Craving Filth

My Name is Nicole, and I'm an emotional eater. Have I mentioned this before? Well, admitting it wasn't enough to change my ways. When I get stressed out a chocolate strawberry square from the Nugget will do the trick. Why don't we just wash that down with some champagne. When I get nervous, no problem, lets whip up some salmon fettuccine with that creamy, garlicky, fragrant, flavorful sauce, and a nice green salad. When I get lonely, soul food, any kind, fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, greens, black eyed peas, etc. Depending upon how lonely I am (chic-a-bow-wow), we can follow all that with any kind of decadent dessert and wash it down with at least two mimosas. This describes my self soothing in a nutshell. I justify the behavior by telling myself that I have the right to be satisfied every once in a while and that since the world seems adamant on keeping me struggling I'm not going to hold MYSELF back from having what I want need and deserve. Visits with my 200 lb plus cousins don't even seem slow me down.

No, I'm not trying to catch up with them, and I know I need to slow down and exercise more. Knowing this doesn't change the fact that I am still an emotional eater. But what I don't understand is why I'm craving chilin's.

Chitlins or chitterlings are pig intestines, poop chutes people! Preparing them can be tricky, and it takes a lot of patience and work. My cousin and I used to have to stand in front of the sink for half the day separating the final membrane from the fleshy part that we would later be scooping onto our plates. African Americans first started eating chitterlings because as slaves we were given what was left over from the hog (i.e. cheeks (hog mog/maw?), feet (pickled pigs feet)). I'm a firm believer in African Americans shedding behaviors instilled by slavery, mentally and physically. So, why is it then that I am still craving chittlins which I am sure have no nutritional value. I haven't had them for years .

Could it be something emotional, or something still engraved in me from slavery. If it is emotion, which emotion am I trying to soothe? Why am I craving filth?!?!

I will buy 10 pounds this evening and bring them to our Easter feast.

Live Off the Land!(?)

Ya'll know I'm just talking. I frequent Walmart and the other discount stores just as much as the rest of you. And I love natural fibers just like the rest of you. But you know how marketing does, they know that all you need to see is 100% on the label so that the consumer can feel right about buying a certain product. With that said, how close are you to nature really when you buy 100% natural fibers? You know that if one day this country ends up in apocalyptic conditions (And it's a thin line, baby. If you don't think so you need to wake up.) there ain't gone be no mercerized cotton or no superwash wool.

We gone be knitting with fibers not much unlike Cascade's Ecological Wool. Straight up cut the frills, perfectly suitable to clothe you and your family more than effectively, might as well have sheared that sheep myself, and spinned the wool myself yarn. And thank God there are still a few of us who would know what to do with it without seeking the services of another should the need occur.

I think I'm making good progress. I'm working on the tomten's hood right now. It's the sleeves I'm worried about. I've just followed Elizabeth Zimmerman's rule of quarters both vertically and horizontally to get the right dimensions. The sleeve holes are supposed to be enormous like that.

My name is Nicole, and I'm a carnivore. Before I became a mom, a few years before that I only ate sea food and tossed salads with dark leafy greens. Boy was my skin fabulous. This is why I decided to try to go back that type of diet. My skin improved dramatically within this short period of time. Hey, it's one of the few beauty treatments detailed in the bible (Daniel 1), and I couldn't even make it 10 days.

Last week I only ate vegetarian 6 out of 7 days of the week. I started with a screamin' "tuna" salad. I kid you not, I crave this stuff now. Then I used protein crumbles in my spaghetti instead of meat; soy chicken strips in my stir fry, stuff like that.

Then we gorged on various fruits like these grapes. We've barely had any bad fruit this summer. You've all probably seen those gigantic white peaches and nectarines in the grocery or at the farmer's market. Oh, and the cherries before they hit $6 a pound. OMG!

Living here in the Central Valley of CA, you get to meet a lot of hobby farmers/gardeners, whatever you want to call them. Tomatoes are easy, but I felt blessed when offered this beautiful eggplant. I kept petting it all day and couldn't wait to get it home.

