Monkeys and keyboards aside, one Random + CSS still doesn't make poop.

I've got this Harlan Ellison quote up in my profile. I found it, I loved it, I snagged it as a mirror of my own dirty optimistic leanings.

My philosophy of life is that the meek shall inherit nothing but debasement, frustration and ignoble deaths; that there is security in personal strength; that you can fight City Hall and win; that any action is better than no action, even if it's the wrong action; that you never reach glory or self-fulfillment unless you're willing to risk everything, dare anything, put yourself dead on the line every time; and that once one becomes strong or rich or potent or powerful it is the responsibility of the strong to help the weak become strong.

Imagine my surprise to find that Harlan Ellison, despite his words' implications, is a bit of an anti-woman racist douchebag. Not only has he apparently started throwing all sorts of strange slurs at a WoC (woman of color) blogger--he sexually assaulted one Connie Wilson, the guest of honor at the '06 Hugo awards, in front of hundreds of people.

I still love the quote; I still love the idea behind it. But to keep it up is to support the man, in all of his frothing, grabbing, overly-entitled insanity. So it's got to go.

(Strangely, the subsequent quote becomes much more appropriate.)

More's a pity, since I've heard so many wonderful things about his writing. (I don't remember if I've read any, but now it's kinda like Orson Scott Card--I'm not sure I'd be able to stomach it based on some of the things he's said/done.)

~~~

I made an awesome barbecue sauce last night with ketchup, creamy Dijon mustard, Old Bay, cranberry chipotle sauce, and a three-finger pinch of ginger. The mustard made it savory, the cranberry part gave it a sweet edge while the chipotle part kicked, and the ginger gave it an awesome smell & aftertaste. I ph34r I'll never be able to replicate it again.

So I went from overly complicated to ridiculously simple. About a cup of ketchup (I bought it by the gallon at Sam's. Don't ask.), about 1/2 to 2/3 a cup of dark brown sugar, and two or three heaping tablespoons of chili powder later (I used almost half of a new container), and I had something sweet & spicy that was very very tasty over chicken on the grill.

~~~

I think I cracked something in my ankle. D: Running circles 'round the bookstore's gonna be interesting . . .

I pulled a muscle sometime yesterday, became extremely, unpleasantly aware of it this morning, and sometime during my highly medicated & immobile afternoon, realized that I'm one of those people who would've gone absolutely batshit insane if subjected to the rest cure. I got up and down and back up again despite not really being able to use my right arm or turn my head; I sorted a billion little mixed bits of stuff I don't really have use for; I tried to make more things despite myself; I tried to convince Snuggly Hubby that I needed to buy him an early birthday dinner (if he'd just drive me somewhere) . . .

This sucks. :P


Next step is to medicate with alcohol and ice cream. And maybe more of this:



In short: A pound and a half of deep fried mashed potato smilies, half a pound of cheese, a pound of steak slices, sour cream, jalapeno & cheese sour cream (no, one kind wasn't enough), and a half pound of bacon. I might not survive my next helping, but damn it I'll die happy.

Standard deviled eggs filling:
egg yolks, crushed to tiny crumbles
mayo
Old Bay
mustard powder
probably onion powder


What happened when I decided my salad filling would be better without a salad attached:
egg yolks, crushed to tiny crumbles
Old Bay
mustard powder & some onion powder
half an avocado, smushed into the above until smooth
bacon ranch dressing to smooth it out a little more
Frank's Red Hot. Just because.

This variant seems a little smoother and less heavy than the standard, mayo-filled one, though it has a bit of a greenish hue and an avocado aftertaste. I'm not dead from it yet, but I ph34r for those around me tomorrow.


Next option'll be egg, blue cheese dressing, old bay, and avocado, with some silly salad-like garnish and additions as needed. I wanna find out how toxic this can get before . . .

. . . I'm gonna inflict this on the workplace. :D :D :D

Also? Come summer, I definitely must replicate and grill this little bit of happiness. (So I'm writing it down before I forget.)

I(or you, or we, or whatever)'ll need:

Chicken pieces
one giant can of pineapple juice
cardamom
garlic powder
coconut milk
and rum

Marinate the chicken in the pineapple juice, cardamom, and garlic powder for a few hours. Toss into a pan (hopefully a grill) with a little of the marinade and cook on medium for a bit, then slather in coconut milk and cook some more on low to make sure everything comes out tender. Then add enough rum to set the mess on fire.

This shall be easier and probably safer outside. :P Inside I barely put a quarter shot onto the mix--in part because it's far too cold to burn down the house, and in part because whenever I add alcohol to a recipe I tend to ruin the recipe.


It needs a big pot of basmati rice, and kabobs, and big chunky seared pineapple slices and possibly some shrimp too. It smells like Hawaii and India had a big drunken potluck--like cardamom and pina coladas and chicken and a little like fire. And it taaaastes . . . very much like it smells, like a less intense Indian food. *_*


Yeah, gotta try this on the grill when the weather gets better.


Okay, gotta do something productive now. :P

Did I mention that the locals turned the bridge foundation for the closest mine into a community center/amphitheater of sorts? They had a concert earlier tonight. It was too far away for me to hear very well, but I left the windows open anyway.

~~

True Blood the tv series = silly/messy crack. I'm sending the first two episodes to whoever I can get to hold still. I don't take it seriously (which is good, because it doesn't take itself seriously) and though I (seriously) hate Sookie's brother the series might become something I follow for a while.

