Russian Tea

A gift for you.

My grandmother's birthday is today and in her honor, I'm sharing my favorite drink recipe of hers. This is a holiday staple at my house, even after the holidays were no longer welcome in my home...


2 cups sugar
2 cups Tang
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 cup lemonade mix
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup instant tea

Mix together. Use 2 to 3 tsp per 8 oz hot water.

Yeah, a little red neck with the Tang but trust me, it's good.

Cake: the prefered food of celebration

I have nothing against cake.

In fact, I've enjoyed cake quite a bit. Birthdays, bat mitzvahs, even the occasional 'yay you broke up with that asshole' cake. But after a knock down, drag out fight with not one, but two people about cake, I'm ready to swear it off. Forever.

mmmm, cake?

Both my mother and my husband-to-be feel that cake is necessary for our wedding celebration. I, on the other hand, feel it's too traditional and I would prefer something more fun. Like chocolate bacon. Seriously, two of the best things together at last?! Who would turn their nose up to that? No one, that's who. Or ice cream. Or chocolate bars. Or anything besides traditional cake.

My mother is usually appalled at me in general. I curse, throw my opinions around and generally shock her but this idea of mine was apparently over the line. We were having cake. Period. It's traditional, people expect it and she likes that cake at a local bakery where her friend works.

Fine. Let them eat cake. I informed her that I would be slipping out of the reception with my best friend for about 20 minutes to walk down the street to get an ice cream cone. Because that's what I want. (Because I'm the bride and it's my day... dammit.) This is when her head exploded. I won't go into details but there was lots of talk about my needing to be a grown up and how to be a hostess. It was like being 13 again. So I left my parents house in a huff, much like a 13 year old.

Now, my fiance is usually embarrassed by me in general. I'm loud, dress inappropriately and generally doing the wrong thing but this fight with my mom was apparently over the line. He sided with my mom! (Rookie mistake, right?) He thinks cake would be great and that if I happened to disappear to get an ice cream cone (on MY OWN wedding day) that it would be inappropriate.

And so, dearest evil minions, I impart on you this knowledge.

aka - inappropriate

The cake is a lie. It is neither celebratory or fun. It is yelling at me and filled not with butter cream, but with shame.

Go, my pretties, and get some ice cream, don't share, and just be happy if you don't balloon up like Ricky Lake. Do it for me!  I'll be 60 stories up, looking down at you in my wedding dress and a plate with cake on it, dreaming of pistachio and waffle cones.

The Big Question

So there I was.

I was at a lower point in my life. No job, career shot, no home, depressed and even my sex drive was suffering. But even though I was a pathetic case if ever there was one, The Mad Scientist asked me to join him in Atlanta for a little get away. We would drive down to Savannah and enjoy a long weekend togetther.

I was nervous about being in Savannah again. I had gone there with my family as a child many times for vacation and I was afraid it would bring back those happy/sad memories of growing up with my brother. (There's nothing like crying in public to make me want to throw myself in a river...) I was doing surprisingly well. The weather was perfect, the leaves were just starting to change and I was loving being so close to the ocean.

Savannah is a beautiful town. Established in 1733, it was originally a progressive, multicultural hub, until the British fixed that by making it a colony and stripping rights from many of it's citizens. (the jews, spanish, etc) During the Civil War, instead of burning Savannah to the ground like he did Atlanta, Gen. Sherman sent President Lincoln a telegram, 'giving' him Savannah as a Christmas present. The town features 22 historic squares, which doesn't sound too exciting but I must insist you visit as many as you can. They are shaded, beautiful areas, usually quiet and if you find yourself alone, surrounded by looming trees, perhaps a statue or fountain, historic french-american architechture just beyond, you feel like you've stepped back in time. It was beautiful and I was feeling rather peaceful amoung the ghost and history.

After a quick bite on our first day, we went for a walk along the Savannah River. We were watching the people and cargo ships go by, when TMS decided to do something drastic.

He asked me if I would marry him.


At the one of the lower points in my life, playing the part of a pretty big loser, he still wanted me for his... it's a pretty amazing thing. That, and the fact that he's the most wonderful man I've ever known, I love him more than ice cream, movies, dance and disneyland combined (and then some), it was a no brainer.  I said yes. 



Mine looks different but you get the picture

So I'm engaged! We're getting married sometime next fall and then a continued life of bliss.

I'll try not to turn this blog into a giant wedding blog but I will talk about it. I don't apologize. Just shut up and enjoy the ride.

Because really, that's all that life is...

Toys

Any headstone that blows bubbles wins my approval

I've been thinking about the movie Toys a lot lately.

Not sure why. It wasn't that great of a movie. Kind of creepy and without focus.

Robin Williams, Joan Cusak and Michael Gambon aka the new Dumbledore or Baltus in Sleepy Hallow(side note: was Baltus the one who got the picket fence through his chest and pulled from the church to have his head cut off?). Don't forget LL Cool J and Jaime Fox and the lovely Robin Wright before the 'Penn' was added and will surely be removed again.

I think the bright and strange images, taken/inspired from Rene Magritte, make me feel comforted or something. And that even though it's whimsical (the movie and his paintings), tragedy still occurs. (Rene witnessed his mother's body being pulled from the river after her suicide when he was a boy; this might have influenced some of his later paintings.) I tend to like the paintings without the massive harsh shadows better but I dig all of them.

I keep thinking about the scene at the beginning of the movie, where the children are burying their father. The rolling green fields and at the top of the hill, a beautiful stone elephant that blows bubbles. If I were to be buried, I would want that.

And the swan bed that his sister sleeps in is so something from a dream. Although, if they closed the top, I might have a bit of clausterphobia and claw my way out. "Oh GOD the walls are closing in on me! HELP! The giant swan is KILLING ME!"

Regardless, the movie was ok, the paints were great and I still like them both. So there.

What? Twinkies?

I don't eat them.

Well, not anymore. But as a child, my grandma would go to the Hostess store and buy several boxes of sweet treats for our arrival for summer. My brother and I would eat the chocolate covered hockey pucks wrapped in foil(Ding Dongs), plastic wrapped chocolate rolls(Ho-hos) and soft yellow cake logs. They remind me of happier times. I think if I had to eat one now, I may not be able to keep it down. Ug. But they're facinating never the less!

They were birthed in Illinos during the early years of The Great Depression. Originally filled with banana cream, Twinkies were hit by the WW2 when bananas were rationed. The switch to vanilla creme was so popular, they never switched back.

They are made from corn by products, emulsifiers, shortening, flavoring and a few other scientific ingredients before they are baked in the ovens. After a shot of filling, off they go to their respective homes. (Whether they be in a deep frier, random recipe or straight into your mouth)

President Clinton put one in a time capsule, people make wedding cakes from them and the American Society of Media Photographers used it as its main source in the Object Show. But they won't survive a nuclear blast or last for 25 years. (More like 25 days.)

500 million are eaten every year so odds are, you have had one yourself...  Now, don't you feel like you're part of something bigger than yourself?