Samosa Time

Tonight's kitchen adventure: Samosas, which are Indian pastries stuffed with curried potato and vegetables.

I admit I nicked the photo to the left from the nethers of the interwebs. By the time I thought about taking pictures of ours, they were pretty much gone. Next time I'll take pictures of the actual thing.

Over the past while, we've stocked up on some of the basics needed in Eastern cooking: Garam Masala, Hot Madras curry powder, regular yellow curry powder, fresh ginger, cardemom leaves--stuff like that. These are things that we don't use all that often, and will probably last us forever and a day. They're good to have around in case of a sudden hankering for Thai or Indian food.
I apologize for not having exact measurements on some of these things. I improvised a bit, and didn't measure some items in the filling.



For the shells:

• Mix 1 & 1/2 cups flour with 1 tsp salt
• Add 4 Tbs shortening, and cut together till crumbly.
• Add 5 or 6 Tbs cold water, just enough to make a kneadable mass.

Get your hands into it, and knead it together for a few minutes until it becomes smooth. Set it aside in a covered bowl to "rest." God knows what tuckers pastry dough out so much, but it needs a lot of rest, apparently.

After tucking the pastry in for a nap, (quietly) start in on the filling.

You can do one of two things here. You can go whole hog, and boil a bunch of potatos and make real live lumpy mashed potatos, or you can do as I did, and mix up a pack of dehydrated mashed potatoes, mince another potato finely, and cook that up with the rest of the filling.

In a frying pan, put a little of your favorite oil down and add the following:

• minced onion
• minced potato (if you cheated like I did)
• some grated or very finely chopped fresh ginger, or a few shakes of powdered stuff, I guess
  

Once the onions start to brown just a bit...

Add the mashed potatoes
some green peas
few shakes of Hot Madras Curry Powder
some Garam Masala
a bunch of plain yellow curry powder
salt

At this point, you can add some optional stuff, like chopped cashews, corn, or meat of some kind, if you'd like. I found these to be pretty substantial with just the vegetables, but do what you think would be yummy.

Mix it all together while heating it up. You should be able to taste test and see what you like here in terms of spices. I wasn't sure about the plain curry powder, but it turned out it needed more than I thought it would.

Take the filling off the heat, and set it aside.

Now, wake up the pastry, take a chunk of it, and begin rolling it out. You'll want a bowl or a large circular object (about 5-6 inches across) to cut out circles of pastry. Roll it out thinly, cut large circles and set them aside, making sure you flour so they don't stick together. Once you've used up all the dough, take a sharp knife and cut the circles in half, one at a time as you use them.

Take each half circle, dab some water around the lower edges, plop a decent blob of filling down in the middle, then fold the edges together and press well, so you have a little triangle with a rounded bottom. Wash, rinse, repeat until all the samosas are stuffed.

At this point, you can do one of two things. You can either deep fry the samosas, or you can bake them. Since deep frying is the traditional method, I tried it, but frankly, it was kind of terrifying in our little kitchen, and I don't think I'll do it that way again, even though they were delicious. I did find a recipe with baking directions, so that's what I'm posting.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F, place the samosas on parchment paper on a pan, and pop them in the oven.

Once they're in, turn the oven down to 300, and let them bake for 45 minutes, or until they're golden brown.

You can dip them in chutney, or eat them plain, like we did.

YUM.

Makings

I have been making.

We got couple lovely couch cushions several months ago. Their covers were made of a soft woven brown fiber with a bit of a sheen to it--nice and nubbly. Unfortunately, they were sewn really shoddily, and since they were woven, they were just falling apart after only a few months. It was a shame to let the fabric go to waste, and since I lost my last pair of wrist warmers (Wrist dickies, as we refer to them. Remember turtleneck dickies from the eighties? It was just a neck and a bit of cloth, so you looked like you were wearing a turtleneck without bothering to actually put one on under your sweater. ) err... sorry about the detour. Since I lost my last pair, I thought I'd repurpose the fabric to make new ones.

I reused the zippers, and made use of the silk edging already on the inside of the cushion cover. I added some reinforcing ribbon, and a loop and button to close it at the top. I also had to add a long loop of thin ribbon on the inside at the elbow end, so I can hold that with my teeth as I zip them up. Otherwise I'd have to have the Boy zip them up, and that would just be lame. This one needs a little more stitching added to the ribbon, but it's basically done. Both of them took me about an evening.


