Looking back – how history will interpret the MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
81

Great OP, FCM. Just a quick drive by as I am in the midst of cooking dinner.

My back aches like you would not believe. I spent yesterday weeding and spreading bark. I did most of the bark spreading in the rain. My poor back is so sore from all the bending over. We got a ton done, though, and the front yard looks terriffic. The biiiiiiig back garden is completely weed free and sometime this week we’ll haul more bark in.

Freakin’ beauty bark has gotten EXPENSIVE. We paid 90 bucks for three yards and we probably need at least another six yards. Good grief!

I’ve got to go check my rice and stuff.

I know I owe a ton of recipes too. Hopefully, I’ll get to post some.

82

Yes!! Opium!!! He’ll sleep like a… well… ummmm… a baby.

:slight_smile:

The water inspector was kind enough to drop by today to leave a lovely note in the mailbox advising that our inside water meter isn’t working, and that we should contact them ASAP to let them know when one of us will be home between 8:30am and 4:30pm to let them in.

Ummmm… never? See, most people who own houses generally tend to have things called jobs, which prevent them from being home at times such as those provided by our kind and wonderful public servants. Argh.

83

I have a 10 oz jar of Dickenson’s Lemon Curd. Thanks for reminding me to put 2 pkgs of cream cheese on the grocery list! :slight_smile:

84

Hi all, This is my first post in the mmp. CutiePie encouraged me, said you folks wouldn’t bite, and since y’all are sharing your tasty recipes I thought I’d share one as well.

This is my go-to recipe… Share with good friends or even family if you like them that much… If you are lucky enough to have left overs, this gets better and better…even cold…Trust me

                        **Clam Spaghetti** 

  **Ingredients**
  1. 2 C plus 2 T of the best olive oil ya got
    2) 2 medium size yellow onions chopped
    3) 1 small or 1/2 large dried red chili minced (more or less to taste, be careful)
    4) 6 cloves garlic minced
    5) 3 cans canned clams drained, (saving the liquid of 2 cans) *
    6) liquid from 2 cans clams
    7) 1 T dried oregano
    8) 1 T dried basil
    9) 1 C fresh parsley chopped
  2. 1 lb dry spaghetti noodles
    11) Fresh grated Parmesan cheese

    • I use 2 cans minced and 1 chopped clams

        **Directions**
    1. In your biggest frying pan (cast iron is best ) GENTLY heat your olive oil
    2. Add onions, garlic , dried red pepper and simmer SLOWLY till it starts smelling good all through your home.
    3. Have a glass of wine, tell your guests a funny story, and start heating your pasta water
    4. When the onions start to get soft and transparent, stir and let 'em simmer a minute or 2 longer while you open 3 cans 'O clams … saving 2 cans worth of juice
    5. Add the liquid from the 2 cans of clams
    6. Add the dried oregano and dried basil
    7. If you forgot, like I sometimes do, this is a great time time to
    8. throw the Garlic bread in the oven
    9. While the water for your pasta is heating, add the clams, parsley and a couple T’s of the Parmesan to your sauce
    10. Cook spaghetti noodles till al dente
    11. Drain well and toss with the awesome sauce you have just created in your biggest frying pan
    12. Serve with a nice white wine, tossed green salad, fresh grated Parmesan and don’t forget the bread in the oven
      Bon appetite
85

for you or the baby?

Am watching The Daily Show–I loves me some Jon Stewart.

86

SmartAleq, your Kinda Healthy Tater Salad sounds like heaven. I will be sure to try it as soon as possible.

I would post some recipes, but I’m kind of like Mr. Bus Guy. All of my cooking is based on the premise of ‘figure out what you like, then throw stuff in the pot til it tastes good.’

87

Welcome Sherm - nah, we don’t bite. At least not very hard. :wink: If you like that sorta thing, you might check out room 304, just down the hall… :smiley:

2 cups of olive oil? That seems a bit much for sauteing onions…

Stick around - this is where the mundanity of MPSIMS is abundant.

I made awesome Panko Breaded Pork Chops tonight. Four thick boneless pork cops dipped in egg, then dredged in panko bread crumbs with a bit of dried basil, garlic powder, salt and pepper mixed in - browned in canola oil until golden. I made rice and gravy and frsh green beans with a piece of ham thrown in. Unfortunately the green beans weren’t done in time for dinner. Oh well, we’ll eat them later in the week.

I’m taking a “personal business day” tomorrow - gonna take the kid down to finalize all of last week’s crap - get his driver’s license reissued and all that. then we’ll be done. One thing y’all might not know: before his step-dad (my late husband) died, my son Pete was adopted formally. It didn’t get finalized until a month after he died. So all of these tickets and warrants and shit are in Pete’s bio-dad’s name (his former name.) So when we get his license re-issued it will be in his adopted Dad’s name, and all the bad stuff will be gone. It’s like he’s got a new life with a new name. We talked about it some - he’s very glad to carry his Dad’s name. He raised him for 14 of 18 years! I’m very happy to have that other name out of our lives. He was not good for either of us.

