Things are getting out of control.  For one, there was the holiday and a whole lot of traveling.  For two, there was another holiday a week later.  For third, there was a birthday a week after that.  For fourth, another birthday a week after that.  For fifth, another birthday 6 days after that.  And now I’m moving in a week, leaving the country in less than three weeks, and complaining about my totally amazing busy schedule on my blog.

To put it simply, there’s a lot going on.  A lot.  All of it is positively amazing.  But whoa baby!  When I get busy, I get stressed.  Which means I stress eat.  Just kidding, I don’t do that.  Except I do.  I like to make homemade french fries that aren’t really fried, and then dip them in agave nectar.  Because I’m out of honey, duh.

And that’s the most exciting thing happening on the food front here.  But even if I don’t have much time to experiment with new recipes, I’m still collecting things I’ll be making once I’m in my new kitchen.  I wanted to share with you what’s been inspiring me lately.  Here goes.

These cupcakes need to go gluten free in a bad way.

I don’t know why it never occurred to me to do this before, but it’s happening.  Tonight.

Finally, I’m dying to make these, but I’m having a little trouble convincing the boyfriend that he doesn’t actually hate brussel sprouts.

What’s been inspiring you lately?  I’m dying to know.

… how there got to be a giant sign on my forehead that says “I go for older men!”

Last night, this guy (probably at least 10 years my senior) came up to me and struck up a conversation.  Where are you from… what do you do… etc.  I was telling him about my job, and he asked how long I had been working there.  ”2 1/2 years, I guess… I started the day after I graduated, actually.”  ”Oh… you’re… young.”  He didn’t talk to me after that.  Do I know how to scare off the boys or what?

That said, my boyfriend is turning 38 today (tomorrow?  I never know).  He’s a fantastic boy.  This evening (yesterday evening?  this is weird), we played board games with his friends and ate the most divine chocolate cake of my life.  This was the cake, with this as frosting.  It was intense, to say the least.

At the risk of being like one of those disgusting high school couples on facebook…

Happy birthday, you dear, sweet boy!

Remember my December resolutions?  It’s time to report back.

I did, indeed create quite tasty food during the month, and I managed to finish out the month exactly $1 under budget.  A huge accomplishment for me.  I’m usually $10-20 over.  Sometimes more than that.  I’m going to try to keep this going this month, although, not being able to mooch food off my parents for a week is going to make that difficult.  On the other hand, not feeling compelled to cook for holiday parties will help.

Now let’s talk about cream.  I managed to make 2 different types of ice cream for Christmas.  First, my classic chocolate.  Second, cheesecake ice cream.  I recommend both.  But the real success was my garlic cream sauce.  I started with this recipe but cut it in thirds, and still served it with a pound of pasta.  There was plenty of sauce, still.  I may have still used the originally 6 cloves of garlic.  <shrug />

As I made these resolutions last month, I really wanted to resolve to make a really delicious loaf of gluten free bread.  I knew that the holidays would not afford me enough time, though, and I decided to put it off until January.  Sadly, due to personal things, I’m going to put this off again.  Nothing’s worse than making a resolution you know you’re not really resolved about.  Ok, a few things are worse, but still…

Here are my January resolutions:

1. More veg.  Tons more.
2. Figure out how to use egg whites.  And actually use them.

Number 1 shouldn’t come as a surprise.  Number two: I make recipes that call for egg yolks all the time.  I usually just dump the egg whites.  That’s no good.  I need to stop.  This month.  Currently, there are egg whites in my freezer, and I’ve got a plan.  :)

On two unrelated notes:

1. For some reason, Amazon recommended this to me.
2. I totally just noticed that Google reader has some highlights on the right side of the screen.  You know, things like “recently read”, “recently starred”, and my new favorite “recently kept unread”.  As it turns out, that last category made me laugh at myself because it shows just how passive aggressive I can be.  I’m too embarrassed to tell you why.  A quart of ice cream* for the person who can guess what rss feed I’ve been not reading for months.

* For people within a 10 mile radius only.  Your pick of flavors, though.