This is not something we ate when I was young. My parents tried to make vegetables taste like something else most times. This must be why, as an adult, that I don't want nothin' to do with no pot liquor. Yuck! Use it once and toss it for God's sake. I don't think I bit straight through and asparagus without it being stringy until I was in my twenties.

We made eggplant mozzarella(with the left over spaghetti sauce) with this delicious soy cheese and cabbage wedges. Yummy yum.

Food Instead?

I wonder what everyone else eats for dinner during the week. Are most people on some kind of food plan, or is dinner time a really important time for expression and bonding. I've tried this week to mix it up enough to distract myself from the tragic parts of my life. The crab quiche worked the first night. On the second night it wasn't as effective.
Tonight I tried to grill some pork ribs. I'll have to finish the ribs in the oven tomorrow.

They were meatier than I thought, so in order to finish with dinner before bedtime, we ended up with spaghetti.

It was tasty but not what we had our mouths ready for, and it didn't mask my....but I digress.

I've tried to create a variegated skein out of strawberry kool-aid. It was supposed to be kool-aid version of the dip-dye method seen here. But it turned out like this. Notice how I tried to steep the last piece (at the top) for a shorter amount of time in a last stitch effort to achieve something close to what it was intended to be. I don't even mind the orange instead of pink (I still can't understand how this happened). It should work fine on my little coco brown.

I'm not too concerned, because I've seen even the most jacked up looking skeins turn into beatiful works of art. Let's hope this once does justice to the Baby Surprise Jacket it's intended for.

I didn't have any pictures with my last entry, but there are lots today. First, let me assure you that I have been doing what my kids call "yarning." First, I want to start off by showing you the toddler sweater that I adapted from an adult pattern. It wasn't such a smart thing to do since it was one of my first knitting projects, however, I'm very adventurous. What went wrong? The head hole is too small, I think. HP's head is in the 75th percentile, so I am going to make sure to try the sweater on a narrow headed kid before throwing it in the reject pile. I've also kept up with the On-The-Side Cardigan from the Hip To Crochet book. I think it will be cool for kicking around the house or running errands. It looks so cozy to me. I've slipped stich the side seams together and am pinning in the sleeves now. I even saw the shell buttons at Wal-mart, and the acrylic yarn I've used worked well. The stiches are a little more plump, but I think it's working out. Outside of yarn world, like I told you last post, I baked HP a teddy bear cake. She loved it, and that makes me happy. The indentations came out a little better than they did for the car cake because the pan instructions required a one hour baking time. Unfortunately, this doesn't make decorating the darn thing any easier. You need pure skill for that. Also, the extra 15-20 minutes baking time made for a dry cake. Once again, I was supposed to blot stars on, but that didn't work out so I just spread the icing on there. At least you could tell what kind of bear it was supposed to be. Poor thing. It doesn't know what's coming to him. When I asked her what piece she wanted, she request that I cut off his head and later bit off his toes, elbow, and left paw. I also made some cheesecake cupcakes for the daycare. For her gift I got her a trunk full of dress up clothes, which she also loved, and they came with these "bling-bling" plastic pumps which she can't get enough of. I got the trunk from Costco for $29.99. The clothes seem like good quality, but unfortunately her favorite outfit has enough glitter in it to make our house look like a disco. Her birthday was a week and a half ago and we still have glitter in our hair. Ta-ta! Decorations complete! Cheesecake cupcakes.
Your wish is granted!

