outta mind outta site

Tumblin' away

I'm not much on here anymore, but I'm not quitting it. But this is just a post to let you know I've decided to become more active on Tumblr. You can follow me or subscribe at candrews.tumblr.com.

As a reminder of how much all of you hated when I started my tumblr in like 2007 or 2008, here is a video about it.

My random beauty tips

Over the years I've blogged about some crazy shit I do to keep myself looking more like a female human being, less like a raggedy cavewoman. Some of them I've blogged about previously, some of them I have not. As I was getting ready this morning for work and using some of these weirdo tips, I thought that perhaps I should do a compendium of them, all in one place, for my lady readers (and any men who are into this stuff, I don't judge). Below, many tips and tricks I use to try to look presentable on a daily basis. If you have any fun ones, I'd love to hear them in the comments.

HAIR:

• You all know my obessesion with vinegar rinses on hair. If you haven't heard me rave about it before, here you go: white vinegar rinses make your hair feel like angel wings. Douse your hair with a cup of white vinegar (while hair is wet) in the shower, then shampoo and condition, then douse it again with a mixture of vinegar and warm water, then rinse a lot, because otherwise you'll smell like a Caesar salad. I don't know how it works, but it's great. It also helps prevent dandruff and helps oily hair be not so oily.
• I found a new favorite conditioner. It's L'Oreal Evercreme Deep Nourishing Masque, and it's like $6, available at drugstores, and worth it. I don't know what is it in it but it's probably made of puppy dreams or something. I have super fine hair, and this helps it be very very silky and soft and not weighed down at all.
• If you want to work on your hair from the inside out, consider a spoonful of whole unground flax seeds every day. I put this into a smoothie with yogurt, bananas, spinach and almond milk, and you can literally feel the difference in your hair the day after. I have no idea how it works, but my hair definitely gets more softness and volume in it when I'm having the whole flaxseeds on a regular basis. (And there is a difference for me between whole flaxseeds and ground flaxseeds, my hair doesn't feel as awesome as when I'm using ground flaxseeds. Shrug.)
• A stranger touched my hair the other day and declared it the softest hair he's ever felt. This is a true story.

TEETH:

• I floss a lot. This is important.
• I love Crest whitening toothpaste.
• But the best whitening I've come across is baking soda. Brush your teeth with it after you've brushed regularly. It works, and so cheap!
• Another great whitener (but one I've found a bit harsh on my teeth) is hydrogen peroxide. Gargle with it a few times a week.

SKIN:

• I genuinely love egg yolk masks. These are great more in the summer when your skin gets all oily and gross. I just wash my face, spread gross egg yolk all over it for 15 minutes, then shower it off.
• In the winter, I prefer a mask of fresh squeezed orange juice. Yes, this sounds crazy, but it's wonderful. Squeeze out the juice of half an orange into a glass, apply with a cotton ball to a freshly-washed face. Leave it on for 15 minutes. Shower it off. It's like the best, cheapest toner ever. I think lemon juice would work similarly but maybe be a bit harsher.
• In terms of stuff you can't get at the grocery store, I think Kiehl's products are some of the best out there. I love their Midnight Recovery Oil, especially in the winter. Their microdermabrasion scrub is also particularly good.
• But if you want to go cheap, St. Ive's Apricot Scrub is still the best drugstore exfoliator out there, in my opinion. 
• This is kind of gross (yet again) but Aquafresh toothpaste makes the best zit-killer ever. Just dab some on overnight and zit-be-gone.

MAKEUP:

• Neutrogena Oil-Free Eye Makeup Remover is just the best I've ever used.
• This is where it gets REAL weird, but I've found the best skin and eyelid primer ever... and it's made by Monistat. It's the It's the Monistat Chafing Relief Powder-Gel. I don't know how it works, but it does, and makes my foundation and eyeshadow stay on 10x as long as anything else. Plus it's like $8.
• YSL Touche Eclat is the only makeup product I buy that doesn't come from the drugstore. Worth the money. Go to Sephora and test it out. It's great for undereye circles and just general highlighting/making prettier.

Alright. I think that's all I can remember for now. What have you got for me?

Catherine Cooks: Wonton Soup

Way back in the annals of 2010, when I was completing my 30 whil 30 challenge, one of my most favorite and most rewarding challenges was teaching myself to cook, and attempting at least one new recipe a week. Forcing myself to cook -- anything, really, whether it was a simple risotto or a complicated pork dish -- over and over again really gave me confidence in the kitchen that had long been lacking.

Unfortunately, in the past year or so I've resorted to dining way too much at the Whole Foods salad bar, or out at restaurants with friends (nothing wrong with that! Friends and restaurants are great). But I've lost the cooking mojo and momentum, and really miss how fulfilling it was. So one of my upcoming goals for 2013 will be to get back on the cook-one-recipe-a-week bandwagon. And I decided to get started early on the process. Last night I was feeling run-down and cold, and was about to order some soup and ma-pa tofu, but then was like, CATHERINE. NO. YOU ARE CAPABLE OF COOKING. So I found a recipe for a homemade wonton soup and made it, and it was delicious.

