Standoff.

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Fresh chickpeas!

I have no idea what to do with them. Anyone have experience cooking these? I had to try them, having only seen them dried or canned before.




Spent Monday night prepping for 2 more batches of cranapeno jam, the first of which I'll make tomorrow after work. I may make both batches tomorrow. Once you've got the whole shebang going, it's relatively easy to turn around and make another. But you sure do get tired of the process before it's over-- it's pretty exhausting, and you're working around dangerously hot glass and molten sugary liquids, so you have to stay on your toes not to get burned. Anyway, it seems like the most time-consuming part of this is prepping the cranberries and the jalapenos. You've got to hand-pick through the cranberries and toss out the bad ones, and for the neutered version, you have to get the seeds and veins out, which always makes me cough, a nice accompaniment to the stinging eyes. Anyway, it will all be worth it, and hopefully these two batches will go like clockwork. :)

Anyway - let me know if you have any tips on the fresh garbanzo beans!
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music I'm digging right now

Love this song. Can't find it on iTunes or Amazon, though. *fume*


Lofticries by Purity Ring

Jam Session 2012 1.0

Sunday night I made two more lots of cranberry/jalapeno jam in what may be the last batch I make of the stuff until next Fall. This is my favorite jam, period. One thing that's been challenging is to make it hot enough for the people who like a lot of heat in their jalapeno products. I do two batches- one which tries to be hot, and the other is a neutered version. This time I did something different. I made both batches on the same night and started with the neutered batch. I cleaned all the seeds and membranes from the peppers for the first lot, and then I put those membranes and seeds in with the massive pile of peppers on the second batch. I think I've at last achieved a fair bit of burn with the jam. Chopped up in the food processor, I had about 2 cups of jalapeno, or more.

The batch on the lower shelf is the neutered, and ended up only being 9 half-pint jars, and the upper level batch is the hot stuff. Honestly, I like this year-round on biscuits or turkey sandwiches or whatever. The bright spike of pepper is a nice foil for the bitterness of the cranberries, and that seems to balance out the sweetness, so it's not so cloying a jam as the usual fruit stuff. Then there's that perennial party favorite, cranapeno jam dumped over cream cheese and served with crackers. nom nom nom!

Turns out, both cranberries and jalapenos are excellent anti-oxidants, so you can feel slightly less self-indulgent for slathering it on whatever.

Some of this batch is for friends, some is for Tolewyn who helped me with a car battery emergency at the end of December, and the rest will be my personal stash. Amazingly, they still have about 10 bags of decent-looking cranberries at the market in town. I may snag those and make one more batch. It'd be a shame to run out of the stuff, wouldn't it?

Sunday, Puppy Sunday: Where's Praline?

I thought this post went up about 12 hours ago from my iPhone, but apparently it failed.

Can you find the pretty doggie in this picture?

Molding. Yays!

First 4 lengths of molding are up.


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*happy dance*

Just found out I was accepted into local State university. Yays!!!


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But I'm not an athlete!!!

I have to admit I've been in a serious funk for a couple of weeks. Himself sagely surmised that the puppies wanted me to have a sensational pair of shoes for Christmas, and so the puppies got me the shoes. Alas, I have not been able to wear them because one of my toes has gone full-on athletic. Actually, it is on the mend, but I'm at a loss as to where I may have picked up athlete's foot. The only place I've been near the bare feet of strangers has been at the Yoga studio. *ew* You take off your shoes in the foyer there and leave them on racks. I think I'll be wearing socks in and out, from now on.

Anyway, it's miserable stuff. From commercials I've half-way paid attention to, I thought athlete's foot itches. This hasn't itched-- it's hurt like a screaming mofo. Like wake-me-up-at-4AM hurting. Apparently some people have this on and off for years. I don't know how anyone stands that. I hope this is a one-time thing for me, too. *le sigh*

I want to wear my new shoes.

Maybe it'll all be better when I wake up in the morning?
There's no place like home. *click* *click* *click*

Icelandic folk song about a raven

I love the percussive energy of these vocals and the way the tones glance off each other in a way which suggests the opposite of bubblegum.

Un-decking the halls

Not great pictures, I know, but I wanted something to remember my Christmas decor by. I thought my little house looked so cute be-swagged in red lights and greenery. On the porch columns I did this little fishnet effect with some cheapie green garland and wee plastic red ornaments and florist wire, and I wasn't terribly precise with it, but I still think it turned out very cute. Of all my houses, this is the first time I really did exterior ornament of any kind for Christmas, and I really liked it.







Unfortunately, though, I don't want to alarm the neighbors. Inside, I have left a Christmas tree up past Valentine's day before, but I don't think I could get away with this on the exterior for very long. It's coming down tomorrow.

*le sigh*

It was fun, though. I plan to do it again!

potty humour from Cagney and Lacey on the Graham Norton Show

Yeah, I know it's tacky, but it's really funny. Killer moment for me was when Sharon Gless said "I don't remember eating that." I noticed she referred to Tyne as "Mary Beth", so I suppose this was an in-character moment.



Meaning no offense to anyone, but I hope this gives you a grin. These ladies are really funny. :)

True story: man uses handgun to free 3 children from submerged car

Odd situation, but nice to see a news story featuring an example of a firearm being used in the rescue of 3 young children. :)

I'm not trying to judge the driver of the vehicle, but I would not have left the car without securing my children and/or my puppies first. If that meant my own death, then so be it. Very odd, indeed. I could not have lived with myself otherwise had any of them died.

Oddly enough...

...there is a watch for high winds throughout most of the midwest for today and early this week, with a high wind warning particularly for Iowa. In light of Tuesday's primary, I think this comes as no surprise for Iowans.

Sunday, Puppy Sunday: first pup-snap of the year

The pups have been fed and outdoored, and Chuy seemed contemplative before deciding to get back under covers. Miss Praline, of course, had already taken her narrow self back undercovers, because it was cold outside. Happy new year!!!



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