Friday, February 08, 2008
Moving
Sunday, November 18, 2007
What A Long Strange Trip It's Been
This is my final post. It's been fun. Thanks for all the laughs.
Riley
Riley
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Son of a Gun We'll Have Big Fun On the Bayou
I have several fresh herbs in my fridge right now: basil, oregano, thyme, Italian parsley, and rosemary. I bought them all for dinner last night (as mentioned in my previous post). The fresh herbs made all the difference in the meal.
I love mincing fresh herbs because they are so aromatic, especially rosemary. I just read Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman and she wrote such evocative descriptions of the herbs, I might have salivated while reading. Or maybe I just have a drooling problem. Possibly both. Have you ever had your mouth numb from Novocain and discovered that you were drooling and no one bothered to point it out to you because they liked seeing you make ass of yourself? Not that I have any personal experience with such a thing. How did I wind up talking about this? Back to the herbs.
When I was younger, I did not cook with many herbs. The recipes I used generally had an inexpensive grocery list but the herbs to season them seemed to double the cost. And that was money I was not willing to part with. I realize that if I had just coughed up the money on the first recipe, I’d have had the herbs for all future recipes, but I just didn’t want to do it. Instead, I seasoned everything with Tony Chachere. I love Tony. He was, and is, good to me.
When I moved to California, my brother in law had never heard of Tony and fell in love with him over a burger at a Labor Day BBQ. Years later, for one of his birthday gifts, I gave him a canister, an empty shaker, and the ingredients for Tony Chachere’s All Purpose Creole Seasoning, which was given to me by a church friend who hailed from Lafayette. For my wedding gift, she gave me a recipe box with a variety of Creole recipes. This one is by far my favorite:
Tony Chachere's All Purpose Creole Seasoning
26 oz free flowing salt, like Morton’s
1 1/2 oz ground black pepper
2 oz ground red pepper
1 oz pure garlic powder
1 oz chili powder
Mix well. Enjoy.
To season seafood:
Take half the mixture above and add the following:
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp sweet basil
1 tsp bay leaf
Mix well. Enjoy.
I love mincing fresh herbs because they are so aromatic, especially rosemary. I just read Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman and she wrote such evocative descriptions of the herbs, I might have salivated while reading. Or maybe I just have a drooling problem. Possibly both. Have you ever had your mouth numb from Novocain and discovered that you were drooling and no one bothered to point it out to you because they liked seeing you make ass of yourself? Not that I have any personal experience with such a thing. How did I wind up talking about this? Back to the herbs.
When I was younger, I did not cook with many herbs. The recipes I used generally had an inexpensive grocery list but the herbs to season them seemed to double the cost. And that was money I was not willing to part with. I realize that if I had just coughed up the money on the first recipe, I’d have had the herbs for all future recipes, but I just didn’t want to do it. Instead, I seasoned everything with Tony Chachere. I love Tony. He was, and is, good to me.
When I moved to California, my brother in law had never heard of Tony and fell in love with him over a burger at a Labor Day BBQ. Years later, for one of his birthday gifts, I gave him a canister, an empty shaker, and the ingredients for Tony Chachere’s All Purpose Creole Seasoning, which was given to me by a church friend who hailed from Lafayette. For my wedding gift, she gave me a recipe box with a variety of Creole recipes. This one is by far my favorite:
Tony Chachere's All Purpose Creole Seasoning
26 oz free flowing salt, like Morton’s
1 1/2 oz ground black pepper
2 oz ground red pepper
1 oz pure garlic powder
1 oz chili powder
Mix well. Enjoy.
To season seafood:
Take half the mixture above and add the following:
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp sweet basil
1 tsp bay leaf
Mix well. Enjoy.
Labels: Music to my Ears, Musings
Friday, November 16, 2007
Moose Caca
Friends came over tonight. Wine was had, jokes were made. I fed seven adults. I made a garlic spinach appetizer, spanokopita (layer after layer of phyllo dough…), stuffed grape leaves, and vegan moussaka, which is not moussaka at all, but a veggie and mashed potato casserole.
The spanokopita and grape leaves were (not meaning to brag, but—) the bomb. Everyone loved them.
However, I started cooking at one o’clock and still hadn’t managed to have everything ready in time because there were bouts of cleaning and kid-interaction interspersed in the cooking time. After everyone had eaten the appetizer, spanokopita, and grape leaves, the moussaka was still cooking. So I cut down the time of the baking. And therein lies the problem.
Impatience.
Why didn’t I just let it cook the allotted time????????
