my basil plant is naked.

first things first, the massive "to be read pile" from last week has diminished, magically, somehow.

Kitchen Confidential - after reading about 20 pages, i realized i've read this before! got it from the library a few years ago! it's still as funny, irreverent, and probably frightenly honest as before. My husband is reading it, and froths at the mouth at how much of an asshole he thinks Bourdain is. well, the guy admits in the introduction that he's an asshole, and that being on all those drugs probably isn't a good thing anyway.

Action Philosophers - doesn't take long to read a comic book. Although my brain melted around Sartre, and never recovered. Good book, but not as good as volume I. i may be thinking twice before buying volume III.

The Servants, by Michael Marshall Smith - was shorter than i expected. review forthcoming on SFRevu. eventually.

Soul Catcher - by Frank Herbert - not as bad as i feared, but not as good as i hoped. More a treatise on Stockholm Syndrome than much else. It also felt very much like Herbert's The White Plague, which wasn't written until a few years later, i think. Angry protaganist is going to teach the world a lesson! and does it, but spends the whole book trying to justify their decision. it's like watching a old skool slasher film through the eyes of the bad guy. It's also very strange reading a non-SF book from an SF author. you keep expecting something SF'y to happen, and then get all dissapointed when it doesn't. like reading Voices From the Street, by Philip K Dick, i was weirded out by how relatively normal it was.

I'm a little leery of the Michael Flynn book, The January Dancer, because i was so dissapointed (and bored!!) with his Eifelheim of a few years ago. So hopefully this one will be better, and different.

Martin's A Storm of Swords will be my reward for getting through the Flynn book.

So, by now you are wondering "why is her basil plant naked????" well, cuz i cut nearly all the basil off, to make pesto!

basil? check!
pine nuts? check! (wow! who actually has those?)
parmesan cheese? check!
garlic? duh!
olive oil? check!

everything you need to make pesto! well, except the food processor, which i don't have. Here is how people without a food processor make pesto: put 1/2 cup pinenuts in a ziplock back. push the air out, zip up, and roll over with a rolling pin a few times to mush the pine nuts. put chopped basil (about 2 cups loosely packed leaves), 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, and 2 minced cloves garlic in ziplock bag, close up, and roll over with the rolling pin. every few rolls, mush it around the bag. you want it blended as good as possible. when you're sick of mushing it around and rolling it, scrape it into a bowl. add some olive oil, and mix with a fork. add more olive oil, and mix with a fork. add some salt and pepper. mix in more oil (up to a 1/2 cup, total), till you get the consistency you want. be aware, it will dry out over time, so if you're going to keep it in the fridge for a few days, you might have to mix in a little more oil to get the consistency back to where you want.

now you can make my super duper Summer Pesto Pasta!
8 oz Penne or small Shells
small sweet pepper
two small zuchinni
salt & pepper
your awesome homemade pesto

while water is boiling for pasta, saute peppers & zucchs in some butter in a skillet. season with salt & pepper. make pasta. just before draining pasta, add a ladleful of pasta water to your veggies. drain pasta and mix with veggies. Stir in Pesto. enjoy!

i have no attention span

two whole days off from work? what will i do with myself? i haven't slept in for two days in a row since. . . January, i think. Yeesh, i don't think i've slept in for one day in a row since about then. Let's see. . . time off work and money in my pocket. . if you guessed "books!" you won! i'll send you a cookie or something.

and since my attention span has withered to zero (what were we talking about?) the only thing better than books is comic books! i meant to guy buy some nice work shirts, intead i spent $25 at the comic book shop, and "impressed" the clerk with my arcane and useless knowledge of Fullmetal Alchemist (if by impressed, you mean convinced him i'm even more of a nerd than he thought. all i need now is braces and a lisp).

purchased:
Fullmetal Alchemist #14
Action Philosophers #1
Serenity #2 and #3




For those of you who like learning, but like me have zero attention span, i highly recommend Action Philosophers. it's like cliffs notes, but with pictures. and humor. i can't think of a better way to spend $8.

all those comics. . . this means the only actual "book" book i'm reading right now is "Good Omens", by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. it got mixed reviews when it came out. . . i'll let you know what i think when i get there.

finished reading a galley copy of Stephen Brust's newest, Jhegaala. review to show up. . . eventually. speaking of reviews, here's one for Jumper by Steven Gould. Yes, it's the same Jumper as that movie that came out a few months ago. i tried to give the book a neural, rather non-committal review. actually, it was pretty awful, and i don't recommend it. what was really funny was there was some screen shots from the movie on the back of the book, featuring a character who is in the movie, but not in the book. funny, or stupid?

the hubby and i watched one of our favorite films last night - The Last of The Mohicans. i think that's going to be my next serious literature read. if i can only find a copy. might be a birthday present for myself.