i made something new and i loved it! it's been so long since i had the time to actually cook something real and new and i decided to go all in and do up some salt baked cod. . .which is insanely easy -- you should all do it.
step 1: get a whole fish. have the dude gut, clean & scale it.
step 2: stuff said fish with whatever -- i went with parsley, rosemary, lemon & olives.
step 3: put that sucker on some parchment paper on a baking sheet.
step 4: mix up some salt & egg whites and make a salt paste (1 cup of salt to 1 egg white) and then cover your fishy with the mixture.
step 5: bake it until the salt is crusty, hard and brown (like 20 minutes, maybe 30 depending on the size of fish).
step 6: break off and peel away those salt pieces.
step 7: transfer baked fish to dish and eat that succulent sucker.
so easy, so simple. and it looks impressive. go forth and salt bake people!
and thank you to serious eats for their great dinner tonight series for giving me the recipe.
well, really pictures of me and rogray because do you really get enough of those on this here blog?
go here and look at out engagement photos with our amazing wedding photographers Our Labor of Love.
jesse & whitney were so much fun and they somehow kept us from making our usual goofy camera faces -- which means they have some magic in them and their cameras.
i think these pictures might have gotten us even more excited for the big day because once we're all hitched and stuff we will get to see jesse & whitney's beautiful work again.
Something very, very important happened last night and I was fortunate enough to be a part of it. My candidate, Barack Obama, won the presidency of the United States of America.
The past 8 years have been dark ones for me. I don’t think I realized how adjusted I had become to living in a fog of fear and despair about the political climate of our country until last night when every network & paper had called it for Obama and I couldn’t believe it because I was waiting for someone to say “Oops. We made a mistake. It’s actually McCain by 2 electoral votes.”
It took McCain’s concession speech for me to accept that it was happening. It was real. We did it.
And the crowds at McCain’s rally and Obama’s hometown said it all about how this race was fought and run. McCain’s mention of President-Elect Barack Obama was met with boos, people shouting “Nobama” and the like. Obama’s mention of his opponent was met with applause. McCain divided and failed. Obama united and triumphed. I think that gives me more hope than anything else.
Our new president’s acceptance speech was spectacular. It was humble, funny, intelligent and honest. (And there will be a new puppy in the White House!) Someone said that his speech would tell us how he would lead. Why suddenly this speech after all of the others he’s given I am not sure but if this speech is to be the standard then we are in for a hard, challenging, lofty and wonderful four years. We will have a president that uses words for meaning, impact and power. We will have a president who loves his family and uses that love to guide him through his life. We will have a president that believes in us more than we believe in ourselves.
I am proud this morning. Proud that we have our first black president. Proud that we had the kind of voter turn-out we should have for every election. Proud that people feel hopeful about what we can do in this country and in this world.
The panes of bullet-proof glass that flanked our new president last night and the passing of Proposition 8 in California show us how far we have to go in this country and I don’t think Barack would have it any other way. Because it is those obstacles that inspire us to stay involved and strive for something better.
This is the giant leap forward to something better.
i'm having a mild "i watch too much t.v." heart attack right now. today it was announced that mad men may not be picked up for a third season depite the fact that it just won some major emmys inculding best dramz and it's the first basic cable show to do that. and despite the fact the show is awesome and a critical darling and stuff.
but then it was announced that it IS being renewed but maybe without the show's creator and writer matthew weiner. the show won't be the one i know and love if weiner isn't the head writer -- it'll start to suck. a lot. big suckage.
fingers crossed people. because true blood ain't gonna cut it people.
this past weekend rogray and i went down to the ATL to do a bunch of wedding stuff. we were really busy so i didn't get to take the kind of photos i generally like to. for instance -- we had 3 cupcake tastings. not a single picture of rogray stuffing his face was taken. all i have is this:
which was taken in a vintage furniture store where i thought it was appropriate to do this:
so you can see that i wasn't super focused. but here are a few choice moments caught on film.
1: after i lost miserably at progressive rummy momgo disowned me and then got berated for it:
see the shame? rogray beat us which is a first especially since the first time he played he was so slow and bad i thought my grandmother was going to hit him over the head with a skillet.
2: t-dawg brought my godsons over and they continued their love affair with rogray:
but i got some godson love:
3: oh i'm sorry. . .did you want to see his face? why let me show you!
he looks quite presidential in that last one no?
4: before the ATL engagement shower (no pictures! can you believe how i slacked off on my duties??) we went to the park with my nephews and my godsons -- the cuteness level was so high i thought i might explode:
5: we met up with our friends the politicians for some flying biscuit breakfast which isn't as good as it once was and then went to piedmont park afterwards where rogray tried to start a new trend:
the trend did not catch on.
