Sap

Everyone has heard of the two journalists who Clinton (male) went over and rescued from North Korea, right? Laura Ling and Euna Lee.  Ok, does anyone manage not to cry when watching the video of them landing back in the U.S.? Because I totally lose it every time.  

The long goodbye

My brother and his gf just took off to return to Miami.  She left a nice little piece of Hershey art for me to admire and then immediately disassemble and eat.  

 My only remaining goal for the day is to grab some Bloody Mary ingredients for a brunch I am attending tomorrow.  No better way to start a Sunday.  

Silence

House guests are wonderful.  House guests are wonderful but so is a day of total peace. I sent my brother and his gf out into the wide world of Manhattan alone today and have been doing nothing but basking in the silence and eating leftover pizza all day long. I even cleaned the bathroom.  That is not anywhere on the top of my list of favorite activities but the day seemed to call for some king of useful action and that was it.

I even decided not to go out, after showering and dressing up and fully planning to do just that. I'm enjoying the peace too much.  Also, I'm broke, but mainly the peace thing.  I finished the book I had been reading, replied to some e-mails, did I mention that I ate pizza, and just generally lazed through the day.

On a completely unrelated note I recently discovered that I can download Oblivion to my Mac, I just have to do this complicated thing where I first download Windows, and then maybe buy myself a two buttoned mouse.  Yay!  Customer service will be on the phone for that one.  Lucky them. For those who don't know, Oblivion is this kick-ass game where you can be an elf or a lizard (though they're not called that, they're called Argonians) or whatever and run around collecting treasure and creating potions and saving the world.  It's fun.  I am not a big gamer but I am just a little obsessed with that particular game, an obsession I blame on my father's refusal to let me buy a gaming system as a child.  Take that, Dad.  I'll rot my brain if I want to. I did not get so far as to actually complete the installation process today but I will. Oh, I will, and then I may actually disappear for a few weeks while playing it.

The Great American (Italian) Pizza-off

As promised, I present to you the pizza-off, a result of far too much sibling rivalry.  My brother and I got right to work trying to out-cook each other when we got back from a full day of touristing around NYC (yes, I'm using it as a verb. Don't know or care if that's actually done).  My brother's girlfriend is operating as assistant and judge.

Below: us toiling away in the kitchen.

We made two pizzas each. My first one was a classic potato pizza, no sauce, seasoned only with rosemary and salt.  

I added some mushrooms and cheese to the far corner of it, and then popped it into the oven.

My brother decided to go with a thin crust cheese and mushroom pizza as his opener.  We got a picture of it pre-mushroom. We also got a picture of it post-mushroom but he's pretending to lick it so I decided to spare you.

Not to be outdone, I created a thin crust mushroom pizza of my own.  After all, I needed to clearly demonstrate that my pizza was far, far superior to his and what better way to do that then to create a better version of the same pizza?  We have a very healthy relationship.  He is helping me photograph my rolled out dough below.

I got another photo right before it went into the oven.  I added some potatoes to one corner, and used the last of some (possibly already expired) goat cheese in the middle of it.  

Right about the time my 2nd pizza went in, my brother's pizza was ready to be taken out and eaten.  So we did.

It was good. I was nervous.

Both of my pizzas were ready to sample at that point too.  I threw a piece of thick crust potato mushroom and thin crust mushroom on each plate.  

While the thick crust pizza is juicy and rich (and is compared both to quiche and shepherd's pie by my brother and gf), it is declared too un-pizza like, and the real test rests in the thin crust.  For fairness' sake, you can see below a side by side comparison of both of our thin crusts. Mine is the slightly crispier looking one on the left.

They are both delicious.  We are all in an agony of indecision.  What to do now? Hey, my brother still has to make his second pizza.  Chocolate pizza! Heart shaped chocolate pizza. This is inspired by our visit to Chocolate By The Bald Man a couple days ago. His girlfriend helped to carefully place each marshmallow on top of the pizza, using the utmost self control in the process. Below are the raw and cooked pictures. There are also some peanut M&Ms in the corner.

After we eat this, we all die.  We are dead.  For the sake of being able to record this for posterity I choose to run away from the light and re-enter my body.  The chocolate pizza was amazing.  Really good.  

But none of that brings us any closer to declaring a winner in the pizza-off.  On the basis that the final pizza, however good, is just as un-pizza like as my thick crust, I am declaring a tie.  My brother's thin crust was cheesy deliciousness, while mine tasted a little bit more of crispy olive oil and was just as good in a subtly different way.  Each of our 2nd efforts were totally different but still eagerly appreciated by all.  I guess we'll just need a rematch next time he visits.  I'll be ready for him.

All quiet on the Western front

Or something. I am maintaining radio silence this week mainly because my brother is in town and I've been quite busy.  Tomorrow is the highly anticipated Pizza-Off and that will be thoroughly documented.  Recipes will be added.  Pictures will be taken.  Maybe a poll? Not that that will be necessary as I'm sure we can all agree that my pizza will be better.  In the meantime, enjoy the picture of my poor cat being held up to the computer camera by my brother.  She is ridiculously mellow about being manhandled.  I love my new computer...

"I hate my owner."

Tourist exhaustion

I spent the day with my brother and his girlfriend running around the city looking for shoes.  That was the goal of the day and while it was not accomplished I am happy to say that NYC has no shortage of shoe shops.   In fact, considering that every other shop or so is dedicated to foot clothing, I'm wondering how they all stay in business.

In between making laps of these various and sundry shoe stores we went to Strand, where I hunkered down happily for an hour reading a book I had no intention of buying while my the others browsed equally happily on the various other levels.  I love Strand.  Love love love love love.  There is a Barnes and Nobles just a block away from Strand, and I don't know how they stay in business when you can buy the same book, used but in stellar condition, for half the price over at Strand.  

After we had finished rolling around in the books we retreated to Chocolate By The Bald Man and ate ourselves into a sugar coma.  We had a chocolate drink each and split a huge Sundae and we almost died.  Really. We did. There were multiple tables around us where each person had their OWN drink and their OWN dessert and I don't know how they didn't immediately develop diabetes and fall into sugar comas.  Not that it wasn't worth it - I love that place, though we spent more on the drink and shared dessert than we had on a full lunch each the day before.  

In housing news I am pondering a room I saw. It is half the size of my current room and more expensive but in a much better neighborhood and the woman who showed it to me seems nice and sane.  I'm going to need to make a decision quickly, like tomorrow, but it is just. so. small.  It has no closet.  My furniture will absolutely not all fit.  Still, nice cute building and apartment.  I'm confusing myself just typing all this.  Decision pending.  

Seafood Pasta on the cheap

My brother is visiting and so I decided to go all out and actually spend more than $.50 on dinner.  I was able to make a kick ass seafood pasta for around $10.  I cooked some baby octupus, shrimp and scallops in onion and garlic and then added some canned tomato later on in the process.  Since I was making myself a Lemondrop (well, I made my brother mix it for me) I also splashed in some lemon juice.  The usual herbs (basil, thyme, salt, pepper) were thrown in, as well as some olive oil.  And tada!

Beautiful pasta! 

And also notice that I was able to take that photo with the built in camera on my new Macbook.  There will be many more laptop pictures in this blog's future.  I also garnished the plate with a little basil, just to make it pretty for all of you.

One more. 

Notice in the background where there's flour on the counter from my home made bread.  Yes, I do rock, thanks.  Next up: Pizza-off with my brother. He is under the delusion that his pizza will be better than mine. Pictures will be provided.