As I promised yesterday, another excellent comfort food menu from TaMara:
This is actually one of the highest searched recipes on the blog, so for tonight’s
ThursdayFriday Night Menu, I’m going to repeat it. I’m (unfortunately for my blogging escapades) swamped with work and meetings today and didn’t think ahead in time to get a new menu prepped. Good news is, I have two meatloaf recipes to post as soon as I have a chance to type them up. Until then…
__
From November 5, 2009
It’s warm here today, but it’s always good to have a soup recipe on hand for when the cold weather returns. And there’s nothing better on a cold night than Creamy Potato Cheese Soup. I rarely peel potatoes, I scrub the skins thoroughly and that’s good enough for me. It also saves a lot of time and potato skins are full of good things. Yes, there is cheese, but milk instead of cream, and you can even use non-fat milk without noticing any loss. I threw the Pear and Sour Cherry Crisp in at the last minute, because to me, fall is all about fruit crisps.
__
On the board tonight:
__
1. Cream of Potato Cheese Soup
__
2. Orange-Walnut Spinach Salad
__
3. Pear and Sour Cherry Crisp
Recipes and shopping list, as ever, at the link.
***********
Who’s got plans for the weekend? (“Drinking myself blind” doesn’t count.)
lamh32
Anne L,
Sorry to be sorta OT, but before it gets too busy in here, today was my birthday, and I would like to change my commenter name to reflect that, but when I do, my comments never show up.
What do I do?
jeffreyw
@lamh32: Mebbe the WP doesn’t believe ya when you say 34? Try 39.
cleter
I made empanadas, using left-over pork roast as a filling. Tomorrow we go to an art show, I make chili, and Sunday I work on the dissertation some.
Three-nineteen
How about “Drinking myself blind and watching Up In the Air“?
Linkmeister
@lamh32: Happy Birthday! I turned 60 yesterday!
Linkmeister
For those who can’t wait for a meat loaf recipe, here’s the one I use all the time.
Anne Laurie
@lamh32: “New” names get moderated by FYWP automatically. Now that you’ve been hand-approved, all should be good again.
(Said this back in the last OT, but: Happy birthday, fellow Scorpio!)
lamh32
@Linkmeister:
thanks, I celebrated my 34th today. I didn’t really do anything special today. Next year, I’ll obviously be 35 next year. i figure I’m really gonna celebrate then. be in the same situation I am now, childless, single, and not bothered by it in the least.
lamh32
@Anne Laurie:
Thx, and of course:
SCORPIOS ROCK!!!!
J. Michael Neal
Eddie is hiding under the bed. He had problems urinating Monday night. It was a lot like the symptoms when he had kidney stones four years ago, so I drove to the hospital sure that this was it, and he wouldn’t be coming home. At this point, with cancer in is paw, I’m not going to put him through the process of dealing with stones.
He has a bladder infection. They gave him an antibiotic shot and sent us home. He was back to peeing just fine in a couple of hours. He’s been completely normal ever since. Until this morning, when no one (he or Ringling) even licked up the gravy on the canned food I put out. Then he started hiding under the bed this afternoon and wouldn’t come out to eat. He didn’t even eat anything that I shoved under the bed for him. Ringling enjoyed the dose of buprenorphine she mooched after he refused.
So, I was again convinced that this was it: the bladder infection was back, and another thing we aren’t going to do is wrestle twice a day to get Clavamox into him.
I went out. Some of my former classmates got together in Uptown and I went to join them. That was a mistake. Not only was I a wreck and crying, they were all excitedly talking about their new jobs. Maybe if I had been in a good mood to start with, that would have been fine, but it wasn’t a conversation I wanted to listen to, let alone join in. At all.
So I came home. I made up another set of food, including one loaded with narcotics. I lay down in bed. As it usually does, that got him to come out to lie next to me. At which point he promptly ate all of the food I brought up and went out to grab some of the dry kibble that’s out. We snuggled for a couple of hours until I got a phone call.
He’s now back under the bed. I don’t know what the story is, but eating meant that I don’t have to make a decision tomorrow.
lamh34
testing….
edited: woo hoo worked like a charm this time
jeffreyw
Someone say meatloaf?
