Oh, so sick...

Oh, the onset of winter and the looming doom of final exams!  I'm curled up on the couch right now, hating life, hating my scratchy throat, and especially hating the knowledge that I have a three-page paper to write by tomorrow at five, that I have to present a Shakespeare history scene at 9 AM, and that I have another 15-page paper due in a week.

But three things I don't hate, not at all, are the adorable kitty curled up on my lap and making it impossible for me to move, the existence of College Inn culinary broth, and the boyfriend who is lovingly beetling back and forth from me to the stove to refill my cup of soup.  

My mother discovered this broth last year, when I was miserably ensconced at her house for 11 days of a bout of swine flu that lasted all Thanksgiving week and royally ticked me off.  I was not okay with eating anything, and tea was getting boring after about day 4, so she scoured Publix for something more interesting that did not involve actual pieces of food that I would have to eat.  (No, this is not nutritionally sound.  At all.  But when you're down with swine flu, all you care about is unstopping your nose with steam and not giving yourself more food that will just nauseate you.)  

She came home with two magical cartons of broth.  I had always thought that cooking broth came in four different varieties:  chicken, beef, fish, and vegetable.  (Apparently also turkey, though.)  However, College Inn has taken this to a whole new level and has created 32-oz cartons of savory goodness called, respectively in order of awesomeness, Thai Coconut Curry and White Wine & Herb.  

Yes, these involve a lot of sodium, and their base is chicken stock, so they're not vegan or even vegetarian.  But for anyone even the smallest bit flexible, they're amazing when you're flat on your back with a cat on your head and wishing you could fast-forward to a week later, like DirectTV.  But I water them down by half, heat on the stove, and clutch cup after cup of this like they're liquid gold, because I'd be just as upset if I accidentally spilled either.  

The Thai Coconut Curry includes coconut, curry, garlic, soy sauce, and coriander.  Other ingredients are listed on the website.  It's got a fun kick at the back of your mouth that's a little spicy, even when it's watered down, but it doesn't hurt a sore throat unless you are drinking gallons of it. 

The White Wine & Herb has Chablis wine, oregano, thyme, rosemary, apple cider vinegar, onion extract, and a decent amount of salt.  Yes, there is an unhealthy amount of sodium in both.  But I tell myself that if I'm watering it down with a lot of filtered water and a whole lot of tea, things will be fine.  You know, you hear that you should not drink too much or you will flush necessary salt reserves right out of your system?  Same idea.  Sort of. 

These two, combined with quite a lot of Temple of Heaven Gunpowder Green Tea, make being sick quite bearable.  However, the presence of a warm cat on your feet does quite a lot to lift your spirits, too.

Freshly Revamped Black Bean Mango

No matter how tired you are, watching your cat try to be a Monorail Cat in order to cheer you up always makes everything instantly awesome.  Check him out:  he not only folds his feet underneath himself but his tail, too!

I came running when the boyfriend called "Oh, come look!  He's sitting on his feets!" and this is the ridiculously adorable spectacle that presented itself.  This cat actually stayed put while I went, got the enormous camera, folded up the huge strap that holds the camera around the wearer's neck so he wouldn't jump up and paw at it, accidentally took a picture with flash, and then tried to take them without flash before realizing the focus light was still on...so, basically, Simon got flashed in the face a lot for this picture and he still looks breathtakingly cute and trusting.

He fascinates me. =)

This evening's kitchen experiments were all about trying to make my own Black Bean Mango, one of my mother's favorite Kashi frozen entrées.

I've always loved the general idea, but the price is an issue and it also bothers me that everything's frozen and you have to nuke all the ingredients in the microwave.  I realize there is an option to heat it in the oven, but come on--I'm not wasting all that money and electricity to power the oven for 30 minutes just for one frozen dinner.  So the next best plan is--find a way to make it myself!  And I think it's better, cheaper, and much, much fresher.  Bow down, Kashi!

Although I will add that if you can make this with the actual Kashi 7-grain pilaf, you might want to try that.  I've still got to talk our Kroger into carrying it, sadly.

These pretty jars carry my makeshift pilaf:  millet, cracked wheat, and whole grain bulgur, and although I thought those last two were exactly the same thing, apparently this is not the case, hence the color difference between the two on the left of the picture.  Could anybody explain this phenomenon?

