www.notacrackpot.com
(Yes, I'm giving up whatever ghost of blogger still lingered and moving over to this site. I'm approaching it like I do gym memberships: I've paid to use it, so I'll HAVE to use it more now to get my money's worth! Yep.)
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
For serious, you guys.
I've been ... less than consistent in updating this, but hell if I'm not going to give it another shot! In fact, several people attempted to peer-pressure me into writing more last night (which was done AFTER the drinking - no peer pressure necessary there, obviously). I don't know what you're all expecting, but I'll do my best.
And I will leave you slightly entertained with the fact that a doorbell ring roused us from our sleep at the crack of noon. I'm glad it did, because it was a lovely technician here to check out our poltergeist-ish oven knob that enjoys burning food at random. He seemed slightly taken aback by the giant cat staring at him when I opened the door (verbatim: "damn, that's a big cat"), but was good-humored about it when giant cat saw fit to plow his head repeatedly into the tech's knee. Poor tech.
And I will leave you slightly entertained with the fact that a doorbell ring roused us from our sleep at the crack of noon. I'm glad it did, because it was a lovely technician here to check out our poltergeist-ish oven knob that enjoys burning food at random. He seemed slightly taken aback by the giant cat staring at him when I opened the door (verbatim: "damn, that's a big cat"), but was good-humored about it when giant cat saw fit to plow his head repeatedly into the tech's knee. Poor tech.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
My Triumphant, Lazy Return
Wow. Blogger. Finally you behave. I don't even know if this is the correct font, but screw it!
Oh, it has been a few months. Yeahhh ... in that time, there have been holidays, birthdays, and the fact that both Chris's team and my team will be playing opposite each other in next weekend's superbowl. Sadly, that might be the most exciting thing so far!
Half of the reason why I wanted to (again, finally) write something is because I've been pent up in the apartment with some death cough. I actually made it to work yesterday to go to a meeting and infect my corworkers, but as evidenced by the ... things ... I coughed up today, it was a wise choice to take one more day off.
Unfortunately, my other reason for wanting to write something was that I had all of these scintillating, "I can't believe someone composed that magical prose"-type thoughts. I tried to write a few weeks ago, but Blogger decided to give me the spinny wheel of "Let's just wait and see what happens..." for a few hours. Needless to say, they're gone now.
So yeah. My as-yet-undecided resolution for 2011 will probably be to actually write those thoughts down in a timely manner, so stay tuned! Also, pray for Mojo, because I gots to go to work tomorrow and I'd rather not feel like a zombie while doing so.
PS - and now there is a baby screaming outside my door. I don't even know why this is happening; nobody has a baby in this wing. Good god.
Oh, it has been a few months. Yeahhh ... in that time, there have been holidays, birthdays, and the fact that both Chris's team and my team will be playing opposite each other in next weekend's superbowl. Sadly, that might be the most exciting thing so far!
Half of the reason why I wanted to (again, finally) write something is because I've been pent up in the apartment with some death cough. I actually made it to work yesterday to go to a meeting and infect my corworkers, but as evidenced by the ... things ... I coughed up today, it was a wise choice to take one more day off.
Unfortunately, my other reason for wanting to write something was that I had all of these scintillating, "I can't believe someone composed that magical prose"-type thoughts. I tried to write a few weeks ago, but Blogger decided to give me the spinny wheel of "Let's just wait and see what happens..." for a few hours. Needless to say, they're gone now.
So yeah. My as-yet-undecided resolution for 2011 will probably be to actually write those thoughts down in a timely manner, so stay tuned! Also, pray for Mojo, because I gots to go to work tomorrow and I'd rather not feel like a zombie while doing so.
PS - and now there is a baby screaming outside my door. I don't even know why this is happening; nobody has a baby in this wing. Good god.
Monday, October 11, 2010
My Post of Atonement
Sorry! Sorry sorry sorry. I've had plans brewing in my brain to write a post about our trip down to Florida, and the technological wonderment contained therein, and I just keep ... not having time.
In lieu of an actual post, though, I'm going to give you my recipe for french onion soup, which I've more or less adapted from America's Test Kitchen. If you know me, you know how much I adore that show, and while not EVERYTHING I've made from the show has been the absolute greatest, this pretty much is. You might punch someone, it's that good.
French Onion Soup
(I'd say it serves 6-8, but if you're greedy like we can be sometimes, this might serve 4)
-4lb yellow onions - you may be able to use white, but try to stick with yellow. Definitely don't use red.
