Howell and I were in Italy and we took a boat ride on the canal in Venice but we were lying down and no one was rowing us. Then we were trying to figure out what else to do that day, but first we needed to see if Nick Hornby emailed us some instructions after the meeting we’d apparently had with him on the previous day. Before we could stop and get out our laptop, we had to get through this turnstile.  But we couldn’t get through the turnstile because someone stole Howell’s wheelchair. A huge line began forming behind us. How do you say “pissed” in Italian?

Outside the train in Logan Square after best brunch ever at Lula Cafe.

From the inside of Cozy Corner, also in Logan Square, where we had a ridiculously good breakfast on our way out of town.

Henry and Basil.

Basil and Celine.

Henry and Howell.

After such a long hiatus, I feel hot waves of embarrassment when I check out the crappy photo quality of my past posts. I’d actually been practicing taking decent pictures with a nice camera my lovely man gave me, but it was stolen when my house was broken into a couple months ago. The break-in was the last in a series of rather upsetting things that happened to me in the late summer.

These things occurred over the course of about two weeks:

-My mom was blocked into her driveway and accosted by some creepy dude. The following day the very same creepy dude accosted me while I was with my mom. The event was minor but I certainly felt violated.

- I got road raged and followed while driving to a friend’s house for having the gall to safely change lanes after signaling appropriately. This lasted for about 10 minutes and at the point where I was ready to drive to the police station my harassers gave up, but not without a final middle finger and corresponding verbal abuse pouring through their open car windows.

-I was rear-ended after leaving  a job interview and had mild whiplash for about four days.

-Some midtown drunk accosted me and Hannah on the Bayou patio, which might not have been as bad if I hadn’t, in that very moment, been working myself up while talking about some of the other shit that happened recently. Hannah thought it was funny but I was really freaked out.

-And finally, my house was broken into between the hours of 10 and 11 am while I was at the gym. The crooks got the digital SLR camera and my laptop. Only the second time I’ve been burglarized, so whatever, right?

All that to say, I don’t feel sorry for myself, exactly, but I have had a lot of nightmares and been anxious as hell since all of this went down. To make matters worse my job is in a really bad part of town, working with a lot of desperate and sometimes dangerous people.

With Karen and Zack’s wedding taking place yesterday, I had a chance to become jealous of all the insanely skilled and creative people who contributed to K & Z’s celebration. I do have ideas about how I got to the point in my life where I have such a tough job and it seems that I’ve inadvertently eschewed every opportunity to enhance my right brain tendencies, but knowing why doesn’t turn back the clock or un-atrophy my creativity muscles.

I’m gonna try to do better in the future, ok? There’s a lot more beauty I plan to contribute to this world.

In the meantime, I am proud of my new-ish blog project with Karen, MEMSTYLE.

And to my favorite couple, congratulations on your smashingly successful wedding celebration and the wonderful life that awaits you.

Good lord, my calves are out of control. I had no idea that running a dozen or so miles per week would change my body so much. But I digress.

Here is a recipe for a ridiculously healthy dish that could be served as a main or a side. If you don’t know about quinoa, check out this goofy but helpful website, aptly named “The World’s Healthiest Foods.” Quinoa is quite literally one of the most nutritious foods you can possibly eat. I have absolutely no idea of where I got this recipe originally.

Quinoa Salad

1 cup uncooked quinoa

8ish asparagus spears

2 oz crumbled goat cheese (or you can use feta if you’re lame)

¼ cup green olives, pitted and coarsely chopped

4 Tbsp chopped sun-dried tomatoes

½ Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp red wine vinegar (go with balsamic if you are lamely determined about the feta)

S & P to taste

Toss the asparagus in olive oil, fresh ground pepper, and sea salt. Roast in a 425° oven for about 15 minutes, checking once to rearrange spears. Cut into bite sized pieces. Cook the quinoa according to directions on the package. Toss all ingredients together and serve to your guests’ complete delight.

It’s best to let the quinoa and asparagus cool some before you combine with other ingredients. However, if, like me, you are impatient and last minute with your preparations, it will still turn out just fine.

Measurements aren’t scientific. My style of cooking includes a method where I throw in an imprecise, liberal pinch more of whatever ingredient I particularly like. In this case, uh, I throw in more of pretty much everything except quinoa (not that I don’t like quinoa, I just consider it a base ingredient).

A couple additional notes on ingredients:

Recently discovered that you can buy sun dried toms, dry, in a vacuum sealed bag, as opposed to in a jar of oil. Saves time and reduces ick factor, as you don’t have to dig through a jar of oil and then towel off the SDTs. Big fan of the bag!

