Thank you, Eco Experts!

Nerdiest spam subject ever: “Receive a government backed RPI linked 25 year incentive!”

What?  No v1agra?  No ci4li$?  I AM INSULTED.  I DEMAND PENIS MEDICATION OFFERS IMMEDIATELY.

FYI – they were trying to sell me solar panels.  In England.

Wut.

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Borrowed time runs out.

When you adopt an adult pet, the moment they’re yours, you’re immediately buying time.  An eleven year old Maltese might have another 5 years in him.  Six, if you’re lucky and can afford trips to the Pet ER.

This is the table you’re invited to sit down at when you adopt any animal.  Your new host will let other guests come and take a little bit with them if they leave.  Such is the greed of Illness and Accidents.  Sometimes Lost comes to take your host from the table for a while, but hopefully not for long and not meeting with Accidents on the way home.

Yet, at some point you will have to leave the table yourself, and it’s a hard, sad goodbye.

Yesterday I said my goodbyes to Lester.  He was my sweet, sweet boy, and I won’t ever forget him as long as I live.

Recipe: Chicken and Onion Pie

This is another recipe in the vein of “what do I have sitting around the house and what can I make out of it?” Last night’s dinner was conceived during my drive home from work keeping a few things in mind.  It is getting colder, so I wanted to cook something warming.  We haven’t gone grocery shopping in a while and I was feeling lazy so it needed to be stuff we had in the house.  I did a mental inventory: I roasted a chicken a few days ago that needed to either become soup or be frozen in the next few days.  We had a sack of onions that was starting to look a little peaky when I roasted the chicken.  We had flour, and butter, and some milk and eggs.

SAVORY PIE.  I noodled around on the internet and got the basic idea from a few different websites.  I decided to do an entirely different crust and voila: Chicken and Onion Pie!

Recipe after the jump!

This is pretty easy, and the most time intensive part is making the pie crust.  Don’t mind the horrible quality of the photos.  The lighting in the kitchen is really bad, and I’d much rather just get on with cooking than take pictures anyway.  Maybe in the new place I’ll bother to break out the digicam for these.

Two Crust Pie Crust [adapted from the traditional Betty Crocker recipe]
2 C flour
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup plus 2 Tbsp butter
4 to 6 Tbsp ice-cold water
In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt, and butter and start mixing with a pastry cutter or two knives.  Do this until the pieces are about the size of small peas.  If I can’t find my pastry cutter and I get sick of the knives [it’s hard work!], I often times get in there with my hands and break up the larger chunks.  Try not to work it around too much, or else the gluten in the flour will make the crust less flaky and delicious.  Start adding the cold water a table spoon at a time and mix in with a fork.  Once the dough is starting to get wet and coming away from the sides of the bowl, gather it into a ball and divide in half.  Wrap the halves in cling film and refrigerate for at least half an hour.  This will keep for a few days in the fridge, and also freezes really well if you want to make ahead.  Move on to the filling.

Chicken and Onion Pie Filling
4 medium onions, sliced into thin rounds.
3ish C cooked chicken diced.
whatever butter is left over from making the pie crust [like a 3rd of a stick, or 3 Tbsp], plus a tablespoon of olive oil.
1/2 C flour
1 C milk
1 large egg yolk
salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbsp curry powder.

Preheat the oven to 360 degrees Fahrenheit. [around 180 degrees Celsius.]
Saute the onions in a medium pot on medium heat with the butter and olive oil.  Throw in a dash of salt and pepper, and the curry powder.  When they onions have gotten translucent and a little golden, add in the flour to coat the onions and then the milk slowly to make a thick [delicious] goo.  Add in the egg yolk [save the whites for an optional eggwash for the pie top] and mix it up.

When the filling is ready, roll out the pie crusts one at a time to a little less than a quarter of an inch, or until it’s wide enough to fit over the pie plate.  

 

Don’t trim the sides yet [do as I say, not as I do], but make sure they definitely hang over the pie dish all the way around.  Add the filling and set the whole thing aside while you roll out the second crust.   

Wet the edges of the first crust and set the second on top, pressing down gently to make sure there’s contact all the way around.  Now you can trim the edges with a sharp knife [just use the pie plate as a guide] and seal as you wish.  I prefer the three-knuckle technique, but there’s no reason you can’t press with a fork all the way round, or use one of those fancy contraptions.  Cut a few steam vents in the top.  An optional step would be to do a quick eggwash, which is a fancy way of making the top glossy.  Do this if you know how, but otherwise, don’t bother, and just check it to make sure it’s not burning on top and cover with foil if it gets too dark.  It’ll be delicious no matter what 

 

Bake for 30 minutes in the previously heated 360F oven.  Remove and let sit for a few minutes [if you can stand it].  EAT.

Oh, hello there.

