Gather Ye Rosebuds

Hmm, well, today was good. We went to the Cereal Sunday at the Peacock Room this morning. I saw my first, and hopefully last, episode of Davey and Goliath, a Lutheran claymation cartoon-like Saturday morning thing. Ugh, nothing really happened in the episode. Helmet hair and turd dog abound.

We did some light grocery shopping and that's really it. We are kinda broke til I get paid next Friday. Speaking of next Friday, I think I saw the sign for Greek Fest showing it is going to be next weekend. Hmm. We might be able to go on Sunday.

I am still enjoying my teas. I think I have tried them all now. I tried one of the fruit herbal blends (mango melange) with a bit of sugar, and it was much better, though I will probably not be reordering much of them. Maybe one of the blends. I made a long wish list earlier this evening. I think though, that I am going to try the genmai cha green tea in my next order; the roasted rice and popcorn in the mix really intrigues me. Not sure what else I will try. Maybe the jasmine bloom white tea.

Well, my back hurts, so I should go lie down a bit.

Yay! This week, the new season of Degrassi TNG starts...and, they are re-running 4 of the original series episodes (2 Degrassi Junior High, and 2 Degrassi High) the night before the season opener. Hooray! I have not seen those episodes in ages...not since I was in middle school or summat. I have been wanting the DVDs, but have been a slacker about getting them. :/

I had a productive day. Went to a birthday party brunch thingy in Oviedo for a good friend who turned 50. Hard to believe. Saw some old friends who came down for the occasion from Asheville. Got a few groceries, did some laundry, and managed an hour at Borders with Glitter, my love. We had pumpkin spice chai...tasted pretty much like regular chai to me. Got some Ginger Peach tea from Republic of Tea to tide me over till my order from Adagio Teas comes later this week. I ordered the herbal sampler and ingenuiTea brewing thingy. I used my $5 coupon from nymphie. I think I have the ability to send the same $5 coupon things to people too.

The laundry thing did not go well. I was washing certain things for future use among some regular clothes, and I used the wrong drying cycle, and my clothes did not dry, so I ran the cycle again, and they got a bit more worn looking than they should look for being brand new. But they will still work, and it is only me seeing them. The fabric pilled...I think there is a pilling cutter or something. I should look into it. I should have kept checking every 5-10 minutes like I did at first, and maybe even pulled them out still slightly damp, but I didn't. I should also make a note with my laundry card to use permanent press instead of whites and colors next time.

Dinner was good. Since I was on my own tonight (Chas is on a special diet today), I decided to try the Steam and Serve thing from Birds Eye that I got from the freezer section today. I got two actually: the Italian kind and the Asian kind. I cooked the Italian kind and added it and the sauce to about 5 handfuls of dried Barilla Plus penne pasta (adding a little salt to the water added a nice touch to the cooked pasta flavor) once the pasta was cooked and drained. It was really good! And healthy. I probably could have used 4 handfuls of dried pasta, but it was fine. However, I should warn you not to eat it all, unless you *want* to be best friends with the toilet all evening. Yeah, loads of fiber as the primary veggies in the mix are broccoli and cauliflower, and the pasta is fiber enriched. So yeah, youchies. Best be moderate in the servings. The veg mix was 2.5 servings as it was. I might make it again though, and add some pesto salmon or something.

Well, I gotta get going for now, get ready for tomorrow, which doesn't promise to be much fun, I am sad to say. But I have my amusements, and my responsibilities.

I love my huggy bear! Our anniversay is in 2 days, though technically it was on Sunday as well. The Jewish family only ceremony was on the 25th so we were technically married before the big wedding on the 29th, which was a year after our first date. I have known this man for 10 years. Wow.

We had Thai on Sunday which was nice. I did not ask for our anniversary off this year with the new job and all, so I have to work on our main anniversary. On the other hand, with Chas being at home these days, we are spending lots of time together. :)

Since my headache never seemed to properly go away, and stomach has remained a volcano on the verge of erupting this afternoon, I called in. I think I am PMS-ing a little too, since my back is sore and I feel on the verge of crampiness too. Should have picked up that woman's cycle tea from Whole Foods. Bah. So long perfect attendance for September. Maybe October? So why not cook? I feel better when cooking anyway.

