Yucko

Memo to Cafe Yum:

Ahem. Raisins do not belong in banana pudding. I know you like to crumble up cookies to put in said pudding, and that is fine. I’d prefer that you used the traditional vanilla wafers, but I’m not complaining abut the cookies. But don’t include the raisins from those cookies in the banana pudding, because yuck.

Otherwise, I heart you. xoxo

Friday, Friday! Just Love That day!

After an absolutely freakishly insanely crazily busy month at work, tomorrow is the start of a new month. I’m so ready for a day off.

And Friday, Woman in Black opens up. Hmmm. Methinks I need to take that day off. Methinks I need to persuade the incomparable Izzybella to take that day off.

And then the equally incomparable Amethyst is coming over to join Izzy and me for dinner that evening. And for girl time. Plenty o’ girl time.

 

Splish Splash!

It’s raining today. In fact, it’s pouring. The old man? Definitely snoring. But I don’t want the rain to go away. We need the rain.

Enter my awesome plaid wellies.

   

I’d forgotten how fun it is to splash in the puddles, instead of gingerly trying to avoid them, ending up with soaked shoes and soaked pants and coming into the office a wee bit crabby because of said soaked shoes and pants.

I got out of my car, and splished and splashed and stomped through every puddle I could find between my car and the door.

Then I came to my desk, took off my wellies, slipped on my flats, and got going.

In other breaking news: I’m going to the dentist this afternoon to, I devoutly hope, get my infected wisdom tooth removed. If he doesn’t remove it today, I shall be very put out. It hurts. The whole right side of my face hurts, including my ear. I’ve been on antibiotics for days, but it still frikkin’ hurts! Growl!

How to Eat M&M’s

1. Pour the contents of the bag onto a napkin or into a dish or a plate or something.
2. Separate them by colour.
3. Line them up in neat little rows, the top row being the colour that has the most M&M’s and the bottom row being the colour that has the fewest M&M’s.
4. Eat them, two at a time, from bottom to top.
5. If you are left with a single M&M in any given row, leave it there.
6. If you have multiple colours with the same number of M&M’s, eat them according to which colour you like better (e.g. brown before yellow because I like yellow better).
7. Then when you have only one M&M left in each colour, pair them up and eat them two at a time.
8. If you have one solitary M&M left at the end of this process, throw it away.

 

A Blast from the Past

When I was a kid, 12 or 13ish, we lived in a house in Albany, Georgia, in a neighbourhood that was formerly Naval Base Housing and abutted a golf course. Being the oldest kid, I was the boss of the other two, and frequently strongarmed them into going to the small convenience store at the golf course and getting me a Coke and some sour cream and onion Doritos.

I know! What a bossy bitcah!

And you’re probably saying, “What the heck? There’s no such thing as sour cream and onion Doritos!” And you’re right. Well, not anymore. Because when I stopped at lunch to get something to drink this afternoon, I saw the holy grail of Dorito-dom sitting by all the different flavours of Doritos. Limited Edition! screamed the label. Sour Cream and Onion!

I bought two bags so I’d have a spare in case something happens to the first bag and I never find them anymore. I hope they taste as good now as they did when I was a bossy big sister. And if my siblings are reading this, I owe you. Want a Coke and a bag of sour cream and onion Doritos?

Random Acts of Noise

Sometimes I’m just sitting at my desk working, and an uncontrollable urge comes over me. I have to make noise. Any noise. Well, any noise with my mouth. Whistling doesn’t cut it during those urges. It probably sounds like a toddler babbling, or someone who has consumed a serious amount of mind-altering substances expounding on the universe. Or maybe someone speaking in tongues. I don’t know. I just hope the urge never overtakes me when one of the bigwigs is near my desk.

 

belarhgk;fst jfdkl ghuigopopop ghgne ksd jkla jgkasl!

Temporary Housing Solutions

As we’ve been dealing with the aftermath of our house fire, we’ve been surrounded with all kinds of people–people and organisations who successfully have taken advantage of us in a time of need, and people and organisations who have done nothing but help.

Temporary Housing Solutions has been one of the latter. Our contact has been incredibly proactive in contacting us, finding housing for us, taking care of everything, keeping us in the loop as to what’s going on, answering questions that others should have answered but didn’t.

If you are EVER in need of temporary housing assistance after a disaster, or for corporate housing, or any other reason, I cannot recommend them highly enough.

This is not a sponsored post, and I’m not getting any compensation for it. I just wanted to spread the word. They’re ethical, honest, and fantastic.

