I suck at titling my entries. *Edit for group pic!

I haven’t gone grocery shopping in two weeks and I’m definitely running out of food- most notably produce. I’m trying to make due with what I have until I get paid on Monday (I had a niiice student loan bill [sarcasm], rent, an overdue internet and cable bill, etc. all come out of my last paycheck… so.. yeah). In my fridge I had some whole wheat bread dough that I made the other day, just hanging out, waiting for an excuse to jump into the oven, half of a withering red pepper, some frozen turkey meatballs (in the freezer… duh), colby-jack cheese, 2 week old garlic scape, a head of garlic, and half of a jar of stewed tomatoes. I guess it’s a good thing that I’m not picky and can get a little creative?

My case-in-point:

 

 

Pizza! And it’s a pretty big pizza at that. I threw some garlic in some olive oil on my stove, added the tomatoes and a little bit of tomato paste, threw in some dried basil, red pepper flakes, and oregano and a little salt, and ta-da! Pizza sauce.

I was worried that the bread dough would stick because it’s a little wetter than I’d have liked, but I put enough cornmeal on the pan that it didn’t.

It tastes great!

I just discovered garlic scape randomly at the farmer’s market a few weeks ago. A little boy was standing over it at his stand and selling large bunches of the stuff for a dollar. It looked kind of funny.. they’re thin, long, curly green stalks with a blossom on the end. I bought some because I like trying new things and although I eat garlic all the time, I’d never tried eating the actual plant that grows out of the garlic bulb.

The ends are woody and I was told not to eat the blossoms, so I break off the woody ends, cut off the blossoms, and cut the part in the middle to green bean size. My friends, if you haven’t already, TRY THIS STUFF. It is so. freaking. good. Oh my god. You can eat it raw or sauteed with a little bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper OR you can cook it with brussels sprouts or greens. You basically cook it like you would asparagus; it tastes garlicky without being overwhelming and has a nice slightly sweet, green flavor to it… I liken it to garlicky asparagus! Yum.

In other news, I can’t tell if I made a big mistake or if I did the right thing this afternoon when I got home from work. My neighbor was sweeping the steps outside (this is my neighbor from directly across the hall- he and his girlfriend/fiance/wife- I’m not sure- have lived here longer than I have and they both seem like really lovely, thoughtful, nice people). Anyway, we were talking and he mentioned that he bought his wife(?) a wedding present (so maybe they are married? Or just got married? Or maybe I misheard him?) recently: an IPad 2. We talked a little bit about the IPad (I don’t know much about it, other than that it seems like a giant IPhone that you can’t place calls on) and I said that it sounded like a pretty lovely gift. He then proceeded to ask me about how much Jackie and I pay for internet and cable and which provider we use. I told him about the package that we have through Comcast and about how much I hate Comcast :). Anyway, long story short (I’m rambling!) he mentioned that he didn’t realize that you actually needed to have the internet – wireless at that – to get online with an IPad.

Apparently him and the lady that he lives with don’t even have the internet! He said that he went to a shop today to find out about it and he had no idea all that wireless internet entails (he said that he didn’t even know what a wireless router was until today) and that it could be so expensive. He assumed that wireless internet was just everywhere and that you could just log on if you had a device that has internet capabilities on it.

I didn’t know that there were people out there that still exist without the internet. I thought that everybody had the internet. And these two aren’t old… I’d guess they’re maybe 30? Maybe?)

Anyway, he was talking about how much they paid and I can’t remember exactly how it got brought up, but I ended up giving him my internet password for he and his lady to use. I figured it couldn’t hurt- I mean, the two of them can’t be crazy internet/ computer hacker whizzes… they don’t even have the internet! And I know where they live. And I really do feel like I can trust them. I just get that feeling with them. I have, however, been known to be way too trusting way too soon with people and am always finding reasons to give everybody the benefit of the doubt (even Casey Anthony. Yep. Hate me all you want).

So, I feel kind of good about it, but also a wee little bit strange. I don’t often give my passwords out to people who I don’t really know all that well. But again, they’ve always been super nice to me and we always chat when we see each other…

We’ll see how it goes. Chances are everything will be just fine.

(Side note: I feel like I’ve totally lost the ability to end my entries. I’ve always been the type of person who reads through what I’m writing and thinks at least somewhat about grammar and punctuation, cohesiveness and flow. I’ve lost that over the last year or so. I’ve also lost the ability to come up with anything even remotely witty with my titles. It worries me. I need to go back to school… my brain feels like it’s rotting. Now, to write a title for my entry…)

 

 

Group shot from the gay bar on Saturday night. Any of you watch Oprah: Behind the Scenes?

From left to right starting in the back: My aunt Leslie’s boyfriend Jeff, Brad, and Brian.
Next row: my sister Ali, my aunt Leslie, and myself.
Bottom guy: Luke

They were all stopping through town to hang for a night before heading north to a friends wedding. Leslie facebooked Ali and I (my other sister Erin too, but she had to work) and invited us out for dinner. Aaaand we weren’t ready for the night to end after dinner.

The end.
 

**Edit 2:

My sister Erin was sad that she didn’t go with… so I added her to the photo. 🙂

Aaaand I can’t stop laughing.