I decided I should make a quick post before an early bedtime tonight. These come out of the Household Hi-speed cookbook once again. ENJOY! haha.
Pimiento Spread
- 1 14 1/2 oz can evaporated milk (When the first ingredient is this contradictory to the name of the recipe, it is always a sign of a great family favorite!)
- 1 pound American Cheese, grated (moooo).
- 2 tablespoons vinegar
- 1/2 tsp dry mustard
- 1 7pz can pimientos, drained and chopped
- 1/2 tsp salt
- dash cayenne (yeah, I’m sure that’ll help…)
Heat undiluted milk in upper part of double broiler over hot water. Add cheese to hot milk. Stir until cheese is melted and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat. Cool, stir occasionally. Add remaining ingredients. Blend thoroughly. Store in covered refrigerator jars to be used as needed. This spread keeps well in the refrigerator for several weeks (clear indicator of a dairy dish gone waaaay wrong). It is useful for pack-lunch sandwiches, grilled sandwiches, or a stuffing for celery (also great for patching concrete, killing vermin, and giving most of the non-lactose digesting population severe diarrhea).
Makes about 2 cups of filling.
Pimiento Spread not your cup of tea?
How about:
Tongue Spread instead?
- 1 cooked beef tongue, ground
- 3 hard-cooked eggs, minced (because that tongue doesn’t have near enough protein for a growing family!)
- 3 sweet pickles, minced
- 1/2 cup chopped cabbage (what goes better with tongue than gas?)
- 3/4 cup minced celery
- 1 medium onion, minced
- 2 tablespoons salad dressing
- 1 tsp. catsup
- 1 tsp prepared mustard
- vinegar
Combine tongue, eggs, pickles, and vegetables. Mix thoroughly. Combine Salad Dressing, catsup, and mustard. Add vinegar to season and make filling of spreading consistency. Makes about 4 cups filling.
No serving suggestion was given for this little gem. May I suggest spreading a generous glop of tongue spread on a dry piece of toast for a protein rich and quick breakfast. Or how about using tongue spread to take a jello mold from dull and listless to grey and gay!
He looks a bit like Oliver… after a week long unattended vacation in a McDonalds. Oliver is 12.5 lbs. This cat, nicknamed Goliath, weighs 20.2 lbs.
So every Monday, Wednesday and Friday I sit in a small dining/study room before my 11:40 class (because if you don’t get here by 8:20 god knows where you will have to park).
And every one of those days, there is a young man who sits in a corner seat, typically kitty-corner from me. He wears large headphones and has a webcam attached to his computer and he is always talking to someone over the net – like actually speaking into a microphone, not typing-cyber-talk.
A couple weeks ago I shared his conversation with Brian because it was so bizarre. It seemed apparent he was either being dumped or some girl desperately was trying to get that point across. It was such a strange and personal conversation – he was practically in tears and basically yelling into the mic.
Today when I arrived I was the only one besides him in this sitting area. He immediately put his hand over his mouth in order to continue what appeared to be a dirty conversation.
Now I have never seen this dude outside of this area. He certainly carries around enough shit to be a law student… but I am beginning to wonder if he isn’t a psych grad doing some kind of bizarre study on human reaction/interaction or… perhaps he is a computer buff who is actually using the wireless connection here to tap into other people’s computers for god knows what.
If he is a law student, my characterization of him? Pussy. Save a client, drop out now.
Hey, life (and certainly law) requires you to be a bitch sometimes.
Filed under: current events
So this morning I heard a short news blip. I don’t know which station it was on; either Fox News or CNN around 6:30am EST.
Anyhow, the story is that the US Post Office is now requiring all volunteers who read letters to Santa to undergo background checks in order to try and weed out potential sex offenders.
The story stated that since this new protective element has been implemented, the number of volunteers has dropped by 70%!!!
I haven’t been able to find anything online regarding this story or the given statistic but if that is true, that is incredibly unsettling. I really doubt that volunteers are dropping like flies in order to avoid an unnecessary hassle of a background check – they only require some basic information, nothing more than what you would have to provide to hold a paying position in most places of business.
I think a nice reaction to this information would be to volunteer some time at the post office to read children’s letters to Santa (if you aren’t a convicted felon of course). Since last Christmas I have been kicking myself for not volunteering at the homeless shelter downtown on Christmas day. I was alone and bored all day long until Brian got off of work – I could have made that day worth my while and spent it making Christmas a little brighter for someone else.
I have been informed by a regular reader that I never really explained, via the blog, what was going on with my landlord/roommate back in the late summer months. Now that it is all over, I guess I can say a little something about it:
I think I owe my freedom to my old roommates girlfriend…
Not because she wanted to help me out or anything… I am going to leave this at that for now – use your imaginations and giggle.
Back to my Household Hi-speed Cookbook and toady’s recipe comes from the vegetable casserole section.
