Texty

Tonight's very tasty dinner, in slapdash recipe form:

Chopped up chunks of onions, shallots, garlic & celery, cooked down in a dollop of your favorite fat (in my case, this is Smart Balance.)

Roughly chopped greens, however much and whatever kind you like, tossed in the pot and wilted (chard, in my case.)

1 can each of Italian-style stewed tomatoes and mixed beans (I used chili beans), undrained.

Stock enough to fill the pot.

Simmer until the greens are cooked very well, then throw in a handful or two of small pasta for the last 10-15 mins.

Add salt and/or pepper if it needs more.

Consume with large chunks of crusty bread.

Pat belly in satisfaction, and look forward to consuming leftovers for lunch.

One of the best side benefits of Thursday's (quite successful, I think, given that the parentals seemed to like it) attempt at doing a whole roasted turkey is having stuff left over with which to make soup.

Which I did today. And OMG it turned out soooooo damned good. I'm on my fourth bowl. *nom nom nom nom*

I took the basic Turkey Frame Soup recipe from the BH&G cookbook and did some tweaks here and there, like dumping in a ton of pepper and garlic salt, and considerably more oregano and basil than it called for and lawdy... I think this stuff could cure pneumonia.

I'll probably start getting sick of it when I've been eating it every day for the next four days, but for now, I'm not complaining.

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Today was also a continuation of the general domestic Tetris that has been ongoing for the last few weeks since my contract ended. The pantry cupboards have been consolidated and re-arranged, the coffee/tea/cocoa area on the counter is weeded through and tidied and my baking gear is in the process of being properly sorted and stored.

Also, I bought a new set of dishes for T-day, which meant that I had to figure out where the heck to put them when we were done with them. My china cabinet is, of course, full of my Willow collection, so this meant cleaning out The Closet Where Things Go to Die. Which, thanks to hacking away at it a year ago, was actually in fairly decent shape, but it still took about five hours (including rest breaks, since I'm still pretty damned tired) to mow through. However, my new china has a home, so I'm happy.

Tomorrow will probably involve more kitchen organizing (cleaning out the freezer is rather necessary and the under-sink area is a disaster) and perhaps a go at the remaining boxes and bags of miscellaneous junk still taking up space in my office. Then I get to tackle the closet in the guest room and all the under-sink cabinets in the bathrooms. Then, next week while M's at work... *cue dramatic prairie dog music*... the GARAGE. ACK! That will probably be a week's project in itself. Then there's M's office, which I generally stay very far away from. There be dragons. And decade-old computer bits. Which are kind of the same thing.

Somewhere in all this, I'll probably also holiday up the house, too, since it's that time of year again.

Where I'm getting the motivation and energy to do all this, I have no idea, but I'm not complaining. May as well use it while I have it, since, knowing how my stupid bod works, I'll likely be back to my usual barely functional state any time now.

I must be the last person in the world to find this guy. But I adore his stuff. This is my favorite.




Up in B'ham. First class tomorrow. I scoped out where my jazz class is going to be and... it's in the choir rehearsal room. Ack. I'm going to be soooo melancholy in there. I NEED to sing. I really hope I'm up to going to the SLGC concert this weekend and not stuck here doing useless crap.

I'm in a somewhat better mood after my [personal filter] rant of earlier. Still going to bust that guy, though.

The good news of the day is that my little old lady finally found some food she likes. Guess we just needed to change the menu. I also bought a bunch of other stuff for her to try, plus some kitty ensure type stuff in case she decides she doesn't want solid food.

Tomorrow's weather is going to suck. But then, we may as well simply accept that for the next few months. This winter is going to break all the records and we're only just getting into it.

Also, these are of the yum. Imagine the strong tastes of Jelly Bellies, only with a softer gum and more adult flavors. Grapefruit! Cranberry! Lovely stuff.