a bit of fun

cleaning out the office area has yielded many surprises,
but not so delightful as this one!

a bit damaged, but my brain nevertheless!

challenge

An actual cooking challenge by those who live with me.
We bought something one not on a lark,
a Wishbone Buffalo Blue Cheese salas dressing.
After attempting to use it, we found it awful for salad.
The challange - i bet this would go good woith chicken,
you up to try it.
I knew i would not
- i do not use these things in my salad because all they are is oil and artifical flavor,
but...
Tonight i used what i had in the house and bought some crumbled blue cheese.
chicken leg quarters.
my dried ground chili peppers
panko bread crumbs.
Coat the chicken with a mixture of the bread crumbs, cheese and chili powder with some salt.
baked at 350 for about 30 minutes
- until i smelled the blue cheese browning, then lowered the temperature to 290.
Cooked for an hour at the lower temperature.
Prepared my sides - rice and baby lima beans (seperately).

This was way out of my comfort zone -
i do not like hot wings that much and this is not a style i cook - strictly American.

Some one gave me a 10 out of 10 on the dish.
This was strange and do not look to see if i will be on any cooking shows -
there is NO way!

The eye of a needle...

3 times,
not once,
not twice,

but three times i threaded this needle.
Yes it is a large one, but still...
The inspiration came from my mom,
who was still able to thread a needle,
even with "Bad" eyesight in her last year of life.
And what did i do with this needle and thread you may ask...
thread some very hot peppers to hand to dry!
Habenero peppers on the right, ghost peppers on the left.

Every thing in a name

Talking on the phone at work regarding work things, i often find out different things.
The other day, someone trying to spell my last name, said it was German for art.
Since i did mostly the technical German in school, that was not a word i ran across, so i looked it up.
Well the last name is close - kunst - is the German for art - mine is just different - Kuntz.  Now my last name is Alsatian, which does match the ethnicity, so maybe a slight misspelling somewhere in history...
Fun!

With abandonment

The currect series of snows, which i dislike intensely, have not left me depressed.
Last nights snow of more than a foot closed schools and i stayed back to clear out so i could go to work safely tomorrow.
The kids were out and with them came small snowball fights.
These were wonderously fun and in the middle of one i stopped and thought.
Before the operation, i was strictly "an adult" and had fun with caution.
Playing at times, throwing snow balls or paper airplanes or footballs or anything else, with any of the children on the street has been done with me putting my whole self into having a good time.
It has been done with abandonment, with my whole heart and i have lost track of time, for a time.
It feels like I have become young again.
It is marvelous.
Back to work, but have fun also.

The cold weather cased me to make a carrot soup, the recipe is below:

Carrot Soup
Joe’s style, thick and spicy

Snowy weather makes me think of soup and a “the next Food network Star” challenge (2010) that failed made me think of carrot soup.

There is body to this soup and some significant heat – I would add plain yogurt to the soup, if you find the heat too much.  If done right the color will be a “dreamcicle” orange, there is a fresh taste of the vegetables and a crunch of the ones added last.

Ingredients:
1.    1 pound of peeled carrots, chopped or grated fine
2.    ¼ pound of carrots cubed
3.    6 stalks of celery chopped ¼ inch size
4.    ¼ long green (or turning red) hot pepper, chopped or grated fine
5.    1- 1 ½“ piece of fresh ginger, chopped or grated fine
6.    1 cup milk (low fat or regular)
7.    ¼ cup half & half or heavy cream
8.    The juice of one orange
9.    1 teaspoon of salt
10.    1 tablespoon Fresh parsley
11.    1 cup water

The grated carrot, ginger, parsley, water, orange juice, salt and pepper are placed in a sauce pan and brought to a low simmer and kept there for 30 minutes.  DO NOT let it burn.
Add milk and cream and stir.
Bring back to a simmer and heat for another 10 minutes
Turn off heat, add cubed carrots and celery pieces, and serve within 30 minutes.

Liars!

Forget all the problems of the world, the greatest cover-up of all time is being broadcast on the Histroy channel!
It claims that Twinkies have a shelf life of just 2 weeks. 
I have heard this lie before and now it is being propagated over cable/satellite TV!

There has been no discernible half life measured from a sample of the first set of Twinkies rolled out in the 1930's.
They are indestructible and will be what aliens visiting this planet will find long after we are gone.

This is a cover-up greater than that of the "National Treasure"!
.