Tip Tuesday: Make This Amazing Hot Spiced Cider

Okay, this isn't a tip, in the traditional "quick 'n easy tips!" sense, but this is a tip that will change the way you are seen by others this holiday season.  (Namely, you will be seen as the person who makes the best hot spiced cider ever.)

You guys: next social gathering this season, you must make this awesome hot spiced cider from the really great ladies over at Apples & Onions. 

:: yum! pic from apples & onions ::

I've made this three (three!) times in the last month, and it's a massive hit.

Warning: Don't even think about making this if you don't want the house to smell amazing!

You can follow the recipe as written at the link, but I've made a few adjustments and made it a double batch, so my version is as follows:

Hot Spiced Cider
(serves a small crowd)
1 gallon fresh pressed apple juice (I get two of the half gallons of the refrigerated apple juice from Trader Joes -  yum!)
2 organic apples*
2 organic oranges*
juice of two lemons
4 cinnamon sticks
a palm-full of whole cloves
+ some booze to have on the side

* Since the rind of these fruits is simmering into the cider, it's good to get organic.

Begin to gently heat the apple juice on the stove.  Add the lemon juice and cinnamon sticks.  Zest one of the oranges into the cider mixture.  Stud the apples and oranges (including the one you zested) with the cloves by pushing the pointy narrow end into the fruit.  Add them to the cider.  Once it is hot and delicious smelling, you're good to go!

You can add in the alcohol, but I prefer to leave it to the side of the stove so people can self-spike and it's a kid/non-drinker friendly beverage.  (I left a bottle of whiskey and dark rum out at Thanksgiving.)

Tip Tuesday!: Remember Where You Parked

Here's a confession: every Tip Tuesday, I worry that my tips aren't tips at all, but just things that everybody in the world already knows and does.  I have such a concern for today's tip.  But whatever.  Maybe you don't do it.  You should.

When you go to the airport this Thanksgiving (or the mall this holiday season) (or anywhere, anytime, really), take a picture of where you parked.

Like this.  My phone is always handy at that point, and I don't need to worry at all (while I'm also worrying if, by some bizarre turn of events, I left my drivers license in my living room) about remembering where I parked when I return.

Fun games you can play, using the picture above:
1. Can you guess where I went to school using only the clues in the picture?
2. Come up with three nice ways to tell me my legs don't normally look that stubby in colored denim.  (Challenge version: You can't use "it's just a weird reflection" as any of the ways.)

What To Do If You're Being Followed

This weekend, I finally started watching Law & Order: SVU.  Friends, I should have been listening to you all along.  It's great.  (The first episode I saw was a 2008 re-run guest starring Luke Perry and Julie Bowen as a married couple who are foster parents.  Turns out, Julie Bowen had been raped shortly before she met Luke Perry... but it turned out... Luke Perry was her rapist.  Aaaah!)

Shortly after my new addiction started, something semi-creepy (and ultra "lite" Law & Order: SVU) happened.  I went to go run some errands on foot in my neighborhood, and noticed a weird guy following me.  I took note of him right away, because he was strange looking, and wearing a black tank top and sunglasses (and it was fairly chilly out) and saw that he started walking my way.  Yucky, but it was a normal street, and lots of people walk.  I went into a store to run an errand, and a minute after I'd left, noticed the guy was right behind me again.  He'd waited while I was in there and was following me.  Gross.  I went into the next store and saw that he was dawdling outside.

:: cutest creepy image ever! ::

So.  I began to think about what to do...  I wasn't fearful for my safety, really -- it was broad daylight and there were people about, but I was about to walk back to my apartment, and I certainly didn't want this person following me.

I thought about calling a cab from the store, but that seemed kind of over the top, and my apartment was six blocks away.  I also thought about turning around and yelling: STOP FOLLOWING ME!, but that made me nervous, too.  Before I got much further, I noticed that the store had a back exit, so I left that way and, for good measure, made one more errand-stop before I went home.  It did the trick.

But I wondered: what should you do if you feel you are being followed?

I'm sure Gavin de Becker's The Gift of Fear would have some good advice, but I have tried to read that book four times and find the intro way, way, way, way, way too scary to keep reading the book.  Fortunately, the internet has lots of good advice.

