Where did all the Sabra go?

It is a tragedy! It is a catastrophe! It is a gastronomical nightmare! My grocery store no longer sells the best hummus I have ever tasted. It is called Sabra, and if you ever find some, buy it and send it to me. The pine nut or spicy pepper flavors are the best. I've never tried the greek olive shown in the picture, but I'm sure it is awesome. Oh woe is me!!!

A deprived childhood?

A coworker of mine recently came up to me full of excitement and holding a doll. Okay, to be fair, he would call it an action figure. He proudly showed it to me and said, "Look what I got!" I was puzzled. He was holding a doll/action figure that was vaguely familiar, but I really had no idea who it was. I said, "What is it?" My coworker was incredulous! "You don't know who this is??? It's Beaker from the Muppets!" What's worse is that almost all of my coworkers knew who Beaker was and couldn't believe I didn't know. Did I have a deprived childhood?

In my defense, I grew up without watching a lot of television (which is totally different now, but that is neither here nor there). As most of you know, I grew up in a somewhat isolated area, and I played outside a lot. The only television show I remember watching was Sesame Street and some Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, but I don't even remember those shows very well. In fact, there is a whole slew of things like music, television, politics, etc. that happened during my childhood that I had no idea was happening at the time. What irks me even more is that most people my age know a lot of this stuff and think of it as common knowledge. Then I think back on my childhood and remember all the great times I had outdoors playing with my friends, fishing, skiing, etc., and I have to say that I had a really great childhood. Okay, so maybe I really suck at 80's trivia, but I like to think I was pretty lucky. Just don't ask me questions about He-man or She-Ra. I probably won't be able to answer them.

P.S.- Based on this image, I'm not sure if having a doll/action figure of Beaker will bring you good luck in the lab.

A Placid Christmas

I am finally back! I had a great holiday, and I thought I would share my holiday adventures over the next couple of posts. It was so nice to have a break that now it is hard to get out of bed in the morning. Back to the grind...

Over Christmas, my family and I decided to go skiing in Lake Placid. I come from a family that has done mostly cross-country skiing, but my husband really wanted to go downhill skiing. In an effort to keep up with my adrenaline junkie of a husband, I decide to go downhill skiing while my parents and sisters went cross-country skiing. Some of you may know from my previous posts that I have tried snowboarding. I have only been snowboarding 3 times, and basically all I can handle is slowly coasting downhill. Now, I have been downhill skiing a couple of times, and I travel at a much faster speed and feel a little more confident of my abilities in that area. Since I wanted my husband to have as much fun as possible, I decide to ski so he wouldn't have to stick to the bunny hill. Unfortunately, I think I gave off more confidence that I really warranted, and my husband took me straight up to the blue and black trails. As our lift went higher and higher up the mountain, my dread escalated. Sure enough, I fell almost continually down the mountain. Luckily I was wearing a helmet. In one memorable fall, I was rolling down the mountain with one ski still intact, but I was continuing to roll much longer than I had before (by this point I was a falling expert). I was literally thinking, "Gee...I just keep rolling. Where am I going?" When I finally stopped, I looked up and realized that I had just rolled down a steep drop from one trail down to another. My errant ski was lodged into the side of the ledge, and my husband was standing at the top of ledge wondering where I went. Poor guy! I like to think I probably looked like the guy in this picture but with a little more flailing involved. After that, I practically walked down the rest of the way. If my dignity would have allowed it, I probably would have crawled down the steepest hills. My dear, sweet husband stayed with me the entire way. Needless to say, I stayed on the green trails after that and did much better.

Lake Placid was beautiful, and I had a great time with my family. It was a very relaxing Christmas, despite the bruising from skiing, which was exactly what I needed.

Past two weeks in one blog!

I know I haven't blogged forever, so here is the past two weeks in a nutshell.

I saw two movies, Atonement and The Golden Compass. Atonement was good, but made me bawl my eyes out (seriously, they were swollen the next day!). The Golden Compass was okay, but if you haven't read the book, it might be a little hard to understand. Every scene happens in at a machine-gun-like pace--boom-boom-boom-boom, the end! It has some good scenes, however, such as the bear fight. If you have read the book, you should see it (if you haven't read the book READ IT--it's a great book!).

