Ah, that’d be directed at swampy
Ya know, the more I think of it, the more it does seem like Lissla is a bad influence on us, what with her freshly baked bread and homemade soups and stews. She’s undermining our way of life, she is! She cooks, she cleans, she even belly-dances. If she wears pearls and heels, we’re all done for. Who can resist a bellydancer in heels and pearls serving home-made food in a clean house? It makes me want to spend more time at home, cooking, cleaning, entertaining. I wanna be like Lissla! I wanna be like Lissla! I wanna be like Lissla!
But I also want to be the greatest labor lawyer ever, even if it means working so many hours that my heating bill doesn’t go up in the winter because I’m never home. My oven has cobwebs and my refrigerator looks like it was just delivered from the store. When I get home from work today, I’m going to have to give myself a good talking-to about leaving dishes in the sink and not putting the laundry away. My vacuum cleaner is suing me for abandonment and my Swiffer has threatened to start walking the neighborhood looking for work. I’d mention that my bathroom is carpeted with a lovely hair rug, but that might be TMI. My cake pans are getting rusty, my cookie sheets are warping and my soup pot is buried so far back in the cupboard I’ll have to don a mining headlight to find it. And on top of everything else, even if I had time, I still wouldn’t do much more housework because I hate it and you’re not gonna get me to do any more than necessary, except when company’s coming and that’s final. I don’t wanna be happy taking care of house and home, I wanna conqure the world and come home to a house somebody else has cleaned–for money!! I am not going to feel deprived because I can’t spend my days cooking wonderful food. Even if you offer me pearls and heels. So there! Someone else can be the domestic goddess, I’m the domestic diva!
I really should cook and bake more, though. I think I’ll go buy a springform pan and try my hand at cheesecakes.
What are these ‘heels’ you speak of? 
I wish y’all were here- I made way too much soup and I’m going to have to freeze half. The cooking and cleaning is mostly because I’m bored, Kalley. I’m only working 3-4 days a week right now, so I’m spending a lot of time cooking stupid amounts of food to relieve boredom. And I make guests do the dishes, so I’m not too hot on entertaining… wait, maybe I am, and that’s why Driving Husband and Quasi-Daughter never seem to leave. Hmm.
Good. When Mr. Lissar gets back from class I’ll let him know that I’m the Perfect Wife[sup]TM[/sup].
I could get a second job, which would relieve broke-ness and provide me with entertainment and Useful Occupation, but then I’d have to job-hunt. Bleh. Besides, it’s almost Christmas, and I’ll be working eight days a week then.
Lissla, how about your minestrone recipe?
I know you didn’t ask me, but you can have my minestrone recipe.
This is a recipe I posted to Zenter’s ultimate recipe thread from way back:
Obtain about 1/2 lb of Sweet Italian Sausage. Not cased, but rather looking like hamburger. You want the stuff with fennel in it. Saute this in the bottom of your largest soup pot over medium heat, (you may need a little oil here), along with a diced medium onion and 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, minced.
When the sausage is browned and the onion is translucent, pour in 3 or more cans of low fat chicken broth. Now add a can of kidney or other red beans, a can of garbanzo beans, and 2 cans of stewed tomatoes, chopped or whatever you like. (BTW, I put a can of black beans in once, and it was excellent.)
At this point we tend to really start ad-libbing, but we usually put in about 16 oz. of frozen veggies. Sometimes mixed veggies, sometimes carrots and peas, peas and corn, whatever. But you want some sort of small veggies in here. We also like to cut up a couple of small (2" dia.) zucchinis or yellow squash and throw them in, but that’s optional.
Now adjust your liquid level with water, and add some Italian spices. We use Oregano, fresh Rosemary, (we grow our own) Thyme (usually) and Parsley, and anything else that takes our fancy. Spice it up good!
Turn the heat up a bit and when your soup gets nice and hot, fling in a reasonable quantity (I’m guessing 8 - 12 oz.) of pasta. We use large macaroni or the medium-large seashells.
Cook until the pasta is done, tasting and adding spices as necessary as you go.
It isn’t authentic, but it is really good! And you really only need half a pound of sausage, but you can use more if you want to.
Uh…make that Zenster, not Zenter. :smack:
It’s not actually minestrone- I guess it’s ham-bean-veggie soup. A couple of days ago I cooked a smoked pork shoulder in beer and water overnight. Yesterday I chopped up the ham and froze it- I like having already-cooked meat in small portions in the freezer- and strained the ham stock. Last night before bed I put about two cups of beans, four cups of water, and the stock to cook overnight.
This morning I chopped up about four potatoes, two zuchinni, celery, and a couple of carrots, and tossed them in the pot with a can of diced tomatoes. I put some shredded ham, oregano, and hot garlic-chile sauce in at about five. The bread’s done, and we’ll eat when Mr. Lissar gets back from class in an hour.
