Blowing off the dust
Mar. 6th, 2023 08:20 amHonestly, I kind of wish Twitter would just cock up its toes already. It’s a horrible habit and yet there are just enough things I only get info on there that I have utterly failed to quit.
Oh well, anyone want to talk about cooking?
Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea of meal prep, because I’m working part time and running a small non-profit and trying to have some sort of life. Except none of us are all that reliable about wanting to eat what we’ve prepped instead of some other thing, so I’ve been doing a lot of ingredient prepping instead.
I’m a big fan of being able to throw meals together very quickly while also knowing exactly what I’m making and having the ingredients prepped the way I want them, so this is really working for me.
Currently in the freezer: a big bag of mirepoix (diced onion, celery and carrot), ten pounds’ worth of caramelized onions in 1/2 C bags, a bunch of sliced and washed leeks, several bags of assorted herbs ready to have a chunk sliced off of them (fresh herbs are great if you go through them, but we don’t, and let me tell you what, frozen beat the pants off of dried). Shortly to be in the freezer: five pounds of roasted garlic, in 1/4 C bags. Also multiple single-serving bags of rice, because we make extra and freeze it.
Bonus: we tend to pick up grocery store rotisserie chickens for quick suppers once or twice a month. I freeze the carcasses and when I’m doing veggie prep the trimmings plus the bones make really good dense stock.
I need to get a club pack of chicken thighs and slice them for freezing. Pre-chopped they work for stir-fry or soup or I can bread them.
Oh well, anyone want to talk about cooking?
Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea of meal prep, because I’m working part time and running a small non-profit and trying to have some sort of life. Except none of us are all that reliable about wanting to eat what we’ve prepped instead of some other thing, so I’ve been doing a lot of ingredient prepping instead.
I’m a big fan of being able to throw meals together very quickly while also knowing exactly what I’m making and having the ingredients prepped the way I want them, so this is really working for me.
Currently in the freezer: a big bag of mirepoix (diced onion, celery and carrot), ten pounds’ worth of caramelized onions in 1/2 C bags, a bunch of sliced and washed leeks, several bags of assorted herbs ready to have a chunk sliced off of them (fresh herbs are great if you go through them, but we don’t, and let me tell you what, frozen beat the pants off of dried). Shortly to be in the freezer: five pounds of roasted garlic, in 1/4 C bags. Also multiple single-serving bags of rice, because we make extra and freeze it.
Bonus: we tend to pick up grocery store rotisserie chickens for quick suppers once or twice a month. I freeze the carcasses and when I’m doing veggie prep the trimmings plus the bones make really good dense stock.
I need to get a club pack of chicken thighs and slice them for freezing. Pre-chopped they work for stir-fry or soup or I can bread them.
Everything is big and I am small
Mar. 31st, 2020 07:58 pmBut if you want me to, I will call you and read you a story. Vinyl Cafe unless you request otherwise. I have a lot of stories available.
Drop me a comment and we'll work out the details.
Drop me a comment and we'll work out the details.
Communities! Remember communities?
Jan. 14th, 2020 02:28 pmAfter discussion with other like-minded individuals, have created ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
girlmeetstrouble as a place to discuss Romantic Suspense, probably mostly but not necessarily the vaguely mid-20th-C stuff.
Mary Stewart/Victoria Holt/Jane Aiken Hodge/Ellis Peters (contemporary)/Elizabeth Peters/Dorothy Dunnet (Dolly books)/M.M. Kaye (contemporary) and etc. fans, please join us.
Membership is moderated while we hammer out the basics (and I get used to moderating a comm again and find out what the spam hazards are now) but if you're coming from here that's a formality.
girlmeetstrouble as a place to discuss Romantic Suspense, probably mostly but not necessarily the vaguely mid-20th-C stuff.Mary Stewart/Victoria Holt/Jane Aiken Hodge/Ellis Peters (contemporary)/Elizabeth Peters/Dorothy Dunnet (Dolly books)/M.M. Kaye (contemporary) and etc. fans, please join us.
