so, i'm thinking i might blog again more regularly

At least as long as Mom is saying, "you should food blog that! Why don't you food blog that?"

I also don't want to stop blogging on this site, and I don't want to double-post my content (I'm a lazy bum). So I'll do my best to give you sign posts when the other site has content.

Right now, it does. Brought to you by my mother who wants all my recipes written down somewhere which is easy to access. I'm sure everyone loves pesto, even more than they love parfaits. So check it out. http://artmajorese.wordpress.com/

Love,
Mackenzie

Mom reminded me that I haven't posted since May.
Well I have! Really! But just on my food blog. My wanna-be food blog.
artmajorese.wordpress.com.

Knock yourselves out over there for the time being.

weren't we necessary to the earth?

Putting fingers to keyboard or pen to paper is never so hard as when I have just hammered out a (potentially good) idea. But at the same time I feel obligated to keep the flow of production coming as much as I can once I start something.

Maybe that's a fallacy.

In any case, I graduated yesterday -- well, I walked at Commencement. I suppose I would have regretted it had I not gone, but I'm mostly happiest about the time we spent with friends in the Grantham area on that day. We didn't get home until around 2, I think -- and go figure we've been exhausted ever since.

I've decided to make this one of my goals before I get into grad school -- to catch up on all the poetry books I've been given or earmarked for reading that I've pushed aside in favor of more "productive" or easier reading. And also to catch up on some of the writings of artists. I have a book of modern art theory which is basically what artists ranging from Cezanne to Andy Warhol said about the purpose of art. Never had time to read it in college, and I think it might be a good place to start my post-college learning process.

So if I find anything particularly awesome, I'll post it here. Well, as much as I can without infringing on copyright. =)

Ooh, also, we had the first tomato of the season last week! Greg found a homegrown tomato at the farmer's market and brought one home. I'm going to melt with happiness when we can find cucumbers and tomatoes galore at market.

and the soul is a bride in a still place

-- Sylvia Plath

Well, today has been an adventure. I found out a girl at work was fired yesterday. And I also found out that I will be picking up full time hours sometime soon to help make up for her absence. And someone else will be hired for the evening hours at work. I'll be glad to get rid of the evenings hours, I think, even though they haven't started yet, but I'm also a bit in shock about seeing the girl go. Surprised and not surprised if that makes sense. The power of inertia is so great, I guess I didn't think anyone would really let her go.

I also must report to you victory on the clearing-off-my-desk front -- it is lovely to be able to work there. I'm going to do my utmost to keep it cleared off decently. I think it makes me want to work more, to have a space for it. An attractive space.

Also, my best husband in the whole wide world is working to figure out how I can get a tiny printing press. Wouldn't that be wonderful? I would be super, crazy excited. It would be lovely.

apparently i greatly exaggerated

I have only posted 717 times on this blog, not nearly 750. Ah, well. Numbers were never my deal.

Do you want to hear a sad thing? I have already eaten all of my Easter candy. It is not even a full month later! I am a candy fiend. Also, apparently I am getting old. Sitting cross-legged or with my legs tucked up under me is no longer comfortable. It makes my hips hurt and my legs go numb in about seven seconds.

It's been raining for about four days now, and very overcast. Thank goodness! I've never been so excited about rain! It means that at the creperie, no one wants to sit outside, and at my marketing job, no one wants to call to have the outside of their house painted. Woot woot! I hope it is rainy ALL SPRING! Keep your fingers crossed.

I am looking WILDLY forward to having this Sunday off and to having ALL WEEKEND off for two weeks after that. It will be rad! We will party! We will rock out!

(When I fall asleep at 8:30 p.m. on Friday, the instant I step out of the car from work, I'll have Greg take a picture and upload it here so you can have a chuckle.)

Oh, that brings me to the other part of my life that will be changing. Starting next Monday, I'll be working 3-8 p.m. on MWF. Which, quite frankly, SUCKS. But in June, I will only have to work 3-8 on Mondays and Fridays. Which is mildly better. MILDLY.

Yes, O Complain-O Tron, I live spout misery on my blog.

Really, things are not bad. I am just tired from working the last ten days in a row and looking at the next three days knowing I will have to work all of them. But now it is only three. So that is a win. And I get two whole weekends off later this month. So that is a win, too.

But still keep your fingers crossed that it rains for the next three months so my life is more sane.

so let's ride bikes into the sea

I know, I know, I should update more than once a month, right? It seems that part of the difficulty of graduating is creative frustration induced by massive laziness. And that includes feeling like I don't have anything thoughtful or interesting to say. But Grandma said she liked my hummus recipe -- so my last post was a win! And after nearly 700 blog posts, I'm too stubborn to just stop updating altogether. I mean, that's an investment.

