“You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.” ― Saul Bellow1/19/2013 It's that time of night where I'm not sure if it's too damn early or really freakin' late. In the spirit of "ah, screw it" I wanna blog anyways. Stupid, but hey, this is me. Another short story tonight. Hope you enjoy it...
Window Box The apartment building's facade rose to the smog filled sky like any other run down hole in the city. Screaming out to be painted, repaired, loved. He was across the semi-busy boulevard staring with a torn feeling; love for his ramshackle abode and contempt for still being able to call himself a born and bred Los Angelino. He dragged heavy on his cigarette trying to clear his head with the cloying smoke. An oxymoron to be sure, just like himself. A clean-cut American twenty-something that had always felt in his heart and soul that he should be out in the country. He proved the feeling by growing cooking herbs in his window flower box. Looking at the growing "garden" with a love and pride one reserved for a significant other or a child. It was in large part what drew him back home every night. He couldn't abandon the plants that depended on him. After a long day at his nondescript 9 to 5 in an equally boring office he often wondered what tethered him here. This dirty expanse of skyscrapers and every sort of pollution known to man. His mind would drift to his window box; a green light in a murky haze. He would light his post-drudgery cigarette and wait for the bus back to his plants. From the street he could just see them reaching up to what sun they could get and smiled knowing that he would eventually walk the three flights of stairs to water them and coo and coerce them into staying alive. He would thank them for being so kind as to stay with him and allow him to use their bounty to flavor his food. When his train of thought rumbled down this track he knew why he stayed. He wanted to give the skyline, his building that little bit of green life that he could. It gave him a feeling of accomplishment that only working the soil could give a man. He crushed his dropped cigarette on the sidewalk and sprinted across to his building suddenly excited to see his little family of foliage that brightened the city just enough for him to see. Lindsey Jewelry: HardWear by Lindsey Sister: Film Making and Cookie Baking Rusty J: Rustified -
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Danielle and I had a crazy baking night last night. I say it was crazy because we were crazy. D was sleep deprived and loopy and I'm just me. We baked all sorts of stuff. She baked banana muffins of some sort and I made my doughnuts again. This time I left out the cocoa so they were plain cake doughnuts. So damn good. Find her stuff at Film Making and Cookie Baking tomorrow morning. Have some pictures: I used mini muffin pans and they're adorable and cute. I have to find a way to add more flour or something to the batter because they were too... Soft? So they ended up looking like flat muffins after they were baked. The batter was so tasty I ended up eating the last of it... Ended up giggling my ass off while Danielle was taking pictures of me. I also decided to make a half-batch of chocolate doughnuts and completely embraced my inner five year old and piped the batter into mini-poops. My mom loved the turds. Will be making them again soon.
Lindsey Jewelry: HardWear by Lindsey Sister: Film Making and Cookie Baking Rusty J: Rustified My dearest Heather did my nails today. She's an aspiring nail artist (or whatever they're called) and will be going to school to get her license to do nails as a pro soon. By all means, if you like her stuff and are in the SoCal/South Bay area, let me know on my (brand new) contact page. I'm sure she would love to hear from you and would be more than happy to pretty up your nails. She has taken pics of my cute-as-hell nails for you to ooh and ahh over.
Mom not only loved her damn doughnuts, but needs more. Not want. Need. I have been seriously slacking on it though. I haven't made her treats, I haven't gotten my bacon pillow cut out, and I haven't made the damn bottle cap wreaths. I suck. I also need to send out some rings from HardWear by Lindsey. I am a total slug. I'll get on it eventually. I really really really need to.
Danielle, proprietor of Film Making and Cookie Baking, and I decided we needed to BBQ burgers and have a fire pit a few nights ago. We make some epic food. We took 1 lb of ground beef and 1 lb of ground turkey and mushed together with 1 egg, seasoned salt, pepper, mustard powder, garlic powder, dill, and feta cheese. The patties were huge and tasted phenomenal. We then made our take on an aioli using an egg yolk, salt, pepper, fresh dill, tons of garlic, olive oil, and heavy cream. We sliced some onion and tomato to add to the burgers. Sooooo good.
I used the aioli on my salad on the side and we baked up some Ralph's brand garlic fries. We sat down with our beers and noshed. Then D's brother started up an awesome fire in the fire pit and we had some friends show up and chill for a while. Very good night indeed.