-3 tbsp butter
-1 tsp salt
-water
-1/2 c dry sherry (I just use a cheap $10 bottle from Calvert Woodley, but it's definitely not their brand, heh)
-4c chicken broth
-2c beef broth
(You can most certainly use veggie broth - I have done so for veggie friends - but you get a much richer flavor with the meat stocks. Using a homemade veggie stock would probably give it some legs, though.)
-2c water
-A few sprigs fresh thyme
-Bay leaf
-1/2tsp salt
-Crusty bread/baguette and grated gruyere for garnish/making it right
*You'll want a heavy oven-safe pot with a lid in which you can make this; I love my Lodge dutch oven just for this soup.
Preheat oven to 400. Spray the inside of your pot/dutch oven with cooking spray, and then halve and thinly slice the onions and throw them into the pot. Add the 3 tbs butter, sliced into a few chunks, add the 1tsp salt, then put the lid on the pot and throw it in the oven for an hour. Stir after that hour, then put the covered pot back in the 400-degree oven for another hour and a half.
Remove the put from the oven (you can turn it off now; that easy part is done, ha), turn a burner on "medium" and stir the reduced onions for 15-20 min over the flame. You want the onions to turn a deep mahogany color, and be sure to scrape the sides of the pot while you do this in order to get all of that flavor off of the sides.
Add 1/4c water to the onions, then stir/deglaze for 6 minutes or so. Do that two more times (the Official Source for this recipe does it 4 times total for 6-8 minutes each time, but I've found that this doesn't make a HUGE difference - it's a matter of whether you want to go one more round with stirring onions, pretty much). After deglazing with water, deglaze with the 1/2c of dry sherry for 5 minutes.
Add the broths and 2c water, along with the sprigs of thyme and bay leaf. It's easier to fish the spices out if you tie them together in a little bundle, but I don't usually have string around the house. Add 1/2 tsp salt, and let that simmer for at least 30 min.
As the soup simmers, slice a few small pieces of baguette and throw them in a toaster oven or under a broiler until they get nice and crusty (ie, they'll be able to sit in the soup without turning to mush). Grate some gruyere, and once the soup is done simmering and you have seasoned it with salt and pepper and removed the thyme sprigs and bay leaf because DO NOT EAT A BAY LEAF IT IS POISONOUS PEOPLE, ladle it into individual OVEN-SAFE (seriously) bowls. Put one piece of bread atop the soup, throw some gruyere on there, and stick it under a broiler for 4-5 min.
Be careful when you're done making it - the dishes get unbelievably hot, so you'll be using your hot pad more than a little bit. Let it rest for a few minutes, and once you can't stand it any longer, attack that soup. Don't burn your tongue.
This stores great in the fridge for a few days, and the flavor gets better the next day. Enjoy!!
In lieu of an actual post, though, I'm going to give you my recipe for french onion soup, which I've more or less adapted from America's Test Kitchen. If you know me, you know how much I adore that show, and while not EVERYTHING I've made from the show has been the absolute greatest, this pretty much is. You might punch someone, it's that good.
French Onion Soup
(I'd say it serves 6-8, but if you're greedy like we can be sometimes, this might serve 4)
-4lb yellow onions - you may be able to use white, but try to stick with yellow. Definitely don't use red.
-3 tbsp butter
-1 tsp salt
-water
-1/2 c dry sherry (I just use a cheap $10 bottle from Calvert Woodley, but it's definitely not their brand, heh)
-4c chicken broth
-2c beef broth
(You can most certainly use veggie broth - I have done so for veggie friends - but you get a much richer flavor with the meat stocks. Using a homemade veggie stock would probably give it some legs, though.)
-2c water
-A few sprigs fresh thyme
-Bay leaf
-1/2tsp salt
-Crusty bread/baguette and grated gruyere for garnish/making it right
*You'll want a heavy oven-safe pot with a lid in which you can make this; I love my Lodge dutch oven just for this soup.
Preheat oven to 400. Spray the inside of your pot/dutch oven with cooking spray, and then halve and thinly slice the onions and throw them into the pot. Add the 3 tbs butter, sliced into a few chunks, add the 1tsp salt, then put the lid on the pot and throw it in the oven for an hour. Stir after that hour, then put the covered pot back in the 400-degree oven for another hour and a half.
Remove the put from the oven (you can turn it off now; that easy part is done, ha), turn a burner on "medium" and stir the reduced onions for 15-20 min over the flame. You want the onions to turn a deep mahogany color, and be sure to scrape the sides of the pot while you do this in order to get all of that flavor off of the sides.
