One is from Amazon. One from Target. And the third is one of those Visa ones you can spend anywhere. I’ve been sitting here surfing for books and kitchen stuff and I’d normally try to name a third thing but who are we kidding.

Here is a sample of the bajillion things I’ve been pondering:

Field Guide To Produce: How to Select, Identify and Prepare Virtually Every Fruit and Vegetable at the Market by Aliza Green (paperback)

Field Guide to Herbs & Spices by Aliza Green (paperback)

French Bread Pan

Silicon Baking Set (10 piece)

Granite Mortar & Pestle

Ice Cream Maker

Cast Iron Skillet

Pressure Cooker

Cold Press Juicer

Pizza Stone

And eBooks. Lots and lots of eBooks. eBooks!

What do to? I clearly can’t have it all but having such a long list of wants doesn’t make this fun…it’s torture. And I’m not one of those people who can bring myself to using gift cards toward the purchase of either essentials or gifts for other people. The latter is basically regifting and both defeat the purpose of being a gift card recipient.

Sigh.

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This video is weird but the song it good.

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I do ok now.

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…what do YOU want me to make?

If you lived in my house and came home to me sporting an apron and covered in flour, what would you want to outcome to be?

The reasons in which I ask this are threefold:

1. Budget! – I’ve come to the conclusion that the onset of my cooking frenzy could in fact cause my grocery bill to blow up. In order to keep that from happening and keep from baking myself out of house and home, I’ve employed a strict weekly budget.

2. Restocking – It should come as no surprise that I’ve run out of just about everything. I need to replenish my stores and if I’m going to make something special, I’ll need to know what to buy. Keep in mind that at any given time I have at least four different kinds of flour, three sugars, tens of spices and peanut butter. I always have peanut butter.

3. Chopped – I’ve been watching Chopped all evening. I’m pet sitting and there is cable so of course I’m watching the Food Network. If you’ve never seen Chopped, the chefs competing are presented with items they are absolutely required to use. They may only vaguely familiar with one, hate another and have never heard of a third…but they have to use them. I want to become familiar with the unfamiliar and the obscure and the weird!

Don’t hold back folks. Bring it!

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Kaki King…always a good choice.

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I’ve been toying with the idea of getting a new one. My trusty Timbuk2 Click Tote has been attached to my hip (not literally, it’s not a fanny pack) for about a year and a half now. It’s looking a little bit ragged. Some of the stitching has come apart, the colors are faded and there seems to be a mysterious stain that didn’t appear until after I put it through the wash.

And then I got an email from Timbuk2 today. I can get 20% off a brand new bag if I “break up” with my old one bag and send them my reject. Fabulous! Only one problem.

“Disgusting bags need not apply.” That’s a direct quote.

It’s true. No one would want my grimy, rain stained, clearly not colorfast satchel. Not even a homeless kid. Looks like I’m paying retail.

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This is the type of question that has plagued my mind over the last week. Mostly because I keep seeing these idiots smoking cigarettes on bikes. And I can’t help but think how one of those idiots could get away with burning an innocent person simply because they are already in the process of getting away!

BUT!

What if a bike smoker hits a pedestrian (it happens and its not as funny as it sounds) and in the process loses control of the cigarette and burns the pedestrian…or a third party?!

No I haven’t been burned recently. But I do walk dogs all day. And they don’t wear shoes. I stamp out at least two or three per day with them in mind so someone else’s dog doesn’t have to suffer.

I think I need less free thinking time.

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Beautiful.

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High altitude baking.

Why is there always a recipe variation for high altitudes? And what constitutes a high altitude? If I don’t follow these specific instructions what will happen? Famine? Plague? More reality TV shows about children in pageants!?

Mmm. Not quite.

Apparently the boiling point of water is lower, for one. This causes things to take longer to cook. But wait! Doesn’t that boggle your mind?! That boiling water is cooler the higher up you go! I’m shocked!

I need to pony up on my baking knowledge.

The rest of the science involved is way too complex for me to explain here just now without some serious plagiarizing so I’ll redirect your (my) fascination with this subject to highaltitudebaking.com.

Yes, that’s a real site. I was shocked too.

BTW – I missed my deadline for this post because I was baking mini apple pies…on National Pie Day! And I didn’t even know it!

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The weather was crap today. It was miserable.

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It’s fascinating!!!

I watched this film today on Netflix called Arranged. It’s about two young women, an Orthodox Jew and a Muslim, who become friends while their families attempt to arrange marriages for them.

I observed something about most of the Orthodox Jewish women in the film that I’ve seen in real life and that is that the married women tend to wear wigs or scarves on their heads. So I Googled it! Apparently, it’s a show of modesty. Married women cover their hair. They also don’t sleep with or touch their husbands while menstruating, refrain from touching men who are not their husbands and sometimes avoid elevators to circumvent the possibility of secluded situations with others for more than 30 seconds.

Of course, this all came from a quick skim on Wikipedia (where all factual information resides) but I’d gamble on it being pretty accurate. Regardless of this, I’m hooked. Must find book on Judaism.

And no, Tyler, I don’t intend to read the Torah. But other suggestions would be nice.

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I love that the drummer looks sort of lost without his drums. Just give him his drums!

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I don’t wear perfume. I have a very sensitive nose. I can’t stand smelly soaps or candles. Unscented everything. If I deign to wear any kind of fragrance it’s either pheremones or Demeter Tomato and I wear them sparingly.

Only those. Ever.

For those who don’t know, I used to work at a high school. There was one mom in particular who I absolutely loved. She was sweet and understanding and I loved her kid. Great family! But I could smell her for hours after she left my office. She actually left a trail of her scent in her wake. When I reread a Twilight Saga book and the topic of “scent tracking” arises, I can empathize. I know what that’s like!

And it’s been years since I laid nose on another such being. It happened today.

It’s just something I will never understand. Why does your scent have to occupy the entire room? I have a few theories:

1. Women who wear that much perfume have some other god-awfuler odor to cover up and the only way to do that is to douse oneself in a metric shit-ton of fragrance.
2. Women who wear that much perfume have some sort of nasal deficiency and they can’t really tell how much they’re wearing. To them, it’s subtle.
3. Women who wear that much perfume are testing us. They’ll do it until someone says DAMN BITCH take it DOWN a notch!
4. Women who wear that much perfume are trying to desensitize the general public.

What do we think?

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