raletha

Back to the food--

Thought I'd share a few things I've made recently that were simple and tasty. Simple is pretty essential for me when in NZ: my kitchen here is quite small.


( Stir-Fried Asian Greens with Mixed Mushrooms (VEGAN) )

( Self-Crusting Potato and Vegetable Quiche )
 

A post that isn't about food!

I am going to commit to three good pages a day every day, starting yesterday. I discovered it has to be good pages because if I write too fast and the prose is rubbish, I am strongly disinclined to ever go back and edit the dreck into serviceable prose, and that means story gets largely abandoned. I don't know if this is because I lack strong editing skills or if I am unwilling to face poor writing I've done out some sense of shame.

I am also coming to terms with the notion that one of my biggest hangups with writing recently has been a sense that I must write deep, meaningful, and serious things that are fresh and innovative. In the realm of fanfiction especially, this means I throw out 99% of my story ideas and drafts because someone is bound to have already done it better than I possibly could. But really, this is a silly attitude. What's good about fanfiction is the continual remixing of ideas and characters. Every reinterpretation is fun. I never get sick of reading stories that fill in the GW canon timeline.

Do any of you struggle with doing heavy editing? Not just punctuation corrections and fiddling with word choice, but rewriting large swathes of deficient prose, or ripping something apart and rebuilding the narrative structure from the ground up? If so, do you have any special techniques or mental attitude that helps you get through it?

I thought I had lost this recipe, but then discovered today that I had written it down in an old notebook. Yay! This is my favourite pasta salad, and I'm probably going to make it for dinner tonight. Thought I'd share for the other folks who cook on my flist. <3 I cannot remember the original source, but it was originally from a recipe book, possibly one that belonged to a flatmate. I don't think I ever stuck strictly to the quantities in the recipe, since I frequently doubled or tripled it. When I used to make this, I was flatting with four guys, so it was pretty hard to ever make too much food!

( Curried Pasta Salad Recipe )
 

I caught up to ep. 8 today. There's too much I want to blather about, but it's kind of an incoherent mess in my head. I may rewatch 1-8 tomorrow so I can be more articulate. In the meantime!

Spoilers for S2 episodes 1-8 follow:

( a few hiccups )

( the fangirl flailing )
 

I took some photos for my folks to see, so thought I'd go ahead and share. My table is not beautifully set, nor is the food well presented (I lack serving dishes), but featured in the photos are my fabulous Peugeot Salt & Pepper grinders (everyone should have a set from the folks who invented the pepper grinder), and my beloved Corelle ware 'Crazy Daisy' dishes. Not sure if they're old enough to be considered vintage, but I <3 them.

Thanksgiving in Spring 2008

(click image for the full gallery)

ETA: Picasa is weird; the pics are doing some kind of strange progressive loading that leaves them super blurry for some time. They aren't actually that low-res; it takes a while to load.
ETA2: links to all the recipes are in this post.

The spring interpretation of Thanksgiving turned out well, except the brand of puff pastry I got for the asparagus tart didn't puff properly. The first time I made it, the pastry puffed perfectly. Regardless of pastry puffage, the tart was delicious. In season asparagus is so sweet. I made enough food, with the tart and salads, that we skipped dessert, so I still have strawberries.

This is the tart recipe for anyone interested:

Vegan Yum Yum's Asparagus and White Bean Pesto Tart

It is vegan depending on your choice of pesto and pastry (though the pesto I used had Parmesan cheese). The white bean pesto part is especially delicious, very savoury. I used butter (lima) beans instead of navy beans.

The other things I made were all from Epicurious:

"Potato & Peas Salad with Chive Aioli - Very good, very garlicky, with a nice little kick from the cayenne. The sweet of the peas (I had fresh) was a good contrast to the super-savoury chive/garlic combo.

Beets & Caramelized Onions with Feta - Fantastic and easy, Mmmm. I love beets, especially with feta.

Zucchini & Tomato Salad with Garlic-Chili Dressing - This was probably a good salad, but the flavours (particularly the cilantro) didn't mesh with the other food I served. Would be a nice side for quesadillas or enchiladas. Also think I might roast the tomatoes if I make it again. Dressing needed salt.

I hope you all enjoy yours, if you're celebrating. Am in the wrong season to celebrate over here. Autumn harvest festival food doesn't work so much in spring. Am planning on doing a more seasonal spread of asparagus tart and assorted spring-y salads (I have fresh peas!) and some strawberry centric dessert (or possibly just the strawberries) for the weekend in lieu, but it'll just be my boy & I.

No, not Thanksgiving, the Literary Review's Bad Sex Awards!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/badsexaward

ETA: Pimp!

I know it's been a while; I've had some severe eyestrain that's made it impossible to use a computer for the past few months. I'm mostly better now, but still can't spend uninterrupted hours with the 'puter. I know I've been missing a lot, and I apologise for that - not sure how well I'll be able to catch up.

To the U.S. folks on my flist:

Please Vote

And if you weren't planning to vote, please go anyway, for me because my vote may not be counted this year. I requested my absentee ballot well in advance and have not received it. I have an emergency ballot ready to go if it doesn't arrive today, but even then, I am not sure it will get there in time to be counted. I have heard reports of military voters not getting their ballots from TX, so I guess I am not alone, but it is frustrating, to say the least. I wanted to vote in this election so badly: not just for Obama (his winning TX is next to impossible), but we had some local races in TX that were close enough they might just flip Democratic. I also wanted to vote against John Cornyn, just on principle.

