Parental Yum

I received this card from my daddy. 

My mother left me 20 seconds of her cackling like a witch on my voicemail.

I love and miss my parents. 

I love Halloweeen. 

I love that it's not terribly cold and I will not freeze my buns off tonight. 

Have a safe and happy night!

I will post pictures tomorrow after I recover from tonight's fun. 

Le Brouhaha!

HAPPY HALLOWEEEENY!

I started out the day by buying all of my morning classmates (12 of us art gals) Kolaches from the kolache factory.
I made them all yell "Trick or Treat" to get one.

Then I saw the first awesome costume of the day.
This is sure to be a good day!
There will be many Halloween related posts to come!
Have fun! Enjoy the bee-uh-yoo-tee-full weather!

All fun and games.

I am about to go here

and drink this

and then do some of this

but possibly this

My friend Marny and I are looking for this  for Halloween night via this

I'm thinking we'll find nothing but this.

Or this.

Do you know any of these?

But these will do too-

SchmoGizmos.

I have very little room for exciting doodads in my shoe box apartment and kitchen.
But I will make room for some things, even if my peerlings do occasionally tease me.

Last Christmas, my brother and I both received one of these lovely green Pickle Keepers:

I grew up with this lil' gem in our fridge. Pickle slices just a swift lift away. Now these guys are considered "vintage" and mine had to be ordered from eBay. I must say that I feel really lucky to have one. Mmmmmm, pickles.

Another necessity, is my Wonderbread Sandwich keeper, which has saved many a sammy from certain doom being wedged between my laptop, books, and pencil case within my backpack. What a good friend.



But do you know what I DON'T have?!?
I recently found this on SoGood's blog, and am thinking it must be added to this year's Christmas wish list. I give you, The Banana Bunker!!



In many fine colors, I'd want green of course.


Aside from this being entirely phallic (but what isn't??), I don't know why every banana-eater does not have one of these. Where has this been all my life?? Oy Vey.

My feet are so tired, my brain is so wired.

After a successful spin class yesterday, I decided to skip yoga today and, ummmmm, eat cheese.
But not just any cheese, semi hard Iberico from the ole Wheatsville, recommended to me by a certain Amazonian blogosphere pal.
It did not let me down. In fact, I should have bought more because it and the Baba-Ganoush I bought while there quickly became my dinner.

I then remembered I have a test tomorrow, which may or may not confirm that I will suck as a future teacher, and so I decided to study at Quacks. While there (and still here), I decorated this guy, with their shortbread eyeball cookies. (Yes, I had a gourd in my purse.) They also have really delicious Hibiscus tea, which I am having mixed with a bit of lemonade.

My painting professor gave us next Tuesday (election day) off from class. He said he wants us to stay at home and "enjoy being citizens."

I want every day to be Citizen Day.

"World's Heaviest Man marries in Mexico"

Why is this in the news- and a headline at that?
I guess it gives people hope.
Even the largest of us can find "true love"....
Shaela, there's hope for you yet! (you like how I've mentioned you in two blogs, don't you?)(I just re-read that and it appears as if you are obese.... but I think you know how I meant it.)


In unrelated news, "A British man drowned during his honeymoon in Spain while his helpless wife watched in horror, the Daily Mail reported."

Lobular Crap

Dear Shaela,

Tonight I called you to ask you this question. But you did not answer because you are probably out on a hot date with a rancher. Therefore I will ask the general public, which really just consists of you. I ask this question because I have come into contact with TWO people with, errrrr, not the best food tastes. When asking them their favorite local eateries, Person A answered Red Lobster and Person B answered Cannoli Joes (a rediculous Italian buffet). I never knew these people existed in Austin. It's understandable that my grandparents only eat at Golden Corral and Whataburger because they are finicky geezers and Odessa doesn't have a whole lot to offer.... But in Austin?? Red Lobster?? Really? REALLY???

Love,

Jennifer

Tasteful Insights. Is it wrong to dismiss somebody because of their taste in food?? Yes No view results

Longhorn Halloweeeeen

The UT art teacher club that I am in-CANVAS (capital area network for visual art studies) did face painting for Longhorn Halloween!

                       

 My Halloween costume was incomplete, and I accidently slept over 14 hours last night/today, so I threw on some hippyish clothes and called it a costume. 

Laurel painted a peace sign on my cheek to add to it a bit. 

An Asian organization of some sort had a booth next to us where everyone was dancing to Michael Jackson, Back Street Boys, High School Musical and Spice Girls. After painting "swirlys" on one of their member's faces, it was decided that I would NOT be painting the faces of small, squirming, sometimes crying children.

Glow stick bracelets were a HUGE hit and quickly ran out. I must say that I benefited greatly from this event, leaving with several batty stickers stuck to me, a friendship bracelet, three glow bracelets, three tattoos, and having tried Mary Jane candy for the first time. 

I'm pretty sure the kids enjoyed it too. 

My cheeky EGG tattoo by Laurel and my crackly smiley face by Marny. I want a real fried egg tattoo, but probably not on my cheek. 

SPECled fun!

As most of Austin was watching Texas beat Oklahoma St., I was running errands all over town. Riding around with lumber hanging out of my car window, and picking up the final pieces of my halloween costume from Hobby Lobby and DSW. While in the area of DSW, I decided to pay a visit to Spec's. I was hoping I would find some vegemite, because I heard it can be found there and I've always wanted to try the stuff... but instead I found all of this!

First with the bad...

Before leaving, I glanced at some "camembert" in the cheese section- one of my favorite cheeses. I thought to myself, "that's odd, it's in a box and only 2 dollars." But I was ready to leave at that point so just added it to my pile. I came home to find out it is actually "camembert pasteurized processed cheese product," and it is terrible. 

Note to self:  Must.....Read....Labels. 

