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this is a beautiful, complicated world we live in, with beautiful people of all kinds of skin colors, religions, philosophies, languages, orientations, cultures... it makes me sad that some people don't see the beauty that exists in these differences, and more than sad that others see these differences through a prism of indifference, or worse, through fear. in the hands of someone with power, this fear can have truly devastating consequences, as we have learned too many times.

add to this fear a measure of impunity on the side of the powerful, and we are left with the situation we have today in this country. i truly hope that someday we can embrace differences for what they are: an opportunity to learn, an opportunity to see life from a different perspective. different is not dangerous, or scary, or strange, it's a blessing.

lazy sundays

lazy sundays are the best. scratch that. lazy weekends are the best. you know, the kind where you stay up as late as you want watching whatever trash tv you want because you can sleep in as late as you want the next day. the kind where you change out of your pajamas into sweatpants and a sweatshirt. the kind where you only scrape yourself off the couch to get the next round of snack food.

while these weekends are a treat, they really shouldn't happen all that often. one can only handle so much laziness. at least for me, i don't think it's physically possible to maintain this kind of extreme laziness more than a day or 2 before i start going a little crazy. but those rare, lazy weekends, they're the best.

and in case you're wondering, yes, this has been a wonderful, lazy weekend.

New Year's... Resolution? Goal? Whatever.

i didn't want to have any lofty new year's resolutions this year because, you know, LAZY.

but in all seriousness, i have started to think that new year's resolutions are a bit silly - if you have to RESOLVE to do something, it means you don't really want to do it but you are going to force yourself to do it as long as you can do it until you just can't do it anymore.  instead, it seems like you should find things that you WANT to truly incorporate into your life - like being healthy (rather than losing weight) - and find a way to meld it into your lifestyle so it becomes sustainable.

with that in mind, i decided that this year, i really wanted to increase the number of recipes/meals/dishes in my retinue.  the obvious goal of this is so that i can come home from work and, rather than making what i always make for dinner, i have a stockpile of go-to things to cook.  it will also help in the save-money-by-bringing-lunch-to-work way.  at first i thought i would try to make 1 new dish every week, but this goal seemed like it would be impossible to keep up with due to travel, ennui, etc. so instead i decided that i am going to try to make 50 new dishes at some point this year.  i could make a new dish every day until the end of february to meet this goal, or i could make one per week.

so here goes.  my list of 50 new dishes:

1. butternut squash soup (real simple cookbook) - slightly time consuming to make, but worth it! super delicious. only downside: a tad too much salt is called for in the recipe.
2. pulled pork - SO FRIGGIN GOOD. and easy peasy too! only recommendation is to be generous with the sweet baby rays. oh, and potato roll buns. nom nom nom
3. Not sure if this counts (but i'm counting it, because this is MY BLOG mwahahaha), but I made hash browns from scratch for the first time.  my 1st attempt was a bit soggy in the middle, but attempt #2 (less oil, less time cooking potatoes, more time frying outsides of the patties) was much improved!
4. crock pot whole chicken - the smell of this cooking all day made me SO HUNGRY, but the chicken, while super juicy, was not as flavorful as i hoped it would be.  if i make it again, i'll probably try some variations to make it taste more exciting... if you have any suggestions, leave them in the comments!
5. crispy cajun shrimp fettuccini - so. darn. good. despite a few preparation mishaps: mishap #1. i forgot to fry the shrimp in the cajun spice. i just slapped some flour on them and plopped them into the pan. when i realized my mistake, i just dumped all the cajun spice into the sauce mix. mishap #2. i used evaporated milk instead of heavy cream (trying to save calories), and the sauce was pretty runny.  i saved this by adding a bit of corn starch to thicken it up. not-really-a-mishap-but-something-i-will-do-differently-next-time #3. i bought frozen, unpeeled shrimp. not a huge deal, i just had to boil the shrimp so i could peel them before i could fry them, which took a little while.  anyway, this recipe was delicious and relatively easy.  if you want the recipe, let me know (i don't have a link for it)!
6. cheeseburger soup - although this recipe appears to have been in my family for quite some time, *i* only just learned of its wonderfully magical existence.  it is delicious! it's also pretty easy to make/forgiving of mistakes (of which, i may have made one or two). the only thing i might do differently is puree all the ingredients except for the ground beef. but this is only because granger and i generally prefer smooth soups over chunky ones.
7. sweet potato fries - this is another one that is a stretch to count, but whatever... i'd been making them on the stove, rather than in the oven, until i learned the error of my ways. from now on, sweet potato fries made by yours truly will be baked in the oven with a little olive oil, paprika, and salt.
8. mushroom and spinach quiche - super easy to make, although i had to cook it quite a bit longer than the recipe calls for (maybe even 2x as long). that meant i didn't eat until after 8pm, so i was close to HANGRY and kinda just stuffed my face as soon as it was ready.
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