Girly Blogs
by shoshanna
I may hate paying more than ten bucks for a shirt and live in a Wet Seal- and yardsale-based wardrobe of (deliciously) boring staples, but I really, really like fashion blog Flypaper, part of a fashion website I have never shopped at. This is one of my favorite blogs, not necessarily because of the fashion content but because it's brilliantly written and put together, and often totally hilarious. What's great about it is instead of consisting of pure aditorial, the author, Wendy, will talk about some random fashion moment and be snarky, then tack on a link to stuff to buy on the site almost as an afterthought. Great photos and juxtapositions, too.
Another blog I love that's also part of corporate pop culture is Cosmopolitan's Bedroom Blog. It's a fake blog. I think I've posted about it before. It's satisfyingly girly, juicy and fun in a way that makes up for all the personal blogs that you hope will be fun but are just long-winded explorations of the author's boring, typical neuroses. What I may not have posted before is that I found the real life blog of the lady who writes it, Jess, which has all the goofy pep of the Cosmo blog with the added bonus of being about an actual, complex person instead of the Cosmo Girl archetype. The fake blog has the bonus of being editorially prepped for readability and having a discernable plot line (it's basically Sex & the City in blog format) but the real blog is way zanier and, well, real. It's fun to read them both and watch how Jess's writing voice and elements of her real life sneak their way into the blog. If only the rest of Cosmo was that good.
Posted on July 15, 2006 | Comments (5)
My little ponytail
by shoshanna
Today I found out I can wear my hair in a ponytail again. For someone in an endless cycle of chopping off all her hair then waiting painfully for it to grow out again, that's always a special moment. Kind of like an annual holiday. It's especially good because the best kind of ponytail is right when you can just barely do it, so it's very tiny and sticks out of your head all cute. Tiny ponytail + ribbed tank top + denim item = best summer look ever.
Posted on July 10, 2006 | Comments (1)
Hot Dog, Hot Dogger, Hot Doggest
by shoshanna
Not only does Portland excel at sustainability, it breaks records with excess, too. Today I beheld with my own eyes the world's biggest hot dog. We're talking 104 feet, people. Read some of the details in this thing I wrote here (scroll to the end), and check out Mikey's eyewitness account, including picture, here. Even Sarah was excited, and she's a vegetarian.
Posted on July 7, 2006 | Comments (0)
Burritolicious
by shoshanna
Dude, I made these awesome burritos last night. They were even hippie burritos, and they were still totally grubbin'. Sometimes you are just in the mood for college town food.
I sometimes get overwhelmed by burritos because it ends up meaning pots and dishes all over the kitchen and table with the different fillings - rice cooker, beans, skillet for meat, plate of cheese, etc. Finally I was just like, well, it's going to end up in the same place anyway, so I did most of the stuff together in one pan, with rice in another pot, and tortillas in another pan, and it stayed reasonably under control.
College Hippie Burritos
Prep time: 20 minutes.
Farmhouse Mexican-style rice (not hippie, but college)
Package of tofu
Part of an onion
Frozen vegetables
Can of beans
Pepper jack cheese
Big flour tortillas
Oil of any sort
Chili powder
Garlic powder
Salt
1. Start the rice. Follow directions on package. You can leave out the butter.
2. Rinse tofu, then dump in a pan with a little oil over medium heat. Chop it with a spatula while the pan heats up. Season with chili powder, garlic powder and salt.
3. Chop some onion and throw it in with the tofu. If you have any other fresh vegetables or garlic, chop and add that.
4. While the rice and tofu cook, clean up the kitchen a little. Give the tofu a stir now and then.
5. About 5 minutes before the rice is supposed to be done, add the frozen vegetables to the tofu (I used brocolli and peas), then rinse and add the beans. You can put a lid on it so the veggies heat faster. Then slice some cheese.
6. When the rice is done, heat tortillas one by one in a big pan and add the fillings. I achieved heavenly tortillas that were just barely crisped yet still soft and malleable by letting them get hot on one side, then flipping, adding the cheese, then tofu mixture and rice, then removing just as the cheese began to melt. Maybe this is too obvious, but the tortillas this time were the best part and I thought it was worth mentioning.
7. Roll 'em up. Eat in front of the TV on the couch. We recently discovered that we get OLN with our basic cable, i.e. the all-Tour de France channel, so now we hang out at night watching TV like normal people. It rules. Especially when you are tired, hungry, and have awesome burritos. Heck yeah!
Posted on July 6, 2006 | Comments (0)