Drizza and Draking

Good morning from my patio.

It is about 100 degrees in the sun outside, but far too beautiful to be inside! So if this post trails off, it probably means I’ve died of heat stroke, or gone for a dip in the pool.

Anyway, sorry for the long absence. As I mentioned in my last post, we’ve had a big project starting up at work this week and I have been a busy bee trying to get everything squared away. But it’s been going great, so I took yesterday evening off…

not actually a picture from last night, but this captures the atmosphere of last night (i.e. alcohol and happiness)

Last night, E and I decided to celebrate his good grades by having a little alcyhol and making pizzas. Now, I know there is a trend going around the blogging world known as drogging, but I draw the line at blogging drunk. I do NOT, however, draw the line at tipsooking (tipsy-cooking) or buzaking (buzzed-baking).

So, as I was preparing the dough for pizzas, and enjoying my Mike’s Hard Lemonade on a very empty stomach, it suddenly seemed like a great idea to try and throw the dough in the air a la professionals. It also seemed like a good idea to try and catch this on camera. And E was upstairs, so I was trying to accomplish both of these things (while alternating sips with my Mike’s) at once. I took about 20 pictures of this process, but they all look the same, so I’ll just share 2 or 3.

Actually, if you can believe it, these pictures make this process look a lot more civilized than it actually was. In reality, I took about 17 pictures of the wall and missed the dough, and I dropped one of the 2 crusts on the ground. But E was upstairs so… heh heh heh, guess who got that one?

Anyway, needless to say this was not a terribly successful technique, and the crusts were still quite thick. It was time to resort to Plan B.

Eventually E came down and supervised this process. All ended well with pizzas and full bellys.

please excuse my tipsography

Then, I decided to make cookies.

I think it is a wonder no one was hurt in this process.

But I’ll admit, the pizza and cookies were not my best work.

Lesson of the day: for best results, don’t drink and bake.

Lesson numero two: I only had one Mike’s last night. That was it. I am officially a light weight.

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On Cloud 12

I don’t talk about work much, but allow me to indulge myself just a little bit.

Today was a much anticipated day for me at work.

My mentor and boss, Dr. E, and I have been developing a prevention program for kids in a camp setting. The program focuses on helping kids learn better coping skills to deal with their emotions. And it is a unique, really wonderful, novel project that will someday change the world. Or at least, that’s the hope.

Anyway it was a long process to coordinate with the camp, recruit kids, get IRB approval and write the protocol (we’re still working on that part… oops!). But today was the first day of camp, and an opportunity to see the culmination of all my hard work come to fruition.

Saying I was a wee nervous is an understatement. I had to wear a black shirt to hide the sweat (but that is partly because it is hot as H E double hockey sticks here in June). I had nightmares last night about children getting lost, parents yelling at me and some of my idols, with no feet, running around on crutches ordering me to start painting. (Yeah, I don’t know what that last one was about…)

So today when E came home and saw me lying lethargically on the couch after work, I think he was prepared for the worst (I may have catastrophized a little to him over the past couple days): My fun activities were a flop, Kids were crying, parents have started pulling their children out of the program, no one wanted to sit with me at lunch, a kid closed the door on his finger and it swelled up like a balloon.

But the truth is, only one of those things happened! And in my opinion, that makes it a complete success!

The kids are cutey-patuties, the program went off without much of a hitch, and I will probably only get like 5 angry phone calls from parents. But it was EXHAUSTING. We ran 4 groups of about 20 kids each this morning. I was almost startled by how quickly the adrenaline left my body. By 4pm I was nearly catatonic and when I got home I was just going to “rest my eyes” and suddenly it was 5:30 and thunder storming (well that bit wasn’t too surprising, damn Miami weather).

I clearly have the endurance of a sleepy kitten. I think it’s time to make this yoga threat a reality. Seriously guys, I’m embarrassed.

But yah, the good news is I’m totally going to be a clinician one day, and if today is any indicator, I’m not going to seriously suck. I’m on cloud 12. It’s a sleepy cloud.

