HIH Thomas,Son of Richard, KA, DMH, LMMO, CES, etc

Just finished "The Blade Itself" by Joe Abercrombie. This is the first of the "First Law" Trilogy of epic fantasy.

Its good stuff. It start slow, but then so does a freight train. Once the book starts getting up to speed, you don't want to get off.

Rate it a Solid B+.

Child of Fire, by Harry J. Connelly. 3.5 / 5

Former thief Ray Lilly doesn't know magic. Sure, he knows a spell or two, but can't be said to actually practice it. Unfortunately, that, and some shady unexplained happenings have gotten him a suspended sentence of death from the Twenty Palace Society, so he finds himself working for Annalise, the woman who wants nothing more than to kill him. When Annalise is taken out by a sorcerer using magic to keep his small town alive, it is up to Ray to find the sorcerer, the source of his power, and to stop them from sacrificing any more children.

This is a noir story with spellbooks. Some of the best noir tropes -- scrappy underdog caught up in events and factions beyond him, lots of fights, a femme fatale (and a fatal femme!). And werewolves. Its well paced and I like the characters, though I find Annalise to be a cypher and Ray's introspection felt clunky at times.

I'd recommend it. Worth your 8 bucks. Plus, this is Connelly's first novel, and he deserves it to be a success.

Wow.

I just deleted a drunken rant.

...


You're welcome!

recipe adapted from Mario Batali
You will need:

1 whole chicken
1/2 lb of mushrooms: I prefer the baby bellas, known also as cremini.
1 generous cup of cubed potato, waxy. I used Sweet with success.
1 whole red onion, chopped
1 whole red pepper, chopped
3 Tbsp of tomato paste
3 - 4 cloves of garlic, sliced thin.
1/2 c. stock or water.
1/2 c. all purpose flour
Salt and Pepper
1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil.

Take one whole chicken. Cut it up. Dump the Rack, the spine, the wings in a freezer bag for stock.
You should be left with 6 pieces: 2 breasts, 2 legs, 2 thighs. Season liberally with kosher salt and pepper, then dredge lightly in flour. Brown generously over medium high to high heat in olive oil. Remove from oil to paper towel to drain.

turn heat down and add onion. Cook until transclucent. Add garlic and pepper. Cook. Add Mushrooms. Place Chicken back in pan and throw in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Remove chicken from pan. Add paste, cook for a minute. Add stock/water to finish deglazing pan, reduce sauce to a sauce consistency. Serve chicken with cooked vegetables.

The veggies create this sort of ragu, the flour on the chicken forms a roux with the oil. Its an amazingly flavored dish.

Today, Jess and I turned a perfectly alive cockerel into food. It went better than I feared, but worse than I hoped. I learned a lot and remembered to take pictures. They're on FB.

So, the Chickens are now getting to pullet stage. I'm fairly confident we have 3, maybe 4 males of the Wyandottes. That makes me happy, as I want hens. On the chicken coop front, I have built the base, and framed the front wall. I've got to frame up the front door, and then three other walls.

Then we need to stake out the chicken yard fence, and we should be good.

The lettuces are starting to flower, which means I really need to go in and thin them. That will be a project for tomorrow. I'm also going to be planting the bell peppers. This week, we'll be ordering some Swiss Chard and a couple of other plants. I'm looking forward to it.

I made yogurt last night.

It was simple, fun, and entirely unsuited to starting at 8:30 pm on a week night.

When you read the following McGee article, don't get excited and rush out off to go make Yogurt like I did.

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE. PAY ATTENTION TO THE PART THAT SAYS ~'NOW WAIT FOUR HOURS'~

You will thank me.

But still make it.

The Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/dining/15curi.html?_r=1

If you type the URL for a searchable site, such as en.wikipedia.org or www.imdb.com, then press tab instead of enter, Chrome will prompt you for the search terms.

For example, in Chrome, type http://en.wikipedia.org and press enter. You'll get a prompt to search en.wikipedia.org for: and then type in the text of your search.

Easy-peasy.

Well, it looks like my greens survived after all -- both the spinach and the mixed greens. The seed sowed funny, a result of me not really paying attention to what I was doing, so I'm going to have to do some serious thinning. But That's okay, I'm learning something new every day.

