The Post T-Day MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
61

Blurf.

Experiment results to report. Don’t put this in the recipe blog yet, 'cuz I ain’t done tweaking.

I made my ersatz Scotch eggs the way I was thinking, and they were a partial success. Structurally, they held together this time, and were delightfully ungreasy. The tweaking needed is spicing. I put in 0 spice of any kind, and calling the result bland would be an insult to rice pudding everywhere.
4 hardboiled eggs
1 raw egg
12 or so saltine crackers, or similar amount of bread crumbs
1 lb mild bulk sausage

Crush the saltines into powder, and mix with the sausage and raw egg. Divide the mixture into 4 parts. Take a hardboiled egg, place it in the middle of the sausage mixture, and cover the egg evenly. Put in a baking dish (elevate on a rack if you desire) and bake at 400[sup]o[/sup] F for 30 minutes.

Sausage is not hamburger. The sausage I used was pliably stiff straight out of the package, but once that egg was mixed in, it was like handling a pound of snot. :eek:

62

Snot covered eggs… what a way to wake up! Blech! :smiley:

I’m so unmotivated! I really need to clean today. It’s early yet, though. Dad invited me to eat lunch with him at James Coney Island - that’s one of his fave places! :wink: So we’ll do that, and I’ll get after this house this afternoon. It’s really the kitchen that needs it most.

We got a cool front in last night and it’s a beautiful day, around 50° out there. Maybe I’ll be motivated to clean up the back yard a little. And yet here I sit. :wink:

I made an awesome dinner last night. I had four big fat boneless pork chops that just screamed for stuffing. I’ve never made stuffed poke chops before, so I perused a few recipes, and just made it up as I went along.

I browned 4 chopped sliced of bacon and set it aside. I drained off most of the grease, and sauted 1/2 an onion, some diced celery and carrot, and 1 garlic clove, minced fine. Added poultry seasoning and thyme, salt and pepper. When all was soft, I stirred in about a cup of fresh bread crumbs (two slices - I should have used three) and moistened with a bit of chicken stock. Then I stuffed the poke chops which had been seasoned with salt and pepper.

Browned them over medium heat with a bit of olive oil, then flipped them to brown the other side. Added a little chicken stock to the pan, then covered and baked at 350° for 30 minutes.

Tender and moist and flavorful! I made the pan juices into gravy by adding a slurry of corn starch and water. I’ll leave out the bacon next time, because I couldn’t taste it at all.

Y’all have a good day!

63

Snowbunny, cats always know where you don’t want them to puke. And that’s exactly where they do puke. They also know, despite their not-so-great color vision, which clothes are the opposite color than they are, and they will lie only on those clothes so you go out with the maximum amount of cat hair showing at all times. I wear a lot of black. And it’s always covered with white cat hair. :mad:

gt, yes, it is the recipe with mayo and curry powder. YUM! Major comfort food for me.

Shadow, that Noro yarn is gorgeous! However, having just purchased a whole bunch of Noro less than a week and a half ago, I really need to refrain from looking at yarn for a while. It gets expensive!

Glad you stopped by, rigs. We’re always glad to see you even when you don’t feel like you have anything to say. That never stops the rest of us! :smack: :smiley:

Possible bad job news here. There are rumors at KT’s company of 700-900 layoffs early next year. Out of ~3000 employees (I think… not entirely sure on the numbers), the odds aren’t so good. (Which adds to the need to rein in the yarn habit!) We’ve had a couple days to think about it, and overall we’re both feeling ok. The financial situation will be tight but not impossible. But I’m worried about his mental state if he’s not working. And mine if I’m the only person he talks to. I’m used to having time at home alone before work, at lunch, and for an hour before he gets home in the evening, and I really value my alone time. The thought of him being around ALL the time is a bit daunting. I’m not the kind of person who handles that much togetherness very well. And he’s someone who’s very purpose-driven. I’m not sure how not having work to do will affect him.

