Amazon.com: buying info: The New Joy of Cooking

Chicken Pot Pie

Tonight for dinner I cooked chicken pot pie topped with biscuits from a recipe in The Joy of Cooking (the newest edition). It turned out great.

I always think of this as "Shoshanna's pot pie" because Shoshanna made it several times for me over the last few years when I visited her in Belmont, Massachusetts. I remember being there just about a year ago, walking around Cambridge with her on one of the coldest days I'd ever experienced. We went home afterwards and had leftover pot pie from the night before.

Shoshanna lives in Canada now... I hear it's even colder up there!

Rachel's Purrings

Connecticut Weblogs

Anti-Linear Brain
Painted-Turtle
Popshots
Rachel's Purrings
Vagabond Princess

A couple of these I read daily; others are new(ish) to me. There must be hundreds more Connecticut weblogs. Certainly there are lots of Connecticut online journals. Two of my all-time favorite online journals are Connecticut journals, in fact: Darn Tootin', and Bobofett.

The Mood

What is up with me today? Work was just too much for me to handle somehow. By five o'clock I was feeling positively breakable. At any rate, my mood is in need of improvement. An attitude adjustment?

Okay, Susie, let's think about the good things. Lately when I come out of work to drive home, the sky has been doing that thing with the orange and the pink that it does sometimes. I love it, the way the clouds swirl like raspberry on tangerine, but somehow I never manage to get a good picture of it. Even when I try. But it's been like that at least three times in the last week or so. It makes me smile.

I applied for my new passport today. I left it a little late (who's surprised to hear that?) and had to go the expedited route. I'm excited to get a new one -- my last one was issued in 1984 and expired in 1989. (Since then the only foreign country I've been to is Canada, and you know what they say about Canada.) It's about time I got a new one, even if the pictures I had taken for it were hideous, absolutely awful. Maybe I really look like that, I don't know. But ... well, I hope not.

Tomorrow night I have plans with the Hamden Slashers... I think we are going to get together and watch Peter Wingfield videos. Hey, there are worse ways to spend your time. I am in charge of dessert and I'm leaning towards going to Trader Joe's for those lemon ices. One of the slashers loves those... actually two of us do, if you count me.

Blogger Pro™ - Power Push-Button Publishing

Pro Bloggin'

Here's my first post using the new Blogger Pro service. I figured I might as well sign up -- I have seven blogs, after all, and this certainly makes managing them a lot simpler.

I had a few disturbing search requests today, which I duly entered at the DSR page. The nice thing about that page is that you will always discover someone else has had a more disturbing search than you have. (Actually, mine today were more funny than disturbing. But there you go.)

Okay, I am really loving this new Blogger interface. It's going to make me so lazy I'll never be able to code by hand again... ahhhhh........

The Perks of Having a Weblog

The planning for the trip to England is coming along nicely, and I have a lot of people to thank for it. My mom has been looking up addresses for our old neighbors and sending them to me via e-mail. Several readers have recommended useful and interesting resources such as Rick Steves' London 2002 guidebook (thank you, Lucy!), which arrived from Amazon yesterday.

Another big shout out to Bonnie, who sent me to this article and also told me about The Perfect London Walk, which sounds intriguing! In addition, our friends Mary and Michael have promised to share their top ten list for visiting England.

And as for the lovely reader who is helping to arrange our visit to Shropshire... including offering to put us up at her friend's home... well, all I can say is, I feel very lucky to know such friendly people! And I look forward to returning the favor someday, as well.

It's been a nice weekend here in New England... two bright blue beautiful days, plus a fun evening last night at Amanda and Frank's. And a new project -- one that's almost all mine -- which is going to be a lot of fun to work on. Needless to say, I haven't gotten everything done that I wanted to get done, but that's how it goes. There's always tomorrow!

Mmmmmmm...

Friday night! Oh yes.

Tonight we went out for a birthday eve dinner with our friend Bill who is having a big birthday tomorrow. (We are going to New York with him next Saturday to celebrate for real!) We decided to try a place we'd never been before, the Side Street Grille here in Hamden. It's a great place for burgers, ribs, and beer!

They had about twenty beers on tap. I had a Young's oatmeal stout, which was so smooth and sweet that it was almost like a dessert. The head on it was the consistency of the foam on a cappucino, no lie. Primo beer. I also had a hamburger (the black jack burger, if you look at the menu).

The atmosphere's not much to write home about (it's mostly a bar), but the menu made us laugh out loud (some of the humor is on the web menu too), and the music was great. We were there probably an hour and a half and never heard a song we didn't like.

