That's right. I said "leave." As in, deleting this LJ.

I already have one LJ; I've had it for a long while now, and I hardly use it. But this one, I use even less. Now that I have SP, I never check or post to this one. I hardly check my flist and when I do, I feel guilty because I can't spend the time to catch up with all the entries. And I generally forget to take pictures when I do cook... The layouts are limited, even with the huge amount of user-created out there. Plus, I'm still kinda tweaked about LJ's retardation management practices. I feel like I should go somewhere else (hypocritical, yes, when I'm still keeping my other LJ, but that's my choice).

So, my initial reaction is to close this down.

A month from now, this LJ will no longer exist. This is my preemptive bye to LJ, while I'm beta-testing wordpress for myself. My new address is here.

In saying that, I totally mean this: I meant to post today, but I'm about to leave work a teensy bit early so I can go home, pack everything, go to the barn and figure out where, exactly, I will be sleeping tonight. And if I'll get bucked off an old TN Walker/Standardbred cross.

On that note, I leave you with this photo:

I was proud of myself last night. I reused leftovers, something that I really wish I could do but am usually not creative enough to manage. Last week I cooked the rest of the red potatoes before they sprouted with cream and grated Parm; fried up some Italian sausage; and cooked some peas. Kathy and I didn't touch them for most of last week, thanks to the rodeo, but they were still there after it was all over.

Waiting.

Staring at me from the confines of their storage containers.
I took some with me for lunch yesterday, just as they were, and it was good. I was very proud of this meal, no doubt about it. But I wanted something else for supper, though I knew I needed to use all those leftovers before they went bad. (We're I'm trying to use whatever we've got in the house without buying a bunch of extra stuff I don't need, since Kathy's moving out the middle of next month and I'm moving out soon after that.) We had some whole wheat pasta that needed cooking, so I cooked that up while I cut up the last two sausages. While the pasta drained, I fried up the sliced sausage in a little butter. When all sides were browned, I added heavy cream, most of the remaining peas, black pepper and let it cook down a little. Then I poured it back over the spaghetti, added a little provolone... I meant to bake it, but I was so hungry that I didn't bother. (I may do that tonight instead.) It was quite tasty and I'm proud of that, as well.

I hope the farmer's market opens soon, because I really want some fresh veggies to be in my house, being all pretty and local. I've decided I want to get into canning and pickling and whatall, and I want to do it soon. I'm really excited about the possibilities of this new apartment, and I think it's opening up some real possibilities with my culinary exploits.


I really did mean to work out last night. I was ready to work out. I had convinced myself that no matter what, I would take the dogs out for a walk to make up for their four-day involuntary confinement in the house and then I would do the strength routine I snatched off Fitness. I got home from work, fed the dogs, got dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. I found a book I bought yesterday and decided, 'hey, I'll just finish this and then I'll get to work.'

So I sat down and read my book.

And then I cooked.

And then I turned on El Dorado for some background.

And before I knew it, it was 21:52 and I was ready to go to bed.

So I did. I'm such a slacker.

My second try at shrimp, and this time a success! I guess simpler really is better. I've wanted to make this recipe since I saw it on TS. Finally, I did (duh) and it was great. Garlic, shrimp, olive oil, butter and lemon – can't get much simpler than that! It didn't taste like shrimpy fishyfish (why I usually avoid seafood unless it's battered and deepfried); it tasted like garlic and butter and olive oily goodness. I even browned the garlic (against this recipe's religion) and it was still good. Just don't burn it, right?

A few notes for anyone looking to make this:

1. USE the four cloves as said in the recipe. You may think it'll overwhelm you, but any less will just leave you with olive-oil shrimp. Trust me.
2. Make sure you peel your shrimp. I didn't and it was messy, though fun. I suspect, though, that you wouldn't want to peel your shrimp while you're eating it over pasta.
3. THIS IS NOT A MEAL OF LEFTOVERS. Eat it right away, hot off the pan. I learned this the hard way. (Somebody had to, right? And I'm just shameless enough to admit it!)