Multigrain Pilaf with Black Bean Mango 

Serves 4

Ingredients

Pilaf

Extra virgin olive oil

1 clove garlic

1 cup uncooked mixed grains (I used 1/2 cup millet, 1/4 cup cracked wheat, and 1/4 cup whole grain bulgur)

1/4 cup dry white wine

1 3/4 cups vegetable broth

2-3 shakes of cumin

1 tsp salt

Pepper to taste

Black Beans and Mango

1 15-oz can black beans, drained

1 ripe room temperature mango, peeled and diced into small cubes

1/2 cup bell peppers, sliced into matchsticks, preferably red and green (just for color)

1/4 cup carrots, sliced into matchsticks 

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced or pressed

1 tbsp honey or agave nectar

1 large lime, juiced

Few shakes cayenne

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Pilaf

Drizzle olive oil into your pot, turn to medium high, and add the garlic when hot.  Before the garlic browns (this can happen quickly), add in the pilaf mixture.  Toss and/or stir to coat the grains in the olive oil and garlic, then keep the pot over heat, stirring often, to toast the grains and bring out the flavor.  

After about 3-4 minutes, or earlier if the grains are starting to turn dark (bad!), add in the 1/4 cup of white wine, cumin, salt, and pepper.  Stir and cook for about 1-2 minutes, or until the alcohol has evaporated.  Pour in the vegetable broth, stir once, and cover.  

Cook for 2 minutes, then remove from heat and let sit 10-15 minutes.  

Optional:  add the matchstick carrots and bell peppers after about 8-10 minutes to lightly steam them, if you aren't a huge raw vegetable fan.  Personally, I love the crunch...

Black Beans and Mango

In a large bowl, combine drained black beans*, cubed fresh mango, bell peppers, and carrots.  In a small bowl, combine lime juice, honey or agave, garlic, cilantro, a shake or two of cayenne, and salt and pepper to taste.  Stir pretty vigorously.  Pour over the mango and vegetable mixture and toss well.  

To serve, place a few spoonfuls of pilaf onto each plate and top with the black bean/mango mixture.  Shake on a little bit of paprika for color...and maybe add a few avocado slices or some leftover guacamole (as I did) for garnish!  Enjoy!

*You really do not need to warm this mixture.  If you like, drain the black beans with very warm water; that will bring the temperature up comfortably, and if you begin with a room temperature mango, the heat from the pilaf will do the rest.  This way, the cilantro stays bright green and gorgeous!

I also think the bean/mango mixture would work excellently as a sweetish savory salad.  I wanted to gobble it all up without the pilaf!  I don't subscribe to the idea that we need an incredible amount of grain to survive, and the vegetable flavors marry so beautifully with the fruit that I was truly in awe.  

Mango, cilantro, and lime together are my new favorite threesome.  =)  Although nothing can really beat the awwwww factor of my Monorail Cat.  

Orange-Kiwi Oatmeal

Simon seems to have a real thing for biting anything that has even the most minute potential to wiggle. Currently, his little focused kitty attention is riveted on my heart necklace, and I am typing with the occasional interruption of a misplaced paw batting at my nose.  We clipped his claws the other night, so it's actually kind of cute.  

But one thing he is NOT allowed to get his precious little nose into is my newest oatmeal breakfast.  It's been so chilly lately in the mornings that I've gone through a whole cylindrical box of oats in the past week and a half!  The latest experiment comes from the amazing amount of fruit my mother blessed me with and some leftovers from my eager days of making truffles.  (I have a knock-your-socks off Earl Grey Truffle recipe that will make you slip into a blissful state of uninterrupted enjoyment and calm, and I shall have to bring that one out once it starts getting cool enough for me to stand over a double boiler.  It's heavenly!)

So here we go!  Oatmeal experiment number...I forget; probably 56.  =)

Orange-Kiwi Oatmeal

Serves 1-2

Ingredients
1 cup original flavor almond milk

1/2 cup oats

Pinch freshly ground salt

1/2 teaspoon pure orange extract*

1 kiwi, rind on or off, chopped (but do take the rind off if it isn't organic)

1 small orange

Drizzle agave nectar

Cinnamon (optional)

Directions

In a small pot, bring the almond milk, salt, and orange extract to a boil, stirring occasionally.  (Almond milk WILL behave like regular milk and bubble over the sides of the pot if you are not careful, so you have to watch it!)  Pour in the oats, stir, and cook for 1 minute.  Turn the heat down to simmer and cook for 3-5 minutes.

Fold in the chopped kiwi and stir.  Pour into bowl(s) to serve.  Drizzle with agave nectar.  Take a microplane and grate some of the orange skin into zest just over the bowl of oatmeal, to garnish and for an extra citrusy zing.**  For a little bit of a warming spice, sprinkle some cinnamon on top.  Happy breakfasting!

