shanti, shanti

recipes.

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 04:27:09 GMT

I think I may have posted some of these before, but I don't have them properly tagged since it wasn't until the other week that I finally deleted all my old tags so I could make new ones again. And I want to have these where I can find them again, so I can throw away the clippings that are cluttering up my desk!

churrasco rub
2 tablespoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika
1 teaspoon dried oregano (preferably Mexican)
1 teaspoon black pepper

Enough for 8 steaks.

cilantro chimichurri
6 garlic cloves
1 cup cilantro
1 cup flat leaf parsley
½ cup chopped white onion
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon salt
coarsely ground black pepper

Place garlic in food processor, pulse until finely chopped. Add cilantro, parsley, onion, vinegar, oregano, and pepper flakes. Add olive oil in a thin stream and process until smooth. Add salt and pepper. Refrigerate, covered, up to one week. Makes one cup.

(Condiment, but also usable as a marinade, I would think.)

cranberry bread with orange and oats
2 eggs
1 cup packed light brown sugar
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium orange, diced, including rind
¾ cup orange juice
1 cup oats
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
1½ cups dried, sweetened cranberries
2 cups hot water

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

Combine eggs and brown sugar in a food processor and process until smooth. Add oil and diced orange. Process until orange is minced. Gradually add orange juice.

Mix oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Stir in orange mixture until just blended. Let stand 15 minutes.

Combine cranberries and water in a medium bowl. Let stand 10 minutes. Drain well, shaking off excess liquid.

Fold cranberries into batter. Pour into loaf pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes, until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes in pan and remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

blueberry pound cake
1¾ cups all-purpose flour, plus 2 tablespoons
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¾ cup butter (1½ sticks)
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
½ teaspoon lemon juice
½ cup apple juice, plus 2 tablespoons
1½ cup blueberries
⅔ cup powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a loaf pan and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the 1¾ cups flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter until light and fluffy. One at a time, add eggs and mix well. Add the lemon juice and ½ cup of apple juice, then mix well. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

Place the blueberries in a medium bowl and dust with the remaining 2 tablespoons of flour, tossing to coat them evenly. Fold into the batter and discard the excess flour. Transfer the batter to the loaf pan. Bake 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted at the center of the loaf comes out dry.

Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then remove to cool on a wire rack for an hour. Glaze before serving with powdered sugar and the remaining 2 tablespoons of apple juice.

minty orange salad
1 Valencia orange, peeled and cut into chunks
3 cups chopped romaine lettuce
¼ cup chopped walnuts (I like to increase this to ½)
½ cup chopped red onion
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

Dressing:
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon orange juice
1 garlic clove, crushed
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

mexican style hot chocolate
1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
a pinch of chili powder
¼ cup cocoa powder
½ cup sugar
half a vanilla bean, split lengthwise
4 ounces dark chocolate, chopped

Combine everything except chocolate and simmer in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add chocolate and stir until melted. Remove vanilla bean before serving.

(does that sound like a heart attack waiting to happen or what)

chocolate chip cookies
Yeah, everybody and their mom has a recipe for this, but mine is awesome, okay. :|

2½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
½ pound butter, softened
¾ cup white sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups chocolate chips
1 cup walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 375F. Cream butter and sugars until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, blend. Add flour, soda, and salt; blend. Stir in chocolate chips.

Bake 2" apart on ungreased cookie shit for about 10 minutes.

(For the record: Guittard milk chocolate chips make superior cookies. You will never be able to look a bag of that Toll House crap in the face again.)

good times with weapons

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 18:50:38 GMT

So once upon a time, when I was buying our friendly local Game Exchange out of every Genesis game they had that I actually thought was good, we noticed a number of copies of Shaq-Fu in the discount rack for two dollars each.

At that time, we only bought one for the lulz, but I mentally filed this away for later use, and some time later, we did indeed decide to make use of it.

Yesterday when we walked in there, they had put those copies back behind the counter, so we had to ask for them, and I gotta say, there are few experiences that can be matched by telling your friendly local retail slave that you want Shaq-Fu, and when they ask you SNES or Genesis, saying "we want all of them."

Twelve dollars, six copies, and two bags of fast food from Sonic later, an adventure began.