What I have been up to in the last little while:

– SPX was AWESOME.  I got busy shortly after and never got a chance to post about it, but I managed to wrangle hand-shakes out of several of my favorite internet celebrities. I still haven’t washed my hands. [this is possibly a lie.]
– Readying our house for a swinging Halloween party. Happy Hallo-Whedon, everyone! I’m dressing up as Saffron. [wiki]
– Readying our stuff to move into a new house. [Coming in December! WE ARE SUPER EXCITED. Same neighborhood-ish – on the other side of JHU.]
– Devoting all the squees over my niece Eleanor. SHE IS SO GREAT. I went out there in early August and got to snorfle her for DAYS.
– Resisting the nigh-irresistible urge to both gnaw my hands off and claw my eyes out whilst waiting for the Machine of Death Vol. 2 stories to be announced. I submitted mine back in July and I have been on tenterhooks ever since.
– Private personal health issues [Sorry, curious kitties, the only health stuff I’ll ever blog about is colds and if I ever get pregnant.] [I’m totes not pregnant.].
– Other personal stuff.

Various and sundry media and literary news:

– Got my roommate hooked on The Guild.
– We love Once Upon a Time so far.  We’re going to start watching Grimm this week.
– I am deeply in love with the new seasons of Leverage, Castle, Psych, and Community.  I am going to have all of their television babies.
– I quite liked Game of Thrones.  I cannot wait until season 2 arrives.  Then I’ll have to actually finish book 3 and start 4.  Maybe I should do that anyway.  THEY’RE SO LONG.
– I’ve just re-read the Abhorsen series by Garth Nix.  Y’all, read these books.  They’re available on all e-readers, and they are the very best kind of fantasy.  Strong, autonomous female characters, an interesting and new magical premise, mystery, love, sadness, sacrifice, friendship.  THEY’RE REALLY GOOD.

So there you have it. And by “it” I mean random factoids about three months of my life.  ARE YOU HAPPY NOW.

I am.

<3

Things My Momma Taught Me

Today is my Momma’s birthday, so I decided to share a poem that I wrote for her on Mother’s Day this year. Here’s hoping she lives forever!

Things My Momma Taught Me:

How to read.
How to say “please.”
How to poop in a toilet.

How to knit.
How to make a pie.
How to drive a stick shift [Dad helped].

To enjoy strong tea.
To enjoy music.
To enjoy naps.

To think before I speak [an ongoing lesson].
To consider others before myself.
To smile before frowning.

To love words.
To love people.
To love myself.

Happy Mother’s Day Birthday, Momma. I love you.

Heart Walk!

I am so close to my goal [which was v. modest, because I am reasonable] and I could sure use your help! I’ve had wonderful support by my friends and family, and I am so grateful. A little push is all I need to make the goal [and blow it away, if possible!].

All donations will be rewarded with a big floppy hug and a few excited squees. <3

related posts: Heart Health Walk!

SPX is here again!

SPX is finally upon us again! I don’t know about y’all, but I will be at that hotel in Bethesda on Saturday morning, helping out. AND I AM REALLY EXCITED.

Pls see last years post about it, and then add on a few more exclamation points of excited.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Compost, naturally.

So, I don’t garden. I’ve got a black thumb and a bad track record with anything alive that can’t tell me when it’s hungry. [At least fish move and catch my attention…]

But my roommates and I eat a lot of fresh produce [woooo co-op!], and I feel terrible just… throwing those scraps away.

So I have a proposition. We have a large, shaded yard, and plenty of space to keep a compost bin. Would anyone out there who uses a community garden, [or container pots, or something else along those lines] like to get in on some sweet sweet composting action?

I’d like to vermicompost, with some red wrigglers, so if that interests any of y’all, drop me a line! molly [at] mollyprice [dot] net.

As much as I’m sure people would like it to be straight-up organic, it won’t be. I’m more concerned with supporting local farms, whether they’re organic or not. Luckily, many of them are IPM at least, so there’s that.

So, whaddaya say? Want my worm poop?

Heart Health Walk!

This October, I’ll be participating in the American Heart Association’s Baltimore Heart Walk with my office.

My grandmother died of heart disease, and I know countless others who are affected by heart disease daily.  The American Heart Association works constantly to perform research and promote heart healthy activities, and offers CPR programs at all levels.  It is one of my favorite organizations.

If you’d like to support me, and in turn, promote heart health, then please donate some money to me and my team here!  I will be eternally grateful, and if I ever see you in person, I’ll give you a HUGE HUG.

Or a medium-sized one.  Depending on my mood.  And how big your donation is.  

<3

Wondermark caption contest!

So, y’all may or may not know that I am a web comics nerd.  I attend SPX and volunteer every year [*ahem* take a look at the author of this little announcement…], and my google reader feed for comics alone numbers in the hundreds.

I love web comics.

So, you can imagine my delight when I saw that David Malki ! was hosting his third caption contest!

I went and entered at least a hundred times.  Okay, so it was probably closer to twelve [ETA: I went back and counted, and it was thirty-three.  Um.  haaaaah…], but that’s beside the point.

The point is: I almost won!  I don’t even mind that I didn’t actually win, because, guys, I. ALMOST. WON.


Today is a fantastic day!  Now, all I need to do is get accepted for the Machine of Death Volume 2, and my life’s work will be complete.  WHERE COULD I POSSIBLY GO FROM THERE.