Anyway. It's rainy but warm here today, and I'm going to work seven days this week and six next week so essentially YUCK. I'm also moving to some evening hours at the marketing company next week, so. . . well, I'm not very happy with my job right now.

What I am happy with is our home-made yogurt from the yogurt-maker we got for the wedding! It is delicious. With Greg's home-made granola and some canned peaches from Suzanna, it is like the ultimate summer breakfast. Pretty sure when strawberries and blueberries come out, I'm gonna be in heaven.

So keep praying for fruit. We've had enough rain!

the ultimate hummus recipe, ever.

Hummus always sounds better in the abstract. College hummus? Oh sure, a great idea to satisfy the vegetarians out there. But the result? Lackluster. It just doesn’t have a lot of flavor, good or otherwise. Grocery store hummus? Not bad. Too garlicky for comfort. Husband’s former roommate’s homemade hummus? Too much lemon and parsley. And those of us who do not live in New York City might have some trouble finding tahini to put in it (what the heck is tahini anyway? Anyone? My best guess is that it has something to do with sesame).

But it’s a protein-filled, theoretically healthy snack. Especially if you scoop it with carrots and celery. So yesterday I set out to make my own version. My own version that is free of bizarre ingredients like tahini and as cheap as possible (my secret? Look in the international foods aisle, where chickpeas and sesame oil are often much cheaper).

And you know what? It is a massive win. So simple and so delicious. It is so awesome (and such a representation of my “that doesn’t sound right so I'll make it up instead” cooking attitude) that I’m thinking of naming it after myself. Because that’s not egotistical at all.

But seriously. You will love its earthy, almost smoky flavor, especially when dipped with fresh veggies or paired with some fresh light herbs like parsley. And you will never go back to grocery-store, college, or any other hummus recipe again. And that’s a fact.

Mackenzie’s Hummus:

1/2 cup olive oil

3 garlic cloves

1/2 tsp. salt

2 cans chickpeas, drained

1 Tbsp. sesame oil

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

1/2 can burgandy olives

Blend together, being careful not to crap up your blender. Stir frequently with a spatula, adding more olive oil as necessary to create a smooth-blended paste.

Other alternatives to the olives would be adding a handful of fresh parsley or a handful of toasted pine nuts (can’t wait to try that one, but we ran out of pine nuts after making Pine Nut Porridge — which, despite being called a porridge, is delicious). Or some pimiento. Or some roasted red peppers (if you roast them yourself, you will be a happy human. But it will take you more time). I also want to see if basil or mint tastes any good in hummus. As soon as we have fresh herbs. If you have any other ideas, leave me a comment. This summer, I am going to go hummus-freaking-crazy.

a what now? a count up?

Graduating was so weird. I literally had no idea how to spend my time, especially when I was looking for a job. And after I found a job, I came home and read books and played video games and watched TV and felt vaguely bored and miserable.

But after several months of not knowing what to do with my life, I am happy to find out that after I get home from work one of the first things I consistently want to do is do art. It's just enjoyable. I do all those other slacker-face things, too, as well as occasionally the dishes, I cook good dinners. . . and I also do art. For fun. Because I like it and that's how I want to spend my time. Wow. You know what this means?

I didn't produce art for all the scary professors standing over my shoulder all four years of college. I did it because of me.

In other words, I went into the art major for the right reasons, and that major gave me valuable tools to enhance the quality and viability of what I do for fun anyway. Gone are the days of throwing a temper tantrum because my tree drawing looks rather more like a stalk of mangled celery. It looks rather like a tree, so I'm satisfied.

Art is maybe even. . . a vocation?

So I'm no longer afraid I'll be one of those art-school casualties who either (a) had all the fun kicked out of creativity by school or (b) will stop working within a year after graduation for some combination of reasons.

Now I'm only worried that (c) I'll get too complacent with a life where I can earn a living with something dumb and make art on the side or (d) it will get too hard to take my art seriously in the real-world atmosphere and it will become a hobby, without any bones or honesty or strength in it.

The moral of the story is, to celebrate my productivity/ensure that I don't slack off, I'm going to start a count-up. Like all my count downs but in reverse. I am going to count up 24 months in which I do not stop making art for more than a week at a time. (Except that I am still going to count my unemployed post-college month, where I did literally nothing but sit on the couch and read and hunt for jobs, for morale reasons and because I think I genuinely deserved a break.)

