A little OCD...

The typical sufferer performs tasks, or compulsions, to seek relief from obsession-related anxiety.


YJDKIY generally tends to have a cluttered work environment. My papers are stacked in messy piles, but I know exactly what is in them and can find whatever you want on command. My bathroom drawers are a jumbled mess of useful and expired items, but my counter top is clear! My storage boxes have anything and everything crammed in until the lid almost won't shut, but they match!.

The task of making labels, however, definitely relieves my anxiety about these piles and drawers and containers. It's something about the cut button that makes me feel happy and not dread the time that I must organize them, even if whatever label I'm printing is the least practical step in tackling my clutter.

Plus Four

Tonight's yummy salad had four friends in the form of future feasts! It started with one of my favorite kitchen contraptions:
Salad spinnnnnneeer!
Plus some carrots and an unusually large and suspicious baby carrot.
And I managed to defy odds and find FOUR clean tupperwares with matching lids.
To get dinner
Plus four!

(Note, you probably do not want to EVER respond with a plus four. Plus one is bad enough!)

Thumbs Up x2

First, CNN has a new web design and I absolutely love it. And I love the splash intro to the new site with the curtains the first time you go there. You can read more about their relaunch here.



Second, YJDKIY crossed an item off this list. Yay for Zada Jane's Corner Cafe. I can't link you to their website, as GoDaddy tells me it has expired. However, I will link you to a Flickr search of the Charlotte restaurant, and their Google page with photos and a review. It met expectations for a late lunch, at which the Gobbler and the Booker T. were sampled. More than just sampled, devoured actually, before a photo could even be taken.

I highly recommend the sweet potato browns and for a real treat, add the on-table appley jam goodness.

Huh?

Local spotted (pun intended)


YJDKIY is glad she lives in the South. Otherwise, she might be concerned the world had been crop dusted with suspicious yellow-green powder.


This just leaves me wondering...what season is it? I expect this in Spring, but October 23?


Huh?

Dinner Disaster!

Just in case you thought I always make yummy dinner, this post is here to prove otherwise. Frankly, I'm a little afraid to take to the kitchen after the disaster that was this dinner. It started Thursday night when I TRIED to get ahead by chopping the pumpkin.
Who knew it was so impossible to cut into a pie pumpkin. After breaking a sweat and nearly cutting off my arm, I gave up and went in search of a butternut squash. Three grocery stores later, I returned and did chop said squash.

Friday, I began this recipe from messycook. I dumped everything in the pot including the Guiness and Chipotle peppers.

Note to YJDKIY: Taste peppers before adding en masse to chili. By no circumstances is it safe to just dump 6 in the pot!

Meanwhile, we're bubbling along fine, smelling like a tasty Mexican meal. And then BLAMO! I decide to taste this concoction.

911 Emergency! I couldn't even swallow. I immediately fished out the offending chipotles but with no real hope of saving this pot o spicy goodness. My last resort was to drain all the liquid (quite a mess) and save the chunkies. (The compost pile might be on fire out there, I couldn't rightly say!). Granted I don't have a huge tolerance of spicy, but a quick taste deemed it impossible to eat!

So I started to clean up, and announce the runner up, in case dinner #1 couldn't fulfill her duties as Ms. American. That's when I noticed something funny.
See those two lighter color strips on the copper part of the pot? That look like they have been polished instead of how the rest of my dishwashered copper pot looks? Yeah, that's not a reflection. That is where the chili that I threw out dripped down the pot. It was so hot it cleaned my pot. Unexpected bonus?

Since Mexican failed me, Asian was in the works.

(sorry for the crappy picture quality, YJDKIY was kinda cranky at this point)

A few chops and woks later, I rummaged up some frozen shrimp and the stoplight peppers from the grocery bill, and got this!


YJDKIY diners actually ended up liking the chili concoction, but they eat everything and can't be trusted. The pot says it all, in my opinion!

Ouch

Web site ranks Greensboro among country's ugliest for men

Back in 2006, Old Spice listed Greensboro as number 46 on its list of the top 100 sweatiest cities in America. Adding insult to injury, the Web site TotalBeauty.com has now listed the Gate City as number four in its "Eight Cities with the Ugliest Guys."

"There's not a whole lotta lovin' going on in Greensboro, according to QualityHealth.com's survey of sexually active cities," the site explains. "Bad teeth and a one of the highest rates of obesity in the country might have something to do with it."

Poor Greensboro. I can't say I disagree though. :P

Backyard Aviary

I don't know what is up with birds today, but they are out in full force. I haven't heard so much chirping since Spring!

iPhone camera isn't known for letting details show up, so here is a YJDKIY graphic special.

(Obviously not to scale)

Birds seen in my 30 minutes on the back porch at lunch include the oddly named Red-bellied Woodpecker (dude, his belly is white!), Tufted Titmouse, Nuthatch, Blue Jay, Crow, House Finch, and Canada Geese.

Hello my name is YJDKIY and I have a problem.

