Everything, all at once.

My cat groans in his sleep. What does this say about me as his person? I don't think Tex ever groaned in his sleep. Is he sending me a message? Is he unhappy? Unfulfilled? Frustrated? Tex would just smash something or crunch an envelop in the middle of the night. He communicated. Small Cat whines in his sleep. I don't speak Small Cat yet.

My project for today is to find out what happens when you abruptly stop taking your steroids! The instructions suggest to not do this but my Doctor told me to stop so there you go.  It turns out turning red is a bad thing, oddly,  people at work were complimenting me on my oddly, unusually healthy complexion. Normally I look like death, I have in the past been what china dolls were judged against.

And now I look tomato. A tomato with a ten second attention span, now I'm going to read my kindle book, decide what I'm going to wear to work tomorrow, go shopping for chicken pot pie ingredients, walk the dog, clean the cat box and watch some TV.

Screen Actors Guild Awards / SAG Awards results 2012

Not only did you not know they were on or even care, but even if you did  care, you didn't know what channel they were on. Quick answer, not one of the big four. Think basic cable, the show took up valuable air time on both TNT and TBS. Simultaneously. Take that Oscars (tm), two channels simultaneously. Kapow.

8:02 PM Start

Stupidness. I Does not bode well for the rest of the show. Shut up Ducky. Shut up guy I don't know. Shut up Emily Blunt.   Actors : We aren't here to hear your life story listen as you read from your resume.

8:05. Michelle Williams or some one who looks like Michelle Williams. Its hard to tell, but she seems comfortable smiling so it can't be Williams.

Best Supporting Actor Film - Christopher Plumber, Beginners ( spoke for too long)
Best Supporting Actress Film - Octavia Spencer, The Help Love her dress, love her. I still wanted Melissa McCarthy to win. (spoke too long)

Best Actor TV Comedy - Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock. Short Speech. (movie star)
Best Actress TV Comedy, Betty White, Hot in Cleveland . Kept it short.
Best Ensemble TV Comedy - Modern Family, well better them than Glee.

Best Actress TV Movie or Miniseries- Kate Winslet, Mildred Pearce .Not in attendance. (movie star)
Best Actor TV Movie or Miniseries - Paul Giamatti . Not in attendance. (movie star)

Best Actress TV Drama - Jessica Lange, American Horror Story (movie star)
Best Actor TV Drama - Steve Buschemi, Boardwalk Empire (movie star)

This is never actually going to end, an hour and a half in we have nine trophies, a life time achievement and the  In Memoriam . Jeezus.

OMG Larry Hagman looks like utter hell. Gawd.

Best Ensemble TV Drama - Boardwalk Empire

Best Actor in a Leading Role Film - Jean Deguerdan, The Artist
Best Actress in a Leading Role Film -  Viola Davis, The Help

Best Ensemble Film - The Help
 9:59 PM

Friday Cat Blogging

Friday doofiness

Yesterday I prepared - "prepare ye the way of the Lord...", does any one else hear that when you hear the word "prepare" sometimes I even chair dance, anyway, today I made the meat loaf (s).

That pretty thing is one part ground beef, one part ground chicken , one part ground pork, not sausage, one part  mushrooms and a half a part chopped onions/celery/carrots plus some of my watermelon BBQ sauce and a package of onion soup mix and a healthy splash of worcestershire sauce.

That pretty thing became

These adorable things that soon became

These delicious things. I have nifty little lids for these and as soon as they are cooled they'll get popped into the freezer and wait their turn.I think the last time I did this I ended up with more loaves, but the last time I did this I had more room in the freezer and this time around the real estate is a little more pricey and there is a lot less of it. I really like being able to freeze left overs for another day but I don't have enough room right now for a lot of thinking ahead... Sadly,  I'm going to have to start cooking for one. I really need to get moving on that chest freezer.

Lessons

Why you should not go grocery shopping while hungry - You will go in to the store to buy a handful of small things to make dinner and you will leave the store with four bags of  food to make days and days of dinners.

For instance, for tonight, I bought turkey sausage and cheese for pizza.  These were the only things I went to the store for in the first place. Cheese and sausage. I left with two kinds of  Asian-y sauces,  lemon juice, a different cheese, chicken thighs, raspberries, mushrooms, ground turkey, chicken and pork.  My pizza was very good and provided me with dinner for tomorrow night as well. I also ended up with  meatloaf fixings and the ingredients for another crock pot recipe.

I should have eaten first.

I was going to make  the meat loaf yesterday but I talked myself out of it as I had no meat and I was not excited about going to the store to go get some, this is when having a magic cupboard would come in very handy, because then if you wanted to make meatloaf, you could make meatloaf!  Anytime, day or night! You get an itch for loaf and there it is. I imagine at some point you would have to fill out a lengthy shopping list at some point so the magic cupboard would know what to supply, but it would be worth the time investment. You wouldn't have to wait for it to be convenient, you would just have the idea and then bang meatloaf fixings! Of course the magic cupboard would also have to be refrigerated but its magic so you know. Handy.

