Sunday, November 30, 2008
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Thanksgiving Menu
Here is the feast that I made today:
Orange You Glad It's Thanksgiving Soup
I have made this soup three years in a row, and every time I ask myself why I don't make it more often. (But someday, I do want to make this pumpkin soup instead.) It is incredibly easy and tasty and healthy; it just tastes like Thanksgiving to me. Of course, I can't resist altering every recipe I find. I add cayenne pepper and fresh or dried thyme leaves to make it perfect.
Herb-Roasted Turkey Breasts with Pan Gravy
This recipe is incredible!! It turned out just like the picture! In my food processor, I made a paste out of onion, lemon zest, sage, parsley, and olive oil, and then crammed all that stuff under and over the skin of the turkey breast. Then I melted butter together with bay leaves and used that for basting. The meat turned out so tender and flavorful and crispy on top! I was amazed! Trixie was so proud of me.
My alterations to this recipe: I glugged a cupful of white wine to the roasting pan, which added an incredible flavor to the turkey and the gravy. I didn't put apple cider in the gravy because I was concerned about sweetness, so I used chicken stock instead. I didn't use the apple brandy either. The gravy was excellent, flavored as it was with the wine, bay butter, and herbs from the turkey.
Apple and Onion Stuffin' Muffins
This is a pretty basic stuffing recipe, accented by the addition of apples and made crispy by individual muffin servings. I was actually too lazy to put it in the muffin tin; I just baked the stuffing in a pan. I love stuffing. It is a good gravy vehicle.
Dessert?
I decided that three dishes were enough, especially with needing to get some writing done today. I wasn't in the mood for the fuss of a dessert; I didn't want to add the mess of a bowl and beaters in addition to the blender and food processor dishes fitting into the washer. I thought about buying a pie and making whipped cream for it, but nothing looking appealing. So later tonight, I will have cinnamon hot cocoa with whipped cream.
Mom, this is for you:
A Myth Examined: Can Turkey Make You Tired? (from NPR)
I blame the sluggary on starch from potatoes, flour from stuffing and rolls, and sugar from cranberry sauce and pie.
Orange You Glad It's Thanksgiving Soup
I have made this soup three years in a row, and every time I ask myself why I don't make it more often. (But someday, I do want to make this pumpkin soup instead.) It is incredibly easy and tasty and healthy; it just tastes like Thanksgiving to me. Of course, I can't resist altering every recipe I find. I add cayenne pepper and fresh or dried thyme leaves to make it perfect.
Herb-Roasted Turkey Breasts with Pan Gravy
This recipe is incredible!! It turned out just like the picture! In my food processor, I made a paste out of onion, lemon zest, sage, parsley, and olive oil, and then crammed all that stuff under and over the skin of the turkey breast. Then I melted butter together with bay leaves and used that for basting. The meat turned out so tender and flavorful and crispy on top! I was amazed! Trixie was so proud of me.
My alterations to this recipe: I glugged a cupful of white wine to the roasting pan, which added an incredible flavor to the turkey and the gravy. I didn't put apple cider in the gravy because I was concerned about sweetness, so I used chicken stock instead. I didn't use the apple brandy either. The gravy was excellent, flavored as it was with the wine, bay butter, and herbs from the turkey.
Apple and Onion Stuffin' Muffins
This is a pretty basic stuffing recipe, accented by the addition of apples and made crispy by individual muffin servings. I was actually too lazy to put it in the muffin tin; I just baked the stuffing in a pan. I love stuffing. It is a good gravy vehicle.
Dessert?
I decided that three dishes were enough, especially with needing to get some writing done today. I wasn't in the mood for the fuss of a dessert; I didn't want to add the mess of a bowl and beaters in addition to the blender and food processor dishes fitting into the washer. I thought about buying a pie and making whipped cream for it, but nothing looking appealing. So later tonight, I will have cinnamon hot cocoa with whipped cream.
Mom, this is for you:
A Myth Examined: Can Turkey Make You Tired? (from NPR)
I blame the sluggary on starch from potatoes, flour from stuffing and rolls, and sugar from cranberry sauce and pie.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
NaNo Word Count Update
Current word count: 36,145.
Goal: 50,000 by the end of November 30.
I started Act III today with my hero entering the Second Door of No Return. I am really going to finish this!!!
Back to work.
Goal: 50,000 by the end of November 30.
I started Act III today with my hero entering the Second Door of No Return. I am really going to finish this!!!
Back to work.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Enough Coffee
Coffee fuels my creativity. Some of that is placebo effect. That it OK.
This weekend so far, I have spent hours and hours in coffee shops catching up on my word count. I am catching up.
December will be dedicated to tapering off the coffee habit and staying out of coffee shops.
When I exercise now (which is rarer than I would like, this month) I sweat pure coffee and that is just gross. When I put on my coat now I smell like a coffee shop: coffee, eggs, bacon, buttered toast. The smell follows me everywhere and it's getting stale. It's like back in the day, when smoking was allowed in bars and it took days to get the smell out of the coat. Ugh.
Word count: 15,341. Back to work.
This weekend so far, I have spent hours and hours in coffee shops catching up on my word count. I am catching up.
