Baking Trivia

In my joblessness (yes, I'm still unemployed), I've been baking a lot. Last week I made cake, a whole cake, one with ingredients that took four hours to make myself (dulce de leche, in case you were wondering), merely because I was craving a piece. I have time to do these things. I can barely afford ingredients anymore, but I have all the free time in the world. So I experiment a lot too. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Turns out, trying to make healthy cookies only sort of works. I say sort of because the chocolate chip cookies that I made the other day taste awesome, just like chocolate chip cookies, but they have the texture of cake. Little chocolate chip cakes. They're still quite good, they're just not very cookie-like. This is apparently what happens when you use 2 parts yogurt and 1 part butter instead of all butter. It works really well for actual cake, and for dessert-like breads (like banana), but used in a cookie it just transforms said cookie into a wee cake. I guess you learn something new every day. So, if you feel like making your own chocolate chip mini-cakes, a recipe for you:

2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup plain yogurt (I used non-fat)
1/3 cup softened butter (use butter, not margarine)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 package (12 oz) chocolate chips

- Preheat oven to 375
- Beat yogurt, butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla until creamy (I used a whisk first to make the yogurt and butter smooth)
- Add eggs and beat well
- Gradually add flour, baking soda, and salt
- Stir in chips
- Drop teaspoons of batter onto a greased cookie sheet (normally you don't have to prepare the cookie sheet at all, but the absence of most of the butter makes the cookies stick a little bit)
- Bake 8-ish minutes until lightly browned

Dear Lord

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwkb9_zB2Pg

The above is a video of Sarah Palin accepting protection from witchcraft from her pastor, as well as prayers for a well-funded campaign. Seriously. I don't usually talk about politics on here. In fact, I don't think I ever have, but this woman is a fucking lunatic. Totally off her damn rocker crazy. She scares me. A lot.

Come Here Often?

I think my conditioner is hitting on me. Observe the contents of the back of the bottle:

Longing for more? Let it out and indulge every inch with my velvety conditioning fused with red raspberry & satin. I'll give your length the strength against breakage and split ends. You've got longer hair to love. And I've got more love to give. How long will you go without touching it?

Use me: soak me in all the way down. My, you're headstrong. Rinse & repeat for good measure.

Use me? My, you're headstrong? How long will you go without touching it? I swear I feel a little violated every time that I end up reading the back while waiting for it to soak in "all the way down." Why is my conditioner trying to get sexy with me? And it's not just me. Max just declared that it sounded like the dirty guy in a chat room trying to talk sexy.

Also, how did I make it through my whole life not knowing that raspberry had a "p" in it? It doesn't make much sense.

Happy Thing #11

It's just a posting bonanza today, isn't it? I decided to add another thing that makes me happy, since I'm enjoying that thing right now while sitting at my computer:

11. Plain yogurt (or plain Greek yogurt, which is thicker texture-wise, but also more expensive) with honey and chopped up bananas (or mangoes, but I don't have any right now). It's just so much better than the regular processed yogurt that I get at the grocery store, and I'm guessing it doesn't have so much crap in it, which is always an added bonus. So tasty.

A Few of My Favorite Things

Since I've been a whiny brat lately, I thought I'd go the other way for a couple minutes and make a list of 10 simple things that make me happy. In no particular order:

1. Trying out a new shampoo/conditioner - told you they'd be simple. It may seem silly, and it hasn't happened yet, but there's always a few moments of anticipation that this time washing my hair will magically turn me into the Pantene girl I've always wanted to be.

2. Running - there's something really satisfying about coming home all sweaty and gross and knowing I've accomplished something, even if that something was merely running in a circle for 45 minutes. Plus, it's gratifying for an ex-smoker to look at her calender, see 4 miles penciled in, and think "oooo, an easy day."

3. Stretching - what can I say except that it hurts so good.

4. Baking bread - not altogether simple, since it's sort of like a chemistry experiment, but the smell of rising bread is one of the most comforting smells to me, and there is nothing more Zen-like and calming than kneading a lump of warm, good-smelling dough for a few minutes.

5. Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday - technically three things, but as a group they're currently the best moments of the week. Mostly because until Monday morning rolls around again, I have no obligation to look for a job. No one will get back to me until Monday anyway, so there is no networking, no sending of cover letters and resumes, no receipt of rejection letters. And while I may be bored all weekend due to lack of funds, at least I'm not forcing myself to do anything or feeling guilty about avoiding it. Bliss.

6. The first cup of coffee in the morning - self-explanatory, I would think.

7. Making dinner - to me, all the chopping and sauteing and baking and arranging is totally relaxing, and it's fun to try out a new recipe while jazz plays in the background and I drink a glass of wine and occasionally dance around before remembering that people can see into my kitchen window.

8. Rainy days in Pittsburgh - in NOLA, rainy days are annoying because they're generally accompanied by flooding. Here, they're just rainy days, and it gets a little cold so that curling up with a book is really the only sensible thing to do. And hey, since I'm not employed, I can do that!

9. Getting facebook notifications - I know, but hear me out. It's not the notifications themselves, it's knowing that someone thought of me for a few seconds and decided to let me know. It's nice, especially since I haven't seen anyone for a couple months now.

10. Breezy end-of-summer evenings - preferably spent sitting outside with a cold beer.

Dear Lord, I was feeling melodramatic yesterday, wasn't I? Sorry 'bout that.

Yet Another Post About How I'm a Disgruntled Law Grad

I've been feeling really sorry for myself lately, and I'm pretty sure it's making me an icky human being to be around. I mean, I want to talk to my friends on the phone, but if they ask me how it's going I'll either have to lie or say "well, I'm broke, and miserable, and I just realized that starting salaries here aren't enough to pay my loans, and I'm bored, and I hate being one of the few people I know who doesn't have a job they love/a disturbingly large starting salary despite their 100 hour expected work weeks." I read people's facebook status updates and I see things like "X doesn't want to go to work today" or "X is bored at work" and it makes me want to scream. Because you know what? I want to be bored at work today. I want to be tired and cranky on a rainy Monday morning and have to pull myself out of bed so that I can go to work. I want to be an office drone. Hell, I want to fetch someone's coffee. I don't want to be an over-educated waitress, and more and more I'm thinking that it's about the time for me to strap on an apron and practice saying "Hi, my name's Liza and I'll be your server tonight" with the requisite amount of perkiness. I used to read posts from other law blogs about how finding a job is harder than you think and I'd be all "Well, not me baby. I'll be just fine, thank you very much." Now I take small comfort in the fact that at least it's not just me. And that, my friends, is the real answer to "I haven't talked to you in like, weeks! How are you?" You know, just in case you felt like asking and the standard "I'm fine" wasn't satisfying.

Running Update

I made it to 7.5 miles today. Woot! I've officially run more than half of the half-marathon, which makes me feel like I could do the whole thing. Of course, my knees are filing for divorce as we speak, and I have to sit down like someone who's 8 months pregnant - that is, slowly, with one hand behind me to brace myself and take some weight off of my tormented legs. Good stuff.

Merrrr

To those who don't know, "merrrr" is the international word for "boo, this sucks," "fuck it," "I'm so not feeling this," etc. The reason: yet another rejection, and a fast one too, although this time I have paper to show for it. It was not met with a laugh, however, as I thought I actually had a chance and was really interested. I mean, honestly, do people open my envelope and just immediately click the "Print" button on Genericrejection.doc? Although, actually, I might not want the answer to that question, as I suspect the answer is yes.

So, that's a no?

Time line of a rejection:

Friday: Send out resume to IP firm. Expect rejection because I don't have a B.S. and thus can't practice patent law, but figure I'll try anyway.

Saturday - Monday: nothing, because it's a holiday weekend.

Tuesday: Assuming even the most generous postal estimates, resume arrives.

Tuesday afternoon: Polite cyber-rejection arrives.

Reaction: incredulous snort of laughter at efficiency of rejection process. At least it beats a disappointed sigh followed by a ripping up of rejection letter. It's almost refreshing, having eliminated the whole "waiting is the hardest part" portion of the job-seeking process. That's gotta count for something, right?