Sorry to unload like that - sometimes you just have to let it out, ya know?

88

  1. Customer rolls cart back in forth in front of register. finally pulls up, and hand me her debit card. Um, ma’am, I need to scan your stuff.

  2. Customer buys two items(toatal with tax, $2.14), slaps $7.14 on the counter and walks out. Hey! you gave me too much!

  3. Customer asks if we have ice cube trays. Answer: yes, and I show them to him. Quote: “Can I make ice with these?” :dubious:

I can only surmise that either everybody is out of non-weirding meds till Thursday, the local dealers got the good Columbian shit this time, or the CIA has turned the mind rays up to “11”. Oh, also the four horse children of the apocalypse rampaged through the store.

gt, I’m with you on the HD thing. I’m just going to upgrade my computer, and watch TV on it.

BBBobbio, busy night. When I was at State, we dragged a goat up three flights of stairs, because we wanted a goat on our floor, dammit!(and the cow wouldn’t fit.) :smiley:

Nava, we have a Scottish lady on the Booster Club. We have to translate sometimes when she works the table.

Bachelor Food

1/2 cup instant rice
1/2 cup water
1 can of meat. whatever’s easiest, I just worked for 14 hours straight!
teaspoon of boullion to match the meat
2 cups vegetable(want Mexican? and corn! want Italian? add spinach!, etc)
Seasoning to taste. I’m a bachelor, be happy I’m not nuking burritos again!
Add water, boullion, seasonings, booze(to the meal and to you), meat.
boil
add veggies, return to boil
add rice
cook according to rice box directions(low heat 5 min. , no heat for 5 min.)
Serve with beerverages.

total prep and cook time-15-20 minutes.

Lemon Curry?

89

Doggio, customer number one has me on the floor in tears. That’s just too funny. I’m going to vote for low on medications for all the weirdness lately.

90

The OMMP raises the interesting notion of internet legacy. Honestly, I hope to have none.

The party I went to on Saturday was an absolute blowout. Keg beer, jello shots, people passed out, holy crap… I’m still kind of recovering. Everyone I brought was thanking me all day.

I have a long, dull calibration at a gown and hairnet place tomorrow. Blah.

Nighty, all.

91

You know, Dolores Reborn’s porkchops reminded me of one recipe I do have.

The Most Awesome Chicken Nuggets Ever

Ingredients:
Chicken Breasts (however many you need. I usually used one or two, but I’m used to cooking for one).
Italian dressing
Vigo Parmesan Breadcrumbs
An egg or two (well, probably more if you’re cooking for more than one)
Olive oil

Cut your chicken boobs* into nugget-sized chunks. Dump some Italian dressing into a ziplock baggie until it’s about half full. Throw your chicken boob chunks in there, and let it ride in the fridge for a day or two. Or, if you’re frugal like me, buy a whole mess of chicken boobs at once, prep a bunch of baggies like this and freeze any you aren’t planning to eat right away.

The next day, take your chicken boob chunks out of the fridge. Put 'em between a couple of sheets of wax paper and hammer 'em out a bit. They don’t need to be super thin like for Chicken Parmesan, but you want them a little thin. Get a frying pan out, and dump at least a finger’s depth of olive oil in there. Warm it up on medium heat while you do the next bit.

Smash your eggs into a bowl and dip those suckers in. You can thin out the egg wash with a little milk if you like, but it’s good both ways. Dump a whole mess of Vigo Parmesan Breadcrumbs in a shallow dish, and crust those suckers. Then do a second dunk in your egg wash, and crust 'em in the breadcrumbs again. The second crust is vital, let me tell you. As soon as you pull those suckers out of the second crusting, chuck 'em in your pan of olive oil. Let 'em sizzle for about four minutes, until they’re brown on the bottom. Flip 'em over, and repeat. The topside usually takes a little less time to brown, but I never stood over 'em with my stopwatch to make sure.

Eat 'em while they’re still sizzling hot from the pan. You’ll never go near a preformed chicken nugget again. I don’t eat meat anymore, but these chicken nuggets are so good, someone should be able to enjoy them even if I can’t.

*My little brother Carl wouldn’t eat chicken breasts for the longest time. When we finally got around to asking him why, he said “I don’t want to eat any chicken nipples.” For a while afterwards, we were all pulling the skin off the KFC to try to find the nipple.

doggio, these days almost all of my cooking is Bachelor Food, but without the meat and bullion. Hooray for Bachelor Food!

