May 28, 2010

Quirk

I love Nellie McKay. I just discovered her recently, although after I downloaded Get Away from Me, I realized I'd heard a few of the songs when the album first came out.

Anyhow, after hearing this song on Fresh Air a while ago, I made it my mission to hunt it down. A smart chick singing a satire about feminism while playing the ukelele? Sign me up!

Wanna hear it? Here goes:

May 27, 2010

How Lovely to be a Woman

Jake and I had a real grown-up dinner last night. We hosted one of his colleagues and her boyfriend, and set the table with cloth napkins and everything. Like many traditional households, the meal was fixed by the (post-semester) stay-at-home spouse, while the (all-year-round) working spouse came home pretty soon before dinner started and put in the bare minimum of work before the guests arrived. Of course, in our house, Jake is the stay-at-home spouse (he works incredibly hard most of the year, but he's in that post-semester, pre-summer work limbo right now) and I'm the all-year-working spouse. And. He's the better cook.

At one point after dessert, conversation turned to old cookbooks and the recipes inside. Jake pulled out his copy of Joy of Cooking, from 1964--a wedding gift to his parents--which boasts recipes for, amongst other things, squirrel. Complete with a "how to skin" guide, and tips on which kind of squirrel is best. (Hint: red squirrels are gamey.) The book has no pictures and is almost didactic, but it's very utilitarian and still pretty modern, even though its first printing was in the 1930s.

On the opposite end of the aesthetic spectrum is my favorite old cookbook, the 1961 edition of the Betty Crocker Cookbook. God, this thing is wonderful. I first fell in love with it at my in-laws', when my mother-in-law showed me the recipe she uses for cinnamon rolls. After coming back to the DC area, I set to work getting myself a copy. I found out--pretty unceremoniously--that a mint-condition copy could run you $400. I decided I wouldn't spend more than $45. So, to eBay I went, and after losing out on four auctions, I finally got myself a copy for $42, plus shipping.

Here's the thing. I'm sure this book has some pretty awesome recipes that really stand up to the test of time. But I haven't been able to get myself past the layout, the pictures, the amazingly awe-inspiring early-1960s-ness of the whole thing. It's I Love Lucy, it's Mad Men. I'm obsessed with the whole thing of it.

I have a nascent collection of etiquette books (both the modern kinds like Kate Spade's Manners and Occasions and eBay-ed ones like 1921's two-volume Book of Etiquette) and other volumes on femininity and what it means to be a woman. The current crown of my collection is 1846's The Young Mother.

As a third-wave feminist, I grew up with the Barbie slogan "We girls can do anything," and I'm fascinated by eras in which we couldn't even try. I constantly struggle with my love for the trappings of traditional feminism, and have been asked more than once how I can be a feminist and wear lipstick; how I can be a feminist and want to be a mother; how I can be a feminist and wear an apron. (The short answer: 'cause feminism is about choice, and that's what I choose!) But still, I try to reconcile my admiration of the past with a look toward the future. And it's hard sometimes. I have to continue to think about it.

All that said, enjoy some of the details from the 1961 Betty Crocker Cookbook after the jump...while I watch pretty people dance on TV!

May 23, 2010

This Weekend's Fresh Buys


I had an extremely successful day at the Fenton Street Market yesterday, starting with...a Scavenger Hunt win! Every week, the Market's Powers That Be hide a few items in various booths, and if you find one, you get to keep it. I, having never won anything since the Precious Moments figurine at my grandmother's Bingo game when I was seven (picture this for a second: a room full of seventy-year-old Jews vying over a Precious Moments figurine), usually don't even look for the scavenger hunt items.

But! Yesterday, my friend Debbie dragged me into a yarn booth. I have nothing against yarn, I just find knitting to be too math-centric and repetitive. So, while Debbie talked to the woman behind the spinning wheel--which was, admittedly, extremely cool--I zoned out looking at the pretty colors of yarn on the table. My eyes scanned up and down the rows of skeins, until I saw it...

The jar of Lana Bella Simpler Summer Days Tea! I was so excited!

(More excitement after the jump...I'm pretty enthused about the great stuff I got yesterday.)

May 16, 2010

To Dye For

The closest I ever come to doing anything scientific in my every day life--other than writing lesson plans--is dying my hair. I always feel like a mad scientist when I'm mixing the chemicals together, wearing the latex gloves, and watching the liquids turn from white to dark purple (usually). And so, as I sit here with the contents of a bottle of Feria on my head (a brand I haven't used in the better part of a decade), I'm thinking about the choice to be a redhead.

I'm a natural brunette, and I do think my natural hair color is pretty cute. I can't remember when I got my first set of highlights--maybe around 15? I do remember sitting in the chair at my salon, with a plastic cap on my head, having my hair pulled through tiny little holes with a pick. Or whatever. Tiny little blonde streaks in my hair. Totally '90s.

