The blog you’ve all been waiting for is now live:

*drum roll*

The Substitute Cook©

The concept:
“The cook – that is me – is no professional by any standards, but rather a Dubai-based food enthusiast who is hygienic and unlikely to set the house on fire anytime soon. Or kill someone through food poisoning. Rest assured all recipes have been made at least five times (or more) to encores and inquiries on how to make it.” – Personal review in an unknown, but famous magazine.

Seriously, this is an initiative by me not only to maintain an online recipe book of sorts, but to encourage people to try new things, while catering to time and budget – not to mention people with different diets.

Most of the recipes can be adapted to different meats or even go completely vegetarian without losing much of the taste and texture, although I would advise most to stay away from ‘meatless’ meats, unless it is soy or tofu based, preferably without any chemical additives and flavors. They are much too close to meat for a person who has always been a vegetarian to eat.

I’ve also included recipes that can have ’shortcuts’ for time, but you may want to use the traditional way if you feel guilty, or enjoy cooking all day. Whatever floats your boat.

I hope that you enjoy using the recipes on the site and feel free to change things – who knows? You could be making your own signature dish soon!

Ok, everyone, this blog now has a permanent address outside of Blogger at:

www.the-media-junkie.com

If you go to my old one, you will be redirected anyway, but this now also works

Oh, and my new blog is very close to completion.

If I disappear for a while, it’s because I’m building a new website for myself. A food-related blog, which I hope to get revenues from and one day, lead to a book too.

So watch this space for more…

The final week or weekend before mom’s back and I’m having quite the itchin’ for some pink bubbly – possibly triggered by some FB commenting and the fact that I found a wino I like at the recent Jazz Fest, although I’ve never been a fan of the fizzes, virgin or otherwise. And since it requires refrigerating to keep well, I have to have my bubbly before Friday night and finish it in one go – there’s no secret compartment for hiding stuff like that in the fridge. Probably get it on Thursday and invite a few friends to help me finish the bottle.

So where do I get something like that? Internet surfing doesn’t help much beyond giving me names as what’s good abroad doesn’t always match what’s available here. Restaurants would be too expensive and too impersonal as I want to chill at home and take my own time. So I asked another blogger, Alexander, whose champagne special on TFE-blog helped me narrow down what type of bubbly I want, but not the brand as his reviews were based in travelling out of the UAE, and like I mentioned earlier, may not be available here. And I got a few good recommendations through tweets

As for my personal preference, I’m quite the wuss. I’ve mostly hated the bitter and rather antiseptic taste of alcohol and probably mix my juice:booze ratio at 95%-5% – told you I was a wuss. Hence why I quite despise wines – they are super dry and verrry bitter. Until I had a really good one at the Skywards VIP lounge at the Jazz Fest – I was hooked. It was yummy. It was champagne-colour, the rather golden one – wish I knew the name. Shoulda asked. I also learned that it should be sipped cold: the minute it warms up, the nasty bitter taste returns.

Will write more when I get hold of one.

I’m feeling incredibly sleepy and a little down too. As for JT, I think I’m going to drop off the radar and see if he even notices. No more calls, emails (not even going to reply) and not going to be online for longer than I have or want to. Part of me is scared that he really won’t notice and if I were really dead, I’d have been eaten by stray dogs by the time he realises I haven’t been around.

I miss him and I love him, but I’m not ready to give up on him. I’m not interested in anyone right now, and considering my options, I don’t think I even want to. I don’t to break-up, yet I don’t want to cheat. Yea, there are a few exs in my office I could use for a ‘pick-me-up’ b-call, but I’m not interested in making a fool of myself by putting out feelers and getting rejected. I’m not afraid of rejection; I’m just tired of it. Plus remembering how things went, I’m not sure if they’re even quality b-calls. I mean, I do have some standards. I want my A-grade Texan steak home, but if I am so hungry that I need to eat, the burgers on display are not enough to nip the munchies. Plus, they’re not good for me and I’ll get a stomach-ache or worse – like food poisoning.

I want my steak dammit!

Just got back from “He’s Just Not That Into You”. It was a pretty awesome movie, but part of me wishes I hadn’t. Because I was supposed to watch this movie JT – not to mention many others I didn’t go to because I said I’d go with him. Plus I missed him wayy too much after this movie.

Like the book, the movie covers so many aspects about relationships and why women torture themselves for men who are jerks and the answer is simple – he’s just not that into you. But what do I do? My situation with him is complicated, and I’m not trying to make it complicated or add extra drama. Trust me, I don’t need anymore drama in my life.

But what do I do? He can’t call me because he’s in a rather difficult place. I’m currently having a steamy affair with his voice-mail the past week because he’s probably either super busy or not on site. The most I ever got hold of him was when he came online for a while. I feel like an army wife/gf. When he doesn’t reply, I don’t know if its because he’s busy or dead. I try not to think it’s about losing interest because I know him enough to be upfront about that. I miss him so much, yet missing him doesn’t help one bit. How do I deal with this? What do I do? When I hear his voice, every doubt, suspicion, frustration and loneliness disappears. But then, after I keep the phone, I feel all alone and single and frustrated.