I haven't posted in a while, but that's okay.

I've eaten a lot of salads lately. I bought a bag of baby spinach on the last grocery run, and motivated by the urge not to let half that bag rot like so many others, have been eating spinach by the handfuls once or twice a day. My salads have also been very colorful apurpose (eat by color, whatever that ideal is). Like today, I had a chicken breast from last night (I made 'fajitas', yum!) that I put over craisins, moz, baby carrot bits and some fried-up diced onion that needed to be eaten. It was quite tasty, let me tell you. I had that with two pieces of dry wheat toast (from a good load this go-round, nice and soft) and am, at this point directly post-lunch, satisfied. I tried to eat as slowly as possible, which was easy enough with all my tasty chicken and craisins and what not. I'll especially have to remember the fried up onions. Those were good.

I'm getting marginally better at making up things for lunch the night before, whether it's a thing I make solely for lunch or leftovers from supper that night. Not great at it, just getting there, mind you. It's kinda hard to come up with something even the night before to make for lunch the next day. Part of it is that when it comes to lunch, for some reason I have this tarded creative block that goes 'No! No! Bologna and cheese! Bologna and cheese!' It doesn't help that some things just can't be packed comfortably into a lunchbox, unless it's one of those industrial construction worker thingers.

Good thing my layout was ready for it - otherwise some sneaky LJ-user might've pinched it for good luck. XD (Un)surprisingly, I am the only one of my coworkers (on my floor, mind you) to wear green today. The accountant who doesn't like me because I don't put up with her shit told me in the elevator that it was because they're "not in kindergarten anymore," but I think it's really because she's a self-made miserable cunt. :D

Erin go braugh!

In other news, I did not cook this weekend, not really. I spent Friday night decorating, and Saturday whole putting on a twenty-fifth wedding renewal ceremony and celebration. I didn't cook beyond dipping strawberries in melted chocolate. All I did was look cute - which, by the way, I did. Go for the girl in the ruffled skirt and pearls! Sunday I didn't cook either. I DID go on a four-and-a-half mile bike ride. My quads were very unhappy with me, as were my lungs, but it sure was fun riding across a major highway in early afternoon traffic. I thought that was quite a decent exercise for the day. And my roomie and our friend cooked supper last night - granted, it was pan-fried cube steak (dredged, of course) with beef ramen as a side. I stuck with the roasted baby reds I made late last week.

I brought miniwheats for breakfast this morning, tom kha gai for lunch, and seasoned pretzels for a snackie. I'm trying to be really good about portion control and it seems to be working. I'm in a notch on my black belt! I have karate this Tuesday again, but I'll have to stick to practicing on my own Thursday. The dojo is taking its own spring break for Easter weekend and won't be open again until next Tuesday. Then I have two classes until my next belt test! I know the tests fly by until you're trying for blue, but I'm still very excited about having two tests in two months. It's thrilling for me, you see.

I have finally managed to use an entire 1 oz canister of matcha powder. It actually didn't take me that long.

Unfortunately, it's 1300 and I don't actually have enough for a cup. I had to split the last half-teaspoon to make my current cup. There was a little left on the canister walls, so I dumped the last bit of sugar I had into the canister and shook it up to make it work.

Does that make me pathetic?




p.s. I really don't want to do anything tonight but sit down with Cullen in the den, curl up against him in his fuzzy pants and watch a good movie on his grandmomma's big screen while it rains like hell outside. That's really all. Promise.

I say that because I almost forgot what day it was this morning, or what tomorrow was going to be (Thursday, for those of you on my screwed up head schedule). So I'm reminding myself, you see.

Yesterday was a decent day, I guess. I think I ate more yesterday than I should have, because I was tired and bored for most of the day. The sky was an uninspiring gray all day long, I was inside and I hadn't slept well at all. Daylight Savings Time is pointless, I say, and it kills my biological alarm clock with ease. I managed to zombie my way through work – easy enough, thanks to Spring Break. I walked outside and it was like I'd been charged. I was awake in a matter of seconds, ready to bounce through life! Cullen was waiting for me at the apartment when I got home. We wooled around for a little while before he had to go get ready for his Lodge meeting, and I had to get ready for karate.