2 minute timeout

Forgive me readers, for I have sinned.

I am a BAD CHOCOLATE BLOGGER. bad bad bad!

Today, as is the custom, I ate loads and loads of chocolate in the following forms: pumpkin chocolate chip “muffins” (what I call really big cookies),  in the form of a fudgsicle, a tiny piece of left-over chocolate cake (YES, from over a week ago! It is still delicious though!), and straight from the chocolate chip jar (yes, some people have cookie jars, I have a chocolate chip jar, at this moment it has 3 different kinds of choc chips: hersheys semi-sweet, ghiradelli 70% dark and nestle chunks, YUM)!

That makes me a good chocolate eater, but a bad chocolate blogger because I didn’t take pictures of ANY of it… so now I will take a 2 minute timeout as punishment.

While I am shamed in the corner, take time to enjoy these re-enactment photos.

(as added punishment, I decided to wear an orange sun hat in these photos. All for chocolate!)

Hmm, I am beginning to understand why bloggers who photograph EVERY thing they eat lose weight. Just looking at these pictures makes me want to chunder. All the same, I think I’ll blame my photography rather than chocolate. Also, my subject. She hasn’t gotten much sleep and she sat out in the sun today for hours, sweating (w/o sunblock. I’m sorry mother!). Somehow despite all the alleged caffeine in chocolate, I am still ready to fall over backwards into a coma. nighty-nightttt…….

Attrition

What do you think of when you hear the word attrition?

Usually it reminds me of all the participants I have worked so hard to recruit who drop out of our studies at work (have I even mentioned what I do for a living? Hmm, I’ll go update my About Me page, and you can check it out).

But recently, attrition has had additional significance in my life. This time, with regard to my muscles.

My attitude towards exercise has always been: yah, meh.

Growing up I played sports half-heartedly and stayed in decent shape. In college, I ran occasionally, but it hurt my knee. For about 10 months after college, I went to the gym everyday to justify eating whatever I wanted (and I gained weight, supresa supresa).

So after all this I kind of said, yah, meh! I don’t enjoy exercise, it doesn’t particularly like me- we’re both a bit relieved when we’re just left alone. And, for the past year or so, that has been my motto. And it has worked out well enough. I’ve maintained weight (in case you were curious) despite my sloth, by not believing my hallucinations that fad diets will work.

But honestly, (and by admitting this, I am just inviting my mother to say “I told you so”) I think I’m less happy. This is a radical statement, but I think something about exercise makes me feel good. Do I enjoy working out? NO. Do I enjoy feeling strong and sweaty and like I am not wasting my life sitting on a couch watching So You Think You Can Dance while they are on the screen living their dreams? Yes, thank you.

The problem is, I have difficulty finding a type of exercise that suits me. I love the solitude of running, but my knee is no good. I have strong legs and a great bike and really enjoy biking but it rains here everyday (and when it’s not raining it is 1000 degrees). I think what I need to do is hop on the blogging band wagon and get into yoga. I love the concept of meditation, and we even practice it with the kiddies at work occasionally. I love solitude, I have strong legs, I am working on being more mindful: I really think I could fall in love with yoga. But I don’t know where to start!

Blogis (hehe like Yogis, but for blogging): I am seeking your help!!

Chocolate can only take me so far towards self-actualization. Please, how should a wanna-be yogite start?

My "Before" Picture

Joy, Love and Peace.

If you think the dove is overkill, you should have tried the cake (you still can, 1/2 of it is in my fridge).

This is the most decadent, rich, chocolatey dessert I have ever made, and probably have ever tasted too. It was fudge, but richer. Needless to say (or possibly not), we hardly made a dent Friday night. I think my problem was that I didn’t have enough wine with dinner. Richness has no effect on me when I’m drunk. I think E’s problem was that he had too much wine with dinner. He was nearly asleep by the time we got around to cake.