Not a difficult project, and my sewing machine was lovely and behaved perfectly. I seem to have the tension issue well in hand.... Quite accidentally, of course, but I'm not touching it, since it seems to be a-ok. This is a machine the Boy got me a couple Christmases ago. I remember using my mother's machine, which required hours of squinting and threading needles and trying to readjust bobbins... All of which, doubtless, was my fault. But this new machine is fancy. The little design on the black ribbon is made by the machine sewing little patterns. Fancy. It is too fancy to be Amish. (link to a sweet children's book--check out the illustrations about halfway down the page.)

In other, more edible news, we made a butternut squash soup that turned out quite yummy.


I'd never made one, but we'd liked a few we'd tried various places, and it seemed easy enough. I wasn't quite into any of the recipes I found, so combined the parts I liked into a slow cooker recipe that turned out really nice. It's very simple, and very comfort-foody.

• 1 raw butternut squash
• a pat of butter
• nutmeg (I grated about a third of a "nut" of nutmeg--I think that would be about a half teaspoon of the ground stuff? I kind of wished I'd used more though.)
• hot madras curry powder - a decent amount. it's not that spicy, and the finished product is not at all spicy.
• cumin - a nice shake, but not too much, because it can overpower the taste of the squash
• chicken stock - I used enough to just come to the level of the cubed squash in the slowcooker.
• sour cream - a heaping tablespoon
• one dollop of cream or milk

Cut the squash in half, and then slice it so that you can cut off the rind. Once that's done, cube it, and throw it in the slow cooker with the stock, butter, nutmeg, curry powder, and cumin. Let it cook away on medium high for 2 hours, or you could put it on low for 8 hours while you're at work.

At this point, the squash may not be totally mushy, but will be soft enough to blend. Scoop the chunks out into a different bowl, then blend them several at a time, pouring them back into the slowcooker as you go. Add stock while you blend to keep things moist. Some people might like theirs silky smooth, but I found it was really pleasant with a little texture to it, so I didn't blend forever.

Once everything's blended, turn the heat to medium or a bit lower, and wisk in the sour cream and a blop of cream or milk. If you boil at this point, it'll curdle, so keep the heat down a bit.

You can serve right away, or let it simmer another while. We served it with a couple sage leaves, and a bit of sour cream. I have a feeling this soup is one of those ones that will be even better the second time around. The recipe makes quite a bit, so you can pack it up into the freezer or fridge to use another day like we did.

Power Struggle

I admit it--I have one of those big monolith computer monitors. You know, the kind that extend forever behind? Actually, I'm not complaining. It serves me perfectly well, and has a pretty big screen, which is nice. However, I think one of the main reasons I haven't thought about replacing it involves the cats.

When the weather started to turn cold a few months ago, Nihao discovered she could satisfy both her urge to constantly be practically on top of me, and her obsession with warm things--by perching on top of the back of the monitor. I also discovered I could keep her from lolling all over the keyboard by encouraging her to go up there, without being punished by the (very loud) self-righteous howls that happen when I put her on the floor. So when she hops up looking for attention and I'm in the middle of something, I pat her and then aim the front of her toward the screen. She reaches her front paws up to the top and waits, looking back at me disapprovingly if I take too long. So I grab her chicken legs and hoist her butt the rest of the way up. She's trained me well.

Her sleeping up there has led to a few awkward moments when our clumsy queen has managed to slide off the side into the gap between the monitor and wall (while sleeping!?), flailing her claws about in a vain effort to catch herself. Other than that, though, it's been quite nice for both of us. She gets a warm and close place to lie, and I get to see her resting her face like a puppet over the top of my screen. Which is adorable. Especially when she flops her face right over the edge so her bottom lip gets pulled back. She looks like a complete nerd-dork. I love it.

(incidentally, for those of you wondering, the monitor seems to be fine. I vacuum any hair off it, and it has plenty of venting on the sides and back for the heat to escape. )

Moving on... Just recently, Boo has discovered the joy of the warm monitor as well. He's a particularly cautious cat, and spent about 10 minutes hanging off the shelf directly above the monitor, with just his front paws resting on it, sniffing and testing the waters. Eventually he decided it was safe, and veeerrry slowly lowered himself onto it and lay down.

The problem now is that I have one monitor, and two cats who want to be on it. Actually, it's mostly just a problem for poor Boo. When Nihao made her way to the shelf above, she seemed ambivalent to the fact Boo was already on the monitor. So ambivalent, in fact, that she climbed down onto it and proceeded to lie on top of him, shoving him off the edge. So graceful.

