Things I have learned
It’s been 4 months since I’ve lived in my new place. In that time, I have noted a few things.
- It takes me 4 months to use a tube of toothpaste
- Certain coffee shops have better wireless service than others. St. Louis / Panera Bread habitually kicks me off and makes me log back in at about the 45-minute mark – I think they’ve got somebody in the back that keeps resetting it to get people to give up and leave
- Lonesome and alone are two different things, and I have had my share of being one or both (and often neither)
- I know some really nice people in this town that have been way more supportive than I could have ever hoped
- People tend to open up about their own problems when they see you’re going through some too
- Two long flights of stairs may not sound like much, but talk to me when you’ve just done the grocery shopping
- I can build a metal sideboard, as long as there are clear instructions and diagrams from Sweden to help me
- I can also drive myself to Urgent Care when the paring knife gets away from me
- Running in an old neighborhood with uneven sidewalks can be dangerous when people don’t sweep up the leaves
- 2am is about the only time where provel cheese is remotely tolerable.
- It’s been hard. But I feel more honest with myself than I have in a long time.
2 comments December 7, 2009
Yum food
I bought a crock pot a few weeks ago and it has literally changed my life. I still have trouble with Day 4 of leftovers, but -ta da!- apparently you can freeze things and eat them again when you are not sick of them. Here are two recipes that I have recently enjoyed. I hope that the publishers of the respective cookbooks understand that this is free advertising for them, and do not prosecute me for providing them to you, free of charge.
Better Homes and Gardens “So Easy Slow Cooker” Meredith Books 2008
Wild Rice and Chicken Soup
2 ½ cups cooked chicken
2 cups sliced mushrooms
2 medium carrots, coarsely shredded
2 stalks celery, sliced
1 10 ¼ oz. can condensed cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup
1 6-oz package of long grain and wild rice mix
5 cups chicken broth
5 cups water
- In a 5 to 6 quart slow cooker, combine cooked chicken, mushrooms, carrots, celery, soup, uncooked rice, and contents of rice seasoning packet. Gradually stir in chicken broth and water.
- Cover, cook on low-heat setting for 6 to 8 hours or on high-heat setting for 3 to 4 hours
Southern Living Slow-Cooker Cookbook Oxmoor House 2006
Beef Burgundy Stew
6 bacon slices, chopped
2 lbs beef stew meat
1 16-oz pkg frozen pearl onions, thawed
1 8-oz pkg fresh mushrooms, quartered
6 small red potatoes, quartered
2 large carrots, cut in ½-inch pieces
1 14-oz can beef broth
1 cup red wine
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
3 minced garlic cloves
2 tbsp cornstarch
2 tsp cold water
- Cook bacon in a large skillet over med-high heat until crisp. Remove bacon, reserving drippings in pan. Set bacon aside
- Brown beef, in batches, in reserved bacon drippings until browned on all sides
- combine reserved bacon, beef, onions, and next 10 ingredients in a 5 quart slow cooker. Cover and cook on LOW 7 hours or until beef and vegetables are tender.
- Whisk together cornstarch and water, stir into stew. Cover and cook on HIGH 1 hour or until slightly thickened. Makes 9 cups.
1 comment October 15, 2009
Going to Graceland, Graceland
I am heading to Memphis this weekend, and am so very excited. I haven’t been to visit since I moved five years ago, and am pretty sure I will get lost, but I am also pretty sure that I will eat really good food and visit a really good friend.
1 comment September 30, 2009
i might have to have it amputated
Oh. Dear. Lord. I have been knitting this Christmas gift for a really long time. I keep thinking it’s got to end Soon, but the decrease is happening so gradually that my dreams of being finished this weekend are clearly and thoroughly dashed. I have spent so much time sitting on my arse that it may be broken, and my legs are certainly going to atrophy and eventually require amputation.
We did take time out today and get a Christmas tree. It’s adorably lopsided (we’ve got the flat side against the wall – it’s perfect) and smells like the holidays and is crammed full of goofy ornaments and OSU paraphanalia. I’ll post pictures soon. :o)
2 comments December 15, 2008
what did you do today?
Because I had a pretty good day. I:
1) Ran about 6 miles – a really good run, kinda cold, and my knee feels like it might start acting funny again, so I am now on alert. Maybe it’s the cold that makes it act like this?
2) Wore my “will knit for tattoos” tshirt, of which I’ll have to post a picture and also possibly buy one for El and Soy
3) Started working on a knitted Christmas present – and more evidence that I don’t really pay attention when I read, because when I should have read that I could either k1, p1 OR k2, p2, I instead did both. It doesn’t look TOO weird, so I’m just going to say I did it on purpose, you know, for fun.
4) Saw Twilight! The smartest thing they ever did was take all those pages and pages of dialogue about how they won’t stay away from each other and turn them into brief, meaningful looks and musical interludes. Genius. And that Edward fellow is pretty hottt.
1 comment November 24, 2008
Adventures in Socializing
Sooooo. Last night after B and I had eaten dinner and then had been sitting around awhile, we decided to go out (OMG, right?). I’d gotten a message that a friend and her guy and others were going out and that we should come meet them – so we went to what I THOUGHT was the right bar (all the while texting to find out what was up, but with no reply), but alas they were nowhere to be found. Apparently there are two locations, so we tried the second. Still no dice! About 1/2 an hour after we got home (and after I had been in my comfy pants for a good 25 minutes) I got a message saying they were at that second location. But it was too late for me and my comfy pants. Sigh.
Do I get points for trying? I’m thinking maaaaybe, but only like 1/2 point. Arg.
Add a comment November 23, 2008
New job
W00t! I have a new job. In a new branch. I’m manager, but the staff is smaller, the hours are better, the pay is better, it’s in a cool neighborhood (yesterday was my first day, and at lunch I drove 2 minutes to a coffee shop and got a chai! Which means that when the weather’s nice, I could walk there!). It is not without issues, but on the whole I think it’s going to be much better for my brain and heart.
Yeep!
3 comments November 11, 2008
I heart Dali
We’ve been recording episodes of this great old game show from the 50s called The Name’s the Same, and it’s awesome. Basically, the show goes like this: regular people with odd or famous names (a kid named Tom Sawyer, a dude named I. Wash), and usually they will have somebody famous on the show too wit h a ‘secret wish’ that the panel has to guess. And the famous people have been pretty awesome (Victor Borges, Peter Lawford, Eva Gabor, assorted baseball players and boxers), but none have been as awesome as Salvador Dali, who has been on the program twice since we’ve been watching it. It is so totally bizarre to see him on a television program, first of all, and secondly it is totally surreal and hilarous to see these small-time famous people sort of mocking Dali because he is so odd. ANYWAY, this is all the set up to tell you how I have discovered this book, which he plugged the last time we saw him on the program. And my library has a copy in the stacks, so it is sitting on my kitchen counter right this minute. The thing is so amazing.
I should give it back to the library, right? I shouldn’t keep it?
The whole book is these questions, like “Why do you wear a mustache?” and “Isn’t your mustache impractical, especially when you travel?” and the response is a picture of Dali and his mustache, formed in a way to answer the question. It’s fantastic.
Add a comment November 11, 2008
In case you missed it:
I finally put my money where my mouth was:
The healing process kind of freaked me out, but it’s fine and cute now. I was there with the support of my sister, mom, and sister/in/law – Ellie stayed and took the pic, Wen and Mom were waiting across the street eating cheese curds and drinking beers. All in all a good weekend.
Add a comment November 11, 2008
It all starts here. 