So that’s what’s going on here. But at this point, we’re just going to wait and see what happens. No use worrying too much about something that’s at least a couple months away.

64

Just running by to say hello since I never came in last week. As for the menu I’ll say this:
I’m a vegan. But for this one week, this brief shining moment of hedonism and gluttony, I will eat any animal, animal product or animal by-product that crosses my path. Hoof stew? Whatever, bring it on!

Well, I’m off to let my son get on here and obsess more over Total Drama Island. I’ll catch up with y’all later. I got an appointment with a financial planning company this morning. Yay for being a growup!!

65

Mornin’. I got up at an ungodly hour to post the End of the Day on the Mafia game. Ugh. I am tired.

Work is still busy and annoying.

Christmas shopping is getting there. I do not plan to go shopping this weekend.

Um…I don’t remember what else I was going to say.

66

Thank you Swampy! I’ll probably cook up the collards tonight, since they’re really more for Wednesday, but we’ll also have some on Turkey day, I think. I greatly appreciate this - and yeah, it -was- early to be giving out foodie advice. :wink:

Carpet is in, and I’m un-packing, slowly but surely. Had an all-hands meeting this morning - discussin the high performance org. stuffus.

Hey, that scotch egg recipe looks good, BBBBobbio, although it does look like it could use some seasoning. :stuck_out_tongue:

My desk is so very clean right now; it’s tempting to leave it this way, but I know that it will soon be piled up again. Ah well!

67

Spicey (how appropo), my first change for recipe V2 is using hot sausage instead of mild, then playing with some of yesterday’s suggestions.

68

Don’t have a recipe, really; just a method: Take your turkey carcass and kind of crush it down to minimize the surface area, put it in your pot and barely cover with water. Add a cut-up onion or two (leave the skin on for color!) and a few cloves of garlic. Bring just to a boil and then reduce heat to barely simmer. Add salt and a few peppercorns, a bay leaf, some sage, thyme and rosemary (rosemary is a migraine trigger for me so I use very little, but I would use a couple of whole sprigs if I could). I cook it just at simmer for about two hours. Strain very well.
I like to add dehydrated vegetables like thesebecause they keep all their color and vitamins, and they’re just the right size. My produce market carries them. Maybe it’s cheating, but the texture is great and if I used any bigger pieces, my husband would pick them out.

For noodles, I make the dough in my bread machine and put it through twice. We like them big and fat like dumplings. I use 50/50 all-purpose flour and semolina, and use about 1 egg per cup of flour. You just have to get the right consistency by trial and error, adding water a drip at a time. Then we put it through the pasta machine on a wide setting to make sheets and hand-cut the noodles.

If I have any broth left, it’s turkey rice soup!

69

Ok, let me take gross advantage of your good natures and relay this to you. Please feel free to comment anyway you like upon it. I need a reality check.

Yesterday at or around 11 am, the cat vomited on the master bedroom carpet (beige carpet, camel colored vomit with undigested food noted. Simon did it on TH’s side of the room. No, I didn’t tell Simon to!). The master BR is right off the family room (we don’t have a TV in our bedroom).

At or around 1230 or so, said vomit is noted by me and cleaned up. The mess is picked up with t.p. and dumped into the toilet, which decides to not flush. (dontcha hate it when it just swirls around and then doesn’t DO anything? Me too). I am at a loss as to what to do about the stain and decide to ignore it for a bit.

At or around 3pm, I decide on warmish water mixed with white vinegar and place semi-soaked rags of that mixture over the 3 stains. Promptly forget about them. Start to watch The Savages about 530pm. Good movie.

At or around 7pm, TH arrives home. We exchange vague pleasantries and he eats his dinner. He enters the bedroom which is apparently a portal beyond Alice’s looking glass or rabbit hole…

TH: What’s with the rags on the floor?