December will be dedicated to tapering off the coffee habit and staying out of coffee shops.
When I exercise now (which is rarer than I would like, this month) I sweat pure coffee and that is just gross. When I put on my coat now I smell like a coffee shop: coffee, eggs, bacon, buttered toast. The smell follows me everywhere and it's getting stale. It's like back in the day, when smoking was allowed in bars and it took days to get the smell out of the coat. Ugh.
Word count: 15,341. Back to work.
Middle School P.E.
Something good came from middle school P.E.
At my middle school, P.E. was divided into boys and girls sections. One time the sections were combined and we had the choice of two activities. One choice was some horrible team-based competitive and dangerous and humiliating thing, probably softball. I don't remember exactly if it was softball or not, but it was so horrible that I had to pick the second choice, which was weight-lifting.
I was relieved about the weight-lifting option, even though I had never done it before. Weight-lifting is not about being fast or having things thrown at you or being coordinated. You can be a lazy weight-lifter and call it "toning." You can waste a lot of class time adjusting and readjusting the weights. Nobody watches people weight-lifting because it is boring to watch.
There was only one multi-purpose weight machine and a couple of rusty free weights, so we had to take turns and pick partners. I was the only girl there. Nobody wanted to be my partner. By process of elimination I was paired with the shunned and unstable kid of the class.
Alex was prone to temper tantrums, even though he was thirteen. When he wasn't angry, he mumbled things to himself, things about how life was unfair and how the world should be run. I don't think he had any friends. He reacted strongly when kids picked on him but that only fueled the abuse. He had scabby knees. I didn't want anything to do with him and he didn't acknowledge our partnership at all. When Alex lifted weights, I hovered around uncertainly and stared off in the distance like I was deep in thought. When I lifted weights, he scowled, faced away, and folded his arms. The teacher took him aside to talk to him for a few minutes. When he came back, he announced to nobody in particular, "That's it! I'm done with this world! I'm going to Xanth!"
The bold statement was met with a round of snorts and rolling of eyes. But I suddenly sympathized with him. I spent most of middle school in Xanth also. (I read up to about book 30 in Piers Anthony's Xanth, and then after that the puns became too much for me to handle.)
I moved away after eighth grade and didn't remember Alex for years and years. This year, while making character bios for NaNoWriMo, Alex returned, all by himself and without me asking for him or realizing he was here until it was too late. He is flawed, but he has his reasons. I understand him now. We've spent a lot of time together lately. We do not lift weights anymore. He's the protagonist for my story. He's the anti-hero.
At my middle school, P.E. was divided into boys and girls sections. One time the sections were combined and we had the choice of two activities. One choice was some horrible team-based competitive and dangerous and humiliating thing, probably softball. I don't remember exactly if it was softball or not, but it was so horrible that I had to pick the second choice, which was weight-lifting.
I was relieved about the weight-lifting option, even though I had never done it before. Weight-lifting is not about being fast or having things thrown at you or being coordinated. You can be a lazy weight-lifter and call it "toning." You can waste a lot of class time adjusting and readjusting the weights. Nobody watches people weight-lifting because it is boring to watch.
There was only one multi-purpose weight machine and a couple of rusty free weights, so we had to take turns and pick partners. I was the only girl there. Nobody wanted to be my partner. By process of elimination I was paired with the shunned and unstable kid of the class.
Alex was prone to temper tantrums, even though he was thirteen. When he wasn't angry, he mumbled things to himself, things about how life was unfair and how the world should be run. I don't think he had any friends. He reacted strongly when kids picked on him but that only fueled the abuse. He had scabby knees. I didn't want anything to do with him and he didn't acknowledge our partnership at all. When Alex lifted weights, I hovered around uncertainly and stared off in the distance like I was deep in thought. When I lifted weights, he scowled, faced away, and folded his arms. The teacher took him aside to talk to him for a few minutes. When he came back, he announced to nobody in particular, "That's it! I'm done with this world! I'm going to Xanth!"
The bold statement was met with a round of snorts and rolling of eyes. But I suddenly sympathized with him. I spent most of middle school in Xanth also. (I read up to about book 30 in Piers Anthony's Xanth, and then after that the puns became too much for me to handle.)
I moved away after eighth grade and didn't remember Alex for years and years. This year, while making character bios for NaNoWriMo, Alex returned, all by himself and without me asking for him or realizing he was here until it was too late. He is flawed, but he has his reasons. I understand him now. We've spent a lot of time together lately. We do not lift weights anymore. He's the protagonist for my story. He's the anti-hero.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
NaNo Update
I wrote three thousand words today. My word count is now 10,396. I am a little behind, but that is OK. I am 20.8% done!
My writing is feeble and rushed most of the time--dialogue falling into cliches and scenes drifting away to nothing and characters squishing into flat cardboard outlines--but I am still excited about my story. There is a faint possibility that I could stick around to revise this one in December. I completed Act I right on schedule and I am in the midst of the Act II journey that I am hoping to stretch out over two weeks. My hero and villain have been introduced and are on the run, the initial crisis has come and gone and the hero has walked through the First Door of No Return, minor characters are being doled out one by one, the character arc is set in motion, and the subplot is evolving. Today I had an idea for how to end it all. It is unlikely that I will use that ending but it's a relief to have something.