Last night, we gave our creative juices (and oven) a rest and went out to try a local creperie. Okay, okay, so it’s actually a franchise and doesn’t NEARLY stack up against the real French thing. But crepes are crepes and these were decent ones.

E and I shared this for dessert

E: “it could stand to have more chocolate”

what else is new?

Next on my to-bake list:

1) More cookies for E’s Judge, apparently they’re in demand.

2) Make something with Mangoes. I don’t have any good mango recipes in mind. But I live in Miami and there are mango trees everywhere! At least 3 of the professors in the psych department have multiple mango trees and bring in their extra crop. Everyday I come to work to this…

…and that was a light day

These aren’t just any mangoes, these are the best mangoes you’ve ever eaten!

I may never buy a mango again.

But what can I bake with them?

On a final note:

I’m trying to cut caffeine out of my diet. But as my mother so kindly pointed out. There’s caffeine in chocolate.

I think she misread the ingredients. Chocolate: joy, love, peace.

I never promised you a rose garden

But I did promise you chocolate.

And chocolate you will get (or at least pictures of chocolate).

So today was a cocoa-intensive day. I was struggling through day 3-caffeine free, and I needed a little afternoon pick-me-up.

Ok ok, I may have had 2.

Then when I got home, it was SYTYCD time!! I love the auditions! Almost as much as the real show. Who says there’s no good t.v. on in the summer. If you are looking for things to watch, allow me to be your t.v. guide:

Monday:

A&E: Intervention (9:00-10:00pm)

A&E: Obsessed (10:00-11:00pm)

Tuesday:

Style: Whose Wedding is it Anyway *(6:00-7:00am) **

Wednesday:

Fox: So You Think You Can Dance (8:00-10:00pm)

Thursday:

Fox: So You Think You Can Dance (9:00-10:00pm)

Friday:

USA: Psych (10:00-11:00pm)***

So yes, like it or not, a full week of good t.v. (with 3 wonderful hours of SYTYCD!) all summer long. But what about the chocolate!?

After t.v. time, I set to work on tomorrow’s dessert. I went all out, and made a decadent flourless chocolate cake.

First: In went the chocolate

The recipe called for a small sauce pan, but in this household we like to Wok+Roll (mostly because we don’t have a sauce pan)

Then I added the second most important ingredient in life: Chocolate Soup (I almost stopped here)

But after much mixing and egg white beating and baking, it now looks like this:

It has to chill overnight to be ready for our big shrimp-fest dinner party tomorrow night. I’m pretty excited. Even if the cake is weird, good friends and good food is highly anticipated. E and I love each other, but… we’re boring. We need to mix it up.

Also, someday I’ll have a rose garden. I promise.

*SO much better than you think. Unless you don’t like wedding shows/movies/are just a grouch in general. Then it’s probably exactly as good as you think.

** I have NO idea why new episodes of this show air at 6:00am. I guess that’s the Tivo age for you. Thank god for Tivo. I don’t wake up at 6:00. Oh. Maybe the demographic they’re aiming for does. hmm.

*** Well that hasn’t started quite yet, but the season start date is tbd! How can that be!? It IS summer now!

The verdict is in!

Judge loved ’em!
E told me the judge came into his office at 1pm and said something like “I’ve already eaten half of them. I think I overdosed on cookies. In fact, I didn’t eat lunch! The cookies were lunch.”
So there you go. My cookies got the judge’s stamp of approval. I’ll tell you what though: they weren’t terribly good for you. Lots of buttah of the peanut and normal varieties. I hope the judge doesn’t have a coronary in the next 24 hours. It would be hard for me to not feel guilty (I feel guilty already, and nothing’s happened. What can I do, I’m a good(ish) jew).
ALSO in other non-chocolate related news: I changed the water cooler at work today.  Without any help!! Anyone watch 30 rock? (if you answered no to that question, you should) Remember the episode where Liz has to change the water cooler and gets water everywhere but in the contraption? That was always my biggest fear. But I am to all about facing my fears (And eating cake). So anyway, I was alone in the break room and I wanted water but woe is me, there was no water………. ok I could tell this story but I bet you can guess the ending (hint, I told you already): I changed the water cooler at work today. YAY ME. And then I bragged about it on the internet. The End.

