Lord, am I a downer lately, or what?

The good news is that I am not *quite* so downtrodden; the bad news? Haven’t managed to write more than 300 words in the past few days.

This morning I headed over to Sunset Park, the Asian section of Brooklyn. My purpose in going was to buy massive amounts of soy sauce for ridiculously low prices, since I am SO not into spending more than a few dollars for a dollop of Kikkoman soy sauce. I was the only Caucasian in the store for the entire time–not something I say to be all ‘aren’t I diverse,’ but because it is so shocking to find that kind of narrow population anywhere in New York City. I found close to two liters of soy sauce, good soy sauce, for around four dollars, and also bought lots of other insanely cheap items, including baby bok choy and lemongrass (!).

I was very excited.

And now I have a fridge-full of snow peas, tofu (on sale!), pork shoulder, edamame, steamed buns, etc. Yay! I am probably the best at cooking Chinese cuisine, although that makes my son sad, since he gets tired of stir-fries.

Tonight, no writing, but yet another middle school information meeting. The good news, again, is that the Son is pretty sure where he wants to go. The bad news is that I want to continue gathering information so we make the best possible decision, hence the many meetings.

The middle school deadline is December 15th. I will HAVE to commit to writing after that–I will have no excuse. Meanwhile, I’m gonna try to nail down the plot, as much as I can.

Megan
PS: I did not buy vegetarian swallow balls, fyi.

It was pointed out that I’ve been quiet lately, which is true. And I wish I could say it’s because I’m working on some fabulous projects, but it’s much more mundane:

I rejoined Weight Watchers. And I’m too hungry/crabby to post anything fun.

Unlike a lot of folks, I gain weight over the summer. I’m traveling more, walking less, with the son more than I am usually, so not heading to the gym–plus there’s barbecue and wine and such. So I had a last food fling in Philly, with cheese steaks and ice cream and a soft pretzel that made me want to cry, and then I went back to points and baby carrots. It’s going well, but I’m grouchy. Grouchier because I know I should be editing faster than I am, and grouchier still because I cleaned my keyboard, and now my space bar key needs a really hard thump to get it working.

And I still haven’t seen Duplicity.

When I get my groove back on, and am less crabby, you’ll be the first to know.

Seriously, this whole April Showers thing has to be re-examined. Right now it is POURING and 43 degrees. Yuk, and yuk.

But, apparently, the weather has made me some sort of weird nesting type: Today I’ve made strawberry muffins, whole wheat molasses bread and butternut squash corn chowder. And, because I am self-confessedly weird this way, I was so thrilled to use up one bag of whole wheat flour, the molasses, the corn meal and the about-to-go strawberries. I despise wasting food, more than a person really should. And when the bread called for buttermilk? Swoon! I’d used some the previous night for chicken pot pie, but still had some left over.

Now I have just a little bit left, enough to make buttermilk biscuits for the son, who adores them.

Yay!

I am now officially growing my hair out. I am going to bobby pin it to death.

I am hopeful my current writing project doesn’t stink.

I left my keys in the house today, so I had to go into Manhattan to get the Spouse’s set. Color me beyond pissed.

My cold isn’t nearly as bad as it was yesterday.

Tomato soup is my friend.

And I am wearing no fewer than four layers right now.

This cover has nothing to do with anything, but I was tired of seeing plain text when I went to my site. Et voila!

Okay, to be fair, my site is the first one that pops up when you search for

chopped garlic gerund

but . . . why would you do so?

And, in looking for this fine picture, I noticed that Richard Armitage had done the audiobook reading of Bernard Cornwell’s Lords of the North, Cornwell’s Saxon Chronicles, which I haven’t read. I swear, my breathing hitched, just like a heroine’s. Armitage? Reading one of my favorite authors?

And you can’t get it over here?!?

Okay. Deep breaths, Megan, deep breaths.

Yesterday I went grocery shopping and replaced a thousand year-old jar of coriander, which The Spouse had said probably had the efficacy of, well, a thousand year-old spice. Roundly mocked, I went and bought that, as well as Nigerian cayenne (to my credit, the coriander originally cost .99 cents, and I am cheap. So I bought a huge jar of it, not thinking that it would take an Indian province to go through that much. Live and learn).

