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.
Nov 22nd, 2009 | Fun | 1 Comment
We spent the night in Charlotte with our friends Josh and Michelle, who moved there a little over a year ago, and whom we miss immensely. Their daughter, Ansley, is two years old but talks like she’s a grown folk. In fact, she’s so freaking smart, I’m pretty sure she’s bound to give Josh and Michelle a run for their money when she’s older, a presumption I’m sure Michelle’s mom will no doubt delight in because, as we all know, payback is a motherfucker. However, I think intellect in a child is a welcome problem. Chris and I always give books as gifts to the children we know, and I delight when said children are old enough to articulate genuine excitement for books and then eschew television in favor of entertaining themselves with reading materials. Basically, keep doin’ what you do, Michelle and Josh. We spent Saturday evening playing games (something we always do together). The boys *actually* beat us in something (Music SceneIt) which hardly ever happens, but we girls owned them in spades like the real Gs that we are.
Ansley showed me their garden, and we smelled different herbs.
Sunday was a beautiful day in Charlotte, in the 70s, so we took a long walk on the trails by Josh and Michelle’s house.
Of course, we always wish we had more time with our friends, but we left the next day, and, to avoid the stupid detour we had to take on our way to Asheville, we figured out that going through Atlanta might actually be a quicker route. We did, stopping at Flip along the way to eat a burger and shake, and then drove the rest of the way home, finally arriving in St Louis just before 2AM. I was glad to be home, but the road trip was good for our souls. A change of scenery, particularly a change in physical landscape, is good for the soul. We’re already jonesin’ for our next trip.
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.
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Nov 16th, 2009 | Fun, life | 3 Comments
Chris and I took off late afternoon on Friday, heading towards Charlotte taking whatever path we felt like. We stopped for gas just outside of a town called Metropolis in Southern Illinois. So, like any rural town with a vague tie to a fictional character (see Hannibal, MO or Riverside, IA), they’re going to go overboard trying to milk some tourist dollars from aforementioned tie. So we saw the giant Superman. 
Then someone yelled at us as they drove by “You need to find something to do.” Indeed. Maybe we could head over to the two-story Dippin’ Dots this joint sported. 
Then we drove and drove and drove and drove and just when we thought we were on the homestretch to getting to Asheville, we see there’s a detour. The detour, which I located on the map after reading various flashing signs, was going to be about two hours out of our way, with no real option to avoid. SERVED. Little did I realize my friend Michelle, who we were going to visit, called and left me a message about said detour that I failed to listen to so it was my own damn fault.
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
Nov 1st, 2009 | Fun, St Louis, bloggety stuff, life | 3 Comments
I haven’t been posting nearly as much as I would like to, so I decided to participate in NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) for November, which means I’m committing to post every day of that month. I know, right? The world totes needs more banal documentation of my life. What can I say? I like to give back. Deadlines are good for me and I’m excited to maybe write something interesting in those 30 days.
Last night was Halloween, and I had a fun time at our friend John’s house. I dressed as slutty broccoli. I didn’t take the good camera because I didn’t want to keep track of it, but there were pictures, which I will post when I get them. There were some great costumes, as usual. My one friend was Teen Wolf (if Teen Wolf played basketball for DuBourg), his wife was our friend’s giant construction cell phone, Susan and Moose were Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill, complete with British foodstuffs like spotted dick. Rev Em was Bob from What About Bob? (with live goldfish around her neck) and Army Dan was Cousin Eddie circa Christmas Vaction. There was a Fabio, a Hulk Hogan, a SuBo, a Sally O’Malley, a priest, a cow with udders, an Evil Knieval, a Rosie the Riveter, and several more costumes I can’t remember since I partook in various vices over the course of the night. Rev Em’s family showed up; her dad was Balloon Boy, and she brought her visiting French cousin. Try explaining sexy broccoli to a Frenchie. This guy hadn’t even heard of Bruce Springsteen. Socialist. He was amazed that Halloween parties in America really are like on TV shows. We danced the night away like only drunk white people can do and I felt like crap today.
I’d also like to give the Iowa Hawkeyes a shoutout, as my lifetime devotion to their squad is finally paying off in the form of a 9-0 record peppered with heart attack-inducing comebacks. It’s been a great fall to be a Hawk.
Tomorrow I’ll be posting about my trip on Friday to the St Louis Symphony Orchestra. We had a blast!
Oct 21st, 2009 | Fun, St Louis, life | 4 Comments
Saturday, the sun finally made an appearance in St Louis. Good thing, because I was set to ride my bike in the infamous Tour de Moose, a pub crawl on bikes around the city. My great friend/old roommate Susan’s boyfriend is the Moose in question, and this was the fifth year of the Tour, an event he and his friends put on themselves.
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