Lazy Girl Peanut Noodles

Oh man, I have been a lazy girl this weekend. I tried to blame the heat but I've got my AC on today and have still been a lazy bum...damn! Fortunately I know exactly what to make for lunch: Lazy Girl Peanut Noodles.

I came up with the recipe for this sauce way back in college. Miss Linda had made a peanut dipping sauce for lettuce or something and I ran with it. I used to use the noodles from ramen (the spice packets I used as poor girls bullion) but now just use spaghetti.

Just set a pot to boil and while you're cooking the spaghetti mix together 1/4 c chunky peanut butter (if you only have smooth just chop up some peanuts); 1 tbs brown sugar; 2 tbs sesame oil; 3 tbs soy sauce; 1 tbs rice vinegar; and some minced garlic. It's kinda gonna look like vomit. But add the hot noodles, mix it all up and set it in the fridge for a while to cool. I'm eating it out of the bowl but you don't have to.

Lucky for you though while I've done almost nothing today I have been doing a lot of things this month in general and finally got my hands on some photos of my adventures: a wedding in Milwaukee and an expedition to Wilmette. And they're good photos so I don't have to write a lot! Yaaay for lazy blog posts on lazy Sundays with Lazy Noodles.

Now I'm very lucky to have several 'big sisters' from all different parts of my life, one of which is Miss Lyndsey who became my big sister at OU where we would occasionally dress identically and I took to following her around (quite literally sometimes when I was her assistant). As it happened when we graduated we managed to move within two hours of each other, me in Chicago and her in Milwaukee.

As if that wasn't wonderful enough, the fellow who was like a 'big brother' to me at OU moved to Milwaukee too! His name is Mister Brrrrandon and he is obsessed with gypsies and puppets and muppets and it's his fault my nickname is Lexana the Bear. Well he got married on the 4th (to one of the coolest girls on the planet. no lie!) and I forgot my camera so confiscated Miss Lyndsey's to take an annoying amount of photos because the wedding was so fun!!!

Family! You can see the resemblance I'm sure.

Mister Brrrandon and his Lady Sarah, had the wedding on the lake South of Milwaukee and it couldn't of been a lovelier day! The ceremony was simple and beautiful and I cried.



That's Miss Michelle, Myself and Miss Lyndsey looking just slightly windblown but still fabulous with sailboats in the background.

The reception was in a beautiful Teddy Roosevelt-esque park pavilion which they'd decorated with lights and buntings, wildflowers and candles.

Instead of one big cake they had friends, including Miss Lyndsey and Miss Michelle, make Scandinavian Almond cakes for each table which everyone cut together with the bride and groom. Aren't they lovely! Taste divine. Miss Lyndsey make so many she could rattle the recipe off by heart, which I made her do when she dropped me at the bus station.

Scandinavian Almond Cake
Heat your oven to 350 degrees
They're supposed to be made in this fancy tin but a bunt or large loaf pan would work fine, just flour and grease the sh*t out of it if you do use the proper pan as it tends to stick!!

Mix together:
1 1/2 c sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp almond extract
2/3 c milk

Then add:
1 1/4 c flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

Mix together then add and mix:
1 stick margarine, melted

Pour into pan and bake for about 50 minutes until a knife comes though clean, let cool a bit then flip out of pan to cool completely. Looks lovely with powder sugar sifted though a doily on top!



Miss Lyndsey also made Mister Brrrandon's vest which you can see him modeling here.

photo by Taylor Bailey

And I stole this off his facebook page just so you can see the incredible dress Lady Sarah wore, they're so lovely!!

Weddings are also awesome as you get to dance with wee kiddies! That's me and my newest little friend who's got some wicked dance moves. Swishing party dresses around never gets old!

 It was such a beautiful wedding, every part of it was Sarah and Brandon, from the excellent selection of local brews to the music (who else has Triplets of Belleville as their first date music?? I ask you!!), it was such a pleasure to celebrate the two of them and their life together. They're currently on their honeymoon, an epic road trip across America staying in National Parks and with friends, they just left the Badlands and are heading East towards home!

Cut to a few weeks later...

The Baha'i temple in Wilmette, IL.

Dude. It's incredible. I'm in love with the Louis Sullivan meets Moorish ornament. And inside the dome is like a lace doily, sunlight filtering through.