I swear I’d eat Bachelor Chow if they made it. Because I’m just that lazy.

92

Miss Delores,

Wouldn’t you know, my first post here and I botched it.
You are absolutely right about the Olive oil, dangit, :smack: it should be 1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons. I was lazy and I copy and pasted it from my recipe page at Grouprecipies.com and I had it screwed up there also. I may have been a little tipsy when I wrote it :dubious:
Thanks for the welcome and for catching my goof.

93

with the neighborhood I’m in, it’s a combination of 1 and 2.

94

Good grief. It is supposed to be 1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons of olive oil.

I are an idjit

95

Howdy All!!

I hear that ether and duct tape works wonders… what? :smiley:

So I made it through my first week of work and starting on the second. So far so good. It was weird being back to work after 2 months of sleeping late and playing video games.

This past weekend was so nice; too bad I couldn’t be bothered to go for a bike ride. I probably couldn’t get it out of the house for all the boxes stacked up.

Sunday I made some kick ass beef short ribs. I just sort of made it up as I went and it is sort of like Carolina style BBQ.

BBQ Beef Short Ribs in the CrockPot

4 lbs meaty beef short ribs (it was about 10 of them)
2/3 C flour
Salt & pepper to taste
1/4 C butter
1 large onion, chopped
1 1/2 C beef broth
3/4 C red wine vinegar
3/4 C brown sugar, packed
3/4 C vinegar based hot sauce (I used Huy Fong Thai hot sauce)
1 tsp. hot chili paste (also from Huy Fong- the one with the gold label)
1/3 C Worcestershire sauce
5 cloves garlic, chopped

In a 1 gallon Ziploc bag add flour salt and pepper. Add the ribs in batches and shake to coat (a la shake-n-bake).

In a large skillet, melt butter then add ribs to brown on all sides. When browned, place ribs in crock pot.

Using the same skillet with the butter and meaty goodness… add onion, beef broth, red wine vinegar, brown sugar, hot sauce, chili paste, Worcestershire sauce and garlic. Stir to combine and heat to a boil. Then add to crock pot.

Cook for 8 hours on low (and do not remove the lid no matter how tempting).

Remove ribs from crock pot and set aside. Using a stick blender, blend the sauce in the crock pot until smooth (or you could use a regular blender). Serve ribs with sauce.

There will be enough sauce leftover to use on other stuff (chicken, pork, etc) it’s too good to just dump out.

Well, I am tired and dirty after a day of field work and have to get up early again tomorrow.

96

All these lovely recipes! I need to go grocery shopping.

Just got done sending out some resumes to ESL schools in Korea. Hopefully someone will bite.

97

I’m fine. More later…

98

Insomnia sucks. Tornado story linky

Obici Hospital is where the majority of my ambulance runs go. The shopping center is next door to the office of the surgeons who did my hand and VWife’s knees. I passed through the area headed home about 45 minutes before this hit.

The same tornado passed about 3 miles west of the Coast Guard base where I work.

We had a funnel cloud from a different cell southeast of the Vunderlair, in roughly the same area as the big January fire.

The morning commute will not be fun. Well, back to bed…

99

::waves furiously::
Hi ShermanAter!!! Welcome to the fracas! :smiley: :stuck_out_tongue:

Boy, last night sure did suck. I was up four times for the call of nature. I think it must be all of these crappy pills that I’m taking. Now, I’m awake and on the couch listening to snoring schnoodles. Most likely this is the culprit.

Yesterday was just a long, frustrating comedy of errors for me. The most notable being that I forgot about a lunch that was scheduled until the client called to make sure that we were still on for it. :smack: This was about 2 hours before the lunch (which may sound like enough time, however…) and I had to run to the grocery store and buy a bunch of stuff. It was tacos and fajitas for 35 people. Not something that you can just throw together in a half hour or so (not even if you’re Rachel Ray). Add in the fun of paying bills with not enough money and some printer issues and you get the general idea. I hope hope hope that today is better.

100

I slept last night - yay! Still woke up at 5, but I slept for almost 8 hours, so yay!! We had a power out for about an hour which is why I went to bed early, and I really needed it. One more time - YAY!!

And may I say that Chicken Nipples would be an outstanding band name. Plus the mental image makes me giggle.

**doggio ** - I can’t decide if you’re truly dedicated, too unmotivated to seek alternate employment, or just plain insane, but I do find perverse amusement in your work tales.

Today is probably gonna be pack out much of the kitchen day. And laundry day. And maybe even start loading the van day. It’s definitely I’m-glad-the-washer-and-dryer-are-sold day. The $100 should buy a bunch of fruit and veggies for the reception.

I need to brush my teeth, and caffeinate.