Now that we found love what are we gonna do? The Winter 2011-12 Gay Thread

(we got int'l women's day off)

<3 <3 <3

elmo, i always follow this old rule with grains: fill up the pot with the grains yr cookin, put your index finger on top of the grains, then slowly fill with water until it reaches the first knuckle. according to this master chef woman whose books i've read, this is the way most people throughout the world cook their grains, cuz who the fuck has a measuring cup? anyway, since i started doing it, it has never failed me. kind of amazing.

also, from wednesday-sunday morning were some of the most insane days of my entire life. th3o and i hung out with friends til late on wednesday, then made a picnic and rode his motorcycle along the coast up to Land's End on thursday, had awesome sex next to the ocean on some rocks....then proceeded to pick up some friends in a car and go to a punk show in the east bay, after that sneaking into this big abandoned warehouse with great graffiti....friday we made beats until late in the evening, then saturday, we got up super early because our friend was in the hospital after an accident, wandered around sleepless for several hours, then napped, went to a party at this squat in the city, then travelled to the east bay again to go to this other squat party which ended in an orgy, then a weird fight b/w me and the3o, then a kiss and make up, then yesterday, we went clothes shopping at the dollar racks and nursed our hangover over some lazy games of pool in the dive bar near his house.

uh.. yeah. the older i get, the more totally weird and awesome my life seems to get.

oh and yeah, elmo, please do call when you are here for the wedding, if you have time. and donna, obviously you too.

i have my 2nd gay weddin at the end of the month. it's at the Four Seasons! o snap!

it's kind of funny how so many of you coupled up right around the time that i started settling into single life.

had to go to DC for work last week. not sure i'll ever be able to go back there without it feeling completely surreal and melancholy. also kind of marvel at how long i lasted there because it holds very little appeal for me now. i figure it helped having a bf almost the whole time i was there.

got to spend about 3 glorious minutes with my ex while i was there. he has a new bf now, which i think is good for him and fully support, but his ex isn't comfortable with us seeing each other. such a bummer. anyway, he snuck out to say hi and we could barely contain ourselves lol. i still love him to death.

I helped my friends move house and went to see Nguzunguzu, who were kind of disappointing and probably should have played a smaller venue. This weekend, I'm djing a house un-warming party at the now empty old house.

i have this incredibly poetic of you djing in an empty house playing nothing but ghosts and memories

image of you

but his ex isn't comfortable with us seeing each other

ugh this attitude is so nagl

all I do anymore is watch movies. Tonight was LA Confidential, last night was Parting Glances, tomorrow will probably be Hour of the Wolf and then the new ep of Drag Race

sometimes I go to Trader Joe's and buy tortillas and spend an evening making 8 or 10 burritos and freezing them to eat for lunch of work and then I sit on my couch and pet my cat and watch Mary Tyler Moore.

I remember when I used to have things to say and stories to tell

Also come on t you are totally fronting w this measuring cup business

no this is true i do this

no i'm not, i haven't used a measuring cup to cook grains in more than two years, swear to mammon.

1.5 cups of water and 1 cup of rice works for pretty much every kind of rice, right?

one knuckle works for everything.

T I just meant implying that no one has one. Also 1.5:1 makes white jasmine mushy for me but isn't enough for brown basmati. I can never get water levels right.

in slightly more tmi news I seem to have misplaced my libido

ikr

(lurking) 1.5: 1 for jasmine/long grain, but 2:1 for medium grain

Brown rice will take longer to cook, but ratios should be about the same.

<3

yeah, stevie, i am thinking it's pretty silly for jay's new bf to try to prevent us from seeing each other. jay feels a bit manipulated, and it sounds like they might break up. would you guys say this type of situation is common in your experiences or not? i can think of at least one couple i know who remained close friends after breaking up, even when they went on to date new people. i am trying to see it from this guy's perspective but i dunno. jay and i experienced some very intense shit over the years. there's no way we're going to just drop out of each other's lives.

guy sounds like a douche. he has no right, and jase shouldn't put up with it.

