working for companies you love (plus a book & recipe recommendation)

i just got back from a roundtable meeting at my office where we sat down - with the president & ceo of the company! - to discuss the unfair financial burden placed on gay employees whose husbands or wives are on our healthcare plan. (it's an interesting issue - this article summarizes it concisely - but basically, under current federal tax law, the cost of a gay employee's partner's healthcare is considered taxable income. meaning for an annual healthcare plan valued at, say, $6000, a gay, married employee would be subject to an additional ~$1500 in out of pocket taxes which straight, married employees would not have to pay.)

nothing was immediately resolved - it was just an initial discussion to highlight the issue - but i am just so damn proud & pleased to be working for an organization where this is openly & positively discussed; where both the president & ceo attend such a discussion; and where the general employee body is supportive of rectifying inequalities like this even when the inequality is due to federal law & not our company's policies.

UPDATE!! in the time it took me to write this post, our management team already made the decision to go ahead with the gross-up policy from the article above. love.

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i was reading through book reviews on princess nebraska's blog recently and came across her take on a book called prep:

I am not sure that I have ever found another book as profoundly effecting or as incredibly super depressing. DAMN does she get into the psyche of the terrified 13 year old girl. This is the third time I have read this and I am still amazed by it.

intriguing, no? it's the story of a girl who chooses to attend an east coast boarding school for highschool... you know, sort of like the one i went to.

you guys. i had NIGHTMARES reading this book. because like princess nebraska says: DAMN does she get into the psyche of the terrified 13 year old girl. i woke up one morning and told chris i'd slept poorly all night because of the nightmares from the book, and he was like "oh, is it scary?" and i said "oh, no, not at all; i was having these awful dreams where i was super worried about what everyone thought about me all the time, and i was nervous to talk to your friends because i thought they'd take everything i said wrong, so instead i kept making these jokes and they totally DID take EVERYTHING wrong and actually none of your friends like me and don't know why you're dating me and... basically, i'm having nightmares that I AM a teenaged girl."

i actually really recommend the book, if you can handle a few days of feeling like an insecure teenager again.

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i've had this recipe for the best tomato sauce in the world from one of my favorite food blogs, framed cooks, pinned for AGES.. and just finally made it last night.

(pin/source)

HOLY CRAP YOU GUYS. she is not kidding. make this IMMEDIATELY. there are only 3 ingredients (!!) but one of them is butter, so. i actually made some meatballs to go along with this yesterday, but forgot to serve them (!!!) and even chris, who does not believe in eating meals without meat, ate just pasta + sauce happily with no "but there's no meat" comments. this sauce is goooood.

ice capades

remember back in, like, early 2010, when Bros Icing Bros was a thing?

unfortunately, among chris's friends, it is Still A Thing. which is why a few weekends ago, when we all went down to florida, alarmingly large portions of our time were spent doing this:

...and the rest of our time was spent being paranoid that we were about to be iced.

(obviously, we were usually correct in that assumption.)

there was a lot of icing, is my point. i was lucky enough to escape being iced by the much-reviled green apple variety, at least. AND i only got iced once - i don't have a picture of the one guy who was iced THREE TIMES while we were there, which is too bad.

i don't know how many of you have been iced before (i'm guessing/hoping very few) but let me assure you, it is AWFUL. that stuff is sickeningly sweet, and more carbonated than you'd think possible. it burns. and then you burp a lot. it's attractive.

i can't even figure out how to end this post. i'm amused & ashamed in equal measures. i would say "friends don't let friends get iced," except that in this case it was EXCLUSIVELY friends letting other friends get iced. i guess: try not to get iced, folks.

what to expect from a thai massage

i have some pretty gnarly chronic issues with my shoulders & trapezius muscles due to my first ribs constantly popping out of alignment. i mean, nothing terrible - i go to a chiropractor regularly now, and the act of getting aligned once or twice a week has really helped my body figure out how to put the ribs back on its own when it happens now. but they do still come out a lot, which makes the muscles around them very unhappy, so i basically always have giant rock-hard knots in my traps. not that big of a deal, but as a result i tend to snap up any massage deals i see on livingsocial these days.

a few weeks ago, there was one for a thai massage. "neat!" i thought to myself, "a new kind of massage!"

chris has had thai massages while actually in bangkok, and had told me to expect a lot more stretching than in a swedish massage. i figured that would probably be good for me and my inflexible limbs. stretching is good for you!

so walking in, i thought i was pretty well prepared for what to expect. massage, stretching, relaxation. sweet. i got there, stripped down, and got under the sheet.

what i was NOT anticipating was for the masseuse to come in and immediately hop ONTO THE TABLE with me.

this was not a larger-than-average massage table, mind you. this was a regular sized massage table, which i took up nearly all of, but now there was also a small thai woman kneeling in between my ankles and starting to massage the backs of my legs.

until she climbed directly on top of me and started kneading my butt with her knees, that is.

