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Beware of INTJ

So I don't know when was the first time I took the Myers-Briggs personality test. I think my mom gave it to me when I was very young but I don't remember the results. I have taken it multiple times over the past 5-10 years (as you will see this is an intregal part of my personality type) and I am staunchly an INTJ. Very few of you reading this don't have some experience with the test so I won't go into here. If you don't know about it you can learn about it here and you can take the test for free here and you can read your analysis here.

Because of my obsessive personality traits I have made all my close friends take the test and I went to the trouble of bookmarking all their results just so I can know everything I possibly can about my nearest and dearest. What I found out just the other day was that my friend Nikki and I are the same type, INTJ and this is so interesting (to me) because it is one of the rarest types, only 1-2% of the worlds population is INTJ and NYU had the good forethought to room us together all the way back in 2001.

Today Nikki sent me this site. I post it here for the benefit of all of you my family and friends, so you can better understand why I'm such a weirdo, why I love to tell you everything I know on a particular subject and why I "have the memory of a cat." <--Patrick's words. A few of the points I don't totally agree with (I don't have good grammar and I love to give and receive gifts) and somethings are true, I just wouldn't say them so bluntly (at least not to your face). Enjoy! Maybe after you read this I will have a few less friends or maybe you will at least understand that this is who I am and its really not changing. Hehe.

Bread and such...

Ok, so maybe I over estimated and there are only 3 "official" readers but I happen to know there are a few other readers hiding out out there. I'm look at you Gary and Nell (and Aunt Dee)! Weather here has been horrible. Rainy and cold. Patrick is far away and I am trying to entertain myself without going on huge shopping sprees with money we don't have after a long, hard winter. Don't worry, we're back to work and as conflicted about that as ever. Ha!

One way I've managed to entertain myself is by pouring over my Microeconomics textbook. If I got anything at all from my parents (and I certainly did) it is this sickness with going back to school. I swear it's a disease. Needforknowledge-itis. Everyone told me that I would be bored to death by this class and would just want to nap during it but really I don't. Ok, so the subject isn't the most exhilarating, I'll admit, but the mere act of going to an academic class, surrounded by my "peers", making new friends and learning is just so exciting to me. Alright fine I'm a nerd. So sue me. Now let's just all hope this excitement pays off and Columbia lets me into its Ivy league doors next year!

In other news, Nell came over today and we attempted to make brioche. Both Nell and I love to try new things in the kitchen but I have been terrified of bread. Something about the yeast and rising and punching down and just all of it. I made a loaf of white bread last week and that went pretty well; a little undercooked in the middle but still edible. Lopsided evidence below:

Today we tried brioche. Brioche is different from most breads in that it is made with butter and eggs, resulting in a richer flesh (is it called flesh?) and a dark brown crust. Instead of doing it by hand we decided on using the stand mixer to give our arms a break. All started out well,

flour, yeast,

milk, eggs

spin, spin, spin.

We put it aside to let it rise for 2 hours and went on a little excursion to Marshalls. Long story short we took a little longer than the 2 hours and by the time we got back the dough was overproofed. Basically that means when we poked it it deflated like a popped balloon. It was very sad.

Round 2 went much better. We only proofed for an hour and a half and it was more than ready (that's what we get for listening to a recipe).

Here's Nell waiting anxiously for the dough to come together.
She's kind of impatient.

And here she is hand kneading it when she couldn't handle staying still for an extra few minutes and just had to finish it up herself. You know what they say, idle hands are the devils plaything.

TADA!!!

Mmmmmm...the egg glaze made it look even better than it smelled!

Ok, it smelled amazing too. I only stuck my nose in it a few times. Yum! See bread isn't scary! It's great. Now go out and make your own. Just don't shop too long at Marhsalls and then overproof and end up with dead fish dough.

slackers.

So I have photos of the spicy sweet potato chips I made and some other things but Patrick took his camera to Arkansas/Texas without downloading them for me. Thus, no pics for you 5 people out there checking the blog.

Patrick is on a whirlwind 10 day trip to Arkansas and Dallas to shoot two spots with his friend Dean. I'm sure he'll update at some point with one of his long winding tales (i think they call them 'yarns' in the south) of absurdity that only happens to him. I am doing a 2 week stint at a company called Imaginary Forces as the in house coordinator. Should be pretty painless. Sorry for nothing more interesting but the next 2 months are looking busy so I'm sure there'll be something good coming up!

Fruits, Veggies, no Mushrooms, Oh My!

We just got our weekly Urban Organics delivery and Eli really needs to stay until Friday next month so she can partake in the delicious-ness. This week we got 4 beets, 4 baking potatoes, 2 white onions, 2 red onions, 1 mango, 2 pears, bag of green beans, 3 bananas, 3 kiwis, 1 eggplant, 6 blood oranges, 2 valencia oranges, 2 grapefruits and 1 head of leaf lettuce. Look forward to borscht, sautéed green beans, cocktails with blood oranges, some twice baked potatoes and possibly much more! For your viewing pleasure, some food porn shots by Patrick below (much better then my boring old shots!).

First Urban Organic Adventure

So tonight I used the kale, half a red onion, and 3 small potatoes from our order to make a Spanish tortilla. A Spanish tortilla is actually more like an omelette or a frittata. It took a bit longer than I would normally like to take on dinner but part of that had to do with the fact that I thought we had eggs and we didn't so I had to walk to the store. Otherwise it wasn't so hard. Here it is cooking:


And here's the final product:


All the hard work paid off because it was totally satisfying and delicious. Knowing Patrick, when he gets home from work tonight he'll eat it, just with a big dose of hot sauce because the man can't walk by a bottle without using it...liberally.

Here's the recipe if you want to try it for yourself. Enjoy!

Special Delivery!

So winter weather and a nonexistent work environment have put us a bit in the doldrums but we got just the thing to cheer us up! Say hello to our weekly Urban Organics Delivery:



Urban Organics is a company that delivers organic fruits and veggies to your door. We are going try out using it during the winter months until our CSA (community supported agriculture) starts their delivery service in May. We wish it was local AND organic but alas, we don't live in southern California so it's not really possible in the winter in the northeast unless we are going to live on potatoes alone. This week our delivery contained:
CORN
ROMAINE LETTUCE
RED KALE
RED POTATOES
JEWEL YAMS
TANGERINES
DAN JOU PEARS
HAMLON ORANGES
BANANAS
MANGO
KIWI
FUJI APPLES
BUNCH CARROTS
CAULIFLOWER
RED ONIONS

Also since we don't have a child to entertain you (Hi, Carter!) we will try to post pics and recipes (if they turn out well) of our new vegetable adventures. Here's to full bellies and new adventures in cooking!