Currently freelancing

Well, actually just finished this:



Drugs! Detectives! Deadbeat parents! My first police procedural.

seeing double

Penguin Books, 2005

St. Martin's Press, 2009

on my honor

Samoas are hands down, without a doubt, my most favoritest Girl Scout cookies of all. Even their 30% of my daily saturated fat content cannot keep me away. But what would probably keep me away is if those Girl Scouts ever tampered with the recipe.

You wanna be on TOP?

I guess this is what happens when you give short girls a chance: http://gawker.com/5170270/top-models-stampede

oh no they didn't

My NYU proofreading class meets in a classroom in this enormous high school building whose walls are covered with these amazingly kitschy, neon-colored, wacky-font motivational posters like "LISTEN and SILENT Are Spelled with the Same Letters." My favorite thing, however, are these fantastically tacky oval-shape posters, one of George Washington and one of Barack Obama. I tried my very hardest to track down a this Obama portrait online but no variation of "Obama children's presidential classroom poster" would work! My googling exploits did yield these fantastic finds, though:




Yeah. They went there. The whole Obama-theme-product marketing machine freaks me out in a way just because it seems so unprecedented (I don't think there was ever any demand for Barbara and Jenna Bush paper dolls, but did they have this kind of stuff in the 60s for the Kennedys?) and a little overboard . . . but it didn't stop me from buying Rachel some wicked hot Ojamas for her birthday, or taking note of the fact that the Michelle Obama issue of O Magazine hits the stands on Tuesday.

inspiration

Since last summer, I've been wanting to put some pretty plants on my fire escape. Prospect Park may be right across the street, and at work there's Madison Square Park, so it's not like I'm living in a concrete jungle or whatever, but I feel like it would be nice to try to grow some stuff of my own. Plus there is my slight obsession with window boxes, which you see on tons of the brownstones around Brooklyn. I don't know if I can justify spending $20 on a nice terracotta one, plus I don't really want to drag one all the way home from Home Depot in midtown, so I think I may go with these fantastic pink (plastic) ones I found.

Next up is doing some research on when to plant things--I'm thinking growing basil would be awesome, and maybe some mini sunflowers too.

weekend trio

Three food endeavors this weekend, in order of success:

Homemade hummus. Grade: A
Even though you could spend $4 for a tub of hummus at the grocery store (ahem), it's also incredibly easy to put in the food processor 1 small can chickpeas + some minced garlic + a couple fresh parsley leaves + a squirt of lemon juice + some olive oil + salt and pepper to taste. Add a little water if it's too thick. Serve with whole wheat baked pita chips.

Alessi Tuscan White Bean Soup. Grade: B+
While my own homemade white bean soup was a success, this soup made from a mix is also great, and also much quicker. Literally all you do is boil water, dump in the dry mix, and cook for 12 minutes. And I didn't even have to struggle with my urge to add pasta to a soup recipe because it already came with some! The broth is tasty and has a nice thick texture, although I think it probably could have used even more beans and pasta.

Peanut-Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies. Grade: B-
I love a recipe like this where all the ingredients are already in my kitchen (although I did substitute chopped-up Hersheys kisses for the semisweet chocolate chunks). The peanut butter makes the dough super moist and creamy, but the finished products ended up way more lumpy and misshapen than the picture. The uneven cooking may have been more of a result of my dollhouse-size oven, though. Recipe courtesy Everyday Food.

Can it be spring now?

end whine.

muffins of goodness

Okay, so maybe Jiffy muffin mixes are not all that different from a Betty Crocker one, but if I'm going make something from a box, why not make it this cute, retro-looking one? Plus they come in lots of flavors (the cornbread one is tasty too). It makes me feel slightly less pre-made to add some crushed walnuts to this banana bread one.

Jazzy

Dare I say the highlight of the Philadelphia trip this weekend?

A 21-year-old jazz guitar playing skinny boy in a sweater named Julian Lage. (Listen to him here.)

You guys, he's a child prodigy.