spring at columbia

take away the takeaway... PLEASE.

rs do you have the takeaway there?
rp no
is it any good
we're going to talk about it in class
how pub radio's trying to reach out
dod you like it?
12:43 PM
rs i hate it
i HATE IT
it's horrible
it's like talk radio for the left
only two things:
(1) i don't get as riled up by it as i do right radio,becase it's not issue-based at all and frankly way boring
and (2) it's like listening to z100, but no good tunes
they spent ten minutes this morning laughing and going on about this interview with this kid from upenn whose class went to la and waited in tuxes and gowns to get inside the new jack black movie premier
i mean seriously
do they think i'm dumb?
did i fail a public radio test i didn't know about?
why am i damned to this!!!!
12:49 PM
rp LOL
thank you
that will be helpful in my discussion of it
a critic at the huffington post hates it as well.
rs it SUCKS
and everyone at the j-school just looves loove slooves it
please
they love it because they're HIRING
that's just about it
it's the biggest bullshit
i don't need some liberal cackling - they don't laugh, aodora CACKLES - into my ear at six a.m.
rp LOL
rs i mean honestly, unless they intend to start delivering coffee to me before they air this, it's totally not going to fly
four pm sure
not at six
rp i'm quoting some of this in class
rs and definiltey not in the place of MORNING EDITION
quote away
rp LOL
rs so my friend adam works there
rp yeah?
rs and he said, moreover, all of their video will be produced internally.
and i said
you're going to try video too!?!?1
DEAR GOD
first of all
rp LOL
rs public radio faces on video.
enough said there.
second
rp i know
rs are they going to cackle at me there too????
because i at least don't have to imagine their gnashing teeth
and now
i will have to see it
i wrote wnyc
and i said
listen.
here are copies of the last five checks i have given you.
this amounts to almost 1/20th my salary.
which is what i feel public radio is worth to me.
it is pledge
and i am not pledging.
in fact
rp nope
rs i will pledge one thing only
rp tal?
rs i will not give you ANYTHING until you give me morning edition back.
don't fuck with creatures of habit
we're radio listeners
you know?
rp especially news creatures
yes
rs if i wanted entertainment
i'd turn on the today show
and at least get to laugh jovially with al roker
they aren't al
if they get al roker
rp nope
rs we'll talk.
rp LOL
i'm going to make them listen to a commerical radio interivew about pigeon poop at the cleveland airport
rs ooh
can they put that on instead of the takeaway?
can you talk to laura walker???

u really got a hold on me

when i was a kid i really thought this was "you really've got to hold on me." i always thought smokey was going to leave someone and this made me cry. my mother helped clear this up once in for all... but i kind of think that's why she started me in therapy.

friday newsbusters

Billions of electronic-eating 'crazy rasberry ants' invade Texas

It sounds like the plot of a farfetched science fiction movie. Unfortunately for the residents of Texas, it is very much a reality: billions of tiny reddish-brown ants have arrived onshore from a cargo ship and are hell-bent on eating anything electronic.

Computers, burglar alarm systems, gas and electricity meters, iPods, telephone exchanges – all are considered food by the flea-sized ants, for reasons that have left scientists baffled.

Having ruined pumps at a sewage facility, the ants are now marching towards Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre and William P. Hobby airport, Houston, putting state officials in a panic. “They’re itty-bitty things, and they’re just running everywhere,” said Patsy Morphew, a resident of Pearland, on the Gulf Coast.

She spends hours sweeping them off her patio and scooping them out of her pool by the cupful. “There’s just thousands and thousands of them. If you’ve seen a car racing, that’s how they are. They’re going fast, fast, fast. They’re crazy.”

now the question is, do they think cars are yummy too?

Leftover from Europe

This is better than finding the beer opener we stole from our vienna hotel in my bag this morning. Mmm, bottle opener in the morning. Damn, God, you're good.

food like us: fast and cheap

raleigh's doctored work-it-mom peanut butter chicken

1/2 cup natural peanut butter
1/2 cup water
2T soy sauce, or Tamari (which is basically gluten free soy sauce)
1T brown sugar (if your peanut butter is sweetened skip this)
2T veg oil
3 cloves garlic, minced OR 6 cloves roasted garlic (cut off top of garlic, drizzle oil on top, wrap in tin foil, stick in muffin pan so it sits up straight, and Bake 450 for 20-30 mins)
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper (use more if you would like this anything but mild... i use five whole red french peppers, dried and hand-crumbled)
4cups broccoli
3 tomatoes - vine ripened and chopped (or 1 small can diced or crushed tomatoes - - just nothing pasty)
4 chicken breasts

Mix all the ingredients through the crushed red pepper into a mixing bowl. do this with a spatula at first and finish with a fork to get it smooth. if you're using roasted garlic, it'll mix in smoother -- and does your part keeping the vamps at bay.

Cover this and set aside. The longer you set it aside, the more the flavors will meld together and the spiciness will come through. If you think to make this in the morning, even better. I thought to make it last weekend. very smart of me.