Lindsey Jewelry: HardWear by Lindsey Sister: Film Making and Cookie Baking Rusty J: Rustified Yes I did. I'm damn proud of myself. Well, I'm also proud of my lovely assistant and photographer Danielle. My mom and I both have this cookbook:
My mom is gluten-free and she is feeling a lot better than she used to, so I figure it's worth a shot. She also insisted that doughnuts of the chocolate persuasion HAD to be made for her. So I made 'em. *shrugs*
If you can see that, skip to the next picture. If not, pay freakin' attention 'cuz I'm gonna reiterate the ingredients. There's an extra tbsp of cocoa, a cup of sugar, and some milk that go into the frosting that I'm omitting for now.
1 1/2 cups (210g) all purpose gluten-free flour 3/4 tsp xanthan gum (omit if your flour blend already contains it) 6 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp cream of tartar 1/4 tsp salt 1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg (it really does taste better, but it really is a pain in the ass) 2/3 cup (145g) packed light brown sugar 4 tbsp (56g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled 4 tbsp (55g) canola oil 2 XL eggs, at room temp., lightly beaten (I didn't do that part) 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp (14 tbsp) heavy cream, at room temp. (I also added 1/4 cup of Splenda) Now, go preheat your oven to 350 F and grease some muffin pans (or those nifty mini-doughnut pans). Here's the part where I half-listen to the instructions. I threw all the ingredients into the mixing bowl and fired her up. The recipe says you have to do it differently, but I never do it that way 'cuz it takes too long, I'm impatient, and I'm lazy.
I then put the batter into a plastic baggie and cut off a corner to make it so I could pipe the batter into the muffin tins. This kinda worked. I used crappy dollar store baggies and they kept exploding. For the most part, it worked really well and I had little turd-looking doughnuts in the bottoms of the muffin cups.
See?! I'm not being facetious! They look like poo... I am also a five year old... Put the turds, I mean, doughnuts into the oven for 10 min. While they're baking, mix up the frosting.
1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder 1 cup confectioners sugar (I used store-brand Splenda) 2-4 tbsp milk or buttermilk (I used milk) Take out your doughnut-turds and set them on wire racks over wax paper or paper towels to cool. This is so the frosting doesn't make a mess on your counter. Have I mentioned that Danielle is a genius and everyone needs to read her blog Film Making and Cookie Baking? I have? Tough. Go look at her blog!
When they're cooled, top with frosting and sprinkles. I'd have a picture of the finished doughnuts with frosting and sprinkles, but we were too busy enjoying the turds of our labor to take pictures. They are delicious!!! My mom woke me up with hugs and kisses and professions of my awesome (which I knew already). It was very annoying. The woman hasn't had a doughnut in months though, so I understand her reaction. I love these doughnuts (even if they look poop-ish) and I hope you do too. Embrace the five year old within and get creative with your batter piping. >:D
[EDIT] So D did actually take pics of the finished treats. Here they are: Lindsey
Jewelry: HardWear by Lindsey Sister: Film Making and Cookie Baking Rusty J: Rustified - Lifestyle Inspirations from a Renaissance Man So nothing really happened today. A lot of chill time, so I guess that's good. I mean, I'm happy about it. Danielle, her brother and I went for hookah, as usual, and did nothing for 3 hours, as usual, and it was awesome. Well, except for the movie that was playing... District 9 is really hard to ignore with all the weird alien gurgles and clicks and stuff. We three sat for 3 hrs on our iWhatever devices (I have a Kindle cuz I'm cheap and I love books, but whatever) not talking to each other and trying desperately to ignore the movie. Good times.
