phyrebright

Inviting one and all, come eat Pho with me!

This Saturday 3/6

Pho Cyclo on Broadway

1pm to ???

 had a mini meltdown yesterday or perhaps you could say a very controlled freak out!  I wanted to scream and cry and throw things in frustration. instead I bitched a little and stressed out.   stupid stupid stupid.  It's ridiculous and not worth freaking out over in the long run as it's out of my control but it was just one more thing that I didn't want to deal with.  

I can't afford to have taxes taken out of my unemployment-I don't make enough money to do so and I thought I wouldn't make enough money to have to pay anyways.  So far I have to pay $876 and I still haven't got the info from GE (I got 2 months of paychecks) so I'm sure that's going to go up. 

RRRRRrrrrr...

hmmm..studying pruning without a tree or shrub or plant at all is crazy.  Quiz#2 tomorrow all about how to prune. blarg.

 Pho turned out yummy...it was still missing something though I couldn't quite figure it out.  I do love pho with all the added veggie's mmm!!!  

Yoga fundamentals is WAAAAYYY harder than expected but awesome.  I'm excited to finish the series though I thought it was only on Mondays and it's mondays and wednesdays so I'll be missing 1/2 of the classes since I have class wednesday nights.

Now i'm trying to memorize pine trees for my test tomorrow.  the problem is pine trees look like pines. UG. I'm not sure how I'm going to tell them apart.  still working....

 Roostur and I are trying to make some delicous Pho broth.  We saved all the juice from the awesome turkey Some_other_word made us the other day and are currently simmering it with basil, lemongrass, galang root, garlic, soy sauce, fish sauce, lime and peppercorns.

 If it is tasty we will add some thin sliced beef and noodles.  I will also be adding baby bok choy and pea sprouts to mine along with the normal beansprouts, onions and basil.  I hope it is tasty my mouth is watering thinking of it.

In other news I am going to start a Yoga Fundamentals series this evening.  I think it goes for a month, once a week.  I am hoping to improve my form some.

I also am looking for peoples who might want to start exploring the city via bike???  We could start in relatively flat areas such as the ID or Georgetown or the Waterfront.  This could be accompanied by stops for tasty beverages or snacks and visiting.  I'm assuming this would happen on days with weather like today (it's warmish and sunnyish here today) and we could meet at a location with our bikes and go from there.  Does anyone bike???  I'm available in the afternoons most days or on Thursdays or on the weekend so let me know :)

From apestyle

If you want to take part in this, leave me a comment:

• I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity
• Update your journal with the answers to the questions
• Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions

1. Why blue, and what took you so long?
 hmmm...I assume the question refers to my hair.  So, why blue? I just always have wanted blue hair as long as I can remember.  I'm not really sure why.  And what took me so long?  there's always the lame answer about work policies but I haven't worked for almost a year now so that doesn't really cut it.  I think mainly I'm just too lazy to keep it up, it requires regular  bleaching which really damages my hair and burns my scalp and it's just a pain in the ass.  I really wish it wasn't because I actually think I look fabulous with blue hair!!!

2. What's your favorite thing to cook?
I love to cook really elaborate recipes that are challenging and are things I haven't cooked before. I think I like the process of learning a new recipe or technique. Funny though that I rarely enjoy eating those things as much.  My favorite to cook and eat is breads, especially bread with rosemary and other spices in it, then I usually eat the whole loaf with butter and honey, often burning my mouth because I don't wait for it to cool.

3. What's the best thing you've ever eaten?
All of my favorite food memories have a time/place/circumstance association. For example the summer I was 16 I went with a youth group to work with street people in south central LA.  We were gone for 3 1/2  weeks and there was very limited food the entire time, seriously I lost about 15lbs in that time-that's how little food there was.  When I got home and opened the fridge the first thing I grabbed to eat was a hard boiled egg-I think just because it was the fastest thing.  That was the best egg ever.    

4. Did your old house sell? UG.  No-and it's a pain in the ass!  It's "scheduled" to sell in spring 2011 which means this year is a year of maintenance plans with the ex.  ew.