While I was shopping for cheese and sausage, I also picked up chicken thighs and Asian fish sauce. I've never used Asian fish sauce but I had to buy an enormous bottle of it so I can be pretty sure I'll be finding many ways of utilizing for the near future. I am curious how it will be utlized with chicken thighs, the recipe is for a kind of Pan- Asian/retro/suburban fusion thing so if they were selling from a food truck I would think it was awesome.

Contractually obligated Oscar (tm) Nomination entry

This year I saw of the nominated films, The Help, Bridesmaids, The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo and Harry Potter. Below are a list of the relevant nominations, I skipped the technical categories.


Best Picture


 "The Artist" Thomas Langmann, Producer
"The Descendants" Jim Burke, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Producers
"Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" Scott Rudin, Producer
"The Help" Brunson Green, Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan, Producers
"Hugo" Graham King and Martin Scorsese, Producers
"Midnight in Paris" Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum, Producers
"Moneyball" Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz and Brad Pitt, Producers
"The Tree of Life" Nominees to be determined
War Horse" Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers

I saw The Help and read the book, but as good as it was, I'm not sure its really the Best Picture, one of them, surely, but not The . I haven't seen any of the others but fora  afew months a year I really care about Ranger baseball and I did want to see Money Ball. I see it has a run between The Artist, War Horse and The Descendents and I see The Artist winning. Unless it a The Descendents evening... I heard that TA was really good as was TD, EL&IC was very stupid, H was not much better, MiP is yet another Woody Allen movie, MB  was supposed to be really good, ToL I heard was very confusing and WH was better on stage.

I just noticed. Other than "The Help" every damn one of those movies are about men or boys. Every single one. Changed my vote, I want TH to win.

Actor in a Leading Role

Demián Bichir in "A Better Life"
George Clooney in "The Descendants"
Jean Dujardin in "The Artist"
Gary Oldman in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy"
Brad Pitt in "Moneyball"


Jean Dujardin, no lines, no soundtrack padding, no net.


Actor in a Supporting Role

Kenneth Branagh in "My Week with Marilyn"
Jonah Hill in "Moneyball"
Nick Nolte in "Warrior"
Christopher Plummer in "Beginners"
Max von Sydow in "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"

Jonah Hill?! I'm still horrified. Christopher Plummer for being really old.

Actress in a Leading Role

Glenn Close in "Albert Nobbs"
Viola Davis in "The Help"
Rooney Mara in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"
Meryl Streep in "The Iron Lady"
Michelle Williams in "My Week with Marilyn"

I really don't want Michellle "Professional Widow" Williams to win and I don't want Davis' to win because I want her to keep really trying for great roles and superior scripts and not end up doing Tyler Perry crap because she can and she all ready has her Oscar (tm).  Roony Mara isn't going to get it. I want Meryle Streep but Michelle "Hurt Me" Williams will get it.

Actress in a Supporting Role

Bérénice Bejo in "The Artist"
Jessica Chastain in "The Help"
Melissa McCarthy in "Bridesmaids"
Janet McTeer in "Albert Nobbs"
Octavia Spencer in "The Help"

Sadly, with two from the same cast, "The Help" is going to cancel itself out. I want Melissa McCarthy to win but it isn't going to happen, so Berenice Bejo for the win.

Directing

The Artist" Michel Hazanavicius
"The Descendants" Alexander Payne
Hugo" Martin Scorsese
"Midnight in Paris" Woody Allen
"The Tree of Life" Terrence Malick

Very heavy hitters, Michel Hazanavicius for the block.

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

"The Descendants" Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash
"Hugo" Screenplay by John Logan
"The Ides of March" Screenplay by George Clooney & Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon
"Moneyball" Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin. Story by Stan Chervin
"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" Screenplay by Bridget O'Connor & Peter Straughan

Aaron Sorkin. Like he isn't going to win.


Writing (Original Screenplay)

"The Artist" Written by Michel Hazanavicius
"Bridesmaids" Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig
"Margin Call" Written by J.C. Chandor
"Midnight in Paris" Written by Woody Allen
"A Separation" Written by Asghar Farhadi

"Bridesmaids"! Yay! Kristin Wigg! Wooo! SNL! SNL! SNL!! And it goes to "A Separation"

Oscar Nominations 2012

And the nominees are...

As seen on TV

Another food related thing I did this weekend. I went to a food truck and  got myself dinner.