Chipolte is just starting to open up in Boston, which made me so excited. I love their chips and guacomole! Imagine my horror when I went to the one near my house and I waited 45 min for a burrito. Mostly it was because the service was so slow. It wasn't even busy. Plus, to top it all off, they ran out of chips! As a tex-mex place, running out of chips is just not cool. Quel nightmare! I am never going to that place again. I just have to travel to Minneapolis to get my Chipolte fix.

I lost to my sis at this year's cookie exchange for best tasting cookie. 'Nough said about that. Boo!

The Big Bangs

My hair was getting dangerously close to my shoulders, and as I usually do, I decided to hack it all off. I usually get a concave cut that is about chin-length, but this time I went a little crazy and decided to get bangs. (The picture is pretty close to what it looks like, and no, that is not me. I'm pale but not that pale!) Not a good idea. I look like a teenager. As a co-worker of mine said, " It makes you look sweet and innocent." I said, " It makes me look like I am fourteen." To which my co-worker replied, "Yeah, it kind of does." Oh well, until they grow out, I guess I will just have to live with them. Please, please, please remind me in the future not to get bangs. I'm sure someday I will think it is a good idea once again.

The funny thing is, my bangs have a side effect. I get stopped quite a bit by people who are lost and need directions. Even when I first moved to Boston and was lost myself 99% of the time, I would get asked for directions. For the first couple of months in Boston, I worried I would get asked where such-and-such was or how to get to X street. I'm pretty sure a number of people got sent on a wild goose chase because of me and now curse my name. My theory as to why I was always getting stopped is because I am totally not intimidating and pretty approachable. At least, that was until I learned how to give off those stay-out-of-my-face vibes most Bostonians develop. I got approach much less as time went on, or at least that was the case until I got bangs. Since then, I have gotten stopped almost every day. I actually had a woman chase after me to ask for directions even though I had my ipod on and there were other people walking by. Why is this happening? I think it has to be that I look sweet, innocent, and less intimidating with bangs. Fortunately, I know Boston much better, and I am hopefully not sending them on a wild goose chase.

Movin' on Up!

Yeah! My hubby and I are officially moved into our new apartment. As a bonus, I was able to convince my hubby to get rid of the golfer futon and the old (he thinks retro) mustard-colored love seat. It could be because of my awesome powers of persuasion, but I think he just didn't want to carry the heavy thing down and then up a bunch of stairs. I'll take it either way!

Apple Picking

Not too long ago, I went to visit my older sister and my little niece-the-cutie. As always, it was great to see sis, and my little niece is still the cutest baby ever. We took her out apple picking, which is almost a requirement for any New Englander (along with traveling north to see the fall colors--check out Family Guy episode about "Leafers"). It was a lot of fun, but when I got home, I had no idea what to do with all of the apples. I'm not a canner, and my husband doesn't like to eat apples unless they are in a pie. Luckily, I got a really easy apple crisp recipe from a coworker. It was so easy, I had to share it with you all. Enjoy!

Andrew's Easy Apple Crisp

Slice apples or cut into chunks. You can leave the skins on or off, whatever you prefer. Put into a casserole dish and generously sprinkle cinnamon.

For the crust:
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 stick of butter (softened)

Beat flour, sugar, and butter together until crumbly. Pour on top of apples and sprinkle more cinnamon on top. Bake at 375 degrees until apples are soft and the crust is golden (20-30min).

The Donnas

This weekend I went to a really awesome concert. The Donnas are one of my favorite rock bands. Not only do they sound great, but there are not many all-girl rock bands out there. They played a good mixture of old and new songs, and I think I am really going to love their new album (which is not surprising since I love all of their albums). Listen to their new songs on their myspace page. I think one of the reasons their concert was so great is because they really seemed to love rockin' out. If they ever swing through your hometown, check them out!

Morris the Cat

As most of you know from my previous posts, I have been volunteering at Nevin's Farm. However, because of my work schedule, I have started volunteering a little closer to home at the MSPCA in Boston. Unlike my work at the farm, I mostly help take care of small companion animals like dogs and cats. I get to do fun stuff like walk dogs and play with cats, and I get to do some of the not so fun stuff like follow them around with plastic bags to pick up their poo and clean out their cages. I have only been there for two weeks, but I love it all ready. The best part is learning from the behaviorist that works there and discovering all the new animal characters. In particular, I thought I'd share one character I met last week. He is Morris the cat.

