The Kat's Revenge: March 2010

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Creamy Potato Soup

Creamy Potato Soup is a very simple recipe involving a potato, a few small onions, some flour, a pat of butter, a bit of cheese and milk. Oh, the ham is optional but it adds a special something to the taste or leave it out to be a vegetarian meal. It's yummy either way.

Serves Two.

Needed
1 Large Red Potato, (or two small ones.. or you can use non-red taters)
2 small onions. I like the yellow onions for this soup.
1 slice good deli ham
whole grain flour (or the white crap if that's what ya got)
milk
butter
sharp Cheddar cheese

Slice up the onion and potato into similar sized bits. They should be fairly small, but not smaller then a US quarter. Toss into boiling water in a 2 quart pan. Turn down heat and cook till potatoes are soft and almost fully cooked.

While they are cooking slice up the ham and cheese.

Now, remove pan from heat. Drain off half the water from the pan, tater and onions still in the remaining water. Add milk to the mix. Add at least enough milk to replace half the drained water. Return to heat till mix is hot.

Keeping mix at a constant not quite boiling spoon out 1/4 cup of the liquid. Put in bowl. Add flour to this mix till you've a thick paste like substance. Be sure to mash all the dry chunks out. Slowly pour (while stirring soup) this back into the still cooking soup. Add sliced ham and a small amount of cheese.

Continue stirring over heat till the soup thickens and the flour taste is cooked out. Allow to set a few minutes to finish thickening and serve with a nice slice of homemade buttered bread and a cheese topping.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

GLEE's Sneaky Gays

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

My Crisis Garden

Watch Crisis Garden Mock in Entertainment | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

I now have the fear. I need a Crisis Garden!!!!! I can do this.

One starts with a worm bin. A worm bin can be something as grand as this 100 dollar deal or as simple as my old large ice cream bucket and lid. (Ice cream bucket was from some cheapo ice cream we get in bulk 5 gallon pails for the manbeast to feed his lust for all things sweet. And yet, he's the skinny one!)

For a bucket like mine you punch it full of holes for air exchange and drainage..making sure the holes aren't so big the worms can escape. I also have a plastic 'root saver' (one of those plastic things they stick in the bottoms of pots to give the soil and roots a small air space over the bottom of the pot) to keep my mulch off the bottom of the pot. Gives wormies more air flow.
One adds some sort of dampened bedding (mine's old spag moss from orchid re-pots and newspaper) and old food/peelings/egg shells, tea bags, coffee grounds... basically organic food garbage. I was feeding mine this this round:

That's eldery rice and even more elderly curry. I have a small bin because me and the manbeast do not create much food waste. This is it for the last month outside of tea bags and potato peels.. those I didn't bother with a picture!

Anyways, scoop out the ready to use compost. It'll be the decomposed non-identifiable non-smelly brown gunk in the bin. Add it to a soil mix in your pot. Add fresh damp newspaper over the pile of the gross food bits in a section of the bin. Replace lid. Replace bin under kitchen sink. (yes, that is where I keep mine. No, you can't smell it.)
Oh, I got my worms at Petco. I just asked for 'red wigglers'. They sell them as turtle food. The number they give you is just about right for a little bin like mine. They ran me 3-4 dollars. Bait stores will also carry them and probably for less dough.
More worm info?
http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/Easywormbin.htm
http://www.cityfarmer.org/wormcomp61.html

Now we are here.

I used an old knife to 'chop' the compost material into the potting soil mix. It's some peat potting soil blend... anyways, wet fully while gently chopping the two soils together. If you find a stray worm or worm egg (look like tiny clear marbles) throw it back into the worm bin.

Now for my crisis veggies!!!! I LOVE me some garlic and onions! But, I always end up with slightly more lively individuals then I want to eat.

Little bastards. Trying to grow green parts and roots and all. You'd think they didn't want to be food! Anyways... dig holes in the container and shove them in. Cover up the bulb parts. Water well and stick outside (if the freeze-time is over) or in a nice sunny window.

Gloat that you just saved over 149 dollars and still have a 'crisis garden' any sane person can enjoy. Next time I'll share my yummy potato soup method. I promise the pictures will be more appetizing! :)

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Education is in Great Shape

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzHTOZz4j_g&feature=player_embedded

I found this song both beautiful and moving.

It actually made me angry to hear the lyrics. There is such a disjointed feeling between what I know to be true and what the words paint as true to be jarring to anyone with any kind of decent education. And yet in Texas very recently they have rewritten the history they will be teaching the kiddies.
It may as well be an accurate account of what some persons would choose to have the kids learn... wonderful things like the Confederate president is as worthy of note as Lincoln; Reagan was Even More Awesome(TM) and that all Founding Fathers were Christian...oh, and McCarthyism had a point.. the commies were there after all. Just bloody wonderful.

Lyrics here just in case.

Then, you have this. I graduated HS in 98. I remember kindergarten as mostly being all about the gluing of paper together, playing with letter blocks and learning to write "My name is >>>>" and other stuff...oh, and learning about stranger-danger and stuffs.