There, that’s better.  Even though I haven’t been talking about it, we’re still cooking of course.  Twitter has been my medium of choice lately, being both fast and succinct, so all the pics are winding up there.  There’s been turtles and a gorgeous pot roast.  Thanksgiving saw an amazing cherry-brined/cherrywood-smoked turkey, and a made-from-scratch Boston Creme pie.  Before that there was cashew chicken, my new favorite bread (recipe here), applewood-smoked chicken, and a rustic peach tart.

Likewise the garden is not completely fallow.  I started the very last of my tomato seeds (I’m completely out of tomato seeds…that’s never happened to me before!) a little too late in the season for a fall crop, and am now babying the plants along, trying to prevent these crazy December frosts from completely spoiling my freezer-restocking ambitions.  Global warming, hey?  *snort*

On the agenda in the next few weeks:

• Clean out planting boxes, dammit! Restock with fresh dirt and get the winter things started (greens and snow peas).
• Completely re-work the irrigation setup out back.  It’s CRAZY, I say!
• Post more recipes!  This week will see Joe Froggers, homemade tootsie rolls and salted caramels.

There, I think that’s enough for now.  Wouldn’t want to strain myself, ya?

It was surprisingly easy to come up with a HUGE list of food items/dishes from movies and we were well on our way with the site.  Life, as it often does, intruded so very rudely shortly thereafter, and the site has languished since April.   But due to overwhelming (read: one guy) demand, we’re starting Movie-Food.com back up!  Upcoming still are the Nancy Drew Lemon Bars, Blazing Saddles Baked Beans, and in just a few moments here, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle Beachside Corn Dogs.

And because I am the tech goddess that I am *bow down* I’ve added an RSS feed for the movie-food.com site to this site’s sidebar, there to the right, which will automatically pull in the last two recipes posted. 

Vive la Movie Food!  Oh, and if you have any movie food suggestions, please send them to chiefcook@movie-food.com

The circus was fantastic, thanks for asking. A full rundown will happen after I get the 800+ pictures edited, but for now suffice it to say it was just amazing. The eight white tigers were unspeakably impressive, even behind the 13 foot tall cage, and the Ringling folks put on a fabulous show, as always.

So I thought I was getting better from this weeks long cold I’ve been battling, when last night I started feeling like a horse had stepped on the left side of my face. (And yes, I *do* know what it feels like to be stepped on by a horse, but that’s another story.) The pain ran down the side of my face and into my upper molars (that’s a Sinus Infection for those of you playing at home), so after the circus we sacrificed an hour in the local after-hours clinic and scored a prescription for Cipro…the antibiotic they give people who have SARS, fer crissakes. If that doesn’t finally kick this shit out then I guess I’m having my head removed. Aheh.

I did manage a story over at 100 Words this morning. Bet you can’t guess what inspired that theme. Enjoy.

1. Barista for a major bookstore chain who shall remain nameless. The sad thing is I really, really loved this job, even though it paid something around what a third world shit shoveler might make. Then they had to go and make me a district sort of thinger, and I went absolutely broke traveling around for them. Thanks guys.
2. Sandwich maker for a little boutique sort of place that you wouldn’t know if I named it. We had great fun here, sneaking draft beer and partying at each other’s houses (I was 16, btw). It was here that I learned the absolute necessity of being nice to the people who were making your food. *shudder*
3. Junior Scientist. That was my job title, no shitsky. What I actually did was graphic and web design for a company that contracted with the Army on various things. This was an enjoyable job, once I got my domineering boss broken in a little bit. It was fun working in an office of all ex-military guys. They know how to not take things, and themselves, so seriously all the time.
4. Seller of ladies shoes. This job, right here, probably single-handedly installed in my character the exact quality of misogyny I now possess. It bleeds over into misanthropy from time to time, but I definitely absolutely cannot stand just about every woman I meet. No, it’s not a jealousy thing, it’s a WEAKNESS thing. Well, add to that most females are nasty manipulative bitches and there you go.

