What Project Runway and the Bush Administration Have in Common

I am a huge fan of Project Runway. Not because I want to see 14 variations of cocktail dresses made from recycled car parts.  The draw for me is the contestants themselves.  I don't care about the group dynamics, or anyone's sappy back story.  What keeps me tuning in week after week is the chance to hear the contestants critiquing their own work.  Nothing on this earth impresses these people more than themselves, and it is utterly fascinating to watch.  These people are blown away by their own awesomeness, and say so out loud.  In fact, "blown away" is one of the most frequently used terms when the contestants watch their creations come down the runway.  No matter what sort of disaster they have draped on some poor stick-figured model, they tear up when they see the girl sashay down the runway draped in the hideous mess of their design.  Each contestant is happy to say that his or her own work towers above anyone else in the competition, and if the judges disagree, the judges are wrong.  Really, what would Michael Kors know about fashion?  Listening to people so confident in their own abilities despite ample evidence to the contrary actually evokes some wistfulness from me.  I do not have the ability to heap praise, warranted or not, upon myself, and mostly I think that's the way it should be.  There is self confidence, and there is delusional self confidence.

Which brings me to the Bush administration.  These men and women are the political equivalent of Project Runway contestants.  They believe in themselves and their choices despite the fact that most of the world believes they are wrong.  They don't learn from mistakes, because they don't think they've made any.  They consider themselves to be divinely inspired.

Problem is, the consequences from George Bush's delusional self confidence will be around a lot longer than those fugly Project Runway dresses will be.

UGH!

I love snow this time of year.  And only this time of year.  From now until Christmas, I'm all for a light dusting of snow every few days.  After all, I am a born and bred cold-weather Canadian, so I know how to walk like a duck to keep from falling in snow.  This year, I thought I was being extra clever by getting a pair of new boots, both warm and functional.  I thought...

Yes, I got myself some shearling boots called Emus.  Uggs are too damned expensive, and I really was going for practicality more than style (if I had wanted to look like a fashion victim, I'd have bought a pair of Uggs 5 years ago and worn them in the summer).  That being said, these boots were a big mistake!  Ok, they are warm, and the inside is soft, but the treads on the soles are useless.  I know this because this morning I slid off the sidewalk at the corner of Jarvis and Carlton, did a sort of demented pirouette, and landed on my butt in a pile of filthy slush. I got to work wet, dirty, and more pissed off than usual, and I'm always pretty pissed off on Monday mornings. 

 Sartorially, as well, these are not the boots for me.  I look like I was built at the Muppet Workshop at FAO Schwarz .  I'm not that freaking old, but I think I am too old for these boots.  This was confirmed for me on the way home from work, when a 4 year old pointed at my feet and shrieked to her mother: "those are the boots I want!"

It's not enough that I look like a fool in these boots, I am also endangering my life.  My old boots are already at the Goodwill store, so tomorrow I have to go to the mall to drop more money and get some boots that will keep me from ending up underneath a streetcar on a slippery day.  That, or I can go to Goodwill and buy my old boots back for a Loonie.

Stained Glass Cookies

OK, I had to make the stained glass cookies last week, because I had made the dough a few days earlier, and it probably wouldn't have kept much longer.  NBC provided me with an appropriate background of Christmas music and the lighting of the tree at Rockefeller Center. Miley Cyrus's version of Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree is an instant classic.  No, not really.  

Although bashing lolly-pops with a rolling pin on the balcony was great, I'm not sure I crushed them small enough.  I haven't made these cookies in 15 years, give me a break!  How the hell did I crush the candies last time?  Can't remember...

Here are the un-Christmassy cutout shapes (the only ones I had that had littler versions).  Filled with crushed red lolly-pops.  

Finished cookies.  The "stained glass" doesn't exactly remind me of Chartres, but I'll try to disguise the mistakes with icing.  There may be a second attempt, stay tuned!

Attack of the Giant Cookie Press

Finally used my massive "ergonomic" Williams-Sonoma Cookie Press.  My old, regular-sized one broke, and when I tried to exchange it, the WS at Yorkdale only had this model.  In the spirit of testing new cooks' tools, I decided to give it a try.

In some ways it's nice that you can fit an entire bowl of dough in at one time, but it makes it more difficult to change the die, and no one wants to make all their cookies the same! Problem is, it's a total bitch to squeeze it!  The whole design is just foreign to me; I was an expert marksman with my old cookie press.

The final batch- only 36 cookies, where I used to get about 80 smaller ones, which was better for packaging and giving away.  Took them all to work, and they were much appreciated.  Cookie press is going to be exchanged for the smaller model, however.