Paprika--It's A Miracle Spice

Sometimes you come across recipes that sound so bizarre that you have to make them.

This is a prime example. Turkey "Ghoulash" with Caraway Noodles. Anytime there's quotation marks inside a recipe title, you know you are in dangerous territory. But I thought "Hey, I've got a surplus of paprika, and chicken thighs easily sub for turkey. While I don't love pumpkin, I certainly don't mind it. And it's just so weird!"

Holy crap, it. is. awesome. You don't taste the pumpkin--it just blends into this smoky red mess surrounding the vegs and chicken. I was working with substandard noodles and no caraway seeds, but it didn't need it. Seriously delicious.

I've been talking up for a month and have promised shares to two coworkers who are intrigued enough to try leftovers. I am going to be able to leverage awesome favors with the delicious stuff.

Reasons To Leave Cleveland

I have a lot of good sensible reasons for forming my half-assed plan to leave Cleveland, but one of the things I am leaving to get away from is the question:

"Where is that at?"

Every time I heard that particular bit of garbled grammar, I feel the urge to kick the speaker. It's so engrained out here, that you can't fight it. Best to just run.

It's An Emergency. A Cookie Emergency! Haven't You Ever Had A Cookie Emergency?

One of the nice things about working on the other side of town is that there's a plethora of new-to-me restaurants and lunch options. Not in the EC, but the Euc's got some good stuff. Among them is an awesome bakery Temetra's Treats Bakery. It's located at 21950 Lakeshore Blvd--get off at E 222nd and drive up to the intersection. I first heard about it from one of my coworkers who brought in some of the cookies. Those were great, especially the chocolate (they really taste like cocoa!) and snickerdoodles. I've gone back and had the yummy brownies and a darling little cupcake. It's all real ingredients: butter, sugar, cocoa. Prices are very reasonable--a cupcake and a brownie were only $1.55! Call ahead, because she might not have much on the shelves but it is worth a special trip. The number is (216) 289-9510. I think I'll get my coconut cake for my birthday there ($22 for a 2 layer 10"--so cheap!)

Improve Your Vocabulary The Kerry Way

So I have a bunch of words I've been working into conversation lately because, hey--I enjoy being inscrutable, and I like being creative.

Sidework: That mindless stuff that you do on the side of whatever your main duties at the moment are--for instance, weeding is sidework for reference. Sometimes, no one wants help, so you discard books and stamp them cancelled for want of not being bored out of your mind. I took this from Peg Bracken's awesome ettiquette book, I Try to Behave Myself, where she advises having a stash of sidework on you at all times so you can distract yourself from the urge to run your mouth at annoying acquaintances. Or slap them.

Roundheels: A nicer way of saying slut. I used this in an email to MFA Jane recently. I was referring to myself.

Brickbat: This is a title to a rather bittersweet Billy Bragg song. I was curiousenough to look it up and it's a word meaning a cutting critical remark or dig. I love it. It's also "a fragment of brick used as a weapon."

Shanty vs. Lace Curtain: I honestly think the conflict and pull between being shanty and lace curtain Irish describes my life perfectly. I am "lace curtain" when I sneer at lingerie showers and money dances and when I take pride in my cashmere sweaters and Master's degree. I'm so shanty when I haven't washed the kitchen floor for a month.

But Sometimes, I Just Want Them To Remember The Library. Is That So Wrong?

Heard about the controversial Wyoming Libraries Mudflap Girl? Check her out and some of their other awesome marketing tools here. I bought the bumper stickers--not mudflap girl, but the "You Can Have My Book When You Pry It from My Cold Dead Fingers" and the others. Check out the radio spots too.

Genevieve sent me a link to this shirt which amuses me as both a librarian and a single girl.

I'm loving Uncontrolled Vocabulary, a library news and issues podcast. It's like eavesdropping on your smart and witty librarian friends as they take on all the issues of the day from hipsters to mudflap girls to policing the patrons.