Most cats seem like fairly independent animals that do not always seek out social contact with others to same extent as dogs. Morris is not like that at all. Morris is the most loving, attention-seeking cat I have ever met. He is an adult cat with grayish-brown, long hair and black stripes running through it, and for some reason he has a spot behind each shoulder where his hair looks like it got shaved. He has the most incredible green eyes, and he really knows how to be heard. One of my jobs is to clean out the 'Kitty Condos', which are basically large cages that have four stories. I was cleaning out the condo next to Morris, and he obviously thought my attention was not turned in the right direction (namely himself). He would reach through the bars of his cage, tap my shoulder a couple of times, and then meow at me as if to say, "Helloooo! Pay attention to ME!" Finally I got to his cage, and as soon as I opened his cage door, he was all over me. He rubbed up against me, butted heads with me, and kept putting his front paws on my shoulder purring like mad the entire time. Normally when I clean out the condos, the cats generally keep to themselves or at least get out of my way. Not Morris! He was so lovey he started getting in my way, and finally I had to pick him up and put him on the top story of his condo. He must of thought it was some sort of game. As soon as I bent over to scrub out his condo, he reached down, put his paws (thankfully declawed) into my hair, and proceeded to bat it around. It was my first head massage from a cat, and when he was done, I looked like I had been through a wind storm. As soon as I moved on to the next condo, he started banging on his cage doors, admonishing me for leaving him (or so I like to think--he probably just wanted food).

Mrs. Tomato Head

I did something really stupid this weekend. I went sailing with my husband and his sailing team just for fun. This was not the stupid thing. The stupid thing was leaving my sunblock in the car. After 6 hours of sun and wind out on the ocean, my face was as red as a ripe tomato. Plus, I was wearing sunglasses, and I now have lovely white skin circling my eyes and everything else is an angry, beet red. It is so bad people will not sit next to me on the bus even though all other seats are taken. It is so bad I have had a number of people from work ask me if everything is all right because I look REALLY flushed. It is so bad that even a fluttering breeze is agony on my tortured membranes. Now if you will excuse me, I am going to go dip my head in aloe vera.

To Facebook or not to Facebook

I want to pose a question to the world at large. Should I join Facebook? I have avoided joining Facebook for quite sometime because I don't like putting too much information about myself on the internet (semi-anonymous blogging is much more my thing!). I have recently felt more pressure to join, however, because a) almost all of my friends have joined and b) I recently read in Money magazine that it is a great way to network/find jobs. Even though I like the idea of talking to my friends and Money magazine makes a good point, I am still hesitant to join. So what do you think? Facebook or not Facebook? That is the question.

Two great recipes!

I have actually had a chance to do some cooking lately, and I thought I would share two of my more successful ventures. The first one is a Rachel Ray recipe, and the second one I kind of made up but is loosely based on RR's pumpkin ravioli recipe. My husband really loved the Chicken and Pear (and brie!) Turnover. As always, I improvised a little with RR's recipe, and my changes are in bold. Enjoy!

One 2-pound rotisserie chicken, skin discarded and meat shredded
1 large Anjou or Bosc pear, thinly sliced lengthwise
1 large shallot, thinly sliced (I didn't add this)
2 tablespoons chicken broth
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh tarragon (I just used dried herbs)
Salt and pepper
1 large egg
1 sheet puff pastry, thawed
I also added a little Brie because I love cheese!!

1. Preheat the oven to 400°. In a large bowl, mix the chicken, pear, shallot, chicken broth, tarragon, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and set aside. In a small bowl, beat the egg with 1 teaspoon water; set aside.
2. Unfold and flatten the puff pastry sheet; cut into 4 squares and refrigerate 3 squares. On a lightly floured surface, roll out 1 pastry square into a 9-inch square. Pile one-quarter of the chicken mixture in the center. Lightly brush the 4 corners with the egg wash and pinch together to seal, leaving the seams open (I also brushed some egg on top to give it a more golden appearance after baking). Place the turnover on a baking sheet and refrigerate. Repeat with the remaining pastry squares, filling and egg wash.
3. Bake the turnovers until crisp and golden, about 25 minutes.