*This is also pretty darn good with a grapefruit theme; just cut off the top and bottom of the grapefruit, set it on one of the cut ends, and with a knife, carefully slide your knife along the inside of the rind in strips, going from the top to bottom, getting rid of all the white pith along the reddish grapefruit flesh.  With the knife, cut out each grapefruit wedge from the dividing skin pieces.  You will be left with a very juicy grapefruit core.  Squeeze it into the pot instead of orange extract, and garnish with the grapefruit slices.  If you like, you can even zest some of the rind over the top of the bowl.  Voilà:  grapefruit oatmeal!

**If you like, you can add some orange slices to the oatmeal, but keep in mind that they have so much juice that they will water down the oatmeal a bit; you might consider adding about 1/4 cup more oats.  And be sure to keep some of the rind intact so you can zest it!

I think this calls for a bike ride to the store to pick up some more oatmeal...I'm still loving it!

  

Henna Extravaganza!

What's a girl to do if she's in the middle of a crazy football town on game day, is excited about Arabian Nights opening on Tuesday, and whose friend has just discovered the existence of Kimberly Roberts, a henna artist who works on Fridays starting at 10 AM at Worldwide Fashion & Gifts at 1375 Prince Avenue, Athens, GA?

Guys, it was awesome.  Almost every single girl in our cast showed up to get henna tattoos, both Friday and Saturday.  We didn't go all out and get so decorated we look like we're wearing gloves, but everyone has some really gorgeously decorated hands with different twining flowers--and this is the coolest part; Kimberly freestyled everything without needing to talk to us so much beforehand so that she knew us down to the deep bottoms of our souls, and the results were baffling:  each girl ended up with a design that matched her personality uncannily well, to the extent that one girl really loves lotus flowers, and another sunflowers--guess what ended up on their hands?  Exactly!  It was pretty darn cool.  And our timing was fortuitous--I learned today that Friday was their first day experimenting with the Henna Fridays, and miraculously that happened just in time for our Tuesday night opening!  (Thank heavens henna lasts two weeks or so.)

Being the slightly exacting dork that I am, I actually came with pictures.  I'm the only girl in the play who consistently wanders around in a state of moderate undress (well, a belly dancing outfit), and I spend a decent amount of time watching stories and alternately watching the king in a stricken little lovelorn state, all with my right shoulder to the audience, so that shoulder has a gorgeous design going all the way down the arm, and it's stunning.

And, having a penchant for history, especially when it comes to costume/makeup history, I asked a bunch of questions.  Apparently, henna originated as a cooling agent:  you press a dot of the paste in each palm and under the sole of each foot, and it cools you down.  Gradually, this extended to the breathtakingly gorgeous and intricate designs that you see all over Indian brides today.  And that tradition is pretty cool, too, and waaaay more involved than a bachelorette party:  traditionally, the bride is taken to her husband's family's house a few days before the wedding, and up to two days are spent doing the henna on her hands and feet.  And during this time, the bride doesn't even dress herself, but everything is done for her, as sort of a welcome to the family and also a chance for her to sit still and listen to advice about how to be a good wife and the ins and outs of marriage.  Ever so much more dignified than showing up on a rerun of Bridezillas with vomit in your hair after the bachelorette party.

Kimberly explained that henna is made of the crushed leaves of the henna bush (well, flowering shrub), and you mix the powder with an acid and an oil to make the paste.  Usually, lemon juice is the acid, but she said you could even use coffee.  The type of oil changes the color and intensity of the final product.  The paste dries quickly, but to prevent it from flaking off immediately, you either add sugar into the paste or you spray it with lemon juice mixed with sugar, which makes it more pliable.  (Lemonade.  My shoulder still smells like lemonade.  I wanted to eat my own shoulder, guys.)

So all the paste has come off now, and as promised, it is quite a bit darker around my fingers than it is on my shoulder.  But within the next three days it should turn brown, and in the few hours before the show I can even go back and get different kinds of glitter put on!  I have my eye on some gold and some opalescent glitter, which would look spectacular with our gold-based makeup designs, but she's got everything from red to pink to blue to lots of other colors, and the glitter lasts about three days.  We'll see if I have time, but I really hope I do.

By the way, can you see those earrings in the first picture of me?  They're spectacular:  gorgeous designs in red and silver for $18 at Worldwide Fashion & Gifts.  Thank heavens my school colors are red and black, because they had an amazing array of jewelry to match my costume...

