Ta-da!

Here is The Hair! I just love my hair girl so much-- she offered to do a second trial when I do my highlights later in the month, so I will get to be Dr. Awesomehair one more time before the wedding...

P.S. Thanks for being sympathetic to the Bride-Beast behavior. It definitely made me feel less like a crazy person. :)

Big hairy deal

(Yeesh, the word "hairy" grosses me out more than I thought. But there it is.) In the name of not having such a venomous post up at the top for more than 12 hours, let's talk about The Hair Trial! It's happening this afternoon, and you know there will be pictures...

And if you're sick of wedding things...sorry! There's only about a month left, then we can all breathe a big sigh of relief. I mean, excitement. Nah, I sort of mean relief. Whatever. I can get back to blogging about food and whatever it is I used to talk about.

The bride-beast

So, here is why I am a faux-bitchy bride: we are having an "adults-only" wedding--with the single exception of one of my cousins who is five years old (her two younger siblings will be hangin' with the babysitter on Wedding Night). I thought we would be able to avoid the ol' Surprise Additional Guest trick by addressing invitations only to those people we were inviting to the wedding, but there were of course a few add-on boyfriends and plus-ones. (For what it's worth, the add-ons were all people that we've met, and there are only two of them, so I feel ok about them coming.)

Enter the friends of GP who have one-year-old twins. They live on the other side of the country, they have "misplaced" the invitation that we sent to them (which, p.s., was addressed only to them), and emailed GP to let him know that they were "planning on bringing the girls so that everyone could ooh and aah over them." CUE THE TEARING OUT OF HAIR. First, we aren't having more than this one child at our wedding. Second, we didn't invite your-- surely delightful, but who can say for sure-- kids. Third, (and this is where I sound like the crazy bitch that I usually am not) we are not having our wedding for people to be able to gasp over how adooooorable your kids are. Believe it or not, we're having a wedding so that we can publicly display the promises we will make that day. Not so that we can meet your fricking kids.

I hate being in the position of Bitchy Bride Who Clearly Hates Your Kids and Only Wants Her Wedding to Be About Her (or BBWCHYKOWHWBAH, if you want to be brief about it), and I hate that there is no "nice" way to resolve this. GP drafted an email telling them that we aren't planning on having any super-young kids at the wedding and would gladly help them find a babysitter, so we'll see what happens. I'm sure these friends are nice and all, but I'm worried that all I'll be able to think when I meet them is, "Oh, nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Entitled Parents. You are so, so ridiculous."

/end rant. Feel free to call me a bitch.

My Two Dads

Eventually I will actually do a post about my dad and my stepdad, but for now, I leave you with this:
I learned today that Simon Doonan and Jonathan Adler are married. Do you think they would adopt me? They are just. So. Adorable.

Faux-late-night thoughts

Yes, 10:47 qualifies as the middle of the night around here. GP is snoring away, earplugs crammed firmly into his ears, able to block out the sounds (and, yes, smells-- they smoke) of our neighbors...while I am not. I had in mind a list, but that dissolved when I began to write what I could remember of it. So, rather than anything coherent, I give you the following.

• Kevin Smith should stop "acting" and stick to writing. One thing at a time, sir.

• I think Jennifer Garner and I should be friends. I have thought this since I read that she has a yellow lab named Martha Stewart.

• That's enough, Juliette Lewis.
  

• I know I am not ready for kids because when I see pictures of the children and dogs of high school friends on Facebook, I am way more excited about the dogs.

• Kate Spade shipping > Amazon shipping. Witness: yesterday, I bought all of my books for this semester (which, ok, started yesterday) from Amazon, and they have yet to ship...and I just got an email from the Kate Spade website saying my (on super-sale!) passport case and wallet have shipped! Too bad I cannot post on my class discussion boards about newly-acquired leather goods.

• How is it possible to dislike actual birds so much and still really like them as a design element (jewelry and t-shirt motifs, for instance)? I don't know, but I can tell you that it is.

