january 2002 1.31.02 want to know what hurts? closing an oven door and realizing that you burned your hand on the upswing. reaching over a stockpot and noticing that your metal bracelet has successfully conducted all of the heat into a burn on the inside of your wrist. reaching for a knife and losing your grip, watching the knife fall to the floor, not before leaving a nice little slice in your knuckle. so what am i going to do? use more potholders, invest in leather bracelets, and be more careful when picking up a knife. i need some kisses for my boo-boos. goodbye january. 1.30.02 so today when i was taking the subway home, a man entered the train with his dog. let me elaborate: this was a rush hour train and the dog was a giant pitbull. the dog was actually a really big sweetheart and laid on the floor like a little baby, but i thought it was kind of strange. i personally don't believe all the hype about pitbulls because i have known them to be very sweet dogs. i was just thinking about all of the people on the train who might have felt uncomfortable around such a big potentially scary dog. i know my sister wouldn't have been very comfortable since she has had one of those big-dog-chasing-little-girl experiences as a child. do you think that was weird? today in school, i made 7 batches of peanut butter cookies. we began with a traditional recipe with eggs, sugar, and butter and by the end we had switched up enough stuff to make them vegan and without refined sugars. i am going to write out the recipe and post it here, because they were so delicious and really easy to make. more on that later.... later on -- okay, here is that recipe: vegan peanut butter cookies ingredients 1/2 cup maple crystals 1/2 cup rapadura (click for more info) 2 T. maple syrup 6 T. + 3 1/2 tsp. coconut oil 1/4 cup mashed banana 1 cup peanut butter 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1 1/2 cups unbleached whole wheat pastry flour 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract procedure 1. grind sugars together and sift. 2. add sugars gradually to coconut butter and mix with beater. 3. beat in banana, peanut butter, maple syrup, salt and soda. 4. add vanilla. 5. add flour, gradually beat in. 5. roll or scoop into small balls, place on greased cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. 6. press flat with a fork (#). 7. bake 15 minutes at 350 degrees. 1.29.02 january is practically over and i am almost halfway through my culinary education, at least in the school sense. my thoughts recently have been revolving around what i am going to do immediately after i finish, internships, etc. and after that -- what shall i do? i have been investigating faraway lands and all of the experiences that may go along with travel. i have also been thinking that with the frequency in which i normally uproot myself, perhaps now is a good a time as any to just sit still and make some things start to happen. for me, when i can sleep soundly at night, i am getting comfortable with a place. no weird noises, no middle of night startled wake-ups, no mornings with jumbled thoughts attempting to be rational. just sleep. even the occasional nap. shouldn't i be antsy right now? have you noticed the beautiful spring days that we have been having? days like these make me want to forever exist in brisk warmth, shortsleeves hiding under soft jackets. bare feet in the open window's breeze. it's like san francisco but not at all. it's a new york winter for pete's sake! some of my friends have been talking about some of their travel plans: visits to london, to the caribbean, across country. have any interesting plans yourself? i am debating between month long excursions, 3-month immersions, and back to back adventures. shit, i need a subletter. maybe. today's entry is dedicated to my friend rob in san francisco, a very important member of the stellargirl community! 1.23.02 oops, i never posted the last thing i wrote on the train (below). good news! there are some new images in the photos section. they are from new year's eve. i think they are pretty silly, but some of the portraits came out really nice. i really love to take people's pictures. especially people i know. most of the photographers i really like are portraits photographers. it's interesting to see artists who study the people they care about and / or complete strangers. a good photographer won't let you see the difference. of course, there are probably some photographers who really savor the awkwardness that comes from catching people off guard. the camera is such a weird sort of eye, the way it captures things, freezes them in time and holds them there forever. it's no wonder some philosophies reject the whole notion of picture-taking. it means something else entirely to me. i am certain that many years from now i will be happy to have these images to remember younger days. 1.21.02 i am currently riding in style on amtrak, on my way home from boston. i came up to see my sister and we had a really great time together. i wish that we lived in the same city because i think the both of us would have such different and meaningful things to offer one another. it's amazing how you can grow up so close to someone, share a room, spend so much time together and not really get along all that well until you move hundreds of miles away from each other. 1.16.02 there have been about a million times where i have thought, i should write that on stellargirl? firetrucks and their sirens blaze past me and i think about how they don't sound like they used to. i think about traveling and i get a little afraid to get on a plane. that's not all i have been thinking about. i have been wondering what i am going to do with this whole cooking school thing, like what do i do when i am done? i have been thinking about lots of different possibilities, as you may have read in december. sometimes i just think about my new green sneakers and what i am going to do over the weekend. i have been reading ravenously recently (can you say alliteration?). i finished Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself, by the glorious Judy Blume. joe and i picked it up on one of our thrift store adventures. young adult fiction is a great jumpstart if you have been away from the books for a while. after that, i read Born Free by Laura Hird, which was written in the 1st person perspective of 4 family members in Scotland. their family is basically being torn apart by alcholism and also by the fact that no one is really communicating with each other. each of them hopes that they will just disappear and die. i was riveted until i got to the end, which i was actually kind of let down about. if you read it, let me know what you think. today i picked up a book called Joe College, by Tom Perrotta who is also the author of Election -- remember that great movie with matthew broderick and reese witherspoon? i just started it, so i don't have too much to say about it yet. i am really excited about reading, though. it's been a while. i guess normally i would be doing things like knitting or going to movie marathons, but my voracious reading has definitely been satisfying my need for solitary activities. anyone want to start a book club? 1.7.01 happy new year. haven't really been near the stellargirl-machine lately. my apologies. my apartment has this weird someone's cookin' smell and guess what? no one is cookin'. that's kind of creepy. speaking of cooking, school is going great. we had a great day filled with sea vegetables. jealous? didn't think so ;) anything interesting going on out there? any new resolutions or ideas? i think that my resolutions have to do with my lifestyle: eating, health, etc. i am really trying to remove as much sugar from my diet as possible. i never had much of a sweet tooth anyway. i also want to do more yoga. i don't have too much to say! ciao! april 2004 march 2004 february 2004 january 2004 december 2003 november 2003 october 2003 september 2003 summer 2003 may 2003 april 2003 march 2003 february 2003 january 2003 december 2002 november 2002 october 2002 september 2002 august 2002 summer 2002 april 2002 feb / march 2002 january 2002 december 2001 november 2001 sept / oct 2001 july / aug 2001 june 2001 may 2001 april 2001 march 2001 february 2001 january 2001 december 2000 november 2000 october 2000 september 2000 summer 2000 copyright © 2000-2005 - www.stellargirl.com