If you found my blog by searching for guidance as to what to do after a house fire, please feel free to email me privately at chauceriangirl(at)gmail(dot)com. It’s one of those things that you never expect to happen, and trust me when I tell you that the vultures will be at your house the next day. I can tell you some companies I would recommend and some I definitely would not recommend. I can also share our negative experiences, and hope that you can come out of things in a better situation than we have.

Curry! Curry! Curry!

My plans to go back to being vegetarian were rudely disrupted by my physician telling me that I have to eat lean meats because they’re more difficult to eat and have less fat than, say, tofu. I love tofu.  

And I must confess that the lean meats do tend to fill me up and keep me unhungry for longer than the other stuff, so I’m trying to obey the doctor.

Yesterday Sarah-bear brought me leftover roast beef with onions, carrots, and potato for lunch. I ate mostly roast, with several carrots, a hunk of onion, and a small piece of potato.  And it was good. I offered to bring lunch today since she was so kind as to provide my Tuesday lunch.

So what to cook? That was, after all, the question. I had some round steaks, but knew they wouldn’t be thawed yet, and I didn’t want to eat beef two days in a row. So I decided on curried chicken. Here’s the approximate recipe:

• Mix together 1 tablespoon curry powder with 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper.
• 1/4 cup dried currants
• 2 medium onions, sliced in long strips.
• 2 medium green bell peppers, sliced thin
• some olive oil
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 can ro-tel tomatoes
• some fresh thyme, if you have it, or some dried thyme if you don’t (I had neither, so I used dried Italian herb blend)
• Minced garlic, as much as you want but at least 2 cloves
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted (don’t zone out when you’re toasting them, or you’ll end up with a nasty crusty mess of burned blackened almonds and your house will stink until you get the curry going)
• 1.5 to 2 pounds of boneless, skinless, chicken breast, cut into 1/2″ chunks
• mango chutney
• cooked rice

1. Sprinkle the curry mixture over the chicken, and toss well so that it’s nicely coated. You might need more curry powder. Don’t be shy. Curry is your friend.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large non-stick wok or big skillet thingie. When the oil is nice and hot, dump in the chicken. Cook it, stirring and tossing occasionally, for about 7 minutes.
3. Add the onions, garlic, and bell peppers, and cook for another 3-5 minutes.
4. Add the tomatoes, currants, thyme, and broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until it’s time for you to serve dinner.
5. Place some rice on a plate/bowl, spoon some curry on the top (be sure to get plenty of the juices), sprinkle some almonds on top, and then add some mango chutney. If you happen to have fresh thyme, sprinkle a little of that on top of everything, but if you don’t, don’t worry about it.

If you wanted to make it vegetarian, I’d substitute vegetable broth for the chicken broth, and seitan for the chicken. It would still taste really, really good.

And if, like I, you toss the chicken and curry powder mixture with your hands, know that your hands will still smell like curry powder the next day, no matter how many times you wash your hands. Unless you know some secret as to how to get the curry smell off, in which case please tell me, because I’ve been hungry all morning because every time my hands go past my nose, I smell curry.

Tonight’s dinner will be swiss steak. Then fish on Thursday night.

I’m really not comfortable with eating this much meat.   I’m going to make a batch of seitan, and see if it will help with the satiety (did I spell that right) as much as the lean meats do. Then I can add seitan into the blend, and feel a little better.

And the tofu in my fridge? Chocolate mousse.  (Melt some chocolate chips with a small spoon of vegetable oil; then blend it together with the silken tofu in your blender. Add a smidgen of vanilla extract, then put it into a bowl and put it into the refrigerator, and smirk when you serve it to your tofu-hating friends.)

 

Photo!

You will rarely, if ever hear me say this, but here is a photograph of myself that I actually like.

Making a Difference

One of my goals for this year is to step out of my comfort zone, and try to find ways to really make a difference in the world.

Meet Charity:Water. If you make a $20 donation, you give a person access to a clean water project. 100% of the funds raised go directly to building water projects. If you’re a little more affluent than I am, a $5000 donation can provide a well. Depending upon your company’s policies, they may match your donation, up to a certain percentage, which can end up potentially doubling your donation.

Here in America we have it pretty easy. If we want water, we turn on the faucet and there it is, gushing out so we can wash dishes, wash clothes, take baths, shower, drink it, cook with it. It’s clean, and free of disease.

Imagine living in some parts of the world where the villagers may have to walk 3 hours just to get to a fresh, clean well. Here’s your chance to join me in making a difference. Please consider making a donation.