Plus they have everything from zillers to bellydance outfits to really cute dresses and shirts that you can wear daily!  If you're in the area, go check it out.  Prices are really reasonable and it's definitely worth your time!  And the bar next door, Normal Bar, has a drop-dead-awesome Bloody Mary that's practically a meal in itself.  They make their own tomato mix, they make the okra pickles that near knocked my socks off, they were so good (and this coming from a girl who cannot stand okra!), they add a fresh olive, a huge lime wedge, small squares of celery, and a huge pepperoncini.  It's spicy, it's got a decent amount of vodka in it, you can drink it at the picnic table in the back with a lot of really friendly staffers from several restaurants on that side of the street, and you can do all of this while getting your henna tattoos done.  What an unbelievable afternoon!


Call 706-208-9915 to set up an appointment for a henna session, according to the Facebook page.  Better yet, get a group of your friends together and do it as a group!  We invaded Kimberly's life like a horde of fawning kittens and there were so many of us that she had to come back on Saturday to finish up our group, and she was brilliantly kind throughout both sessions.  

Speaking of kittens, I have a feeling that PETA may be on to something when they say that humans should not keep animals as pets.  I do not think that I made Simon feel loved today when I put him in his Halloween jester outfit.  But he is precious in his fury!  Isn't he?



Munched on snow pea pods for a snack this evening instead of actual chips.  Mmmmm....sweet, crunchy, and refreshing.  Awesome alternative!

Anthropologie Fall Discoveries

I've got a seriously precious cat sitting on my lap, arrogantly perched so that he will fall the second I take my supporting arm away and confident that I would rather eat my own elbow than disturb him.  He is eating my buttons.

What buttons is he eating?  He is eating amazing buttons.  It's been awhile since I've spent serious money on clothes (that whole graduate student thing), but this fall season at Anthropologie has been so breathtaking that I couldn't help myself.  I've got to say, there are few materialistic things that tug at my heart more than fall fashion, especially when it incorporates an equestrian/British tinge.  So, after dreamily collecting a shopping bag of items I wanted (yeah, over $1000), my boyfriend's mother took me to Lenox in Atlanta, where she lost herself in Ann Taylor and accidentally left me in Anthropologie for three whole hours.  I tried on everything in that shopping bag, and, oh, boy.  Oh, my gosh.  I have been back to school for a week and I have never, NEVER received so many compliments as on the clothes I bought.  I've got to post pictures:

The buttons Simon is chewing on belong to the Rutledge Sweatercoat, a long sweater with the most stunning diagonal lines that flatter you in every way--making you look long and lean while thinning your waist and accentuating the hips.  The back is laced up and provides for some really pretty gathers--although there are two floppy bits that look like wings that looked pretty huge from the side, although all that took was a few stitches on either side and the whole look is stunning.  And apparently the buttons are yummy!

This next one has at least three different ways to wear it.  The Best of the Bunch Cardigan--it's comfy, it's great for southern climates (so even though it looks like a coat, it really is a sweater), it's fitted to the waist, and it might take you a few tries to figure out how to button it up, but I feel like a pretty little stylish French woman in it.  I love the ruffled space between buttonholes!  It's breathtaking, let me tell you, and sweet with jeans and knee-high boots, black or brown.  If I want to turn heads, either of those two sweaters is a no-brainer!

Either you can wear it this way, buttoned all the way up, half-buttoned and swinging like they show you on the website, OR you can keep the left side totally buttoned underneath the right shoulder seam and undo the right side halfway down, so you get some beautiful drapes hanging down attractively from your shoulder.  Either way, this sweater is brilliant!

The Eze-sur-Mer top is more of a basic, but I was in love with the navy/brown stripe combo from the very beginning and I found out when I tried on half the things in the store that the orange is beautiful on pale brunettes with a yellow undertone to their skin...in other words, if you can pull off Clinique spiced apple lipstick, this shirt will be stunning on you (that lipstick is my go-to in winter, fall, and summer; it seems to work for all three beautifully!  Don't let the website fool you; it's a gorgeous dark orange tint that has enough pink in it to still look natural on lips).  Slightly sheer, though, if you pick the more tightly fitted size, so with the XS I just don't wear a black bra and try to keep Simon-cat away from the gold buttons at the shoulders.  (I really don't know what it is with him and buttons . I think it's because they wiggle.)

The Two-by-Two Shorts are gorgeous.  They're soft wool, feel amazing, and are lined with some pretty quality lining.  However, they're on sale, and for a reason.  When I tried on the size 2, the shank of the top button just came right off the top of the button.  Luckily, the shorts come with an extra button, and the lovely people at Anthro gave me an extra $5 off, but...well, thank goodness I'm a seamstress; I'd have hated to leave these in the store.  They're pretty cute with boots and a blazer.  

