I don't know if I have time to work

I'm pretty busy taking pictures of my cat posing like Josh Lyman (former deputy chief of staff for President Bartlett and future chief of staff for President Santos) from The West Wing.



I'm not sure if I have the time for full time employment and to pursue my artistic endeavors. My life is hard.

Me and Fluffy Magee

OMG. I feel like I haven't blogged in forever. My phone has been having some technical issues which has made posting pictures difficult. However, today it only took me about 2 hours to email photos to myself...success! This post will be dedicated to animals, because animals are fucking cute. Ok?


Look at the way Torque's little paw is wrapped around Joe's little neck...cute, right?

Yesterday Ula and I volunteered with the Multnomah Bar at the Oregon Humane Society. Basically you play with dogs for a bit and then head to the cattery. We played with a couple of dogs, but they weren't interested in playing with balls or being pet as much as they were in smelling pee (not that i'm trying to judge anyone's hobby).

I personally preferred the cattery and will volunteer there again. Basically you sit in a room for a little bit and pet cats. My favorite one was Fluffy Magee a tiny long haired fellow, who was mostly shaven except his head, feet and the end of his tail.


If you or anyone you know is looking for a cat, let me highly recommend Mr. Fluffy Magee. He is made of love (although he was being a bit of a "see you next tuesday" to the other cats, so I might not recommend him if you have other animals).

At the Oregon Humane Society gift shop I purchased a cat toy which is a carrot filled with catnip. The cats love it.


In fact, Torque would like you to not fucking touch his carrot. Thank you very much.

Finally, I have a very important recommendation. If you like blogs, or culture, or movies, or hilarity you will love Kaori's new pop culture blog. Too many movie reviewers are obsessed with things like knowing the name of the film, or the actors in it, or something about the plot. Kaori is a real breath of fresh air. Please encourage her to keep on blogging.

Potato Leek Soup Recipe and a Movie Recommendation

For $1 I recently picked up 5 lbs of potatoes. I was speaking with brother who recommended that I use my excess potatoes to make some potato leek. So I did, and it was glorious.

Recipe:
2 leeks, the white parts thinly sliced
1/2 yellow onion
4 cloves garlic
2 lbs (ish) potatoes
1.5 C Buttermilk
1.5 C vegetable stock
3 TBL butter
salt and pepper

I threw in the leeks, onion and garlic with the butter and salt and pepper in my dutch oven and sauteed for about 15 minutes. While that was sauteeing I boiled the potatoes. When the potatoes were finished I put them in the dutch oven and added the buttermilk and vegetable stock. I used my immersion blender (which is magical) and suddenly there was soup! And it was super tasty. It is hearty and tangy and filling but light at the same time.

I made a pretty thick soup and if you wanted it lighter you could definitely add more of the liquids. I think the flavor was perfect using a 1:1 ratio of buttermilk and stock, but the amount you add is all personal preference.

I also had a spinach, cherry, turkey bacon and hazelnut salad which also rocked. I can't stop eating turkey bacon.

Film Recommendation: Angels in America

I came home the other day and Ula was watching the HBO miniseries based on Tony Kushner's Angels in America. I first saw the play when I was 16 in San Francisco. I saw both parts in the same day, which was about 7 hours of theater. It was absolutely amazing and remains the best play I have ever seen. It might actually be my favorite piece of writing. It is beyond brilliant and worth re-watching just to hear what Tony Kushner can do with words. It is fascinating, funny, sad, crazy and exuberant. Watch it now.

Easter Brunch

As an atheist, I can't really get behind the idea of the whole Jesus rising after being dead for 3 days. But I can get behind the idea of tasty breakfast foods, therefore I do like to celebrate Easter Brunch.

Easter morning I woke up around 9:30, had some coffee and stared at my cat for awhile.

After several hours of that, I got up, showered and got my brunch on.

The day before I made this strawberry tart.

I definitely prefer cooking to baking, as baking is a little exact and time consuming to me. That being said this was super tasty. The sweet, lemony crust is awesome. The only changes I made were using some heated jam instead of a port sauce (cause i'm lazy and poor) and throwing on some toasted slivered almonds for extra crunch on top (which works really well and I highly recommend it). If I make this again I think I would change the mascarpone filling as well. It is tasty but a little heavy. Next time I might use half mascarpone and half creme fraiche, which I think would make it lighter and tangy-er.

I also made some home fries with onion and peppers.

I also made some leftover veggie fritatta. I had some sweet leftover veggies, so my fritatta was asparagus, mushroom, green onion and sharp cheddar. I love fritattas because it is easy to cook the eggs perfectly and they look really nice. I also served some turkey bacon because I don't believe in a meal without meat products.

Kaori (pictured below) brought some delicious orange muffins. Ben (not pictured) brought smoked steelhead trout (but he was forgiven for bringing smoked fish when he did all of the brunch dishes...thanks Ben!).

Suji (pictured below with Ula and modeling my new colorful spring plates) brought some lovely pineapple.

And to solemnize the occasion Lifetime showed two cinematic masterpieces - Cyber Seduction and Mother, May I Sleep with Danger?

Good times.