A Cup Of Fat

Last Friday evening, after an exhausting day of work (everyone was coming in to shop for the Lunar New Year), I went to my sister Emma's to help her make whoopie pies as an early Valentine's Day treat for her boyfriend. Whoopie pies are an odd dessert, with a texture in between a cookie and a cake. The dough is incredibly thick and hard to beat. It's very clay-like, actually.

Whoopie pies are supposed to be an American standard, but I don't get them. They're just not appetizing to me-- especially after straining to mix the dough. My sister said, while opening a beer for each of us, that whoopie pies were supposedly invented by some Amish farmer and that she didn't understand how they could make these without electric mixers. A very valid point because I don't get that either.

"Screw you, Amish farmer guy," I grumbled as I struggled to scrape the bowl with multiple spatulas.

The traditional whoopie pie is chocolate with a marshmallow filling. We were using the recipe from the King Arthur Flour Cookbook, which is a good, reliable cookbook. Their recipe for the filling called for a cup of powdered sugar, a cup and a third of marshmallow fluff (which is, in my opinion, one of the most disgusting and sticky foods in the world), saltwater, vanilla extract, and a whole cup of shortening. I almost threw up when I was mixing in the cup of fat. It was just so disgusting, and then it got n my fingers and was so greasy and ugh! I'm shuddering just writing about it.

The second kind of whoopie pies we made were cardamom-pistachio with buttercream filling, and my poor sister had a very difficult time shelling and chopping so many, many pistachios. These ones tastes infinitely better, but they weren't worth the massive amount of work, and we have solemnly agreed never to make whoopie pies again.

I hope he's liking his Valentine's Day present, with its cup of fat. Ew. Just ew. All I can say is thank the glistening stars above for Sam Adams beer and the Rock of Ages movie soundtrack, without which I never could have gotten through this particular baking experience.

With that in mind, allow me to wish all you readers a happy Fat Tuesday, AKA Mardi Gras. Beer is how I'm celebrating that too.

XOXO
Gossip Ghoul.

Living On Ramen

One of the ways in which I can survive off a miniscule food budget each week is because I have easy access to cheap instant noodles.They might not taste the best of all the noodles in the world, but they're easy and quick when all I have is a few minutes a water cooler that dispenses hot water. Plus we have a decent selection at the Asian supermarket where I work, so instant ramen tends to be my go to lunch or dinner most days.

I like the Korean ramen/ramyun the best, since they're very spicy for the most part, and I love spicy food. In fact, now when I have Japanese ramen, I tend to add crushed red pepper flakes and/or chili garlic sauce to spice it up quite a bit. The seafood flavors are among the better tasting, especially lobster. There was this one lobster flavored noodle bowl we carried three years ago, and it was so good! Mouth-burningly spicy, but delicious. Unfortunately, we haven't had it in since.

Lately I've been eating more of the bowls with rice noodles. Eating the same thing every day gets boring, so I'm trying to branch out from the cheapest of ramen. Rice noodles do, in my opinion, taste better than the wheat noodles and ramen, so that's a plus. They just take longer to reconstitute, which is rather a disadvantage when I'm desperately trying to scarf down something to eat between customers on a busy day.

Another advantage to the noodle bowls is that they are warming. The store's temperature is usually in the 30s (yes, Fahrenheit) or 20s on colder days. Drinking the hot soup is a good way to warm up.

The downside is all the salt, plus MSG and preservatives. One noodle bowl usually contains almost a whole day's recommended amount of sodium. Yeah, that's not so good. There aren't really health benefits to ramen. At all.

But in a pinch, stuck at work with practically no money and no means of cooking an alternative, I'll take my hot, filling, instant noodle bowl.

XOXO
Gossip Ghoul

Downton Style

It should come as no surprise how much I love Downton Abbey. It's an amazingly well done British period drama, and it's so well researched. Historical details are spot on. The costumes are incredible and change as the period changes with a very natural -- and historically accurate -- progression, and fabulous style is circumambient throughout. The styles shown have definitely had an influence on current fashion, which I love. Twenties' fashion is so much fun, even though I personally cannot pull off drop-waist dresses, but Twenties'-style jewelry, both trendy and vintage-y, has been very in. I love pairing the long, feminine necklaces with edgy, studded bracelets.

Another thing from this past season that I feel certainly has a Downton Abbey influence is the cloche hat. I love cloches. They're bell-shaped and low enough to keep my ears warm, and they look so chic. I remember back in the fall I saw this absolutely beautiful, oxblood cloche from Banana Republic, and it was an outfit-making statement piece. I had just spent all my spare money on a gorgeous Calvin Klein top that had been on an incredible sale (purple snakeskin print, sleeveless, cowl neck, with faux leather back, so fabulous!), so I couldn't afford the oxblood cloche. I was able to snag a couple of less expensive ones later: one in black with a black a ribbon and one in fuschia with a flower decoration. They're very feminine and fun, and I love wearing them with my hair braided back.

Anyway, if you don't watch Downton Abbey for the well-written story, the engaging array of characters, the incredible historical details, the sexy British accents, the beautiful and stunning Michelle Dockery, or the heart-wrenching "will they or won't they?" tension, then at least watch it for the lovely fashion.

