One Scheme of Happiness

Eye Candy Friday

The CONTEST is still open, through noon on Sunday, May 11, 2008.  Keep those book recommendations coming!

While the contest entries roll in, I'll share a whisper of spring here to brighten your day.  And if your weather is as bleak and as drizzly as the gloom sighing down on the Big City this morning, ignore those pouty clouds and take your solace in these wee blossoms.  Summer is coming.

I found this bit of loveliness down in the Village, before class one evening.  I have no clue what type of flowers these sweet buds might be.  They are spurting right out of the gnarled tree bark.  Anyone?

BLOG CONTEST! BLOG CONTEST!

And it's about time.  The air may still be chilly here in the big city, but finals are this week and, to me, that means I might have some SUMMER READING time ahead of me.  Or at least I might be able smuggle a few contraband novels covertly into a park or beach during those weekends when I should be studying spreadsheets for the Foundations of Finance class I'm taking.

But what should I read??? YOU tell ME.

Anyway, here are the rules.  They aren't very complicated.  There isn't much room in my life for complicated right now.

The Rules:

There are 3 ways to enter the contest!   You choose which way(s) you want to enter.

Category 1) Comment with one, two or three book recommendations.    You will earn one, two or three entries.  You are welcome to recommend more, but three is limit for Category 1 drawing entries.

Category 2) Post this contest on your blog and link to me.  You get 3 extra entries for this one!  Be sure to provide me with a link of where to find it on your blog.

Category 3) Send someone over.  If someone comments and tells me you sent them, you get one more entry per person sent.

No matter the number of entries, no person can win more than once.

The Deadline:

That word has always given me chills.  Deadline.  It's so rough, so final and bloody.  This sensation has only gotten worse since I went back to grad school.

Anyway, this contest begins now and entries are accepted through the end of my finals and the subsequent celebration of the semester's end, which means Sunday, May 11, 2008 at noon (or whatever time I sober up).

The Winners:

There will be 4 winners, all chosen at random by our lovely EmmaTeazle:

Better get on her good side.

Winners will be chosen in order.  The first name drawn gets to choose one of these four gifts.  The second will choose from the remaining three gifts; the third winner has the two remaining choices.  Winner number 4, well, you get what you get, but you're still  a WINNER! 

The contest is open to INTERNATIONAL entrants as well as New Yorkers.  I have lots of stamps and I know how to use them.

The Loot:

The offering today is an astounding assortment of Spider-lishish goodies.

Prize 1:

One copy of Knitting Through It, featuring my story, The Castle of Our Dreams.  Whether you've got knitting fever or not, you'll enjoy reading these touching stories of people doing what they can to get through the tough times. 

You can read more about my contribution to the book here, if you need a refresher. 

With the book comes a special surprise gift - I'd show it to you, but then I'd have to kill you because it's still top-secret for now.  The gift that comes with this book will be one of the first versions of a handcrafted sewing design I will be creating for special occasions and special people and, if it is a hit, perhaps for an Etsy shop one of these days.  If you are an early adopter, or if you like a pleasant surprise, this one's for you. 

Prize 2:

A Schrodinger Original Cube, in this delightful Monkeys pattern, handmade by Schrodinger, of course.

Whoever wins this will have to pry it out of my clenched fingers.  Those little monkeys are so cute they make my eyebrows pucker every time I look at them. 

That curly tail would sure come in handy for slipping out the office window on beautiful days like these.

Oh, and you might find a fun little something-something inside that bag, if you know what I mean (it's bad luck to give someone an empty bag, after all).

Prize 3:

My criteria for prizes was to give away fabulous stuff that I'd love to win myself.  Which makes it so much more difficult to actually give away the stuff.  But I will be brave.

Take for example this pookeh Heart Shaped Box necklace.

Sandra outdid herself with this one.  Look, it even opens.

Prize 4:

Brooklyn Handspun's hand-dyed Green Valley superwash soft spun sock yarn!

Speaking of SPRING, I just want to romp naked through those fluffy green strands.  But I won't.  I promise.  You'd never get it untangled.

If you've tried this yarn, you know you love it.  If you haven't tried it, well, why not??  Win your very own skein, right here, right now.  This 4 ounce hank is more than enough for a fabulous pair of socks.  Now stop petting your computer screen, those smudges are unseemly.