Also, I hope I get accepted into a grad school within those 24 months. In which case the count-up will change into a count-down to graduation again. =)

Count-up -- three months.

lancaster, pa: where the organic chicken is the same price as the giant-brand chicken.

No lie. Greg just informed me that he buys our organic chicken from a stand in the middle of Central Market for about $3 a pound, the same as I spent today at Giant. So. . . a whole organic, grass-fed chicken for $12? Or four pounds of souped-up antibiotic- and steroid-laced chicken for $12?

For the past year and a half, we’ve been trying to create a diet for ourselves that’s healthy and as local and organic as possible. We knew that commitment might mean spending more on groceries than normal — but with vegetables and fruits, locally produced, organically produced, and affordable seem to go hand in hand. The problem has always been meat and dairy, and we resorted to not eating much of the former rather than exceeding our budget. Since we moved to Lancaster two months ago, we’ve been buying whole, organic chickens as a special treat, stewing them, and freezing the leftover meat to be used throughout the coming weeks. It’s been delicious. Slow-cooked chicken is my favorite. But I guess I never shook the idea that organic meat had to be more expensive than other meat, and that these chicken meals were a crazy splurge.

It turns out that they’re not! We could have them every week. (At least if Greg and I ate a whole chicken a week.)

I’m a little horrified that I bought chicken at Giant instead of this delicious, local, organic, affordable meat!

We all know I tend towards the frugal side, even when it comes to something important like the food we put in our bodies... But man what an all-around win our market chicken turns out to be.

Other recommendations in Central Market for the Frugally Minded:
Thomas Produce has organic, cage-free eggs for $2.50 a dozen. And homegrown potatoes for cheaper than any of those stands selling regular old Idahos that got shipped across the country. Bet you there’s no salmonella in any of their produce!

Also: today I successfully acquired a Pennsylvania driver's license, and it only took me half an hour of sitting and waiting around. Maybe Pennsylvania isn't filled with retards after all! Although their drivers licenses sure are ugly. . .

ooh, ooh! first post-grad revelation?

Today I came home from work and got really excited about making things. I started making baked oatmeal because our last few pieces went moldy. Then I thought, I'll just tackle that stupid fifth pumpkin that's been taking up half our shelf all year. Then I realized I don't have anything to take to work for breakfast tomorrow, so I make chocolate chip scones.

Why is it that I can't come home from work and be that motivated to go draw or do artwork?

Well, the kitchen is my favorite room of most houses. Granted, ours has NOT ENOUGH counter space, it's tiny, but it gets great afternoon light, it's far from the TV, and it's a radically different environment than I've been in for the rest of the day. And kitchen time is "me" time. I claim it as necessary and good time to take care of myself, to take my time and reflect, to make something delicious to feed my body with (and Greg, too). It somehow suits both my contemplative needs, my need to stake a claim to home somewhere, and my achiever needs (I tell you, I get stuff DONE in the kitchen. Except dishes).

Also it smells good when I have been baking, and I do not have to walk so far to get a snack! It is basically the perfect situation.

So I decided, why fight it? The kitchen is my best room. I'ma just draw out here. So I lugged all my stuff into the kitchen and spread out on the floor and started working with some music and some pumpkin bread with cream cheese on top.

Perfect.

send your pumpkin recipes express

Well, my lovelies, I haz a job. I actually haz 2 jobs. One is a job on Saturdays where I am a waitress. That one is kind of blah. The other job is the one where I work for a marketing company and man the phones, proofread stuff, and make other stuff in Photoshop. That one has the potential to be pretty sweet. At the moment, though, it is only 25 hours a week (moving to 29 next week). So I can't quite tell the waitressing place that I'm quitting. But soon, perhaps. This working-six-days-a-week thing is tiring, even when it still only amounts to 40 hours a week.

Also, my Messiah e-mail address will no longer be valid as of tomorrow -- so send your e-mails to my new address! Namely one kenzie.j.m at gmail.com. Of course, now I realize that it should really be kenzie.j.s, but changing it now would be silly and overly complicated.

Today I spent like two hours playing Zelda and didn't even feel guilty. What is this world coming to? Might I actually achieve balance in my life for at least a few short months?

Nah, that would be crazy talk.

Are you craving fresh vegetables yet? Tomatoes, sweet peas, lettuce, cucumber, zucchini. . . . ooh, and mint! I can't wait to make fresh mint tea or mint lemonade. mmmm. . . .

Once upon a time I read a book about how craving liver meant you were deficient in vitamins. Craving all these vegetables makes me wonder if I should be taking a vitamin supplement.