So now Boo waits until Nihao climbs down, and then immediately occupies her spot. Hopefully there won't be any more forcing him off the back again. Poor thing.

Lovely things...

Steampunk Aesthetics

I was fascinated with steampunk and gaslight ages before I even really knew what they were. I've turned over in my mind a couple times what it is I like about those things, but had never come to any conclusions, or even a good way to describe what those things--or styles of things-- actually are.

I was reading an article over at BoingBoing (link goes to an incredible steampunk project) which lent itself to people commenting about the steampunk aesthetic, and was impressed by one commenter to sum the whole thing up pretty nicely.
___________________

Cheqyr says:

First, I love steampunk for the same reason I love antique wood furniture as compared to the particle-board, veneer, and plastic crap we produce nowadays. The antiques are more beautiful, more durable (chip oak, it still looks good; chip laminate and it's like an open wound), and they have a sense of history about them.

I'm writing this at an oak desk which was made around 1900 and will probably be around in 2100. That provides an enormous sense of comfort and "place" in a world of disposable things.

Steampunk has that same aesthetic. In the early-to-mid 20th century, technology became increasingly less simple and less "organic". Simple base materials of wood, copper, oil and glass -- and big chunky mechanical parts like wheels and gears -- were increasingly being replaced by aluminum, plastics, industrial lubricants, circuit boards and computer chips.

When I look at a train from the 1890s, I can see how all the parts go together, and I can even imagine myself capable of building one given the basic raw materials (and the machine shop of my dreams). Nothing requires a clean room or microscopic engineering tools. It's technology I can relate to -- "open source" in the physical world.

Now, that's just the Victorian aesthetic. But there's an added fantasy element of steampunk too: the idea that you could build a robot or a time machine with wheels and brass gears and maybe a handful of exotic material like Cavorite.

This type of Steampunk embodies the romantic idea that all our technological marvels (and more) might exist, but in a way that makes them more comprehensible, durable, and accessible to the common folk.

And that's what I like about it.
________________________

*Points at the above quote* This.

Regarding the post below

It's also worth mentioning that you should take the time to go to the site and see the trailer for Cougar Interactive's flagship title, uh... Zoo Race.

It's... eh, forget it. There's just nothing I can say, except that you probably thought nothing could be more random or weird than that last clip. Well, you were wrong. So very wrong...

PS. It's noteworthy that all the "awards" won by Zoo Race are either a stamp indicating it doesn't contain any viruses, or are the "five star award" that's given to every item on a various download sites regardless of quality. Kind of damning with faint praise. :(

PPS. *sigh* "Oh great... I'm a horse now."

There are no words...

...for how bizarre this is. All you need to know is that it's a trailer for a real, actual game from a company called Cougar Interactive. It's a real game. A real, serious game.

I never knew Noah was so whiney.

Now Put on Your Shoes

And hie yourself hence over to the "Hark! A Vangrant!" blog or Kate Beaton's actual site to check out the latest series of one-off comics she's making, based on a list of historical figures the general public submitted. The consensus was as follows:

1- Soren Kierkegaard
2- Benedict Arnold
3- Agnes McPhail
4- Mary Shelley
5- Queen Elizabeth I
6- Emperor Norton
7- Benjamin Disraeli
8- Nikola Tesla
9- Genghis Khan
10- David Hume
11- Henry VIII
12- Thomas Beckett
13- Jerry Thomas
14- Pope John Paul II
15- Geoffrey Chaucer
16- Marcel Duchamp
17-Sylvanus Griswold Morley
18-The CBC
19- Jean Baptiste Lamarck
20-Heritage Moments

Here is one of her little autobiographical comics.

(click to enbiggen)

So far, so amusing. I have to admit I love Kate and her quirkitudes. She writes and draws charming comics about life in the Maritime provinces, and other such goodness. She hasn't been an internet presence for all that long, but I can see her going far. *waves* Hi Kate! Do well!

Kitchens around the world

Here's an excellent resource for international recipes. I do a lot of Thai food, so this will be very handy for extra recipes there, as well as letting me branch out.

We finally got a mortar and pestle the other day, so that'll let me use things like the whole cardamom leaves we have other than to just drop whole ones in soup.