And even though they’re more expensive, I think olives from the jar taste better than olives from the can. I also added some of the juice (brine?) into the mix this time, with satisfactory results. But this is from the lady who just cooked dinner in four inch heels on a whim, so take all suggestions with a big chunk of sea salt.

Like this vegetarian bean chili:

Look at that glistening asparagus side dish! And on a side note, Kroger brand Triscuits are not bad at all.

Chili is easy, fast, and vegan, depending on what kind of chocolate you use.

I’d rate the spiciness as medium. Made it twice and still not completely satisfied with the flavor. The heat is a very dry one. Next time I make it I’m thinking about scrapping most of the spices and just using taco seasoning. If anybody prepares it this way let me know. Honestly, the chocolate might be overkill, too. This is definitely a work in progress, but I’ve gotten favorable responses so far, and it works as is.

Recipe adapted from epicurious. Here it is with my spin:

Spicy Black Bean Orange Chocolate Chili

1.5 tsp orange zest

juice of 2 oranges

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cups chopped onions

4 garlic cloves, pressed

3 teaspoons chili powder

1 tsp. cayenne pepper

4 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3 15.5-ounce cans seasoned black beans, drained

1 28-ounce cans diced tomatoes in juice

1.5 oz dark or unsweetened chocolate

Sour cream or plain yogurt

Chopped fresh cilantro
Grate orange peel. Juice oranges (two oranges yield appx. ½ cup of juice). Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions; sauté 5 minutes. Mix in garlic and spices. Add beans, tomatoes, and half of orange juice. Simmer over medium heat until heated through and flavors blend, stirring often, about 15 minutes. Mix in orange peel, chocolate (I tend to use whatever I have lying around, excluding milk chocolate, which, honestly, I rarely have lying around) and remaining orange juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with sour cream and cilantro. Maybe some hot sauce.

Ms. Tessaboom wearing completed Dolores Park cowl:

She said she didn’t plan on taking it off for at least two months.

I’m quite pleased with myself.

The recipe is a family secret, but Connie’s Sugar Cookies are my favorite of all time. And I do take requests, especially if it’s your birthday.

Oh my, I do love working with a rolling pin.

Even though it is a ridiculous commercial holiday, I hope you get to spend time with people you care about today.

This year I bought M&Ms for the party and engaged in the decidedly nontraditional activities of knitting and sipping on diet 7UP during the game. Fortunately, my partner in crafting crimes was working on a project, too, so the scoffing and disbelief at such irreverence was divided in two directions.

Just before Christmas, the Dolores Park Cowl was my first real attempt at knitting in the round. I got all stubborn about the  yarn I wanted to use, so I doubled up on worsted-weight Malabrigo yarn to work with the kettle-dyed “purple magic” color and still get the chunky weight result. This also became my first attempt at knitting with a double strand.

Knitting in the round, check.

Knitting with double strand, check.

Modifying the patten, EPIC FAIL.

I wanted a bigger, floppier cowl to meet the requests of the recipient, so I doubled the cast-on. When I finished it looked horrible. Limp, lifeless, impractical. My knentor (pronounced kuh-nent-or, rhymes with dementor, translates to knitting mentor) made a valiant attempt to assuage my fears about the crappiness of the final product, until she viewed it with her own eyes. I accepted defeat, undid the entire project, and made a giant ball of yarn, with Christmas and gift-giving time less than a week away.

I found this modification, and decided to try again with a more reasonable goal, forgoing the big and floppy criteria. This began with separating the giant ball of yarn into two, which took almost two hours, one per ball (hehe). Then back to square one, buying new needles and starting the project over from scratch. The story ends happily, because the result was quite nice and not only appreciated by the recipient, but admired enough to garner a request to repeat the project for someone else. What else was I going to do with that extra ball of yarn?

My progress as of Super Bowl Sunday:

Again, this is Malabrigo worsted weight, kettle-dyed wool yarn in “purple magic.” All Malabrigo yarn highly recommended.

Here it is not folded.*

I knitted on the diagonal starting at the corners, increasing to full width, and then decreasing back to the opposite corner. The pattern is from Knitting Pretty.

The dishcloth turned out a tad janky looking, but I’m happy with it. The aim is to soon replace sponges and paper towels in my house with things that can be washed and reused instead of thrown away.

This is the first thing I’ve made since I finished knitting Christmas presents. Photos backtracking through that process forthcoming.

*photos by Tess. Harry Potter also featured.