However, I am very pleased to report that Danielle is way more industrious than I am (and has more cardboard laying around) and she finished what I was too lazy to do to the car trash bag I made her. Find out how she's awesome and a genius here: Film Making and Cookie Baking. I now wish I had saved the boxes from Christmas. Tomorrow I'm going to have her help me make one of the fabulous pillows that she's been making like crazy. It's going to be made out of "I love bacon" material. It's so amazing. Mostly because, damn, do I love bacon! It's navy blue flannel with white writing and adorable little white pigs. I'm excited for this. She doesn't know she's going to help me with this though... I forgot to tell her so she's finding this out as she reads this. Hi, D! We has work to do, woman! I'll bake cookies for you in return and they will be gluten-free and amazing so our moms can eat them and not complain for two days after. :) I'm so thoughtful. Lindsey Jewelry: HardWear by Lindsey Sister: Film Making and Cookie Baking Rusty J: Rustified - Lifestyle Inspirations from a Renaissance Man Prestidigitation, Danielle. Prestidigitation. So I was able to make the car trash bag similar to the one at A Ditchin' Time Quilts. I didn't use binding or a liner because I'm lazy, but it still turned out alright. The problem is that I completely forgot to take any pictures of the process. I fail. I know. I also haven't found the stiff inner lining part that I need to hold a plastic bag inside. I used flannel instead of cotton as well. I'm not sure my measurements were exactly the same either. I told you I wasn't good with directions. Here's what I've got now: I didn't get to much else today. At all. There was a nap and a trip to the store with my grandma. That sums it up. I have been a total slug lately. I am now watching Elevator Girl (very nearly a Lifetime atrocity). I love crappy movies like this entirely too much. To be honest, it's my parent's fault. I don't know if they ever changed the channel to anything but the Hallmark and Lifetime channels for the entirety of the Christmas season. Those movies just suck you in. It's truly vile. Ooh! Batman Returns! Gotta go. An amazing movie is afoot.
Lindsey Jewelry: HardWear by Lindsey Sister: Film Making and Cookie Baking Rusty J: Rustified.com - Lifestyle Inspiration from a Renaissance Man Please, for the love of my sanity, look at Danielle's blog and read about her chicken laying an egg. Find the whole scoop here: Film Making and Cookie Baking. I cannot even conceive of how to express her excitement at this new development. I have "oohed and ahhed" at the egg sufficiently and I now pass this daunting task on to you. Best of luck. Rusty J is coming for a visit! Rusty J is a genius and I heart him bunches. He not only makes music, which is awesome, but he also has an amazing blog. Find it here (please please please please please): Rustified.com - Lifestyle Inspiration from a Renaissance Man. I can't wait to see him again. For the longest time I didn't see him because my schedule never meshed with anyone else's. This will not happen this visit! I am getting in some hang out time dammit! Anyways, still slightly under the weather, but doing much better. I am now ambulatory and back in "chillin' with D" mode. We went to the hookah lounge and did nothing for a few hours because we're both still sniffly. So awesome. I did, however, forget my phone at home and that really sucked because I realized just how attached to the damn thing I am. What did we do without the stupid things?! I'm so dependent on technology... Laaaaame... Oh, well. I hope I have time after housework tomorrow so I can get my craft on. I'm finally going to make something for Danielle. I plan on making a car trash bag inspired by the tutorial from A Ditchin' Time Quilts that I found on Pinterest. Whether or not I actually follow the tutorial is yet to be seen, but I'd like to give credit where it's due because the damn things are adorable and though I'm very clever, I'm not sure I'm that clever. I take that back. I totally am. Anyways, I like the tutorial because they do things the easy way and I rarely do. I'll post all about it if I actually get around to it (really hope I do). I also have 5 bottle cap wreaths to make for friends because I was too lazy around Christmas. I made a few in time for the holidays and even wrote a post about them for Danielle's Film Making and Cookie Baking blog (scroll down a bunch). Also inspired by Pinterest, but I never actually looked at the tutorial in favor of "I can do that and no one needs to tell me how cuz I'm awesome". So no credit there... Plus, I have no idea where I saw it or if I repinned it because I can't find it. I am so torn. I want to put away my little Christmas tree, but then again I really don't. This is why It is freaking amazing!!! Danielle got it for me. It's 12" tall, black, has red ornaments, a red wire star from Crate & Barrel, and dollar store Halloween lights. It also had 3 mini Star Trek vessel ornaments that are my dad's. Had to put them away though. The old nerd wouldn't let me keep 'em. I'm so going online to find all kinds of nerdy mini ornaments though. So stoked for this. I love this stupid tree! I just don't wanna put it away yet! I'm going on Amazon to find my ornaments to make me feel better.
Lindsey Jewelry: HardWear by Lindsey Sister: Film Making and Cookie Baking Rusty J: Rustified.com - Lifestyle Inspiration from a Renaissance Man Sinus infection. Always with the damn sinus infections. I feel like a dung heap. However, I have been catching up on my sleep. Silver lining, right? All crafting has been pushed aside for now unfortunately. I haven't done a damn thing in a day and a half. This is the part in my spiel where I explain what I'm doing with this post and blah, blah, blah... I'm just gonna throw a short story at you and take a nap. I'd say sorry for being so curt and uncouth, but I really want this nap.