I have been making more use of my notes this year. For every turning point in the plot that I had planned in advance (or every one that arrives as a surprise), I stop and write down a minimum of five alternate conclusions. I usually use one of the alternates. I'm hoping this method will make things less predictable.
I met some people for a writing session at a Starbucks today. I have plenty of gripes about Starbucks and most of them have already been aired. Now I have something nice to say. The internet is not free at Starbucks. That is a wonderful thing for my productivity. I wasn't able to "research" the novel or respond to urgent Facebook requests.
An aside:
When people find out that I like to write fiction, the first thing that they ask is if I'm going to try to get anything published. They aren't responding with awe to my writing because they haven't read anything that I've written yet. That's fine, I'm not offended. But why is that? Do I ask my basketball-playing or marathon-running friends when they are going to go pro?* Do you ask your church pianist when she will release a CD? Do you beg your knitting friends to open a boutique? Why is it strange to write as a hobby, for an end in itself, to do it for fun without financial profit? Am I just paranoid? A bunch of my coworkers found out that I like to write last night, and I must have been asked the publishing question ten times.
*Do professional runners exist? Maybe that's why no one asks.
My writing is feeble and rushed most of the time--dialogue falling into cliches and scenes drifting away to nothing and characters squishing into flat cardboard outlines--but I am still excited about my story. There is a faint possibility that I could stick around to revise this one in December. I completed Act I right on schedule and I am in the midst of the Act II journey that I am hoping to stretch out over two weeks. My hero and villain have been introduced and are on the run, the initial crisis has come and gone and the hero has walked through the First Door of No Return, minor characters are being doled out one by one, the character arc is set in motion, and the subplot is evolving. Today I had an idea for how to end it all. It is unlikely that I will use that ending but it's a relief to have something.
I have been making more use of my notes this year. For every turning point in the plot that I had planned in advance (or every one that arrives as a surprise), I stop and write down a minimum of five alternate conclusions. I usually use one of the alternates. I'm hoping this method will make things less predictable.
I met some people for a writing session at a Starbucks today. I have plenty of gripes about Starbucks and most of them have already been aired. Now I have something nice to say. The internet is not free at Starbucks. That is a wonderful thing for my productivity. I wasn't able to "research" the novel or respond to urgent Facebook requests.
An aside:
When people find out that I like to write fiction, the first thing that they ask is if I'm going to try to get anything published. They aren't responding with awe to my writing because they haven't read anything that I've written yet. That's fine, I'm not offended. But why is that? Do I ask my basketball-playing or marathon-running friends when they are going to go pro?* Do you ask your church pianist when she will release a CD? Do you beg your knitting friends to open a boutique? Why is it strange to write as a hobby, for an end in itself, to do it for fun without financial profit? Am I just paranoid? A bunch of my coworkers found out that I like to write last night, and I must have been asked the publishing question ten times.
*Do professional runners exist? Maybe that's why no one asks.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
13 Things On My Mind
A late Thursday Thirteen.
1. I need to get Trixie a new coat!
2. It is a good thing that my internet connection became unexplainably unreliable this week.
3. I am 1.5 days behind quota on NaNoWriMo. I will catch up.
4. I am astonished at how many people are walking past me to get to the bathroom at this Panera. I do not use restaurant bathrooms.
5. Today I am making a large pot of chicken ginger-miso noodle soup for lunch.
6. There is a lot of bacon in my freezer.
7. The "check tire pressure" light is on in my car.
8. My feelings about gingerbread bagels are mixed.
9. My Christmas shopping will be completed tomorrow.
10. If you are going to shout on your cell phone, please say something that will be interesting for me to overhear. (I'm at Panera! PANERA! I'm in the back of Panera! Have you been here? PANERA!)
11. Need more butternut squash recipes.
12. I wish there were more peppermint-flavored dog treats. Trixie's breath is just fine, but she is crazy for peppermint!
13. Looking forward to the NaNo get-together at Starbucks tomorrow!!!
1. I need to get Trixie a new coat!
2. It is a good thing that my internet connection became unexplainably unreliable this week.
3. I am 1.5 days behind quota on NaNoWriMo. I will catch up.
4. I am astonished at how many people are walking past me to get to the bathroom at this Panera. I do not use restaurant bathrooms.
5. Today I am making a large pot of chicken ginger-miso noodle soup for lunch.
6. There is a lot of bacon in my freezer.
7. The "check tire pressure" light is on in my car.
8. My feelings about gingerbread bagels are mixed.
9. My Christmas shopping will be completed tomorrow.
10. If you are going to shout on your cell phone, please say something that will be interesting for me to overhear. (I'm at Panera! PANERA! I'm in the back of Panera! Have you been here? PANERA!)
11. Need more butternut squash recipes.
12. I wish there were more peppermint-flavored dog treats. Trixie's breath is just fine, but she is crazy for peppermint!
13. Looking forward to the NaNo get-together at Starbucks tomorrow!!!
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