thrift founds

took a foray into the salvation army in brunswick, maine. and, boy howdy, what a great trip! i spent the evening taking up hems and sewing in side seams.

i do find it difficult to find clothes in thrift stores that are in my sizes (generally 2-6, depending on vintage or not/particular manufacturer), but many clothes in the size 10 and up range. so, either my fellow petite ladies of chicago, montreal and maine are buying up these sizes before i do so, or larger women donate more clothes to thrift stores, or the populations of these cities are skewed towards those specific sizes. i believe the average woman is a size 8, so perhaps that is a factor. it seems as if there is some belief that the surrounding area heavily influences the selection found; i have certainly heard the advice "go to thrift stores in wealthy areas" often, but i am curious to whether those stores offer a better selection. i do not shop at particularly "affluent" thrift stores, and i come across designer brands fairly often. can you predict demographics through donations made to thrift stores? CURIOUS.


tshirts for mr. adam. wolves, a la flight of the concords. tacky gold fish (jury is out whether or not he will wear this). adam is building a collection of old portland sports-themed tshirts, and the purple one is courtesy of "hamlin", number 11. thanks.



deadstock birthday cards.

bike license plates! never mind neither adam nor i have bicycles at the moment . . . all in good time.

they were (apparently) dead-stock, which accounts for the lack of names that were not "ron", "craig", "debbie", "christy". same names as those fantastic birthday cards above. and since i do not have any friends who were born during the 70s, we have taken on alter egos. good for quick bike get-aways.

what a great thrift trip, about $16 in all. i found a couple of neat mugs and books at the goodwill, but that can be photographed in a bit.

tomorrow = chicago!

i am looking forward to seeing adam . . . i miss him very much.

29.12.08

worn.

cut my hair very very short in april, right after i had (2) chest tattoos done. it was a couple of very drastic physical changes in short time, and left me looking quizzically into the mirror for a couple of weeks.

having short hair was great - it dried on its own, didn't have to worry about pins and elastics or straighting - but i prefer something a little longer. the growing-out front is going well, but we have reached an awkward stage.

thank you cat for the br gift certificate! i love this cardigan.

scarf: h+m
earrings: banana republic
cardigan: banana republic
tshirt: jcrew
skirt: aa
leggins: llbean
shoes: target

26.12.08

what i wore today.

headband: tortoise-shell, mystery
turtleneck : banana republic, outlet
necklace : h+m
skirt: thrifted, hemmed
underskirt: thrifted, vintage french school uniform
leggings: llbean silkweight long underwear
shoes: black patent-leather t-bars, target

llbean long underwear = saving grace in winter. looks like shiny tights, insulates like a muvfabitch.

angry-face is due to a "check-engine" light that will. not. disappear. blergh.

vacationland

in maine, drinking champagne and eating sushi, listening to bluegrass and excited for fiddle lessons, watching cable television and knitting intricate mittens, enjoying hot toddies and being alone.

for sale

want to help me out of crushing poverty?

hand-crocheted of hand-spun and commercial yarn. tested in -20 wind chill conditions.

$45.

jacqueminot.etsy.com

adventures sans-yeast

upon a bus ride home last night, mr. adam and i discussed dinner options. I had cooked up a whole mess of pasta fagioli on Sunday, but it had reincarnated into Monday lunches, so the thought of more beans for supper was unappealing.

now, as you may know, i have the tastes of a 13 year old boy; consequently, pizza is my all-time favorite food. If i could only eat one thing for the rest of my life; pizza. realizing this is not the most health or calorie conscious food, i strive to launch pizza out of the once-a-month treat category and into weekly status.

quelle dommage – no yeast though . . . and it was raining and 30 minutes to the nearest grocery. so google it was, and i discovered a range of recipes designed for those who are allergic to yeast – something i’ve never heard of, but i guess if an edible substance exists, there’s someone who’s writing hypoallergenic recipes against in on the interwebs.