Oh, and do you want to hear a sad story? It is almost time for new vegetables, and we haven't even used up all the pumpkin we prepared and froze last fall! Lesson 1: 5 neck pumpkins is too much pumpkin for two people.

i will be the queen of 'i'll just throw this in here too' cooking

Like today, our celery was looking kind of sad. So I just threw it into the 40-clove garlic chicken recipe I happen to be making. Which I'm sort of adapting for slow-cooking in any case.

We are celebrating tonight! That is why we are making 40-clove chicken. I have a job! It starts on Monday! I think I will actually be able to gain marketing experience and knowledge. Woot woot for me! My labor IS worth something! They love me, they really love me!

Also, that is officially my exclamation point quota for the month.

This weekend we are going to a cabin with Greg's paternal extended family. Fun times, fun times. Last time I was so tired from school that I just fell asleep for several hours. This time I think I will manage to stay awake and have fun!

Alright my friends, enjoy the slowly-warming weather. . . . hopefully there is more of it to come!

the lancaster art collective

That's what I think we need around here. Greg found someone who graduated from Messiah whose press I can use for printmaking purposes, which is fabulous. But I still think a collective sounds like fun. Maybe Tim would let us join the Infantree, but if not, we'll come up with our own collective and make ourselves sound more official. At least that's my plan. I have yet to ask Greg. =)

It seems ironic that in the days when I have nothing much to do besides apply for jobs I can't seem to get around to blogging more. I think part of it has to do with the fact that I don't like telling the same stories more than a few times. So if I already tell a story to one person, I'm not likely to want to blog about it. And mostly I tell my stories to Greg. I suppose that's the general way a marriage is supposed to work?

I have a part-time job, on Saturdays, at a restaurant downtown that I find great fun. Basically I'm a waitress. It's nice to not have to have any kind of awesome skills besides basic organization and hand-eye coordination (although I did spill coffee on myself the first day I worked there). Go figure, my first day was on Valentine's day so we were packed.

Anyway, that's my tale from the city. Wish me luck as I try to find full-time employment before Greg is jobless!

we'll make our homes on the waters, we'll build our walls of aluminum, we'll fill our mouths with cinnamon now.

Well, the nice nails are emphatically flaking, and the honeymoon is over I suppose. It's sinking in that I won't be going home from this vacation – I really live here, and Greg really lives here and we're really married. (I could not have imagined a better wedding, by the way.)

I'm starting to realize, too, that I graduated and that now I have to find a job! I worked a half day today (if I could work from home every day it would be delightful) and Thursday and Friday I'm going in to the office to work. Then I'm done! The business office at the college somehow screwed up my W-9 form, and so I won't get paid at all until February. Which is probably fine. It'll be like I'm getting paid in a month when I don't have work. It's just also massively inconvenient.

But what honeymoon would be complete without a bit of adventure? In addition to spoiling ourselves with nice meals and a visit to Maryland, we experienced massive amounts of adventure (most of it in the last two days, actually).

We bravely sacrificed some of our craft principles and went to Wal-Mart to buy crappy shelves of particle board to put in our house. Silly us, we got the tall bookcases, however. The ones with a “safety strap” that you're supposed to pound into the wall, because the things are massively unstable. Yeah. Those bookshelves. Problem-solvers that we are, we just split them in half, though, so now we have four small shelves that hold their own instead of two big shelves waiting to clobber us.

That means the ol' homestead is looking a lot less cluttered and a lot more like home. Greg bravely tried to build a set of oak bookshelves without a single tool, not even a hammer, not even a screwdriver (my set seems to have gone mysteriously missing during the move). Needless to say, that went on hold when he discovered a few measurements that needed trimming and discovered that some power sanding was required. Um. . . yes. We're figuring that one out. Needless to say, the crappy shelves gave Greg some encouragement that yes, his set of shelves will totally be worth the time.

Yesterday, we also tried to visit Philly to use an Ikea gift card we received. We went to the library to look directions up on the internet, then headed out. An hour and a half later, when we got to the Ikea (after traveling through the decidedly sketchy part of its suburbs), we discovered that I forgot my purse at the library – with the Ikea gift card, my driver's license, and my social security card inside it, not to mention important things like my budget notebook and my day planner. All my debit cards and credit card were, thankfully, safe in my pocket.

So I panicked for a little while and got really angry and generally upset and we started to drive back. I got ahold of the library, though, and they found my purse and promised to hold it behind the desk for me. So we went BACK to Ikea to see if it was even worth a second trip once we'd recovered the gift card.

