I'm digging Hook's new spending blog. I thought, so so briefly, that maybe I should initiate a similar blog in order to identify purchasing trends (and possibly curtail frivolous buying), but I already know what such an experiment would reveal: I'm a little too familiar with jcrew.com's online sale section and the Ritter Sport rack at Cindy's Market. So.

Went for a bike ride by the ocean this afternoon. The sky was ominously overcast, but there was no rain. From an apartment near Great Highway and Moraga, I could hear the cheers of people watching the soccer game.

Today's Sunday Cooking Project was a batch of Jane Brody's rice pudding! It is really, stunningly easy, and hella tasty, too. (Note: I added nutmeg, and I'm not sure if that was the best decision. Overall, the pudding is still better than most.) Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

3 cups cooked rice (1 cup raw)
2 cups skim or low-fat milk
1 egg white and 1 whole egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon sugar (optional)
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Method:

Combine all the ingredients in a medium saucepan, and mix them well. Cook the rice over moderate heat, stirring it now and then, until it has thickened (about 5 minutes after the milk reaches a boil).

And that's it. In addition to my nutmeg experiment, I added a heaping half-teaspoon of cinnamon, which I would recommend. Next time, I might add a little vanilla extract...

***

Now that I have Mondays off, I love Sunday nights. They've become so much cozier, so much less anxiety-fraught. They're like the best possible hybrid of laid-back Saturday afternoons and...I don't know, Sunday nights. Sunday nights light.

Time for Kezar's beet salad(!) and the Pavement documentary.

PS:

I am still experiencing sadness at the thought of pruning my blogroll, but it must be done. Blogs that are updated with some sort of frequency (and this categorization is real relative, people) will remain in "Friends and Neighbors." Blogs that appear dead, for all practical purposes, will be transitioned to "Dormant Friends and Neighbors."

This morning I taught and then, still feeling sick, came directly home and slept for three.five hours. That nonsense behind me, I made applesauce, loosely adapting the most basic recipe from the Joy of Cooking. It turned out better than I predicted, though it's a little sweet - too much cinnamon? Vanilla? Next time I'll add even less sugar.

I started this blog on a whim. Why, you might wonder, would you start a new blog if you have a perfectly good one? I myself am not fully sure, but it might have to do with this new-season itchiness, or the fact that I post now (when I do post) for different reasons than when I first started blogging. I'll admit: when I first started my livejournal account, it was mostly a platform for bitching and/or drunken updates along the lines of "COLLEGE! WOO!" Suffice it to say that I still consume alcoholic beverages, and that I still do kvetch about topics widely varied - just not [as] publicly. In any event, I'll likely keep the ole' lj around, if only for nostalgia's sake.

The potential exists for a big weekend, if I can beat this unidentified illness: Emma's birthday party is Saturday night, and there are basketball games to be watched, hoops to be shot, plants to be repotted!