Feb 24th, 2010 | Food, Fun, St Louis, Uncategorized, feminism, good deeds | 2 Comments
***Cross-posted at Food Blog Mafia
Recently I joined the new Young Professionals board for Safe Connections. If you aren’t familiar with Safe Connections:
As the oldest and largest locally-founded agency serving abused women and teens in the St. Louis region, Safe Connections is essential core of resources and support for survivors of violence. Safe Connections is the only agency providing integrated services for women who have been victimized by domestic violence, sexual assault, rape and/or childhood sexual abuse. (from Safe Connections’ About Us)
Safe Connections provides vital services for women and teens in the area who are survivors of violence, and their work is an area where the need for help is almost always greater than what they can provide. The Young Professionals is a new group formed by Safe Connections to gain volunteers and supporters in the 21-40 age group who can help Safe Connections expand their mission and services.
We’re hosting a happy hour to raise awareness about and gain membership for Safe Connections and our Young Professionals group. This event will be held at Pi in the Central West End on Wednesday, March 3, from 5-7. Chris Sommers, who owns Pi, is also a member of the Young Professionals group, and Pi will be offering half-price appetizers and drink specials for those in attendance. You should come. You need no reason to go to Pi and have a cocktail on a Wednesday, and this gives you free reign to claim it as your good deed for the day or week should you see fit.
Domestic violence is an issue that does not discriminate based on race, socioeconomic status, political affiliation, or religion. I’d love to see you guys come out, particularly my lady-blogger friends.
Feb 4th, 2010 | Food, Garden, St Louis, Uncategorized, education, life, work | 8 Comments
The Bad News (because I’d rather get it out of the way first):
When I left my job helping unqualified people become underwhelming teachers (I KID, at least five of them were competent. Ashley, you’re one of them), I went to work with a friend, helping her with the small business she owned. When I started working with her, we set a three-month trial period, at the end of which either of us could withdraw from the arrangement, no hard feelings. Unfortunately, due to a really crappy economy, she really couldn’t afford to keep me after three and a half months, which I expected. Therefore, as of Friday, I have no substantive incoming coming in regularly.
Which kind of sucks. → continue reading
Nov 18th, 2009 | Food, Fun, life | 2 Comments
*FYI, I totally was going to post this yesterday when I got home from class, but my host was down. See, people are conspiring against me and my already-failed quest to post every day this month.
We spent most of Saturday bumming around Asheville and surrounding parts. I really loved this town. I’d move there. There’s tons of weirdos and progressives nestled in the mountains. Downtown was walkable and the weather was sunny and warm. We ate a late breakfast at Early Girl Cafe. You can read about it in my Novice Foodie column today yesterday. I drank some decaf coffee and the food made me happy.
→ continue reading
Nov 12th, 2009 | Food, Fun, family | 2 Comments
I missed posting last night, and almost missed today. I will make up yesterday’s. I swear.
Tonight, I procrastinated from doing homework by re-reading the Thanksgiving issues of various food magazines and making a detailed list of dishes I might want to try, for either home, Friendsgiving, or Thanksgiving with my family in Iowa. Making lists soothes my anxiety, for real. Half the time, I never even use the list for its intended organizational purpose, but I like organizing things on paper. I’ve narrowed the magazines down to a few recipes I want to make in the next month.
- The only downside to this incredible-sounding toasted corn pudding from the very last issue of Gourmet, ever, is that it calls for a corn you have to order. I don’t know if I want to commit to that. Yes, I will waver horribly on the *commitment* of buying a specialty food item. No, I don’t know why.
- Bon Appetit has cornbread with a bacon crust. Yes, we want to go there. Yes, you want to click on it.
- Then, THEN, Bon Appetit has the gall to hit me with these roasted potatoes with bacon, onions, and sage. Yes, please.
- Despite my bacony dreams, I was a vegetarian for a long time. Well, not long enough for me to not have bacon dreams. That’s probably why I’m not a vegetarian anymore. ANYWAY, I always hated Thanksgiving if there wasn’t some type of substantial main dish–or at least a super-hearty side. This butternut squash and cheddar bread pudding from Bon Appetit is exactly what I was looking for then.
- Gourmet <sniffle> also has a lemon custard pie, which sounds kind of out of the norm for Thanksgiving, but I think it would be a substantial dessert that’s still kind of light with the citrus, so fuck it. Let’s do lemon.
So there’s a good chance that several of these will be cooking in either my kitchen or my mom’s soon. I’m sure I’ll find
Oct 16th, 2009 | Food, Garden | 3 Comments
This nasty weather keeps me checking the 10-day forecast to see when the first frost will be so I can rescue what tomatoes are still on the vine. It’s also kept me from cleaning out the dead plants, digging up the last of our carrots, and getting some cuttings to take indoors. Stupid cloudy cold rain bullshit.
Our expanded gardening was a success on many fronts. I think, had I been at home over the summer like previous summers, we probably would have had even more success. As it was, was took on a more laissez-faire approach to the garden. We could have thinned, pruned, and weeded more. As the outdoor growing season (for us) comes to a close, here’s a little recap and look forward to next year (Yes, I’m already planning for next year. I like to geek out with a seed catalog). I would have taken pictures but it’s cold outside, kids, and I’m still in my sweatpants. → continue reading
Oct 6th, 2009 | Food, education, life | 1 Comment
Wheeeeee! It’s my last week of work at my current job, which means it is the last week I will be in this building on Tuesdays from 7 or 8AM to 9:30PM. That is such a nice feeling. I think I will be less of a misanthropic eye-roller in class when I’m not spending the previous 12 hours in the same building. However, I will still be very annoyed when Lady Who Talks Too Damn Much (LWTTDM if you aren’t familiar with my Tuesday night tweets) gets going on God knows what.
The mad bummer right now is that our internet at home just flat-out quit working this weekend. Of course, Chris had to spend a ton of time on the phone with people in India who refused to believe that our connection just quit working and the Chris hadn’t hatched a nefarious plan to siphon their time and energy into fixing his own grievous errors. A dude came out yesterday and said it’s not the outside connection so it must be the modem. Joy. Our normal neighbors-from-whom-we-steal-internet when ours goes down apparently learned about passwords (none of them being “password”. I tried) and the faint open connection only works with Chris’s computer from one couch. This does not bode well for my productivity on various projects/posts I hoped to get off the ground ASAP.
Don’t forget to donate to DonorsChoose projects in your area. Every little bit counts! My grandma Marilyn sent me a check in the mail to donate to Donors Choose because she didn’t know how to do it online. Then she went to Branson. True story.
Also, check out The Novice Foodie later this afternoon. I’m talking about Monarch and why it’s the best place to spend your money for a fancy dinner. I was fortunate enough to dine at the Chef’s Table there on Friday, which I will be (hopefully) blogging about tomorrow or Thursday. If you live in St Louis, GO THERE. You will not regret it.
More posts to come this week which may or may not involve the following things: Hoarders, food, my anniversary, terrible movie trailers, a goodbye to my job, and a garden update. Ooh! Thrilling!