Lima Bean Peanut
- 2 cups medium cream sauce (from another recipe in the Rolodex – essentially butter, scalded milk, and flour)
- 1 cup coarsely ground salted peanuts
- 2 cups cooked lima beans, drained
- 1 cup finely shredded cheddar cheese (because that is clearly what this recipe is missing so far!)
- 1/2 cup chopped pimientos (if you are unaware, green olives and pimientos were food groups back in the 40’s and 50’s)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tablespoon catsup (no commentary needed)
- Butter or margarine
- Buttered Bread crumbs
Prepare cream sauce as directed from previous recipe. Combine with remaining ingredients, except butter, or margarine and crumbs. Blend thoroughly Pour into well-oiled 2-quart casserole. Dot top with butter or margarine. Cover with crumbs. Bake in moderate oven (350F.) about 30 minutes or until golden brown. Serve hot. (No shit? Wouldn’t that have just been the cat’s pajamas to serve this chilled!?) Makes 6 to 8 servings.
Yes, I have come to the conclusion that the only way to truly appreciate these recipes would be to actually make them and serve them to some poor, unassuming soul. One day, I will make this casserole… and run like hell when it is served.
Filed under: movies
Saturday night, Brian and I went to see No Country for Old Men. Although I am not prepared to say I loved the movie, in retrospect, this movie did have an interesting theme and, dare I say it,”moral”. It begs to be watched again at the very least.
The movie is not a gripping tale of the battle between good and evil but instead an insight directly into evil. And not just the kind of evil that the villain of the film represents, (good ’ol conscienceless, murderous evil) but also greed based evil which is represented by the character who is mainly followed throughout the film – Llewellyn Moss.
Moss, while hunting in a desolate area of Texas, comes across a drug cartel shootout. Along with drugs, cars with flattened tires, and loads of bodies, he finds one man who is still breathing and begging for “agua” and a satchel full of money. Moss takes the money and leaves only to find himself kept up that night by his conscience about the man begging for water. Moss fills a jug with water and returns to the scene – a move which will set up the mayhem which ensues throughout the entire length of the film. From that point on, Llewellyn Moss is tracked by the true villain of the film, Anton Chigurh. In the same way as Moss had hunted deer in the beginning sequence, Chigurh hunts Moss – without conscience, remorse, or even a realization that he should have a conscience.
Oh and yes, Tommy Lee Jones is in this movie too. The sheriff who is intelligent, quick witted, and totally powerless to stop the chaos that has been unleashed.
So what in the world is the “moral” of this story? Well, sadly it might just be that the old adage about “minding your own business” is not necessarily a bad rule to follow. If Moss hadn’t checked out the carnage and instead just contacted the police, he would have been able to go on living his life just as he had been.
Some might say that the theme is that if Moss hadn’t had a conscience at all and had just let the man in the truck die, he could have gone on living life and he would have been able to keep the money – what those people forget however is the tracking device placed in the satchel. If Moss had indeed just taken the money and forgot all about the dying drug carrier, he would have likely still be found by the persistent and insane Chigurh and would have had no clue he was even in danger.
It is the money which caused (and would have caused) the carnage no matter what.
If you liked Fargo, you will like No Country for Old Men – the linguistic and regional humour is again present and this movie takes the darkness of Fargo and times it by about 100.
To be totally honest, I am not sure if I am posting this as just a fun, spoofy, post simply to take a peek into the past and how far women have come OR if I am posting this for those of you who really could use the info.
This youtube vid might be a bit (OK, a LOT) old fashioned, but it really does contain a lot of good info about cooking terms. Men might even find it appealing if they are learning to cook… so long as the overlook the beginning bit about the newlyweds.
Cooking Terms
So it has been a busy few days but here is a quick catch-up. Mom and Ron came to visit on Thursday afternoon and left yesterday (Saturday) afternoon. Prior to their arrival on Thursday, Brian and I went to his family Thanksgiving dinner at his Aunt and Uncles. It was very nice and I was very stuffed when I got home.
Mom, Ron, and I spent the rest of the weekend busy cleaning, shopping for, organizing, and decorating my apartment. It looks very “homey” now.
Yesterday mom and I went to a nearby antique store where we found a small china cabinet which would work perfectly in my apartment to help with the limited kitchen space. We purchased it and I am so glad we did. After I get it painted up a bit I will be able to really get my kitchen just how I want it finally.
Another great item we purchased was a “Household Hi-Speed Cookbook” – essentially a big Rolodex filled with recipes from the 40’s and 50’s. Mine is turquoise but the pictures I snagged off of E-bay. That particular one went for $46.00 on Ebay after a whopping 31 bids!
I haven’t flipped through it much yet but I am thrilled to see that it is full of retro recipe disasters! Ones that came WITH the Rolodex, not added by the poor original soul who owned it.