PurpleGirl
@lamh32: Happy B-day. Hope it was good.
Anne Laurie
@Linkmeister: And a happy slightly-belated birthday to you, too also!
Anne Laurie
@J. Michael Neal:
Poor Eddie. One day at a time, and you have the foreknowledge that every day is precious.
Maude
@J. Michael Neal:
All I can say is that it is so painful with a buddy sick.
lamh32
Alright, I gotta say that Rachel held it down for Keith Olbermann
If video becomes available ya’ll should watch.
HRA
Best potato soup I ever had was at an Irish pub on St. Pat’s day. This one looks very good, too. I’ll save it for a day when a potatoes side dish is not on my menu.
I have to make a cream soup or French onion soup besides the obvious chicken soup for family dinners at my house.
I found a recipe for cream of artichoke soup online for Thanksgiving.
Happy Birthday to all the Scorpios. I had mine last month -a Libra close to Scorpio.
My best to you with Eddie, J. Michael Neal.
alwhite
Here is a potato/garlic soup I love this time of year:
5 Whole Garlic Heads
2 Garlic cloves, minced
2 Bacon slices (optional for omnivores)
1C Onion, diced
1C Carrot, diced
6C Potatoes, diced (aprox 2 pounds)
4C Vegetable broth (for V, can use chicken if you want)
1/2tsp Salt
1/4tsp Pepper
1 Bay Leaf
1C milk
Parsley, chopped
Remove white papery skin from the outside of the garlic heads (do not peel or separate cloves). Wrap each head separately in aluminium foil. Bake at 350F degrees for 1 hour; let cool for 10 minutes. Separate cloves, and squeeze to extract the garlic pulp (about 1/4C).
If you want the vegan version skip the bacon & use a tablespoon or two of olive oil instead. Cook bacon in a large saucepan over medium-high heat until crisp. Remove to a paper towel. Add onion, carrot, and minced garlic to the hot oil and sauté 5 minutes. Add potatoes, broth, salt, pepper, and bay leaf; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20-30 minutes or until potato is tender. Remove from heat and fish out the bay leaf.
Combine the roasted garlic and 2 cups soup in a blender or food processor and process until smooth. (A stick blender right in the pot works better) Return puree to pan. Stir in milk (and crumbled bacon if used), and cook over low heat until thoroughly heated. Stir in chopped parsley and serve.
Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)
Anyone seen “Waiting for Superman?” Saw it yesterday and it just brought tears to my eyes. Director Davis Guggenheim was there for Q&A and many in the audience were teachers who applauded him. If you haven’t seen it, you have to. I knew about KIPP schools and Geoffrey Canada’s Harlem Children’s Zone but didn’t realize that 90%+ of their kids go on to college. Kids from some of the most underserved/deprived neighborhoods in the US. Who only got a chance by winning a charter school lottery, not because they were smarter than other kids in the neighborhood who didn’t get their numbers drawn. That’s amazing and frustrating too.
He took the kids from the documentary and their parents/families to meet Obama last week, and says one of the kids in the film is now on the Dean’s list after a year in a new school (don’t want to give too much away).
Since a lot of the criticism has been that he’s bashing unions, he took great pains to point out that he’s a member of one (Director’s Guild).
Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)
@lamh32/lamh34: Happy birthday.
lamh32
@Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people):
Thx :D
jl
A food post reminds me that I got lucky and got a big bag of squash blossoms at a farmers market this week, just as it was closing. It was a special order for a customer who didn’t show.
I put squash blossoms in everything for a few days, since I they don’t last beyond a couple of days. Put ’em in scrambled eggs, put ’em in soups, put ’em in salads.
Final desperate measure was to cook up a remaining few with some canned chili beans.
I forgot how good squash blossoms taste.
I told the people at the farmers market that I would never fail to pick up an order of squash blossoms, so any time they had some ready, to let me know and I would be there to pick them up pay cash money.
TaMara (BHF)
Thanks Anne Laurie!