Add 1/4c water to the onions, then stir/deglaze for 6 minutes or so. Do that two more times (the Official Source for this recipe does it 4 times total for 6-8 minutes each time, but I've found that this doesn't make a HUGE difference - it's a matter of whether you want to go one more round with stirring onions, pretty much). After deglazing with water, deglaze with the 1/2c of dry sherry for 5 minutes.
Add the broths and 2c water, along with the sprigs of thyme and bay leaf. It's easier to fish the spices out if you tie them together in a little bundle, but I don't usually have string around the house. Add 1/2 tsp salt, and let that simmer for at least 30 min.
As the soup simmers, slice a few small pieces of baguette and throw them in a toaster oven or under a broiler until they get nice and crusty (ie, they'll be able to sit in the soup without turning to mush). Grate some gruyere, and once the soup is done simmering and you have seasoned it with salt and pepper and removed the thyme sprigs and bay leaf because DO NOT EAT A BAY LEAF IT IS POISONOUS PEOPLE, ladle it into individual OVEN-SAFE (seriously) bowls. Put one piece of bread atop the soup, throw some gruyere on there, and stick it under a broiler for 4-5 min.
Be careful when you're done making it - the dishes get unbelievably hot, so you'll be using your hot pad more than a little bit. Let it rest for a few minutes, and once you can't stand it any longer, attack that soup. Don't burn your tongue.
This stores great in the fridge for a few days, and the flavor gets better the next day. Enjoy!!
Monday, September 27, 2010
If you hear sneezing in the background of the boy's podcast? It's me.
We just got back in town after doing a marathon drive down to St. Petersburg, FL on Friday for a friend's wedding on Saturday. We then drove back up yesterday, spent the night in bumfuck, NC after almost being washed off of the road due to some east coast monsoon action (it truly was terrifying, and I'm glad we made it back safely), and finished the drive today. Upon our return, my scratchy throat from Sunday chose to manifest itself in the form of nonstop sneezing and my feeling like my sinuses want to implode. So, pretty much, this is going to be a very distracted post about ThEndUsr's live podcast. Here we go! Click through to read the excitement.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Not dead!! Just forgetful!!
I mean, I remembered that this site was HERE, I was just too lazy to sit and put my laptop on my lap and type ... stuff.
But yes. Chris is festooning himself with technology, as he just got a wireless mini-mouse for his netbook and a larger, pimpier wireless mouse for a giant deal, and I have to say as somewhat of a technophobe that IT IS AWESOME. I'm aware that it's a computer mouse. It's still awesome.
On the non-technology side of things, the new cat has adjusted marvelously to our apartment. The old cat, however, has taken this as an excuse to sit and hiss at nothing in particular. The air near her face might have had a slight breeze to it each time a hissing fit happens, but that's about it. They're doing MUCH better than they were for the first few days, but there's still nothing as exciting as having Monkey (old cat) sleep near my head every night and without question, in the morning, start hissing and growling like I'm yanking her tail out, courtesy of the fact that Tsavo (new cat) had the gall to walk into her line of sight.
Sigh.
And in people news, we've been lucky to be able to hang out with many of our favorite people over the last few weeks. I had a good friend from Chicago visit and as the genius I am, managed to carve out only an hour in which I could see her, but it was lovely, and we've already started to make plans for July of '11!! (That timeline is 100% serious, by the way.)
But finally, and the main impetus for my actually sitting down and typing this out, is the crazy abundance of this week's farm box. We have more yellow squash than I've ever seen in one place (save the grocery store, but this is muuuuuuuuch better looking squash), four delicata squash (have not yet cooked with those), a small mountain of yukon gold potatoes, and the best thing, a giant bowl of pears (never in my life have I thought "You know what I need? To buy more pears so that I can have a fruit bowl." Ladies and gentlemen, that non-thought has turned into our current reality). We've also got some red chard, which I have also never cooked.
So while you, gentle reader, might not have read this when these fruits and vegetables were ripe and edible (I can't believe you. You ass.), recipe suggestions for any and all of these are welcome. I'm sure this won't be the last time we deal with this non-problem!
But yes. Chris is festooning himself with technology, as he just got a wireless mini-mouse for his netbook and a larger, pimpier wireless mouse for a giant deal, and I have to say as somewhat of a technophobe that IT IS AWESOME. I'm aware that it's a computer mouse. It's still awesome.