Cut the crowns off of your broccoli. if you're me, you've just doubled the broccoli quotient anyway, because you're looking at it and thinking mmm tasty. and you know what, it's healthy. throw it in. and don't be an idiot and think you can use olive oil here. you can't. this is my time to remind you. you need natural veggie oil. or canola, if you can't find veggie. and sunflower if you can't find that. if you want this to be super delicious and have been starved in myanmar for hte last two weeks, you could use peanut oil. but when your heart clogs and you have to go into a triple peanut butter bypass, don't say i didn't warn you.

I fillet the chicken breast, as usual, and then slice it into strips. This makes cooking the chicken so much easier. salt and pepper it a bit before you put it in the pan. i load it up with pepper, obviously. Pour a little bit of oil into the pan, just enough so that it doesn't stick, perhaps a tablespoon or two.

After the chicken is slightly browned on the outside remove it from the heat.

Dump the broccoli on top. Add about 1/4 - 1/2 cup of water to the skillet and put the lid on it. (this is totally important.) If you've thought about it, this is a good time to use less water and some beer. or some cheap champagne. gives it a little punch. don't use wine though. Then let the chicken and broccoli steam. This ensures that the chicken is cooked all the way through, yet remains moist, while the broccoli cooks.

Remove from heat. Ooooooh, steamy. You can lean over and give yourself an impromptu facial if you desire, though this tends to illicit weird responses from dates. They can stuff it though. My skin is better.

Almost all of the water should be gone now. If there is a small but left don't worry about it. If there is still a significant amount just pour it off.

Dump the peanut butter mixture into the skillet.

Gently stir to coat. If you are too rough all the broccoli will break and that will be a tragedy. Tragedy, I tell you.
Serve with rice. Or coconut rice if you're feeling crazy. (follow instructions on jasmine rice packet, but use 4 - 2 cans - coconut milk, 3 cups rice, 2 cups water. let liquids get all boily, add rice, stir, reduce, steam for fifteen.)

Better as leftovers.
Delicious.

Alternate: follow all the instructions for peanut sauce, then roll drumsticks in it. Take a pack of corn flakes and salt and pepper them (add some delicious cayenne pepper), toss in some breadcrumbs if you have them (progresso's best), and and then roll the drums in that. Bake 325 until done.


This recipe is a total rip of Chris Jordan, who we all know I'm madly in love with in the kitchen. Mine's spicier and a has a few more ingredients (and is a little more meaty) but hers is the place to start. The drumsticks, though, are basically my grandmother's. Only she didn't use soy sauce. And there's crisco involved. Skip it. She says honey might be a good addition in the flakes... gets it that nice golden crispyness. Nana knows best.

Andres is buying roller skates

This is a cat. Not a horse.

Today at the circus, I mean New York, we present... Thumbelina!!! The world's smallest horse! At an impressive seventeen and a half inches, this little guy clippity clops around with the best of them. Barbaro, move over. This one's so little the wind could BLOW HIM DOWN THE TRACK FASTER.


More from AMNH.

insanely delicious food from chris jordan

now that everyone and their mother blogs, it's time for your stomach to thank the heavens: finally, moms spill the beans.

really.

chris jordan's "Work it, mom!" food blog is my die-hard favorite. she doesn't go wrong on anything -- im even willing to touch cauligrossness, which means two things:
1. hell froze over.
2. this mom knows her stuff.

my mother could never get me CLOSE to a vegetable that resemebled anything icky, sticky, or like a body part. off limits therefore were: avos (green slime), green beans (well the way green beans are cooked in the south... which means they aren't "done" until they are so brown you never knew they were green), and caulis (brain). but she throws some honey and pepper on a cauli and i'm already asking for seconds.

delicious.
but -- DEFINITELY try her peanut butter chicken. add a can of crushed tomatoes (or real tomatoes if you're feeling rich) to the peanut butter... it's very traditionally african then, which gives it a nice meatyness. you can also sub out the chicken and broc and add in spinach, beans, and mango. i followed her recipe to the T on the the peanut butter sauce (and definitely make the coconut rice, btw), and then put in the pan:
- 1 can cannellini beans
- a bunch of garlic (the more the better, wards off the vamps)
- half the juice of 1 can of mango.
let it simmer up and cook it... then add in the spinach (frozen is fine, just make sure it's defrosted a bit in the nuker) and let it steam with a lid on it for a few minutes.
- call your boyfriend frantically because you do not have a can of crushed tomatoes because you walked out of the market without it like an idiot and are now standing in the kitchen in a polka dot night shirt and cheer shorts. have him pick some up on way home.
- turn everything on low till he gets there.
- add crushed tomatoes - whatever seems a good amount to you, i like about 2 cups worth for this - and simmer away.
- add some crushed mango - i did three slices, cubed. it adds a nice sweetness.

i also used a billion dried red french peppers in here. mine's firehouse... so just a word to the wise.

i think she's hit on the perfect recipe here with her peanut butter sauce, so next time 'round i'm going to cover it in a well-seasoned ritz/corn flake crust (you know you want to use potato chips. and you know it's gonna be good.) and throw it in the oven on Bake 350 for some picnic drums. I figure they'll be delicious in the summer with a side salad.

morality for beautiful girls

oy vey, this long? well no more veraci for me, so back to the real world.
things to do:
1. finish eating last night's leftovers.
2. finish procastinating so as to start masters thesis.
3. masters thesis.
4. procastinate for all of the above.
5. read fabulously awesome book currently in my hands. (see title)