@jl: I love squash blossoms! I have a great recipe for stuffed ones, somewhere.
Happy Birthday to everyone! And to Eddie, I wish you a peaceful night and a hungry tummy tomorrow. JMN, how is the job going?
che
When she mentioned Keith Olbermann and double standards, I thought she was going to light into Joe Scar, Kudlow, et al but it ended up being about MSNBC and Fox. AFAIK, Fox doesn’t have such standards, so it was pointless to bring them up.
And especially disappointing was how she was parroting the official “Keith suspended” memo of her bosses. She mentioned something about integrity and how they are not like Fox. Sorry, much as I love Rachel and Keith, no one believes that they are impartial.
Also mentioned Joe Scar got permission, Kudlow is on CNBC, and not subjected to NBC’s standards.
jl
Which also reminds me of pawpaws.
Some people came up from CA Central Valley to a farmers market here for about a month in Sept and Oct with pawpaws. Said they liked pawpaws so much and they were so hard to get they decided to try growing them in CA.
First time I ever had pawpaws. They were delicious. I do not understand why people in the Ohio Valley and southward where they grow hasn’t managed to do grow pawpaws commercially.
But now a pair California farmers are on the case. You people back there better get cracking.
And it looks like an intrepid West Virginian (an E’er?) has been trying to get the pawpaw back into the American diet. Cole should be proud,
http://www.roanoke.com/extra/wb/179584
Anyone know where I can get some pawpaw products over the intertubes?
jl
@TaMara (BHF): I tried stuffing them with dolma stuffing. But I am too clumsy to do it with blossoms. Everything fell apart and it turned into a squash blossom casserole, but it tasted good.
freelancer
I plan to strongly but politely force an impending (political/critical thinking) issue upon the science-based/skeptical online community. Wish me luck.
Oh and Lumbergh’s making me come in on Sunday.
@lamh32:
Happy Birthday.
lamh32
@che:
that would be one criticism if I had to name one, but withing the confines of keeping her job she did a fine defense I think.
It’s one this for Olbermman to ge “suspended” but Rachel conducts REAL journalism. Her interviewing skills are hands above Keith and Chris.
I feel sorry for Keith, but I would like Rachel to keep her job, cause other than Keith and Shultz who I don’t really like, Rachel is the liberal/progessive voice at MSNBC who actually defends liberal/progressive causes.
che
Oh, I much prefer Rachel as well. I watch Olbermann occasionally, but not as much as I used to. I do think he’s a bit of a blowhard myself.
But I really wanted to see her stick it to the republicans who work at MSNBC. Oh well.
lamh32
I just saw a segment on CNN about Keith Olbermann on AC360. Anderson wasn’t there, but you can tell that CNN smells blood in the water, because the number of times the the host called Keith O hypocritical was interesting. Joan Walsh was on there, but Joan Walsh wasn’t even trying to give a half ass defense of Olbermann she was really just trying to pre-empt complaints about the policy of Salon, without losing her gig at MSNBC.
paul begala was his usual jovial, my name is Wes…(I ain’t in this mess) self
J. Michael Neal
@TaMara (BHF): I remain almost entirely unemployed. I’m doing some work for a former professor, but it amounts to a couple of hours a week.
I’m really tired of the struggle. Eddie. No job. No girlfriend, and no one who is both a really close friend and someone I can really share my troubles with*. No sign of an end to any of the problems, except Eddie, unfortunately. I don’t have any energy. I don’t have any motivation to get anything done. I’m not applying for jobs as persistently as I should, because it’s too demoralizing. I’m not getting any writing done. Nothing. Zip. Nada. I read blogs and play computer games.
I don’t know how much longer I can do this.
*I mean people I can talk to face to face. You guys are great, but can’t really fill that hole. I miss physical contact with people. I have a couple of close friends, but they aren’t really someone I can really open up to. One of them is so intensely private about himself, and so obviously uncomfortable discussing anyone else’s personal issues that it doesn’t happen. One was my ex-wife, and aside from the obvious problem that she’s the source of a bunch of issues I want to discuss, I’m finding her increasingly tedious and uninteresting.