Spinach and Cheese Ravioli with your favorite sauce!

1/2 cup chopped spinach (or more if you like)
1/4 cup finely grated parmesan cheese, plus shaved parmesan for serving
Salt and pepper
32 wonton wrappers
8 oz of cream cheese
1 large egg

1. In a medium bowl, mash together the spinach, cream cheese, parmesan, egg and 2 pinches each salt and pepper.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Spoon a tablespoon of the cheese filling into the center of 16 wonton wrappers, brush the edges with water, top with the remaining 16 wrappers and press to seal, gently squeezing out the air. Arrange in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet.
3. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.
4. Working in 3 batches, cook the ravioli in the boiling water until they float to the surface, about 3 minutes.
5. Divide the ravioli among 4 plates; season with salt and pepper. Pour your favorite sauce over it and pass the shaved parmesan at the table.

My favorite sauce of choice: Tomato cream sauce
1 jar of spaghetti sauce
1 cup half and half
1 tsp nutmeg
Salt and pepper

Mix above ingredients together and simmer until warm.

Sophia's Back in Black premiere!

Okay, one more post about my cute niece! My sis has discovered movie maker on her computer and has been sending us footage of Sophia on YouTube. Check it out!

Going Country

Since my first post about Nevin's Farm, the animal shelter where I am volunteering, I have gotten a bit more experience 'workin' on t' farm'. I thought I would give a little update about my time there.

Horse stalls are a lot like people's apartments. Some are neat and tidy with all things unmentionable pushed into corners or buried out of sight (definitely not reflective of my apartment!). Ducky's stall is a great example of this. Ducky has some draft horse in her, and as you may imagine, she is a big 'un. As such, I was expecting a big messy stall to go with her size. Lo' and behold, her stall looked almost spotless except for the far back corner of her stall where all of her waste was deposited and fastidiously covered with shavings. It was so easy to clean! This was in stark comparison to those stalls where you have to watch where you step and weave your way through piles of trash. Now, I hate to be sexist, but naturally these stalls belong to the stallions (typical male!). Food and poo were everywhere, and their stalls have to be completely gutted everytime I am there. I think we have all run into apartments like this at one point or another.

Nevin's farm has a lot of people stopping by just to see the animals with their kids. Kids love watching the animals, which means I generally have an audience if I am working out in one of the pens. In general, I tend to forget people are even there, but there are definitely times when I am reminded of their presence. These times tend to be a source of embarassment for me, such as the first time I had to herd geese into the adjoining pen. I'm pretty sure geese are not smart animals, but I was beginning to suspect some hidden intellect since they seemed to be doing their best not to go where I wanted them to go. There I was crouched low to the ground, my arms flung out to my sides, trying to herd the geese into the next pen while simultaneously shuffling behind them, snapping my fingers, and clucking at them. My frustration with the geese was only heightened by my awareness of three moms with their small children lined up along the fence watching my goose two-step with open amusement. Although this still better than the time I passed by a mother and her son just after I had finished mucking out stalls, hauling hay, and cleaning the chicken coop. The son turned to his mother and asked, " Why is that lady so dirty?" Children are so (sometimes brutally) honest!

All in all, I am really enjoying my time at the farm. The animals amaze me constantly. Some of them have experienced nothing but pain and misuse all of their life. Yet give them good care and kind attention, they forgive and forget. The staff is great; all of them lovely people to work with. I'm just glad I can be a part of it.

My niece the cutie!

Another Quiz? Gimme a break...

Perhaps one of my favorite trilogies is 'His Dark Materials' by Philip Pullman. If you enjoy fantasy/science fiction books, read these books! This trilogy is remarkably refreshing in a field of so many Tolkien-wannabe series. Imagine my excitement when I found out they are making a movie out of the first book, The Golden Compass! You can check out the trailer here. In this book, each person has a daemon, which is essentially a reflection of your soul and personality in animal form. As you may have guessed from my previous post, I love taking personality tests. Generally, they are not very accurate, but I think it is fun anyway. As you may have all ready guessed, the website for this movie has a quiz to find out what kind of daemon you would have in this fantastical world. Even better, other people can tell you if you agree with the daemon you got (see below). So what do you think? Should I have a fox daemon? I have to say, it is pretty fitting for the Fixen Vixen...