The Darkest Night of the Year

So, it being Christmas-time, and this being Cincinnati, this Saturday we made the first step in what we hope will be a long-standing tradition of yearly attendance at the homecoming (from tour) show put on by Over the Rhine at the Taft Theater. The show was breathtakingly lovely, as is the norm for OTR, though I hadn't seen them in several years.

It's been so long since we've been to a proper show. There are several potential opportunities coming up, though, so we'll have to get off our duffs and go to one or more. Yo La Tengo, the Bravery, Band of Horses, etc. We're lousy hipsters. Not that that's anything new.

Speaking of musics and such-lot, I've added a last.fm player to the blog here. I'm having a bit of fun with that, since it logs everything you listen to, making it possible to create playlists and "radio stations" of your songs online from whatever ones they also have in the Last.fm library. I have high hopes, though undoubtedly the player will pick out some random embarrassing song and just play that over and over. I'll regret forever looking up the theme song for "Hong Kong Phooey" or whatever. Actually though, I'm sure what you'll find is a big chunk of Christmas music, since I just loaded the player this week, and have been listening to a lot of Sufjan Stevens holiday songs. Hopefully you'll find it gets more diverse eventually.

New Music Alert!

The ways of the internet are mysterious and convoluted. Sometimes in a conversation, one will try to figure out the string of conversation that led to the current topic--In the same way, I've been trying to figure out exactly what brought me to the Myspace site of Rich Aucoin and his lovely music.

I think there may have been a conversation involving babies on Fark, and someone mentioned the Halifax comedy troupe Picnicface, and their "Harness the power of 400 babies!" sketch, which somehow led me to Youtube and one of their other sketches, which had Rich Aucoin's music during the credits, and that led me to his videos on Youtube, which led me to his Myspace page. Whew. I think.

Anyway, I suggest you check out his stuff. It's lovely melodious indie pop and you will enjoy it. You will. I friended Rich on Myspace and he wanted to know how in the world someone in Ohio had heard of him. It's the world wide webs!

And since 'tis the season, I'd also like to offer this sync'd version of the How the Grinch Stole Christmas, with music by Rich Aucoin. He did a pretty amazing job of writing and working the music to go with the film.

Plus, the man rode his bike across Canada to raise money for cancer research. How about that?? He's a bike-riding, music making machine.

Hmm. Could've sworn I was at least 90%.

88% Geek

Neat Video Pick of the Day

I've had fun playing with cornstarch + water mixtures before, but in this video, someone is applying vibrations to that mixture with really interesting results. See the end of the clip, especially.

Something to look forward to

I think I posted about the Music Now Festival previously, specifically about the most excellent Take Away Show with Sufjan Stevens filmed at it. Well, planning is underway for the third incarnation of the festival in 2008, and I'm twitchy and excited about it already.

I haven't yet been to Memorial Hall, where the last festival was held, but it looks like a pretty stunning place. It's about 15 minutes from where we live, which makes it all the more excellent.

We found out recently that The National are from Cincinnati, which would explain their involvement in the project.

November Already?

I can't believe it. Where'd my Autumn go?

Well, we got to see Steve and Anna this weekend, which was so darn nice. Steve hauled a bunch of gear down and set up a veritable full-on studio in the living room in order to record vocals for the songs Au Revoir Borealis has been working on. So glad to get that done. I had a scratchy throat, and am hoping it didn't show. Ah well.

It was just darn nice to get to see good friends. Time blurs, and I don't realize how long it's been since I've seen people until I actually get to spend some time with them.

Lovely.

PS. Pumpkin muffins!! Yay Anna! I just ate the last one. :)

Recent Adventures #3

More exploration this weekend: It was a day of various mounts - Mount Lookout, Mount Washington, and Mount Adams.

Sunday was gorgeous, so we finally went to Ault Park, which is supposed to have one of the best views in Cincinnati. I can't really argue with that assertion. I think Mount Lookout is the hill the park is on, and you can see across the valley to Kentucky pretty much. The trees have finally burst into color, so seeing them from above was really neat.

After that, we checked out a comic shop in Mount Washington. It had that classic dusty smell, and was full of old school issues in long-boxes and plastic. The clerk/owner looked kind of defeated, and it made me a bit sad. It can't be a very profitable business to be in these days. The store had mostly the big name Marvel/DC/Dark Horse fare that's easy to find anywhere, though there was a hardcover Firefly/Serenity book I would have liked. I wish there were a store in the area to find smaller independent comics, and printings of webcomics. I suppose if you're going to be cutting edge in the comic business these days, you have to first of all be doing business online, and also with print-on-demand places like Lulu and such for special orders and small online comics. Even then, I imagine there's not an awful lot of money to be made in the business these days.