So, here's what to do if you feel you're being followed on foot by someone who is also on foot:
1.  Trust your instinct.  We all have a safety-based sixth sense.  If you think someone is following you, someone probably is.
2.  Stay calm.  Try not to freak the f out.
3.  Check out your follower.  Looking back to see if you're being followed is totally allowed!  It's good to let the creepy person know you're onto them.
4.  Get around other people.  If you're in a public place, get around other people (and light, if it's dark out).  Walk with a crowd, go into a business or restaurant, etc.  Depending on how unsafe you feel, this would be a good time to call authorities/ask for help.  Usually, this will get your follower to leave you alone, but if you're still being followed...
5.  Make a scene.  Yell something!  Good ones are "LEAVE ME ALONE!" or "STOP FOLLOWING ME!" or "FIRE!"  (Apparently, it's much more effective to yell "FIRE!" than "HELP!")  If this doesn't fix it...
6.  Run.  Get distance between you and your follower.  If you're still being followed (sorry!), call the police and...
7.  Drop your purse.  But hang on to your keys (good weapon) and phone (for safety).  Hopefully this is all your follower wants.  If not (oh no!  This is terrible!), call the police and...
8.  Fight back.  Scratch, kick, scream, aim where it hurts.  If you get forced into a car, do whatever you can to force a car crash and try to escape in the confusion.
9.  Don't go straight home.  Try to go to someone else's home, if you know they'll be there, or stop elsewhere first.

There you have it!  What do you think of this list?  Anything seem crazy?  Anybody have any scary stores to share?

Tip Tuesday: How to Keep Bagged Salad Fresh

Sometimes I go through phases where I buy all my produce at the farmers market every week.  But mostly I go through phases where I don't do that, and buy food at Trader Joe's, even though it's been packaged for a long time and isn't as fresh. 

During one of my good phases, a farmers market vendor taught me to store the lettuce I was buy from him with a paper towel in the bag.  As moisture gets in, the paper towel soaks up the water and keeps it off the lettuce, keeping it fresher longer.  Awesome.

But normally I buy bagged salads at the grocery store, and they spoil sooooo easily once they're opened.  So I applied my farmer trick:

It works like a charm.  Hooray!

Fascinating: How Los Angeles Voted

Are you sick of talking about election stuff?  Sorry.

Well, no, not really.  This isn't really talking politics... it's more talking demographics.

My brother sent me this fascinating link to show how LA voted in Tuesday's presidential election by percentage and number of votes cast for each candidate.

This breaks down every single Los Angeles county precinct.  It only measures ballots cast in person (no absentee ballots).

I spent a long time zooming in and clicking around -- it's so entertaining!

Los Angeles is home to many extraordinarily wealthy neighborhoods, but the super-high-income areas that voted conservatively are very concentrated (ahem, Beverly Hills), with just a small blip in the Palisades and the Brentwood canyons (and, what I'm pretty sure is a very Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in mid-city -- fellow Angelenos, let me know what you think that neighborhood is!).  Otherwise, LA is blue as the sea.  (Yip, I went there.)

Time Change Bummer

Guys.  I hate standard time.  Can we just all agree to just stay on daylight savings time forever???  Can that be something President Obama does this term?  Please?  Should I tweet that to him?  Will you guys sign a petition?

:: coincidence that it looks like this guy is committing suicide by falling off a building?  i don't think so. ::

When it gets darker earlier, a few things happen:
1.  I want to eat all the time from 4:30pm on -- if it's dark for that many hours, we should be allowed two dinners!
2.  I can't bring myself to exercise after work in the darkness.  (I don't belong to a gym.)
3.  I get super bummed!

I remembered that this same time last year I emailed my brother (who lives in Seattle) and my friend Tara (who lives in Alaska) to be all "OMG I'm dying.  How do you do it in your northern parts???"

If you are feeling like you're about to fall into a pit of darkness-induced depression, here is their wisdom from last year:

My brother said that November's basically the worst month because we haven't yet adjusted to the darkness, and it's getting worse every day.  I think that's a good point.  While it's still getting darker in December, it seems like holiday lights and cheer kind of distract me.  Then after the holidays, it's getting lighter every day -- woohoo!

And this is how Tara started her email to me: "Admittedly, dark places aren't for everyone :)"  Ha.  True dat.  I'm dying here in Los Angeles because it is 60 degrees (brrrrr...) and dark at 5pm.  I couldn't handle Alaska.  Tara recommended going for a walk during the work day to grab lunch or coffee just to remember that there is indeed daylight in the world.  (She also said she went for a run with friends in 7 degree weather.  She is basically an American hero.)

What tips do you have for dealing with the darkness?  Please.  Help me.

Tip Tuesday: Allow Extra Commute Time This Week

Guys.  Traffic be bad these days.

:: traffic in Los Angeles, 1949 ::

So here's today's tip: Allow extra time on your commute this week.  (Or, just know that you'll be running late for work -- either works for me.) 

Did you know that traffic is always bad the week after a time change?  Traffic slows way down, and there's some evidence that shows that the accident rate goes up.

The cause is two-fold:
1. Circadian rhythms get thrown off in a time change, which basically gives everyone the effect of mild jet lag, which makes us all feel less alert and a little more crazy.
2. The sun/lighting falls in a different place than we are used to on our drive, and it's a big adjustment, usually an adjustment of a ton of sun being in your eyes.

Sigh.  Just another reason to hate the time change... I'm already prepared for the fact that I'm going to get really depressed soon... stay tuned for an inevitable post about beating the dark-days blues!