What flower are you?

I am a Snapdragon What Flower Are You?

"Mischief is your middle name, but your first is friend. You are quite the prankster that loves to make other people laugh."

Auntie Fixen Vixen

Hurrah! My sister gave birth to a beautiful baby girl today! I am officially an Aunt! Welcome to the world little one! Can't wait to spoil ya!

Misery

I have slowly been working my way through a book I borrowed from my sister called 'The Dance of the Dissident Daughter'. It is a book by Sue Monk Kidd that discusses many issues concerning feminism, christianity, etc. I have not gotten very far, but it has some interesting ideas. I would highly recommend it to women. Anyway, she discusses one of the characters from a previous novel who walks in her sleep every night. The character says that this is because 'people deposit their misery somewhere in their body...mine is apparently is the sleep center of my brain'. As someone who frequently gets sick whenever I am stressed, I totally agree with this idea, and I have recently had fresh evidence that this is the case.

For the past couple of months, I have been very stressed. I have been busy at work, apartment hunting (one of my least favorite things), traveling like crazy, and being very social (which is stressful for me since I am a bit of a hermit). A couple of months ago, I had a really bad cold (see my post Diseased). Last month, I noticed I had a big red patch on my thigh, and last week I broke out into red bumps all over my chest and back. Chicken pox? No, I all ready had those. Ringworm? Maybe, the red patch on my thigh looked right, but it spread to so many places. Although, I did pet some sheep while we were in Maine... I finally went into the doctor and they told me I had pityriasis rosea. Whaa? Well, apparently it is not contagious, goes away in 8-10 weeks, happens mostly to women my age, and they have absolutely no idea why it happens except that it may appear after exposure to a virus (like my bad cold). Maybe this is true, but I have another explanation. I was depositing my misery into my body, and it was made manifest by raised, red bumps. My misery definitely resides in body.

Animal Farm

Recently, I have been contemplating a career change. I could write a number of posts on this blog about why and how long I have been thinking about this, but instead I decided to cut to the chase and firmly state I may/perhaps/am thinking about becoming a veterinarian. Before making such a life altering decision, however, I decided I needed to learn a little more about it. My biggest step towards this goal is that I have volunteered at an animal shelter called Nevin's Farm. My first day volunteering was last week, and it was very satisfying. I work indoors all day at a job that is mentally intensive, and I kind of miss doing more physical labor. I definitely got my chance to use my muscles, puny as they are, at the farm. My four hour shift started at 8 am mucking out stalls. Even though it is not the most glamorous job, I get to be around one of my favorite animals--horses. While I am not allowed to handle them myself, I still have the chance to admire their many colors and personality quirks up close. It was worth a couple of hours of scooping just to be around them. Plus, there is something peaceful about being in a barn full of contented animals, the smell of hay and sawdust, and the sound of soft whickers and snuffling from the inhabitant in the next stall. It's a pleasant change from police sirens, traffic, and general hubbub of the city.

Unfortunately, mucking stalls was not the only thing I had to do. I also had to clean out the pheasant and quail pen, which is definitely not as glamorous as mucking out stalls (okay so mucking out the stalls is glamorous compared to cleaning out a coop). Nevin's Farm rescued about 400(!) quail from an abandoned farm, and because they were so crowded and pecked each other to pieces, about 100 of them had to be euthanized. Don't worry, I did not have to clean up after hundreds of quail. Many of them have gone to good homes. But I did have to clean up after about 20 of them along with one rooster and hen pheasant pair. I was a little concerned about the rooster, since I have been told a number of times how awfully mean a rooster can be. Despite some indignant squawks, however, he was as gentle as a kitten. What I did have to worry about was the tiny quail! Or at least one quail in particular. She was a tiny little hen, who looked like she had been picked on by some of the other quail and was definitely the loner of the group. Whenever I came close, she hunkered down like a cat about to pounce on its prey then with a flurry of little quail wings fly at my shovel or boots pecking like crazy. Her frenzied attacks only felt like little taps on my big work boots or resulted in tinny clangs on the shovel, so it was kind of cute. Maybe she was tired of being picked on, and my presence was the last straw. Whatever the reason, her pluckiness was quite courageous, if a little stupid (but no one ever accused quails of bing too smart), and I had to admire her for trying.