All in all, a successful and entertaining evening!

Whoo-hoo!

Trader Joe's just opened in Orange, a mile from where I work! Alicia's always telling me about this or that tasty thing she found at Trader Joe's in LA, and I have been jealous, jealous, jealous! Now I have my own. (According to the guy in the store, this is the 4th one in Connecticut, and the 49th on the east coast!)

I stopped by on my way home from work tonight, and I have to say I'm very pleased with the selection and the prices. I picked up some things I needed and a few impulse items and really the bill was about the same as it probably would have been at Stop & Shop. They certainly had decent prices on their preserves and jams (I am currently attuned to those prices because I just recently bought a boatload of jam for people's Christmas boxes).

So, I got some bratwurst (which I will likely cook for dinner tonight), some organic pancake/waffle mix, a couple of packs of their frozen pasta and gnocchi, a jar of their store brand tomato vodka sauce (I always have to try the jars when I see different brands, even though they are never as good as my recipe). Also, in keeping with our aggressive training schedule for the trip to England, I got crumpets and imported English farmhouse cheddar. I imagine the cheese is made with rennet (it's not labeled as vegetarian) but it was very good on Jacob's Cream Crackers.

I think this is a small Trader Joe's, as they go, but they did have a very nice selection of all kinds of things. I was especially excited to see one of my favorite desserts in the freezer section -- lemon ice frozen inside actual lemon peels. I like to order that in restaurants. So it will be nice to be able to serve that at home sometimes.

And the people were sooooo friendly. I wonder if they imported them from somewhere else, too?

Instant Karma?

It seems we bought a new computer just in the nick of time. This morning the C drive on the old one refused to boot, giving a fixed disk system error that (in the past) has signalled the demise of other machines. Luckily, I had already transferred almost all my data files from the old one to the new one.

We've had two computers for less than a week, but already neither of us is willing to go back to having just one. So we will find some way to work this out. There are two other hard drives in that machine, after all (one of which was a primary C drive in our previous computer). So I'm sure we can get it running again, even if the C drive really is kaput.

It's just funny, though. We bring this kick-ass new machine in, and less than a week later our old one throws in the towel? Hmmm.

So, it's Thursday. Thursday is so much better than Wednesday (especially when I don't have my usual Thursday 8:30 meeting to attend). And Thursday is almost as good as Friday. Not quite, of course. But almost. On Thursday it becomes okay for me to start thinking about the weekend... it doesn't feel so far away anymore.

This weekend I hope to make some more plans for our trip to England (which reminds me, I need to order those books from Amazon). Saturday night we are attending a game night at Amanda and Frank's. Should be a fun weekend!

A Request

Okay, I'm putting the comments back up. Sorry for all the wishy-washiness. This should all be resolved in a day or so.

I would like to ask all of you lovely repeat visitors for your assistance. If you come to Raspberry World and get an error message that says "server is too busy" or some such, could you please come back later on and leave a comment or write me to let me know? Also, if the page is suddenly loading much more slowly for you than usual, could you let me know that as well? I would be very grateful. And it would help me decide what to do about these comments (ie, whether to keep them or not).

So, Wednesday night. The week is going by fast. I believe tonight I will cook a chicken for dinner, and I hope this time I don't drop a quarter of it on the floor while I'm carving it. Like I did the last time I cooked a chicken.

Short-Lived

Well, I took the comments thing off for now. I kept getting a "server too busy" message that wouldn't allow me to load Raspberry World. I like having them, so I may try it again in a little bit and see if that was just a one-time problem. I hadn't noticed that happening on other pages I visit that use that same comments service. We'll see.

If you notice some weird code below, just ignore it... the Blogger script makes things show up that normally wouldn't.

Something New

I'm trying something new here at Raspberry World: comments. Maria and Alicia both recently started using comments on their pages, and I've been enjoying them, so I thought maybe I'd give it a whirl. Try it out! Leave a message. You'll find the link at the end of each post.

I'm still halfway between the two computers. But I'm spending more than 50% of my time on the new one now, so I feel like that's progress. It is amazingly fast. Even on things that I didn't expect it to be any faster on, like downloading mail and web pages. It does those things in an augenblick. (Blink of an eye, for non-German speakers.)

So, did everyone hear that Moulin Rouge won a Golden Globe the other night for best musical or comedy? I believe it also won best score. And Nicole Kidman won the award for best lead actress in a musical or comedy. I'm the first to admit that most of my attention is focused on Ewan McGregor whenever I watch that movie, but I thought Nicole Kidman did a great job. Even people who don't usually like her have said they enjoyed her performance in this. I certainly did, and she has never really been one of my favorites.