(it should be noted that she was not, in fact, wearing green pajamas for the massage. but these were awfully hard to draw in mspaint even without also giving her stylish clothing.)

i had just about acclimated myself to having a woman kneeling on my butt, when she climbed off me, repositioned, and grabbed my ankles. and then this happened.
let's just say i'm pretty glad it was laundry day and i was wearing some of my uglier, more full-coverage underwear.

this was, as you can imagine, only the tip of the iceberg. many of the positions were far too complicated for my meager mspaint skills (for example: imagine me on my back, with my knees together but on the right side of my body to stretch my back. my left arm is being held out by her right arm, her right foot planted in my armpit to keep that side of me in place, and she's kneeling on my upper thighs with her other leg to keep me fully torqued. also i have on only underwear. AWESOME.)

it was.. well, "relaxing" was not exactly one of the words i'd use to describe it. acrobatic, yes. often painful, also yes. but oddly enjoyable. and most often, very undignified.

charities & dogfish

OK charities, listen, i get it. curbside donation appeals are hardly a rewarding task. most people try their hardest to get by without making eye contact so they don't have to talk to you; even folks who DO make eye contact ignore you and rush by without stopping to talk. and then even those who you do manage to stop are likely rude most of the time, and i'm guessing only a tiny fraction of people agree to hear you out and/or donate.

so when you DO get someone to stop and listen, and that person says they'll donate? LEAVE HER BE FTLOG.

planusa.org, which is legitimately a very good & worthy charity, has had volunteers stationed outside my metro stop for the past few weeks, trying to flag down commuters to solicit donations. about two weeks ago a guy named patrick successfully got me to stop, went into his spiel, and convinced me that child trafficking is bad and that i should donate some money to prevent it. all good, right?

yeah, no. i told him i liked the charity, and did they have a card with a website? because i'd like to donate online. he told me i should give him my credit card number there, on the sidewalk, and donate on the spot. i said no thank you, i would rather donate securely online. patrick launched into a 5 minute long argument with me about other places i used my card that were unsafe, and how i should trust him and a proven charity and just write down my credit card number on the form on his clipboard already.

look. people. i know that every time i use my card, it opens me up to risk. i know that i have to give my card to waiters at restaurant, where they take it out of my line of sight, and could do naughty things. but just because these are necessary risks involved with owning a bank card, does this mean i may as well ALSO give my bank information to the nice nigerian price who emails me all the time? no, no it does not.

it's the argument that if you're not going to eat only grass and carrots all day long, there's NO POINT in having lowfat yogurt instead of ice cream, because WHY BOTHER if one other thing you ate was unhealthy?

(it's a bad argument, is my point.)

so basically patrick here wouldn't let me leave even though i promised to donate online. he got kind of aggressive about it, trying his best to bully me into donating right then. he FOLLOWED ME about 20 feet down the walk, chastising me that i should donate to him directly. i asked him at one point if he got commission or recognition for the donations, because i'd use his name online if so; he claimed that was not the case but that "only 1% of people donate online."

"well then, luckily for you, i'll help bring those numbers up," i replied. it didn't help.

i eventually had to abruptly walk away from him because he made it clear that wouldn't stop. i was so irritated by the whole thing that i was really hesitant to donate to them at ALL at that point. you should not HARASS people into volunteering their money, you know? but, i HAD said i would donate, so i did. a $50 donation via their website when i got home.

yesterday, patrick was at my metro stop again. he pounced on me immediately - "hey! remember me? patrick!-" and started his spiel again. i interrupted him with "yes, i do, and i donated $50 on your website, as promised."

"oh. so will you donate today?"

"i.. i just told you that i donated..?"

"yes, but that was like 2 weeks ago," patrick pointed out incredulously. his tone turned reproachful. "don't you think you should give more...?"

HELPFUL TIP TO CHARITIES: do not attempt to shame people who have JUST DONATED by suggesting their contribution was meager and not helpful enough. YOU ARE LITERALLY BEGGING ME FOR MONEY ON THE SIDEWALK.