So, armed with baking powder and treading cautiously, adam bravely mixed together 1 ½ cups each whole wheat and white flour, a couple of tablespoons combined of oregano, basil, thyme and rosemary, a few glugs of olive oil and enough water to get the whole thing to come together. blerg. looked like a shaggy swamp beast. Rolling was out of the question, so adam patted him down into a greased pan [no cornmeal, alas] and, per the recipe, pre-cooked him for 10 mins. The outlook became more promising after the interlude, and i threw on spinach, soy chorizo, mushies over tomato sauce and some long-forgotten monterey jack in the fridge corner.

and you know, it came out ok! this crust does not taste like a yeast crust; it has more texture to it, to me, it’s reminiscient of cheap elementary school pizza crust. But it’s wicked fast, perfect for the weekday.

renegade craft fair

renegade booty

(1) bakelite-ish sea green bird ring

(3) dictionary pins, featuring a quail, octopus and miniature schaunzer [for adam, of course]

(1) explosion in the sky print poster

(1) print featuring a gratcatcher bird and nest

(1) set of “awesome” friends notecards

(1) print of “girl with glasses”

next expedition: target, to get frames

next goal: save up enough money to buy “the iceberg” print from tugboat printshop [above].

number one

lesson learned:

chopping up a whole bunch o’tasty things for enchiladas is a bad idea if you have recently taken part in a spiked hot chocolate bar, resulting in a 30% loss of fingertips.

the best day of the year

Why Do We Celebrate?

Repeal Day is not widely celebrated in this country, yet it commemorates the anniversary of the day the United States repealed the Eighteenth Amendment and gave Americans the constitutional ability to consume alcohol.

Here are a few reasons why we think Repeal Day should be a celebrated day in the United States:

It's the perfect time of year.

Conveniently located halfway between Thanksgiving and Christmas — at a time when most Americans are probably not spending time with family — Repeal Day presents a wonderful occasion to get together with friends and pay tribute to our constitutional rights.

We have the constitutional ability to do so.

Unlike St. Patrick's Day or Cinco de Mayo, Repeal Day is a day that all Americans have a part in observing, because it's written in our Constitution. No other holiday celebrates the laws that guarantee our rights, and Repeal Day has everything to do with our personal pleasures.

It's easy!

There are no outfits to buy, costumes to rent, rivers to dye green. Simply celebrate the day by stopping by your local bar, tavern, saloon, winery, distillery, or brewhouse and having a drink. Pick up a six-pack on your way home from work. Split a bottle of wine with a loved one. Buy a shot for a stranger. Just do it because you can.

Thanks for reading about what we hope will become a celebrated day in this country. Please help spread the word about Repeal Day, and tell a friend.

Cheers!

from repeal day is december fifth.

and for some visual pleasure, the evolution of pbr advertising.

adam and i will be exercising our constitutional rights all weekend. ugh, that sounds dirty.

tofu, chard, mushhies, noodles

last night adam and I celebrated the purchase of delicious [but soon to turn skanky] rainbow chard. admittedly, not in season, but the stalks are such lovely colors, it’s hard for me to pass up, regardless of price or seasonality. sorry sustainable local agriculture! next time i will buy chicago-grown cabbage to atone.

since returning with two checked bags¹ i have become reunited with some of the comforts of montreal, including cookbooks. with the weight limits and the public transportation needed to get home [thanks crushing poverty!], i selected only the veganomicon and a thrift-store copy of the enchanted broccoli forest, leaving behind the 50s version of the joy of cooking, the 1960s versions of betty crocker and fannie farmer, and a perennial favorite, the healthy slow cooker. i’ve been relying on the interwebs for recipes, but nothing beats a cookbook for making notes and doodling in the margins.

after work, i ran across the street to pick up some udon noodles at the jewel supermarket. now, i have slowly begun to explore the wide range of options in chicago, because i love new grocery stores. more than a lot of things. and dominick’s left me underwhelmed; generic, vaguely scummy, doesn’t have a nice organic grocery section, etc. jewel, on the other hand, more expensive, but classssssy. so i picked up some black bean sauce, udon noodles, and, wonder of wonders, Real Live British Heinz Baked Beans, whose absence from the supermarket adam had been bemoaning for months. thanks british import section of jewel for selling me $2 tins of baked beans for my picky anglo-centric boyfriend!

anyway, I made this last night. i feel like there was excessive sesame oil, so you could probably cut that down a bit. this [local] brand of tofu must have been pressed a different way than the big-box generic stuff, because after freezing it had that flaky, layered texture that vegan abalone and duck has; adam thought it was seitan.