In other exciting movie news, Say Anything is available for pre-order at Amazon. Thanks for the heads up, Amanda!

Monday Update

Another Monday, come and gone. The weeks seem to go by so quickly these days.

It was a nice weekend. We went to Tandoor for dinner on Friday night. I know there are a bunch of good Indian restaurants around New Haven, but somehow we've fixated on that one as our favorite. I had something I'd never ordered before, something like "Mughlai Korma," and I think it was my favorite of all the dishes I've ordered there. Marty had the Tandoori chicken, which of course is their house specialty.

Saturday much of the day was spent transferring data from one computer to the other. Sunday too, for that matter.

Today after work I stopped by the grocery store with the big British food section. I was there to do the regular shopping, but of course I picked up a couple of things in the British section. When I got home I told Marty that we're in training for our trip.

Gee, it seems like I had other things to write about, but I can't remember them now. Maybe I'll be back later with more.

Finally Snowing

This afternoon we went out to Best Buy to run an errand and I was noticing how green all the grass still was in the yards. When we came out of Best Buy, a few flakes were falling. Eight hours later and it's looking a lot like winter. It's very silent out there -- no cars on the street, hardly even any tire tracks in the snow. It's bright, too, like it tends to be in the snow. We have probably four inches in the front yard, judging by the trunk of the dogwood. Maybe tomorrow Marty will get to use his Christmas present -- a snow blower.

The "errand" we were running at Best Buy was picking up a new computer. We are badly in need of more storage space and memory, and to be honest we just need a second machine, period. It's tough to have to share, especially when you're sharing with someone who's on it as much as I am. Poor Marty. So I now have a hard drive of 80 gigabytes (this is up from the what, ten on the old machine?). Along with a bunch of other goodies.

It's hard for me to believe that a hard drive can actually be that big.

Anyway we have the computers networked and I'm in the process of transferring files over and installing my software on the new one. I expect this is all going to take a few days, but once I get it all done, it's going to be so great!

Tonight I cooked Katynka's pot roast and we watched Rob Roy. Uh, Liam? The kilt can stay.

AfriCat

Look at this adorable carved wooden cat that Rebekah brought back for me from Mozambique. He is about 10 inches tall and carved from a piece of wood, which has then been painted or stained and buffed to shine. Then the light parts were cut out with a sharp blade, into the lighter wood under the paint (his ears, facial features, claws, and tail). I love it!

Ziggy also thought it was verrrry interesting.

Rebekah sent me some other things she got in Africa, too -- a carved stone turtle (also very cute), some beaded jewelry, and a cool little wicker change purse like the one she used in Mozambique. It is so neat to see the things she found there, and to think about what it must have been like. I've seen lots of pictures from her trip, of course. But I'm sure you can never really understand unless you've been there.

I love my African cat. But mostly I'm just glad Rebekah is back home. I missed her!

Busy Busy

I've been busy making plans for the trip to London. I've made hotel reservations and bought theatre tickets to The Full Monty, which is opening in London the same week we are going. (Amanda saw it last weekend on Broadway and said it was hilarious.)

The Royal Shakespeare Company is performing Hamlet while we are there, and although Marty and I both love that play, we can't decide whether we'll feel like spending 4 hours in the theatre to see it. I guess I need to find some more reviews and see if it's worth it. (Now if it had been Colin Firth... no question. No question.)

I'm also working on getting my passport. I had some (hideous) pictures taken for it and now I'm gathering up the other materials I need.

Other things that still have to be done: look into car rental for when we leave London; get in touch with old friends to see if we can get together; figure out where we'll stay in Cambridge and Shropshire. And, of course, plan all the different things we want to do while we're over there.

Besides planning the trip, life has been busy in other ways too, both at work and home. It makes me scatterbrained when so much is going on. I've been so out of it that yesterday I forgot that I was supposed to have jury duty. I remembered it 30 minutes after I was supposed to be there. I freaked out! But when I called they said they would just change my date to later this year. I have to admit I'm surprised it was that easy. I figured they'd take the opportunity to arrest me or something.

Well. Better get moving. This is going to be another busy busy day.

Still Kickin'

What happened? I was updating so regularly and then things just kind of fell apart. It's been a busy week, though, and I guess that's the explanation.

Last week on my birthday I received so many wonderful, thoughtful gifts (and some arrived this week too), but I have to say that this Mr. Potato Head massager is the weirdest gift I got. Maybe the weirdest gift I ever got. How does it work? Well, you push down on his little black hat and he starts, um, vibrating all over the place. And he's got little treads on the bottom of his feet for giving backrubs. On the box it says, "Let him walk all over you! Use anywhere tension strikes -- home, office, or gym."

