Fish win. Frappuccino fail.

I started my new job this week. I'm super happy to be a productive member of society again and all but I have to say this whole getting up every morning and going to work thing is TIRING. The fact that my particular profession subscribes to the belief that meetings, regardless of what they pertain to, should start at 7am no matter what does not help. It's been nice to finally start though and seeing all my friends from my program on a regular basis again is fabulous.


So I've been trying to take it easy today. I did sign up for health insurance this morning though so I feel like I am pretty much done for the day after doing something so unbelievably productive. AND I did laundry. So there. 


Apologies for not having been quite as crafty as of late, what with the whole job thing getting in the way, but I have managed a few small projects. I made salmon and squash the other night using parchment paper, which I had never done before. There was a recipe in this month's Bible but I'm not an enormous asparagus fan and didn't actually own any of the spices the recipe called for so I decided to use squash, butter, garlic, and copious amounts of lemon juice instead. 

All you had to do was cut up the veggies, toss them onto the parchment paper, add your spices of choice, and place the fish on top of the veggies. 

You then folded the parchment paper closed and rolled up the edges to seal it. I put the nice little package on a baking sheet and stuck it in the oven. (Note: I ended up taking the skin off before I stuck the bundle in the oven.)

20 minutes later and voila, I unwrapped a beautiful piping hot dinner. I'm definitely excited to experiment with different types of fish and vegetables in future.

Yesterday, I was wanting some chocolate so I made some flourless peanut butter cookies. They are super easy and, aside from the chocolate chips, both gluten and dairy free. Isn't that what you look for in your cookie recipes too?

I also bought a decorate-your own-mug mug for a friend's birthday yesterday. I was going to make a pretty collage to go in it using snapfish but my printer is not producing blue ink at the moment so I cut up an old map (freebie from Doctors Without Borders) and inserted that instead. I was so pleased with the result that I decided to make one for my self as well. Mine focuses on Europe and the Middle East, which I feel is good so that I can study it and keep up with the location of whatever nation is currently in revolt. 

Lastly, after sitting in an 80 degree lecture hall for most of Tuesday and watching one of the presenters suck down a frappuccino while I slowly melted, I have been craving one none stop ever since. I decided to make one for myself this morning. I mean the closest Starbucks is two whole blocks away. I made a regular cup of coffee (not having an espresso machine) and added large amounts of sugar and cocoa. 

I put the coffee in the blender and added milk and ice.

Before blending:

After blending:

Afterwards, the coffee seemed to all go to the bottom leaving a frothy mess on top. Maybe I frappe-ed for too long? 

The other problem is that my freezer seems to only make ice that tastes like freezer burn. I have noticed this in the past and thought it was the ice trays so I washed them carefully before making ice this time. Apparently it is not the trays but the freezer itself that makes the ice taste bad, not really something I can fix. Anywho, unless the flavor I was going for was freezer burn frappuccino, my foray in blended drinks was a bit of a failure. I therefore reverted to my old standby of an iced mocha using plastic reusable ice cubes. I am a big fan of these cubes as a) they don't taste like I'm licking my freezer wall and b) they don't melt so they don't ever water down your beverage. Win-win. 

Well, that's about all the productivity I can stand for one day. Off to watch Hulu for several hours. And I have a date with bicycle guy tomorrow. We are going to some show opening at the National Art Gallery. Since it's going to be a nice day, he suggested that we bike there. I'm now accepting suggestions for a cute outfit that is both art gallery and bicycle appropriate. K'thanks.