Ikea is a MAZE. And they sell every tabletop separate from legs and drawers and shelves and things. SO WEIRD. We walked around a ton. We debated for several hours about what to get. When we finally decided, we couldn't find the exit for like ten minutes.

We finally escaped the store and started the drive back to get my purse and some dinner – a full four or so hours after we started our trip.

On the way back, we mysteriously ended up in Delaware. Forty minutes south of where we belonged. So the trip back took nearly 3 hours, instead of the 1 ½ it should have.

On the plus side, when we finally got back to the library, my purse was there with all its contents intact. How lucky is that?

And then we had leftovers and were very grateful not to have to cook after a nearly 7-hour trip.

And then I remembered that it was Aaron's birthday. Woot woot for my favorite 20 year-old!

I know. It sounds so normal, doesn't it? Well, an average sort of vacation for me, anyway. Poor Greg. He didn't know what he was marrying into. =)

It's been immense fun, though, to sit and gorge on books and clean up the house and investigate Italian pastry places and cafes and used bookstores in the city. Ooh, and visit Central Market. I'll write you a whole 'nother post on Central Market. It needs one.

So until next time dear readers, I did not die in the weeks since I have posted last. I just experienced massive amounts of wedding and marriage and adventure.

and there was evening, and there was morning -- the first day.

Last night I stayed in the new apartment for the first time!

And you know what? I feel so much more happy and excited to be getting married now than when I was staying at someone else's house.

Also, Jenn is now here and telling me funny stories and offering to take things off my list -- and she actually CAN because we're in the same place so I can easily hand her documents or whatever. How lovely. I hope it doesn't mean that I'm developing Bridezilla Syndrome that I'm delighted to be delegating. I've always been taught the value of compromise and being content with what you get and working around other people's plans -- and I've been TRYING to remember that, Mom -- so when I get what I want it feels so weird. But really excellent.

And you know what? If I've been a monster, don't tell me until after my honeymoon because I really don't want to do any soul searching until then.

is it because of cold feet that the bride and groom aren't supposed to see each other before the ceremony?

Why did the caterer automatically assume that we would like our punch to match our color scheme? Is it really something people ask about on a regular basis?
Why does the garter toss traditionally involve whoever catches it putting it back on whoever caught the bouquet? And did you know the higher he puts it the longer their marriage is supposed to be? How many other people run for the bathroom when it comes time for the bouquet toss? How does "engaged" still count as single for these events? Why is the cake such a big deal? I have never even liked cake that much. And from watching the food network, it looks like most wedding cakes sit around for three days before they even get to the wedding.

While I'm at this wedding thing, I wish somebody would answer all MY questions about the ridiculous particulars involved.

Oh, also, I wish I had eloped. At one point, Greg suggested a very quiet ceremony with just us and our immediate family members, then a reception with everyone who wanted to come. I kind of wish I'd taken him up on that idea because the closer it gets to time the more nervous I get about being one of the two centers of attention for such a meaningful moment. And I'm worried that an event with so many people at it can't possibly be the intimate moment it should be, even though I know all those people and like them.

Oh, and also, I'm worried that the week before the wedding I will be a bear, a crab, a cranky old lady who will hit you with her cane. And I really should behave well since it's my wedding. But I just want someone else to take care of it for me so I can drink tea and chat with my friends and family and go on dates with Greg and be in my new apartment. And sleep. A LOT. (although I have slept 7 hours for two nights in a row, so I think I've kicked the insomnia thing for a while)

The new apartment is lovely, by the way. I'm so impressed with it I could burst. I can't believe they let us sign a lease and put stuff in there -- we're really old enough for that? Are you sure? They must be joking. Are you serious that we could start having babies in a week if we wanted? Whaaaaaaat?

Anyway. That's my update. I'm thinking that brides and their blogs shouldn't be allowed to see each other for at least a week before the wedding. =)

even breathing feels alright

Yes, even bloggers take vacation!

And what an eventful (and yet blissfully relaxing) vacation it has been. We folded tons of origami orchids. We figured out where we're going to live. We drove 27 hours. We got "pounded" (apparently in the south when a party is thrown to outfit a new couple's kitchen with food it's called a pounding). Due to too much caffeine on the way home and being in a stranger's house at night, I slept somewhere around two restless hours last night and finally got out of bed at 4:30 a.m. I came to work this morning to find 43 unread messages in my inbox.

Yes, I can already see that it's going to be one of those weeks. One of those 11-12 day periods. (Only that much time separates me from getting married?)

In other news, we are seriously in need of some plastic ice cream buckets. If you can find me some, you will be my hero.