Me: Oh, Simon puked and I was treating the stains. It was only food. It’s probably ready to be blotted and stuff now. <continues to watch movie as there are only 10 minutes left>

TH: So, Simon got a mouse?

Me: No, it was just undigested food and vomit. I’ll clean it up in a minute.

TH: It looks to me like a mouse.

Me: What? Oh-- No, that’s old paint (barn red) on the rag. The cat ate too fast and lost its lunch.

TH: It could have been a mouse.

Me (increasingly irate): NO. The rest of the mess is in the toilet because the stuff wouldn’t flush down. I broke the plunger, btw, trying to get it to go down.

TH(said disparagingly): It was a mouse. I don’t see why you don’t think it’s a mouse. <moves off> (calls from kitchen)–it could have come from the mousehole in the kitchen.

Me: Why do I talk to you? <said under my breath> (aloud) what mousehole?

TH: the one that they always get in through.

Me: that was sealed when we redid the kitchen. There is no mousehole in the kitchen now…

NONE of this was jocular or in humor. He is put out that I am saying he is wrong that it is not mouse remains. I am baffled and irritated by his lack of well, listening and believing me in such a stupid thing. There is no blood, no guts, no fur–there is NO mouse. Only Iam’s weight control cat food(partially digested), white vinegar, stained rage, a broken plunger and me.

Thoughts? And how about a big WTF?

Note: the vinegar and the long time soaking did the trick–no stains. The red paint did not bleed into the carpet. In fact, I can come up with no concrete reason why TH is insisting that our cat caught a mouse.

70

rigs - Obviously he is mired in unrealistic stereotypes about cats and mice.

I miss Thanksgiving! Last Thanksgiving was so much fun - the first I hosted in my own apartment. We made turkey stew the day after; pretty easy to make, just dump leftover turkey, bones, potatoes, onions, etc into pots and simmer for a day. Spice according to taste. It was almost better than the original turkey dish.

I have so much drama in my life right now, but I’ll put that in a later post. I have some time this week because thanks to a sore throat my school has given me two days off. They would never give me a day off for any other reason, but without a voice (and literally I had NO VOICE for a few days) teaching becomes somewhat difficult. :dubious:

71

Howdy all. Busy life, plus the internets were broken here last night.

No T-day for us, but I do have a favourite Turkey Sandwich recipe, which involves a ciabatta (or Turkish pide) roll, roast turkey, slatherings of real mayo, cranberry sauce, sliced brie cheese, sliced avocado and lettuce, seasoned with some sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper. It is Teh Yum[sup]TM[/sup]!

rigs, I got nuthin’ but :rolleyes: for TH - seriously?

72

Off to get MRI-ified soon. Promises to be a noisy time.

Had an unexpected day off yesterday as my back was just horrible and the combo of needing to lay dwn and narcotics was not compatible with going to the office. :sad:

Got a surprise from a neighbor last night. This guy just can’t keep a secret and said how if they had a coupon for the store, they could have saved $xx. We do a little mental arithmetic and realize that they’ve either bought all of our china or silver. :eek: This will be the first time in my life that I’ve actually owned formal china.

73

Rigs, that sounds like diffused hostility to me. Sounds like he was just looking for an excuse to be unpleasant and confrontational and that was the first thing he fixed on. Too bad it was such a retarded issue, 'cuz it really made him look like a total baby. Men. Can’t shoot 'em, can’t change the operating system.