I could have just told everyone, look, sorry, but dinner will be late. Enjoy everything else I made. But nooooooo, I had to jump the gun and serve the moussaka too early (it was supposed to cook for 1:30 hours, and I pulled it out at 1:10). As a result, the eggplant was not cooked well enough. Truthfully, though, the whole dish had a bland taste to it, and I don’t think it had anything to do with the cooking time but the combination of spices (or lack thereof). And what a disappointment. Everyone was so excited by all the other dishes and then I had to end on the GROSS BLAND DISH.
I did get to save myself partly with the almond shortbread cookies for dessert. But still, the taint of the bad not-moussaka dish ruined my confidence for the night. Throughout the entire post-dinner and enjoyable conversation with my friends, all could really think was “did they all think the not-moussaka was gross?”
Of course, no one complained and as they said goodnight they all thanked me for the wonderful meal. I can only hope that the memory of the spanokopita, grape leaves, and almond shortbreads live on, and the moussaka is never again remembered.
And out of curiosity, who does not enjoy Spaceballs or Three Amigos? I just learned that one of my friends HATES them.
The spanokopita and grape leaves were (not meaning to brag, but—) the bomb. Everyone loved them.
However, I started cooking at one o’clock and still hadn’t managed to have everything ready in time because there were bouts of cleaning and kid-interaction interspersed in the cooking time. After everyone had eaten the appetizer, spanokopita, and grape leaves, the moussaka was still cooking. So I cut down the time of the baking. And therein lies the problem.
Impatience.
Why didn’t I just let it cook the allotted time????????
I could have just told everyone, look, sorry, but dinner will be late. Enjoy everything else I made. But nooooooo, I had to jump the gun and serve the moussaka too early (it was supposed to cook for 1:30 hours, and I pulled it out at 1:10). As a result, the eggplant was not cooked well enough. Truthfully, though, the whole dish had a bland taste to it, and I don’t think it had anything to do with the cooking time but the combination of spices (or lack thereof). And what a disappointment. Everyone was so excited by all the other dishes and then I had to end on the GROSS BLAND DISH.
I did get to save myself partly with the almond shortbread cookies for dessert. But still, the taint of the bad not-moussaka dish ruined my confidence for the night. Throughout the entire post-dinner and enjoyable conversation with my friends, all could really think was “did they all think the not-moussaka was gross?”
Of course, no one complained and as they said goodnight they all thanked me for the wonderful meal. I can only hope that the memory of the spanokopita, grape leaves, and almond shortbreads live on, and the moussaka is never again remembered.
And out of curiosity, who does not enjoy Spaceballs or Three Amigos? I just learned that one of my friends HATES them.
Labels: I Heart Myself, Not Exactly Leonard Maltin, Vegan Schmegan, Video Clip Hell
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Giving is Better Than Receiving
Back in the college waitress days, I worked with a guy whose name for the purposes of this blog shall be Lucky, in honor of the belt buckle he always wore. Lucky used to come into work every day where I would ridicule his belt buckle and then we would go about our business of waiting on tables. Maybe we would have a beer (or four) at the end of the night. More than anything else, Lucky loved to say “There is no such thing as true altruism” with a close second of “Do you want to have sex?” These remarks were not reserved for me alone but all the lovely ladies of the restaurant, except for one who was not-so-lovely, who we later found out was in the process of becoming a woman but still had man parts, which actually explained a lot, but that’s whole other story…
ANYWAY, Lucky said that no one ever really did something to benefit someone else out of the kindness of their heart but for some form of selfish reward, even if the reward was simply to feel better about themselves for doing something nice. No matter what you said, he always fell back to that “emotional benefit” that made the act of “true” altruism null and void. Since I was in college at the time, I was surrounded by people who wanted make changes in the world, people who believed in their individual capabilities and power. And I resented Lucky’s insinuation that humans are inherently selfish. After college, of course, I did get a taste of just how selfish some people can be and I had to wonder if Lucky had been associating with them back in the day.
As the season of Thanksgiving and Christmas is upon is, this is always a time of year where even the most selfish people do something good for their fellow man, even if it is just to get a tax write-off. And to those selfish people (none of whom I’m sure read my blog), I have a wonderful website to share with you. The click to give website, which has nifty little buttons that you click on once a day to donate goods to various charitable causes—feed the hungry, give mammograms, give child care, give books, protect the rainforests, or support animal rescue.
Who knows, maybe—just maybe—you could even buy something from these sites to make their sponsors feel it’s worthwhile. Christmas is around the corner, after all. (oh, and high five to Flying Mum who introduced me to this site)
There’s also Greenle, http://greenle.info/, a search engine that donates a portion of its profits to green causes. Kinda like the web version of Credo, the new name of the phone & mobile business of the company Working Assets. (Note to Working Assets: I dislike your new name. It sounds too much like Greedo)
BTW: A couple days ago, I mentioned Blackle as a search engine that uses less power, but that only applies to you if you use a CRT monitor (no school like the old school). If you use an LCD less than 24 inches, Blackle uses more power. Now you know.