Membership is moderated while we hammer out the basics (and I get used to moderating a comm again and find out what the spam hazards are now) but if you're coming from here that's a formality.
That was a LOVELY Bat-Moot.
Nov. 19th, 2019 12:52 pmAm now safely home in Ottawa but without my jacket.
Does anyone live near enough the Coach and Horse that they could pop in and ask after a red-and-black wool jacket left there Sunday evening? I will gladly pay postage, I'm very fond of it.
Does anyone live near enough the Coach and Horse that they could pop in and ask after a red-and-black wool jacket left there Sunday evening? I will gladly pay postage, I'm very fond of it.
Batting about the place
Nov. 6th, 2019 09:31 amI will be in London (England not Comma) on November 17, getting in at 3 p.m. and flying out the next day.
I am staying at YHA Oxford Street, which is handy to both Heathrow and some promising locations for a BatMoot.
Anyone care to meet up?
I am staying at YHA Oxford Street, which is handy to both Heathrow and some promising locations for a BatMoot.
Anyone care to meet up?
Can anybody
Jun. 9th, 2019 04:39 pm1) confirm that blindingly virulent rage is a perfectly reasonable response when you type in an advanced search with limiters and alternate spellings and careful selection of AND and OR and the database says "we recognize that you took three minutes filling up that search page to your exact specs but actually we were always planning to shit every result that contains the name charles onto your unprotected head in no particular order because we assume our users are stupid and don't know what they want"?
2) Commend to me a search engine that will not do that?
3) Find me somebody to love?
(I'm fine actually but it does make a cheering earworm, no?)
2) Commend to me a search engine that will not do that?
3) Find me somebody to love?
(I'm fine actually but it does make a cheering earworm, no?)
Wurst-Case Scenario Supper
Feb. 6th, 2019 04:36 pmDepending on how hungry you are, the size of the sausages and vegetables, and what you have around the house, take:
1-2 mild sausages of some description per person, cut into 1/2" chunks.
2-4 potatoes per person, peeled, sliced, and rinsed.
1-4 carrots per person, peeled and sliced and rinsed
1/4 of a small cabbage per person, sliced and rinsed.
1-2 onions per person, peeled and quartered.
1/4 C vegetable or chicken stock or broth.
1-2 T Penzeys Tsardust, Krakow, Old World, or Ozark seasoning or any other similar mix you like, depending on how much food you have to season (if your spice mix does not include salt and pepper, use less and add salt and pepper to taste). Or you can wing it; I usually make this when the last thing I feel like doing is winging it, so, spice mixes.
In a large, heavy, oven-safe pot with a lid, cover vegetables with cold water, add a pinch of salt, bring to a boil and simmer for ten minutes (parboiling). Preheat oven to 375 F while vegetables parboil.
Drain thoroughly and return to pot along with sausages, broth, and seasoning mix. Cook for 30 minutes with lid on, remove lid, stir briskly, cook for 30 more minutes.
Stir again, and serve.
1-2 mild sausages of some description per person, cut into 1/2" chunks.
2-4 potatoes per person, peeled, sliced, and rinsed.
1-4 carrots per person, peeled and sliced and rinsed
1/4 of a small cabbage per person, sliced and rinsed.
1-2 onions per person, peeled and quartered.
1/4 C vegetable or chicken stock or broth.
1-2 T Penzeys Tsardust, Krakow, Old World, or Ozark seasoning or any other similar mix you like, depending on how much food you have to season (if your spice mix does not include salt and pepper, use less and add salt and pepper to taste). Or you can wing it; I usually make this when the last thing I feel like doing is winging it, so, spice mixes.
In a large, heavy, oven-safe pot with a lid, cover vegetables with cold water, add a pinch of salt, bring to a boil and simmer for ten minutes (parboiling). Preheat oven to 375 F while vegetables parboil.
Drain thoroughly and return to pot along with sausages, broth, and seasoning mix. Cook for 30 minutes with lid on, remove lid, stir briskly, cook for 30 more minutes.
Stir again, and serve.