Golden Dog He stopped a moment to look back at the beach, sand turned orange and pink with the sunset, and sighed. It was a sigh full of contentment, of a feeling of being where he belonged, of holy-shit-I-live-in-a-beautiful-place. The rolling of the ocean beneath his board woke him from his reverie. Kicking his feet in an eggbeater motion he lay on his board and paddles for all he's worth to catch the last wave in the set. Knowing it's his last wave of the day he pops up to standing with a whoop. With a huge smile on his face he walks the board, hangs five, and cuts back and forth along the wave. There's no one on the beach or in the water around him; it's just him and the wave. Nearing the shore he crouches down to drag his hand in the water before floating over the back of the wave. As the board sinks, he falls back with a splash and laughs at himself. After he makes it to shore, dries off, and straps his board to the top of his beat up old Nova wagon, he cruises up the coast to watch the sun sink below the watery horizon. Somewhere between singing "Surfer Joe" by The Surfaris and "I Live For the Sun" by The Sunrays he's nearing Santa Monica and thinking about the golden age of surfing. All his life his dad surfed and shaped boards right here in Santa Monica. The surf culture was booming then. There was an unspoken code between the surfers, from the groms to the old hot doggers, and they lived by it. No one could actually tell you what the code was of course, but it was there all the same. Everyone innately knew that the ocean was wild and free and allowed us to ride only if we respected it and, in a way, each other. Near the pier he parked and watched the last rays of sunlight die behind the waves as he listened to the crash of them on the shore. What had happened to the beach? What had happened to the days of waking up before the sun just to see it rise while shooting the curl? He was one of the last of that era to hang in there. He was now the old hot dogger on his long board that the groms saw and either looked up to or called names knowing his time was over. His sun was almost set behind the waves. Soon his board would look pretty over the mantle and he'd be glued to a couch watching tv instead of to that board on the ocean. He thought of his dad and how he quickly lost his health when he couldn't surf or even shape boards anymore. It just happened one day and then 'poof', dad was gone. That wasn't going to happen to him, was it? He resolved that it wouldn't. He would do whatever he had to to keep surfing to his dying day. Nodding and deciding which beach he was going to surf at sunrise tomorrow he started up the Nova wagon and sang along with The Beach Boys, "Catch a wave and you're sittin' on top of the world…" Ok, definitely nap time now... Lindsey Jewelry: HardWear by Lindsey Sister Site: Film Making and Cookie Baking My first blog post in my brand spankin' new blog! I'm very excited and seriously debating actually buying bubble gum cigars to celebrate... Before I get into the excited drivel, please visit my other site where I explain more about the crazy that is me and my racing and where I sell the jewelry that I make: HardWear by Lindsey.
Now then, on to business... Or at least what I consider business... The genius that is the creator of this blog's "sister site" Film Making and Cookie Baking (see the family resemblance?!), my dearest pal Danielle, is a big part of a lot of the stuff I will inevitably post, so please check her blog out as well because I may or may not repost her stuff. Be prepared for kitchen adventures a plenty. Where I craft like a madwoman, she bakes like one. (And can I just say, "Damn can that woman bake!") Where I drag race, a relatively rare hobby depending on what circles you roam, she's a script supervisor. We're a special pair. Kinda like peanut butter and Top Ramen (her brother eats this stuff. I swear I would never come up with that on my own). Matter of fact, when I'm done with this post I plan to start a little craftiness for her. I have a million and forty two ideas, give or take, that I haven't even debated starting, but this one has my very short attention span riveted right now. I also fancy myself a writer sometimes and plan on posting some short stories here. Skip 'em if you want. If you do decide to read them, please leave me feedback and/or constructive criticism. If you don't have something nice to say about someone, don't say it at all. Well, at least don't post it on the internet. Whisper and snicker about it with your friends by all means, but I don't wanna know. Let's see here... *mumbling* Intro and other site linked, link to Danielle's site, synopsis of our weirdness, stories mentioned... Checks all around! Alrighty then! This is where I sign off for the night. Thanks for checking out my blog and please check back soon for updates! Lindsey Jewelry: HardWear by Lindsey Sister Site: Film Making and Cookie Baking |