5. What happens after school?  there's an after?!?  oh no.  haha. just kidding.  So...when my house sells I will be done or soon to be done at SSCC.  I plan to take part of the money  I get from the sale of the house and go traveling for awhile.  backpacking.  I'm starting in Europe and I'm not sure where after that, I'm not sure how long I'll be gone-It's something I've been wanting to do since I was 3 (literally) .  Then whenever I come home from that I want to go finish my Bachelors (and maybe farther) I'm definitely majoring in Horticulture, I'm thinking of minoring in Ecology-or at least environmental sciences.  So...that's the plan at the moment.  Honestly, I think I just like going to school.

 Today I slept in, thanks to some nyquil. Now I'm sitting in the sunshine happy.  I've had some awesome herbed soda bread and coffee for breakfast ..  I'm looking at my venus fly trap and wondering when it will hibernate so I can replant it-I got an awesome terrarium jar at goodwill awhile ago and I want to plant it in there.  Jen's tulips she had under the growlight are both starting to bloom and all our seedlings are starting to pop up!!!  Today is a knitting group or homework.  I should do homework, I want to go to the knitting group.  :D  Knitting will probably win lol.

 I never make new year resolutions-rarely are they even remembered after January and the regular "lose weight, be healthy, save money..." blah blah blah that people always say seems silly.

However, there are things I want to do this year  and one of them is start cooking more.   I forgot how much I love cooking new things and I had sooo much fun cooking at Christmas!  I think I want to try a new recipe once a week and see what else I can cook!  Well, perhaps my finances will only allow me to do this every other week...I guess that will just depend on what I decide to make.

So all this to ask if you have a favorite cook book, cooking blog, etc... that you love to cook from???  I may head out to the library or to half price books to buy a new one...

mmmmm!

 It's super late (or super early, depending on your view) can't sleep.  Feeling  a desire for something...can't quite place my finger on it.

I've been thinking back over the year-it went by super quickly!  I'm wondering what the new year will bring?  It can't be much worse. It can't be much better.  

Monday school starts again and this quarter I will have time to be social-I only have school for 2 hours on Monday & a 1/2 day on Tuesday and a full day on Wednesday.  Thursdays no school & Fridays are my internship with Seattle Tilth for 1/2 the day.   

My databases 2 class got cancelled due to not enough students so I've had to rearrange my schedule a bit-but not too bad. This quarter I'm taking Winter Plant ID, Soils, Horticulture Science 2 and Pruning.

I'm planning on also utilizing the gym at the school to work out this quarter and making a point to utilize my free yoga!!  I didn't get to do that much last quarter, I'm taking the yoga fundamentals class starting Monday and will probably go to at least 1 or 2 more classes a week.  

I've been knitting a lot over the break and will probably finish my socks in the next few days-then I plan to finish my 'pickle' sweater and I then have will be starting another sweater...probably both to be finished by summer...lol.

Also Some_other_word and I have already started planting a few seeds under our new grow light!!!  We started the herbs and peppers.  Next month we'll start peas, carrots, onions & garlic it's really fun to plan out our garden and I'm excited to see how it will all work out this year!

hmm...perhaps I should try to sleep again.

Tonight's Menu:

Goose-that's been brined for 24 hours and stuffed with onions, apples, oranges, preserved lemons and stuffing
Duck-roasted with onions inside and then stuffed with cornbread stuffing & basted in spiced sugar
Stuffing 1(goose)-homemade herbed soda bread, onions from duck, celery & cashews
Stuffing 2(duck)-homemade cornbread with cranberries & oranges cooked in and mixed with more cranberry relish
roasted brussel sprouts with bacon
rolls (homemade of course)
salad with candied almonds, goat cheese crumbles, spinach & red pears
mashed potatoes with garlic
fresh cranberry relish & cranberry jelly (homemade)
and Jen's sweet baby pickles

OMG.  we cooked food to cook into food to cook into food. craziness.

it smells awesome here-I've never considered eating so many animals in one meal  (I feel like we're eating the whole farm) but it's fun to cook everything-actually I really really love the satisfaction of planning out a menu for a big meal & having it all work out perfectly, which it did...even ahead of schedule.

Pics to follow