Author: David

Over-educated Curmudgeon, Bit-Bucket Tuner and Budding Brewmeister.
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Once Again, Xmas Stew

This year again, a Xmas meal I make every now and then: Green Chicken (or Pork) Stew. It’s a chicken (or pork) posole made with the following ingredients:

Cooked and cubed chicken or pork. Most folks would probably go with boned and skinned chicken breasts for the chicken, but that’d be a mistake. Use chicken breasts, if you must, but cook them skin on, bone in. Chicken thighs would be even tastier. Bone ’em when you cube ’em. Whether using pork or chicken, be sure to season the meat with salt, pepper, and freshly ground cumin seed (use a coffee mill or a mortar and pestle).

Sauteed chopped onions and minced garlic (use ghee or the rendered fats from the chicken or pork).

Green enchilada sauce and chopped green chiles (your choice of green chiles; everyday Xmas Stew can be fine with the canned stuff)

Condensed chicken or mushroom soup

Cannellini beans

WHITE hominy

A can of Rotels™

Dump the prepared ingredients in a crockpot on low for six or more hours. Served with baked corn tortillas, either whole or cut into wedges before baking.

You notice I have not mentioned amounts. That’s because it all depends on how much you want to make and how many you intend to feed, as well as how meaty/beany/corny/spicy you find you prefer.

Baked corn tortillas: Brush corn tortillas lightly with ghee, coconut oil or [BEST!] bacon grease. Place on middle rack in oven and bake at 375°F for about eight minutes. Ovens vary, so watch it and mod the time to suit your oven. If baking wedges, place them on a cookie sheet and bake at 375°F for about seven to nine minutes–again, watching them. Could be ten for either, depending on your oven, etc.

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From Lovely Daughter’s “Sixth Grade Lines” Collection

From a collection of “juvie book quotes,” this:

“Why do they do all this freakin’ paperwork for no reason? I just want to be with my dog.”

I can relate. When I was a kid, I always thought school was too much “busywork.” Got in the way of my reading (in class, at least; I generally just didn’t do my homework *shrugs* I had other things I deemed to be more important. I was a very bad boy. Until high school, I generally got away with this. 😉 ).

Learning is fun, but quite often school is a boring waste of time.

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In Praise of “Redneck Engineering”

Can I get a cheer for “redneck engineering”?

I ran into a problem with my installation of some “snap and click” laminate flooring. Uneven floor combined with some heavy furnishings (in the latest case, a refrigerator1) caused some problems with planks not quite matching up, leaving a very small gap and a ridge.

Not good. I had already placed and glued together the pieces under the fridge (the flooring is water resistant, but still, using a waterproof glue in the joints that might be exposed to water was definitely the thing to do) So, what to do? Move fridge out again, only detach the line for the ice maker and unplug it in order to get it far enough away to allow installation of more planks, without the mismatch caused by the weight of the fridge?

Nah. Six-inch plastic ruler, carefully wedged under the lowest point, to bring the plank back level. New plank fit in slick as goose grease.

Three cheers for “redneck engineering”!

1Moved the fridge out, installed “waterproofed” laminate flooring, moved fridge back. Weight of fridge over piece of flooring at front caused a very , very slight depression I could not get another piece to match.

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Crimes Against Literacy. . .

. . . in Xmas “movies.”

I caught a very strange sound, in passing as it were, from a made-for-TV “Xmas movie” that jarred me into stopping and paying attention for a moment. Yes, indeed some idiot had elected to have a “caroling choir” sing “Greensleeves” as a processional for a “Cmas wedding.” No, not the Xmas carol lyrics to “What Child is This?” but to the actual lyrics of Greensleeves.” As a supposed wedding processional.

Yes, as the “bride” made her way down the aisle, the “caroling choir” sang,

“Alas my love you do me wrong
To cast me off discourteously. . . “

*head-desk*

My brief attention turned immediately to mocking. Someone should give a dopeslap (using a brick bat) to every moron involved in that production.

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A Bit Short for a Lutheran Hymn. . .

. . .but since it’s Mit Hjerte Alltid Vanker, we’ll let that go, eh? 😉

Sing along and restart the mp3 file enough times to get through, if you wish.

Mit Hjerte Alltid Vanker

1. Mit Hjerte altid vanker
I JEsu Føderum,
Did samles mine Tanker
I deres Hovedsum:
Der er min Længsel hjemme,
Der har min Troe sin Skat —
Jeg kan dig aldrig glemme,
Du søde Julenat!

