Month: August 2014

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I Knew Better. . .

But I decided to check out Saturday evening television.

First, commercials. LG apparently has a target demographic defined by idiocy. Latest LG phone commercial touts its ability to take great “pichers”. Not even “pitchers,” just “pichers.”

*gagamaggot*

Then, of course, since OTA reception here is. . . grainy and spotty to non-existent on both channels that are available OTA. . . cable. And what has Mediacom decided to do this month? “Improve” our service by moving channels all over the place and “improving” delivery of some channels to make the picture grainy to the point of almost unwatchable (but only channels we happen to find offer a few moderately interesting shows).

And then. . . the only even minimally bearable viewing offered tonight is reruns of Big Bang Theory.

Fortunately, I have plenty of books to read.

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Stolen Foods

Well, not exactly, but I did take this “not-quite-a-recipe” from Mostly Cajun, All American and Opinionated and kinda run with it.

To his “not-quite-a-recipe” I added some sucralose to taste after adding some green beans to my corn-red beans-“on-yum”-and-garbanzo mix. Actually, I took the water from my canned corn and canned green beans and added the sucralose and about a cup of balsamic vinegar, added in about a teaspoon of freshly-ground pepper and. . . ended up filling two wide-mouth quart jars to chill in the fridge.

So, building off his recipe

a can of garbanzos, drained
a can of red (kidney) beans, drained
a small can of corn (use the liquid)
can of green beans (use the liquid)
about a cup and a half of defrosted frozen green peas
some (not sure how much) chopped “on-yum” (Yum!)
coupla tablespoons of sucralose
about a teaspoon of freshly-ground black pepper
about a cup of balsamic vinegar (candy!)

I didn’t salt anything, since all the canned goods were pre-salted anyway and the balsamic vinegar is just tooooooo delicious to detract from with more salt..

This will be a staple. I just wish I’d had some wax beans handy for more color variation. . . And I might just add a few red pepper flakes, like The Cajun did.

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Salsa “Notarecipe” #n, whatever

Ever had a salsa and thought, “mmm, almost, but not quite”? Yeh, me too. I no longer search for the perfect salsa or the perfect salsa recipe, because taste is such an idiosyncratic thing.

Here’s what I currently use for my Average Joe Salsa. I pick up a so-so (actually not half bad) jar of “hot” (it is to laugh) tomato-based salsa at my fav dollar store. (Why spend more than a buck?) Pick a few small roma tomatoes and some peppers (my jalapeños are in right now) from the garden. Take some garlic, onion and the tomatoes and peppers and whir ’em up in a food processor. Add ’em to the cheapo salsa and, pretty darned good.

I avoid cilantro, because unless it’s cooked, it’s just nasty. I also avoid (like the plague) the salsa that’s not “Made in New York City?!?” because it’s nothing but some almost indiscernible red and green stuff added to really salty water.

But there you have it. Pick a prepared salsa that’s sorta OK and kick it up with whatever fresh ingredients float your boat. THAT’S the secret to really tasty salsa, IMO.

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Good Neighbors

The last couple of decades living here in a relatively small town (fewer than 2,000 souls populate the town) in America’s Third World County™ have been good. The first 40-*mumble* years of my life I spent mostly in metro areas ranging from a couple of hundred thousand folks to a million and more. The whole county contains around 25,000 folks, with about 60% spread out back in the hills-n-hollers-n-piney woods. . . although there are some areas with more developed farmland.

Although I’ve been leisurely nosing around for 40-80 acres to “get lost in,” just to get away from the crowding and noise of this major metropolis *snerk* where I now live, it is nice to have the neighbors I have now. Example:

Heading on down to the post office, just before the one-lane low-water crossing, a tree had downed a pretty good-sized limb. Traffic coming, I slid on by and once I rounded Joe _____’s place, I made a turn around, to come back and haul the thing off to the side of the road.

A couple of neighbors beat me to it. One was the young(ish) dad of the best kids in the neighborhood* (really!) and the other was his uncle from a bit further on down the street. They had it dragged on off to the side of the road by the time I had turned around and come back.

Good neighbors.

Now, I won’t say things like that NEVER happened in the cities I lived in, in years past, but around here, it’s just normal.

*Yeh, his 9-year-old son is the neighborhood organizer/leader. I had a basketball goal I had taken down (‘cos some drunk had driven off the road and down the hill into our yard, taking the pole out. *shrugs* Son & Heir had stopped using it a few years ago anyway). Asked him if he could use it. Said no, he already had one, but he’d ask around. Came back later with his younger brother, and they took it down to a family with kids who could use it. Another time, he was mowing some of his granddad’s property (a grassed drive beside our house leading to a large storage building just above the creek). He went ahead and mowed my front lawn, too. Uh-huh. One of those times when I had twisted my bad knee again and was using a cane. The kid notices things.

Good neighbors.

I’ll miss them when I move out to live on Goa Way, but not enough to keep me from moving, if I find the place. *heh*

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Pubschool Education is in the Very Best of Hands. . .

. . . or not.

[Names and location withheld to avert–justifiable–assault upon the guilty.]

Read/seen somewhere else. Woman happy to report via selfie that she and her friend were “Getting our nails did.”

A grade school teacher.

*sigh*

Oh, and the nail work was disgusting. Bad taste AND non-existent connection to logic and grammar. No, I wouldn’t dare “share” the pic. Why open myself up to charges of causing blindness. I had to exercise strict self-control to keep from putting my own eyes out after seeing what I can never unsee. . . The horror!

Remember: I do these things so you don’t have to.