Karate was awesome last night! I always do much better after a break than I do consecutively. I think it's because I stop worrying so much about what everything is supposed to look like and how it's supposed to do. I asked a lot of questions of Sensei last night, which made me feel good (and him, too). I felt missed when I showed up, which was really nice – Sensei talked to me almost the entire last half of jiujitsu class while I was waiting on it to end so I could get ready for my own. He also told me that I'd probably be testing again at the end of the month, as long as I made all my regular classes between now and then. Exciting! But I can't let that go to my head. I was ahead of the game to begin with, and all I really need to learn at this point is groundwork/grappling, which I've never had much practice at, before I get to a three-stripe gold belt. That's when things are going to get tougher and it's going to take a lot more to get me to blue than it has to get me where I am now.

I've been making a conscious effort to dress happily, as I've said before in a couple previous posts. Mostly, I've been succeeding. Any kind of happy colors make me... well, happy. That's my aim, after all! A lot of my "good clothes" wardrobe consists of black and a few dark colors, with a couple pairs of khakis and one cafe-au-lait colored suit set. So I'm trying to mix it up with solid tees in bright colors and colorful, happy shoes with some off-the-wall accessories. It seems to work – I feel better, and others seem to respond. If it's warm enough tomorrow, I'm going to try for a skirt, since it's the faculty and staff "spring fling" tomorrow. I may not have to bring lunch, but thank goodness it's karate night tomorrow! These little shindigs usually involve home-cooked food that I simply cannot resist.

Last night I got the idea to try reconstituting dried chickpeas instead of using canned like I usually do. Of course, it was about 21:30 at this point, but that seems to generally be when I get these kind of ideas, so I went with it. The inspiration, of course, was for a beet salad. While the beets were simmering, I mixed up my dressing (olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper and a few drops of lemon juice, all to taste), let the chickpeas boil and drank a protein shake. I usually hate protein shakes – they never taste like the flavor they're labeled as and always leave a really unpalatable aftertaste. For once, though, this shake tasted like vanilla – like it was supposed to!

I ended up not having enough time to cook the chickpeas (for some reason last night, I thought I just needed to reconstitute them, because I'm a goober), so I put the beets up in the fridge, made a real protein shake for this morning and went to bed. I got up, got all my stuff together and went to work. In the future, I must remember to cut back on the serving ratio of powder/milk, because the shake that I made for this morning according to the label ratio was THICK as all get out, and very soy-protein-y. I've had two 4oz servings today so far, but I don't know if I'll make it through the rest before the day's out. It's got the consistency of very heavy Pepto, and the aftertaste is not so great if I leave it on my tongue too long.

For lunch I made up a honey turkey-provolone-basil wrap and a different version of the beet salad with just beets, craisins and some feta. It was SO tasty. I'll have to try it again on a spinach bed, I think, which is what I'd INTENDED to do in the first place with the normal version of beet salad. (I'm trying to use up the rest of my spinach before it goes bad, you see.) I might have to figure out some other kind of thing to make with my spinach tonight, since it only has a few days left at best. Suggestions are very welcome.

*Note that all times in parentheses here are pre-DST times. I didn’t set my clock until 13:00 this afternoon. Oops.

I didn’t sleep in near as long today as I did yesterday, only until about 09:00. The only reason I slept THAT long was because I forgot to set my clock last night before I went to bed. The alarm went off at (04:50) as usual – I guess I reset it yesterday by mistake – and Cullen called right on time. I rolled over and slept until (08:00) and got up, deciding that I was going to go ahead and make up some Thai chicken coconut so it would be nice and melded up by dinnertime tonight. So I got up, did some stretching to wake up my muscles and got a glass of water in my system before I started on everything.

