books and biscuits: little women review

go look over at books and biscuits for a rambly review of little women!  (whoooo's excited for blancmange next week?  i am, i am!)

wild card: the little prince

this book didn't really fit in over at books and biscuits, because there's no food, but i've had this book on the brain for a while now. so here you go!

Title: the little prince
Author: antoine de saint-exupery
Genre: fantasy
Audience: technically it's a children's book, but i recommend it for adults
Rating: ★★★★★

in the kitchen: beet and carrot puree with nutmeg cream

ooo, that sounds fancy, doesn't it?  well, it's basically a fluffy, creamy version of borscht, minus the potatoes.  i came up with it last night as a way to use up some of my sad vegetables that i've been neglecting and some other bits and pieces that needed to be used up in the fridge.  veeery tasty.  because i made this up and am really awful at measuring, the following measurements are estimated.  adjust it to suit your tastes.  i also made a panini with ciabatta, provolone, gorgonzola, and caramelized onions.  mmmmm.  match made in heaven.  (sorry this is late, by the way.  but better late than never!)

newsday: apartment awesomeness

this isn't exactly news, per se, but it is extremely awesome. this is a tiny one-room apartment (i think they say 300 square feet) that can be transformed into 24 different rooms. completely brilliant.

update: danger! intigue! (or: another dull week in the life of a brenda)

i had this dream last night, i was in brazil, doing something work-related.  i was outside, beneath a canopy of trees, and i suddenly realized that the trees were full of snakes-- big, fat, bright-yellow snakes that were draped over the branches.  very scary.  lots of hissing.  i kept calling them asps, even though i knew they weren't asps.  i climbed a vine to get away from the snakes, but i needed to get inside of this little house. getting inside meant walking under the snakes, though.  so i created a distraction by knocking over a box of grape kool-aid packets.  all of the snakes attacked the box and i ran inside.  one of the snakes-- a particularly long, fat one-- followed me into the house.  i slammed the door and cut it in half, but the half with the head stayed alive and kept following me, so i dropped a stack of books on it.

hmm.

other than that, nothing particularly interesting is going on right now in my life.  alas!  i have a few big projects i'm working on at work that i'm trying to balance and wrap my brain around.  i feel like i really need a vacation, but then i realize that i just had a vacation a month ago and should really be fine. 

sigh.  woe is me.  i can hear you playing your little violins.

on wednesday i had a talk with jules, who is... my... therapist?  kind of?  okay, technically she does "energy work and emotional release," which is like therapy, only it has less to do with jung and freud and the dsm IV and more to do with the ideas of eastern medicine.  think chi and chakras and balancing the elements.  a session with jules is extremely hard to explain, so i won't even really try.  she is, however, amazing.  amazing.   i love talking with her.

i also got to spend time with quite a few friends this week. i attended a bridal shower for a coworker with some of my friends from work.  it was very nice to be out with all of them.  i really do love my coworkers, and i feel lucky to be able to say that.  i am avoiding even thinking about the upcoming day in july when one of my work friends will be moving to california.  this is why i need to learn how to apparate post-haste.  (also, that would make vacation a lot more feasable.  dear j.k. rowling: can adults attend hogwarts?  is there a correspondence course setup of some sort?) i also went out with some friends to a lovely little sushi place that was both cheap and delicious. afterward, i spent several hours talking my friend's ear off, reapplying it, and then talking it off again.  poor thing.  (but you can't tell it ever fell off, really. still quite natural-looking.)

this coming week, i'm going to try and keep my life generally organized at home-- a good dinner made every night, keeping things nice and tidy.  it's interesting how much easier it is to concentrate on hard tasks when everything else is in order.

hope you all have a lovely week!

retro movie flashback: the mummy (1999)

title: the mummy
year: 1997
rating: ★★★1/2

books and biscuits: rich damp cake with green sugar (peter pan)

He stood for a long time lost in thought, and at last a curdling smile lit up his swarthy face. Smee had been waiting for it. "Unrip your plan, captain," he cried eagerly.

"To return to the ship," Hook replied slowly through his teeth, "and cook a large rich cake of a jolly thickness with green sugar on it. There can be but one room below, for there is but one chimney. The silly moles had not the sense to see that they did not need a door apiece. That shows they have no mother. We will leave the cake on the shore of the Mermaids' Lagoon. These boys are always swimming about there, playing with the mermaids. They will find the cake and they will gobble it up, because, having no mother, they don't know how dangerous 'tis to eat rich damp cake." He burst into laughter, not hollow laughter now, but honest laughter. "Aha, they will die."

head over to books and biscuits for a recipe for rich damp (chocolate!) cake with green sugar.  nine out of ten lost boys agree, it's completely delicious.  (and no one really cares what slightly thinks, anyway.)