The long and the short of it is that I spent waaay too much money and really wanted to spend more...just check out the River Tyne Tee in neutral, the stunning wine-colored Draped V-Neck, the adorably polka-dotted Coming and Going Skirt, the truly British Made to Measure Skirt, the gorgeously decorated Paisley Paths Skirt, the online-only (aaack!) Everything-In-Place Cape, with a fun splash of reddish-yellow plaid lining inside the hood, and the amazing, amazing Craftsmanship Capelet, which I totally would have bought had they had a size smaller than a Medium.  (For anyone considering this gorgeous capelet, DON'T SIZE UP.  I'm usually an XS/2 and the Medium felt like it had a foot of extra fabric around the waist.)

I'm officially in love with Anthropologie, the only place I've found in Georgia that sells clothing designed by people with creative minds who appreciate that we ladies want to look sexy, daring, classy, and gorgeous without being shunted into either the preteen section or into the boring country-club department!  Anthropologie, thank you for existing.

Also, please stop making your buttons so tasty.

Raw Kitty Cat Food

I've got to say, it's much, much easier to make somebody else be healthy than to do it yourself.   Still, I've got to say that it's pretty darn inspiring.

The boyfriend and I brought Simon home on the 17th of February, 2010.  He was a 1-2-year-old shelter kitty, and so cuddly and sleepy we thought he was either really old, really sick, or just really stupid.  His litterbox smelled so bad that the boyfriend actually vomited when I was gone and he had to clean it.  He wasn't on terrible food--it was organic dry food, and the first ingredient was actual chicken, not chicken meal or corn.  Still, nobody needs that kind of a wakeup alarm clock smell emanating speedily from the bathroom.  Seriously, if we didn't have a two-bathroom apartment, we'd have showered at school.  It was condemned.

Through Natalia Rose's blog, I found Wild Kitty Cat Food kits.  The trial was cheap with free shipping, so I finally gave in and decided to give it a go.

It arrived in two to three days--amazing.  The teensy bag goes with 1 pound of ground meat, preferably more high-fat than lean chicken or turkey.  You let the bag of dehydrated mixture rehydrate with six ounces of water, and then you mix in the raw meat, ignoring the kitty at your feet who feels instinctively that food will happen if he meows loudly enough.  You get some cheap aluminum 4-oz muffin pans, cover them with plastic, and fill each cup with a heaping scoop of kitty food mixture.  Shove it into the freezer for longer safekeeping, and when frozen, put each kitty muffin into a separate bag so you can thaw each one overnight.  Give kitty half in the morning and half in the evening.  I am telling you, Simon's personality exploded.

Suddenly, from being a lazy little slugabed cat rug, Simon began waking us up in the mornings (okay, that part isn't so cute) and started rocketing around the apartment.  He began to play with his kitty toys.  He actually finished all the food in his dish with gusto.   He still cuddles, and he still snuggles like a furry little bundle of love,  but suddenly he's acting like a young cat instead of a veteran four times his age.  And the litterbox smell was totally gone.  That sold us right away.

He's got much less goop in his eyes.  He's awake and active.  We had to come up with creative ideas for calming him down in the mornings--tying a knee sock around his haunches, by the way, unfocused him so much that he walked into a doorframe and then acted like his bum was glued to the ground.  Good to try if your kitty is insane.  Simon is a bright bundle of joyous cat who loves us so much that he camps out by the front door for hours until we return.  I love that cat so much that I don't even feel murderous when he paws me awake at 6 a.m.

Wild Kitty Cat Food isn't cheap, especially if you factor in the meat you have to buy to round it out.  The premade dinners are even more expensive.  But Simon's worth it.  The shelter we got him from had an employee who had her raw-food kitty for twenty-seven years.  And vet bills apparently are really few and far between, and since they're not eating so much filler, cats are sleeker.  I know this may sound odd, but obesity among cats is an enormous American pet problem.  And all you have to do to figure out why is to look at the food labels:  corn, wheat, bone meal, chicken meal, etc.  Cats aren't meant to eat corn or the rendered, dried, ground guts, skin, and bones of slaughtered animals (that's what the word 'meal' means).  That won't sustain them, and their bodies just can't use that junk.  Their sharp little carnivore teeth need real, raw meat and bones to chomp on.

By the way, did you know that in order to be able to use the label "full and balanced diet", an array of tested cats only have to survive for six months eating that food?  They don't have to be healthier, or healthy at all.  They just have to be alive.  It's like making humans live on nothing but chips, which you can do temporarily, but never for the long haul.  This paper may be a student's paper, but it's exceedingly well-researched and Harvard Law School doesn't let you publish your paper on its website unless it's met with approval.  If you feed your pet anything like Purina, Iams, or Science Diet, check it out.  It never hurts to know what you're buying.

So check out the kits.  Seriously, if you love your cat, he or she deserves nothing less.