black-bean tofu with mushrooms and chard over pan-fried udon noodles

5-6 large porcini mushrooms

1 block tofu, frozen, thawed and drained well

1 bundle of rainbow chard, washed and bottom halves of stems chopped off [wash extra well if you take the bus and your chard rubs its face all over the floor]

3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped fine

2 tbls soy sauce/tamari

2 tbls commercial black-bean sauce [shame, I know]

1 tbls siracha chili sauce

2 tsps sugar

1 ½ tbls water

2 bundles udon noodles

mix together black bean sauce, chili sauce, sugar and water – this is all to taste, so don’t worry too much about the proportions. the quantities above are educated guesses. but you should get something that looks like a slurry of black swamp water.

get yerself a big ol’pot filled with water and set her on the stove to boil.

while water is fixing to a-boiling, heat some sesame oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat. slice mushrooms medium-thin and chuck them in once the oil is hot. when they’re doing their thing, cut drained tofu into goodly chunks, and throw them in too. loosely chop the chard leaves, and cut the stems into like 2” pieces.

when the water’s boiling, throw in your udon and cook for however long the package says. I think I let mine go for like ten minutes.

after the mushrooms and the tofu have a chance to get cozy together and brown up a bit, throw in your chard and drizzle soy sauce over the top to gently wilt them. try to get everything moving around in that pan, i like to flip over the tofu and mushrooms on top of the chard to get it to cook down better. throw in your sauce mixture and let that holey tofu soak up even more deliciousness.

[if you want your sauce more thick, cook longer. I let mine go for a while and reserved some chard to stir in at the last moment, so I could have both deathly wet chard and some with a little bit more crunch]

when the udon’s done, drain and run cold water over it.

remove your tasty toppings from your pan, slick some more sesame oil in there, and throw in the noodles. let them sizzle around for a while until the water in them has evaporated and they start to get crispy on the bottom and you worry about burning them and ruining dinner.

throw your tofu/chard/mushies back in, let everything mingle, and serve!

this makes enough for one moderately hungry lady who ate a lot of raw tofu while cooking, one hungry boyfriend who contemplated thirds and one office lunch the next day.

1. [40$ for TWO checked bags on united!! absolutely ridiculous. but the very chatty woman checking me in in portland redeemed united, but just a little bit. thanks for bumping me to a direct flight so i didn’t have to make a detour to dulles!]

hey muffins

home in maine for the holidays . . . posts a coming . . . full of fun and adventure . . .

the elusive couple re_mix

the ever fashionable mr. adam accompanies me on a w_r. magical.

i seem to be in a bit of a style rut -- unable to shop, disappointed by chicago's thrift stores . . . le sigh. hope to snap out of it soon.

me:

cardigan : libertine collection, target
dress : forever 21
necklace : forever 21
tights : spanx
boots : vintage, montreal

adam:

sweater : uniqlo
tshirt : aa
jeans : uniqlo
boots : thrift

wwjd?

from sortakinda.com

warnken

oof, apologies for the blurry.

finally! finally! i cast-on for the zetor scarf from jatta soheltaa.

[tangential side-note - i lived in finland for a bit during university and am always! tickled to see finnish. ravelry is chock-full of super talented finns! what's up with that? shouldn't sweden be up in arms in a knitting race?!]

i bought this yarn, peria kid mohair, while in london, at the very beautiful and very cozy loop, in islington.

unfortunately, i had forgotten my camera that day, but it was very grey, rainy and chilly, i suppose a typical english day. loop was the first stop on the yarn tour 08, in which i first ventured to islington [a charming and quaint part of london], then out to the no-mans-land surrounding the handweavers studio in blackhorses [lots of petrol stops, shabby mechanics shops].

peria is ok. i am always on the look for subsitutes for kid silk haze, which, quite frankly, is ridiculously overpriced. k1c2's douceur et soie is pretty close to it, and pretty affordable, but i've only ever seen it at halcyon, i think. peria's a little thicker, and 100% mohair. i have to say i am not the biggest fan. it's uber sticky and tangly, which tries my patience, and sheds like a motherfucker. should have known.

oh well, the color is beautiful [it's the top one, fyi], and the scarf will be named warnken, in the honor of ms. emma warnken johnson, whom we stayed with in london, most likely past our welcome. in addition to living in london, ms. johnson is particularly fond of that shade of mustard yellow, and it never fails to remind me of her.

huzzah gender roles!

