catching up

I haven't updated this thing since March? Really? Only six months? I swear to god it feels like over a year. Well, if you check the posts, it really has been nine months since I've actually blogged about food.

A lot has happened in that nine months, including a couple of pretty decent food experiences that I might just blog about in the near future. Here's a preview:

- A super money friendly recipe for Dal a.k.a. indian lentil soup courtesy of my good friend Frank. Delicious, flavorful, and roughly 50 cents for a good sized lunch portion.

- My top three or four weekday dishes. This includes great black bean tacos, gorgonzola pasta with peas and mushrooms, and homemade pizza. All provide plenty of leftovers and are really easy to make.

- Carrot cake that I just about died over. It's probably my greatest culinary accomplishment.

- I grew herbs!? And it turned into the best pesto I've ever eaten. Now that we've moving, I think I have the space to put together a real garden next summer. I'm talking tomatoes, cucumbers, all the good stuff.

I truly haven't been cooking as much lately as before. My wife getting laid didn't off help at all, as now money is a lot tighter and I can't buy those cool ingredients that I want to cook with. In addition, my bike accident led to a pretty decent pile of medical bills as well as the cost of a new bike. That and school has really picked up for me. I'm committed to getting out in no more than 24 months, and it's going to take a lot of work to make that happen. Pile that on with my newfound love for cycling and learning French, and...well...no time. This probably means I shouldn't be blogging, but I really need something to get it out every once in a while. At this point, I don't even care if no one reads this at all.

So, until my next post, which will be soon, I say au revior...

btdubs

I don't really have enough time or creativity left at the end of the day to blog, so I made a tumblr. It's watered down and it will be much easier for me to keep up with daily. Enjoy:

http://spicysammich.tumblr.com

graphic designer needed...

For this company. Clearly, their current designer is COLORBLIND:

Seriously? If my teeth looked like this, I'd probably go to the hospital thinking I had some funky form of teeth jaundice. I want to go into a teeth whitening office with teeth looking like this and watch the receptionist scream in horror at my freaky radioactive teeth.

getting my hands dirty...

I've recently found an awesome new blog, The Kitchn, which provides at least a few good posts daily.  That's something I can't say for most of the blogs I read (no offense to all of you, btw).  

They've recently been doing a special on how to make your kitchen better.  Better storage, better colors, better cooking, everything.  One special thing was all about renters: how to fix things up without having to pay out the ass in maintenance fees once you leave.  Well, I stumbled upon a pretty cool idea of theirs a week or so ago.  Needless to say, I couldn't help myself:

This peg board was probably one of the easiest and coolest home improvement projects I've ever done.  The total cost was 24 dollars, and that INCLUDED a quart of paint to match what we currently have in our living room.  If you do it without the paint, it's about 12 or 13 dollars.  Since I got a Home Depot gift card for Christmas, total cost to me was a big fat ZERO.  It opened up a whole cabinet of space, which in turn gave me a whole new countertop free to work on.  I need to get a few extra hooks so I can hang up some more utensils and my french press.  Needless to say, it was an easy project that I absolutely recommend if you have a free wall and need some kitchen space.  

something to hold you over...

Since I finally realized how broke I am I haven't really cooked a thing in three weeks.  I'm currently digging out recipes that will allow me to use only the things in my cupboard.  Other than that, I'm limited to buying Chinese Noodles as a healthy (but still cheap) alternative to Ramen for my lunch for the next week.  I've been able to find the supplies for this really good looking rice pudding.

I think I promised a biscotti recipe a few weeks ago.  I made them, but I didn't like the recipe that much at all.  I'm gonna try another one (since I will have the materials for those as well on hand, save the eggs and milk) and I'll try and post that whenever I decide to do it again.  

Another awesome realization I made is that once I do have enough money to buy food again, I won't have any time to cook since my extra money is in taking on two jobs tutoring people.  I'll be lucky to have a wife in six months, let alone time to make a good meal.  

Anyways, since my life has been fairly uninteresting and this has been a pretty dreadful January, here's something from my heart to yours:

www.afterhoursdjs.org

Yes, I like techno music too.  But I'm not a techno snob.  So anything with some good bass lines and some synthesizer of some sort usually does it for me.  If you need background music, this is the way to go.  I remember when I was graduating college and moving to Baltimore, I listened to this station for about 16 hours straight while I packed up my tiny little apartment on Maryland Avenue:

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Anyways, hopefully a few of my readers will like it.  Also, if you don't like what you hear, just wait an hour.  Most of the DJ shifts are one to two hours.  Onto February...it can't get here soon enough in my opinion.  

David Gregory....

You are neither a mafia hitman nor a bookie.  Please do not wear an enormously wide-striped suit:

He looks ridiculous.

wow....

I really only did this so that I'd have some memory of it someday.  I don't think I've had to go out in cold like this in my life:

What you may not know is that the iMac camera reverses everything.  

I wrote all of that shit backwards.

As I always tell everyone, this will only make us appreciate summer and spring that much more.  Just keep telling yourself that.  

P.S.  Realfeel is a term used by Accuweather.  Their iPhone app is a million times better than any other weather one and their website doesn't have those creepy dancing people home loan ads that weather.com does.  Just a suggestion.