The Sloppy Seconds Gourmand

Did you know that I am royalty? Not too many people realize this, but I am the Queen of Leftovers. This probably stems from growing up in a household where the kitchen was used, primarily, as a room in which to sort the mail.
Now, to be fair, my parents were working about 10 - 12 hours a day, seven days a week, building their business. And when Mom did cook, she did an amazing job of it. And luckily she has time to cook a bit more these days. But back in the day, we went out to diners and the like most of the time, and at the end of the week, we had an impressive and confusing array of leftovers in the fridge, and something had to be done with them, because of course it's a shanda and a crime to throw out good food, especially if you paid for it. Sigh. Might explain a few things, eh?
Anyway, what with my natural scrimping tendencies and the fact I'm doing the 'only eat half of what's on your plate' thang, I often have leftovers. And for some bizarre reason, last night I made enough couscous to feed all of Northern Africa. And as I mentioned earlier, I'm taking off tonight for a few days, and my houseguest / catsitter doesn't eat wheat, and OH MY GOD I'D BETTER FIND SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE COUSCOUS OR ELSE IT'LL GO TO WASTE.

I have issues.

So, this turned out quite yummy, thus I'll share.

Take the leftover couscous (or rice, or quinoa, or whatever), mix in one beaten egg, some matzo meal (you goyishes can use unflavored bread crumbs, the gourmands can use panko), some chopped almonds and dried currants - or whatever else you have lying around, cheese, veggies etc. In my case it was couscous, bit of feta, almonds and currants. Melt yer choice of fat in a pan, just enough to provide some slip. I have some leftover (natch) marrow from Blue Ribbon that I keep in the freezer, but you can use oil, butter, Pam, whatever. Form couscous mixture into patties, and brown on both sides. Fabulous.

And here's a picture!



Now, of course, just to piss me off, I have leftovers of my leftovers. So I formed patties, layered 'em between saran wrap, and froze the suckers. I'll have it this weekend.

And, I thought I'd also show you a picture from the christening this weekend. Here is My friend Christine, whom I've know since we were 12 years old, her beautiful baby NIcholas, her husband Eric, and a dude in a robe. Isn't Nicky gorgeous? Doesn't he make you want to go and have babies right now? Well, okay, maybe not. But he is such a good baby. He withstood a trip to Target, a sushi place, a house full of loud people and a vacuum cleaner nearby, all without fussing or crying. Which is more than I could say for my cat.


By the way, can any of you show me how to put a counter on this thing? I'm feeling a touch narcissistic and I'd like to know how popular I am. Tell your friends!

I missed you, did you miss me?

Hello darlings!

Sorry it's been a few days. I was in Jersey for a christening (is that supposed to be capitalized?) over the weekend, and the parent's computer is just beyond my patience, so, instead of spending time on the computer, I took a hot bath in the gigunda jacuzzi tub. mmmmmmmm. Much more beneficial.
I did, of course, shop a bit. How could I go to Jersey and not? Treasure Island is going out business, and everything was at least 60% off (!). I was hoping to find a swift and winder, but no luck there. Instead, I found this:



All this loot for only $7.94. Yep, less than 8 bucks. I've been thinking about playing around with some smaller guage crochet projects, so voila! The thing in the blue package is what's called a water pen. don't know what it's original intended use is, but it's great for filling with solvent and using it to take off fake facial hair and wigs. Which leads me to my next point o' business.

I won't be able to post again for a while, since tonight I'm heading up to Stamford, Connecticut for a few days to work on a film that's shooting up there. It takes place in 1887, so I'll be mostly putting on sideburns, mucking happily about with glue and freezing my minxy behind off. Yay for fleece. And projects on big needles. Speaking of, stopped by Suss today, and they still have a few baskets of sale stuff around.

So, anyone know of any yarn shops in Stamford? Or any really good restaurants or bars I should hit? I'll try to get some internet access, and I'll let y'all know if anything really exciting happens.

Otherwise, I'll be back thursday or friday.