I wanted to be part of history, damn it. I also - generally speaking - believe that voting is the most important responsibility of citizens in a democracy. Today I fail.

My thoughts are very much with California voters today. I am hoping for the best on Prop 8 (and also Prop 2)

This one from degeneratelyre

( Read more... )

Presently watching Hillary give her speech post SD primary. I can't tell if she's conceding. Urf.

It is, however, one of the best speeches I've seen her give.

eta: Nope, no concession, but nor did she declare she's going to keep fighting 'til the primary. No decision, but a truly excellent speech.

Obama shall be giving his speech soon from St. Paul (awesome choice of location since that's where the GOP are having their convention this fall), am very excited!

America, I am proud of you for seriously considering both a woman and a black man for president. Obama has got his needed delegate count. In a few minutes, history will be made as the first black man in U.S. history launches his presidential campaign.

It's been a long time since I felt this proud of America. I'm going to savour this one.

-

On an entirely unrelated note, I just spent 3 hours at the hair salon and now have fabulous movie star hair! W00T! I feel pretty.

-

eta2: Turn on your TV's. This is one of those 'you'll always remember where you were when' moments.

-

eta3: I'm so happy , I can't stop crying. (isn't that a Sting song?) Wow. I think, maybe - just maybe - I can bring myself to risk feeling hope again.

 

Now Senator Byrd has been hospitalised. Admittedly his health has not been fabulous, but still. He is one of the great legislators, and a man I have respected even when I have disagreed with him. I mean, the man carries the constitution in his pocket. And here's a bit o' trivia: at 90 he is the longest serving Senator in U.S. history. I wish him a speedy recovery.

thistlerose is one of my favourite fanfiction writers ever, whether she's been writing Gundam Wing, Harry Potter, LotR, Firefly, A Separate Peace, Star Wars, (Star Trek even?), and most recently Battlestar Galactica.

I've been hankering for a good dose of happiness, especially some believable type of happiness, so when "Something Nice Happens to Felix Gaeta" showed up on my flist, I couldn't click the lj-cut fast enough. :D

Anyway, go read, fellow BSG fans!

Ted Kennedy has undergone brain surgery; apparently successfully. The surgery reduced the size of the tumour. According to the article, the next phase is a month of radiation. I hope he'll be with us for some time to come, even if neither of these measures is a cure.

At first blush, LJ's new abuse policies actually seem reasoned and consistent. They've even backtracked on some of their recent stupidity. Have a link.

I finally finished watching Gundam 00 today.

To say I am feeling heartbroken would be an understatement. I feel as if my heart has been dug out with a dull spoon, stomped on, set on fire, thrown off a cliff, fed to dogs, and then reinserted into my chest via my nostrils.

I need an injection of happy right into the bloodstream after that.

So! Dear flist, does anyone have any Lockon/Allelujah fic recs? The anime has so much hurt, I'm looking for some comfort.

I already browsed the Gundam 00 kink meme and found some good stuff there, but I'm not really after kink fic, so other stuff would be lovely. <3

Senator Kennedy Has Malignant Brain Tumor (link to NYT)

The vegan Ma Po Tofu from Epicurious was a complete success. I've never had a Chinese dish turn out so perfectly. It was even better than the Ma Po Tofu I've had at restaurants. It was easy too. The only very vague issue I had with it was the leeks being a bit tough, but I think that's because I couldn't find a tender, young leek in the supermarket here. They tend to be large and mature, whereas in the US, when I've bought leeks, they've been much younger and more tender. I guess the next time I just peel a few extra layers off the outside.

The tofu dish was part of a Chinese menu, so I also made (from the menu) the Sticky Ginger Rice with Peas and the Wok-Seared Sesame Green Beans. Both were very tasty, though I'll cut back the sugar with the green beans next time. I'll try making the Jade Dumplings and the Imperial Peach Sundaes another time.

Anyway, highly recommended, especially if you like chili.

ETA - if you try the recipe, look for tofu that's fresh (usually somewhere in the produce department of the supermarket if you don't have an Asian grocer nearby). The stuff in those foil lined cardboard boxes that's packaged to survive a nuclear holocaust? That stuff is nasty (it tastes the box it comes in) and a terrible introduction to tofu.
 

Epicurious.com is working for me again! For several months, I could not access my recipe box or search for recipes. It sucked. I get a lot of inspiration from the site.

But! Is working again, and tonight I am going to try making their vegan version of Ma Po Tofu. The dish typically has pork mince in it, but I've had several vegan versions at restaurants, and I love it. It's a Sichuan dish, so is nice and spicy. I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

Here's the recipe:

• Stir-fried Tofu and Shiitake Mushrooms in Spicy Black Bean Sauce

While I am able to use epicurious, here's another tofu dish I really like. I made this for the first time when Jenn visited us at Christmas. We all were very impressed with how tasty this salad is. It's super easy and crazy healthy. Make sure you drain the tofu so it absorbs the dressing.

• Celery, Sesame, and Tofu Salad

Enjoy!