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in less ranty news, are any of you familiar with dogfish head beers? they're a local(-ish) brewery, and when marie and i recently found out our friends planned to make a roadtrip there, we asked* if we could join them and planned a mini weekend getaway.

*it was less "asking" and more "demanding" that we come along, technically. details.

Instagrammed by Marie

if you're local, i highly recommend the tour. it's very fun & VERY informative.

and they let you drink a pretty good quantity of beer. :)


have a great long weekend, everyone! my weekend, while it should be quite nice, will be exactly the same length as normal weekends because i do not have monday off. TERRIBLE.

::happy sigh::

just one small voice, but I use it to shout

most of you will know by now that Susan G. Komen for the Cure has abruptly cut its funding for Planned Parenthood. komen claims this is not a politically-driven decision, but that stance is frankly a little hard to believe.

in what universe is cutting funding for cancer screenings a good idea for the charity that claims it wants to end breast cancer?

i've had conflicting feelings about komen for a while, due to its practice of suing other charities who use any variation of "for the cure" in their title or slogan (because copyrighting CANCER SLOGANS is so helpful for people suffering from cancer..??) but ultimately felt that if they were providing valuable research that could help my friends, i would continue to support them.

that stops now.

you can make your voice heard by donating directly to Planned Parenthood here.

cooking with Pinterest (again!)

i've waxed poetic about my love for pinterest here before, especially as a recipe repository and inspiration to cook more frequently. here are some of my recent favorites!

Parmesan Crusted Goat Cheese with Basil Oil (pin/source)

If you like goat cheese, MAKE THIS RIGHT NOW. it is not hard (really!) and has one of the most amazing result:effort ratios ever. mine honestly looked just as good as the one in this picture, and it took about 15 minutes TOTAL to make. DO IT.

Pioneer Woman's Chicken Tikka Masala (pin/source)

i'm not always a Pioneer Woman recipe fan, but i was surprised & impressed at how tasty this was (again, without being super difficult). it does reqiure garam masala - the reason i'd never tried tikka masala in the past - but when i found myself with some as the result of an awesome bday gift, i took the plunge. definitely worth it, and i'll be buying more in the future to remake this.

Chicken Pot Pie (pin/source)

admittedly not the most appealing photo, but HOLY COW is this delicious. chris and i both had about 6 servings the first time i made this (because yes, there have been multiple makings). i use storebought dough as suggested in the recipe (hello, lazy) but if you went the extra mile to make your own, i imagine that would be even better.

Taco Dip (pin/source)

do you have a superbowl party to attend this weekend? do you need to bring something to share? i suggest this dip, which is as addictive as crack. and probably tastier than crack, too. this is from a "skinny recipe" website, which i completely ignored and used full fat sour cream and cheddar cheese. i only use about 1/2 the taco seasoning packet, which is plenty for me. each time i've made this, people have camped out next to it and stayed, methodically eating, until it was gone. bonus (for some people): it's vegetarian! no actual meat was harmed in the creating of this taco dip.

and now... desserts!!

Chocolate Graham Cracker Toffee Bark (pin/source)

(aw. poor little runty-sized photo.)

i made a few modifications to this - i used dark chocolate (because i like it) and i tried two different toppings: chopped hazelnuts and heath bar toffee bits. both were SUPER DELICIOUS. i ended up methodically eating all the "scrap" pieces that weren't pretty enough to make it to the presentation platter. and then also every single piece that was leftover after the party. and i think dreamily about making some more of it.

Peanut Butter Fudge (pin/source)

do you have a potluck to attend? is it the same weekend as a giant party you're also throwing, which also happens to be 1 week before christmas and also during a really busy time at work, and as a result you just have no! time! to cook something for that potluck? MAKE THIS! it takes like 10 minutes and tastes like FAR MORE than 10 minutes worth of effort. score.

and finally:

Chocolate Tarragon Merlot Truffles (pin/source)

these things, my gosh. they're decadent - and as required by anything i attempt, not hard! the physical rolling of the truffles is the hardest part - i had some frustrating, chocolate-covered moments as my ganache became too room-temperature and melty - but the payoff is worth it. i brought a bag of these to the bar where i watched the giants/green bay game and offered some to our server, who i'm pretty sure would have let us walk out without paying after that.

SPEAKING OF THAT GAME. you guys remember i'm a giants fan, right?

you could say i'm a little excited for this weekend. :)