So I decided to cook the chicken I had marinating in the butter chicken and yogurt mixture overnight. I had thought of just baking as normal (when I had planned on being at work), but I changed my mind since I am here and have the time now. I put it in a deep, covered casserole dish and I set the oven to 225F, which I know is low, but I intend to cook it slowly. I put the breast on the bottom, surrounded with the 3 wings, and the thigh and drumsticks on top (I custom picked my pieces at the store yesterday since we both like dark meat more). I figure two things: the breast is white meat and will cook faster, so if heat rises, it should be at the bottom so that it won't dry out as much, and secondly, the juices from the dark meat pieces on top will act as a natural baster to the breast meat. The whole idea is to see if we can fuse the great butter chicken mix flavor into the meat, because using the boneless skinless pieces in a skillet is just like eating cooked chicken in a savory sauce, nothing more, even if the sauce is damn tasty. So the thinking goes like this: the plain yogurt replaces the milk in the directions to cook, and is authentic to cooking Indian meats, and will help make the meat juicier, and the sauce penetrate the chicken (and skin) more, and the slow cooking in the covered casserole dish will keep the flavor sealed in. I am hoping to get a quasi tandoori result. Strictly guessing with some of this, but using what I feel is logic to help me. Guess we will see in a few hours!

Edit: So I turned up the heat a little bit ago...it is now on 300F. Gonna check on it shortly.

The Results: Well, the chicken was uber tender, and falling off the bone, but the butter chicken flavor was a bit lost in the baked chicken taste. It was tasty, but did not achieve the desired result. I might have used too much yogurt also.

Experiment #2: I think next time, I will go back to chicken breasts, boneless and skinless. I think I will also keep the yogurt marinade, though the details of what I will do exactly are undecided. I may mix part of the butter chicken sauce here, and reserve the rest for later, mixing with some other cream product...maybe cream, or maybe coconut milk, and bake. I just don't know, though it doesn't mean that much right now, as I have no more butter chicken mixes.

Yesterday was weird, though yay for days off. Chas and I woke up really late, like 1:30pm. We ran around and did some errands, and then went to dinner at Urban Flats, this place in Winter Park that serves flatbread. A bit pretentious, and the service was seriously off, but I enjoyed my dinner. I had the fig, proscuitto and bleu cheese flatbread, though I asked for goat cheese instead of bleu cheese, and what a good decision that was. I also had some wine from Spain...tempranillo, or something like that. I liked that the restaurant offered 3 oz and 6 oz offerings, as well as the bottle. The 3 oz was great, and about $4. Not so bad. My flatbread was tasty. Chas had little opinion on his, as the bacteria in his stomach is affecting his appetite and sense of taste.

We went home and watched the first two episodes of Adventure 2 from Sapphire and Steel. What a fantastic show! I struggle to try to describe it, yet I highly recommend it. Oddly enough, at about 10pm, both Chas and I were so sleepy that we headed to bed. It was really odd...we had not been up that long. A few hours later, I was thirsty, and got up. I could not go back to bed, and started chatting online with a few people. Chas later woke up, and we went to that Victoria site I linked to before. Then we noticed it was nearing 4am. Yee gads! Went back to bed, struggled to sleep, woke up gasping after having dreamt I opened the apartment door and some lady shoved a gun in my mouth. Nice. Saw sun rising, managed to get a few hours of sleep in.

Today was relatively productive. Dropped some pants off to be altered on the way to breakfast. We had breakfast at Crack Whore Bare All and then chatted for a while with my dad at my parent's place nearby. Got cheap gas at Costco, dropped Chas off because he started to feel bad again, and I headed to Whole Foods to get stuff for dinner...I made the goulash paprikash. I love that meal. It is easy, cheap, tasty, healthy, and makes a good sized amount for leftovers too. I got a few other things there too. I got stuff to make more butter chicken...I am going to experiment with it this time. I mixed the sauce with some plain yogurt and got bone in/skin on pieces of chicken, and now it is marinating in my fridge. I intend to bake it rather than pan fry it, and I got jasmine rice to serve it with. Picked up a few supplements for my digestion and spleen, since both are weak, which may help my body deal with allergies better.

I so enjoyed cooking tonight. That is the major thing I dislike about my schedule at work. I only have a few nights a week to cook dinner; the rest are at work, alone.

Well, my back hurts, so I ought to lie back and rest for a bit.

Arrr!

...but I really like my current layout. I always work hard to make it pleasing to me, tweaking and fiddling 'til I am satisfied, but I think this layout is among my favorites. Maybe even my favorite so far. I am actually glad the girl got all pissed off I was using her icon, because it forced me to change icons, and I created this layout as a result.

In other news, my brother sent me this link which was pretty cool.

I made it through work tonight. This guy called and asked me if I could tuen him on. Um, he meant his modem, because it had been disabled for non-payment, and he had just paid earlier. Freudian slip? Anyhow, we laughed, and afetr I fixed the issue, he said jokingly, "Well, I guess you really did turn me on!" and again we laughed. I shared this with my neighbor, and shared more laughing. I couldn't go back on the phone right away because I was laughing so hard.

Yay for Sunday and Monday off!

Whee!

For those concerned with Chas' recent health concerns, the information is here on his blog entry for today.

I have proven that I have maternal instincts. I just want my Chas back now. Happy, silly, huggable Chas. Smart, funny, loveable Chas. My Chas.