What's for Dinner? V. 1.23: Garam Masala and Chai Tea - The Day After Tomorrow Edition

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Saturday January 13, 2007 · 4:17 PM PST

2007/01/13 · 16:17

It's been going on for days now and predicted to continue through tomorrow. For miles around, everything is coated in layers of ice. Transformers are blowing, trees toppling over, supermarket shelves empty, cars lay abandoned, flipped in ditches.

But so far, temps in my community have hovered around 35. Even odder, satellite shows that the massive second wave of the storm got here --- and immediately began breaking up, starting somewhere over the home of a well known local conjuror.

As they say, thank the lord and the Indian medicine men! We may be the only people for miles around with electric and tolerable temps!

And what better to talk about when catastrophe threatens than food? Especially exotic food - something like India Indian food.

Because thanks to Madhur Jaffrey and Shanta Nimbark Sacharoff, I've been transformed into a virtual whirling dervish of Indian cooking.

And I've discovered this extraordinarily flavorful, diverse and healthy cuisine is easy to make. Really.

cookiebear

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Saturday January 06, 2007 · 2:42 AM PST

2007/01/06 · 02:42

Let me begin by saying that I'm not trying to supplant Frankenoid's Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.

It's just that, even though it's the beginning of January, I just ordered seeds for spring and am getting to rearrange my home for starting them.

And I'm really, really excited about it. Winter's okay, I suppose, but every spring and summer --- and to an extent, fall --- I get to work on turning this place (which was buried beneath a foot of trash when I bought it) into one big fat garden.

And I still have a long way to go. And sometimes, I really do question my sanity --- whatever possessed me to think that I could turn a few acres which had been totally neglected for gawd knows how many years into a garden paradise? But that hasn't stopped me yet!

cookiebear

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Sunday December 24, 2006 · 11:49 AM PST

2006/12/24 · 11:49

It's as simple as that.

I called a friend to wish her a Merry Christmas because I'd promised her I would, and it all spilled out. I don't remember how or why, but she was regaling me with stories of going out to buy even more stuff to give to everyone and to cook and to eat, and there it came, there it was, I blurted it right out:

Well, you know, I mean, I'm just really pretty uncomfortable with a lot of this stuff, especially the present thing. I mean, I love the idea of presents, but it's gotten so weird and these days, I have people who can barely feed their kids giving me presents and what the hell do I need with a box of chocolates anyway and I just don't get it.

I think Christmas used to be a good idea which has gone completely out of control.

cookiebear

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Saturday December 23, 2006 · 4:23 PM PST

2006/12/23 · 16:23

You know, if you haven't yet seen What the Bleep?, don't bother. I can't remember how I first heard of the film, but I'm very annoyed no one warned me it's nothing more than an infomercial for Ramtha. Gah!

And because it's the night before Christmas Eve and I'm too lazy to do it all over again, here's a review I wrote about it over on Amazon. WARNING: Proceed with caution! Written under the influence of HOLIDAY CHEER!

Of course, we all want to believe we're "ambitious gods," we all want to believe we're the center of the universe, In Complete Control of the Uncontrollable, yadda yadda yadda yadda.

And boy, does promoting such an egocentric, adolescent view of our world sell! We lap it up. It feeds our ego, gives us the warm fuzzies, makes us happy ...

continued below the fold

cookiebear

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Sunday December 17, 2006 · 8:05 AM PST

2006/12/17 · 08:05

I'd hoped to make this first in a series on ousting Oklahoma's infamous practitioner of doofustry a tidy compendium of relevant background information.

Unfortunately, a number of other things have required my time and attention, so it isn't nearly as comprehensive as I'd hoped.

In addition, I'm posting this first one on Sunday morning, and will post the next two around this same time.

After the beginning of the year, however, the series will shift to Sunday evenings.

For now, there's no time to waste, I figure, no time like the present to get motivated and mobilized to oust that greedy sucker. Because that's the bottom line, the entire purpose: mobilizing sentiment for ousting James Inhofe in '08.

cookiebear

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Sunday December 10, 2006 · 1:14 PM PST

2006/12/10 · 13:14

Every teacher I know (including me) is in an absolute frenzy of grading right now.

Me, I feel like griping about it, especially since I hit my first plagiarized paper just a few moments ago. The worst thing about it is that I was giving the student a chance --- she was flunking the course, so I gave her an extra credit option --- a four page expository essay on the topic of her choice, with Works Cited page.

Well, she plagiarized the whole danged thing. And there's little that makes me grumpier than a plagiarist.

So I decided to come to dKos to see if there's any other teachers on here so we could grump at one another about it.

Poll

31 votes Show Results

How many plagiarized papers so far?

31 votes Vote Now!

How many plagiarized papers so far?

3 votes

2 votes

4 votes

2 votes

0 votes

I've given up counting

8 votes

Nary a one!

9 votes

What's plagiarism?

3 votes

What's for Dinner? V 1.17: The Capers of Los Diablos

cookiebear

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Saturday December 02, 2006 · 4:22 PM PST

2006/12/02 · 16:22

Okay, so this diary is bait and switch, as there's not a thing in it about The Devil, aka Satan, The Prince of Darkness. There aren't even recipes for deviled eggs or ham.