Still no pictures of chocolate. I know. I know, what kind of blogger am I? Um, a tired one? I’m on day 2 of my impromptu-ish caffeine withdrawal. Impromptu?? You say. Well,
Day 1: I didn’t have enough cash for the vending machine yesterday*, and decided, on a whim-type thing to go cold turkey!
Day 2: I hate Day 1 me. I hate turkey. Unless it’s warm.
So, no chocolate today. But there is still reason to celebrate: SYTYCD is recording as I type this.  Tomorrow, I will watch it. I love you, tomorrow.
And not to worry, there will definitely be real chocolate baked goods come Friday night. E and I are going to a dinner party and I’m making desserts. I’m thinking something chocolate with strawberries, but I’m not sure… what should I make?

* Um I am such a junkie. I didn’t have $1.25 for a coke, and I was almost in tears. Talk about a coke habit. At least it was the cheaper and legaler kind.

What’s wrong with this picture?

When I said this blog would be ‘all chocolate, all the time’ I may have spoken too soon.

Tonight there will be no chocolate, only peanut butter cookies.

One thing you should know about me: I am something of a bake-aholic. When I am bored, I go bake-crazy. And it has been raining steady everyday, and it was a very boring holiday weekend. I baked all of my chocolate chips away!

Turns out our choc-stock was irrelevant for tonight’s bakefest anyway. This morning, I received a request from E’s boss to make peanut butter cookies.  You do not cross a judge, even if it does mean baking a non-chocolate good. Plus, I love peanut butter cookies.  E does not, so this request was an excellent excuse to make them.

Ergo (lawyer speak! I’m so clever) no chocolate passed these lips tonight. Ok, that’s a big lie. I have chocolate hidden stored in my desk to munch on all day long (I bake when I’m bored, I eat when I’m bored…why can’t I crave running or weight lifting when I’m bored?). I also had some chocolate ice cream while I waited for the cookies to bake, but you get the point.

These particular peanut-butter cookies are unique because they are not overwhelmingly peanut-buttery (because we ran out of peanut butter). E and I both agree that is a good thing. Unsure how the judge will rule. I’ll inform you of the verdict.

Cookies and roses. Sort of like valentines day, except: no chocolate, and I bought those flowers for myself ($6! not bad). So, not really like valentines day at all.

If I were on Iron Chef

If I were on Iron Chef, and the secret ingredient were chocolate, what 5 courses would I make?

1) To begin: a berry gazpacho topped drizzled with white chocolate.

2) Next up: a light spinach salad with fresh strawberries, raw almonds slices, goat cheese and chocolate vinaigrette dressing

3) Then: a small dish of macaroni and cocoa (as opposed to cheese). Ingredients: Cocoa powder, butter and sugar.. it sounds (and looks) gross but someone I love swears by it.

4) For the main: Cocoa and toasted-almond encrusted salmon with a side of sweet potato gnocchi

5) And finally: Chocolate fondue. Of course.

What would you make?

Hello Chocolate!

For my premier post, I want to share a short ode to chocolate that I have been working on.

Well actually, I am about to write it just this second for the blog, but as it is past my dinner time and I am very hungry I’m salivating just thinking about chocolate, so it is sure to be very good. The poem, not chocolate. Chocolate is always very good.

***

Ode to Chocolate

At 24, I’ve never had a cavity

which is a miracle considering my affinity

for sweets and pastries, ice cream and pie

but by far the true apple of my eye

is chocolate. Dark rich beautiful

Chocolate.

***

I have loved chocolate since I was wee, but I have never blogged about it before, so I don’t have a stockpile of chocolate pictures. Will remedy soon, as pictures are to blogs, as chocolate is to life! Which is to say: vital!