According to the TV, eating at a food truck is exciting and the food is outstanding .  I stood in the rain and that was not exciting ,and the food, while good, it was not outstanding. Maybe if the truck was not parked so close to my house or if they more of a menu, it might have been different. The BBQ chicken was just fine but maybe I should have found a truck serving some sort of over priced, pretentious ethnic fusion not found in nature, instead of down-home home cooking in the gas station parking lot, it would have been better. Or maybe all of it it just food from a truck.

This morning it was really cold. Almost painfully so. Now the fog is like pea soup and its almost balmy.Mother Nature wants me to be miserable.  This is why I am still sick and why I finally went to see my doctor after being sick for a month and a half. Shehe put me back on antibiotics and another cough medicine.I've dosed myself with both of them and I don't feel any different, the antibiotic should kill all the bacteria I am carrying around, good and bad and its strong enough that I should be noticing the die off by tomorrow morning.

Last weekend I worked. This weekend I didn't! I slept late,  I watched TV , ordered my peppers and tomatoes from an untested source and went hunting for lamb. I had so much time to not work, I could plan and prepare for a meal my only prior exposure to was reading about in a magazine (Real Simple)

KNowing I was in the market for lamb I tried to think like a wolf. 

They don't let wolves into grocery stores. They also do not let lambs into my grocery store so I had to move upmarket. Way upmarket. Covered parking up market, I'm pretty sure that the reason I couldn't find the shopping carts was because instead there are people who carry your food around for you, that kind of upmarket market. It was so thoroughly upmarket they had lamb, not the lamb I was upmarket marketing for, but close enough. I have a boning knife for a reason.

My inner wolf and I brought my kill home and got to work.  Pork shoulder is pork shoulder is pork shoulder. Its just a matter of who bones it and what bones you deal with. In this case I  took my handy fish boning knife and made my chops into chunks.

The recipe:

Lamb, Apricot and Olive tagine - AKA  pretty standard lamb stew with apricots and completely unnecessary olives and no potatoes.

1 1/2 pounds lamb shoulder, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces or 1 1/2 lbs of lamb shoulder chops, chopped
4 carrots  cut into 1 inch pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup dried apricots halved
1/2 pitted green olives (not necessary)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 teaspoon paprika (not necessary)
1  teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
kosher salt and black pepper
1 cup couscous (not necessary)

In a 4-6 quart slow cooker mix together the meat and vegetables and spices and flour. Add 1/2 cup water. Cover and cook until lamb and veggies are tender, 7-8 hours on low, 4-5 on high. Ten minutes prior to serving, prepare the couscous.

I used store bought potaotes as my side. The stew was a lot sweeter than I had thought it would be, my guess is thanks to the carrots and apricots, I was afraid it would be too hot and I wouldn't enjoy it. It turned out to be delicious. Instead of adding water to the slow cooker per the instructions, I made broth from the  bones and used it instead, it was a little work but I think it made the dish better.

Friday Cat Blogging

Small Cat is sleeping hard in a box, trying out method acting to better his chances of getting cast in the next Sarah McLaughlin/SPCA ad

Feeling it

I totally would have posted yesterday, all about my travels with getting my house clean. A lot of talk about cleaning the kitchen and the bathroom and vacuuming and general tidying. Very fascinating, I'm sorry you missed it.

Just your luck my computer decided to be a butt head. So instead of re-visiting this painful time in our history, I'm instead going to post a picture of my new hero

You've heard of the Lion in Winter?  Meet the Iris in January.

Joy

In honor of being extremely over my hacking cough and painful bruised rib, I decided to bring out the really big OTC gun - My home made chicken soup. I am awaiting my immediate curing. I had two heaping servings a couple of hours ago and it should be kicking in momentarily.

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Not kicking in and  while taking a break for a fit of coughing, noticed I was not cured. My hacking cough and intransient rib pain have not abated. The soup is terrific but apparently not the miraculous cure I had thought it would be. Perhaps it needed more chicken fat, it ended up with a lot of  non healing chicken bones but not a significant amount of super healing schmaltz. When I am healthy I am aggrieved by chicken fat,  when I am sick I crave it.

I am so tried of being sick, even this obnoxious state of  sickesque as I have been for the last month, I fear that this state is my new baseline. On the upside, it reminds me of school and being young enough to be truly sick  now, years later and years older, I'm not truly sick and yet I feel sick.

I also feel as though this is all apart of some sort of a test that I am failing. This morning I finally got my long promised new computer at work. I had heard that it is a terrible thing and the new computer would kill me but I was hopeful. They set it up after I went home on Friday and left me with little more than a scrap of paper with some code scribbled on it without any explanation of what to do with it. They also left it unplugged, so while it worked for two minutes after I arrived at my desk, it soon stopped. I did not know why. I thought it was going to kill me louder, or at least in my more interesting way. I mean making me want to take a long nap isn't very exciting. I always want to take a nap. Maybe its going to kill me in my sleep.