ANYWAY, Lucky said that no one ever really did something to benefit someone else out of the kindness of their heart but for some form of selfish reward, even if the reward was simply to feel better about themselves for doing something nice. No matter what you said, he always fell back to that “emotional benefit” that made the act of “true” altruism null and void. Since I was in college at the time, I was surrounded by people who wanted make changes in the world, people who believed in their individual capabilities and power. And I resented Lucky’s insinuation that humans are inherently selfish. After college, of course, I did get a taste of just how selfish some people can be and I had to wonder if Lucky had been associating with them back in the day.
As the season of Thanksgiving and Christmas is upon is, this is always a time of year where even the most selfish people do something good for their fellow man, even if it is just to get a tax write-off. And to those selfish people (none of whom I’m sure read my blog), I have a wonderful website to share with you. The click to give website, which has nifty little buttons that you click on once a day to donate goods to various charitable causes—feed the hungry, give mammograms, give child care, give books, protect the rainforests, or support animal rescue.
Who knows, maybe—just maybe—you could even buy something from these sites to make their sponsors feel it’s worthwhile. Christmas is around the corner, after all. (oh, and high five to Flying Mum who introduced me to this site)
There’s also Greenle, http://greenle.info/, a search engine that donates a portion of its profits to green causes. Kinda like the web version of Credo, the new name of the phone & mobile business of the company Working Assets. (Note to Working Assets: I dislike your new name. It sounds too much like Greedo)
BTW: A couple days ago, I mentioned Blackle as a search engine that uses less power, but that only applies to you if you use a CRT monitor (no school like the old school). If you use an LCD less than 24 inches, Blackle uses more power. Now you know.
Labels: Musings
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Where Are Pony's Glasses?
wordless wednesdayTuesday, November 13, 2007
Go Blackle
For those of you who do not know, there is a website search engine called Blackle, www.Blackle.com. It is powered by Google, so it is providing you with the same search engine. What is the difference? Why, the color of course. Blackle’s screen is, as the name suggests, black, and powering a black screen takes up less energy than powering a white screen.
I would love to end this post right now because I am in the middle of my own personal pity party and you're not invited, but I feel like an energy saving tip is a poor excuse for a blog post, so I feel compelled to write something else.
Today, I went to the library and checked out the following books:
The Uses of Enchantment by Bruno Bettelheim (because I saw it on the shelf and thought it looked interesting)
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks (because a friend recommended it)
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien (because another friend recommended it)
Heroes, Villains, and Ghosts: Folklore of Old California by Hector Lee (because I saw it on the shelf and thought it would be nice to know about local area folklore; perhaps I can take the kids to these places and scare them into avoiding bad behavior)
Language and Mind by Noam Chomsky (recommended by a friend)
What does this tell you about me?
1. If you recommend a book to me, I WILL read it--or I’ll at least check it out from the library and try to read it.
2. I am prone to impulse buys. I realize I’m not technically buying these books, but the behavior is the same in a bookstore.
3. In three weeks and one day, I will owe the library $1.25 and counting.
EDITED TO NOTE: Blackle only uses less power if you use a CRT monitor (no school like the old school). If you use an LCD less than 24 inches, Blackle uses more power. Now you know.
I would love to end this post right now because I am in the middle of my own personal pity party and you're not invited, but I feel like an energy saving tip is a poor excuse for a blog post, so I feel compelled to write something else.
Today, I went to the library and checked out the following books:
The Uses of Enchantment by Bruno Bettelheim (because I saw it on the shelf and thought it looked interesting)
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks (because a friend recommended it)
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien (because another friend recommended it)
Heroes, Villains, and Ghosts: Folklore of Old California by Hector Lee (because I saw it on the shelf and thought it would be nice to know about local area folklore; perhaps I can take the kids to these places and scare them into avoiding bad behavior)
Language and Mind by Noam Chomsky (recommended by a friend)
What does this tell you about me?
1. If you recommend a book to me, I WILL read it--or I’ll at least check it out from the library and try to read it.
2. I am prone to impulse buys. I realize I’m not technically buying these books, but the behavior is the same in a bookstore.
3. In three weeks and one day, I will owe the library $1.25 and counting.
EDITED TO NOTE: Blackle only uses less power if you use a CRT monitor (no school like the old school). If you use an LCD less than 24 inches, Blackle uses more power. Now you know.
Labels: Musings