Recipe is here. Only adjustments I would make that if you are using store-bought boxed chicken broth (as I was) you need to amp up the flavor, so I added some garlic, ginger slices, salt and Chinese five-powder spice and simmered that with the broth. Also, you should boil the dumplings in water for 5 minutes first, then put into the simmering/hot broth (this saves the broth from getting completely starchy and cloudy).

The outcome. Perfect for a cold, wintry November Sunday night.

Weekend Report: Into the Woods

Have you read this recent study that came out that says living in a city can actually MAKE YOU PSYCHOTIC? I decided it was high time to get the antidote before it was too late, so I grabbed some friends, made some chili, and hightailed it into a PATC cabin in the southwestern Maryland woods.

We stayed here:

We spent a lot of time doing this:

The girls spent a lot of time watching the boys do this:
WORK IT

We went hiking up to some rocks with a view and it looked like this:

And at the end of the we were all tuckered out, just like these two:

Good news, it worked -- none of us are psychotic. YET.

Weekend Report: Two for One!

I haven't blogged in forever! (AKA a weeek). Time to re-up on this here typepad situation, and to recall what I did the past two weekends. Last last Friday: I went to dinner at Cork. Guys, that place is good. I mean, everybody knows this, I guess, but with all the new buzzed-about spots it's sort of easy to forget. I ate everything: duck, avocado toast, all the french fries, and much more. Then I worked it all off by going dancing at Wonderland like I'm 25 again. Good times.

Saturday: I lounged around and started watching the DVDs of season 1 of Revenge. That show is as addictive as, well, drugs. Revenge is a dish best served on ABC! Or whatever. Point is, I'm enjoying it.

I managed to get outside for exactly one hour to see the Alley of Doom. If you didn't read about it, a woman who works at the Sunlight Foundation got a grant from the Awesome Foundation to create a "boulder" to re-enact the famous Indiana Jones scene. Lots of little kids were doing it, and it was pretty cute:

Then I went to bed at 9pm on a Saturday night because part of being adult is you can do that.

Sunday: I headed with some ladies to Abby's for brunch, where she served us a delicious egg strada and "made" us watch 3 hours of Dawson's Creek season 2. That dialogue! Those shoulder pads! That Van Der Beek hair!

Then it was off to Duffy's to watch some of the Skins game, and catch up with Drew B., who was turning 33. Post-game, we walked up U street to Jack Rose, where I got a tasty burger and we celebrated his birthday with many a-friend and some cupcakes.

This Friday: I had the good fortune to be in New York City for work. Though I had the not so good fortune to be stuck on a train Thursday night that was 3 hours delayed and ruined my plans for dinner with Claire and Natania. There may have been some hysteria-induced tweeting about alcohol and how Amtrak was running out of it. No matter. Friday was a conference, and I got to lunch here at the Central Park conservatory garden, so it wasn't so bad:

So then it was Friday night, which means it was time to get wild and crazy in the city, right? Sort of. I headed down to Park Slope, where I hung out with Lauren and Fletcher and their sweet little guy, helped with bathtime, then drank two bottles of rose with them and ordered Indian food. I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Is anybody else worried about the fact that I seem to have the longest arms in the world? Just me?

Saturday: I had decided to hang around NYC for most of the day, because it's just the best. I woke up early and treated myself to a bagel+lox spread from the Bagel Hole and a cappuccino from De Luxe Cafe, both consumed while milling about Prospect Park.

Then Ben, whom DC misses dearly, came out to meet me in Carroll Gardens, where we got an early lunch at Frankie's Spuntino and shared a carafe of wine before noon. WHAT OF IT?

Eventually, we walked down to Red Hook, where we proceeded to have the most magical afternoon ever. What a cute neighborhood. First, we swung into an art gallery where in the courtyard some model-y types were doing some sort of weird photo shoot with croquet mallets and an Airstream trailer. Okay! Then we milled about on the waterfront, eventually making our way to Steve's for mini-key lime pies, dipped in chocolate, on a stick (THIS IS A REAL THING), and a $5 wine tasting at winery. In Red Hook! They make the wine on grounds! I love it. Then we drank super cheap beers on the patio of the Brooklyn Ice House. My only regret: I'd stuffed myself with so much food that day alone that I could not sample their amazing-sounding BBQ.

And that was that! I hustled off to Penn Station for a 6pm train (luckily, a smooth and on time ride) and was so wiped from the NYC fun I promptly got in bed with the latest Lucky Magazine and fell asleep at 10. Again: a privilege, not a lamentation.

Sunday: I hauled myself to the gym for a session on the stairmaster (my legs & butt still hurting from a Thursday AM crossfit session) and then met the family (sans sister, who was working, but with sister-in-law and nephew-to-be, and they're just the best) for brunch.

I then went to Touchdown to meet up with Jake and Drew for a bit of Redskins watching, luckily leaving before I had to see RGIII get a concussion. Ouch. It was off to see the Master, which was... it was...huh, the movie seemed like... wtf was that, you guys? Could have used about 100x more Landry, methinks.

A drink at the Passenger rounded off the evening, and then I was off to home to finish up Revenge. Can't wait to catch up on season 2. Fun times!