After Mount Washington, we made our way back up to Mount Adams, which we finally discovered on Friday. I'm still kind of giddily excited about that neighborhood. It reminds me so much of a small east coast town--maybe old-school Vermont or Maine, with narrow hilly streets, and pretty, ivy-covered old buildings all nestled together. We ate at the place that used to be the Rookwood Pottery Factory. It still has the giant brick kilns and chimneys in place. In fact, there are tables within each of the three huge kilns--they're pretty much private rooms now.

It's blurry, but it was a nice view!

I was glad to get the chance to take some pictures, since I've been wanting to try my hand at putting together some HDR photos. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range, and I guess the simplest description is that it's a compilation of several identical photos of different exposures, which uses the best exposed bits of the image to create one more like what the human eye sees. At the same time as being more like what we actually see, they're also a bit bizarre because they can be ultra vivid, and crisp in ways we don't often see photos. HDR photos can also be tweaked into utterly surreal, gorgeous images. Er... I'm still getting the hang of the whole "gorgeous" part here. Here are a a couple attempts at HDR images. I'm not using RAW files like I should be for these, so they're pretty grainy and "noisy" at times. Ah well. Fun all the same. This one is from out front of the uber art deco Union Terminal Museum Center. It's a bit on the surreal side, but I think it's interesting to look at, and it's not so boring a photo as it was.


Here's the pavilion at the top of Ault Park. A little more realistic. The sky was actually that blue.


These are a couple from a bridge up on Mount Adams. The city view was pretty fantastic. We could see all the way to Union Terminal on the other side of town.


Anyway, after a bunch of rain last week, we're being rewarded with some days of gorgeousness. It's Halloween today, and although we don't bother celebrating it, it's fun to see how excited the kids walking home from school are. It was chilly yesterday, but today I stepped out onto the patio to find it was sunny, in the high sixties, and our entire neighborhood smelled of freshly made waffle cones. Huh? I have no idea. I did hear the school marching band in the distance not too long ago, so perhaps there's a festival-type function happening? Anyway, I've opened all the windows (mmmm....wafflecones....) and I'm expecting small people in costumes to come seeking sugar any minute now, so I'd better go.

Eureka!

The author of XKCD has just solved a persistent problem for the boy and I.

Behold!

Rawk n' Bawk

So we just had an exceedingly delectable dinner of chicken, and I thought I'd share the recipe in case anyone wants to give it a shot. It was actually pretty low-key in the time you actually spend making it, which is always a massive plus in the kitchen. I kind of compiled several recipes and this is what happened. Please excuse my not having precise measurements. The kitchen might as well be a lab with all the experimenting that happens in there.

So, without further adieu... Preheat your oven to 500 F. Yes, I know. HOT. But you turn it down later. It just gets things crispified.

Stuff you'll need:

• Chicken, duh. We used a whole one, though I could see this working well with chicken breastses.
• Roasted cashews. Lots of them. The ones I used were salted, which was fine.
• fresh basil - a good handful of it. If you don't have basil, parsley might work, as well as (shudder) cilantro, which I hate. Don't worry about stems and such.
  
• two cloves of garlic, or two decent dollops of pre-minced garlic
• soy sauce
• lime juice. I actually used lemon because I didn't have any lime, but I think it would be even better with lime.
  
• Olive oil. You could also use one of the lighter oils like grapeseed oil or walnut oil.
• fresh jalopeños, diced - I only used one, and was a little sad I didn't use two. I like things fairly spicy, but I would recommend one for people who aren't sure how spicy they'd like it. Careful when you're cutting these suckers up. That oil is pretty hard to get off your hands, and it stings like a mother when you rub your eyes.
  

So. Get out an instrument that will make something into a mash. I had to use our lame blender, but if you have a food processor, that would be ideal. Into the blender or whatever, dump:

a cup and a half of cashews - Make sure there are some left for later
the garlic
some soy - I probably used a couple tablespoons?
all the basil or whatever herb
a blop of olive oil
lime juice - couple tablespoons here too, maybe?
sea salt
fresh ground pepper
the jalopeños

The idea is to blend all this stuff into a paste. You can use the soy and lime juice to control the wetness of it, etc. I kind of went by smell as well. you don't want one thing to be overpowering.