~~

I picked up a huge piece of salmon from Aldi's (the local ubercheap food store), baked it with some old bay & seasoning salt, and . . . still found it utterly & astoundingly bland. I guess that's what you get at $6 for 1.5 pounds. I ate maybe a third of the thing and gave up--and for someone who likes seafood this much, that's damned sad.

So tonight I had a big lump of salmon in the fridge and nothing but a general ideal to aim it at. Bland salmon sucks. I wanted it to be flavorful, heavier, more savory, less . . . plain.

Yeah, you can guess where this was going. A short trip to the grocery store later and lookie! I have something close to a variant on a soupy theme normal recipe!

( Salmon chowder recipe and pic hidden in here! )

~~

The more I look at my excel spreadsheet for NYAF stock, the more I go all whiny and avoidant. I don't wanna sew, even with the machine. I also compulsively prowl ebay. It's like porn for prospective retailers. I might need intervention.

But as long as I'm still being productive it isn't a problem, right?

( My productivity, let me show it to you. )

BTW: Anyone have any suggestions for these little bell tassel thingies? I've got a bunch and not many ideas. There's only so many people who'd want 'em as earrings . . . I think. They're definitely funnily-shaped for cowry fall or belt additions.




(ohshit it's 3am)

Me: Mmk, what to start cooking first.
Why just one first? --starts everything!--
zen_of_nihilism: * _ *
this is part of why I love you

It's been a while since I went into kamikaze cooking mode. But today I had some time off, the remains of a ham + its bone, and a special request from the better half for "something different."

The result is ( ham bone soup & chicken sorta-parm with potatoes. )

World is good. :D

Really Simple Creamy Chicken Rice Soup

7 cups chicken bullion stock

about a cup and a half of chicken, diced

a 4oz box of whole-grain wild rice (I wanted to use barley but couldn't find it)

2/3 of a 1 lb bag of sliced carrots

4 or 5 stalks of celery, sliced

1 small onion (about the size of a chicken egg), diced

about 2/3 cup milk, about 2-3 tbsp butter, about 2 heaping tbsp flour, a little more than a tbsp of sake (not really necessary if you don't have it), and a pinch each of basil and thyme.


Mix (the flour does best mixed into the milk separately, lest it make lumps), boil for 45 minutes (stirring occasionally) or until the rice has cooked, serve.



The results wasn't very liquidy, so if you like your soup to be more soupy you'll probably want to add more stock, milk, so forth.


Now to get to work on my dreads. :P

Tags: cooking

Ideal recipe, as cobbled together from a few online recipes:
Some kind of firm white fish
Fish stock & milk
2 cans cream of potato
condensed tomato soup
1 large pepper
1 m onion
3-4 slices of bacon
corn
oregano, thyme, Old Bay

The recipe as I ended up making it:
1 3/4lb frozen cod (cod because it’s what was available, frozen because $6/lb is a lot more reasonable than $15/lb)
1 can condensed cream of potato
1 can condensed clam chowder
1 can whatever-was-handy potato soup (I think it was baked potato + bacon—the f'n store only had one can of plain cream of potato)
1 orange pepper (or whatever color pepper[s] strike your fancy)
2 small yellow onions
4-5 slices bacon
about a cup of corn
1 to 1 ½ cup DIY kamikaze seafood stock (about 2 cups water, lobster shells, oregano, thyme, onion or garlic powder if you’re determined, and Old Bay seasoning; boil it down for a little while)
Sake, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce.


Get a decent-sized deep pot—this makes a lot of soup.

Chop up the bacon and throw it into the pot over medium heat. Slice up the onions and toss them in with a splash of Worcestershire once the bacon’s about half done. Seed and dice the pepper (stir the onion/bacon mess occasionally while you’re doing this, too—burnt onions and bacon is a sad thing) and once the onions look about done, toss in the peppers as well. Cover it all up & fry until the peppers just start to get tender. (Mushy peppers are sad, too.)

Remove; put in a bowl on the side.

Chop your fish up into about 1” chunks, toss it in the same pan from the bacon mess, and put it back on medium heat to cook. The chunks’ll break up some while you stir them. I threw some sake—probably a tablespoon—in on the fish while it was cooking. Some people might like sherry, but I don’t have (or like) sherry so whatever. :-P The fish was frozen, which left some extra water in the bottom of the pan and resulted in me not having to use quite as much stock.

When the fish looks cooked, dump in your cans of condensed soup and as much stock as it takes to get to a reasonable consistency. (Any person trying to make this needs to taste-test. Lots.) Add in the bacon/onion/pepper OT3 mix and the corn, squeeze & stir in a tablespoon or two of ketchup, heat till bubbling and hold it there for a few minutes to be absolutely certain everything's cooked through, and with the addition of a big chunk of crusty Italian bread you’re good to go.



Results are tasty. :D

The sad, sick little brown bat sitting on the sidewalk outside of my one job this morning has left me with the wish to pet a bat. Preferrably a big one. I might make do with a bat house instead.

~~

I've been writing ot3 crackfic instead of original stuff. Maybe once I'm done with this little mess, I'll finally get that chapter breakdown for SttS finalized. I feel I may need to further develop my own characters in order to feel more driven to write about them. Or maybe I just need that solid direction of a layout and charted-out character sheet, whatever.

~~

Finally, something productive . . . I've never made chili before, but this batch was apparently successful enough that zen_of_nihilism and his friend ate at least four whole pounds yesterday.

( Recipe! )