[oh man, cabbage looks like brains]

yesterday was cold. drizzly, overcast, windy. kind of nasty and certainly the type of weather which commands a lie-around-the-house day.

despite the grueling schedule of the fourth season of doctor who, lazing about and drinking pbr, i needed a project. adam had already adopted the need to move out shelves, cabinets and ephemera from the storage room, and since he had already called the heavy-lifting, dust-inhaling, grunting work, i opted for the kitchen.

now, this has taught me something that i [half-heartedly] knew before - shop-bought dumplings are a godsend. or perhaps ravioli, samosas, pot stickers and pierogi would be transformed into a rare and luxurious treat.

my eyes had been opened to the glorious tastiness of pierogi while in poland, and while i could have bought frozen ones in chicago, why the hell not. let's roll out some pierogi.

they came out ok. i improvised the filling and took a dough recipe from the omniscient askmefi, and they were a little tough - i had used a blend of whole wheat and bread flour for the dough, which i think contributed to that. next time, less gluten.

the filling fell a little flat for me too - cabbage needed to be shredded, not just chopped, and certainly more spices - although, as a girl born and raised in a proud tradition of delicious mediterranean cooking, i don't have any sort of intuition towards eastern european tastes.

either way, smothered with sour cream and maggi hot sauce, they were pretty good - although i have a long way to go before mastering old-baba secrets.

puppy-dog and computer kept far away from flour and butter


hey! let's pretend we're polish unionworkers in chicago! pretentious?!? you betcha.

pierogi recipe

filling :

(1/2) head of red cabbage, shredded
(10-15) medium brown mushrooms
(1) med onion
an obscene amount of butter
1 tsp celery seeds
pepper

fry up onion in butter. when golden, add mushrooms, cook until liquid evaporates, then add cabbage until tender. took about 20 minutes all together.

set aside to cool while you make the dough

dough : (taken from this post on mefi)

(2) cups white bread flour
(2) cups whole wheat flour
(2) eggs
(1 1/2) cups water

make well in the flour in a bowl, crack in eggs, scramble them up with a fork, then incorporate into the flour. add enough water to make a dough, for me it was about 1 1/2 cups. knead for about 10 minutes until smooth and non-tacky. let it rest for 5 - 10 minutes and it will be a lot easier to roll out.

separate dough into (4) sections. roll out one at a time, cut out circles with a biscuit cutter or glass. add about 1 tsp [we made little guys], fold over, crimp edge with your finger.

add in batches to a large pot of boiling salt water - cook for about 2-3 minutes until firm to touch.

add yet more butter to a saute pan and fry until golden on both sides. serve with fried onions, sour cream and maggi hot sauce with a side of pbr!

grant park

there were over 200,000 people in grant park on tuesday night. after much deliberation [i had been up since 5:30, tired, a little cranky, sad about office work, &., &.], adam and i meandered down to the loop to meet ryan, cat and drew to watch the election results and to pray that my heart wouldn't be broken again.

after cnn called the election, we wandered over to grant park in time for the mccain concession speech - very gracious, from what i could hear - people were booing and hissing all around.

but one of the most striking things for me was the lack of anarchy. i had been leery about the sheer number of people - i don't really like crowds and getting into a mass of people tightly packed where i can't get out if necessary makes me a little anxious - but there was no pushing. no crowding. just people - black people, white people, brown people, old, young, children - all quietly listening.

if you know me, you also know that i am somewhat of a cynic - i am leery of politics and politicans, simply because i feel so much of what they purport to do or say is entirely for show, and once in office, revert to personal agendas, not solving anything or helping in any way.

i resisted getting swept up in oba-mania, because of this starry-eyed earnest aura surrounding his supporters in my demographic. come on guys. his platform is "change"?? he's a politican! they are all. the. same.