More Links To Online Reading

I had a reference desk emergency a few weeks ago. We had a patron ask about O. Henry's "The Ransom of Red Chief," and while we own several collections of O. Henry stories, none contain that work. Thanks to the beauty of free literature on the internet, I was able to print a copy for the patron and satisfy her request.

Read Print offers a short list of classic books and biographical information on the authors. Easy to navigate, no downloading, but the print and format are easy on the eyes.

Classic Short Stories is a website devoted to the short story. Lots of favorite classic authors. Online reading or printing only, and the format on the page is hard on my eyes. Thisis the site I got the O. Henry from.

The Literature Network offers over 6,000 classic works out of copyright from 260 authors and discussion forums. Online reading only, with its attendant issues--format is not as readable as Read Print, but not too bad.

There's More Than One Way To Be A Jane Austen Heroine

The EW Popwatch has alerted to me the existance of the Jane Austen Fanvids, including the one set to Nelly Furtado's "Maneater" and its spectacular earworm and eyewormness. Seriously, watch it , close your eyes and you still see the ballroom dance bounce.

I have been very lazy and adopting the look of a Regency heroine by pulling my hair back into a ponytail and then tucking it up. However, yesterday I made an appointment to get my hair cut and colored. Yes, big news there. Any suggestions other than trying to cover my gray as much as possible with a shade close to my natural dark walnut?

The Perfect Word

Okay, let's play "Spot Poor Word Choice":

From a description of an article in last week's New York Times "A journey into the Himalayas to the plantation of Darjeeling proves to be a teetotaler's version of a Napa Valley wine tour, but a lot less crowded."

You see it, right? Teetotaler. The meaning of teetotaler is a person who abstains, particularly from strong drink or alcohol. Since Prohibition, it's not a word that gets used much here in the US--it's a very British word. According to this, when spelled "teatotaller" it can indicate someone with a love of tea over all other beverages. Although it's taken from fucking Wikipedia, so grain of salt, darling. But when used as it is in the quotation above it's just flat out wrong. The article had nothing to do with the author's preference for tea over other beverages. It was a simple travelogue. The copywiter saw a pun and jumped on it without thinking through the word useage.

I was a little disappointed in the NYT when I saw this. I found it jarring.

Oh Noes!

That red bell pepper in the last CSA bag? Not a red bell pepper. Thank heavens I took a little bit of the membrane when I was cutting it up to put it in my pasta dish.

Hot, hot, hot! Funny face!

Notes To Self

Stop buying the Sunday paper!

Week 16--The Experiment Ends!

The last CSA bag held the following:

1 pint red grape tomatoes
1 pint yellow grape tomatoes
1 butternut squash
1 bunch kale
1 yellow squash
1 acorn squash
1 unidentified squash, orange and pumpkiny looking--maybe a sugar pumpkin?
1 eggplant
2 regular tomatoes
1 bag MacIntosh apples (my least favorite apple)

This week's eats are leftover and possibly lethal vegetarian chili, chai-spice brined pork tenderloin with delicata squash, turkey sandwich, toast, tea and whatever I figure out to do with the above. And leftovers.

Week 15--The Penultimate Bag

CSA deliveries end next week. I'm relieved.

This week's bag:
Buttercup squash
Garlic
Tomatoes
Golden Delicious apples
Eggplant
Red bell peppers
Delicata squash
Poblano pepper
Grape tomatoes

What to do, what to do....I made vegan chili today for the Castaway Cats Clambake. I don't know that it will feed 20(!) so I am going to freehand a batch with the leftover can purchases and use the poblano, one of the red peppers (the peppers and cucumbers have been very, very good), garlic, and whatnot.

I haven't put the food processor on the curb yet (it's falling apart) so I might make the eggplant thing again, as it was pretty good. However, I am working until 8pm every night until Friday, so I might not feel like eating or cooking. I have a recipe for the delicata that looks good. I'll be toting the apples around with me, and if there's any left at the end of the week, I'll make applesauce.

I was telling about my squash stockpile at the Euc this week and one of the librarians said, "wow, that is a LOT of squash." Yes, yes it is.