So I share with you the first of what I am sure will be many fun and scary recipes from my new found fun item:
NIPPY MOLDIs the name terrifying or what?? Mold? Nippy? EEEK!
- 1 envelope unflavored gelatin (red flag no.1)
- 1/2 cup cold water
- 1 3oz package cream cheese
- 2 cups well-drained cottage cheese (gotta have that protein element!)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 to 2 tablespoon horse-radish (the “nippy” element I suspect??)
- 1/2 teaspoon onion juice (I’m sorry, what??)
- 1/4 cup thick cream
- Tomato wedges, water cress, endive, or lettuce
Soften gelatin in cold water. Dissolve over boiling water. Mix together cream cheese, cottage cheese, salt, lemon juice, horse-radish, and onion juice. Add gelatin and cream. Blend thoroughly. Spread evenly in a 2 3/4 cup cold water rinsed or lightly oiled mold. Chill until firm. Unmold. Garnish with tomato wedges, water cress, endive, or lettuce leaves. Makes 4 -6 servings.
Please, if you are thinking about making this for whatever purpose, recall my “note” from a previous post about these vintage recipes!
If anyone had anything this scary at Thanksgiving dinner, please let me know!! 
This showed up in my in-box today as part of the University e-mail…. wooohooo!
You are invited to participate in a research study that will analyze the Effects of Leg Dominance on the Single-Leg Hop Functional Test in Non-Injured Adults. The purpose of this study is to measure the effects of leg dominance on the scores of the single-leg hop.
The benefits to participation are gaining knowledge on how leg dominance affects the single-leg hop test.
You will not receive payment for taking part in this study.
No $$?? Booo…. I only guinea for cash 
A new e-mail scam to tell you all about. This one appears different from the others I have found in my in-box but is still clearly a scam.
Here it is verbatim sent from Mrs. Susan Beck (becksus14@earthlink.net):
Dearly Beloved,
I have sent this message because of the need to open discussions with you, I do not want you to misunderstand this offer in any aspect, if it is okay by you i ask for your full cooperation.
I am Mrs. Susan Beck from switzerland. I was married to Raymond Beck who worked with a construction company in Asia for twenty years before he died in the Tsunami disasters, we were married but without any child. Since his death I decided not to re-marry and presently i am 60 years old. When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of $5,000.000.00 ( FIVE MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS) with a Security Company
Presently this money is still with one of the Security Companies in London and the company just Wrote me as the beneficiary to come forward to receive the money or rather Issue a letter of authorization to someone to receive it on my behalf if I cannot come over. I am presently in a hospital where I have been undergoing treatment of Cancer of the lungs, I have since lost my ability to talk and my doctor have told me that I have only a few months to live.
I want a person that is trustworthy that will utilize 70% of this money to fund churches, orphanages and widows around the world but in my name Mrs.Susan Beck. As soon as i receive your reply i shall give you the contact of the Security Company. I will also issue to you a letter of authorization that will empower you as the new beneficiary of this fund.
Please assure me that you will act accordingly as I stated here and keep this contact confidential till such a time this fund gets to your custody. This is to ensure that nothing jeopardizes my last wish on earth.
I await your urgent reply to my private email address becksusan077@gmail.com
Much christian love,
Your sister
Susan Beck.
This is a 419 scam and sadly, there isn’t a whole lot that can be done about them. If you have common sense, you won’t respond but those few people who are convinced this is real can be taken for a real ride. I am confused at why people fall for these scams, all I can figure is that it is a matter of greed. Either readers seem to believe they will screw some nice little old lady out of 5 million dollars or possibly get a 30% commission for helping her out.
Here is information about what you can do when you recieve a 419 scam e-mail. Note: it is a lot of work! If I wanted to report this particular e-mail, I would have to report the sending address (the earthlink address) as “spam” to my e-mail provider, contact earthlink, contact gmail (about the gmail address), and then attempt to figure out which government entity in the US handles these kinds of issues… and figure out how to contact them.
Considering I personally haven’t been scammed, it sure seems a lot easier to simply pop this into the “trash”.
For anyone thinking this e-mail or any similar one might actually be legit, read the e-mail! I am convinced that people who fall for these scams are simply reading the part about 5 million dollars and simply skip the rest of the message.
For the sake of possibly helping someone else not fall for something like this, I’ll break this message down a bit:
A) Why is she e-mailing me? No friends, no family, no strangers in Switzerland to contact? An trust me, the sender of this message knows that my e-mail address is of American origin – my e-mail address end in “@yahoo.com”, if I lived in the UK, I would likely opt to have my address registered as “@yahoo.co.uk”.
B) Why would I be able to get this money (even with her letter “approving” me)? She makes it sound like because she cannot go get the money herself someone else has to go to London and get it. If she can simply write a letter approving someone else to become beneficiary, why can’t she simply write a letter and have the money SENT to her?
