KITTENS!

Stay tuned! I am getting into writer mode again. WAIT FOR ME! I want to be with you. SOON!!!!

Sorry I'm lazy. Take this recipe as a gift of my deepest regrets and condolences. TAKE IT!

DALLAS' CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS W/CUCUMBER SALAD

You will need:

 - for the chicken - 

48 ounces of chicken stock

Pepper

Salt

Approximately 2 pounds of chicken (boneless or bone-in. whatever's yer pleasure)

6 medium-sized red potatoes (peeled or not)

 - for the dumplings (NOT DROP DUMPLINGS!)-

enough dough for about 20 dumplings (frozen, fresh, or other?)

Flour, water, yeast, sugar, milk, salt, butter, etc...

Don't know dough? Go.

 - for the cucumber salad - 

2 medium cukes

a pint of 1/2 and 1/2

a pint of milk

salt

pepper

white vinegar

 - PREPARE YOURSELVES - 

Pour stock into large stockpot. Add salt and pepper. Add potatoes that have been cut into small-ish cubes. Cover and gently boil for 30 minutes. Add chicken to stockpot ON TOP of the potatoes. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. 

                                                                         

WHILE this is going on, make your cucumber salad: peel and chop cucumbers into sizes and shapes you enjoy and place in medium to larger bowl. Add 1/2 and 1/2 and milk. Salt, pepper, and vinegar to taste. Stick in the icebox.

                                                                                

After the two minutes it takes to make the cukey goodness, MAKE THE DUMPLINGS: use whatever dough or dough recipe that will get you to have about 20 blobs of rising yeastiness.

                                                                                   

WHEN it has been a half an hour after you put the chicken on the potatoes, stir the chicken down with the potatoes. Then GENTLY place your dough balls on top of the chicken and potatoes. GENTLY I SAID! It's ok that you put dumplings on top of dumplings. They won't stick because...? You have lightly GREASED them as per indicated on the packaging or in the recipe that you're using. If that isn't a step in your instructions, throw those away and find a better recipe/brand.

                                                                                   

Turn temp to medium-low heat then COVER and GO AWAY for about an hour. I mean it! I like my dumplings to have spring but NO sponge. CHOOSE BUT CHOOSE WISELY. If you keep checking on them, the steam will escape and you'll have flat gobs of gooeyness. Not bad just not great.

Remove from heat, carefully extricate dumplings, serve up chicken and potatoes. Bring out the salad and try dipping the dumplings in it. DELICIOUS, darlings, delicious.

My 'plings didn't turn out because SOMEONE opened the lid.

So I did the only thing The Doll could think of. I baked the gooey, sloppy, mess of deliciousness.

And happy times were had by all during this cruddy and crappy gizzard wizzard of a blizzard.

ONE MORE THING. If you have leftover d'oh! you can just make buns! Love love love you, kittens!

Well, You See, This Is What Happened

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, kittens. The time has come, my little friends, to talk of many things. My Christmas Sweater is not done nor will it be done in time for the happy day. I went in like a wrecking ball and all I did was wreck it.

I was distracted by Christmas knitting and Breaking Bad. And restarting SOA. And awesome music. But I know you all have been waiting patiently for pictures so here they are: Christmas knitting in all its glory

Notice the fine craftsmanship? The delicate yet perfectly defined stitching?

Yes, I've certainly outdone myself this year. And that is why there will be no Christmas Sweater for me this year. And probably every other year of my life. UNLESS someone out there gifts me a sweater. (please, no Red Heart)

Countdown to Deadline: 3 crapping Yuletide days and nights

Remaining sweater work: THE SAME AS YESTERDAY!

Terror Alert Level: Santa Suit Red - able to scare small unsuspecting children 

Series to Knit by: Sons of Anarchy (not great for me as I am strangely attracted to Tig)

Baby, It's Hot In Here

Aloha, kittens! Greetings from balmy Fargo, North Dakota! Although it's -10 degrees Fahrenheit outside my kitchen is hotter than a billy goat's ass in a pepper patch. With holiday baking in full swing, my taking a scalding shower every five minutes because I neither make nor retain body heat, and yarn flying off my needles, I fully expect someone to call the fire brigade and have (hopefully) hot firefighters breaking down the door.

Tsk tsk on me for not having pictures but poo poo on you for thinking I would so close to Christmas. So no pictures of knitting but there are lots of other things are going on.
                                           
                                                            This is going on somewhere:

                                                                          and this:

and something awesome is definitely happening here even if I don't know what it is:

Countdown to Deadline: 11...ELEVEN?!?!?... Yuletide days and nights

Remaining sweater work: LESS THAN YESTERDAY!

Terror Alert Level: Bad Tan Orange - High Risk of Panic Attacks

Series to Knit by: 30 Rock. Again.

I Miss My Best Friend

Hello kittens. My knitting has gone rogue since much of it is for Christmas. Today, as Thanksgiving nears and I am going on 40 days of working without a day off, I am thankful for many things. As many things as I am grateful for I am also lamenting things that I have lost.

I am thankful for my family. My Wee One...

is of the most wonderful things ever to have existed in the universe. As frustrating as she is, she is a million times more wonderful and glorious to behold than anything the 'verse has to offer. Splenderifious, I believe, is the word.

My Doll, 

or as I am thinking of calling him: El Jefe, is seriously one of the most brilliant people that has ever existed. The scarf is proof of that. It is the scarf that makes the man. And I made the scarf so...

But the name of this post references a best friend and that is what I am sorely missing today. There was once a person who was my best friend. This person embodied all that which is required of a best friend: trust, honesty, loveliness, truthfulness, and absolute loyalty. We never seem to miss those people until they're gone, do we?

