Riot and Frolic

List of Last Week's Labors of Love

- the Lion OS X update on my Mac.  Who else has this?  Is anyone else confused by the backwards scrolling?  Anyone?  

- another case of vertigo.  Yes, another one.  Apparently, my awesomely low blood pressure and resting heart rate AND total lack of hydration (what? coffee doesn't count?) makes my brain want to take a time-out.  Lesson learned?  Maybe, drink some water?

- a trip to Guitar Center to hang out with the music nerds.  Snotty music nerds.  

- learning the G and I are both motivated by the same nihilistic principles.

- a crocheted coffee sleeve.  The pattern will land on this page soon.

- awesome little pie/PopTart-like things for breakfast.  Coming to this page tomorrow.

- lots of other cool stuff that I can't remember because it's late! 

Dude, I'm so tired.  I gots to go to sleep, or this nonsense will make less sense than usual.  Mwah!

The Pinterest Project- Flapjack Friday Frills

This week's project meshed nicely with the accidental adventures in pancakes that I have on Fridays.  

To explain, I have successfully planned my cooking exploits for a few months.  My super-sweet chalkboard helps, plus it looks cool.

The adventures in pancakes started when I found out it was easier to plan our eats when I cheat and do cheesy (not literally) things like Waffles Wednesdays.  Hence, Flapjack Friday.  More fun alliteration and we get delicious cakes to start out the weekend.  

After a couple weeks of plain ol' pancakes, I started mixing things up by trying whole wheat pannekoeks, banana ones, yogurt cakes, buttermilk, chocolate chip (duh)...  Enough!  Those varieties will be reviewed at a different time.

Wait, a planned accident?  I am lame.

Recently, I found this buttermilk caramel syrup from Creations by Kara on the Pinterest and it sounded good.  

And it was good!

People, follow the directions.  Use a large saucepan.  It bubbles.  But your fat babies will eat more pancakes than you will think is possible and that is funny.  So go ahead.  You won't regret it.

P.S. It is very hard for me to post right now because I'm watching the most awesome 30 Rock.  It's the Mad Men of comedy.  But I can't stop watching.  

And now, I just found this.  So distracting. 

Harder, Longer, Faster

I'm talking about running here, people.  Get your mind out of the gutter.  Running!  

On my weekly workout upgrade, I decided to make running even more fun by running fartleks* on Mondays, an extra half mile on Wednesdays, and increasing my pace on Fridays.  It is super fun.  For lots of reasons.

First of all, can I tell you how much I like getting out of bed?  Bed= warm, sleep.  Get up= cold, running.  And it's dark out.  Like, the sun hasn't risen.  I'm up before the freaking sun. Why do I do it?  Oh, yeah, that whole Nutella habit I have.  Gotta stave off that type-2 diabetes somehow.  

Once I dump myself out of bed, it's not that bad.  The house is quiet, the neighborhood is pretty deserted in a not-scary, everyone-got-killed-by-a-epidemic way, but in a lovely, peaceful way, and the wonderfully chilly air wakes me up (note: not as much as a delicious cup of coffee, but I hear that fresh air is good for you, so air wins).  

Anyhoo, this fartlek business is the bees' knees... if you're Satan.  Running is bad enough, then I go and run like I do up the stairs from my scary basement for a block and then... keep running.  That flight of stairs from my basement puts me huffing and puffing.  So, basically, I'm asking my lungs to explode.  And they are willing.  But first, they want to be set on fire.  So, I oblige by running these dumb sprints 10 times over two miles.  

Then, running looooonger than whatever my usual comfort distance is is asking for a system failure.  "Usually I'm done by now," my brain thinks, and starts gearing down for breakfast. "Wait, you're still running," it notices.  "This is lame.  I'm hungry."  That's when I'm pretty sure my brain starts eating itself in protest, because I definitely can't make a full sentence until I've had some real food after a run.  And how about my poorly planned route where I ended up having to run around my house 3 times before I made my extra half mile?  Extra special.  

Faster was also a problem because I had set the bar kind of high.  For this so-called marathon I'm running (no, it really is marathon) next year, I want to run around 10 minute miles.  That is not fast.  But that is fast for me.  I thought I was doing reeeally well a month ago.  5:43 per mile?  Man, I'm trying out for the Olympics!  But then I discovered that was my time per kilometer.  Bummer.  

Hopefully this all kicks my rear end into shape quickly, so I can keep out-running those nasty monsters in my basement. Because basements are still scary when you're 30.   

*I could have said "intervals" or something, but "fartlek" is a superb word.  

 

Salt 'n' Pepa

Yo yo yo yo, not these ladies.  I'm talking about some salt 'n' pepa... fish.

The only fish I've ventured to cook is salmon and I can dry out a nice piece of salmon like Tom Waits can smoke.  

But for some reason, there was a bunch of tilapia fillets in my freezer that refused to disappear.  This is what happens when you send your husband to the store.  Fish.

I've never eaten a fish taco before, but since they like them in I Love You, Man (Paul Rudd being awkward) and I've heard generally good things, I decided to make up a recipe.  (Thanks to Linda for the idea.  I totally lost the recipe you gave me, but this might be a little close.)

It involves salt and...  wait for it...  pepper.

Salt and Pepper Fish

- fillets of tilapia (or some white fish that you like)

- flour

- salt

- pepper

- oil

Sprinkle flour, salt, and pepper on each fillet and then rub it around so one side of your fish is covered.

In a pan, heat about a tablespoon of oil.  I like olive oil.  Throw your fishies (flour side down) in.  Sprinkle your fishies naked side with more flour, salt, and pepper and rub (yes, while the other side is cooking- be brave).  Cook on each side for about 3-5 minutes or until the fish is opaque and flakes easily with a fork.  

To serve, I just cut up some grape tomatoes and onions and had some lime available to squeeze on top.  Then we piled all that goodness into a couple warmed-up flour tortillas and went to town.  GOOD.  

Just so you know, if you eat at my house, you should be aware that whatever I cooked definitely has my germs on it.  Like this fish?  Yeah, I had to "make sure it was done", so I stuck my fork into it to "flake it."  And then I "ate it."  But I really did.  I ate a lot of it.  And then I flaked it some more so you couldn't tell I ate half a fillet before it hit the table.  Clever.  

I'm like Julia Child and Joey Tribbiani mixed together (something about dropping things and air quotes).

List of Last Week's Labors of Love

- lots of V's artful photography, found on my iPhone photo album when downloading my own pictures.

I'm pretty sure that's a finger and little Zoo's occupied footy-jamas...  Art.  

- My love/hate relationship with making a center-pull ball of yarn continues.  No matter how hard I try, there's always some hopeless tangle near the end that I abandon.  You will not be part of my soiree, you naughty tangled yarn!

- a clever "text" message to my bestie, who bought the new iPhone and can now receive picture texts.  Yet it was a total fail, because when I sent it to her, she was still getting everything on her old phone.  So, all she got was my smarmy message about joining the 21st century.  

And how nerdy am I that I send texts about yarn?

- a sneak preview of my contribution to the Beyond Ballroom Dance Company's annual benefit.  If you live in the Twin Cities, you should come to the party.  There's a fabu show, social dancing, food, and a silent auction featuring awesome things (see below).  

- finishing off of Mad Men, the best TV show ever.  Whennnnnnn will season 5 start?  Not soon enough, says the LA Times.  And does anyone else think of Christina Hendrinks whenever they hear Florence + the Machine?

 

01 Dog Days Are Over

No?  Okay.

- accidental croutons.

 

Deliciously stale!