C) She can’t speak (last stages of Cancer?) but she is healthy enough to sit at a computer and type a message and surf the net looking for MY e-mail address?
D) She says she is 60 – assuming she wasn’t lucky enough to marry a man much younger than herself, that means that when her husband was likely in his 60’s, working in the construction industry, when he was washed away in the Tsunami . . . right, because, you know, men in their sixties who are millionaires like to do construction work for the fun of it.
These are just a couple of things that stuck out really quickly reading this message – there are plenty of others. Read between the lines people!
Apparently searching for “chicken court on blue” isn’t too bizarre – I now have multiple persons arriving to my blog in order to find out more about this elusive dish. (If you are one of them, head to this post).
Today I noticed another new search term I haven’t before seen: “juicing chickens”. For whatever reason, a post I wrote entitled “taking the lemons to the juicer” sent that searcher to me. I looked up juicing chickens on google – I was the third match but further down the page was something that appeared much closer – a blog post actually titled “juicing a chicken“.
It doesn’t sound half bad….
Anyhow, I am currently at school and will be heading out here in a few minutes for a little walk over to the state house – I am going to the Supreme Court to watch an argument regarding the aggravating and mitigating factors in the sentencing of a defendant who plead guilty to the murder of a four year-old. It should be very interesting and I will have plenty of time to get back for class.
After classes today, I have an Animal Law Society meeting and then I am going home and probably taking a nap. I haven’t been sleeping well lately – Oliver has taken to waking me up in the middle of the night in the most bizarre ways. He and I are going to have to have a serious talk about his nightly need for attention.
Ciao.
Filed under: current events
Never will the words “fresh from the oven” have the same meaning again for a young man from Illinois who was tortured with freshly baked cookies… literally
Friday afternoon I spent in a maximum security correctional facility.
Saturday afternoon was spent at the city zoo.
It is uncanny to me how much the two places have in common.
The Prison
The prison visit was organized by the president of our student criminal law society and I am so pleased it was on this years agenda. We discovered that the prison was not the medium security facility we had anticipated but was instead a maximum security “in-take” facility meaning that every male convicted of a felony in the state (except for death row inmates) comes to this facility first, is assigned a “level” based on medical/psychiatric needs and or behavioral/crime variables and is then sent to a prison corresponding to that level.
Everyday, between 17 and 130 new prisoners arrive. We saw a large group of men who had just been dropped off and were sitting in line waiting to have their heads shaved. We walked between and among them, the three females of our group looking particularly uncertain as to where to rest our eyes.
I would have liked to have spoken to some of the men, but as we walked down the corridor of one of the cell areas and we darted our eyes in and out of the barred cell doors, I couldn’t help but think that it would be somehow rude to ask questions of them. It is their “home” afterall that we were peering into and as much as we kidded with each other that our dorm rooms had been comparable in size, there was certainly a feeling within those walls that is much unlike anything I have ever felt. It is a combination of dread, boredom, anger, pain, curiosity, disgust; all of which is aggravated by the bland beige decor which seems so miserably out of place in a house that has so much “color” within it. And by color, I mean the color of the feelings within the building. As far as the color of the men, the vast majority appeared to be black, between the ages of 18 and 30. And yet there was something familiar and “certain” about the young black men, whereas there was something very sinister and unsettling about the white men who appeared to be older, gruffer, and generally suffering from psychiatric disorders.
The Zoo
Brian and I visited the zoo and botanical gardens yesterday. We have wanted to go for sometime now to check out a new ocean exhibit. It was very nice; huge aquariums full of a cousin of the hammerhead shark, another with tropical fish, and another with elusive jellyfish (I particularly enjoyed the jellies). In the center of the exhibit is a large dog shark touch pool. We spent time there at both the beginning and end of our trip petting the sharks as they swam by. One shark seemed “friendly” almost – he swam back and forth in front of us multiple times toward the surface of the water and seemed to really enjoy the attention.
I really love how this zoo has a walrus exhibit. When we visited last summer it was my first time to see a walrus so close and I was stunned at their size. It was difficult to see them this time but we still got to peer at them from a distance at least.
After the zoo, we quickly enjoyed a trip through the bonsai exhibit in the gardens which we saw during our last trip to the zoo as well.
After the zoo, Brian and I headed to Wild Oats. We were treated to some cheese sampling and ended up picking up some rather pricey hunks to take home. I have been eying up a sourdough recipe and went the easy route by picking up a nice loaf instead. After a quick trip to check out a Trader Joe’s (big disappointment), we beat a large crowd into a Five Guys – a burger and fry joint. Definitely one of the tastiest burger and fry meals I have had in quite some time.
We headed home after a very long but enjoyable day and I have to say, this was a really great, educational couple of days.