As I was making my turkey chili–which asked for chili powder, coriander, cumin, cayenne and oregano–I saw that each jar had a plastic covering with holes on top. Why? Would anyone ever shake cumin powder on anything? No, you’d measure it. Is it to keep the spices fresher? I don’t think so, there’s a lid that’s right on top. So why is it there? And, more importantly, WHY DO I REMOVE IT TO MEASURE MY TABLESPOON OR WHATEVER AND THEN REPLACE IT?

I am a spice automaton.

Okay, so no way am I the Picky Vegetarian, but there are a few culinary things I just don’t get. Like this: I went shopping at the massive grocery store at the far end of Brooklyn today, and thank goodness, they have a place to buy coffee. So I was putting milk and sugar in (the Spouse calls it ruining it, but feh on him), and I glanced over at the little salad bar they have set up.

And saw shredded red cabbage.

Now I have no issue with red cabbage–I actually had some in my cart for an Asian Salad I am planning to make, but I just can’t imagine anyone would want to put red cabbage on your a la carte salad. Why have it there? Who’s gonna pony up $5.99 a pound, or whatever it is, for a salad with red cabbage? Mesclun, sure, artichoke hearts, hell yeah, but red cabbage?

Baffling.

Okay, perhaps it’s wrong, but– (more…)

Okay, so Angela fed my ego, and asked for a recipe using rice noodles. I cook with them a lot since the Eats My Leftovers Every Day For Lunch Spouse complained about how much rice I sent him in with (he did point out rice noodles are made with rice, but at least it’s not grains of rice every single day. And he doesn’t like sandwiches, the picky bastard).

This is a recipe I make about once every two weeks (it’s from Ken Hom’s Quick & Easy Chinese Cooking, and the title is accurate). It’s fast, it’s tasty, and it’s so easy (you do need the chili bean paste, which also goes under the name Guilin Chili Sauce. A specialty Asian grocer will have it, the rest of the stuff a regular store should have):

Fast Spicy Meat Sauce For Noodles.
1 1/2 T. peanut oil
2 T. coarsely chopped garlic
3 T. coarsely chopped scallions
2 T. coarsely chopped fresh peeled ginger (and why wouldn’t you peel the ginger anyway?)
1 pound ground pork or ground turkey
1 T. chili bean paste
1 I. dark soy sauce
2 T. rice wine or dry sherry
2 T. hoisin sauce
1 t. salt
2 t. sugar

Heat a wok, add the oil. Add the garlic, scallions, ginger and stir-fry for one minute. Add the meat and cook until it’s almost done. Then add the remaining ingredients and cook for five more minutes. Serve on top of noodles.

The sauce freezes well, too.

I’ve made Vietnamese Chicken Salad using rice noodles, too, they were good, but not as rock-solid as this recipe. My pad thai didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped–I think I screwed something up, ’cause Mark Bittman is seldom wrong. Unless you have plenty of liquid to coat them, rice noodles can clump together way more than regular-type noodles, so toss them with a little sesame oil to keep them unstuck if you are early with your noodles.

Okay, is anyone awake?

I finished up my editing today, on the first almost-half of the book at least. Next week’s task is to plot out the rest of the book so it doesn’t meander. Easier said than done, my plotting skills really DO stink.

Megan

Someone had two naps today.

And then someone bought a brand-new can opener, the kind that doesn’t leave any jagged edges and has a lifetime guarantee!!

And then? Then I went to Pearl River Mart because I was in dire need of hoisin sauce and light soy sauce (I have plenty of dark, thanks). That store is the coolest. I couldn’t resist stocking up on rice noodles, either (I cook a lot of Chinese food, this is my second bottle of hoisin sauce this year).

But the coup de grace was heading to Daffy’s, where I bought a mooseload of much-needed socks.

Bliss is small errands done well.

And tonight, some editing and a lot of tea.

Megan