Should you win this yarn and you are certifiably not a knitter, then you send me foot measurements, I send you exquisite handknit socks.  In about a month.  This part of the prize only applies to non-knitters so don't be all, knit me socks if you have a knit blog and published patterns floating around.  I'll catch on eventually and send you crappy socks with a special little present from Emma inside.  Did I ever tell you about the time in DC we found half  a mouse in our bedroom? 

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So there it is, an actual contest on the OSOH blog.  Will wonders never cease.  Now, get those book recommendations coming.  I will also compile and post a nice listing of these for everyone's benefit, post contest.

Study Sock

I might not be able to knit anything while studying Statistics, but I can crank out a sock while reviewing Microeconomic Game Theory.

What I adore about the Vesper Self Striping Sock Yarn is how the knitting flies with each color change.

Let's face it ~ a plain old sock can be plain old boring to knit.  But with this yarn, every now and then I'd look up from my Nash Equilibrium problem and be all, Green!  Dark Green! White!  Whoot!

What I don't  love about this yarn is the random pink splotches.  You can't see them very well in these photos.  Thus, it's extremely dubious that anyone would notice them when the socks are way down there on my feet (and probably inside shoes).   I'm sure this wouldn't bother anyone else in the world but me.

If you squint at the 3rd and 4th blurry stripe from the left, on the photo just above, you might catch a glimpse.  It looks like a kid with sticky red Kool-Aid fingers played with this yarn.  It only annoys me for a minute, though, before I reach another stripe color and go Green!

I'll try to cast on for the second this weekend.  I think Sock 2 will make a great Foundations of Finance study buddy.

We Sail the High Seas (Turkey 35)

After our debaucherous St. Patrick's celebration, Ben woke up with a mighty hangover.

I woke up drunk.  Very drunk.

Breakfast did little to alleviate either of our sorry states, and our scheduled cruise down the Bosphorus did not sound like a promising venture, especially as we set off from the shore under dark bellied clouds.

At least Ben and I managed to lumber onto the bus.  Several of our co-revelers were forced to hop cabs and race our little buses to the Strait after sleeping through their wake-up calls.

Thank god they sold coffee on the boat or there might have been a riot.  Ben righted himself fairly soon after ingesting several cups of murky Turkish mud.  My stomach fought it out with the waves for a while before the booze wore off and the hangover headache set in.  But I was a brave little toaster. 

How is it that, on vacation, I inevitably find myself on the water?  I am drawn to it, drawn to the sea, the salt, the rock of the waves.

Somehow, we dodged the more threatening rainclouds and the captain centered our craft away from shoreline swells.  Unfortunately, our Seyhun did not narrate the voyage ~ the Other Guide plowed over him and locked himself in the booth with the microphone and, as we still couldn't understand a word the man said, most of the commentary I bring to you now was gleaned from a book.

The Bosphorus channel is 30 kilometers long and is the only outlet of the Black Sea.  A layer of fresh water floats atop the thicker salt water beneath. 

The Strait's name originates from the myth of Io, a favorite girlfriend of Zeus.  The god disguised Io as a cow to protect her from his jealous wife, Hera.   Of course, Hera saw right through this guise (being the smart goddess she was) and sent a gadfly to chase Io (the cow) everywhere she went.   Along her escape route, Io swan across the Bosphorus, thus resulting in its name, "Ford of the Cow."

This building is the Grand Mecidiye Mosque, built in 1854. 

Our little boat passed Dolmabahce Palace, which was completed around 1853.  It has 285 rooms, six staircases, 43 large halls and six baths.  Ataturk died here in 1938.  You can take a guided tour of the haram.

We slid under several impressive bridges.

This building appears to be the remains of the Italian Summer Embassy.  In the 1960s, the building was abandoned and is slowly falling to pieces here on the shore.

As you might guess, Bosphorus-adjacent land is high value property in Istanbul.  But you never know what condition these stately old houses might be in when you float past.

Here is the Rumeli Hisari (European Fortress), which was integral to Mehmet the Conqueror's preparation for the siege of Constantinople.  The fortress was completed in 4 months and 20 days.    It was later used as a prison for foreign diplomats, prisoners of war and wayward Janissary soldiers.  Now it is a museum and the site of an old mosque on the property is used as an open-air Shakespeare theatre.

