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Friday Randomness
Apparently last week’s theme was day by day (Music Monday, Wordless Wednesday, etc.) and this week was recipes. Did I plan this? Not really, but it worked. Where to start? Oh, I know. In hell. Politics Maya has been sucked into the ‘Trump is Dead’ internet speculation, and starts each day telling us the current conspiracy theories. Allow me to show you a corner of my recently cleaned out closet. Tucked in with my bulkiest sweaters…ready and waiting. It’s been there since January. Painful Things The latest school shooting, this time in Minnesota, reminded me of this poem. So frustrating, so heartbreaking, so infuriating, so avoidable. I love a lot…
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Roasted Zucchini
Diane had a post the other day that included some delicious sounding zucchini, so I thought I would give it a try. Zucchini is not my favorite vegetable (or fruit), unless it is deep friend and dipped in ranch dressing, but when the zucchini are small and it’s not overcooked, it can be really nice. So I decided to try her recipe, which we ate with chicken (Maya had leftover pasta). Roasted Zucchini Ingredients Directions Preheat oven to 375 F. This is my default roasting veggie temp, it works for me. Slice zucchini into rounds, then toss with remaining ingredients down to oregano. Roast for 10-15 minutes until almost tender.…
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Quinoa Bowls with Sweet Potatoes and Black Beans
After I made Nicole’s tacos last week, I had leftover sweet potatoes and guacamole. This is not a bad problem to have, so I decided to figure out how I could best use the leftovers. Also, I thought maybe I would add some protein, and quinoa sounded like a good way to do that. I cobbled together a bowl with mostly the same items from the tacos, though I added some tomatoes because it is tomato season. Putting this into a recipe form is ridiculous, but perhaps it will trigger in my brain next time I want something quick, easy, healthy, and delicious. Ted is the biggest meat eater in…
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Guacamole
This is not a beautiful picture, but it’s the picture I have. This is our go-to guacamole recipe nowadays, and when Maya comes home from a long day of work and finds me making this, her eyes light up. Also she always requests it for an appetizer at family parties. It’s lime foreword and delicious. We originally found the recipe buried in a fajita recipe, here, and because of that when I want to find the recipe in my binder, I have to look under beef. Stupid. Guacamole Ingredients Directions In a bowl, smash together the first 5 ingredients, then add salt to taste. The lime does a pretty good…
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Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tacos
I was motivated by Birchie’s visit with Nicole to try to duplicate some enchiladas tacos that they had for dinner one night. So I sent Nicole an email and asked her for her recipe, and she kindly got back to me, but by the time I got her email I had already made them. I had also sent Birchie a text, and she got back to me with some tips as well. Turns out my recipe was pretty close to Nicole’s, but she spiced her black beans and I spiced my sweet potatoes. I keep my recipes on my blog mostly for me, but also, you should know how to…
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Meet Me in Another Life
Meet Me in Another Life ~ Catriona Silvey Thora and Santi meet under a clock tower in central Cologne, and quickly feel a connection. They will be friends, they think, but then there is a tragic accident. Santi is a teacher who dreams of the stars, so when his young student, Thora, says she wants to be an astronaut, he does everything he can to encourage her. Santi is an infant, and Thora is close friends with his mother. Thora and Santi are lovers. Santi and Thora are enemies. Again and again, Thora and Santi come together in Cologne, near the clock tower, and eventually they start remembering these past…
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Chest Wrinkle Pillow
I had so many questions about the chest wrinkle pillow I got rid of the other day, so here is your quick picture to show you how it works. I wore it some, and it wasn’t uncomfortable, but it made me hot and I didn’t feel like it worked, so away it went. I’m picturing the folks at Goodwill trying to figure out what the hell it is. Apparently I was once really upset by chest wrinkles, because not only did I spend way too much on this, I also bought some kind of silicone thing to help, which also…not enough results, so I threw that away. The end. That…
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Flashback Friday
Yesterday’s post was a list of 13 things that I have given away recently. Today’s post is about something that I tried to give away, but couldn’t. Looking at the picture above, from an Easter Sunday years ago, notice the adorable hat I’m wearing. I love that hat. I will never wear it again, however, and Maya doesn’t want it, and no one on Buy Nothing wants it, and I can’t bear to think of it going to Goodwill and no one wanting it and it being used for stuffing or rags or something. It needs to remain a hat. This is our beautiful girl, Genevieve, borrowing my hat back…
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Thursday Thirteen
I remember maybe 10 or 15 years ago, there used to be a thing, Thursday 13. A blogger could make a list every week if they wanted, and go to the official Thursday 13 webpage and link, and folks would come by and see your list and say hi. Sometimes this was a way to meet new bloggers, sometimes you would just stop by once. There were hundreds of participants, I doubt anyone went and checked them all every week, but it was kind of fun. Anyway, Engie suggested the other day in a comment that she would be interested in seeing some of the items that I’m getting rid…
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Wordless Wednesday
This is the picture drawn of Mulder for the ‘Bad Art’ fundraiser. Click the picture if you want to go to the post with the original.
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TV Tuesday
No Good Deed ~ Available on Netflix I came across No Good Deed while browsing Netflix recently, and I’m glad I did. It’s the story of a couple, Lisa Kudrow and Ray Romano, who are selling their home in a wealthy area of Los Angeles. Of course, things are not what they seem, and shit happens. The cast is great, the writing sharp, the characters as flawed as you would hope. The house is beautiful and I would likely watch for that alone. If you like dark humor, and you don’t want a huge commitment (there is only one season), give it a try.
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Music Monday
The Sofa ~ Wolf Alice Ted’s the music lover in our household, but I get the benefit of hearing new music that I might not otherwise hear. This song is a gentle ear worm, and I sometimes sing it to myself when I’m doing something I don’t want to be doing (like strength training or cleaning the toilet) because what I’d rather be doing is relaxing on the sofa. Are you a lyrics person? I like the dreamy music and the singer’s voice, but also really like the lyrics, about wanting competing things from life, and perhaps also about the expectations that the world can lay on you…and while sometimes…
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Friday Randomness
I’m finding my ‘get rid of one thing a day’ project very satisfying. On Sunday I went to the Farmers’ Market and came home with a bunch of produce AND three house plants that I had not intended to buy. Erm…I don’t NEED more house plants. However, I like house plants, and I have some empty pots laying around, plus I had a larger pot that had held several plants, but 1/2 of those plants had died. As I was bringing in my haul, I started thinking about how I did not need 3 new houseplants, so the first thing I did was to repot one of them and send…
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Woodworking
Woodworking ~ Emily St. James Erica is a recently divorced 35 year old High School teacher who is trying to come to terms with her identity. She lives her life as a man, has a mustache, wears men’s clothing, all of that. She has never felt right as a man, and keeping that fact a secret succeeded in destroying her marriage. Her ex-wife is now married to a Trump lover, and is pregnant. Erica befriends Abigail, the only other trans person in their small South Dakota town. Abigail was kicked out of her parents’ house and lives with her older sister and her sister’s boyfriend. She is secretly hooking up…
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Friday Randomness
So much randomness this week…this one is going to be scattered. Let’s dive in. Eggy GoodnessLet’s start with eggs, shall we? Maya and I watched a video on YouTube the other day about egg cooking hacks. If you need a lot of chopped up hard boiled eggs for egg salad or something, she has a tip where you crack raw eggs into a baking dish, bake them until they are set, then chop them up. That looked pretty good, but I can’t tell you the last time I needed a bunch of chopped hard boiled eggs. She had a trick for making poached eggs in the microwave that I had…