A medley of extemporanea

[rachelmanija]

1. Is Bookmooch not working for anyone else? It's refusing to accept my password.

2. Yesterday it occurred to me that I need a pair of tennis shoes, my old ones having fallen apart, as I'm going to be wandering about in the muddy ruggedness of my parents' place near Yosemite this weekend. (Yes, hiking boots would also do, but I really don't have enough need for those to buy a pair. I detest buying shoes-- trying them on is tiresome, they are expensive, and it's hard to tell if they really fit or not in the store.

While walking to the neighborhood cafe, two small girls shrieked from across the street, "LEMONADE!" I went over to buy their homemade lemonade, and they directed my attention to their teeny-tiny garage sale. "We have shoes," one proudly announced.

"A bit small for me," I said.

"Try these!" insisted a girl. "They're Mom's."

They were a nice pair of white Nikes, barely worn, and they did look like my size. Mom emerged with some sugar for the lemonade, and said, "I've hardly worn those. I thought they fit in the store, but they didn't."

I tried them on. They fit perfectly. So I got a cup of tart lemonade and a pair of perfectly good Nike sneakers for three dollars and sixty cents.

3. If you want to send good wishes, light a candle, or whatever you do to send good luck to someone's way... I have several projects awaiting decisions right now. They are all collaborative, so good wishes should be directed to me and anyone working with me. Thanks!

4. What are some good, simple winter dishes that can be made with ingredients found in a very small market that is unlikely to have anything that anyone in America might ever consider unusual, exotic, or yuppie? (I could bring non-perishable spices with me, but it's a five-hour drive.) I plan to cook while I'm in the boonies near Yosemite, and I know what sort of supplies they have. I already know about thirty-garlic chicken, and am already planning to make potato salad and apples stuffed with sausage meat (if they have sausage meat.)

ETA. 5. Oh, and I had a lucid dream last night: I knew I was dreaming, so I took advantage of it to try to influence the dream and have fun. Pretty cool, that only happens a couple times a year (unless it's more but I don't remember.) I tried to fly, but could only manage weightless leaping. And I had sex with Logan Echolls. Because he was there. It seemed like a good idea in the dream. No, it wasn't very good. He kept looking at me like, "Who is this woman and why is she molesting me?"

Comments

[veejane.livejournal.com]

I do a lot with canned tomatoes -- tomatoes and black beans and rice; or tomatoes and chick peas and green pepper. Most of those dishes do depend on spices: cumin in the first case and coriander in the second.

Ground beef is useful for meatballs or meatloaf; if they have lentils you have lentil soup (especially if they also have sausage meat); barley is conducive to beef and barley or chicken and barley soup. You might do acorn squash (okay those aren't exotic around here but maybe they are in California) roasted in butter. If there is cornmeal, you can make polenta from scratch.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

1. Bookmooch is working for me now, although it was down earlier today.

3. Yeah!

4. Stooooooooo! Which I'm putting here mostly because my annual winter stew craving is nigh upon me. Maybe I'll do that this weekend.

How thick are the pork chops available? If they're nice-n-thick (as in inch or more) this recipe is great, otherwise it's merely good: sear them on both sides. Put them in deep casserole-type dish, pile sliced onions and potatoes (and maybe apples) on top. Maybe sprinkle in some thyme or herbs if you're feeling wacky. Or not. Pour in 1/2-ish cup of water or apple cider (hard or soft, your choice) or white wine (or maybe beer - haven't tried that). Cover and pop in 350 degree oven for 2ish hours - done when the meat falls apart when you prod it with a fork.

Man, the thin pork chops in this area are the pits. I have to buy a pork loin and slice it myself to get them the right thickness. 1.5-2 inches is, like, perfect.

And now I'm craving that dish. Aarg!

[telophase.livejournal.com]

* You can skip the searing if you want, it's mostly to make them look pretty. And you're supposed to deglaze the pan with the cider/water/wine before pouring it into the casserole dish - I forgot to add that.

[affreca.livejournal.com]

My recipe for corn soup (http://affreca.livejournal.com/19885.html) is pretty simple.

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

Here's some food ideas:
Stew made with red meat o' your choice and veg; I have a good butternut squash stew recipe, actually, that is very tasty if your ingredients are limited but the palette of your guests is not.
Chicken noodle soup, make with leftover roast chicken (I assume, maybe incorrectly, that 30 garlic chicken is a roast?), involves carrots, onions, and bow tie pasta.
Porcupine meatballs, a midwestern staple, basically meatballs made with rice and cooked in a tomato garlic sauce. We usually ate them in rolls, plain with salad, and occasionally in sauce over pasta.
'Boiled dinner', which is polish sausage, frazzled a little, then carrots, cabbage, and potatoes, cooked in a little broth. Very warming.

I'd be happy to supply recipes if any of these sound likely.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Winter vegetable soup: potatoes, carrots, turnips if you have 'em, sweet potatoes if you have 'em, you could even go for parsnips-- cook in butter with salt, pepper, and (important) one entire cup dried parsley, toss in a little flour to thicken butter, throw in some broth of some kind to fill the pot when you feel like it, simmer until done. Yes, you do need that much parsley. Yes, it should be dried. More is better. It sort of transcends itself and becomes a totally different flavor. You can even do this soup with just potatoes and carrots; it's one of my favorite I-have-no-ingredients things.

[loligo.livejournal.com]

Chickpea & pasta soup: onion and garlic sauteed in olive oil, then add a can of chickpeas, a can of diced tomatoes, a chopped carrot or two, some thyme, salt, pepper, and water or broth. Cook until carrots are tender. Either cook some pasta in the soup itself, or cook separately and add at the end. Garnish with parmesan if desired.

[oyceter]

Yay shoes!

Also, this is completely random, but your post title made me wrack my brain for a few minutes before realizing that it's from a song lyric (except now I forgot the band name, but they're the funny ones with 69 love songs).

[coffeeem.livejournal.com]

Actually, line from poem by Dorothy Parker, called "Comment." See here (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dorothy_Parker).

Also used in Alan Moore and (who was the co-writer? Drat!)'s song, "Me and Dorothy Parker."

[oyceter]

Doh, yes, that's it!

I've had that song in my head for ages (it is very awesome), thank you!

[coffeeem.livejournal.com]

Oh, but the other band you were thinking of is the Magnetic Fields. For which we have MUCH LOVE OH YES.

[penmage.livejournal.com]

What about potato leek soup? Potatos, leek, a couple of other simple ingredients that I can find out for you if you really want to know (my husband always makes the soup)

Also, lentil hot dog soup. Recipe also upon request, but it's really easy.

[fannishly.livejournal.com]

Re: 3, good luck! :)

[kate_nepveu]

Baked mac & cheese: http://kate-nepveu.livejournal.com/211328.html (scroll down).

Meat sauce for pasta:

1 pound ground beef
1 onion, cut up small
1 clove garlic, ditto
1 big can (28 oz?) tomato sauce
1 little can (6 oz?) tomato paste
1 tablespoon sugar
various Italian seasonings to taste

Brown the beef, onion, garlic together until done. Dump over the rest of the ingredients, stir together, simmer for about an hour. Serve over 1 pound pasta.

Simple Mormon Funeral Potatoes: http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/002685.html

[coffeeem.livejournal.com]

If you want something comforting and wintry, but don't want to spend much time making it, cut up a couple of carrots into slices, and a couple of potatoes (ideally new potatoes, white rose, or Yukon golds) into bite-size chunks. Sauté in a large frying pan with a little oil, black pepper, and a good-sized dollop of curry powder. When they're tender, add a can of Progresso lentil soup and heat through.

Slightly more effort and time: Peel a large sweet potato and cut into, again, bite-size pieces. Cut up an onion and dice some fresh garlic (fewer than three cloves is hardly worth the trouble; I usually use four or five biiig ones) while you're at it. Sauté in a little oil in the big frying pan. When they're not quite done but getting close, add a can of black beans (don't drain), a cup of frozen corn, and a healthy wallop of salsa of some loveable and moderately hot variety. Simmer on low until everything is tender. Serve over rice, couscous, or polenta.