WaterGirl
@J. Michael Neal: It’s so heartbreaking, I hardly know what to say. A year ago I was losing my sweet boy over a period of weeks, too. Just when I would be about to give up, he would start eating. My heart goes out to you.
One thing that might help ease the struggle? Pill pockets… I just finished a 10-day round of clamavox twice a day with my new kitty without any fuss at all. Bear never even knew there were pills inside.
I found WereBear’s website a day too late. This is another good site, too. I wish I had found them before that final day. Maybe they can help you now.
che
@la
mh32:
It was about the same on Spitzer and Parker. The consensus seemed to be it was bs, but dem’s the rules.
jl
@J. Michael Neal: Sorry to hear that. I had no idea you were in that kind of situation.
I was there for a time a number of years ago, when the job market was horrible.
My only advice is 1) don’t do nothing. Do something, get in shape, get a cheap sport to play, study, write whatever you want to write. Start learning something you’ve always wanted to learn. Play an instrument if you are into music. Force yourself to do something, and forget all your cares while you do it.
And, 2) get out and meet people.
Just make yourself do it. Throw your self out of the house if you have to. that is what I finally had to do with myself those years ago.
Good luck.
Forgot: get involved in community work. you will make lots of interesting connections. Food bank, soup kitchen, whatever.
J. Michael Neal
@WaterGirl:
I’ll give it a try. However, one of Eddie’s claims to fame is that at least one of the people at the UofM Vet Hospital says that he is the hardest cat to pill she has ever dealt with. They love him there; who wouldn’t love him. That’s an issue, though. It simply isn’t possible for me to get a pill or squirt a liquid down his throat. As just one person, I’d have to hold on to him hard enough that I’d hurt him.
Jim K.
STILL going to be 77 degrees here in Colorado- (……)’s tomorrow. No moisture for….12 weeks.
Deer are like, wheres the green man?
Not good going into the winter. Its all gone now.
Nothing to see here, no warming, go about your business.
I’ve seen some pretty small Deer babies grazing around my yard. When they start eating grass, you know its bad.
WaterGirl
@J. Michael Neal: Pill pockets are really amazing. When my vet asked how the pill pockets had worked, I heard myself say “like heaven”, without even thinking about it. They come in chicken and fish flavors. I went with chicken, but you might get both flavors and see which one he likes best.
edit: they are little, chewy things, and I kept thinking that as he chewed he would discover the pills, but he never ever did. one tip – i gave him two or three as treats before I ever gave him one with pills inside. That way he already knew they were yummy and wasn’t looking for a pill or a trick when I gave them to him. Worked like a charm!
J. Michael Neal
@jl:
I try. I’m not good at it. The best way to explain it is that I was diagnosed with Asperger’s this summer. When I try, it mostly just ends up making me more frustrated.
TrishB
@J. Michael Neal: For my doggie, 2 rounds of Clavamox weren’t even close to knocking out her UTI. She needed a culture sent out, and 3 weeks of Baytril finally did the trick. Baytril is pretty much doggie Cipro. Has the vet sent the urine out to be cultured, or is s/he just falling back on Clavamox as a standard?
Mnemosyne
@J. Michael Neal:
I have no idea if this is anywhere near you, but the Autism Society of Minnesota has free support groups for adults with autism and asperger’s. If nothing else, they might be able to put you in touch with a group in your area (there’s a link to more groups on the right-hand side).
Steeplejack
@Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people):
I saw Waiting for Superman last Saturday after the Stewart/Colbert rally. I thought it was very powerful. I was a little taken aback at the (seemingly) union-bashing tone, but in the discussion with friends later an interesting point came out: we all sort of think of unions in black-white terms. Either they’re great or they should be crushed. End of story. We seem to overlook the possibility that they are civil institutions, like a lot of other civil institutions, that have good practices and bad practices that vary over time and are susceptible to reform and improvement.
J. Michael Neal
@TrishB: Yeah, it’s being cultured.
Eddie’s on pretty high doses of prednisolone, a steroid. It helps slow the spread of lymphoma, and we’re assuming that it will help Eddie; we don’t really know, since he’s the only case of feline cutaneous lymphoma (which is rare enough in people), and they can’t provide any guidance on his prognosis.