Good newz, everybody! Himself got the tech support job! He’s walking about six inches above the ground, it’s cute. It’s the perfect job for him, he’ll be working from home–they’re sending the VOIP box and headset this week. Money is decent, full bennies starting from the minute he begins work, ten personal days a year, time and a half for working holidays–seriously, he could not possibly have fallen into a better spot! Now we have to go get another hard drive so he can install XP on his box (he’s not sure how invasive their software is so he prefers to sequester all of it on a separate drive rather than relying on a partition) and get him set up with a bank account for direct deposit–I’m thinking of adding him on to one of my checking accounts, since he doesn’t like dealing with money and I pay all the bills anyway. Otherwise he’d go to a check cashing place, waste 3% of his check on them, then hand me a wad of cash that I’d then have to go deposit. :rolleyes: Fuck that noise! With direct deposit all I have to do is go to an ATM, pull out some cash every week and leave it in a box on his desk. I’d say he’s money-phobic, but that would be an understatement. :smack:

So that means, with the unemployment extension, that I can look for a job I actually WANT instead of grabbing anything that comes by and that we’ll be pulling in enough to pay back my HELOC and get my savings back, hooray! I feel like I can finally breathe again–it was getting a little nervous there for a while…

Eeesh, I just realized this means going to Fry’s on Black Friday–I’ve faithfully observed National Buy Nothing Day for YEARS and I’m gonna blow my streak. Dammit. Oh well, it’s for a good cause!

74

May I say this?

I HATE all mayo, Miracle Whip or no
Don’t know the difference, don’t care.

Ah, but me hearties, the Mouse That Broke My Back has born strange fruit. I emailed him about it (and separation and other things) because I knew that if I tried to talk to him, I’d cry (out of frustration, mostly) and he’d stonewall and I don’t need or want the drama and this has just got to stop if I’m to stay sane and whole.

He told me this morning that he didn’t get that email (really? Of all the emails in all the world etc), so I sent it again. He got it and we’re going to research filing etc on Sunday afternoon.

Ye gods: soon to be free at last, free at last… AND I’m not going to MIL’s for Tgiving. Oh, sweet relief.

Now I really need a new job! :slight_smile:

75

Yay on Himself, SmartOne! But boo on TH, Rigs. I agree that he was just looking for something to be nasty about. ETA: But YAY for taking steps to file and finally move ahead in your life!

And speaking of being nasty, last week Papa Tigs was trying to get a couple of prescription refills from our doctor’s office. He called them Monday for the refills. Their office is about 1/4 mile beyond the local post office, which is about 1/4 from our house, i.e. ridiculously close. Nothing in the mail Tuesday. Nothing in the mail Wednesday. I call Wednesday and am told they mailed them Tuesday.

By Friday, still nothing from them, by which point we’re both convinced they were never mailed in the first place, so when Papa Tigs comes home from work early but still tired, grumpy, and looking for bear, he calls them. They tell him they mailed them on Monday. He asks to speak to the doctor; she’s with a patient, they’ll tell her and she’ll call right back.

Three hours later, he calls back to ask why the doctor hasn’t called him. They check; no notes in his file that he wanted to talk to her. He requests again. Decides not to go over there because blood might be shed in his current mood. No call back, of curse.

So yesterday, as the last of many errands I was running, I stopped by the doctor’s office late in the afternoon, just as they’d finished seeing patients. Still no scrips in the mail, obviously. The doctor comes out and we have a long visit. Turns out there’s still no note in his file that he wanted to talk to her. I point out that he’d called and asked twice, and the nasty bitch at the front desk says, “Well, he hung up on us twice.” I said, “Yes, because he was angry and frustrated and tired of getting a runaround. And that’s still no excuse for not putting the note in his file.”

Anyway, the doctor apologized profusely and rewrote the scrips, gave me samples of the meds he needs, and actually listened to my complaints as I explained to her how we’d left another doctor’s practice a few years back because of staff issues, and were ready to do the same at her office. All this was in front of nasty bitch at the front desk, which was just lovely. :slight_smile: I detailed all the issues we’ve had with the staff, and today she’s going to call Papa Tigs and try to convince him why we shouldn’t leave the practice. I wish her luck; I’m tired of dealing with the staff there, too. So we shall see.

Grr. Why is it that good doctors have nasty office staff? In both this instance and the other one where we left the practice, the doctor is a junior in the practice and doesn’t have the authority to do much of anything about the staff. But that’s still no excuse for having nasty bitches at the front desk.