The last time I made Thai chicken coconut, I didn’t have Kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass or chiles available, so I used the zest of normal limes, lemon juice and a teaspoon of Korean hot pepper paste. The soup turned out more than fine and it tasted almost just like I’d had in restaurants in Marietta. Almost. There was something missing, but I could never figure out what it was. After making another batch today, I will never be able to think it’s “right” without the addition of Kaffir lime leaves or real chiles in the broth. I tasted it hot off the burner and was ecstatic over the burst of lime in my mouth and nostrils, the feel of coconut milk coating my tongue and the sharp bite of the chile aftereffects. The first batch I made was passable, but this batch was nearly perfect (I still don’t have any lemongrass). The other thing that was missing was a good flaky flatbread, but that’s another story (soon to come).

I followed the recipe almost exactly as it’s read, barring a few changes (so not really as it’s read but it sounds good). I made the stock yesterday, so it had been settled a while. I put it back in the stockpot and brought it to a boil before adding the lime leaves (broken but not torn); the ginger pieces; crushed garlic; and one large green chile, cut into four pieces and all but the largest piece seeded. I don’t like REAL hot, but I like a little bite; and it would be acceptable for my roommate, who likes her eyes to water when she eats anything hot n’ spicy. While all that was simmering on the stove, I pan-fried up some chicken breasts in salt, pepper and extra virgin, until they started to brown where they just touched the skillet. I turned off the heat to the stockpot while I cut up the chicken, then added the chicken chunks with the sugar, coconut milk, nam pla; squeezed the two limes dry over the pot; and covered it up to let it simmer again. I walked off to clean something – cleaning and cooking complement each other well, in my head; the only thing better for my cleaning cycle than cooking is baking, which puts me in a whirlwind state of cleaning – and came back to find the pot nigh to boiling over. If I’d had it at a higher heat, it would have, but I took it off the heat and turned off the eye. I was afraid I’d ruined it, but I think the high boil actually helped. A lot of the coconut cream that had made itself into tiny flavor-filled clusters the last time had evened out with the boil. I tasted it with a spoon and almost did a little dance in the kitchen. I covered it back and let it sit.

Now that the soup was done, I had designs on making scallion pancakes to go with it, but I didn’t have any canola or peanut oil to fry in, and I didn’t much feel like frying at that time of morning anyhow. Figuring it would be better to fry them up to taste right before dinner, I decided I’d finish cutting out epi recipes I’d printed, and copying prints of other recipes that don’t come in a handy 3x5 format by themselves. But I wanted something a little special.

Sunday mornings have always been special in my family, in a quiet kind of way. Dad always goes and gets doughnuts fresh from the grocery, or we make Pillsbury cinnamon rolls (the original ones that you can bake just until just before they stop being squishy, not the new kind that have to be baked toasty), or French toast or SOMETHING ridiculously sweet to eat with our coffee while we watch whatever’s on the news or the Outdoor Channel while Grace (little sister, 3) plays with the dogs in the floor. And Mom and I always sit with the paper, watch Sunday Morning on CBS and drink her free-trade coffee and eat whatever she’s cooked for breakfast – fried challah with fresh preserves or homemade jam or whatever else her old-time hippie heart comes up with that day. (My parents are divorced and remarried to other folks, just to clear up any confusion.) So Sunday mornings have always held a special kind of something in my heart.

I wanted something special, but I wasn’t ambitious enough at (09:30) to cook anything serious like pancakes or French toast (though now that I think of it, French toast would be damn tasty). Vietnamese coffee popped into my head and suddenly that’s all I wanted. I call it Vietnamese coffee because that’s what Anthony Bourdain calls it in ‘A Cook’s Tour,’ which along with ‘Kitchen Confidential’ is one of my all-time favorite books. I can read it over and over and over again and never get tired of the descriptions or the food. In the chapter ‘The Burn’ of that book (page 59 if you’re looking with me), there’s a description of a vendor stand where Bourdain sits down, orders coffee and gets a glass of thick, rich coffee over ice and condensed milk.