On the non-technology side of things, the new cat has adjusted marvelously to our apartment. The old cat, however, has taken this as an excuse to sit and hiss at nothing in particular. The air near her face might have had a slight breeze to it each time a hissing fit happens, but that's about it. They're doing MUCH better than they were for the first few days, but there's still nothing as exciting as having Monkey (old cat) sleep near my head every night and without question, in the morning, start hissing and growling like I'm yanking her tail out, courtesy of the fact that Tsavo (new cat) had the gall to walk into her line of sight.
Sigh.
And in people news, we've been lucky to be able to hang out with many of our favorite people over the last few weeks. I had a good friend from Chicago visit and as the genius I am, managed to carve out only an hour in which I could see her, but it was lovely, and we've already started to make plans for July of '11!! (That timeline is 100% serious, by the way.)
But finally, and the main impetus for my actually sitting down and typing this out, is the crazy abundance of this week's farm box. We have more yellow squash than I've ever seen in one place (save the grocery store, but this is muuuuuuuuch better looking squash), four delicata squash (have not yet cooked with those), a small mountain of yukon gold potatoes, and the best thing, a giant bowl of pears (never in my life have I thought "You know what I need? To buy more pears so that I can have a fruit bowl." Ladies and gentlemen, that non-thought has turned into our current reality). We've also got some red chard, which I have also never cooked.
So while you, gentle reader, might not have read this when these fruits and vegetables were ripe and edible (I can't believe you. You ass.), recipe suggestions for any and all of these are welcome. I'm sure this won't be the last time we deal with this non-problem!
Saturday, September 4, 2010
I ... love vegetables?
I signed us up for a farm-share like program about a month ago (at washingtonsgreengrocer.com) , and so far it's been smooth sailing. I do, however, have a major problem with not eating the produce as is and instead succumbing to my raging need to make stuff unhealthier than it is in its natural form. Obviously my dream of becoming a natural veggie and fruit-loving hippie didn't come true the moment I signed us up for this, which isn't what I was anticipating.
Having said that, there's no getting around the fact that I've got a crapload of zucchini staring me in the face and no desire to sit and eat raw or healthily-cooked pieces of said zucchini. Last time this happened I found a recipe for bread, but it was less than impressive (to me. My brother ate it all in two days, I think, and it made a LOT of bread/muffins). We also have plums, which I know my parents used to eat by the bushelful - this didn't rub off on me as a child, and now I view this fruit with a trepidation often reserved for something like an unfamiliar reptile (ie, a poisonous snake that will chase us and kill us all) in the wild.
I'm so glad we signed up for this one and not a legit farm share, though, because we have the option to choose when we get the deliveries and therefore not get buried under a pile of super-healthy food (a girl can only take so much, for real). We're able to substitute items in one week's list for other items in the list, which has let me avoid confronting my distaste for all things green pepper and mushroom related.
Loosely tying this into the theme of the blog, it's about as technological as a farm share can get, and the fact that we can shoot the owners/deliverers emails about what we've gotten makes my life a BAJILLION times easier. In fact, the zucchini in this week's order was originally left out, but I shot the owner an email and it was delivered the next day. The original omission is probably why they gave us so very, very much zucchini on Friday, so long story short, they rule.
Also, zucchini recipes needed. Seriously.
Having said that, there's no getting around the fact that I've got a crapload of zucchini staring me in the face and no desire to sit and eat raw or healthily-cooked pieces of said zucchini. Last time this happened I found a recipe for bread, but it was less than impressive (to me. My brother ate it all in two days, I think, and it made a LOT of bread/muffins). We also have plums, which I know my parents used to eat by the bushelful - this didn't rub off on me as a child, and now I view this fruit with a trepidation often reserved for something like an unfamiliar reptile (ie, a poisonous snake that will chase us and kill us all) in the wild.
I'm so glad we signed up for this one and not a legit farm share, though, because we have the option to choose when we get the deliveries and therefore not get buried under a pile of super-healthy food (a girl can only take so much, for real). We're able to substitute items in one week's list for other items in the list, which has let me avoid confronting my distaste for all things green pepper and mushroom related.
Loosely tying this into the theme of the blog, it's about as technological as a farm share can get, and the fact that we can shoot the owners/deliverers emails about what we've gotten makes my life a BAJILLION times easier. In fact, the zucchini in this week's order was originally left out, but I shot the owner an email and it was delivered the next day. The original omission is probably why they gave us so very, very much zucchini on Friday, so long story short, they rule.
Also, zucchini recipes needed. Seriously.
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