6: we had an engagement photo shoot with our amazing photographers who are so awesome i might have to wrap them up and take them home with me -- there aren't any pictures yet but hopefully they got some of the wild turkey that almost attacked us.
7: we ended by going to dadgo's 8:30 a.m. contract law class to watch him teach -- i tried to get some photos on the sly -- favorite part? when he made a point by pretending to give the finger and said "SUCKAAAAAAHHHZ!"
and that kind of sums it up people...witty repartee to return at a later date.
my initial response to tonight's debate as sent to my momgo:
mccain looked like a troll (or as rob said "a monster that lives under a bridge), obama was hot. as was michelle. cindy looked awkward and confused as usual.
obama "won" but it was kind of useless as they both just reiterated what they've been saying for awhile now. so i really thought it was kind of boring. . .except when mccain referred to obama as "that one" (holy offensice -- he has a name you dick!) -- and i wish i was playing a drinking game where i had to drink every time j.m. said "my friends" but i would probably be puking by now if i had done that.
i haven't been around for quite some time. . .what can i say? i've been busy doing things like turning 30 and making a play and working and planning a wedding and dicovering acupuncture.
don't hate me blogosphere. i thought about you this whole time even though i never called or wrote.
i'm not going to come back with some epic tale of my summer -- too much pressure!
but i'll come back with this:
rogray and i have a friend who recently moved from one city to another to be with a man that she had only known for a few months. when she arrived he unveiled his rampant alcoholism and prespcription drug addiction. . .awesome!! so she quite him and is now settling in that city to be on her own for a bit.
rogray responded to this news thusly:
"do you remember that a similar thing happened to my scene partner in my acting class in 2005. he moved in with his girlfriend after a month because they were so in love and felt like they had known each other forever even though they met a month ago, and she proceeded to perpetually steal money from him and use it to buy drugs.
you didn't think that the only birthday surprise i planned for rogray was surprising him with a trip to chicago and then surprising him with his dad and stepmom and then surprising him with a trip to springfield did you?
oh no. . .30 is too big a deal to just let float by and i felt rogray deserved a surprise for each decade he's been alive.
so this past saturday rogray's sister and i got together to plan a wee brunch for rogray -- he knew that there was going to be brunch but he didn't know that his mom, stepdad, grandpa, grandpa's girlfriend (aw yeah) and his sister and her boyfriend from boston would all be there. surprise 2!
i really only took pictures of rogray's niece and nephew because they are so cute when chocolate cake is involved. this year they made the cake and did most of the decorating. look:
i think rogray's sister did the lettering but scooby-doo and the blanket of sprinkles are all p & g.
the whole morning while we were eating the delicious quiche that rogray's sister made that ended up being more like a cheese pie, p & g kept asking if it was time for cake.
when it finally was it was very hard to contain them:
he was so excited he had to be restrained! these two were uncontrollable:
after the addicts had their sweet, sweet chocolate hit:
p & g wanted to take some pictures. . .here is their work:
rogray:
me:
after all of the hub-bub at rogray's sister's we bid adieu to his family and went to go get rogray a suit because he's 30 and didn't have one and, well, it was time. you'll see pictures of rogray's suit when we get back from the wedding we are going to this weekend so i'll move on to the final surprise. . .what could it be?
he got to see lincoln, spend time with his family. . .what's left? oh! i know! his friends!!!!
i had told rogray on wednesday that i wanted to do a date night on saturday but really i had gotten 10 of his besties together for a surprise dinner. now for some reason this surprise is the one that made me the most nervous and anxious and it showed because rogray figured it out saturday afternoon because i got stressed about time!! arrrrrgh. . .
but he couldn't have guessed that everyone would be wearing bithday hats with the picture in the post below on the them:
pardon my photography -- a: it was dark and b: i got drunk immediately.
these two came down from connecticut for this shin-dig:
me and mr. mo:
he's sad because his wife is in vermont writing stuff -- we both miss her but i was too drunk to acknowledge my sorrow.
me and the lumberjack:
is every picture of me at my wedding going to be that face? i need to practice just smiling. . .seriously.
people got silly pretty quickly:
i was sitting across from the acupuncturist and spent the majority of the night trying to get a picture of her:
i took, like, 12. . .rogray spent some time at the other end of the table with the critic and the politician and their g-frys and was there when his gorgeous cake arrived:
that's india, the chef of paninoteca where we had the soiree -- she was amazing and so sweet and i can't say enough good things about her.
rogray took a second to think of a wish and admire the beautiful cake:
and BAM:
wish granted!
and that was it. . .we had some cake grabbed one last drink with the last guests and then went home and passed out.
it was amazing how willing everyone was to participate in all the surprises and that they were all able to keep everything a secret. i don't know how it happened but it did.
and now, rogray is officially 30. today is his first full day as a man in his 30s. how's it feel rogray?
