to find the truth you've got to read between the lines

Adapted from this recipe.

The dry

1c flour (self rising? WHO KNOWS?)
1/2 c cranberries
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2T white sugar
Pinch of salt
1T butter (generous...closer to 2 tbsp probably)

The wet

1t vinegar+milk to make 1/2c


Sift the dry together and then mix with the butter until it looks like breadcrumbs or sand.

Stir in the wet a little at a time until it becomes scone dough.

Form into a 1" thick circle and slice into 6 wedges.

Cook on a hot buttered griddle until golden brown and fully cooked, about 5 minutes a side. DO NOT GO DO SOMETHING ELSE THEY WILL BURN. Serve with butter and orange marmalade.


The verdict: Burned but tasty nevertheless.

Thanks to google translate and my (admittedly faulty) memory of pico_the_great's mom's recipe, I now have sour cherry soup for the office soup-and-salad-off tuesday-after-next. I'll stash it in the freezer, pull it out to fridge-thaw next Sunday morning and offer sour cream as a mix-in. Hooooopefully my coworkers will enjoy? (I ended up adding too much sugar and balancing it with the juice of three whole very juicy lemons. Verdict: Nummy!)

I'm bringing the tuna-lentil salad I posted the other day, which has the added bonus of I like it lots and won't mind leftovers if my coworkers like it less than I do.

I'm also giving a rewatch of the complete series of The X-Files another go, because I want to have something that's fairly brainless and long to fall back on, mostly on worknights when I don't have a lot of brain. (The problem is that this show does not take place in the real world, but rather in a different one very similar to our own, that does have alien abductions and shadow-agency coverups. And you have to accept that as its central conceit to enjoy, at the very least, the mytharc. That's ... gotten harder for me as I've gotten older and grown to love science more than I did.)

This weekend has been highly relaxing -- Wednesday I didn't leave my house or interact with any humans; Thursday I went to Ikea with taraljc and came away with a a Kallax 2x2 unit and curtains; yesterday I went to World Market for two chairs that match the table I got last year, and visited Tara at her house.

And today was catsitting, some light grocery shopping, soup and (most importantly!) The Two Towers with q_sama. (First time I've seen it all the way through!

Today I made broccoli one of my favorite ways, that I haven't had in a long time:

Sesame broccoli with whole cumin

1 tall-sided stainless steel or cast iron, heavy bottomed cooking vessel. (THIS IS IMPORTANT.)

Broccoli (~1 lb?)
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp olive oil
1/4tsp toasted sesame oil
Pinch salt
1/4 c water


Fry the cumin in the olive oil until fragrant. Sprinkle in a pinch of salt. Add the broccoli and stir until the oil is absorbed into the florets. Then stir until it becomes a rich, verdant green. Drizzle in the toasted sesame oil, and keep stirring until the florets begin to brown/scorch around the edges.

Finally, pour your water into the center of the pan, to steam-finish the broccoli. Stir (carefully!) until the water has all evaporated.

I now have lunches for the week, and have been doing the thing where I'm actually eating around ~5 times a day? I mean, granted, last Monday's cilantro lime rice dishes didn't get done until this afternoon but ... stuff happens, right? (Also the potato express is the best thing EVER. Seriously. Buttery thyme potatoes for my lunch in 5 minutes total.)

Ankle is still swollen, but marginally less sore. I'm calling it a win? Still going into the Dr's on Tuesday.

Iz sharin' mah recipes:

( I brought homemade orange-ginger cranberry sauce & sweet potato pie )

Can you think of cultures that don't have a thin, crisp or chewy flatbread that is topped or filled with a moist or juicy, protein-rich topping?

Or cultures that do have ready access to grain/grain farming/domestication but don't have some kind of dumpling?

And in my secondary universe, the question of: have they invented the sandwich as a named thing yet? What do the utensils look like? Has someone looked at their cheese room and decided that cheddaring is a thing they can do, or been hungry enough to eat the (unexpectedly delicious) moldy thing even though all their instincts are shouting POISOOOOON?

(Speaking of: my local grocery has seven year old white cheddar that I want to taste, as well as wedges of double cream brie that I really want to turn into a sandwich with pears, arugula, good mustard, and fresh crusty bread.)

The other thing I've wanted to try is Barbecue pulled jackfruit, which I need to test-drive before our next work pot-luck (We have critical mass of vegetarians, vegans, and people who look askance at pork for this to work). I'm also thinking of bringing in a package of beef bacon (certified kosher, even!) to try around, because I've read good things and they sell it at my grocery, but I don't really want to try it on my own and then not like it and then have 4/5 of a package of beef bacon I don't like mouldering in my fridge.

Need to get rid of the storage unit. Haven't touched it since I moved; not looking forward to the task. Renewed my lease last month. Still haven't adopted a cat/kittens.

So far the longest my house has stayed maintained-clean is 4 days; I'm about 60 minutes away from full clean right now, so we'll try again next week. Flat surfaces continue to be my bane.

Work is work; I don't remember whether I'd been deputized 2IC of our AV department, but since I'm not allowed to leave the building I kindof had that happen. (we're running up onto a busy season, and I may find myself working a longer week than the 35ish I'm used to.

I continue to noodle around with cultivating more fannish activity, either by extending feelers toward the Right People forum or out into wherever it is that people are being active on LJ.