P.S.  I just realized this is the second post titled thus.  Perhaps the third.  Considering this, I’m resolving to not repeat myself so much.  For serious.  (That was just to see if you were paying attention, duh!)

If somebody told me I could have a lifetime supply of blank, I’m sure I’d be pretty happy.  I’m just not sure what the blank would be.  Here are some contenders:

• Baked Tostitos Scoops: they’re obscenely expensive, especially when compared to any other tortilla chip.  But they’re baked.  And they’re scoops.  Yes, I’d definitely want these.
• Bananas: I’d want them delivered daily (I guess I wouldn’t complain if it were every other day).  They should be yellow, absolutely no brown, with the slightest bit of a greenish tint.
• Pebbles: Each week, I would alternate between fruity vs. cocoa.  Variety is the spice of life.
• Peanut butter:  I go through this like you wouldn’t believe.  It’s a baker’s lifeline if she’s going gluten free.
• Udi’s: All varieties.  Every week.  Yea, I’d eat that much Udi’s if I could.
• Skintimate:  This is totally stupid, but shaving gel is one of those things that’s a total luxury item to me.  It’s reserved for days when I’m feeling crummy and want to rock a totally short skirt to prove to the world that I’m awesome.  If every day I wore a short skirt and proved to the world that I was awesome, I think I’d be pretty happy with life.
• Fancy Pants Shampoo: It’s been so long since I’ve used good shampoo, I don’t even know the brand I’d choose.  But really ridiculously expensive stuff.  That makes your head feel good about itself.
• Headphones: I’m hard on headphones.  I don’t really know why, but it probably has to do with the fact that I forget that I’m wearing them and stand up from my desk while they’re still in.  Kind of a lot.  About a pair every month or two would do, I think.

If I could get someone to deliver perfect bananas to me every single day, I’d go with that one.  Otherwise, I think I’m leaning towards the scoops.  Can you blame me, really?

It’s time to start planning.  That is to say, it’s time to start telling people about my plans.  I’ve been planning for months.  It’s just a little weird to tell people that, I find.

I’m making lists for my Christmas presents.  I’ve got one last thing to pick up, and I’ll get that on Sunday.  Bam!

I’m planning out all the chores that need to be accomplished in the next few days.  I’m planning like crazy.

I like to plan.  It looks good on me.  But this year, I’m not planning a Christmas dinner.  Whoa, right?  I thought it was funny how much Wilde talked about missing Thanksgiving dinner this year.  It’s a little funny, but it also makes sense.  When you talk and think as much about food as food bloggers do, it’s hard to just turn that off.  And people are used to your inability to just turn that off.

But the thing is, there are things I like more than food.  Like my boyfriend.  And he and I have planned out how to see both our families on Christmas day, but it’s going to mean traveling rather than cooking.  So that’s just that.

On the other hand, I’m anxiously awaiting the goodies our respective families will create.  I’m looking forward to banana bread and cranberry bread (I need to figure out a gluten free variation for my mom’s recipe).  I’m looking forward to hot chocolate at breakfast, and probably another cup in the evening.  I’m looking forward to excited nephews.  I’m looking forward to hanging out with my sister all next week.  And boy, oh boy, am I looking forward to presents! That’s not lame, is it?

P.S.  Dear Boys, Your girlfriends think you’re swell.  They really do.  But when their friends strongly suggest that you purchase a very specific gift for your girlfriend, you would do well to listen.  A girl’s friends know her ring size, whether she prefers gold or silver (or platinum ), and definitely what she wants for Christmas, especially if it’s a piece of jewelry from that hippie store across from a favorite bar on Main Street (just saying…).  Sincerely, Jenny.

P.P.S.  Lest you think that was me hinting to my boyfriend, you all should know that my boyfriend is absolutely the best gift giver in the world.  And while I can think of some things I hope he gets me, I’ve also been with him long enough to know that he’s going to get me something far better than I could possibly even imagine to hope for.  It’s what he does.  (No pressure, sweetie.)