Twenty Random Opinions And A Poll
Let's start with the poll:
I'd like to hear from lots of you on whether or not you keep a recipe box in your kitchen. If you have one, do you use it? Do you add to it? If not, have you thought about it?
I have been thinking it would be so great to copy down my most used recipes from my recipe books, the new recipes I come up with, and to put friends' recipes in a box on my kitchen counter. I have over forty cook books and almost all of them contain a few recipes that have become such standards for me that the pages they're printed on are speckled with puckers from water, sauce, and other mysterious ingredients carelessly brought near my book. The thing is, it would be easier to pull out a card from a file than to drag out my book to get more dirty. My mom had a recipe box and I dearly wish she had kept it so I could use the same one. I do have a treasured recipe card from it for my mom's tamale pie. I would like to find a pretty and cool metal recipe box, could a cool box be made? Should I try to produce one to sell in my store with cool recipe cards?
Now for twenty random opinions:
Disclaimer: Many of my opinions center around fashion and it's super important to remember that while I am chalk full of opinions, my hair right now is only fit to show off in the White House or to break bread with Tammy Faye, I consistently wear knee length pants whether or not they look good on me (they often don't), and I have seven of the same shirt so I can wear one every single day. I am hardly a fashion trend setter or any kind of authority...(partly because of my size)...so when I diss the ever popular "skinny pants" you go right ahead and wear them with pride and don't be offended. I'm pretty sure you'd feel the same way about my knee length pants.
1. No one looks good in "skinny jeans", ironically the people who look the worst in them are skinny people. I especially hate the low rider ones.
2. I absolutely cringe when writers in fashion magazines say "a slick of lip gloss". It sounds raunchy and repulsive in a Bukowski way or like a bad oil spill on the ocean.
3. It annoys me when the magazines are always advising women to emphasize either their lips or eyes, but not both. Always they suggest keeping "balance", if you go crazy on the accessories, then wear something really understated. Jesus! Every person who has ever become a fashion icon has not followed such idiotic advice. If you want to go to a stuffy meeting at a bank, maybe that's good advice. If you want to make your mark, if you want to be remembered and admired- you blaze a trail doing what no one else is doing, or isn't doing well, you knock 'em dead with gorgeous smokey eyes AND red lips. Hello, Marilyn was always over the top. Ditto Madonna, David Bowie, Coco Chanel, Jean Harlow...need I go on? I have a passion for reading fashion magazines and I NEVER EVER follow their advice. Ever.
4. I don't trust women who say they generally don't get along with other women, or that they just aren't comfortable hanging out with other women. It tells me one really important thing about them: they are uncomfortably flirty with all men. That's almost always guarunteed to make other women not trust you or like you. I think it's great to be comfortable hanging out with both men and women, but I can't imagine living life without the comraderie, the close friendships, and the support of my girlfriends.
5. It confounds me (and kind of depresses me) when people say they wish they could be sixteen again. It also kind of makes me want to hit them.
6. I'm convinced that Paris Hilton is actually a twisted figment of my imagination. Someone that uninteresting, untalented, and who compares themselves to Marilyn Monroe can't possibly really exist.
7. Ennui is so endlessly unattractive on people.
8. I thinks it's super cool that Prince Charles is a huge advocate for organic farming and was instrumental in banning the use of GMO's in Brittain. I couldn't be more surprised to find there's anything admirable about him. I also think it's pretty cool that he keeps his own organic garden as well as sponsoring the country-wide enthusiasm for re-planting historic kitchen gardens.
9. I resent having to share my name with a celebrity as crazy and unethical as Angelina Jolie. I don't care how much she is involved in helping the orphanages around the world...she's still unstable and creepy and I don't like any woman who makes a habit of stealing husbands and boyfriends from other women (hello, she took Billy Bob from Laura Dern, and then Brad from Jennifer...that's a habit). Plus, I don't understand how people think it's so wonderful that she's going to have eighteen children to haul around the world with her. That's eighteen children to be messed up by her. She should have been named Candy, or Cherry, or how about Sissy?
10. There are very few designer hand-bags I don't hate. That's right, the only ones I like are Kate Spade's, and...oops, there's no "and". That's it. I loathe all those floppy leather carcass-like bags covered in fringe, buckles, logos, and all manner of other seriously unattractive embellishments.
11. I can't believe women are wearing rabbit fur vests again. I can't believe they ever did.
12. I loathe, really LOATHE Jimmy Choo and Laboutin shoes. Women think they are so sexy in them and I know I'm not a man, and men like their women to look like they might topple at any moment, but I just don't believe women look good or sexy in strappy shoes with four inch spikes for heels. Toes hanging out...the whole thing is just yuck. I prefer 1940's style wedges, mary janes, any heel with curve and substance. Any shoes from pre-dawn up through the forties are good. In fact, I love boots. Work boots.