The objects of our demonstration. The seventh copy is still sitting on my shelf because we still wanted to own one, in case we should ever be drunk enough to think that playing it might actually be a good idea (I am not sure if enough alcohol exists in the world for this).

The weapon of choice. Her name is Isabella.

A brief message from our sponsors: all acts of senseless destruction are best committed with a cool, refreshing cherry limeade.

I look stupid when I smile for cameras.

Allen brought our backup weapon of destruction, destroying the final cartridge with it and earning himself the title of Shaqokiri Battousai. Also I really like that t-shirt.

HEAVEN OR HELL...

LET'S ROCK

I discovered a new and amazing talent for getting things stuck to hammers.

No, seriously.

THIS HAPPENED A LOT.

Adorable earthly destroyer is adorable.

Allen demolished this fucker with a single blow. I really wish we'd gotten video.

WHERE'S YOUR GOD NOW

They can really take a beating, but in the end, justice prevailed. Crys has also requested me to note that beaten up Genesis games make fantastic maracas...

...because of that.

SNES carts, on the other hand, have hardier circuit boards, but their cases shatter better.

We are one step closer to raising our children in a safer, Shaq-Fu-free world.

We did record some video but I don't have it. Rest assured, it will be YouTubed eventually.

THIS IS IMPORTANT, OKAY.

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 03:15:53 GMT

View Poll: Very important question.

101 things in 1001 days.

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 01:03:46 GMT

airgonaut is downright inspirational sometimes. (Well, honestly, a lot of the time, because when I think of all the posts on my friends list that make me think, "gee, that's awesome and it makes me want to better myself, too," she's behind a significant number of them.) And after she posted her list for mission101, I decided it would be to my own benefit to stop saying I should do things and start doing them.

This is a list of 101 things I hope to accomplish over the next 1001 days. Some of them are healthy habits, some are just things I've been meaning to do and failing at actually doing. Some of them are meaningful and some are trivial geeky bullshit that may not mean much to the world, but might make me feel better.

