Not Terminated, it's fixed! Raineth reigns triumphant.

 This is one of the many reasons why I have a lot of tools & a lot of patience for some things: whilst I was listening to/halfway watching The Terminator, I finally fixed my vacuum cleaner (correctly). Yay! Using the little hand vac was beginning to get old.
 Damn, I love gadgets & motors & things that look like they should be doing something else, but aren't. Whoo hoo!

 I made some chicken boobs with a coconut milk-curry-ginger sauce with sliced almonds, and some Jasmin rice for tomorrow's work lunch. I did a sink full of dishes, finally went through a week's worth of mail (ugh! somebody send me something I actually want to read, please!), did some finger painting (quit laughing), and read through some more of my "destruction" manual for my camera. I'm not happy with what I'm getting, so I need to figure out what I'm not doing right. 

  Now, I just want to say-- not unlike a line from Lethal Weapon-- they fuck you in the drive thru! But not really, since someone can die while waiting to be seen, at the ER. THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS for my two visits to the ER. Thank goodness I have insurance, and will "merely" pay $500. I thought it was going to be more, but I miscalculated my deductible. 
 I will not stomp on my soapbox in frustration over our health care system, right now. Just know that I think it sucks-- but I suppose it's better than nothing.

 Cheers & All

  I love to make it MINE. I'm single and this day has been fantastic! I hit South St. Paul up for some breakfast (Black Sheep for mushroom & brie soup, chicken curry salad and a café miel) after doing some brief shopping for picnic baskets; I found two for super-cheap, hooray! 
  I motored around for a while for the heck of it, before heading over to Kowalski's. I bought a perfectly decadent amount of cheeses there, some goat milk-based butter, two seckel pears, a delicious rosemary-olive oil boule and a NY strip steak.  Kowalski's is a hop & a skip to Penzey's, so I stopped there as well. I bought some of their ultra-potent garlic powder, some California basil and a container of aleppo pepper (a Turkish chili pepper that's similar to an ancho, but with a bit of a snap to the pants).
  Soon I was in the mood for more driving. I got superbly lost while driving to Minneapolis (don't ask, it's skillz, I tell you) & drove around a battered 'hood, gazing at the broken beauty that is that particular part of the city. I didn't think to bring my camera, and I really wish I would have. I could have taken some great photos.

 I finally ended up at my original destination, Surdyk's, and was lost in the awe of cheese and booze. I bought a few more nibblets of cheese-- I haven't tried them yet. I also bought a bottle of booze based entirely on the shape of the bottle (and the fact that it was on sale, of course):Damiana liqeuer. The bottle is shaped like my goddess necklaces, and I blurted out "Holy Geez, it has boobs!" A smartly-dressed man who was standing nearby cocked an eyebrow, looked at me, looked the bottle over, and said "And so she does." Ooops! *blushes* That was pretty funny.
 Go figure, I read the company's webpage when I got home, and I could have whallopped myself over the head. Of course it's got something to do with damiana (a rather potent herb), fertility (bottle was modeled after an Incan goddess, according to the website) and all manner of things that are low-key erotic or sexual. Ahhh, I love being a dork. Dork dance, dork dance.

 Anyhoo.. Where there's a will, there's a way, and I am nothing if not persistent. I had to try twice, but I got my grill going. I seasoned the steak with Penzey's Chicago steak seasoning (if you try the same, be mindful that it's got sugar in it-- it makes the meat taste super-fantastic, but it burns quickly over searing heat), nuked a couple of small taters, cut some pieces of boule, spread  some goat butter on one slice (very very nice, if you're OK with goat milk products-- some people hate the stuff), had some brie with the rest, and nuked some baby carrots for veggies. Ahhh, good!  I also had a right-proper glass of the lovely wine A. & M. left for me on my birthday. It's a nearly overwhelmingly sweet Riesling produced by Snoqualmie (so of course I want to drink it all, like a ninny), and I hope that I can get more. I drank it out of a delicate-stemmed wine glass that has the word "joy" etched on it (I have many, many wine glasses, so it was great that I grabbed that one!), and I thought that it pretty much summed up my day that far. Well, if I'd had thought about it earlier, I would have bought myself flowers, but I was pretty happy with my cheeses and driving adventures. :-)
 Hmm. Although, someone please remind me that I need to get my car to a mechanic sometime soon-- I think that my muffler might be making a break for freedom. 

 I am currently waiting for my chocolate truffles to come to room temperature; one of my coworkers at my other job makes them by hand. I swapped them for booze that I knew I wasn't going to drink any time soon, heh! I have a cup of fragrant Jamaican Blue coffee in front of me (of course I liberate it from evil with err, liberal cream and sugar) to "wash" the chocolates down with (yummy!), and I'm more content today than I have been in a long while.

 I am also listening to Calogero's self-titled cd (thank you, Amazon MP3 downloader!), with "En Apesanteur" just starting, and  I'm singing along with it, loudly... but don't tell anyone. I can only get away with it when I'm alone. Yes, even Weasel has quit the room, with me howling away... hee hee hee.... Anyhoo.

 Happy Valentine's Day, beautiful people. Don't let your hearts be sad... find something, anything, to make this day yours...