Four countries I have visited:

1. Saudi Arabia – Lived there for a total of about 5 years in the late 70s/early 80s. They were basically an unfailingly friendly people, and I assume they still are today, but as so often happens, a few religious nutbars can fuck everything up for everyone. The Red Sea, oh the Red Sea… There is no more gorgeous place on the planet, really. The water was clean and absolutely brimming with life. And of course, being unconstrained by religious strictures, we basically had the entire thing to ourselves. We collected awesome amounts of seashells, spider conchs as big as your head, cowries as big as your hand. I recall a baby octopus following my father along the reef, and a tiny little stingray that trapped me atop a very small and wobbly rock in several inches of water, flipping his little barbed tail at me. Little bastard tried to kill me. He’s dead now. Sorry.
2. Egypt – This remains my fondest travel memory, by far, entranced I was (am) with ancient Egyptian culture. The Egyptians were not quite as friendly as the Saudis, but that was more because they had the whole Tourist thing down freaking pat. From the Cairo Museum to the kids selling homemade scarabs on the Giza plateau, they were all about separating the gringos from their baksheesh. The climb into the interior of the great pyramid was miserably hot and sweaty, but seriously freaking cool. Apparently it’s quite the fashion for frigging idiot tourists to piss in the king’s burial chamber. Not being frigging idiots we skipped that part. The horse I rode around the pyramids decided that he much preferred Libya and determinedly tried to take me there. I settled his hash by falling off. Twice. Oh, and there is such a thing as the curse of King Tut’s tomb. Well, unless you stick to bottled water.
3. Greece – Ok, second fondest travel memory. We started out in Athens, soaking up all the history, until one day there was a huge “parade” in the streets outside the hotel. When my parents figured out it was an anti-American demonstration, and the cabbie asked Dad if he was CIA, they decided it was time to take a cruise around the Greek islands. The cruise ship was one of those massive beasts, multiple decks, hundreds upon hundreds of people, fantastic French chefs. We visited Crete, Mykonos, Lindos and beautiful beautiful Santorini. Oh don’t get me wrong, they’re ALL beautiful, but Santorini is the jewel of that region, with it’s whitewashed buildings topping the cliffs. Cliffs you have to ride a stinky donkey to get to the top of, but that bit isn’t in the travel brochures. Oh, and ouzo…just avoid it. That shit’s worse than grappa.
4. The Netherlands – Beautiful country, especially in springtime. The Bloemenveiling Aalsmeer (flower auction house) is astonishing, really. More astonishing is that something like the sex organs of a plant can even be such a viable international industry, but that’s a different show.

Four Places I’d rather be right now:

After spending most of my pre-teen life shuttling around Africa, Europe and the Middle East, I can honestly say that airplanes suck ass. I’ve missed out on a lot of the United States, though, so my choices are all domestic.

1. Yellowstone National Park
2. Route 66
3. Alaska
4. The Mojave

Four Foods I like to eat:

1. Sushi. Oh, blessed sushi. Particularly white tuna sashimi lately. ‘Succulent’ is the only word to describe it.
2. Red meat, rare. We have pointy teeth for a reason, people.
3. Tex-mex. Which is damned hard to find in Florida. Dammit.
4. Really good dark chocolate. And it’s SO hard to find. This place has the best dark chocolate I have ever had. EVER.

Four personal heroes, past or present:

1. Robert Anson Heinlein – People will whinge about his political views, interpersonal relationship views, etc. ad nauseum, but the man was a complete genius. He could, and did, build a house by hand. He is the father, mother, and everything else, of the hard science fiction genre. I would have loved to have met him.
2. Hypatia of Alexandria – The first person to think “porn star” instead of “ancient Greek scholar” can just jump off the nearest building.
3. Katharine Hepburn – A strong, brilliant woman, and completely unapologetic about either quality.
4. Any woman ever hunted and murdered as a “witch.” – Don’t even get me started on the treatment of pagan cultures at the hands of Christianity.

Four books you have just read or are currently reading:

1. The Pacific by Mark Helprin
   And I must say, I’m rather disappointed. I found Helprin through his early works, Winter’s Tale and (my favorite) Refiner’s Fire, and it was whimsical, heartbreaking and magic all at the same time. Everything since then has been dreary dullness. Ok, except for Freddy and Fredericka, which did not, in fact, suck.
2. The Sons of Heaven by Kage Baker
   At last, the final (??) Company novel. I feel like I need to have a few stiff drinks before starting this one. If you haven’t read this series, start with In the Garden of Iden, and don’t forget to pick up the short story volumes she’s done, as well, because those always include Company stories (ie. important pieces of the puzzle).
3. Kushiel’s Justice by Jacqueline Carey
   This is the fourth book in Carey’s D’Angeline series, you can start here with Kushiel’s Dart. These books are lush , epic, and other grandiose adjectives. Carey’s prose is (to be a bit schmaltzy here) like wine on the tongue. It’s almost a physical pleasure…and no, despite the sex included therein, I do not mean in a prurient way. Here’s an excerpt from this book. Enjoy.
4. The Devil’s Right Hand by Lilith Saintcrow
   Disregarding the author’s patently fake name, this is quite a good series. The heroine is quite the most pissed-off bitch I’ve ever read, and it’s kind of cathartic. First book in the series is Working for the Devil.

Four kinds of people that have pissed me off today:

1. People who capitalize the individual words in domain names. It is youareadumbass.com, not YouAreADumbass.com
2. People who open helpdesk tickets when they are not hosted with us. Yes, we have people FORGET who they are hosted with all the time, but to KNOW you’re not hosted with us and then open the ticket anyway? Kiss my entire ass.
3. People who insist on being on the Intarwebs but who have no desire whatsoever to learn a goddamned thing about what to do when they’re there. Like these fucktards who install Software X because it looks coooool, but absolutely lose their shit when they leave it un-upgraded for years at a time and some script kiddie comes along and p0wn3s it. Or who have their password set to an easily-guessed dictionary word and just cannot understand how someone got in and deleted all their pwecious files.
4. Resellers. Very few people have the acumen to make this a going concern. It is a business, goddammit, just like any other business, and requires you to be INVOLVED on a daily basis. It is not a get-rich-quick method, nor will it sail on fine without your attention. My favorites among these invertebrates, are those who aren’t willing to invest the time and study it takes to make them a decent reseller, and get increasingly shrill with every helpdesk ticket they open. Increased shrillness = terser ticket responses. Go back to community college, you pansies.

And, like HFN, one of my own devising…

My four favorite Intarwebs destinations:

1. 100 Word Stories – Of course.
2. I Can Haz Cheezburger – Another big shocker.
3. Neat-O-Rama – The answer’s in the question.
4. The Science Blog – Science headlines from a wide variety of sources.

So, what about you people?

Nope.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?

Shed a few unstoppable tears just this morning as the GYN was excising a bit of my uterus for a biopsy. That shit
HURTS.

DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?

The only handwriting I do these days is my signature, which has become nothing more than an S with a squiggle after
it. But hey, if it works for the bank, it works for me.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?

Tuna, with a little mayo, some chopped white onion, and a few spoons of Wickle relish.

DO YOU HAVE KIDS?

Yes, two brilliant, gorgeous, emotionally manipulative little monsters, whom I love dearly.

IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?

As I currently am, of course. As I was in my 20s, hells no, nor would I trust the other me alone with my boyfriend.

DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT?

Gods, I would die without my sarcasm.

DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?

Yes, and get to say hello to Mr. Strep whenever the kids bring him home from school.

WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?

Hells no. I enjoy my brain *inside* my cranium, kthx.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?

Lucky Charms. That particular noise the marshmallow thingers make when you bite them is strangely addictive.

DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?