Whenever you move to a big city people always ask "Oh, have you been to the ____?" "Have you seen ____?". The temple in Wilmette is one of those places.

I just happened to see a notice about a free concert as part of a festival and thought that would be an interesting way to see the space. Miss Ashley also thought it would be a fun adventure so one Sunday we got in her car and drove North.



It was hotter than blazes and the cottonwood falling fast from the trees like snow.



The concert was beautiful, all a capella, songs from all sorts of faiths. And blessedly air conditioned!

Afterwards we wandered through the grounds. They're laid out in a Middle Eastern style, all grass to walk on and fountains.

And the roses, oh the roses! So fragrant! I think the last time I've been in such a lovely rose garden was at Hampton Court Palace in England.

Other good non-rose flowers too. Ashley liked these but I couldn't remembered what they were called. Miss Linda? Miss Cait?? Do you know??

We tailed a group of beach bound teenagers to the shore and ate our lunch in the shade of some trees. It was a lovely day, and I can't wait for Miss Ashley to finish her studies so we can play more!! Go Ashely Go!!

Now back to my laziness. I did manage to get some things done on Friday (all those piles are picked up now!!!) and ate some falafel wraps and multi-grain salad. My Auntie M fixed up one of her old pieces and shipped it out to come live with me, it arrived Friday.

It's from her Victorian/Emily Dickenson period and was inspired by the case full of things pulled out of people's throats at the Mutter Museum.

There's a slit on the side and you can drop things down the 'throat' then fish them out again with a grabby thing. So far its got a wee baby that's missing a leg, a Bell Telephone pen (Auntie M used to work for them), and a retainer (umm who's is that??) stuck down its throat. 

The back reads:

History of the Game

This toy is a reproduction of a model designed originally by the noted Fogarian physician Dr. John M. Keating. A didactic toy, it is designed to illustrate the doctors method of extracting foreign bodies from the trachea. He is said to have stumbled upon the idea after purchasing a "handy grabber" from a local Brookstone Store. 

The invention proved impractical however, as those persons not having the good fortune of having a slot in their head died of severe throat lacerations or suffocation.

I plan on having a Choking Hazards Party where we can all take turns playing doctor. Y'know. When I'm done being lazy. Definitely not next weekend though, Miss Lizbeth and her wee belly bean are coming for a visit! My brain is already whirring on things to cook together!! I'll tell you all about it in a few weeks!

"You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light" W. Whitman

Long enough have you dream'd contemptible dreams,  

Now I wash the gum from your eyes,  

You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light and of every moment of your life.

Long have you timidly waded holding a plank by the shore,  

Now I will you to be a bold swimmer,  

To jump off in the midst of the sea, rise again, nod to me, shout, and laughingly dash with your hair. 

Song of Myself part 46

It was Walt Whitman's Birthday on Thursday, he's one of my favorite poets and I'm in an appropriately Whitman-like mood at the moment. I read through most of Leaves of Grass this winter and it's quite an undertaking, Whitman's poems are often lengthy, they're lists, declarations, and a lot of words I have to look up. But there's something about him and his thoughts that I respond to so I wrestle through. 

I really do love poetry, I hated learning about it in high school but for some reason started reading it two years ago, mostly Poe and Whitman and Yeats and Keats and Wordsworth. My English pen friend Aline sends me new books from time to time, Auden is one of her favorites. Literary analysis isn't always easy for me so sometimes I just stare blankly at a poem, or have to read it about 5 times, or decide it's dumb and stop trying. But then sometimes one will jump out at me, like in Dylan's Tangled up in Blue "and every one of them words rang true/and glowed like burning coal/pouring off of every page like it was written in my soul from me to you". Those I sit with for a while. And if I really like them I'll write them in a notebook I keep with my books of poems on my bedside table (sometimes poems put me to sleep. It's literary melatonin!). 

I go to Whitman when I need to disconnect from trivialities, to remind myself that true life is nature, divinity, and love. That those three are one. The rest really isn't worth fretting about. Easier said than done of course, I'm a natural worrier/prophetess of doom who unfortunately has a job where I can sit and over think all day long! Fantastic. 