If you're using a whole chicken, put it into a baking pan that has some room around it, and stuff it with whole cashews and a bunch of the paste you just made. You can also rub a bunch of the paste all over the outside of it.

Stick the chicken in the oven and turn it down at once to 350 F. Then, walk away and do other things for about an hour and a half, depending on how big your chicken is. Time varies according to weight, so you'd have to figure out the appropriate amount.

All that's left is pulling it out when it's done, and digging in!

It turned out to be nutty and savory with a tad of spiciness as well. Just lovely. We're thinking we'll probably try this on our thanksgiving turkey, since we can't have bread stuffing. I bet that some baby portabellas would be good chopped into the stuffing, too.

Let me know if you try it, and what you think!

How do I love thee?

I can only think of a a couple ways, but that's a-ok. I'm talking about Arnica Gel, people. It's my product of the month. According to wikipedia, Arnica is in the same family as the common sunflower, and has been used for ages as a salve for bruises and aches.

Warning: Frou frou girly-type topics ahead!

Aside from the advertised uses, which I haven't tried, here are my discoveries:

Puffy eyes - It actually works really well when you don't get enough sleep and have puffy eyes, which I manage to get on occasion. The fact that the gel base is witch hazel can't hurt, I'm sure, though witch hazel on its own is just too strong for me. I'd been told hemmorhoid cream would do the trick so when E. and I were at the drugstore once I took a detour to grab some. She seems a little nonplussed, so I explained I was going to try it for reducing eye puff. At that point, another lady walked into the aisle and caught only the last part of the conversation, which was me standing there with Prep-H in hand, and E. exclaiming, "Cool! You've got to tell me how it works, and I might try it!" Anyway, the point is that Arnica works as well as Prep H, and doesn't sting at all.

Post waxing - my poor legs are never happy after having the hairs ripped forcefully out. The gel does a pretty nice job of soothing and making the red go away.

Burns - This is what inspired me to post on Arnica Gel. Last night I was making a caulifower dish and it was boiling away merrily, and I was cooking merrily, until I stupidly popped the top off the pot with my thumb exposed to the crack, and got a wicked steam burn. Those of you who haven't had a steam burn, imagine, if you will, some of your flesh being boiled. Yum. In any case, I cannot over emphasize enough the importance of putting ice immediately and for a long time on burns. I realize this may seem obvious, but I think in the past I've only kept the ice on for a bit, and ended up with a burn that stung for days. I wrapped my hand in a bag of frozen peas, and oh-so-bravely finished the dish, which, by the way was pretty yummy. After a couple hours and a couple change-outs of ice, I tested not having anything cold on it, and it felt basically like someone was sawing my hand off. Awesome! that was when I thought of the Arnica Gel, which I slathered on generously. It cooled it nicely, and within a few minutes, the pain was pretty much gone unless I bumped my thumb on something. Today, it doesn't feel like anything, though there's a vivid red mark there. So next time you get a burn, give it the old one-two: fast and long ice application, and then blob something along the lines of Arnica onto it.

I'm not saying there's nothing that could replace Arnica or do what it does, but I do think it's a handy multipurpose thingy to have around.

_____________________


I know cauliflower doesn't top everyone's list of delicious vegetables, but it's actually quite good this way:

1. steam until it falls apart when you poke it with a fork. if you have leeks, add a bunch and steam them along with it.
2. stick cauliflower and leeks into blender or food processor with the following:
- salt & pepper
- nutmeg
- garlic
- dab of cream

3. blend until the consistency of mashed potatoes, and add cream if it's too dry. Basically treat it like mashed potatoes from here on out. Serve with a pat of butter, etc.

It makes a good replacement if you're eating low carb and really miss having a pile of mushy white stuff on the side of your plate. I hate when people say things like "It's juuust like mashed potatoes!" because it's not. It's quite good though, and I really like the subtleness of the nutmeg. Don't compare the two and you'll find it stands pretty well on its own.

Hah!

So... another format change because: When I was messing with the settings on my template a few days ago, I thought, "hmm.. I like this look, but it somehow seems familiar... ." It was bugging me, until I went over to Sojourn North and realized I had copped that look exactly, right down to the photo replacement for the header. Heh... Apologies, Woman North! Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, or the sincerest form of me being an oblivious dork.