2. Du, mørke Stald, skal være
Mit Hjertes Fryde-Slot;
Der kan jeg daglig lære
At glemme Verdens Spot;
Der kan jeg bedst befinde,
Hvori min Roes bestaaer;
Naar JEsu Krybbes Minde
Mig ret til Hjerte gaaer.

3. Men ak! hvad skal jeg sige,
Naar jeg vil tænke paa,
At Gud af Himmerige
I Stalden ligge maa:
At Himlens Fryd og Ære,
Guds væsentlige Ord,
Skal saa foragtet være
Paa denne slemme Jord!

4. En Perle, der forgjettes,
Saa nøie ledes op;
Den blanke Demant sættes
I gylden Krones Top;
Man kaster ei en Drue
Blandt tørre Grene ned:
Skal jeg min Gud da sske
I saadan Usselhed?

5. Hvi skulde Herresale
Ei for dig pyntet staae? —
Du havde at befale,
I hvor du pegte paa —
Hvi lod du dig ei svøbe
I Lyset som et Baand,
Og Jordens Konger løbe,
At kysse paa din Haand?

6. Hvi lod du ei udspende
En Himmel til dit Telt,
Og Stjerne-Fakler brænde?
O store Himmel-Helt!
Hvi lod sig ei tilsyne
En mægtig Englevagt,
Som dig i Silkedyne
Saa prægtig burde lagt?

7. Nei! JEsus faaer sit Leie
I denne gode Juul,
Hvor Betlere de pleie
At lægge sig i Skjul;
Det var end ei hans eget
Det Høe, hvori han laae —
Han havde ei saa meget.
Han kunde ligge paa.

8. Den Sag kan ei begribes.
At JEsus, Gud og Mand,
Saa meget hart indknibes
I Verdens Jammerstand:
Han, som med Guddoms Vælde
Al Verden dømme vil,
Ei har det, han kan hælde
Sit arme Hoved til.

9. En Spurre har sit Rede
Og sikkre Hvile-Boe;
En Svale ei tør lede
Om Nattelys og Roe;
En Løve veed sin Hule,
Hvor han sin Roe kan faae:
Skal da min Gud sig skjule
I Andres Stald og Straae?

10. Ak, kom! jeg vil oplukke
Mit Hjerte, Sjel og Sind
Med tusind Længsels Sukke,
Kom, JEsu, dog herind! —
Det er ei fremmed Bolig,
Du har det selv jo kjøbt —
Saa skal du blive trolig
Udi mit Hjerte svøbt.

11. Jeg vil med Palmegrene
Dit Hvilested bestrøe:
Min Brudgom, dig alene
Jeg leve vil og døe.
Kom! lad min Sjel erlange
Sin rette Qvæge-Stund
At kysse tusind Gange
Din søde Rosenmund.

Continue reading “A Bit Short for a Lutheran Hymn. . .”

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Ambivalence. . .

A bit underwhelmed at an “auto-update” notice telling me the WP version here has gone through w/o any action from me. Last time I got one, I ended up locked out of my WP Admin pages for a while. Apparently not this time, though.

Livin’ la vida risky. . .

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Risky “Bidness”

Asking me what I’m thinking about runs the risk of me actually answering with. . . what I am thinking about.

“Zombie elves from the North Pole” was one recent answer.

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Nothing to See Here; Move Along

Just a passing shot. . .

Reading a bio of Lance Armstrong and ran across:

“. . .diagnosis of his symptoms, including coughing up blood and a swollen testicle.”

Coughing up a swollen testicle?!? THAT’S SERIOUS!

*heh*

OK, so Armstrong’s cancer was serious, but that lack of a comma was amusing.

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A Most Excellent Idea!

Gun “banners” would prefer to have all guns “registered” and all gun owners “doxxed.” What an excellent idea, and one with such excellent precedent!

“I think this is a great idea. The enemies of the people and the state should not be allowed weapons. Only good comrades can carry weapons. And any good comrade should not need privacy, because they have nothing to hide from the state. Yes, a most beautiful idea.”

“Show me a man, and I will find you a crime.” – Lavrentiy Beria

How can one disagree with such an impeccable source?

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Living Dangerously?

After the last WP update I performed, which ended up locking me out of all admin functions, requiring some help from my hosting service (an install of an update beyond the one I had done, because not even FTP was working for me), getting a notice of another WP update available was. . . momentarily disconcerting, especially since my site’s still not 100% functional. Yet.

Still, performed a complete backup of the site and then bit the bullet.

OK, things seem to have worked.

*phew*

(*heh*)