Copycat Cocktail

Somehow, by being disgustingly lucky, I have managed to develop a rather snooty palate. This is particularly true in terms of my drinking style.  No matter what the liquid is, the more expensive it is, the more it attracts me.  I love those stupid minted waters, the fancy teas, microbrews with strange flavors, fancy wines, and pretty much anything with bubbles in it.  If it’s foreign or imported?  Even more alluring.

So when I go out on the town to drink, I’m always looking for something that I can’t make at home myself.  I have one expensive drink and I nurse it as long as possible, for as I’ve said before, I’m pretty much broke off my ass.  The old saying “champagne tastes on a beer budget” is very, very true for me at this stage in my life.  But that doesn’t get rid of the craving for expensive things.  That’s where friends and family with kitchen toys come to the rescue.

Nerd Cocktail

I am kind of nerdtastic.  In high school I was in sciencey activities and band, dabbled in Bollywood watching and more pertinently to this post, anime.  My brother was really in to Japanese culture – studying the language, did a short study abroad program there, the works, so there was always a steady influx of anime in our house (later dorama as well).  Leo acted as a filter for me.  He would watch the bulk of the shows and then pass on whatever he thought I’d like.  I did the same for him with fantasy novels, so we were good.

One of the shows he passed on to me was a kid’s show about a detective school, because I am a huge fan of mysteries and the detective novel.  And so my equally nerdtastic friend Victoria and I started in on Tantei Gakuen Q or Detective Academy Q.

Kyu with his skunk patch.

We will eat what we will, THANK you.

A few months ago, freshly graduated and unemployed, I spent several days laying around waiting for my friends to get back in town or someone to please please please call me back for an interview to some menial job or another.  Needless to say, I ended up watching a lot of TV, especially since it was pouring down rain the entire time.  Eventually, I ran out of good TV to watch and began flipping through the On Demand menu and fell to a low I never thought I’d reach: multiple episodes of MTV’s 16 and Pregnant.

During this onslaught of mind-numbing programming it suddenly occurred to me that every single one of my good friends had managed to escape this fate – we were all baby-free college graduates.  And suddenly my heart swelled with pride.  As invitations for weddings and baby showers began to clog my mailbox, I started to think.  Shouldn’t we also be celebrating our own, non-marketed brand of good fortune?  I needed a party to cleanse my palate of congratulatory Hallmark cards.

Thus: the Thank GOD I’m Not Pregnant Party.

It's hard to find favor boxes for a party like this. Dutch mints and condoms go well together, though.

Seattle Edible Book Festival – Not so pretty, but pretty tasty!

Thanks to a tiny thumbnail sized ad in The Stranger, the free weekly newspaper in Seattle, my friend Michelle and I stumbled onto a festival seemingly made for us: the Seattle Edible Book Festival.  For the subset of us who are both bookfiends and foodies, there is a festival where you bring a scene of a book to live or something nice and punny – as long as it’s all edible.

We were in.  After flipping through our bookshelves, we settled on Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel for the sheer sensuality of its food-related writing and The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri because it’s one of Michelle’s favorite books.  In the first case, we wanted to bring to light the subject of the second chapter, where the protagonist weeps into the cake for the wedding of her lover…to her sister.  We went for puns in the second case, making Jhumpa Lumpias with a Namé Sake Cocktail (revised to a mocktail for the family friendliness of the festival).  You can find us on their Flickr stream here.

Edible Book Artists!

Feeling pretty cocky, we began to plot and to cook.

Lavender loveliness lies in my liquor

This past summer I went to the Annual Lavender Festival in Sequim, Washington.  We toured farms, ate overpriced fair food, smelled soaps and soups of lavender, and sometimes just frolicked.

So beautiful, so fragrant...so tasty?

Being me, I bought a giant bag of culinary lavender and instantly started dreaming up various ways to use it.  When I got home, I realized I had bought probably way more than I could use (a full mason jar), but instead of giving into despair, I threw myself recklessly into the challenge.