Hold on to what is good even if it is a handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe even if it is a tree which stands by itself.
Hold on to what you must do even if it is a long way from here.
Hold on to life even when it is easier letting go.
Hold on to my hand even when I have gone away from you.
- Pueblo Blessing
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Friday, Sept. 17, 2004 - 2:41 a.m.
WARNING!!!! if you know me personally, you may read my diary, but if you do, you take the chance of hearing things you don't want to know, misunderstanding what I've written and being hurt by it. If you are unsure if it is ok to read, save yourself and me the grief and heartache, and ask first!!! Please note that this is a DIARY, ie my subjective feelings, hearsay, suppositions, and outpourings of ranting of the moment. It does not represent objective news, the whole of what I think of a topic or someone, or even a thought-out representation of any of the above. Keep that in mind. Thanks. * Here is a Diary Etiquette Read Me.
Cock-a-Leekie is the Best Potpourri
I suppose I should scan in some images to spice up the entry.
Yesterday someone told me in my comments that I am indecent. cool.
I guess it all goes back to when I used to draw naked people on the sidewalk with colored chalk when I was about seven. indecent.
Are you an artist question #1: Would you prefer to spend an evening cooking soup or drawing with pretty colors??
yeah, me too I'd rather do the soup thing. Some things to remember. Boiling soup is hot. Esp if it has organic chicken boiling in it... chicken fat floating on top of broth is esp hot. Your tongue will get scalded. Remember to blow on the spoon like your mom showed you.
Organic chicken is expensive. Don't use it for one meal. Throw it in the ol' cock-a-leekie recipe. Make a double batch... it will STILL be swimming in chicken meat. A $16 chicken won't seem so expensive when you get 10 pints of soup out of it. That is only about $2 per meal, prunes and leeks included. Yay for organic chicken.
Do use the bones and gristle and fat and skin you have fished out to make stock for your leek and potato soup.
Be very happy that recipes with tons of leeks don't need onions chopped. It will save your eyeballs I tell ya. Cuz leeks sort of ARE onions already. Remember to wash your leeks well.
Don't try to sort of dump a LITTLE salt out of a jar into the soup using a slotted spoon to measure it sort of. It will dump a lot, not just sort of. And it will go through the slots. Use a different spoon to dig out the half cup of salt dumped into the soup. Be very happy that leeks and potatoes are huge and lumpy, and thus stop the salt from dispersing into the liquid and sinking to the bottom.
Do sniff the air alot. Organic chicken boiling away (yeah, it is cockaleekie soup... you're supposed to boil the chicken for 2-3 hours... it was actually supposed to be a cock, ya know, a fighting rooster that lost the fight, not a sweet little organic hen) smells very nice. Esp when you almost never cook meat of any sort in the house. mmmmm. just like grandma. Funnily enough, ALL her chickens running around the yard were organic. And didn't cost $16 for one skinny little body.
Well, I went last night and tried out the flamenco class at the "studio" (well, it has a wood floor and mirrors on the wall, but it is the size of my kitchen and is actually a garage) near my place. Hmmm.
Lots of pretty femmey girls. young with nice bodies. This is not like the community center flamenco class. There *I* had one of the top three bodies. Last night I had one of the bottom two bodies. They were all slim with long hair and lots of hips and thin arms. And they waggled their hips alot. All sort of sexy like. I asked about it. Yes, we can waggle our hips in this class... different teachers allow different things.
I am really not much for waggling my hips. Someone said I will loosen up. I am loose. I just don't have waggly girly wide hippy hips. More boyish, get the job done efficient straight forward hips. Not sexy girly waggly. Dang.
And they tap their feet VERY FAST. And fling their arms about dramatically. My old teacher would HATE it!!. It looked kind of good but it intimidates me to do things fast if I don't know how to do them right yet. When I said I wasn't sure about the arms, it turned out no one was, except the teacher, and they were just sort of imitating her, flinging about their arms. I thought that was a bit ass backwards. And then when I got home, my shoulder hurt, I had like a pinched nerve feeling in my arm and elbow and tingling in my hand. not so great.
And the funny thing is she said in the class "if you hurt from the flamenco, you are not holding your body properly... flamenco dance doesn't hurt people, doing it wrong does"... but when you are doing things fast and flinging about, what do you expect? To do it right??
I could see that if I kept up with them for the whole year, I would be a fast flamboyant girly dancer. I decided that is not really me. Nope. I like doing things well and learning them in detail. I don't think it is a bad class... I just felt sort of out of place, and also more appreciative of my old class, despite my teacher's personality and it costing big moolah.
So, I might eventually go back to the old class if I find some more $.
I DID sign up for the cardio boxe class... boxing and kickboxing moves to music for an hour on monday evenings. That will work better into my schedule than a flamenco class on wed or thurs night when I have watercolor class all day thursday. I need to fit work time in somewhere.
Oh lala, juggling schedules when you don't have a set work timetable. it is not so easy.
Now I should be working on the new dog book, and also the image to advertise my new illo website. I have mostly sketched it in. But got waylaid by the chicken soups.
Next up... quiches. Spinach, broccoli. And cauliflower soup. Fill up them darn freezer shelves.
Well, I shall leave you with a wee bit of politics. Here is an assessment of the war in Iraq from the Guardian. Excellent paper. Excellent article.
So, are you all rushing out to buy automatic weapons? You do know that on Monday, the American federal ban on automatic and semi-automatic weapons expired. But Bush repeatedly publicly said he supported the ban. He just let it run out though. Kind of like saying you support law and order while sitting there watching people loot and rape. And then go "I made my views perfectly clear". The guy will burn in hell. For him I hope there is a hell. I really do. He can dance with everyone else who smugly bombs civilians, makes money on the backs of impoverished people, and enrich themselves from the profits of war, using torture and disdain as tools. Hmm. Am I anti-Bush? I guess so.
I hope you have a good election people. DO remember to vote. Only 52% of Americans voted in the last election.
me,
wenchie
Cock-a-Leekie:
1)Place one boiling fowl in a large pot, cover with water and simmer for 2-3 hours.
2) remove all chicken from pot. Return all meat (cut into pieces) to the broth, discarding the bones and skin
3) chop a bunch of leeks and add to pot (2-4 leeks depending on size)
4) add 12 prunes, salt and pepper, and two sprigs of parsley
5) simmer for another 45 minutes. Adjust seasoning and serve.
yum yum. How hard is that???
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previous meanderings - future past
Goodbye Michael. May your next life be kinder to you. - Thursday, Jun. 25, 2009
Taking Care of Your Cows - Thursday, Jun. 25, 2009
Saint Joseph robs the cradle and eats spaghetti - Sunday, Jun. 14, 2009
sticky notes and broken irises - Friday, Jun. 12, 2009
The FOODCOMMANDER - Monday, Jun. 08, 2009
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