Toulouse

In my vegan adventures, I have had many cooking triumphs and many failures--the failures are primarily in baking. I also have mixed bags where I go "Oh my GOD! This is delicious" and then some animal eater tries one and says "False. Worst. Cookie. Ever." Typically the nay-sayer is my mother. Thanks, Mom.

ANYway, I also have this group of friends that send me vegan recipes that the think look good. I was recently complaining to a friend that if eggs are essential to a recipe, that is when I have the most trouble successfully veganizing it--then I typically consult an expert. I have tried the Egg Replacer powder, which is fine or whatever, but I get the exact same results in 99% of baked goods if I simply cut out the eggs and don't substitute anything, even the egg replacer. Some find my lack of faith disturbing.

My main missing dessert is, of course, Creme Brulee, which you simply cannot do by subbing the eggs for, say, applesauce. Gross gross gross gross gross. As I was lamenting the major void in my life caused by the loss of Creme Brulle and explaining that I had tried a few tofu-related recipes that pale in comparison, my friend's response was the typical "Well, you could always just dismount that moral high horse you're on and eat real food like the rest of us." Again, Thanks.

The next week, with much shock, I got an email from this angry-on-the-outside friend with a link to a recipe for vegan cookies that uses egg replacer. Okay, so maybe my friend didn't understand or follow our whole discussion, because I am not having cookie issues and I've come to the rather astute conclusion that egg replacer is a load of crap, but it was a nice thought. So I decided to make these cookies.

As with every cookie recipe that I ever make, I didn't really read it through first like you're supposed to. I just kind of started throwing the ingredients together in the direction's order.

About halfway through the recipe, I thought that it felt really familiar. 3/4 C sugar and 3/4 C brown sugar...hmmm. I just kept on trucking! And then, I had a moment of clarity. What a cheating little recipe-poster.

Allow Pheobe and Monica to explain. Sorry, I can't find one with embedding enabled.

Yet another post that no one will read

I believe that my blog is now in a void, captured in a realm of circular reasoning gone horribly, horribly wrong. You see, I do not post because no one comments yet no one comments because I never post.

So, here is my post about far away community college job. I got here at 4pm this afternoon. When I appeared at the desk to relieve the person on desk, she said "Oh, I have a few more things to do, so I'll stay out here until 5, I think. I need to finish preparing my notes for this class that is coming in tomorrow. Is that okay?" What am I supposed to say? Lady, I don't have an office or anything to do off desk. Let me tell you how this works: it is an hour before night classes start, so you are going to be slammed with needy old people who don't understand computers and entitled students my age who just want you to do it for them. What you want to stay on desk "doing" is not going to get done. But, whatever--I am easy going and if that's what she wants, that's what she gets.

So I loitered off into the twisty back staff area. I wandered into the supply room and opened some drawers and then I sat in a comfortable chair and texted some people. Sorry if you didn't make the cut, but since no one reads my blog, you won't know that you missed out anyway. Then I sauntered back up to the desk.

Predictably, crazy old librarian reported, "I just didn't get as much done as I would have liked, so I'm going to go finish this up in my office."

I was paid for an entire hour to text, hang out on comfortable furniture and snoop through other people's shit. Don't get me wrong, I am thankful for the opportunity and the extra dollars and all of that--but I have this "worst-case-scenario" in my head:

Future Perspective Employer of Aussie: So, tell me about a typical day an MCC.
Aussie: ...umm...well, they had some really nice pens.

UPDATE: When relating this tale to my father, he had this knowing look on his face. Apparently, this is behavior quite akin to most of his colleagues. On my concern about a future interview going awry, he commented "Oh, I have faith in your ability to embellish."

All the best-laid plans...

Summer 2011 is shaping-up to be not at all what I expected.

First, I was going to go to Ireland and enjoy a drunkenly good time with my cousin. No dice.

Then I was going to Ukraine to teach English as a Second Language. Clearly this would also include a Romania excursion. Not so much anymore.

Now I am working at an hour away community college as a librarian. The pay is fantastic and they pay mileage for my commute, so it is a solid step-up in the world. Just...not what I was expecting to be doing with my summer.

Now I am settling for mini road trips throughout the country, originally one every weekend except the weekend that Harry Potter comes out. Now, I am talking myself out of that for two reasons. Reason one: as much as I enjoy travelling solo, I enjoy somewhat greater travelling with other. Reason two: I need to save-up for an OMG awesome trip that I hope to spend travelling for the entirety of my next summer vacation. EPIC. It's all of $11,000 with air and food and a manageable amount of souvenirs, but it is 47 days in Europe, including a week in Egypt.

So anyway, if anyone wants to go anywhere, I am game.

Fail

I fail at:

1. posting to my blog;
2. staying warm in this building;
3. remembering what I need for a recipe from the store without writing it down;
4. identifying all of the landmarks in this picture:



Thankfully I got Eiffel Tower, Big Ben and Parliament, the Colloseum, the Kermlin, the Parthenon, and La Sagrada Familia...but the whole bottom row is not my friend. Is that Venice? When I Google "Giant sundial" or "see through sundial" or "awesome sundial" that doesn't come-up, so I am guessing that it is not a sundial.

Hmmm.