Maybe it is that I like food. Maybe it is that I like shopping. Combine those two and these three bags equals $113. No meat, no seafood, no prepared food, no alcohol. Say what?


There were 37 different things on my receipt (some in multiples). A random sample of the bill for your analysis:

• Quinoa $4.99 ($.50 coupon)
  
• Kashi crackers $2.50 ($.99 coupon)
  
• Wasa 2 @ $5.98 ($1.00 coupon)
  
• Bananas $.67
  
• Stoplight peppers $4.99
  
• Sunflower seeds (raw) $2.39 ($.40 coupon)
  
• Shredded wheat $3.79
  
• Old Fashioned (store brand) oats $2.89
  
• Chipotle peppers (see Friday night post!) $2.99
  
• Granny Smith apples (see Saturday night post!) $4.72
  
• Light Silk $2.99
  
• Blue corn (store brand) chips $3.39
• Acorn squash (Saturday night post!) 2 @ $3.65 ($2.59 coupon)
• Morning Star Farms grillers $3.00 ($1.05 coupon)
• Frozen (store brand) corn $1.97
• Oikos 3 @ $5.67
• Monterrey Jack (store brand) cheese $4.89
• Yellow squash $2.25
  

MMM breakfast for dinner

Oikos vanilla yogurt, old fashioned oats, raw sunflower seeds, crunchies (I don't know what they are, it's called Wheat & Barley cereal and its a Lowes store brand that I can't find anywhere, and also can't image eating as cereal, but LOVE for the texture in this!) and a tiny squirt of agave!

Green tofu?

Interesting article from Slate on the carbon footprint of tofu.

I didn't sign up for this!

And that makes me extremely happy. Not because brightly colored junk mail makes me exceptionally excited. But because someone somewhere out there in the industry attached this title to YJDKIY's professional name. Which isn't my actual title, but one I am pleased to be called.


Now, if I could just convince those people who ask things like 'can we put a box around the logo' and 'what if you make it bold and underline it' and 'could we use a cursive font instead' and 'you can increase the resolution of that picture I sent you, right?' and 'but all that white space is wasted?' of the same, I'll be set.

At least now I can invoke the Patron Saints of Graphic Design to aid with this nonsense.

St. Pantone

And fully practice Murphy's Laws of Graphic Design.

But most importantly, hopefully I can enlighten the world with a little article called

this image is HIGHLY worth clicking through, folks.

t
can

Less for More

OK, I know when I sign up for a brunch date, healthy probably isn't going to be the first item on the menu. And, while I do love eggs for high protein, low calories and yumminess, I don't just love their cholesterol, especially in omelet form where cheese usually enters the mix.

So, while not surprising, I find it annoying that I have to pay more (albeit only $.90) to get less, and be more healthy.
Until it costs LESS to be healthier, I'm reasonably sure this trend will continue. (yes I know these are obesity statistics and eggs are not exactly a contributor to that with the low-cal status, however, the way people eat their eggs and the quantity consumed DO contribute!)

• American society has become 'obesogenic,' characterized by environments that promote increased food intake, nonhealthful foods, and physical inactivity. Policy and environmental change initiatives that make healthy choices in nutrition and physical activity available, affordable, and easy will likely prove most effective in combating obesity.
• In 2008, only one state (Colorado) had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%.
• Thirty-two states had a prevalence equal to or greater than 25%; six of these states (Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia ) had a prevalence of obesity equal to or greater than 30%.
• One of 7 low-income, preschool-aged children is obese

PS: I had the veggie! ;)

v. to discover one was not knowledgeable of a fact worth knowing*

I got YJDKIYed* this morning! I don't know why or how I didn't think of this earlier. Duh.

I can't stand drinking water straight from the tap, it tastes chemically and its warm and just icky. And when it dries in the bottom of a glass, there is a white residue. That can't be good.

So why would I drink it in my coffee? Not only does Brita-filtered water make my Cinnamon Spice Coffee taste infinitely better, it saves time in the always-night-before-programmed-coffee-making ritual. I can pour straight into the back of the coffee maker without having to guess how much is going in the pot.

(eerily similar to my free coffee maker!)

Now I can't decide if I am more ecstatic at this discovery and how much yummier the result is, or shocked that it took me five years at a bitter cup a day to stumble upon this.

PS: There was supposed to be a picture of a Brita instead of a link, but Blogger has really sucky picture adding capacities. Had I known the full extent this sooner, I probably would have stuck with WordPress. If anyone knows any secrets to making multiple picture entries, galleries, alignment, etc., please let me know.

Dinner in Pictures

Global Weirding

Last weekend I had the A/C on. I held out as long as I could. But when the thermostat said it was 58 degrees in YJDKIY's house, it was time.

global weirding
n. an increase in severe or unusual environmental activity often attributed to global warming.

Watch Tom Friedman, author of Hot, Flat & Crowded, discuss his theory on this.

economies of scale

Why can't I buy just one box of tissues?


If I'd wanted to make a bulk purchase, I would have gone to Sam's.