but, in grant park, my little cynical heart melted. look at all this people, being nice to each other despite background, despite socio-economic class, despite race. i was elated and excited to have obama win this election and i eagerly anticipate his next actions because i believe now that change is possible, that we can hope to make america once again into the kind of nation that serves as a role model for the rest of the world.


from repowers and chrisdetmer, respectively. i haven't been good about taking my camera with me . . . .

soul crushing

man, office work sucks. i miss academia.

went a thrifting

and was sadly disappointed. if the clybourn and western salvation army is anything to go by, chicago's thrift stores are dirty, crowded and kind of skanky . . . and not in the good way.

i found a pair of black patent pumps, a lavender short cap-sleeved angora sweater and a certifiably bad-ass black and gold tunic. oh man. but it was not a good experience.

i've been in a bit of a sartorial tizzy lately, because i have a job! an office job! and i have no idea what to wear. oh dear.

pictures to come!

retroactive fridays [done saturday]

i am still interested in letting you all in the poland adventure, so to organize and structure my posting habits, let's do it on fridays. or saturdays, as it may be.

above: behold our apartment in debica. or, rather the view from it. i don't believe i have any pictures of the inside; if you have catholic grandparents, picture that. that is what the interior looked like; a lot of kitschy knickknacks, at least one crucifix per room, creepy pictures of jesus, a couple of marys scattered around and more than one magnet of pope jp ii. oh man. plus all the closets smelled like mothballs and i had such a fear of picking it up that my clothes remained on the floor.

please notice the soviet-block style flat, gayly painted. and the carefully manicured garden round back, maintained meticulously by babuskas in scarves. the building across the way is a bakery - it had pigeons living in the window.

there was always a thin haze of smog over the city - and the distinct odor of burning rubber. oh debica.

neglect

yowza. i have been mad neglectful.

i apologize.

and i resolve to do better.

i promise.

yum apples + split peas

happy-domesticity is tainted a bit by hindsight, but nevertheless i have a food-post worth of [now lost?] pictures, so damnit, i’m going to do it.

i had been gifted with a couple of pounds of apples, courtesy of the secretaries and the number of bountiful trees of brytania, later in the same day that i had snagged some at the local market.
at a loss of what to do past good ol’fashioned plain eating, i came across this fab recipe for an apple curry. mmmmmh.

however, rural poland is at a severe lack of “ethnic” food; there is an abundance of cabbage and potato but not much else. substitutions ahoy!
in lieu of lentils [not able to be found in the local grocery], i subbed in yellow split peas; garlic, curry powder, chilis and a bit of ginger ad-libbed curry paste.

the day before had been loads of heavy polish-eating, the kind where hidden meat lurked around the corner of every innocuous dania jarskie. tonight, as an antidote and refresher, lots of veggies were needed; to make this dish more like a palaak dal [mmmm my favorite], i threw in a bunch of frozen spinach chunks, random mushrooms found in the fridge and plenty of garlic.

ever mindful of our surroundings, i cooked up some kasha in veggie stock for the carb underbelly. holy jesus himself, kasha is so tasty.

the whole thing was extremely unphotogenic, but mysteriously my process pictures have disappeared . . . confusing.

long overdue

oy vey. what a ride.

i have lots of things to tell you all with many posts, but this sums it up fairly succinctly:

went to poland. didn’t like debica. talked about moving/relocating. got in touch with amideast in tunisia and other schools. decided didn’t have necessary resources to relocate at the moment. resigned myself to staying in debica. vowed to sign contract. met to do so; details of contract withdrew. given 24 hours to vacate apartment and leave debica.

there’s some fleshing out of that story, but those are the bare bones.

been in krakow (4) days; flying to america this morning!

[overall feeling pretty good about this, so no worries there]

dzien dobry

in poland!

no flat internet yet . . . our "native speaker coordinator" got confused when we asked for such a thing, so perhaps that is a bad sign . . . must convey the urgent need of north americans for constant wireless.

town is smaller and much less anglo than expected, but adam and i are trying to keep positive.
will write more later!