Your Raineth
 

 See previous post.
 See me experience all manner of back woes & not have any OTC drugs that can kill the pain.
 See me try to figure out how to stand, bend, sit, lie down, and then get back up-- and you'll laugh really hard.
 See me work three shifts that require extensive use of the back.
 See me cry.

Owwwwwww. Frick, I still seriously hurt. Dammit. Stoopid MinneSnowTa and its rotten winter thaws. Ughh. Kill it, pirate. Kill the bad MinneSnowta now. Make it walk the plank. Arrrr.

Anyway... At least I bumbled across some new music that I like (there's something good to be said about my crappy typing skills at YouBoob-- I sometimes find cool stuff in my typos). Yet again, I can only understand a little bit of it (it's in French), but I'm still happy.
 
To add to my happiness, I am going to eat some spinach fettucini with alfredo sauce & sauteed portabella mushrooms. And I'll have me a Red Stripe beer. Yummmm.

Oooh, and I'll watch the videos to the newly-found songs again. I'll see if I can download some of his tunes later. Hmmm. I think I'll embed a couple of videos for y'awl. Thank you, posters of YouBoob!

Double "Hmmm." This guy is worthy of a Mammal of Approval, too. Whirrr.

Voilà, Calogero! "Into Weightlessness" & "In Front of You" (I think?).



 

Cheers & All!

EDIT: Oh, what a hootie! This man was only about 30 when these videos were put out-- go to YouBoob or another site to see "Pomme C," a more recent video. He's still on my List. Rawr.
 

 I am on a singular mission to figure out how to cook/bake  things in my toaster/convection oven. Some recipes-- well, hmmm. It just may not be possible. Dammit.

 Today's Experimental Cooking is based on a basic recipe for baked chicken & rice. It has been modified, of course, because seldom am I content (or using my schmartz) to leave original recipes alone.
 For example: I like to use the frozen chicken boobs that come in a bag at my local grocer. However, regular store-bought chicken boobs work just fine-- if I remember to, I'll pan-fry them for a few minutes first, or slice them up into strips. They cook faster & more uniformly that way. I can't stand the texture of many recipes that only call for one cup of water or milk alongside the can of soup. Aaack! The rice just doesn't cook right, and I like my rice nice & creamy. I  prefer cream of chicken to cream of mushroom, mostly because I like the taste, & I can add my own mushrooms. I also am one of the rogue impure who add a vegetable such as broccoli or green beans. I also use a lot of Penzey's spices, so get your own (see my link for spices good enough for pirates!) or make do. Anyway.
 Since my oven will never hold a 9x13" pan, I use one of those small, square CorningWare glass dishes, greased up with butter Crisco. Have the oven preheated to 350* and use your pan's lid if you have one, otherwise just use tightly-fitted aluminum foil. As always, modify the recipe for your own shites & giggles.

Tally ho, here it goes:

 Chicken & Rice, a la Raineth

1 c. uncooked long grain rice
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 1/2 c. whole milk
1 c. water
1/2 c. sliced fresh Portabella mushrooms (that's what I had on hand today) or 1/2 of a can of mushrooms. Heck, add them all.
3/4 c. frozen French cut green beans or other veggies, if you want.
Two shakes of Penzey's Tuscan Sunset seasoning
Two shakes of Penzey's Mural of Flavor seasoning
Two brief shakes of ground sage
Scant pinch of Kosher salt
Three brief shakes of Penzey's Mignonette Pepper
Spanish paprika/Hungarian paprika (to taste, before serving)
Ground Chipotle pepper (to taste, before serving)
4 small boneless, skinless chickie boobs or two larger ones. You can fit in a good 6-8 1" strips.

Scoop out soup into a medium mixing bowl.Stir up the soup a bit so that the lumps aren't so huge. Slowly stir in moo, then water, trying to get out any more big lumps as you do so. And spices, salt & pepper. Poke your finger or lickin' stick into the mixture & taste it. Modify to taste. Add rice & stir well. Add mushrooms, then veggies. Eyeball the mixture-- it shouldn't be overly sloppy, but it shouldn't be so thick that it doesn't move. If it moves like chocolate cake batter, you should have enough liquid. Plop the mixture into prepared baking dish. Gently place chickie boobs on top of rice mixture.
 Cover tightly with aluminum foil, toss into preheated oven & bake for 45 minutes. No, you're not done yet. Now is when you check for liquid and chickie done-ness. Stir the mixture up a bit, and don't forget the sides. If it's getting dry, add more milk or water. A quarter cup at a time should work. Re-cover and continue to bake for 20-30 minutes. This is one of those recipes that takes a few peeking-ins. In my pan, with my mini-oven (as it were), it took a total of 1 hour and 25 minutes (with three peek-ins) for the rice to be  perfect for me. 

 As I've type-clacked this post, the dish has cooled a bit. Now I'm ready for a delicious & hot lunch on a blusterous day-- just in time before getting ready to go to work. I'll also have plenty left for a lovely dinner for work, and most likely some leftover rice for tomorrow morning. Ahhh, yumm. I'm off to eat. May your day be lovely.

Cheers & All