I made whole wheat, white/oatmeal, and a kind of sweet bread with ground almonds.
It sounds like a lot of work, but the only time-consuming thing was chopping up the ham. The rest was putting things into the crockpot, and then ignoring it for hours. Smoked picnic shoulder is about $1.30 a pound, and I like it better than regular ham because it doesn’t have a sort of lunch-meat texture.
I should get a checked frilly apron and mules. Gahhh.
Thanks, 'zine and Lissla. I was wearinf shorts yesterday, and tomorrow will be sweats instead. When the sweats come out, it’s chili weather, but what you guys make sounds better, 'cuz it’s different, and I want out of my rut.
Oh please Puggy! You know I have to wear the charcoal gray hip hugger capri for bidness.
Lissla and Bumba those soup recipes sound good. It’s finally gonna act somewhat like fall here this weekend, so I may do one. Prolly it’ll be Lissla cause I do happen to have some fully cooked picnic shoulder in the freezer and all the assorted veggies and spices on hand. Plus, I loves to use my crock pot. I don’t bake bread though. Unless you count corn bread, which is baking, so I guess I do bake bread. For other breads, I either go to the bakery or buy frozen ready to bake (after you let it thaw and rise a while) bread.
Soup in the crock pot will be good to make Saturday. I am cleaning out my closet Saturday. I have to. I need to. I gotta get those shirts and pants outta the laundry room. See, I bought some new stuff which means I need to go through the old stuff and see what needs giving away. That means a couple friends will be vulturing me when I say I’m cleaning out my closet. Apparently that’s how they shop.
Tonight I get to go to a banquet. It’s the local ARC (Association for Retarded Citizens) banquet which is usually fun. There’s an open bar. That makes it even more fun.
-swampbear (Who needs a charity to give stuff away to. I got friends for that.)
Where is the drool emoticon??? You guys are killin’ me here. I don’t make much soup cause Mr. Anachi is a meat and taters kinda guy and balks when I suggest soup for dinner. He’s also not a big fan of smoked pork shoulder as it’s too salty for him. I, on the other hand, adore it! I loves me a big pot of New England Boiled dinner (smoked pork shoulder, cabbage, carrots, onions, potatos and turnips if you like) but Mr. Anachi isn’t a big fan of cooked cabbage either. 
Well, it’s probably for the best cause I can maintain my low calorie diet better without the temptation of big thick bowl of soup and huge piece of homemade bread slathered in butter. Where IS that drool emoticon?? 
**Lissla ** is definitly a bad influence. Tch, tch. Now I want to make soup, too.
Hey…I just had an idea. Forget making my own, I’ll just drive up and visit Lissla! Yeah! It’s only several hours in the car. If I leave now and drive fast, I might be able to make it in time for dinner. And I don’t mind washing dishes for homemade soup and bread. You don’t mind, right, Lissla? We can talk about Cowboy Bebop, which just happens to be my favorite anime. Do you watch any other anime?
And Swampy, the charcoal (with pinstrips, no doubt) hip-hugger capris made me laugh. You have obviously missed your calling; you should be a fashion designer. Gianni’s dead, and I can’t stand his sister. That leaves, what, Lagerfield and Mizrahi in the “Over-the-top-gay-designer” category? Bah, they’re old news, you can take 'em! Particularly with your fresh ideas for fashion in the workplace!
Sounds great, Wintermute. Um, I mostly watch anime under the bad influence of Driving Husband and a couple of our other friends. Cowboy Bebop is my favourite, though. I saw about half an hour of Evangelion when they were trying to watch the whole thing at one go.
The theory was that if you watch all of it straight through you can fly. They didn’t finish. What is it, 14 hours of demented giant flying robots? I like Photon, too. And Ranma. And the music for Ghost in the Shell puts it on winamp is very cool.
Of course Cowboy Bebop music rocks the most.
Ooh, I forgot Hellsing! And Vampire Hunter D! Hellsing has the cleverest vampire name ever. “Alucard”. How can you beat that? It’s like naming a robot “Tobor”.
The soup was great, and that’s good, because we’ve got bucketfulls (definitely plural) left.
Well, of course pinstripes. With a white calypso shirt and a matching charcoal gray with pinstripes bolero jacket. And 8 inch black heels. What’s not to love? It’s Laura Petrie goes to work!
For those of you that are fond of the button down look for office wear, we have a lovely navy blue pair of bell bottoms, paired with a light blue oxford cloth button down shirt, with matching navy blue wind breaker jacket and red boots for contrast.
And a single strand of pearls. Never forget the pearls.
HAH! Take that you two clowns on that “What Not To Wear” show!
-Mr. Swampington G. Bear, ultra over-the-top-gay fashion designer/interior decorator/beer and cookie expert
Mrs. B made a huge pot of minestrone yesterday, and we had some for supper with crusty Italian bread for dipping. She used hot Italian sausage for a change, but I think I like the sweet better, as the hot kind tends to overpower the other flavours.