• I am always, always signed out of chat when I am signed in to Facebook. I am definitely past the point where I am ok with random IMs. Mostly, this is because I am a jerk, but it is also partly because I never feel like I can commit to a conversation with about 80% of my Facebook friends (who I just know are yearning to talk to me).

• "Is there anything sadder than homeless robots at Xmas? Only drowning puppies, and there would have to be a lot of them."

• There is a Love List in the works, but who can say when that will be done.
  

Let's accessorize, shall we?

Now that we are within two months of the wedding (seriously, less than fifty days...let's freak out for a minute about that), just about all the Big Decisions are made. We have a lovely venue (with two coordinators whose heads I want to just knock together sometimes, they are so frustrating), an officiant, a florist, a (super-ninja) photographer, a DJ, clothing, attendants, the whole shebang. Since I have decided that I do not want to be making decisions about the wedding past, say, mid-September, we've begun planning some details. You'll be happy to know (you will, won't you?) that we have decided upon a first-dance song (point, Buble!), the ceremony is in a nearly-completed state, bridesmaid and maid-of-honor gifts have been purchased, and, oh yes, there are shoes!

And then, on a recent shopping trip to the Stanford Shopping Center (likely my new favorite mall, luckily--for my AmEx bill--too far away to visit regularly), mom bought these for me:

Cue a teary exit from Bloomingdales-- it seems so real when we're thinking of things like earrings, rather than, "What might be a good month for the wedding?" and "The dress-- white or ivory?"

Finally, and most excitingly (that's a word, right?), The Precious has a new friend:

They look cozy together, don't they. I'm not gonna lie, GP and I have been "practicing" wearing our rings. We sit around the living room and he says, "Look at me...I'm a married dude." My future husband, ladies and gentlemen...

Whip It Up! Make Your Own Takeout Edition

Guys, I think Rachael Ray has a cute/annoying little nickname for this, right? MYOTO? Fine, I confess, I own her 365: No Repeats...in fact, I can see it from where I sit this very second. Luckily, my recipe this week did not rely on a "30 minute" time frame (which, come on Ray-Ray, let's be honest, is completely unachievable), and so I sought inspiration elsewhere. A staple when we are trying to eat through what's left over in the fridge before a trip to the market is pizza-- and no Boboli for this girl, I usually use a super-easy from-scratch recipe from Smitten Kitchen. The problem with this is that, with yeast involved, there is a lot of (albeit hands-off) time involved (while I wasn't in a rush this week, I am too impatient most of the time to allow things to rise adequately). The solution? Something that I've enjoyed in many store-bought pizzas and have been itching to try myself: cornmeal crust! I combined a couple recipes that I found online, with delicious results...

Clean-Out-the-Fridge Sausage and Mushroom Pizza with Cornmeal Crust

Ingredients
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal or polenta
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons olive oil

Method

Place the polenta, flour, baking powder and ½ teaspoon salt onto your work surface. You could also combine the ingredients in a food processor or a bowl.

Make a well in the center and add the water and olive oil.

Combine and knead for about 8 minutes until the dough is elastic and shiny.

Top pizza and bake on a baking stone or greased pizza sheet in a 400 degree oven for 15–20 minutes

Was the recipe easy to follow?
Yup. You can't beat a 6-ingredient recipe!

Did the dish taste good?
Certainly. I loved it (I've eaten many cornmeal-crust pizzas-- blame the uppity Italian grocery store where I worked during high school for that one), and even got GP's grudging approval (I made him his own traditionally-crusted Smitten Kitchen-style pizza). If you're not an absolute pizza purist, I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy this (bonus: it is wonderful for the more impatient among us).

Would you make it again?

I certainly plan to! Pizza is one of our go-to recipes, and I'm happy to add this variation to the rotation (I am less pleased about my accidental rhyme there, but what are you going to do?).