I've never experienced the absoluteness of someone before. It is...shattering. Life-shattering. Life-altering. Forever changed, forever better no matter how long the friendship lasts. Days. Weeks. Years. Sometimes people have such profound impacts on our life we are irrevocably changed for the better. And, yes. I am changed for the better. Forever changed for the better.

I miss my friend. Have you ever had a friend that you miss with every fiber of your being? Their thread is woven so deeply into the fabric of your life that without them, you start to unravel?

I am a Whovian. I was BEYOND OVEREXCITED to watch the 50th anniversary episode. And when I had watched it I wanted to sit, over coffee, and discuss it at length. With my friend. Who isn't my friend anymore. It hit me hard today. My best friend used to listen. My best friend used to talk about everything with me. My friend used to talk about nothing with me. My best friend used to hug me. My best friend used to get excited for the things I got excited for. Even if it wasn't exciting. My best friend used to be there for me no matter what. My best friend used to be there.

Since losing my best friend I have made new friends. There are work friends, friends of friends, mom friends, used to date but are now just friends friends, and other various friends. Lots of friends. Everywhere friends. But no best friend. No one to run to when the shit hits the fan or even when the fan just stops working and the whole place smells to high heaven (what does that mean, exactly?) due to all the shit that hasn't hit the fan. Yet.

I mourn everyday for my friend. My friend was the best thing that had happened to my life until my Wee One. I would have gladly lived the rest of my life in blissful ignorance with my best friend if my Wee One hadn't come along. Completely unexpectedly come along. I mean along the lines of a miracle come along. But things never work out the way they should. Call it human nature. Call it karma. Call it kismit. Call it bullshit. Call it what you will but things rarely end in kisses and sappy music over end credits.

My best friend doesn't want to know me anymore. My best friend doesn't want to hear about my days. My nights. My life. My best friend doesn't want to know anything about me. My best friend helped make me what I am and my friend doesn't want to care. 

And I am the one to blame. And I want to talk to my best friend about all of this but I can't. And I miss him. 

Start At The Beginning And When You Come To The End, Stop.

Oh, Kittens. It's been a while since we shared a moment or two of blissful stranger closeness. (That's a thing, right?) Forgive me for not keeping you in the forefront of my mind but all that really resides there are song lyrics and movies I watched in the 1980's. Why doesn't Netflix have Just One Of The Guys?!?!?!

So what has been happening in your worlds? I'm hungry for chips so I have that going on. Also, I'm almost out of pickles so if anyone can make that unhappen I'd be super grateful. Plus, my kool-aid tastes funky soooo...yeah (orange is the best, bitties).

My knitting has taken the back burner to the past week's events and I am FEELING it. There is something therapeutic about pointy sticks and soft yarn that makes the doldrums go away. Can one who is land-locked have those? It does nothing to help a stuffy nose though and I am draining the worlds Kleenex stores by the forest-ful.

Hey! I got a new job and then didn't get a new job. Turns out not drinking coffee drinks (lattes, mochas, cappa-frappa-cuppaccinos) really adversely affects one's ability to make and serve them. I was rubbish at it. Lines of people don't bother me. They're the ones waiting, I'm working. Pressure doesn't bother me. Pressure is something people use as an excuse to say doing X, Y, or Z is too hard. Learning new things doesn't bother me - in fact, I love learning. It keeps things interesting. But, after 3.5 to 4 days, I knew it was time to tilt my king. As I've been known to say: I've lived with myself for a long time and I know better. So ends my glorious time in food service. Que sera sera and long live whoever takes my spot in the kingdom of coffee. I'll stick to drinking it. Black, no sweetener.

My series to knit by has had to change. After much hemming and hawing, I picked Leverage. I like it but I also am in love with Timothy Hutton (insert Playing God here) and I need to WATCH it so naturally, I have made the switch to The X Files. I always lose my way or lose interest around season 4 and I have to start all over when I decide to rewatch it. Kinda like Lost. Love it. Can't remember anything about it. Begin again, my friend, begin again.

Countdown to Deadline: 41 Yuletide days and nights

Remaining sweater work: THE SAME AS A WEEK AGO!

Terror Alert Level: Baby Blue

Series to Knit by: The X Files

The Dreaded Sweater-itis

I've finally caught it. There's been something catchy going around between my knit wit friends and it got me. I have caught various knitting-related diseases from them over the years. Sock-tococcus, Mitten Mange, Scarf Barf, Fringe Fever, and, well...you get the point. But there are very few as deadly to your time and stash as Sweater-itis. Except for Blanket Pox.

Now, I know that I have the Christmas Sweater to work on and I'm still searching for Fisherman's Wool for the messenger bag but I've come down with Sweater-itis in the worst way - I'm looking through Starmore books.  STARMORE! Plus I just found this gem on the Ravelry site and am currently trying to remember where all of my zippers are.

I fear that I may not feel better until I have 28 sweaters in various stages of undoneness laying about the place and not enough coffee in the world to help me finish them. It is a vicious illness, I tell you.

On a different note, I am awaiting the news of a new position I had an interview about earlier. It wouldn't be life-altering or anything but sometimes, even when it really doesn't matter that much whether it happens or not, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were right. The Waiting really is the hardest part.

Countdown to Deadline: 52 Yuletide days and nights

Remaining sweater work: LESS THAN YESTERDAY!

Terror Alert Level: Jungle Green

Series to Knit by: Still Leverage but watching Harry Potter with the Wee One