12. It would make me so happy to see our country rise up in a huge anti-Walmart revolution in which every damn last one of them is razed to the ground.
13. I am always annoyed when people say they don't like something just because everyone else does. Sometimes there's a good reason why everyone likes something. Except for Jimmy Choos, obviously. I just think that something's popularity is a dumb reason to dislike it.
14. I am always suspicious of people who claim to be incurious about other people.
15. I think Dorothy Sayers needs to come back to life and write more books.
16. Catherine Zeta Jones and David Bowie should both have left their teeth alone. They now both look like they have dentures. Wait, maybe they do...
17. Antibiotic soaps and cleaners are evil and unsafe. I think it should be considered child abuse to wipe your children down with knarly chemical soaked "cloths" which will most likely never biodegrade (you know, they make wipes not soaked in Lysol or Clorox that are much less toxic), or to wipe your counters down with Lysol before cooking them food. It's not a mystery to me how come so many people are getting environmental illnesses and dying of cancer and how come viruses and bacterias are getting more and more vicious. Good old soap and water get rid of all the germs necessary.
18. I have done things that other people would consider child abuse too, like let Max play with real garden tools when he was eighteen months old. I also let him live upstairs in our attic when he was four and a half...he had to climb a ladder to get to it. (This was at our last house) I can defend this decision but I'm not going to right now. (Just so everyone knows: he never fell or even almost fell.)
19. I am afraid of buffets. Not afraid of eating food from them, just afraid of getting in line and filling up my plate as I go down the line. Philip, because he is such a wonderful and understanding husband, has always filled a plate for me so I don't have to do it.
20. I've been waiting a long time for capes to come into fashion and I am amazed and pleased that it's stayed in the magazines for more than just one season. I have absolutely got to make myself one! (For the record, I will wear anything I like whether or not it is in the magazines, but what pleases me is that when something I like is "in" then I get to see lots of inspired versions of it which I enjoy immensely.)
Whew! I thought that would be super easy since I am so opinionated. But it took me a long time to write that list. I must go and deliver our grand opening post-cards and then sew like a total mad-woman. I hope you all have a stellar Wednesday!
OOOH, wait, for anyone who wants to leave a comment but has never done it and isn't sure how: click on "comments" and then type your comments in the box provided, then pick whether you want to be anonymous or type your name in, then you will have to re-type the wacky letters you see in the word verification box, then you can press "publish" or "send" (I can't remember which one it is.) Don't be shy about commenting, unless you hate me.
I'd like to hear from lots of you on whether or not you keep a recipe box in your kitchen. If you have one, do you use it? Do you add to it? If not, have you thought about it?
I have been thinking it would be so great to copy down my most used recipes from my recipe books, the new recipes I come up with, and to put friends' recipes in a box on my kitchen counter. I have over forty cook books and almost all of them contain a few recipes that have become such standards for me that the pages they're printed on are speckled with puckers from water, sauce, and other mysterious ingredients carelessly brought near my book. The thing is, it would be easier to pull out a card from a file than to drag out my book to get more dirty. My mom had a recipe box and I dearly wish she had kept it so I could use the same one. I do have a treasured recipe card from it for my mom's tamale pie. I would like to find a pretty and cool metal recipe box, could a cool box be made? Should I try to produce one to sell in my store with cool recipe cards?
Now for twenty random opinions:
Disclaimer: Many of my opinions center around fashion and it's super important to remember that while I am chalk full of opinions, my hair right now is only fit to show off in the White House or to break bread with Tammy Faye, I consistently wear knee length pants whether or not they look good on me (they often don't), and I have seven of the same shirt so I can wear one every single day. I am hardly a fashion trend setter or any kind of authority...(partly because of my size)...so when I diss the ever popular "skinny pants" you go right ahead and wear them with pride and don't be offended. I'm pretty sure you'd feel the same way about my knee length pants.
1. No one looks good in "skinny jeans", ironically the people who look the worst in them are skinny people. I especially hate the low rider ones.
2. I absolutely cringe when writers in fashion magazines say "a slick of lip gloss". It sounds raunchy and repulsive in a Bukowski way or like a bad oil spill on the ocean.
3. It annoys me when the magazines are always advising women to emphasize either their lips or eyes, but not both. Always they suggest keeping "balance", if you go crazy on the accessories, then wear something really understated. Jesus! Every person who has ever become a fashion icon has not followed such idiotic advice. If you want to go to a stuffy meeting at a bank, maybe that's good advice. If you want to make your mark, if you want to be remembered and admired- you blaze a trail doing what no one else is doing, or isn't doing well, you knock 'em dead with gorgeous smokey eyes AND red lips. Hello, Marilyn was always over the top. Ditto Madonna, David Bowie, Coco Chanel, Jean Harlow...need I go on? I have a passion for reading fashion magazines and I NEVER EVER follow their advice. Ever.