I'd been particularly surly/pessimistic Thursday and Friday so came home from work and began Mission Calm the Fuck Down: 
PJs-check
hot tea in favorite mug-check
curl up in chair to watch Sherlock-check
hot bath with epsom-check
do some yoga-check
spaghetti with Sauce-check
bake and eat these incredible brownies-check

The funny part is that I calm the f*ck down as soon as I walk though my door! My apartment is my haven, I just need to figure out how to keep that calm with me when I go to work...hmm. I foresee a lot of ujjayi breathing in my future!


This weekend, I've been finding homes for all the treasures I brought back with me from the Aunties. I hung two prisms up in my front window and at 7 o'clock the sun hits them and my room is covered in rainbows. It's my favorite time of day! I've wanted some prisms since I saw Pollyanna as a kid. I hated it as it made me cry, but I never forgot the prisms. I know it's just refracted light, but it still seems magical. I think Walt would have been down with prisms. 

It's like the Cheapside hoard!

I now own a wad of tacks (allegedly) melted in the  Chicago Fire.

A little iron piggy that with the wad o'tacks and old keys make a little tableaux on a china plate I bought in Philly's Chinatown.

You see this little box?

It has a secret.

A couple sliding panels...

Oh! What's this! A secret compartment!?!

With a shell butterfly inside!

I got this fantastic vintage juicer at a flea market in Milwaukee with Miss Lyndsey. Now I have an excuse to make more lemon bars. Oh no.

I might have shrieked when Auntie M and I were digging through drawers and I spotted a big red dala horse. I'm perfectly fine with the fact I have a complete obsession with these horses. I've only got four. And a cookie cutter. And a tree ornament.


Crap.

I'm still debating where to put these guys. Auntie's Mexican doggie is so cute, as is the praying mantis! Who knew praying mantises could be cute? Miss Linda was traumatized by the ones Auntie M kept in their room as kids. She's fine now.

The fish dish was another I got in Chinatown (I also have an obsession with blue and white china. What of it.) and I put some seed pods I picked up in the cantina in it.

Auntie helped me put this music box on top of an old prescription box she'd given me ages ago. I scavenged  the mechanism from an old ballerina  music box of mine, it plays the waltz from Swan Lake.  Much cooler looking than the ugly thing I had to live under before, kind of steampunk-y? I found some more of these boxes at Aunties and now just have to find some music box parts.

This mirror from Morocco and little brass bell now hang by my front door.

This was an unexpected surprise! Magazines are a treat for me, other than some teen magazine I got as a kid the only subscription I've had was to Domino and I have mourned them ever since they closed years ago! So when I popped into the news agents at the Philly airport to pick up a magazine imagine my surprise and delight when I saw Domino had made a special edition! I've got my fingers crossed its the first of many!

Now these aren't exactly in my apartment, but they're definitely a bonus. Can you see them? I'll give you a hint, three of them in the bottom left quadrant.

BUNNIES!!!!! Three of them!! I watch them chew clover from my window. Their names are obviously Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail. No sign of Peter yet, but maybe he's still in Mr. McGregor's garden.

And a new fun thing I did myself, I spruced up my mousepad with the sashiko 'seigaiha' blue sea and wave pattern (mouse covering a part I smudged). 

I want to do some actual sashiko quilting at some point, but I figured this was good for now. Plus that pattern is very similar to the print on my headboard.

These are old things but I had to laugh when I looked at my desk the other day. Think I have a fondness for that shade of teal?? I worry sometimes (not very seriously, duh.)...but it really is the little things that I love. It's okay because Whitman loves them too.

I walk up my stoop, I pause to consider if it really be,
A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.

Song of Myself, part 24

They aren't morning glories, but Miss Linda sent me these photos from her garden.

I'm holding on to the last lovely moments before I have to go back to work. Munching on brownies, drinking tea, loafing about in my PJs, and taking care of some things. Maybe things will be better this week, I hope so, I don't like being sulky. It's so stupid. I have a plan to improve things in that department but it's mostly a waiting game at this point, and I hate waiting. I just have to be a bold swimmer like Whitman says and trust that I won't have to tread water in the ocean for long.

Oh a lighter note, I give you Hipster Clown.

I know, right! I caught sight of him out my window last week and knew I had to tell Miss Anwen about it. Our following Facebook discussions took him into the realm of urban myth and then today I heard the sound of his squeaky wagon and there he was! Grabbed my camera, called Anwen and we can't believe it's real.

Thank you Chicago, thank you for the little things.