Week O' Yum

I have to say, this has been a week of yummy. Monday, Claudine and I had a day of Barnes and Noble. For those who live outside the urban area, this consists of going to Barnes and Noble, going up to the cafe, and stalking the tables. Every one of the tables is always taken, and there are usually about ten people, clutching lattes and magazines, roaming thru the tables glaring meaningly at those who just an hour earlier have been glaring at other people at the overcrowded tables, and sprinting towards anyone who might look like they're thinking about putting their coat on to leave. So, after about 20 minutes of purposeful glaring and stalking, we found a table! Then one person sits and guards the table blithely ignoring the otehr poor saps' glares while the other goes and gets coffee and magazines and books, then switches out. This is what Claudine and I did. And we knitted. But back to the yummy. White chocolate mochas are yummy. So are the chocolate chip cookies from the greenmarket. Being lazy and looking thru lots of books and magazines that you don't have to pay for is definitely yummy. That was Monday.
Tuesday laundry got done, then Miss Jessamyn called saying she was nearby and would I want to hang out. Would I?! We went to Pearl River Mart, I saw her lovely kitchen gadget and yarn filled apartment, we went for sushi, then the evil little enabler dragged me kicking and screaming to Jacques Torres Chocolate Haven where I was also forced to drop about $30 on some damn yummy chocolate. Did you know they make chocolate covered Cheerios these days? Brilliant!
Wednesday I did all the cleaning I had meant to do Tuesday, then that evening my neighbor Serena and I finally made it out to Sura, this amazing Korean restaurant in my 'hood that I've been meaning to go to for, oh, I don't know, a few years now. It's always empty, but absolutely gorgeous inside and the food is fantastic. Go. Go now. This place cannot close down, it needs our patronage. And, I'll happily go with you.
Which brings us to today, a yummy to top the yums. Today was a day of Sahadi's. That deserves a whole blog of it's own, for another time. Suffice to say, i shopped for middle eastern groceries with aplomb, and bought my weight in pistachios. Then I had to go next door to Damascus and buy scads of meat and spinach pies and baklava-type desserts. Then the awesome and amazing Jenn came over and taught me how to bling my blog. Seriously, all these links would not be except for her. Thanks Jenn, you rock!
Which brings me to the yummiest of all. Who of you saw Grey's Anatomy this past week? And who the hell is Eric Dane (McSteamy, the guy Mark who broke up Addison and Derek...no, I don't watch too much TV) and why have I not worked with him yet? I have to say, just... yum.
Pix on the next entry, I promise.

Hotel du MInx

I'm taking a break. Right now, I'm in between gigs, and what i should be doing is: going to the gym, doing my taxes, making phone calls and annoying other makeup artists to prove what a winsome and valuable and talented addition i would be to their trailers, and other prodtuctive activities.
So, what am i doing in actuality? Sleeping til 11. Thinking about how i have no food in the house, and should place a freshdirect order, but when would it come, and i won't use the food because it'll go bad since i'm going away this weekend, but i'm tired of eating just breadcrumbs (literally) when i get munchy-ish, blather blather, and abusing the computer. which isn't quite as dirty as it sounds, it basically involves visiting jigzone.com many times a day, doing crosswords, reading other blogs, and obsessively refreshing my myspace page. and i waste ENTIRE DAYS like this. I need help.
But, today i actually started cleaning. Hotel du CityMinx is once again open for business, and my friend and fellow MU artist (except whe also does hair, and is an esthetician, and if i didnt' like her so much i would completely hate her out of jealousy) got a ten day gig here and is crashing on the oh so comfy Minx couch. So i've dusted the entire living room and dining room, cleaned the bedroom, cleaned reams of paperwork off the desk (tax stuff is in a bag - doesn't count) and the only reason i haven't started the vacuum cleaner is that i'm listening to the CastOn podcast. Of course, I could hit pause, but that would so not work into my rhythm here. So I update!

Speaking of, I am oh so new at this blogging thang. If any of you can tell me how to add cool things, make links, add pictures, etc, I would welcome and grovel for all of that crap. And not just sending me code, tho that is appreciated, but tell me how to implement it.

Back to cleaning, I'll post again later.

Heh heh. Heh.

This had been a long time coming. Mostly for my dear friends around me, who have listened to me ramble on about what to call this blog, for the past few months or so. Other choices have been FlirtyGirl, the Enabler, PurlyGirl, Girl With A Purl Earring (uh, sense a theme?), Smink, Goodface, and many many other embarassing names that even I was embarassed to say out loud. And that's saying a lot. A whole lot.

So, this is my blog. A bit about knitting, a bit about food, a bit about make-up and work, and family and Manhattan. A lot about my days and thoughts and ramblings. Oh, that was another name-to-be: CoherentRamblings. I like CityMinx, hope you do too. And be warned - I will talk about you. So be nice. And send presents.

Love,

CityMinx