Diana Athill
Jan. 26th, 2019 01:55 pmI feel that many of my dr. readers, to borrow an ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
oursin-ism, would greatly enjoy reading about the well-lived life of this remarkable woman of words.
oursin-ism, would greatly enjoy reading about the well-lived life of this remarkable woman of words.A post, of a sort
Jan. 16th, 2019 09:32 amSo, I like to wake up to music. I also wake up slowly. I ALSO like big-band and 40s music.
If this is also you, you may enjoy this roughly 15-minute alarm clock mix:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/n3sy0285zjmm469/Morning%20Mix.m4a?dl=0
Contains: (as a single track, some light editing)
Sleep in Late, Big Sugar
Begin the Béguine, Glen Miller
O, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning, Irving Berlin
Bugle Call Rag, Glen Miller
Song of the Volga Boatmen, Glen Miller
Dam Busters March, Billy Cotton
Let me know if you like it!
If this is also you, you may enjoy this roughly 15-minute alarm clock mix:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/n3sy0285zjmm469/Morning%20Mix.m4a?dl=0
Contains: (as a single track, some light editing)
Sleep in Late, Big Sugar
Begin the Béguine, Glen Miller
O, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning, Irving Berlin
Bugle Call Rag, Glen Miller
Song of the Volga Boatmen, Glen Miller
Dam Busters March, Billy Cotton
Let me know if you like it!
It's great that Terry Karney/pecunium, as a member of the Arisia concom, is apparently speaking out on Noel Rosenberg's behaviour and I have no particular reason to feel that he is less than sincere in his condemnation of Noel Rosenberg's stalking of Crystal Huff.
I do have reason to believe that if he has strong feelings about the wrongness of having intercourse with someone without a condom without asking for or getting consent when all previous agreements said that condoms would always be used, that would be a conclusion that he came to sometime after 2009.
That reason being, for the avoidance of doubt, that he did that precise thing to me in the autumn of that year. When I asked him, later, why he had done it, he said he had felt like it. I accepted that explanation at the time. His life was very difficult just then; I guess I felt like that was a generally acceptable reason for doing shitty things. I don't accept this now.
In the course of our relationship I introduced him to a fair number of people, a lot of them women, and, further, introduced him as a safe person and one of the good ones. He met his now-wife at my wedding, so, you know, I guess there's a through-line to Arisia from there. I now regret many of those introductions quite a lot, and recommend women and organizations exercise caution with him in the future.
As far as Noel Rosenberg, I have known him slightly for a decade or so. I know his now ex-girlfriend and her spouse very well. I don't know Crystal, but I believe them, and I support them. I didn't know anything concrete to Noel's discredit before this but I can't say I was surprised, either.
I don't know Maura, either, but I believe them, too.
The reason I am posting this now is that I can't face the thought of Crystal having to deal, after their tremendously brave statement, with a ConCom -- which I guess is now supposed to be doing the right things and trying to make amends -- containing at least one other person who has done some of the same things, without speaking up.
If Arisia is serious about addressing their problems and moving forward, this is information they require. If they are not, this is information that potential future attendees and volunteers require.
I have not contacted Arisia and have no plans to. Having read Crystal and Maura's accounts of attempting to handle things privately and through established channels with Arisia I am entirely disinclined to go that route myself. There appear to be dangerously sharp rocks in those channels, and nowhere safe to land at the end.
It is okay to link or otherwise share this post.
ETA from Cat/fairestcat: this post is currently set to screen all comments from people not on Marna’s (small) access list. I will be checking this post throughout the day and unscreening/deleting comments as necessary.
pecunium, as a member of the Arisia concom, is apparently speaking out on Noel Rosenberg's behaviour and I have no particular reason to feel that he is less than sincere in his condemnation of Noel Rosenberg's stalking of Crystal Huff.I do have reason to believe that if he has strong feelings about the wrongness of having intercourse with someone without a condom without asking for or getting consent when all previous agreements said that condoms would always be used, that would be a conclusion that he came to sometime after 2009.
That reason being, for the avoidance of doubt, that he did that precise thing to me in the autumn of that year. When I asked him, later, why he had done it, he said he had felt like it. I accepted that explanation at the time. His life was very difficult just then; I guess I felt like that was a generally acceptable reason for doing shitty things. I don't accept this now.