Instead of  falling into a computer generated shame spiral - I didn't do anything but I didn't do anything either. And not a cool CGI one like Pixar, an uncool one like Japanmation. I  decided to believe that the office gnomes were busy messing with me. Again. And then I called the head IT woman, actually I called "a" IT woman and got her and then she had a temper tantrum because of how my computer was left at me.It still sucks being yelled at even when its not your fault, it feels like it. I love being screamed at by management.

We decided that everyone who is not her in her department and my boss are completely inadequate and stupid and working against her and she was right and they were wrong. I told her she was right and everyone is working againts her. It made her happy and she sent a minion to fix my machine.

Self Service

In honor of MLK Day I decided to do a little service for others - but first I had to do some service for myself : I cleaned out my kitchen cabinets 1)because it was time and 2) I knew that I could find some donatable stuff if I just looked. I could not look until I could see.

Here is where we started:

I'm not proud, this was a bad situation. I didn't know what was in there and I couldn't find anything. I had long given up being able to find anything when I needed it and picked up some Ikea tupperware that I kept in a separate location.

After much work this is where I ended up

Now I can tell what I have and I know where it is. I even moved my Ikea tupperware in with the rest of the plastic. Everything has a place and everything is in its place. If if I want a pot, I gots a pot, if I need a container of a certain size, its not a question of "where" its a question of "which".

There was some collateral damage. I thought I was going to find more to donate but it just wasn't to be, some stuff I couldn't give away it was so nasty and I don't think even Goodwill wants my used butter containers. I  did find a few things to hand over and I all ready had some donatables from a prior cabinet clean out so I still can get some service points. I made a itemized list and bagged everything up, first thing Monday morning I handed it all over the Goodwill. My recycle box runneth over.

I moved on to the next project, I cleaned out my food cupboard. It didn't want any photographic evidence of how bad that looked. While I was cleaning it out, I discovered that I had three half empty bottles of peanut butter. I don't like it and and Dogger can't eat it and I hate throwing away food. I was able to open up a lot of space with my cleaning projects but not so much I wanted to take up space with stuff I don't eat. I remembered that I have a lot of pine cones in the attic. I think I had a Martha moment several years ago and collected them for a project that never happened.

Now I had a project. I had some pine cones, peanut butter and some bird seed.

Its not exactly  in line with traditional public service, but birds need love too.

After all this clean out, I watched some TV and on TV I watched Two Fat Ladies and in between meals made up of  game, artisanal cheese and fresh caught seafood, they made Beef Stroganoff. I don't have access to fresh caught or just slaughtered or artisanal anything but I can get my Stroganoff on. It called for more meat than a single gal on the go really needs, but it also afforded me enough left overs to feed myself for days and I was able to freeze some too. It was really good and not all that hard to make and all it called for sour cream, onions, mushrooms, port and good beef. I substituted fajita meat and instead of the called for button mushrooms, I scored some lovely baby portabellas on sale.

The last thing I did was reward myself with some nice dessert.

The crust looks funky because apparently el cheap-o store brand pie crust wants to be used right now and does not like to kept waiting. Whatev, it was still good.

Golden Globe Winners 2012

Best Supporting Actor Drama - Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Best Actress TV Comedy - Laura Dern (Garbled)
Best  TV Series, Mini-Series or TV Movie - Downton Abby
Best Actress Mini-Series or TV Movie - Kate Winslet, Mildred Pearce
Best Actor TV Drama - Kelsy Grammer, Boss
Best TV Series Drama - Homeland
Best Score - The Artist
Best Original Score -  Madonna, "Masterpiece", W.e
Best Performance  TV Series, Movie, Mini-Series Actor - Edris Elba , Luther
Best Actress Motion Picture, Comedy - Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn
Best Supporting Actor TV  Series /Mini-Series - Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones
Best Animated Feature Film -  The Adventures of Tin-Tin
Best Screenplay - Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Best Actress TV Series, Movie or Mini-Series - Jessica Lang, American Horror Story
Best Foreign Language Film - Iran, A Separation
Best Actress TV Series Drama - Claire Danes, Homeland
Best Actor TV Comedy or Musical - Matt LaBlanc, Episodes
Best Supporting Actress Motion Picture - Octavia Spencer, The Help
Best Director Motion Picture -  Martin Scorsese, Hugo
Best TV Series Comedy or Musical - Modern Family
Best Actor Motion Picture Comedy or Musical - Jean Dejuardin - The Artist
Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama -  Meryl Streep, The Lady
Best Motion Picture Comedy or Musical -  The Artist
Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama - George Cloony , The Descendents
Best Motion Picture Drama -  The Descendents

10:55 pm