That little except gets me every time. I want to go to Vietnam, just for that glass of sweet iced coffee.

I don’t know what coffee they use in Vietnam, but I have Folgers medium roast; heavy cream and sugar instead of condensed milk. I have ice, thankfully. I made a half-pot of dark powerful coffee. I was tempted to run it back through the percolator again, double the flavor, but was afraid it would not only embitter my beloved drink but ruin my coffeemaker too. Instead I let it sit for a minute or two while I grabbed a heavy glass out of the cabinet, dropped some sugar in the bottom, topped that with ice cubes and poured heavy cream in the bottom, about a half-inch thick. The cream on ice is wonderful in itself to watch, but when I poured the coffee over the ice and watched it mix with the cream and the sugar, it was gorgeous. The glass filled up of the most wonderful café-au-lait-colored drink on earth (except for real Vietnamese coffee), and I sat back in a camp chair in the middle of the kitchen floor, with the dogs playing tag back and forth between the kitchen and living room, to enjoy it thoroughly. I got three big ol’ glasses of the stuff chugged down and damn, it was good.

By the time my roommate got home from the barn, I was getting ready to go to Cullen’s and wake him up. She reminded me that it was DST, so I had to double-time it to get there by 13:30. While I was there, we caught two lost dogs. One we returned to its babysitters, some kind of lab and coonhound cross. The other was a beautiful, if a little spooky, hunk of yellow Lab birddog with his owners’ Remington orange collar still on. I hope that whoever owns him comes and takes him home, but at the same time, I kind of hope they don’t so I can keep him… not that I need another dog. Anyway.

I came home after that around 17:00 and made up dough for the scallion pancakes after I fed the dogs. I’d forgotten how soothing kneading bread dough can be, how rewarding it is to see that promising ball of flour and water waiting patiently until it can be formed to its final product. I let it rest for a considerable amount of time, talking with my dad (he calls me every Sunday evening like clockwork and has since fourth grade when I moved out of Kentucky for the first time) and my roommate. I finally got down to making them up, but I didn’t fry the whole batch tonight. I only fried enough for a test run tonight and for tomorrow’s lunch, some with scallions and some without.



I liked both kinds, no question about that, but I am going to have to remember to make my next batch thinner than these. The chewiness is a great mouthfeel, but if they’re not at least warm, they’re not quite as good (or easy to tear). As for filling or taste, the sesame oil is a must-have, and the scallions give the pancakes a definite flavor. Without them, the pancakes are still good for a mouthfeel, and they still retain that clean oil taste, but are extremely bland. Either way, they cut the spice in my soup just enough. Everything was delicious, and I’m proud of myself for the new soups and the pancakes – probably the pancakes more than the soup. I’ll have to go to making breads like that more often, long wait or no.


I’m putting up the chicken coconut recipe, but the link to helgarde ’s scallion pancakes is here. I’d type it up, but why bother when she’s already saved me the trouble? In any case, thanks for sharing that with the Internet at large, Barbara – those pancakes were definitely the other missing link to my Thai food experience tonight.

Thai Chicken Coconut Soup

1 qt (4 c) chicken stock
1 stalk lemongrass (white only, cracked)
3 Kaffir lime leaves, torn (or lime zest)
1 3” piece fresh ginger, peeled & sliced
2 small Thai chiles, halved
1 13-oz. can coconut milk
2 tbsp fish sauce
1½ tsp sugar
juice of 2 limes
1½ c cooked chicken

chopped cilantro (opt.)
chopped scallions (opt.)

Boil stock and add lemongrass, lime leaves, ginger, chiles and garlic. Cover and let simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in milk, fish sauce, sugar, lime juice and chicken, cover again and let simmer for five minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste; top with cilantro or scallions if desired and serve hot. Serves 4.