In the course of our relationship I introduced him to a fair number of people, a lot of them women, and, further, introduced him as a safe person and one of the good ones. He met his now-wife at my wedding, so, you know, I guess there's a through-line to Arisia from there. I now regret many of those introductions quite a lot, and recommend women and organizations exercise caution with him in the future.
As far as Noel Rosenberg, I have known him slightly for a decade or so. I know his now ex-girlfriend and her spouse very well. I don't know Crystal, but I believe them, and I support them. I didn't know anything concrete to Noel's discredit before this but I can't say I was surprised, either.
I don't know Maura, either, but I believe them, too.
The reason I am posting this now is that I can't face the thought of Crystal having to deal, after their tremendously brave statement, with a ConCom -- which I guess is now supposed to be doing the right things and trying to make amends -- containing at least one other person who has done some of the same things, without speaking up.
If Arisia is serious about addressing their problems and moving forward, this is information they require. If they are not, this is information that potential future attendees and volunteers require.
I have not contacted Arisia and have no plans to. Having read Crystal and Maura's accounts of attempting to handle things privately and through established channels with Arisia I am entirely disinclined to go that route myself. There appear to be dangerously sharp rocks in those channels, and nowhere safe to land at the end.
It is okay to link or otherwise share this post.
ETA from Cat/
fairestcat: this post is currently set to screen all comments from people not on Marna’s (small) access list. I will be checking this post throughout the day and unscreening/deleting comments as necessary.My email was down for two days
Oct. 18th, 2018 08:51 pmIn which time the soup post got nearly 500 spam comments. I have despaired of deleting them all and deleted the entry, so here’s the recipe again:
Chop 6-8 potatoes and 3-4 onions (depending on size. )
Put potatoes to soak in salted water.
In a heavy pot with a lid, combine onions and a generous knob of butter, turn to medium-low and cover.
Go watch an episode of Elementary*
Drain potatoes and add to pot with a large handful of frozen mirepoix (diced onion, celery and carrots), one box of chicken or vegetable broth, salt, pepper, tarragon, savoury, and dill to taste.
Turn to medium, replace lid, go watch another episode.
Add 2 cups potato flakes to thicken and two cups of milk or one cup of milk and one of cream. Turn to low.
Go watch a third episode. Put it on pause halfway through for long enough to stir the soup.
Put a loaf of frozen bread in the oven on 300F while you grate 1 cup emmenthal or similar cheese and fry 1/2 lb bacon to crisp. Sprinkle bacon and cheese on top of soup and eat, possibly while watching more Elementary.
*you can watch something else if you want, as long as it's roughly 45 minutes long.
Chop 6-8 potatoes and 3-4 onions (depending on size. )
Put potatoes to soak in salted water.
In a heavy pot with a lid, combine onions and a generous knob of butter, turn to medium-low and cover.
Go watch an episode of Elementary*
Drain potatoes and add to pot with a large handful of frozen mirepoix (diced onion, celery and carrots), one box of chicken or vegetable broth, salt, pepper, tarragon, savoury, and dill to taste.
Turn to medium, replace lid, go watch another episode.
Add 2 cups potato flakes to thicken and two cups of milk or one cup of milk and one of cream. Turn to low.
Go watch a third episode. Put it on pause halfway through for long enough to stir the soup.
Put a loaf of frozen bread in the oven on 300F while you grate 1 cup emmenthal or similar cheese and fry 1/2 lb bacon to crisp. Sprinkle bacon and cheese on top of soup and eat, possibly while watching more Elementary.
*you can watch something else if you want, as long as it's roughly 45 minutes long.
Emerging blinking into the light
Jan. 4th, 2018 03:16 pmI will be getting into Toronto this Saturday evening, staying with welcomingsong until the afternoon of Tuesday the 9th, vanishing into the convent until the morning of Friday the 12th, returning to welcomingsong's for one night, and taking the 2:20 home on Saturday the 13th.