I think maybe I should take it to work...

Oh, work. I came home early from work today, sick with a bad stomach ache and just worn out. For some reason, I woke up at 3:45 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep. I can deal with it if I wake up at 5:00, you know? Usually, anyway. But before 4:00? Oh man. I was almost falling asleep in my meetings this morning. So then when this stomach thing started up I knew I wasn't going to get anything else done over there. I do think it helped to come home and rest.

I just played a new CD mix that Sonal sent me, Sea of Neon, and it is astoundingly good. It was inspired by Rufus Wainwright's song "California." Very, very cool. I think this is my second mix by Sonal. The first one (Girls, Girls, Girls) is great, too. It's very cool how people's personalities come through in things like CD mixes. Creativity is a wonderful thing.

Speaking of creativity, there's a lot of action going on at Kiss the Rain and Painted Turtle just lately. Maria and Amanda are both working on their sites a lot, building them up and adding to them almost every day. Check 'em out.

Winter Wonderland? Or Not.

Last night was supposed to be our first real snowfall of the winter. Around 10pm, I heard what sounded like rain pouring down outside. Sure enough, it was raining. So we woke up this morning to a soggy world, but certainly not any snow. At least not in Hamden.

Not that I am complaining, exactly. It's just odd to be wearing my fall coat in January. There have been some very cold days, sure, but it's almost nothing compared to last year.

It was a good weekend. Fairly low-key. Friday night Marty and I stayed in and watched Memento. That was a very confusing movie. I mean, I understood why people were so excited about it, but it was just hard to follow. A lot of people had told me that it's "even better" the second time you watch it. Unfortunately, neither Marty nor I cared enough about the characters or what happened to sit through it again. Oh well.

Saturday, a friend came over to dinner and I roasted a chicken. Sunday I took down the Christmas tree and packed up all the decorations from all over the house. So things are sort of getting back to normal.

Also last night I had a good talk with my mom on the phone. It is nice that we can make each other shout with laughter like that. Then I listened to music for awhile and fooled around in Photoshop.

I need to start getting ready for the trip to England. Making plans, arrangements, hotel/car/theatre reservations, all that. Getting my passport. Maybe this week I can make some headway. First, a list. Then, progress.

A Fun Day

Today was a fun day. I turned 33 years old! So many thoughtful people helped to make this a special day -- I feel very lucky!

Marty and I have a birthday tradition of opening our presents in bed first thing in the morning. We also do that on Valentine's day, our anniversary, and any other gift-giving holiday besides Christmas. So early this morning I woke up to a sweet card and a wrapped "When Harry Met Sally" DVD. I had already had part of my present last weekend when he got me a culinary torch (like a blowtorch to use in the kitchen, for recipes).

The rest of the day was special too -- I had birthday cards and surprises to open from my friends and family, a cake with my coworkers, and flowers from a good friend. Then, tonight, Marty and I went out to a German restaurant. Afterwards, there were phone calls. I feel very lucky to have such thoughtful people in my life.

And now I am getting ready for bed. One year older. It feels good!

Time for my latest Brunching Shuttlecocks plug.

The self-made critic has reviewed The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. An excerpt:

This is a story of good vs. evil, with evil being all-powerful and good being generally 3 feet tall with hairy feet.

He goes on to give the movie 4 4/5 Babylons, saying, "I'd give it 5, but it IS amazingly long, and you simply don't get 5 Babylons unless you come in under 3 hours, some of us have poor circulation in our legs and ass."

I love the self-made critic.

Happy New Year

Well, here we are in 2002. Last night was a lot of fun, and very low-key. Unfortunately, I'm starting the year off with a headache, although it's not from overindulgence.

Marty gave me a cookbook for Christmas with fifty-two macaroni and cheese recipes in it. Fifty-two! That's one a week, I guess, for an entire year. However, last night I stuck with an old favorite -- Laura's Macaroni and Cheese Deluxe, and it turned out great. But maybe next time I'll use one of the new recipes!

Another Christmas gift this year was a wonderful Chinese meat cleaver from my mom. Well, I guess it's technically a chef's knife but it is shaped like a cleaver and it cuts better than any other knife I've ever had. I absolutely love it. I'll have to take a picture of it and post it here.

My birthday is in a couple of days, and Marty and I are planning to try out a German restaurant, the East Side Restaurant in New Britain. I love German food, so I can't wait to go!