So whoop de do...

....It's the holiday season, so whoop de do...

Such a strange line of an otherwise cheer-filled song.

After spending several days shopping for Christmas, I've accomplished a lot. I've come up with my own extensive Christmas list. 

A set of kitchen knives. Fantastic ones. Well, decent ones.
A washer and dryer.
Sorrel boots.
A couch sized couch.
A big cutting board.
A new doggie bed for Charlie Bucket.
Apple TV.
Tickets to a Christmas show.
Subscription to the Columbus Dispatch.


And now some really practical ones.
$18,000 for my student loans.
A job.
A baby.
A fiancee.
$3,000 for my credit cards.
Several puppies.

Maybe I'll just bake some cookies to get in the spirit!

Chimchimeree

I have a radical plan.  First, this is my situation.

I'm jobless. I mean, I serve at a restaurant but I suuure don't like it much.  It's not like me to do anything I don't like. I'm a strong believer in doing what makes you happy. Anyway, since I graduated in June, all my student loan payments are coming into repayment and I needed the money.

The whole situation bums me out.

Therefore, I have come up with a plan. I'm going to list all the things I like and hopefully a career will come clearly through the mist.

Here it goes.
Cooking.
Wrapping presents.
Cross stitching.
Reading.
Music.
HGTV.
Thrifting.
Baking.
Giving gifts.
Drinking fancy stuff.
Entertaining.
Babies.
Decorating for holidays.
Shopping.
Super Mario Brothers.
Real estate perusing.
Dancing.
Comedy shows.

I could go on, but I'll pause for now.

Just add fauxfancy cheese.

I have a problem with spinach.

I buy the barrel sized container of it. every. single. time. I go to the store.

I think it's slimy when it's cooked, or at least when I cook it, but I love it raw. (that sounds dirty. I mean it literally.) I've eaten several versions of a spinach salad this week alone trying to finish the field of spinach I purchased last Sunday.

For example..

Fresh pear, bleu cheese (admittedly, the cheapest kind I can find, despite my oft-unrequited love of high end bleu), and untoasted walnuts. The dressing I used was a simple balsamic vinegar and olive oil combination with a dash of sugar to bring out the pear's natural juices. I love this combination, but I thought the textures of everything were a little soft. No crunch to give it variety.

Homemade tuna salad I made with a lot of celery. I think the secret to canned tuna is to give it some crunch from a really fresh vegetable. I like to use celery, carrot, green pepper, whatever else. I once used cucumber peel, which was strange. Maybe don't try that one. Since tuna salad has mayonnaise, the spinach needs no more dressing. I put red onion on mine as well, which was lovely but a bit overpowering if you're not a big onion person. Which I happen to be.

Apples, goat cheese (...it's true. I again purchased the cheapest one against my baser instincts.), and a tangy dijon mustard, red wine vinegar dressing, made with olive oil, of course. I added tons of black pepper to this dressing just because I was in the mood. It tasted fantastic to me at the time, but it might be little intense if you don't happen to be experiencing the same cravings as me.

Canned beets (which were okay only because I haven't taken the time to roast a beet in months and therefore my comparison is long forgotten and I was starved. Take the time to roast a fresh beet. Bask in its glory. Get back to me.), an absurd amount of goat cheese, and the tangiest, black peppery-est balsamic vinaigrette I could handle. Absolutely lovely. Also, I made it in about thirty seconds thanks to pre-sliced canned beets.

The Bear loved all of these salads, but since he's a manly bear, he pretended to pine for meat. My relatively new found pescatarian-ism had foiled his extremely carnivorous lifestyle.

Hey, Bear. Nice hat.

<3

c'est moi.

I'm Phoebe. You can call me Dorothy if you'd like. I often wear dresses and sparkly shoes and I have a scruffy dog.

Charlie is from Hawaii.

I'm just kidding, he's from a shelter in Clintonville.

Since I graduated from OSU in June, I've had some extra time. Charlie seems conflicted about this. It means lots of walks but it also means I play dress up with him.

My mom's house does not now, nor has it ever, had blinds or shades on the windows. Not much privacy. I live my life similarly. There's not much you could ask me that I wouldn't tell you.

Well, that was a confusing sentence. I just wanted you to know that I'm not the secretive, elusive type.

<3