I miss my Toronto people very much and wish to see something of you all. Please comment if it's mutual.
(Deargraydon I know you very much enjoy exactness and clarity so, yes, this means you. Decidedly.)
If there's enough interest in Brunch, I have not eaten The Meal Of My Toronto People in awhile and we could do that.
The convent is at Yonge and Finch and I would be willing to emerge briefly for a coffee if that's the only thing we can make work, but in general I'm planning to be solitary and quiet while there.
welcomingsong until the afternoon of Tuesday the 9th, vanishing into the convent until the morning of Friday the 12th, returning to welcomingsong's for one night, and taking the 2:20 home on Saturday the 13th. I miss my Toronto people very much and wish to see something of you all. Please comment if it's mutual.
(Dear
graydon I know you very much enjoy exactness and clarity so, yes, this means you. Decidedly.) If there's enough interest in Brunch, I have not eaten The Meal Of My Toronto People in awhile and we could do that.
The convent is at Yonge and Finch and I would be willing to emerge briefly for a coffee if that's the only thing we can make work, but in general I'm planning to be solitary and quiet while there.
On a far cheerier note
Dec. 27th, 2017 01:29 amI am sharing my sickbed with this goober:
And his Resting Distraught Face:
RIP Christmas Duck Toy: we scarcely knew you, yet you were very much loved in your tragically short life.
And his Resting Distraught Face:
RIP Christmas Duck Toy: we scarcely knew you, yet you were very much loved in your tragically short life.
Christmas was quiet and fairly good, except that over the course of the afternoon it became obvious that I have a FILTHY cold.
I am now lying resentfully in bed drinking mint tea I cannot taste and being grumpy about missing Christmas II: This Time Someone Else Is Cooking with the inlaws and feeling guilty because I cannot help with getting Bogart his required amount of outdoors time when it is -20 and I have a fever. At least I can get him dressed for walks, which as I am The One Who Can Get His Boots On is quite useful.
I feel too crap to want to a) watch Dr Who or b) check out Yuletide, which is to say, very crap indeed.
But I have an electric blanket and a snoring dog and the awesomefairestcat made me tea and is heroically dealing with the dishes from last night's Roast Beast and trimmings.
Also I had allsorts and winegums for Boxing Day breakfast, washed down with Tylenol Sinus Cold and Flu.
I am happy with this choice.
I am now lying resentfully in bed drinking mint tea I cannot taste and being grumpy about missing Christmas II: This Time Someone Else Is Cooking with the inlaws and feeling guilty because I cannot help with getting Bogart his required amount of outdoors time when it is -20 and I have a fever. At least I can get him dressed for walks, which as I am The One Who Can Get His Boots On is quite useful.
I feel too crap to want to a) watch Dr Who or b) check out Yuletide, which is to say, very crap indeed.
But I have an electric blanket and a snoring dog and the awesome
fairestcat made me tea and is heroically dealing with the dishes from last night's Roast Beast and trimmings. Also I had allsorts and winegums for Boxing Day breakfast, washed down with Tylenol Sinus Cold and Flu.
I am happy with this choice.
In Rossland
Nov. 13th, 2017 09:25 amCaught the train to Toronto, found out the Canadian was delayed, switched to a flight into Kelowna, my brother in law picked me up and we drove to Trail.
I missed her by just under an hour.
She wanted her ashes to go to St Thomas, beside her Mom and Dad.
I'm bringing her back with me, by train. One more ride.
I still have no idea what my schedule is.
Comments off. I love you all, but. Not yet.
I missed her by just under an hour.
She wanted her ashes to go to St Thomas, beside her Mom and Dad.
I'm bringing her back with me, by train. One more ride.
I still have no idea what my schedule is.
Comments off. I love you all, but. Not yet.
Actually I'm catching a train out West this Saturday to say goodbye to my Mom. Bogart is staying home.
If you live somewhere the Canadian stops and would like to see me on my trip back drop me a comment?
No condolences yet, please. I need to keep my shit together for awhile longer here.
<3 you all.
If you live somewhere the Canadian stops and would like to see me on my trip back drop me a comment?