Anyway, onwards and upwards. I haven’t finished all that laundry, but I’ve made a big dent in it; I only have 3 loads to go. (I won’t tell you how many had piled up; you’d be horrified at how lazy I’d gotten!) I hope to get it done today. I don’t feel like doing too much else, so we shall see.

And speaking of animal horck, yesterday morning not only was I awakened by the cat horcking (on the carpet, of course, where it could stain if I didn’t get lots of Resolve on it – I’ve found that works very well to get those cat food stains out, too), but I left the bedroom only to find that Rusty the Idiot had horcked on the carpet in the back room. Oh, goody, cleaning up DOUBLE animal puke before breakfast! :rolleyes:

Back to vegging. In between doing loads of laundry.

76

MomTigs, it’s the job of The Nasty Bitch At The Front Desk to block access to the doctor. The Karl Rove or Rahm Emanuel of the medical world…

77

Oh, the doc has more say than you think…

I loathe most office staff and if any here work in a doctor’s office, pay heed to my wrath. Here’s a handy list of things to remember:

  1. You are NOT the gatekeeper. This is not a game of “keep the doctor from her or his pts.” Truly.

  2. Guess what? I don’t have to tell you my symptoms or WHY I want to see the doctor. It’s none of your med tech business. Technically, it’s none of an RN or LPN’s business, either, but people do tend to open up to us. Not true for Ms I Took a 6 Week Course and Now Get To Wear Scrubs and Feel Important.

  3. Minimum expectations are that you seem pleasant and courteous on the phone, take messages accurately and convey them in a timely manner. This is not asking too much.

  4. Don’t lie. If you haven’t sent the Rx, apologize and do so. Ditto if you forgot to deliver a message. We all make mistakes.

  5. Don’t pretend to know more than you do. You are a med tech-you are NOT a nurse. (personal bugaboo)

  6. Don’t pump the syphgmomanometer so high. LOOK in my chart. Has my BP EVER been higher than 120/70? Use those skillz they taught you at Med Tech school.

Ok, I feel better now. Sorry you had such a shitty time of it. Hope** Papa Tig’s** back is better soon.

78

I suppose I should be grateful - Olive rarely horks and our floors are not carpeted so it’s not too much of a mess when she does.

Can’t sleep! Coughing is keeping me awake.

79

SmartAleq, that’s fantastic! (Don’t think of it as blowing your streak, think of it as supporting the economy! Or an anthropology project. I like going out on Black Friday and people watching. I usually don’t buy anything then, since most of the sales last all weekend.)

Rigs, it sounds like you’ve turned the corner. Good for you.

This morning, I was wrapping a baby gift when I saw something on the blanket. It didn’t look like cardboard; was it a bug? But it’s sealed…EWWWW! It was a fingernail. A PURPLE fingernail, sealed in with the blanket. Apparently, she ripped her nail off somehow, because it’s all crusty. Ewww, ewww, ewww! Normally, that kind of thing doesn’t bother me, but this morning, gross! I called our service rep and he was suitable disgusted. He promised to pass it on to the supplier. That’s all I wanted, really, since the blanket can be washed. It’s funny, really, at another job I would routinely get paperwork spattered with blood, mud, and other stuff I didn’t inspect too closely, and it didn’t bother me at all. But that fingernail, ICK!

80

Haze, sorry to hear that you’ve got teh sick; sip honey lemon tea to soothe a sore throat. Of course, drink plenty of liquids and get lots of rest too. {{{{{HUGS}}}}}

MamaTigs, I finally remembered to ask you about something - I’ve seen several of those emails asking folks to send christmas cards to recovering soldiers at Walter Reed: it’s a wonderful idea, but it’s not going to overwhelm the staff there, is it? Does PapaTigs know of or has he heard anything about this?

In other news, I’m tired tonight. :smiley: