Recipe: Leftover Turkey Soup

This is of course an approximation, since I never measure sh** when
I'm cooking. Still, I've made this twice in the past week (we had a
LOT of leftover turkey) and Dale and I LOVE the stuff. So, I thought
I'd jot it down for posterity, exactitude or no.

You will need:
A biga** pot
Water
Kasha

Carrots
Potatoes
Celery

Salt
Chicken Bouillion powder (or cubes)

Pepper
Curry Powder
Thyme
Parsley
Rosemary
Coriander (I like to grind my own, coarsely)
Lemongrass (the dried, ground kind)
Cardamom seeds (removed from outer shell and ground up)
Hoisin Sauce
Leftover Turkey
Leftover Turkey Drippings/gravy (include the fat!! yumyum) (about a
half-cup to a cup or more, depending on taste and how much soup you're
making)

01. Dump some water in the pot. Dump in some kasha. Don't worry
about making the kasha right because you'll had enough liquid to keep
it going. Turn it up to medium or so and let it start boiling while
you start working on other crap. Keep an eye on the water level, make
sure it stays liquidy.
02. Chop up some carrots and dump 'em into the boiling water/kasha as
you go.
03. Chop up some celery and dump it in.
04. Peel and then chop up some taters, dump 'em in. Again, make sure
the water level is at boiling, not too thick.
05. Sprinkle in some chicken bouillion powder and some salt. Not /
too/ much. The Bouillion is for added flavour; the salt can be added
later if there's not enough to begin with.
06. Continuing to watch the water level, pull apart the Leftover
Turkey and chop it up however you like. I steer clear of the fatty
areas and grisly parts, and of course, I never put in bone. (Who does?)
07. Add the remaining ingredients, including the drippings/gravy.
Here's an approximation of what I do:

For one big handful of chopped turkey, I do about 1 tablespoon of
curry powder, some freshly ground pepper (to taste), and 1/2 to 1 tsp
each of the other "bottled" spices. I add 2 tsp of the Hoisin Sauce.
Cardamom, probably two seeds. For each consecutive handful of turkey,
I add one more helping of all of the above.

I also start with one potato, one carrot (or sevenish baby carrots),
and one-two stalks of celery, and increase based on amount of turkey.

Turn down the heat to 1/4 the heat, and let it sit there for about 20
minutes. Stir now and again and add water to thin it out a bit as
needed.

YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

painting

I was watching Dale paint the bathroom and suddenly the painting bug
hit me. It's not perfect, and the colouring's off (which is REALLY
REALLY hard to do!!) but I'm quite proud of the eyes. I was surprised
by the one ear I did, too; I thought it would be harder than it was.
I think I worked on Sinclair for about two hours, mainly because I
slapped some paint around before settling into doing the eyes, then
once I had one of them in, I thought, OMG, I've gotta get serious here
and fix this... and then realized I needed to reconstruct the nose,
which was way too long. For a while, he looked like a one-eyed wolf,
then a Sinkie-Wolf, and now he just needs a bit more work to make him
back into just plain Sinclair.

Currently, I still have work to do on the nose, left ear, and the
lower part of his face, but for the most part, it's him. Note that
this is him in his full ruff and then some. I'll need to trim his
face down a bit to make it more realistic. The important part is that
I captured the essence of him!! :)

pianos

I keep going back and forth on whether I should get a new keyboard or
not. If I were to buy one, I'd want a really really nice one, one
that sounds a lot like a piano, has 88 keys, and weighted keys,
amongst less important features. However, I keep noticing in life
that sometimes waiting and buying something seemingly "too expensive"
or "too difficult" is really the better way to go, rather than getting
something cheaper/more portable/more numerous and later being
immensely dissatisfied with it. So, I'm slowly coming to the
conclusion that perhaps a new keyboard is not my answer, but rather, a
piano. This brought about a new problem. Would I be happy with an
upright? Do I only want a grand because they look so cool?

Consequently, I have recently read about some concerns over grands vs
uprights.