I slept in this morning – until 10:00. It was nice, kinda, though I still woke up at 05:50 (when my alarm usually goes off) and DB still called me at 06:00 when he was on his way home from work. But I lay back down after hanging up with him and turning off my alarm and went back to sleep. I haven’t gotten to do that in a long, long time. Honestly, I don’t think I’ll be making a huge practice of doing it anymore. The idea of sleeping in because I didn’t really have much to do was freeing, but I woke up feeling like I’d wasted half the day and that wasn’t really worth sleeping so long. Plus I woke up stiff, thanks to actually waking up and then going back to sleep and the front that moved through today. So not much more of that, unless I sleep straight through. You’d think I’d know by now to just get out the bed when I wake up the first time, but no…

In any case, I pretty much spent the rest of the morning (and the day) cleaning and cooking. I’ve had a mild hankering for soup all week, and I intended on making another batch of Thai chicken coconut with helgarde’s recipe for scallion pancakes. Unfortunately I was missing several ingredients for the both of them. What I had on hand were the makings for curried carrot soup, so I decided that was what I’d make. The kitchen needed a serious scouring (I should go ahead and just admit to myself that I’ve been house mom all my life so far and should consider it preparation for when I have my own kids, instead of living with folks that I might as well have delivered), so I did that first. I can’t cook in a dirty kitchen – I can’t really bear to HAVE a dirty kitchen in the first place. My room can be a wreck with a path from the front door to the bathroom and the closet, but the kitchen needs to be fair spotless. It so happens that dirty dishes pile up on the counters, in the sink, on the stove – ANYWHERE but the dishwasher, conveniently placed within arm’s reach of any of these locations – within a matter of days, which was the case here. Once the dishwasher had started a cycle, I was working on making chicken broth and peeling and chopping carrots.

Now, I’ll admit (a bit shamefacedly) that I make “homemade” chicken broth/stock from bouillon cubes. Yes, I said it. I wish I had the money, time and space to make real honest-to-God stock from bones and giblets and pieces and parts, but I don’t. So bouillon it is. Once I get a real kitchen that’s not a pace and a half wide (the kitchen in my next apartment will be even SMALLER ::wail!::) and a decent stove and a good fridge with lots of space, I’ll likely be making real stock. But I’m a college student with a full-time job and a part-time barn job and a night class coming up soon, and I just don’t have time. As my mother said today: “You’re in college. Everyone knows you have to suffer.” Thanks, Mom.

…I don’t know why I’m defending myself. We do with what we can, right? Anyway, back to the soup.

I’d never made this soup before, but I thought it sounded pretty good when I found it. It’s been cold-ish the past couple days (Georgia spring, don’t you know) and I figured soup would be good to have. Plus, as a vegetable soup, I could eat it cold or hot. I also don’t know much about curry, but we have plenty of madras in-house and I figured as a yellow curry it would suit just fine. Thankfully, I was right. The onions and madras cooking down were heavenly smells, and the hiss of the broth when I deglazed the stockpot was a delightful sound.

Once everything was done simmering and the carrots were soft, it was time to puree, so I pulled out the old (lit.) Cuisinart. My blender is a good blender – for drinks. It’s not real great at foods. I tried pesto in it once and it didn’t turn out quite as I’d wanted (though I suspect user error was part of that – I’ve never really made a good pesto on my own, but Mom does, so I figure the ability is hiding somewhere in my genetic code). The Cuisinart is actually Cullen’s, but it’s not as if he ever uses the damn thing, so when I said something about getting a little one from Wal-Mart, he up and gave this one to me. It’s an ORIGINAL appliance – I’m used to my mother’s, with it’s myriad stand buttons and tall bowl, but this one has a 7-cup bowl and three speeds. On, off and pulse. For all that, it worked just fine. Simpler is better, right?

I pureed in batches, as it says, and at first I was worried that the soup would be too thin. I kept on going until all the soup was finished. It turned out a lovely deep orange, with little carrot and onion chunks floating about the surface. I let it sit for a couple minutes and after testing, decided that it still needed thickening. I added a couple of tablespoons of sifted all-purpose and that helped, but it was still missing something. I stood and thought and thought and thought, until it came to me: cream. I had two half-pints in the fridge that I had intended on using for white crème brulee, but no. I added a splash (probably about 2-3 tablespoons, use your own discretion) and stirred it up. The orange lightened with the cream and it looked gorgeous.

