2007-09-20

 

Blog from iPhone is a challenge. En route to Texas. Just realized I should really take out my teal extensions before Sunday. Missing Stephen a lit, but I'll get to see him soon.

posted by bethanye 7:21:00 AM   

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2007-09-15

 

Wow. There are actually TWO patterns from the new Knitty I might want to make. Mr. Greenjeans and Cherie Amour.

posted by bethanye 9:47:00 AM   

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Less phage-y. It seems that the Yang Wen-li tea plus a long sleep is just the trick. Woke up to find that ants had attacked the cat food.... again. I followed them back to where they're getting in, and it's kind of a losing battle just blocking that part up. They have plenty of other options, including the gap where the dishwasher is in the cabinetry. Instead, I tried using orange oil over the fronts of all of the cabinetry where they might get in. Maybe that will be annoying enough to keep them out for a few days.

I always blog/twitter/FB update MORE when the boy is away.

posted by bethanye 9:41:00 AM   

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2007-09-14

 

Basically, we've had a pretty fucked-up week. I just don't know how else to put it. Rather than rewrite the sordid tale out again, I'm going to copy-paste an email to a friend I wrote this morning.

Stephen's father went into the hospital three weeks ago with what they thought was a gallstone. They spent a few days stabilizing him - he had not eaten much of anything in nearly a month. When they did the "camera down the throat" they discovered that he had a ginormous tumor wrapped around the ducts between his liver and stomach. Very bad news. So John went through pretty major surgery - 10 hours, I think it was - two days later. The surgery went GREAT, but they had to do a lot of bypasses where they had to remove vascular infrastructure running through the tumor. He was recovering well. We scheduled for Stephen to go home around the same time his dad got out of the hospital, so he could help out while John (his dad) was convalescing. Last week, they told us the tumor was not cancerous and John wouldn't have to do chemo at all. He was recovering VERY well - things were looking up. Then yesterday morning, when we were scurrying around getting ready to put Stephen on a plane out for his several weeks of helping out, we got the call. His father had started bleeding internally, and they rushed him into surgery. En route to surgery, John had a heart attack and couldn't be revived.

Stephen got on the flight to Dallas we already had scheduled.

Stephen's brother is in Iraq, and it takes time to get back to the States. The services will be on the 23rd, so I'm heading out on Wednesday and I'll stay for several days after the services so that I can be there for his mom when everyone else leaves. We're pretty close.

Basically, I'm wiped out. Totally. I'm also fighting the Linden phage (not quite Linden plague, but still no fun). I'm having my tea Yang Wen-li style tonight -- tea and milk and honey and LOTS of brandy. Maybe that'll thwart the phage... or at least take some of the ick out of it.

posted by bethanye 8:54:00 PM   

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2007-09-09

 

I find I'm getting more and more protective of my weekends. I don't mean that I never check my email or respond to it... but I'm way less into work for just a few days. We'll see how long I can keep it up - I've had a few weekends in a row light on "oh I'll just log in for a few minutes."

posted by bethanye 9:44:00 PM   

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2007-09-04

 

posted by bethanye 9:10:00 PM   

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It's been awhile since I did a food-focused blog. Usually, these happen around holiday time. Since I'm skipping knitting tonight - I'm just wiped out - I'm going to go ahead and write about fried chicken. That's right, I said fried chicken. Not the most interesting topic, perhaps, but we made fried chicken yesterday and I finally remembered to document the process.

1. Cut up a whole chicken. You can buy parts, but it's more expensive for the total chicken, not to mention that when chickens are raised for "parts" they have exaggerated features. For example, the breast portions are gargantuan in some of those packs. The pieces shouldn't be ginormous for frying. Joy of Cooking and Cook's Illustrated have good descriptions on how to cut up a raw chicken, but I finally overcame my trepidation from watching Alton Brown dismantle a chicken on Good Eats.
2. Brine. We brine our frying chicken in buttermilk overnight. It gives a nice fresh taste to the meat after it's cooked, plus helps it stay juicy. Rinse the buttermilk off the chicken and pat dry with paper towels.
3. Fry up some bacon. The grease adds flavor to the frying oil. We use an electric skillet for this kind of work.
4. Make up a dredge with seasoned flour. Cajun seasoning blend makes a nice addition to a simple flour dredge.
5. Dredge the pieces in the seasoned flour. Shake off excess.
6. Heat the oil with about 1/2 cup of bacon fat. In the electric skillet, we set the heat to a little under 350, but that ended up being a bit hot. You want to try to keep the oil around 325ish during cooking.
7. Gently introduce the chicken to the fat, skin side down. Cook covered for 9 minutes, then uncover and cook for 6 minutes.
8. Flip the chicken pieces. Cover and cook for 5 minutes, then uncover and cook for 3-7 more minutes, turning in the last few minutes to maintain browning.
9. Remove the chicken to a draining rig. Check internal temperature to make sure you're not going to poison anyone - temperature should be at least 165, though not too much higher than that or it'll be dry. The brining helps cushion against overcooking somewhat.

Yum.

posted by bethanye 7:59:00 PM   

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2007-09-03

 

Today has been a really nice day. It's beautiful outside. We made (and ate) fried chicken. Hit the gym earlier, culled out some closet space, cast on a new iPhone cozy... A nice day all around. p.s. - Ben & Jerry's New York Super Fudge Chunk may be the most delicious ice cream EVAR.

posted by bethanye 4:20:00 PM   

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