Tuesday, February 26, 2008

GAH!

Taxes! GAH! I may have to throw in the towel this year. Ugh. I feel like I am tilting at windmills. Just give me my money please. Please? Bastards.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Leeks!

Leeks! Yay! I just planted these little critters a week or so ago, and already I have sprout-age. I am hoping for no damping off since the basement is somewhat chilly. But I did plant a fair number, so with some luck I should be making some bang up vichyssois next fall.

I am also trying desperately to finish some unfinished projects. I started this more than a year ago for one of my friends who chose not to find out if her baby was a boy or a girl prior to the birth. Turns out, it was a boy, and this project came to a screeching halt, despite being very close to completion. Another friend is expecting a girl in March, so I finished it up for new Baby W. It is a yummy merino alpaca blend. Better than the cotton angora blend I used for the sweater I made for her brother. Moist children and angora just don't blend well.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Cooking Chez Moi

With the SB in the burg, I don't cook much for myself. And when I do, it is generally on the weekend and generally something in a vat that I can feed from all week (though my interest usually flags by Wednesday or Thursday.) This weekend, I made chicken soup, which I absolutely love (breakfast, lunch and dinner until it is gone). I like it broth-y. This means that if I use a whole chicken to make the broth, I have too much chicken for soup. To avoid having leftover boiled chicken cluttering up the fridge, I found a recipe I cut out of Cooking Light for enchiladas verde. Perfect.

I needed supplies, so I stopped at my local Hispanic market on the way home from work to pick up tomatillo salsa and corn tortillas and a teeny can of red salsa. Of course, they didn't have the other thing I needed, which was low fat cream cheese. So, once home, I popped in the car and motor up to my other local spot, C'ville Market, where in addition to full fat cream cheese, I purchased an avocado, two chocolate bars and a bag of malted milk balls. (One should NEVER shop when one is hungry.) Home again home again jiggity jig.

I chopped a small onion and a couple cloves of garlic and sauteed them in a little olive oil (the recipe says to spin them around in the food processor, but it is too complicated to clean and I don't really like raw onion that much). I added the half bottle of green salsa after the garlic/onion mixture sauteed for a bit. I used approximately 3 oz of the 1 cup of cream cheese I had to purchase and mixed it with 80% of the leftover chicken (about 2 cups if you are following this for the recipe). I simmered the corn tortillas in salsa verde for half a minute on each side and filled them with chicken & cream cheese mixture. I have approximately 95% of this stack of corn tortillas left, because they only sell corn tortillas by the bale at the Hispanic grocery. The tortillas went seam side down in a baking dish and got sprinkled with more salsa and some cheddar cheese. They baked at 425 for about 15 minutes. Then they got plopped on a plate, with half an avocado and some red salsa. Now, these things are passable tasty, though they have very little resemblance to the good for you items in the magazine (which is probably half the reason they are tasty). And now, instead of having 2 leftover chicken breasts in my fridge, I have:
1/2 chicken breast, cooked
4/5 of a can of red salsa
1/3 of a bottle of green salsa
346 corn tortillas
3/4 cup of cream cheese
1/2 avocado
6 not so low fat enchiladas verde

Um. Yeah. I suspect I missed something in home ec.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Mini Freecycle

Anyone interested in an unopened container of this Avon face cream? It is called Anew Ultimate Day cream. I react to the sunscreen in it and my face gets all bright red and splotchy. Otherwise I love it ....It expires in May.

Chai Adjusted

So I have been working on the chai today. I think it is getting better.

Simmer a few slices of ginger (unpeeled), 8 cardamom pods (green), 3 cinnamon sticks, a few turns of the pepper grinder, 3 dried hot chilis, 8-10 cloves and one small bay leaf in approximately 4 cups of water for about 10 minutes. Add 2 earl grey and 2 regular teabags, cover and turn off the heat. Let sit for at least 5 minutes. Add about 4T. sweetened condensed milk. Mmm.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

"Nice"

This sent to me by the SB. "hilarious"

Monday, February 11, 2008

In case you didn't know.....

Canned peas are disgusting. I just ruined a dinner by using canned peas instead of frozen (because fresh aren't available yet and my freezer is a disaster). Blech. Now I have a huge pot of pasta with cream sauce and peas with leeks. Nasty. Now the question is to throw it out or suffer through.

Late last night I finished the shawl I was working on. I blocked it when I got home. And I found a dropped stitch. Um. Yeah. Once I figure out how to fix that, I'll be done with this particular project. Anyone want to take bets on a timeline?

Sunday, February 10, 2008

When?

When, dear friend(s), do you find time for:
1. dusting the baseboards
2. cleaning under the furniture
3. organizing the basement
4. putting the second coat of paint on the entry hall (the first coat went on 4 years ago)
5. filing all those papers
6. trying the recipes that you have cut out of magazines
7. knitting those patterns that you found on the internets
8. exercise
9. writing notes to your elderly relatives
10. finishing the above on the off chance that they have been started

I must say that I am feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the prospect of spring cleaning.

And I am getting the sneaking suspicion that I have too many projects. How do you choose from the list of totally cool stuff? The bees vs. the garden, the chick collective from the NeighborWoods tree planting, the lovely green mohair yarn vs. the delicious rose wool fabric, the pasta with peas and parm vs. the pumpkin ravioli with sage brown butter? How o how can you choose?

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Catching up.

Wow. A long time since the last post. Spent last weekend in B-burg with the SB. He was in something of a funk and I went down to offer moral support and kick his butt out into the fresh air. We went for a nice walk along this lovely creek/small river. The water was green and cold and running fast after the recent snow/ice. It was lovely. Then we went to this place for dinner, where they have some very tasty fried chicken.

That was about all for last weekend. No garden work, but quite a bit of knitting. I am working on another shawl. From this pattern, but modified. I have already knit a couple from the pattern and it was time for a change. The edges are going to be very holey/lacy. Should be interesting. It is alpaca in a heathery blue. Soft and pretty.

Bee keeping class is going well. I am excited to learn that they are going to offer people mentors. That should be helpful. I am ordering bees next week. That means installation at the end of March. Not so very far away.... Anyone want to volunteer to document? I don't think I can install and photograph at the same time....

Yesterday I went to Warrenton to see a friend and then came home and Cho-girl, StarrHill Girl, my house mate and I made Valentines. If I only had that many sweet hearts! We had lovely cheese, wine, hot toddies (thanks to StarrHill Girl who is a wiz with such things)bread, pate, nuts, fruits, yum...


Today I started more bread, planted some leeks, parsley and lavender, and sprinkled bone meal where my daffodils should be coming up. I did some other cooking-type stuff, a chili-ish thing to try to use up some of the million tortillas that seem to collect in my fridge and never ever go bad... I am also trying to clean up. My house is a constant disaster. I am beginning to suspect that I have to actually do some cleaning during the week in order to NOT spend my entire weekend at it. What is up with that? Who has the time/energy to clean after work? I think I am in good shape if I get my dinner dishes cleaned up and the junk mail recycled daily.

I also had a quick visit from the KingPin and the IC since I missed the walk in the park with them (RATS!).