And Maggie Smith. She's freaking awesome.

XOXO
Gossip Ghoul

Spring Shopping

I've mentioned a couple times that I love fashion and beauty. I'm too poor and have too distinct of a personal style to be considered a fashionista, but I adore fashion. I'm subscribed to a lot of magazines: Cosmopolitan, In Style, Glamour, Elle, Marie Claire, Vogue, People Style Watch, Harper's Bazaar, and Lucky. I read them every month. Once in a while I read Allure as well. It's OK, but I don't like it quite as much as the others.

February is an important month for magazines because this is when the March issues come out, and March is the beginning of the spring season, although to be current and up to date, one starts wearing spring fashion right away in February. The March magazines I've gotten in the mail at this point are Lucky, Cosmo, and In Style, and so far I'm pretty pleased. No, I don't have the money to buy a whole new spring wardrobe; who freaking does? Besides, I love the clothes I already own; I don't want to replace them. I just want to enhance them -- change them up and make them new. Isn't that what spring is about? Cleaning out old dust, sprucing things up, and making everything pretty.

Which is totally why I'm eying this adorable pink button down I saw at the mall. It'll be fantastic with the black a-line miniskirt I got from Charlotte Russe in the Christmas sales. So pretty!

And the Prabal Garung for Target Collection debuting tomorrow. If only I didn't have to work so that I could spend all of tomorrow shopping!

Happy shopping to all who can go in my place! (Lucky bastards.)

XOXO
Gossip Ghoul

I Can Live Inside My Head

I've always had a strong imagination. As a kid, I was constantly making up stories in my head. Nothing was ever simply mundane to me. I remember in second grade, my best friend Iris and I would always go on adventures in the parking lot where we spent recess. We had our own invisible world there. Over by the pine trees was Secret Cabin. We would often make piles there of the pods that fell from the tulip trees; these were our harvests of corn. In Secret Cabin, we would be safe from the evil spiders of Poison River, this big streak of tar covering a cracked part of the school's parking lot. Every day was a magical adventure.

I still prefer to live inside my head. There I keep worlds upon worlds of fascinating places. It's one of the reasons I decided to become a writer, since I love creating settings and characters. While I commute to work, while I do basic tasks like stocking, my mind is always far away creating some adventure for my characters. The problem is finding the time to take these imaginings and writing them out in an organized manner. A stream of consciousness like this is simple. A structured novel is much more complex.

I'm trying. I'm trying so hard.

And in the meantime, I stay inside my head and keep dreaming of the day I finally pull my life together.

That's enough introspection for now.

XOXO
Gossip Ghoul.

Motivation

So I haven't posted lately, one might have noticed. Between internet problems and life problems, I haven't been able to. I know that's no excuse after I made this commitment to writing a daily blog, especially since I have a week's worth of posts drafted in my notebook. I wanted to force myself to write everyday, and it wasn't even a week in before I failed. Like I seem to fail at almost everything.

It might be a tiny bit obvious from some of my previous posts and tweets that I have some depression issues. Just a bit. Writing always helps me through it, and so I was trying to rely on this. I placed a lot of hopes in this. Let's face it, though. I am never realistic. I always expect things to go well, and they never do. I can't just expect to start a blog and magically flourish as a writer overnight. I have to get my ass in gear and work at it, no matter how exhausted I am from working sixty hours a week and no matter no matter how many times I can't go home to my apartment because of altercations with the nasty FBRs I live with.

So here I am rededicating myself to this blog. Get to work, Aurora K. That's my new mantra. A daily blog might be too much for me to handle right now. *Cough* computer issues *cough* sixty work hours a week *cough.* Perhaps in the future, but for now, this will be a five posts a week thing.

If anyone out there is reading this, don't give up on me, whoever you are.

XOXO
Gossip Ghoul.

A Question of Great Philosophic Import

Sometimes it feels like I can never catch a break. I finally get a full night's worth of sleep; I finally get caught up on a particular set of bills; I finally have money in my bank account, and then everything feels like it crashes down around me. I get over the flu only to be scheduled eleven straight hours in essentially a freezer on a day predicted to be between ten and twenty degrees. I finally get myself off of a steady diet of dayquil and nyquil only to be unable to sleep at night. I get some things worked out with my loan provider, and the paperwork never comes in the mail, so now I have more than my entire bank account balance due. Everything gets bad at once.

Life is a constant uphill struggle, and I always seem to be sliding back down every few steps I take. I'm constantly moving forward and never getting anywhere. It's like trying to go down an upward escalator or running on a treadmill.

Wow, this post is way more depressing than I'd originally intended. It's Friday, and just because I'm stuck working eleven hours on the busiest day of the week by myself with no other cashiers does not mean I have to bring down everyone else too, right? Whatever readers are out there, somewhere on the Internet...

Let me end with a positive note...

OK, I just spent the last four minutes staring at the notebook I'm writing this in, trying to come up with something positive, and all I can think of is that after my excruciatingly long work day is over, I get to repaint my nails. While working, I get to debate this important question: do I paint them purple or grey?

XOXO
Gossip Ghoul