I've transplanted the Tomatos to improvised newsprint pots -- they're doing well. Last night I culled them down to 1 plant per pot. The Cucumbers are getting ready to move into newsprint from the seed starters; and I think the fennel has come up well. Still nothing from the peppers however.

Monday night I planted green beans along the far edge of the third bed. The Cucumbers will join them and I'll put up some wires.

Lastly, Jess and I dug up the soil for the third bed. Its raining today, for which I'm thankful, and is supposed to rain for the rest of the week, so finishing the third bed will have to wait.

This weekend we're going to make a start on the chicken coop, and clean the house; we'll see how it goes.

Garlic & Ginger glazed seared Tuna Steak,
Mixed Green salad
Steamed Rice.


MMMMM. :)

There goes my lettuce. :(

Man, long day.

We dug the first of the garden beds today, laid out the other. Then we went through and cleaned the cement foundation. I cleared out the privet while jess stacked some of the wind fall from last year. We'll have a lot of sawing to do -- anyone have a cheap chainsaw on hand?

So now. I'm quite tired.

Hopefully next week'll see the first bed built and the second dug, and sowing the spinach and lettuce greens.

My dog Duke can now open Doors.

The end is near. Make your time.

Last night, the pantry was rather bare, and I was hungry. A grocery run out of the question, I improvised.


Toby's Savory Pancakes.

"Filling":
1/2 lb ground beef or venison
1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
1 large carrot, diced
2 tsp tumeric
2 tsp paprika
salt, pepper

Batter:
2c. AP flour
2 tsp salt
3 eggs
3/4 - 1 c. of warm water
1 tbsp instant yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp oil

In a medium bowl, whisk eggs and sugar together for 30 seconds until smooth. Add water, oil, and yeast, mix thoroughly. Add Flour until a batter forms. Cover and place in a warm area to ferment.

on stovetop, brown beef. Add onion, carrots, spices, and salt and pepper. Turn heat to low and simmer with a small amount of water for 20 min. Drain meat and allow to cool.

When the batter is fermented, it should be frothy, with lots of bubbles. Fold meat mixture into batter. Cook on a griddle greased with olive oil or butter until brown on both sides.

Serve with a spicy mustard.





I was quite impressed. I believe that if I were to make the batter even looser, it would encourage steam production, and result in a lighter cake, esp. if I reduce the number of eggs. The result as written is a chewy, savory pancake. Will need to do experiments using different cooking vessels and times.

Southern Comfort & Coke remains my favorite way of imbibing alcohol.

That is all. XD

Its 12:31 on Sunday, October 26. The first day of my Vacation

So, it follows naturally that I'm at work, right?


Sigh.

So I used the other half of the chicken stock last night.

I made Risotto.

Best. Risotto. Evar.

It had carrots, green beans, and chicken.

mmmmmmmm. Risotto.

I made Chicken Soup last night. It was tast-- wait. Let me back up.


I made Chicken Stock on Sunday-Monday. It was good. And Easy.

I took 2 racks of chicken carcases, some carrots, celery, and a med. white onion. I chopped the mire poix, then dumped it in a crock pot with the broken up carcases (use kitchen shears) and covered it with water. Add a little salt (I used 2 - 3 tbsp). Then left it on over night on low. In the morning, Jess and I strained it through a double layer of cheesecloth.

Then that evening, I cut up some chicken thighs, sliced up another med. white onion, some carrots, some celery. I also minced up 3 large cloves of garlic and 1 & 1/2 thai chilis.

Sweat the onion in olive oil and a little salt (much less than the 'little' used in the stock. 1/2 tsp or so) Let it get transcluscent, add carrots, garlic, celery, and chilis. Stir often and let cook for a few minutes. Then add chicken and 1/2 of the stock. simmer for an hour. 20 minutes before done, add some noodles. I use cheap egg noodles.

So, yeah, I made Chicken Soup last night. It was tasty. I think the chilis are what made the soup for me. Just enough of a kick. Jess called it Baja Chicken Noodle Soup. I call it good.

ORCS
First Blood Omnibus
Nicholls, Stan
769pp.

Pocket Review: Yay for Action! Boo for Characters! Recommendation: NO.
( And now for the lengthy review )

The next person to make a Main Street / Wall Street comment is getting shivved.

In the FACE.

With a Spork.










I'm not joking.