I took a day of vacation time because I had to pick up our new computer in the afternoon. I rebuilt our front steps in the morning, and then spent most of the afternoon (with a break to go to the computer store) climbing around on the roof putting up the Christmas lights before it snowed and made it all icy and dangerous. After soup and Jeopardy, I worked on trying to retrieve data from the dead hard drive from the old computer. (Note to self: You WILL do regular backups even when it takes a long time and filss multiple Zip disks.) Tonight I get to reinstall all our software and do all the updates and custom configuration. Yay. :rolleyes:
That does it, while in the grocery store for pumpkin guts, I’m picking up ingredients for minestrone. Only there will be precious little squash to be found in my version. I was force fed squash by a crazy aunt, for two weeks, back when I was a kid. This is also the aunt who would drive down steep hills and not steer the car. So yeah, I’ve got a grudge against Cucurbita pepo and all his evil relatives. Except acorn squash with butter and brown sugar. He’s an okay guy, that acorn squash.
Also, I need goggles. Like aviators wear. Driving with the top down after dark, the wind hurts my eyes and sunglasses are too dark. So I need goggles and maybe I’ll pick up those leather helmet, head cover thingies and a white silk scarf as well. Do they come in any colors except brown? Wouldn’t want to clash.
I saw a chihuahua (how the hell do you spell that?) with goggles and a little leather jacket last week. It seems to me that evil scary little purse-carried dogs are spreading. It’s a Paris Hilton/Britney Spears thing, right?
Of course, Ashes[sup]2[/sup], your goggles will be cool. Unlike that little rat-dog’s goggles.
Ha ha, Bookkeeper! Together we have infected this MMP with… um… soup.
Hmm.
That doesn’t sound very threatening.
I like soup a lot - tonight I am actually having Provencal Fish Stew & a cornmeal scone - spiffy! And tomorrow is Chicken Soup with Mushrooms and Barley. It’s fall - soup is a necessity.
Also necessities in the fall:
Apples - done & done - been having an apple a day, and have yet to see a doctor around my door. Although that might be a bad thing - the doctor might be cute and single. Hmm.
Pears - Planning on doing Maple Walnut Pear muffins next weekend - not this weekend, mom is here - but the weekend after.
Cranberries - Last of a batch of cranberry muffins are in the freezer. Also on the to-do list is Cranberry-Applesauce - a twofer! - and Mom’s (not my mom, Generic Mom) Cranberry bread - which has orange juice in it.
Turkey - Have new recipe for Turkey Thigh Ragout.
Pumpkin - Haven’t yet found the right recipe - kicking around to find a good pumpkin soup recipe.
Yes - I like to cook. Yes - my to cook list is miles long. Yes - my dishwasher is constantly running. Yes - my freezer is always full, because I am single and love to cook.
No - I do not have a life.
Susan
What, reading and posting to the MMP isn’t “a life”?
:o
It’s actually gonna be cool enough to make a pot of soup this weekend. YAY! I took some of the cooked chopped up picnic shoulder out of the freezer this morning before I left for work. I’m doing Lissla’s ham-bean-veggie soup thingy. I hope it’s ok to use red beans (cause I got some of them) and not use zuchinni (cause I don’t really like it, except for zuchinni bread) and ok to use some turnips (which I used to didn’t like but do now). Other than that, it’s just like Lissla’s.
My two friends who love it when I clean out my closet got wind that I’m doing it. Apparently ACBG has a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig mouth. I got a call from em late yesterday afternoon. To quote: “Do we get to come over and go through the mission barrel this weekend?” So, they’re coming over to vulture my clothes and eat soup and cornbread Saturday night. We’re also gonna watch “A Tuna Christmas.” I’m in the mood to see it and happen to have it and besides it’s real funny.
-swampbear (if things get really wild, I’ll pull out Jenga. Oh, the excitement!)
We’re due to get us some “cooler” weather here this weekend, too, and now y’all got me thinking about a soupy-type meal for Saturday. I think I’ll surf around for something I can make but disguise it from Mr. Anachi. “Noooooo, that’s not soup, honey! It’s, erm, sauce, yeah, sauce! Pass me the pasta, willya?” Yeah, that’s the ticket! If he protests I’ll just stuff his mouth with some nice crusty bread.
Not goin’ there. Nope! Ain’t gonna do it! 
susan, maybe you should open a little bistro near a men’s college or something? I’m just sayin…
I think we can blame the “Legally Blond” movies for starting the chihuahua thing (yes, you spelt it right) especially the dressing up part. Having one of the evil little purse-carried dogs myself, I can tell you that neither I nor my chi would be caught dead doin’ the dress-up thing. Afterall, she thinks she’s a rotweiller.
Tupug (gonna get soupious)