start date: August 6, 2008
end date: May 4, 2011

01. Learn to drive, finally.
02. Learn to ride a bike, finally.
03. Apply to graduate school.
04. If not accepted at graduate school, find and commit myself to a program that will get me my teaching license.
05. Move out of Oklahoma.
06. Go to New Mexico, whether on vacation or otherwise, and enjoy sopapillas.
07. ...and a burger at Blake's!
08. ...but also learn to make my own sopapillas!
09. Drink at least half a liter of water every day, without fail. (A full liter would be better, but let's take this one step at a time.)
10. Eat at least one vegetable a day, even if this means those nights I get lazy and eat Wheaties turn into eating Wheaties accompanied by a side of spinach. :|
11. Finish ten of the unfinished video games on my shelf of doom.
12. Work out an exercise regiment I can stick to.
13. Save at fifteen percent of every paycheck.
14. Learn to use that goddamned DivaCup so I can save a fortune in tampon money.
15. Clean my desk at least once a month. (last done: 24 August)
16. Visit my brother, or visit my parents at a point when he'll actually be home too.
17. Properly register so I can stop voting by absentee ballot.
18. Learn to cook a good Thanksgiving turkey.
19. Cut soda out of my daily diet (for real this time).
20. Visit the library at least once a month.
21. Translate and scanlate at least one of my doujinshi from start to finish.
22. Review and rememorize all the kanji that have flown out of my head over the years.
23. Reread Hagakure, Book of Five Rings, and The Art of War.
24. Write at least a thousand words of something every week. Fanfic, original work, whatever. Just, anything that actually gets me writing.
25. Properly organize my recipe collection.
26. Stop eating within four hours of bedtime.
27. Set up a table in my room and have a jigsaw puzzle in progress at all times.
28. Bring baked goods to my co-workers for no special occasion.
29. Dress up for Halloween -- really dress up, not just throw together three things in my closet and call it a night.
30. Clip coupons every week and plan my grocery shopping accordingly.
31. Grow my own basil and make homemade pesto.
32. Donate 50,000 grains of rice via freerice.com.
33. Go on a picnic.
34. Get good enough at Dance Dance Revolution to beat Breakdown on heavy.
35. Donate to Planned Parenthood at least once a year.
36. See a good musical on stage.
37. Finish watching every season of Homicide.
~~38. Replace all my socks that have holes in them with new, equally cute pairs.~~
39. Build a gingerbread house from scratch.
~~40. Overhaul my LJ tags.~~
~~41. Get some skirts/dresses in my closet that I might actually wear.~~
42. Attempt and finish Nanowrimo.
43. Listen to twenty-five bands I've never listened to before (at least one full album each).
44. Read the Bible, start to finish, so it can never be said that I didn't give it an honest shot.
45. Grow some kind of vegetable myself and make a tasty dinner out of it.
46. Build a snowman.
47. Reread the Analects of Confucius.
48. Reread Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
49. Reread Outlaws of the Marsh.
50. Read Journey to the West.
51. Go to the Mont for drinks, because I'm amazed that I have lived across the street from this bar for two years and never actually been drinking there.
52. Girls' night out at the gay bar.
53. Actually send out Christmas cards, instead of succumbing to the crushing stress of the holiday season and not getting them done.
54. Formally go off the pill and use a lunar calendar to start tracking my cycle; see if I can develop healthy habits and minimize stress to keep it regular.
~~55. Start taking a daily multi-vitamin.~~
56. Make colorful pinwheels and stick them in random flowerbeds around campus.
57. Fly kites at night with glowsticks.
58. Go to Zio's for Thai chicken pizza and raspberry bellinis.
59. Try at least five things off the menu at the Lucky Star before I commit myself to a usual order.
60. Subscribe to The Economist and read every issue.
61. Change bedsheets a minimum of every three weeks.
62. Get a good roasting pan and start making my own granola.
63. Retrieve my flute from my parents' house and get used to playing open-hole.
64. Look into getting a keyboard. Take up piano again.
65. Finally watch something by Joss Whedon and see what the big fuss is.
66. Find, purchase, and play a copy of the original Grandia.
67. Marathon the original Star Wars trilogy at least once each year.
68. Play the Lunar games again at least once each year, for my own mental health. (I can honestly think of very little that makes me feel as irrationally positive as these games.)
69. Eat at least one serving of fruit every day. Juice only counts if it's 100% fruit juice with no added sweeteners.
~~70. Sort through the boxes of stuff in my room and get rid of all the stuff I don't want or need.~~
71. Organize all the crap on my hard drive and delete the stuff that doesn't matter.
72. Sew a plushie.
73. Snuggle the cats every day.
74. Find some kind of tea that agrees with me. I am positive that one must exist!
75. Make a proper first aid kit for the house and keep it in an easy-to-find location.
~~76. Go through my iTunes, fix all missing tags, and delete the stuff that I don't really need in there.~~
77. Make a good set of playlists for my iPod.
78. Find a grocery store that carries or can get me gyoza skins and make gyoza.
79. Play the lottery whenever I get numbers in my fortune cookie.
80. Take up yoga.
81. Find the closest farmer's market and shop there when I can.
82. Bake challah from scratch and use it to make French toast.
~~83. Lure covert out to my house of sweets again for more wacky antics.~~
84. Meet someone else face to face who I've only had the pleasure of knowing via the intertubes.
85. Get a pet fish. ~~Love it and pet it and call it George.~~
86. Plant a tree. (I don't care how corny or cliché somebody is about to tell me this one is, so put a sock in it. :(((( )
87. Find a new bedspread that I like as much as the current one, but that brings a little more life to the room.
88. Find out how often pillows are recommended to be replaced (due to dust mites and whatnot) and start replacing mine on schedule!
89. Send my mom flowers for her birthday.
90. Clean my keyboard every few months. (last done: 24 August)
91. Customize a My Little Pony into something hilariously nerdy. Because I can.
92. Work out a good organizational system for the spice cabinet.
93. Acquire all ingredients for Patrick's drink, make it, and see if it really does knock you down but not out as advertised.
94. Call home every now and then when nothing particular is happening and Mom isn't expecting me to call, just to surprise her.
95. Make homemade pretzels.
96. Learn how to choose good fish at the store. Find someplace that actually, occasionally, has good fish.
97. See a live performance of Handel's Messiah. Marvel at the stamina of the oboist, because god knows just the Hallelujah chorus was enough to do me in.
98. Learn to swing dance.
99. Get at least one item for the food bank every time I grocery shop. (Pre-requisite: find out where the food bank is...)
100. Donate $2 to charity for every completed item on this list.
101. Make a list for the next 1001 days. :3

[fic] pull us through

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 03:02:04 GMT

title: Pull Us Through
fandom: Grandia II
character/pairing: Ryudo, Tio, Roan, Elena.
word count: 930
rating: PG-13, I guess?

