11-06-09

What I'm Reading Now: Take the Cannoli, by Sarah Vowell

Guess what? I thought the whole thing where people hear about an interesting book and then say, "Oh, that sounds good, I'll wait for the movie" was OVER! I quite honestly thought that sort of thing ended in the 70s or something. Apparently, I have been living in a world where the ranks of the post-literate proliferate and I just didn't know it. I was convinced that every person I knew or was acquainted with read books first. I was convinced that people "waited for the paperback," but always wanted to make sure to read the book before the movie came out, because the book is always better (exception: Silence of the Lambs).

This is just damn fucking disheartening. I don't even know how to react to someone telling me this. I'm actually a little angry, even though I'm sure that's not an appropriate response. Rire! Rire, big time.

Look, there's a lot going on in my life. Stuff that just begs for 1K-long narrative looks on the LJ. My life has been big and busy lately, what with work (who knew that part-time jobs could suck up so much downtime?) and social stuff and the holidays. There will be a time when all this calms down and I can write more than I am right now - hell, even Tangerine is taking a hit, and I desperately need to turn the cogs on that.

But right now, this is where I'm stuck. That book sounds interesting; I'll wait for the movie. No. No! You read the book because it's good, and you then later see if the movie did a good enough job translating it. That is how this WORKS. OMG RIRE IN MY BRAIN!

I'm going to go eat a leftover slider and some chicken pieces. And I should probably sleep, ever.

Kev

hmm, a discussion about using fish waste as fertilizer led me to look up "aquaponics."

quite interesting to read up on. i gather that there are quite a few subtleties that would need to be addressed such as chemical imbalances but i wonder, would this mean that on a large enough scale one could farm fish and veggies in the same facilities? would this be do-able with decorative fishies?

dunno... this is piquing the interests of the treehugger in me. anyone reading this ever tried it or are trying it?

Cream Together
1/2 cup shortening
1/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup molasses
2 large eggs
In a separate bowl mix
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2/3 cup sour milk (add 3 1/2 teaspoons vinegar to whole milk)
Directions
1Preheat oven to 350°.
2Grease and flour an 8" square pan (or use Pam).
3The ingredients listed under "cream together" should be added one ingredient at a time, creaming in between each addition.
4When you have finished adding/creaming all the liquid ingredients, keep beating the liquid mixture, folding in the dry mixture, alternating with the 2/3 cup sour milk.
5Once everything is mixed in, pour the batter into the prepared pan.
6Bake at 350°. Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick in the middle.
7When it comes out clean, it's done.

Snow is such a rare delicacy.

My iPhone applications business now has a Facebook page. If you have a Facebook account, please "fan" me.

In other news, please tell all your birthbagger friends (everybody has at least one) to buy my latest application:
Inauguration Countdown.
It counts down the seconds until the next presidential inauguration.

Between last night and this morning I have finally bulled my way through the entire event menu... and dammit, it's *good*. It should be approachable enough for anyone, all the exotic stuff will be in the relishes and side-dishes. I stretched the goal to three manuscripts, because there are zero cold relishes, salads, pickles, or anything cold and vegetable-y in the AAC, and I can't just serve hot meat and egg dishes, so I turned to the Kitab Wasf al-Atima al-Mutada/The Description of Familiar Foods, which is 14th century Turkish. I know, I know.. Italian would be geographically closer but dammit I wanted Muslim. Plus this manuscript is awesome and no one uses it, and everyone does Italian. Italian is so *done*. Plus the Kitab Wasf is closer to the dates of the other two manuscripts.

So, without further ado:

( Event Menu for Winter Art Sci, Trimaris )

Working Tax Credit payment finally came through. Now I can pay my Council Tax - wooo! And I could buy a new sofa, but I'm waiting for the January sales.

Work this week was good. I'm getting the hang of pacing myself, not trying to do everythingallatonce and getting in a flap, but making a nice clear list, breaking that down into what I need to do, and then going through it carefully. I also have a seperate book for phone calls so I don't lose my words when I'm phoning people. I made about 30 calls the other day, leaving 20 or so answerphone messages and talking to the rest. I'm beginning to stop getting the shakes at the prospect of making calls. Still don't like answering the phone though - there's no script for that!

Made a suggestion in the company meeting that was met with a positive response, which was really pleasing.