However, I did get some German whole grain mustard to add to my condiment collection. yum yum! 

And some dry cured capocollo, which apparently is pork shoulder. 

I got some danish blue cheese in herby oil that is pleasantly creamy and yummy on the next thing that I found- which was my splurge- but the box was just too beautiful to pass up. 

From The Fine Cheese Co., Fennel Crackers. "Crackers for pungent cheese."

They are really delicious with all of the above items (minus the nasty camembert). 

Lastly, because it was Spec's and all, I bought a sampler 6 pack from the Real Ale Brewing Company. I am tasting the Rio Blanco Pale Ale now and it is moy bueno to my taste buds. 

Hooray for spontaneous liquor store stops!!

"There is no love sincerer than the love of food."

Can you count saliva as a form of food?? 

We had to tear out pictures mindlessly for an art exercise on surrealism. This was my favorite photo. 

Unfortunately, scanning old magazines no bueno.

This is my coworker Paul and his curiously small hamburger that came from a lunchable. 

This is a five second conversation I had with him at work the other day:

Paul: "Jennifer, have you ever been in love?"

Me:   "Yes, Paul."

Paul: "Isn't it tight?!?!"

Have a happy love-filled Friday!

Gourd Series Continued

I taught my gourds how to play bagpipes. 

(Yes, I made my gourd a kilt)

Me so Chicken

Dia De Los Muertos is coming up,  a time for remembering those closest to us who have gone from this world. 

I've always pictured myself dying in some tragic way. Such as being sucked down a swimming pool drain, choking on a peanut, or falling into lava. Tonight I could have died such a death. 

We had a volunteer meeting at Mexic-Arte Museum on Congress, and I was forced to ride a 70+year-old elevator upstairs to look at props. The worker informed us that he had never seen this many people in the elevator at once, as it creaked slowly upwards and bounced to a stop. 

I nearly peed myself. 

 

After leaving the meeting in one piece and my heart still thumping, I breathed in the suddenly cold air that had blown in and thought to myself, "Hot damn, I'm making me some Jenainese Style chicken and rice!"

I really just wanted to mix the brown rice I  bought the other day with as few things as possible, all bought from Wheatsville. 

So here ya have it, my Happy October 22 pink sky meal. 

Ingredients (plus some that I'm not telling, 'cuz I can't remember):

Whole Chicken- a nice (priced) organic one

Onion

Ginger

Orange

Bok Choy (Gotta have some greens, yo)

Some magical butter of sorts

Brown Rice- cuz I've been craving it. 

I cooked the chicken with some of the above. And some cinnamon and nutmeg because I figure the sky is pink and it's October and I can. 

Cooked the rice in some of the chicken stock mixed in to the H2O. 

Stir fried up some onions, bok choy, and ginger in the magic butter. Pulled off some chicken and they all had a dance party in the pan. Served it up with some chicken and orange juice on top. 

(a new camera is on my wish list)

Now, what to do with the yummy stock and chicken- seeing as I have no desire to debone it at the moment. 

Gourd Series

I am a gourd lady. 

I admit that I have a problem. I see them, and I just have to have them. 

I give them as gifts though. (Unfortunately I gave away my favorite, most phallic gourd of ALL TIME and may never see it again)

So I've decided to create a gourd series. 

And dress my little guys up. 

Or decorate them. 

And then photograph them. 

All for my satisfaction and your viewing pleasure.  

Pop, the Magic Dragon

I was looking for a store that will remained unnamed for parts to my Halloweeeeeny costume. After walking a few blocks the wrong way on Guadalupe, I decided to make the most out of my mistake and stop at Cornucopia!

Seeing as popcorn is my favorite food of ALL TIME, I cannot believe I have never been to this place, which used to be called That Popcorn Place. They have all kinds of popcorn, from green apple caramel and s'mores to chili and jalepeno.

After trying PICKLE and Pesto, I quickly settled on those. Ha. I know, I probably should have taken advantage of the adorable girl working there and serving me samples. I was feelin' savory today though.

This is mighty fine flavored popcorn. My---T----Fine.

While there I picked up a flyer for this, which looks like a good ole time.

Oddities in the form of Food

Bought some Garlic flavored mints at Toy Joy today.

Verdict: They began with an initial “Eh, these aren’t so bad.” Followed by a “Hmph, There’s the garlic flavor” ending with an “AcK! I think I’m going to refrain from eating those ever again now that my mouth tastes like a vampire puked into it.”

They also sold these little guys at Toy Joy. I’ll save them for my next trip and when I’m feeling like another good puke-in-de-mouth.

I can understand novel food, but seriously now, when should we draw the line?

I bought these for my step-dad last Christmas-

Why wouldn't sucking on wooden swine be a good idea???

Now, I will give out some credit. Bertie Bott’s Harry Potter Jelly Beans, complete with vomit and dirt flavor, do have some decent tasting lil’ beans.

I am in awe of the vast variety of beanage one can consume. I wonder how those taste tests go. "Today we will be trying out 30 prototypes for booger flavor...."

My personal faves: Black pepper, PICKLE!!!, grass, and buttered popcorn.

So it begins.

As I was observing a 4th grade art class today, a funny conversation took place:

Teacher: "I’m not sure if they are poisonous or not. "(Referring to Lionfish)

Girl: “Ahhh, miss, just Google it”

Boy: “Yeah, or Youtube!”

And so I thought to myself, "Wow, when I was in fourth grade, we'd look factoids up in the library.... I wonder if these kiddos even know what a card catalog is."

But then I realized, this is a technological age, beeatch. And I need to get my head in the game. 

So I will. In my own way. In my own style.

And it will be good for me. Good for my stummy. Good for my soul. 

And good for your eyes and innards as well. 

Here goes Bloggin!