Speed. This is, by far, an issue for me right up front. As soon as I
read about it, memories sprung forth of a few pianos I have had the
pleasure of pounding on a bit. I've played a several uprights over
the years, and only one or two grands. By play, I mean, I got to
pound out a few songs that I'd memorized on my keyboards, one of which
is decently fast, because I created it; it's simple, and my fingers
like to _move_. Apparently the keys on an upright MUST return to the
original position before you can re-depress them. Grands, on the
other hand, do not. I remember at least one upright preventing my
song from going full speed ahead, and it felt to me that the keys were
taking _forever_ to come back up. The grand, on the other hand,
seemed very responsive to my touch, as weak as it was.

Tone. I want a nice, mellow tone, with a good range. To date, most
uprights I've played seemed tinny or harsh compared to the grands,
which are gentler-sounding.

Size. I knew size to be important, but figured a small baby grand was
always better than an upright because the strings were horizontal and
so was the sounding board. Plus, there's the cover that you raise
that lets some of the sound out! Well, I was wrong. Grands smaller
than 5' are not worth getting for the most part if you want good
sound. Many uprights will actually sound better. So, that told me
that I'd have to have at least a 5'1" piano or else I'd be unhappy.

Room size. This is why I'd want an upright over a grand. However,
with all I've read, I'd be willing to sacrifice more room to a 6'
grand rather than put up with harsher tones in an upright combined
with the less responsive nature of one.

Now, the question is, where the heck would I put this thing? Assuming
we stay in this house for some time, anything larger than a 6' would
be silly due to room size. That's a given. The room I current use as
my den would likely be best. That would mean moving my computers
around significantly. I can deal with that. I think I have a spot in
mind, then.

When?! Well, considering the pricetag (probably $12K unless I find a
good used one), I'd say several years after the house is paid off.
This might be a while. However, I'll think about it for a few years
and get back to you on that. After all, the house will be paid off
much faster than originally expected...

~nv

art of mary fran lloyd

http://www.theartofmaryfranlloyd.com/

Some neat stuff!!

Poem: The Page

THE PAGE
2009111241 - c2009 WLC

A twist of metal, shimmering
A twist of hope is glimmering
Sparkles catch like prisms split
Dazzling rainbow colours lit

Gliding by, another year
Quickly fading was my fear
Much has happened, never know
Tears dry quickly as we go

On the emptiness of space
Words of love emblazoned here
Feel our heartbeats gently race
Sensing things is oddly queer

In my book of life, ties scattered
Slowly do I build this house
Filled with distant, loving chatter
More silent even than a mouse

Across the pink hues of the sky
Slowly do I say goodbye
For one day as I head home
Seldom am I now alone

Surrounding me, the stars
In the sparkles of your eyes
Time immortal loves you more
Oh, how fast it seems to fly

Know the reasons when I cry
Are but wounds that seek to dry
When you don't feel on the page
Look beyond the saddened rage

And listen for the well of silence
Dripping tears for what's to be
Look into my eyes, you'll see
You are so much more to me

Helpful tip # 34,267: Earrings vs SD case

On my desk: 1 empty SD card case and 1 pair of small hoop earrings.

As I absentmindedly packed the earrings into the case and latched it,
I realized this might be a good travel case. So, there's your tip for
the day. What began as boredom soon became inspiration.

~w

desk, wow, cool desk!!

http://www.designtoscano.com/product/furniture/desks/the+captain%26rsquo-s+davenport+desk+-+af2016.do#

correction on hamster link explanation

Uh... dude... the DUDE is cool... I saw a picture of a hand early on
and thought it was a woman... but clearly it's a guy!! lol

Way cool cage setup (http://hamstertracker.com/Cage0010.html) too with
the treadmill. Dale and I have been talking about ways of doing this
ourselves, so to see one might be helpful.

This came about because Dale asked if Pippin could have peanuts (yes)
after I realized it might be best if the rats didn't have them... man,
the sites that are out there!!

In the meantime, I'd also found a few sites about rats and the various
toys people give them. Most of them I'd already tried, but one I
hadn't thought of was tying string to food and hanging it from the top
of the cage. I had one of the rats going after it but they gave up
since there was easier food to get to.

Hamster Gourmet Food

http://hamstertracker.com/Cookin4LucyDetail.html#SimplePasta

I think the lady's a genius. Geeky, too.