I ladled out two bowls, one for me and my roommate, and we had a late lunch of carrot soup and a tortilla. The curry wasn’t too spicy and it was creamy and filling and delicious. I’ve got it sitting in the fridge now, settling and chilling for later. I’m excited to see what the flavor will turn out to be later after everything’s had time to get really friendly. Just as a sidenote, I’d also think that a dollop of fresh unsweetened whipped cream (or sour cream) and some chives or scallions on top would work quite well. I’m going to try it later and see what I think.

This afternoon I went all around town, just to go to two places: Wal-Mart and Fook’s Foods. Wal-Mart because I needed the diesel, and Fook’s because they’re AWESOME. Fook’s is the local Asian market and I usually try to go there every couple of weeks (i.e. after every payday). Herbs are fresh and cheap there, and I was running out of matcha, so it was time to make a trip. I picked up a few long green chiles, some Kaffir leaves (!!!), some Thai basil, another canister of matcha, two more cans of coconut milk, some limes and green onions, four whole shallots (which, by the way, I can NEVER find at the grocery) and two red bean rice cakes (daifuku mochi shiro). I’d never had a rice cake and figured I might as well try one. One of the professors in my suite, Dr. Huang, gave me a sun cake last week, which was probably the inspiration for buying the rice cake. The sun cake was a pastry-wrapped patty of bean curd (I assume it was bean curd, or rice gluten, or something like that – at this point I’m obviously making filling possibilities up). It was flaky, sweet but not too sweet, and very delicious. I’ve discovered that I like most Asian sweets considerably, so I figured the rice cake wouldn’t be horrible. And I wasn’t wrong – it was different, but not at all bad. The bean paste was probably was threw me off the most. I was expecting it to be smooth, like some I’ve had before, but there was fleck of skin in it. It wasn’t bad, like I said, just unexpected. And the wrap itself was like a rice gummy. Weird, different, and pretty tasty. I don’t know that I’d make it a very regular treat, but it’s an interesting little thing to get every four or five months (about the time I forget what it tastes like).

Tonight’s event was going to the tattoo shop. A friend of mine’s birthday was last week and I’d planned on taking her there to get another tat (she’s already got some kind of wannabe tribal chrysanthemum that she paid too much for IMHO), but things didn’t work out. Cullen was on duty last night and I didn’t have anything going on so we (my roommate, our friend who just had a birthday, and I) headed out there. It was fun. I always like going to the shop and hanging out. The artist there is a good guy, a lot of fun and really loves what he does, which is good because he’s an artist in every right. He’s been working since he was about 14 (he’s turning 25 this year) and all his work has definitely paid off. She got three cherry blossoms on her right hip and they’re going to be pretty neat-looking when the irritation goes away. He can do some amazing things with gradient colors on skin canvas. He does all Cullen’s work now and when I get it in my head to treat myself with the horse head (the same one that’s currently on the Kentucky state license plate) on my hip, he’ll be doing it too. So props to him.

Curried Carrot Soup
2 tbsp butter
1 c chopped onion
1 tsp curry
2 cans (~3.5 c) chicken broth
3 c water
2 lb carrots (7-8 medium sized), peeled & diced (chunked)
1-2 tbsp lemon juice

2-3 tbsp heavy cream (opt.)
scallion tops, sliced; or chives (opt.)
sour cream/crème fraiche/unsweetened whipped cream (opt)

Melt butter in large saucepan or Dutch oven. Add onion and curry (salt & pepper if desired, but I’d wait). Cook over medium heat until onion is soft and golden brown. Add broth, carrots and water and bring to a boil. Turn down heat, cover and let simmer about 20 minutes. Stir in lemon juice and serve naked; or with chives, scallions and/or cream. Serves about four, hot or cold.