally get on that magical plane home tomorrow night - well, first you might want to hire an editor, because your run-on sentences are atrocious.

And then you can make some pasta in the microwave, open up some canned clams, and dump 'em on top with some olive oil, garlic powder, parsley flakes, garlic powder, and salt & pepper. You can ignore those looming deadlines and open up the internet - because you're not procrastinating, you're being charitable! - and relax.

But at some point you should probably open up that thermo book again. Damn it.

♥

diner informs me it is NATIONAL PIE DAY! Which must be celebrated and not confused with Pi Day, because pie is the most delicious thing in the world and now I want some right now.

I was totally the weird kid who wanted pie on her birthday instead of cake. My friends still resent me for this.

Also, I make awesome pies. I can be shy and modest about a lot of things, but my pie? Is freaking orgasmic. Especially the raspberry. Or back when I picked my own huckleberries in Idaho, that was the best. But I have pie dough in my fridge right now and am definitely making that when I get back on Sunday. OM NOM NOM.

Ahaha this is me studying for my differential equations test this afternoon. OH I AM SO PRODUCTIVE TODAY.

FUCK, JARED. I don't even know anymore. HIS MOUTH ON A COCK. COWBOY HAT. HIPBONES. WHAT. ashdfkjdjaf is he real? Like, is it physically possible for him to exist in real life?

In other really really amazing news, I got my financial aid offer from Rose-Hulman today - almost full tuition and room & board, plus a laptop waiver. And what I have saved up will cover most of the rest. I can't even express how relieved and happy I am. Everyone else has been so focused on just getting in, so they kept saying I was so lucky to have found out back in October - but I really wasn't sure I could go until now. I sort of can't believe it's all working out so beautifully.

Also, I threw together leftovers last night and made a to-die-for chicken & portobello risotto. It doesn't look like much, but it's the sort of meal you'd eat by the fire after skiing, which is exactly my kind of comfort food. Whatever, it was DELICIOUS and terribly rich, with grated parmesan cheese... yummy. And then I made apple dumplings a la mode for dessert. I need someone to forcibly keep me out of the kitchen to save me from myself.

About to leave for the Melting Pot to celebrate a family birthday! Best restaurant ever. So, yes. Many good things. ♥

1. Saw Fired Up! last night after practice! We were the cool kids walking around Tysons in sweats. Danneel Harris is so undeniably sexy that she almost made up for the plotlessness, even if I was spoiled for her character. Jensen, you lucky bastard.

2. THE JARED PICTURES. KILLED ME DEAD. Sadie is the luckiest ever and he is just so blissed-out and. ♥ Jensen totally took that in retaliation for Jared's "three dogs" comment.

3. It is so nice here! Like spring-is-actually-here warmth. I feel silly saying it, but driving around with the windows down and the music up makes me so ridiculously happy.

4. The not-so-good was that my head's been pounding horribly all day and I'm surprised I haven't OD'd on painkillers yet. At least my quads are sort of better? Because the trainer hooked vibrating electrodes up to my legs before practice yesterday. Yes really. It tickled a lot, but my legs were so good and loose afterwards.

5. Damn it. You guys, with your PEER PRESSURE and CELEBRITY STALKING. I've caved. Just please don't ship it to LJ.

6. Why is everyone talking about Leverage? Why are you doing this to me? Because we've just established that I am a fandom sheep. My only hope is that I can't get too into it because we only have basic broadcast, aka not TNT.

7. I'm eating buttery whole wheat rotini with sausage and freshly-made harissa. MMM SO GOOD. The harissa is too hot & spicy and my throat's on fire because it tastes so damn good that I can't stop eating more.

A picspam of my five days in the kitchen! I really only have pictures from the two days devoted to Christmas dinner, though, so there's a fair bit of storytelling involved for the others.

The first day was spent baking different Christmas cookies, but my camera apparently ate those pictures? The cookies were just too irresistible, I suppose, although I really wish I had them. :/ I made classic chocolate chip cookies, peppermint twist candy candy cookies, & Turiano Italian cookies. The last don't really have a name; it's just the general idea which came from that branch of the family. It's one of those recipes where nothing was ever written down, so we all claim to have the right recipe even though we're making very different types. Mine, however, are totally the right ones! :)

I do have all of the images for the Christmas preparations, however! Days two & three:
( EXTREMELY image heavy. Known to cause pangs of hunger. In severe cases, foodgasms may occur. )

Like I mentioned in my previous post, days four & five I went up to Pennsylvania to help out with the annual Italian family Christmas dinner. Every year, there's a different theme & it's hosted by two of my cousins, Ron & Dale, who are brothers. This year's theme was African and we were cooking for seventy-odd people.

We made twelve lemon-olive chickens, twelve chickens with a couscous-almond stuffing, crab & okra soup, chicken tomato peanut soup (with six pounds of baby spinach), pureed ginger vegetable soup, lamb sausage, lemony beef boharat, spiced creamed collards, tomato-onion-preserved-lemon salad, spicy plantain chips, green banana fries, morning glory with peanut sauce, harissa, Tunisian & Moroccan olives, garlic puree... seriously, I'm still forgetting about half of the dishes. It is an EPIC meal. And that's not counting dessert - almond snake filo rolls, koesisters, almond pudding, and six traditional pies. Un-be-lievable.

For all the silly drama and more-than-slightly crazy people I'm related to, this one meal totally makes up for it.

The family doesn't usually exchange gifts, because that'd be a huge drain with such a ridiculous number of cousins, but after everyone left on Saturday around two in the morning, Ron & Dale, Kim (Ron's wife), & I just sat down for a few hours to unwind. As a thank-you for coming up to help out, Ron & Kim gave me my own set of Santoku knives. I still don't even know what I ought to write here, because I am so grateful and excited and DUDE, MY OWN KITCHEN KNIVES. They are amazing & I am so excited to use them!

Anyway, awesome Christmas in the kitchen. I got my own Joy of Cooking after abusing Mom's for years, my own knife set, and melamine prep bowls. I am happy. And really really full.

I don't think I've said this yet, but Halloween? BEST HOLIDAY EVER. It's hands-down my favorite. Friday, we dressed up for classes and then spent the afternoon watching laughably awful horror movies (and Fight Club ohgodyes), then actually went trick-or-treating. Um, yes, I am technically eighteen, but I never said I acted my age. For the record, we had fantastically kickass costumes - we were the seven deadly sins. And people loved us because we were polite and stayed off their lawns and were nice to their little kids. SO YES, I have a ridiculous amount of chocolate sitting on my desk which I don't know what to do with.

AND THEN. LAST NIGHT. It was Caro's 18th birthday, so we drove into Georgetown and went to Cafe Milano. YES REALLY. And it was unbelievably, orgasmically good. I had raviolini di spinaci e guancette di manzo al tartufo, spinach ravioli filled with braised beef and drizzled with a buttery truffle sauce. I swear I can never enjoy another meal again. Just nnngh yummy. And then I shared cassata siciliana, sponge cake scented with Grand Marnier and layered with ricotta and candied fruits, with Caro & Mari. It was delicious but too sweet for me, but it came with this citrus ice which was so sour it hurt and I loved it.

And then we just walked around Georgetown and looked at the pretty lit-up shops. The boys were silly and it was freezing and it was fantastically saccharine. ♥