For 31_days, August 4 prompt -- "collateral damage." Four witnesses to the destruction of Cyrum, four views on what has come to pass, four reasons to keep living.

Ryudo thinks of himself first, of the things he's been through and the people he's lost.

He thinks of the sound Reena's body made when it slid off Melfice's sword and hits the ground, of the look on Gatta's face when he left Garlan. He thinks of the fear in Elena's eyes when he saved her in the sealing ceremony gone wrong, of the desperation in Aira's voice when she thought that even her own mother had betrayed her. He thinks of Mareg's gruff, yet somehow poetic, advice; he thinks of the way Millenia used to smile at him like a cat with a mouse.

He's not incapable of thinking of others; he grits his teeth as the people of Cyrum scream and flee, he burns with anger as Valmar's minions violate even the dead. But nothing he sees in Cyrum resonates within him like the dead look in Elena's eyes as she pleads with a small child to come with them, please, it's dangerous here and your mother would want you to be safe; nothing makes him as angry as the thought that he still might lose her too.

He wants to fix it. He wants to fix all of it, for the people of Cyrum and those who already died in St. Heim Papal State, for Melfice and everyone in Garlan, for Mareg and Millenia, who he couldn't save in time but who he's sure would want him to stop this madness. For Elena, who has suffered so much and still blames herself.

But most of all, Ryudo wants to fix it for himself, to say enough and face Valmar and put an end to the misery they've endured, and an end to the Ryudo who wasn't strong enough or determined enough to stop it from happening.

Maybe then he'll finally be at peace with himself.

*****

Tio thinks of her friends first, of the people who have stood by her side and showed her what it means to live.

She thinks of Ryudo and the odd sense of relief she felt when they did not kill him to corner the Horns, of Elena and the tone she takes when she argues with Ryudo, annoyance somehow tinged with something warmer. She thinks of Millenia's carefree bursts of emotion, the way she makes it seem as if nothing in the world could be more natural, she thinks of Roan and how the young king at her side seems different than the boy who brushed her presence aside after the first battle in Cyrum -- different, and yet somehow very much the same.

But most of all, Tio thinks of Mareg, who placed faith in her from the beginning and taught her so much. She thinks of how much more she wanted to learn from him, and how she'll never have the chance now.

She wants a happy ending, one that will allow her to learn those things from the friends she still has at her side, one that will finally give her time to truly learn what "happy" means.

She's found something to believe in, and she can't let go of it now.

*****

Roan thinks of his people first, of those who have toiled so long under the burden of their past and who had just taken the first steps to letting go of it.

He thinks of the resignation in his father's voice and the shame that tainted every corner of the palace, of how very close they came to lying down and letting Valmar walk over their bodies to take the light away from the world again.

But he also thinks of Menory and every other person in the palace who helped him when he returned, of all of their efforts to contain the secret behind the sealed door, of the subjects who placed their faith in him and supported his efforts when he told them that their kingdom can and would change.

Cyrum will still change, because even if every building in the capital burns tonight, the people will live on. They know how to survive, and this time, they will do so with more hope than they ever had before he took the throne.

*****

Elena thinks of the world first, of how badly she yearned to save it and how close she came -- how close she still is -- to destroying it.

She tells herself not to give voice to the thought, for it would only worry Ryudo and they all have more than enough on their hands, but every burning house, every crying child, and every corpse in the street is another reminder of what Valmar could not have wrought without her compliance, and their escape from the city goes by in a blur of tears cutting trails through the ashy haze in her face, prayers whispered under her breath so Ryudo will not hear her and stop again to tell her that she did nothing wrong, prayers that will never reach their intended recipient.

She doesn't know who else to pray to.

They stop outside the city, and she looks back as the others argue about where to go next. She wants to close her eyes, but how can she do anything but stare what she has unknowingly done in the face? She wants to give up, but giving up would be too easy.

The others are right. To lie down and die now would be to do no honor to what they have all fought to save.

And Elena may be many things, but this time, she refuses to be a coward.

lol.

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:41:22 GMT

So covert started this, arsons continued it, and now it's flying around my flist so whyyyyyyyy not.