The bonus is that it also reduced the inflammation of his allergies and his tummy fur is starting to grow back. The downsides are that it lowers his immune system, leaving him vulnerable to infections, and can lead to diabetes. I should be so lucky that I have to euthanize him for diabetes, because it would mean that he’s lived long enough to get it, which I’m not expecting. For all any of us know, though, he could go on a couple of years.
The vet gave him instructions to stop scaring me, but he apparently didn’t understand. He’s not the brightest of cats, just the sweetest.
TaMara (BHF)
@J. Michael Neal: Oh, I’m so sorry. I’ve been so hit or miss here the last few weeks, I thought you had secured a job and were moving.
I’m an introvert, so I completely understand the dilemma. Need people, suck at going out and meeting new people. I do have one suggestion – if you can find a small, local theatre group, opera or music venue, these are usually very open and accepting people – you don’t have to perform, but you can sure help out backstage, set building, selling concessions, etc.
I understand it feels bleak, I was divorced and losing animals one by one due to age, and not having any luck with a full-time job, among other awful things that were going on. It was a dark time and it lasted much too long. BUT IT GETS BETTER, it really does.
One day things suddenly started to turn around and I have a wonderful life now and each day is a blessing. So come talk to us when you need to and remember most of us have been down this road.
BTW, I didn’t do anything different to make things turn around, I just kept trying. Even though I felt like I was doing everything wrong in the moment, in the end, everything I was doing was fine, it just took the right opportunity in the right moment to turn it all around.
lol
Rep Rick Larsen (D-WA-02) is very likely to hold on after all – got some very good ballot returns in a county he’s been narrowly losing. Crunched the numbers on the remaining ballots and he should win with a margin that won’t trigger an automatic recount.
J. Michael Neal
Well, he’s out from under the bed, and sitting on it, acting like there was never anything wrong. It’s a good thing cats are so cute. Otherwise, we’d strangle them.
J. Michael Neal
@TaMara (BHF):
Yeah, that was what I was hoping, too. I interviewed with the IRS for a position in Boston. I never heard back from them. I think that it’s pretty rude to not contact people you interviewed to let them know that they didn’t get the job, but it’s standard practice these days.
Yutsano
@lol: Schweet. Pile this on top of the Rossi fail and I feel a bit better.
TaMara (BHF)
@J. Michael Neal: My friend just went 8 weeks without word from a job, then yesterday they called her and told her she was their first choice. She swallowed her annoyance and took the job.
lol
@Yutsano:
We lost WA-03 but it was a lot closer than I thought it would. I think we stand a very good chance of picking that up in 2012. We should stand a good chance of picking up that new 10th seat too, though it may be a wash depending on what state washington gained the seat at the expense of.
Yutsano
@lol: Depends on where and how they draw it. If they chunk off a portion of Centralia/Chehalis/Longview, it’ll be a tough slog outside of major Blue Dog territory. If they decide to do Snohomish and north, it should be easier.
J. Michael Neal
@TaMara (BHF): It’s been four months, for a job that was supposed to start in September. I’m not holding out a lot of hope.
TrishB
@J. Michael Neal: Ah sheesh, I’m sorry. Just read your other post. We’re in similar boats. I’ve been unemployed since the beginning of April. The day Pepper went blind was the same day I got my notice. She became diabetic not quite a year ago, and I can tell you there’s no reason to put down an animal for diabetes. It’s usually much easier to manage in most cats than it is for dogs. We continued to monitor her and realized she wasn’t as regulated as she should be. A specialist and some hella expensive tests later, it turned out she has atypical Cushing’s disease, which is now being treated. It’s been a long haul and a lot of money, but I don’t regret one penny. None of it’s curable, I just hope for some manageable quality time.
Pepper also lost her tummy fur. First to being shaved for an ultrasound, but the Cushing’s makes it incredibly slow to grow back.
Best wishes for Eddie. He sound like a truly lovely kitty cat. Good luck to you, also.