Odds and Ends

This is a poor second cousin to seafood noodle salad, but it was still tasty. And photographed beautifully.

In other news, Brother Samuelson made me a pie.


Of the chicken pot persuasion.


With a perfectly flakey, all-butter crust.


I ate the whole thing in about three hours.

So then I reciprocated with Italian Stuffed Shells. Note the absence of hyphenation, please. I hadn't made this in years, so it was fun to revisit.

I'll post the recipe later.

I love the smell of flip-flops in the morning.

These arrived in the mail today. I ordered them online last week, having finally surrendered to this empirical truth: Old Navy flip-flips are the only brand in the known universe that are reliably cheap, comfy, and durable.

In other news, at some point in the last couple years I've become more allergic to mosquito saliva. I've got four quarter-sized knots throbbing away as we speak. But my will is strong.

Also, here's a poem fragment I wrote to a prompt a while ago, that's probably not going to end up anywhere.

Prompt: X-ray

High school choir grooved
middle C into my vocal chords,
made tight rope of my throat muscles,
leathered my lungs. Five lazy years later,
would an X-ray today show scar tissue
or the remission of promise?

Brownie Plot

I wanted brownies and, for stereotypically womanly reasons, I wanted them really, really chocolatey. So I melted a couple ounces of unsweetened baking chocolate and stirred it into the batter. I also added walnuts, a splash of vanilla, and a dash each of cinnamon, cloves, and chili powder. Me likey. I think a cheesecake layer, sweetened with coconut cream, would be a good addition. Too bad I only want brownies, like, twice a year.

Gradu-what?

Well, it's done. I am no longer a BYU-Idaho student (and yes, that punctuation is correct; in the past three years The Powers That Be have changed the university title adjoiner from the em dash to the en dash to the lowly hyphen).

Weird. But cool. (Being a graduate. Not the punctuation demotion.)

The commencement and convocation ceremonies were very nice, though the latter didn't end until 9:30 PM, by which time I was so tired and overstimulated that I had a very difficult time handling the sudden intersection of so many divergent aspects of my life -- my dad, stepmom, siblings, and grandmother, Rexburg itself, Brother Samuelson, Liz and Jacob, and Gary Benson -- there in the stuffy foyer of the Kirkham building in that stupid hat that kept falling off with every hug and photoshoot attempt.

Ah well. Afterward Dad bought me a huckleberry shake from Arctic Circle, which helped. Then they dropped me off and I sobbed hysterically into my pillow for twenty minutes and fell asleep all crusty-eyed. Which also helped.

I guess I'll go to England now.

:)

Packin' Pasta

Ingredients:
sauteed onions, mushrooms, kale
brown rice pasta and white beans
tomatoes stewed with garlic and herbs
chopped sardines

Tater Salad

Salad:
red potatoes, quartered and boiled, salted and sprinkled with vinegar while hot
onion rings and mushrooms, roasted with olive oil, herbs, and salt
peas and celery

Dressing:
mayonnaise and cream cheese
mustard and horseradish
roasted garlic, minced
lemon zest and juice
pepper trio (black, white, cayenne)
fresh parsley and salt

Garnish:
soft-boiled eggs
salt and pepper

More leeks...

Quesadillas with Panela cheese, oregano, sauteed leeks, and roasted red peppers. Good combo. Excellent with green chili salsa.

Spring thing!

LEEKS! Leeks are in season, and Broulims had them on sale for 89 cents a bundle this week. BOOYAH. So I made:

Leek Cornmeal Pancakes

2 leeks, white and pale green parts only, rinsed and sliced thin
olive oil and butter
salt and pepper

1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
1 TB baking powder
1 tsp salt
thyme
allspice
nutmeg
garlic powder
white pepper

1 1/4 cup buttermilk (we all know the trick about stirring a tablespoon of lemon juice/vinegar
into regular milk and letting thicken for ten minutes, yeah?)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs

Heat large skillet over medium-high heat. Add olive oil, then butter, waiting for butter to stop foaming before adding leeks. Saute to desired softness/mildness; season to taste.

Heat new skillet over medium heat. Whisk dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately. Pour wet into dry, whisk just until combined, gently fold in leeks. Oil pan and fry pancakes. Serve with butter and/or a drizzle of honey.

Notes: The batter was pretty thick, so I added some water. Next time I might increase the cornmeal and decrease the flour by a bit. Dried thyme is VERY assertive. Use sparingly. It'd be nice to work in cheese somehow.

First Fruit Salad of Summer

Tried something a little different with the dressing this time. Took low-fat plain yogurt, sweetened it with coconut cream, and added lime juice and zest, mint, and minced candied ginger. So so so good. Though the yogurt was tasty and (relatively) healthy, it did get watery in the fridge, so I'd like to try substituting cream cheese and whipping it (maybe with a little cream) for a better texture.

Baby Quiches

Awesome! You take phyllo dough, cut it into squares, and layer it with butter into muffin tins -- three or four sheets thick. Then, bake till golden brown, fill with quiche goodies, and bake again!

I made two kinds: shallot-broccoli-mustard and shallot-mushroom-thyme-white pepper-nutmeg. Jarlsberg Swiss in both. Very tasty.

Summer Sippin'

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Oh yeah, babe.

Legumes galore...

Curried lentils with peas, smashed yams, steamed zucchini, and sour cream.

Still on the dog thing...

So, I've been compiling a list of dog breeds I want to own someday, arranging them into groups of three, and brainstorming names for them. Because I think this is a really good use of my time right now. Assuming an average lifespan of 12 years per dog, and assuming I won't want more than three dogs at any given time, in order to own one each of the following breeds I need to start fifteen years ago and live to be 154. Hm. Still, this was fun.

Note: A few breeds are interchangeable to me, as is indicated by slashes (/).

GROUP ONE

Leonberger: Orson or Ursa

Brittany: Bourbon


Boxer: Augustus ("Gus")

GROUP TWO

/

Weimaraner/Viszla: Nickel/Penny

Australian Kelpie: Oz

Briard: Filibuster

GROUP THREE

Australian Shepherd: Matilda

Chesapeake Bay Retriever: Charlotte

Basenji: Yosemite

GROUP FOUR

/

Standard Schnauzer/Kerry Blue Terrier: Moses

Doberman Pinscher: Turtle

Akita: Ticonderoga ("Ty")

GROUP FIVE

Schipperke: Escher

/

Borzoi/Afghan Hound: Baryshnikov

Airedale Terrier: Wallace

GROUP SIX

/

Pharoah Hound/Ibizan: Niles

Norfolk Terrier: Graham

Bernese Mountain Dog: Stella

GROUP SEVEN

Great Dane: Horatio

Shiba Inu: Kismet

Standard French Poodle: Wellington

GROUP EIGHT

Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever: Chloe

English Foxhound: Hugh

Canaan Dog: Jerusha

GROUP NINE

Belgian Tervuren: Wagner

Black Russian Terrier: Trotsky

Finnish Spitz: Terwilliger

Group Ten

Newfoundland: Noah

Dachshund (miniature smooth): Shoe

Yorkshire Terrier: Pudding

Group Eleven

Border Collie: McCoy

Kuvasz: Magellan

Gordon Setter: Charlemagne

Group Twelve

Rottweiler: Grissom

Siberian Husky/Malamute: Mush

Rhodesian Ridgeback: Malcolm