Nope. Being a resident of Central Florida, I spend the majority of the year in flip flops. You can be jealous,
it’s ok.

DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG?

In every way that counts, yes. In the past this has led to me being alternately labeled a “bitch” and/or a
“lesbian” by various assholes in my life.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?

As much as I hate to support them, whingy hippies that they are, I do have a passing fondness for Ben & Jerry’s
Phish Food.

WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?

Whether or not they can look me in the eye and hold it.

RED OR PINK?

Red. Pink is red with no nutsack.

WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?

Forgetting things…like shooting the entire fishing trip’s worth of ospreys with the goddamned ISO still set to the inside-the-aquarium settings from the day before.

WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?

My cat, Hero. I rescued her as a kitten over 12 years ago and had to put her down a few weeks ago. Then again, if
the only individual I have lost lately is a cat, I’m doing pretty good. Knock wood.

WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?

Denim shorts and barefoot.

WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE?

Italian BMT (with everything but green peppers) from Subway.

WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?

The godamned noisy dishwasher. It’s only 2 years old and already I want to drop it down a well.

IF YOU WHERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?

Prussian Blue.

FAVORITE SMELLS?

Roasting garlic, our rose garden, the curve of my husband’s neck and shoulder.

WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?

My 7 year old daughter, who was having a massive bitch fit because her Zoo Tycoon game stopped working on Nana’s
computer. Totally created a monster there.

FAVORITE SPORTS?

To play, golf. To watch, college football.

HAIR COLOR?

Black/brown.

EYE COLOR?

Brown.

DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?

No, nor glasses.

FAVORITE FOOD?

Mexican, Tex-Mex. Not this limp-iceberg-lettuce shit, either, the real thing.

SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?

Happy endings. Movies and books are an escape for me. I absorb enough of other people’s pain on a daily basis,
don’t need it in my entertainment as well.

LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?

Music and Lyrics with Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant, last night on PPV. Cute movie, the most enjoyable bits were the 80s inside jokes.

WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?

Cherry red.

SUMMER OR WINTER?

Winter. Of course down here in Florida that simply means you can go outside without breaking into a sweat.

HUGS OR KISSES?

Kisses. He still gives me the tingles when he kisses me.

FAVORITE DESSERT?

Anything exotic, usually chocolate, but not fruity. Fruits are courses, not desserts.

MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND?

Er, as in tagging? Tagging is so uncool. If someone wants to indulge, they’re welcome.

LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND?

See above.

WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (book one of the Thursday Next novels). It’s an alternate history sort of series where literature is
revered, and moving in and out of books is possible. That’s a VERY simplistic explanation, mind you, so do go
check them out for yourself. Very entertaining reads.

WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?

My mouse. My Microsoft Wireless mouse. My Microsoft Wireless mouse that I’m about twelve seconds from throwing
through the nearest window.

WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON T.V. LAST NIGHT?

Our favorite guilty pleasure on HGTV, Landscaper’s
Challenge.

FAVORITE SOUND?

I would say my kids’ laugher but that typically means they’re picking at each other and someone will be screaming within about ten seconds. So, I’ll go instead with a favorite piece of music, “O Mio Babbino Caro” (from Gianni Seicchi by Puccini) as sung by Kiri Te Kanawa and/or “Nessun Dorma” (from Turandot also by Puccini) as sung by Pavarotti. Yes, I’m an opera geek, stfu.

ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES?

Ugh, do I have to choose? If so, then the Beatles. At least they contributed to the roots of rock instead of sucking all the life from it as those other arses have done.

WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME?

Taif, Saudi Arabia.

DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?

I always know where north is. Yep, I’m a human compass.

WHERE WERE YOU BORN?

North Alabama.

WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK?

My buddy T, of course.

Feel free to copy and play along. Remember when all our blogs were full of these little meme tests? Ah, good times.

Anyway. If you’re out there and we used to yammer at each other, stop by and say hi.