4. I don't trust women who say they generally don't get along with other women, or that they just aren't comfortable hanging out with other women. It tells me one really important thing about them: they are uncomfortably flirty with all men. That's almost always guarunteed to make other women not trust you or like you. I think it's great to be comfortable hanging out with both men and women, but I can't imagine living life without the comraderie, the close friendships, and the support of my girlfriends.
5. It confounds me (and kind of depresses me) when people say they wish they could be sixteen again. It also kind of makes me want to hit them.
6. I'm convinced that Paris Hilton is actually a twisted figment of my imagination. Someone that uninteresting, untalented, and who compares themselves to Marilyn Monroe can't possibly really exist.
7. Ennui is so endlessly unattractive on people.
8. I thinks it's super cool that Prince Charles is a huge advocate for organic farming and was instrumental in banning the use of GMO's in Brittain. I couldn't be more surprised to find there's anything admirable about him. I also think it's pretty cool that he keeps his own organic garden as well as sponsoring the country-wide enthusiasm for re-planting historic kitchen gardens.
9. I resent having to share my name with a celebrity as crazy and unethical as Angelina Jolie. I don't care how much she is involved in helping the orphanages around the world...she's still unstable and creepy and I don't like any woman who makes a habit of stealing husbands and boyfriends from other women (hello, she took Billy Bob from Laura Dern, and then Brad from Jennifer...that's a habit). Plus, I don't understand how people think it's so wonderful that she's going to have eighteen children to haul around the world with her. That's eighteen children to be messed up by her. She should have been named Candy, or Cherry, or how about Sissy?
10. There are very few designer hand-bags I don't hate. That's right, the only ones I like are Kate Spade's, and...oops, there's no "and". That's it. I loathe all those floppy leather carcass-like bags covered in fringe, buckles, logos, and all manner of other seriously unattractive embellishments.
11. I can't believe women are wearing rabbit fur vests again. I can't believe they ever did.
12. I loathe, really LOATHE Jimmy Choo and Laboutin shoes. Women think they are so sexy in them and I know I'm not a man, and men like their women to look like they might topple at any moment, but I just don't believe women look good or sexy in strappy shoes with four inch spikes for heels. Toes hanging out...the whole thing is just yuck. I prefer 1940's style wedges, mary janes, any heel with curve and substance. Any shoes from pre-dawn up through the forties are good. In fact, I love boots. Work boots.
12. It would make me so happy to see our country rise up in a huge anti-Walmart revolution in which every damn last one of them is razed to the ground.
13. I am always annoyed when people say they don't like something just because everyone else does. Sometimes there's a good reason why everyone likes something. Except for Jimmy Choos, obviously. I just think that something's popularity is a dumb reason to dislike it.
14. I am always suspicious of people who claim to be incurious about other people.
15. I think Dorothy Sayers needs to come back to life and write more books.
16. Catherine Zeta Jones and David Bowie should both have left their teeth alone. They now both look like they have dentures. Wait, maybe they do...
17. Antibiotic soaps and cleaners are evil and unsafe. I think it should be considered child abuse to wipe your children down with knarly chemical soaked "cloths" which will most likely never biodegrade (you know, they make wipes not soaked in Lysol or Clorox that are much less toxic), or to wipe your counters down with Lysol before cooking them food. It's not a mystery to me how come so many people are getting environmental illnesses and dying of cancer and how come viruses and bacterias are getting more and more vicious. Good old soap and water get rid of all the germs necessary.
18. I have done things that other people would consider child abuse too, like let Max play with real garden tools when he was eighteen months old. I also let him live upstairs in our attic when he was four and a half...he had to climb a ladder to get to it. (This was at our last house) I can defend this decision but I'm not going to right now. (Just so everyone knows: he never fell or even almost fell.)
19. I am afraid of buffets. Not afraid of eating food from them, just afraid of getting in line and filling up my plate as I go down the line. Philip, because he is such a wonderful and understanding husband, has always filled a plate for me so I don't have to do it.
20. I've been waiting a long time for capes to come into fashion and I am amazed and pleased that it's stayed in the magazines for more than just one season. I have absolutely got to make myself one! (For the record, I will wear anything I like whether or not it is in the magazines, but what pleases me is that when something I like is "in" then I get to see lots of inspired versions of it which I enjoy immensely.)
Whew! I thought that would be super easy since I am so opinionated. But it took me a long time to write that list. I must go and deliver our grand opening post-cards and then sew like a total mad-woman. I hope you all have a stellar Wednesday!
OOOH, wait, for anyone who wants to leave a comment but has never done it and isn't sure how: click on "comments" and then type your comments in the box provided, then pick whether you want to be anonymous or type your name in, then you will have to re-type the wacky letters you see in the word verification box, then you can press "publish" or "send" (I can't remember which one it is.) Don't be shy about commenting, unless you hate me.