Right after I graduated from high school, I got the one and only trendy haircut of my life: sliced to right below my chin (necessitating serious blow-drying), thick bleached-out sections, then the whole head dyed red, amounting to three two-inch streaks of fire-engine red on each side of my head. The rest of my hair was very dark. Essentially the same color Courteney Cox had in Scream 2, except I did it first. I swear. Still, totally '90s.

And thus began my love affair with red hair.

My first home-dye was on the floor of my dorm room, freshman year, with my friend Kim working the L'Oreal magic. I've only gotten my color done in a salon once or twice since then; a stylist actually told me once that I was doing a pretty good job myself, and I didn't need someone else to do it for me. I turned my hair every shade of red imaginable, from strawberry blonde to fire-engine red to so-red-it's-black (which was my hair color when I met Jake).

When I hit 25, I decided to go blonde, which really only meant light reddish, since (to my surprise, for some reason), it's nigh-on impossible to get red dye out of your hair. Then, at 27, I decided I would never-ever-ever dye my hair again, and instead, would be happy with myself the way I was born, and embrace being a brunette.

Then, I turned thirty. And I realized I like dying my hair; I like being a redhead. And so, back to red it was. I'm trying for the slow transition. I went from brunette to dark auburn to lighter auburn, and now, as I sit with my head marinating, it's even redder. And I feel more me.

Have I doomed my life to box after box of chemistry sets drying my hair out? Probably. Or, I'll do like my mom and highlight my way into graying "naturally." But, for now, I'm happy to be amongst the ranks of Rita Hayworth, Lucille (McGillicutty Ricardo) Ball, Molly Ringwald, Julianne Moore, and, my hair idol since the late nineties:

Willow Rosenberg.

May 14, 2010

Food to Swap By

ThirtyFlirtyFab brings you...The much-anticipated...Recipes from last weekend's clothing swap! The party was a success for many reasons, but if I do say so myself (which I do...) I really outdid myself with the food.

Like I've said before, Jake is really the cook in the family. I can put together a mean salad, but I've been stretching myself recently with the cooking thing. The goal is to cook dinner about once a week--something that doesn't happen as often as it should during busy-at-work times like I've had recently. I do enjoy cooking--and I really enjoy eating--but I get nervous sometimes when it comes to making a meal. Something about putting ingredients together makes me squeamish sometimes...I'm not sure what.

Anyway, when I decided to have this party, I thought I'd go beyond making a cheese plate and actually attempt a full-table buffet with substantial party food. I wanted to make some things I was comfortable, and some new items. So, out came my recipe binder, and Cook's Illustrated's The Best Make-Ahead Recipe book. The party took place during cocktail hour, so I made strategic choices in food and drink. I was excited about how good everything tasted, and I'm definitely adding a couple of items to my repertoire!

Recipes after the jump...

May 12, 2010

I Feel Pretty...

In light of my sartorial distraction, I made a now-year's resolution. (OK, the term's not great--although it's growing on me--but you get the point!) I decided that I'm not allowed to have anything in my closet that doesn't make me feel good. If I put something on, stare at myself in the mirror, and have to ask whether or not I look good, that item shouldn't be in my closet.

That's all well and good to say, right? But on a non-profit budget, how to make it happen? As I've discovered, I have a specific aesthetic to which I gravitate, but how can I actually make it happen without blowing the bank? These were questions I thought hard about while I cleaned out my closet, and put a garbage bag-and-a-half full of clothes, shoes, and accessories in the corner of my bedroom. (Of course, the fact that I share a bedroom with Jake gave me more of a push to get rid of that garbage bag; he shouldn't have to live with my clothing cast-offs!)

And then I had the a-ha moment: why not host a clothing swap?? I've been to a couple, but never hosted one myself. It seemed like the perfect solution. I could get rid of my clothes, hopefully get some new ones for free, give a bunch of clothes to charity, and give my friends an opportunity to get rid of their own cast-offs. Plus, it would give me a chance to play hostess and practice making party food. (But that's another post.)

So, it was! I had my swap on Sunday (and invited my mom, so I could toast her on Mother's Day). I cooked, I prepped, I bought booze. I collected clothes from friends who couldn't attend, and laid them out in the living room with my clothes before my guests arrived so they could go "shopping" right away. I made a mix on my iPod. I poured myself a glass of sparkling rose, and I was ready.

Major success! They came, they "shopped," we swapped. Friends came with tote bags, garbage bags, gift bags, and rolling suitcases. They went home with earrings, pants, dresses...and one friend even left with a gorgeous area rug! And my mom took twelve or so bags home with her, to donate to The House of Ruth. And I must say...I made out like a bandit. :) I feel like my wardrobe has been rejuvenated. (And I'm continuing my streak of feeling pretty...honestly and truly pretty...for a week and a half straight.)

Of course, one of the hallmarks of a successful shopping trip (free, second-hand, or otherwise) is that you can incorporate your new finds into your existing wardrobe. Some of the outfits I've worn, and some I can't wait to wear, after the jump...