Friday I leave for California. It's a prospect both exciting and terrifying, this new life plan of mine: on one hand, I'm thrilled to be relocating to an excellent city (or, excellent in my limited experience of it, which included sea lion sightings, five ice cream cones, several hours in Chinatown, and a massive hangover). On the other, I'm worried that I might become a pauper, as my dad suggested. Scratch that: there shall be no pauperdom! Indeed, I have a job interview the day after my arrival, and another potential employer called this afternoon while I was napping. 

The bad news: I think my car is falling apart. This morning, I took the Golden Chariot in for an oil change, and afterward the mechanic told me that, actually, truthfully, my car needs massive repairs. The conversation went something like this:

Mechanic: So, yeah, we did the oil change, but there are some other problems...

Me: Oh?

Mechanic: Well, there's some corrosion on the battery, and your alternator belt is massively cracked, and also, did you know that your check engine light is on?

Me: Yeah, it's been on for a year.

Mechanic: Well, the light is there to signal a problem.

Me: [Staring sternly] Yes. I took it to the dealership a few times and had them shut it off.

Mechanic: So, the alternator belt...

Me: I'm in the middle of moving, so I'll think about it.

At this point, I grabbed my keys and ran [walked briskly out of the lobby]. Haunted by visions of being stranded in the desert, surrounded by vultures and tumbleweed, I took my car to my mom's [reputable] mechanic to get the alternator belt replaced. If all else (or anything else) fails, I have AAA.

Ali (who was there to witness the entire above-mentioned exchange) posits that the mechanic was actually hitting on me, to which I must respond: the worst way to hit on someone is to tell them that their car needs $500 of repairs. Word to the wise.  

ALSO:

My engine light came back on. D'oh.

The miracle need not be explained:

My life has taken a turn for the miraculous: my car's engine light unprecipitatedly went off. For those not familiar with this mechanical mini-saga, my car's engine light went on in early August and stayed on, even after a diagnostic at the dealership and my purchase of a new gas cap. I was freaked out at first, not wanting to inadvertently wreck my not-quite-paid-off car, but this anxiety waned as friends and friends told me that, really, this glitch is nothing to worry about.

I hadn't thought about the light in a long time. As I was driving to campus yesterday, something seemed amiss with my dash panel. It took me a minute to realize that the engine light was absent (so used to looking at it I had become!), and that chances of imminent mechanical failure had just decreased like, tenfold.

Hallelujah.

Sys and I are having a "harvest potluck" tonight, in appreciation of 1) Autumn! 2) Friday 3) Delicious fall cooking. On the menu are:

Country style pork ribs
Stuffed mushrooms (vegetarian and non)
Ali's famous cheesy, oniony mashed potatoes
Pumpkin cake
[Possibly] Corn bake
Spiced cider

Perhaps the only thing I like as much as walking in the fall is cooking in the fall. Lovely, the warm home and aromatic sage and onions, cinnamon and cloves.

Solutions!

1. My car is not broken forever & ever! Left it at the Toyota dealership yesterday morning and the mechanic said there was nothing actually wrong with the Corolla - i.e., no reason for the malfunction light to have gone on - except that there was slight corrosion around the gas cap, which may have caused the cap not to sit as tightly in its place as it should. So, the mechanic cleaned the corroded part, reseated the cap, and the light went off. Relief!

2. My figs didn't go to waste! Sunday, I tried this recipe:

ALMOND MUFFINS WITH GOOEY FIG CENTER
(Serves 12)

Ingredients:

Zest of 1 small lemon
1 1/2 cups almond meal (or finely crushed almonds plus 1 tsp flour)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup oat flour (found at health food stores)
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
12 small figs, stemmed
1 small egg
1/4 cup clover honey
1 1/4 cups skim milk
1/8 cup almond (or toasted almond) oil
6 tbsp sliced almonds

Preparation:

Heat oven to 350°. Combine first 9 ingredients in a bowl. Puree figs in a food processor until smooth and scrape into a small saucepan. Place over low to medium heat, stirring constantly, until puree gently boils, about 5 to 10 minutes. Let cool, then refrigerate. Whisk egg, honey, milk and oil in a bowl. Incorporate into flour mixture and blend on low with a hand mixer. Line a muffin tin with paper cups; fill each halfway with batter. Add 1 tbsp fig puree to center of each cup, then cover with a small spoonful of batter. Sprinkle almonds on top. Bake until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes.

I didn't exactly follow the recipe. Not being motivated enough to go to the health food store, I substituted buckwheat flour (which I had on hand) for the oat flour, and really finely chopped almonds (sans flour) for almond meal. Also, canola oil for almond oil (maybe not the best choice). Despite my questionable substitutions/lack of a food processor - I used a potato masher, instead - the muffins turned out really well.

3. Reading The Effect of Living Backwards & loving it. I wish I could be reading now, at work, but it's a little easier to get away with slacking on the computer as opposed to "slacking" by reading. Sigh.

I promise this blog will not just become a photo archive of stuff I want/most likely won't attain, but Hinken just sent me a link to these - a pair of which will set you back $368. Naturally, I had to post. They're the cutest candelabras I've ever seen...but $368? Let me just type that again, for emphasis:

$368.

Now that that's out of my system...

Ali's pretty much moved in and I'm the gladdest she's here - it's been a nonstop nostalgiafest since her arrival. How much gossip from high school can you remember? you might be thinking. The answer? A lot. In all seriousness, though, I am the gladdest. Haven't taken any apartment pics yet, but soon I will. And then I will post the least blurry of the batch.

I haven't tried any new recipes in a little while, though I'm looking for a good way to prepare figs. That's right: I have about 1.5 lbs. of fresh figs that are currently in the fridge, battling spoilage. I rummaged through one of my email accounts and found a recipe for fig muffins, but it requires a bunch of ingredients I don't have, and I'm a wee bit tired to drive to the grocery store at this moment in time. Also [bad news], my car's engine light went on this afternoon, and I don't want to drive until I get it diagnosed on Monday.

Malfunctioning Toyota. Questionable figs. These are the stuff of adult life.