WALES IS OK!

so adam and i went to southwestern wales last weekend. it was an adventure.

i present to you a choice selection of welsh pictures, as "montage" is my favorite way to recap events or wacky mishaps. there were both.

above, adam mastering the art of driving on the left side of the road while shifting with his left hand, all while i gripped various objects such as, but not limited to, the car seat, door handle, dashboard, and his knee while making panicky noises.



bridge into wales - toll coming in, but not going out? weird.


we then headed up the river to tintern abbey. i am usually disdainful of "tourist attractions" - i don't really like crowds and a lot of stuff seems to be overrated - but tintern was amazing.


it is astonishing, from an north american standpoint, the antiquity of great britain remains. tintern was founded on may 9, 1131, at a point where the new world hadn't even been discovered.


more staggering is its awesome size, in every sense of the word. imagining coming around the bend at a time when the abbey was surrounded by peasant farmers, cresting the hills around its valley must have been such a overwhelming reminder of god's greatness.


despite being there on an absolutely gorgeous fall afternoon, there was a real sense of melanchony to it. the abbey once housed 50-60 brothers and lay people, at the heart of an isolated but tight-knit community, but now there are only tourists flocking about and ravens croaking from the stone rafters.

Once again
Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,
That on a wild secluded scene impress
Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect
The landscape with the quiet of the sky.
The day is come when I again repose
Here, under this dark sycamore, and view
These plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts,
Which at this season, with their unripe fruits,
Are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves
'Mid groves and copses. Once again I see
These hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines
Of sportive wood run wild: these pastoral farms,
Green to the very door; and wreaths of smoke
Sent up, in silence, from among the trees!

- william wordsworth, "composed a few miles above tintern abbey, on revisiting the banks of the wye during a tour, july 13, 1798.

this picture sums up holiday well for us ; adam gets romantic and snuggly and i make faces at the camera.


after leaving tintern, we kept on truckin down to swansea for dinner. swansea is billed as one of wales' big sea-side tourist towns, but it was pretty ugly and built-up so we peaced out pretty fast.

now, as it was a delightfully perfect weather weekend, as we later found out, most of england also had come to wales. seeing as it is almost october, cooling down a little bit, no leaf-peepers like in new england, we both figured we would have no problem finding a place to stay - wales is crawling with b+bs.

no such luck. stopped in solva - everything was full up. walked around st. davids for an hour and a half, banging on doors at 9:30 at night and wrangling with a hotel to let us both take their one empty single room. no vacancies, no vacancies, no vacancies. to reallllly get things going, we were running on 1/8th tank of petrol.

so on our way to a 24 hr gas station in fishguard, where the ferry comes in late from ireland and where several people swore we would find a room, we stumbled upon the awelfan b+b in beautiful square and compass, wales.

leeetle sketched out when two teenage girls answered the door, but who gives a fuck, we didn't have to sleep in the car. turns out her mum was at a late meeting. we popped down to the [surprisingly unfriendly] square and compass pub and passed out.


after a delicious full welsh breakfast [sausage, beans, toast, mushrooms, tomato [adam ate mine], eggs, toast, lots of tea], we ran to a cashpoint to pay karen. turns out she thought we had stiffed her. so for future reference, adam and i look just that shifty.


on karen's suggestion, we headed to porthgain, to walk a two mile section of the pembrokeshire coastal path to abereiddy.


this is THE classic adam power stance photo op.



porthgain from the hills.



a cairn of some sort? we never figured it out.


if you are a portly man with elongated fingers, whatever you do, DON'T TRY TO CATCH YOUR ROCKS IF THEY FALL OFF A CLIFF.



adam noticed that a number of erudite fellow walkers had taken the time to write their names with stones in this valley. we were too lazy; or else ANNA + ADAM 4EVR would have graced the welsh countryside.



beach in that we frolicked on the trek back.


adam kept on making lotr comments and eluding to the "shire" all weekend.


out of order and too lazy to fix it; beach came after ice cream time.


enjoyed fresh home-made welsh ice cream [adam, rum raisin, me, tasty tasty coconut] with a side order of WACKY WELSH ACCENTS. also, a cheese+onion toastie which was pretty delicious. walked back.


ate lunch in solva. if you ever happen to find yourself in pembrokeshire, stay at the ships inn in solva. the bartender was immensely helpful in trying to find us a room and the pub was loud, friendly with a good vibe. plus, they had an attached curry restaurant.

don't stay in st. davids. they're kind of assholes there.


see the full set here, if you are so inclined.