Yesterday, for the first time in my life, I made chicken stock. From the few tastes I took, it came out rather good, but we'll see when I eventually use it in something. I followed Michael Ruhlman's Ratio for everyday stock. I love this book. It's got seriously interesting things in it - like how to make sausages from scratch and chicken stock and ( Read more... )

(Obligatory opener:) How long has it even been since I last posted? A whole term in Oregon. That's terrible. We've done loads of cool stuff here and I've not posted about any of it. And now we're heading home in a week ( Read more... )

First is the old and much turned over (tee hee hee, pun) car crash. It's very boring and it quickly gets swapped out for explosions. Something exploded and there are little husband bits all over factory rubble. My rational brain says, someone would have contacted me. My petty brain goes, no one cares enough*. After this a part of me goes, ( Read more... )

Despite not having any interesting plans, Christmas turned out really well. We bought turkey legs on the spur of the moment while shopping for Christmas dinner on Monday, and got some spuds and vegs to go with them. I brined them and dried them Christmas morning and put them on that afternoon. Boiled the spuds for mash and did the vegs in salt ( Read more... )

We managed to set the big oven on fire last night. I'll leave all wonderful details up to your imagination, but I will disappoint you by saying it was about the size of two candle flames. I found it all rather amusing, actually. Little flame burning away in the bottom of the cooker, happily suffocating itself.

That's all I really wanted to say.

I'm at 33,000 words and after 7 years and 4 attempts, I think NaNo has finally helped me figure out a pace that works for me. That's what this year is all about. It isn't about getting to 50,000 by writing any old thing that comes into my head. It's about writing well (enough for a fist draft anyway) and getting a story straight - not just ( Read more... )

I'm doing nano a little differently this year. I find that the non-stop pace of the month burns me out and while I get loads done in November, I don't do anything else until March, and I'm well sick of writing by the end of the month. So this year, instead of writing close to 1,700 words every day I'm going to write 2,400 words every weekday. It's ( Read more... )

Okay. I just stuck the eye of a needle half a centimeter in under my nail. I think that means it's time to stop tinkering with my outfit. It's a significant eye, too - about a millimeter in diameter. Funnily, it's the same sort of sore as a piercing. Weird. It's not bleeding so much. A little blob welled up just after it happened, but now the nail ( Read more... )

Tired post ahead - you have been warned ( Read more... )

I felt like something to eat the other evening, and usually I'd have a bowl of krispies. But we'd run out and I didn't feel like going to the shop to get more. So instead I made rice pudding from scratch. It turned out exactly like rice pudding from a can even down to the lack of a certain flavour that I can't quite put my finger on. I always feel ( Read more... )