The Kuleli Naval Officer's Training School supposedly stands on the site of a reform school established by the ex-prostitute Byzantine Empress Theodora.  Supposedly, many of her victims threw themselves out of the windows rather than submit to the regime of the convent. 

Although intermittent raindrops dances on our heads, the diesel fuel played games with my touchy stomach and the frigid sea winds nibbled our bones, none of us would have missed a moment of the cruise.

And other than our boat's greasy exhaust, the Bosphorus smelled just fine, thanks.   When in Istanbul, take the cruise.  Even if you are drunk and hungover.

Tres de Mayo?

There I was, shuffling down the produce aisle, minding my own business, when I saw it.  No, I thought.  It can't be...

But there it was ~ a beautiful, ripe avocado, cuddled up next to the organic tomatoes. 

Since Cinco de Mayo is also Day before Three Finals in a Row, I took a little study break and whipped up goodies.

For this recipe, make sure your avocado is significantly soft before you pop it open.  You want to catch that moment when the flavor is in full swing. 

The cumin adds a dusky color to the usually rich green of the avocado, but what it takes away in appearance, it brings back triple-fold in flavor.

Katie's Guacamole

1 ripe avocado

1 ripe tomato, diced

2 large cloves garlic, minced

1/2 small sweet onion, finely chopped

jalapeno pepper, to taste (I use about 4 slices, finely chopped)

1 small lime

dash cumin

dash salt

dash pepper

In a bowl (or a special guacamole dish, if you are lucky enough to have one) smash together the meat of the avocado with the garlic, onion, jalepeno and tomato.  Squeeze in about 3 tablespoons of lime juice and mix to incorporate.  Season with cumin (about 1/4 teaspoon), salt and pepper. 

Resist the temptation and allow mixture to stand for at least 10 minutes for the flavors to meld.  I know, it's hard.

Serve with warm tortilla chips (I like to sprinkle mine with cheese and toast them for about five minutes before serving).

Now someone pass the tequila

Procrastinating

I am supposed to be studying Statistics.

Instead I indulged in two Happy Hour margaritas with Amy (drat that Dos Camino's) then wandered in the Manhattan gloaming.

The city was melancholy tonight, tucked under a cushion of fog and almost-rain.   The air shimmered and I, wobbly and peaceful from tequila, slipped my camera from my bag and dove into the mist.

When true darkness falls, the Essex House blazes like fire in red neon.  Or used to.  We bid on an apartment overlooking this sign.  I figured the cost of buying blackout drapes into our offer price.  We were quickly outbid.

You will never discover all of the secret restaurants in this city; if you did, they wouldn't be so secret any more.  But Ben and I have eaten at this one 5 or 6 times ~ once on my birthday.  We saw The Drowsy Chaperon later than evening ~ a perfect New York City night.

I want need these shoes.  The security guard at Fendi caught me taking pictures of them through the display window and I thought I might be in trouble.  Luckily, I can apparently run faster than he can, even when hauling all my textbooks and leftover Minestrone.

Has anyone heard?  Is this move worth my $11?  The previews looked ultra-cheesy, but I want it to be good.  Robert Downey Jr. isn't someone who occurs to me often, but when I do take a moment to contemplate him, I realize he is pure white-hot bad-boy sex.  Which really isn't my thing, but damn.  There's something exceptionally naughty in his voice.  Do you remember how jaunty he was in Ally McBeal?  Somebody tell me Ironman is worth seeing.  I'll keep my standards low.

On the way home. 

Time:

Temperature:

And a peek into the MOMA Sculpture Garden:

Night has fallen hard.  It's begun to drizzle and the tequila is wearing off.  Time to study.

Everyone's Doing It

As a follow up to our festive Open that Bottle Night...go ahead.  Do it.  Everyone else is.