Do you ever want to make an entry that says "LOVE ME, I FEEL LIKE CRAP," but that's kind of not a good thing to do because it's attention whoring?

... Well. I don't care right now.

LOVE ME GUYS. I will do my best to love you in return. I WILL NOT TELL YOU HOW I PLAN TO DO THIS, but I think it would be nice for everyone to have some love right now. You can even take this as a MEME and go attention whore in your own journals. Switch it up, make it a thing where people give you new icons, or write you fic, or bring their RP characters in to be obnoxious. WHATEVER MAKES YOU FEEL BETTER.

I am going to work in like ten minutes. My ONE GREAT DREAM is to find cool stuff in the comments here when I get back.

s-so i was inspired.

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:35:53 GMT

It started when I was on the way to work, and it occurred to me that if you look at my RP habits lately, there are a lot of...trends in pairs. Two ambiguously gay schoolboy baseball players. Two redheads with cross-shaped scars on their faces. Two pretty boy smart guys from Togashi manga.

And now, two emotionally screwed up teenagers named Nagi.

-- and then my brain turned it into weird Reborn/Weiss Kreuz crossover AU.

The problem with clairvoyance was that you couldn't control when you saw things.

Crawford wasn't tormenting himself over it. It wasn't his style, and there were times when the cards simply weren't in your hand, after all. He was, however, thoroughly irritated, and while he was doing his best not to take it out on the hospital staff, he couldn't deny a certain temptation to see if they would still be so tight with information after being locked in a room with Farfarello for an hour.

The results did come, eventually. The doctor's expression was professionally blank as he said that Nagi's chances did not look good without a proper donor match, and would any of them happen to be blood relatives?

Of course they weren't. A pity, that; even with the urgency of his case, which would help move him up in priority, the waiting list for organ transplants was still --

"Keep life support on. We can afford it." Crawford turned on his heel and left the room, leaving the doctor staring after him.

Schuldig was waiting in the hall. "So what now?"

"We'll find something. He's too valuable to lose."

Schuldig's next question filled his mind, not his ears. Valuable to Eszett, or valuable to you?

Crawford's only response to that was a tight little smile. It wasn't like Schuldig really needed to ask these things.

*****

Nagi had heard it, of course.

Prognosis not good. Well, to hell with that. Crawford would find a way around it even if he had to fucking rip the kidneys out of the next guy he found on the street, because Schwarz wasn't going to lose anybody over something as stupid as a car wreck. He'd just sit here in his happy little dream world until then and wait. Things were going to be fine.

Fine.

"Death is only the beginning of another cycle."

"Who are you?" he snapped. It didn't sound like Schuldig.

And then he saw him, a tall boy who looked about his own age yet somehow seemed far older (well, good for him, Nagi thought sourly). Dark hair. One red eye, one blue eye. A smile that hovered somewhere between pleasant and predatory.

All of which was fascinating to be sure, but he still wasn't invited, dammit.

*****

When the (somewhat strained) introductions passed and they moved from small talk to the real question at hand, it took surprisingly little time to come to an agreement.

Nagi wasn't entirely certain he liked it, but it was an out to a situation that would take far too much time to resolve by other means.

"Not quite what I would've hoped for, aesthetically." Rokudou eyed him, then extended his right hand. "But I think this arrangement will be mutually beneficial in the end."

Nagi shook his hand, a smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth. "I hope you weren't expecting me to get a haircut."

OH MY GOD I DON'T EVEN KNOW, YOU GUYS. BUT I AM ODDLY TEMPTED TO WRITE MORE OF IT.

there's no sense in telling me the wisdom of a fool won't set you free

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 07:31:13 GMT

I did some friends list trimming, but as I was mostly just taking off 1) communities I don't really feel like watching anymore, and 2) journals that haven't been updated in a year or more, I don't think anyone who cares has really been affected.

If I'm wrong, and you're still here and you still care, just make indignant noises at me and I'll add you back.

(I'm astonished at how much junk there was in my userinfo, for serious. How do I do it?)

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 04:25:58 GMT

k, so. Last time I googled myself I didn't get my own LJ, but clearly the times they are a changin'.

Going friends only now, because, uh, yeah. Do not want.

Real post coming later. It'll probably be hueg liek Xbox.