(i'm so happy it was good to see one another, at least for a few mins)

lou, as far as i'm concerned, that's shitty, and any relationship two people choose to have should be between those two people, whether they're exes or not. i'm still good friends with one of my exes, we both date other people, and if any of those people said that i couldn't see said ex because it made them feel uncomfortable, i'd have a nice long conversation with them, and if they couldn't accept it, tell them to fuck off.

steve, yeah, i guess i knew where you were coming from, too. what i didn't say about that trick (and about the book i learned it from) was that it comes from people around the world, in mostly 'developing' or 'undeveloped' countries, where a measuring cup isn't something to be found readily in the kitchen, as it is not really a necessity. that was where my 'fuck a measuring cup' bit came in.

- boyfriends do not get to stipulate who i remain friends with, full stop, whether that includes exes or not. if they don't like that they can stop being my boyfriend tbh
- i am hardline w/r/t being controlled: my attitude is always "this is how i live my life, if you don't like it the door is that way". fuck a compromise!
- i remain single
- i have never cooked rice & would have no idea where to start really. is it like pasta? like just dump in water and boil?

ish but the amount of water is v important, not so much with pasta

you have to watch rice a bit more carefully than pasta so it doesn't burn/stick to the bottom of the pot

also i am still friends with my first ex (the only really serious one i've had) - i mean, it stung a tiny bit when i learned he was dating other ppl at first but i certainly wasn't going to put a leash on him. and since i like him so i want him to only date awesome ppl who aren't jerks

I'm friends with varying degrees of intimacy with all my ex's but I only hang out regularly with one of them.

xp I thought the rule was never ever peek at rice ever til it's done? Also I always wash the grains first. And yet I still can never get flowing grains like an Indian restaurant

see, this is why I eat out.

and don't have exes.

you have to fluff it at some point before it's done, no?

(i am talking about rice, there)

I thought the rule was never ever peek at rice ever til it's done

This is true. Once the lid's on you let it cook (usually 20 minutes).

contrary to popular belief, u can make a great pot of rice without using a lid

i know, ::gasp::

makes it less sticky + more flowing, to use your word stevo

I couldn't eat out every night. Never mind the expense -- I couldn't control sodium, cholesterol and additive content. On weeknights I restrain my sugar intake to "Cosby Show" reruns.

you have to watch rice a bit more carefully than pasta so it doesn't burn/stick to the bottom of the pot

90% of the time i cook pasta it burns or sticks to the pot. i have no hope

My perfect-every-time-rice (no sticking, even in stainless steel):

1. wash a cup of rice if it’s basmati, don’t bother if it’s generic long grain (rinse it in a strainer until the water runs clear)
2. saute the rice in your saucepan with olive oil (or canola I guess) until the rice starts smelling like popcorn
3. add 2 cups of water and a good pinch of salt
4. cover and drop the heat down to VERY LOW
5. set a timer for 20 minutes and fuhgeddaboudit
6. when the timer goes off, turn the heat off, don’t take the lid off, set the timer for 10 more minutes and fuhgeddaboudit
7. PROFIT

(don't fluff the rice until after the 20+10 minutes; don't bother washing it; use as little oil as you can get away with and still coat the grains, just a teaspoon or two)

i would rather just skip a meal than cook tbh. or just eat some bread and cheese and an apple

mmm i'm wit you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGR65RWwzg8&ob=av2e

this thread officially got great again

2. saute the rice in your saucepan with olive oil (or canola I guess) until the rice starts smelling like popcorn

impressive, very first step and you've already lost me

bread/cheese/apple was my default meal when I worked at walmart (and stole my food)

i actually - my favorite meal to have when i have a day off is a toasted 8 grain baguette sandwich with cheese and sliced granny smith

my lunch is usually pb&j/piece of fruit (usually apple)/handful of cookies

I need to investigate apples. I want juicy and tart but with some sweetness too. Braeburns aren't bad. What else?

WINESAP, but i only ever find them at the orchard

braeburns are good, so are galas

you can't really go wrong with golden delicious

pink ladys taste nice but are too small

lex, you claim to have tried hard for 10 years to learn to cook and you wouldn't know where to begin to cook rice and you burn pasta 90% of the time... i wonder what you think "try" and "learn" and "cook" mean.