So...What Do You Think?

you are darkviolet #9400D3

Your dominant hues are blue and magenta. You're the one who goes to all the parties but doesn't quite fit in at every one... you know what you want, but are afraid of what the world might think of it. You're a little different and that's okay with them, and if you're smart it's okay with you too. Your saturation level is very high - you are all about getting things done. The world may think you work too hard but you have a lot to show for it, and it keeps you going. You shouldn't be afraid to lead people, because if you're doing it, it'll be done right. Your outlook on life is brighter than most people's. You like the idea of influencing things for the better and find hope in situations where others might give up. You're not exactly a bouncy sunshine but things in your world generally look up.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

Dark Violet?  That sounds like a nice, royal color to be.  So long as it doesn't get me beheaded.Do you think it is accurate?  What is YOUR color?  And how accurate is it?

Mystery Solved!

Thanks to Colleen, we no longer have to lie awake, fretting and tossing through the night, wondering from whence and why this lovely architecture.    Colleen wrote:

According to my AIA Guide to New York City (4th Edition) this this the Fred F. French Company Building, constructed in 1927. H. Douglas Ives and Sloan and Robertson (architect): "The headquarters of the former design-builder company has strange multicolored faience at the upper-floor setbacks and a well-preserved ornate lobby. From the days when even the greediest developer owed serious and intricate architectural detail and materials to the tenant and public."

You can read more about the Fred F. French building here. 

** Update:  More info from Colleen!

The address is 551 5th Avenue.

It was designated an NYC landmark in 1986.  According to my Guide to NYC
Landmarks (3rd Edition):

"The prominent Fred F. French real estate firm erected this skyscraper
with massed setbacks (? how setbacks are not "massed" I do not know.) for
its corporate headquarters and for rental income.  The use of detail
inspired by ancient Mesopotamian art is an indication of the exotic
historicism that was prevalent during the 1920s.  The exotic influence is
especially evident at the base, where the bronze entrances and storefronts
are embellished with mythological figures and Near Eastern ornament, and
at the crown, with its vivid poly-chromatic terra-cotta decoration.

INTERIOR:  The ornamental motifs in the magnificent lobby pick up exterior
design elements.  The lobby has a vaulted ceiling, bronze doors, and other
elaborate Near Eastern features."

Best Roast Chicken. Ever.

When it comes to finding lost items, navigating foreign countries or computing statistical probability, I fall flat on my face.  But put me in the kitchen with a pile of fresh food and I get my knack on in a hurry.

Do you ever feel that urge to just cook something?   I really wanted to roast a chicken.  I needed to roast a chicken.   This urge to cook seems to be some type of biological imperative for me.  So when I wandered by Whole Foods the other day, I picked up a chicken, knowing full well that, with final exams looming, I had zero time for chicken roasting.

So late last night, after class, after my subway train broke (the door of one car wouldn't shut so we sat in a tunnel for 20 minutes while various people stared at it, rubbing their chins and shaking their heads), I preheated my oven and went all ballistic on a bird. 

Ben and I agreed that this was one of my best concoctions yet.  It was well after midnight when the chicken finally emerged from the oven, all golden and swollen with juices.  We brandished our forks and attacked that poor chicken straight from the pan, nibbling pieces of it piping hot, scalding our tongues on steaming cheese and not even caring.  So I thought I'd share the love.

Dinner Party Chicken

1 FRESH roasting chicken, about 3.5 pounds (free range tastes better!)

5 tablespoons of olive oil

1 package cream cheese

1/2 cup grated Monterey jack cheese

4 cloves finely chopped garlic

salt

pepper

cayenne

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. 

In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, Monterey jack, garlic, salt, pepper and a dash of cayenne.  Mix with a fork until well blended.  Set aside.

Wash and dry chicken inside and out.  Slide your fingers gently between the skin and the meat on the breast and legs, opening up a pocket of space.  You should be able to do this without creating any additional holes in the skin.

Gently stuff 3/4 of the cheese mixture into the space between the skin and meat on the chicken breasts and legs and smooth so the mixture is evenly distributed.  Place remaining cheese mixture into chicken cavity and center chicken in a 9"x9" baking pan.

Drizzle olive oil over chicken skin and use pastry brush to coat evenly.  Season liberally with salt and pepper.

Cook chicken at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 360 and cook until juices run clear from the chicken thigh.  The timing will depend on the exact weight of your chicken (probably around 60-70 more minutes).  DO NOT  baste or otherwise interfere with the chicken while it cooks. 

Remove fully cooked chicken from oven.  Gently spoon pan juices over the skin.  Serve hot with melted onions and biscuits.