No condolences yet, please. I need to keep my shit together for awhile longer here.
<3 you all.
I aenten't dead
Nov. 7th, 2017 01:00 pmThough I do presently have the flu. Which probably means a few posts in the next couple of days.
At the moment I'm researching the best way to get the dog (Oh, heck, um, hi, everyone, we got a dog! This is Bogart!)
Anyway, that's where I've been. Glued to a dog who's had a stressful start in life and is still half-convinced he's going to be taken away from us and moved to another shelter cage at any moment. It's a lot.
So. Researching ways to get Bogart out west with me when I next go to see Mom. If that seems the best option — like a lot of rescues he's anxious, and he bonded to me first, so the question is is he best without me but with the family or with me for the long visit but crated for the trip.
Most dog-owners I've asked about flying with dogs too big for the cabin have said, basically, "well, if it's your ONLY choice ..." and that has been consistent across many people who don't know each other, so.
Via Rail allows dogs on the Canadian, under certain conditions.
A test-run seems indicated once he's doing better with the crate thing.
Do I have any friends in Toronto or Montreal who would enjoy having me and a 40lb dog to visit for probably two nights? He is good with kids and adults and possibly TOO fond of cats — he tries to bring them his toys.
He is *great* with other dogs and that's not me being fond - he continually surprises me by his diplomacy and capacity to get shy or tiny dogs to play with him. He was in the system for a year before he got to us (and a stray dumped in the Everglades before that) and so finds the human environment puzzling quite often - stairs and leashes took a fair bit of explaining - but it turns out he has vast experience in group dog situations and is a joy to walk off-leash.
He's not as good about distinguishing toys from not-toys, but I stay on top of him fairly well and would likely keep him out for most of the days anyway.
At the moment I'm researching the best way to get the dog (Oh, heck, um, hi, everyone, we got a dog! This is Bogart!)
Anyway, that's where I've been. Glued to a dog who's had a stressful start in life and is still half-convinced he's going to be taken away from us and moved to another shelter cage at any moment. It's a lot.
So. Researching ways to get Bogart out west with me when I next go to see Mom. If that seems the best option — like a lot of rescues he's anxious, and he bonded to me first, so the question is is he best without me but with the family or with me for the long visit but crated for the trip.
Most dog-owners I've asked about flying with dogs too big for the cabin have said, basically, "well, if it's your ONLY choice ..." and that has been consistent across many people who don't know each other, so.
Via Rail allows dogs on the Canadian, under certain conditions.
A test-run seems indicated once he's doing better with the crate thing.
Do I have any friends in Toronto or Montreal who would enjoy having me and a 40lb dog to visit for probably two nights? He is good with kids and adults and possibly TOO fond of cats — he tries to bring them his toys.
He is *great* with other dogs and that's not me being fond - he continually surprises me by his diplomacy and capacity to get shy or tiny dogs to play with him. He was in the system for a year before he got to us (and a stray dumped in the Everglades before that) and so finds the human environment puzzling quite often - stairs and leashes took a fair bit of explaining - but it turns out he has vast experience in group dog situations and is a joy to walk off-leash.
He's not as good about distinguishing toys from not-toys, but I stay on top of him fairly well and would likely keep him out for most of the days anyway.
On this day in 1867, the Articles of Confederation were signed and the Dominion of Canada created.
On this day in 1916, nearly eight hundred soldiers of the First Newfoundland went into battle at Beamont-Hamel.
On July 2, sixty-eight soldiers of the First Newfoundland answered at roll call. 324 were known to have been killed or were missing, presumed dead. 386 were wounded.
On this day in 2017, there is a tipi on the unceded Algonquin Anishinaabe territory of Parliament Hill.
On this day in 1916, nearly eight hundred soldiers of the First Newfoundland went into battle at Beamont-Hamel.
On July 2, sixty-eight soldiers of the First Newfoundland answered at roll call. 324 were known to have been killed or were missing, presumed dead. 386 were wounded.
On this day in 2017, there is a tipi on the unceded Algonquin Anishinaabe territory of Parliament Hill.