::stares at floor, shuffles feet::

Um, sorry. But I just had to get the words LOS DIABLOS on the pages of dKos --- although I suppose I could claim The devil made me do it! especially given my plans to boldly announce what I want for Christmas.

Still, it's not entirely deceptive because I do want to talk about capers. No, not that kind --- sheesh! --- but this:

title=

Photo snitched from Mediterranean Climate Gardening.

cookiebear

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday November 11, 2006 · 4:19 PM PST

2006/11/11 · 16:19

It's a given I'd start cleaning out the closets when I should be preparing for these last few weeks of classes. But there's something so satisfying about dropping that ancient pressure cooker --- or fake mink collar so beloved by my most flamboyant grandmother --- right into the thrift store box.

Even better are the treasures lost beneath piles and piles of ... stuff. Stuff from dead relatives, forgotten vacations, past lives. A strip of embroidered and beaded cloth wrapped in yellowed tissue and labeled by my grandmother as my mother's first sewing. Plastic boxes filled with tiny seashells. Pocket sized Masonic texts with crumbling black covers.

And memories --- including this:

title= Read More

Let's give James Inhofe the boot

cookiebear

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday November 08, 2006 · 12:31 PM PST

2006/11/08 · 12:31

Now that we've gotten through the midterms, it's time to look ahead. And one thing I've plotted on for forever is getting that idiot James Inhofe out of office.

It's even more important to me to force Inhofe to retire or to defeat him, come 08, than it is to do much about Tom Coburn. I mean, come on --- at least Coburn offers tremendous comedic relief, what with his fascination with the lesbian epidemic in Southeastern Oklahoma and his assertion that boob jobs are good for you!

Um, yea, right. Read More

What's For Dinner? V 1, N 10: A Slim Version of the Original

cookiebear

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday October 21, 2006 · 4:21 PM PDT

2006/10/21 · 16:21

I quit my job. There was something about those 12 - 14 hour days, that long commute, the trying to get through to students who don't want to think, the pay ... my annoyance at not being able to take a single day off ... the new administrator who believes threats and The Platte College Model constitute effective management --- well, there's something about all of that which finally did me in.

So I quit. Never mind the administrator will be gone soon enough, because her ethos usurps the university's goals, and has resulted in little more than an exodus.

Never mind that jobs are scarce, unless you're a Backhoe Dude.

Instead, buried deep beneath my burnout and exhaustion are tendrils of excitement --- that "I have my life back" feeling. New beginnings. The chance to do genuinely good and necessary things, fawn over the critters, spend Sunday mornings in bed, go to Mexico ...

... and so my journey through the wasteland, my long and dark night, my exile is almost over. And with this has come an abrupt realization: I need to go on a diet. Read More

What's for Dinner? V. 1, No. 9: Chaurice in the Time of Mayhem Edition

cookiebear

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday September 30, 2006 · 4:23 PM PDT

2006/09/30 · 16:23

I'm going batty here, up to my ears in grading, and the grading's fixing to get even worse. My classes are a nightmare --- half my students are great, absolutely brilliant --- and then, there are the others: resistant, disruptive, bored --- deadwood. And lately, I've been leaving work feeling as if I've spent the entire day trying to drag their deadwood bodies straight up a mountain.

Just as bad, I have two-three weeks to finish tree planting, garden bed preparing, bulb burying. I have grapes, redbuds, pin oaks, red oaks, red maples, catalpa, small hickories, forsythia, caryopteris, and more to get in the ground, and fast.

Needless to say, my house looks like a fur/paper bomb exploded --- there are dogs and papers and books and fur everywhere. And I have to go out of town two weekends out of the next three. ::whimper:: Read More

Buy Nothing Month

cookiebear

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday September 14, 2006 · 2:48 PM PDT

2006/09/14 · 14:48

I've decided to join the throngs of people who've committed to buying nothing unessential for a set period of time --- a week, a month, even a year --- and I'm curious to find out if there are any Kosmopolitans doing this.

My reasons are pretty varied. First, I definitely want to see how much money I can save. I'm also tired of junk --- I've been cleaning junk out for three years now and I still have way too much of it. All this junk is really annoying and time consuming.

And I believe that refusing to buy stuff I don't absolutely need is a profoundly ecological thing to do. Good gawd, the plastic bags that won't get used! The tape saved!! Read More

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What's for Dinner? V. 1.23: Garam Masala and Chai Tea - The Day After Tomorrow Edition

The Early Bird's Gardening Diary

I hate Christmas

What's For Dinner? V. 1.20: The Seductive Powers of Magical Thinking (aka The Ramtha Rant)

Let's Give Inhofe The Boot, V. 1.1: Background Information

Desperately Grading Teachers Diary

What's for Dinner? V 1.17: The Capers of Los Diablos

What's For Dinner? V 1.13: Beginner's Mind ... Naturally

Let's give James Inhofe the boot

What's For Dinner? V 1, N 10: A Slim Version of the Original

What's for Dinner? V. 1, No. 9: Chaurice in the Time of Mayhem Edition

Buy Nothing Month