Still very glad I'm doing three days - I don't think I can work five days a week at the moment. I do Tuesday and Wednesday, and Wednesday evenings I'm completely short-circuited. But I've not problems with complete sensory overload - the office is really calm and quiet, which is incredibly helpful.

I do need to get something sorted out specs-wise, because my eyes and brain are getting a bit annoyed by the computer screen and lighting. I'm running Flux on the PC, but the lighting is still bright and harsh. Not sure whether to go the whole hog and pay for another colour eye test, or just stick with blue and get Specsavers to make me up a blue pair.

Anyway. My washing's finished. Need to hang it out, and then go and get some fresh air.

PERNIL (ROASTED PORK SHOULDER) COOKED SLOW AND LOW

Ingredients:

1 Bone-In Pork Shoulder (5-10 Pounds depending on how many you want to feed, 5 Pounds will feed 4-5 hungry people)
5-8 Cloves garlic, some chopped, some sliced
Adobo (or a mixture of garlic power, onion powder, cumin, black pepper, salt and oregano)
1 Bottle of Sour Orange Marinade (or 2 Oranges and 1 Lime OR 1 Cup OJ and 2 Limes)
1 Large Onion, chopped up
olive oil
SO the night before you cook the meat (or, if you prefer to not let it sit, then the half hour before you cook the meat):

What to do for the marinade:

Take your big-ass, delish pork shoulder/butt, place it in a baking dish skin-side up and sprinkle it all over w/ adobo (Goya makes a few versions of this that you can keep in your spice cabinet or you can make your own by sprinkling garlic power, onion powder, cumin, black pepper, salt and oregano all over the pork). WHEN I SAY SPREAD IT ALL OVER I MEAN SPREAD IT ALL OVER. Don’t be afraid of putting on too much.
Cut slices of garlic up from about 3 cloves of garlic – make slices thick-ish. (NOTE: If you have the extra time, make a paste out of your garlic by smashing it in a mortar and pestle w/ a bit of salt to aid in the smashing until it has the consistancy of a spreadable paste.) ****NOTE: This recipe uses alot of garlic b/c we love alot of garlic. If you don’t like the taste of garlic, maybe this recipe isn’t the best for you.
Take a sharp knife (a steak knife should be fine) and make 1-inch wide (1 inch deep or so) slits all over the pork, skin and all. Every time you make a slit, slide in a slice of garlic into the slit. It’s best if the garlic goes into the hole all the way. If it doesn’t, again, don’t worry… just make a bit of a deeper slit next time. (NOTE: If you made the garlic paste, then just slide a bit of the paste in each slit instead of the sliced garlic.)
MAKE MARINADE IN SEPARATE BOWL: Add one cup of sour orange juice (again, Goya makes a bottled version, I’m sure it’s not as tasty as the real ones, but sour oranges aren’t around all the time to buy) to 3 cloves of chopped garlic and 1 chopped large onion. Add a sprinkling of salt and pepper and well as some extra oregano. Mix. (NOTE: You can also substitute sour orange w/ a cup of regular Orange Juice mixed w/ the juice of two limes, or juice of 2 oranges, juice of 1 lime.)
Pour your marinade over your pork. Let sit for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight).
Cooking the Pernil:

Fat side up, place pork in a roasting pan along with the rest of the marinade. Add a bit of liquid if necessary (water or some chicken stock) – so it comes up about 1/2 an inch high. Make sure there’s always some hot liquid at the bottom to mix with the drippings. (This is not necessary – I just liked it this way).
Heat the oven to 475 degrees and cook pork uncovered for 1 hour.
After the hour is over, turn oven down to 275 degrees, tent pork with some tin-foil and cook for 8 to 9 hours on this low setting. (Instead of the quicker cooking of pernil where I recommend a 1/2 hour per pound, this time it’s about an hour or more per pound).
Don’t forget to remove the foil from the top of your pork about 30-40 minutes before your done cooking it. This will crisp up your pork skin only so much. If you are looking to make chicharron by removing the top layer of skin after it’s been cooked (as I did – see first picture, top of post) and frying it up a bit.
Allow to rest for 15 minutes to a half hour before slicing and serving. ENJOY.

let this be a lesson to some of you.

Snagged from wisewomanjudith by The Decembrists. It's about 20 minutes long and there is some animation included after the credits.

Obviously it's really compressed, but it's quite interesting!