I told him I loved him. He didn’t reply. I didn’t say it to expect a reply. Perhaps that wasn’t the smartest move to say it so soon. But I said it. I got tired of having to say ‘I miss you’ everytime I wanted to say how much I missed him and loved him and how it hurts not having him here with me. I just want him back home – I want him here with me.

I’m sleepy and cranky. I’m heading to bed – alone.

I also found out today from friends of friends and quite accidentally through conversation that MM pretty much had a girlfriend when we hooked up. And still does. I shouldn’t care, but I do feel rather idiotic. I didn’t bother asking at that time because like reasonable people, him showing interest in me implied he was single. I’m not the hottest babe that anyone would hit on me. So why would someone who is already with someone look at a plain Jane like me or even try to pursue me? Oh, and just to confirm a few facts, I found out he also stopped being my FB friend. Like in the movie, it’s exhausting being rejected by different portals of communications and technologies.

Things have been pretty interesting the past few days. Not going to go much into detail, but let’s just say that whatever’s happening was unexpected, but welcome in a way. Kind of a second chance.

Can’t say much about it as I said I’d never talk about certain people. But all I can say is that things have turned out somewhat nice despite some of the not-so-nice parts.

I’m tired and this weekend has been chaotic. Write more later. Off to see “He’s Just Not That In To You”.

My first day off in a while. It feels odd sitting at home so late instead of waking up at the crack of dawn to head to work.

And you know what my first thought were? Do the laundry as I have nothing to wear, start cleaning my neglected corners of my room now that I have time, and for God’s sake actually start studying for my GRE – it’s on April 9th, have about say 2 and half weeks left, and my study book is still in its plastic cover collecting dust.

I did something fun last night. I cooked, invited my neighbor over, and we played the karaoke game called “Lips” on my XBox. Made Methi Kofta (chicken meatballs with a fenugreek and yogurt based curry) with plain rice. I also added songs from my iPod to the game’s unique feature of allowing your own collection to be added to the game and removing the audio. Obviously no lyrics, but doesn’t matter if you know the words already. So we had fun singing a variety of odd songs, from Disney to Broadway to ABBA to some really new stuff I have. And I sounded pretty cool

Anyway, I think I’ll head out now and complete the mental to-do-list in my head.

The internet and connection speeds are so fast in my office that I simply have no time to do anything else. Or blog. For the naïve, that was being sarcastic.

Mom messaged me and so far she’s fine and hopefully nowhere near. So that’s a sigh of relief.

On the other hand, I’m feeling really down today. And the inactivity and slowness of our internet speed just gives me more time to think about things I’d rather not. I’m missing JT, yet the distance is very frustrating. And even though I know I’m being totally unfair in saying this, I wish he’d be more attentive to me. I right now feel pretty ignored and very alone. And being depressed makes it worse. Or is it the loneliness that furthers the depression? Chicken and egg story.

Good news though is that today is my last day for the week and I now get Thursdays and Fridays off. Not too happy about waking up early on a Saturday, but I rather like working on a weekend as no-ones around or breathing down my neck. Like my paranoid boss’ boss. For those not knowing Dubai weekends, it’s normally Friday-Saturday, with Friday as the official day off.

With the cuts that happened recently, things have become Big Brother in the office. If I even breathe about something non-office related, I get told off oh-so-subtlety. I’ve been given the task of trying to help increase our site’s traffic through social networking. Now, I’ve made the official ones for twitter and FB, but I also log on to my personal to see how it looks like to a non-admin member. And make sure non-admin people don’t have unwanted functions or access. My luck seems to be that every time I log on to my personal to check my changes, the big B passes by and asks what I’m doing. Despite mentioning what I’m doing, I get a kindly warning from my boss (who understands btw) that the BB thinks I’m doing ‘nothing’.

I can’t be always having stuff to do on the site! Doesn’t mean I slack off. Before I do my extra assignment, I finish every single daily task required on my shift, before time and mostly accurate, considering the short time I’ve had learning the ropes and the fact that I’m new to journo after years of training in broadcast. If I take a five minute breather to either do the extra optional tasks given to me, or God forbid, update my personal budgeting on excel, I get told off for doing no work. I am rather bugged. And another reason why I like night or weekend shifts – no BB breathing down my shoulder.

I don’t understand what these people want. I mean I understand the need for efficiency, but not at the rate or risk of demoralising everyone or working them to death. I’m fed up, yet I want to stay because I am passionate about my current job, despite annoyances. Just give me a break ok? Haven’t I just worked 10 days in a row, including weekends, sometimes working solo despite being a newbie, with no complaint?

Saw this today in the news:

Police evacuate residents as a massive bush fire sweeps across Cape Town’s Table Mountain

Mom’s there right now in Cape Town. I have to admit I don’t know exactly where she’s staying, but I do hope it’s far, far, far away from this.

I called and haven’t gotten hold of her yet. Will let you guys know later. Hope it’s nothing.