history of THAT cookie!

OK. I love food. I love food history. I love vintage cookbooks.

But how do I feel about this? I'm not so sure. While I would love to know where the hell we got some of the food we eat, and I would be happy to tell you how Campbell's cream of mushroom soup became a staple in 'American' cooking (but only if you have an hour), this is a scooch over the top, me thinks.

http://justinsomnia.org/2009/01/melt-in-the-mouth-cookies-a-brief-history/

OED Word of the day

Today's word of the day from The Oxford English Dictionary: "purvey"

I worked in the food industry for 5 years before I learned it was spelled 'purveyor'. I thought it was 'proveyer'. As in provide. But I never had enough confidence so I just used used 'vendor'.

If only my writing were legible...

This would be so cool - but only if I could read my own writing :)

http://www.fontifier.com/

I'm Back!!

In an effort to do a few things (conveniently listed below), I have decided to put more of an effort back into this blog.

I intend to:

• stop spamming my mom (as well as others) and filling up their inboxes with weird random stuff
  
• write more (I love it!)
• do something more productive with the endless hours I spend sitting in front of a computer (... after a long day at work also sitting in front of a computer. something is not right here)

This means more fun! Excitement! Recipes! Pictures! Not too many of my dog, though I promise! And a potential site overhaul to...well....update the thing a bit.

new faves, new phone

As it has been quite an odd time for me in my personal life, I am noticing some changes...

For one thing - I am addicted to the dehydrated strawberries from Trader Joe's. For a long time it was the mangoes, but now it is most definitely the strawberries. It's as if you purchased a box of overpriced healthy fruity cereal of some kind, and picked out all the strawberries and put them in a bag. It's wonderful. It may be the fact that I dump them in a bowl of Tapioca pudding (also courtesy of TJ's). I think for my next trick I'm going to mix them in the pudding and then freeze the whole thing....

And! I'm getting the new iPhone!! Yay!! July 11th can't come soon enough... GPS, iPod, phone, email, internet bliss here I come!

**Currently Addicted to:

Burger Shop. It's just SO addictive...

My Life as a Musical

Not sure why, but my life is a bit of a musical at the moment. I was recently introduced to possibly (as my friend 'The Pants' puts it) THE BEST guerrilla-style indie musical EVER. While you may or may not have heard of Colma (the place or the movie - like how I did that?), I can not get the catching tunes out of my head and I absolutely adore it.

To top that, I was listening to NPR on the way home from work yesterday, and the Swell Season were being interviewed on Fresh Air. Which made me remember another current favorite movie of mine : Once.

Oh so very very good.

**OUCH**

Yes - that is the sound of me filing my taxes. While it may seem like pennies to some, I owed the government $1300. Which I just paid. I am seriously wondering how I am going to eat until payday...

On February 13th, 2008, our glorious government passed an economic stimulus package to 'stimulate' the economy. I believe the exact words were 'to give it a shot in the arm'. Does that metaphor sound odd to anyone else? As if the people passing it have a frightening familiarity with intravenous substances? Anyway, I filed my taxes today and found out that lo and behold! (all rise Hoyt Axton fans!) I qualify for the full $600 rebate provided in this package.

The point of this stimulus package is to give people 'free money' that's not taxable that they will go out and spend, therefore boosting the economy. I get why it's a cash rebate, and not a tax credit. BUT - what if the fact that I just practically cleared out my checking account to pay the taxes makes me unable to pay for food and therefore starve to death before I get that check? OR what if I have to go in to debt to survive until I get the check and I end up relying on the government for help in the meantime? Wouldn't have just made more sense (and be cheaper, too) to give a break on taxes? If I didn't have to pay so much in taxes, I'd be much freer to go out and spend money and **gasp!** boost the economy!

Somehow I know Bush is to blame....

oh yeah - I'm getting taxed to pay for the war in Iraq, and not basic government provided services. That then mean there are a lot more people unable to get what they need, and the become reliant on what few government services are still available to them. Which then means that I pay more in taxes to support them. which means......

And thus I have become one of those ranting people.

And wait! Don't my taxes pay for he economic stimulus package? Or did they get private investors for that?