Maybe a year ago, I was playing with Google Alerts which will monitor keywords and then mail you the results. Since I often use "Straif" as an online identity, and being very interested in what people say about me, I set up an alert with that as a keyword.

Today it brought me this.

My favorite line? She knows she can never give Straif what he truly wants, but can she resist him? Story of my life.


( complete text )

primaldog has some wonderful ritual art/objects at http://www.etsy.com/shop/hermeticdog. Check it out.
I got a very cool wolf bottle from him.

My home is comprised of many different altars. I have my working altar, my goddess dedicated altar, my altar to deceased furkid, my altar to deceased father.....you name it, somewhere in my house are little erected sacred spaces.

However, not all of them are stationary.

I present to you my little traveling ( Writer's Altar. )

Request for a priestly circumcision
"From Kronion, son of Pakebkis son of Harpokration, deputy prophetes, and from Maron son of Kronion son of Harpokration, and Maron son of Maron son of Marepsemis, and Pakebkis son of Kronion son of Psyphis, the three last being priests, all four from the famous exempted temple of the village Tebtunis. With regard to the application presented to you by Marepsemis son of Marsisouchos son of Harpokration, priest of the said temple, requesting that his son Panesis by Thenpakebkis daughter of Panesis should be circumcised, in reply to your inquiry whether he is of a priestly family and ought to be circumcised we declare on oath by the fortune of Marcus Aurelius Commodus Antoninus Augustus that he is in truth of priestly family, and that the proofs submitted by him are genuine, and that he ought to be circumcised because he cannot perform the sacred offices unless this is done; otherwise may we may liable to the consequences of the oath. I, Kronion son of Pakebkis, have sworn the above oath as aforesaid. (2nd h.) I, Maron son of Maron, have also sworn, as aforesaid; (3rd h.) I, Maron son of Kronion, have also sworn, as aforesaid." - P.Tebt. 2.293

Water and fire used in the worship of Serapis
“Water and fire, the most beautiful of the elements, they reverence as being chief causes of our preservation, and exhibit them also in their temples; as, I believe, even now at the opening of the sanctuary of Serapis the worship is performed by means of fire and water, the precentor pouring out the water and exhibiting the fire, whenever he stands upon the threshold and wakes the god in the native language of the Egyptians. ” - Porphyry, On Abstinence from Animal Food, iv. 9

[Since I'm going to be away for the weekend, I figured I'd post these early.]

Fancy clothes for festivals and a glimpse inside a Greek home
“After we had gone through these rooms we sorted the contents by type. We first began by putting together the things we used for sacrifices. After that we separated the fancy clothing that women wore at festivals, the men’s clothing for festivals and war, bedding for the women’s quarters, bedding for the men’s quarters, women’s shoes, and men’s shoes…. And we divided all this equipment into two sets, those that are used daily, and those used only for feasts… When we divided all the contents by types, we carried each thing to its proper place… Whatever we use for festivals or for entertaining guests or at rare intervals we handed over to the housekeeper.” - Xenophon, Oeconomicus 9.6-10

Jus' tryin' out this new app BlogPress on the iPhone.



- Posted from my iPhone

Location:Dight St,Collingwood,Australia

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_frsthgl

Mirrored from Pen's Chaotic Blog.

Just this morning a sign appeared in a Red Line station announcing a service diversion for tomorrow.

On Saturday December 5th, bus shuttles will replace trains between Quincy Center and Braintree on the Red Line.

THE MONKEY
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This quick-witted schemer has an inventive and agile mind and is rarely at a loss for words or ideas. The versatile Monkey can do well at almost anything, although lack of recognition of their abilities may lead to frustration and resentment. Although the impudent Monkey is a popular character, the suffer from an underlying sense of insecurity.
===========


THE CAPRICORN
=============
Capricorns are confident and strong-willed; they often succeed in becoming wealthy, although if their ambitions are not realized they become melancholy. Good organizers, those born under the sign of Capricorn like to be in positions of authority, although they should avoid the tendency to criticize others. Despite making good and faithful friends, their ambitions can make them lonely.
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In other news, it's snowing in Houston, Texas. THE PLANET IS GETTING HOTTER OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD.

From this week's LJ community photocontest (as far as I can tell there's no equivalent community on DW ... yet). It's fun. You should post! It's like editorial photography - there's a theme or concept every week, and you come up with an image to illustrate it.