ZuzuinOaktown's Profile

We use tuna or any leftover fish to make "okonomiyaki" or "as you like it" in Japanese. Comfort food that allows you to add whatever you have on hand to the base. Basically, a frittata.

Mix /- one cup of flour (brown rice flour is good) with a pinch of baking powder, salt, cayenne and if you like, other dried spices or sesame seeds. Then, add one egg, a 1/4 cup or so of oil (EVO makes it less Japanese, but tastes lovely). Chop leftover veggies (cabbage, greens, grated carrot, whatever). Add green onion, grated ginger and a dash of sesame or chili oil and a bit of water to make a firm batter. Then add your chopped fish, shrimp, crab, anchovies, etc. If anchovies, be sparing and omit salt.

Cook in a cast iron skillet set med-high. Flip after a few minutes or put under the broiler to cook both sides. Traditionally served with a dollop of tonkatsu sauce or even, mayo, but we prefer nonfat Greek yogurt mixed with a bit of chili pepper paste.

You can buy all kinds of carpeting in runner width and have it cut to size, then affix it with a good adhesive plus carpet rods (I think that's what they're called), but to be honest, it might be better just to train the dog to wait for you to help him/her go upstairs. My nearly 16-year-old Lab knows to wait until I'm there to help. I hook my hands under her belly and "float" her back legs up the stairs while she pilots with her front legs--looks ridiculous, but it doesn't hurt my back and it works. In the morning, I pile dog beds and comforters at the bottom of the stairs and she just dives onto them after flying down the stairs. Even if your dog has some time before the back legs get really weak, training now will help him/her remain willing to climb/descend stairs well into old age. Omega-3 fish oil mixed in with the food (in addition to above suggestions) can help too, as does acupuncture.

Matilda and other Brooklynites--have you tried the Park Slope Food Co-op? Yes, you do one shift per month for each adult in the house, and yes, there are quite a few rules, but not only does the Co-op provide great community (including childcare while you shop or work your shift), the food is amazing and the prices shockingly cheap (especially for NYC). Grass-fed, organic beef and dairy, beautiful produce, most of the stuff (including health and beauty and supplements) you might buy at Whole Foods and a lot more. I loved it. Now, I live in Oakland, CA, and just learned there's a start-up co-op here (the CoG). Can't wait to join.

for nickel525--here's what we do (i'm the neatnik, he's the not so neatnik) each make a list of things you would love the other to do--you can get as um...creative as you'd like. when one picks an item from the list to do, s/he gets to choose what s/he'd like to receive in return from his or her own list. worth a try (and pretty fun once you get into it). good luck!

So perfect, especially in the Z-house (all of our names or nicknames start with "Z").

silvery gray with bright white trim and a brightly colored front door (cherry red, azure, kelly green, chrome yellow--something fun and cheerful).

Love. Love. Love.

Our mediterranean deco/craftsman was started in the '20s, but after the crash in '29, the builders stopped and lived in the tiny 1905 cottage in the back until they could afford to finish the house several years later. I love it--amazing light even in the bathroom, hardwood floors, built-ins--despite the fact that I've had to replace the impossibly steep pitched roof (cha-ching), update electrical, earthquake proof the foundation (another cha-ching) and redo all the floors, etc. Still working on replacing all the icky 80s brass hardware installed in a remuddle. Did most of the work ourselves--the one huge problem we can't DIY: the basement, built below the water table, which means that when it pours, the basement becomes a swamp. That's a giant pain--and estimated $30,000 to remedy, which as barely employed artists and DIYers, we definitely can't afford. Oh well. Love this house anyway.

nomimaybe--your comment made me smile, but the fringed towels are likely traditional Turkish bath towels rather than made from a tallit. Same hemisphere, different origin--so at least from a cultural respect perspective, no worries.

Delta flew our elderly Lab (55 pounds) from JFK to Oakland last year, but the experience was very mixed. The clerk at the hangar where we took her to be loaded in her crate really treated her (and frankly, us) like freight, not live beings. I almost didn't leave her, but had no choice since we were moving to California the next day (a friend was at Oakland to pick her up and keep her overnight). The plane was delayed by 4 hours, and by the time she got out of the cargo hold and off the plane, poor girl was very distraught and quaking with fear. It was not fun for anyone, though she did arrive alive and more or less okay.