Holy Floating Batman. I like to fly. Squirrel!

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – A 6-year-old boy climbed into a homemade balloon aircraft and floated away Thursday, forcing officials to scramble to figure out how to rescue the boy as he hurled through the air. Full story


Semi-related, if you haven't seen Pixar's Up, I highly recommend doing so. If not for the flying house, the definitely for Dug, the talking dog.






PS: Really CNN? THIS is breaking news?

PPS: YJDKIY read the best part of this story on a local new site:
The boy's father Richard Heene is a known storm chaser. During an appearance on the television program WifeSwap, Heene and his wife, Mayumi, focused on their love of science.

Raise your hand if this sounds like a 6 year old hide and seek prank!

Baaaaack!

YJDKIY found some handy hands to help fix the stove top for about half the service estimate. So, without further ado, I bring you the first thing fixed on the new cook top:


Just kidding. Sort of...technically, plain white rice, broth (low sodium of course!) and baby chicken food WAS the first thing fixed, but it was for the recovering puppy, not the hungry person!

Hungry person dinner looked more like this:


Bean, Kale & Sweet Potato Soup

Small sweet onion - diced
3-4 garlic cloves - minced
1 sweet potato - peeled and cut in 1/2" cubes
1 bunch of kale - torn from stalks
2 cans white beans - great northern in this case
32 oz low sodium organic vegetable broth
12 oz water
olive oil - for saute
rosemary, garlic powder, cumin, pepper

In soup pot, heat oil and saute onions 1-2 minutes, add garlic for 1 more minute. Add broth and water and bring to a boil while adding all spices as desired. Go heavy on rosemary and light on cumin. Microwave cubed sweet potato for 3-4 minutes just until barely soft, add to boiling pot. Add torn kale in small pieces. Boil 10 minutes until kale is wilted, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes. Easy peasy!

And, just to make sure the oven still worked, and because it was a cold rainy day, pumpkin spice cookies:

Sorry, no recipe for those. Move along folks, nothing to see here. [insert innocent face here]

YJDKIY will tell you about the fantastic non-stick mat in the bottom of the oven that prevents me from ever having to clean it! Crumbs and boil-overs fall onto the mat instead of the bottom of the oven and it is cosmically impossible for them to stick to that thing. All I have to do to clean is take it out and shake it over the trash. If there is a little goo, a quick run under the faucet cleans it right up, or you can even throw it right in the dishwasher. The bottom of the oven looks as new as the cook top. For $26 instead of $226. gah.

Galileo's head was on the block...

His crime was looking up for truth*, all YJDKIY did was look up and open a cabinet door and his theories on physics set sail.


Thus resulting in a yummy hiatus until further notice.

Service call: $45
Minimum service cost: $65 (estimate 2-3x that for labor)
Part: $225
Tax
TOTAL: about $50 less than the original thing cost.

*Indigo Girls song

b-a-n-a-n-a-s

Has anyone else noticed it is impossible to buy perfect bananas? They are either green and gross (which, I understand is fine, but not if impatient YJDKIY wants to eat them immediately!) or brown and mushy.


In fact, the only place I've ever been able to buy perfect bananas (that I recall) was here, which isn't very convenient to anyone outside of Philly.

Soupy Sunday

Soup and salad menu tonight! With plenty of leftovers to start the week.

Nothing fancy about the salad:


But the soup utilized one of my favorite tools, the:


I don't even know what it's called. In fact, I don't even own it, which is why soup was on the menu tonight. It makes blending a pot of chunky veggies a breeze, rather than trying to use a blender or food chopper which always results in a disaster. See:


Recipe was pretty much concocted as I made it in the Ikea Favorit pot. (actually, I'm not sure this is the IKEA Favorit on second thought!). Anyway,

Cube two baking potatoes, slice up a couple carrots and boil with assorted spices (I used garlic, cumin, salt and pepper) until mushy. Drain water. Return pot to heat, add olive oil and saute half a large sweet yellow onion. Add 2-4-8 cloves of chopped fresh garlic. When golden, add 48 oz. of low sodium vegetable or chicken stock. Bring to a boil and add 4-6 c. chopped broccoli. Boil until broccoli is tender and add potato/carrot back in and continue to boil until liquid is reduced. Add assorted spices (this time it was garlic salt, thyme, pepper, basil, cumin, parsley and a very little kosher salt). Blend with the nifty kitchen gadget until creamy. Add a small pour of silk (1/3 c. maybe?), 1 c. grated jack and 1 c. grated sharp cheddar. Boil while stirring until thick and melty creamy broccoli goodness results.

Choo!

The Dixie Classic Fair rolled into town last week. YJDKIY went last year, and that was enough for a while. I do like seeing the train parked on the east side of town, though.


It reminds of a book I really liked, Water for Elephants.

Super Easy & Delicious

This recipe was super easy for a weeknight and presented kind of fancy. Served with a little omega-3s on the side*. More info on the benefits of those here. Every 31 year old needs plenty! ;)

*could have used some green veggies on the side too!