i'm sure many of you often ask yourselves, "gee, how can i be as cool as sami?"

thankfully, i have the answer. and it's easier than you might think!



it's a mother flipping fanny pack.



very good

you buy

ladies and gentlemen,

everything ok!
everything ok!
everything ok!
everything ok!
everything ok!
everything ok!

HOLY CRAP.

i am the summertime queen. what makes me say this, you ask? i just invented something better than ice cream. the other day i decided that one of my mangoes was getting a little too overripe, and since i wasn't ready to eat it just then, i decided to hack it to bits and freeze it. when i came to thaw out the results this evening, it had of course become a giant orange frozen block. i supposed therefore that the only reasonable way to try to eat this was in the form of a mango smoothie, and this is what happened. it's got the creamy, buttery sweetness of ice cream, except that it's vegan, the fat content is next to nothing and, because of the mango's high water content, it's way lighter on calories and sugars as well, yet somehow so very VERY satisfying. ohh, baby.

i recommend, also, that you try and use a variety of mango that's not too stringy, as the fibrous stringy bits are a real pain to blenderize.

mango ice cream

1 mango, cut into chunks and frozen until a nice firm block
1/2 cup plain soymilk
sweetner, if you must (but you really don't need it!)

first, unless you have a very powerful blender, you might want to get a good sharp knife and try to hack that frozen mango block into somewhat smaller frozen chunks. place these chunks into a blender (or hand-blender friendly dish if you, like me, have a hand-blender) and pour in soymilk. whizz until smooth and thick. spoon into a big bowl and tuck in!

because some people want to hear me make an ass of myself on talk radio:

ontario today

scroll down to wednesday's barbecue segment, about 15 minutes in. there's some interesting chitchat and talking with other folks, and then there's me.

and then there's maude.



(am i the only person who, upon hearing the words "and then there's" always mentally fills in with "maude"?)

RADIO ONE
RADIO ONE

since our television died, i've kind of got into the routine of listening to radio one during the day while i cook and sew, instead of watching star trek. (i still watch star trek on the computer, in the evenings, mind you. heaven forbid i let two days go by without watching star trek!)

anywho, i've officially transitioned from being somebody who listens to radio one, to someone who telephones radio one. so if you happened to hear some spazz on ontario today talking about cajun blackened tofu this afternoon, that was me.

(and it IS delicious.)

so last night i dreamt that i was at my dayjob, doing dayjobby things, but then david schwimmer (that's ross from friends!) was my boyfriend, and then i was being hassled by some apparent library executives who were evaluating my work skills, because david schwimmer kept being all cuddly on me while i was supposed to be working.

then some crackheads stole david schwimmer's van. if i remember correctly, it was a wood-paneled van. it was pretty much awesome, and we were pretty pissed off when some crackheads stole it.

then i woke up. i have no idea what david schwimmer had to do with anything, given that i haven't so much as thought about him in a couple of years, and never particularly gave him much thought in the gee-i-wish-he-was-my-boyfriend department.

i blame vicarious drug smokage. i guess i also blame vicarious drug smokage for the fact that i ate ice cream for the first time since forever, and even the cardboard-wafer cone it came in tasted pretty fucking wizard.

curse youuuuuuuuuuuuuu, internets! i shouldn't be buying things. i know very well that i should not be buying things. i am being dispatched on an academic cross-country adventure OF AWESOME, and, while this will bode well for my CV (in desperate need of some more padding) it doesn't bode so fabulously for my pocketbook.

therefore, internet, i must protest. please to be stopping making me look at things like this:




since it is obvious to resist their lovely plaid charms OF AWESOME.

sigh.

this is my favourite recipe for potato salad. i loosely adapted this recipe (with a good many tweaks, of course) from a wonderful french cookbook some time ago, the result being a strange french-swedish-hungarian hybrid that i can hoover a six-serving bowlful in the space of time it takes to watch an episode of star trek: voyager. i like to use new potatoes when they're in season in ontario and have that wonderful creepy-looking skin that falls off with a good scrub. failing that, i'm also quite fond of the creamy texture of red potatoes, but whatever your favourite potato is will do. a mix of white and blue potatoes makes for a really visually interesting salad, too.

thus:

pommes de terre en salade

serves six (or less, depending on just how voracious you are)

1 1/2 - 2 pounds potatoes (unpeeled if new and tender-skinned, peeled if older)
2 tbsp white wine vinegar (or just plain old white vinegar, if that's what you've got handy)
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 handful each fresh chives, parsley and dill, chopped
salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

boil the potatoes in lightly salted water until soft but not mushy. drain and transfer to a bowl. while the potatoes are still warm, toss with vinegar, and leave to cool a little. once the potatoes are approaching room temperature, add the olive oil, chives, parsley and dill, tossing to combine. season to taste with salt and pepper. et voilà!

*and another thing: if you prefer your potato salad dressing to be a little bit creamy, feel free to add a tablespoon or two of sour cream or plain yogurt to the dressing. it's pretty flipping awesome too.

woohooooooooo

so i decided to see what would happen if i held a fisheye lens



up to the lens of my colorsplash



and it actually came out pretty awesome.