A LITTLE LATE TO THE PARTY

: "wuthering heights." kate bush.

courtesy certain voices and their Mistress, am currently enjoying Howl's Moving Castle. and wondering how exactly i missed out on all the Diana Wynne Jones love in the first place. this is SO TOTALLY UP MY ALLEY. *^^*

...to say that i am enjoying it immensely would be a vast understatement. i will need more when i am done. and yes, Ghibli had better Show It Proper Wub. or else i shall join the legions in standing on their doorstep and battering down their door until Answers As To Why are forthcoming. but that's a worst-case scenario. for now, i shall content myself with reading...

...and have yet another reason to go to my local public library and finally get a card. really, it's a disgrace that i don't have one already. i've lived there over a year now. i don't know what's wrong with me.

though ILLing these would be highly entertaining. but. XD

oh, and about most of the stuff cooked/baked this past weekend? it was rather sick, but Saturday night, i was pretty much flying around my kitchen for a few hours. Spaz mentioned later that he was going to attempt to do the steadily growing mountain of dishes that had gathered in one half of the sink (it's a nice double stainless steel one), but decided against it after seeing how i was racing around. XD

for i wasn't content to just make all that stuff, oh no. i had to make it all at once. XD barring the pizza, which was wholly manufactured on Sunday.

so, i started the jars boiling to sterilise them for the pickle, after having gone out and gathered all the tomatoes i could find (and i found out i missed a whole vine the next day! ;.;), the few flamingo peppers i had left outside, and all the basil. came back in with two bowls of goodies; one huge and full of purple and green basil, the other small and full of green tomatoes and peppers which were actually quite similar in hue...hrrm. anyway, the jars were boiling, so then i started the pesto. i still haven't gotten around to getting a bigger food processor, so it was done in batches. basil, basil, basil, walnuts. big container; stirring in olive oil by hand. set aside.

jars boiling merrily, preheating oven to dry the jars once they're done. preparing vinegar and spices for boiling and subsequent pickling. once the pickle's done and jarred (with only slight spillage, i'm proud to say; boiling vinegar isn't really the smell you want everywhere in your house), time to make dinner. chicken! tonkatsu! mmm, tonkatsu sauce! whip sauce up, am quite pleased with how it tastes, defrost chicken. tonkatsu-ise it, begin grilling onions. once they're soft and browned, throw chicken in and lid it. decide what the hell, we need cookies too. whip out ingredients and make half-recipe, as there's only half a bag of chocolate chips left. XD preheat oven. oh, and saffron arborio would be good with the chicken (thank the gods for Alessi). start that going.

...afterward, i was even more amazed by the concept of Iron Chef. i mean, ONE HOUR. and many times, the chefs and/or challengers come up with 5 dishes. granted, they've got a small army of accomplices, but still. this took me about 2.5-3 hours or so, i think. O.O;;;

...and, as Spaz pointed out, i wasn't even cool enough to write out a menu in beautiful calligraphy. what was i thinking? XD

i made no soup this weekend. somehow i feel empty. must start over again. XD

mmm, i miss that corn chowder i made last year. maybe i should make some again...?

[addendum: O.O;;;! granted, much of this isn't really a surprise. but no Spa?!?!?! i wasn't surprised by this decision, just saddened.

i'm going to miss Spa. Spa was such a great track. ;.;]