It's been a very long time, I know. But thanks for sticking with me. Yeah, right. I know hardly anyone looks at this blog. Although I've been away, I have been crafting. I need to, especially since I've been going through some crazy times, not having a permanent full-time job and all. I made a travel bag, which I think is pretty cool, cause if you stretch it out, just through it in the wash and it will shrink back up. I'm gonna have to since I chose to make mine white. I still haven't finished HP's sweater. Her head is too big for the head hole, I'm going to just make it in the stockinette stitch. I started a sweater for myself. One I've been wanting to make for a long time. Of course, I used a less expensive yarn as usual. The acrylic seems to be working out fine so far. Now, I'm trying to learn how to make socks on two sticks. I'm improvising as I go along because I didn't want to make them for myself. HP has this orange corduroy dress she needs some to go with. I know this is probably not the greatest idea since I've never knitted socks before, but oh well, I'm going for it. I know, I know, I've really got to commit to one project and finish it. My abandonment rate has increased for some reason. I think it's time for a nice safe blanket or scarf. I mean after all, this is supposed to be relaxing, isn't it. I've also been taking an online class. Business with an entrepreneur's emphasis.

I like it so far, the book is really insightful. It's my first online class though, and I hope I'm doing everything right. We're required to
take quizzes and post to the discussion board, but the only thing that I can see my grades for are the quizzes. Of course there are some offline assignments due closer toward the end of the term that weigh pretty heavily on our grades. I also read this good book about black folks and their skin tone. It's set in a time period a few decades back, but I think it's still relevant for us today. Ya'll ought to check it out. It's called Something Deep In My Bones by Eboni Snoe. Man, I wanted to kill that granny myself!


My son turned the big 9.0. Whew! This sure is hard for me to deal with. But, for the first time I baked him a cake instead of buying it at the store. It was supposed to look like a NASCAR. It didn't, but he totally loved it, and that's good. I'll do it for HP next month too. I'm planning on making a butterfly, but we'll see. I was sooo stressed out and nervous about the car. I used super moist boxed cake and so any indentations that were supposed to be baked on for me to follow were too moist to see. I even put whipped cream filling with strawberries, bananas and peaches. It was a success. All of the day care kids had seconds. I'll have to pat my own self on the back. The kids are doing great, but Lord, I'll be glad when HP grows out of those terrible twos. The tantrums get really fierce sometimes. Sometimes, I'm so tired I just let her go in her room to rant and rave till she passes out. Exibit A... Can you find the quiet in this storm? I wouldn't call this one a diva in training. I trully do think that she has already arrived. I'd like to begin referring to myself as the diva tamer. I know what you're thinking, but I sware she came out like this. Since it was just me and her during those first months, I don't have any witnesses. We were watching the movie "Take the Lead," and the kids started dressing up in the evening attire. When the that actress "Ya-ya" began to put her dress on, HP walks up to the television and shouts, "You're not the princess!" We just had to shake our heads on that one because we really weren't that surprised.

What's For Dinner?

My kids loooooove Tuna Helper. They thinks it's a delicacy. Who knew? Maybe it's because I started them out on Salmon Fetuccini. We all love this. This is a recipe that I got from my Uncle Arthur a while ago. I fell in love with it and we never get tired of it. It's fast to prepare and make. Want the recipe?

1 Small salmon filet
Equal parts chopped basil and garlic (I like about two tablespoons at least, I love garlic)
1 Pat of butter OR 1 1/2 tblsp of olive oil
1 tsp of Lawry's Season Salt
1/4 tsp of garlic powder, onion powder
6 ounces of heavy whipping cream
1/2 teason of dried rosemary
1/8 tspn of black or white pepper
1 lb of fresh fetuccini

Season the Salmon Filet lightly with Seasoned Salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and rosemary. Broil under oven's broiler for about 10-12 minutes or until filet is cooked through.

In a medium to large wok, saute garlic and basil in the butter or oil and set aside. When the Salmon is done, shred the flesh only into the pan with the garlic and basil, then add the whipping cream. Bring to a light boil, cover and simmer for about 5-8 minutes. Season with Lawry's to taste.

Boil your pasta, rinse, drain, and pour directly into the salmon sauce you've just made. Toss well. You can use the extra basil by mixing it with a nice green salad.

See, I told you that was easy. And so, so, good.